Showing posts with label Beauty and The Knight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beauty and The Knight. Show all posts

Oh no, Oh no, Oh no....

Last night I asked my son if he could help me make a banner heading for my revamped blog and he said no worries.

He use to be a web designer so I knew that he could do something great in no time at all.
Instead he looked at what I had done so far and as nicely as possible said "Mum, we can do better than this.You have over 30,000 views so it's time to get serious!"

So it looks like a whole new blog design is in the works.

So I finally have a million things to tell you all about and I am on hold for a few more days.

He has given me homework!
Find images for this, choose colors, fonts and designs. etc etc

So I've go to go because he can't start until I finish my homework!

I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited-The Pointer Sisters


The sleeping girls......

I couldn't resist taking this photo of Beauty and her dog Cleo napping on the couch together this morning.


Restaurant service.....

I was out shopping yesterday and spotted this sign.


I thought it would make The Knight smile as every night when dinner is ready he rings the restaurant silver service bell in the kitchen to let up know that it's time to eat.


I have just placed it on the wall behind the dining table. I wonder how long it will take for him to see it tonight and comment?

It's nail time.....

Beauty just asked me if I want her to paint my nails.
YES PLEASE!!!!!!!!
Now all I have to do is choose a color.
Decisions, decisions........


L.A. NOIRE........


The Knight purchased a new playstation game today titled L.A. NOIRE.
It is a game about detectives in the 1940s era and the clothes, art deco buildings and cars are beautifully detailed.


 
He has been playing for four hours now with slow sultry 1940s "detective" music continually playing in the background. Even with the police sirens, cop shoot outs and The Knight swearing when he gets a clue wrong, it's been very calming sitting here on my computer. Why? Because of the music.

I have never really listened to the smoky, sultry, laid back jazz music from the 1940s but after four hours of it l'm a convert. 
Miles Davis here I come!


Liliums, wherefore art thou Liliums?....

It's the beginning of the week so that means fresh flowers for the house.

I went in to buy my weekly purchase of 2 bunches of long stemmed Liliams (for $8.00) only to find 30 buckets full of orange Liliums. 

ORANGE!!!!!!!

What am I going to do with ORANGE!

Where are my buckets full of pink, mauve, green and white Liliums?



I usually have so much fun picking through these flowers. Sometimes it can take me 10 minutes to pick the right bunches. 
It technical you know? They have to be the right height, the correct shade and most of all they have to be the right mix of flowers and buds to last a week in a vase.

So there I was looking at the orange Liliums and shaking my head in the "no" motion, over and over again.

I moved on to the next row of buckets and they were full of Stocks in mauve, purple and white.
As my lounge room has aubergine accents I thought, ok, I can work with these. 

I debated over the bunches as I usually do and finally decided on 3 bunches (for $10)
As I walking up to the counter to pay I slowed my pace as something was nagging at me. I looked down at the flowers in my arms and there was a thought that was just out of reach. I paused but told myself I was being stupid and paid for the flowers. When I got back to the car I carefully placed them on the back seat and continued on to the fruit market to quickly pick up some potatoes.

When I returned to the car I opened the back door and BAM the smell hit me.
All at once I remembered why I never place Stocks in the house.
They smell.....Bad.
No lets be honest, they STINK!!!!!!

Beauty came back to the car and jumped in the passenger seat and said "Oh my God, whats that smell?"
I said "It's the flowers on the backseat".
She turned around to look at them and said "how can something that pretty, smell that bad?"
I told her that maybe it was because they still had their roots and after I washed them maybe they wouldn't be that smelly.
We opened all the windows and the drive home wasn't that bad.
I washed and trimmed the stems, arranged them in my new high top glass urn vase and placed them on the table in the entrance hall and went to make dinner.

 

I heard The Knight come home and he wandered into the kitchen. I asked him how his day was and he said it was fine and then he told me that he thought that one of the dogs must have had an accident because the lounge room smelt realllyyyyy bad!
I looked at him and said "no it's the fresh flowers". He opened his mouth to ask the obvious questions and I said "long story".
I walked into the lounge room and looked at the beautiful Stocks in the beautiful glass vase.


I just can't throw them in the bin. I just can't!

I opened the front door and placed them on the brick step, up against the side of the house.

They can live there for the next week. 
That way I can still admire them (minus the smell)

Liliums, Liliums wherefore art thou Liliums!

NOTE TO SELF: Remember not to buy Stocks.

I don't want to cook tonight....

It was my turn to cook dinner last night and I reallyyyy didn't want to.

I walked into the kitchen and gave a big sigh!

I opened the fridge looked inside and closed it.

I opened the pantry looked inside and closed it.

I took pots and pans out of the cupboard, put them on the stove and then put them back in the cupboard again.

I then stood at the kitchen window and stared out at the garden for five minutes.

I was still standing there when Beauty walked in.

She said "thinking about dinner yeh?"

I said "trying not to"

She said "Platter time!"

(I did a little happy dance)


SSSSSHHHH...Beauty time!...


It's not very often that Beauty sits so quietly, so I just had to take some photos to capture this unusual occurrence.








Tour de...

The Knight purchased a bike today.
So for all car, bus and truck drivers in the Melbourne northern suburbs please read the road sign below.

The kitchen fridge....

I am not the type of person who sticks a million magnets, photos,notes, bills etc etc on the front of the fridge.
I have always thought that it just looks messy.
Also with The Knight constantly filming in the kitchen as he prepares our meals (he's a chef) for his youtube channel, fridge mess does not film great.
So this morning I went to get the coffee beans out of the fridge and suddenly realized that there was stuff on the front of the fridge.
When did this happen?


Skull and food magnets


Old photos of Beauty with black hair and me in a bad luck blue dress




Hand carved and painted wooden box that holds the dog leads, vintage wicker picnic basket that is now our first aid medicine chest. Lindt Easter bunny and a small red metal bird note holder.

Life is for the birds....

As I am originally a country girl, I grew up with sounds of birds chirping morning, noon and night. When I moved to Melbourne I used to think how quiet it was.
Yes there are birds in the city but nowhere near the symphony of sound that I was used to in my country life.

I remember that at one house we lived in The Knight made me a wooden bird house and Blue Wrens made their home in it.

I have no idea what birds are in the Abruzzo region of Italy but I can tell them that there will be bird houses for them when we arrive.

These two designs I am going to make myself.

Old fencing wire manipulated with needle nose pliers and a small hand made willow tree nest will make a great home for a small family of birds.

Old wood fence palings, water washed paint, round router holes and a few nails will make a two story home for a family of private birds.

Proud of you...


For Beauty...



I'm such a pansy sometimes...


I'm sure that many of you have asked yourself the following question.

If the house was on fire what prized possession would I grab first?

Five years ago my answer was easy. I would have grabbed my three overflowing photo albums and run for my life.

Now five years later those 3 photo albums have developed into 24 beautifully scrapbooked photo albums full of mementos, photos and generations of family history. It would be impossible to grab them all in a hurry and make a run for it unless I had 6 toga wearing, strapping, strong, male Roman slaves and a pack mule.

This got me thinking and I made the wise decision to copy everything onto 3 USBs and I have left them with my mother for safe keeping.

From now on whenever I complete another scrapbook and add it to the overflowing bookcase, I place it on a new $6.00 USB and post it to my mother.
It's the best insurance money could buy.

The reason I broached this subject is because yesterday I nearly burnt down the kitchen.

I was stupid...I was wiping the dishes...got distracted...placed the cloth on a stove top that was still hot and WOOOSSSHHHH!
The tea towel was on fire and I'm standing there doing the "oh shit, what do I do?" dance.

Anyway I mentally slapped myself, pulled it together, put the fire out, knocked the smoke detector of the ceiling with the broom handle (as I am too short to turn it off) and ran and grabbed my pansy plate out of the cupboard and hugged it tight.

Five minutes of deep breathing go by and a it finally dawns on me that I'm clutching a plate.

I open my arms and look in amazement at what I'm holding. It's a plate I have not used for at least 5 years. I didn't even know where it was! (obviously my brain did)

I placed it on the counter top and as I stared at it the memories come flooding back.

I first found this plate at a farm clearing sale years and years ago. It had belonged to an elderly English lady and she had told me that it was the only piece left of a large dinner set that was given to her as a wedding gift. I owned an antique store at the time but it never made it to the shop, instead I took it home with me, gently washed it and placed it on the plate shelf in the kitchen.

At that time I lived in a renovated weatherboard cottage with very uneven floor boards.

An artist drawing of my little cottage

Every time a door would slam the kitchen buffet that held the plates would shake.
I was so proud of the restoration work I did on it. It was antique huen pine and I'd stenciled folk art cottages and hearts along the shelf edges (as you did in the 1980s) I was collecting vintage English Alfred Meakin green china and I had found 23 pieces.



The pansy plate looked odd with the green and gold china but I loved it. Two weeks after it found a home on the china cabinet a huge gust of wind slammed the kitchen door so hard that it shook the floor boards and the plate cabinet toppled over. Every single piece of Meakin china broke. The pansy plate was buried under all that broken china but did not have one mark on it.

Once again I gently washed it. I knew it was a special plate. The pansy's were so delicate, yet their colors so vibrant. I use to think that if I rubbed my finger along the flowers on the plate that they would have that smooth velvety feel like all pansy's do. Most of all I think I loved the plate because it reminded me of home.

No that's not true. I loved the plate because it reminded me of my mother.

It reminded me of her love of pansy's and the many punnets she would plant in abundance every year. The "fresh from her garden" pansy and violet posy's she used to bring me when she'd visit. And the way she taught my son and daughter to run their fingers along the petals so they too could feel how velvety smooth it was. Just like she did was I was young.



So there I was in a smoke filled kitchen with tears in my eyes. Not because of the smoke or the fire or the mess but because I'd forgotten. I'd forgotten about pansy's, about the memory of my mother and about that damn plate.

At that precise moment Beauty arrived home. She walked into the kitchen, looked at me, surveyed the damage and walked over to stand beside me. She noticed the plate next to me on the counter top and softly runs her finger over the purple pansy's petals.

She said, "I love this plate"
I said, "Me too. If the house ever catches on fire we have to take this plate"
She said, "Deal. (she pauses) Whats for dinner?'
I said, "Blueberry Cheesecake"
She looks at me, shrugs her shoulders, smiles and simply said, "Ok"




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