In usual style

In typical/usual style, I have left everything until the last minute for Christmas. Cards are still sitting on the table, presents are yet to be bought, food and wine waiting to see our fridge. Thank goodness for online shopping and home delivery! Some pics above from my travels this weekend.

Finders Keepers 2011

Hands up if you went to this year's Finders Keepers? I love it, I just have to go along and see what all the local artisans are doing so here are some of my photos of what I loved.

If you went, what did you find?

Seeing blue

Of course these last few days it hasn't escaped my notice how beautiful the beach is at the moment. We're surrounded by blues and I hope it lasts.

Not just in nature but at home too. Loving my new vintage plates (little pink and white saucer, blue and white dinner plate and oval cream serving dish) which I found (little magpie that I am) on the weekend. The blue one is my favourite!

Another one...

Another perfect day.

I definitely feel I have my fill of sunshine reserves for going into winter this year. That is, if we have a conventional winter...my fingers are crossed it's just as sunny throughout!

Off to the kitchen now to bake and prepare some carrot and ginger soup for dinner, yum yum. Hope you're having as much sun and fun!

One fine day

Well, it's actually been more than one fine day, wow what a weekend! Such wonderful weather and we are truly lucky as I know it's not been like this across the whole of the country (continent - easy to forget sometimes!).

So our decision has been made and not without heartbreak. We are going to stay in Australia for the time being because of the work and opportunities. Looking at these photos I took today you wouldn't think it should be a hard decision to make but I do really miss my family, friends and all the good old English things!

Nothing is permanent however and I fully intend to make the most of wherever we live and whatever we do and there will be lots of travel and visits inbetween :-)

A bit of this and that

Such a gorgeous day today in Sydney, not a cloud in the sky. I hope you're all having a lovely weekend! :-)

Hello Autumn

From sunny Stradbroke island to the much cooler Blue Mountains which is where we spent this weekend. It's so nice having these little adventures away from the hum drum of everyday living, commuting and work.

While we were there I was able to really take in how much Autumn is well and truely upon us now. The trees looked amazing, on fire, with their red, orange and vivid brown leaves. These colours remind me of my vintage (faux I must add - good imitation huh?) earrings from Sports Girl which I bought a few weeks ago.

Did you enjoy the Royal Wedding on Friday? I was beside myself with excitement (I think I had my mouth open during the entire procession and ceremony) and have now bought all the magazine's covering the grand event! :-)

Back from bliss

Back from the most lovely, easter holiday on north Stradbroke Island. We had such a great time over the longer than usual easter break.

Beautiful weather, amazing sunsets, wonderful feasting, lots of laughter over card games with family and friends...I just wish that was life all the time, sigh.

I don't know about you but I'm certainly feeling the effects of overconsumption today!

Last days of summer

Here is a photo a friend took at Palm Beach last year (I'm third in from the left)...Lovely sunny days like these are now drawing to a close. We've just had to put our clocks back an hour so it's now dark at 6pm :-/

Ah well, all good things must come to an end to make way for other good things like the hyacinths I now see in bloom at my local florist, being able to wear my favourite trench coat and autumn accessories and cosy up at home with hot chocolates and my favourite pink fluffy covered hot water bottle, hehe. We have a few more weeks of lovely sunny warm weather before winter so we are set to make the most of it on the weekends with lots of beach visits, walks and little outings.

I'm excited for everyone back home in England going into Spring, such a beautiful season with all the bulbs sprouting up everywhere. :-)

Tea and flowers

Here's another very small part of our weekend. When we walked into this cafe for tea and a bite to eat I couldn't resist taking some pictures. Such pretty styling and a perfect record for my inspiration files. The purple flowers we saw on our journey there. :-)

Back to the country

Kicking off Monday with a spring in my step this week. We just had the most gloriously relaxing weekend tucked up in a B&B in the countryside. Escaping the city never felt so good! Lots of walks, photo taking, eating out, antique shop and gallery gazing (heyhey - that was me). I hope you all had a good one too. xx

Confusing times

Such is the weather at the moment, I can't decide whether to rug up like this tree I saw on the weekend (how cute is that, that someone knitted it some sleeves!) or wear one of my favourite summer dresses! It really has been the strangest summer this year. Suffocatingly hot one day and then grey and really quite cool the next.

No doubt you will have heard the news of Christchurch lately. My prayers and thoughts are with everyone affected. What a year for natural disasters.

Wishing you a beautiful day and maybe you might like to pop over to Honey & Fizz where the lovely Simone has interviewed me :-)

Out and about

I thought I'd share some pictures from our weekend - well a small part of it. I love exploring new places, especially on overcast, mysterious days.

It felt a bit like Autumn here. I'm always amazed by the number of orange leaves on the ground in summer in Australia. A little smidgen of house envy crept in when I snapped this baby on the left (3rd row down). I won't even tell you how much I think, correction, know(!), it's worth. Some days I wonder whether we will ever be able to afford a house...

Anyway more pressing things to address: It's 5am right now, I'm so sleepy (yes I know what I'm I doing, blogging of all things!). Off to catch a horrifically early flight to Melbourne, bleugh the things a girl's gotta do! Have a great day.

Feeling the heat

Wow, such a hot weekend. Saturday in particular was sweltering and I had to keep going to the freezer to cool my face,lol! Really hard to cope with 42 degree temperatures in a little heat retaining flat, especially when you don't have AC (we make do with two fans blowing hot air at us!) I barely moved all day except for a late afternoon swim and then, quite madly, we went out with friends for Indian in the evening - just what you need to help cool you down!

Yesterday afternoon was a little cooler and we ventured out for some exploring around Sydney and to get some frappes/iced mocha (just what was needed) in a very cute cafe (above).

Did anyone else feel the heat this weekend?
xx

Two weekend favourites...unrealised

Well this weekend I was hoping to get to the markets again (this photo is from last Saturday aren't the chandeliers to drool for) and the florist (I'm really keen for some hydrangeas...), but it was not meant to be. We just chilled out completely (minus stepping out for a few early morning walks and breakfasts and a friend's birthday dinner last night) - it's been so hot it's left little else to do but totally chill!

I'm loving the sunny weather at the moment but the heat can be a little inhibiting at times. Is anyone else feeling the same or is my lazy streak coming out?

Anyway, it's a quiet night in now with a movie and Mr Cornflake (just returned from a surf) for company. I have a potato and zucchini fritatta baking in the oven (yes another frittata ha!) at the moment that needs some attention so better go...Hope you're all enjoying your Sunday evening/morning and having pleasant time.

Sunday lunch by the sea

I thought I'd share some photos of where we spent a beautiful sunny Sunday yesterday - at our friends' coastal retreat (lucky things). It was so beautiful and we were really lucky with the weather (Australia is going through la nina this year which means it's very humid causing a great deal of showers, although most of NSW seems to have thankfully been spared for most of the year so far). If only we could have lunch here every week, sigh!

We also caught up with friends on Saturday for (4 hour!) lunch and had a quick scoot around the weekly flea markets - one of my favourite pastimes. All in all it wasn't a bad first weekend back after our trip.

Both of us are still missing Indian food (which we had morning, noon and night - it was that yummy) so this year is a new resolution for Mr Cornflake and I: learn to make 4 dishes each - 2 of which must be curries. We bought a chilli plant on Friday in an effort to realise this task so we'll see how we go!

What did you get up to this weekend? I hope it was a lovely one.
xx

It's a beach life

My first love, Sydney.

I so, so, so love living in this amazing city it really has everything a person (i.e. me) could ever want. Sigh, I don't think I will ever get bored of living here.

When the sun is shining brightly I still feel like my weekends are holidays. Toes in the sand, looking out to sea, flanked by palm trees. Hmmm, looking forward to the weekend already :-)

Melbourne

Some photos of my stay in Melbourne - sadly Tuesday's Melbourne Cup race day photos didn't come out very well due to all the rain, boo!

I really swooned when I saw this shadeless lamp hanging in all it’s flowery glory. It was in a quirky little café and I just had to ask if I could take a picture. The green wall below the row of pictureless frames (all along the wall) was pretty neat too.

A trip to Melbourne is never complete without seeing lots of cool street art (okay, graffiti but it's very clever) and 'holes' in the wall and inviting window displays.

Lastly this vintage car is so wonderful. I love almost all vintage cars and can never understand why manufacturers can’t make the same effort they used to. I think all cars on the road these days look the same!

Have a lovely day.
xx