The Trouble with Family Get-Togethers and how my Mum's got it all wrong...

There's a nice controversial sounding title, eh?

Sunday, we were cooking lunch for my Mum, Dad and brother (my poor sister was hard at it organising her company's annual 'do' and awards ceremony, so couldn't be with us sadly).   

Coq au Vin was on the menu, which nearly resulted in a call to the Hampshire Fire Brigade...

...when Mr U-t-B's hand 'slipped' with the brandy, before I set it alight.  Those flames kept going for a full five minutes (well, it felt like that, but may have been a wee bit shorter) whilst I looked on waiting for the cooker hood to melt! I suppose a wet tea towel at the ready might be a good idea next time!

My Mum said she'd bring a pudding, and mentioned meringues, which are Miss U-t-B's absolute favourite.  

I was going to make the 'deconstructed' (ie thrown at a plate) version of trifle that goes down very well and doesn't take too long to make, being merely sliced up Madeira cake (perhaps soused in something alcoholic, though after the brandy incident, I was definitely not going to let Mr U-t-B do that bit!), whipped cream with some lemon curd marbled through and red berries on top.  

But when I noted the bag of milk that was about to go out of date and the huge pile of oranges that had accumulated because Miss U-t-B was going through a phase of eating lots, then stopped (and much as I love them, they do me no good at all), and remembering my dad's fondness for rice pudding, I changed my mind and made 'Vanilla Chilled Risotto' and 'Oranges in Grand Marnier'.  And then because I'd bought all the berries, I tumbled them into a bit of hot syrup so people could have them either with their risotto, or with the meringues.

So, very uncontroversially, the trouble with family get-togethers is this...

Six people for lunch - six bowls of pudding!  Because my Mum, generous and lovely as she is (and a great cook to boot) brought a chocolate tart too (which was as delicious as it looks), and some Bitter Orange Ice-Cream, as well as some meringues!

We did our best, but did not manage to obliterate it all!  Everyone set forth from our house with doggie bags, and we will still be enjoying pudding for the next few days. The trials we suffer...

Here's what I made for my Mum for a present...

 A little, monogrammed lavender cushion with an old, gold brooch, bearing the word 'Mother'. 

Vintage French fabric on the back, and ric-rac edging.

But here's where my Mum got it wrong, because she brought me this...

It was Mother's Day, not daughters! 

Wasn't I lucky - a beautiful tea set for six!

It looks Edwardian to me, so perfect for our house.

Everything is such a pretty shape.

I love the bulbous bits!

The yellow and deep purpley-pink poppies are gorgeous.

Delicate little handles...

The stamp on the back says 'Caulfield &Co - Glasgow and Branches'.  The only reference I can find on the internet suggests Caulfield & Co were a retailer, rather than a manufacturer of china, and that they may have been on Jamaica Street in Glasgow.  

Did you spot the pretty tablecloth too? 

That was also from my Mum a while back.  I actually bought it in a bundle of stuff from the Maltings.  It was about three-quarters done, in the most beautiful stitching, in such vibrant colours.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it justice, finishing it off, as my embroidery of printed designs is not great.  But my Mum kindly offered to finish it off, and I really can't tell which is the original stitching, and which is hers, so she was clearly the lady for the job!

Pretty, pretty, pretty!

Just a little reminder (you know this is how it's going to be all week!) that I'm having a giveaway.  Here's one of the prizes (thanks for the complimentary comments about my little brooch!)

Bonus Day

Today has felt like a bit of a bonus.  Don't worry - no near death situations, just that I was expecting to teach all day, but when I got into school, turned out a reorganised assembly schedule had put a spanner in the works  big time and so home I came, skippetty-hop, keen to get on with a bit of stitching.

First I sewed together the pieces and layers for some notebook slipcovers, mostly made from bits of tray cloths with a sprinkling of vintage fabrics.  They're not quite finished yet (hand stitching, ribbons and buttons still needed) but I'm quite pleased with them. Here's a couple of them (these made with new fabrics). 

As I wasn't ready to sit down and do the hand stitching and embellishing, I then decided to reach for the glue and have a go at covering some boxes I've been gathering up over the past months.  First, just a little one.

Note to self: next time, get the fabric the right way up!

Then onto a bigger project.  

One side...

And the other...

Top and side.  Can you guess what it is yet?

Ta-dah!

Please admire me from all sides!

 This being a trial run, there are one or two minor imperfections, so this one will have to stay with me - what a terrible shame!  The set of drawers only cost £2 from Mr Tesco, so I think I will be heading that way again soon for some more to do.  My lovely girl thinks they would be very popular, which always seems like the ultimate in compliments!

So that's been my bonus day.  The down side is that I have to go back and work tomorrow instead!

The Secret to True Contentment

I have to say the title is really a cheap attempt at grabbing attention.  All the same, here is a very easy way to gain a feeling of great satisfaction - well, it worked for me today!

1. Tidy your sock drawer.  Throw away the socks that have lost their partners (or, if they are not too tatty and you are into sock puppets, get down to a bit of creativity!)
2. Throw away every mis-shapen, bleach splattered and unravelled-at-the-hem t-shirt currently taking up drawer space. Or better still, cut them into a pile of dusters!
3. Sort through your bras. (I am assuming a mainly female readership here...) Make a pile of the ones with the wires that poke through or baggy back elastic. They're doing you no favours. I really can't think of a way of recycling these (Double hammock for a pair of sparrows?  Weapon of mass destruction?) so into the bin they must go!
4. Get out your winter clothes and look forward to wrapping up against the chills, enjoying stews and dumplings and all manner of comfort food.

I have also been finishing off a couple of sewing projects.

Here's one of them.

Can you guess what it is?

My way of tidying all those wiry nuisances I can never find or identify when I need to.  I had fun with stitching the labels on these pockets.

I'm putting together some instructions for making these - soon to appear in the 'Pages' section of my blog - look on the right.

I'll end with a couple of news stories that caught my attention.

The Sublime...

Wish I taught in that school!

And the Ridiculous...

Has the world gone mad?

Vide-grenier finds

  I have a new reader - my mum!   So I thought I'd post photos of some of my French finds specially for her, as it is undoubtedly through her influence that I prefer the pre-loved to the new!








Here's this years haul of small items.  Lots of grubby linens (ooh - I love the smell of a bathtub full of Oxi-Action and washing powder!), some pretty tea and coffee cups and my star items - the preserve pot, the pot-bellied sugar bowl, the teapot and the cake stand!
  







These cot linens remind me that gorgeous girl is a chip off the old block - they are hers, bought to go with the Art Deco cot that she bought.  I can't believe that I haven't got a photo of that - it's gorgeous, with chunky curves, an unusual clear bar (for teething?) along one end and a beautiful metal swallow swooping across the end.  Sadly it's still in France!

Here's the other star large item.  It might not be complete, but with my clever husband and parents around to patch up the veneer and create a front and base, the two ends are going to be a spectacular daybed sometime!


And guess how much?
Bet you can't...


I'll write it at the end of the post, so you can guess properly!









Another chip-off-the old-block items, one of a pair.  I think they were two euros!


So that was this year.

Here's some from the year before last.

The sewing machine is a real beauty.  Love its rustic wooden cover!

It's very attractive inside, but I neglected to take any photos of that!  It has lovely marquetry on the top, including chevrons that are one centimetre wide.  No searching for the tape measure when using this beauty!

And here is the star from last year!

I was looking for an old bike to put a basket of flowers on and prop up against a wall decoratively.  It had to have 'curve' (as well as kerb?) appeal - I like a nice sweeping curve on the frame, and it had to be old.  If I remember correctly this was the only bike we saw at the vide-grenier that day, and boy did it match my criteria!

Look at the beautiful detail...

And the saddle!

(Have I really become the sort who gets excited about a saddle?)

And unbelievably, we got this gorgeous thing for just over twenty euros, part of a clever deal done by my sister-in-law.  She was at the vide-grenier with the express intention of finding a sewing machine base, but ONLY the base (she wanted it for the garden).  The stall that had the bike also had a sewing machine-less base.  The lack of machine was made much of in the bargaining, hence the price for the two - forty-five euros!

Turns out the bike is from about 1919.  Having survived in such relatively good condition for so long, it would be almost criminal to have it outside in all weathers, so it is awaiting a light restoration, and will then be propped against a wall, but inside!

And the bed?

Ten euros!



I'll sign off now, with apologies if the text is all over the place.  I've done this on the laptop and I can't make things behave!