because then my breakfast would be entirely home made.
This was my breakfast this morning. Home made bread and home made apricot jam with a cup of tea and the magazine from the weekend Australian.
This is the Helen size loaf of bread before I cut into it
Oh it is so very nice and I achieved a very nice translucent crumb which is the goal with slow rise breads.
Did you see the table?
It started off life with me looking like this.
A thorough sanding, a dose of deck clean, some garden furniture oil, another sand then then two more coats of garden furniture oil and it looks like this now. Yes, those are casalas, I searched high and low for outdoor chairs I liked but in the end casalas won me over. Oh so comfy
One day I’ll get round to stripping and painting the legs but that doesn’t need doing just yet.
Also I went to my first auction on Tuesday night and I bid on one item all night and I won it, it was a touch scary. When I arrived I did a quick case of what else was on show then had a quick look at the Countess before sitting down in a position where I could see if anyone else was looking at it … The bidding was between me and one other lady. Oh hello Royal Doulton Countess, I do love  you so. I finally have bowls (and cups and more plates). I’m really quite happy about this win because I got it for a very good price and it means I don’t have to find a seller on UK Ebay who is happy to send bowls internationally.  I may be known for my love of Figgjo Flint Lotte but I share that love equally with Royal Doulton Countess.
Now though, I must fold the washing and get ready for a short work week since Karl and Kata arrive early Thursday morning 😀
Yet again I’ve been promoting that thing called “radio silence” but I’ve been busy, very busy. I was extremely lucky to obtain a vacation work placement which for the last three weeks saw me trade my normal CBD office for another CBD office. A swisher office, closer to the river and employing a gazillion more people in their Brisbane office than are employed in the Brisbane office for my company. It was an eye opener and in some areas I learnt more about accounting in the last three weeks than I’ve learnt in the last year at uni. It was a very good experience and I’m thankful for the opportunity I was given. This week I’m back at my “normal job”.
This Christmas season has seen many, many changes in our household. A couple of months ago, after Mum had come back from exploring the bush in NSW, a conversation was resurrected from one we had had years ago about why we (really my parents) live in Brisbane. It was about Grandad of course and nothing could have taken my mother or myself away from SEQ whilst my grandfather was alive. With his passing in June and the passing of my father in May last year; that conversation could be had again as those events have changed a lot of things in our lives. I moved back home. We purchased an investment property. We’ve taken on a boarder (who may have had a Lotte bowl slip out of his hand and land on the floor in more than one piece … My Lotte is now more secure in where it is stored) and that’s just the billboard changes. Mum has had the chance to revisit that conversation we’ve had a few times over the years about leaving Brisbane and teaching somewhere else, I always used to suggest WA but that is an awfully long way a way. Mum though discovered a place closer to home though and next year she will be still be a Maths teacher but in NSW in a country town situated in the north west region. The town she is moving to is about a 7hr drive from Brisbane, luckily it is also on the Melbourne to Brisbane bus route so she will be able to hop on a bus to come home for a visit! Most importantly there is plenty of bush walking and an active club to keep her weekends occupied.
This has meant that Mum is packing up her life or perhaps I should say “culling her life”, there has been items leaving this house left, right and center. Some via Lifeline, some via Gumtree, some via Freecycle, others via the rubbish bin, some to people here and there. Some times it feels like that unless it is bolted down, it won’t be there when I get home from work!
Another change this year is that for the first time in the sixty years my mother has lived we have an artificial Christmas tree!!!! And we put it up on Dec 18!!! My father and my maternal grandmother are probably rolling in their proverbial graves (well more accurately, their ash particles are probably vibrating at a higher frequency than normal …)
However, it’s not just any artificial Christmas tree. It’s a 6ft Mistletoe Pine Aluminium Christmas Tree made by Raco. Yep, how many people do you know in Australia who are rocking an Australian made Aluminium Christmas Tree? Very few I would wager to say. I normally see two or so appear each year on Ebay and one of the ones that appeared last year made its way to me. I then gave the tree as part of my present to Mum last year (Well actually it was to both Mum and the house. Do you do that? We have often over the years had presents to the the house from the kitchen or to the fridge from the stove etc). My reading of the date codes on the box say it was made in 1964 and the price label reads £6/15/ which according to our friends at the RBA that is about $84 in the money of today.
Our tree has always been real and has always gone up around the 23rd or so and then comes down on the 6th of January or shortly there after (A major pet peeve of mine is when people talk of the twelve days of Christmas as been the twelve days leading up to Christmas, I grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. You seriously think the three kings got an early warning that Jesus was been born and started their journey twelve days before he was born ??? I’m a by no means a believer but it riles me when people talk about and use an idea that they clearly seem to have no idea what it actually means).
Moving on from that point. This is our tree. Click to see it larger of course!
Have you seen such a beauty? It makes such a lovely sound as you brush past it and oh I love how the lights reflect off it and dance on the ceiling. I actually lay under it on Sunday night whilst on the phone to a friend like a child, watching the light dance on “the leaves” … It is so smile inducing.
This photo makes me quite sad. I know it would have been quite a feat for these men to chop down this tree but look at the girth of it. That tree had seen so many years pass as it grew and grew and grew in the forest and then it was felled and turned into various wooden products. Can you imagine seeing a tree that had a trunk that large???
Almedahls made a Figgjo Lotte tablecloth and place mats back in the day. I’ve seen one set of place mats and two tablecloths come up for auction on ebay recently and they all alluded me by a whisper. In my search for more infomation I came across this lovely blog post, unfortunately I’m yet to figure out to enter captcha when it is in Japanese so I’ve not been able to comment.
Are these not the loveliest street shoes you’ve seen? There are some other shoes in the Nike Liberty collection but the above are by far the prettiest. le Sigh, they no longer have my size.
now onto houses.
Here we have a house that is so very Queensland built in the late 70s nearing the end of the Modern design. The listing is here and it’s in Pinjarra Hills if you’re looking for a new house.. That magnificent double height living area with all that glass…
now we step back a few decades and land ourselves in Bundaberg or Bundy as you may prefer to call the town.
When I first came across this listing, oh my heart jumped. Those curves, those windows, that price, the arches, the kitchen cabinetry, the ceiling panels, the mirror above the fireplace, the curve feature stairs. Oh, I could go on and on and on and on. $235k, that’s what they are asking. Gosh, if only I didn’t already have a mortgage. Some one please buy it now and sell it to me in a handful of years please?
I mean look at that house, all it needs is an update to the bathroom and some accent paint on the external features and oh, it would be so lovely. I tell you, you live in that house and you wouldn’t even think you were living in Bundy! In fact that house doesn’t even look it belongs in Bundy!
I saw this post on The Old Boathouse last night and said to myself I’m stopping in at WAC on my way to pick up something at Mt Gravatt in the morning. I was at WAC shortly after opening time… I didn’t even look at the pictures properly otherwise I would have known about the mugs before I got to WAC and had to just about pick myself up off the floor when I saw them. I’m very happy. In the online Lotte world, these mugs are pretty darn rare and when they do pop up on the various auction sites they go for a pretty penny. My Lotte collection is just about an entire table setting now as I picked up some tea cups on ebay the other week. I eat off Lotte every day and I smile at every meal time as I look at the designs.
The table at WAC
I was so very tempted by the squat milk jugs but I had to say no this time. Perhaps if they are there next time I visit I will pick one up but I think all that Lotte goodness will be well and truly gone by next WAC visit. I had forgotten how many nice houses there are in the Holland Park/Mt Gravatt area, will have some photos coming soon.
the most beautiful lot of Lotte. I saw a listing on ebay the a couple of days ago for a 30 pieces of Lotte – pick up only from Mermaid Beach. I patiently watched and watched and watched – only one person had bid on it and then right near the end I placed my bid, I outbid them and it was mine for just a touch over $100, I was prepared to pay almost double that. I’ve tracked the prices of what Lotte pieces sell for about 18mths-2yrs now, I know what prices the pieces go for, which pieces don’t appear that often etc etc. This set was a total bargain and I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am. I will now be eating off Lotte for breakfast, lunch and tea 😀 Le Sigh, so happy.
I had a lovely drive the coast, picked up the Lotte and then went to visit Georgie (my Japan travel buddy) and her partner who live down the coast. Such a lovely morning indeed.
Below is the lot of Lotte – you can click all the pictures to see bigger versions – ie so you can look at those designs and go “sigh”.
Tomorrow – I have work (of course), I get my tooth implant, I’ve got postgrad orientation stuff to do at uni and then I have The Whitlams with the QSO tomorrow night.
Friday – Work and then straight to the airport to catch a flight to Hobart.
Saturday – Wedding of my cousin on the beach at Coles Bay/Freycinet
Sunday – Post wedding activities and flying home Sunday night.
Monday – Work and first uni lecture
Tuesday – Fly to Japan for 2 weeks. (Yeah, I’ll be missing four classes – two for each subject, whilst I’m away)
I’m so crazy looking forward to going to Japan. G (one of my best girl friends) and I are going to have a blast (literally as they having a bit of a cold snap at the moment and it is forecast to snow for the days we are up in the alps!!!).
It’s going to be crazy. I bought a new lens the other week, the 28mm 1.8 which will be one of the two lenses I’m taking to Japan, the other will be the 50mm 1.4. I was thinking of taking my 16-35mm 2.8 but it is a heavy piece of glass. I took a few photos with the 28mm the other day and I’m impressed
