My Place & Yours: Bedside

The theme this week for ‘My Place & Yours‘ is bedside. What fun!

Bedside
I use vintage aprons to hide the storage shelves next to my bed as they hold things like sheets and towels; not too interesting visually, at times. Vintage aprons are much better to look at.

Bedside 2
Currently I am reading “The Grand Complication” by Allen Kurzweil. Quite exciting, it is. I have a list of things I want to research after reading this book. Things like secret enclosures and palanquins.
The retro-style clock is from my parents, I love the style of it. You can also see some of my retro-ish jewelry collection (inc. pink squirrel brooch), my ring collection (minus one or two), a dear little french knitting doll and my current favourite scent: ‘Sugar Cookie’ by Demeter.

On The Shelf

I’m enjoying the new memes, especially ones that can include photos. A new one from Pip at Meet Me At Mike’s is called ‘My Place & Yours‘. The theme this week is On The Shelf. I decided to take some photos of my vintage cooking and craft books.

Top Shelf

Mainly vintage cook books.

Middle Shelf

More vintage cook books + a lantern from our wedding that we made

Top Shelf

A mix of vintage craft & cook books + vintage cocktail forks

What's Hot + What's Not

Time for another edition of What’s Hot + What’s Not.

What’s Hot.

Spending a lovely long weekend with my parents in the Blue Mountains. We drove up on saturday and stayed until Tuesday. My Dad had surgery on his hand this week (it went very well, yay!) and we took him to the hospital and picked him up. We all enjoyed some long chats about all kinds of things, watched ‘Babe‘ (which was the first viewing for me and my parents) and ‘Jane Eyre‘ and enjoyed some yummy food as always. I love getting to spend quality time with my parents. (*waves* to Mum and Dad) Plus I also got some long snuggles with my kitty Max, and Mum and Dad’s cat, Pearl.
It is also so nice to get away from Sydney and escape the noise and heat and enjoy some real peace and quiet. I’m always struck by how much quieter it is in the mountains. The most ‘noise’ you hear is birds and the wind rustling through the trees and at night, the sound of owls hooting away at the moon. I grew up in the Blue Mountains and am very much a mountain girl at heart. I’m afraid I shall never grow to appreciate city life or acclimatise to hot weather!

tattingkitties

I found the above in an op shop for $2. I adore kitties (especially my own Kitty Max) so I had to have this. I think the kitties may be tatted? What I thought was velvet backing material, is actually some kind of flocked paper. The frame itself is plastic with paint applied in a wood pattern. It’s a bit scratched so I’m going to repair it. I’m not sure whether to redo the wood pattern, or paint the frame white. Any suggestions?

newneedles

Found at the same op shop for $1 a pair; vintage aluminium knitting needles. I love these, and have a collection on my desk that include some from my late Aunt and Grandmother and also op shop finds. The new ones are the pink and gold needles at the front.

What’s Not Hot.

ickyweather

The awful, awful weather in Sydney today. I find anything over 24°C uncomfortable, so 36°C is appalling to me! I call this kind of weather ‘uncivilised’ because you can’t move and remain feeling nice and fresh. You end up feeling all hot and icky.
I was born in winter and grew up in the Blue Mountains so cool, wintery weather is my thing. I adore winter, especially if I get to see some snow! Hot weather makes me feel physically sick and I really don’t handle it well at all. I think (?) most people with asthma seem to find humid weather (or at least warm) easier in terms of breathing; I’m one of the rare ones who find very cold, crisp air easier to breath. In this weather, I’ve been known to open the freezer and inhale deeply of its delicious cold crispness!

Lentils = happy tums

I have a weakness for lentils, especially dal. My husband isn’t as keen as I am, but does enjoy some dal alongside indian curries.

I often have lentils for lunch. I just rinse some lentils (usually red), cover them in a saucepan with water, add some salt and pepper and cardomon seeds then boil until the lentils soften and start to break down. A little more fresh pepper and nom! Sometimes I add some worcesteshire sauce, but generally I prefer my lentils with a few simple seasonings.

Lentils seems to be one of those foods that calm my tummy and make it feel super happy!

Some lentil related links for you:

Do you have a favourite way of preparing lentils? Do share! :)

Meeting Mr. Harriott

ainsleyharriott

On September 25th, I had the pleasure of meeting Ainsley Harriott at Kinokuniya in Sydney. He is just as lovely and bubbly in person as he is on TV (and yes, I am sitting on his lap hee!) . Got my book signed and am enjoying cooking some of the treats from within such as blackened cajun salmon:

cajunsalmon

* Watch Ainsley here, making ‘Hot smoked salmon pate on toasted bagels’

What's Hot + What's Not Wednesday

I finally felt like getting back into writing in my blog again. I’ve had one, with a few spaces and in a few different places, since 2000. This week I played with the look and was ready to blog. But what to write about? All was saved when I came across Loobylu’s What’s Hot + What’s Not Wednesday by way of the fabulous Pip from Meet Me At Mike’s. Ah, perfect way to get back into things!

sparkle

What’s Hot.

Seeing my Mum and Dad on the weekend and spending some quality time with them, along with my husband (who they love as a son, aww bless!). I really miss my Mum and Dad and really enjoy visiting with them and sharing some lovely long chats, laughs and some good food. I will also get to see Max, my gorgeous black Kitty who my parent’s very kindly look after for me (we can’t have pets here, sadly) and have some quality Maxie snuggling time; and also my parent’s cat Pearl, who is anyone’s friend as long as you pat her. A lot.

Having lots of fun things on and around my desk. Above you can see two of those things; my Hula doll that I found at a local op shop and could not resist as she is retro and reminds me of the game Fallout 3, and my be-sequined vodka bottle, sadly empty. I cannot resist the sparklies.

Enjoying my holiday time away from Tafe. I’m currently studying to be a library technician and as much as I enjoy the course (especially cataloguing, much to my classmates disbelief) I am loving the time off and not having to think about assignments. Well, at least not until tomorrow.

The fact that it is getting close to christmas which means I can go nuts with decorations + crafting +baking. I’m already itching to get out the christmas tree. We have two – one green plastic tree, standard height and one small white tree which I love as it looks very retro. I have been collecting vintage christmas baubles and love looking at them. I like ones like this. Photos of my collection to come soon.

Having good things to watch on tv. This includes Costa’s Garden Odyssey, River Cottage Spring and  Torchwood Season 2.

What’s Not Hot.

The fact that it is back to Tafe next week – boo! I like the course itself, just not keen on the social politics and cliques within the student groups, not to mention having to travel on city rail trains.

I have not done any crafting yet. This is bad. I envisioned myself being so utterly crafty and creative on my holidays. I really need to get over the perfectionist aspect of my personality so I just start projects and enjoy the process, rather than getting stuck on the idea that I might ruin materials or do something wrong. Issues, I haz them.

There is a pile of laundry that I need to sort, fold and put away. I would enjoy that task if we had more wardrobe/drawer space. We have a lack of it, mainly, because I cannot control myself in op shop clothing sections. And can’t throw things away as “it might be useful one day!”. Hmmm.

Talking to Plants

These two pretties are currently sitting next to me on my desk. It’s so lovely to have plants around, to watch their day to day growth. I did have three plants next to me, but George, my dieffenbachia had to go outside for a wee bit as I discovered red spider mites on him. Hopefully they are all gone, but he’s outside for a bit just in case.

And yes, I do name my plants…and I talk to them too! Before you laugh, Mythbusters proved plants like to be talked to. Ha! I haven’t named the two above yet as they are new. My Hubby bought them for me on the weekend. The flowering plant is a Cyclamen and the leafy one is a Ficus.

*The lovely polaroid frames I used are from Gunhild Storeide @ http://www.storeide.se/gunhild/index.htm

Fallout 3

Himself and I have succumbed to the addiction that is Fallout 3. What an awesome game! A highly detailed, massive playing area, retro 50s music, an awesome choice of weapons (not to mention the targeting system) and stunning graphics.

Fallout 3

Bonus points to Bethesda for realizing that women also like playing games and providing the option of female characters, not the standard male only format! The picture above is a screenshot of my character, Ash, in the foyer of Tenpenny Tower. Yes, after playing a high karma character for a while, I was tempted by the chance to have a suite at Tenpenny, so Megaton went kaboom!

It's a Wonderful Life

After a time blogging elsewhere (archives yet to be added), I have decided to return to blogging at alyshajane.com.

A lot has happened in my life over the last few months, the most wonderful event being my marriage to my darling husband. We were married on October 4th, 2008 in the Blue Mountains. It was a beautiful day filled with love, joy, family and friends. There are a few photos from our day on our photographers blog, as well as some more photos taken by some lovely friends. More to be added here, soon!

Our Wedding Day

No, Hubby isn’t doing anything rude! He’s helping me remove petals (our confetti) from my corset! I adore him!

Another change is that I have decided to pursue a different career path and have applied for a place in a Library/Information Services course. When I first left high school, my dream career role was a librarian. Visits to libraries are like visits to sweet shops for me! I’m tired of freelance web design; while I may do an occasional job, I really want to find chase new horizons.

Animal Crossing in My Soup

My yummy man has introduced me to all kinds of good things since he came into my life. Television shows like Blake’s 7 (currently watching season 3 – no spoilers please!) and The Goodies, books such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series and many fab games such as Oblivion and Neverwinter Nights.

Another game is Animal Crossing on the Nintendo DS which we love to play together, either by visiting each others towns or playing side by side and laughing at all the funny things the characters say. An example of this was Sally who lives in my town of Blossom and, like the other resident Squirrels, comes out with some classic lines. The latest was “Nothing makes you feel young at heart like a bug in your pants!“. hehe

I’ve been steadily working on having my town one of Squirrels and Kitties. So far I have six Squirrels, one Kitty and a Zebra. I found a neat site where you can record the price of Turnips in your town plus make a picture of all your residents. Mine is below:



Blossom


Hopefully, Nintendo will soon announce Animal Crossing for the Wii! Does anyone reading this also play Animal Crossing (DS or GameCube)?

It’s About Time I Posted Something

Yes, I’m still here. I’ve just been extremely lazy when it comes to updating my blog.

We just had a lovely weekend in the Blue Mountains where we found the perfect place to order our Wedding cake (and we got to sample yummy chocolate cake mmm) and then on our way home we received a call that our Wedding outfits are ready, yay!

No posting of clues or photos of what we will both be wearing. Let’s just say that we are going for a very different theme to what people will be expecting and we want to keep our outfits secret until the big day.

We’re getting there with the Wedding planning. We have the ceremony and reception venues booked, we have a celebrant and a photographer. We have our outfits organised and now our cake. Need to work on the invitations now and get them sent out later this month. Busy, busy, busy. Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy! :heartbeat: