& it was one of THOSE days . . .

Greetings all,

In line with my new committment to blogging more frequently & enjoying it lots, i have to confess while i like to pretend each day is paradise, some are not. It's not the children, they have been happy, splashing about outside, playing beautifully, even dress ups in my wedding dress (a whole other post), making up new games (turning our walk in robe into a 'party booth' complete with closed doors, disco ball & iPod - the door b***h tried to charge me $1 for entry to my own bathroom this afternoon) . . . it's me. Some days i'm down with a headache, such is my brain. I do all the right things, eat well, drink plenty of water & exercise, yet headaches still find me.
So today was happily wasted lying on the lounge under a fan, watching Mad Men (oh that Don Draper, is it so hard just to love your beautiful wife Betty??!!) & drinking icey cold glasses of water (i know, shock to the system to you wellness enthusiasts, alas, it was 37C in Canberra today, i wanted ice damn it) & dinner was literally thrown together as follows - sausages browned in a casserole dish in the oven, turned, browned, toss in herbs, canellini beans & splash of apple juice, cook some more & serve. I went to the effort of making a spinach & herb salad with beetroot (yum) & the children filled up with some wholemeal bread. Easy. Another recipe from 'The Silver Spoon adapted to busy housewives who have a headache' & everyone has a fully belly. They have been informed they are having an early night!!
Now i've finished the Mad Men DVD seasons 1 & 2, well i'm at a bit of a loss of what to do next time i have a headache. I don't think i could do True Blood while unwell, maybe Desperate Housewives?? See, i have all these on DVD as i work alone, 30 hours a week in a studio & like televison company but can't stomach day time rubbish.
I have a bit more of a spring in my step since eating dinner - we eat early - but i've made my blog life easier, like simple settings & WiFi in the house. Also, i found my original small digital camera which i thought i lost at Floriade in 2008. The replacement camera was squashed in my handbag at a party. The replacement's replacement was purchased last month. All Nikon Cool Pix for those who care, we like to stick to a brand. Anyway, the original camera was found a week after the purchase of the 3rd one (by a very patient & understanding husband) so it's now back up to the latest one which is sooo easy to download & make my blog posts quick & easy. I like simple technology. I've also fiddled with my blog, I think it's running smoothly & i hope you enjoy!! I don't mind anonymous comments, but just in case i ever get a mean comment, well i am not posting it, who wants to hear mean people on line?? Get a life!!
Only on a Sunday hey, any other day, well light my tail, i have things to do & suffer that headache. Just can't quite get my font size right, maybe a tinkered too far?? Love Posie

New Recipe & Craft Project monthly challenge . . . you can do it too??

Greetings all,

Lovely Sheridan from Chalet Girl has this great One Per Month Challenge going on. So happy to be reunited with Sheridan, a fun customer from a few years ago, with a great family & excellent ideas. The simple rules are . . . to try one new recipe & one new craft project from all those cook & craft books you have on your shelves, which you may not have opened, attempted or bothered to use yet!! http://chaletgirl.wordpress.com/

First up, i'm offering this cooking effort from The Silver Spoon cookbook - not the famous Italian one from the 1950s, but their Children's adaptation for beginner cooks like me. Yes, beginner, me, after 12+ years of marriage & 4 children i'm still not a great cook, i'm a have-to type, not a want-to. So with many trips away for my husband this year, he is our enthusiastic chef who cooks with flavour, style & passion . . . i feel with an older audience now (read: judgemental children who let me know they could cook better) i should tighten my apron strings & get my act together. In the words of my grandmother Alice May, "i'd rather be sewing than stirring", but that excuse can't fly any longer. New year, new attitude & an actual inclination to cook. So yes, read between the lines, my husband bought me a children's cook book & i'm not offended in the slightest.

Ravioli, yes, first up, which requires ravioli filling, fresh pasta & a tomato sauce, effectively 3 recipes!!

After living in Darwin (tropics) for 2 postings totalling 6 years, i soon loved making my own dough for pizza & bread, the humidity makes everything rise so easily, very rewarding . . . so my pasta making came naturally & my husband insisted i did a better job by hand, than what he usually does in the KitchenAid. He taught himself & the children how to make pasta in July when i was in Sydney at Magnolia Square, thus all these fancy attachments for the mixer conveniently at my disposal.

300gm Italian 00 pizza flour & 2 happy eggs, that does a family of 6

an egg ring did the trick for good sized ravioli, however, will do smaller ones next time, these were a challenge in cutlery skills for children

simple ravioli filling of ricotta, ham, parsley, mozzarella, egg, parmesan, mixed up

hungry helpers, patting down the edges, we made about 35 from one batch

Can't actually claim the tomato sauce as my culinery work, our eldest did the lot (chopped tomatoes, sugar, garlic, basil & olive oil) don't judge me on my unpolished kettle!!

Won't you join in?? I got applause, yes really, it was delicious & remember, fresh pasta cooks so quickly - i'd actually make it from scratch than hang around waiting for dry pasta to cook, really!! When i say i am not a great cook, i am excellent at preparing, it's when heat is involved that i get distracted & things go wrong. I mean, i cook while doing spelling homework, checking emails, planning my tomorrow & starting on lunch box assembly. No i can't slow down, do you know my workload?? Multi task until i'm 45, when my 4th child leaves school and i'm taking a break!! My husband should have retired by then, oh, imagine . . . early retirement . . .

Anyway, Italian cooking with their simple fresh ingredients are so easy. All the herbs are home grown & any day now our tomatoes will ripen & we'll be cooking with them too. Now what craft project should i attempt . . . Thanks for the inspiration Sheridan, a good little nudge in the right direction. Love Posie

time for a new do . . .

Greetings all,

Well i do get lovely comments about my children, so thought i might dedicate an entire post about them. Being school children on school holidays, it's now the only time i get to spend with them 24/7. They don't even manage to get sick or require days off school very often, so i soak them up on holiday time. Today i took the 3 girls out for new hair cuts. I'm a cheapo Just Cuts kind of girl, it's $20 for children, choke, but they've never suffered a bad cut.

So my eldest opted for a big trim - a simple bob for low maintenance & summer ease.
This is girl child number 2. She had a beautiful trim off her waist length platinum hair. I'm rather tired of her always looking perfect, so here is a picture of her 7 days ago, after an untimely scooter-footpath-faceplant incident. Bless her academic & athletic perfection, she is clumsy. So out came her second baby front tooth in 24 hours (the first one was not so violently extracted by a bread roll). I took her to the dentist the following day who is very confident she'll have healthy adult front teeth. The Xrays showed good blood flow in the adult teeth which are still growing well inside her gums & they'll automatically fix any trauma before they cut through. Phew!! The dentist kept saying "so lucky, another month, no good, no good at all". Crikey!! Notice the bloody nose, darling child didn't put her hands out to break her fall, instead stopped on her nose, ripped 'Hitler style' skin from her upper lip & grazed up her arms. We went back to the scene of the crime the following day, incidentally on the way home from the dentist, cause we love to walk, & we found the shattered tooth on the other side of the footpath. Geesh, she sure smashed it out of there. Note: tooth fairy was very concerned & even though no tooth was offered that night, a whopping $6 was left, factoring in 'danger money'.
Now this is girl child number 3 (can you tell i spent a lot of my childhood in Asia, this is how they refered to girls back in the 80s, we were numbers, my brothers were introduced by name of course) . . . anyway, she does a good fringe, always has, since one was forced on her as a 2 year old when her twin sister cut her hair!! She looked in the mirror after having a fringe cut back into her hair today, for the first time in a few years & i said "don't you look like a lovely 8 year old" to which she quipped back "yeah, but knew i could look like i was 5 again". Sorry, since when did an 8 year old need to cut a few years of her age??!!

Finally, the boy . . . this is how i found him last night after spending a tad too long checking out other people's blogs. My husband was out at the cinema with our eldest (Avatar, again) & he had fallen asleep on the lounge. Hmmm . . . thought he was quiet (& a bit sweaty!!) He is obsessed with having his head on the orange Marimekko cushion, he does love a bit of colour.

So there you have it, my 4 little darlings. Now next post will be dedicated to new monthly persuits of cooking & sewing, as inspired by ChaletGirl. Love Posie

things close to my heart . . . a trip to our national museum

Greetings all, welcome to 2010!!
We have kicked off the year with a list of family things to do & see around our nation's capital - Canberra. Yes Canberra is stiff & serious, everyone is very important with parliament & all the public servants, alas, it has incredible 'places of interest' & amazing weather (remember our last posting was Darwin, next posting is Brisbane, so we're enjoying Winter, ice & snow as a novelty!!). 2010 will be our 3rd & final year living here with the Army, so we're taking advantage of Daddy-on-leave & school holidays to tick things off our 'must do' list. Silly but true, when it's your own back yard, you don't appreciate your local landmarks.
So we started off with the National Museum which had a Water Exhibition for H2O (pay admission). I was recently quoted over at Australian Women on Line with my silly season tip for managing children as saying "Just Add Water" as my children love baths, swimming, sprinklers, water pistols, you get the drift - now for the science . . . this back ground is a projection onto mist you couldn't even feel. Needless to say, completley fascinating!! We also spent the afternoon swimming, of course!!
Who wouldn't love a house with genuine vintage posters on the walls?? The camera (bottom right) is the famous Damian Parer's, who took so many of those amazing images on the Kokado Track/ Trail, in PNG in WW2.
This was the sewing box & machine of a gorgeous Australian lady engaged to a boy who went off to WW1 & never returned. She had a collection of things she made 'for her marriage'. Heart breaking!! Her lace work was incredible & dainty. Apparently her family found calico bags filled with handmade goodness after she passed away.

Isn't this grand, a welcome to the Princess of Cornwall. My mother is British, but can't say she's a fan of the current Duchess of Cornwall. Just found the flags over oppulent & fancifull. I wouldn't vote for us to become a republic, i know my husband likes being part of a Royal Australian Army, not just the Australian Army, it's a tad ordinary to not fight under a crown.

Fantastic discovery - a softie, 1940's style. I'm going to covet & draw inspiration from this design!! I have so many vintage fabrics, since collecting them for over a decade, what better way to use them up. I'll leave the fancy pieced designs to One Red Robin & Allana C. I like styles young children could also design, this piggy is too sweet.

& who hasn't been caught watching a little cricket this Summer?? It's the Jane McGrath pink test in Sydney this test match & i wish them well in their fundraising. I know my late mother-in-law would have appreciated the attention breast cancer research & nurses are getting. If you pop over to the Posie website, the Art Viva Betty Jane knitting needles raise money for the Jane McGrath Foundation - if you're feeling like getting ahead of your knitting projects now - these Tasmanian Oak needles have pink boobs at the ends.

How much fun would this be, holidaying in this caravan. I actually set off alarms trying to lean over to get better snap shots on the interior. My son thought that was so cool & criminal. How fabulous is the colour & style!! Wonder how that would look behind my Landcruiser?? Somehow i don't think it would sleep 6.

So there you have it, my passions & interests, all wrapped up into one post. I have always loved cricket, i'm married to a soldier & am a tad obsessed with vintage ways, especially sewing & large families - i think i would have been just as happy living 50 years ago, except i guess i wouldn't have spent 6 years at Sydney Uni getting educated. As my children finish up at school & my P&C duties cease (in another decade) i'll switch to more charity fundraising. Love Posie

Happy New Year 2010

Greetings all,

Wishing you all a fabulous NYE & fantastic 2010. I don't usually list resolutions as running a family of 6, i put them first & worry about myself later. Please don't think i'm feeling sorry for myself, i'm not, i know my children will be independent & living their own lives before i blink & i'll have too much time to think about myself, i rather enjoy the motherhood cycle. However, after 2009 gave me a taste of a whole year of 4 children in 30 hours of primary school each week - i know i have more pockets of time up my sleeve for my old favourites of Yoga, salads & quilting.

Yes, quilting - i might run a successful patchwork business but really only have time now for orders, or "quilting for cash" as my husband refers to it, instead of filling my home with my own handmade efforts. So, top of my list & kicking off 2010 is this patchwork quilt for my husband's new man lounge (King Furniture Delta II in pear upholstery) so i went with butch blues, greens, a good dose of Amy Butler fabrics including her old fabulous prints which i've been hoarding since she started designing fabric . . . better yet, i whipped it up in 24 hours from scratch. As it's for our home, a lovely old king size Sheridan sheet went on the back & edges. Granted it's a fully machined, basic 30cm square block pattern, alas, does the trick with pure wool wadding from Retro Mummy (Hi Corrie, so great to see you at Christmas in Sydney).

check out the gorgeous weather here today, hard to believe an hour after this shot, it was raining!!

Well 2010 has the potential to be my busiest & most successful year of Posie yet, what with Handmade Market being so incredible here in Canberra & my new website. With my business plan from 2001 loosely describing a life of 4 children in primary school & a large productive studio; constant orders & high end markets; a wholesale label stocked in over a dozen stores; awesome website & regular media coverage come 2010 . . . well it's a scary reality, it's actually come true!! I feel so lucky, sure i've worked hard but i'm proud that my passion is still my driving force. It seemed all so vague & un-real dreaming all this up . . . i feel so humble my life has turned out this way with husband, children, career etc. Best of all i have avoided returning to the real world (pharmacology or some lab coat clad science based job) & made a go of working from home.

As for my resolutions, i don't drink or smoke, so have to start with the other super obvious one . . . i still have weight to lose. Such a bummer to gain weight AFTER having babies?? Turns out it was just carbs, oh how i love carbs & how they love my belly & thighs back. So i'll continue with Tony Ferguson, over 10kg down & i'm ready to drop the next 10!! So losing weight, tick!! How typical for a woman to want to lose weight.

I want to add to that more exercise, by this i mean my love of Yoga, which not only tones you but relaxes you, so i will get back to this . . . tomorrow. I think i'll do it after school, with the children or while they do homework, as they like to join in & hell, i can still call out spelling words & multitask while in many poses, so . . . daily yoga, tick!!

Eating better, ties in with weight loss & yoga of course, but my husband bought me a most excellent cook book which i'll review shortly. So did you know it's much better to eat fresh pasta, than dry, so while pasta is not my favourite of carbs, it's an easy one for the family so i'm going to start making my own pasta. My husband makes excellent homemade pasta with the KitchenAid (along with sausages, icecream, the man can make anything!!) but i would like to rival him, i'm keen & willing. Also ties in with our faboulous herb garden & almost-ripe tomatoes in the garden. Make more of my own food from scratch, tick!!

I'm thinking those biggies shall do the trick, better for me & the family. It does mean i'll be cutting back on all but fundraising in my volunteer P&C schedule (sorry school). I will appreciate our local area better by walking our dog further each day & getting back on my bicycle, which i loved in Darwin. So a long daily walk bike ride with or without the puppy & children is so going to happen!!

As for business wishes, well don't want to give away any secrets as i have big plans BIG IDEAS coming, alas, i want to grow Edna&AliceMay & have her in more stores, finish off the Posie site by mid January & sort out the studio for a bumper 2010 year of production.

Wishing you all every success in the world, love Posie

Silly Season Silliness

Merry Christmas everyone,

Well one family Christmas feast down, one to go. So fabulous when both you & your husband were born & raised in the same city, your extended families who you visit at Christmas time are in the same place. Well almost, sometimes we go to siblings' homes . . . north of Sydney (Central Coast), sometimes south of Sydney (Southern Highlands). Either way to do 2 big family days in a row, it's ace!! Let's hope these angelic faces continue . . .

NOTE: daughters 1 & 3 just refused to have 'nice' photos taken today

So today was my family's Christmas, celebrated at my eldest brother's place, around the corner from our parent's home, where we all grew up. It went something like this . . . eating, swimming, eating, swimming, gifts, eating, getting splashed & a whole lot of laughing. I hope everyone has a handy big strong uncle who is happy to spend hours tossing children around the pool like we do!! Tomorrow's it's my in-laws turn & we're armed with a fabulous turkey & gazillions of gifts for them!!

How much fun was this, the perfect way to wear out children!!

Wishing you all a fabulous day with your families & friends, love Posie

Charing to Christmas

Greetings all, well it never surprises me when i go a month between blog posts.

Let's just say the big market weekends (Mathilda's, Handmade, MOCCA - which was lovely, really adorable, my children had a ball there, including winning basket balls & the cake stall) just have one last Old Bus Depot market go to. Also wrapping up the year, P&C reports, carting endless art & craft to the car, personal Christmas shopping . . . well all that plus on line orders, thank you, it all leaves little time for the small business owner who has a bunch of children & a husband to love too.

So i won't apologise, just offer up some images of the latest goings on. Which include our eldest going to a year 6 disco, twins turning 8, our son dreaming of being a reindeer & let's just say . . . with 4 children using crockery, we break a few plates & bowls in our house, so i treated the family to 2 new Royal Doulton dinner sets (at half price) from the Gordon Ramsay range (see giant box full of foam). Think simple white design, a bit of a curve, generous mugs & a little pattern in the edges where they are turned. The childen have been warned if they break any pieces, Gordon will swear at them. I don't have an ounce of affection for the man, other than the fact he also has 4 children with twins in the mix & CAN design lovely flat wear. If you'd like to check out where to get a bargain for every day dinner ware, may i suggest Peter's of Kensington who delivered in 2 days, at this time of year interstate & everything. Extremely happy!!

While my wonderful husband is on leave, we have enjoyed home grown herbs, an entire back garden make over, homemade sausages, homemade icecream & just all round relaxing life with swimming & dog walking. In my sleep i manage to sew & clean, but the washing doesn't seem to fold itself??!! Shame about that. Only 2 more days of uniforms then plain clothes Friday & i'm done with yellow shirts for another year. We're in Canberra for a 3rd year so amazingly, we don't have to move this Christmas or seek out a new home, school or friends, ahhhh . . .

So long, farewell, i hope to post before Christmas, one last market this Sunday, deep breath, love Posie