Fleamarket Finds...

I love these wooden houses. I'm always attracted to house images, the shape, little chimneys, a pointy roof, love them. I found these treasures in an op shop recently. Don't they look great against a white background?

Today I am finally starting to mend my favourite op shop quilt. I've had it for a few years now and a couple of the squares have torn & ripped. It's not sewn on or quilted all the way through to the backing so I am handsewing the new squares on. It's actually very relaxing and fun.

I found this set of six cups and saucers at the MS Opshop this week. They are made in Brazil and are so sweet. Rather simple but gorgeous. They will be perfect for an afternoon tea.

Finally a pretty pair of birkenstocks for Sunday. The colour hasn't quite come out in this photo but they are lovely and fit her perfectly. And for only $1 I'm a happy shopper! What treasures have you found lately? I'm off to have a look at Sophie's, why not come too? xo

Happy Friday

When you live in a beautiful place there really is no excuse to be inside.

Recently I have revived my walking 'program' and have been loving the added bonus of being surrounded by amazing scenery, fresh air, blue sky & the sounds of happy birds.

I guess this is one of the reasons we moved to the country, and one of the reasons we stayed! To be in an environment that is so inspiring, invigorating but also soothing & serene, where cars don't dominate our lives, where there isn't a billboard for miles.

I know not everyone wants this, or are in a position to make such choices. I feel lucky & happy that we did and could. Our kids may not have some of the facilities of the city, or even of bigger country towns. And yes I do miss the different cultures of the city, getting to know people from other places and their experiences, the delicious food, oh & the trams! But I can't really think of anywhere I'd rather be, than here.

Yesterday Sunday & I went for a bush walk with the dogs, just at the end of our street. Max & Daisy had a ball, especially in the creek that runs along Doctor's Gully. Sunday threw stones into the water holes, chatted, sang, ran & jumped. We looked for things for our nature table and scanned trees for koalas.

This morning I went down to the lake, what a great way to start the day. It helped that the sky over head was a brilliant blue, after a week of cloudy days it was like heaven. I'm going to take you on a walk with me now, I want to show you some of the beautiful things I saw this morning.



First up I parked near the bridge that runs between the two lakes. From this bridge there are amazing, sweeping views of the water, quite breathtaking, especially at this time of year.

As we walk along, looking at shadows and the sun on the water, ripples and ducks, can you hear the sounds of cracking & chomping?

Yep, some gorgeous native birds having a feast of bright, red berries.

There must have been something pretty good in those berries as the birds don't seem at all bothered by people or noise & are super relaxed. I wonder what's in those berries, I might try some too!

I love the way they use their little clawed feet to eat. I'm not sure what type of birds they are, I've never seen them around this area before, have you?

It's such a beautiful lake to walk around, what about this view?

Lots of autumn colour, lovely old houses and pretty vista's.

And of course, geese!

I hope you enjoyed that little walk. It's so good for the soul isn't it? After feeling pretty crap for a while it's great for me to be enjoying these kind of experiences.

On the home front I didn't have much sleep last night as I was worrying, and sad, about Shorty the turtle. He disappeared from his little eating container, just as the kids were going to bed. Billy was so sad, we all were. We looked everywhere but no Shorty.

Good news though! After the kids went to school this morning I had another look and there he was! Under Bill's desk. Yay!!! So he is outside having a sunbath now to warm up. Phew. There is going to be one happy boy here after school!

Hope you all have a happy weekend, maybe you'll be out enjoying this gorgeous world of ours too xo

My Creative Space

This little tea cup represents an exciting new project I have in mind. Do you have lots of plans and ideas? Sometimes these things take time and that's where I'm at right now, being patient & making lists, thinking & planning.

Yesterday was one of those 'getting a million things done' kind of days. In a good way! Dealing with a lot of the chaos left over from school holidays, hanging with my kinder girl, making lists and cooking. A couple of these fresh chook eggs created...

some beautiful swirls in the mixing bowl.
Which later became lamingtons, a family favourite.

In between chopping and cooking up another batch of quince jelly I finally started my pin cushion. For some reason this pin cushion has taken forever...

...it's coming together and while not very fancy I hope my swapee likes it!

My sewing space needs sorting, I really need another set of shelves to stack my recent, and old, piles of vintage linen etc. I'm wondering too what to do with the twenty zips I picked up for a song at my local oppie. Any idea's?

I'm also loving these four pretty pieces of fabric which have come my way via my mum and the crowded, hot & colourful markets of Singapore. Oooh, how exotic! They are so sweet, perhaps they will become bunny bits?

The tail end of yesterday saw Bill & I making meatballs for dinner (and homework), a yummy way to end the day.

So my creative space is full lately, of old & new projects, lots of flavour and action, things unfinished and some complete, a sense of excitement at new ideas, the coming of cooler weather and changing seasons. A happy and inspiring space to be. Tell me about yours? Maybe I'll pop over to Kirsty's and see what you are up to. Bye for now sweetie pies, xo

Sweet Sunday

Yesterday was my little Bluebird's birthday. Our Sunshine girl turned 7! What a beautiful age 7 is, a what a sweet & loving daughter we have. Here she is with her birthday doll, Rebecca.

Sunday smiled all day and had the happiest time. We had presents in the morning, all the family sitting around, so lovely to be together. Sunday loves purple so there was a bit of a purple theme happening, especially with her new bunny, Lavender.

Soon it was time for her party so we jumped in the car, with some of her friends, and headed off to Ballarat for some bowling!

It was a bit of a hoot! A great place to have a party, really organised and fun and Sunday loved the Happy Birthday banner.

The girls had a ball (!) and so did Charlotte and I. Thank goodness for Bowling Captain, Charlotte, who virtually ran the party, what a superstar. It's been so fantastic having her around these holidays, I'm pretending she isn't going back to school today.

It was so fun to have this lovely bunch of girls at the party. All different, all good friends.

They enjoyed a party lunch and then cake!



Happy Birthday dear Sunday, happy birthday to you.

It's such a beautiful memory to look back to the time she was born. Rushing through the dark night to get to the hospital. The amazingly quick labour (1.5 hours) and the thrill I got to suddenly have this dark haired angel in my arms, both of us shocked and amazed. (She came so quickly that no one was looking at the clock so we had to guess her time of birth.) Since that night she has filled my life with happiness, her dear ways, her gentle & curious nature, her love of life. She really is a special girl.

Unfortunately the birthday girl became sick late in the day with a high temperature. She is in bed now and has missed the first day of school. Poor little chook, she looks quite washed out and pale. Anyway, she will be better soon and at least she got to enjoy her birthday. What did you get up to on the weekend? It's freezing here in Daylesford today, winter seems to have come early. Hope you have a happy week dear friends, see you soon xo

Fleamarket Finds

I've had some great op shop adventures lately. So much so that I'm inspired to put together an op shop guide to Victorian Op Shops. Watch this space! This lovely dress was found in Bacchus Marsh, at the Salvo's. They had a great range of vintage dresses and other bits so if you have the time & love vintage it would be well worth the visit.

These rods were only one dollar at the fabulous Trentham Op Shop. Hours of fun, yay!

I've just finished this ace read, picked up at the MS Op shop in downtown Daylesford. A great book, I really enjoyed it.

Finally a pair of 50c Converse from the Uniting Care Oppy in Ballarat, near Big W. They also have a great range of other cheap and fantastic items, definitely worth a visit. Rosie loves her new shoes, she can jump & skip & run so fast in them. Woo hoo!

Have you found any great things lately? Pop over to Sophie's for more treasures...xo

Melbourne and a Mystery...

Yesterday the girls & I met some lovely friends at the Melbourne Museum. While we waited for them (they were late, we were early) we entertained ourselves by checking out this cute delivery van, people watching and..

...a bit of tap dancing to pass the time. Then there was some posing...

and finally our friends arrived! Then it was inside for a good old sticky beak at some other fancy fashion girls, and as many other exhibits as we could fit in.

I love, love, love the room devoted to all things Melbourne. I could spend all day in there. They have a fabulous display of an old house which depicted life in early Melbourne. The outdoor dunny attracted alot of attention, I suppose for kids these days an outside toilet would seem pretty amazing!


Lucy loved catching up with Daisy Kate and it was lovely to see her sisters too, Poppy & Kitty Rose. Carm and I had a good old yack, it's always good to chat with her. She has been having her own anxiety issues recently so it was good and reassuring to share this with her. We always have a good old laugh too, she really cracks me up. We've been through alot together over the years and I always love to see her.



After the museum we headed up to Lygon St to visit the Poppy Shop. The girls picked out two little suitcases for their doll clothes & we spent quite a while just looking at all the beautiful things in this gorgeous shop.

We came here as kids and it's great to see it is still run by the same woman, Pat. So many wonderful treasures..

Today we are back at home and it's suddenly the end of the school holidays! How did that happen? I've really enjoyed the time with our kids and Mark, who goes back to work on Monday too.

This weekend we are celebrating the 7th birthday of our beautiful daughter, Sunday, so I'm super excited about that! And her birthday is ON Sunday so it's extra special.

Finally lovely friends I have a little mystery to solve. Today I received my gorgeous and amazing name tag and I don't know who sent it! I can recall seeing this fabulous nametag on someones blog...or did I? I've been trawling back through posts but can't find it. Please put me out of my misery and let me know who you are so I can thank you! It's divine, and big, so there will be no mistaking who I am at Sew It Together!

Hope you are all travelling along well, it's a funny old, crazy old life isn't it? Lots of love to you all xo