Some garden snaps

Just took a few snaps of some blooms around the back garden.

The verbena...always a good ground cover.

 

The Pink Butterfly is just starting to flower.

My first Pierre de Ronsard bloom getting ready to open and show it's beauty. Very exciting!!

There's something about 'pink'. Without me knowing it many times, it's just a colour that I get drawn too as is evident even in my garden!!

Sanding, priming, painting...all white!

For some time now I've been wanting to re-arrange a couple of corners in our family room but haven't been inspired with anything.  However that all changed on Saturday morning when I bought this cute little chair from a garage sale for $8.

My ideas snowballed and I was very motivated to get into it! The first thing to do was re-paint an old light pine bar stool. This bar stool has just been hanging around next to the dresser as her partner broke so they got replaced with some new ones!! (the dresser is on my list for a makeover now too!).
Things to paint

 

This was some old shelves that I've had in the spare room with bits and pieces. It was just the thing I needed for my plan...this was also taken down the shed ready for a fresh new look.

 

I have 2 of these picture frames which my Dad made me from some lovely solid rustic timber many years ago. I painted them blue at the time as they fitted in with where I wanted them, BUT they also got targetted to have the 'white treatment'!

Now the results

RIGHT CORNER OF ROOM - BEFORE

 AFTERWith the painted stool and shelves

LEFT CORNER OF ROOM -  BEFORE

AFTER

With the painted frames and new little chair. Those that have been following my blog might recognize the little vase stand that I painted a few weeks back.

 

 BEFORE

AFTER

What a fun weekend...I want to make a small cushion with boxed pleats hanging over for the little chair. I will work on that. 

I am eyeing off many other things around the house now which I can picture looking lovely with the 'white' touch!!

Lillies

I was just flicking through some of my photos and thought I'd share this one with you.

Last year my niece was driving through the Adelaide Hills and came across this display of lillies. She stopped to take a photo and the man came out whose property it was. They started talking and he cut of some for her to take home!
Aren't they beautiful?

Special keepsakes

My husband's grandma who passed away 17 years ago gave to us a couple of special keepsakes when she moved from her unit into a nursing home. One of those things was a sweet little tea set that sits on the top shef of my meat safe.

The other was a table cloth that she made. Grandma didn't have very good eyesight but she was superb at knitting and crotcheting. She used cotton and did some very fine work. She was rarely seen without a project in her hand and it always intrigued me how she sat there without a pattern and could talk and just knit or crotchet away!!
Here is one of the many cloths she made.



What do you have that is handed down?

 

Our back garden makeover

Our back garden over the years has gone through many changes and during the drought we decided to stop watering what we had there, so it was a fairly bare patch for quite some time. Our family room has 3 large windows which looks out over the back yard and I was sick of not seeing a pretty garden!  Sooo..in August 2009 we re-did it but made it waterwise with a dripper system etc. I love flowers, so it had to be a cottagy type garden.
Here are some shots of the preparation and planting.

 

Weed mat was laid. It is an open weave mat so allows air to circulate, not like the black plastic that turned the soil sour.

Just over a year on...October 2010...it's starting to take shape and I have a pretty garden once again to look out onto!!

Along the lattice panel I have planted 3 Pierre de ronsards which have started to grow nicely althought not as quick as I would like. However, I am hoping that it won't be long and they will look like this.

 

Chutney Chops

One of mine and my families favourite meals is Chutney Chops. I love it not only because it tastes so good but is so very easy to make.

You just layer a baking dish with chops

Cover with Rosella Fruit Chutney (or your favourite chutney) and continue layering depending on your quantity.

Cover with alfoil and place in the oven on 180 deg for 1½ hrs or more depending once again on quantity.

The chops come out so succulent and falls off the bone. Delicious! 

Serve with veggies of your choice.

I've added a 'Follow Me' tab...I am new to this but am starting to understand it and am following quite a few blogs now that I enjoy. I invite you to 'Follow' me too if you want to keep up with what's happening in my little part of the world!

Have a great weekend.

 

Truly Scrumptious Quilt

One of my friends daughters was visitng Loxton the other week and called in for a coffee, she brought with her the quilt that she has been making over the past 2 years. I've been watching it come together over this time and it was great to see it finished. It's Cinderberry Stitches 'Truly Scrumptious'. Han is only 20 and does an amazing job of her quilting and her stitcheries are sooo neat.

 

 

 

 

 

I was visiting them last weekend, so took a pic of it hanging on her wall.

I've been itching to get my sewing machine out of late and make some tops and dresses which I used to do years ago. I feel I needed a refresher on basic sewing skills so I bought this book off of ebay. 

I've only flicked through it so far, but it looks great...just what I will need to get me back into it. I will of course need to find some nice simple patterns that I like too!

A few op shop finds

Wednesday morning my hubby Paul and a couple of mates headed off to Bathurst in NSW for the V8 motor race. This is the 16th time Paul has been. I have been once and accompanied him a few times, but have gone off during the day discovering the region with the girls!
This year though the guys went by themselves and hired a local Winnebago, staying at the family camping area at the track.

I decided to take a couple of days off too and headed to Victor Harbor and McLaren Vale to visit and stay with friends and family.
I left Thursday and headed to Victor Harbor which is 3 hours away. I stopped at Strathalbyn to stretch my legs and visit the bakery for lunch. Strathalbyn is a really pretty town and is well known for it's quality secondhand and antique shops. I had to take some photos of one of the secondhand shops that caught my eye. It was absolutely chokka from floor to ceiling of everything imaginable. You had to be very careful walking through it as it was so jam packed. It was actually too full as it was hard to look properly at anything!

 

 

That shop isn't testament to the other shops in the town which are very neatly organised!

My Mum and Dad live at Victor as does one of my sisters and her husband. 

My sister and I wandered around Pt Elliot in the afternoon and I bought this lovely tablecloth/bed cover at The Bargain Barn. Apparently the lady had only put it in her shop that morning!

 

On Friday a couple of my other sisters came down and we had lunch together which was great.

Here is a pic of my Mum and Dad and one of my sisters enjoying a cuppa.

 

Later on Friday afternoon I drove to McLaren Vale where I stayed for the rest of the weekend with one of my best friends Jo from Vintage Lane Stitches and her family.

On Saturday we meandered to Yankalilla which is a small country town that has a few secondhand shops. On the way we stopped at a plant nursery and bric a brac shop.

 

Those baltic pine bar stools you can see in the picture ended up coming home with us! Jo was looking for some and they were perfect. Lucky we had a station wagon!!

The highlight of the day was shopping at Savers at Noarlunga. It is a 'huge' thrift shop, the only one in South Australia. I was absolutely amazed at the range, quality, price and how organised everything was. It was all in colour and size racks. You could easily spend a couple of hours looking around. I picked up these items all for $28.

And of course each day finished off relaxing with a beverage or two and chatting the night away!!