one thing leads to another... and another

an utterly pointless, yet utterly darling floral pic 

so to start, i thought i'd just mention that i have indeed still misplaced my camera.  i've been mentally retracing my steps,trying to remember when i last used it, but my brain isn't co-operating with me.  i'm pretty sure i haven't lost it out and about, or that it's been stolen...  no,no.  i think it's in my house somewhere.  

which leads me to...

my super messy house.  i'm not the tidiest of people on a day to day basis.  sure, i can tidy my house with only an hour or less notice if someone is coming around to visit.  pretty well too!  but daily it seems i can live in a comfortable mess.  

but my house at the moment is terrible.  because i don't have a sewing room, my dining table is currently being used as a sewing table, the surrounding floor and chairs have stacks of fabric on them, my ironing board for said sewing is in my lounge (the closest available power point), the ironing board has finished sewing projects on them, my couch is covered in things to go into ollie's room (and mine) and i have my old tv sitting next to one of my lounge chairs while i figure out what to do with it.  all of this is not including ollie's toys and debris.  even i am embarrassed.

which leads me to...

what i have just been doing.  i thought i'd get stuck in and start with today's dishes.  after that, i wiped the benches.  then i noticed a patch on the walls were a bit grubby.  before i knew it i had scrubbed my kitchen window sill, the walls, all of the cupboard doors, my oven, the fridge and the benches.  i even got out the cotton buds to get into the hard to reach spots.

did i need to clean my kitchen this much?  probably

did i need to do this before the rest of my house got tidied?  definitely not

am i too pooped to do any other housework tonight?  i think so

but boy, oh, boy my kitchen looks lovely.

if only i could find my camera to take a pic of it...

amy xx  

happy home

my plan today was to do a wardrobe wednesday (i know, it's thursday, bear with me), but after running into a few problems with my camera and photo-taking abilities, i have decided instead to share some snaps of some jolly additions recently added to our home.

 i did get one shot of something i wore today, this amazing wooden tui brooch. this used to be mum's but she never wore it so now it's mine.  lucky me!

 this handsome fellow was discovered for $1 ($1!) at a local monthly market.  he is more turquoise in real life, but i think he is rather shy and didn't want to show his true colours...he he he

 vintage warwick ringbinder... eep!  she was found at the same market for a whole 50c!  i cried a little with happiness.  she will be holding some of my knitting patterns i think.

 i visited my friend, julia, the other day and i spied this in her room.  she said because i loved it so much, i could have it.  yes, i agree with you, it IS an amazing horse picture.  but guess what?  it's a holographic picture!  those horses move!

 i made this last night for a friend who is having a birthday on saturday.  (it's a memo/grocery list thingy ma jiggy.  basically some pretty paper framed in a cheap frame.  add a whiteboard marker and a duster.  that's your tutorial)  so technically it's not being added to my home.  but i have been testing it out because i want to make one for my kitchen.  

 i've made a few of these and they are smattered around my home.  i love how eeny teeny they are!  succulents!  in tiny pots!  in tiny macrame hangers!   

 another amazing picture.  a little bit more than i'd normally pay for something like this ($5) but i did want some more vintage pictures for my lounge, so i paid happily.  love those muted tones!

oh, and this.  oh me, oh my.  this paper is over 50 years old and is part of two large pieces that my nana would re-use every year to wrap my mums christmas presents in when she was a girl.  when me and my sister were born, nana gave the two pieces to my mum and she began to use them to wrap presents in for us.  she would re-use them every year, eventually only using ribbon to tie the paper.  the pieces became so fragile and papery-thin that mum stopped using them, but she gave them my sister and myself to own.  and so recently we had a portion each framed, and a surprise piece framed for mum.  i love how they have turned out, im gonna treasure this wee beauty for ever!

thanks for looking around my house,stop on by again!

maybe you could show me around your house sometime, you could show off some of your new acquisitions!

amy xx

the salt to my pepper

 today i was lucky enough to receive these beautiful salt and pepper shakers, from a friend who was having a clear out.  

they are gorgeous, don't you think?

and so i thought i would share with you my entire s 'n' p collection!

 one big happy family! 

below are some of my absolute favourites...

 wish i had the lids to these guys

i'm on the hunt for a fellow for this lovely lady...

 

 ...and the brown mr. pepper

 i do have the other hat for this beefeater,but alas, he is dwelling behind the fridge at the moment

this sad fellow i've had for many years.  i think my sister has the other.

amy xx


ps. i just found three more sets in my tupperware cupboard for picnics and things.  the shakers are everywhere!

happy things

things that made me smile today:

the new frankie magazine

discovering frankie's brother, smith journal

hanging out with my friend madeleine

crafting

seeing snow on the hills

adding to my babysitter's club book collection

playing with new lego

thrifted kitsch shell owls

listening to ollie read to me

comfort food for dinner

colourful gerberas

what made you happy today?

it's a yellow party! (many-pictures post)

i can't believe this day came around so fast, but yesterday ollie had his 5th birthday party!  

ollie chose to have a yellow party which was super fun, but more importantly, super easy.

he had five friends come around (which in hindsight was such a lovely number of children), and my parents and a few of my friends came along too.  i kept the party to two hours, and kept referring to a list i had made of estimated times for each activity, which seemed to work pretty well.  (one of probably seven different lists i had made leading up to the big day, ha ha)

the kids played a few classic games - pin the tail on the donkey, pass the parcel, statues, sad kitty and ollie smashed up the pinata.  but what was super great was the kids seemed to entertain themselves in the down times.  they made up a few 'dancing' games, went outside and kicked a ball around, and went bug hunting with one of ollie's new presents.

the decorations i made were pretty simple.  yellow is such a great colour for parties and so i had balloons, home-made pom-pom garland,home-made bunting outside, a tiered cake stand i spray painted yellow, tooth-pick toppers (i can post a tutorial later if you want me to!) and yellow themed food. told you it was easy!  

to eat we had yellow lollies, chips and crackers with dip, sausage rolls, plain cookies with shades of yellow icing, lemon slice, banana, banana chips, juice and banana milk.  okay, so not the healthiest of birthday spreads, but it's a party, right?

and the cake.  i'm pretty proud of the cake!  although he didn't know what the cake would be until it was brought out, ollie saw a robot among other things in a cake book i have, and i knew it would be perfect.  I wanted to confuse him a bit so i made the robot grey but when he cut into it, it was bright yellow inside!  i used (quite a few) boxes of Betty Crocker cake mix (thanks Betty!) and added gel food colouring to get a sunshine colour.  i forgot to take pictures of the inside though!  sorry!

ollie seemed to have a fantastic time, and his friends did too i think.  after his friends went home with their home made goodie bags made by my friend julia (above, holding baby florence) i hung out with ollie and my friends having an extremely well deserved glass (or three) of wine.

ollie has his last day of kindergarten on monday which will be emotional, his birthday and first day of school on tuesday, and his dad and paternal relatives are visiting on thursday.  phew!  

a busy week, i'll post again later in the week.

love to you all,

amy xxx

hello there!

i feel like i've been a bit spacey over here lately.  so i will say im sorry.  many things have been happening in our little household, mostly good but also some not-so-goodly things.  that's life though, right?

some awesomely awesome things that have been going on though, are:

 hanging out with delicious babies

 chilling and fun-timing in marahau

 hanging out with this guy

and doing a spot of yellow crafting.  a certain someone has a birthday in the next week or so and he's turning....

5!

(watch this space for a birthday party post..)

so, alot of my time has also been spent at his kindy parent-helping, just so i can spend as much time as possible with him before he starts school.  waah!

so maybe my next post won't be until after his birthday party/kindy party/first day of school/all the other birthday stuff we'll do.  i'm sure you will forgive me?

amy xx

ps probably one of the best things that's happened is this little bundle of awesomeness

good evening!

what are you up to this saturday evening?  here's what i'm up to:

i'm putting music onto my computer and i'm listening to florence + the machine on said computer.  i'm watching a big monarch caterpillar, two medium sized monarch caterpillars and two teeny monarch caterpillars eating their yummy swan plant on my dining room table.  i'm wondering if  there is enough swan plant to go around and thinking maybe i should buy some pumpkin for them to munch on.

i'm looking around my tidy lounge and feeling quite pleased with myself for the good job i did cleaning and tidying today.  at the same time i'm looking quite sternly at the basket of washing waiting patiently to be folded, wondering why on earth it won't learn to fold itself. 

i'm eating raspberry flavoured rock candy from my friend's wedding and debating with myself as to whether or not i really need the last bottle of peachee bundaberg in the fridge.  i probably do need it.

i'm thinking about ollie's upcoming birthday.  i'm searching online for party inspiration.  i'm wondering if the effort that i put into his parties is for his sake or mine.  or both.  i'm feeling quite sad that he will be five.  however, i'm cherishing the picture of me he drew today. 

i'm wondering what might be on tv to fill in the rest of evening.  i'm wondering what i currently have on the needles that i can work on.  i'm planning on writing a list of all the crafting projects i have to complete in the next few weeks.

i'm waiting for a text from my lovely lovely friend to tell me she has gone into labour.  then i'm waiting for a text from her husband to say she's had her baby.  this probably won't happen tonight.  but i would like it to.

amy xx

compliments of ollie

just stumbled across these lovely photos that ollie must have snapped without me knowing!  i quite like them, they have definitely put a smile on my face today.  i hope you like them too!

amy xx