MOD mantelpiece

Hi friends, a good morning to you all.

Whilst I was in Melbourne the other week I was very excited to be attending the Finder Keepers Markets where I knew I'd be able to see ceramics by The Mod Collective.

I'd seen their beautiful porcelain pieces online and thought they were beautiful. It was overwhelming to see all those beautiful colours and textures in the flesh.

How on earth I managed to decide on these two, goodness only knows.

Aren't they pretty?

The insides are glazed clear and the outside surface is matte in finish, but shows off the amazing textures well.

I'm very pleased with them and they now adorn the mantelpiece. I think they look lovely near my painting.

By the way, see that cute blue milk bottle in the top image? That's another coloured porcelain piece I discovered at Rose Street Markets. It had to come home with me :)

It's difficult resisting adding a few more colours to this small collection, but you really only need so many knick knacks, don't you think?

Well, I best get on with my day. This would have happened a LOT sooner if Blogger wasn't such a pain in the butt and posted this post back in time when I fist drafted it (last week). What use is that? Then when I tried to fix it, it deleted all content and posted it blank. Again, very useful and just the 'look' I was after Blogger, thank you.

Arrggh, so I have retyped and fingers crossed the darn thing works this time!

I hope you all are having better luck :)

xx

Melbourne wrap up + street art

My final Melbourne post! (I think) On Sunday morning a few of us walked up the road to the Rose Street Markets.

Probably the highlight for me, other than a few jewellery and ceramic stalls was the aerosol art that lined parts the street.The piece above was my favourite. So colourful!

Rose Street Market.

Artwork in a doorway.

Steph and I then caught a tram into town whilst some of the others went to a day spa. We had a delicious lunch at Laurent, a beautiful patisserie and boulangerie at the end of a laneway near Little Collins Street.

I enjoyed a baked veg and fetta tart. The cake selection was divine and so tempting, but I was super strong.

Yuuuummmmmm!!!!

Union Lane, between Bourke Street Mall and Little Collins Streets had the most amazing street art.

I had to share a few pics....

I thought this lily was so unusual.

Aren't they pretty?

Ahh, the end of our trip. Of course by the time we got to the airport the airlines had decided to delay our flight, so we got home later than expected, very tired. Goodness only knows how many kilometres we walked, but I did wear a hole in the sole of my good pair of shoes!

Have a lovely Friday :)

xx

ps how are you guys findingt he new Blogger format? At the moment I'm wondering if there's a way to convert it back as it doesn't want to work properly on my iTouch or work computer. Boo hiss!

Melbourne shopping madness + crazy transportation

As part of our weekend away, birthday girl Selina had organised a super stretch 1957 Chevy Belair as our transport for a day out shopping.

I couldn't believe how big, or rather, long it was!

L-R Lisa, Karen, Stephanie, Camilla and Kristina.

Everyone was really excited.

First stop was Essendon DFO where the girls went mad. Despite a huge array of shops and 3 hours browsing, I came away with only a cute pair of tights for my niece.

From there we went to Preston markets and seeing as we were in the area, stopped by the Elk store for a look. By this stage I had completely overheated in the back of the limo (ten excited women create a lot of hot air) and felt that sick I couldn't tolerate it anymore. They dropped me off home for a bit of a relax whilst they hit Brunswick street and came home with a big haul.

Rob the driver. I bet he was cringing at some of the stories he overheard that day :)

There's Selina the birthday girl

We had a blast. The reactions from other drivers and pedestrians were gold. People were waving at us and taking photos. They must have thought that someone special was in town. Correct!!

xx

Weekend fun in Melbourne

Waiting for the tram outside Ikea.

Hi friends, well not surprisingly I had a great time in Melbourne last weekend.

If you didn't know, I flew over there for a friend's 40th birthday celebrations. Most of us (including the birthday girl) live in Tasmania, so it was nice to get away.

Random but attractive house down the street.

My friend Stephanie and I arrived late morning on Friday and met up with the others at our lovely Edwardian guesthouse in Fitzroy.

We dropped off our bags and took everyone out to Ikea for a bit of a shop. I bought a few small bits and pieces that no doubt will pop up on the blog in the near future.

Our guest house

After that, Steph and I popped down to the South Bank DFO for a spot of shopping. We then met up with the other 9 of us and dropped by the Finders Keepers Market in the gorgeous Exhibition Building. It was fantastic, with around 120 stalls, music, a bar and food. We all made some great finds.

Not wishing to wait the 45 minutes for a taco from the van outside the market we walked up the street to a pub where we sat outside and enjoyed a lovely meal. Home to bed for all of us!

Lots of tram cables.

The accomodations were lovely, quite grand in fact and so I thought I might share some pics...

Funky wallpaper in one of the many bathrooms.

The lovely entrance. No, the phone didn't work.

Remnants of stained glass.

Looking down the stairs to the foyer. I loved that geometric white wire light fitting.

Loungeroom with 12 foot ceilings and lovely fireplace.

Funky kitchen with yellow pressed tin feature.

Dining room and below, the small but pretty courtyard.

It was really lovely, but boy, I'm glad I live in a one storey house!

Thanks for reading :)

xx

ps a couple more posts on my adventures to come :)

pps a big boo to Mr Blogger who has made the new format a big pain in the butt for me. I lost this whole post and had to start from scratch. It won't spell check for me and I'm just a tad over it!

Friday flower

While I'm jetting off to the big smoke for the weekend I leave you with a shot of some David Austin Strawberry Hills roses that I took a little while ago.

I just adore the pink against the turquoise sky!

Have a Happy Friday peeps. All going to plan I'm going to very excitedly visit the Finders Keepers Market in Melbourne tonight, then off cruising with my friends tomorrow and a spot of shopping on Sunday before I come home that evening. Can't wait!!

xx

The painting continues...

Ah yes, riveting times are here :)

We are still painting and I can see this continuing for a year or more at the rate we are going.

As they say, it's all about the preparation, and boy does that take a long time when your weatherboards are very weathered like ours are.

As you can see, we have painted this section apart from the bottom two boards, the very bottom one is a new board that we fitted on the weekend.

We have been stripping the window surround which is in a bit of a dodgy state.

Lyn has removed the front panels that cover the inner workings of the window themselves.

I don't know all the technical terms for sash windows but you can see the weights in my following photos.

Look at that big ol' rusty thing hanging there. I find it fascinating that it has been suspended there on that old length of rope for just over 100 years. Yes, clearly I need to get out more :)

It's difficult to see but there's some writing on the timber panel at the back. I can't work out what it says.

You can see the sorry state of the windows here.

There's barely anything holding the panes of glass in at the moment.

I'll be so happy to see this all patched up and painted.

The windows (not the panes, silly!) will be painted in the white colour and the fascia bit will be painted in the dark blue. I think it will look pretty nice.

xx

ps I have been meaning to tell you, the cheesecake-filled chocolate eggs I made at Easter tasted wonderful. They were a bit of a hit too :)

Molly

A couple of people have asked me how Molly is doing following her surgery (four weeks ago yesterday) so I thought it time for a bloggy update on the matter.

She is doing well, but it will still be a couple of months before she will be at her best.

Ideally she won't have a limp and will be able to run freely and not pull up sore. I have my fingers crossed for that. At the very least I just hope she doesn't feel the pain she was experiencing before surgery.

She is using the leg quite well though I can still see her favouring her right leg when she stands. I have started short walks around the block but she gets grumpy with me and wants to go further. I'll increase them as the weeks go on. She is still supposed to walk not run, but tell her that. I've just started letting her off the lead to go out for toilet stops and she's behaving pretty well. She can be such a ratbag.

Her wound is pretty much healed though I dare say there'll be a permanent bald patch there. The rest of her leg (and her chest where they did the lumpectomy) are starting to darken with fur and feel so nice to pat - silky smooth! I can't wait to get her into the bath. All that licking has left her a bit 'woofy' in patches. I'll do that soon.

Well, that's about it. As good as can be expected I think.

I hope you guys are all doing well and enjoying the weekend.

I'm working but am looking forward to next weekend when I have a girls' weekend planned in Melbourne to celebrate a friend's 40th birthday. Should be a lot of fun.

I've been so slow to blog lately, lacking inspiration. At least next weekend should give me some ideas.

xx

Easter treats - edible and cute

Happy Easter friends.

I hope you are in the middle of a relaxing, peaceful and fun time.

We have been having fun painting the weatherboards on the house, but I did manage a bit of Easter cooking.

Anyone fancy a cheescake filled chocolate egg, complete with passionfruit flavoured yolk?

I found the recipe on the beautiful Raspberri Cupcakes blog and had to try them.

I added a bit of Easteryness to the table with my bunny and some eggs which are in fact lovely soaps. Don't tell anyone :)

Oh, who's this you ask? It's Mr Rabbit!

Isn't he beautiful? Another sweet handstitched creation by Natasha of the Snow Queen's Garden.

Natasha has an etsy store and you can find her on Facebook too :)

Who could resist that sweet face?

xx
Edit: we ate some of the choc cheesecake eggs at dinner last night and they were very yummy :)

The A to Z of me!

(Some old pics from the kiddy album. Me and my pony Georgie, with my sister Rachael and with Dad on a random horse)

Howdy friends,

Some of you may have been seen some other bloggers write an A to Z about them recently. I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and join in.

A // Age: 40 No point denying it.

 

B // Bed size: Queen. Which is fine unless you have to share it with a certain furry kid who likes to take up more than her fair share.

C // Chore that you hate: Dusting. I am rather good at not seeing dust and conveniently blame my short-sightedness.

D // Dogs: Do I really need to answer this? Molly of course! Though sometimes I’m convinced she is not a dog.

E // Essential start to your day: Without doubt a cup of tea. White and one sugar. I like to get up early so I can relax and not rush first thing. That's not fun.

(Christmas time, me on another pony and riding the whale in the kiddy pool  - do the local readers remember that whale at the Clarence pool?)

F // Favourite colour: Blue. Always has been. I love all shades of blue.

G // Gold or Silver: Both. I have a good deal of each and just rotate. Sometimes I match jewellery with the metal of my watch, other times I just don’t worry.

H // Height: 165 cm

I // Instruments you play: Piano, badly. At high school I also played the clarinet and drums. That was funny. Not exactly Animal from the Muppets, but I did enjoy it.

J // Job title: I’m an art gallery co-ordinator. I wrangle artists (like herding cats) and organise exhibitions and events.

K // Kids: Just the furry one.

L // Live: Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. I have no inclination to change that - Hobart is a great place to live, though would be even better if Ikea decided to open up down here.

M // Mother’s name: Jan

N // Nicknames: Sar Bear. When I was little my parents called me Sarah Snake. Hmm…strange…

O // Overnight hospital stays: The only one was for an operation on my heart valves at the age of 1.5 years. I have a huge scar from my left side that runs underneath my shoulder blade. You can see little old me in hospital in one of the old pics below.

(With sister Rachael, after my surgery, cuddling a dalmation pup and on another pony!)

P // Pet peeve: I have a lot of these… rude drivers, parents that swear at children, cruelty to animals…

Q // Quote from a film: No one puts Baby in the corner (Dirty Dancing). I can watch that movie over and over, along with Chocolat.

R // Right or left handed: Right

S // Siblings: One very nice sister who is 18 months younger than I. Hi Rachael :)

T // Time you wake up: Always early. Anytime from 5am, but generally 5.30 – 6.30am.

U // Underwear: Good ol’ Bonds hipsters or boylegs. Comfort (and a splash of colour) is the key.

V // Vegetable you hate: I know this is terrible for a vegetarian, but I cannot tolerate mushrooms. I like the look of them but that’s it! Ugh, the smell of them cooking and their fleshy texture totally creep me out.

W // What makes you run late: Generally nothing. I am a stickler for being on time.

X // X-Rays you’ve had: Lots – teeth, chest, arms, brain (when I had concussion after my ladder fall).

Y // Yummy food that you make: Gosh, I don’t know. I don’t bake a bad cake.

Z // Zoo animal: How to choose? I adore them all in one way or another, but am always transfixed by the baby elephants and giraffes.

I hope I haven't bored you all to death but if you haven't done and A to Z on your blog, I'd love to read it if you did. I'm a bit of a sticky beak!
xx