The delights of Christmas

So each year we celebrate Christmas Eve in the typical continental style. We had roast turkey, and a leg of ham for the first time (being Jewish it's rather odd you see), and some delicious salads, and crispy potatoes and roast veges and homemade stuffing and desserts of course. Miss Ellen joined us, as well as dads friend Alan and moms friends Hilda, Horus and Aislin. It turned out to be a truly delightful evening ending with a game of monopoly and present exchange.

My very tall brother and tiny mom.

The table ala Ellen and Astin.

That dress cost me all of $5 from the Bondi markets, i am still in shock.

 Not only did i spend a lovely Christmas with the family, but boxing day has become the annual Friend Christmas. It was a delightfully warm day, spent at my friend Elyse's house. We ate, we talked, we took photos, we drank, and eventually we exchanged Secret Santa presents. Was a lovely day, very fun and silly as usual.

My best friend Alice. 

The lovely ladies and Kit (aka El Diablo) the ladies man.

My bestie's Lachlan and Elyse.

I love this outfit SO much. The dress is from Dear Golden Vintage, the shoes from Senso, the belt a random little Christmas stocking present.

Merry Christmas!

Petunia

x

On the first day of Christmas, my house was sparkly...

I am sitting here singing along to Christmas songs and editing the pretty photos of my gorgeous Christmas tree. December is happy this year, well...happier than it's been some years. My to-buy list is slowly getting smaller, i'm am enjoying ticking presents off, all i need to do now is wrap, tag and distribute. Tehehe.

Our Christmas tree this year is Hanukkah themed and just looked delightful with it's shocking blue lights and glimmering silver and blue decorations. The bushes around our house are decorated too, with gold and green and red and pink and basically anything that didn't work on the tree. It's such a festive house this year.

Now other than decorating my house like a madwomen, i have also had the pleasure of baking some delicious Christmas delights with the kids i nanny.

Petunia

x

Shoes!! *happy sigh*

So the quarterly Senso Sample Sale (Yes it need the capitals to emphasise the sibilance- i'm such an English nerd) was on this past Thursday-Saturday. Of course i went...twice, and wound up buying 2 pairs of heels, a pair of flats and a pair of boots. Haven't photographed the flats as they need a bit of fixing. Do tell me what you think of the rest though.

I just could not resist this cherry red summery pair of heels.
And for $50 they were a bargain!

Although these have a broken buckle they were well worth the $30
i paid for them as they fit like a glove and are SO comfortable.

BOOTS! You just don't find boots this soft, gorgeous or well made.
It almost makes me a little sad that i have to wait so long
until next winter. Well worth the $250.

I've also made some recent etsy purchases, which is naughty cause i am trying not to spend money, but i needed them i swear. I'll post them as soon as i have had a chance to take some piccies.

Petunia

X

YUM!

Sadly i have no photos to go along with this recipe, but my goodness i don't think it needs any. I was experimenting in the kitchen, as i often do, and i came up with this tasty recipe for an Asian inspired broth. I hope you love it as much as my mom and i did.

Ingredients for stock:

6 cups of water
6 chicken/vegetable stock cubes
1 large mild red chilli (de-seeded and sliced in half)
A few stalks of corriander from the roots to just before the leaves begin.
6 large slices of ginger
2 large garlic cloves (chopped)
1 palm length of lemon grass (chopped into 1 inch pieces)
A few lime leaves
1 large chopped spring onion (chopped roughly)
Chicken frame general chicken pieces

Ingredients for later on:

Decent bunch of corriander leaves (chopped finely)
Chilli (if you want additional heat)
1 big spring onion (chopped finely)
A few cherry tomatoes (5 per serving)

Place the stock ingredients in a pot and bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer and simmer for 30-40 minutes. Strain stock and place back on the heat. Add the corriander leaves, spring onion and cherry tomatoes. If you have added chicken pieces you may add them now, they are not essential. Remove the pieces of ginger,  lemon grass and lime leaves from the discarded stock and place back in the soup (it's nice to chew on the fragrant bits and pieces while you drink the soup). Optional additions include Chinese broccoli  and noodles. Personally i like egg noodles, but thin rice noodles work nicely too. And my mom added a small slosh of coconut milk and fresh lime juice, was actually quite a nice addition.

Let me know what you think.

Petunia
x

Sydney weather has been less than co-operative lately. But in between the showers and hail, by some small miracle, we have been blessed with a few sunny days. So, of course, my crazy but loveable mother decided we needed some brightness in our garden and so instead of bring meat home one afternoon we arrived back with a boot-full of flowers.

Naturally the cats did very little to assist in the planting process. Guess the option to laze in the sun and explore the garden was too tantalizing.

Couldn't resist taking a snap of my mom struggling with the weeds in the unkempt flower bed. Oh and the stunning Jasmine that has filled my courtyard with the smell of spring.

The icing on the cake that is my now bright and bubbly garden, are these lovely little petunias! But luckily these petunias are not lonesome, nor are they stuck in a garden bed with onions. They are a little bedraggled at the moment, simply because we've had far too much rain lately for their liking.

Petunia

x

Time is ticking

Ever sine i was a child i've had a fascination with clocks and watches. I like the noises they make, the way their hands move, the fact that you can actually see time ticking by and disappearing. I still have most of my childhood watch faces, and over the years i have been adding to the little collection. A few days ago i introduced two gorgeous vintage watches to the collection, take a look.

Gorgeous wind up clock. All i need is a long gold chain so i can hang it around my neck.

Isn't the cuckoo clock charm adorable, also a necklace style clock. The love the way the numbers are arranged so they face the wearer, very clever. They are both from the wonderful White Bird Design.

I must say i have some favourites out of the bunch. The one beside the butterfly is a watch i wore as a kid. It has a cat in the middle, and the second hand is a little black mouse. I always loved how it looked like the cat was eyeing the mouse as it moved around the clock face. My other favourite is what i call my Alice in Wonderland watch. It's the green, pink and purple one. Has a cute little love heart on the face, and a button that lights it up.

Petunia x

Happy belated Halloween!

Halloween is one of my favourite times of the year. I have a morbid fascination with all things horror. Can't help it, been that way since i was a little kiddlet. I really won't be surprised if i become a forensic psychologist. Anyway, this Halloween was really great. I got to dress up twice, in two different, but both equally fantastic, costumes. I already mentioned that cat Astin is on Ellen's blog, but here you can see possessed ragdoll Astin.

The little boy ragdoll attached to me is of course my undead husband Jason. Isn't he gorgeous? my great gran knitted him, and one day decided to give him to me before i immigrated to Australia. He was the first thing i wanted to play with when i visited her house.

Hope you all had a grisly, ghoul filled night.

Petunia

x

Cupcakes!

I am a big fan of baking. I find it relaxing and fun, especially when you're baking with 2 kids. I'm a nanny, if i haven't already mentioned that, and each Friday we pick a recipe and bake! We make a nice big mess, we do tons of mixing, and we each take turns in liking the bowls and spoons and various other implements. This week was cupcakes. Vanilla for Bella and i, and chocolate for Ben.

Here's the recipe:

120g Butter

2/3 cup caster sugar (i used brown as i prefer the flavour)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs (around 59g if you can)

1 + 1/4 cups self raising flour

1/2 cup milk

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar until a pale smooth consistency. Add vanilla extract and eggs one by one. When eggs are incorporated sift in flour and add milk. At this point i halved the mixture and added 2 tsps of cocoa powder to one bowl to make delicious chocolate cupcakes. I suspect melted chocolate would work even better. Stir until mixture is smooth and no longer lumpy. Spoon into cupcake tins, mixture should make 12 medium sized cupcakes.

Allow cupcakes to cool before putting icing on them. Use any icing recipe you enjoy, personally i like to add a tiny bit of melted butter to mine as it adds to the flavour and also gives the icing a nice texture and glossy finish. Decorate with cachous, sprinkles, icing pens or any other edible treats you enjoy. And voilà!

Sadly i did not get a chance to photograph the fantastic Halloween cookies i baked with the kids. I cut out all the shapes by hand, we had a witches face, a ghost, a broomstick, a few signs, some pumpkin faces, some cute little BOO, AHH and EEK cookies, and a Frankenstein monster. I will post the recipe another time as it was actually quite tasty. Also, keep a look out for a Halloween post, it will be up sometime this week. For now you can look at lovely Ellen's Halloween update (i am a kitty!!! and she is a sexy Vampire).

Petunia

x

A weekend of vintage, sunlight and parasols

It was a really lovely weekend spent perusing the Love Vintage Fair, attempting not to blow away, and in contrast walking along the sunny streets of Sydney. The weather literally went from chilly and intensely windy, to bright and sunny in the space of a weekend. I finally got the chance to wear my lovely ocean scene skirt, as well as my cute little 70's sun dress. I bought a gorgeous parasol at the fair, i couldn't resist a peacock themed, hand painted item like that. It's lovely, isn't it?

Dress: Lovely 70s dress from Emporium of the forgotten

Yes, i am a little eccentric, but i felt it necessary to salute the sun for deciding to make an appearance. Hehe.

Petunia x

What happens when a cat gets wet

So this is an entirely irrelevant silly post that i just simply had to share with all of you. I am not just a lover of vintage, a crafter, an amateur photographer, but i am also a cat lover. And naturally, being a cat lover, i have 3 of my own. It came to my attention today that 2 of my funny little kitties were really rather stinky, and so we had bath time. This was the result....

This is my little orange Figaro, named of course after the cat in Pinnochio (i thought i was awesome when i chose that name at age 9).

And this my dears is Tippany, the little rat cat. I find her quite intriguing and beautiful really, but i guess others may disagree. She's named for the way the tip of her tail always curls.

Don't think my kitties are overly happy with me for this afternoons bath time fun, but at least they both smell delicious.

Petunia

x

Springtime fun

I've recently received some gorgeous little spring delights from where else but etsy. I haven't had a chance to photograph a few of the dresses but here is my latest edition to my ever expanding wardrobe.

Shoes: Senso

Skirt: 1970's skirt from Wildfell Hall Vintage

Top and Cardigan: SES

Broach: 1980's pearl and silver broach

I just love that skirt, the image is of an ocean road. There are trees and bushes, and then in the ocean are little boats and mountains. It's just so lovely.

It seems that spring really has arrived as our Wisteria has blossomed and is already being pollinated by hoards of bees. It was like walking into a horror movie, where all you can hear is an eerie buzzing, and you have no idea where it is coming from, and then you look up just as the swarm of bees engulfs and kills you. Ok, i have a wild imagination, but i was a little freaked out.

I've been crafting again, expect some craft themed updates.

*Lonely Little Petunia*

The men in my life

It's been a lovely weekend as per usual, spent with the lovely Ellen. The weekend was busy, and involved a lot of cleaning, which was i have to admit i rather enjoy. But even with our cleaning and trips to the hair dresser and RTA, we managed to find our way to Vinnies. we are hopeless little things. I am glad we have no willpower though, else i wouldn't have found the most gorgeous little porcelain dolls.

We all know the wonderful Mr Charley Chaplain, with his cute little moustache, constantly fashioning a cane and bola hat. And hopefully all of you also know the delightfully silly Laurel and Hardy, famous from the 20's to the 40's. I now have dolls of those three wonderful comedians, thanks to Ellen's observing eyes.

Taking a little outing in the park.

Oliver Hardy in all his handsome glory.

Stan Laurel looking awfully cute.

The adorable Charley Chaplain. He's just great!

I think that the Laurel and Hardy dolls are a set as they have the same pants, coat, face painting ect. Whereas the Chaplain doll's face is not quite as intricate, and his pants are a different colour. But i think these three look so wonderful together, and currently reside on my books shelf :)

*Petunia*