I Nearly Forgot!!!

to show you this cute tea cosy I bought recently.

Yes they are little sandwiches on top.

I do have plans to make some tea cosies & I have been collecting teapots to dress. It was the lovely Alice who whetted my tea cosy appetite.

Alice has some gorgeous, free patterns on her blog.

http://crochethealingandraymond.wordpress.com/

This pair is so cute, the small one would only hold a mugful.

The last 3 are the tiny little one or two cup pots. My Mum has one but she uses her 4 cup one more often. I used to laugh at Mum’s tea habit but now I too am an addict. Earl Grey for me & my last cup of the day is this:

Smells great & tastes magic.  No affils, I wish!!!

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before but you can ‘decaf’ teabags. Pour boiling water over the teabag, about 1/3 mugful, jiggle the teabag for 5 seconds or so then pour off this water & then make your tea as normal. Apparently the caffeine is released as soon as the boiling water hits, so by pouring off the first lot you are also discarding the caffeine.

Vintage Finds

I’ve been scouring vintage/antique shops & the op shops & I’ve found some lovely things over the past few months. Here’s a few…..

This cute patchwork apron includes a lot of vintage fabrics.

A 3m piece of pretty barkcloth. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it yet, cushions, bags, a skirt????

I picture this tin with a big buttery orange cake in it like my Aunty Joyce used to make.

My Mum & Dad had this exact same fan. It will be good in Lucy on a hot day.

I couldn’t resist this pretty mirror.

These canisters were made in the 20’s & are still in excellent condition.

My Mum had this exact same tablecloth!!! It’s probably still buried in her linen press.

Another pretty barkcloth tablecloth I’ve bought a few now.

Samsung are Bastards - Big Whinge with Bad Language

Emma gave Paul a Samsung telephone for Father’s Day. It was locked to Telstra so she paid to have it unlocked so he could use his current SIM card. It was to be unlocked on Monday, the day after Father’s Day. On Monday Paul put his sim card in & found it wasn’t unlocked but he was able to look at the features of the phone, until it froze. Emma rang to see why it hadn’t been unlocked to be told it would now be done the following Friday. Friday came & went & the middle of the following week they finally provided the unlock code. So Paul put his sim card in to find the phone was still ‘frozen’ so he couldn’t use the unlock code. He rang Telstra, oh you‘ll have to take it to a Telstra shop.

We spent 1 hour in the Telstra shop but they couldn’t unfreeze it, we’d have to take it to a Samsung service centre. Oh how convenient just 40 mins away. So as Paul was working in the area today he took it there. Oh yes we can unlock it but it will cost you $55!!!!!! WTF!!!!!!! So although Paul is a normally a very mild mannered person, he’d had enough. There was a big sign that said “Customer Service’ so he pointed to it & asked does that mean you serve the customer or you tell them to shove it up their arse????? Oh we are here to serve, YEAH for $55!!!!! So he told them they could shove it up their arse. I wish I’d been there.

So the moral of the story is DON’T EVER BUY A SAMSUNG PRODUCT. & as for Telstra. well we already know what a bunch of $@#*%s they are.

Lucy, Diary of a Vintage Caravan

I tried adding a new page to this blog to document the progress of Lucy our vintage caravan but I couldn’t work out how to add more posts to the page. Eventually I gave up & I’ve started a new blog just for Lucy. I think it will work out better in the long run as those interested in my craft may not be interested in Lucy & vice versa.

However for those interested in Lucy, here’s the link. I’ve already done a few posts & there is a little doubling up on stuff I’ve posted here.

http://lucycaravan.blogspot.com/

Let me know what you think.

It Wasn’t My Fault

Well it started out innocently enough, we needed to go to Aldi to buy  some mince for tea. Well it just so happened there are 2 op shops close to Aldi, so we thought we might as well have a squizz while we’re in the area. Now I had already told myself I needn’t bother looking at the books coz I don’t have room for anymore, & I’ve bought so many lately that are waiting to be read. But then I remembered I’d been on the look out for another Kate Morton book coz I really enjoyed ‘The Shifting Fog,’ so I’d just have a quick look at the books. Yes well how did I know they’d have so many good books, so cheap. I finished reading Pride & Prejudice (again) last night, so I’m spoilt for choice for tonight!!!

Luckily the IKEA catalogue came last week & I saw this great idea.

So I added ‘build bookshelves for over the windows’ to our very long list of things to do. I also want one of these gorgeous lounges, though I don’t have anywhere to put it.

When I told dd Emma we planned to put bookshelves over the windows I said, it’ll be so………………. claustrophobic? was her answer, no the word I was looking for was cozy, lol.

Some Goodies

I bought this pattern & book recently & I meant to blog about them…….

I do love fairies & mushroom houses so I couldn’t resist this one by Bronwyn Hayes.

Well I did mention I love mushroom houses.

I bought both these & Tis the Season, from Patchwork Plus & I have to say their service & prices are great!!! No affils, just a happy customer.

http://patchworksplus.com.au/

Not sure when I’ll get to make them but in the meantime they are lovely to look at.

Pinterest

I’d noticed a couple of the lovely ladies whose blogs I follow are singing the praises of Pinterest, so I had to have a look. Oh it’s wonderful!!!! Finally somewhere to store all the fabulous pics I find online. I usually have tons of tabs open, so I can look back at yummy things I’ve found, now I can just add them to my boards. What’s even better is I can go to the Pinterest pic, click on it, & it takes me back to where the pic came from.

I don’t have tons of pics on my boards yet but I’ve only just started. I’ve added a tab to the side which will hopefully take you to my boards so you can have a squizz.

Nar Nar Goon

I wonder how many of you have heard of Nar Nar Goon, about as many as have heard of Koo Wee Rup, which we drove near to get to Nar Nar Goon, lol.

Sundays these days see us all piling in Emma’s car & going off in search of vintage treasures. Emma read about a place to check out, at yes Nar Nar Goon, so off we went. Well no treasures for us, but the town itself is so cute I just had to share pics of the murals which are on most of the buildings.

August Books

Bit of a mixed bag. Katie Fforde books are always quite entertaining, a little predictable but that’s ok. The Jane Austen Book Club was good but I need to read it again, I always get a bit lost when there’s a lot of characters, lol. Well Joanna Trollope, as always brilliant. This one got under my skin so much it made me want to slap a couple of the characters, but I think that’s a true success when the characters are so real!!! A real food for thought book.

I’m currently reading Pride & Prejudice again. Only the 2nd time, I was a late comer to Jane Austen, I thought they would be dry & boring & hard to read. How wrong was I????????

Bits & bobs for Lucy the caravan

I spotted these canisters at my fave vintage shop & they are just perfect for Lucy. They’re just the colours I’m planning to use in her.

I plan to use the 2 beds as lounges as Lucy will mainly be used for day trips. This means I’ll need lots of comfy cushions so I’ve started making some. I’d bought this fabric months ago thinking it would be nice for cushions.

I’d stitched this months ago & finally took time to turn it into a cushion. If you like the design it’s a freebie I found online:

http://www.wikihow.com/Embroider-the-Crinoline-Lady-Motif

I plan to stich it again, only next time I’ll colour it with crayons.

He’s so cute & very quick to stitch. Another online freebie:

http://www.thebabygardner.com/blog/2008/09/free-vintage-embroidery-pattern-courtesy-of-heather-hales/

I’m going to try & keep the put things in Lucy that suit the era she was made so I decided to crochet a dish cloth as I’m sure they didn’t have Chux then.

I found a lovely green ball of cotton on sale. I did a little googling & ended up making up my own design. Very simple really.

Using a 4mm crochet hook I made 40 chain. Skip the 1st 2 chain & do a *half double crochet (hdc) into the 3rd. Continue to work hdc in each chain across the row.
Turn, work 2 chain, then continue with the hdc’s.
This is the pattern.
Keep working until your cloth is square. I then worked a shell pattern around the edge.
Work 5 double crochet into one space, skip 2 spaces, do a single crochet, skip 2 spaces then work 5 dc’s. Continue around all 4 sides.

I hope this makes sense, although I’ve been crocheting on & off for decades my skills are very basic.

*Half Double Crochet

Yarn over hook.
Insert hook in the next stitch to be worked.
Yarn over hook.
Pull yarn through stitch.
Yarn over hook.
Pull yarn through all 3 loops on hook (one half double crochet made).