Turnips and Toile

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T21:48:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone. The blog has taken a back seat since I have been back to full time work, as have the sewing and early stages of the veggie gardening this spring. I had to buy a few punnets of seedlings for the first time ever this spring to supplement what I had time to grow from seed. I got over it quickly once I started harvesting pre-Christmas.

Here are a few pics of the veggie patch almost five months after the last post. The veggies are definately benefitting from the removal of a large privet tree on the neighbor's side of the fence - many more full sun hours. This will probably be the last post again for a while since I'm back to work on Tuesday. Have a very happy and healthy 2012.

Leeks left to flower for the bees, apple cucumber, zucchini

Lettuce, rainbow chard, beetroot, capsicum, tomatoes, fig in white pot

climbing beans, strawberries, squash, tomatoes, spinach, artichoke, basil

purple bean flower, Mai li

Purple King beans

BTW - My little asparagus corner yielded 1.8 kilos this year! Not bad for less than a square metre in it's fourth year since planting and second year of harvesting. Photos from September below (I can't believe how much everything has grown!).

The Dirt

2011-08-14T18:40:00.003+10:00

Finally something to post! It has been a long cold rainy winter. No veggie gardening and no sewing to speak of, so nothing to blog about for a while. I usually post pretty gardening pics but today it's just the dirt. While the sun was shining I weeded, added blood and bone and sowed a very late (but not too late) green manure crop of mustard seed. So here's my blank canvas for next season, with the asparagus coming up in the narrow patch under the clothesline!

Weeded, mostly cleared, levelled and mustard seed sown .I left some leeks in the front, Marigolds in the back and Salad Burnett and garlic on the edges.

Asparagus coming up in the front, Artichoke behind it, some Strawberries and a rogue Spinach towards the back. Otherwise lovely dirt! This is a really unattractive back yard this time of year as you can tell from my neighbor's bins and carport to the left, Hills Hoist to the right. I pulled out the last of the broccoli in this patch and am having that for dinner tonight - yum!

How Not To Act Old

2011-06-27T22:46:00.001+10:00

I saw this poem by Pamela Redmond Satran recently and thought I would share it. It is very apt for much of what is happening in my life right now!

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
enough money within her control to move out
and rent a place of her own,
even if she never wants to or needs to...
something perfect to wear if the employer,
or date of her dreams wants to see her in an hour...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
a youth she's content to leave behind....
a past juicy enough that she's looking forward to
retelling it in her old age....
a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra...
one friend who always makes her laugh... and one who lets her cry...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
a good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her family...
eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems,
and a recipe for a meal,
that will make her guests feel honoured...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
a feeling of control over her destiny...
how to fall in love without losing herself..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to quit a job,
break up with a lover,
and confront a friend without;
ruining the friendship...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
when to try harder... and WHEN TO WALK AWAY...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that she can't change the length of her calves,
the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents..
that her childhood may not have been perfect...but it's over...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
what she would and wouldn't do for love or more...
how to live alone... even if she doesn't like it...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
whom she can trust,
whom she can't,
and why she shouldn't take it personally...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
where to go...
be it to her best friend's kitchen table..
or a charming Inn in the woods...
when her soul needs soothing...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
What she can and can't accomplish in a day...
a month...and a year...

The poem's author, Pamela Redmond Satran, also has a great blog called How Not To Act Old. One of my favorite posts is #68 Mooch Off Your Parents... 'Catherine Finn, who is a bona fide futurist with a Washington firm called Social Technologies, advises those who don’t want to act old: “Be over-dependent on your parents. Have them lend you money or buy you something you really don’t need. Go a step further and move in with your parents. Then complain about how terrible it is to live with your parents." Hehehe

Strangely enough, the above poem is often mis-credited to Maya Angelou.

Olive Mellor 'Grow Your Own'

2011-06-21T18:45:00.000+10:00

Here are a few pages from a Herald Sun publication by Olive Mellor. There's no date, but I would say it's probably 1950's. I can't find any information about this publication in the National Library catalogue or anywhere else online. Olive Mellor taught horticulture for many years at Burnley and wrote for the Australian Home Beautiful. She also designed more than 500 gardens and was one of the first full-time female students at Burnley Horticultural College (for which she had to receive special permission from the Minister for Agriculture). She was a lecturer when Edna Walling attended Burnley and one of her contemporaries. I feel honored to have taught my Burnley students (when I was lecturing) in the same plots down in the Burnley Field Station.

Here's a calendar for growing vegetables in the home garden in Melbourne, complete with when to spray your D.D.T.! Nothing organic in those days - it was all about using the new wonder chemicals to maximise yield and feed the masses post WWII. Chemicals were all about increasing food production and minimising the waste caused by pests and plant diseases.

Scroll down for a table of what to plant when to feed a family of four for the year including how much seed and how many seedlings are required and how much space is needed

Calendar - January and February (click on image for larger version)

Calendar - March to July (click on image for larger version)

Calendar - August to December (click on image for larger version)

What to plant to keep the family in veggies all year! (click on image for larger version)

Advert for snail killer on the back cover. Metaldehyde is still a main ingredient used in snail pellets today. It is highly toxic and often deadly to pets and small children. Note the happy couple with knee-high lettuces but no children or animals to be seen - clever marketing! I love the bright colors in this ad and the sense of easy instant action implied by the numbers "Better in 3 ways" and the highlighted words "Change", "New", "Better than ever", "WORLD'S BEST", "SUPERCHARGED"

Remember, these were the days when D.D.T. was sprayed liberally by the truckload into the air in residential neighborhoods to cut down on mosquitos in the spring and summer - both in the U.S. and Australia. We still get sprayed with insecticides before we get off the plane from any international flight arriving in Australia, so some things really haven't changed! Personally though, I find a jar with with a little beer half-buried in the veggie-patch works just fine to kill the slugs and snails and doesn't hurt anyone. They crawl in and die a happy death. I just have to hold my nose when I'm setting it out because I can't stand the smell of beer!

Vintage Storage Solutions

2011-06-16T15:42:00.000+10:00

With only one teeny-tiny closet in my abode I have had to come up with with some creative and attractive storage solutions. I started collecting old interesting suitcases a while ago and purchase more when needed. These are two that I got recently on Ebay for about $15 each.

The smaller 'Sky-Chief' fibreboard case holds trims sorted by colour in zip-lock bags. I love the patterns inside and out on this one and the burgundy-coloured plastic (maybe bakelite?) handle.

This is the 'sewing corner' of my bedroom. The Singer sewing table is just to the left. I keep my fabric stash in the blue and green cases (from the Salvos and Chapel St Bazaar). Current-ish project fabric goes in the pink 'Miso Pretty' shopping bag so I can get to it easily (or forget about it completely as the case is with what's in there now!). My old blue-beast 'Automatic Zig-zag' machine is in the blue case on the right.

Decoupaged boxes for patterns. Everyone else seems to like the photocopied vintage pattern box the best. I like the black, white and brown one more! It's made from pages of an old genetics textbook (there's a big double-helix under the chicken on the bottom of the pic) and a craft book I found at the Salvos. It sort of sums up my interests and I like the texture and quality of the old book pages.

My linen storage. A cane suitcase purchased on Ebay and an old laundry basket that a neighbor was tossing out.

Are there any treaty-treats in there?

The woman who sold this to me said this was the case her parents used when they migrated to Australia from England. It had been in storage since then and still had the original ID tag. I love the history behind this one! Next to it is a linen sachet in an antique flower-packet fabric from l'ucello. She sells these at Klein's perfumery if you can't get into her lovely shop on the city and they are divine! I bought a bunch of them for gifts and had to keep some for myself...that seems to happen with most things I buy from l'ucello!

The original P&O Orient Lines sticker on the outside of the case.

I remember when I was very young my mother used to hang big brightly-coloured department store shopping bags on the wall of my room to store toys. Everything got swept up at the end of the day and tossed into the bags on the walls. We lived in Greenwich, Connecticut and there was something very special when I was a kid about having bags from 'The City' (New York) on display all the time. It reminded me of train rides into New York and grown-up lunches at Bloomingdale's by the big Bjorn Wiinblad ceramic fountain (although I think the fountain might have been in the Stamford, CT Bloomingdale's- it was still very grown up).

What are your storage solutions? I would love to hear!

Retro Butterick Robe

2011-06-09T19:31:00.001+10:00

Retro Butterick 5152

Materials: midnight-blue crushed velvet, dark-grey cord for frog closures, shoulder pads

Tools: overlocker, sewing-machine (before I bought my walking foot - aaargh!), hand-basting, Clover Asian Knot templates

Front waistline detail

The waist was very low and I took out about 7cm when I overlocked the inside seams

Robe Back

Frog closure at wrist

Clover Asian Knot templates

Image from Retro Butterick B5152 pattern envelope cover

Boroondara Sustainability Award

2011-05-26T21:52:00.001+10:00

Thank you to the City of Boroondara! I just found out that I received a special commendation in the 2010 Sustainability Awards, Sustainable Gardens category 'For showing how tenants can improve common areas and fostering a sense of community through productive gardening.' This also goes to my partner John who built the raised beds and helps out with seed every year, Alan next door who looks after the compost heap and my landlord who has let me do what I want with the backyard. It's mostly my baby, but I do share a backyard with two neighbors and wouldn't be able to do it if they weren't in favour of having it there.

These are the photos from my submission last December:

Building the raised patch from old sleepers

There was an old asbestos shed in this spot that had to be removed. The landlord was completely agreeable to a veggie patch being built on the site. The old clothes-washing copper from the shed now has plants in it (lower right).

Climbers by the carport

Heritage varieties of green beans, eggplant, asparagus, peppers and basil. You can get creative with where to grow food when you have limited space.

Potatoes in Autumn 2010

‘Listada di gandia’ heritage variety eggplant

Dinner!

Spring onions, heritage lettuce varieties, nasturtium, broccoli, beetroot leaves

Green Manure crop grown in Winter 2010

This was dug into the garden to add nitrogen and improve the soil texture

A local visitor

We always have interesting birds and bugs in the garden!

Spicy Goodness

2011-05-19T17:17:00.002+10:00

Mmmm....Tabasco! Full of Spicy Goodness. I put on almost everything except my cereal. I love the taste, I love the colour, the shape and size of the bottle and I love the branding. It's an iconic item that I can't live without. To me, the Tabasco bottle is to the USA what the Vegemite jar is to Australia. So what better to do than embroider it?! I started this months ago and just finished it. It began on a piece of gold velvet corduroy that was leftover from making a dog cushion for Mai-li. I didn't know what the final product would become and it turned out to be just the right size and thickness for a sunglasses case.

First, I traced the full-size image onto water-soluble stabiliser from an embroidery shop, with a water-soluble pen. This is the box from the big 12oz/355ml bottles I get at Costco (these last me about 6 months. The litle bottles only last a few weeks in my house!).

I used a couple of different colours of red and green, split stitch and stem stitch for most of it, and satin stitch to fill in the bigger letters. I free-handed the shadowing stitches on the bottle and label rather than tracing them.

My initial concern about loose stitches on the thick textured fabric was justified. You'll notice that the stitches in the diamond-shaped border came loose when I turned the fabric right-side-out after sewing the case together. I'll fix up those stitches at some point. I was also using beeswax on the floss in the beginning and then switched to Thread Heaven. The thread with beeswax (ie; the word 'TABASCO') is a bit dulled. All in all, it was an experiment that I'm pretty happy with

MadMen Mel

2011-05-01T13:23:00.000+10:00

I think this little avatar-maker has been around for a while, but this is the first time I've seen it! You can MadMenYourself and choose your body, hair, face, clothes, accessories, props and settings! Tehehehe! Very fun. I have to admit that I am probably one of the few vintage-junkies who doesn't watch this show. I find it to basically be Desperate Housewives re-set in the 50's and 60's. I love the clothes, and am a bit disturbed by the sets which look like they time-travelled to my early youth in Greenwich, Connecticut. I watched about half of the first season and can't stand any of the characters. I really don't remember EVERYONE being that misogynistic in my early youth (granted that was 60's and 70's). Oh well. It's pretty with the sound off and it has created a resurgence of interest in vintage! Have fun making your own avatar! ;-) Mel

Garden Friends

2011-04-22T17:08:00.000+10:00

A dragonfly

One of a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets who have been singing to me the past few weeks. I throw snails and wormy tomatoes on the carport roof for them.

A grasshopper on the wheelie bin.

A very tidy Golden Orb-Weaving Spider. Scary but harmless and helpful! I saw it consuming a wasp in its web a few weeks ago. It is about the size of the palm of my hand.

Pretty in Pink

2011-04-15T21:24:00.001+10:00

I haven't blogged for a while - there hasn't been much to blog about! I just finished a couple of jersey dresses for an upcoming warm-weather holiday. Pink isn't a colour I usually wear, but I was inspired by Pantone's colour of the year: Honeysuckle:

I took my time with this dress after sewing the wrong sides together on the first bits I sewed. It's definately easier sewing fabric with obvious right and wrong sides. This one was okay too once I paid a bit more attention. I did one section at a time over a few weeks and sometimes just let it sit for 4 or 5 days. It's one of the first things I've made that actually looks like the pattern envelope (below)!

Here's the back:

And a close up of the bow with bead finish (saved from an old pair of gym pants):

I also made a quick beach cover-up jersey dress from McCalls Easy 'stich n'save' pattern 6264:

A close up of the bow trim:

The fabric for both dresses was from Dancing Queen in Fitzroy. She's in a great new space and getting more classes started! I just signed up for a pattern-making course that will start soon. It's best to drop in or ring Lisa if you're interested in classes since they're not on the web site. She's more industry-oriented and full of great advice, tips and tricks geared toward professional sewistas! I find the finish on my garment is ever-so-much better when I get a little helping hand.

Second Colette Spring Challenge Skirt

2011-03-14T21:04:00.001+11:00

Here's my second skirt for the Colette Spring Palette Challenge. This has been sitting in my UFO pile for a few years. In fact - this skirt was the reason I started sewing a few years ago. I had two damaged but salvageable vintage dresses from the 1950's. One was too big and one was too small and I wanted something JUST RIGHT. It's a beautiful shiny floral rayon with hand-painted looking green, gold and brown flowers. I emailed a seamstress I saw on an ABC show in Sydney who remakes vintage clothes and then I realised that was ridiculous. I needed to learn to sew. After I took some lessons, I took the dress apart that this came from (it felt a bit like grave-robbing but it needed to be done - it wasn't wearable) and then made a mess of a covered elastic hem (like - I forgot to stretch it as I went and I couldn't get it over my knees). It then sat hidden in my fabric pile forgotten until this challenge. I'm very happy with the results! It's a gathered elastic-waist skirt because that's what I like to wear. If I have enough fabric left, I'm going to cover my favorite old scuffed shoes (below) for part of the challenge (aargh - only 2 weeks left...I think).

Here's a close up of them hem with braided trim I hand-sewed on last night. I like that you can see the crease mark from the original hem (it was a tiny dress) and a few little moth holes. It gives it some history. I think it may need a petticoat to give it a bit more oomph - what do you think?

I made the hat last winter. It's Vogue V8405, view B made from wool fake-suede. I think it looks like an Akubra mated with a fedora!

dame folle dans le jardin

2011-03-08T21:41:00.000+11:00

A few weeks ago I did a 'Sketching the Face' workshop at the National Gallery. Very confronting for me since I'm used to drafting or sketching plants. It was wonderful though - like eating chocolate for 3 hours! Sunday was a lovely sunny day and I dusted off my sketch book and SAT in the garden (I did find myself having to get up and do some dead-heading periodically). I then had a play in Photoshop with some goodies I purchased last year from House of Three and voilà!

I discovered a very cool new shop in Camberwell today - Again Recycle. They have hand-picked vintage and op-shop clothes and accessories and some new-from-old stuff. It's modelled on similar shops in Los Angeles like Wasteland and features retro clothing and a sustainable ethos. Finally...a cool shop on this side of town! Entry is two doors down from the car-park side of the Camberwell Salvos (also always worth a visit).

Colette Patterns Spring Challenge

2011-03-03T13:29:00.001+11:00

I finally got around to making my first skirt for the Spring Challenge:

The fabrics are a 1950's vintage cotton from Donna Flower with an Italian black textured cotton jersey for the band on the top. There's an elastic waist-band sewn in under the black cotton. My favorite skirts are elastic-waist, so I decided to keep it simple and follow a couple of tutorials on BurdaStyle and Grosgrain.

Look at the pretty wrapping the fabric came in!

The fabric piece was too short for the skirt length I wanted, so I added a band on top to get it about knee-length. I like to use my mannequin to see how things look as I sew rather than relying on my measurements (by my measurements, I thought I might have made the skirt too long - but it's just right). I wanted it to be the same length as my favorite skirt, so here's what I did:

First, I put the skirt with the length I like on the dummy.

Next, I marked where the hem hit with removable artist's tape all the way around.

I'll leave this on my mannequin now so I have a hemline mark for future skirt-making! If I want to take it off in the future, the artist's tape is easily removable and won't damage the paint on the metal frame.

Keeping the birds at bay

2011-02-27T15:18:00.001+11:00

This summer, I have discovered that those mesh fruit bags you get in the supermarket are great for keeping the birds away from your fruit and seedlings. I first saw something similar being used at the Alcoa bauxite mine in Western Australia en masse to protect native seedlings from wallabies. The seedlings are grown right into the mesh bags, and apparently they biodegrade over time (I'm dubious about that). I looked into it recently for a large project near Winchelsea for rabbit and hare protection, but apparently they eat right through the mesh. So if you have birds or wallabies (could work for roos too) in your garden, this may help. I'm not sure about deer - are they grazers like wallabies or gnawers like rabbits?

My apple tree looking like an alien's Christmas tree. Note the CDs - they did not work.

A mesh bag cut open and tucked under seedling punnets in a tray.

The mesh is flexible, so it moves with the seedlings as they grow.

Does anyone have any other clever tricks for keeping seedlings alive? If you have any tips for repelling earwigs, I would be especially interested. They love gnawing at the stems of seedlings and kill them in a single night. I've tried crumpled newspaper traps in plastic pots with limited success. Diatomaceous earth (kitty litter) spread around the plants or mixed as a spray is supposed to help, but we have had too much rain lately to try these. All ideas and kill-methods are welcome! Please remember that even some organic pesticides, like Pyrethrum, can harm beneficial insects like bees and often have a withholding period in the garden (a period of time that you have to wait before it's safe to harvest). Also, read the warning labels and instructions and wear suitable gloves and protection. A chemical is still a chemical, even if it's organic! It simply means that it is plant or animal derived instead of synthesized in a laboratory. I try to avoid any chemicals - even organic ones. I'm sure I have a lower yield in my garden but it's my preference. Lately, my neighbor's 3-year old has developed a keen interest in picking snails and pill-bugs out of the veggie patch. She's my best weapon in the garden this summer!

Shiitake Yum!

2011-02-21T20:08:00.000+11:00

Look what appeared last week after the big rain storm...!

Summer Vintage

2011-02-04T01:02:00.001+11:00

A vintage-style handbag based on this version of the Estelle bag on the BurdaStyle website. I made this a few weeks ago, so it doesn't really count as part of the Colette Spring Palette challenge (I may include it anyway!).

The fabric is from Kelani Fabric Obsession's beautiful on-line fabric store. I was very chuffed (and hugely surprised) to hear that I was a winner in her Gallery Inspiration Competition a few months ago. I used my gift-certificate winnings to get this fabric for myself and purchased some fabric for a bag for my sister-in-law (below).

Pattern: Butterick B5505, view B

I have been looking for a pattern that would complement the mega-size flower scroll motif and be able to accommodate some 70's bamboo handles I scored from a vintage crochet bag (the bag was dirty and damaged beyond repair but I loved the handles). I ended up using the freely-downloadable Estelle Bag pattern and modifying it to suit the motif (see cutting board pic). There were a lot of great project photos of the Estelle bag, but I especially liked the one by valesparza that had circular handles attached by tabs and looser pleats.

Spot the seeds in old spice jars on the table? My two hobbies live all over my house.

I had to do some extra sewing to keep the handles from slipping around, so I decided to embellish. I used a running stitch with some mustard coloured embroidery thread from my stash close to the handles and the bag edge. Then I embroidered french knots on every other dot on the pattern in between. My embroidery is a little wonky, but it's only noticeable up close, not when it's swinging from my arm (handles like this MAKE you swing your arms when you walk...or there's the hooked-over-the-crook-of-the-elbow 'I'm so posh' stance... hehehe).

Beetroot and Ugly Carrots

2011-02-03T01:06:00.003+11:00

I love this time of year when I can go out into the garden and pick my dinner. It makes me feel much more like cooking interesting things. I made the roast veg tonight and the salad a few weeks ago. I made way too much of the salad - grating really increases the volume of the veggies. I gave some to each of my neighbors, one of whom has a 3-yr old, so I kept the dressing pretty basic. You could also put in spring onions or Tabasco. I discovered that my other neighbor is a magician! The bowl I gave her the beetroot salad in appeared at my doorstep a few days later with Ferrero Rocher chocolates inside! I wish I could turn beets into chocolate (wouln't that be something to blog about)!

Here are two recipes I have made using whatever I had available in the pantry and the garden. Feel free to experiment and create your own flavors! I tend to use cookbooks for ideas and not follow the recipes exactly. I never would have thought of putting citrus in with the beets and carrots and it was delish! I used the herbs I had available in the garden and kitchen which meant some substitutions - like ginger instead of garlic. I planted about 20 cloves of garlic in the late winter and spring and they are GONE! Aaargh! Rotted, birds, who knows....? I have dug down to where they were and they are gone. I'm going to have to buy garlic

These colours are AMAZING! The only way to see carrots this colour is to pick them. I wash and scrub outside in a bucket or big bowl and put the water right back in the veggie patch. The carrots are Nantes and the beetroot are Bull's Blood and Chiogga. I thought my soil was super-friable but I still have split uglies. It could also be too much compost - they don't like nutrient-rich soil. The previous crop in this spot was tomatoes, and then the green manure over the winter. I would have thought that the tomatoes wouldn't have left much in the way of nutrients after harvesting, even with the green manure crop. I think I may try growing carrots in a big pot with lots of sand in the potting mix next time.

I also cooked the beet greens and stems separately by boiling for about 3 minutes - they're my favourite part of the plant. I find myself strangely not eating enough vegetables when there is nothing in the the garden because supermaket ones have no flavour to me. I put individual portions of the cooked beet greens in ziplock bags and froze them for later consumption.

recipes follow after the jump..

Roast Beetroot and Carrots
Recipe modified from Jamie Oliver's Jamie at Home cookbook. This was also a great TV series that showed growing tips along with the cooking.

750gm beetroot (beets)
750gm carrots
about a 1/2 cup fresh ginger (subsitituted for the garlic in his recipe)
a few sprigs each of rosemary, mint, and thyme
2 bay leaves
juice of 1 lemon (his recipe also calls for the juice of 1 orange, but alas, none in the pantry)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
5tbs balsamic vinegar
sea salt
calendula or other edible flowers for garnish

Boil the beets and carrots until just tender - about 15 minutes. His recipe says to keep the two veggies separate but doesn't say why. Maybe I missed that episode! I cooked them together and didn't mind the carrots having a bit of dayglo red. If you're super-fussy, boil them separately and keep them in separate pans in the oven. Pre-heat oven to 220C/425F. Peel the beets - the skin pretty much comes off with your fingers - again, if you don't mind pink fingers. I see why women used beets as lipstick and rouge during WW2 rationing! I peeled some of the really ugly carrots too. Chop the larger carrots and beets into big chunks. Some of my beetroot were Chiogga, a red and white striped variety that look pretty sliced.

Put the veggies in a roasing pan and add the oilve oil, lemon, balsamic vinegar, salt and herbs. Give everything a good mix and put on the middle shelf of the oven for about 20 minutes. Garnish with flower petals right before serving. Yum! I had this for dinner over brown rice sprinkled with Bulgarian feta cheese.

Mel's Beetroot and Ugly Carrot Salad

4 or 5 beets
3 or 4 carrots
extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste
1 tsp sugar (optional - my carrots were ugly and bitter!)
salt and pepper to taste

Scrub veggies well. Peel the beets. Grate in the food processor or with a hand grate. Add the rest and stir well. Eat within 24 hours or it starts going off (probably due to the high level of sugars in the beets).

Colette Patterns Spring Palette Challenge

2011-01-27T13:25:00.000+11:00

I'm going to participate in the Colette Patterns Spring Palette Challenge so I can finally get my Sencha pattern sewn (and make a few new things for the wardrobe with fabric mostly from my 'to do' stash). It will be an Autumn palette for me in Australia with jewel-toned 1950's florals and a neutral Sencha top. Week One is for putting together a palette and inspiration board. Here's mine:

I'm going to attempt to make 2 skirts, the Collette Sencha top above with cording in a similar neutral shade, and a pair of fabric covered shoes.

Photo credits clockwise from top left:
Clothespin Gale Parker, Jigsaw Autumn 2010, Donna Flower (2 photos), My photo, BurdaStyle, Fabric Covered Shoes: Make Your Own, Colette Patterns blog: Vintage Details, Surface Cording Tutorial. Publicity still from the Jane Campion movie 'Bright Star'

Flowers and Fruit

2011-01-26T02:59:00.000+11:00

This week in the veggie garden...

Artichoke flower

Figs

Carrot in flower

Asparagus in flower

Basil, Chives, Asparagus

Oregano

Fennel

Mai li's sniff inspection on the back steps

Carrots and apples

Victorian and Queensland Flood Relief

2011-01-21T15:04:00.001+11:00

After the devasting floods in Queensland and Victoria, many organisations, companies and crafters are helping out with the relief effort. Many craft sites are auctioning goods and services with the proceeds going to the flood appeal. Here are some of the sites:

Aid Organisations - monetary donations and and information on volunteering:
The Salvation Army
The Red Cross
Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal (Queensland)
givit - a South Queensland organisation that links your donated goods with registered charity and relief organisations.
i can do that - information on how to volunteer in Victoria and oline registration to volunteer in future emergencies
RSPCA Queensland - The RSPCA does not get any government funding and their shelters in Queensland have been flood damaged. The Victorian RSPCA site states that they are managing with their current resources.

Craft and Arts sites with auctions:

Make if Perfect - a very large master list of sites with Queensland Flood Relief auctions. Payments are made directly to the Premier's Disaster Appeal, not to the crafters. Many of these will end 9pm Monday the 24th of January.
Flood Aid Art Auction - Saturday February 12th in Kyneton, Victoria
Cottage Industry - Queensland Tea Towel throw cushions. 100% of retail price to Queensland flood relief and free postage anywhere in the world! This finishes tomorrow, Saturday the 22nd.

Cottage Industry tea towel cushion

Quilts for Queensland - make a quilt or part of one to send to flood survivors.
Spotlight - Flood Fightback Blue Ribbon available in store free of charge to show support for flood victims.

Please comment on this post with any more sites that you know about! Mel

The Metropolitan Hat

2011-01-06T19:03:00.003+11:00

My New Year's Hat! The pattern is a 1920's cloche called the Metropolitan Hat from Folkwear patterns. The fabric is an eggplant-purple (my favorite color!) medium weight cotton from Tessuti Melbourne. The little hummingbird is an antique ornament from l'ucello. She has so many beautiful things there in her little shop - it's like walking though the looking glass into a perfect vintage land! I feel like a 5-year old having to leave the playground when I leave her shop (can I stay longer, can I, can I....pleeeeze?). She now has incredible Sajou French sewing goodies and Sophie Digard pieces along with all her other beautiful ephemera.

Here are some side views of the hat:

BTW - my shirt is a Tarjay (plain old Target!) with lace from the Op Shop sewn onto the collar. Creative up-cycling! The sunnies were from Anthropologie on a trip to Los Angeles a few years ago.

I recently left a nasty comment on the BurdaStyle website for featuring fur and then realised that my little vintage hummingbird has real feathers. Oh well, I wear leather too. I'm a hypocrite. We do what we can and feel guilty about the rest. Hopefully no little birdies suffered to make my hat beautiful. My lipstick and foundation is cruelty-free (Revlon and Australis)!

M is for Mangelwurzel

2011-01-04T19:02:00.000+11:00

Mangelwurzel! Sugar-beet to some, pig-fodder to many...common in the Northern Hemisphere and unusual in Australia. Apparently an old staple-vegetable in early 20th century American and European gardens, but not mentioned in any of my old Aussie gardening books.

In 2009 Jeremy Colby did an 'ancient vegetables' segment on ABC TV's Gardening Australia. I had to get Mangelwurzel for the strange name if nothing else. Apparently, so did most other people watching the show because seed was sold out the next day at Cornucopia Seeds, the only place in Australia to stock it. After a short wait while they re-stocked, I grew some seeds in the greenhouse at Burnley and transplanted the seedlings in November 2009. I had no luck with them but a friend grew huge Mangels from the same seedlings (granted, he has a much sunnier veggie patch and lives on a chicken farm with plenty of manure in the soil!). I tried direct seeding in May last year, they germinated in a week and slowly grew over our cold winter. They were finally popping out of the soil and ready to pick a couple of weeks ago -

I mashed one with potatoes on Christmas day and it was tasty. Last week I picked a few, peeled them and cooked them on their own and they were not very exciting! Kind of like a flavorless turnip. The greens, however, are delicious. They are closely related to Silverbeet/Swiss Chard and taste like a sweeter, more tender version of their sibling (they share the botanic name Beta vulgaris with Silverbeet and Beetroot). This is what they looked like just picked and washed:

and after cleaning them up before peeling and cooking:

The verdict: I'll keep some in the ground to keep cutting and eating the yummy greens, and mash the mangels with potatoes and lots of butter next time! Apparently, they can take over your garden in the tropics but that hasn't been a problem here.

Merry Xmas

2010-12-25T22:44:00.000+11:00

Happy Holidays from my garden to yours!

Brisbane Gates

2010-12-16T21:29:00.050+11:00

Here are some photos I took last year in Brisbane while wandering in Farm Town. I love going for walks with no destination when I'm travelling to discover how people really live. I was drawn to the bright turquoise and yellow colours and interesting patterns of the gates and fences. Very different from Melbourne's more conservative European style. It's amazing how brave people get with colour in warmer climates!