Family photo shoot

Hope all you fellow bloggers had a happy Christmas time with your loved ones.
We had a hot one here in South Australia (42 deg C). We had our immediate family for lunch so we did the presents in our under cover are outside then moved inside to eat...much more pleasant with the air con!

Oldest grandchild Owen, helping little Brooklyn open a present.

A few weeks before Christmas we had a family photo shoot done at one of our son's place. We had 800 photos to choose from...wow! It was a perfect overcast morning so perfect conditions to take photos! Here is a small collection.

Hope you can enjoy some R&R over the coming week, I will be. We have 2 more  family get togethers mid week, so our Christmas continues! 

Cupboards and Tea Towels!

I don't know how many times I've said in the last few weeks....'why didn't we do that years go'!  In one of our spare bedrooms we have always had a mish mash of furniture eg a single bed, wardrobe, tall boy, chest of draws, filing cabinets and a couple of other stand alone little bookshelves and things tended to get dumped in there too.....SO we decided to get some built-in installed across one wall. WOW, has that made a difference. We had great delight in having a big cleanout of the room and sold off quite a few of the furniture pieces. We have built-ins in our own bedroom but it's been great to now spread out a bit into the other one as well now as there is heaps of room!

I'm pretty pleased that I now have room to house my shoes neatly in 2 rows per shelf.
We even have empty drawers and shelves!!!

I was excited to receive my parcel from Spoonflower last week. I have started dabbling in designing fabric and to test the waters with colours etc, I designed some tea towels. I did 4 designs to a yard, so that means the tea towels are a good size.
I was really happy with how they turned out. After washing the fabric, I cut them up and sewed the sides.

 

Below: Cut up and ready to hem the sides.

 

Below: Job done! 

I did do some other designs but I can't show you as they are for Christmas presents!

I had fun last weekend, doing a bit of shopping....nice to be able to buy some pink things!

 Over the past year, I've really enjoyed reading Di Morrissey's books. She is a great Australian author. Her latest book 'A Distant Journey' is one that I'm having trouble putting down...hence its a thumbs up from me.

 

I'm excited to have one of my best friends back in blogging world after a break. You may remember Jo from Vintage Lane Stitches....she has started blogging again on a new platform and under the name of Hillsview Homestead....Please go visit, I'm sure you will enjoy her posts.  

 

That's all for now

 

Flowers

Nice to go around the garden and pick some flowers. I've brought them into my office so I can see them all day!

A bit excited!

I'm a little bit excited about the email I received this morning.

Something I'm having a bit of a dabble in to see how my designs turn out on fabric.

Is it really October?

Yes, I do believe it is nearly the end of October! The time of year when the word 'Christmas' starts to get bandied around, and the shops are re-fitting their stores with festive goodies, reminding us that Christmas is indeed approaching quickly!

Our latest addition to the family is little Brooklyn, who is doing really well. Still petite but really filling out and starting to smile and making cute baby talk. Here she is.

 Her 2 cousins, Owen and Luca think she is pretty cool. Owen, who is 3 is so gentle with her, while Luca, only 15 months doesn't know what gentle is yet, so we have to watch him when he is close to her, otherwise there may be scratches on her face or an eye poked out...lol!!! (you can see I am very close by!)

It has been a very wet winter, but the garden is loving it. Now that it is starting to warm up, a bit of colour is showing up in the garden and my roses should all be in full bloom over the next couple of weeks.

 

One of the things I love about living in a small country town is that you get to know many of the locals including the shop owners etc. I purchased a couple of mugs last year in one of our homewares shops and I really liked them. A couple of months later while I was  in the shop I just asked if they were able to get any more of those mugs, but they said no, they were a limited number and not available for them to get any more. However, the other month I got a phone call from them, saying....guess what, we were just having a clean out of their storeroom and they had found 2 more of those mugs! So, I went and bought them!! How good is that. These are the ones, they are the Artique brand, really nice texture and lovely to drink from.

While on the subject of products, we had an 'Aldi' open in a neighbouring town, so one Sunday we zipped over there to check it out. One product I purchased was the 'Green Action Dishwashing Liquid'.....wow was I impressed. It cleaned so well and polished stainless steel impressively too. (I don't have a dishwasher). So whenever I'm over that way, I'll call in and pick up a bottle or two. I researched it and it has great reviews online.

I purchased a Stainless Steel frying pan a few months back, I've usually had non stick, so it was a bit of a learning curve as to how to cook with it properly. A tip I found on Pinterest was really helpful...here it is.

I love cooking with SS, and it's so easy to clean by just putting some water with a splosh of detergent in the pan and heat on high for a few minutes....anything stuck on just comes off....easy as!

The last photo is of a Bird of Paradise plant made from metal, it was in the Open Garden I visited yesterday. It's really lovely and so lifelike.

Bye for now

Grrr!!

A little frustrated....I just compiled a post on my iPad but for some reason it has disappeared without a trace !!  I will redo it on my computer in the morning...stay tuned! In the meantime check out this rose, it was in an open garden that I visited today, I've never seen such big blooms, they were the size of a bread and butter plate...amazing. 

 

Annette

It's a girl!

We are delighted to welcome Brooklyn Jade into our family, our 3rd grandchild and the first girl. 

She is the first child for our eldest son Adrian and wife Chelsea. Brooklyn arrived a few weeks early but all is going well and they came home yesterday. 

 

Here is the quilt I made for her arrival, although I didn't know it was a girl, so might have to do another pink one down the track!

 

As Brooklyn was born at the women's and children's hospital in Adelaide we went down with our other son Daniel and his family and visited them. We stayed at the Levi caravan park which was fun.

 

Watching the many planes that were going over! 

 

 

Little Brooklyn in her car seat ready for the trip home!

 

Annette

Makeover of Family Room

Our family room makeover has been about 6 months in the making, but I'm fairly happy with where it's at now.

My aim was to re-paint both our country blue suede look feature walls that are at each end of the family room with a paler blue/green colour to lighten things up.

Also our 2 brown recliners and 3 seater lounge had served us well for over 10 years, so it was also time to upgrade. This time to a lighter colour modular.

Here are a few shots.

Above: Before

Above: After

And at the other end of the room, I had our baltic pine bookshelf painted white so that it matched with the other white shelving.

Above: Before

Above: After

I'm fairly happy with how it has brightened and updated the room, even though we still have a 70's straw ceiling and combustion heater!!

 

We weren't sure how we would make the change from recliners to a modular but we have adjusted well....and can still doze off easily in it after tea! I use a wooden tray to put my coffee or plates on, Paul has a little table next to his end. 

We are off on a 'mini getaway' to the Adelaide Hills. 

Hope you have an enjoyable weekend.

This one is for Lyn!

Yesterday we attended one of my nephews wedding and caught up with one of my sisters friend Lyn who I hadn't seen in years. As we started chatting Lyn advised me that I hadn't done a post in quite a while! It was really funny, Lyn isn't a blogger but follows my blog and many of my fellow bloggers and I had no idea! So you prompted me Lyn to get my act together and do a post!!

Here is Lyn (on the right) with one of my sisters Joy.

It was one of Joy's sons that got married....it was a lovely day.

 

A few weeks back we had friends over for dinner so I decided to make a dessert that I had seen on Pinterest. It was super easy to make but looks quite fancy! Here is the finished product (not real good photo!) See the diagonal jelly.

 

I made raspberry jelly and poured it into the glasses over some cut up strawberries and blueberries. You then place the glasses at an angle into a muffin tin and wait til it sets. You can then top it with whatever you like. I made coffee mouse and topped that with sliced bananas and crushed almonds and whipped cream.....it was very yummy.

 

I share my birthday with our 2nd grandchild, Luca, and we celebrated his first birthday a couple of weeks back with a family lunch at our local Club.

 

We have our third grandchild on the way very soon, so I have started a little something with these fabrics...will show you the finished piece once the baby has arrived.

 

Well Lyn I hope you enjoyed that, it was great to catch up after many years :)

Annette