oh how I love this time

La Tartine Gourmande from Unusually Fine on Vimeo.

Time seems to remain suspended during the Christmas & New Year period. There's a certain peacefulness about life I'm always so eager to devour at this time of year. The long days lend themselves to a few of my favorite things. Things I often struggle to fit into the everydayness of life...reading (I just finished this & have started on this), lazy catch ups with friends, meditation and some totally inspired cooking.

Looking for a recipe using black quinoa I stumbled across the delights of La Tartine Gourmande and this lovely clip promoting her new cookbook above.

Whatever you're doing I hope it's peaceful and totally restorative....... before the hum of another year kicks in.

Here's to a v. joyful NY.
xox

Have yourselves a very Merry Christmas

May your Christmas & New Year be bright, cheerful and filled with peace and good times.
Thanks to all those friends I've made here in blogland. Thanks too for my everyday face-time friends and my family for the love. You all make a difference to my day.

Lots of love for the silly season and see you in 2012.

xox

PS. For all the people who question the 'Aussie' Christmas tradition... here's a little 'Night Before Christmas' Tale I was sent this week which follows along the lines of this song (I'm not sure of the origin?). It's a little long but fun all the same.

Our morning so far

-:I caught the early morning sunshine bathing these flowers while waiting for my jogging companions to arrive this morning. The light is amazingly beautiful at 6.30am this time of year. It has a way of speaking to you, coaxing you to see things. Little things. Things you ordinarily walk on by, at any other time of the day. I love the crisp clarity of early mornings and I'm so grateful to my friends for helping me establish this routine because it was originally met (and if I'm honest, still is, on occasion) with such resistance.
-:Our Christmas cakes all wrapped and ready for Z's teachers today. The fruit has been soaking for the last 2 months. I baked them last night....we sampled one this morning and I must say it was pretty darn good.
-: The necklaces Z & I made for his teachers....this one here rotates between me and Z's dress up box!
-: Batman appeared for dress up day today. It's Z's last day for 2011. Don't you just love the under pant line on this suit! Hilarious.

Here's an old Native American saying I love and am holding near to me as Christmas approaches. 'You should never judge another man until you have walked two moons in his moccasins.'
As the frantic pace of Christmas accelerates and our frenetic selves tend to emerge it can be a handy thing to bare in mind....especially on Christmas Day.

xox

Hitting the west up for inspiration.

If you're looking for last minute gift inspiration as Christmas closes in, I highly recommend a visit to Post Industrial Design over in West Footscray. They have all manner of gorgeous locally made gifts for young and old and the most delightful displays. Their window above gives a hint of the delight you'll experience here. It evokes a sense of magic and playfulness, sorely missing in most other retail outlets these days.

The above toy wooden tram was a hit with Batman. It has 12 wooden passengers and 2 uniformed tram conductors that have their own cabins on each end of the tram and is painted in the iconic Melbourne tramways green and gold. If you're wanting to buy one of these online it's also available over at the Lark website.

I'm all done with my Christmas shopping this year. Whoop whoop, oh what a feeling. Hope you're all done and dusted too. x

70's Christmas vinyl

Back in the 70's my grade 2 teacher, Miss Minnahan, had a copy of this Evie album which she'd play in the classroom around Christmas. I was a little besotted with Miss M and I insisted we get a copy for home . The album was on continuous rotation in our house on Christmas day...right up until the late 90's. We weren't a particularly religious household but Evie definitely became a part of our Christmas tradition. I have no idea where the album ended up but no doubt the vinyl was almost worn through. "Come on ring those Bells, everybody sing" is etched into my brain and when i discovered it here on youtube it really made me smile.
It's far from the Christmas album I'm loving at the moment, A very She & Him Christmas. A collaboration between my all time favorite, M.Ward...and actor Zooey Deschanel. It's a heavenly little album. One I hope becomes a part of our family Christmas tradition.
Thanks Lise xo

Here's a little snippet.

Christmas in a rusty Holden ute

We spent the weekend down on the coast for my Dad's birthday.
Yes, the chairs...in part (I could only fit 3 in the car with all our luggage & ourselves, a small oversight)... were delivered! Hooray. They look great.
The limoncello was a hit. Icy cold & sipped slowly, it was amazingly good. Orders have been placed for more, so I'm taking that as a good sign.

Z had a lovely time hanging out with his cousins. Christmas is a time I have such fond memories of spending with all my cousins. My mum was one of 8 children so Christmas was a hugely exciting affair with a never ending amount of presents (or so it seemed). It's lovely to see this continue with Z. The delight and excitement of seeing one another (almost) outweighing the consumerist side of Christmas. How nice it was to be away from Melbourne and nowhere near the craziness of here the week prior to Christmas.

Saturday night we all spent, on the lawn in the main street, for Carols by Candlelight. A highlight for me was the 'Aussie' version of Jingle Bells! Something, in all my years, I've never heard before...How have I missed this?

Jungle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
Christmas in Australia
On a scorching summers day
Jungle Bell, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden ute.

xox

The winner is..... Bruise Mouse. X

Congratulations Bruise Mouse! My Dad, the birthday boy, drew your name out of a hat this morning! One tea towel heading to Berlin.
Yippee.
Thanks everyone who entered and a very merry Christmas to you all. Xx

Making old cards into ornamental balls.

I have a little obsession with making these ornamental balls. They are a tad fiddly but I love the result.
I came across the tutorial over at Martha's website some years back and ever since I've been hooked.
It's been a great way to re-purpose all the beloved cards too beautiful to turf out and they also make great gifts.
I love knowing the messages are hidden on the inside of the ball. At first I was reticent to cut the cards up wondering if I'd regret not being able to read them later. Then I remembered a quote from a book my mum gave me years ago 'The Quiet Eye', which went something along the lines of.... keep only that which is beautiful or functional.... now that I look for the quote I can't find it but it's something that's stayed with me and discouraged any tendencies to hoard (it's also a great way to practice non-attachment!).
You can find the instructions here.

I rediscovered this one while decorating our house this week.
I still love it.

Happy count down....12 days to go. x

NB: Suzy left a comment below asking whether the quote I was after was the William Morris one “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” That's the quote! Thank you Suzy.

Screen printing snaps

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. ~ Confucius .......... even the humble ol tea towel!

Here are a few snaps from our day of screen printing. It was such a fun day I'm itching to do it all again. I was even quite sad to dismantle all the lines. They looked so lovely hanging in our house. I think I'd like to do another run in yellow and then move onto a new design.

I've had some sorry excuses for a tea towel stashed in my third drawer.... How about you? Are you in need of a new one?
You can still enter the giveaway until the 16th December by leaving a comment here or 'LIKE'ing here and one of these little lovelies could be yours.

I hope your weekend hasn't been too crazy with Christmas cheer and the likes.
We've been on the hop and I'm feeling a little Nanna nap coming on. xox

Shallow Hal

Too hot to be wandering the streets we found plenty of colour around our home today.
Then, this afternoon we trekked out to one of our favorite suburban pools for a splash.
Some of you may recognise it from this series .
There's something about an outdoor pool that makes me so happy .....and strangely... proud to be an Aussie.
It must hark back to my childhood in the burbs.
Really, what better way is there to spend a day?

Shallow?

Have a great weekend. x

Baking in the summer sun

Z & I spent the morning cooking in his makeshift kitchen. Z's all time favourite movie at the moment is Ratatouille. Every chance he gets he likes to improvise by making soups, baking desserts and and adding herbs from our garden to every dish in an attempt to recreate 'delicious treats for the diners'....spoken with a rather gruff French accent. If you look closely you'll notice Z's hat is made out of a brown paper shopping bag which we cut the bottom out of and taped to fit his head.

We cooked up this little play dough message for the L.F.

Homemade Playdough
2 cups plain flour
4 tablespoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup salt
food clouring
2 cups water

Mix the above ingredients in a saucepan and stir over medium heat for 3-5 minutes until the mixture congeals.
Easy peasy.
Store in an airtight container to prevent drying out.

Something slightly more sinister we have brewing in our kitchen is this. The colour is incredible after only 4 days. I opened the lid this morning to smell the contents and it took me straight back here, where I spent my 28th birthday, consuming way too much lemoncello!

x

Dont' forget if you want to enter the draw to win one of these tea towels you need to leave a comment here or go over & 'Like' my Facebook page. Entries open until 16th December. Share the love, the more the merrier! xox

My Superhero

I made this Superman Cape some months ago. It's sat in the dress up box. Completely overlooked.... for a cowboy, rabbit, chef or pirate.... until yesterday.

My superhero was in full action mode. Tearing around the house with his cousin.....

You can find the tutorial for the cape over here, at Floating World.

Hope you had a lovely weekend. x

Chinese laundry Giveaway

Our house resembles a Chinese laundry at present. We have 60 screen printed tea towels hanging from clothes horses, make shift lines and chairs around the lounge and dining room. It's such a great sight.

The whole process of screen printing was so enjoyable. It's a little messy and it definitely requires pre-printing organisation (or a Dutch person..organisation is an inherent quality of the Dutch it seems) so things run smoothly . A 2 person process....one person with very clean hands is needed to handle the finished tea towels.
There were a few learning curves but on the whole things went very smoothly. Only one smudged print - that was from careless hanging rather than printing...I'll also confess to being the culprit. oops.

My neighbour, Vic, is an experienced screen printer and kindly came over to lend a hand. She even ironed the tea towels before we printed. Thank you Vic!!
There will definitely be more screen printing as our dinning room table is perfect for printing and the process is very addictive.

As a little Christmas thank you to all who regularly visit....and to any newcomers....I have a tea towel to giveaway. Just leave a comment below or head over and 'Like' my facebook page before the Friday 15th December for your chance to win one for yourself. I'll be placing all the names into a pillow case and asking the little man to pull one out.

Good luck & thank you. Ho ho ho.

xx