Perhaps it’s all those children’s stories of Cinderella et al being transformed and sent off to the ball that makes formal outfits so appealing to teenage girls (well at least this one, as was). I did feel very like Cinderella at the ball in my Debut gown. I had professional photos taken but the real … More Fab Feb Photo Collage Festival: Day 16 Cinderella and the ball
It would be interesting to know how widespread it was for mothers to make their children’s clothes “back in the day”. My mother was a good dressmaker, and very particular, though I think she sometimes felt overshadowed by my paternal grandmother who had been a professional dressmaker. I still have my grandmother’s sewing machine, which … More Fab Feb Photo Collage Festival: Day 15 Dressmaking tributes
I just had to rejig my sequence of photos so I could accommodate Valentine’s Day! In the 60s and 70s, Valentine’s Day was a non-event in Australia but as a devoted reader of Seventeen magazine from the USA I’d caught the “love bug”! Of course having titled this post “Young Love” I also had Cliff Richard … More Fab Feb Photo Collage Festival: Day 14 Young Love
As my theme for this collage festival was my first 28 years, I had to include a very important influence: my all girls secondary school. I’ve talked about it previously here, here and here in quite a bit of detail so what more is there to say? Heading laterally today’s topic is about an event … More Fab Feb Photo Collage Festival: Day 13 – The Youth March
This evening I learned through my TDDFHS membership emails that the Western Star and Roma Advertiser newspaper (published in Toowoomba, Queensland) is in the throes of being digitised by Trove. With three branches of my Kunkel family living in that area at the time (Paterson, Kunkel, Lee), I immediately hotfooted it to the computer to … More Trove Tuesday: Joseph Francis Kunkel
I’m not going to change the image I’ve posted in this collage but I am going off on a lateral tangent yet again. I had thought to write (even more!) about Magnetic Island but then I thought “why? I’ve done that to death”. Then in another of my midnight mental rambles I was thinking about … More Fab Feb Photo Collage Festival: Day 12: Cousins, aunts and uncles
The featured collage image is really a story about Brisbane’s Exhibition or Royal National Association (RNA) Show, a 10 day event beloved by all Brisbaneites. However to Brisbane people it really only has one name, the Ekka, or occasionally the Show. The Ekka is still a cause for great excitement but in my childhood even … More Fab Feb Photo Collage Festival: Day 11: the Ekka
This week’s Sepia Saturday image fairly shouted “Kinsale” (Ireland) to me. In a surreptitious test I asked Mr Cassmob what it reminded him of….”snap” …he said the same thing! Why don’t you have a look at the professional image online here and see what you think…not only snow but a snowed-over barrel outside the pub! … More Sepia Saturday 163: Snow deep and crisp and even
Today’s post is an absolute pleasure to write. The lady featured in this photo is my great-aunt Emily, sister to my maternal grandmother, Laura. Emily was Laura’s younger sister, the next in line, born in Charters Towers less than two years after her to parents Stephen Gillespie Melvin and Emily Partridge. Sadly my grandmother died … More Fab Feb Photo Collage Festival: Day 10: Aunty Emily
When I chose this image for the college, I’d forgotten how extensively I’d written about my primary school in the 52 week series. So I’m going to let you read about the context in that post. Just lately I was re-reading Hugh Lunn’s book Over the Top with Jim, on growing up in Brisbane. He … More Fab Feb Photo Collage Festival: Day 9: Primary School Days
Family history across the seas 