Sydney Weekend

Nick & I had a lovely weekend away in Sydney. When we got married we decided that we would try and get away alone together at least twice a year. I think it is important for all married couples to make an effort to keep the romance alive and your friendship strong and there a lots of ways to do this but for us getting away together works. Nicholas our son, is from my first marriage and he lives with us 100% of the time. He may see his birth father for a week a year so Nick and I never had a time when it was just the two of us. We both look forward to our mini breaks so we can just hang out and not 'parent' for a few days.

Our favourite mini break destinations are Mudgee, The Southern Highlands and Sydney. They are all 2 - 4 hours drive from Orange and means we can get there easily in the morning and spend two days and nights away.

We both have family that live in Sydney so we visit often but when Nick and I go by ourselves we stay in the City and play tourists, something we don't do when we go to visit family.

This trip is the first time I can remember that I have been to the Royal Botanic Gardens. I think we will have to go again and spend a little longer wandering through them. We arrived at the gardens a little late and the gates shut at 5.30pm so we didn't get to explore as much of them as we would have liked.

On Saturday we walked from our apartment on Kent Street to Pitt Street Mall (have to shop a little), wandered through Martin Place, past the historic buildings including Sydney Hospital, the National Library and into the gardens. From the Gardens we meandered on to Circular Quay and around the opera house.

Watched the sunset over the harbour 

Enjoyed the atmosphere along the quay, live music, tourists, wedding parties, there is certainly lots to look at. 

Another first for both of us was a water taxi trip around to Darling Harbour

Somebody's feet were getting sore and this brought us back much closer to our apartment.

It is a spectacular harbour, so pretty when it is all lit up.

Later on we ventured out for dinner, only when we stay in Sydney do we find it normal to head out for dinner at 8.30pm :-)

On Friday night we ate in one of the restaurants along Darling Harbour Walk. It was nice but nothing spectacular. After dinner we had dessert at the Lindt Cafe, again nice but not spectacular. 

On Saturday night we headed off to our tried and tested favourite. We seem to have a new tradition of dining at the Bavarian Bier Cafe on one of our evenings out, great meals and a fun atmosphere, it can get pretty noisy so not a good choice is you are after a quiet, intimate dinner. 

We always eat too much and next time I need to say no to the pretzels before dinner. Fortunately Max Brenner's is a few blocks away and by the time we walk there I can fit in dessert. The photo doesn't do this justice at all but the waffles are sooooo good! Waffles with chocolate, ice cream, strawberries and bananas for two, delicious. Every time we visit Max we buy waffles and chocolate to take home and recreate this fantastic dessert. 

How was your weekend? Did you do anything special?

Wishing you all a wonderful week.

xx

Janine's Mood Board

If you remember I mentioned that I had my first official interior styling consultation last week and a few of my lovely encouraging friends asked me to share the mood board.

So with Janine's permission here it is.

Janine has a fantastic open plan lounge, dining and kitchen area it is really big. I think half my house may fit into it and she was keen to hear my thoughts on how to modernise it and rearrange the areas to make the most of them and incorporate a coffee area. 

She also has some new prints for her walls on order and asked advice on where and how to hang it. I am a huge fan of gallery walls and grouping your photos together. Little photos can get lost in a big space and together they make an impact. A great idea is to use shelves to stand your photos and artwork on, this way you can change it around whenever you like easily without leaving lots of holes in walls.

If you are looking for some help with your house and you have a space that you need help with please visit my website here . I do offer online consulting if you don't live in beautiful Orange NSW Australia :-)

Online Styling

No matter where you are I can help you with your decorating dilemma. You provide me with photos of the room you want to work on and a basic floor plan. I will email you a detailed questionnaire for you to complete and return.

I will then work with you to provide you with the following:

One digital inspiration board for one room
One rendered floor plan for one room
One costed shopping list for one room (links to online stores included)

$175

Additional rooms at $50 per room

Further details of each package are here.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. Nick and I are enjoying a mini break away together. I am very much looking forward to hanging out with my wonderful Husband will fill you in (hopefully with photos as I always seem to forget to take any) on Monday.

xx

Our Backyard

It's been a while since I took you on a tour of our backyard 

it is a beautiful day outside so I thought I'd wander through 

and take some carefully selected photos of our yard.

It is surprising how hard it is to take a nice photo of our yard at the moment. 

It is a mess. 

I may share the reality shot at the end.

 The chickens are not laying at the moment

 I am waiting on some new ones to arrive at the store but that has been weeks. 

The magpie hangs around pinching the dogs and the cats biscuits, clever thing ;-)

The seedlings my nephew planted are coming along nicely, he was so excited to see the growth when he was here last week. The sticks are my improvised markers. 

One of my office chairs :-)

Another favourite spot to work or just drink coffee and read my magazine, during my morning tea break of course ;-)

and now the reality  shots, 

the mess that really lurks in our yard. 

We have made a start on rendering the house so everything is moved out of the way. We just ran out of mixture (see top right), sand in driveway, truck full of rubbish waiting to go to the tip, fly screens still waiting to be replaced, seat over dirt where the dog loves to lie and keeps killing the grass. 

Oh dear, the work that still needs to be done.

Do you have messy/ugly spots at your place that you carefully edit out of your photos?

xx

Happy Hump Day

Just wanted to share a few lovely things I have that are new in store

Dad and Me apron gift boxed apron set 

 Organic Apron Flower Design

Organic Tea Towel Flower Design 

 Retro Apron

 

Jane Austen Quote on Canvas

Set of three Cushions

Live What You Love Canvas Wall Art

Keep Calm and Carry On Canvas Wall Art

Aussie Beaches Canvas Wall Art

If you want to find out more about these items or see what what else is new pop over to my store

McCarthy Designs & Occasions

xx

Green and White

Thank you for your lovely comments on my new mixer yesterday.

I was very spoilt and I am very thankful. A few of you noticed that my mixer has a glass bowl. I believe you can upgrade to the Platinum Collection and it comes with the glass bowl. I asked for this one as I often forget to take the butter out of the fridge so it can soften and being lazy I can pop it into the glass bowl and straight into the microwave to soften rather than having to use another dish.  I know, I am very lazy.

Not only did I get very spoilt on Sunday with my lovely gifts but my wonderful husband and son hosted Mother's Day lunch for some of our family. It was really lovely to sit back and catch up with family while the boys cooked, served and cleaned up.

My contribution was the table setting and decor. Last week I mentioned that I had decided on a green, white, silver and a bit of black for my theme.

It turned out beautifully and the Chrysanthemums are still going strong and looking lovely except for where they got burnt by the candles :-( 

Definitely need to keep that in mind, don't have the candles too close to the flowers.

I experimented with my place cards/tags and used some leftover chalkboard paint. I painted both sides of the cardboard tags and they worked wonderfully. You can wipe them clean and use them again and again.

I used some mason jars as vases and decorated them with some paper doilies then placed them together onto a silver tray for my centrepiece.

 What do you think did it turn out ok?

xx

Kitchen Aid was the Winner!

Do you remember my blog a few weeks back on whether you preferred your Kitchen Aid Mixer or your Kenwood Chef?

The Kitchen Aid Mixer was the winner and I was really hoping I would get one for Mother's Day

I wasn't sure I would because they are a little pricey and I figured that I may have to wait and get a combined pressie for Birthday, Christmas and our Wedding anniversary. They are all in December so that could work!

But no, I didn't have to wait! I have the most wonderfullest family and I totally got spoilt yesterday :-)

I am one very, very, very, happy girl

and it works, Nicholas made me pancakes for breakfast yesterday and we used the new mixer. 

I put the ingredients in and then I turned it on.

I didn't have to cook the pancakes or clean it up. 

I just got to sit back and watch while I had my coffee:-)

I used the mixer again today to make lunch, because I could. 

We had a frittata so I whisked the eggs in it, it worked well.

I am a little nervous though, 

I feel a little pressured to be producing nicer food. 

I think the boys may start to expect cakes that are soft and spongy now,

 maybe even fancy stuff like meringues

Lucky Nick booked me into the 'How to use your new Kitchen Aid Mixer' class. I have a feeling I need it!

Did you have a nice Mother's Day?

xx