You have to love a food stuff that spawns a saying
and keen as mustard is one of my favourites...
which I suspect may be a saying used in Australia and the UK
but perhaps not in other places
as I can't remember seeing this stuff in Florida when we lived there
I remember sneaking it in in my bags
sweating like I was a drug mule
all for the sake of mustard powder
The thing about this stuff is it bears little resemblance to actual mustard
but it does work as the magic ingredient in all sorts of dishes and so is indespensible
unlike the curry powder which is totally dispensable
and the little box in the pantry is only there to keep the mustard company
I wouldn't even be game to open the box to see the state of the powder inside
but the box is appealing and the mustard sits on its shoulders so it can be seen above the ground ginger and his mates so there it stays
They were quite fun to draw
and I got the idea to add them to my sketchbook
after drawing the prawns the other week
because that painting got us talking about the sayings that were disappearing
like don't come the raw prawn with me
I love that one, so much more fun that give me a break
but sadly it seems to have slipped out of common use as so many sayings do
So I was wondering if there is a saying that you use all the time
or that you miss hearing?
is there one that reminds you of someone special
my Grandfather used to constantly tell me to stop playing silly buggers
which makes me smile just at the thought of it
wasn't quite sure how I would draw silly buggers though
so keen as mustard fitted the bill instead
Happy weekend and Sunday Sketches ...xx
Here is the link to my last post for you ...
42 comments:
we have keens mustard here but i've never seen the curry, you're saying it's crap? We're looking for a sweet curry that tastes mild and good. We just no NOTHING about curries, lol. so, it's kinda an adventure in spice.
Great painting and I can't think of a single funny or sweet saying, how sad is that? I must be tired. Gotta o do APR, sooo late with that. Been writing for Featuring, and obviously too tired. Sowwies, no funny today. :o(
You made me smile when talking of your grandfather. I never met my grandfather on my my mother's side - heard he was an amazing poet. And I had so little time with my fathers dad who died of a brain aneurism when I was a little girl. However, the small bit of time I had with him, I cherish. We used to sit in his little room listening to blue grass on 8-trak tapes. (Whoa - totally showing my age there! lol)
Love your sketch and the bright, deep, vibrant colors.
Love you! :)
xx
Thats so funny - we use the Keens Curry all the time - and never open the mustard!
I use the mustard powder in mac + cheese and that is about it! Love your paintings Tracey x
I am the same as you, never use the curry but the mustard gets into everything, especially mac cheese. My Dad used to tell us kids to stop playing silly buggers all the time! The only saying I can think of that you don't hear much now is "Highly strung" which now is 'a drama queen!' Great drawings/paintings.
Yum..I love keens mustard..gorgeous art as always..fabulous..now you are making me hungry..last time for tobasco..now for keens! fabulous works..and love the floral art too!
Victoria
You're so cool! Mustard cans of all things - you manage to make the ordinary suberb!! I can't think of a saying . . . I'll be thinking . . .
LOVING your chocolate balls below too. Thank you for your sweet comments, say hi to our Alice fan for me! xoxo
I love the colours on these Tracey!
I was talking with my mom last night on the phone and we make up our own words together. It's definitely something I think I bring out in people. My husband started doing it with me as well.
Anyway, I was talking to mom, and she said something kind of gross and I replied with "Grody". Now there's a word I have said in the past... Wow. LOL
Rad. That's a good word too. I need to bring that one back.
Love the bright bright colours on the tins -heard of Colman's mustard but never Keens.
Sayings I miss: well I don' miss this one, because it's with me all the time, but it is one of the best pieces of 'advice' I've ever had. Very strict navy dad who constantly said 'don't put it down, put it away'. Sad, but I can't just drop something on a chair even now ..... A voice in my head says, 'don't .....
So I can't be untidy ( but he's not allowed in our studio, boy you should see the mess in there!)
Enjoy your posts so much always.
Love those tins1 I remember the saying 'stop playing silly buggers' from when I was a kid, and keen as mustard, too, although I must admit, I don't like mustard! Hugs, Valerie
I do have the Keens mustard in my cupboard for those special recipes...however it's years old since it's not used often...Now curry, never seen the Keens brand...but we love curry...so now I will be on the hunt for it.
Haven't heard any of your sayings ever here in Canada!!
Mom used to say "You're a Ragamuffin" and "You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar!"
Awesome artwork from those adorable little tins!! Love it!
Hugs Giggles
Wonderful illustrations as always...we don't have this stuff in Germany so maybe it is good enough to turn one into a nervous drug mule....give me some!!
I had to jump in here. You can find dry mustard powder in the U.S. in itty bitty tiny containers. I do miss the metal spice containers. *sigh* And I use it regularly. Rarely do I use curry. I have some in the cupboard I used once. There it sits until I decide to go on an spice experiment trip. Okay sayings that were used in my family that I don't hear: chuck-a-buck (really full), color the air blue (swearing a lot), and creepin' Jesuses. My Dad used to say that whenever we'd get behind a person driving slow. I try to use two out of the three 'cause someone has to keep them going! Great sketches! I love the color combo of the curry and mustard. :)
I don't think I've seen Keen's mustard powder here in the UK... I'll look harder the next time I'm at the supermarket. I usually buy the gloopy ones that come in glass jars so I'm not familiar with the powder, but I'm sure they're in the shops somewhere. I must look for them next time!
i love the colours and mustard too! =)
Love this post Tracey. I adore old sayings...I say them all the time. Got them from my Nan.
"Face like a bustic boot"
"Not so well since you fell off the organ."
"Toddle pip"
"Bright as a button"
I could go on and on and on as I usually do.
I have no idea what a bustic boot is. I have tried to find out but no success, if anyone knows please let me know. I'm keen as mustard to find out... :P xx
I love Keen's mustard! Seeing your cheerful box made me smile. I love how you make ordinary things so totally delightful and unordinary.
Love, love, love your sketches Tracey and the colours are so vibrant and beautiful. I always have a tin of Keen's mustard in. My Dad (when we lived in Canada) was a baker and always used it in cheese scones and cheese sauce and it was always my job to mix it into a paste....those were the days. They do sell it here in the UK too, but have not seen the Curry powder. Since living in England, I love the way older folk say 'budge up' when they want you to move up the seat. It is just a bit quirky. Hugs, Anne x
Beautiful sketches as ALWAYS! The question about sayings has me "traipsing down memory lane." We have some "doozies" here in Texas...
My grandmother used to tell me to "sit up straight and fly right". Other favorites are "I love you more than my luggage", "crazy as a bag of doorknobs", and "I don't trust him as far as I can throw him". Oh, and my granny always said, "Lord willin' and the creek don't rise." I could go in forever!
Wow what a great topic of conversation Tracey. You have the innate ability to get us thinking about things outside the ordinary and I for one appreciate it. I love your drawings, but don't like mustard. I've never seen Keens, but love the saying. My wonderful mother-in-law used to say, "I'll foot your arse"! haha, love that one too. Hope you've had a fab weekend :0) Mo x
Great images! One saying I remember from my dad (who could be a bit of a "spoil sport" at times when we wanted to do something he wasn't interested in)was "Let's don't and say we did." My mom liked to say, "Whoa, Betsy." when putting on the brakes in the car suddenly (she loved to ride horses)and "hell's bells" when she was really angry.
Yes - we do use that saying over here too :0)
I LOVE mustard - and Horseradish too. I like English Mustard best. It's proper 'blow your head off' stuff!
And your painting is just FAB!!
If it doesn't taste like mustard - I wonder why it's called mustard then?
Can't really think of a saying I know that doesn't get used. Will have to think about that! :0)
when we were little, my father would wake us saying "it is a beautiful day, get outside and play", i am smiling thinking of that.
wonderful art
spice jars can be awesome
Ah! Lovely sketches! I've only ever used mustard to make french dressing, although I did have it in a sandwich once when I bought a take-away lunch. I don't know the prawn expression. The phrase I quite like is 'as mad as a box of frogs' I think I might have made a drawing of this a long time ago. It does spark the imagination!:)
xx
My Grandmas used to say 'stop playing silly buggers' too - must be a generational thing. We used to have some great ones when I was at uni. If someone was described as 'fondle' it meant that you really wouldn't want to be fondled by them... We used to say 'ipid' when something reminded us of another time. Err what else...
Great piece of artwork - you really are keen as mustard (as well as cool as a cucumber.
Great post, great sketches (as always so inspirational) and great comments this week! You have a way of sparking peoples imagination and great conversation, that's a gift! love ya!!
Another great illustration ~ love the colors ~ Wow!
thanks for your comments ^_^
Lovely pictorial of the condiments!
Sayings! I would not have had a clue what was meant by the prawn one. But then I imagine our different parts of the world are full of such differences. I hated when my husband greeted strangers on the road with "Howdy", I felt it made him seem like a cowboy or a hick. Now I am a fan of cowboys so I told him he could start saying it again if he wants to.
Later gator!
I'm not familiar with Keen's mustard either - we have Coleman's here. My mom is a big fan of her old spice jars so I was always have to refill them with new spices when she would run out.
sayings are a fun thing to here. That is a fun one that your grandfather had! Love the bright mustard tins you painted ... reminds me of my Mother's tuna casserole.
Being not english or american it's interesting so read about all these sayings and where they originate. :) Great illustrations!
I have both of those tins in my cupboard but only since being here in Australia. In the UK it would be Coleman's mustard.
I've also used my curry powder and it was okay!
Your illustration is yet again brilliant.
I also use that saying 'as keen as mustard' plus many more. One in particular was one of my fathers. He always used to say to us at bedtime..."up the wooden hill to Bed~fordshire" and I remember when I finally worked out that the wooden hill was the stairs!
I have to admit I've never heard about the raw prawn :$
Have a great creative week xoxo
Never heard of Keen's but we have Colman's which comes in a similar tin and similar mustard yellow colour. As for curry powder, I never use it, I prefer to mix my own depending on what sort of meat I'm having.
The raw prawn is a new one on me, but silly buggers, or buggering about are still common.
A couple of favourites from my army days:
"Don't call me Sir, I work for a living"
"If you want sympathy go and see the padre"
Keen as mustard! I hadn't heard that one before, but I think I'm adding it to my list. I'm also fond of silly buggers and right now, just because I want to share something, I can't think of a single phrase... I love your depictions of the mustard and curry, so pretty and colorful.
Hello Tracy! i love your drawing and I really love the colors! wow that red and yellow really pop! I'm sure I have seen this tin of mustard. Looks very familiar. I'll check the store next time i go, here in NY. I have never heard of that expression, "Keen as mustard". I have an expression that I use now, that I picked up when living in the south, in Florida....instead of saying ' oh, for crying out loud' when something went wrong a colleague of mine (a life long Floridian) used to say "Oh, for crying in a bucket!" God knows why that sticks but it pops out of my mouth all the time. Weird.
Always great to read your stories and see what colorful and creative fun you've been up to!
I love that your mustard sits on top of the curry and looks down on the ginger. King of the Spices!! Reminds of Yertle the Turtle. Years ago I worked with a woman who said "oh my stars" all the time. I was barely twenty and she was about eighty so people looked at me strangely when it became my favorite expression. :)
These are really beautiful illustrations! I love the colour and energy you get in your sketches. The mustard tin looks just, well, so "Mustardy." I just love spice shops. I'm always opening containers and smelling them, just to inhale the beautiful spicy aromas. Great work!
I've seen people make a refrigerator magnet thingy out of those tins - to keep pencils and stuff in them - I keep meaning to try that with my paprika tin - but I have to use it up first.
I like to say "okey dokey smokey" which is pretty lame .... and an old friend of mine likes to say "don't get a wild hair" .... I guess that's like saying "don't get your knickers in a twist" .... And I like to imagine someone squirming in their seat with a wild hair :)
I've never heard of that saying before!! You learn something new every day..heehee That's the first saying that came to mind. :)
OH, what a fun post! LOVE your sketch!!
KEENS mustard was a staple in our household when we were kids. It wasn't added as a cooking ingredient but we would mix up a mustard spread for sandwiches by adding some water and a wee pinch of sugar to the mustard powder. I still keep a box in the pantry. We love our curries but I was never 'keen' on the Keens curry powder...only tried it once. I prefer a more traditional Indian style curry.
I could probably think of heaps of sayings but, as is always the case on these spur of the moment things...I go blank.
I am reminded of a couple of the sayings my ex-husband would often say. Bear in mind, he was raised in the country -
"fair crack of the whip"
"flat out like a lizard drinking"
"streuth"
And a few that were used a lot in my generation -
"fair dinkum"
"sh!t a brick!"
"You're going to fall ar$e over tit if you're not careful"
"I wasn't born yesterday"
:)
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