Another day, another tin

The sparklingly crisp autumn sun shone on Rozelle Markets and lead me to three fabulous things at three different stalls. The old Arnotts tin, which someone has customised into a bread tin, will hold craft supplies. The set of three pudding bowls and four knives are already hard at work in the kitchen.

All this vintage beauty for $40.

Green Day

After pulling an old Leona Edmiston out of the wardrobe that I haven't worn for a few years this morning I realised I'm having a bit of an affair with a particular shade of green.

It keeps turning up in fabrics and wool I buy.

And in my daily life.

Turquoise? Sea Foam? Jade? I think it's beautiful, whatever it's called.

Have a lovely weekend.

Framed

The first of the prints to be framed for the Child's room is finally done. One of the reasons I'd been putting this off is because the sizes of the prints compared to the vintage frames I'd bought are a bit odd.

Mats would fix the problem, of course, but I'm not about to start spending money at a framers unless I know we'll keep these pieces as is, which I don't. So decided to make my own mats. Very successful, I think, it was too.

I searched around You Tube for a few hints and the offerings were pretty dire really. However, I did find a cheap and cheerful solution here. Admittedly, I wouldn't use this method if I was the Queen having a few photos of Kate and Wills hung but it's fine for my purposes.

It's not the most visual or creative of tutorials, to say the very least. I ignored the measurement formula the video advises so can't vouch for that but took away the idea of folding back the cardboard to create smooth lines.

One down, three to go...

Material girl

I'm far too tempted by the offerings in good craft shops. Left Calico and Ivy with one and a half metres of birdy fabric and a ball of wool for no other reason than I couldn't leave them behind.

The fabric might be used to cover a lampshade frame, I thought, rather a large one I had but, when I got it home, it was just a bit too much. So into the stash it goes. Not that I really mind as it looks so pretty hovering on top of other fabrics that I have no immediate use for.

An older woman in the shop at the same time was admitting to also buying fabric just because she couldn't resist not doing so. She quipped that as she approached - at this point we thought she's not going to say death is she? - death - she did - she couldn't possibly use all the fabric she had and might as well be buried with it. It was a light-hearted moment (she wasn't that old) and we agreed she'd at least have lovely padding.

I'd prefer other options, personally, so might dig out a smaller lampshade frame/s and do a tutorial. Might work in the bedroom. Off to check.

Framed

Feeling a sense of deja vu? I have no idea why this post wants to appear twice and can't delete the images. C'est la vie.

Seasonal greetings

There's a stallholder at Marrickville Markets who says she sells Australia's best milk (and Australia's best cheese if that's what she's pushing that week) whenever anyone walks past. Seems she has given herself those awards, rather than any judging panel from what I can tell, so, in the same spirit, I declare the Upside-Down Apple Tea Cake you see above Australia's best Upside-Down Apple Tea Cake.

Feel I can do this because it's not my recipe. If you have the March issue of Australian Country Style I suggest you grab some new season apples and make Steve Cumper's cake on page 93. I have long wanted an apple cake recipe that wasn't dry - and this is certainly it. Absolutely delicious. It will become a seasonal staple in our house.

The recipe's not on their website, unfortunately, and I can't post it due to copyright reasons but libraries often carry back issues of magazines. Worth a check.

I also picked up half a cauliflower at the weekend for a lunch dish, which is nothing more than breaking the cauliflower into florets, drizzling with olive oil, chopped garlic, salt and breadcrumbs and baking in the oven for 30 mins. Crumble goat's cheese over the top as soon as it comes out of the oven for a lip-smacking take on cauliflower cheese. Well, my lips smacked.

Tip: The apples in the cake are cooked in the same way as a Tart Tatin, where you're supposed to caramelise them in a frying pan and then add the cake batter straight on top. I took advice from the Matthew Evan's Real Food Companion cook book and transferred the apples to a spring-form tin before adding the batter as I don't have a suitable frying pan. He says this is what the French do in the town where the tart originated if they have the same problem. If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me. And it was. Worked brilliantly.

A patch of blue

After nine straight days of rain, the sun shone briefly again yesterday before returning to the grey skies of today. Washing machines all over the city were, no doubt, getting a good workout while dryers could be happily ignored again.

Not complaining, as April is our wettest month and, as my mother would say, rain's good for the garden. But, like the scene in the Jane Campion film Bright Star shows, there's cinematic beauty in linen drying in the sun. And the smell and feel of line-dried washing is one of those small domestic pleasures that costs nothing. With or without a field.