This week’s edition

of random search terms used to find the Portion. Having a booby kind of day obviously.

Wednesday - some teatowels

 

One thing that always jumps into my hands at the oppy is vintage linen teatowels.  Since I’ve been crafting, I’ve found them a great source of fabric for making bags and cushions.  (My fave handbag is still one Laura made out of a Sale souvenir tea towel with a swaggie on it.)  So I thought I’d share a few pics with you… I do have enough for a “collection” but they’re scattered around either in use, in my fabric stash, WIPs in my sewing pile or turned into cushions.

Maps and wildlife are perennial favourites, here’s two of my less kitsch ones - grabbed at random this morning, and yes, I know they need an iron.

 

And this one I found ages ago, and was taken by the crafty goodness it illustrated.  The Knitting Knazi looked into joining the CWA at one stage, but didn’t follow through.  I can’t remember why.

 

Edit - I forgot to tell you some of my favourite Australian things today:
1. Magpies singing
2. Ben Mendelsohn (he won my heart in 87 with ‘The Year My Voice Broke’)
3. Wattle in Springtime (I’m not allergic)
4. Going caravaning for holidays
5. A couple of Bex and a lie down.

Tagged!

By Button Beauty, the premise being this:

1. Write your own six-word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog (and include a visual illustration if you’d like).
3. Link to the person who tagged you in your post.
4. Tag 5 more blogs with links.

So here you go, mine is:

“Seeing every day as an opportunity.”

…which is not something I necessarily always do, but something I’d like to strive for.  I thought about saying “as a gift”, but it sounded a bit twee to me.  I’m all about gratitude and appreciating what I have at the moment, so here’s a pic of my Kimmidoll “Ayame”, who I was drawn to in the shop, without actually realising what she represented.  (Yes, I know it’s all a marketing ploy, but it’s a positive, uplifting one, so I’m for it.)

Ayame says : “My spirit brings prosperity, happiness and fulfilment.  You release my power by nuturing within yourself a spirit of appreciation.  By valuing yourself, others and everything you have, you can enjoy a full and rewarding life.”

Right on.  And I’m tagging:
1. Bootznall
2. Pigeon Pair

3. Two Cold Feet
4. Cate
5. Little Gem Session.

Off you go!

Australiana week - further to yesterday’s “things I like”

Thanks for sharing some of your faves with me peeps! My list was a reference to this ad…am I the only one who remembers it?

 

PS. Watch at your own risk, you’ll have the song stuck in your head all day. I’ve had it stuck in mine since about 1975!

Australiana Week - Tuesday: I luvs me a book

aka “Why I love Australia in the 1950’s”.

Given the fun we’re having this week with our “this is… my favourite book” I thought a book was appropriate for today.  And as luck would have it, this one jumped into my hands at the oppy yesterday arvo.  Written by Bryce Kinnear and published in 1955 by the “Australian Publicity Council”, here is Land of the Southern Cross - Australia.

Henry Bolte writes in an introduction: “This book is intended to present, in word and picture, an accurate and balanced impression of the Commonwealth for visitors here for the Games, and for the large numbers of people abroad whose interest in Austalia may be aroused at this time.”

The contents tell us of Australia’s size (2 974 581 square miles) and population (9 million people), with wool being our most important primary industry (28% of the world’s wool coming from Australia).  Sections on wool, cattle, crops, (do we still grow tobacco here?), wine, timber, housing the people, and a profile of each state follows.

As I grew up near Ballarat, here’s a picture of the throbbing metropolis - Sturt Street  (except it was nothing like this when I went to school there).

 

Then we move into Papua New Guinea (part of our Commonwealth at the time),  water (including the Snowy River project), power, industry, and transport- air, rail, road and sea.  There’s lots of pictures of happy Australian workers busily making car parts, picking fruit, driving trucks, and generally being the salt of the earth.

Second picture on the left is a washing machine factory - my mum had a Stampco washing machine very similar to this until the early 1990’s.   The picture of the building is captioned “A modern paint factory at North Coburg.”

The book closes with two pages called “the Expanding Horizon” which is a heart stirring message of the great country that Australia is, and is yet to become:

“The Australian people today stand at the threshold of a vital and glowing future - a future that, given courage, responsibility and honesty of purpose, holds achievements in nationhood and material progress undreamed of by their forefathers.”

One of the things that strikes me about this book is that the Promotion Council aren’t blowing wind up our kilts, Australia is a great place to live.  You know when you can’t quite pinpoint a feeling?  I have a warm sense of nostalgia for 1950’s Australia, I’m not sure why, I wasn’t born until 1970. I guess it’s because it’s when my parents came of age, and a lot of their ideas and values are firmly rooted (much like Gemma’s hills hoist) in that era.  Growing up we had a lot of hand me down furniture, 50’s cookbooks, old cartoons and movies and music, Mum’s and Dad’s favourites being Doris Day and Buddy Holly respectively.  I lived in a little country town where every Monday at school we’d march and hoist the flag and sing an ANZAC song, and on a Thursday we’d watch Government educational films that our teacher ordered from the City on the reel to reel projector, none of them being made after 1962.  My mother still uses the term “New Australians” - which I actually find rather charming as I think it’s a good way to describe migrants, and she came over from Holland in the very early 50’s.   So I think my 70’s childhood definitely had one foot in the past…was I brainwashed?

Everything did seem so full of promise, Australia was rich with resources and as Harold Holt says on the back of the dust jacket:

“Our record of achievement, since our founding in 1788, gives us faith to go forward; to bring more people and more capital to help mould the destiny of Australia, land of opportunity unlimited.

Here is the portrait of a happy, vigorous nation - proud of it’s past, but confident that it’s best years lie ahead.”

Of course this book is a product of its time, so issues such as the treatment of indigenous people are passed over.  What do you think?  Have we lived up to the “promise” of our early years?

Today’s instalment of things I like about Australia:

• 1. football
• 2. meat pies
• 3. kangaroos
• 4. Holden cars

A Week of Vintage Australiana - Monday

aussie tablecloth, originally uploaded by drewzel.

Meet me at Mike’s have Gemma guesting for a week of Vintage Australiana… her first post  about lamingtons and Anzac biccies is a delight!
I have a very soft spot for pre-1960 Australiana, usually in the form of textiles and books. So I thought I’d play along and share a few of my op-shopped delights with you.

Today’s find is an old Aussie Tablecoth, with the obligatory map in the middle and our native animals around the edges (one thing I’m particuarly proud of is our Wildlife, we have the coolest animals and the prettiest birds!) This particular cloth now resides in Tuscon AZ with my sis Edna, who’s added it to her collection of fab travel souvenirs.

As part of this week, I’ll make a list of things I love about Australia:
1. the flora and fauna
2. lamingtons - without jam, Gemma! And don’t get me started on cream in them…eww…
3. the groovy shape of our country’s land mass
4. the fact that a lot of Aussies prefer Waltzing Matilda to our National anthem

to be continued…

Me pre-1985

Angela asked us to also share a Flashback Friday-esque pic this week, so here’s me pre ‘85.  Actually this is me pre-’75 as well.  Not sure how old I was here, but I was born in 1970.  And you also get to see my sis and bro looking cute.  My brother is a dead ringer for Tim Brooke-Taylor in my opinion.  And yep, I’m still a Moonface.

 

This is…my favourite book

This week’s “this is…”  challenge is another good one, my favourite book.  Such a difficult question, so many books that I love.    I decided my criteria would be books that I can read again and again, so I’ve got a few.  The first one is To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee), I first had to read it in Year 10 and have loved it ever since, every couple of years it comes down from the shelf and asks me to read it.  I think almost everyone counts this one among their list of favourites, so it’s sort of an obvious choice, so I’ll give you some more favourites:

The Collector (John Fowles), I read this one when I was about 15, as my sis was studying it in Literature at the time.  I think the way Fowles creates Miranda’s world through her journal is incredible.

The Great Gatsby (F.Scott Fitzgerald) I also read back in high school and love it.  I’m not sure if it’s because of the references to the era, the sense of emptiness and hopelessness it conveys to me, but again I have to read it every so often.  And I named my cat after it.

Honorable mentions also go to:

The Bell Jar (Plath) -read that in high school and alas, could relate way too much;

The Go-Between (LP Hartley) - first read on HSC reading list;

Playing Beatie Bow (Ruth Park) - grade 5;

…and a teenage favourite, Paul Zindel’s ‘Pardon Me, You’re stepping on my Eyeball’.  The adventures of Edna Shinglebox and Marsh Mellow blew my 11 year old mind.

PS.  Will update with photos later, not at home right now to take pics o’bookage.

This is…my discovery

AKA this is me running late and catching up on my This is…posts.

I don’t know if I can take the credit for “discovering” these shoes, as I’m not sure if it was me or my friend Chris who saw them first. (Chris has size 6 feet.)  But yay!

Cool. Vintage. Shoes. That. Fit. My. Big. Flat. Feet.

 

And another discovery of sorts, I love this CD at the moment - Colin Meloy sings Live.  Fave songs - ‘Wonder’ and ‘Last night I dreamt I was an Architect’.

Get knit (or die tryin’)

As I’ve already mentioned here, I’m into knitting again at the moment and have been working away with wool and needles in pursuit of something half decent. However, at this stage, knitting is not my friend.

I can knit and purl up a mean scarf, but anything more complicated has so far been a recipe for frustration. Today I spent some time sorting out my needles (like all op-shoppers, I have a collection of various sizes, both metric and imperial, and some still in their vintage packaging.) At the oppy on Thursday I scored a nice bag of basic wool in blue red and cream, and 3 pairs of needles for $4.50…my plan being to turn the wool into some sort of softie for Mirabel. This afternoon I also deconstructed various UFOs - cardis, vests and jumpers that haven’t got past the first few rows of rib. So now the needles are tidy and the stash is replenished with re-rolled balls of wool.

The cardigan I was working on here, (and actually had about 5 inches of the back knitted up) was unceremoniously ripped off the needles, as my friend the Knitting Knazi pointed out to me that I’d twisted all my purl stitches and consequently my stocking stitch was a bit out of whack. (To add insult to injury, she was wearing a lovely green version of this skirt at the time.) Actually I jest, I wasn’t bothered, because that’s one of the good things about knitting, you just pull it out and start again. Knitting is also teaching me patience I suppose, and I am getting quicker, but my frustration level remains high. I’m not sure I’ll ever be a “knitter”.

As I’m meeting the Franky SnB gals tomorrow for some knitting bonding, I thought I better have a project to do. So now I’m off to cast on 100-odd stitches, and start yet another row of rib for a cardi that hopefully I won’t muck up. Watch this space…

[Photo from V&A Museum website]