Five dollar finds and fresh eggs

It's all about all things white and red over here at Betsy's today. Thought I would share some recent op shop finds with a sum total of $5.80. 

White pyrex dish with teeny handle 80 cents
White jug with teeny lip $1.50
Georgeous red handled heavy scissors $3
Red gingham fabric offcuts 50 cents
Learning how to crochet teeny tiny hearts............Priceless.

 Pop over to  Lucy in her Attic and click on her Teeny Tiny Hearts tutorial to learn how. I was completely sucked in simply by the "Teeny Tiny" title and had to have a go. So pleased to realize that my uptight crochet style makes them even more petite and adorable than ever.

The other exciting news is that all of a sudden we have eggs. Three at once to be precise.

Sooty started laying earlier this week. And now Rose and Dora2 have come to the party. Sooty's egg  is the big one at the back. The other two petite deliveries are from the new girls, now we just have to work out who is giving us the little spotted number (front right). I can feel french toast coming on for breakfast, with lashings of maple syrup.

Grateful for sharing a good wedding



I love a good wedding. In fact any wedding really. The frock, the flowers, the statement of positive intention.  The fact that Wills and Kate have chosen to share their wedding with me and several other billion people has had me reminiscing about the best parts of  my own wedding back at the start of the millenium in the year 2000.

Our wedding was in New Farm Park, in November, under a cascading shower of Jacaranda flowers. The above photo was within an avenue of Frangipani trees, the flowers dotting the ground like fallen stars. To me it looked like a fairy wonderland. For a girl who loves trees, this was a magical place for a wedding.

I arrived by horse and carriage- how wonderful to be able to breathe in the perfume of hundreds of roses and wave to strangers as you trot past. The carriage driver (with his 3 missing teeth) even offered to step in if the groom got cold feet. My 13 year old sister, my two oldest and best friends and one newer friend were my bridesmaids. My 11 year old brother joked for weeks before the wedding about deliberately dropping the rings, then actually did drop them and was mortified.

It had rained the entire week before the wedding so the park was a quagmire. Here we are squelching our way across the park watching carefully so we didn't get bogged. It fined up in time for the wedding but a massive storm brewed over our heads. Fortuitously, the storm only hit just as we made it to the reception and the light was spectacular for photos. We had thunder and lightning which is apparently fortuitous for children and check check, yep, we ended up with two of those.

 The most amazing part was that the best roll of film, which contained the top photo and several others of my favourites, was lost somewhere in the park and subjected to the full brunt of the storm. I was devastated and the photographer went back the next day, ferreted through the park and managed to find it. The film had some water damage which added some authentic white spots to our sepia photographs. Sometimes, luck can just be quite extraordinary.

 Also, instead of an aisle, I walked under the most beautful rose arbour in the entire world. It was removed not long after my wedding and the roses moved to another part of the park but the arbour has been  forever captured in my photos. (I did also manage to capture a large assortment leaves and twigs within the tulle of my skirt which seemed to have a secondary function of a giant street sweeper)  And the best part, not only did I get to marry the boy of my dreams, every time we go back to that park for a picnic or a play, my heart goes straight back to that magical day.

Congratulations Duchess Catherine of Cambridge, I bet that every time you kiss on a balcony you will be straight back to this magical day. Joining in with Maxabella loves to share the wedding magic around. Apologies for the photo quality, this wedding was way before digital media and our scanner isn't working.

How to make a turkey trap

Step one. Invite the neighbours over to hang out after school. The neighbours 2 doors away have 3 boys age 6,8 and 10 who could be best likened to polite, articulate siblings of Dennis the Menace, on speed. They are high energy, love animals and nature and are always scheming up a new plan of some sort. They currently have  a dog, several pet mice, a skink and tanks of numerous other creatures.

 They have whiled away hours in our backyard scaling trees, designing treehouses, building rope bridges,  loading each other into our garden wagon and doing wild laps around Betsy's perimeter and running their heads around the inside of our trampoline in order to give each other electric shocks. I LOVE them as no apologies are required for Roboboy's quirkiness and he adores them as they mastermind even better plans than he comes up with. Together the four of them make up a posse of hardcore trouble. Oh yes, because I am not their mother, they are unfailingly polite, well behaved and listen (mostly) when I tell them off. Well, otherwise they get sent home, a threat I can actually followup on.

Step two. Obtain large quantities of rope. Spend 20 minutes watching 8 year old menace attempt to throw rope up into massive tree for 10yo menace to catch. Give up on this and move on to smaller Frangipani tree. Scale this tree faster than Balinese monkey pick pocketing a tourist. Ignore own mothers reminder to only climb onto branches bigger than your own arm. Bellow requests for more rope, assistance, a box  while mother checks Private Health fund details to ensure that visits to Emergency departments for fractured limbs will be covered with no excess. Draft copy of waiver for Menace's father (solicitor) to sign to ensure any fractured Menace limbs will not lead to litigation.

Step 3.Decide on technique for trap. Emtpy ikea storage box previously full of musical instruments and percussion items. Take a break to sample all of these items simultaneously while discussing plans for a  street rock band. Wiggles guitar, Sesame street saxaphone, maracas, cymbals, tamborines, pipe whistle, recorder etc etc. Flush out neighbour with this hideous cacophany to check that there is actually adult supervision. Er, yes that would be me.
Rig up simple box on a rope type trap. Bellow further requests for seeds and puffed rice, on a dish.

Step 4.Carefully place seed tray under trap and lure unsuspecting little sisters over for a trial run. Success obtained as little sister caught under trap. Sorry, no photo. Relief as this was mutually enjoyable for all involved parties. Unsuccessfully attempt to stop little sister eating stale rice puffs from trap.

Step 5.Vigorously debate the best trajectory for the rope and required height of the trap above the tray. Pause and become quietly contemplative when asked what the plan is for the said turkey once trapped. Vigorously debate over keeping turkey as a pet or feeding it to their dog. Realize that the said turkey has not actually been seen in the yard for over an hour. Decide to first trial the turkey trap on our pet chooks instead.

Step 6. Bellow further orders to 6 yo menace and girl from across the road to lure the chooks down to this part of the yard. Realize with dismay that said chooks have found a trail of spilt seeds courtesy of little sister and have no intention of coming near the trap.

Step 7. Lose 10yo menace to Star Wars Clone Wars on TV. Lose Menace 6 to a blood nose (self inflicted). Despite rapid appearance of nightfall, Roboboy and 8yo menace settle in for whatever wait is required  to enact the trapping. Further debate over ideal height of trap and who would hold the rope. Roboboy does not give in. Almost manage to catch Dora2 under the trap while photographer is inside peeling potatoes. Agree that height of the trap does need to be modified. Plan return to trap at 0630 hours tomorrow before school to complete trapping assignment.

This post is in honour of all things BOY. I love having all this happening over here at Betsy's and the Menace's mum loves the fact that all things Menace are welcome at someone else's house. Apologies for no further painting photos, I was too busy today on a MASSIVE Op shop spree. More on that soon. Over and out.

Addendum. Apparently "Over and Out" is incorrect and obviously from watching too many MASH re- runs. Have been instructed it is just "Out" and since this post is all things boy, military accuracy is imperative. Apparently, that last sentence ruined the whole post for Legoman. Also must add on re- reading this post checking for spelling errors and giant paragraphs have realized that a turkey trap out played animated star wars o for 5-8 year old appeal. How awesome is that? I love anything that involves my kids being outside with nature and animals getting dirty. I love it more if the option of cool TV is on the plate and they spontaneously DECLINE.

For anyone with girls in the house. If you have  a trampoline with a net all around it and your girls run as fast as they can with their heads constantly touching the net, tremendous static electricity will be generated. Hairstyles will suddenly appear very 80's. Do not stand within arms reach or they may delight in zapping you with every lap.
Out.

Custard be gone, hello full cream milk

Well, Betsy and I are very excited to announce that the Great Custard Purge of 2011 has begun. Here is a before shot to truly capture  how much custard we are swimming in every day. Note the fastidious preparation of dropsheet on floor, sheet on precious new silky oak table and plastic over the peekaboo window into our bedroom.

 Completely out of character but necessary as I could hear Legoman's voice in my head as I was about to do my usual slapdash approach to preparation. Actually, he did suggested the plastic over the peekaboo window to protect our bed but this of course was complete overkill as I am quite a tidy painter. Took it down as soon as he left the house it was no longer required.

It recently dawned on me that it is almost a year to a day to when we first met Betsy and placed a contract to buy her. And even allowing for the 3 month settlement that means that we have been living with the custard trifle for 9 months. With some sunny weather and Legoman at home to play with the kids, it was time to make a start.

Goodness, isn't that a wonderful sight? And that's just the undercoat. Looking up through Betsy's super deluxe awesome hallway towards the front of the house. Betsy has been generously gifted an ample 1.8 m diameter hallway and it was one of the first things that made me swoon upon meeting her.

There is has been significant pontificating over the ideal white paint. Four sample pots seems to be pretty standard for me.  I wanted a warmish white which was not showing obvious yellow or grey or peach hues. I quite like plain Vivid white but as our lounge is north facing thought it could be just a bit too bright. White on white was a little too stark/blueish, Whisper white a little too greyish. So Dulux Natural white it seems to be.

To me it looks just like the white of a full cream milk. Nice and rich but no hints of blue (skim) or yellow (cream). Or perhaps even a bit like a polar bear- they look white until they are standing on the snow and then you notice they are actually creamy coloured. Great thanks to the gods of daytime naps who kept my 2 year old asleep for two whole hours while I slapped the final coat on today.

 

I'm hoping to have this corner of milky goodness knocked over and dressed up by tomorrow. Apologies for the poor photo but with the flash it was blinding. Embarrassingly, I have been choosing seating positions at the table and on the lounge in order to gaze only into this corner. Children have been getting limited eye contact as well.

Lots more to share soon. Some vintage finds and  a cast iron bed for Liongirl. Just too much painting (and singing cause that's how good painting makes me feel) for any photos to be taken.

Egg hunt and Lilac honey jumbles

Today, we hunted for eggs. Note our chook Rose helping to point out a few hiding spots.

We stashed in bags and baskets.

Then we had to line them all up in neat rows and survey the haul.

Just a quick count so we know exactly how many we have of each sort. Luckily for us the collecting and sorting is more fun than the eating part. The uninspired ones in gold packets are the only ones we can actually eat, but that's ok with us.

Time to check on the little chicks in the easter tree nest.

Lets finish up with a spot of baking. Lilac and white speckled honey jumbles. We can eat as many of these as we want. Happy Easter, hope the rabbit was as forthcoming at your house.


Recipe for Honey Jumbles ( in the event, that like me you are running out of ways to fill in all these last few days of holidays)

1. Set oven to 180 degrees.

2. Heat 1/3 cup honey with 45 g butter in small pan on low heat until melted and simmering. Cool for 5 mins.

3. Sift 1 cup plain flour, 1/2 tsp bicarb soda, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp mixed spice, 1/4 tsp ground cloves. Make a well in centre and add melted butter/honey mixture and 1 tbsp milk. Stir until well combined. Chill for 10-30 mins until firm enough to handle.

4. Roll out onto lightly floured surface. Divide into two and roll each into sausage shape about 2 cm thick and cut into 5mm widths.  Arrange on trays lined with baking paper and shape so that they are oval. I think this actually made them a little small but they are deliciously bite sized.

5. Bake for  8-10 mins or until they start to crack. Allow to cool before icing.

6. This icing is a little more work but oh so shiny and firm and special. Whisk one egg white until frothy peaks. Add 1 and half cups icing sugar gradually and beat until smooth. Add colouring as desired, pale pink is delicious. Unforunately the natural food colourings I use change from pink to lilac after contact with egg, otherwise I would do half pink, half white. Spread over cooled biscuits. Add hundreds and thousands as desired to keep the mini beasts happy. Allow to become firm and store in air tight container. Ours did not last long enough to make it to an air tight container so this step is optional.

7. Just so you know, this icing is so suberb that it will take a gnawing toddler at least 10 minutes to completely strip the icing off the biscuit. Surely a record.

Happy baking.

Upside down pear cake and an Easter egg tree

This was how I repayed both the grandmothers for some recent babysitting. An upside down pear cake pillaged from a similar recipe by Bill Granger. The original recipe is for a plum cake but I think it works even better with pears. It also works well when done dairy free which most things in this house are, due to Roboboy being dairy allergic. Aside from the caramel which I managed to stuff up twice before not burning it on the third try, it is also pretty easy. I'll post the recipe at the end for anyone who is keen to wow some family members.

Dairy allergies when they are significant tend to make Easter not quite so much fun. Yep. No chocolate. At all. We did manage to find some dairy free chocolate at Darryl Lea but unfortunately they did not have any eggs. So we have bought normal chocolate eggs for the kids to hunt and then will pull out the chocolate rabbits  for the eating part. We also have a large collection of plastic eggs that we can insert other lollies into so the Easter bunny will not have to bypass our house completely.

We also have some awesome family who go out of their way to make Easter really fun despite being pretty devoid of chocolate. Nothing like spending a sleepover with your Grammy and crafting an assortment of chicks and bunnies and eggs. Then going to the $2 shop and having her buy you not one but two packs of glow- sticks.
See what a happy child this is clutching said glow- sticks. Who needs chocolate?

And that same Grammy, snuck off to decorate an Easter tree in our yard, complete with little treasures and toys hanging in little bags or concealed within plastic eggs.

And being the crochet guru that she is, a little crocheted cupcake pin cushion for me.

And then we thought, why don't we bring them all inside and decorate our own Easter tree? Partly as Liongirl had pulled every single one down in her gusto to find the concealed treats and also as several were crocheted eggs, we didn't want to risk rain overnight. One little bag was full of new crocheted hair clips like this favourite one.

So Legoman climbed our fence and knocked down a lovely dead branch from one of our Jacaranda trees. And of course we had to open all 20 of those glowsticks as well and make little bracelet chains to decorate the tree. Kind of like a glowing welcoming beacon so the Easter Bunny would be sure to make a stop.

Sorry about the dim light but we are trying to showcase the glowsticks. Note the background being two-tone custard on the left and cream on the right as proof that I have been trying to choose a white paint for our walls.
So, just a little easter inspiration that does not involve a single drop of chocolate. I have a feeling the easter tree might become a little bit of a tradition at our place. Well, must go and show that rabbit where all the good hiding spots are in our garden then I plan to scarf down toasted hot cross buns slathered in butter.

The recipe for the Upside down pear (or fruit of your choice) cake :

1. Set oven to 180 degrees

2. Peel and thinly slice 2 pears and arrange decoratively within the base of a 30 cm wide pan. I used a quiche dish.

3. Melt 50g butter (or nuttelex) on low heat. Add 115 g caster sugar and 1 tbs lemon juice and stir frequently until caramelises. Do not attempt to do anything else while watching this stage or it will burn (possibly twice if you are really incompetent). Pour this over the pears the minute it has changed to a golden colour as opposed to a pale yellow colour. (This is completely not what Bill says in his recipe but when I listed to him I burnt it TWICE).

4.Separate 4 eggs. Beat the whites to frothy peaks and set aside.

5.Cream 100g butter (or nuttelex) with 225g caster sugar until light and fluffy. Add 1 tsp vanilla essence. Add egg yolks one at a time and beat thoroughly. Add 1 and quarter cups SR flour and mix until smooth.

6. Gently fold in egg whites with metal spoon. Pour mixture over pears.

7. Bake in oven for 40 mins or until skewer comes out clean.

8. Despite not greasing or using any baking paper this will just slip straight out and look completely caramelly and golden gooey delicious. Yes, even I did not muff this bit. Eat immediately with lashings of whipped cream. Also quite lovely cold too. Would easily serve 12 people. Having said that 6 of us ate 3/4 of it!.

Curbside find and pink crochet

See this beautiful pink crochet? It is the start of a cardigan. There is just one teeny tiny problem. If I continue, it will unfortunately only fit  a small dog rather than the 2 year old it is intended for.  Actually, maybe a guinea pig would be a better fit. I did manage to add the start of the sleeves before coming to this awful realization.

It would probably have something to do with my uptight tiny stitch crochet style, using the wrong sized crochet hook and goodness know how many other infractions involving the instructions. Unfortunately, I think I'm much more a big picture girl than a details girl.

I have humbly gone and purchased the correct size crochet hook, and will endeavour to correctly measure the boring but essential tensioning aspects of my next attempt. In my defense the pattern is for a 6 year old and I was blindly trying to reduce it down to fit a 2 yo. Yes, complete insanity for a beginner. I will take solace in knowing that cold guinea pigs of the world are uniting to support my work.

On a more positive and less humbling note, here is the curbside treasure that came home the other day.

Look at those wonderful curved shelves, all solid wood, not a whiff of ply or veneer to be seen. That padded section is actually a door, and there is another door the same on the back as well. Roboboy thinks that is hysterical and has been popping Bella in there and thoroughly addling her with random door selection.

I presume it was a TV cabinet or possibly held a fish tank and was used as a two way room divider. Roboboy is beyond excited as it is going into his room once it is made over. He wants to make up a bed in the fish tank section and sleep in there like a bunk. No, he is not a  pygmy child, it obviously seems bigger to him than it actually is. Best of all the glass shelves and sliding doors were with it and were all intact. I am envisioning all the shelves full of lego creations and the fish tank section set up as a diorama .  As the doors are the only part not in great condition I will probably re- cover them in some funky retro inspired fabric to keep the vibe of this piece. Currently, I'm going to paint it white but wonder if I should paint the interior section black to highlight the lego. The undercoat is already on, hopefully progress photos to come soon.

Sunday Funday

Well, it's all been happening over here at Betsy's today. But I'll start with the fun first. One of our local suburbs hosted a Fun Fair today for all the local families who were flood affected back in January. We arrived late after Liongirl's nap partly as we thought it may have been cancelled due to the morning rain.

Well how wrong were we. It was all on for young and old and within the first 5 minutes we had stumbled across 3 other families from Roboboy's prep class as well as hoardes of neighbours and old friends from kindy and playgroup.

The best part were the FREE  go- as- many-times- as- you- like  rides galore. A huge multi-lane slide- you know the sort, 3 racing lanes , 3 flights of stairs to the top, and a hessian bag to make it super fast. We could have easily left Roboboy there ALL afternoon.

Miss Liongirl's favourite was the Merry-go-Round complete with smily Thomas trains and a turn that went on for what seemed like an eternity. Liongirl and her best friend Fifi realized quickly that they could ramp up the fun by rocking their trains from side to side while spinning and making toot-toot noises. I had terrifying glimpses of a bit over a  decade in the future where they are crowd surfing the mosh pit at a Splendour in the Grass.

We left when it was too dark to see our muddy feet and came straight home with exhausted happy children. Bliss.

Did you notice anything different about Miss Liongirl?

This is her showing off her new do. First hair cut and all- age 2y4m. Apologies for the very grubby clothes but that is what happens when you bribe a toddler to sit still with Pfefferneusse gingerbread biscuits. She scoffed down 4 by the way and barely took pause to breathe. She's still clutching the 4th in her grubby little paw.  She sat on my lap in a completely well behaved fashion, her only request being that she wanted to be "curly" like me. Too easy. Roboboy on the other hand is a whole other story, trips to the barber being so traumatic for both of us that my hairdresser gave me detailed instructions so I can cut his hair myself.


Ok enough about the fun. Let's talk about all the hard work going on around here. It  really all revolves around the mould. Or removal of mould to be precise. With the recent lego invasion it became clear to me that the proposed sharing of the granny flat for sewing and lego was not going to work. I had already cleared a lego cargo train off my sewing table last month and before I could blink it was covered with Star Wars sets.

So, I have admitted defeat and decided to retreat to the fourth bedroom for my own creative space. This room opens on to our lounge room and has previously been used as a depository for stuff that needs sorting. We have plans for it to become our new kitchen but as that's a little way off, it's now all mine. There will of course be signage preventing the entering of anything vaguely resembling a lego brick.

The only problem was that we had never properly cleaned it since we moved in. As it is south facing and never used,  it had built up a serious mould issue.It had been used as a bedroom by the previous family and also had really thick mould covered curtains which we binned the minute we moved in.  The ceiling was covered as was every single one of the 8 windows. After a quick demolition stint by Legoman removing curtain rails and flyscreens, it was all mine to tackle.  So for the last day and a half, armed with 3 bottles of Selleys Mould kill, I dealt with every disgusting inch of that room.

Here is a before shot of the room, some of the stuff had already been moved, sheets had been draped.

A close up of the ceilings to share the horror. The window frames were all similar and that crazed glass needed a toothbrush to clean it out of all the grooves. Such joy all around really. You can see in the bottom right panels  below the fan  is  where I have started.

 It was quite an eye opening experience with several points noted for future reference. Most all to do with the fact that I have a reckless and cavalier attitude to any sort of cleaning/preparation/renovating.

1. Yes, you can actually get a trigger finger blister from using a mould killing spray

2. It is sensible to cover everything with dropsheets as that fine aerosolized mist is really capable of bleaching anything it touches.

3. Perhaps don't start work in your regular clothes.

4. If you put a full bucket of soapy water atop a very tall ladder and then proceed to drag that ladder around the room, eventually you will shake that bucket off and tip it everywhere. Probably about 30 seconds after you were just thinking how clever you were to have not spilt that bucket. Be warned if that torrent of spilling water splashes the internet connection box, other members of the family could be cranky when they lose their internet connection. I would suggest then looking really busy with dry towels until it all seems to start working again, then breathe out.

5. If you choose to not wear safety goggles, don't look up while you are spraying.

6. Being 6 feet up a ladder you will discover wondrous things like- there are winter/summer buttons on fans, fans with built in lights ARE just as ugly up close  and that you have fairy moss growing like a little round cushion in the gutter just outside the window.

But eventually, after all these wondrous discoveries, you will reign victorious over the mould. And the fumes will cause you to squander the remaining brain cells you have formatting a post all about the mould.

And you can start dreaming about looking out these VERY clean windows while you sew. After all you did meticulously clean eight of them.

More photos of my new creative space coming soon. As soon as I come down off the bleachy high that is. I know that mould is not the usual inspiration for a post but this was a big task and it is one of the first things I have done to this house that I have actually completed in its full entirety.

What's wrong with this picture?

Ok, well not this picture. I just thought I'd open with a shot of our lovely Rose who appears to have doubled in size overnight. We are hoping that some eggs are imminent as currently we are having to BUY eggs which was not part of the plan. The two new girls are officially "point of lay" but I am starting to question exactly how close to the "point" they are given that they moved in several weeks ago and not an egg in sight. Our old chook Sooty, had an incident a few weeks ago where she seemed quite unwell and we thought maybe she was eggbound. She recovered but has not laid since so they are all  eating us out of house and home with zip to show for it. Well, they are all quite decoratively gorgeous as garden ornaments and are very chatty. I'm just a little worried that I have heard Legoman muttering under his breath "Breakfast, lunch and dinner".........

Now, this is the actual picture I was making reference to. Look very closely and tell  me if you see anything that doesn't belong.

Need a  closer view?

Yes, that would be a Lego Twin Pod Cloud Car  decoratively perched atop my glorious silky oak dresser with PosyPansy vase. The only surface in the house that was unsullied by kiddy clutter prior to this heinous discovery. I was unable to post about this atrocity immediately as  75% of the occupants of this house were rendered bedridden with gastro. Instead as the horror percolated in my mind, I slept on it then woke to find this.

Having been too ill to voice my concerns with Legoman about the impertinence of the CloudCar, he obviously saw no isssue with the addition of a large Lego farm complete with working silo, tractor and hayloft. As I was too appalled to even speak at this point let alone seek clarification, I can only assume this was done  to balance the symmetry in  some attempt to compliment the PosyPansy vase.  He and  Roboboy had spent their recuperation  assembling from the hidden stash of lego saved for prolonged episodes of wet weather and illness that renders me unable to run the house.

The good to come out of it all is that not only do I get to have a little rant about it over here, but also Legoman in his penance has agreed to come with me tomorrow with the trailer and pick up a glorious piece of vintage giveaway left outside a nearby fence. Even he can see it has awesome potential as a Lego display case so win win all around. Hopefully photos tomorrow but I am twitchy as I spied it 3 days ago and couldn't fit it in the boot so fingers crossed it lasts the night.

As the early stages of gastro were starting to appear I did what any sensible woman with limited time without children would do. I shopped. Actually I power shopped and hit two op shops near my hairdresser. You see, as tends to happen in life, Roboboy chose to throw up at school on the only day that Legoman and I had arranged to take off work at the same time in order to get things done that never normally get done. We had sensibly arranged visits to hairdressers, accountants and had tradesmen coming over to give us quotes.

 To look at the positive, at least we were both already off work and took turns doing the stuff that needed to be done and supportively emptying the vomit bowl and ferrying icy poles to the actually not really that sick Roboboy. Two tiny vomits and being well enough to watch ABC kids and build lego rendered me almost completely guilt free in still heading off to the hairdresser. The small amount of remaining guilt is suggesting that I mention that I only get the hairdresser about every 6 months.

So, imagine my delight at finding these. Heightened by the fact that I knew, as I started to feel nauseous, exactly how the next day or so was going to be spent.

6 already hemmed velour squares in pristine condition. They were apparently lounge arm rest protectors.  Imagine that lounge, I'm envisioning a club lounge for sure. I am now wondering if those squares could work with crochet on the other side as a cushion? What a tactile feast.

This lovely fabric, which I can see as some sort of top half item for myself.

And some wonderful little girls dress patterns, no hints who they are for. There was another huge piece of  fabric and a dress but they were not out of the wash at photo time. Now my next project is to reclaim some space in this lego ridden house for my sewing machine and set to work. More on that very soon, and some new functional crochet is in the pipeline too, keep you all posted.

Gratuitous gorgeous chicken shot to complete an excessively wordy post filled with  rantings about eggless chickens, lego decorating attempts and vomiting children with very poor timing. Such is life.

We've been invaded

I will start by saying that I was feeling pretty pleased with myself that Legoman appeared to have changed his mind about wasting money on personalized plates. And then a 40 year old ex professional Canadian snowboarder, with an about to expire visa, turned up at our house with a boot full of lego. Actually 31 sets of Star Wars lego to be precise. With an impressive 90 minifigures to boot. If you have boys in the house, cover the screen now. And no, not all the sets would fit in the shot.

Surprisingly, his ex wife had not been enamoured with the lego collection, and strangely he had been unable to find another Aussie girl to marry and provide a long term stay here. This was despite looking remarkably like Robbie Williams (before he went all paunchy), and had I mentioned that he was a Canadian Ex Professional Snowboarder. When I archly suggested that perhaps the nerds fantasy collection of lego may have been holding him back, Legoman looked at me like I was a crazy woman. Oh and I hadn't even mentioned the full set of Star Wars Pez dispensers still in their packaging that he just threw into the pile of lego.

So it's been all action over at Betsy's. Half the boys in our street have been recruited to disassemble and scrub dusty lego sets with soapy water and toothbrushes. Then while waiting for the pieces to dry there was the compulsory discussion about whether General Grievous is the coolest minifigure, where is the missing piece to attach Princess Leia in her chains to Jaba the Hutt and the discovery on ebay that one particular set of Star Wars minifigures is listed on ebay for $9000 . I am now wondering if our set of minifigures could be funding a bathroom renovation.

Legoman reassures me that this collection was a complete bargain as he only spent about a third of what it is probably worth, it was significantly less than he wanted to spend on personalized plates and as he has duplicates of about half the sets he plans to on sell all these to pay for the ones he did not have. And before I got too excited, that his set of minifigures would only fund a new basin.  Now the only real issue is that this new collection has completely taken over our granny flat where I was about to start sewing and there are little bowls of washed and drying bricks all over the house. Sometimes I just want to break out the vacuum cleaner......

So Liongirl and I just hung out and pottered around the house together completely uninterrupted.

The recent copy of Real Living magazine came with a free goody bag. You know the sort where you get teeny samples of sponges and washing liquid and boxes of breakfast cereal. Well, they were immediately nabbed and lined up on the back of the lounge for miss Liongirl's shop. Each item would be loaded into the trolley, money would change hands, change would be given and once the whole shop and been purchased it would all be sent back via a delivery for the shop to be restocked. Amazing that doing this at least 6 times in a row did not lose it's appeal.

Time to make the stuffing and use the brush to oil the chicken. Every centimetre thoroughly and diligently covered.
Then it was straight back to her own box of lego to build a house , pink of course, with a white pony.