Meet Me at the Playground

When I was a little girl I received a playground for Christmas.  Complete with kids.  Wanna see?

There's a teeter totter.

Hold on, children!

There's a swing.  This kid looks kind of creepy.

Don't go too high!

This poor child has to play by himself.  I've had this toy for a very long time and I lost one poor child just a few years ago.
The set still works and I have the key to wind it up too.

The graphics on it are wonderful.

I wouldn't let my girls play with this when they were small.  They could now if they wanted to.

I've decided that these children are all boys because they have no shirts on.  They must live in Australia because it's summer there.

Okay, I've finished playing now.

Paper Chase.

Gentle Readers,
I don't know what's going on here at the LC but I've been bitten by the crafting bug lately.  Well, not exactly crafting but prettying things up.  Getting after unfinished bits and doing them up.  Anyway, several years ago hubby made me this little cabinet for the bathroom using an old window that was found in the cellar.

Before we go any further with this exercise, let me state for the record that this bathroom is in no way, shape, or form, finished.

The cabinet sadly needs help on the inside.  As soon as hubby put it up, I filled it with all manner of junk things and it remained like that until today.
I thought about lining the back of the cabinet with some pretty wallpaper.  Sadly, there is no pretty wallpaper available anywhere in this neck of the woods unless you order it.  I'm all about being cheap frugal, so I had to come up with something else.

 Scrapbook paper!  I don't do scrapbooking but I really like some of the papers so I collect it like I do fabric.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with the paper when I buy it but I just can't seem to pass it up.

 I think these may be a bit busy for my project.

Voila!

The finished project. I had to piece the paper a bit.  Please excuse the glare. If you click on the picture the paper shows up much better. The letters are the first initials for three of us.  Number 4  kept hers in her room. Hubby arranged the letters just so.  I am not encouraging hallucinogenic drugs in any way.

Do you see the print in the lower right hand corner?  My husband likes it so he printed a copy off  the internet, framed it, and put it in the bathroom.  It is entitled A Young Man Beside the Sea - A study.  The artist is Hippolyte Flandrin.  I prefer to call it The Husband Just Realized He Ran Out of Toilet Paper.

Pie Hole.

As predicted, today is a snow day.  To make up for mocking my husband yesterday, I baked him a pie. At least I will have one less question thrown at me today.

Coconut cream pie!  Made from scratch I might add.  Although I did cheat and use a store bought crust.  You can't have everything.


This pie filling is so easy to make.  I know you want the recipe right?   This comes from an old cookbook that belonged to my mum.  She always called it the Victory cookbook although that's not the name of it. I think it must have been published during the Second World War.  It's one of those ones that say in the recipes bake till done, use a hot oven, flour to roll, etc.  You have to kind of guess for some of the directions.  However, I'll do my best to translate for you.

Cocoanut Pie (that's how it's spelled in the book. Is that right?)

2 egg yolks

5 tbsps. flour (level)

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup milk

1 cup shredded cocoanut

1 tsp. vanilla

2 egg whites for top (I use three)

1 1/2 cups scalded milk (not boiled just bubbling hot around the edge of the pan)

Method

Mix dry ingredients with cold milk and add to scalded milk.  Add cocoanut and vanilla after cooked.

Clear as mud, right?  Okay.  Bring the mixture to a boil stirring constantly.  When finished pour into baked pie shell.  Beat egg whites with 1/3 cup of sugar and spread on top of pie.  Sprinkle some coconut on top and brown meringue in 400F oven until desired brownness is reached.  This doesn't take long!  Enjoy!

I can't take a straight picture for the life of me.

Good Ole Snow Days.

Over the last few days the temperatures have been freezing outside the LC.  We sit huddled around our fabulous fireplace insert in the kitchen.

Toasty warm we are at a balmy 21c  while it looks like this outside:

At -18c the deer run around our yard with wild abandon.

We have had a snow day twice in the last two weeks.  We're gearing up for another one tomorrow or Friday.

This is our house last winter after a heavy snowfall.

Now, snow days are great for kids who want a day off from school.  But for teacher's wives?  Not so much.
Husband:

Make me some tea?  Ten times a day.

Will you make me some toast?  Five times a day.

Can you turn off the radio I'm trying to read.  ONCE a day.

Is there anything good to eat?  Six times a day.

Will you bake something nice?  I usually play deaf for this one.

What's wrong with my computer?  Thirty eleven times a day.

What's for lunch?

What's for supper?

What kind of yummy pie do we have for dessert?  Every.single. day.

Me: Is it bedtime yet?

Business note:  This is my second item put on an Etsy treasury.   www.etsy.com/treasury/4d4087076c396d91ea52057a/

Hudson's Bay Copy Cat?

I found another super duper item in my foraging/purging project.

Before you get too excited, this is a Candystripe camper blanket not a Hudson's Bay blanket. There are no points on it. However, it is vintage, still in the bag it came in, and has never been used. The size is 60x84 and I know for a fact that it is older than I am. I just stole borrowed this photo off of the net and where you see the blue stripe mine has a green one.

For those of you who have never heard of the Hudson's Bay Blanket, read here. This is my quandry:  Do I sell it or keep it?

Gentle Readers, please advise.

Craftastic?

Upon my many trolls around the 'net I noticed a lot of handy people making their own subway art.

Pottery Barn

Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, and other retailers provided the inspiration I believe.  A lot bloggers jumped on the bandwagon and devised ways to make their own. Here's a link on  how to do it by a lovely blogger.  She did a great job but it was too detailed and time consuming for me.  If When I craft it has to be short and sweet.  I was not about to cut twenty million letters out of vinyl and line them up and space them out perfectly.  So I made up my own New York street sign in different sizes and fonts.  I put the document through the negative function on PaintShop.  I searched online and found a site that makes posters out of your photos. posterjack.ca was my weapon of choice.
All you do is download your photo, pick the size you'd like, the paper finish, whether you want it on paper or canvas, etc.  They tell you right away whether it is possible to make one in your selection.  Easy peasy!  It is then delivered to your door in a few days.

Et voila! The paper is a lovely heavy weight in a matte finish.  I just chose an 18x20" size because I'm cheap like that.  I gave it to #1 for Christmas as a reminder of our trip to New York.  She loved it!

Please forgive the horrible photos.  I tried to take it straight on but the glare was terrible.  The poster was fun to do and so easy.  My kind of craft!

Note: I did not received any compensation from Poster Jack for this craft, but they could send me something if they would like!

It's a Dog's Life

Please tell me why the pets always get the best seat in the house.  Or in the room.  On the most comfy seat near the fire.  With a blanket because the leather is too cold for their little selves.

Excuse me, did I disturb you Emma?

Carry on.

Cuteness Alert.

I'm still rummaging!  Last night I uncovered a small box containing these little cuties.

They are very tiny.

And small. *

They are blue and white of course.  I guess I've always loved blue and white.

I'm putting them in my Etsy shop.  Hurry over.  No pressure.

* The money used as a size reference is a subtle hello to all of my American readers.  If you would like your country represented, send money.

More and More

Gentle Readers,
I am afraid that once again you will be subjected to the nostalgia of my childhood.  All of this sorting and purging is becoming a  mammoth task.  The further I dig, the more I find.  Stuff is mutating, I'm sure of it.

I give you.....

The Viewmaster!

I just realized that in my excitement I photographed it upside down. Hmm.  Do any of you remember these?  Please?  Anyone?

I found a ton of shall we say, rather boring reels. Bermuda, Rural Connecticut, Colorado, Cypress Gardens...

Boring for a child, anyway.

I might have a look at this one now.

Huh?  I'm not even Catholic.  There's one of the Vatican City too.

Now this is the good stuff.  Who doesn't love Mary Poppins and the Beverly Hillbillies?

My brother went to expo 67 and all he bought me was this lousy picture reel.

Oh, and a Monkees t shirt too.

Who's Peeking?

No need for curtains at this time of year.

-9c today

Vintage from a Vantage Point

 I am still sorting and purging around our house. Today was a great day for it because we've been snowed in. I decided to tackle #1's room. Daughter #1 adores anything vintage.  Especially clothes and accessories.  She is a pack rat.  Her grandmother was also a pack rat.  I was cleaning out another dreaded box from #1's old bedroom and came upon these:

 These look like perfect accessories for the girls on Mad Men.

Moving on.  I then pulled these out of the box. I never considered my childhood items to be vintage until I was informed of it by my daughter.  I don't want any nasty comments about them being antiques either.

My bingo game still in the original box from when I was a little girl.  I also found this in the game box:

Alas, it was empty.  Mum wouldn't let me have these when I was a young girl because I might grow up to smoke.  My great aunt lived with us then and she always bought them for me whenever we went up town.  I loved her.

I guess I was going to grow up to be a cigarette smoking Bingo player.  Who knew?

p.s. I'm expecting an urgent phone call from #1 forbidding me from the disposal of said items.

Snow Day.

First snow day of the new year.  Make sure you have your warm coats on!

No school in these parts.  Hubby is happy.

Hard Times, Bleak House et al

There are hard times here at the LC gentle readers.  I'm out of blogging fodder.  People have even suggested that I break something so I can have my Broken Item of the Week entry.  People!  This blog is nothing if I have no integrity in my writing.

 You just can't make this stuff up!

Anyway, I have spent the last week sorting and purging.  Two car loads to the donation shop, two carloads of paper, cardboard, etc to the recycle bins.  While going through numerous bureau drawers I happened on these two little pieces that I had entirely forgotten about.

I cannot even remember where they came from.

This one is from the same place.

They are fairly small and very cute. I just found them last night.  I don't dare show them to my hubby because he'll want to keep them.  He was away last week when I got rid of things.  He's fine with it as long as he doesn't see what's in the boxes that are leaving the house.  Does anyone else have any Dickens souvenir china?

On a more serious note and also befitting the title of this post, can you please include the people of Brisbane, Australia and surrounding areas in your thoughts and prayers?  Massive rainfall and flash floods are taking lives and wrecking havoc on this lovely place.  I have friends in this area and they are safe but there are lots of those who are not faring so well.

Emerald, North Queensland