o frabjous day!

o frabjous day! books, recipes & other things

  • 1 December – Go Tell It On The Mountain

    When I am a seeker, I seek both night and day; I seek the Lord to help me, and He shows me the way James Taylor’s version of Go Tell It On The Mountain was on my first Christmas mix CD in 2008. Due to a general lack of contact with Christmas music I think…

    Read more: 1 December – Go Tell It On The Mountain

  • Little Bow Pleat dress

    When I was about to get in line at the checkout the last time I was fabric shopping, a glittery gold fabric caught my eye. I thought something along the lines of “ooh!” and snatched it up, thinking of the Little Bow Pleat dress pattern that I had saved on my computer and how sweet…

    Read more: Little Bow Pleat dress

  • Recent reading

    Tansy Rayner Roberts writes very convincingly about the wonders of regency romance, and Peter M Ball is very convincing about Anna Cowan’s Untamed. I read both Untamed and Courtney Milan’s The Countess Conspiracy and enjoyed them very much – both very well written, engaging, feminist romances. Untamed struck me as a little more experimental with…

    Read more: Recent reading

  • On the South Island

    In preparation for our holiday in Wanaka, I ordered several sticker books from the Usborne sticker book range on such varied themes as dinosaurs, trucks and farm animals, and I recommend them heartily as plane entertainment aids for two year olds. “Where do you think this dinosaur should go, Ted?” Edward considered the matter with…

    Read more: On the South Island

  • 2 years

    I made this date cake for Edward’s birthday, so that his little cousin who avoids wheat and sugar could partake as well (and I didn’t think the general heady excitement of having a birthday party really needed to be increased with a sugar high.) While a cake sweetened just with dates sounds a little austere,…

    Read more: 2 years

  • Renfrew tops

    The next two things I made after my lovely purple knit dress were two Renfrew tops: View A, the long sleeved scoop-necked version in a grey knit, and View B, the short sleeved v-necked version in an orangey-red knit. I spent a long time pothering over which way the grainline was on the fabric before…

    Read more: Renfrew tops

  • Parting Glass

    I first heard The Parting Glass on a collected CD of Irish music that my parents owned – it was a version by The Dubliners, with a gruff-voiced singer and a shrill whistle wailing the melody along with him. Of all the money that e’er I spent I spent it in good company And all…

    Read more: Parting Glass

  • Purple Tiramisu dress

    The Tiramisu was my first piece of clothing sewn for myself, my first dress, my first knit and my first go at pockets! I cut it out at home, and sewed it up over the course of three sewing lessons. The instructions that come with the pattern are great – very clear and simple to…

    Read more: Purple Tiramisu dress

  • Night sky

    There is a Tawny Frogmouth that is often perched on one of the fence posts near our front gate when I arrive home in the evening. It freezes in my headlights, and then when I get a little closer or open the car door, it opens its wings and flies off silently into the dark.…

    Read more: Night sky

  • The last fire

    We used to have a possum living in the chimney of our wood heater. We coexisted happily for a few years, the possum scraping and banging each evening as it levered its fat bottom out of the narrow confines of the chimney to explore the night, and grumpily vacating the chimney for the month or…

    Read more: The last fire