friends with kids.

as we get older and friends have kids we have realised that we have a non kid friendly home and nothing for kids to play with. at a garage sale on the weekend i found a beautiful old crate with lots of potential and decided to turn it into a box full of things for kids to play with when they come to visit. 

now 'the kids' does not sound very interesting so i went a little french and here's the end product. cute right? i think so!

and with just a little paint...

now i just need to wait for the next set of little visitors and see if they like it.

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

when hosting tourists: setting up the perfect guest room.

when we moved to the country i knew lots of our city family and friends would be coming up to visit. i wanted to set up a guest room that’s cozy and inviting. i picked up ideas for b&bs and hotels we visited and have put together a little guide of what we did to set up our main guest room.

1.i bought some nice linen and we were fortunate to get a comfy bed for free from friends. i always make sure to supply lots of pillows to accommodate guests with different sleeping needs and provide fresh towels (and i always add some soap for an extra touch).

2.  i have some spare toiletries in the non working fireplace. you never feel clean if you forget your toothbrush or soap so i always  have spare soaps, shampoos and toothbrushes for the forgetful guest or the person who stays too late and decides to crash.

3. i have a box that’s easy to access with lots of extra blankets for cold nights. i also have a suitcase filled with toys for those times our friends with kids come to visit.

4.i  have a jug of water and some glasses for guests who get thirsty in the night.

5. i always love wearing a robe and staying in my pjs for breakfast on holidays so we have a guest robe for anyone who wants to laze around all morning.

other things i like to do are put flowers in a vase in the room. i also  put a big reading chair in the room, bought some pretty rugs and converted one of the built in bookcases into a wardrobe filled with empty coat hangers. i love having guests come stay and hope that these ideas might be useful for you if you’re setting up a guest room. NB all the backgrounds for the polaroids are old wallpapers i was given by a friend at work. i’m  not sure exactly what crafts to turn them into but that’s going to be my holiday project.

p.s i love this idea for hungry visitors.

tourist at grandmas.

 living in the country  far away from my family has made me appreciate time spent with family just that little bit much more. while we were down in the city for my pa's funeral (which was a beautiful and moving service), we used the time to spend a night with my other grandparents. a delicious grandma made dinner followed by a game of 500,  sleeping, in what i used to call my princess bed as a kid, and a big breakfast of grandpa's famous porridge and bacon and eggs. so for this weeks weekly gratitude i'm so thankful for time spent with family and introducing my grandparents to taking photos on an ipad.

weekly gratitude.

for the perfect companion to take long walks on the beach with.

for the beautiful cliffs near our home.

and for time spent with the family.

it was so lovely to have my sister in law, her husband (in Australia from Tanzania for a holiday) and my parents in law come spend a weekend at ours.  

we spent the weekend eating and seeing the tourist attractions of our little town. 

half our family and friends have now climbed the same tower, visited the same arid lands gardens, walked to the same beach and seen the same lookout. 

but everytime i take someone new i still admire the beauty of the flinders. do come visit and check it out if you haven't already.

p.s the  guest room is waiting for you.

weeks with Emily

In front of a new shop that's opened in Quorn. It's very cute with lovely colourful chairs and set up like an old fashioned general store. It also sells Antiques and serves lunches. I'm super excited to be getting some new shops in the area.

For the last 5 weeks ( and a random week a few weeks before that) the lovely Emily has been staying at our place and testing out for her self what it's like to be a country teacher. It's been great having her company and cheerful presence around and I'll miss having long chats with her every night after school and cooking with her.I thought I'd include some touristy shots of Em visiting the sites on this blog to give another picture of country life. We had a great time hanging out and now the house is a little bit quieter and the wait for Phil to get home from work seems a little longer. Note: I would have included some photos that had us both but all the self portrait ones turned out pretty ordinary.

If you come visit we will take you to Red hill lookout

show you Sturt Desert Peas

and take you to the rather pretty foreshore

To finish this post I thought I'd include an example of our combined cooking efforts; tasty chocolate cupcakes.