I have to wait till December for this to be released in Australia, but I'm looking forward to it - love the book and the film version, from this trailer, looks to be wondrous in its own way.
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Source URL:
http://www.trailerspy.com/trailer/3117/Where-the-Wild-Things-Are-Trailer-HD
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Daisy, daisy
Easter holidays.
Time to stop, and see the daisies. The house smells of hot cross buns, spice and fruit (I tried one of the choc-chip ones promoted by a bakery chain, but they ain't got nuffin compared to the real proper sort; one supermarket sells hot cross buns labelled 'fruitless', at which I holler, YES!). Hot chocolate is a good accompaniment, though.
The weather is mellowing into autumn. Daylight saving is over, so the mornings are light again and the evenings draw into darkness sooner, and it feels right. Time to switch over clothes, find the flannel jarmies and add a quilt or two to the bed. Invested in new pillows, and it's amazing what a difference it makes - the old ones had flattened out a lot.
Work has been so hectic, it's good to have some time to regroup and re-energise. The quilting pile is full of possibilities, the reading pile ditto, and I want to go through my books again and cull, so some of the newer acquisitions can be shelved. Hmmmm. Does that sound like a peaceful, restful holiday? Or am I just replacing busy with busy?
I hope your Easter break is proving peaceful.
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Time to stop, and see the daisies. The house smells of hot cross buns, spice and fruit (I tried one of the choc-chip ones promoted by a bakery chain, but they ain't got nuffin compared to the real proper sort; one supermarket sells hot cross buns labelled 'fruitless', at which I holler, YES!). Hot chocolate is a good accompaniment, though.
The weather is mellowing into autumn. Daylight saving is over, so the mornings are light again and the evenings draw into darkness sooner, and it feels right. Time to switch over clothes, find the flannel jarmies and add a quilt or two to the bed. Invested in new pillows, and it's amazing what a difference it makes - the old ones had flattened out a lot.
Work has been so hectic, it's good to have some time to regroup and re-energise. The quilting pile is full of possibilities, the reading pile ditto, and I want to go through my books again and cull, so some of the newer acquisitions can be shelved. Hmmmm. Does that sound like a peaceful, restful holiday? Or am I just replacing busy with busy?
I hope your Easter break is proving peaceful.
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Monday, March 30, 2009
Leaf
I feel a bit like this leaf, I think. Some colour left, but a bit battered and tired around the edges. As you can likely tell from the rather intermittent nature of this blog in recent weeks, other things - mostly work and several demanding tasks there - have been taking time and energy and thought and imagination, and at day's end there's not as much left over for other things, or re-creation, however important it is (it is).
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Easter's coming soon, and a break/holiday and a bit of time for work to sink back into a smaller role, other things to rise and take their place. Time to restore, renew. I know autumn's not spring cleaning time, but the holiday will be time to clean in that way - clean out what's not needed any more, make space for what's new. Let some things fall away, their time over. See what's come. Focus on the present, think about the future.
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There's a certain peace to autumn that I don't find in summer. Perhaps it's the weather, more easily borne, more livable than summer's hectic heat, not as demanding as winter (although a Sydney winter is hardly the world's most demanding winter, I know). Perhaps it's the sense of the year underway, and then a break to restore and renew, gather energy to go forward.
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It's almost time to think about dinner. Prawn (shrimp) and mushroom risotto, I think. Seafood's plentiful and reasonably priced right now, and it's a warm, comforting bowl of crunch and salty and sweet, and just a little rich that will give savour to the end of the day. It's started raining - they've forecast showers for most of this week - and comfort food will be on the menu.
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Easter's coming soon, and a break/holiday and a bit of time for work to sink back into a smaller role, other things to rise and take their place. Time to restore, renew. I know autumn's not spring cleaning time, but the holiday will be time to clean in that way - clean out what's not needed any more, make space for what's new. Let some things fall away, their time over. See what's come. Focus on the present, think about the future.
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There's a certain peace to autumn that I don't find in summer. Perhaps it's the weather, more easily borne, more livable than summer's hectic heat, not as demanding as winter (although a Sydney winter is hardly the world's most demanding winter, I know). Perhaps it's the sense of the year underway, and then a break to restore and renew, gather energy to go forward.
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It's almost time to think about dinner. Prawn (shrimp) and mushroom risotto, I think. Seafood's plentiful and reasonably priced right now, and it's a warm, comforting bowl of crunch and salty and sweet, and just a little rich that will give savour to the end of the day. It's started raining - they've forecast showers for most of this week - and comfort food will be on the menu.
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Saturday, March 28, 2009
A Homemade Life
I've been reading Molly Wizenberg's blog, Orangette, for a while, and do enjoy her writing. She and Posy get Cozy's Alicia make you feel like you're sitting at their kitchen tables, having a lovely chat. If you want the flavour of either, their blogs are the place to start. Some successful bloggers I've found, over time, to have acquired an edge of smug that I don't enjoy, but not Molly or Alicia.
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This week's been nutty-busy with work, and little else achieved in the evenings, partly but not entirely due to two power cut evenings. I know I COULD sew by candlelight, but I won't. And I needed the extra sleep, anyway. One of the two nights, the storm was violently spectacular.
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So the weekend's going to include housework and sewing and family time and reading and more sleep and all the good things that the weekend makes possible. I hope yours is the same.
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I got my copy of this book from The Book Depository, since I guessed it would be a bit of an obscurity here and I wanted it on publication. Rather like this photograph of it on the back of several unfinished quilting projects from my homemade life.
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This week's been nutty-busy with work, and little else achieved in the evenings, partly but not entirely due to two power cut evenings. I know I COULD sew by candlelight, but I won't. And I needed the extra sleep, anyway. One of the two nights, the storm was violently spectacular.
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So the weekend's going to include housework and sewing and family time and reading and more sleep and all the good things that the weekend makes possible. I hope yours is the same.
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I got my copy of this book from The Book Depository, since I guessed it would be a bit of an obscurity here and I wanted it on publication. Rather like this photograph of it on the back of several unfinished quilting projects from my homemade life.
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Monday, March 23, 2009
Luckily...
Here's an entirely silly and amusing game to play, which I saw here on Meet Me at Mikes.
Google LUCKILY and your name, eg. "luckily Egbert" (how happy I am to not be called Egbert).
And then blog the results. I added the italic commentary... eg:
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Google LUCKILY and your name, eg. "luckily Egbert" (how happy I am to not be called Egbert).
And then blog the results. I added the italic commentary... eg:
- Luckily Ruth realised where she put it...sometimes
- Luckily Ruth answered our requests...yes and no
- Luckily Ruth suggested that we take things one step at a time...very sensible
- Luckily Ruth agreed (or insisted) that she went along... I hope that was wise
- Luckily Ruth remembers that the home had an old bomb shelter...don't remember remembering that!
- Luckily Ruth got here first...not usually
- Luckily Ruth followed my lead... smart thinking?
- Luckily Ruth realises she's supposed to teach us...ooops - better not forget that!
- Luckily, Ruth piped in with just the right big sister question..I have a good role model
- Luckily Ruth saw the funny side...an essential survival skill
- Luckily Ruth paid more attention in her classes and was able to sort most things out...learning from experience (see above!)
- Luckily Ruth believed me...guillible or kind?
- Luckily, Ruth appeared...happens eventually
- Luckily Ruth has a good friend...more than one. Lucky me.
- Luckily Ruth was at the ready to rescue us if we had problems and to answer any queries...a day in the life, that.
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Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Carrington
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I went to two quilt shows today, one at Wentworth Falls in the School of Arts there, and one at the Carrington Hotel in Katoomba. This is one part of the Carrington - as you can see, an historic hotel with some beautiful spaces - chandeliers, leadlight, etched glass, this dome...
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Some beautiful, inspiring quilts to see too. As there can be kerfuffle about showing images from quilt shows, I haven't put any quilt pictures here. But well done to everyone - just lovely work.
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EDITED later to add: Brenda notes in a comment that there is no kerfuffle if you ask permission from the quiltmaker or include a link, and this made me think about the issues involved.
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In this case, there is no link available of which I'm aware that has pictures of the quilts. Winners are listed here, but no pictures of the quilts. As to contacting the quiltmakers - for the purposes of a blog (like mine here, which is day-in-the-life in style), this would take a lot of effort and indeed time, working through the quilt show organisers, waiting to hear from the quiltmakers etc, by which time the blog's moved on to other things. I don't really want to blog "three weeks ago I saw this quilt...". At this show, I didn't see any signage about photography - yes/no/limitations/policy.
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Perhaps it would be useful if all quilt shows clearly indicated their photography policy and procedures, including a clear method of contacting quiltmakers (through the show organisers, I'd guess, for privacy reasons). Some do, but not always fully, and some don't at all. In the internet/blogging age, it's an issue that needs consideration. On the one hand, quiltmakers want control of images related to their work. On the other hand, an enthusiastic blogaccount of a quilt show may well bring more visitors. This show had an airing of the quilts on the outside verandahs of the Carrington, and it would not have been inconceivable that a mug punter could have walked past, photographed what they saw and published this on the internet without going anywhere nearer to see a photography policy, if they even thought about a photography policy.
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Also, any show with photographs on its site is most likely to present the winning quilts, whereas a blogger's more idiosyncratic view may include a different range of quilts, depending on what caught their eye.
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Rant over.
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Wednesday, March 18, 2009
'shroom
We've had some bits and pieces of rain recently, and so afterwards, sometimes, when you look down, there are some remarkable geometries to observe. What I like about this is its imperfections - not the indentation so much as the fact that it has such evenness and yet it's not even - the ruffles around the edge vary, and the rays from the centre, too. Symmetry without symmetry.
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Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Kiva: meet Luis Alberto Torrez Gutiérrez
Luis Alberto Torrez Gutiérrez is 63 years old and is married. All of his children work independently. Don Luis has a tailor’s shop. He has had the business for 22 years, and he began because he needed work and needed to contribute to the family expenses and in this way help his wife. Don Luis’s goals are to become more well-known for the production of his suits, for which he waits day after day to improve the quality of his products and offer his clients the best. This loan will be used as working capital so he can buy necessary products such as thread, fabric, scissors and pins. Don Luis’s greatest desires are to establish a dressmaking workshop to create jobs for those who really need them. He is requesting a loan for 10,000 córdobas. See more info here.
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This is my tenth Kiva loan. Will I admit to being swayed by the sewing machine? (he's sewing suits with a treadle machine) - well, that, and his cheerful grin. And the sewing associations.
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Kiva involves lending to the working poor, entrepreneurs in the third world, and it's such fun! Once I've loaned, I don't take out the repayments, but loan again.
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There's a Kiva widget in the sidebar. Why don't you lend to the person whose info is there? Or browse the Kiva site for someone else you can help?
Monday, March 16, 2009
This morning.....
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!
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Also, its friend, equally large, on the wall above. Huntsman spiders are much better outside, eating insects. Don't see them in the house often, thanks be!
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Also, its friend, equally large, on the wall above. Huntsman spiders are much better outside, eating insects. Don't see them in the house often, thanks be!
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Sunday, March 08, 2009
Another Sunday catchup....
Listening: in the car, to the audiobook Sunshine by Robin McKinley; at home The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon - finally managed to get hold of a copy of this to listen to.
Writing: quilt instructions and budget submissions. And the odd Facebook entry.
Watching: tonight, Lost in Austen on ABC TV.
Making: finished a quiltlet this week, O is for... well, wait and see (a glimpse above). Making banners for work.
Celebrating: with friends last night we unexpectedly celebrated Barbie's 50th birthday. Because she-who-hosted the long-planned dinner gathering collects vintage Barbie dolls and because the men's faces were a Treat to see when the cake came out... The icing tasted very Pink.
Reading: I'm up to the last book in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, the most recently published one, Teatime for the Traditionally Built. What's on the reading pile? Lots of things. Always.
Visiting: went to DFO (discount factory outlets) Sydney yesterday with a pal. Hmmmm. Not sure I'll be busting a chop to go again, didn't find much there. But Ikea up the road? Ah, some bits and pieces for work. Always something to find at Ikea.
Appreciating: the kind sender of issue 2 of the Irish Quilting magazine. A couple of beautiful bits of handmade costume jewellery I've bought to support the Victorian bushfire appeal (pics to come).
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Writing: quilt instructions and budget submissions. And the odd Facebook entry.
Watching: tonight, Lost in Austen on ABC TV.
Making: finished a quiltlet this week, O is for... well, wait and see (a glimpse above). Making banners for work.
Celebrating: with friends last night we unexpectedly celebrated Barbie's 50th birthday. Because she-who-hosted the long-planned dinner gathering collects vintage Barbie dolls and because the men's faces were a Treat to see when the cake came out... The icing tasted very Pink.
Reading: I'm up to the last book in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, the most recently published one, Teatime for the Traditionally Built. What's on the reading pile? Lots of things. Always.
Visiting: went to DFO (discount factory outlets) Sydney yesterday with a pal. Hmmmm. Not sure I'll be busting a chop to go again, didn't find much there. But Ikea up the road? Ah, some bits and pieces for work. Always something to find at Ikea.
Appreciating: the kind sender of issue 2 of the Irish Quilting magazine. A couple of beautiful bits of handmade costume jewellery I've bought to support the Victorian bushfire appeal (pics to come).
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Sunday, March 01, 2009
Happenings
What's been happening? Work. Busy busy. Putting together a strong argument for a larger budget for my area of responsibility, currently notably underfunded in comparison with similar areas. I know. I've been doing the research....
Visited a friend yesterday - her sweet baby is about six months old, a smiling and very interested in everything girl who thinks BOO! is just one of the best and most original games EVER. And is there anything much sweeter than a little one, tired but not wanting to sleep, who you rock and rock, and croon boring things to, and rock a bit more, and then you feel her getting heavier, and her eyes droop to half mast but spring open, but then they're half mast again, and she's getting heavier, and then you look and her eyes are closed...and you keep rocking like the grenade will go off if you change anything, and then you walk carefully to put her in her cot and the grenade doesn't go off, she doesn't wake, but has the nap we were hoping for..... so there was time to play with the baby, and talk of all sorts of things too, and sew down a quilt binding.
I've been catching up with a few quilting projects - have to put up some pictures of the more recent quiltlets, H is for Humpty Doo and I is for Innamincka have both been out, and I believe Joadja is visiting the Australian Quilt Convention in Melbourne as we speak - but as I don't have them to hand I'm waiting to photograph them with their respective issues of Australian Patchwork & Quilting magazine. I'm wrangling O is for.... and P is for.... this weekend, just finished quilting (and binding, see above) a repro fabric quilt for APQ and have another to quilt for Australian Country Threads, plus two going off to the machine quilter, one for Handmade and one for Australian Country Craft and Decorating. Plus instruction-writing for them all....
Still thinking about a quilting studio, not the little sewing room that's just too small, but something larger...2009 feels like the year to do it. More later, after I've mulled.
In the last few weeks I've read all the Alexander McCall Smith "Sunday Philosophy Club" series; all the "44 Scotland St" series (can somebody tell me if The Unbearable Lightness of Scones is the last? It goes to ep. 99 and the series ran for 110 eps, apparently), I'm up to In the Company of Cheerful Ladies in "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series and have finished La's Orchestra Saves the World. And after I'm done, they go off on journeys to be read by friends/relatives. It's been an AMcSfest around here. By way of contrast, I've been watching True Blood, based on the Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse novels (vampires &tc in the American South) - a different kind of amusing. The music/images of the introductory credits are among the cleverest in creating tone and atmosphere that I've ever seen. Current audiobooks are Sunshine by Robin McKinley and The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon (I've read them both in print more than once, and am enjoying another view of them in audio).
Photos will follow, but I've acquired several lovely bits from Etsy, all but one from the Handmade Help blog's listing of things for sale where the money goes to the Victorian Bushfire Fund. Go and look at what they have, and what you can do. The button is at the top of my sidebar.
Now it's back to O is for... and P is for.... I need some fabric stabiliser for some oriental charmeusey fabric that's as slippery as all get out, and to think out how I'm combining hand-dyed felt and hand-dyed cotton. Washing on the line, the sun's shining, it's autumn thanks be! and so the weekend goes. Hope you're having a good one too.
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Visited a friend yesterday - her sweet baby is about six months old, a smiling and very interested in everything girl who thinks BOO! is just one of the best and most original games EVER. And is there anything much sweeter than a little one, tired but not wanting to sleep, who you rock and rock, and croon boring things to, and rock a bit more, and then you feel her getting heavier, and her eyes droop to half mast but spring open, but then they're half mast again, and she's getting heavier, and then you look and her eyes are closed...and you keep rocking like the grenade will go off if you change anything, and then you walk carefully to put her in her cot and the grenade doesn't go off, she doesn't wake, but has the nap we were hoping for..... so there was time to play with the baby, and talk of all sorts of things too, and sew down a quilt binding.
I've been catching up with a few quilting projects - have to put up some pictures of the more recent quiltlets, H is for Humpty Doo and I is for Innamincka have both been out, and I believe Joadja is visiting the Australian Quilt Convention in Melbourne as we speak - but as I don't have them to hand I'm waiting to photograph them with their respective issues of Australian Patchwork & Quilting magazine. I'm wrangling O is for.... and P is for.... this weekend, just finished quilting (and binding, see above) a repro fabric quilt for APQ and have another to quilt for Australian Country Threads, plus two going off to the machine quilter, one for Handmade and one for Australian Country Craft and Decorating. Plus instruction-writing for them all....
Still thinking about a quilting studio, not the little sewing room that's just too small, but something larger...2009 feels like the year to do it. More later, after I've mulled.
In the last few weeks I've read all the Alexander McCall Smith "Sunday Philosophy Club" series; all the "44 Scotland St" series (can somebody tell me if The Unbearable Lightness of Scones is the last? It goes to ep. 99 and the series ran for 110 eps, apparently), I'm up to In the Company of Cheerful Ladies in "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series and have finished La's Orchestra Saves the World. And after I'm done, they go off on journeys to be read by friends/relatives. It's been an AMcSfest around here. By way of contrast, I've been watching True Blood, based on the Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse novels (vampires &tc in the American South) - a different kind of amusing. The music/images of the introductory credits are among the cleverest in creating tone and atmosphere that I've ever seen. Current audiobooks are Sunshine by Robin McKinley and The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon (I've read them both in print more than once, and am enjoying another view of them in audio).
Photos will follow, but I've acquired several lovely bits from Etsy, all but one from the Handmade Help blog's listing of things for sale where the money goes to the Victorian Bushfire Fund. Go and look at what they have, and what you can do. The button is at the top of my sidebar.
Now it's back to O is for... and P is for.... I need some fabric stabiliser for some oriental charmeusey fabric that's as slippery as all get out, and to think out how I'm combining hand-dyed felt and hand-dyed cotton. Washing on the line, the sun's shining, it's autumn thanks be! and so the weekend goes. Hope you're having a good one too.
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Saturday, February 21, 2009
Still here...
It's been busy chez rooruu - but there will be more blog entries next week! I changed the header, as a start...
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Saturday, February 14, 2009
Card and compass
One of the kids in my family is 21, and we were asked to bring something that reminds us of the birthday one. I got a compass, for the birthday one's strong sense of direction in life, and wrote this in the card:
Time flies! I remember you only a few days old, looking, looking, paying attention to everything around you. Little, when you were very precise about tidy things, like getting rid of price stickers. The Christmas you were two, and hopped with joy from foot to foot, unable to contain your excitement.
It's a joy to see you grown into the person we saw as a baby - change, and not change.
Happy 21st! (the quilt* will come) and every good wish and hope for the realisation of dreams, and the discovery of new ones.
*quilt has already been discussed, and is on the to-make slate.
They grow so fast!
Time flies! I remember you only a few days old, looking, looking, paying attention to everything around you. Little, when you were very precise about tidy things, like getting rid of price stickers. The Christmas you were two, and hopped with joy from foot to foot, unable to contain your excitement.
It's a joy to see you grown into the person we saw as a baby - change, and not change.
Happy 21st! (the quilt* will come) and every good wish and hope for the realisation of dreams, and the discovery of new ones.
*quilt has already been discussed, and is on the to-make slate.
They grow so fast!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Pool, rain
Round about this time every year I attend a swimming carnival. And, as I do round about this time every year, I take a photo of the water. Today was cloudy, all day, but the rain held off till all was almost done. Such a relief, rain, after the relentless, scorching heat. The temperature's close to half of what it was - from over 40degC to around 20degC. Quite a change. The hot weather may not be all gone, though, they're saying...
Monday, February 09, 2009
Craft helps bushfire appeal - buy on etsy
The death toll in the Victorian bushfire now stands at 131 people. Over 750 homes destroyed.
One way to help? Go to etsy and buy handmade craft from sellers donating the proceeds to the bushfire appeal fund. (But do check the listing page and their shop main page to ensure they are planning to donate with the listing that interests you - this search can throw up sellers using the word 'bushfire' for legit contexts other than appeal donation. Some donating sellers are donating with every listing, some with some of their listings. Another tag to search is "bushfire appeal"; or buy from or donate to this shop).
Here are some examples:
One way to help? Go to etsy and buy handmade craft from sellers donating the proceeds to the bushfire appeal fund. (But do check the listing page and their shop main page to ensure they are planning to donate with the listing that interests you - this search can throw up sellers using the word 'bushfire' for legit contexts other than appeal donation. Some donating sellers are donating with every listing, some with some of their listings. Another tag to search is "bushfire appeal"; or buy from or donate to this shop).
Here are some examples:
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Beautiful things. Beautiful thought. Well done to them.
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Sunday, February 08, 2009
Hot weather and bushfires
We've had four days over 40degC - so relentlessly hot that the state government relaxed water restrictions that have been in place for years, and allowed backyard sprinklers for children to play under, to cool them down. Apparently, Ivanhoe in inland NSW was likely to be the hottest place on earth today at 47degC, or so one newspaper reported.
In Victoria, over eighty lives have been lost in dreadful bushfires. Read more here: (http://www.theage.com.au/national/death-toll-rises-from-bushfires-20090208-80jv.html?page=-1). Entire towns/villages wiped out.
Online donations can be made at the Bendigo Bank at this link or the National Australia Bank at this link.
Last month I was in Bendigo. Yesterday, thirty homes on its outskirts were burned out completely. As we drove through the countryside then, we saw how very very dry it was. Add fire and wind, and disaster is horribly easy to understand. When you learn that half of Australia's bushfires are the work of arsonists (likely including some of these Victorian fires), you're even more horrified.
And not forgetting that in North Queensland, floods that had receded are returning. It's a "wilful, lavish land" all right, "droughts and flooding rains" (see Dorothea Mackellar's poem, "My Country", which I won't put here in full because it's still copyright).
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In Victoria, over eighty lives have been lost in dreadful bushfires. Read more here: (http://www.theage.com.au/national/death-toll-rises-from-bushfires-20090208-80jv.html?page=-1). Entire towns/villages wiped out.
Online donations can be made at the Bendigo Bank at this link or the National Australia Bank at this link.
Last month I was in Bendigo. Yesterday, thirty homes on its outskirts were burned out completely. As we drove through the countryside then, we saw how very very dry it was. Add fire and wind, and disaster is horribly easy to understand. When you learn that half of Australia's bushfires are the work of arsonists (likely including some of these Victorian fires), you're even more horrified.
And not forgetting that in North Queensland, floods that had receded are returning. It's a "wilful, lavish land" all right, "droughts and flooding rains" (see Dorothea Mackellar's poem, "My Country", which I won't put here in full because it's still copyright).
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Thursday, February 05, 2009
It is very hot.
It is very hot. Day and night. Teetering around 40degC/over 100degF. Very hot. Not cooling down much at night, either. Tiring. Hot. That is all (for now).
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Sunday, February 01, 2009
An artist's view of the inauguration
Whether you're over Obama inauguration hoopla or not, take a look at this artist's piece in the New York Times - illustrator Maira Kelman's very individual take on the day in thoughtful watercolours and engaging observations: The Inauguration. At Last. from her blog, And the pursuit of happiness.
It reminds me a bit of the work of Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig (who was officially declared to be a National Living Treasure a couple of years ago).
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It reminds me a bit of the work of Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig (who was officially declared to be a National Living Treasure a couple of years ago).
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Vintage cutlery II
It's all very well finding a cache of lovely vintage forks and spoons, but you do need knives...
A sharp eyed friend spotted a mixed box of vintage cutlery in an old wares shop we were liking very much. A bit of sorting and hunting, and I had a set of knives. I gather the handle on these isn't bone, but some sort of early plastic (xyrene or some name like that, someone said) and they're stainless steel.
But now we lay the table with beautiful cutlery - not all quite matching, esp. if there are more than six people. But like the spoons and forks, these are happy in the hand. My previous set of cutlery, basic plain vanilla 80s stainless steel, has served well. But these vintage pieces just add something extra to the ordinary business of daily meals.
I did look at modern sets, and never quite found one that I liked. Either they didn't work in the hand, or were too moderne one way or another, or trying to be too clever or designed, or felt somehow flimsy. The sturdy, plain design of the vintage cutlery that's come my way is just right. Just right.
And then I chuckle, because it's very much like the cutlery I grew up with, except now (I don't remember why) my parents use a moderne set.
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A sharp eyed friend spotted a mixed box of vintage cutlery in an old wares shop we were liking very much. A bit of sorting and hunting, and I had a set of knives. I gather the handle on these isn't bone, but some sort of early plastic (xyrene or some name like that, someone said) and they're stainless steel.
But now we lay the table with beautiful cutlery - not all quite matching, esp. if there are more than six people. But like the spoons and forks, these are happy in the hand. My previous set of cutlery, basic plain vanilla 80s stainless steel, has served well. But these vintage pieces just add something extra to the ordinary business of daily meals.
I did look at modern sets, and never quite found one that I liked. Either they didn't work in the hand, or were too moderne one way or another, or trying to be too clever or designed, or felt somehow flimsy. The sturdy, plain design of the vintage cutlery that's come my way is just right. Just right.
And then I chuckle, because it's very much like the cutlery I grew up with, except now (I don't remember why) my parents use a moderne set.
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Vintage cutlery I
I've picked up a few vintage epns cutlery pieces from market stalls and vintage shops over time. In daily use, I found them to be distinctly stronger than the cutlery I bought years ago when I moved out of home. So I sort-of had my eye idly out for a set - and this one came to my attention.
Plain as anything, as you can see, and with the faint scratchings of use by their former owners. But, like the pieces I have, strong and beautiful in their simplicity, comfortable in the hand and weighted right. Such a little grace, good cutlery. It's like the new china I bought last year, a daily pleasure as part of everyday life.
So now, unwrapped from the newspaper bundled around them, released from rubber bands and washed, they're ready to use.
When I was little, my lovely grandmother used to clean our family silverplated cutlery with Silvo polish, and I remember the next meal always tasted just a tad funny, as the polish hadn't quite gone...
No knives? Ah, stay tuned...
Plain as anything, as you can see, and with the faint scratchings of use by their former owners. But, like the pieces I have, strong and beautiful in their simplicity, comfortable in the hand and weighted right. Such a little grace, good cutlery. It's like the new china I bought last year, a daily pleasure as part of everyday life.
So now, unwrapped from the newspaper bundled around them, released from rubber bands and washed, they're ready to use.
When I was little, my lovely grandmother used to clean our family silverplated cutlery with Silvo polish, and I remember the next meal always tasted just a tad funny, as the polish hadn't quite gone...
No knives? Ah, stay tuned...
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Doubt film flyer
The cinema foyer wasn't brightly lit, so even though I kept my camera as still as possible, this was the best photo I got. And then I thought, it's oddly appropriate to the film's subject matter. I know all four major performances are Oscar nominated, but overall while I'm happy to have seen it, it's not on my Pete-Repeat list. If any of them do win Oscars, I can nod sagely and say, ah yes, I saw that film....
(in an airconditioned cinema. werry welcome, in this weather! not the only reason to go, of course, but additionally appealing.)
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(in an airconditioned cinema. werry welcome, in this weather! not the only reason to go, of course, but additionally appealing.)
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Morning mist
Don't be fooled. It's not winter, but a balmy summer morning, early. That mist is soon gone, and then it's been heating up and up and up. The seven day forecast still has our part of the world being 35degC or more every day (close to 100F) or in the forties (definitely over 100F) next weekend.
February's the hardest month of summer - heat, humidity. Mind you, it's been hotter in Adelaide and Melbourne, enough to cause power outages and buckling of railway tracks.
Roll on autumn.
February's the hardest month of summer - heat, humidity. Mind you, it's been hotter in Adelaide and Melbourne, enough to cause power outages and buckling of railway tracks.
Roll on autumn.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Alexander McCall Smith books
Now why would this photo make you think that this house has been holding an Alexander McCall Smith readfest?
With the holidays over, the pace has slowed a bit. But so far, having read all the published Isabel Dalhousie books, the first No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency book (the second will be here any day) and being partway through the first 44 Scotland St book, I've enjoyed each in their different but similar/similar but different ways (the sly observational humour in each of them, for instance).
Just have to get his latest daily novel, Corduroy Mansions, onto my bloglines (which it doesn't seem to want to do, so I've added it to my favourites Feeds folder. If you know how to bloglines it, do let me know!). You can find Corduroy Mansions here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/corduroymansionsbyalexandermcca/
and there's a daily audio feed/podcast as well as the text feed.
What's really happening? Up early, it's hot. Go to work, it's hot. Work hard, it's hot. Come home, the house is hot despite drawn curtains. Sleep, but it's hot. Wake up, it's still hot. Seven days of 35degC or more (that's 95degF) is rather wearying. Lots to do at work, though, and friendly faces. Roll on March (when it cools down a bit and is less humid).
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With the holidays over, the pace has slowed a bit. But so far, having read all the published Isabel Dalhousie books, the first No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency book (the second will be here any day) and being partway through the first 44 Scotland St book, I've enjoyed each in their different but similar/similar but different ways (the sly observational humour in each of them, for instance).
Just have to get his latest daily novel, Corduroy Mansions, onto my bloglines (which it doesn't seem to want to do, so I've added it to my favourites Feeds folder. If you know how to bloglines it, do let me know!). You can find Corduroy Mansions here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/corduroymansionsbyalexandermcca/
and there's a daily audio feed/podcast as well as the text feed.
What's really happening? Up early, it's hot. Go to work, it's hot. Work hard, it's hot. Come home, the house is hot despite drawn curtains. Sleep, but it's hot. Wake up, it's still hot. Seven days of 35degC or more (that's 95degF) is rather wearying. Lots to do at work, though, and friendly faces. Roll on March (when it cools down a bit and is less humid).
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Monday, January 26, 2009
Australia Day
Thought I'd better mark Australia Day, so here's the front cover of today's Sydney Morning Herald. Surreal artwork by Reg Mombassa.
It's thankfully cooler today, much better for a day when people are out and about.
I've just done a catchup of blog entries on films and books and more (can you tell it's work tomorrow, holidays over?).
Yesterday the extended family gathered to celebrate a big-0 birthday, and just sitting around talking across the generations was one of the best days of the holidays. Hearing more of Dad's stories of the RAF in WW2, talking sushi trains and Thai food with the older kids, talking books and films and who's done what, all sorts of conversations big and small, and much laughter. So good.
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It's thankfully cooler today, much better for a day when people are out and about.
I've just done a catchup of blog entries on films and books and more (can you tell it's work tomorrow, holidays over?).
Yesterday the extended family gathered to celebrate a big-0 birthday, and just sitting around talking across the generations was one of the best days of the holidays. Hearing more of Dad's stories of the RAF in WW2, talking sushi trains and Thai food with the older kids, talking books and films and who's done what, all sorts of conversations big and small, and much laughter. So good.
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Star Gazing by Linda Gillard
I bought this one on a punt, because the premise intrigued me: a woman blind from birth who visits the Isle of Skye with a man who says it's so she can see the stars. That sounds clunky and suggestive, and in some ways cliched, but it isn't. It's a lyrical, engrossing, well-written novel that I'm really glad to have read.
To start at the end, as I closed this book I realised that, in a way, we all come blind to any novel we read, dependent on the author's words to make the novel's world visible to us. Maybe we have other visual experience on which to draw - we've been to Edinburgh, or seen pictures, or know what leafless birch tree looks like - but even so, we come blind. I hadn't quite thought of it in those terms before.
The story is substantially told from multiple points of view - Marianne, the blind woman; Keir, the man she meets; Louise, her novelist sister. I got a fascinating insight into what must seem unimaginable if you've never had sight - how to explain a wheeling mass of birds in the sky, or glass? It's not at all a sentimental book - part of the attraction between Marianne and Keir is the fact that he doesn't make unnecessary or patronising concessions to her blindness, but instead finds ways to challenge her, and to provide musical analogies to explain the unexplainable.
The author has a website here: http://www.lindagillard.co.uk/star-gazing.php and I got my copy of the book from the Book Depository http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/ . Not sure if it's in Australian or US bookshops as yet.
Recently I read The Forgotten Garden, and have now mostly forgotten it as I didn't enjoy it at all. This, however, is one I'm going to be happily recommending to friends - better written, better story, more engaging characters.
Oops: I typed the heroine's name as Margaret, when it's Marianne. The author kindly pointed this out, so I'm happy to have fixed it.
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To start at the end, as I closed this book I realised that, in a way, we all come blind to any novel we read, dependent on the author's words to make the novel's world visible to us. Maybe we have other visual experience on which to draw - we've been to Edinburgh, or seen pictures, or know what leafless birch tree looks like - but even so, we come blind. I hadn't quite thought of it in those terms before.
The story is substantially told from multiple points of view - Marianne, the blind woman; Keir, the man she meets; Louise, her novelist sister. I got a fascinating insight into what must seem unimaginable if you've never had sight - how to explain a wheeling mass of birds in the sky, or glass? It's not at all a sentimental book - part of the attraction between Marianne and Keir is the fact that he doesn't make unnecessary or patronising concessions to her blindness, but instead finds ways to challenge her, and to provide musical analogies to explain the unexplainable.
The author has a website here: http://www.lindagillard.co.uk/star-gazing.php and I got my copy of the book from the Book Depository http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/ . Not sure if it's in Australian or US bookshops as yet.
Recently I read The Forgotten Garden, and have now mostly forgotten it as I didn't enjoy it at all. This, however, is one I'm going to be happily recommending to friends - better written, better story, more engaging characters.
Oops: I typed the heroine's name as Margaret, when it's Marianne. The author kindly pointed this out, so I'm happy to have fixed it.
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Film/movie catchup: Slumdog Millionaire, Valkyrie, Milk
This is the pick of the bunch. It starts with a torture scene, and at times is hard to watch, and yet so much of it has you on the edge of your seat, utterly engaged with these characters and this story, as you find out how Jamal, a chai wallah (tea boy) and slumdog, knows the answers to the TV quiz questions. A terrific film.
Competent, workmanlike, at times tense - I'm damning it with faint praise, aren't I? I'm not sure how much of that is due to the fact that one knows the outcome - the Valkyrie plot to assassinate Hitler failed - and yet I'm happy to say that I learned new information about the immediate aftermath of the plot. The British headliner actors do their thing - although Bill Nighy's general is so fluttery you wonder how he would have become a general - and I was glad to learn at the end that Von Stauffenberg's wife and children survived. It's by no means a terrible film, but it's not a great one, either.
Sean Penn is such an accomplished actor. He is so different in this to the contained man of The Interpreter, or the death row inmate in Dead Man Walking. It's a biopic done with care and attention, well acted, using archival footage to make you realise how much, in some ways, the world has changed.
As the cinema didn't have posters of Slumdog Millionaire or Milk, I've used and acknowledged posters from http://www.impawards.com/, where among other interesting possibilities you can search posters by designer. So click here to see the many other striking posters designed by the same person as did the one for Slumdog Millionaire.
And what else did the cinemas have to offer this week? Air conditioning....and it's good to pack in a few before the holidays end and the world of work takes over next week.
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and book price maths
Having zoomed through the entire Isabel Dalhousie Sunday Philosophy Club series by Alexander McCall Smith, I've started on the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. This one I picked up in a second hand book shop as a start and to see if I like it.
I did. Very much. One down, eight more, almost nine more to go.
I don't think I'll be buying any of them at the full rrp in Australia. See, here are the sums: second hand prices for these seem to range between $8 and $12 (I'm talking second hand book shops, not lucky op shop finds). The rrp on the paperbacks in bookshops that sell at rrp (and some charge more on some of their stock AND DON'T TELL YOU) is $22.99.
Ordering from the Amazons, or Amazon marketplaces, or Australian online shops attracts postage, which offsets any discount.
BUT: if I order them from the Book Depository (http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/) they are around six British pounds each, which on the current exchange rate is just over $12 Australian. Plus free shipping from the UK.
Which leads to my question: why can a UK online bookshop sell me the identical book for about half the price charged at my local bookshop? It's crazy, somewhere in that equation. Admittedly, our dollar has risen against the UK pound recently, and dropped against the US dollar, so UK prices have improved. But even so.
So sometime next week (Book Depository orders take a week or two at most, easily beating the Amazons' month or so) I'll be reading the second book in this series and enjoying more sly humour.
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I did. Very much. One down, eight more, almost nine more to go.
I don't think I'll be buying any of them at the full rrp in Australia. See, here are the sums: second hand prices for these seem to range between $8 and $12 (I'm talking second hand book shops, not lucky op shop finds). The rrp on the paperbacks in bookshops that sell at rrp (and some charge more on some of their stock AND DON'T TELL YOU) is $22.99.
Ordering from the Amazons, or Amazon marketplaces, or Australian online shops attracts postage, which offsets any discount.
BUT: if I order them from the Book Depository (http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/) they are around six British pounds each, which on the current exchange rate is just over $12 Australian. Plus free shipping from the UK.
Which leads to my question: why can a UK online bookshop sell me the identical book for about half the price charged at my local bookshop? It's crazy, somewhere in that equation. Admittedly, our dollar has risen against the UK pound recently, and dropped against the US dollar, so UK prices have improved. But even so.
So sometime next week (Book Depository orders take a week or two at most, easily beating the Amazons' month or so) I'll be reading the second book in this series and enjoying more sly humour.
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Bacon and egg pie and salad
The Loaves and the Dishes cafe in Leura remains a favourite - a mouthwatering cabinet of quiches and wraps and pies, crunchy interesting salad and yummy dressing.
Dachshund dish
A few days ago we went up the Blue Mountains to browse antique and vintage shops and escape the heat.
This dachshund dish made us chuckle!
This dachshund dish made us chuckle!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
100 Word Stories: a tale about a tail
It’s a steady thump, a heartbeat. Maybe muffled by the living room carpet, Dane’s body glued to his latest computer game but carefully not moving his chair so he doesn’t run over the dog. Maybe louder on the kitchen’s wooden floor as I race around making dinner and accidentally on purpose dropping bacon scraps. A damp nose pushed into your hand, a warm, heavy weight on your feet in winter.
Or it was. Dane looks up, abandoning his screen for long enough to ask, “When will he be back?” and wait for an answer.
“Tuesday,” I say, missing Dogger too.
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Or it was. Dane looks up, abandoning his screen for long enough to ask, “When will he be back?” and wait for an answer.
“Tuesday,” I say, missing Dogger too.
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Australia Day Address from the Chop Exchange
Explanation for those outside of or unfamiliar with this byway of Australian culture: Sam Kekovich got a name on TV for outspoken, blunt, politically incorrect, controversial and generally very funny comedy speeches, and for the last few years there has been a Sam Kekovich ad (funded I'm guessing by the Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation) addressing the nation in advance of Australia Day, encouraging us to eat local lamb. This is the 2009 one, complete with references to events in the previous year. YouTube has video of previous Australia Day Sam Kekovich addresses.
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How hot?????
Today's temperature reached 42 degrees Celsius. In case the translation is helpful to you, that's around 107 degrees Fahrenheit. In the shade. Hot? Damn. Yes.
Friday, January 23, 2009
P-sychic, like.
And did an Australian newspaper that I've read, or report that I've seen on TV or heard on radio, mention Praise Song for the Day, Elizabeth Alexander's poem for Barack Obama's inauguration?
Nope. Not a one. As p-sychically-like predicted on this here blog. Sad but true.
Lots of info, YouTube and transcript in a blog entry from the day - just click on the link or scroll on through January 2009 and you'll find it for your reading, listening and viewing pleasure. And I do mean pleasure. It's still rolling around happily in my head.
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Nope. Not a one. As p-sychically-like predicted on this here blog. Sad but true.
Lots of info, YouTube and transcript in a blog entry from the day - just click on the link or scroll on through January 2009 and you'll find it for your reading, listening and viewing pleasure. And I do mean pleasure. It's still rolling around happily in my head.
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Hamish Macbeth
Ah, it's been hot these last couple of weeks. Hot hot hot. The weather, for starters. Days of 35degC+ (hovering around and exceeding 100degF some days). Sure, the washing dries almost as you peg it out, but there have been no proper cool changes, with thunderstorms and rain and southerly busters, to relieve the temperature, and the grass and greenery is browning off almost as you look at it - crunchy lawn underfoot, anyone? If you don't have airconditioning in your house, you're heavily tempted to go out (cinema, for instance, or to higher altitudes) in search of a cooler place. Sleep isn't restful as you toss and turn, unable to cool down. The forecast says we have several more days of this to endure. Endure is the word for it. Me, I'm a spring and autumn girl, for the climate around here.
On to other meanings of hot...I won't explain*, except to say that there's been a Hamish Macbeth fest going on around here for the last couple of weeks, every program from series 1 to the end (series 3). It's lovely, clever writing, well acted, quirky, plots twisting in unexpected ways. Sometimes you just have to sit and laugh aloud at what you're seeing and hearing. A great ensemble cast (as with SeaChange, a wonderful Australian TV series with a similarly excellent ensemble cast, quirky, clever writing and distinctive location).
I noticed, with amusement, that writer of many episodes Daniel Boyle had a couple of line-or-two bit parts, as "Handsome Sailor" and chuckled at his enterprise and initiative - if you're the writer, and writing yourself in, why not make the part of the sailor "Handsome Sailor"!
Or maybe I'm just a tragic person who reads credits too carefully.
The background is a Buchanan tartan kilt. Modern Buchanan, fairly unmistakable and definitely loud - I've seen it cited as one of the gaudiest tartans. Go to Google images and look for "Ancient Buchanan" to see a less lairy version of the Buchanan colours and sett.
It's hot. Did I mention that? It will almost be a relief to be back at work, where there is intermittent airconditioning.
It's too darn hot. (That could be a good line for a song...oh, it is already. OK).
*because this blog only has intelligent readers
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On to other meanings of hot...I won't explain*, except to say that there's been a Hamish Macbeth fest going on around here for the last couple of weeks, every program from series 1 to the end (series 3). It's lovely, clever writing, well acted, quirky, plots twisting in unexpected ways. Sometimes you just have to sit and laugh aloud at what you're seeing and hearing. A great ensemble cast (as with SeaChange, a wonderful Australian TV series with a similarly excellent ensemble cast, quirky, clever writing and distinctive location).
I noticed, with amusement, that writer of many episodes Daniel Boyle had a couple of line-or-two bit parts, as "Handsome Sailor" and chuckled at his enterprise and initiative - if you're the writer, and writing yourself in, why not make the part of the sailor "Handsome Sailor"!
Or maybe I'm just a tragic person who reads credits too carefully.
The background is a Buchanan tartan kilt. Modern Buchanan, fairly unmistakable and definitely loud - I've seen it cited as one of the gaudiest tartans. Go to Google images and look for "Ancient Buchanan" to see a less lairy version of the Buchanan colours and sett.
It's hot. Did I mention that? It will almost be a relief to be back at work, where there is intermittent airconditioning.
It's too darn hot. (That could be a good line for a song...oh, it is already. OK).
*because this blog only has intelligent readers
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Wednesday, January 21, 2009
A self portrait, with apologies to Shepard Fairey
Well, it's so much fun to play with the Obamicon, particularly today. With apologies to Shepard Fairey, who created the iconic poster of Barack Obama.
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Still, lookee there, it's a portrait of the blogger. Rare, very rare.
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You upload a photo, then can adjust the blues and red and white and if you like upload it to their gallery. Or, as I did, take a screenshot (Control + Print Screen), paste it into a program and save the image file. Do leave a comment if you blog one yourself!
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Found the link courtesy of Remo, which has more remarkable, quirky merchandise than you'll find anywhere.
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"Praise Song For the Day" by Elizabeth Alexander : Inauguration poem
It may not survive in full in edited highlights of Barack Obama's inauguration, but Elizabeth Alexander's poem was, to me, outstanding - with the simplicity and complexity of the best writing. Here it is, in case you missed it.
I've removed the text of the poem, so go to this link to see it in print in a location on the net where it has the poet's permission to be.
Added later: see a video and read reactions to this poem here. Added even later: I've put in the YouTube link. I know not everyone will agree with the poem, or the declamatory style, but I was more than happy with both. Poetry is compressed language, rich with meaning, above all, and this was a poem.
Added later still: I've found a version that is set out as Elizabeth Alexander said she wrote it, in tercets. Source of this info. Here's a thoughtful critical analysis of it as a poem from the Guardian (UK) and a more critical review from the Times (UK).
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Kiva: Azra, Nazreen, Sharifan and Zaitoon/ Inauguration Day
Almost a year ago, I undertook my first Kiva loan, to Moriya Nabieva who sells fabric in a Tajikistan market, in Yavan. It's now paid back; and in the intervening year, I've undertaken seven more Kiva loans. Facilitated by the internet, fuelled by the imagination of an American couple who said, why not?, this forum for microfinance is a remarkable venture. I wrote on my Kiva profile back then that this is a great adventure, and it remains so.
Having woken at 3.30am to watch the inauguration of the 44th American president, Barack Obama, live on television (yes, before-sunrise early!), I figured the best way to celebrate was to take neighbourhood action. Not here in my own community, but the wider community, give something from the opportunities we have here so others have opportunities too.
So my ninth Kiva loan is undertaken today. Here's more information about Azra and her group:
My name is Azra. I am 49 years old and married. I live in a city named Borewala, Pakistan. I own a two room brick house in the city where I have lived for the past 25 years. My husband's name is Ibrar Hussain. He is a driver by profession. He drives an auto-rickshaw (a local three-wheeled motor vehicle) and has 15 years of experience. I am a mother of six children: three sons and three daughters. My eldest son is an electrician. My middle son works in an office. My youngest son reads in 2nd standard. My eldest daughter reads in 3rd standard. My middle daughter reads in 2nd standard. My youngest daughter reads in kindergarten.
It’s my wish to give my children a good education, because I truly believe that education is the key to success. If a person takes advantage of education they can achieve their goals. To achieve my wish, I earn money with the skill of sewing clothes. I get orders from my relatives and my neighbors. I have used the income to pay the school expenses for my children.
I am applying for a loan to buy repair tools for my eldest son, so that he is able to repair electrical items easily.
I am a group leader of some women in my locality. Nasreen akhtar baji wants a loan to buy wood to resell. Sharifan baji wants a loan to buy cosmetics to resell. Zaitoon baji wants a loan to buy groceries for her grocery shop.
This is a group loan. The loan funds will be distributed among the group members, each of whom will invest in their own business. The members mutually guarantee each other's loans. If one member does not repay, the other members are responsible.
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I'm not American, but the principles of Barack Obama's inauguration speech hold true whichever country you are in.
Barack, live on Australian television, very early in the morning
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We have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly.
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What could you do? This loan was fully funded within the time it's taken me to write this blog entry, but there are new loan opportunities on Kiva every hour, every day.
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What could you do? This loan was fully funded within the time it's taken me to write this blog entry, but there are new loan opportunities on Kiva every hour, every day.
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PS he mentioned patchwork in his speech. We don't just have a great craft, but it's also a compelling metaphor. Did he knit anything, or sculpt or fashion or plane or sew or scrap? Nooooo! Patchwork! she says with a triumphant grin.
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Monday, January 19, 2009
100 Word Stories: An invitation with three conditions
Green. She hadn’t worn green in fifty years. Not since…
The invitation seemed ridiculously expensive to her, professionally printed, and for an eighteenth birthday. Suzannah had always been daft about her girl Chloe-Anne. And why on earth, wear green, bring flowers and a plate with at least one green food.
Green. Ken had said he loved her, loved the green dress. That night, the earth had rumbled her from sleep and in the early light of morning the news had come of those miners who wouldn’t return.
Fifty years. Was it time, now to try wearing green? Just this once?
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Sunday, January 18, 2009
100 Word Stories: Peanut butter, a llama and the police
I hate peanut butter. Mercedes wrote in her blog that her llamas love it. I suspect that llamas are much like camels and cows, unselfconsciously capable of more saliva than I want to think about.
It’s hard not to be cranky when you come home to a broken door and find that the burglars had time and better taste than you would hope. Not just the TV, but Aunt Lucy’s china. It’s all only stuff, I know it’s only stuff. The policeman held out my box of tissues just as my running nose and streaming eyes were getting entirely embarrassing.
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It’s hard not to be cranky when you come home to a broken door and find that the burglars had time and better taste than you would hope. Not just the TV, but Aunt Lucy’s china. It’s all only stuff, I know it’s only stuff. The policeman held out my box of tissues just as my running nose and streaming eyes were getting entirely embarrassing.
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Quilt in progress (N)
This is the N quiltlet for Australian Patchwork & Quilting magazine (vol 18 no 2, due out in 5-6 months). A bunch of favourite fabrics, happy moderns mostly. They didn't end up like this, but when the magazine is out, you'll be able to see it complete.
These are some of the fabrics I was cutting the other day - had the fabrics out, so I figured there was a happy quiltlet in there too, and cut some more to make it happen.
It's nearly finished now - the binding is half sewn down and (sometimes the bit that takes longer!) the instructions and article are nearly complete too.
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These are some of the fabrics I was cutting the other day - had the fabrics out, so I figured there was a happy quiltlet in there too, and cut some more to make it happen.
It's nearly finished now - the binding is half sewn down and (sometimes the bit that takes longer!) the instructions and article are nearly complete too.
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Saturday, January 17, 2009
Quilt in progress (M)
A sneak peek at the M quiltlet for Australian Patchwork & Quilting magazine. Love that vintage conversational scissors fabric, and that kind of dead plain vintage button.
This is going to be vol. 18 no. 1, due out in about five months (the published quiltlets are up to G for Gundagai in the alphabet of Australian places).
I'm halfway!
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This is going to be vol. 18 no. 1, due out in about five months (the published quiltlets are up to G for Gundagai in the alphabet of Australian places).
I'm halfway!
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Friday, January 16, 2009
Cutting out a quilt
Sometimes, you have a brilliant idea for a quilt. Then you start cutting (you've decided to include as much variety as possible). Fish out fabric, press with the iron, cut, trim to size, repeat.....then fold dozens of pieces of (now slightly smaller) fabric to put back in the stash.....
But the upside is that this quilt is going to include so many favourite fabrics. Yum. Fabrics from Kaffe Fassett and Amy Butler, Denyse Schmidt and lots more.
So you bung on a DVD or talking book, and away you go. Some hours later, halfway done with cutting this quilt, you have a pile of anticipated fun that looks something like this.
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But the upside is that this quilt is going to include so many favourite fabrics. Yum. Fabrics from Kaffe Fassett and Amy Butler, Denyse Schmidt and lots more.
So you bung on a DVD or talking book, and away you go. Some hours later, halfway done with cutting this quilt, you have a pile of anticipated fun that looks something like this.
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Thursday, January 15, 2009
100 Word Stories: Birthday surprise
On Wednesday, the bride doll was gone. Mellie pressed her nose to the shop window, gulping a tear.
She looked everywhere. Mam chased her away from the airing cupboard, and that half-forgotten cupboard under the stairs.
“Leave it, Mellie. Stop sticky-beaking.”
But her birthday was on Friday, and they’d had baked beans for tea three times this week. Da came home late and tired, and Mam had been working extra shifts.
The birthday parcel was too small. Mellie tried to smile. Inside was a different doll, with clothes she knew her Mam had sewn, clothes like Mellie’s. A new friend.
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She looked everywhere. Mam chased her away from the airing cupboard, and that half-forgotten cupboard under the stairs.
“Leave it, Mellie. Stop sticky-beaking.”
But her birthday was on Friday, and they’d had baked beans for tea three times this week. Da came home late and tired, and Mam had been working extra shifts.
The birthday parcel was too small. Mellie tried to smile. Inside was a different doll, with clothes she knew her Mam had sewn, clothes like Mellie’s. A new friend.
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Road Trip 4: exhibition I: The Art of Couture: Paris and London, 1947-1957
The object of the road trip was The Art of Couture exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery . (Note: information on that link, but only one picture. More pics on a link below).
We weren't the only tourists who were drawn to Bendigo by this exhibition - not only an extraordinary exhibition, but also the only place to see it in Australia.
It's in a separate wing/entrance of the gallery, and with an admission charge ($16 for adults). Clever window decals, too (note the artwork/sculpture pretend pavilion in the background).
Allow yourself plenty of time. Last entry is 4.15pm, but you'd want well more than 45 minutes: if you watch the films of couture being made and shown, they run for well over half an hour on their own.
But of course what you want to see are the frocks and gowns, hats and suits and the elegance and style of it. The exhibition was first shown at the Victoria and Albert museum in London, which has a legendary collection of costume, fashion, couture and design. They called it "The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947 - 1957" and their website is more generous with images at this link .
If you're interested in the exhibition catalogue, this is what it looks like:
We weren't the only tourists who were drawn to Bendigo by this exhibition - not only an extraordinary exhibition, but also the only place to see it in Australia.
It's in a separate wing/entrance of the gallery, and with an admission charge ($16 for adults). Clever window decals, too (note the artwork/sculpture pretend pavilion in the background).
Allow yourself plenty of time. Last entry is 4.15pm, but you'd want well more than 45 minutes: if you watch the films of couture being made and shown, they run for well over half an hour on their own.
But of course what you want to see are the frocks and gowns, hats and suits and the elegance and style of it. The exhibition was first shown at the Victoria and Albert museum in London, which has a legendary collection of costume, fashion, couture and design. They called it "The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947 - 1957" and their website is more generous with images at this link .
If you're interested in the exhibition catalogue, this is what it looks like:
(That dress is beautiful!). The catalogue is a published book ie. available from booksellers, not just the galleries. The Book Depository (free shipping worldwide) has it here (from whence I borrowed the image). It was about $60AU at the gallery.
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There's a public carpark at the back of the gallery that has sections for up to four hours of parking. Rates are cheap: we approved of the Bendigo habit of charging for parking, but not a lot - so people do move on and parking spaces are available.
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And after all that practical information, what will you see?
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Beautiful beautiful clothes, made with skills you can hardly imagine - thousands and thousands of hand-sewn beads on a single bodice, the cutting and draping of fabric to create quiet elegance. A whole way of living, walking, standing, being that's utterly different to how most of the world lives or will ever live, even in our well-off first world society.
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It also struck me how so many of these clothes were not made for broomstick figured young women, as is the focus of so much 'high fashion' today. Women of many ages could wear these and have elegance and style. Some were made for the wives of rich men, but some also for women with husbands in high positions, ambassadors or representatives, who needed a 'working wardrobe' of this sort of style, like the women of the royal family (at which point I'll note that Princess Margaret was apparently an early adopter of Dior's New Look and judging by the garments on display, she had a tiny tiny waist).
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Part of the exhibition included dressed dolls: there were at least two touring exhibitions put together just after the war, with (skeletal wire with papier mache faces and real hair) doll figures dressed by couturiers in Paris and London to show these new fashions (and in a way that was less expensive than making full size costumes). There were also photographs of the clothes by people such as Richard Avedon, with excellent information on how these were composed to highlight the clothes, and how the style of photography was changing to a more active style, rather than stiffly posed models.
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The lighting is low, as you would expect with fragile textiles. In just one case, the shadows cast by the placement of lighting meant you couldn't see something well enough, but the rest was fine.
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Lovely, lovely work to see. Don't miss it. It closes late in March 2009.
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Wednesday, January 14, 2009
100 Word Stories: Rear window
Story prompt from 100 word stories blog archive (and why is it that so many of these seem to be written in anticipation of slasher/murder tales, or at least a goodly dollop of tomato sauce being involved??) was thus:
Laid up with a broken leg you look out of the rear window of your apartment and see…
I’m never here during the day, on weekdays. Their rhythm is something I’ve never been here to notice. The stop-start burr of the postie’s motorcycle. Mrs Holt takes her yappy pug for a walk at eleven o’clock – I hear them in the corridor.
Laid up with a broken leg you look out of the rear window of your apartment and see…
I’m never here during the day, on weekdays. Their rhythm is something I’ve never been here to notice. The stop-start burr of the postie’s motorcycle. Mrs Holt takes her yappy pug for a walk at eleven o’clock – I hear them in the corridor.
But in the back garden of the next door house, under a shadesail, an older man is restoring a sixties Ford. He has tools laid out carefully, and from what I can see of the car, much to do. If I open the window, I think I can hear him whistling, but I don’t know the tune.
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Julie & Julia
OK, I'll admit it, I tripped over this while browsing bargain audiobook CDs on the Barnes and Noble site a while back. The concept got my attention - funny, a tad nutty but intriguing. I ended up buying the audiobook on CD and the book (the hardcover was on special. I suspect I'm sounding cheap about now, or at least thrifty. Do remember that a) audiobookCDs are more expensive in Australia and b) I did have to pay postage).
Anyhoo. I'd started the book a while back, and was chortling through it while simultaneously trying to imagine cooking with as much butter as Julie was describing. Julia Child , and her 1961 cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking (containing the 524 recipes Julie set out to cook in a single year, and blog about) are, I gather, American classics, through the book and Julia Child's TV shows.
The Australian equivalent, I guess, would be Margaret Fulton . The Australian Women's Weekly cookbook was in hundreds of thousands of homes, but it was/is a collective work, lacking the same cult of personality/individual imprimatur. I still refer to MF's Encyclopedia of Food & Cookery, and have a copy of the AWW Cookbook (the harcover one before they started publishing dozens of softcover narrow-focus ones) that was a school prize way back when. Now, of course, the world is full of telecooks.
On the recent road trip, for some of the time, Julie & Julia got its turn on the car's CD player. As read by Julie Powell, the author, so you KNOW she must have the emphases right... and it was great fun to listen to.
If you're of tender sensibilities, be aware that she is not, or at least addresses with gusto (and salty language) topics that might make your mother wince here and there. But she also talks about food and cooking in wonderful, evocative ways, as the project she undertook to in some ways save her life, instead changed it in ways she could never have imagined.
This must be one of the earliest blog-to-book success stories. The film (directed by Nora Ephron) is due out later this year, with Amy Adams as Julie, Meryl Streep as Julia and Stanley Tucci as Paul Child.
Julie's original blog, The Julie/Julia Project
Julie's current blog
IMDB entry for the film
Anyhoo. I'd started the book a while back, and was chortling through it while simultaneously trying to imagine cooking with as much butter as Julie was describing. Julia Child , and her 1961 cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking (containing the 524 recipes Julie set out to cook in a single year, and blog about) are, I gather, American classics, through the book and Julia Child's TV shows.
The Australian equivalent, I guess, would be Margaret Fulton . The Australian Women's Weekly cookbook was in hundreds of thousands of homes, but it was/is a collective work, lacking the same cult of personality/individual imprimatur. I still refer to MF's Encyclopedia of Food & Cookery, and have a copy of the AWW Cookbook (the harcover one before they started publishing dozens of softcover narrow-focus ones) that was a school prize way back when. Now, of course, the world is full of telecooks.
On the recent road trip, for some of the time, Julie & Julia got its turn on the car's CD player. As read by Julie Powell, the author, so you KNOW she must have the emphases right... and it was great fun to listen to.
If you're of tender sensibilities, be aware that she is not, or at least addresses with gusto (and salty language) topics that might make your mother wince here and there. But she also talks about food and cooking in wonderful, evocative ways, as the project she undertook to in some ways save her life, instead changed it in ways she could never have imagined.
This must be one of the earliest blog-to-book success stories. The film (directed by Nora Ephron) is due out later this year, with Amy Adams as Julie, Meryl Streep as Julia and Stanley Tucci as Paul Child.
Julie's original blog, The Julie/Julia Project
Julie's current blog
IMDB entry for the film
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
100 Word Stories: A stroke of luck
I hate weeding. Small weeding, the persistent stuff that you can never get rid of, onion weed and wandering jew, is no fun. But Grandma’s vegetable garden, a single bed now when once it was an entire backyard, is one of her few pleasures. So every week, I weed it. She sits in a garden chair, behind the big old house that’s now a nursing home, and points out what I’ve missed.
But then we slice a fragrant tomato, warm from the sun, and I understand why it’s worth weeding, and why I’m lucky to still be fed by Gran.
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An Award!
Candy at Not A Walking Encyclopedia gave me this award!
This is what she said: The Prémio Dardos is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web. I award this one to Patterning The World and she well deserves it. Not only will you find her original fiction on her blog but she spreads the word about methods to help those less fortunate. She also is a quilter and miniature enthusiast.
Thank you, Candy!
As a mark of return respect, I'll note here for anyone in Australia who also plans to set their alarm clock for 3.30am Sydney time on Wednesday 21 January, that the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp.) is broadcasting Barack Obama's inauguration on ABC1, live and uninterrupted. Here's the TV guide link.
Quite accidentally I was in Washington DC when Bill Clinton was inaugurated for the first time (I was on a fellowship grant, travelling through North America), and it was an amazing time to be there. The atmosphere...well, the closest I've got to it since is probably in Sydney during the Olympics in 2000, the general bonhomie, goodwill, the sense of shared celebration. It was a great time to be there, just being among that crowd, walking the Mall, hearing the oath of office not only through the radio (I was a fair way away, but could see the Capitol building) but also faintly through the loudspeakers. Whatever one's hindsight opinion of his presidency - back then at the start it was all optimism, the hope of change, and I imagine it's a similar feeling now, too. The audacity of hope.
Collector
Collector is a tiny village just off the highway to and from Canberra, not far from Lake George. It's little more than a pub, a general store and the very highly regarded Lynwood cafe.
On my way home from the Canberra quilt show last winter, I detoured onto the Collector road because it was snowing, and I wanted to stop and enjoy this novelty and how beautiful it was.
Remember this?
Well, this is how it looks in summer.
Bit of a difference!
I haven't finished with the Road Trip pictures - more soon. Thanks to Ngaire and to Jamie at Bendigo Accommodation for the lovely comments - always good to get ticks from the locals (that's ticks of approval, not the kind with rather too many legs and a habit of adhesion...!). And to C/Quiltycat - what a pity you'd gone to visit where we'd left to visit not far from where you live!!
On my way home from the Canberra quilt show last winter, I detoured onto the Collector road because it was snowing, and I wanted to stop and enjoy this novelty and how beautiful it was.
Remember this?
Well, this is how it looks in summer.
Bit of a difference!
I haven't finished with the Road Trip pictures - more soon. Thanks to Ngaire and to Jamie at Bendigo Accommodation for the lovely comments - always good to get ticks from the locals (that's ticks of approval, not the kind with rather too many legs and a habit of adhesion...!). And to C/Quiltycat - what a pity you'd gone to visit where we'd left to visit not far from where you live!!
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