Friday flowers ... Early Peonies

Mum brought over these stunning pink peonies from her garden,

I think the variety is Sarah Bernhart.

I love the colour against the blue and white bits I have displayed on the mantel at the moment. I love my old French street number and Spode china.

What pretty shades of pink.

There's those little juice bottles again. These ones I've decorated with some stickers.

The little bottle above is a recent Etsy treat. It's an antique French perfume bottle. You can't see the details thanks to Hipstamatic, but it has gold text on the front. Lovely.
Have a lovely Friday bloggies. It looks all grey outside here but hopefully that improves. Take care!

xx

Lamingtons and ivy

Hi friends, the title conjures up images of pretty garden tea parties, does it not? Unfortunately there was no pretty garden party here over the last couple of days.

Yes, I did cook lamingtons for the very first time and they're delicious! A bit sticky but nice and moist inside. Yum. I'm delivering them around the family tomorrow and taking them to work to share.

How about that pretty Mozi plate and tea towel? I'm a bit obsessed by pretty tea towels.

Wow, the ivy, what a monster.

I'm so pleased our helpful neighbour started on his side as it made it a lot easier to rip it out from this side of the fence. Though, in parts I think it's holding up the fence!

The area in question is the back corner where one of my vegie patches is.

The ivy does look pretty but it really has taken over, even growing into my patch which means less room for vegies. We can't have that!

Mollsie is always in the thick of the action.

Here is one side after a bit of work. Yes, that's the roof of our neighbour behind us. There is a retaining wall on the fence line and their house is a few metres below our ground level. Quite handy.

There's poochy again surveying the damage. We still have a way to go. Things slowed down a bit when Lyndon sustained a big, deep cut to his hand. Nurse Sarah fixed it up but it meant no more ivy attacking for him.

Today we took two big loads to the tip and I reckon there's at least one, maybe two more to go.

Look at the poor old fence! The ivy has split palings in parts. We are going to pull some palings off and replace sometime in the future. That will also allow us to cut the big ivy trunks off at the ground.

Well, this has been a not so pretty "before" and almost "after". It certainly looks prettier "before", but not good for the fence or the garden. Oh well.

Well, back to work for me tomorrow. Boo hiss!

Must be time for a cuppa and some more of that lamington...

Take care

xx

This weekend

It has been another rather nice weekend, despite having to work today for a few hours.

I managed to get a few things done including finishing off my magnets for the stall (photographed here on a drawing by my niece).

I took Molly for a walk up the bush with my sister, my niece and their dog.

We spotted a number of native orchids.

The ones above are called Greenhoods.

These ones are Leopard Orchids (sorry about the blur, my iPod doesn't like closeups)

These ones are Star Orchids. Quite purple in colour but the photo is washed out.

I have no idea what this pretty plant is :)

And for the umpteenth time I flicked through my Mollie Makes mag.

Have you guys read it? I'm already addicted. Jane picked me up a copy after she discovered them in a Hobart newsagency and I have to say it's better than I expected.

I was thinking how nice their Christmas edition will be, but then realised we'll be into next year before it appears in the newsagency here!

It was quite a nice, though bit chilly, weekend in Hobart so I also managed to do some gardening. I planted a couple of ranuncs, some lobelia, pansies and more delphiniums.

Luckily I have Mon and Tues off work so apart from some crafty action I've got a date with the overgrown ivy in the backyard. Our neighbour has attacked his side of the fence, now it's my turn.

Watch out ivy!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend too!

xx

Friday flowers with determination

I was surprised to see this little hoop petticoat daffodil blooming in a patch of concrete around a flower bed.

That's determination for you. Look at that lovely chunk of concrete at the base of a down-pipe, or as I like to refer to them, our irrigation system. I'm not sure any of our down-pipes actually function as down-pipes as they're so old and rusty. But on the upside, enough water has been provided for this little yellow guy to bloom.

Nice. Have a lovely Friday friends :)

xx

Crazy card crafting chaos

I successfully completed 50 cards on the weekend.

All that's left to do is to package them and I'm hoping my little baggies come in the mail today so I can do just that.

Some I like more than others, but who knows what customers might like?

Some with washi tape, some without...

It's nice to tick a job off my Craft Market list.

Next up is finishing off some gift wrap.

I have to admit, I sometimes think, "what if no-one buys anything?"

Does that ever happen to novice craft market stall holders?

I'll be happy if I can sell enough bits to cover the cost of having the stall!

Just under 2 months until I find out!

Have a lovely week friends :)

xx

Magnolia

A stunning magnolia blooming in the front yard for Friday Flowers this week. The wind has just about wrecked it now. Magnolias are one of my all time favourites. My sister is lucky to have about 4 different varieties in her backyard.
Big YAY for Friday as I have the next 4 days off! That means it's going to be craft central here at Molly's Maison. Lots to do!
How about you guys? Do you have some nice plans?
Take care.
Xx

Making notebooks

The little notebooks have been made and are now waiting with the tags to go to the market!

I know, I keep showing them. I just love seeing pretty colours.

Pink/purple/red notebooks...

and blue notebooks!

Next up is a big bunch of cards.

This crafty caper is hard-core. Whilst stamping the notebooks I managed to give myself blisters on my fingers!

Keep well and have a wonderful week.
Ps if you saw a post from me this morning that disappeared I was trying to post from a phone app. I thought it worked but the image then wouldn't appear. Never mind.

xx

Friday flowers + sharing cuteness

Hi friends, this lovely orchid was blooming out in the backyard so I've brought it into the loungeroom so I can admire it.

What gorgeousness!!

I believe it's name is Ripe Cherry Dazzle. It certainly is dazzling :)

I also wanted to say hi to Hazel, fellow Tasmanian bloggy friend who is partaking in Friday Flowers today over at her lovely blog. Pop over and say hi!

And just because I can, here is a shot of my super-adorable Molly-poo.

When a pooch is this cute, I feel it's my responsibility as furry mother to share said cuteness with all of blogdom. Don't you agree?

Have a lovely Friday bloggies!

xx

Divine Twine + a nice weekend

I have a bit of a 'thing' for Divine Twine.

I have been using it as ties for the gift tags I've been making for my upcoming market stall.

One color just wasn't enough.

I admit I am using my gift tags as justification for acquiring more and more colours.

Don't they look lovely?

I've always been very partial to anything that coordinates well. In fact, you can be guaranteed that my undies and socks match whatever I'm wearing on the outside. I'm just not happy otherwise.

So many pretty colours!

Below, my collection of twine.

I've been busy in my studio making lots of goodies. It's been quite a productive and fun weekend.

Yesterday I caught up with Jane from Life at Planet Baby. We chatted non-stop for 3 hours! There's just so much to chat about. I had such a lovely time :)

I hope your weekend was fun too.

xx

ps. this is where my Divine Twine came from :)

Friday flowers... Anemone in my garden

These gorgeous blue anemone are blooming in my garden.

Yay for spring!

The bloom above is a double variety, whilst the others are single.

Apart from their stunning colour and simplicity, I adore the frilly leaf arrangement around their stems, like a ruffly collar.

I have orange ranuncs in the same bed but they haven't made an appearance yet.

It's always a little odd reading the northern hemisphere blogs to see them moving into autumn. Whilst I do love autumn I am very pleased we've moving into spring here in Aus.

That means summer wont be too far away!

And because they're blooming up a riot all over the backyard (and the colour matches the anemones), here are some beautiful Grape Hyacinths.

I think sometimes I give the impression (through my images) that my garden is always lush, not to mention vast. It's neither really. I just tend to do closeups so I don't have to show you the the unwanted slab of concrete, the dodgy, falling-down lean-to and so on. I think our block is about 750 sq metres with Molly's Maison right in the middle. It's a nice size, not too much garden to maintain and still quite a lot of lawn for Molly.

One day I might be brave and show you guys some of the dodgier bits :)

Well, TGIF. I'm hoping to do a bit of pottering about and get a bit of crafty action happening this weekend.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend too.

Hugs xx