Archive for December 10, 2009

Awesome Retro Cookbook

December 10, 2009 / Molly / 2 comments

As I mentioned in the previous post Sarah bought me an original 1950′s cookbook for my birthday. I just have to share with you some of the interesting images from the inside of the book. Seeing as there are so many great pages I have decided to put them on here gallery style so you will need to click on an image to see the whole thing. Look below for a description of the pages:

From left to right, here’s what you can see:
1. Front cover
2. Beverages although if you look closely you will see that she’s in fact not carrying drinks at all. They do however look very pleased to see her.
3. Breads and Sandwiches….for those days when people actually cooked their own bread sans bread maker.
4. Cherry Fill-ups. Just such a nice illustration methinks.
5. Candy and Cookies (yes this is an American cookbook not Aussie). The Mum behind the girl looks like she’s up to something.
6. Stuffed Dates….mmmmmmm ‘stripe your dates with glistening jelly strings for appeal’.
7. Hansel and Gretel Cooky playhouse. Now either the spelling of ‘cookie’ has changed or it really is a ‘cooky’ playhouse.
8. Ice Cream Pops. This actually looks like a nice idea, writing the child’s name on the stick.
9. Yumsicles – what an innovative name. Yummmmmm.
10. Main Dishes – they look very hungry and she looks very young.
11. Hot dogs, not sure what those white things are though (they resemble what she was bringing them instead of beverages).
12. Banana Roll Salad. What can I say? No.
13. Pretty Relish Tray – some clever little ideas there.
14. Tomato Sandwich Salad – mmmmmmmm…….not.
15. To show when this was printed etc…

So much fun to look back at the way people used to eat and the way they used to try to decorate food. Gotta make you smile. Thanks again Sarah.

Category: All Sorts of Things, Family / Tags: , , ,

Thank you for the prezzies!

December 9, 2009 / Molly / 3 comments

Today is my birthday and I’ve had a lovely day. It was kicked off with a rendition of happy birthday by miss K and Michael. My hubby gave me a great present last week (a phone) as well as some flowers and the latest Steven Curtis Chapman CD. My Mum and Dad sent me a top that is very ‘me’. My Mum and Dad in law gave me a subscription to a relatively new Aussie magazine that I’ve mentioned here before called Peppermint:

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I also received a special gift from my friend Sarah. She put together a present that included my favourite things…Lipton tea bags, white chocolate, licorice bullets and a fantastic original cookbook from 1955 (that she picked up from the local retro store). Thanks Sarah for being so considerate! I’m going to post some pics from the cookbook in a separate post. My friends Simon and Veronica also gave me a great set of PJ’s! Thank you! I am always so surprised when I receive gifts from friends, everyone is very busy these days and as you get older gifts become less and less expected.

The day was spent at some of my favourite local restaurants and places with my family as well as out on the back deck of our house. It was topped off with a phone-call from my family who are interstate : ). Thank you Michael (and everyone else) for making the day special.

Category: All Sorts of Things, Family / Tags: ,

More Knitting Goodies!

December 7, 2009 / Molly / 2 comments

Last week I bought myself a birthday present using the Book Depository. They are an on-line bookstore with free shipping worldwide and amazing prices (based in the UK). Here’s what I bought:

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According to its official bibliographic data this book has:
“Knitting Basics. Yarns; equipment; casting on; holding the yarn; knit and purl; casting off; basic stitch patterns; Getting Started. Following a pattern; tension; correcting mistakes; selvedges; increases and decreases; picking up stitches; blocking and pressing; buttonholes; seams; intermediate stitch patterns; Textured Knitting. Twisted stitches and cables; bobbles and knots; elongated stitches; loop stitch; textured stitch patterns; Working In Rounds. Double pointed needles; medallions; shaping a gusset; turning a heel; stitch patterns in rounds; Colour Work. Slipstitch colour patterns; vertical colour changes; stranding yarns; weaving yarns; following a chart; stitch patterns from charts; Embellishments. Trimmings; beads and sequins; crochet; embroidery on knitting; edging stitch patterns; Special Techniques. Advanced casting on; grafting; hems, facings, waistbands; pockets; fastenings; advanced stitch patterns”

I can’t wait to have a go at some of the fancy patterns in there.

I’ve also been naughty and bought MORE sock wool. This time a luscious buttery yellow and a stash of smaller (120g total) skeins of wool. I have plans for socks for the girls using the colourful lot!

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I’ve also started a pair of socks for K in her favourite colours, so much faster although its taken me 3 hours so far to get this far (I’m actually up to the heel now so have done another 3 hrs since this pic):

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Category: All Sorts of Things, Family, Knitting / Tags: ,

Christmas Eggs!

December 4, 2009 / Molly / No comments

The other morning K woke up and asked to paint some eggs. Seeing as we have chooks, using eggs for creative purposes is a perfectly good option. Each year I’ve been getting her to make a gift for her family members, usually something to hang on the tree and so this was my opportunity to get that project rolling.

I blew the insides out of 6 eggs and washed and dried them:

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K then drew all over the eggs using a crayon. This is one of the crayons we made earlier in the year.

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Then prepared red and green dye (food colouring) into which she dipped the eggs in (and we poured extra dye over the tops so it would be darker in places)

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We then left them to dry for a day, making sure they were dry inside and out. Once dry, she added glittery paint and glue all over them;

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And finally I glued on some silver cord using PVA glue. I waited till they were completely dry and then glued them again to make sure they don’t come undone. If an egg falls they will smash! I figured these are no more delicate than a glass ball that we hang on the tree.

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They came out great! I also love the relationship between Easter and Christmas, these tie the two together nicely.

Category: All Sorts of Things, Darling Daughters, Family / Tags: , , ,

Life and Seasons

December 4, 2009 / Molly / One comment

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I’m sure many of you have seen this little story around the place. I heard it again the other day and it reminded me of myself and the seasons of my life so far. I’m probably a little nostalgic as its my 35th birthday next week (I think that makes me officially middle aged!!). There have been times when I’ve looked at things from the perspective of the first son and have allowed the circumstances around me to shape my thinking. Some of those viewpoints lasted longer term, for example, something that happened a long time ago I allowed to shape my thinking now. I think a lot of us do this, its a common, very human thing to not give second chances or second glances. We don’t allow ourselves to readjust our thinking and give people, things, God a second go but insist that they, it, He is just like the winter tree, ugly, bent and twisted. Maybe we should all take time out to reassess things. To give people, things and God a second or third or fourth go. Here’s the story;

There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn to not judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away. The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall.When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.

The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted.

The second son said no – it was covered with green buds and full of promise.

The third son disagreed, he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen.

The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.

The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but one season in the tree’s life. He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are – and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life – can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.

If you give up when it’s winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your fall. Don’t judge a life by one difficult season. Don’t let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest.

I especially like that last line. How many of us have given up on others, things or God because they were difficult or painful at the time? Time to reassess.

Category: All Sorts of Things, Deeper Thoughts / Tags: , ,

Toddler Translation: Laughter

December 3, 2009 / Molly / 3 comments

This week the theme chosen by Childhood 101 author Christie for Toddler Translation is ‘laughter’. What a great word to describe toddlers, although over the last few months our poor little L has had around 4-5 different sicknesses so ‘grumpybum’ was a better word for her (understandably). In amongst the sickness though there was plenty of laughter.

My two girls are very much their own little people. L won’t always play with K and vice versa but the one thing that L loves is when K spins her around on her swing. They both giggle as she spins round and round:

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and keeping with the swing theme (L is a bit of a thrill seeker I think), here’s little L on the swing at our local park. She’s being pushed by her second cousin Chris in this shot. She didn’t warm to him too much until he started pushing her on the swing.

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And finally, the two of them at a park in Sydney. It seems that the best smiley shots of little L is when she’s on a swing and the smiley shots of her sister are when she’s pushing her.

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I have plenty of sweet memories of sitting on a swing and trying to go as high as I could. The rush of the wind as I flew through the air was thrilling as a kid. Oh for the simple thrills that we used to have.

Category: All Sorts of Things, Darling Daughters, Family / Tags: , , ,

Muffin Tin Monday

November 30, 2009 / Molly / 10 comments

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This week I remembered to do the lunches in the Muffin Tin style….actually on a Monday! There was no theme this week so I made up a simple one of ’round’(ish) things. I decided to try doing one for little L as well as K and it worked a treat. She didn’t pick it up and throw it on the floor although she did suck on the patty pans so might skip those next time.

We had ham and cheese on a toothpick rolled up (for K not L), grapes (cut in half for L), baked beans (ok, so they are oval but they are still roundish), cherios, cherry tomatoes (for K not L), cheese cut with a bell shaped biscuit cutter (round edges), bread cut with a scone cutter and L had pieces of ham to chew on. Almost everything was eaten!

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Category: All Sorts of Things, Darling Daughters, Family / Tags: , , ,

A Christmas Give Away

November 30, 2009 / Molly / One comment

I am having a give away over at my Polyclarific blog. Go to this link: Polyclarific.com and follow the instructions to enter. Your Prize will be this Hills and Dales Necklace. This competition is open to anyone anywhere in the world. The winner will be selected using a random number generator and will be chosen on Sunday 6th December, 3pm Perth time. Feel free to enter as many times as you want to.

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Category: All Sorts of Things, Polyclarific, Polymer Clay, Sales and Competitions / Tags: , ,

Yay a Pair of Socks!

November 28, 2009 / Molly / No comments

Last night I completed sock number two. It was so nice to finish this as I’ve been knitting these for a few months. Funny thing was that sock number two took about a week and a half! Once I found the right instructions on-line I was set. I’ve ordered some more sock wool and some has arrived (pictured below) so I’ll start the next set soon. K has been asking for a pair of pink and purple ones so I’ll see about doing a kids pair first. They’ve got to be a lot faster I imagine.

Summer starts in Australia in two days time so its a bit odd to be knitting at this time of year however its been so cool that its not bothered me at all. You are meant to do all your knitting for the next winter during the summer and autumn anyway so maybe I’ll just be able to do that this time.

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More sock wool!

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Category: All Sorts of Things, Knitting / Tags: ,

A List of Questions

November 27, 2009 / Molly / 2 comments

Narelle over at Moments For Mum has created a list of questions and asked us to give them a go. Here’s the list and the answers. Feel free to copy and paste and be sure to leave a comment on her blog if you do.

1. What are the most important values in your life right now?
I think honesty is the most important value right now for me. I need people to give real feedback in all areas of my life.

2. The best thing about your family is?
That we are able to bring ourselves back down to earth when we have been grumpy towards each other. I also love having two girls, they are complete opposites to each other in every way and they are both a LOT of fun.

3. Things that make you angry are?
Disobedience (from the kids), Lying, people who are inconsiderate of other people’s feelings

4. The biggest dream you have for yourself is?
To be able to get my painting legs back again and sell some of my work successfully.

5. Your favourite hobby/thing to do?
Anything artsy and creative.

6. 2 things that make you laugh?
L’s cheekiness and her attempts to talk and K’s craziness, Michael’s stories

7. 3 of your favourite possessions are?
My moleskine sketchbooks, my little worn out (not from overuse but from shoving it in my bag and from L getting to it) Bible, my computer.

8. Your least favourite thing to do is?
Ok, for most of us its ironing, for me its a toss up between going to bed at night and putting that rotten fitted sheet on K’s bed.

9. Your best 3 qualities?
Hard work, perseverance, compassion (I think)

10. The achievement you are most proud of is?
Being pregnant twice as it was one of my two biggest fears (the other one is driving)

11. A mother you admire is?
My own. Also my Nanna (who passed away 11 years ago)

12. If you could go back and change something in your life, you would change?
The self-righteous version of me from my teenage years or maybe stop myself from perming my fringe in high school.

13. How have you showed love to someone else this week?
Well, in amongst being annoyed at the girls for things related to #3, I did set out the breakfast table the night before for Michael and the girls complete with stickers and drawings. This is done very rarely!

14. Something you wish you could change about yourself? (excluding physical attributes)
My impatience

15. Your favourite quote?
Dare you go where the Holy Spirit Leads and Leave the Consequences with Him. A spiritual quote I know, not one that everyone will appreciate but its something thats stuck with me since high school and has given me confidence to go to some wacky places in the world.

Thanks Narelle, hope I answered honestly!

Category: All Sorts of Things, Deeper Thoughts, Family / Tags: , ,
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