going bush.

for the long weekend we packed up the car and headed into the flinders ranges.

 we had a wonderful weekend away with our church family.

lazy lying around, 

sitting by the fire, 

eating homemade goodies, 

visiting the picturesque town of blinman

 delicious scones and quandong jam from the wild lime cafe

cuddles with a cute baby kangaroo

 and an impressive fireworks display.

oh how i love a long weekend!

(photos by the lovely taliah)

sunshine and parks.

it's almost the weekend!  

there's nothing like lazy days at the park playing cricket, climbing and flying kites.

keep this extended warm summer, in my country town, coming.

hope you have a lovely friday and weekend. x

bits + pieces + some thrift shop finds.

it's been a very busy week going back to work. i have a gorgeous group of children to teach but i forgot how tiring fourteen 5 year olds can be (though i should really count my blessings- in a few terms i'll have twenty-six 5 year olds).

our neighbours moved house, just a few streets away, but now they have the most amazing indoor pool. i'm in love with it! it was blissful lying in the warm pool watching a crazy storm outside the other night. now my ex-neighbours have shown me their amazing pool, they're going to have a very, very regular visitor!

husband and i found it was easy to turn our new bed into a fort and had a lazy night under our fort watching lawrence leung's choose your own adventure (hilarious but a bit cringe worthy too). we ordered a pizza and ate it in our fort. i see a lot more fort dates in our future.

we've got a special little guest at the moment as we're dog sitting. maisy loves having a new friend around and the little guy is super sweet. having a new friend has already produced lots of laughs as we watch them both compete for our affection and see if either of them can get away with jumping on our bed.

while it was a super busy week, i still had a quick peek in the local thrift shop. i found this pretty casserole dish for $2 and snapped it up. i can never have too many casserole dishes! especially when you keep forgetting to bring them home after pot luck dinner parties.

and i also found these cute matching ramekins which will get much use since our last set of ramekins got lost in the move (2 years ago!) and i still hadn't bought new ones. it's time to start baking mini pies, pasta bakes and baked eggs.

happy thrifting! enjoy the rest of your weekend x
 p.s i'm linking up with her library adventures and apron thrift girl

country gal.

it's been two years now since we traded in the city life for our little house in the country and now there are starting to be annual events that i just can't miss. one such event is the rodeo. for someone like me who lives in town, the rodeo is the most country thing i've ever been to. it's in a fairly remote area ( a very small town not too far away) with a bucket load of people from stations all around australia. the place is swarming with cattle, horses and extremely country looking folk- think keeping up with the joneses.

rodeo appropriate outfit: checked shirt, large buckled belt and jeans.

it's a great night of watching people ride horses fast around barrels, lasso cattle and ride bulls. you see quite a few falls and imagine they'd be a few people out there a bit worse for wear after. everyone brings deck chairs and picnic rugs and listens to the hilarious commentator. and there is always a van selling hot donuts which we proceeded to munch on all night. you definitely feel like a country gal after a night at the rodeo.

now  i tried mighty hard to get a decent photo of a bucking bull but it didn't really work so i've found this amazing photo on pinterest (source) and you can see what we saw but in a truly amazing shot. it's pretty crazy how much the bulls buck and how giant the bulls are.

 next year i'll get a photo more like the above :)

home tour: our bedroom

hello there. today i thought i'd give you a little tour of our bedroom since i promised i would in a previous post. it is now complete, until my creative side decides to try some more new things. our walls are a cream colour and full of  thrift shop finds and artworks. i tried to create a clean and inviting space filled with things i love, and husband helped me to decide where to put things too.

the klimt painting we picked up from an artist in vietnam and is my favourite painting. you might recognise the thrifted mirror from a  previous post.

our bedroom is full of thrifted finds like this basket  i use for storing shoes and this darling chair that someone put on hard rubbish.

 

 

 

 

 

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our bed came with a little leadlight rose in the centre. it wasn't quite my taste so my dear grandpa handcarved ( isn't he amazing!!) this picture for us. it's very special as it has the cameo that was used on our wedding invites and grandpa has added a special touch- an L and P inside an S (our initials). it's so beautiful, we love it to pieces and are so thankful to have such a talented grandpa.

the mirror frame was found at a garage sale in wilmington. i thought the frame was beautiful so i replaced the glass. the artwork on our wall is by my talented friend dave. the other artwork is by me, using a frame and picture i got at a garage sale for only $5, for a tutorial on how to make an artwork like it, look here.

it's really the perfect room now to relax in. and when we decide to hit the lights...

thanks for taking a peek at our new bedroom ♥

notes: doona- marie claire, lights- womadelaide, lamps- beacon lighting, pillows

quandong pie.

in case you haven't been following this blog for long, quandong, (australian wild peach) is a fruit that only grows in outback australia and i'm a bit obsessed with it. we have some trees in our yard and it's the best food i've discovered since being an outback girl. it's really hard to describe how it tastes, a bit like fig maybe but it can be used as a chutney in savoury food or to make sweet food like quandong pies and cakes. 

our tree (september 2011)

i picked a lot of them when they were in season and filled the freezer. since we had some friends round for tea and i was on holidays i thought i'd make a tasty pie.  i  thought i'd share the recipe if you ever get the chance to have pick some quandongs or visit an australian gift shop and buy some dried quandongs.

 you will need:

1 cup of  frozen quandongs

1 cup of water*

1 peeled, thinly cut apple

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1/2 cup white sugar

2 sheets of shortcrust pastry

1 egg

steps:

1. boil the quandongs, apple, water, lemon and cinnamon until the quandongs and apples are soft.

2. add sugar and mix until it is dissolved. then cool the mixture

3. preheat an oven to 180 degrees. line a pie dish with pastry and brush egg wash over it. blind bake for about 10 minutes.

4. pour the mixture into the pie base and cover with pastry. brush the pastry with egg wash and sprinkle some sugar.

5. bake the pie in the oven until it is golden brown.

6. eat it while it's hot and serve with either ice cream or cream.

* you will need to use more water if you are cooking dried or fresh quandongs. i have a neighbour who uses lemonade instead of water too. when i made this pie i felt that i used a little bit too much water so in this recipe i have reduced the amount a little.

bon appetit!

i drove an hour to buy candle wax.

this weeks thrift shop finds have only been made possible by the fact that i was desperate for candle wax to complete a craft project. i'd scoured my town and failed to find any so i drove an hour to the nearest town and stocked up.

however the 2hrs worth of driving in total were made more worthwhile by the fact i stopped by their op shops and scored some serious thrifting bargains. so much so that i actually briefly considered doing what i did back in 2007 and only buying thrifted clothes as a goal for the year (excluding shoes, pjs etc). but i'm not sure. in 2007 i was a poor student and while i convinced myself that i was doing it to promote recycling and not being wasteful, the fact that my bank account was dismal also helped. however now i'm working full time, can op shops really provide enough professional clothes for work?

could you go a year with only buying thrifted clothes?

and now to share my other finds..

now when you see my rocking these skirts and dress you'll know i got them from a thrift shop and i'm one mighty proud thrift bargain hunter. all for $15!
and as usual im linking up with her library adventures and apron thrift girl

summer loving.

this weather. 

this man.

this dog.

living this close to a beach. 

ah, so many reasons to smile this summer.

new bedroom.

instead of  buying each other christmas presents this year, husband and i decided to get a matching bedroom set. it's been a childhood dream of mine to have a four poster bed since the days i spent visiting grandma and grandpa and sleeping in their four poster 'princess' bed.  previously we didnt really have bedside tables and all the furniture in the room was things we'd manage to convince my parents to give us before we moved. so begins my project...to create the perfect bedroom. 

above is just a sneak peak but i will share photos when i have finished. we spend an awful lot of time in our room so i can't wait to get creative and transform the space. i've been seeking inspiration on pinterest and using the beautiful books husband gifted me for my last birthday:

creative walls by geraldine james

and flea market style by emily chalmers

both the above books are very creative, inspiring and beautiful coffee table books with a multitude of ideas.

from looking at those books i came up with a list of creative decorating ideas that i love. i thought i'd share a few ideas that i'm considering using.

lantern lighting

beautiful lace bedspreads

flowers around mirrors

interesting wall art

and vintage letters (and numbers)

i'm not really sure how this project will evolve as it's still in it's very early stages. i have decided my budget to spend is whatever i can make from selling off old things- like the previous bedroom furniture- and this will mean i'll be looking through lots of flea markets and thrift shops. when i'm finished transforming the space i'll share it, along with some ideas and things we have done to our bedroom to make it special.

two thousand and eleven.

2011 has been a year of lots of blessings and joys but also some sad times too. i feel like i've grown a lot as a person in my understanding of who i am, what i like and how to work full time and manage life too, working to live rather than living to work.  it has been so great to start this blog, to meet lots of interesting people and to feel connected to a world which has similar interests and appreciates things which don't even really exist in my small country town home. i thought i'd do a little photo look back at 2011 and some of the special moments.

january: we got our lovely little maisy. she's just the sweetest little companion. we thought about getting a dog for a while but were worried about the extra responsibility and what to do with it when we traveled. however this little fluffball has been so wonderful for us and i am so thankful to come home each day to an excited little thing who always wants cuddles.

 february: we spent the month trying to teach maisy how to go for walks, giving maisy her first bath, enjoying a puppy and getting settled into the year of work in my first year as a classroom teacher.

 march:  i was still recovering from a knee operation but had some nice painless days like this one spent some time with my special man and friends out crabbing on the longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere.

april: husband and i explored the south and north of vietnam and fell in love with the culture and diversity of this amazing country. it's a crazy beautiful country with very friendly people and the most incredible food. i'm hooked on south east asia and while it had lots of similarities to cambodia and thailand, i really felt connected to vietnam and have a strong urge to volunteer in a school over there one day.

may: a friend showed me a tumblr, i then found links to all these amazing blogs and became hooked on blogging and being connected to an online community. i  started this blog and got a bit creative.

june: i had an amazing long weekend with lots of relatives and my dear grandparents at my home. we celebrated phil's birthday and got to make some memories with my pa that i will never forget and treasure dearly.

july: i went to canberra to see the lovely libby and got to explore the capital and see how different...and truly how much colder canberra is.

august: our gorgeous niece was born. i love this photo.

september: i had to say a very teary goodbye to a very special man. i didn't actually get to say it as the last time pa was conscious i had an awful throat infection and couldn't speak but i wrote it on paper for him and he smiled back at me and i am so thankful he is at home with his heavenly father and no longer in pain.

october: i went on many lovely walks with my cute little companion. lots of other things happen but taking the time out to go for walks and just think and relax was really important to me.

november: phil bought me a tripod for my birthday and we started taking lots of family pictures. i'd like to say we got lots of good ones but it seemed like everytime we posed for a photo, husband or i pulled some awful faces. maisy is an excellent poser..why couldn't she pose like this in her little santa costume?

december: it's been a busy month but i've really enjoyed it. we had our fantastic family night performance, i said goodbye to my darling class and school to start a new adventure next year.

this year has been ones of  many weddings, a  funeral, a few tears, some travel and lots of love and happiness. i'm really thankful to all the lovely people out there in the blogging world and those i know in the real world who leave beautiful comments and for the chance i have to share with others and also in a selfish way, reflect on and record, my life and all the special moments i am so thankful to God for.

have a very merry christmas and new year.

love lisa xo