Decorate

Hello there! I am a fan of Holly Becker and her Decor8 blog and could not wait to get my hands on a copy of her new book Decorate. Unfortunately I have not been able to find a lot of time to read it yet but it was a joy to receive it and have a quick flick through. So many great ideas and beautiful rooms! In fact the book provided the inspiration for the name of my new Etsy shop "WhiteSpaceVintage". In other farm news we have a paddock full of happy little lambs, plenty of firewood and two lazy chickens who won't lay any eggs. Our wall unit is nearly finished (or so I'm hoping!) and I am waiting feverishly for them to deliver it. I hope all is well in your part of the world. C ♥

Ohhh yum!

Ooo how delicious does this look? It's Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread. I was flicking through the latest issue of Home Beautiful that arrived in the mail today and their Style File "love at first site" section listed this fantastic blog - Joy the Baker. Hmm I wonder if I could find some time to make it this weekend? It is a long weekend after all... which is a delicious fact in itself! C ♥

Confession

Hello peeps. I must confess something... I forgot about my blog! Life has been a bit too busy lately and my mind has been filled with so many other things there was no room for blogland too. *Big sigh*. I suppose everyone's life gets like that sometimes. That's what life is all about!I am at mum's place in the Yarra Valley at the moment. We are spending the day together tomorrow and then I am heading into Melbourne to catch up with my lovely friend Sally. Shopping alert!

Last weekend I cleared out the vegie patch. The tomato plants were looking very bedraggled and the pumpkin was all over the place. I also let a few sheep in there to eat the overgrown grass. I am looking forward to pruning the roses to let the winter sun in. The crepe myrtle has lost nearly all of it's leaves (the made a red blanket over the lawn) and so has the ash tree. There are mice everywhere and even a few rats, eww! Little Dog has caught two, good dog! Hope all is well with you. C ♥

Too many tomatoes!

Hello everyone. As we are heading to Coffs Harbour on Friday for two weeks I thought I had better do something with all of these tomatoes or they will go to waste. This morning I peeled and chopped a dozen and popped them into these little containers for the freezer to look after!

The last week or so we have had beautiful fine autumn weather and yesterday the rain arrived. I measured 23mm this morning - the plants would have loved that soaking! It's now clear and sunny which is so nice. I am off to Ararat this afternoon for a facial and grocery shopping.

I hope all is well with you. C ♥

Magazine heaven

Hello there! I'm not sure if you know but I am a huge magazine fiend. I collect them, display them and adore them. They are a great source of inspiration for me in a lot of facets of my life. One of my stress relievers is to sit down and flick through a mag. If I had to pick a favourite it would be Notebook: but I will have to re-read my issues (I have all 63) as sadly it closed late last year. Real Living, Home Beautiful, House & Garden, Madison, Marie Claire, Instyle... ahhh! The latest Country Style is out and once again has some great articles and home decorating. I have also recently discovered online magazines and although I don't like them as much as the real thing they still have a lot of appeal. Have a look at this beautiful issue of Adore Home. Hope all is well in your part of the world. Bye for now, C ♥

Etsy shopping

Hello there! I bought this lovely print today from Janet Hill Studio on Etsy. I have a white wooden frame that will suit it nicely. It was great to sit and peruse some of my favourite shops on Etsy and admire all the fabulous products. In fact it was nice just to sit and relax for a while. I've had a busy week so am appreciating the weekend! I went for a walk with LittleDog this afternoon. We then wandered around the garden for a while and he found a baby blue tongue lizard! So cute :) Off to make dinner now. Hope all is well with you and your life. C ♥

It's a bright bright bright sun-shiney day!

Hello friends!

What a lovely autumn day it's been here. I hope you have been out enjoying it too. Days like this make you feel happy to be alive don't they? We have so much to be thankful for living here - no wars or hunger or other bad things. Sometimes we can lose perspective on what is really important in life. OK that's my D&M event for the week!

I made another batch of green tomato pickles today. Grand total of 14 jars in the pantry now. At least the same amount still on the plants waiting to be cooked up! I also made a sweetie treat - chewy choc slice, yum.

Now that our living room is painted I can start organising the big wall unit. I drew up the plan today for it. Hopefully off see the cabinet maker on Saturday for a quote. I can't wait to fill up the shelves with our books, magazines, photo frames, etc.

Well, that's all from me for today. Wishing you all a happy week. C ♥

Fruitful

Hello dear blog friends, I hope you are well and happy. All is good here at our place. The vege patch is overflowing with tomatoes (I am on to my second batch of green tomato pickles), pumpkin and strawberries. Do you like this amazing conjoined berry?! Along with the bountiful garden come thousands of bugs which are a bit of a bother but part of country life. I have been working at the bank as usual but have Monday off so I am greatly enjoying my long weekend. I went to Melbourne a couple of weekends ago and had dinner with mum and sister Julie which was lovely. Shopping was also on the agenda with my dear friend Sally. I bought a new wallet and handbag along with a few other bits and pieces. Ah that's my shopping bug taken care of for a little while! It was great to get away for a couple of days. Not much other news from me so I'll sign off now. Best wishes, Clare ♥

Sunday drive

Hello friends. On the weekend we went for a little drive to the Grampians to see the landslide. It was a lovely day, we took a few back roads and saw some beautiful scenery. There is still a lot of water in the swamps and creeks and plenty of road damage too. Now that I am working full time the weekends are very precious and go by so quickly! I am heading to Melbourne next weekend to catch up with mum for her birthday, as well as my sister Julie and friend Sally. Hopefully I will also find some time for shopping! Well cheerio until next time. Best wishes to you all. ♥

Time flies...

Hello all :)

Sorry I have not been around much lately. I have been working full time again and have not been able to find the time to post after catching up on all the normal day to day chores. I hope everything is well with you. Everything is good here even if a little water-logged! The photo above is of the road I usually take to get to work. It was blocked for the weekend which was convenient! Lyndon found a little turtle yesterday on his way back from Ararat. I am keeping it in a tractor tyre that used to be a sandpit but will let it go tomorrow down at the swamp. It is lovely and sunny here today which is great as we need the paddocks to dry out so they can harvest the wheat and barley without getting bogged every 50 metres. Not much else to report at the moment. Life is pretty good! Best wishes to you all. C ♥

Happy New Year...

Hello and welcome to 2011. How was your Christmas? I had a lovely couple of days in Daylesford with my family and received some great presents! It feels so long ago now. How did you welcome the new year? Fireworks and fun? We didn't go anywhere or do anything special, just stayed home and relaxed. I have not made any new year's resolutions... have you?

I have enjoyed a nice long weekend and am ready to go back to work tomorrow. I made a lemon slab cake, did lots of washing, caught up on bookwork, cleaned the windows, vacuumed the house, mowed the lawns... a very productive weekend!

One of my Christmas presents was a little box of Affirmations by Kate Knapp ... this one caught my fancy today. "I had a blood test and it seems I have high expectations. So I'm on a strict diet of no expecting and lots of enjoying." Sounds like a plan! Cheerio for now. C ♥

Christmas cooking

Hello! On the weekend I was baking gingerbread biscuits and making lemon butter to give as Christmas presents. Luckily I made extra so we were able to enjoy some as well. The showery weather has finally cleared and today was beautiful and sunny. I am heading off to Daylesford via Ballarat tomorrow morning. It will lovely to sit and relax for a few days. I feel like I haven't stopped during the last three weeks or so. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas Day with your family. Another year nearly over...

Cheerio for now. C ♥

'Tis the silly season

LittleDog enjoying a lamb bone

Our lightly decorated lopsided Christmas tree!

Hello! Sorry I have fallen off the blogland wagon lately. Daily life seems to have taken over. I am now working 4-5 days a week, so all that lovely free time I used to have has gone. I found this frog sitting in the middle of the rose while I was dead heading. Today I made six jars of lemon butter for Christmas presents and am also planning to make gingerbread biscuits. I hope your festive season plans are going well - only 7 more sleeps! C x

Home made decorations

Hello there blog friends!

I made some Christmas decorations and hung them up this morning. I got the idea for these from the Etsy seller Bookity. I might make some more later... maybe some smaller or bigger ones? Next we will need to get a tree... a real one me thinks!

I am having Christmas lunch with the girls from work today which will be lovely. Then I may have to take some wool to the merchant in Skipton. How is your day looking? C ♥