My place & yours::my secret weapon

My secret weapon. I can't tell you how many times I've used it. I take it with me everywhere, able to be used at moments notice in all manner of situations:: whenever I'm feeling nervous, anxious or sad. It can be used when dealing with a fractious toddler, meeting new people, awkward encounters with customer service people. It is an instant pick me up, a wonderful anit-ageing strategy, totally free, incredibly contagious and an all round feel good weapon. It is a smile. Cheesey I know, but try it sometime, it really does work!

This photo is a vintage one, (sadly, try as I might I cannot get it to rotate). It was taken some twenty years ago, I pulled it out recently for a friend's fortieth birthday party, the theme of which was "act half your age", and all guests were required to bring a photo of themselves half the age they are now. Great fun! It's me and an old friend Helen, using our secret weapons, behind the undercover veil of the Remo photo booth.

Head over to Pips to see more secret weapons, brought to you this week by mybricole. Thank you ladies!

Lovely

I love this photo. Elsa. Cupcake. Little hands. Lovely.

My place & yours:: blog HQ

Yikes! What a mess! Two macs, one vintage singer, and a load of papers:: children's drawings, photos, bills, seeds, books, magazines and notepads. Wallpaper, that I've tried to tear off to see what's underneath. Oh dear. It will go one day. We bought the trestle table at a junk shop and painted it. It runs the width of the room and makes a great work space when it's a bit more organised.The best thing about hq is the view from the window of our garden. Apple blossoms, garlic, strawberries and poppies. Very nice.

Thanks to Ninon for this week's theme and Miss Pip for hosting.

From Martha with love

When Martha (well, Martha Inc) emailed a recipe for these delicious cookies, well, I had to give them go. Who can refuse Martha? And Dulce de leche bat cookies sound so seductive. Plus having a truck load of the lush caramel languishing in the fridge, I felt a moral obligation to make them. I can't waste it now can I?

Despite not having a set of aspic cutters (do you?) handy to make the bat silhouette, nonetheless they were so gorgeous. It's a lovely chocolatey biscuit, so even without the ddl filling, you should give them a go. They're from Martha with love you know.

Into the wild

Overgrown grass, wild flowers, neglected old fruit trees. This was the type of garden I loved as child. Magic, secret gardens that you could play games in for hours at time. So I wonder why now, I feel so different about how a garden should look. Tidy edges, neat borders perfectly pruned roses. Maybe a topiary or two? Not quite. But my idea of a good looking garden lies somewhere in the middle. Although at the moment, I can't imagine ever taming my overgrown jungle into state that I'm completely happy with. Let alone have time for a bit of hedge clipping.

But today, when I was working in the garden, feeling somewhat overwhelmed at the enormity of it all, I watched the little ones playing. There were trees to climb, long grass to run through, flowers to pick. In summer there are strawberries, blackcurrants, raspberries and wild blackberries and hopefully this autumn, there'll be apples and cherries.

Hugo has plenty of sawdust pile to drive trucks through, flowers to pick and eggs to collect.

Elsa found a dinosaur bone (okay it was a rat skull but to her, it was prehistoric), built a home for a squirrel, helped plant some flowers and counted the garlic (74!).

Watching them play outside today, I realised, my wild and woolly garden is just how I like it.

Work to date

Here's one part of the kitchen after our mini makeover. We painted our floorboards the palest of greys and I am amazed at how much brighter everything looks. I feel like I'm living in Scandinavia!
I had to close the new door into the hallway though to hide all the boxes of stuff yet to find a new home. To explain, we knocked out a wall in the kitchen, and attached to that wall was about two thirds of the cupboards and bench space. But we didn't like it so it had go. All of it. Even though we don't have the budget to replace it. Better a third of a kitchen than whole ugly one, um right?

Yours and mine :: bedside

I'm playing along with Pip's Yours and Mine meme, and this week's theme of Bedside is by Pottymouthmama.

So here is mine, a rustic bedside table made from an old kerosene crate and tin, one of a pair picked up from an antique store in Robe, where we had a beautiful holiday years ago before children.

There's a stack of books, currently The 100-Mile Diet and the gorgeous Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater, which I bought brand new off ebay for $US 3.00! There's some treasures left by little people, stones, a piece of shell and most importantly, lego instructions, a special treasure, which I must not lose!

Stop by Pip's place if you'd like to see more.

The end of the road

I was feeling slightly anxious as I crammed the little ones into the car and the three of us took off on our great southern camping adventure, leaving their dad behind to work on the house. Not the most experienced of camper, with just me, the children and one rather large tent, my mind was reeling with worst case scenarios. Although, I was meeting up with a group of friends, and I did take comfort from the fact that one of them is affectionately known as "Alby"

On arrival at Cockle Creek, my first thought was what took me so long to get here, (it's been on my "one day" list for years) and any thoughts of imminent catastrophe quickly evaporated as we took in the breathtaking scenery. A typical camping adventure, the highlight was a tinnie ride alongside dolphins and sea lions. Along with collecting driftwood and maireener shells on the beach, toasting marshmallows and sleepy babes drinking early morning hot chocolate. All over too quickly, but creating happy memories for the little ones. Can't wait to go back to the "end of the road."

See you soon...

I just love those old movies when the charachters arrived at some big old house with the furniture covered in dust sheets. This scene in the lounge room reminds me those old flicks.

Well, I've blown out my blogtoberfest a post a day challenge, but we're going to split town and will be back soon when the dust settles.

New stove!

Gas, induction, ceramic, electric, wood fired. There's an overwhelming number of options to consider when buying a new stove. And boy, have I researched, vox popped and tested a plethora of choices so I can make an informed decision before taking the big financial plunge.

I'm pretty happy with the model we have chosen. It's fairly compact, extremely energy efficient, has some well thought out features and I think its style sits well with the rest of the house. And this particular model comes with a stack of bonus accessories. I'm really looking forward to cooking up delicious treats with the smalls for years to come on this baby.

This post is dedicated to to Lexi, who gets me every time.