Hello blossom!

Yay, spring has sprung! How pretty are these blossoms! Can you see the bee?!

Little Dog and I went for a walk this afternnon. There was a lamb out on the road and he chased it for ages. Little ratbag would not stop....I nearly yelled myself hoarse trying to get him to come back. Uh oh more training required! He is only six months old I suppose.

I've joined a new Etsy team called MEST which stands for Melbourne Etsy Streey Team. I am making lots of new online friends and will meet a couple at the Buninyong Market which will be good. My vintage prints copied really well and look great which I am thrilled about. Fingers crossed they sell well! Just trying to work out the best way to display them now.

I managed to get a little more sanding done today which was satisfying. Little by little I'm getting there. I wish the walls and skirting boards were not in such bad shape. We've got visitors coming to stay at the end of September so I reeaaaalllly want the room finished by then. It will be so nice to finally sit on our new sofa!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. C ♥

Veranda

Do you like this print? I love love it to bits! It's from an Etsy seller called Nidhi. I find it very soothing and peaceful....sigh...

I got home at 10.30pm last night from the Polling day so it ended up being a 15 hour day! It was quite interesting but tiring. Had a nice sleep-in this morning then did some housework and mowed the lawn. We went for a drive to the lake overflow and Little Dog had a great time running around exploring the dunes. It's nice to see some water in the lake again! How was your weekend? :)

Buninyong Makers Market

Ooo, I'm so excited (and a bit worried) about having a table at the Buninyong Makers Market on Saturday 11th September! I have made a couple of new artworks (one pictured above) for the day so now have a total of 13 paper artworks and 6 vintage prints. I have to find a nice white tablecloth and I have some pretty bunting I thought I might place along the front. It would be so nice to sell a few of my artworks but also to find out what people think of them.

Election day tomorrow. I'm a polling official so have to be there at 7.30am and may not finish till 7.30pm.....phew! On Sunday Lyndon and I are going for a drive to the Grampians. Ice creams at Halls Gap. Yum :) Hope you all have a lovely weekend. C x

Giggle

Look at this gorgeous key holder! I found it on the Real Shopping website which is put together by the Real Living magazine people. I love that magazine; it has such great stuff and is very inspiring. I need that sometimes to help keep me motivated to work on this old house!

It is my sister Julie's birthday tomorrow so......Happy Birthday Julie! Yay :)

Have a great day. You're the best, chuck out the rest! ....giggle.... (does'nt that word make you smile?!)

Buckets and buckets of rain!

We've had a heap of rain the last few days which has been amazing! Everyone is saying there has not been this much rain around here for 20 years. There are swamps where people had forgotten it was a swamp. Our "house" dam (the one we use for watering the garden, flushing the loo and some stock water troughs) is overflowing and it looks like a lake out there. The frogs are going mad .... blonk blonk non stop! Little Dog and I went for a walk this morning and took some photos. It's so nice to see all this water.

Fabulous Etsy finds

Here are a few more of my favourite Etsy finds.

How divinely cute is the little mouse picture?! (Actually did you know that cute means "interesting but ugly"!!) The detail in Jessica Doyle's urchin is amazing.

We have had a lot of rain these past few days....maybe 2 inches or so! The lake even has some water in it now. My man and I have been planting trees so they will get a good start.

Hope all is well in your world. C x

Pretty pink Camelia

We have three camelia bushes on the east side of our house. One just outside the laundry has bright pink flowers. But these lovely pale pink ones are so pretty I had to take a photo......I really need a digital SLR camera.....must start saving! I'm sure my Etsy product photos would benefit too. Ah maybe one day..... :)

Cleaning up and painting

Hello. For the last few days I have been cleaning up the plantation. The gums drop lots of leaves and sticks and create a bit of a fire hazard. It's tiring work but looks pretty good now (not that I have finished yet!). There is some lovely moss growing here. I love moss!

We had a couple of glorious clear sunny days which was so nice. It was pretty cold at night though and we had a frost or two. The chickens have started laying again. I collected two eggs this morning.

I have also managed to get a little painting done in the lounge room. There is still a lot to do but little by little I will get there! It will be so nice to be able to finally use this room!

Out walking

Hello. This is Little Dog and I out on a walk. We are heading south down the road towards town. The property you can see is our neighbours. I have been making tree guards this week using old cyclone wire fence and a piece of tarp. Not that enjoyable but useful!

We are marking the lambs tomorrow. Boys and girls get ear tags and a ring on their tail, boys also get a ring around their you-know-what's! I am not sure how many we have....maybe 100. Will post a photo of the pen full. We got one set of triplets this year!

I have also been doing a bit of cleaning up around the yard. Raking lots of leaves and sticks from all the gum trees. There are piles everywhere now. I mowed the lawn yesterday for the first time in ages. I love it when it's freshly mown, it looks so nice.

The electrician came around the other day and finished installing the down lights in the lounge and also removed the extremely ugly light fitting in the front hall. He put a cord in and hung a paper oval lantern that I bought from Ikea ages ago. It looks so much better!

The chickens have started laying again....occasionally! It's good to get eggs again. I made chocolate chip biscuits today. The kids are here for the weekend so I thought it might be nice to have some yummy cookies. I used the last two eggs so hopefully the chooks will lay some more soon! Hope you have a lovely weekend. Bye for now. C x

Etsy finds

Uh oh, I've become addicted to Etsy! They have a great section called Treasury where you can create all sorts of different selections of lovely Etsy finds. You give it a title, list it on the site and everyone can have a look. I have made quite a few. Have a look here if you want to!

The photo above shows a few of my favourite finds....there are so many!

Have a great weekend everyone! Bye :)

Made It finds

Hello. Thought I would try out the new website I found thanks to Decor8. It's called Picnik and helps you combine your photos into all sorts of layouts. How fun! I made this one from some great Made It products I found today. What do you think? The possibilities are endless!

It is quite nice and sunny at the moment but a little windy. Yesterday I took the wheelbarrow down the laneway paddock and collected and load of rocks that were scattered around. I then lugged the barrow over to the dam and tipped the load into the in-flow point to help stop erosion. Phew! The Little Dog was running around exploring and then decided he felt like a swim so did a flying leap into the dam. He swam into the middle, turned around and swam back. How funny!

If I have time this afternoon I might make some Anzac Biscuits. Yummy chewy ones.

Hope you are having a lovely day. Bye for now.

Bookshelf treasures

My new Hemnes bookshelf from Ikea is lovely and filling up with my treasures and work stuff. It's so nice walking into the room and seeing them sitting there proudly on display.

I have just finished one of the best books I have read in a long time. My lovely friend Kate put me on to it, of which I am eternally grateful! It is called 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society'. Is'nt the title just wonderful! If you have not read it, I highly recommend it. Very heart-warming and extremely enjoyable. I posted it today to my friend Sally so she can soak up it's charm.

We have had a couple of lovely sunny days here so I have been trying to get out there and do a bit around the garden. I planted some tulip bulbs the other day, I can't wait for all the late winter and spring flowers to come. The chickens have stopped laying though which is a shame. I had to buy eggs the other day! Hope you all have a lovely weekend. C x

Little lambs

We have lots of lambs running around at the moment. Last year I hand reared one. This year two were abandoned and although I bottle fed them for a few days they both died. Unfortunately that is one of the hard facts of life in the country.

We have had quite a bit of rain over the last few days. The rain gauge showed 24mm yesterday which is great for the crops. I have been stuck inside as a result so have been baking. I made a double batch of chocolate chip biscuits yesterday and lemon slice today. Yum.

My Hemnes bookcase from Ikea is finally assembled and stacked full of lovely goodies. It is so nice having some extra storage space and I'm loving the organisation. I look at some of the great blogs and websites out there and get inspired. I wish my place looked as lovely as theirs! One day.....

Winter lemons

I made lemon slice today. Our lovely lemon tree is brimming with fruit so I had to make something! I found the recipe on this great website.

We crutched some of last years lambs this morning. They are now off in their own paddock as the ewes are lambing. We have about 15 little ones teetering around with lots more to come. It has been really cold lately and today we've had a few blustery showers of rain. I don't know how the little things survive! Brrr.... Time for a cuppa and some slice! Cheerio, C x