Veranda Time!

I have been asked to "consult" on my friend's veranda redesign!
I have been pinning down some inspiration over at pinterest.

What do you think Linda?

I think this is spectacular*

*View not included

You must have,

a daybed

or a hammock

or something in-between!

A table large enough for your whole family...

{and yes, the people in her family actually look like this}

Does your budget extend to a shopping trip to Palm Springs?

You will have to by a cat.

                                       

I really feel one end of the verandah should be dedicated to a serious tiki bar with a well established drinks cabinet or at the very least a cute little trolley.

I guess you'd better get some outdoor lighting for all the parties you will be having to justify the tiki bar.

Should I stop now? I couldn't - there's more here

{all images from pinterest, please click here for credit and source information}

Swiss Night

My parents brought me and the boys back this lovely clock from their recent Swiss/Austrian adventures! It was exactly what I wanted as we had a very similar one when I was little however all that remains of that one is the little fraulein on the swing attached to nothing but memories.

I have never made it to Austria or Switzerland and am looking forward to "Swiss Night" tonight at my parent's house to see all of their photographs. 

Slide night was and is a much loved tradition for our family.  Although my father's clear, crisp photographs of the enormous snow capped alps above the fields of flowers and cows, forests and villages are going to be so stunning and beautiful they are going to make me ache to go there, they won't have the quite same aesthetic as the slide nights from the 70's and early 80's with the slight grainy texture, the fashions! against the background hum of the slide projector in the darkness and the hilarity of seeing a slide randomly inserted upside down, {nothing funnier when you are 7}.

Photographs should always be displayed in such a way {travel photographs especially should be seen on a large scale} or at least I hope Dad has assembled a large screen connected to his computer and Mum has made some "nuts and bolts" or similar to be passed round whilst we listen to his funny and amusing stories of their trip as a foil to the heartbreaking beauty of his photography.  

Autumn Leaves

My little boy is home on his second day in a row from school because he is pretty sick with the flu. We went for a little walk this morning to get the hey out of the house and get some fresh air! It was such a gorgeous morning, I thought it would cheer him up a little.We found some beautiful leaves.

The little vintage bottle above as well as the log vase were found at the markets for me on Mother's Day - don't they look sweet for a couple of dollars each. I actually think the vase looks a little lalique no?
The large brown glass bottle is a chemical bottle from reverse garbage I bought quite a while ago - but they usually have them there for a couple of dollars too! It took a while to scrub the label off however the label left on might look cool too, maybe for halloween or something.
Happy Days, hope the flu bugs don't stop at your door in the coming weeks!

Blue Heaven

yay! my Mac is finally back and all in one piece and we are both slowly rebuilding our lives. Hard drive failure! The poor baby needed a transplant :( However, the guys at Mac 1 in James St were so nice so I would recommend them if something unfortunate happens to your Mac and you live in Brisbane.
I have so much blogging and blog reading to catch up on I don't know where to begin!
Here are a couple of picks from Mother's Day a couple of weekends ago.

My boys and I went to the markets, bought some yummy food and some beautiful second hand books and vintage bottles. I had cups of tea made for me, served in a heart shaped cup and saucer proudly presented to me by my littlest one and I read books in bed all afternoon - heaven!

a message from the desk of suburbansider

i love my work, originally uploaded by Stewf.

To my dear friends,
My apologies for the lack of posting around here. My beloved computer is very broken and I have had no access to either it or the outer world I access through it for the last week or so. As you can see I have had to dust off my trusty typewriter to complete my communications.
Please do not be dismayed at my lack of prompt reply to your emails, my typewriter does not receive email.
Please stay tuned for more in the hopefully near future from Suburbansider - the little worms at apple are working on it as we speak!

This girl knows how to party!

My very talented and most amazing friend Leesa has been very busy working to create this most beautiful morning tea for her Mother's 60th birthday. I just don't know where to look there is so much gorgeousness. What I love about Leesa's work is that she does everything herself including all of the baking, cake and cookie decorating, label making and even crystalised lavender making ! And if I told you she has four children, two of them being baby twins and also works as a photographer that would just be showing off wouldn't it! Well, I am very proud of her. She has such a gift for making things look beautiful and is an inspiration to me and I love having a friend who gets just as excited over things like baker's twine and paper straws and perfectly coloured flowers as I do.

 speaking of perfectly coloured flowers...

Lovely! Thanks for the pics Leesa and making my blog look pretty xx Ains

Lost in Austen

Watching the Royal Wedding was fun. I thought it was all quite satisfactory and loved seeing "The Dress" which wasn't a disappointment and thought the sister looked pretty nice. I loved seeing Prince Harry and William grinning away. My friend Michelle hosted a delightful dinner and I can't mention that without talking about the most delicious Coronation Chicken! {which I've never had before and am certainly going to be making in the near future} and a very scrummy Eton Mess {which I have had several times before and will be making again faster than you can say Beatrice and Eugenie, what were you thinking?}

On another note, Pip has announced a new book to read, Pride and Prejudice and I'm doing it - time again to get lost in Austen and I'm hoping to get as lost as I possibly can. If you'd like to follow along I have added her button to my side bar to the Meet Me At Mikes's Book Club. I just love Meet Me At Mikes, do you read her too?

Feeling like a big cup of Royal Tea

Check out my Royal Wedding pin board on pinterest - it's pretty!

Am definitely excited to be watching the Royal Wedding tonight.
A friend is having us over and sent me this lovely message,

"Many years ago a beautiful young girl married a not so handsome prince. It didn't end so well but it was a fairly seminal moment in another little girl's life - she had the melamine plate and the ladybird reader and even her barbie had the puffy sleeved dress. This Friday it's happening again and I think I should celebrate the occasion with a little gathering... get frocked up, drink some pimms and eat some suitably British food..."

I felt the same as a little girl. 

At school the next day I was delighted to be told that I looked 

like India Hicks and to this day it is amazing how similar our lives are, haha.

Oh well, tonight will be fun and I am looking forward to a watching a 

new era of the monarchy unfold. We are each to bring a plate and the lolly shop at 

Carindale sells packets of barbecue hula hoops so I am sorted!

happiness is pinterest

Finally getting my head around pinterest! 
After feeling a little down in the glumps I thought why not find something a bit happy to share.