35 is the new black

I participated in a Vintage Swap organised by the lovely Crafty Librarian. She used SwapBot which is a whizz bang online doo-dad for organizing swaps. I received this lovely package of vintage rick rack, bias and buttons all the way from the USA.

Now loyal readers don't, as I did in a recent blonde moment, have a 'oh my golly gosh, I haven't cleared out my bobbin section and now it's blocked to buggery' moment when my trusty sewing machine stopped working.

I got the screwdriver out, used a dry paintbrush and dusted out all the fluff, fibres and thread that had accumulated in and around the bobbin case over the last six months. Feeling very virtuous, I took above photo as a wise warning to those of you who, like me, had forgotten that you need to do this very speedy and easy maintenance on your machine. All that fluff on the right was in there clogging up all the workings.

Don't then, as I did, turn your machine back on and then swear (out of kiddie hearing distance of course) because your machine still isn't working. Then swear some more and slap your own forehead when you realise that all along it was just the bobbin winding lever was switched over to stop the needle going up and down..............................

hmmm.....

It's also a week of celebration in our house. Yes, a week, not a day, of celebrations for my birthday. I'm very happy to be 35 today and quite bemusingly see it as the downhill slide to 40. After the novelty of today has worn off, I'll feel quite happy to be 35 and not see 40 as the end of the world. But just for today, it's boggling my brain cells.

Got the hubby to snap a birthday portrait last night on the kitchen floor, in the style of her majesty. Doesn't the queen sit on the kitchen floor too for her birthday portrait??

We had a lovely dinner last night with the family and enjoyed a gorgeous lamb roast, roast veggies and chocolate raspberry brownies with icecream for dessert. Here's a tip. If you like chocolate raspberry brownies, make them with almond meal instead of flour. They'll stay gooey and runny in the middle and the result is divine. I might share my recipe for that in another post.

After dinner my fluffy sidekick Ella was posing just like the queen's corgies must for all those magazine shoots. Here's some official canine portraits I snapped last night.

I designed today's menu weeks ago. Is it bad to organise one's birthday around the meals?? Pancakes, maple syrup and icecream for breakfast. Left over gooey choc and raspberry brownies for morning tea. Yum cha for lunch. Haighs choclates for afternoon tea. Thai prawn and basil stirfry and champange for dinner, and decadent chocolate pudding for dessert.
I want to turn 35 every day....