The Good Old Days

Smoking has been in the news lately - with proposed plain wrappers, the Nanny State ads etc.  When I was growing up, there were plenty of ads around.  The Stanford School of Medicine has a site with images and commentary about the claims the tobacco industry made in years gone by.

City Markets

There's a weekly market at Eagle Street Pier and Margaret and I visited on Sunday.  It was nice to wander around the stalls, but a lot of them were full of expensive jewellery.  I spent nothing except $2 on a very healthy (!) lollipop.

These look like marbles but feel like firm jelly

The view from the restaurant where we had brunch

The decor

Wacky Electronics Box

Ange Takats

I first heard Ange sing at the Mullumbimby Music Festival in 2009.  I didn't realise she was a journalist.  On Wednesday night she launched her book, The Buffalo Funeral, at The Avid Reader in West End.  It recounts her experiences working in Thailand and Burma, and she sang for us as well.

Lebanese Lunch

On the corner of Florence and Bay Terrace in Wynnum is a great Lebanese restaurant - home made food and pastries.  I had the combination plate the other day - healthy and yummy!

Rice Pudding

The recipe suggested stove top or slow cooker - I used the rice cooker - hmmm - maybe I'll rethink that choice next time

But it tasted awesome!!!

The Country Quilt Co

Prior to the retreat I had to do some shopping for supplies.  But visiting one quilt shop did not give me enough of a fix, so on the spur of the moment Margaret and I decided to head to Ipswich to see if we could find The Country Quilt Co.  It's a delightful shop with a friendly owner.  She made us a cuppa and we had a good old natter after we did the rounds of all the goodies in the shop.  Suzanne was telling us about the resident ghost, and how she is restoring the building to its original state.  It started out as a miner's cottage, a small one room dwelling.  Over time it's been added to, and when Suzanne bought the building, half of it was a Post Office.  So there are no doubt plenty of stories the walls could tell!!!
Footpath sign

 Fretwork

 Polished floors

 Displays and samples.

Justice at Night

Red Shoes

Remember the red shoes I saw in town about a month ago?
Well, I went shopping for shoes the other day and saw these at Big W -

 I would LOVE to be able to wear them!!

Music

I have a lot of CDs, but for the longest time I had nothing to play them on except the car stereo.  That changed a few weeks ago - 

Getaway Girls Long Weekend - Part 4

I managed to get through half a bottle of red on Friday night and half on Saturday night.  The third night I moved on to Long Island Iced Tea - compliments of Mr Smirnoff!!

Last retreat, through a funny misunderstanding, Ali ate my breakfast, so this retreat she insisted on making my breakfast on Saturday morning.

Then it was back to sewing.  240 triangles sewn into 120 squares

ears cut off

and trimmed

using lots of thread.

Getaway Girls Long Weekend - Part 3

On the Saturday of the retreat Ali organised for a local textile artist, Ankie, to give a workshop on dyeing.  I didn't do it, but most of the others did and they had a ball.  The choice of days was lucky, as it rained most of the rest of the weekend, but Saturday was clear.
Well, it wasn't raining - but it WAS cold!!!

 Here are some images from the workshop:

Getaway Girls Long Weekend - Part 2

Unlike the previous two retreat weekends, I was full of energy and had heaps of projects to do.  First up I wanted to complete 2 quilt tops that each needed borders.  It's amazing that they have been in my sewing room wardrobe for well over a year just waiting for a few strips of fabric to be sewn to the sides and top and bottom. 

 

Next on the project list was sewing churndash blocks together.  I'd forgotten when or where I'd sewn them, but my blog had the answers!!  I cut the fabric in May last year - see post here.  And I sewed them up during the June 2010 retreat, the first time I took my Featherweight away for the weekend - see post here.  And below - the finished top!!!

Getaway Girls Long Weekend - Part 1

The Queens Birthday Holiday weekend allowed us Getaway Girls to have an extra retreat day.  Sue booked us into the new accommodation where each bedroom has its own air con units.  We also each had our own rooms, and in our wing there were 4 people to 3 showers - excellent!  The common areas of this unit were spacious and light and had fantastic views to the scenic rim -

Four Ingredients

It's hard to believe that so many good recipes can be made with 4 or fewer ingredients.  This apple slice turned out just like the picture (here).  And it tastes good.  And it has lasted very well in the fridge, so I've had a little something nice and sweet all ready to have with my coffee!

Red Carrots

Have you seen these?  They were called dutch carrots in the supermarket, but are a ruby red, almost purple, colour.  I'm putting some in tonight's casserole...

Seafood Pie

The latest Family Circle magazine has knitting patterns so I bought it for that, then discovered heaps of recipes that look easy and yummy.  I made the seafood pie and it was very good!

Blogging Lull

A quick hello to all of you still out there.  I've had some issues with getting photos off my phone and didn't want to post without something interesting to look at.  As we speak, I'm waiting for someone from the HTC support desk to ring me back...is this like when a boy says "I'll ring you"?  Am I foolish to be waiting by the phone? LOL

Another Gratuitous Dex Photo

Cute, eh?

Catching Up

I feel very virtuous today - I did Stuff in the yard, and also cleaned some thongs that had mud on them from...oh let's see now...Woodford.  Which was...oh let's see now...a little while ago (surely we can't be HALF WAY through the year yet?  Wasn't it Christmas just last week??)

Brown Shoes

I've been looking for dark brown shoes for a while.  One shop had an OK pair - for $349!!!  Yowzers...Then Big W came to the rescue with a pair that looked good - for $26!  Only trouble was, when I got them home, the brown wasn't quite dark enough.  So I invested in a bit of magic aka shoe dye

 and voila!!! (new colour on left, old colour on right)

Very, very happy with the results...

Breadtop Garden City

This was lunch today (Sunday) - Curried Chicken bun and an almond croissant - yum!!

Mt Gravatt Market

There is a variety of interesting fruit and veg at this weekly market.  Plus a flea market part where I scored a terrine mould!  Here is one stall holder's veggie goodies!!