Christmas Celebrations and Summer Holidays....

Hi Vintage Lovers,

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone.

How were your celebrations ???

Ours is more a three day affair.....Christmas Eve is spent at home preparing, baking and decorating gingerbread houses ...... a Christmas Eve tradition for us. Christmas Day was also at our place, with family, eating way to much and finishing with a backyard game of cricket. Boxing Day is down at my parents farm for a big family get-together ....... it doesn't get any better !!!



This photo was taken early evening on Christmas Day .......... working off some of the Christmas food and drink.

As it is school and summer holidays for six weeks we have been down the beach lots and also quite a few backyard cricket games are being played and battled out already, and if we are not playing it the boys are watching it on T.V.
What summer is all about in Australia !!!

I have found a little spare time to pop out into the garden for a little bit. We bought another trailer load of mulch to top up the areas that had become a little bare in spots ready for our summer heat.

 I was also a little concerned about my newly planted hydrangeas, so we have created a temporary cover for them that I can pop over them on really hot days until the hedging grows. My sunflowers in the photo above, that I planted early November are growing fantastically and should be flowering very soon.

The planning has also started for the next stage of our Old Lady's renovations also ...... the kids are spending a few days down at Mum and Dad's, which has given Wayne and I a chance to sit down and work out the next plan of attack for renovations for the New Year. There is lots to be done ....... so, 2015 will be a very busy year.

The Christmas decorations will be packed up tomorrow ...... ready for a fresh start for 2015.......
........and I am ready for it.
Mel xx

 

 

 

Welcome Summer and Christmas 2014

Hi Vintage Lovers,

Where has this year gone???

 Can't believe it is December and we are talking Christmas already !!!

My hydrangeas and agapanthus have started flowering.......which always spells Summer and Christmas to me.

As you know I've had a little break from the blog of late........due to the business in the lead up to the end of year.......lots of school presentations and concerts as well as Christmas preparations, Christmas baking and decorating of our old lady.

All my Christmas preparations and shopping is all done ...... but, I am certainly not ready to be thinking about and planning 2015......although there is a lot to be planned out for next year with the next stage of renovations for our old lady.

The kids are now on school holidays, so I am looking forward to enjoying the first weeks of the school holidays with the kids without rushing around.

I hope you find time to enjoy the last few weeks of 2014 with your family and friends and not get too caught up in the mad Christmas rush.
Mel xx
 
 

 

 

 

A new garden idea is hatched……..

Hi Vintage Lovers,

We have had a bit of a change of plans in the last week.
 After we finishing mulching the garden a few weeks ago.......we thought we would have a little break before starting the next house project, which is going to be the front rooms of our cottage, in the New Year.   

We were having a Sunday cuppa out on the church pew and we came up with the idea of extending the dry stone wall around the lawn area to include the outdoor area also. We have all the stone here that the previous owners had left......well hid under trees and behind the shed and store house for us. So we thought........why not give it a go.
 

The dry stone wall is already down the side of the lawn area that is on a higher level than our cottage.
Our idea is to continue the wall around the outdoor area to hide the cement slab.

We will move steps and create a semi-circle bed to match the semi-circle garden beds at the front of our old lady.........for a weeping maple with an English Box hedge eventually. The box hedging will continue around the outdoor area also. Then there will be steps on the other side of the area for access.

 

 

Now, it certainly will not be a quick project.......in reality it is a very big project and will be an ongoing project for a fair while. So our thought is to have this project as well as the front room project happening at the same time as, a lot of the work in the front rooms will be completed by the tradies first up.

 You know me, I don't like to sit still for long. J

Mel xx

 

Our rustic outdoor area……….

Hi Vintage Lovers,

 

Just popping by to let you have a look at how our outdoor area is coming along......it is still a work in progress......but the photos will give you an idea of what we are up to out there.

Now, back in March we found some old roofing iron in a salvage yard and we have used it to line the back wall of the area. We then thought the corrugated iron would also look fantastic on the shed doors.

We were even lucky enough to find some old corrugated iron with the manufacturer's stamp still visible.

We have started to hang old and vintage tools and implements from it..............
 

 
........... as well as others bits and pieces I have collected.
 

 

 

I would love to have some industrial lighting out there now (we only have a fluro light on one of the beams). Our Electrician is coming in the next week or so to finish off sorting out the shed wiring (we had some more power points put in a few weeks ago) and hopefully we can earth the outdoor area lights, then it will be safe to have the industrial lighting.
I have already found some in an antique shop.......that I would love to have.

Fingers Crossed J
Mel xx

 

 

 

Playing in the Dirt……

Hi Vintage Lovers,

Ahhhh......spring is here......and you know how I love my garden and playing in the dirt, don't you ????? 

Well.....I have been doing just that and a lot of it of late !!!!!

We have been really busy creating new garden beds and planting hedging right around our old lady's borders, and over this weekend we have just finished mulching it all.

The plan with the hedging was to create a uniform look. All the fences are different shapes and sizes and the shed makes up part of the boundary fence, as well as dodgy makeshift structures (like tacked on carports, woodsheds and bbq areas) that needed to be removed.
It was going to be impossible to get it all looking the same without hedging.

So, 80 (yes.....80) hedging plants later......we have been busy little bee's.......we will have a hedge that will go right around our old lady's garden.......eventually.  

These pittosporums around the shed were planted back in April and they have doubled in size already.

Down the driveway side........

and down the other side of the garden.
We have also started our English Box hedging on this side.
 Friends of ours had this box hedging and didn't want it, so asked if we did........this was planned (Box hedging) to start next year so we will have different size plants along most of the borders. We  have just had an early start on it.

 We also bought a fruiting weeping mulberry for the area as well.
I love weeping trees.......so my plan is to buy a different weeping tree every year for a while.

We have also been re-designing the back area around the tank area (we are planning to buy another tank shortly) and have planted pittosporums around that area as well.

 
We are now finished planting in the garden for the year.
I am so happy with the way the whole garden is coming together........now she just needs to
Grow, Grow and Grow some more.

Mel xx

 

A window box full of herbs….
Hi Vintage Lovers,

Thought I'd pop by and give you a look at our kitchen window all finished off.

We ended up painting the window in an antique cream colour. 

We were keen to have all the windows in our old lady all timber but nothing ever goes as planned, does it ?????

The timber was so full of filler that it would have been impossible to leave it timber without the filler showing.

So painting was the only option.......but it has come up a treat and we are really happy with it.

We were then keen to find a window box (as the kitchen window looks straight out onto the carport we thought a bit of greenery would not go astray) for herbs, so we could just open the window and have all the herbs there for us to use.

Funny enough we found one closer than we expected - just around the corner from us at the garden centre.
It is an old wrought iron style made to match old windows and fits our kitchen window perfectly - we couldn't have asked for more and it looks fantastic.

Next month we are planning to buy another window box for the girls room (their room also looks out onto the carport area) to pop some flowers of their choice in. I am also planning to grow a glory vine along the far side of the carport (along the lattice in the previous photos) so the carport is a little bit easier on the eye, rather than looking straight at it with all the bins and fire wood that is stored there.

 

Hope you are having a fantastic week.

Mel xx

 

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