I heart Paddington!

My sister and I went to Paddington, {a gorgeous inner city suburb of Brisbane, in this instance, for those of you who don't know} to buy birthday and Mother's Day presents for our Mum!
We also did manage to fit in a spot of afternoon tea at Monty's Chocolates. I love a visit to Paddington but what made it extra special this time was this...

Look what I found!
I love the person who trims their hedge into a heart. I'd like to see more!

It's Australia Day!

Happy Australia Day!
It's a bit of an outrage the rain is coming down in buckets on our barbecues across Brisbane today but I'm just happy to have a precious day off work to spend time with my boys.
Obviously we're going to be celebrating that Australia is the best country in the world, I should know, I've been to cities that never close down...
We'll still be having that barbecue with my fam, I'll be listening to Triple J's Hottest 100, I'll be very excited if my favourite Brisbane band, The Jungle Giants make an appearance with this song.
We won't be going to the cockroach races or meat pie eating contests at our local pub {although I do think it's important to occasionally embrace your inner bogan}.

What will you be doing??

Photos from our trip to the Brisbane bayside suburb of Wynnum last weekend - one of the boys and my favourite places.

Have a great day!

The Mt Tamborine Markets

 I loved these markets, heaps of vintagey stuff and crisp, autumny morning air.
They are on the last Sunday of every month, corner of Curtis and Long Roads, North Tamborine

 you can just see a corner of a basket I bought reflected in the mirror!

         

The beautiful blue church where my sister got married!

Frills, Thrills and Bellyaches

If for some strange reason you don't like pretty vintage you'd best click yourself outta here before reading any further......

On our trip to Mt Tamborine, Kirstin took us to visit her sister's shop, which I have been in several times before but not knowing to whom it belonged to. And I was allowed to take lots and lots of photos without feeling like a creepy person! Which was a good thing ~ it's so gorgeous! Every inch of this shop and it's verandah is beautifully arranged with pretty vintage pieces and lots of unusual quirky things too. I love how Amanda has displayed everything. I had such a great time looking at it all, the china cabinets reminded me of my Nan's as did the jewelry.  The joy I had as a child, sitting on her bed, carefully sifting through her glittering beads and rings and being allowed to try them on has never left me. That's one of the reasons I love places like this. So many treasures waiting to be found. The swan below magically found his way back to my house because I just couldn't walk away... I blame Kirstin ~ she really shouldn't have brought me to this den of iniquity.

and do you know I saw a very similar swan sitting on Tom and Barbara's coffee table in
"The Good Life" last night on the telly!

                            

                                

       

                      

If you haven't already discovered the delights.....Vintage Frills is at North Tamborine, Main Rd. 

So. Totally. Gorgeous.

*if anyone knows what album I am referencing in the title of my post, without googling ~ 
you will get a prize {not the swan!}

The Kitchen Table ~ Mt Tamborine

My two friends and I had a very blissful girl's day out on Sunday. My parents very kindly took the boys for the whole day so I certainly enjoyed having a break and was so relaxed to the point of being sleepy. After unanimously deciding Mt Tamborine was one of our favourite places in the world, we organised to go. This is where we stopped for lunch ~ The Kitchen Table. It's on Main Rd at North Tamborine and used to be The Forest Cafe {I had no idea it was gone!} I really loved the Forest Cafe but this I loved too ~ how could you not. It is beautiful, light, creamy, sparkling with chandeliers and the pretty packaging of the abundant piles of deli goods. It still has all the little nooks, central fireplace and the ivy walled side verandah as well as footpath seating. Oh and the food was good too! I had mushrooms and goat's cheese. We sat here for ages and just talked after lunch.

I loved the styling details such as the giant tin tub full of spuds elegantly gracing one table and the rows of terracotta pots and baskets holding baguettes and sourdough loaves. 

There is also a little corner, painted pink, housing sweets and rows and rows of little desserts. I had to satisfy myself by just looking hmmm.

To market, to market

Went back to the Brisbane Markets at Rocklea this weekend. 

So glad to see it back up and really busy after being closed down due to being under water!! The boys and I went out for some beautiful fresh fruit and veges, breakfast and coffee. 

My friends Kell And Matt have a regular gig here. I love seeing them play. Kelly has being writing songs since our primary school days. I was just as much in awe of her talents then as I am now. We used to perch up in a tree in her front yard with cushions, notebooks and bags of lollies or homemade biscuits, for hours and talk and imagine and create. Kell used to make up songs and poems and I think I just used to talk a lot of nonsense. So not much has changed.

A Day Out In Paddington

Was probably, what felt like the hottest day so far this year and last year too.

My sister and I had our first Work Free & Child Free Day, {and by "Day" I mean approx 5 and a half hours} in a LONG  TIME  so we thought..... coffee..... and why not make it in Paddington!

First stop was coffee, we chose a cool looking little place. 

Upon ordering we went to pay with our cards and the lady said ~ sorry it's our very first ever day and we aren't fully set up yet, you can bring along the cash later if you like. 

I was suitably shocked at this free thinking!  We had our very well made coffee and dropped off the cash later on during the morning. She gambled with trust and won our respect!
URBAN GRIND  review on fourthousand

*Picture below is NOT the coffee shop ~ just a house I liked.

Monty's Chocolate ~ we stopped in for another coffee and a chocolate as we were getting a little 

weary from all the looking at shops AND power walking combined with hill climbing up and down Latrobe Tce. As we couldn't decide which chocolate to taste with our coffee no.2 for the day we sensibly chose the chocolate tasting plate. It came with a lovely thick hot chocolate and we thought a very generous selection of chocolates including chocolate coated nuts, chocolate coated salted caramels and chocolate coated cocoa beans and nibs dusted in chocolate ~ 

I can't even begin to explain it correctly so I suggest you go there yourself! 

We had to stop at about the halfway mark and got the remainder wrapped up to take home.

                            

Had to sit down for a bit during post chocolate mini coma ~ comfy, 

not exactly as it is made of mosaic tiles! But it did have a lovely view of the city!

We redeemed ourselves at lunch with rice paper rolls and a cold bottle of water

Op Shopping!

A colour for every day plus a beige for weddings and a black for funerals ~ everything you need!

Oh dear! ~ Not For Sale!

Happy New Year!

Happy end of 2010 and Happy New Year for 2011 - I can't believe it! 2010 was meant to be my year - it was the year of the tiger but nothing was blowing me away... I didn't win lotto and I didn't meet the man of my dreams, however on reflection and in summary a lot of good, life changing stuff happened and a few crappy things too. Best wishes for the year to come!

We in Brisbane have managed a few rain free days and we have been making the most of them.

The minute the rain stopped there was a chorus of lawnmowers across the neighbourhood singing out to me to add mine to their droning. I was only too happy to get stuck into my lawn that had grown about 20cm in a week but the dratted mower wouldn't start so I had to be contented with the weeding. 

The weeds in this humid, wet weather are having the run of the place and kept me busy for a while. 

The backyard has enough mud to fill a mosh pit, sadly without the cool music and scantily clad 19 year olds but with my ipod turned up loud enough and squinting my eyes at the right angle at the large stinky ibis haunting my yard I can almost pretend...

We ventured down to Wynnum with friends on the first afternoon of no rain although it was still overcast. Not too overcast to get saturated in the sea pool and water park. I love Wynnum and as I like to recall my oldest son announcing when he was 5 on a trip there, "I love Women".

There is some pretty good op shopping to be done there - I found these sweet pineapple plates, some books and these shot glasses which were a timely find because I was presented with a trusty "cowboy" drinks kit for my birthday ~ so that's YNE sorted! 

 {*please note ~ I cannot, to save my life, get the one mix 

to float atop the other ~ but it all tastes the same in the end}

The boys and I and our visitors have been having fun with 

this stick-on blackboard frame on our fridge - my New Year Resolution! 

{which fittingly, is written in chalk and will be replaced by a drawing of Ben 10 by tomorrow}

hold on tight for the new year is coming fast or maybe... let go!