lost in transmission!

Sorry for the break in transmission, normal blogging will begin shortly….

Oh,  Technology,  it's great when it works and it sucks when it doesn't. For some reason unknown to us the internet and cable in our apartment has gone MIA and so I have been trying to find wireless access and not having much success.

So I have decamped to no. 1 birthday girl daughter's place to use their internet.

So I know what you are all asking, what have we been up to?

Well,  the ladies who lunch had a wonderful time at abc kitchen It's a bit like a winter wonderland inside, all white and they pride themselves on sourcing local and organic produce, (right up my alley).  Lunch started out with a cheeky glass of a crisp chilled Sancerre, and then another and then a bottle  (or 2 or 3) of Rose. 

Well we are on holidays after all.

It was great to catch up with favourite youngest daughter's best friend and her mom, (Hi, Monique and Sarah!) and sit back and enjoy our lunch and some celebrity spotting, yes indeed.  I can say I have had lunch with Sofia Vergara  (yes, Gloria from Modern Family, who must have just got back from LA where modern family won an Emmy for the best comedy. ), she was sitting a few tables away from us. I took a couple of pics with the i-phone, not the best quality but I think  you can clearly see her.

So what about the food?  Well I give it 10/10. We shared some starters, a fresh tomato, buffalo mozzarella and basil pizza and a charcuterie plate.  For the main course 3 of us had wood oven roasted Maine lobster with oregano and lemon-chili vinaigrette, which was exceptional, especially the price compared to what you would pay for it back in Sydney. We had a side of roasted summer beans, hazelnuts and lemon, which I am definitely going to try when I get home.

We had to try desert so we shared salted caramel ice cream, with candied peanuts and popcorn, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. All in all a fabulous lunch!

Ladies, who lunch, clockwise from left, Goddess Jnr, GG, favourite youngest daughters BFF and her mommy!

after lunch we poured ourselves into a cab back downtown to our apartment and a siesta, followed with a 30 minute foot massage and a night in with the 6th season of Mad Men, a perfect end to a near perfect New York day.

It's mad mad world....

Last Friday night we hosted here at GG central a dinner party for 6 of our friends with a theme of "Mad Men". Mad Men is one of my all time favourite TV shows, I love the era, the clothes, the music and the drinking and smoking (at work no less!).

I decided about 2 months ago this was to be my theme and I set about to orchestrate my dinner party with the right mix of people, food, wine and of course dressing up!

First of all, in the mad men days dinner parties would have been a rather formal affair,  so in true GG style a formal invitation was sent out, ( my concession to modern times was that it was via e-mail rather than snail mail), here it is

Personal information is redacted for security purposes.
Hello, NSA! :-)

I googled images of Don, Betty et al, to create my invite, also searched for old (read here sexist) advertisements which I then put together  and laminated to make placemats,  here they are below , and the best thing I have them for the future  (or available for hire, at the right price! :-)

I love setting the table to look special, so I worked out how to fold my lovely white linen Nanna napkins (from my op shop scouting) to make them look like a man's white shirt, then I used a thin black velvet ribbon to make it look like a man's tie, and I was rather thrilled with the result.

My effort is on the left, in case you could not tell!

Some funky orange and hot pink coloured dahlias in a vase set the scene perfectly.

Ready and waiting for the guests to arrive, the Parker furniture is rocking this theme!

Now the menu...
this had to be authentic to the era, so I went through my cookbooks, internet and my own (repressed) memories and came up with this menu, and then added a touch of my own sub-editing to it and then, folded them in thirds to create a place card for the table.

My Beef Wellington! Thermomix making a guest appearance

so I had the invites, table decoration and menu sorted, what else was left but my apparel. 

Luckily for me,  one of the Junior Glenquarry Goddesses is a very skilled needlewoman, and a couple of years ago she made for me a skirt based on a design that Grace Kelly wore in Rear Window, here is the original

and here is GG herself in her interpretation of "being Grace Kelly"

Now some pics of our fabulous friends, and see if you can spot the photo(s) taken later in the night.....

there is no prize for guessing correctly!  And they all were great and got into the spirit of the evening and made an effort dressing up. I must say it is so much fun to be a little bit special and dress for dinner, why don't we do that anymore?  ( I think I might have another post on that topic).

My  chocolate mousse with pistachio Persian Fairy Floss! 

My very dear friend, the Pyrenees Princess, we went to school together , not with the dog of course! It was a Ladies College after all! 

Well, this has been a long post with lots of photos, I hope you enjoy reading about my dinner party and I am now thinking about my next "themed" dinner party, any suggestions?

BTW I have to hold another Mad Men dinner for the rest of the family and offspring who were not able to attend this one, so stay tuned.

Second Hand Rose

I love op shopping!

Today I was in Sydney for work, and on my way home I detoured via the Salvos warehouse in Tempe for a quick look around for any goodies.

Well all I can say is that I did myself proud!  The place is enormous, and if I had more space at home I would have bought some pretty retro furniture at a very good price.

Here are  a few of my bargains.

Vintage tray, just perfect for my 60's cocktail cabinet, AKA "Don Draper"

Very useful picnic basket, note holder for not 1 but 2 bottles of wine!

Aqua elongated bowl and very retro silver plated serving platter

Every good kitchen needs a good heatproof jug ( $6!!)

Basket $2.50, going to keep it for a gift basket, sherry glasses 20c each got 8 to put in Don Draper

Funky 70's plates

I am getting quite a collection of Nana napkins, all so lovely and only 50 or  20c each!

I am putting together a quirky collection of 60's and 70's crockery, the idea is to have mismatched ones on the table when having a dinner party themed around "mad men" ( watch this space!).

how much did I spend in all, well about $25, and the money is going to a good cause, The Salvos.

My idea for Christmas this year is that for our family we will all give pre-loved gifts, so that we are not contributing to more waste in the world. I can see from my op shopping ventures there is a lot more stuff that is of interest to me and ideas for gifts than I find in the regular stores.

How about you, are you a op-shopaholic???