Cosy = My Dad

When I think of the word cosy my Dad immediately springs to mind. Its not as if he was particularly cuddly or warm, he was 6ft and rather skinny most of his life. Its more the safe "cosy" I felt whenever we were together. Dad worked in an office and for as long as I can remember he carried musk lifesavers around in his suit jacket pocket. That lovely musk smell would greet me every time I hugged him around the waist, and so forever more that smell will make me smile, make me feel loved, happy and cosy. His lap was cosy too, his laugh big and expansive..I would sit and watch old British comedies tucked up on Dad's lap or scrunched in next to him as close as I could be! When I hug my boys now I just hope they feel that same amazing feeling of belonging that my Dad gave to me. When they curl up on a couch with their children I hope they'll remember the cosiness they felt as a child just as I do. Now that Dad's no longer alive, I really miss him but I hope wherever he is now he knows what a lovely legacy he left me! Hope he's cosy too :)

Read more Cosy stories here! Words and Pictures

argh! I want all of these

At Bride & Wolfe they have the most beautiful timber silhouettes! I just couldnt convince the lovely husband to part with that much money for something to hang on a wall! maybe one day, because I really am in love ;) There are such creative people out there!!

no comment :)

Just testing! are comments showing at the end of this post? Ok I can see they are but something happened with the comments to my previous two posts! Oh well, it must have been the code I used. Carry on.... :)

fun with colour at Polyvore

I spent a lovely day chatting with my bird catching cousin discombobula and the lovely Jane! It was fun to watch them try and sort a set of derwent pencils in colour order, while marvelling at the full spectrum of blues and greens and reds.....
If you love colour, collage and just creating stuff you'll love this site....here's a set I made earlier :)

trees of green - by Cloudbusting on Polyvore.com

mushroom retro - by Cloudbusting on Polyvore.com

Nesty bed

How I would love this bed!

Hurrah! for dead fish sandwiches

There are many things in this world that I'm unsure of but one thing I can say without any doubt whatsoever is my sons would rather clean their rooms than eat sardines! But I remember a time back in 1978 when sardine and onion sandwiches featured heavily on my school lunchtime menu! How did my Mum ever get me to try this sandwich filler? I wish Id asked her when I had the chance, but anyway, next to curried egg and lemon butter, sardine and onion were my favourites! Of course along with their tastiness came the big problem of their rather strong odour! My poor classmates would howl in protest as I opened up my lunchbox "Mrs Marinoff, Andrea's eating dead fish sandwiches again!!" and my poor teacher used to smile apologetically at me as she made me sit at the back of the room while the other kids sat out front on the mat.
The funny thing is, I secretly liked freaking the other children out with my disgusting sandwiches! Always being one to enjoy the limelight I grinned broadly as the others screwed up their faces and moved away!
I look back now and think about how I must have had much more courage and confidence than I do now. The thought of people having that reaction to something I do now doesn't appeal to me, but at 9 I quite enjoyed it! Wish I could channel that 9 yr old Andrea some days, a bit of her sardine eating courage would really do me well!

This story was inspirded by words and pictures
read some of the wonderful school lunch stories!

What makes me happy

Have been enjoying reading the blog The Happiness Project

and in an article about enjoying childrens lit the blogger quotes C.S.Lewis

Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of child­hood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childish­ness and the desire to be very grown up.

This made me smile, (as so much of what this great man said often does)

I have been reading a few childrens novels lately, one with my son and one because I enjoy being immersed in something I know will make me feel good!

Alex and I have been reading Jackie French's Fair Dinkum History books. The current one "Crims and Convicts" is proving to be really interesting but terribly sad as well! It is written in a humourous way, the illustrations are full of vomit, farts and poo (10 yr old heaven) but even Alex was shocked at hearing about the conditions the poor prisoners had to tolerate! This is also tying in nicely with his school work which is Australian history, each child in Alex's class has been given a new identity as a convict. Alex is a blacksmith who stole something...which he cant remember! ;)
Anyway a good book and next in the series is Squatters and Rotters

Im also revisiting a book I picked up for a dollar at the local second hand shop years ago, "The Children of The New Forest" by Captain Marryat. Its set in the 1600s during the English civil war and is basically about 4 children who are left homeless and parentless but learn to fend for themselves thanks to a nice woodsman.. so many of the good childrens books are sans parents who either die or desert them ;) Probably why I loves the Famous Five too..

I also get caught up in the beautiful descriptions of the countryside in and around the New Forest and with the four children.

What childrens books do you like to revisit?

Wordie love!

I love this! enter your blog address, play with colours and fonts and make a little wordie pic!

Knitting Nancy I miss you!

I wonder why I have a sudden yearning to knit something. I haven't knitted anything since I was a teenager, and then I got so frustrated I never finished it!
We have two second hand shops (op shops) at my local shopping square, one is cheap and junky and one is dearer and has much more order and shop dressing. I like both for different reasons, but the second one has a gorgeous old cabinet full of haberdashery. On Tuesday I rummaged around through the stack of old Paton's pattern books, a few I remembered from childhood as my Mum was a big knitter. The problem is I need a beginners pattern book, Ive forgotten everything except maybe casting on and knitting pearl and plain! and I was never that good at those anyway..Mum was always rescuing my lost stitches! Now Mums not here what will I do now? I have told a very knit savvy friend to expect me on her doorstep at anytime...she said " of course" but I could tell she really isn't expecting me to get past buying the wool and then leaving it in the cupboard for years. Ha!
We shall see, but I would like to give it a go again. Anyone have any beginners books or patterns they can recommend?
If my husband is really lucky I may even knit him one of these beauties!



ahh if all else fails I'll just have to bring out the treasured Knitting Nancy and knit a few rows on her.

Blondie and Twinings

When I was 17 I wanted to be Blondie, well Deborah Harry actually, not the other guys in the band Blondie...that's just weird! ;) Ive always been a huge fan of their music, At 17, I just KNEW that life would be so much better to be someone else, someone gorgeous, talented and sort after by every teenage boy in every bedroom in the world!

Thinking about that today on what was a rather hot Melbourne day I decided to listen to some Blondie while enjoying some English Breakfast tea and browsing through Country Living magazine with all it's beautiful interiors and grade II listed country houses and wishing I lived in the colder parts of the world (namely England)

Why do I always want to be someone else or live somewhere else, as if that will guarantee 100% happiness!

I feel as I if I spend quite a lot of my time feeling frustrated about ageing and at the same time wanting to finally grow up and deal with life! Listening to Blondie and delving into the world of country interiors is quite representative of my life at the moment! One foot in adolescence and the other in adulthood. While I don't want to lose the adolescent part of me completely I do need to only let it surface in a positive way, not in unrealistic fantasies of life as someone else. I do like being me, but if I could encase me in someone fitter, prettier and more dazzling, wouldn't life be better? ;)

2009 must be my year of letting go of the past and embracing the here and now! There is so much that is still wonderful to do and be....I want to be the person who doesn't wish they really did look like someone else or want somebody else's life or house or hair....etc etc...or want to be somewhere else as I so often do! I do feel I can do it, I do feel it's withing reach (even if it sometimes hides behind the curtains)

Let's raise our cup of Twinings to the present and our unique selves!