Thank God its Friday

I'm trying to limit my self to two glasses of wine.

Plungetastic

I bought a kitchen gadget yesterday. I had no idea what it is for.  It has a plunger, no spout to pour, and liquid measurements up the side. It is also Pyrex and in very good condition. It was marked €2.20 and the shop was having a 50% off everything day.

I brought it to the counter and added it to a small pile of other bits. The lady asked me would i mind telling her what it was for as no-one in the shop had been able to work it out. I told her i had no idea.
For €1.10 i felt it was worth the entertainment value of bringing it home to google and find out exactly what the makers of Pyrex expected from this little item.

So I google images of 'Pyrex plunger' and after five rows of coffee plungers I come across my item on a blog called Miss P. (photo from same)  I happen to dip Miss P's blog it is full of great sewing tips. Miss P appears to have bought the same item, and also searched on the internet.

 During her search she posted this picture, which happens to come from the blog of  my current favorite  fabulous fashionista Vintage Vixen who not only bought the same item, but had bought it twice and obviously knew exactly what it was for.  So, Vix, I can't work out whether to keep it or sell it, you bought it twice, what do you use it for? 

Furthering my investigation, I came across an Etsy plunger page. Lots of cake decorating plungy gadgets, cafetieres, and of course.............. novelty toilet plunger covers.......Who Knew!

Crochet plunger covers 

Ceramic plunger covers from a shop specializing in plunge art called PLUNJart!

Possibly my favourite (although its so hard to choose) are these handmade ones that will also hold the toilet tissue on the handle of the plunger. Brilliant, attractive and space efficient! The bear is larger, as you can see from the photo, it is half door height. Is it for a super duper extra large toilet plunger?

 Doll/bug/bear  billed as 'adorable and unique' 

No its an 'attractive' way to disguise your vacuum or carpet cleaner! and its only $47 I kid you not. Click on the link.  

My plunger is fecked in the back of what i call my cleaning cupboard, am i alone? Do you all have wild and exotic plunge art on proud display in your bathrooms?

Colourful and not too deer.

Another very early start for me on Sunday morning. Up at 5am and on the road by 5.30. Its lovely having the country roads to myself at that time in the morning. I noticed there were an abundance of rabbits scurrying into the hedgerows as i drove. (Keep thee away from my veggies or i'll run you over)

Selling was slow and steady at the car boot sale and i packed up a little early when rain threatened. The rain never came, but i did get a chance to have a really good mooch around. 

I picked up a crochet blanket for €5 threw it in the washing machine as soon as i got home and dried it off in the sun this evening.  I'm really pleased with it now. I've decided to finish off my very small granny square blanket with lots of rows like this one. It was only looking closely at this one on the washing line that i realized how much more straightforward this pattern is. One ball of wool and off you go till you run out. 

On a multicoloured theme, i picked up these rainbow coloured mugs. They aren't old, I just liked the colours and their potential for space saving, which with my very small kitchen is an important consideration.

They stack.

Not sure i'll use the frame they stack into, but i'll keep it, as I will no doubt sell these on at some point.

 I may well regret this one.....I knew Mr Thrift Bee would question my sanity when i arrived home with this little purchase. He is quite lightweight plastic (the deer, not Mr Thrift Bee) and i thought i could spray him some funky colour.

Or perhaps not.

Source

The white would be cool.

Source

Or if I was feeling a bit glam.

Source

I think he'll come in pretty handy at Christmas.

After I arrived home from the car boot sale, Little Bee was keen to keep up her day long adoration of her father on fathers day, so we decided to make rhubarb crumble for after dinner.

Little Bee using rhubarb leaves as an umbrella.

I cut the leaves off and it was her job to pile them up and take them out to the compost bin. The recent rain meant the leaves were huge.

About a pound and a half of rhubarb, squeeze of lemon, drizzle of water and a couple of tablespoons of sugar.

Top tip: I always make DOUBLE  the quantity of crumble topping and put half in the fridge or freezer for a super quick pud the next time i have a fruit overage. So into the food processor, buzz up 7oz SR flour,   6oz butter and 2oz brown sugar, then stir in 5oz of porridge oats,  use half for to cover the rhubarb and store the rest. It will keep in the fridge for as long as butter would, but you could also freeze it. I had twice as much rhubarb as i needed so the rest went into the freezer, it means I just chuck it all in a dish and have a pudding done any time the range is hot.

In the oven for 40 mins @180 and bob's your uncle.

The resultant crumble was a bit sloppier than usual, in retrospect I probably could have left out the water completely. There has been so much rain recently the big fat stalks were obviously swollen with rainwater.

It didn't detract from its tastiness! And 'Father' approved.

Happy Fathers Day.

Linking to Her Library Adventures and Thrift Share Monday

Fathers Day Card

Me and Little Bee got busy making a big and edible Fathers Day card. 

She proudly presented it.

He loved it.

Bloom in the Park 2012

Bloom in the Park is an annual gardening and food event held in the largest public park in Europe the Phoenix Park which is located in central Dublin. It was its sixth year this year, covers 70 acres and attracts about 100,000 visitors. I went for the first time last year, and was impressed. It's no Chelsea but there is lots to do and see for anyone interested in gardening and food ....HELLO!  There are nearly 30 show gardens, produced on a fraction of the budget of a Chelsea garden, but great for ideas. I find its always good to see what you don't like as well as what you do like, so even the mediocre ones are worth a look.

This was the winning garden. Entitled simply 'My Garden' It was nice because it was real.

'Green House' was my favourite. The details of window, gravel, cobble were all just  to my taste.
The planting was perfect. It just looked like a lovely place to sit and chill.

The herbs planted above a cupboard for the bins was a nice idea, as long as your bins  aren't too rancid.

Of course at any of these kind of events there are endless opportunities to shop.(Which i kept to a minimum)

Gardening products galore.

Some of the more interesting products....

.....were ridiculously expensive ...€125!!! for a painted  birdhouse!

Nice, but i'm glad i married a carpenter.

These were lovely, cast iron i think, on a long spike and probably hand painted.

The Grand Pavillion housed the floral displays of plant and bulb sellers from around the country and also over from the UK.

 The smell from these lilies was to die for. 

I love alliums.

Onion envy.

There is a whole are dedicated to Irish Craft. The Irish Crafts Council run workshops for children throughout the 5 days. Demonstrations of woodturning and blacksmithing and 24 retail tents from Irish Crafters. The best in the retail area were a milliner called Rebekah Patterson who created this beautiful silk chiffon headpiece, as well as a whole host of other vintage inspired headwear.

A really lovely girl heads up Karo Art Ceramics, delightful ceramic buttons, garden markers, artwork and tiles. She had adorable little bowls in gorgeous colours, that i was so enamored with i forgot to take a photo, but are available on line in her Etsy shop here . Lovely stuff, really nicely presented. 

This grass design ceramic tile was so incredibly  life-like my poor photography really doesn't do it justice.

The third and last of my nominees in the craft area was an artist called Belinda Northcote 

Very cute little mouse prints.

She also had a butterfly theme. Very pretty.

This was a musically correct version of Dolly Partons 'Love is Like a Butterfly' substituting the musical notes for butterflies.

I took absolutely no photographs in the food area, far too busy sampling and drooling. It was a lovely day out even though the sun didn't shine. We got parking in the park and passed the Presidents residence on the way back to the car.

Aras an Uachtarain - the official residence of the President of Ireland.

Linking to Penny Worthy Project and Coombe Hill