Some Things Have To Change

There are some things that need to change back to the way they were, and it would be so nice if they would change before I return to the U.S.

One thing that should change back is the availability of cotton lawn. It is a thin cotton that drapes a lot better than the quilting cotton we use for dresses. I am trying to calculate how much I can bring home in my suitcase.

It looks like the fabric we get at JoAn fabrics, and it has the lightweight feeling of soft muslin, but it is closer woven and is printed.

These are just a small sample, and I will get more photos later.

It has been very hard living out of a suitcase, with one thing piled on another, and all the shuffling that it takes to pull out thhings and put other things away, that I have wanted the 19th century travel-trunk. Our suitcases are large enough these days, that I wonder why some enterprising person could not manage to make a suitcase closet like the one I have roughly illustrated, above. Even if such a thing could never come about again, at least a suitcase should be designed to be used for something when it is closed, so that living in small quarters is easier.

Scenes of travel-trunk from the movie "Daddy Long-Legs."

Finally, one thing that really must change back home: perhaps some independent dairy folks could give us double cream. They could really get a corner on the market, and with so many tea rooms in America, and as nuts as people are about tea and scones in the U.S. these days, double cream would be a sought-after commodity. It is extremely under-stated to say that double cream is "nice."
I attended the wedding of a childhood friend from the old days back in the 1960's when I lived in Tasmania. You might remember my writing about the Martin family; one of the members of that family got married. The brother, who stayed with us in Oregon a few months ago, is still on a motorbike trip . He began in Alaska and has now gone as far as Columbia, South America. I visited with his sisters and mother and their children today at the wedding. We will be getting together again while I am still here. As I said, my social life is expanding.
When I returned to my mother's caravan, all the "cousins" in the caravan park called out "Hi, Cousin," and asked me how I liked the wedding. They know every thing I do.

Tomorrow one of the residents at the caravan park is taking us in her car to worship services in Frankston. The ladies of the Lord's church have asked me to speak to them so tonight I am preparing a lesson and will post it later.
Sunday afternoon we go to a Mother's Day dinner hosted by one of my brothers.
I am still sewing and have done a few more things in the caravan. I will take lots of pictures to share.
By the end of the day I am so tired and even discouraged and want to cut my trip short and go home, sleep in a nice bed and wake up to familiarity. The next morning I feel a little better and think I could manage to stay here another day. I am supposed to return on the 31st of May but if needed, can extend my trip.
Since I am able to video Skype my family twice a day, it makes it a lot easier to stay.

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Shopping in Mornington, Hastings and Frankston in Victoria, Australia

This morning I went out to fabric stores in Hastings and Frankston and had a really good time looking at a fabric called lawn, a soft, thin cotton fabric with endless varieties of prints, which I have not seen in U.S. fabric stores in a long time. You see above the piece I bought today. I also got a small piece of coral colored fleece that is the shade of the Galah birds I have shown here a few posts back. I am looking for more of that color combination.

After I returned from shopping there was still time to do a few things so I made shortbread, using Tasmanian butter, honey and flour, and it baked just right in the toaster-oven. I am getting closer to glamping, with proper cups of tea poured from the pot into cups on saucers. I am still culling and cleaning and getting creative ideas at the end of the day. In this photo you see the scones I made in the toaster oven yesterday.

Since my mother lives in a caravan park, we are the talk of the community. While I have no idea what anyone else is doing, the residents here know when I have gone out and which brother or sister took me, what places we visited and when I return.I would not know how to figure out where they go and what they do all day. I was gone a lot longer today and did not get back til about 3 p.m. and while I was gone, my Mother got several visits from the other caravan-ers wanting to know why it was taking me so long and when I would get back. I think some of the other campers missed watching me take my basket to the laundry and carry buckets of hot water back to wash dishes. I must remember to wear a different apron so the local residents will not get too bored. They know what fabric I buy because it hangs on the line and they want to know what I am going to do with it. One of the things they find quite curious is the way I dress, but I explained that I am a dressmaker and like to wear my creations.

I have sewn two dresses for my mother and will attempt a skirt for her tomorrow. I am also going to a wedding tomorrow that is taking place in someone's house.

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Something Green

My social life is out of control, with people I know and people I do not know, offering to take me away from all this. Their concern is that I will spend two months in the confines of an old caravan and not get out and see things. I finally gave up fighting off the mad throng of chauffeurs and agreed to go out once a day, as long as it is in the morning.

Today I was taken to a shopping center and I could not pull myself away from all the discount stores with the appealing things, including the green teapot, above, and the tea cup, from different stores. I also got a couple of small goblets to pour our orange juice in.

When I got back from the mall I successfully made a toaster-oven stir fry and it was delicious.

This is the pasture with the evening sun.

 

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Scones With Double Cream and Jam

This morning I could not resist taking a photo of my home baked scones with natural berry jam (no sugar added) topped with double-cream, a product that cannot be found in very many places in the U.S.  I do not think I can transport it out of Australia, and I cannot understand why our cows don't make it. What a pity when it is so nice.

The afternoons are sunny and warm.

There is a pretty-ish sort of park here,

I have added a mug to my mother's unused cup rack. I sure hope no one tries to use them.

I had the first birthday I have celebrated with my family in 42 years. This is a tea cup someone gave me. They must have seen my blog.

This patchwork cushion has a story connected to it.  I made a checker board so that my mother and I could play a game of checkers.  Neither of us had played in so long that after numerous attempts, I had to look up "How to play checkers" on the web.  If anyone had observed our comical attempts to play the game, they would have thought we were both daft.  After reading aloud the rules, we were able to play, but my mother won the game quickly.  The next day I decided the cloth checker board would make a nice pillow. Mother says she can still beat me--with the pillow.

These are some of the manufactured houses in the caravan park, which they call "units".  Someone with more imagination could start a line of these units and call them cottages. Who wants to live in a unit?     

This one is pleasant. No one has invited me to view the interiors of these little homes. I would love to see them.

I am sitting here in shock that the blogsy app I bought for ipad actually published the post. The only problem I have is that I cannot remember how I managed it.

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Scones With Jam and Double Cream

Home Improvement, "Caravan Style"

I took a day off from sorting family mementos and organizing things here at my mothers little home. Deciding I would play with fabric all day, found some of my fabric stash in my suitcase that was perfect for one part of the room.  Mother lives in a trailer, but in Australia it is called a caravan, which sounds a lot better to me. Who wants to say they live in a "trailer"?

The first thing I made was a no-sew curtain and valance, using office clips and clothespins I found around here.  I will be trying to disguise them all with fabric.

The window sill ruffle is made with needle and thread by hand, as is everything else.  I take good short cuts by using the selvedge of the fabric at the hem end.

The matching lawn chairs, four of them, were brand new, still in the bag. I spent one evening making a pillow to fill in the back, for better comfort.  I plan to add more of those torn muslin roses..

These place mats are supposed to look like daisies and were very much needed for hot plates of food.  I did not have a pattern so I guessed.

One lone yellow cup and a vase of potato vines seem to match the yellow of the fabric.

Have a look at the little bird on a swing.  I could not get it to balance on the stick facing forward so I had to put it sideways, which makes it a different sort of bird,  Mother had a collection of brass cats that sit on the sill. 
The tablecloth has a wide white muslin ruffle.

We enjoy the clear plastic over the table cloth.


A neighbor had pity on me and lent me her old sewing machine, so I might be able to fix up the rest of the caravan a little faster.<!--

In my bag I had packed some of those led tea-lights, so I used them to make a bigger candle by sewing containers, stuffing them with fiberfill, and nestling the led-light in the top.

Above, you see what the led-lights look like in the dark, inside those white muslin bags. They have a more impressive glow than the camera reveals.

This is what the battery tea light looks like sitting in the bottom of the muslin cylinder, without the filling, in day light. The tea lights costs a dollar for a package of one or two, at Dollar Tree. I enjoy putting them in clear glass goblets or crystal jars in my china cabinet.

whimsical teacups on the cup hooks.

 made with scraps of the daisy fabric

I was able to get closer to the rainbow lorikeet today because he was interested in a piece of food on the ground.

Mother got him to stay awhile by talking to him while I took pictures.

Tea Time on the Mornington Peninsula

This is my 11th day here on the Mornington Peninsula, and I have seen this colorful cloud formation and had my first Afternoon Tea...

...using an obliging tree stump as my tea table in a nearby field.

Naturally, I brought fabric with me for such an emergency,

to give these treats a nice place to perch.

When we were children, our mother used cut-off tree stumps as tables and seats when we went on picnics in the forests where we lived in Alaska. Since they built a house using the trees on the land, there were plenty of seats and tea tables.

 

This interesting bird is eating an apple and was quite tame, so I probably could have gotten a little closer. I MUST find this in fabric ;-)