Bliss!

Everybody should take a little bit of time for themselves over these next busy weeks even if it is only to get your eyebrows waxed.....
This is where I go, my sister's beauty room.
Over the last ten or so years she and her husband have both renovated their home, like many of us having to contend with babies, budgets and busy lives. But what they have created is a beautiful home to live in and work from, in every corner treasures acquired through life experience rather than the pages of a catalogue.

An extravagantly large lemon scented magnolia blossom from their back yard!

The cabinet and chair from our Nan's house in Greenslopes and 

I love this wallpaper ~ I helped my sister choose and hang it, quite a few years ago now.

Sanctum products

My sister collects birds - i spy a little yellow canary vintage avon bottle ~ my favourite by a mile! 

Nan had consecutive yellow canaries, {real ones} called Peter {it didn't seem weird to me at the time}.

Going somewhere to have one's hair ripped out by the roots and feeling totally relaxed and nurtured at the same time is very contrary but it really does work that way for me!

A Ruby Anniversary

Much more precious than rubies.....
My parent's 40th Wedding Anniversary.

My sister and her husband had a morning tea for us at their beautiful home. They made a delicious baked ricotta cheesecake topped with glistening ruby raspberries and currants and a very rubified table with beetroot dip and turkish delight! {one of my Dad's faves}

I made some little heart shaped palmiers.

I wish this rain would go away, beautiful as it is. I wish I hadn't burnt the third tray of palmiers!

Making Snowflakes

Am making some paper snowflakes.

here are some pages that have inspired me....

from artful life

from Bugs and Fishes

from Three Red Apples

{with a tutorial on how to make them!}

 

Perhaps I will attempt this, my hallway is still strung with paper doily bunting from a baby shower a couple of months ago - I didn't want to take it down!

from Martha Stewart

{with tutorial}

About to put up the tree and as much as I love mine and my collection of decorations I do rather fancy this matserpiece!

from Brown Button

Enjoy your christmas decorating..... I must go, I have a tangle of lights to attend to.....

while the sun shines...

The aftermath of going away camping is the pile of washing to be done but I loved seeing the towels {vintage dri glo from my Nan, still so soft and fluffy despite their age} waving in the breeze.
Fortunately I did all of the washing on my first day back because it has rained ever since.
Washing finished, I had some afternoon tea - Jelly Slice made by my friend and I thought it was so totally retro I had to place it on some suitable china and stop and take a pic!

Tasted pretty good too.... will have to hunt down the recipe.

Out of the Suburbs and down to the Sea

This is where we've been for the last four days.
Hastings Point, a quiet, beautiful spot on the northern NSW coast, still fairly unmarred by development.
My parents took my boys and I away for a much needed family holiday, just like the ones I went on as a child. Happily not much has changed and the boys have had some experiences and memories just like the ones I treasure.

We stopped for a bit of lunch on the way down and marveled at the colour of the water.

We "camped" in some luxury tents, here ~ it is camping I tell you!

{little tiny dominoes, not sure where I found these! and a deck of cards that were originally my Nan's}

The tents really were so brilliant to stay in, with their own showers and polished wood floors and kitchen, tv, comfy beds, but what really was a luxury was staying so close to the beach and having a lake for fishing right behind us. There were no mozzies!

There were lots of little fish biting our bait but {secretly, gladly} they were too small to keep and had to be thrown back. My big boy learnt he could catch lots of fish.

       

The weather was beautiful. There was a tidal creek that ran out to the sea on which we all went for rides on sitting in blow up rings, there was an aquamarine rock pool with a sandy bottom just the right depth for little people to swim in.

                            

We played games around the table at night and argued over the finer points of creative rule breaking.

My little boy made friends and didn't want to leave.

None of us did..... but we were glad to be home in the end.

Two owls flew in

My very own little owl candles ~ a present from a friend for 'just because'.

Her mother made them. Unfortunately I will not be burning these, they are too sweet.

On the subject of owls....

A Most Magnificent Find ~ My Owl Barn For all owlovers, {yes that's me although I am slightly scared of them ever since reading of Old Mr Brown in one of Beatrix Potter's little stories, Squirrel Nutkin when I was small } has put together 2011 Owl Lover Calendar.

A beautiful collaboration from artists of owl illustrations to make a most wonderful downloadable calendar. Choose your favourites from the gorgeous collection.

If you like owls please go and have a look - I love it and cant wait to choose mine!

Right In The Middle Of Suburbia!

Having no time for a drive in the country on an ordinary week day my lovely friend took me to visit Oxley Creek Common for a walk and a chat and some fresh, warm breezy air.

I never knew such a beautiful place was hiding in the middle of the western suburbs yet I have driven past so many times.

Fields, sunshine, birds, butterflies, moo cows and at the end of a long winding path - a Secret Forest!

{long winding path}

{secret forest!}

{the photo doesn't do it any justice!}

Hoop Pines, fallen logs, quiet shady spots to sit in the cool and secret forest ambience, fairies, toadstools and little breezes slipping between the trunks and waving loudly at the tree tops.

We decided it was "better than shopping", which had been our original plan.

I have such a wonderful, beautiful, wise friend who always makes me feel ~ Better

{treasures}

A Paper Wallet with gifts inside.

For my sister's birthday I created a paper wallet as a birthday card.

We were all giving her some cash so she could buy herself a new handbag and wallet so this was the perfect thing to package up my contribution.

This is the first time I have ever tried designing anything like this and doing the template was a bit tricky - with a few little teething problems but I think it came together pretty well.

The templates ready to cut out.

This is where I feel like Amelie with her big pair of scissors....

This is the wallet from the inside, with two little pockets on either side of the photograph for me to stuff the cash. I also made a little gift tag.

And now all folded up. The pattern is based on some scanned in fabric from one of my Grandmother's dresses.

Putting in a few extra cards - one a voucher for babysitting.

All done!

I'm going to make some more!

"Two things cannot be in one place. Where you tend a rose, a thistle cannot grow." ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett {The Secret Garden}

found here at anthropologie