Anthropologie

I finally had a look at the Australian Anthropologie site and did a bit of window shopping. I haven't looked at what is available in the US and I have only browsed the homewares section so far but I did find a lot of lovely things. Here are some of my favourites.

Valentine in a Bottle

Spoons Soap (too pretty to use though I would just leave it on display, all wrapped up)

Scales

Mercury Candle

Letter Stands

Herb Pot

Flower Twig Pencil

Cocktail Spoons

Bottle Opener

Could always do with some more books!

I am sure I would be more interested in baking if I had these cute aprons to wear.

I won't be buying any of these things, I am going to have to be satisfied with window shopping for now (trying to save money so I can retire.....), however Mothers Day is just around the corner and those aprons are really quite practical! How about you, do you have a wish list?

I have come up with a few ideas for my first giveaway, so stay tuned as I will announce it in the next few days. I am so excited I hope you like it!

Sunshine

The lovely Nadine from 'The Design Notebook' gave me this lovely award. I am so honoured to receive this little bit of 'Sunshine' from Nadine and be able to pass it on to others! If you haven't visited Nadine's blog 'The Deign Notebook' please make sure you do, I am sure that you will enjoy her beautiful, inspiring posts. Now the rules of this award are to

1. Put the logo on my blog or in a post
2. Pass the award on to 12 fellow bloggers
3. Link to the nominees within my post
4. Let them know they have received it by leaving a comment for them
5. Share the love and link to the person who gave you the award.

Choosing 12 fellow bloggers is the hard part, I love all of the blogs I follow but here goes....

1. Birdie @ A Chirp in the Forest
2. Chania @ Razmataz
3. Kristi @ Life at the Chateau Whitman
4. Janette @ My Sweet Prints
5. Donatella @ Donatella Style
6. Natalie @ Lovely Little Nest
7. Lulu @ DustyLu
8. Mel @ MelsRosePlace
9. Amanda @ Homely-One
10. Annie @ A View on Design
11. Louise @ Illume Design
12. Amanda @ Little House on the Corner

If I have nominated you please do not feel compelled to follow the rules unless you want to, but please do accept the award as the compliment it is and know that you have an awesome blog that really brightens my day! I have just realised that my 100Th post is coming up soon and I think that now I actually have people that read my blog it must be time for a giveaway! I will work on something that hopefully you will all like! Check back to see what I come up with! Have a great Tuesday and don't forget to visit the amazing blogs I have listed above. xx

Backyard - Part 3

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. We had beautiful weather so we spent Saturday morning cleaning the yard and then we headed off for an over night camping trip after lunch. I have never really liked camping but I had a really lovely time and enjoyed spending time with my boys. I can't wait to go again. I do think that one night is just the right amount of time for me though, Any longer and I don't think I would enjoy it quite as much. We after our clean up on Saturday I took some photos of where our backyard is up to now. Just to refresh your memory this is what the deck looked like before... After:

• Built up the garden retaining walls to be one height the whole length
• Built a courtyard outside our bedroom window
• We ripped up the old deck and all the old paving
• Hired a Dingo Mini Loader and levelled the whole area
• Built a retaining wall and steps
• Built a raised garden bed and water feature along the side fence
• Filled in the area with dirt and ensured that the area sloped away from the house
• Removed old shed and built two new sheds
• Moved the carport beside the house
• Replaced the hot water storage system with a wall mounted instant gas heater
• Made our own pavers using a mould and concrete
• Paved the area behind the sheds
• Installed drainage along the garden wall
• Rendered all of the brick work
• Painted the fences
• Planted garden beds, including hedging along the fences

Before: After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Still to do:

• Lots and lots unfortunately, the water feature above still needs to connected and attached properly including rendering the caps on top of the feature.
• Our path leading around the side of the house (including our little courtyard, pictured below) still needs drainage and paving.
• Our bedroom window will be replaced with french doors so we can walk out into our courtyard and enjoy morning coffee.

• The back veggie garden bed needs to be built up and new lattice placed across the whole back fence for climbing veggies
• The area with the black weed matting (pictured below) is to be paved using the old bricks stacked up in the foreground and a retaining wall will be built (and rendered) along three sides (the fence, the garden and the left hand side of the picture)
• Gazebo will be built over this courtyard

Still more to do includes:

• Replacing the existing pergola
• Rendering the whole house
• Painting all the gutters and trim on the house
• Putting lattice up in front of the sheds and around the water feature, growing a climbing plant like Chinese Star Jasmine
• Painting the chook house (old cubby), building a chicken run off the side and buying some chickens
• Moving the gates on the side of the house
• .... and lots more little things

We hope to finish a lot of this over the next year but at the moment home improvement has slowed right down due to Nick's work commitments and my lack of enthusiasm for digging!!!

Hope you all have a great week and thank you to everyone who visits and leaves comments, I really do appreciate all of the advice and encouragement! xx

Backyard - Part 2

This week has been a hectic week, I guess that happens when you have Monday off. I admit, I have fallen behind on the laundry and ironing so our mornings have been busier then usual.

I know I promised an update on the backyard and I do have one but it isn't as comprehensive as I would like it to be. I haven't got any nice photos of the backyard to share and it is too messy (lawns unmowed, etc) to go and get some now!

So I will give you snippets of what we have done so far! We have aimed for a hardy, drought tolerant garden and have planted a lot of English Box, Pittosporum, Lavender and Seaside daisy. We have used convolvulus along the edge of the garden bed to creep down over the wall.

Plants are very expensive and we are currently on really strict water restrictions. We are only allowed to water our gardens for 1/2 hour on Sundays between 6 - 6.30pm by bucket. It is really hard to keep our plants alive!!! We are recycling grey water and doing the best we can for now. In order to save money we have bought very young plants that are fast growing (except for the English Box).

No more blue fences.

These big pots will be water features (we bought them for our wedding and had large flower arrangements in them at the ceremony), using solar powered pumps.

A new dog house and the drainage is in place.

When we get outside to clean and tidy I will take some pretty photos that I won't be embarrassed to share.

Photo Source: McCarthy Designs

Southern Highlands

We had a lovely weekend away. The engagement party went well, dress requirements were cocktail wear so all of the guests looked wonderful. I love parties were everyone dresses up, there are so many pretty shoes to admire.

We spent Sunday and Monday exploring the countryside and eating. We ate a lot! There are so many beautiful houses/mansions in the Southern Highlands with wonderful gardens. So much to look at! Fortunately for me WH drove and I got to admire without having to watch the road.

We stopped at Berry to have some lunch at a cafe. It was so busy, people everywhere. We sat outside and people watched. I love people watching especially when there is such a variety of people around. After lunch we explored the museum and would definitely love to spend some more time looking through it.

We stopped at the local markets in Berrima and bought some yummy stuff from the fudge man as well as a yummy smelling candle from the candle lady!

Berrima has lots of lovely shops and buildings it was definitely a favourite and we will visit again.

Afternoon tea was at the Black Swan Inn in Berrima, we loved this place. If you ever visit Berrima you must stop and have a look through the building. Our tea and cake was lovely too!

We stayed at Berida Manor in Bowral it was a quaint place to stay and we had a lovely 3 course meal in their restaurant. The building has an interesting history but it is and old building so if you decide to stay do not expect anything fancy, however it was nice and for the price of our package nothing to complain about.

On Sunday we played golf, okay Nick played golf I walked along with him and admired the golf course. Then we had coffee in town and shopped and shopped some more then we had lunch at Briar's Country Pub in Moss Vale. Briar's was lovely and so was the food. We sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine and the fact that it was Monday and we weren't at work! Unfortunately we couldn't spend the afternoon relaxing there and we made our way home stopping at a few more shops, admiring more gorgeous homes and enjoying each others company.

Photo Source: McCarthy Designs

Getaway

It is Friday night and I am finishing this wonderful week with a wonderful weekend. W.H (my Wonderful Husband) and I are going to an engagement party tomorrow night in Nowra (South Coast Australia). We have decided to make a long weekend of it and we have both taken Monday off so we can have some time away together. We been planning on visiting the Southern Highlands for a while now and we figured that this would be a great opportunity to do so. We are leaving our handsome Son, our dog and our cat at home with my Mum and the two of us are going to hang out together at the Sunday Markets, enjoying some fine dining and perhaps even playing golf. Most of all, I am looking forward to just hanging out with my best friend.

All images via Flickr

I hope that you have a wonderful weekend, thank you again for stopping by and visiting me. xx