New name, new purpose!

OK, I am going to do something I have not done before.  I am going to set myself a public target and I am BRICKING it!!!  a bit anxious.

I am afraid of failure, I am afraid that I will be public
ly humiliated by all of the 2 people that read this blog a year!  But I want this SO much, that I am willing to put myself out there for it.

So, as I have finally come through the fog of babyhood and my toddler is soon to go to nursery part time, I feel I need to take a good harsh look at my body start working on it.  I can't keep using post partum as an excuse two years on (yes I know I have written this before, but now I have a target) My target happens to be an event I have mentioned before, the Three Wishes Fairy Fest  

It is in mid June next year.

My aim is to be THE most awesomest of Elven Mothers there and anyone who has seen me dressed up the the Beer tent or at a Georgian ball KNOWS I can make this work.  I have eleven months and I am going to work my butt off.

Here is a black Elf as inspiration...she is so beautiful......so, it is countdown. I will be chronically my processes including dietary changes, hair, clothing and make up inspirations.  I will take pictures and I will post a comparison photo at the end.  If I fail, than I fail but I won't because I am a stubborn cow to be sure!

Gearing up ...for my New Years Challenge

Gearing up for the recipe challenge, which will start on New Years Day....I have changed the date several times, mostly for practical reasons like getting rid of more modern foods and like today, babysitting and having to make a Dhal (I don't think Pataks Curry paste was available in 1940!).

In common with rationing.

1) Bread was not rationed so I will likewise eat bread.
2) Dairy and proteins were, so I will stick to the allowed amounts of oil, butter, milk, cheese and eggs. Meat was also rationed but as a vegetarian, who cares?

These were:

Butter 50g
Cheese 50g (sometimes rising to more 100g or even 225g) for the purpose of this week I will stick to the norm.
Margarine 100g
Cooking fat 100g ( I will replace with oil for obvious reasons)
Eggs 1 shell egg (or one packet of dried egg a month
Milk 3 pints per week or one packet of 'Household' i.e. dried milk a month
Sugar 225g
Tea 50g (I will buy green, but otherwise will stick to allocated amount)
Preserves (aka Jam) 450g every 2 months
Sweets  350g every month

Surprisingly, I have just read that nursing mothers got concentrated orange juice....I wasn't expecting that, but it is an added bonus (just in case you were wondering, the baby will eat her normal food unless I make something suitable for her her).
Not in common with rationing

3) My vegetables will come courtesy of the Organic Delivery Company.

My delivery comes on Tuesday which is why I need to start after that particular day.  You never know exactly what you will get so I can't really write up all my recipes beforehand.

4) I will add a couple of tinned fruit to my weekly shop as that is more in keeping with what was available.

5) Most breakfasts will be porridge or bread/toast, it is obvious true but there wasn't much else back then.

6) One can eat out, I may do that if I get desperate or if I am asked. ;)

Deja vu part 1

I opened the window to a playground heavy with Mist, when I left the flat yesterday, my baby girl was wearing a thick heavy baby coat (her elder sister's) and a hand knitted cap. It was the perfect autumn day and it smelled so...very...familiar.

It smelled of English Autumn, of chestnuts, falling leaves, Bonfire Night, crumble and custard and butternut squash soup, of milk men and school uniforms.

It smelled of England, there is no where else in the world with this smell, not any morning in the US, on the mainland continent of Europe, in Jamaica or even Scotland.  This is England and England has it's own smell.

I took the red double decker to the hairdressers, located in a Victorian terrace, the kind of place which has a cold, high ceiling lavatory. Exactly the kind of lav which used to always have a moth flying around it when I was a child. Hateful wretched things, they would perch up by the light, intimating me while I quickly rushed what I was doing so the Moth would decide then to fly at my face to protect his territory...that was my childhood in various English houses as a child.

Then I walked to the high street, I went to a bakery, I haven't been inside a traditional English bakery in quite a while, it was lovely, there was so much to choose from, all the various tarts and cream slices being my favourites (though I decided to abstain for calorific reasons) then I went across the street to buy some Pears soap for my mum (looks like she forgot I have a soap thing going on but never mind!).

Yesterday had England stamped all over it, I felt that thread of English connection from early days in Kent, teenage dreams in Chingford and adult business in the City. Sometimes it is easy to forget how special a place is whilst you live in it.

Painting day 7

Feature wall colour has arrived (along with matching curtains) I did two coats today and it looks perfect, I am exhausted though.....
*whew*

Again, sorry about the light

Curtains were unexpectedly patterned, in raised (think embossed) sort of thing. It is perfectly fine though, I like them and they are the most lovely shade of aubergine.

Next stop, touch ups and washing the skirting.  Talked to bff and she is bringing the wood paint on Tuesday!!!  Huzzah...almost done.

Vintage Maternity

How does one continue to look stylishly vintage with an expanding waistline? Google doesn't tend to help I am afraid, there are just many blogs about how fab Betty Draper looked when she was expecting Eugene....alas, the sad fact is, when actress January Jones was actually pregnant they just dressed her in voluminous dressing gowns and called her fat!

I love that second blog post though, especially the picture of Jackie Kennedy smokin a fag and quite obviously pregnant....can you imagine any prospective (or actual) First Lady being pictured thus?  OMG she would be eviscerated by the media, it just illustrates how very much times have changed.  Course, we should never forget that she was killed by cancer so...well smoking sucks but back then, everyone was doing it, I like how in Mad Men the person who doesn't smoke (Pete Campbell) seems quite odd for it.

It seems like it is smock style all the way

When tradition and worldview collide.....

It would be fair to say that most of the people I know are not religious and yet they are the most ardent celebrants of that most Christian Festival of Jesus's birth.
Now I am not going to discuss how to have a splendid vintage Hanukkah or some such, that was already covered by our lovely Glamorous Vintage Housewife, Bethany over on her blog

(As an aside, I really do appreciate how much more they incorporate a Holiday 'Season' that includes other religions, over here we don't really have that and sadly, that means a lot less appreciation of diversity. )

But  instead I am going to talk about how my deep seated Victoriana self is triggered at Christmas, let it just be known that there isn't a version of 'A Christmas Carol' that I have ever missed!  This season to me speaks of Plum puddings, wood fires, parlour games by candlelight, and, of course lovely, lovely Victorian frocks.

When my daughter was little, we took her to the Rochester Dickens Festival that happens every year, I went dressed up in my rather proper green bonnet, green velveteen jacket (with black trim) and Campbell (I think) Tartan skirt (hooped petticoats).  I was disappointed by the half hearted costumes by some of the locals but I must admit that most people were very well dressed!  I even met three lovely Rochester ladies when I was running my Victorian group.

So what happens when you love THE most traditional of Christmas imagery but do not celebrate it yourself?

I still have not found the best way to handle this conundrum, but until I find it, I will just keep enjoying my Dickensian scenes

And enjoy whichever new version of A Christmas Carol I happen to come across every year!!

Vintage Cookies

Today's baking is courtesy of Margurite Patten's Wartime cook book, :We'll eat again' the top are Raisin Crisps and the bottom lot are Carrot Cookies.

Jack and the beanstalk

Do not laugh, it is a really really pants film, honest! And not even good bad, as in fun bad, but just bad.  However, besides making me cry desperately when the giant died, this film is noticeable for some fabric arrangement of Mia Sara's (Ondine) bedroom that I loved and so, not getting hold of any pictures from said bedroom, I had to buy the DVD.
Tissues at the ready!!!!