Last one for today

Because it was just on the tellie and though I am not a Patrick Swayze fan I do love Jennifer Grey and I do love the end of this movie.
I defy you to watch this and not smile, or move, or feel happy.

This film was made in 1987, the year I was married and I had curly hair just like Jennifer Grey, didn't we all.

Oh and you have to watch it on Youtube, sorry.

Have you seen this blog 

I didn't put any dolls in the shop this week because I have been unwell with a stinky old cold.

This little doll Annie was supposed to go in the shop but now she will have to wait until July 14th.

She has been keeping me company this afternoon,

 looking at books like the lovely 'my heart wanders' by Pia Jane Bijkerk

 and yes she is reading upside down but she likes it that way and I was reading it the right way up.

Louis went back to Hobart today, he is off to Melbourne with some friends and then back to Uni.

He brought home a full garbage bag of washing and we just managed to get it all dry before he left.

 The boy birthdays are over for another year. 

It's time for lots of warming soups and stews and pies and roasts and on these bright sunny frosty days lots of walks in the middle of the beautiful day especially now that I feel so much better as my cold starts to go away.

My winter life, cook books buried under layers of washing... washing drying on the line, drying near the fire, folded and waiting for the put away fairy

Birthday Finale

Birthday week finished with the grand finale of a Champagne afternoon tea. my invention and I wasn't sure what it would be but in the end it was a delight.

Family , all who were available came, and we talked a lot and gossiped a little and laughed and enjoyed each others company.

Champagne and cups of tea and coffee and fizzy cordial and beer, a table groaning with food,  favourites of the three guests of honour.
 Absolutely nothing home baked, unheard of until this day but there you go, we enjoyed it all.
Birthday cake, sponge cake, halva, macadamia nuts, chikos, jelly beans, turkish delight, florentine biscuits, petit ecolier biscuits, ginger thins, brie and fresh corella pears...
There was plenty to enjoy and lots of variety.

Presents, football scores, party poppers to announce the birthday cake, it even felt like Dad was around checking up on things.

Birthday week done and dusted for another year.

wintersweet

Wintersweet.

It must be the Winter solstice.

Such perfect planning, to have something so unique, the papery looking petals the colour of old parchment when they open but like little yellow suns when they are buds, and here in the darkest days, it flowers.

Such a stark architectural plant, such a heavenly uplifting fragrance.

Perfection

Trying not to think about the miserable weather outside

rain, wind, wind, rain

Winter

No doubt about it today.

I had to dart into town to finish a little birthday shopping.

 It's birthday week, Louis' was on Saturday but he isn't coming home until Wednesday, Andy's is tomorrow and Stephen has his on Friday. 

The element has blown in the oven and a new one hasn't arrived so it will be bought birthday cakes this year, hopefully from the Fatty Cake shop, as we call it.

 Better known to others I think as Tant pour Tant

Really I just want to snuggle in and make dollies and sew and bake and read and snooze....

Winter.

It's a rainy Sunday

It's a rainy Sunday.

Roast lamb and potatoes, steamed carrots and couscous with freshly picked parsley and salty butter.

Mum brought a frozen supermarket chocolate dessert plus she made some Russian slice for afternoon tea.

An easy lunch,

 conversation before,

 during and after, 

just ordinary things,

 catching up,

  a little politics,

 sharing the washing up,

 sharing a coffee.

It's a rainy Sunday

Finding a name for logo girl...

There is a little competition going on over at my dolly blog to find a name for 'logo girl'.

 Pop over if you have the time.

I want to introduce you to someone.

She is a special little girl, dreamed up just for me.

She has brown bobbed hair worn with a big blue bow.

She has a blue and white polka dot dress and sweet red mary jane shoes worn with little white socks, Red Robin socks, I'll bet.

Do you know what she is holding, what she is shyly showing you?

She is showing you one of my dolls, 

a little jenny wren doll,

  this one I think, 

and she is the new logo for my little business

 and I love her to bits.

Do you like her?

A little fairy called Marshmallow

This weekend I have been making marshmallows.

I have also made  some jaffas and  a some chocolate crackles.

I'll have pictures of them tomorrow.

Little Things

How cool is this. 

The  person I bought one of  the Mabel Lucie Attwell books from took the time to put these lovely stamps on the parcel. the stamps feature classic Australian children's books.

So often it's the little things that mean a lot, don't you think.

Yeah, what she said...

Give Away

There is a Give Away going on over on my dolly blog to celebrate five years of writing this blog and also reaching 500 Facebook fans. 

The give away started at the beginning of May so you might have already entered but if not pop over and leave a comment. 

Comments will close on 12th June at 10pm my time.

Click here to enter.

WET

A little chubby Mabel Lucie wisdom for you.

We are very wet and cold down here in Tassie. 

I am sure the washing will dissolve before it ever gets the chance to dry.

The bare vegie garden is now a giant mud puddle as Charlie the duck has had THE best time being ducky and making giant puddles that have connected to make Lake Vegie.

Kate is on holidays and the weather is being a challenge, hopefully there will be some sunshine before she goes back to school.

Yesterday she made herself a skirt, her first solo project using a vintage pattern from the early 1970s and used fabric from a long skirt my Mum made for herself in the early 70s, it's a floral velvet.

Very cute.

So it is knittting and sewing and dollmaking,

 hot chocolates and coffees and treats, 

woolly jumper and warm slipper weather

 interspersed with wet dashes to the undercover woodpile for more wood 

and to the letterbox to save the letters from drowning in the water sodden box.

Yesterday I saved two Mabel Lucie Attwell books, the 1952 Annual and the 1960 Annual from drowning

and today I saved a vintage doll clothes pattern and a surprise gift from dear Juliane.

All in all we are having a nice time.

Today was a wild,

 windy, 

very, very wet,

 three cats on your lap 

kind of day. 

Well it was like that at our house anyway.

'

"The Greengrocer.

Plenty of greenstuff and fresh fruit is very desirable for health, but this does not necessarily mean the greengrocer's account need be a formidable one if one is careful to buy items in full season and at their cheapest and best.

To keep the greengrocer's account down, remember, too, the advantage of growing vegetables and salads in the garden, if you have one. They will be fresher and better, besides costing less. If the garden also provides fruit, you will, of course. be more than fortunate, for by bottling and preserving it you will be able to provide inexpensive sweets and puddings throughout the year."

The Book of Good Housekeeping, First Australian Edition, 1948.

found at the Op Shop today.

Dolly Day Friday ( on Saturday, again)

Filckr keeps statistics on the photos you post there,

 the number of views,

 the number of times something has been favourited, 

the number of comments and 

 a strange statistic called Interestingness

My top three photos as judged by their Interestingness are these three pictures.

Number 1 , above,  a doll I made for an aspiring dollmaker

Number 2,  my beautiful Bridget

and Number 3,  my sweet Hannah.

Interesting...

Polka Dots

What is it about polka dots that just shouts HAPPY.

Put a little girlie in polka dots especially red  and white polka dots
 and she can't help but be a happy girlie,
sweet and simple.

Although gingham or pretty flowers come a close second

and of course there are cosy little knit dresses

Still, I do love polka dots.

How about you?

Family

So it's June, the start of the birthday season here at Chez Wren.

The three menfolk this month and then the three women folk, Kate and me plus my Mum are all in August.

No 'special' birthdays this year. 

After last year's effort of an 18th, 21st, and 50th all in one week and then a 13th birthday, brand new teenager in August I think we deserve a quite time this year. 

Well quietish.

Oh and I have just remembered, Mum reaches the big 80 this year.

Of course she says she doesn't want a fuss.

What to do, what to do. 

Ten weeks to figure it out.

School holidays have started and Kate is being a great help about the house as well as having time with her friends. 

She has been baking, yay! and, joy of joys, knitting.

 It does my heart good to see her just sit down and pick up her needles and off she goes. 

She knitting a scarf in 4ply yarn so it may take a while but she is enjoying it and not stressing over the time it takes but enjoying the process.

Andy is home too but he is sick with a flu kind of bug so he is less desirable as company, he is thoroughly sick of himself and of being at home.

Today Mum, my sister and I, organised the plaque for Dad's grave. 

That is the last official task that needed to be done. 

Now there is just the getting on with life and remembering,
lots of remembering happening at the moment.

 In the quite times  and sometimes in the busy times comes a memory and realisation that he just isn't here any more, so strange.

The three of us went for coffee after the cemetery and had a good chat and put the world to rights then went our separate ways.