Bubbas, bubbly, beautiful!

Wow, what a gorgeous weekend! It was busy, it was fun, it was relaxing, it was memorable... all the things you like a few days with your sister and mother to be. Jess's baby shower was ssooooo much fun! Jess had a great group of friends who were into having a good time together even though we didn't all know each other previously.....it is great when a new crowd get along so easily at parties, isn't it?

Miss Chooken keeping an eye on the cupcakes.

Party favours on the left.

Close-up of the party favours, which held a small bottle of cocoa-butter, a small soap, a blue and pink pen and also a pattern for a softie Jess made - all wrapped up in a face-cloth "nappy".

Playing the "spit-the-dummy" game (there were a few very good spitters!).

Our mum's turn at "Stick-the-dummy-on-the-baby" game.


Miss Chooken made great friends with little Sarah for the day!

Jess having a blast opening the gifts for her and baby.

Lisa showing one of the prizes we made or each game. Each prize was a baby's bottle filled with lollies and tied to a little bottle of bubbly.

Miss Sunshine had a great time.

Mum, Miss Chooken, Jess, Miss Sunshine - all recovering well from a busy weekend.

Metallic Monday

A lovely grape gathering bucket from Wisteria. I can also picture it being used to collect blooms from your own garden (or your neighbours' maybe!) and to display flowers in your own home. Wood collections can look a little strange during Australia's hot summers, but a weathered bucket holding a gorgeous bunch of flowers is a simple way to add texture and colour to a hearth in the warm weather. What else would you use this cute bucket for?

Sunday Sleep-in...

...and hopefully someone to bring you breakfast too :)

Loving the masculine blacks and greys combined with the pink blush in the throw and roses, the casual yet romantic part-canopy and the simple bedside - beautiful combination.

image - Country Living - House of the Year 2008, just gorgeous!

Gotta fly darl!

I'm off to Sydney for a few days! Have a fabulous weekend and I will catch you early next week!

xx

carved wood, tin and glass plane here.

Real quick - some nice finds!

ok, so I am meant to be packing etc for the weekend trip, but I stopped in at the local op-shops this morning on the way back from one of Miss Sunshine's many medical appointments. Picked up a few nice things and quickly wanted to share! Nothing has been cleaned up, but you get the idea...

First up, inspired by Eddie Ross' recent adventure, I rummaged (seriously, it is two ramshackle sheds behind a church!) and found the collection of silver and wooden spoons. Also a pink hand-bag for Miss Sunshine (not shown). The silver ones are pretty beat-up (not sure yet if they will be ok to serve with) but I will give them a good polish and see how they come up. Now I need to learn more about silver marks/stamps. The wooden ones I grabbed because I love wooden spoons! I like to wonder what recipes they have contributed to, who's kitchen they lived in, who's bottom they may have smacked (lol)...etc. I want a nice white ceramic pot to display them all in. If you have any ideas of how else to display wooden spoons, let me know! The $3 total I paid there also included the mid-60's edition of an Australian vernacular book. I am a bit obsessed with Aussie slang, so I have been keeping an eye out for an older book like this.

The second stop was at the Salvation Army where they are far more aware of how to display and what to charge for the goods. However, I just couldn't go past the white and cream queen sized heavy woven cotton bed spread. I love these old things and this one was in great condition so for $10 I snapped it up! The brass candle-stick matches one I already own, so it was too good an opportunity to not grab it and make a pair (and it was only $1).

I was also thinking of Christmas time and my "green theme", and I could picture the (rather ugly) green cocktail glass, put to much prettier use as a dish to hold sweets on my Christmas table. I also grabbed the little silver cake (maybe cheese?) server and the (not so vintage) glass cloche. I think it was a cheese cloche (?) and I am not keen on the two-tone wooden base, but thought I could either paint the base (white or charcoal maybe?) or use the glass dome on a white ceramic plate stand to present Christmas tarts or similar. Or maybe leave the wood plain? It is about the diameter of a large bread/side plate. Any other ideas? I would love to hear your thoughts! So all up I spent $20 - I think my favourite purchase is actually the retro bedspread :)

A touch of green...

I mentioned here my burgeoning love affair with this shade of green, but I am really starting to find a lot of inspiration for how to include it in my home. It sure doesn't hurt when the images include my sort of styling too! Yay! for Nibs for sharing this one, it made my day :)

Seriously, how supremo is that bathroom??? Probably too "rustic" (read "ridiculous") for the hubby and I am sure my ole granddad would have ask why I was bathing the children in a cattle trough, but I *heart* it muchly!

The little kitchen nook is so sweet and rang a bell after reading about Kimberlee's penchant for indoor plants this summer over at the gorgeous Brown Button. I like the pots sitting in an old crate too, would look nice on a patio courtyard or veranda.

from designer Gudrum Sjoden via Nibs

The busy-ness of babies...

...and baby showers.



So I am chasing up the last of my preparations for my sister's baby shower this weekend. It is very exciting for me to be sharing this new stage in her life, and Jess has gone to many lengths to include me in her pregnancy experience. Here is a hint of one of the extra contributions to the party favours bag. I am really looking forward to a great afternoon with Jess, our mother, Jess's in-laws and her many friends who are attending.... it should be lovely time.



It is always hectic trying to get the girls and myself organised for even a brief visit away, so I have lined-up a few posts to tick over till early next week. When I return I hope to share some of the fun we got up to celebrating the pending arrival of my little sisters' first bubba :) Bub isn't due to early next year, but due to having to move interstate in a few weeks, Jess decided to have some fun in the city she has called home for the last few years. The next time I visit Sydney it will be strictly for shopping purposes (although I will miss the gracious hospitality and free accommodation, lol).

Weekend Forecast: sunny and mild with a chance of babies

Well, hopefully no babies - yet! On Saturday morning Miss Chooken, Miss Sunshine and I fly out to Sydney with Ma Ma (my mother) to spend a few days with my gorgeous sister Jessica. Hopefully our flight will be on time as I hope to help put the finishing touches together for her baby shower that afternoon! I am so excited to see my little sis again and her ever growing belly. I just feel for her partner who has been working overseas for an extended period and only returns this Thursday - less than two days at home and he will be over-run by chatting, giggling females playing absurd baby games like Sweep-stakes (guess the sex, date and weight), spit the dummy (ie. contest for longest distance dummy spit) and a nappy change race (who can get a cloth nappy on the "baby" - ie. Miss Chooken's Baby Born - the fastest). I definitely will not win that one...two little munchkins of my own, but I never attempted the whole cloth-nappy-and-pins mountain! Wish me luck!

It will also be Miss Sunshine's inaugural aeroplane flight! I decided she would be best sitting on may lap (oh god, did I make the right decision??!!), but I am desperately hoping there is a spare seat next to us in case she wants to wriggle a bit.....but that is unlikely on a Saturday flight I guess. We will see... Miss Chooken swears she remembers when she last flew, but that was nearly 2 years ago, so I doubt it. It was also traumatic for her as I flew alone (as in no other adults with us) and we lost her then favourite teddy at a stop-over at Melbourne. She hasn't mentioned that part of the journey, so I do not think she actually remembers the flight. More likely that Playschool's "What's through the window..." has left flight images with her! In readiness I have organised a "flight survival" bag, including new pencils, colour-in books, a couple of favourite stories and room for both girl's beloved teddies. It is a pretty short flight to Sydney from Adelaide, but I know young children just do not like to be told to sit still, don't talk so loudly, don't comment on each person sitting within eyesight.....and please, no fighting! So any distractions I can offer them to get through it uneventfully will be a good thing me thinks!

Ok, I am off to purchase the last of what I need to take over for the baby shower. It should be a lot of fun, great to see my sister and lovely to see her fella home safe!

Tuesday chores

So Tuesday is shopping day in our house, so trying to actually put some thought into what meals to offer up this week. It is getting depressing trying to accomodate everyones varying culinary preferences....Miss Sunshine wont eat vegetables, meat or pasta, Miss Chooken wont eat vegetables, sandwiches or much red meat, hubby requires meals that he can either take to work or are not too heavy as he is on nightshift and so has his "breakfast" at evening meal time (try stomaching meat and veg as your first meal of the day). My preferences don't often get a look-in....but I am trying!

Plus, paperwork!!! For a SAHM I find it very difficult to find time to do my paperwork! If I get it out when the girls are around, they either distract me and I end up filling out the wrong information (lost count of the amount of times I have written our surname in the "given name" box and I recently checked the "female" box on hubby's info), or they just want to "help" (please note: do NOT let a 4 yo do your filing).

Anyway, whinge over, time to get onto it!

I found a frog in the washing machine!

Luckily it was only a chocolate one....

Even more lucky, it went through on the cold cycle...hot wash and I may have had chocolate coated clothes to deal with...

Metallic Monday

A new feature I hope to add to every Monday - something for the metal collectors out there. Whether it is an awesome number of letter, vase or urn, chair or table, or something more random!


First offering, more random.....

I love finding things on the beach, and wondering where and who they came from....no idea what this is, but it looks cool. I used to collect bits of tumbled glass when I was a kid....the waves and sand wear the sharp edges all smooth and it looks beautiful. Now my local beach doesn't produce that kind of find, but the girls and I like looking for other things. Do you collect anything metal or from the beach? Tell me about it :)

image via flickr.

Sleep-in Sunday

For anyone who got to have an extra bit of snooze time today.... and for those who didn't, I understand your disappointment ;).

image via Domino.

Just a little bit of bianco-blanc-blanco-wit

I have seen a lot of lovely white ceramics lately, and although it has never really gone out of style, it sure seems to be enjoying a revival. Here are some of my fav's, both elegant and more rustic...











1. bone china angel wings, spotted at renovate and decorate.
2. tiny owl vase
3. beautiful pears
4. chirp bowl (so cute, this one pic does not do it justice, check the link!)
5. white button, blue bird
6. butterfly-dragonfly dish
7. porcelain and ceramic necklace
8. white porcelain ammonite sculpture
9. bone china feathers
10. crumpled votive bag
11. antlers (for those put-off by actual skull and horns)

"The sun is sooo hot, it is melting the cool breeze!...

...I think an ice-cream will help my bones cool down mummy".

Such were the words of wisdom offered by Miss Chooken as we walked home from kindy yesterday afternoon. Sure, it was pretty warm, probably around 33-ish C. Yes, the lilly-white pins finally got to see a little sunshine today *gasp*, and I realised I have no shorts that fit. It got me thinking about preparing for the hot spell to come (because surely no-one in Aus. thinks we are going to have a cool, short summer???). Things I need for the coming hot season:

A new hat...

(Is the Kim Catrell too flamboyant for kindy drop-off and pick-up??)

A new blouse - I love that word nearly as much as "frock" :)

New shorts...

New sandles.... I love the look of good ole thongs, but my toes hate it...

Stock-up one ice-cream cones...

So what are your favourite Summer accessories? Leave me a comment on your Summer essentials, I'd love to know!

Rainbow brights for your little lights of life...

Every child needs a collection of colourful crayons or pencils!

Go on a rainbow hunt together...

Read as many beautiful books together as you can beg/borrow/buy.

Hold hands whenever you get the chance (soon they will be a teenager and wont walk next to you!)

Let them colour in a door/wall of their cubby house (chalk is a good washable option).

Let them bring home their pebble collection, and tell them they can tell each pebble a special secret or that each pebble has a story to tell your child.

Let your little freckle wear a rainbow dress AND a rainbow hat to kindergarten at least once!

1. image source unknown, sorry.

2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaqian/4412273/
3. http://www.flickr.com/photos/eccentricscholar/1912488787/
4. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajawin/2544504831/

5. http://www.flickr.com/photos/twoblueday/442641397/

6.http://www.flickr.com/photos/jef/62026440/

Thanks to Miss Chooken for the inspiration xx