Friday Favourites

Happy Friday and Weekend Everyone.

We are back to winter here - it certainly feels like it.

It has been so cold here - but not much rain and we need more rain.

The fire is on and I am sitting here typing this on the couch under a blanket.

 Better not pack those winter woollies away quite yet !!!

We are expected to have some warmer weather this weekend.......I am looking forward to some warm
sunshine - most definitely !!!

I wanted to show you some wooden pizza and bread boards made out of old floorboards (from an 1870's cottage) that I found for Wayne's birthday a few months back. He is the official homemade pizza maker in our house......my favourite is his blue cheese, proscuitto and pear pizza. Yumo !!!!
 Don't they look fantastic !!!

 We will be working out in the garden over the weekend as I am keen to get the last of the hedging plants planted

 (photo's soon, I promise) as soon as possible before the weather heats up to much.

Have a fantastic weekend Friends.

Mel xx

 

Tuesday's Thought…..

"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard"
Winnie the Pooh

Our beautiful Sally passed away on the 5th August, six weeks ago today.........she had a sudden and very severe stroke.
Our gorgeous girl didn't suffer at all and
the last thing she heard was my voice telling her that we love her so very much, and now she could go and chase as many sticks and balls, hoses and lawn mowers, whipper snippers and weeds, spades and shovels (she loved digging holes for plants in the garden), brooms and vacuum cleaners as she wants. As well as rounding up the sheep, cows or chooks, and chasing the quad bike up and down the paddocks with all her boundless energy and enthusiasm for ever and a day.

As you could imagine, it hasn't been the best few weeks for us.
I haven't felt like posting about Sal (or anything else for that matter - so I have lots to catch you up on in the next few weeks) before now, she was a huge part of our lives. For fourteen and half years she was my shadow - just about everywhere I went she went......so it will take a long time to get used to her not being around.

Mel xx

 

Friday Favourites

Hi Vintage Lovers,

It has been bitterly cold here the last two weeks, we are all rugged up and have had the fire roaring most days and nights to keep our old lady toasty and warm.

The school holidays have been lovely and relaxing, lots of sleep ins, lazy breckies, movies (Frozen is still the movie of the moment in our house), a bit of winter baking and hot pots of tea thrown in.

Talking of baking, I found this little enamel gem in an
antique shop recently and couldn't resist it. It is rather a rare item these days (I have never ever seen one nor had the shop owner). As you know I have a very big soft spot for green and cream enamelware, so it had to come home to be added to my collection.
Unfortunately it didn't have the old bickie cutters still inside, that would have definitely been the icing on the cake........well, icing on the biscuits!!!!
I will just have to keep hunting for vintage bickie cutters, so that the set is complete.

It has certainly been enjoyable to have some down time with the kids, but next week I am planning to get out in the garden (very rugged up, I might add) and get my hands dirty.  

Have a fantastic weekend, Friends.

Keep Smiling J
Mel xx
 


 

 

Inspiration...comes in all shapes and forms.

Hi Vintage Lovers,

 

As it is school holidays here, I thought I would pop by and give you a quick look at the kids rooms and how they have decorated them. There is a bit of a story attached......so I will start right at the beginning.

 

 

It all started with a book, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (one of my favourite books and well worth a read if you haven't read it). Now I read this book about five years ago, and have re-read it quite a few times since then.

 

The book is written by a University professor who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and only has a short time to live. He is asked to give a last lecture but instead of talking about death and dying speaks about using our time as best we can because we never really know how much we have left. It is about following our childhood dreams, about seizing every moment and doing what makes us happy.

 

About a year ago I was keen for our oldest daughter to read the book. After much persuasion she agreed to read it. She is a huge reader but The Last Lecture didn't quite fit under her genre.....so she needed a bit of talking into reading it. To her surprise, she did quite enjoy it and got a lot out of it......but the thing she couldn't stop asking us after reading it was if she could paint her walls with things that mattered to her like Randy talked about in the book. As a teenage boy, his parents allowed him to decorate his room by painting the walls with things that mattered to him. How could we say no ??????

 

As our cottage is to be completely renovated anyway we decided to use this inspiration and allow our kids to do the same for a bit of fun before we start renovating their rooms.

Here's what they came up with.......

 

Our girls share a room. So they have quotes from favourite books and movies. 

Our youngest is very much into star wars at the moment (as you can see with all the star wars Lego on his chest-a- draws).......





 



 ........so he decided to paint The Jedi Code above his bed.
 



 



The kids have more painting planned for over these holidays. 

I have a feeling it will be an ever changing mural until we start the renovations in their rooms. 

Mel xx

 

 A Thought for Today…

Are you somebody who sees a weed or a wish ???????
I am a wish person (or try to be most of the time).
Isn't it funny as kids we all see wishes and the as adults we most of us see a weed.
Perspective is a powerful thing......isn't it  ?????

Have a fabulous week friends.
Mel xx

 

 

Friday Favourites

Hi Vintage Lovers,

It's been a busy week here.
Lots of home jobs were on my to-do list that needed to be done before the kids are on school holidays.
Can you hear my sigh of relief ???? (I am sure you can !!!!). I am rather tired (not to mention the kids are too) and really need a break from the daily routine.

I am looking forward to time to make a decent pot of tea (or two). I know it doesn't sound much, it is one of my little luxuries in life. I don't like to rush when I have a pot of tea, so I usually use tea bags day to day (as life is always busy - especially with kids) and only have pot tea when I have the time to enjoy the ritual.

We bought a new kettle last month which will make the pot tea ritual all the more enjoyable.......
 

......... a gorgeous Aga kettle. 

 

I have always wanted a reproduction vintage kettle. But, after we bought Agatha for our old lady the Aga vintage kettle moved up to the top of my wish list. So, when Mother's Day came around, I made a special request for an Aga kettle. It just took a little while to come in after being ordered....all good things are worth waiting for, aren't they ?????

As you can see she looks perfect on Agatha or on the wood stove in the kitchen.......

....... a wonderful addition to our vintage kitchen.

Have a great weekend.
Enjoy Yourself.
Mel xx
  

 Finally, the new old front gate……..

Hi Vintage Lovers,

 

My apologies (I am a little red faced) for being absent from the blog for a few weeks -

the craziness of life took over so the blog has been rather neglected of late.

 

We have quite a few jobs under way at the moment but we have had holdups on each and everyone of them which is rather frustrating to say the least. Our front gate that we thought would be up and erected within a couple of weeks .....silly us.
 

If you remember, we found the old gate in a local second-hand shop and couldn't resist her. She is a Simpson Pioneer gate.........but before we could pop her up she did need a bit of TLC......
 

........there was a missing section on the gate (we came to the conclusion that the poor thing had been run over by a tractor or something) that had to be repaired, but we needed to find an old bit of pipe that matched in diameter
(not an easy job).

My dad ended up finding one for us and welding it in.

 Thanks, Dad. You are one in a million. J

Then she was off to the powder coaters which then took longer then we expected.

 

So eights weeks later we have our old gate back and have erected her on the front driveway, so that we could pull down the carport gate and other side fence, to make the garden one complete area.
 

 Here's a couple of old pics of the carport gate and other side fence........ 

 

 

and some pics after we had taken down the gate and side fence -

it looks so much better and bigger.

 

 

Our next jobs are to finish planting the hedging plants around the garden borders.......if the rain holds off just a little while....... lets hope so. 

Have a great week.

Mel xx