I finally succumbed to the siren call of the Bush radio.
Love its curvy shape and its retro dial.
Another little bit of my birthday money has been put to good use.
Now I can retire my old kitchen radio, it's a vintage as well. For goodness sake, I have had it since I left home in 1977.
If you look very carefully at the picture below you can just make out my old radio ( a radio/ cassette player) through the fish tank.
I love , love, love the colours in this picture.
I bought this little doll with some of the birthday money I was given.
Katie bought one too, very cute.
I woke to glorious sunshine today.
The chickens were at the backdoor looking for their breakfast and the cats were washing themselves in the sun.
Louis is coming home unexpectedly today for mid semester break and then school holidays begin at the end of the week.
It makes me realise that we are charging towards the end of the year, Kate's last year of primary school is almost over. She goes off to high school next year and Andy will be in his final year of high school with all the drama that involves.
Children growing up, living lives, becoming independent and moving towards the time when this home will be the place they visit, occasionally, and most of their lives will be lived elsewhere and with others.
Won't those visits be great. Homecomings. I am excited about Louis coming home, so is Stephen and Kate. Andy, I am not so sure because he has to give up half his bedroom and Louis is a terrible slob. I think in some ways I am starting to see Louis as a visitor already.
Can that be possible?
Each time he comes home I am more aware of how much of his life isn't lived with us and that I know very little of the ordinary moments of his days. It isn't something to be sad about, we were close through his childhood and teen years and we talk easily now; he's just moving on to that independent place we all move to and enjoy and stretch and work out who and why we are.
It's lovely to see him growing and maturing, it's just different, you know, for me, the mum.
I can still remember when I was where Louis is now and coming home meant coming to a place and to a family that didn't change much and felt secure and now I am the person, the mum that the new adult is coming home to.
"In 1953 she became the first children's designer to win the Coty American Fashion Critics Award, for her designs for Youngland Inc. The award cited her "significant influence in the development of good taste and charm in children's fashions." Clothes for Girls and Boys
For the next three decades, Miss Lee designed clothes for infants, girls, boys and teen-agers. She also created designs for Sears, Roebuck & Company; Saks Fifth Avenue; Alyssa, a children's fashion concern, and for her own company, Designs by Helen Lee Inc.
Despite the reputation of English children's clothes as the best in the world, her designs won accolades from critics at a London fashion show in 1962. "
Helen Lee died in 1991 aged 82.
You can find a whole wonderful catalogue of her pattern designs at the Vintage Pattern Wikia.
Most of the pictures I have used here are from that catalogue.
I'm sure there are many more.
What I found interesting and most attractive was her colour use, she was happy to use black for her designs and also there seems to be minimal use of fabric pattern apart from occasional dots, spots and plaids and stripes.
I like the minimalist lines and lack of frou frou, even when she is using pastel shades and designing for very young children. From what I have seen , the pattern above seems to be as sugary as she gets.
Helen Lee did design through the 1970s and 80s but I really don't like the pattern envelopes with photos on them so these images are from the 50s and 60s.
If you get the chance to watch some episodes of Bewitched you can see that sweet little Tabitha wore very similar clothes to those shown here. ( I think we have up to Season 6)
And wasn't Tabitha so cute.
Also if you watch episodes through the various series it is great to see how Samantha's clothes change with the fashions as well, what the well dressed housewife wore. Some of her outfits remind me so much of my own mother.
It's cold and wet and windy and snowy down here.
The early spring flowers are wondering if they have made a dreadful mistake, you can see them shivering.
For me this week has been all about avoiding the worst of the weather, trying to get the washing dry and teasing Kate.
Teasing her hair that is.
This week is the Grade Six school play, a musical of course and as it is set in the late 50s early 60s the girls have been asked to phoof their hair.
What a wonderful thing superhold hairspray is - you could land a jumbo jet on that 'do and not a hair would be out of place.
Two more performances to go, Kate is in the chorus so she gets all of the fun and none of the drama , and with a director who is prone to hysterics, believe me, that is a blessing.
All images from Flickr, just click on the picture to go to the original .
SCORE!!!
Fabulous linen and linen cotton mix tea towels.
New, bright and beautiful from the Salvos last week.
If you are going to take the time to dry your dishes you might as well use something that makes the job a job well done.
OK , I've finished cleaning the house and it's time for a cuppa before I launch into my sewing. It's also time to write some thank you notes for a few of the lovely gifts I received for my birthday.
Oh, and see the little coffee press, found it at an op shop in Latrobe while we did a bit of exploring on our way up to Stanley last week.
The little jewellery box contained some gorgeous little black onyx earrings from my brother and sister in law. I love them.
The mug and the heart ( plus chocolates, already eaten and an interesting article about Little Golden Books) were from Jenny, a blog reader and all round nice person and the little church doll was from Manuela, who reads my blog and gave a home to one of my tiny baby dolls.
Wet, yes today is wet with a forecast for increased wind and more rain.
I am tucked up inside the house, plenty to do but getting wet whenever I have to pop outside for some firewood.
The ground is saturated , well waterlogged , so, as we don't have rainwater tanks, the rain is just running off to wherever rain runs to, the sea, I suppose.
Perfect weather to play nuts, a game the boys used to play with whatever seed pods they could find and set them on the water rushing down the gutters and see which one was the fastest. A good game for getting very very wet and then running inside to change into dry clothes and hang around in front of the fire until the rain eased a little and another race could begin.
I am supposed to be looking after Dad this afternoon while Mum goes gardening but surely she won't go in this weather. The woman is dedicated but surely even Mum would agree that it's a bit wet.
Amongst other things I am working on three dolls for this shop.
The shop has signature colours of red, brown, grey and black and this put me off making things for them once before but I am adding a pale aqua in various forms; an aqua summer dress embroidered in red with a little design from this book and topped with a little red cardigan, an aqua knitted dress on a brown skinned doll with red Mary Jane shoes and braided cornrows with red threads and the last one will be a doll wearing a three piece outfit mostly white or natural linen I think but with delicate aqua and red patterns and maybe red gingham bloomers
- I am still playing with that one-
such a lovely thing to do, gathering fabrics and trying out some ideas.
1. Charlie the duck laid her first egg of the season.
Well done Charlie!
2. Spring seems to be coming to the garden.
Well done garden!
3. My Mum turns an undisclosed age today, let's just say she is 28 years older than me.
( My mum is the taller of these two little girls above and she is about 10)
Well done Mum!
( This is my mum , again the tallest of the three although she isn't a tall person.The other two are her sister Maisie on the left and the lady in the middle is Dawn who was one of Mum's bridesmaids. I think this picture was taken in the late 1940s/early 1950s)
This is Mum, me and my little sister, 1966.
This is Mum, me and my little sister Christmas 1986 just before my wedding. Yes we both had perms, those were curly days.
This is the whole family at Mum and Dad's 40th Wedding Anniversary, in my back garden. Andy was just a baby when this was taken, January 1993.
And this is Mum , taken a couple of years ago, most probably on her birthday.
Happy Birthday Mum.
Don't you just love this picture?
Do you and yours look this cheery and neat at breakfast?
This is a picture from a little counting book that I found at Mum's last week. I think the book was probably mine, I certainly wrote in it.
The children's names are Jack and Jill and they have a little dog called Timmy. There are more pictures on Flickr.
Tomorrow is Mum's birthday.
Dad is doing well and able to walk around inside without help but he tires easily and can't be left alone. He is off for a CT scan in the morning.
Thank you for all your good wishes for Dad and also thanks so much for all your lovely Birthday wishes for me.
I even received a couple of lovely bloggy presents in the post, from Jenny and Manuela.
Very exciting.
So, tomorrow my sister and I will celebrate with Mum and then on the weekend we will have a proper family get together with as many of the grandchildren as we can gather.
As usual, I have woken mind bogglingly early. It seems like nature's way of making sure you make the most of each day - by waking you with a rough shake and hoisting you out of bed even before the birds are up. So I have had time to re-read all your lovely Give away comments and I have decided on a winner.
"My favorite dress was one my mom made.. she made one for my sister as well. They were long Easter dresses, about 1976, made of gingham. The gingham was 1/4 inch size, so larger than what is more traditional now. Mine was yellow, and my sister's was pink.They had a center panel down the front, and a sash that tied in the back. Mine was trimmed with a daisy trimming that had a yellow center, my sister had pink. We wore those outfits the first time to Easter services. Then we wore them as our regular Sunday clothes. We had straw hats and gloves and white patent leather shoes to wear them with on those occasions. My hat had ribbons on it with yellow daisies.
That summer I was 10, and my parents sent me alone on an airplane to Missouri where my grandparents lived to spend the summer. I wore that dress on the plane, but without the hat and gloves, and with a gingham kerchief instead. I spent a wonderful summer with my grandmother, picking muscadines and making pies and going to the library and beauty parlor with her, playing with the dolls houses she had made me and in the understairs playhouse she had created. The best summer ever. And I wore that dress to tea and to visit her s'welegant friends. I keep a journal of that visit in an old day by day calendar my grandfather gave me, and I read through it with my boys this summer as we were packing.. so many wonderful memories, all tied to that yellow, cheery, dress."
And she found a picture of the pattern used to make the dresses.
I know this is one of the winners favourite books and the pattern picture reminded me straight away of this Little Golden Book, I guess it's the headscarf.
Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to enter and help me celebrate my birthday. I hope you enjoyed reading all those lovely memories. And thanks too for your good wishes for my dad.
Now I off to make my morning coffee, the first drink of my new half century. Then I'll find a warm place in the kitchen to sit and drink and think ( and wait for everyone else to wake up and give me my presents, don't you just love being given presents - love it!)
Hello and welcome.
I am happy to share my little corner of the world with you.
If you like vintage goodness, dolls, freshly baked treats, happy music, knitting and wonderful books you are sure to find something that interests you here.
I hope you enjoy your visit.
Posts
