I can't believe

it's been a week since Easter already. In hindsight I've had a busy week so it's no wonder it seems so far away.

This week I had time to do a bit of playing with some of my new fabrics:

I managed to do a bit of thrifting:

From the top; tablecloth, apron and sheet for fabric. I was so pleased how they all looked good together.

And I finally found some primroses. I have been looking everywhere for these!

Mr. Crafty World and I got back into our ballroom dancing yesterday and it was a great time. I highly recommend it to anyone. Who new the merengue was such a great work-out?

Completely un-fun bits of the week involved getting probed in areas I won't mention as part of an extremely uncomfortable ultra-sound. Funny how as an adult you no longer get a lollipop or stickers after seeing the doctor/specialist/technician. Having certain kind of procedures warrants something to take home, other than the memory, don't you agree?

Our new carpet is finally broken in: you know, someone has to make the first spill or mess on it and then you can relax a little. It happened in our house around 1:30 in the morning on Saturday as the tummy bug got purged from Our Favorite Girl's stomach. Not once, but five times, two on the carpet - in different rooms. Mr. Crafty World and I spent two hours dabbing at vomit in the middle of the night, and it took another two hours the next morning to get rid of the rest of the stains. Just another episode of Adventures in Parenting.

I really like to cook, and often we have "experimental night", or even "experimental week" when I get a new cookbook or want to try a bunch of new recipes. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't, but thankfully Mr. Crafty World and the Houseguest never complain. In fact the Houseguest will consume all the leftovers of the flops as well as the successes, so that's a huge bonus.

Anyway, this week we're having three experimental nights, but with a twist: Retro Experimental Night. I collect older cookbooks (pre-1965 if I can swing it), but I don't usually cook anything out of them since I really just like to browse. However, last week I decided I should start cooking from them, so for the next little while our experimental nights will be retro ones. I'm not going to go all gung-ho and only cook from vintage cookbooks for a year; I'll leave that to some more adventuresome bloggers. I do, after all, have two little critics to feed that aren't as understanding or palate-adventurous as Mr. Crafty World and the Houseguest.

This week my recipes will come from this book, Helen Gougeon's Good Food.

Mrs. Gougeon used to have a column called "Tested Recipes" in Weekend Magazine and these recipes are a compilation of the "best". The best from pre-1958 anyway. I spent the morning making up three dishes, which we will enjoy (I hope!) this week: Ginger Beef Pie, Pureed Turnips and Left-Over Ham Casserole. What I enjoyed about preparing the dishes was that there was nothing I had to buy extra ingredients for, except the bread for the casserole. I pretty much had everything else and it was nice and simple. What I found a little different was that everything took longer to put together, because everything is from scratch. I cheated a bit by using a ready-made crust for the beef pie, but that's it. No thirty minute meals here!

I have prepared the dishes but haven't eaten them yet. Monday night will be the first go. I'll let you know how it all turns out, and post the recipes if I think it's worth it.

Today is another gorgeous, spring day, and I'm going to the quilt show in Newmarket. I'm even being accompanied by Mr. Crafty World. I did warn him, there will be fabric there, and no doubt some shopping booths where I will be looking and shopping. I don't know if he is coming just for company or to keep an eye on me. It should be fun though.

Have a great day!