wintery-ness

Dang.  It's cold.  The heater is broken and it hasn't really stopped raining all week.  All. Week.  It's not fun trying to dry washing in this sort of weather without relying on the old tumble dryer.  But as it happens Winter has it's ok moments...like an excuse for endless hot drinks, and slow sunday roasts.  Staying in winter pj's is just a little more luxurious when it's cold than in warmer months and snuggling on the couch is oh so cozy.....here's what we got up to this week. 

1. Props...gorgeous citrus, eucalyptus, geraniums, lavender and rosemary...all used for a photo shoot for some wonderful products, which I'll reveal soon. 

2. Ladder time - At the end of each footy round the ladder gets updated.  Very happy people at the moment with their team in top position. 

3. My old antique wardrobe...photos taken of her because it's time to sell her (sob!) 

4. Shenanigans on the couch

5. Hiding under the quilt

6. Letting me take photos of her down the lane way. 

Linking up with Em @ The Shack 

slow days

After such a whirlwind weekend, this week has been kind of slow.  That and the fact that I've had a child home sick each day this week has meant that bunkering down and taking it easy has been mandatorily put on the agenda. That's ok.  I've re-realised my kids are kind of good sick kids, if that makes sense.  They just potter around slow, take naps or rest on the couch and soak up mummy cuddles when their hearts desired.  It's given me a few days reflection time, planning and implementing some said plans.  I've shakily realised our move is now four months away.  If I break it down into weekends and then of those weekends which ones we will be here at home, there doesn't appear to be too much time.  Time I thought I had plenty of.

In my vain attempt to get organised, I'm writing lists, hoping to start de-cluttering the home and even start packing up non-essentials.

Still finding time to read, sew and slow down is all important.

What do you like to do on slow days?

xx

fig frangipane

With all the delicous fresh figs I'm picking off our tree on a daily basis, I knew it was only a matter of time before I whipped up a fig inspired dessert.  With a little nudging from my pal down the road, I set about making a fig frangipane...which in essence is like an almond tart, with figs.  This pastry...is just the bees knees...so buttery and tasty and although it takes a bit of time is well worth the effort.  Do refrigerate for the recommended times or it won't bake well.  Oh and if figs are readily available to you..you could easily substitute this with pears, apricots, plums or peaches! 

Here is what you need. 

For the pastry;
150g cold butter
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
For the frangipane filling;
100g butter, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar (although caster sugar will work too)
1 cup almond meal
1 egg 
1 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
5-6 fresh figs 

Place the flour and icing sugar in the bowl of a food processor and blitz for a moment. Add the butter and blitz until you have a coarse sand-like texture. Tip this out onto a work surface and bring together with the palm of your hand and work until you have a lovely, smooth disc of dough. Wrap this in plastic and pop in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Roll out between two sheets of baking paper until about 5mm thick and drape into a loose-bottomed tart tin. Return to the fridge for another half an hour.  When your ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180 degrees and then blind bake the pastry for about 15 minutes. 

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy and add the almond meal, flour, vanilla and egg. Mix until smooth. Spoon in the frangipane mix and smooth out. Half the figs and place skin side down into the mixture and bake for 25 minutes or until the frangipane is golden brown and cooked through.

Serve with ice-cream or cream 

xx

house quirks

 

Source: goodmorningandgoodnight.com via Cindy on Pinterest

I've realised lately my house has quirks - many of them!

You see, in my preparation for heading off on our overseas travels, one of my tasks includes doing some much needed preparation for the house-sitter. Yes, that includes cleaning the fridge, mopping behind the washing machine, getting the cobwebs in the far corner of the hall and so and so on.

Then I began to think "Oh i must tell her about the door that doesn't shut quite right" or "the kettle lid is broken" or "I tend to keep my towels over here - not in that cupboard", "that light switch is broken", "the floor boards over there are loose (don't worry about that!)"  and "that room has a lean - so drop anything, and it will roll to that corner over there" etc etc etc...

So as my mental list got bigger - i began to write it all down....all of it.

Gee my house as quirks.  It's the way I know and no other, but to someone who doesn't live here, how would they know all this stuff.  It's like the manual to my home.

If you had to write all your little house quirks down, what would be on it?

Any cringe-worthy?

Like all the bedrooms in my house have broken lights! Yep, we just survive on lamps!

Imagine if  I lived in the house above - now wouldn't that be an adventure?? 

xx

my creative space...{loving the Berry}

....and my this I mean, loving Joel Dewberry - the fabric designer!


I love his designs and flare for creating amazing themes and combinations and pattern and colour.  His approach has been referred to as modern eclectic and I can see why.  I love that some patterns are lovely, soft and floaty, whilst others use strong, bold and geometric lines.

When I was motivated to make some fresh couch cushions, I popped off to my favourite fabric store, GJ's discount fabics and perused the designer collection they have in vast amounts.  I settled on Joel's range due to the beautiful colours (not too girly),  pattern and how they could compliment the rest of the room.

I cheated a little and only used the fabric for the front of the cushion, opting for just a plain navy poplin for the back, thus making my dollar stretch further. I inserted a plain zipper for easy removal if grubby little hands find their way towards these new additions.  I have two more cushions to make, the last being a geometrical print in just white and and that soft sage green.

I love how a new splash of colour can brighten up a room and lift your mood.

Now get cozy for more creative folk here!

kids room; re-decorating for the boy!

On my list of things to do these holidays one of them was to tackle my son's room.  With no real plan, other than I knew I wanted to de-clutter, there was some rather impromtu re-decorating going on.

(the before shot!)

My son is now 4.5 years old and really developing his sense of play, interests and favourite themes, toys and even colours.  When he moved from a cot to the bed, we already had a single bed and base, but due to the fact that he loved to sleep right up the top of his cot (often we could hear him banging into it in the night) I knew he needed a soft bedhead, so rather quickly and hastily I made one up from ply-wood rounded at the edges and covered in wadding and then some plain blue drill fabric I had lying around stapled to the back and then the whole thing attached to the bed.

(to get the right fit, I just laid fabric wrong side facing up and pinned it is place at the side seams - removed it and machine stitched it down the sides)

 But it was time for a change, so my son and I headed to spotlight, and he picked out some great looking striped fabric for a new bed head (this time I learnt and made a slip so it is removable and hence washable!)

The little narrow desk actually used to be a hall table that I got hubby to cut a bit of length off the legs so it was at kids height. 

We changed the position of the bed, hung up a bit of homemade bunting (in matching colours and mandatory car theme patterns).

We were also lucky enough that my bestie from when I was a nappy wearing toddler has an older brother whom in his adolescent youth participated in a hobby that involved stealing collecting street signs - so we gladly took a few off his hands and hung them up on the wall! Voila!

Time to give this new room his seal of approval!

my creative space...

When inspiration strikes, I am compelled to stop in my tracks, listen whole-heartedly to the voice in my head to execute those creative thoughts into reality....


This week was filled with accomplishments....

A wall adorned with some attention....

bus roll print from linea swedish design

Plate from Ebay

Laugh sign from Spotlight and I spray painted it yellow

Frames from spotlight - one has a holiday snap of some familiar icon/other has some scrapbooking paper

A thrifted doily given a new lease of life....

some cute brooches and hair clips to come with me to Sunday's North Melbourne Market....

And did you notice my new Blog header, with those funny little black boxes ruining the moment??  Well, what I thought would be a few clicks of my computer turned into a few frustrated hours spent in front of said screen last night trying to get this.....

My Mac Book is very lucky that it is still in one peice - my patience with computers is not great.  If anyone has any skill in this area and can simplify how to upload (what I thought was quite a simple collections of snaps) into a blog header, it would be much appreciated by the technically challenged moi! 

For more creative types head here....