Postcard Wall

Sorry Chris - just had to steal your idea so I can enjoy the postcards I've received from Postcrossing...(you know, imitation is the sincerest form of...something...)

Rome? In Brisbane?

Well, I know it ain't the Trevi Fountain, but I can dream, can't I? 

Great view while I had one of the best Eggs Benedict I've ever had (and I've had a few).  The croquette thingy was called a hash brown with fetta.  Very yum.

A Medieval Christmas

I love Christmas.  And I love Christmas music.  So I went along to the Abbey Museum on Saturday night for their Medieval Christmas.  I arrived to hear the haunting sound of recorder music outside the church.

The inside was smallish, lit by candles, and the timing was just right to see light through the stained glass windows as the sun set.  I knew very little about gregorian chant but learnt a great deal.  Schola Cantorum is a small group of singers with beautifully clear voices.  Later on in the hall we had light refreshments and more music, ending with one of my favourite tunes, Gaudete.  Perfect.
In case you don't know Gaudete:

Blueprinting

I decided that it was about time I used up something I bought - wait - HOW long ago again??

Oops!!  I've moved 6 times since then.  I know.  And look at this -

Double oops!  But I still thought it was worth having a go.  And so I did.  The fabric was like a light denim.  I pinned leaves on in various patterns.

After being in the sun for a while the fabric faded

You can see the difference here

 and where the leaves had been remained dark.

After rinsing I washed all 20 squares in the machine.  Differing results, but I kind of like that...

Pergola Opening

I was one of a select few who attended a pergola opening!  Complete with champagne and stylish hors d'oeuvres...
There was a ceremonial cutting of the tape

followed by a gentlemanly bow...

Specially imported artefacts

and creative garden ornaments

Plan B

B

Our lives rarely follow a script, and yet in our heads there is this ideal path - Plan A.  Somehow it is seen as the perfect course, sometimes it feels like the only route to happiness and a fulfilled life. Plan B seems like a very very poor consolation prize...

But what if Plan B is the way we should have taken anyway?  What if Plan A is a distraction, a detour?

Frixion Marker

These pens/markers

 

were originally designed for crossword solvers, I think.  The hard white/grey end of the pen is supposed to erase penmarks.  I don't know.  I bought mine because I'd heard that you can mark fabric with them and they IRON OUT!!  So of course I had to try them for myself.  You can get fine point and a kind of wedge point/marker point

 

and guess what - they DO work!**  Like anything, you would have to test on your own fabrics - but another great option for marking fabric for stitcheries quilting etc...

**a friend has warned me that they may leave a white line on dark fabrics....

New Storage

On the weekend I replaced this trusty old thing which held ironing supplies and threads in my sewing room

with this - which now contains ALL my threads and other bits and pieces in the many lovely coloured drawers...

Magnetic Advent Calendar

Thanks to the generosity of the folk at The Crafty Life, I finished a craft project last night!!  A magnetic Christmas tree and magnetic ornaments numbered 1 - 25.  They are on my fridge ready for next week - December 1 - when the countdown to Christmas really begins!

 

You can download the images for free.  They suggest printing straight onto magnetic sheets.  This is the brand I used,

but my printer wouldn't feed the sheets through.  So I printed the images onto paper and  used a good old glue stick

to glue the paper to the white side of the magnetic sheets.  The other change I made: the instructions say you need 4 sheets - I only had 3, so I rough cut all the ornaments to fit them to the one remaining sheet and the offcuts

Nasturtiums

These were so beautifully velvety to touch - hard to capture in a photo -

Mt Gravatt Market

 

A friend told me about this market (these markets?) yesterday.  What a find.  I don't know whether or not it was the rain that kept everyone away, but it was a nice change from the hustle of Chandler.  Heaps of vegies I'd never seen before

 including these that I bought from a Laotian seller

I think they're called pea eggplants - yes, I know! Eggplants!  She couldn't tell me much about them except to say that she puts them in stews.  I bought some yummy bread from here -

one loaf of fig/apricot/cashew organic spelt sourdough, and one loaf of white sourdough.
The biggest surprise was seeing a stand with Hungarian doughnuts (fank) and Hungarian fry bread (langos) both of which my mother used to make throughout my childhood.  I couldn't resist one of the fank -

 

dipped in vanilla sugar - dare I say it, even better than my mother's, although of course not as steeped in memory.
I found a set of bowls too - $10 reduced to $8 just for me :-)

West End Last Wednesday

Before going to listen to live music I had dinner at West End. I visited one of my favourite bookshops -

For some reason customers were wandering around with glasses of bubbly.  Civilised or what.  This corner building is kind of kitschy but eye-catching

EXACTLY what I wish I could do sometimes...

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Paris? in Brisbane?

I know, crazy thinking - but that was the feeling I had yesterday when work finished early.  I just wanted to sit here

enjoy the sun, and watch city folk in their natural habitat.  Few strolled, most strode.  Some talked, some smiled.  They were all on their way to somewhere, from somewhere, mostly determined, intent.  And I just sat watching the ebb and flow...luckily I had some company...

What do you see?

Do you see the dark nine patches, or the light crosses?
This is a design on a building overhang on George Street.

W Book Club

If you're looking for an online book club to join, or if you just want to have some direction in your reading, then the W Channel Reading Group may suit you.  A new book is selected every month and then you can post your views.  This month it's House Rules by Jodi Picoult.  If you go to the messageboard, you can see what people said about each book of the month.

Next months' selection is A Secret Gift by Ted Gup, a non-fiction book.

Ted found letters in a suitcase which were written during the depression in response to a newspaper offering $10 to 75 families in distress.  He goes in search of more detail about the writers and their families and what happened to them.

New Reviews

House Rules; Jodi Picoult
Kindle
How to Live on 24 Hours a Day; Arnold Bennett
What Katy Did; Susan Coolidge
The Finkler Question; Howard Jacobson

Red

 This movie was great fun.  Starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and John Malkovich, it was romp.  Willis is a retired CIA agent, was one of the best, but all of a sudden he and his friends are on a list of targets to be liquidated.  Some wonderful scenes between the characters and a nice little twist at the end.  Julian McMahon plays a very debonair VP.

Riverbend Event

On Friday night I was at Riverbend to hear Poh talk about her cookbook.  We ate a meal out of her book,

 had a glass of wine, and listened to her talk.  She was delightful.  I couldn't resist getting this bag made out of newspaper...