Yay For Knitting

I finally cast on for a new knitting project, yay! It’s nothing flash or fancy, just a basic ribbed scarf. I was faffing around on Ravelry, through my knitting books and magazines trying to decide on a pattern. I had my usual thought pattern of “I can’t knit that! Too complex for me!”. In the end I just picked some yarn and decided to do a basic scarf to get myself back in the habit of knitting. I’m using some Moda Vera Harmony yarn (pink & green) and some of my vintage knitting needles. Pink, of course.

Still have the flu and am now up to the coughing stage. Felt terrible this morning but feel a bit brighter after taking some nurofen. Hence the casting on and blogging about it. I found some photos of my older finished knitted projects and thought I’d post a few here.


‘Sister Socks’ a pattern from Yarn Magazine, Issue 3, June 2006.

Knitted cakes from Jean Greenhowe’s ‘Jiffy Knits‘.


Another Jean Greenhowe pattern, this from her ‘Toy Collection‘ booklet.

Vintage Crafting

I’ve been flicking through some of my craft books to find something easy to make while recovering from the flu. I have a complete set of ‘Stitch by Stitch – The illustrated Encyclopedia of Sewing, Knitting and Crochet.’ which was published in 1984. There are 20 volumes and lucky for me, the ones I have are all in excellent condition.

You can sometimes pick these sets up at book sales and on eBay – keep your eyes out for them as they are wonderful. Lots of basic and advanced instructions with detailed illustrations. The projects range from clothes (kids & adults), household items and toys. There are a few different editions, so the covers may look a little different than mine. The three projects below are ones that caught my eye today as they are quite fun and cheery.

I really want to make the pompom bathmat, that would feel so good and sqooshy under your feet! If you’d like to make one of the projects above and just cannot wait until you get your hot little hands on the books, I found some links with similar projects.

  • Pom Pom Rug from Super Minx. It’s from a vintage craft card set, neat!
  • Anjie from Pom Pom Emporium (super cool name) mentions a book that has a pattern for a pom pom rug plus she links to a free pattern from Lion Brand yarn.
  • My Google Fu failed me and I couldn’t find any patterns for licorice allsort cushions or similar projects. But I did find a recipe for Licorice Allsort slice. You need something yummy and sweet to fuel creativeness! The recipe is from Taste.com.au, a site that is awesome for finding delicious recipes. Really worth checking and bookmarking. The photo of the slice is from Taste.
  • Lucy from Attic24 has a gorgeous tutorial on crocheting hexagons which you could use to make a rug
  • And of course, the lovely Pip from Meet Me at Mikes has a wonderful set of video tutorials so you can learn how to crochet.

Retro Recipe: French Egg Casserole

One of the retro cook books from my collection is ‘The Nancy Spain All Colour Cookery Book’. I like the little anecdotes that Nancy shared along with her recipes:

“Well, Stirling Moss and I once argued passionately about Welsh rarebits all one evening. Stirling (like the late Charles Dickens) adores toasted cheese and swears it isn’t indigestible…”

I wonder if ol’ Stirling would like the recipe of Nancy’s that I decided to share? Maybe not, as it doesn’t have cheese in it.

French Egg Casserole.
1/2 pound medium sized onions, sliced
2 tablespoons butter
2 level tablespoons cornflower
1 pint milk
salt & pepper
dash of grated nutmeg
4 hard-boiled eggs
2 tablespoons white wine

Sauté the sliced onions gently in the butter, until tender but not browned. Add the cornflower and mix well. Gradually add the milk and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently. Season and add white wine. Cut each hard-boiled egg into 4 pieces lengthwise. Reserving some for decoration, mix remainder into sauce. Pour gently into a small casserole and top with egg, chopped parsley or browned onion rings.

Did you know: Nancy Spain’s Great Aunt was Mrs Beeton.

Miniature and Mini-Books. Part 1.

I love books. Books on all kinds of things; cooking, crafts, fiction, picture books and so many more. I collect a few different types, one I have already mentioned is Retro Craft and Cooking books. Another, is mini-books or miniature books. Most of these books, according to those in know, are less than 3 inches tall. I have a couple in that size range and some that are about 3.8 inches tall. I’m going to feature those books, plus share some interesting links in a series of posts.

The first is titled Gardens. It is 3.8 inches tall and was published in 1995. The reason why it is one of my favourite mini-books is due to the gorgeous pop-ups and the tiny envelope with gift card which allows you to sign the book if you give it as a gift. I found my copy at a second-hand book sale and it is one of my favourites. You can see images of this mini-book below.


I found some lovely links about miniature and mini-books, and will share them throughout this series. The first batch are below. Enjoy!

Books Are Good

Books are good. Very, very good.

I collect retro craft and cooking books and especially love to find books that have an inscription, notes, pieces of paper marking pages etc. One such book is below. It is ‘Modern Gelatine Cookery’ and has an inscription to Elizabeth from her Mama and was given as a present at Christmas in 1973. I like to find books like this and keep them cherished.

My Five Favourite Eurovision Songs

For Pip’s Five Favourites, I thought I would share videos of my five favourite songs from Eurovision 2010. The year I finally picked the winner! Straight after watching Eurovision, I went onto iTunes and bought these five songs, I loved them so much! In no particular order:

1. Lena – Satellite (Germany) and the Winner! Yay!

2. Hera Björk – Je Ne Sais Quoi (Iceland)

3. SunStroke Project & Olia Tira – Run Away (Moldova)

4. Juliana Pasha – It’s All About You (Albania)

5. Josh Dubovie – That Sounds Good To Me (United Kingdom)

I love collecting!

Above is a blurry, but artistic (yes?) photo of some of our collection of things. On a very cool, retro wicker shelfy thing. If you squint, you can kinda make out some of my squirrels, my Japanese Kitty bowls, a lucky Cat, my London bus collection, a retro clock from my Mum & Dad and some of my plastic fruit. I lurve me some plastic fruit. And miniature food, but that’s another story. Oh! – and you can see my cow milk jug! I looked for that for ages and was quite chuffed when I found one!

Can you spy our faboo flower lights in the back? They are from Ikea and are so pretty. I want some fairy lights too, to hang around my desk. The shiny and sparkly is always good!

On another note, what are some of the regular meme type things that bloggers do every week? I’m out of touch and would love to know what is around now. Share?

Playing with Hipstamatic

I recently found some old scrapbook stickers or stencils that I bought in the late 80s. I’m not totally sure what they were called, if they have a proper name. They are a sheet of images that you cut out and then glue to your scrapbook or letters.

Spying them on my desk I took some photos and played with one of my favourite apps, Hipstamatic. Love, love this app, you can get some really fun photo affects with it. It really is worth the money if you like taking photos with your iPhone.

Cooking Time!

The collage above shows some of the things I’ve been cooking lately. The first four are from when I cooked Chinese Barbecue Chicken & Pork. I didn’t follow a recipe, as is typical for me most of the time. In this dish I used some pork rashers (spare ribs without the bone), broccoli, beans, chinese vegies and some chinese barbecue sauce. Very tasty!

*The photo with me taking a water chestnut from the tin is because I like eating them straight from the tin (as well as the baby corn). Nom. I also nibble frozen peas, frozen chips and raw vegies while cooking. Yes, I can be strange. woo!

The next four photos are from my cooking of a treat for my Husband’s Birthday.  He requested Shadrani Fish from Consuming Passions (Book II) which has white fish fillets, eggplant and tomatoes with seasonings. To serve with it, I made a Potatoe & Pea curry. I did follow the recipe for the fish but the potatoe & pea curry was my own.

The last photo is of the cake my darling Husbitect wanted; The Cherpumple! Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the same pies or cake mixes as used in the recipe. I baked an apple pie in a vanilla cake mix which turned out lovely. The only non-apple pie I could find was a berry crumble. I baked that in a butter cake mix. Crumbles don’t like to be Cherpumples. They go all gooey. Oh well, it’ll make a nice crumble on its own. I frosted the apple pie cake with vanilla frosting and it was all good. Yay for making tasty cakes! I will however, be attempting the Cherpumple again! I must make the whole thing.

The video for The Cherpumple, by Charles Phoenix is a must see. Trust me, you will love this. I know!

Tea Time

Long time, no updates = bad Alysha.

Hoping to really get back into blogging after a very long break. Not just the odd entry but at least an entry every two or so days. How do you get back into blogging after a long break, any tips?

Had a lovely Christmas and New Years. Shall try to do a post covering that at a later date. I have photos, just haven’t written about them yet. We spent some time over the last couple of months visiting op shops and antique stores admiring expensive things and buying a few more affordable items. I’ve mentioned my love of vintage cook books here before, and I am happy that my hubby also enjoys them and loves to find some classics as much as I do!

More posts to come on Christmas, New Year, craftyness and vintage yummies!

My Place and Yours

That’s nyoice, that’s different, that’s unewesyewl!
Theme by Little Suitcase.

noice

Last week’s theme was about quirky features in your home. The one above is a quirky feature in ours (rental). The pantry cupboard has a door knob on the inside as well as the outside. And it has a lock. That’s right, you can lock yourself in the pantry cupboard.

Maybe the person who installed the extra door knob wanted to sit in the shelves and pretend to be a packet of flour. Or perhaps they had a secret identity and liked to hang upside down in dark places like a fruit bat. Whatever the reason they would have to been very tiny as there is not much room for a person in there. The mind boggles.

To play along, visit the lovely Pip!