Each Little World

It has been a long, tiring, tension headache kind of week. 

In the midst of this, on Wednesday I found myself stuck in the junior library waiting for my daughter to finish ballet because the finish time had arbitrarily changed that day, which was kind of annoying because I had torn through early peak hour traffic to get there on time because she was unwell.

I sat on the tiny little plastic chair and picked up a book from the nearest shelf.  

The Secret Garden. 

Given to the school by Judith Bruns, in 1990.  That was a coincidence as Miss Bruns, with her horizontal shelf bosum, was my Year 7 teacher.   A confirmed spinster, with very few people skills but a wonderfully kind heart. 

I read the first chapter while I was waiting.  You remember, it begins with the description of Mary Lennox as yellow skinned and pinch faced, and selfish and egotistical.

It is a traumatic start to a children's book:   a cholera epidemic breaks out in India, where Mary is living, her parents die, and those servants who are not struck down flee the house.  Mary is forgotten and left abandoned for days on end.    She wanders the house in a dreamlike state,  encounters snakes and drinks a left over glass of wine as she is so thirsty and falls down and sleeps again.   

Once discovered she is sent to live with an English clergyman, and then ultimately to Yorkshire to her uncle's windswept stony abode.   And we all know what happened then.

This chapter transported me, just for that five minutes.   To a world of little girls who are not loved enough, and a different era where life was cheap, short and hard.   I read this book many times as a child and that horrendous first chapter had completely escaped my memory in place of the happy secret garden activities in the end of the book.  Isn't it funny what your memory retains? 

Reading this, trivial little things like waiting for my sparkly pink ballerina girl, and peak hour traffic, and challenges at work melted away.   We are all fortunate, and largely blessed. 

(Images (1) EachLittleWorld.com (2) not sure sorry  (3) Flickriver.com)

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Megan Park cushions are now just a short walk away.....

I love making my own cushions.  I truly do.   

But to be homest, what I like even more is ogling and then buying other beautiful cushions.  And the very best are coming to my local shopping strip, thanks to Megan Park, Melbourne based textile and fashion designer, whose work takes inspiration from embroidery in Delhi, antique markets in France and the London design scene. 

Her new shop in High Street, Armadale, designed by Suzie Stanford, another excellent and talented Melbourne person about whom I wrote here, opens this week.

There will be cushions galore, delicately embroidered, one of a kind, little stuffed pieces of beauty. 

These cushions are just the thing for this kind of interior:

And I expect that there will also be beautiful clothes for me to gaze upon longingly:

This dress seems to me to be directly descended from this Turkish crewelwork wrap Megan created in 2003:

This is from Vogue Australian January 2010: 

And here is a glimpse of her Melbourne home as featured in Home Beautiful last year:

Target this is most definitely not.  But these are pieces to save up for, treasure and love.  I have many times made the mistake of buying cheap cushions. I know people say that is okay because then you can change the look of a room but I don't agree.  

Whilst I have nothing against a perfect tea towel cushion,  I think cushions shouldn't be throwaway and poor quality.    They age and date badly, go lumpy in no time and look like rubbish within 6 months.  Now, I am coming around to the thought that they should last and last and be treated like an investment.    What do you think?  I know this is hardly world hunger on the importance scale, but it is very interesting how people choose to spend their hard earned money. 

So now I get to the important part. 


My plan for the next year is to only spend money on things which are high quality and reasonably timeless and which I will use or return to again and again.  No Ikea.   No Target.  No Sportsgirl.  No nylon-y underwear.  No cheap knitted tops from Witchery.  No Howard's Storage World.  No cheap chardonnay.   No OK or Hello or Grazia.   No braindead chick flicks.   No cheap plastic play cars for the children.  No Party Animals (if you don't know what these are consider yourself blessed).   (Actually I may make an exception for storage because I keep needing so much of it).    This will be my year of no rubbish purchases.    Depending on how my discipline holds up it will stretch out for a lifetime, or compress into 6 months.    Only time will tell. 




(Images (1) to (4) from Megan Park (5) Not sure sorry (6) EmbroiderersGuild (7) Vogue Australia (8) Home Beautiful)

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Coppery Potness

I recently cleaned out some of the high inaccessible storage cupboards in our kitchen which need a ladder to look into (thanks Mr Architect!) with the aim of throwing out or giving away those items no longer needed, moving not so much used stuff in, and creating more room in the everyday part of the kitchen.

There were many things up there I had forgotten about, including novelty Y2K champagne glasses (remember Y2K? All the contracts we drafted had to have special Y2K clauses in them just in case everything re-set to Year Zero!  Seems so silly now), a huge lobster pot, old emission globes left by the previous owners and these two copper pots:

Okay, I obviously hadn't forgotten they existed.  They were there, in the deep recesses of my brain, but we had not used them for so long, they had slipped into a limbo area.  I got a nice surprise when I found them but they were almost black (with some green bits) and needed a really really good clean.  I got my husband to do that, and as you can see they are still not perfect.  

I have a very minimalist kitchen.  I don't really have anywhere to display these beauties.  But sometimes open shelving beckons me because I really love copper pots against stainless steel.  Something about the contrast of industrial modernity v an almost Gothic patina of age.  I so love this kitchen. 

This is a bit judgmental I know, but I just feel that someone who colour codes their cookbooks probably does not get much use out of these beautiful hanging pots. 

A lot of US and UK kitchens have a central hanging pot arrangement. It is not very common at all in Australia.   I don't think I could live like this but if you used your pots regularly it would be quite practical.   When I was a little girl I saw a story on Farrah Fawcett Majors in US Vogue.  It must have been about 1978 and she was at the height of her fame.  The story had a picture of her in her 1970's kitchen with a huge set of hanging copper pots.   She spoke of her love of cooking, and it made me look at her in a completely different light. 

This is a very English kitchen, complete with an Aga stove. 

This is Martha Stewart's kitchen at Turkey Hill.   Many famous chefs have kitchens which are copper pot heaven. Julia Child's, with her pegboard hanging wall, is very well known.  And this is Elizabeth David's:

Every kitchen should have a copper pot.  They are things of beauty not just practicality.  And they last forever. They are a pot to pass down to your children, if you can keep it clean enough! 

Apparently copper bowls are very good for whisking eggs.  But in fact I feel I only need one, the little pot, which can be used for cooking sauces.  These pots distribute heat really well, and can also be brought to the table for serving, just as is done at Vue de Monde as you can see below:

I must get out the copper cleaner again this weekend.  What a pity there is no miracle quick and easy way to clean copper. 

(Images (1) Marie Claire Italia (3) Raimondkoch.com (4) Badgley Mischka's kitchen via Decorpad (5) Coastal Living (6) House to Home (7) Martha Stewart (8) JohnnyGrey.com (9) Vue de Monde)

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Daphne and Homemade Baked Beans

My daughter is rarely ill.   In fact she hardly feels the cold so when she says she is sick I tend to immediately believe her without endless prodding and thermometering. 

This week we had such a day.   Given I was at home working anyway, it seemed opportune to cook up something comforting for her.    

For her, that is tomato on toast, or avocado on toast, or spaghetti bolognese, or perhaps baked beans.  Usually Heinz baked beans.  I do succumb to tinned food occasionally, doesn't everyone?  But I think what is really startling is the difference, in texture and colour particularly, between the tinned product and what you can make at home.    And it is probably worth mentioning that these are great for a hangover.  

I know that you can make baked beans with dried beans, and cook them slowly for hours and hours.  And of course, my dish is not exactly perfect itself, cooked as it is with tinned food.  But it has a really lovely reddish colour, and does not have that gelatinous slimy gluggy texture of tinned baked beans.    

This is my quick method.

Ingredients

1 400g tin of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed gently

1 400 g tin of tomatoes

A couple of pieces of bacon or prosciutto, chopped into little squares

A small brown onion, chopped finely

One garlic clove, chopped finely

Method

Gently saute the bacon, onion and garlic in a little olive oil until the bacon is slightly browned and the onion translucent.

Add the drained beans, stir gently to coat with contents of pot, then add tomatoes.  Stir again and simmer for about 20 minutes or until thickened and not too runny.  

Season and eat.  

And this was her lunch. This plate is one of the two I bought when I bought my Devil Night Light last weekend.  

Our daphne has been happily flowering this winter, just like last winter.  I don't know why, we actually do nothing to help it along.   

I have started reusing my candle jars once they are burned out. If you soak them in hot water the left over wax tends to fall away. This is a tiny little frosted Manuel Canovas and is about the only thing I have found for daphne display.

This makes me feel considerably less bad about the original cost of the candle.  Am I the only one who thinks that cost does not necessarily equal high quality smelliness?   I actually like Voluspa the most, they scent a room really well and do not cost the earth.    I still can't bring myself to burn them constantly however.  Must be my Scottish ancestry.  

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The Light is in the Eye of the Beholder

My son has had a rash of nightmares, about bad robots, bad ladies, bad mens, bad octopi, bad Supermen, bad dinosaurs and other bad things, which mostly live in the dark shadows of his room. 

He asked for a night light.  And I thought: well I will try anything and my daughter got one at 3 so why not. 

I loathe going from shop to shop looking for things.  My daughter has the Ikea flower night light and it is still going strong but I loathe Ikea on a Saturday and I remembered seeing one in a shop around the corner.   So, quick as a flash, as I am wont to do, I went right out and bought one. 

The light I bought was Italian, from Market Import, one of my favouritest shops in all of Melbourne which sells colourful linens and tin and porcelain from Mexico.  I also came home with some goat's milk soap and two little pear plates.   Arrgghh. 

The supposed five minute assembly of modular bits of white bendy plastic of course became 1/2 an hour but I was most impressed with the result.  Isn't it cute?

Then my husband arrived home, saw it and said it looked like the devil.   Something to do with the horns.  And I must say when it is all lit up it does give me a start, glowing in a slightly menacing way in the corner of the room.   Especially if you walk past the bedroom and quickly glance in.  

Of course it doesn't matter what we think.  Little P loves it and it lights up the room like a beacon (so now he thinks it's morning when it's actually 3 am).   Which then led to a whole series of conversations along the lines of 'Okay, it's only morning when mummy says it is morning. Until I say 'it's morning now!' you have to stay in bed sleeping peacefully'. 

Maybe I should have been less hasty and gone with an egg light, like this:

What do you think?  Devil or Cow?

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A bit of pattern on the floor

I have often wondered whether our home could pull off a patterned rug.  Not just a Persian. But something modern.  One option is a small print which is pretty uncontroversial really.  

At the moment in our conversation pit we have a red shag pile rug.   Which I love.  It holds the crumbs really well, and it can look messy and squashed without it mattering.  

But I sometimes wonder whether I could live with something with a pattern which dominates the whole room?  Like this:

(Greg Natale for Designer Rugs)

Or this:

 (Marni for the Rug Company)

Or this:

(Greg Natale)

Or this:

Perhaps you need a bold rug for a bold room?

This is by Vixen, who did my light shades:

In the UK, The Rug Company makes divine rugs by Paul Smith and Vivienne Westwood but the ones I love the most are by Marni:

and this was by Kim Parker (no longer available):

In Australia, Designer Rugs have just launched a new range by designer Claudia Chan Shaw.   These are not really my style but they are certainly brave. DR has also done a collaboration with Wedgewood. 

Designer Rugs also use a number of Australian designers to create rugs, including Alex Perry, Akira Isogawa, Easton Pearson and Vixen.

These two are by Akira: 

And this is by Dinosaur Designs who make wonderful jewelry, and household items, often from resin:

How beautiful is this blobby one: 

You can see the consistency of the Dinosaur Designs vision when you look at  these earrings which I bought from Dinosaur Designs in 1992 to wear to a wedding.  

I am still waiting for them to come back into fashion.

On balance I think I prefer a big flower to big blobs, Anthropologie has also done lots of flowery rugs, like this:

Or would such a rug be like a striking print dress, which one tires of too quickly?

(Images: (1) House to Home (2) Jonathan Adler at Elle Decor (3) Madeline Weinrib  (8) Elle Decor (5)(7)(9)(12)(13)(14)(15)  Designer Rugs (6) (10) (11) The Rug Company (12) Anthropologie)

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What's in the Bag?

I paid a visit to the Essential Ingredient today, to pick up some chestnuts (pre-cooked vacuum packed).  More on that below.

I usually avoid this place like the plague, not because there is anything wrong with it, rather its array of condiments, spices, plates, cooking implements, cookbooks and other provisions is so mind blowing I always end up leaving with something lovely but pointless like a mini-grater or tiny porcelain tart cases.

But I had to go, because I don't know anywhere else in Melbourne that sells these chestnuts. 

You know those magazine fluff pieces where someone like Miranda Kerr is asked to disclose the contents of their handbag?  The contents are always semi fake aren't they?  No used tissues, bits of rubbish, phone chargers, Cabcharge vouchers, Medicare rebate forms or elastic bands.  No, it's things like pristine Chanel lipstick,  a full tub of Eve Lom eye cream and an unscratched Hermes wallet.

So in that same fluff piece spirit, here is my bounty from Essential Ingredient.  

Sushi rice and nori seaweed, as I thought it might be fun to make sushi with the children although as I write this I realise I don't have one of those little wooden rolling mats. 

Walnut oil for a batch of Nick Nairn salad dressing.  Can you believe how expensive this stuff is?   I find it hard to bring myself to buy it, hence the small tin. 

(Sigh) a measuring cup, very hard to find and the very best style in my opinion, as it measures down to 25 ml, in plastic, to replace this: 

which my husband describes as a heirloom, he has had it for 20 years.   Never mind that the markings have rubbed off so you have to feel the levels with your fingers as if it were braille.  

Some small baking trays, for the children's dinner.   No not for them to eat, but to cook their little sausages etc in.   I am not sure what Non Attacca !!!! means, but I think it is something good like non - stick.  These are to replace this embarrassment: 

Some little French tartlet things, to fill with egg and mayonnaise for my egg eating child, and maybe avocado for the almost vegan one. 

And finally, the chestnuts.   To cook with apples, cider, cream and pheasant breasts, one of my favourite, 

winter, only cook once a year dishes.   

Happy cooking to you all this weekend.. 

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