Mr BB saved the day!

In a brief conversation with Mr BB this evening, I admitted that I did not RTFM.

Master 7, quick as a flash, called out: "What's RTFM?"

Mr BB, for whom thinking on his feet is a job requirement, calmly said it was a German acronym for 'read the instructions'.

Phew!

Must. Watch. What. I. Say......

You can't get much for five dollars these days...

Or so the ladies in the Rotary Op-Shop in Rosebud mused. It was a cold morning, rain was trying to become horizontal, and Mother-In-Law and I braved the conditions to make a dent on the 7 and counting op-shops in the Rosebud area.

I went straight to the haberdashery section. Totally disorganised, zips with knitting needles, buttons scattered everywhere, and patterns and magazines piled in a corner. It was an Aladdin's cave. Judging by the dust and moth carcasses it had been some time since the area was excavated.

Under a pile of magazines was a lovely tin. It reminded me of some Willow brand tin canisters I had passed by in Mont Albert the day before. Labelled $5, I thought it battered and a little rusty, but certainly a lovely tin.


I picked it up - well, I tried to. H E A V Y T I N. Hmm, getting better I thought! Upon opening it, I discovered the mother load of thread, wooden cotton reels, delicious colours so rich that I possibly drooled on it! It needs airing, being rather musty, but is beautiful in the endless possibilities.


All for $5. Happy.

Add a 50c Golden Hands bonus, and I was content with the haul. So much thread, so little time...


Thank you so much for the comments and thoughts about Mr BB. He really gave us a scare, but is certainly improving daily.

Take care,

J

It's been a long time, been a long time, been a long.....

It really has been a long time since I blogged. Unintentionally. After a few weeks, my bloglines stand at 533 and I may have to clear them and start again. Easter has come and gone. School holidays came and went. Sewing made a regular appearance on my to-do list. I had a lovely evening whipping up presents for littlies.

A top for Pops from Sew Hip - she looks super-cute in lemon and turned 2 this week.

Jonty turned 2 and got a pair of pants that over time will become shorts (the beauty of the draw-string waist).

Russian dollies for Miss 2 and Pops to cuddle and play with.

A skirt for K who just turned 3. K loves pink, her mum prefers black, skulls, etc. Here thanks to Spotlight they can both be happy!

We had a week in Melbourne during which I had some time to myself in the beautiful city, saw friends and family, celebrated Mr BB's 40th birthday, and made it back up the Hume to Canberra.

Mr BB then fell ill with meningitis and spent some days in hospital. Scary time. What do you do when a Dr says to you: "He'll either be better in 24 hours or he'll be dead" ????? I did very little. I kept it together around the kids. I catastrophised when they were at school. I envisaged the kids and I living in a caravan in rural Victoria. Without an annex. I swore that Life Insurance was something we should spend on. I prayed. I cried. I knitted feverishly.

I visited The Man I Have Loved for 15 years who was residing in isolation. After donning a mask, gloves and a yellow gown I sat with him. He oscillated between sleep and hallucinations. Morphine for pain. I sat there in the "dress-ups" that were supposedly to prevent me becoming infected. It seemed pointless really. The night before I had sat with him for hours in emergency. Holding his hand, kissing his forehead, pretty much rolling in any germs to be had.

Thankfully, he's now home, and very much on the improve. Time will bring good health and strength. The knitting has continued and I have immersed myself in my sock. I began this sock years ago. It has been unpicked, re-worked, thrown aside, and fiddled with. I spent an age working out how to knit in the round. Then I paused a few months to work out how to turn the heel. Then again it lay waiting for me to work out how to pick up stitches and do the foot. I was so worried about Mr BB that I didn't even pause to worry about how to graft a toe. If craft is therapy, then it has really been a wonderful way to get through the week.



One down, one to go! I wore it last night though and loved the feel of my first hand-knitted sock. Maybe I can do the second one in a shorter time frame.

Pics and words following later in the week of happy op-shoppiness of the past month.

Take care,

J.

Fruits of our labour

Breakfast. Best meal of the day. Peaches from a local tree poached in cinnamon and vanilla bean, peeled and stoned, with home-made Greek yoghurt and sprinked with nuts. Delicious.



Tomorrow will be rockmelon (cantaloupe if you live south of the Murray), grown by Mr BB. They are not large, but they smell amazing!

Eat more Fruit!

xx

Pineapple Sorbet

Lego version of the Big Pineapple, as seen at Brickvention 09 in Melb earlier this month.

Mr BB is well-renowned for his ice-creams and sorbets amongst our family and friends. At the market on the weekend he bought 2 super-ripe pineapples for a song. If you were at Fyshwick you may have seen a super-excited family? We know how good his sorbet is!!

I also thought that for the benefit these ladies, I'd share the recipe and process.

Use as much pineapple as you can blend up to 2.5 cups of fruit pulp.


Be patient, it will blend without the addition of extra liquid. Give it a poke with a utensil to move it about.


In the meantime, mix sugar, water and lime juice to make a sugar syrup. Stir it over the stove on a low heat until the sugar has melted. This needs to be chilled in the fridge.


Mix the two together and freeze as per insructions of your ice-cream machine. Simple, no?



Add it to Mr BB's premium vanilla ice cream for a "Splice" you can't get enough of! YUM. It's worth having a hot day for this. Trust me. You're welcome to come over and sample it, but it will be all gone in a day or so!!

j