Thrifting Prizes

I did a lot of thrifting last year and I was shamefully lax on updating the blog on the matter.  So readers beware!  There's a backlog of 2013 (July onwards) thrifting posts coming your way!

Here are a bunch of thrifting prizes I scored at 3 different sales on one Saturday morning.  Most of these were from a church jumble sale. 

Plates galore - because I never get sick of eating from a pretty place setting.   There's also a cookie server (not real silver or even silver plated but rather pretty) and a stack of dutch blue napkins.

The vintage airlines cookie tin now stores hair accessories that are out of use while my hair is short.  The smaller Chinese patterned tin holds my crochet hooks while the larger square one stores lace applique pieces in my craft room.   The giant Chinese fan... just because.

So. Many. Nylon. Scarves!  A little heart rhinestone brooch, a few necklaces a 70s metal belt (sadly, too small for me) and a very sweet little tin.  I'm surprised I've still not worn that beautiful red blue and yellow scarf second from the right.  Perhaps today I will.

A closeup of that sweet tin and the long glass bead necklace.  I've worn this a few times now - it's the prettiest minty colour.

A closeup of the plastic necklace with rhinestones.  I love this necklace so much but it's terribly itchy to wear - all those little petal ends scratch.

Does this fabric look a little familiar?  It became a 70s skirt under the needle of my sewing machine and I wrote a post about it here.

And last but not least is a 70s smock and a housecoat.  The housecoat gets more use than I should say - indeed I'm wearing it now while writing this post and drinking my morning coffee. 

It was a very successful morning of hunting.  Have you had any luck with garage sales, yard sales, jumble sales or fete thrifting lately?

Egg and Cheese Omelette

Egg and Cheese Omelette  (Mrs. G. Hutton)
pg 68

• 1 tab plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 1/2 tab water
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup grated cheese
• 300ml milk
• 2 spring onions
• 3- 4 cherry tomatoes, halved
• pepper to taste
• bacon (1-2 rashers)

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl.  Add enough water to make a smooth paste.  (The amount of water required will differ depending on how old your flour is and other factors like humidity.  Add three whole eggs and beat well.  Add grated cheese and milk and beat until a good batter is made.  Fry in a greased fry pan over a low heat.   When the omelette is almost set, add the shallots and lightly fried cherry tomatoes to the top.    

 Once the omlette is completely set, give it a dusting of freshly cracked pepper and serve it on toast with fried bacon as a side.

Note:  you could also cut up the bacon, fry it and add it on top as well as/in lieu of the tomato.

This was my first meal for 2014, breakfast on New Year's Day.  (So very behind in my blogging right now!)

At first I balked at adding so much salt but I decided to remain faithful to the recipe.  I do admit I made it a very small teaspoon of salt. I certainly didn't add any extra salt along with the pepper as recommended in the recipe. If I were making it again, I would probably halve the salt as I found the finished omelette a little too salty for my tastes.    

I used pre-shredded pizza cheese for my omelette but would maybe consider trying different cheeses to see how I could change the flavour, for example a sharp vintage cheese or a grated swiss cheese might add something extra.

All in all, a very nice omelette recipe and a very nice way to start the year!

We've already seen a recipe by Mrs. G. Hutton on this blog - a cinnamon tea cake which I obviously liked (captioned the 'best cinnamon tea cake ever'.)  With nothing more to add to the write-up, I'll leave you with a picture of myself enjoying the delicious (albeit slightly too salty) omelette for breakfast!

The Woods of Westermain

I need to attend to my garden more often.   I get enthused for short spans of time and then neglect it for too long.  Our Australian Summers are not very forgiving of this.

But somehow, despite my neglect, a few seeds I planted made it to maturity.  Then one day I realised there were beautiful flowers blooming.

The beauty of flowers, especially cottage flowers, is transient so I tried to capture the moment in a photo.   So here it is - the Nigella in the Mist that grew despite my lack of care and a poem by George Mayer.

HIgh Tea at Queenies

Queenies is a charming, old fashioned tea house.  I would dare to say it is the best of it's type in Brisbane, only it's not really in Brisbane.   It's out in the suburbs North of Brisbane - in Nundah to be precise.   But don't let that put you off.

Queenies Tea House is worth a visit for their lemon sponge cake alone.   Their excellent range of teas, including the Marco Polo blend with rhubarb in it (love!) and the atmosphere of the place are further reasons to head out into the suburbs for a visit. 

They also do one of the nicest and best-value high teas in Brisbane.  It is advisable that you book if you want a high tea. 

My lovely friend Poisoned Kitty decided it had been too long since our group of girls got together for a vintage high tea so she organised one at Queenies in early February.    Here are some photos I took of the occasion.

I was rocking a new hair cut - very 20s bob.   Though you can't really such much of it in this shot, I was wearing the gorgeous 50s mint green hat my friend TrinnyT gifted to me and a vintage two strand faceted glass bead necklace I had thrifted.

And here's a pic of the beautiful TrinnyT herself in a 40s frock she sewed last year.  I envy her victory rolls.  Beside her is Lady L in her lovely 60s pink frock - an etsy purchase, I believe.

Sitting beside me was the most stunning Diana Daring.  Her hair is the most amazing mix of colours.  She is entering in the Miss Pinup Australia competition this year!  You can see the beautiful colours in her hair and vote for her here.  

Poisoned Kitty and her wonderful Mum were in attendance.  Poisoned Kitty was wearing a sunny yellow frock she'd sewed from a 40s pattern and a soft white vintage hat.    Her mum was wearing a frock Poisoned Kitty had made for her.

Sweet Bee came along in a pretty blue frock she'd sewn herself from a 50s pattern.  I didn't get to chat with her as much as I'd liked because she was at the other end of the long table to me.  Perhaps next time!

Sassy D was in a utterly gorgeous white and navy polka-dot frock that she'd made herself from a 50s sewing pattern.  It matched the navy and white vintage hat she'd bought perfectly.
  

Classy K was in a celebratory mood, having just become engaged to her beau that week.  Congratulations Classy K!   She was wearing a charming brown 20s frock she had sewn herself with her hair up in a pretty chignon.

You can see some more photos, including some full-length outfit shots on Poisoned Kitty's blog entry here and TrinnyT's blog entry here.

It was really special to spend a morning with such great company.  We'll have to do it again soon!

Carte Postale - Part I

I've always been fond of letter writing though I'm usually a bit slack about getting to a postbox.  (My poor little Sister received a letter that I had written a year before finally posting it!)  So when I saw a box of postcards for $2 while hunting on the Garage Sale Trail I snapped them up gleefully.

The postcards are reprints of posters from Paris during the Belle Epoque period, all of them with a feline theme, which suited me quite well.

After watching the first installment of the TV production of "Going Postal" (an adaptation of the Terry Pratchett novel) I was full of aspirations of single-handedly supporting the modern postal service.... I'm ambitious like that!   I decided that a good start was to get a move on writing and sending my cards. 

I penned up a brief message on the back of the first postcard.   I attached a stamp to the back and made plans to slip it in a postbox while on my walk the next morning.

It sat on my desk, such a pretty card, a lovely item in itself, and I felt a bit sad that to send it out I had to first give it up.  I couldn't keep the pretty things for myself if I wanted to be a thoughtful friend sending heartfelt messages on lovely cards...

So I did the only thing I could to save a copy for myself - I took a photo of it, collected with other items in a kind of simple vignette.  I felt very satisfied.  I could send a "piece of my heart" on a carte postale to my friend and keep the memory of owning/sending it via the photo.  Result!

Below is a collection of all the photos I've taken of each of the postcards before posting them off to friends and family.

There are more cards to come - so watch for Carte Postale Part II in the future!

A Chocolatey Fudgey Cakey

Chocolate Fudge Cake  (Miss M. Webber)
pg59

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 4 tab cocoa powder
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 3 cup S.R Flour

Prepare a cake tin and preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.  
Beat butter and sugar, add eggs, beating well all the time.  Add combined milk and essence, beating with electric mixer.  Sift in combined cocoa and flour.   Add boiling water and mix through well before transferring to the cake tin. 
Bake in the moderate oven for 45 min or until done. 

Serving suggestions:  serve topped with a chocolate buttercream icing or a chocolate ganache icing.  

I enjoyed this cake, though I know at least one person who tried it said it was a little too dry.   I will also put it out there that though it was a very nice chocolate cake, I wouldn't describe it as a 'chocolate fudge cake'.  Fudge indicates some extra level of chocolatey goodness to me that wasn't present in this recipe.  

However, that said, I  will owe that the recipe was reliable and was sufficient to make not one, but two large sized cakes.  

About Mrs M Webber

Looking for information on Miss M. Webber wasn't as easy as I first thought.  There's plenty a mention of Webber girls in the Brisbane newspapers from the 1930s through to the 1940s.  There's a Miss J. Webber, a Miss E. Webber and a Miss M. Webber.   

The point at where it gets murky is that in 1932 there are two mentions of a Miss. M. Webber.  One is a golfing tournament at Victoria Park Golf Course.  The other is a social article about the Pre-Marriage party of a Miss M. Webber and a Mr E. O'Hara. 

So - if this 1932 Miss M. Webber was OUR Miss M. Webber, how could she still be listed as a 'Miss' in the cookbook which was printed in 1941?  But then, why is our golfing Webber still listed as a 'Miss' in September after a pre-marriage party in June the same year?

There is another mention of a Miss M. Webber in 1947 - a wedding/honeymoon notice in which a Miss. M Webber was bridesmaid to Miss Joyce E. Sellars.

Though I like to imagine a great big to-do in which Miss M. Webber was engaged to O'Hara, broke it off and lived a fabulous life of a single girl, playing golf, attending dances and then being a bridesmaid over a decade later,  I know that is a little more than far-fetched.  It is far more likely that the Miss M. Webber we are looking for is the 1947 Miss M. Webber, who played bridesmaid for her friend in Clayfield.

70s Daisy-Days Skirt - Style #4949

I was at a church jumble sale when I saw the fabric.   It was bright and happy stripes of navy and apple green with daisies throughout.  I immediately knew I wanted to make it into a 70s a-line skirt.

I bought the fabric for the princely sum of 50c and when I got home I picked out the perfect pattern from my stash for the project.

Lucky me had inherited my Grandma's collection of sewing patterns.  There were only a scant few from the 60s and earlier but a large number of 70s patterns.  The pattern I picked out was in my size so I didn't need to resize at all which was a bonus.

The pattern is from a company called 'Style' which seemed to be at its height during the 70s but gone by the end of the 80s.   There are a lot of old copies of Style patterns floating around Australia and the UK (according to a quick ebay search) but not much at all from America.  I suspect that it may be an Australian brand based on the fact that the pricing on the front of each pattern is in Australian dollar and New Zealand dollars.... but I can't find much about it on the interwebz so if anyone knows more about the company I'd be interested in hearing or getting a link.

It was very little effort to sew the skirt together as it was a simple four panel skirt.   I did have to put some thought into cutting - to ensure that the lines would line up in chevrons at the front and back.  I didn't get it 100% perfect but for a first attempt at matching patterns I was pretty pleased with the result.   

I hemmed the skirt with bias binding as instructed by the pattern- a technique I will be repeating in the future as it looks great and neat and was so easy to do.

The other technique used on this skirt that was new for me was the use of petersham ribbon to line and stiffen the waist in the absence of a waistband.  I followed the pattern's instructions which called for the petersham to be box-pleated at the front and back seams.  This seemed like a great idea - until I wore the skirt and the petersham poked out like a little teepee on my belly.   I've since cut the fold out of the petersham so that it doesn't stick out.

All in all, I'm pleased with the skirt.  It's cute and Summery and easy to mix with the navy, white and green pieces already in my wardrobe.