Floors, Stoves and a Recipe……

Hi Vintage Lovers,

We have started having trades people in this week for quotes. The floorboards in the kitchen are in desperate need of some TLC.

They are the original baltic pine (which is fantastic) and are still in good enough condition to sand back and polish. I am so excited ecstatic about this. I am very keen to see the old baltic floorboard theme to continue thoughout the house. But that is another story (I will blog about that soon).

 

 

 We then thought it would be the perfect time to remove the stove and cooktop in the kitchen and replace it with one that is more in keeping with the age of The Old Croft.

 

 

My first thought was an AGA stove, they are just gorgeous.

 

 

I would just love one of these in the heart of our home.

The AGA would look just perfect next to the Nectre Baking Oven that has been put in the original fire place.

 

I will have to do a little research this week on stoves.........the aga would be perfect to do all my baking on.

 

I have been doing a bit of baking in the last few weeks.

 

Here is a recipe for Anzac bickies, which I have made a few batchs of lately (with the kids on school holidays). It is a treasured family one, that's so yummy you just can't have one bickie.......you need two or three.

Anzac Bickie Recipe

 

125 grams of butter

 

1 tablespoon  of golden syrup (more if you want the bickies softer)

 

1 teaspoon of bicarb of soda

 

3 tablespoons of boiling water

 

1 cup of rolled oats

1 cup of coconut

 

1 cup of plain flour

 

1 cup of sugar

 

Preheat oven to 150C. Melt the butter and syrup together. Combine the boiling water and bi-carb then add it to the butter and syrup. Combine the dry ingredients, then add the melted mix. Mix to a moist but firm consistency. Roll into balls, then place on a baking tray. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden on top.

 

Enjoy.

Mel xx

 

A busy week at The Old Croft…….

It's been a busy week at The Old Croft.........

 

Removing the curtains,

 

  and pulling up the carpet,

 

taking out the unwanted furtiture that the old owners left..........

 

 

and making discoveries !

 

The previous onwers had decided not to take the cupboard out when re-varnishing the floorboards and painting........

and also decided that it was fine to take off the original skirting board to put in a horrible cheap modern cupboard. Not happy.What were they thinking !

 

 

The wood fire in the kitchen was one of their better choices, which I can't wait to do some baking on in winter. It is getting rather chilly here and I am looking forward to lighting the fire at The Old Croft.

 

Have a great weekend.

Mel xx

 

A History Lesson……..

Hi Vintage Lovers,

I have been doing a little bit of research on "The Old Croft".

 

The previous owners had this old photo of "The Old Croft" and gave it to us when we bought her. I love knowing information about old houses and buildings, not that you will ever know all of it and that is also part of the appeal for me. So I decided to do a little detective work...............

Our local libaray has a history centre, which is where I started my search. A Heritage Survey was done in 2003 for our town which "The Old Croft" featured in.

I have discovered that one of the origial owners of "The Old Croft"  were the Scown family, George Scown owned a farm near by and then retired to "The Old Croft" in 1883. We are not sure if these ladys in the photo are part of the Scown family.

 

In a funny twist of fate, George is the great grand uncle of one of our good friends. He was able to tell us that George died at "The Old Croft" at the age of 73 in 1913, after a battle with cancer. George, with his wife (Emily) and son (Henry) are buried in our local cemetery.

 

Then we went for a wander the other day in the cemetery, to see if we could find them.

 

 

It wasn't long before we found the Scown family.

 

 

I am rather excited, I can't believe we have been this lucky to find out this amount of information about "The Old Croft" already. I am looking forward to doing some more investigating in the coming weeks and months.....................

 

but first, I have to organize an electrican, stonemason and someone to look at polishing the floorboards.

 

 I just love owning an old house.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

Mel xx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Old Croft

Hi Vintage Lovers,

 

It is my pleasure to introduce to you "The Old Croft".

She is our gorgeous circa 1870's cottage that we have just bought.

 

We fell in love with her the first time we laid eyes on her, and she felt like home as soon as we walked though her front door.

 

 

 

She even has an old store house in the garden .......

 

and the old out house has even been incorporated into the shed.

 

She is everything we were looking for and perfect for us. She needs some work and renovating done, just what I love doing. The garden will also need lots of work and TLC and I can't wait to get started.

 

We have decided to do some work on her before we move in, so we are thinking it will be a few weeks yet before we have our first sleep over.

She will certainly be the subject of many more blogs.

Mel xx

 



 

 



 

Happy Easter…….

Hi Vintage Lovers,

Easter is Here.

We have had a few Easter eggs hunts here ...watching the kids' delighted faces as they discover that the Easter Bunny has sucessfully fulfilled his job again is just beautiful.

 

 

Everyone is enjoying the weekend (no chocolate overdoses) and we all had Easter Sunday dinner with the goregeous centre peice above.

 

Good Friday was spent down at my parents farm having a family get together. We have also been to a few markets and cafes, but mostly we have been taking it easy.

 

Easter is the best time to take it easy and have some family time........As well as eating a bit too much chocolate.

Yum!

 

Hope you are having a great Easter.

Mel xx

 

 

 

 

A quick trip home and a rare find.....

Hi Vintage Lovers,

Last week was a busy week finished of with a quick trip home over the weekend.

These gorgeous old houses are on the way home. I think they are adorable and are just in need of a bit of TLC.

I would love to see them renovated and restored...........

It was just an over night stay for a friend's 40th birthday. She had a retro bowling night, which was a great fun night..........to have a few laughs and to catch up with everyone.

A rare picture of me showing my bowling action!

We had a fantastic time, with only one problem - it went way to quick ! We will definitely stay longer next time.

On our way home, we stopped off  at an antique shop or two for a quick look (I can never drive past one) and look what I found!

A beautiful green and cream enamel bread bin.

A very rare find...........and one I've been looking for, for a very very long time.

She matches my cake tin perfectly and will look fantastic in my timber kitchen.

Have a fantastic week.

Mel xx



 

 Favourite Things……

Hi Vintage Lovers,

I have a few lots of favourite things, all of them old, vintage and all of them priceless to me that will look fantastic in our old house. Here's a peek at a few of them before they are packed up ready to be moved to their new old home.

 

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My beautiful old linen and canisters,

 

 

Gorgeous vintage dessert serving spoons and napkins,

 

 

my green and cream enamelware and bowls

 

 

and my candle holder.

 

I can't wait to see them in our old house,

with my old suitcases............

 

They will be rather handy for storage in our old house.

 

 

The sorting and packing has started, getting ready for our move to our old house. Not long to go now, before we have our old house - can't wait. Not that I am counting the days down... well, yes, I kind of am!

Have a great week.

Mel xx