Two New Blog Gems

If Paul ever wanders into the study when I’m on the Internet, he often complains that I have too many windows open on the screen at once. It’s not uncommon for me to have eight or nine windows on the go. You know how it happens - a blog you’re reading posts a link to another amazing blog which leads you down another path where you discover something else amazing and so on. Today I thought I’d share some of the lovelies I’ve recently come across.

A Spoonful of Sugar is a fantastic source of inspiration, tutorials and recipes for all things crafty and homely. Lisa and Sarah are a mother-daughter blogging team from Perth and as I read back through their older posts, I found myself bookmarking ideas one after another. The fabric covered noodle box above for example is very cute and something I’d like to try and the gorgeous aqua and red quilt Lisa made definitely caught my eye.

Having been working on Grace’s quilt lately and searching for inspiration, I came across Amy’s blog, nanaCompany. She describes herself as a homebody who looks for the beauty in everyday life. I enjoy seeing the projects she is working on and browsing through the Flickr collages she puts together.

Have you discovered any great new blogs recently?

Images #1 and #2 via A Spoonful of Sugar
Image #3 via nanaCompany

Family Holiday

Today I had the unenjoyable task of unpacking and doing load after load of washing as we've just arrived home after a three day getaway down south to our favourite country town, Denmark. We wanted to have a little holiday with just the three of us before our baby arrives and it was wonderful spending a relaxing few days together away from the day to day routine. Grace did much better than we anticipated being away from home, although she was definitely a bit anxious about Asha not being with us. She was perfect on the ride down and after our lunch break at Williams, she slept for most of the remainder of the journey. Similarly on the return trip, her napping coincided with our longest stretch of driving. She was fine being in an unfamiliar bed and enjoyed all the new sights and experiences.

Whilst in Denmark, we drove around the Scotsdale Tourist Loop admiring the lovely views and stopped briefly at the Rickety Gate Winery where Paul tasted and bought some wine. Our highlight of the trip was definitely the few hours we spent exploring the Alpaca Stud and Animal Farm. Grace was in her element here and adored feeding all the animals. She was fearless, not hesitant at all to wander in the alpaca enclosure or to hand feed the camel. She was more than content wandering in the rabbit and guinea pig cage by herself, picking all of the animals up and giggling as they jumped around her feet. Her favourite animals by far were the two baby goats. "I'll look after you," she said as she cuddled the pair. When we had to leave, I told her to say goodbye to them and she burst into tears crying, "take baby goats home."





One of my favourite things we did was stopping for lunch in Bridgetown on our drive home at a cute little cottage I've always been entrigued by when we'd previously passed through. It was called Horti Towers and really was a unique little place. We arrived as it began to bucket down with rain and sat down at the only indoor spot, a table for three beside the pot belly stove. Inside, every wall was covered in brick-a-brack, every shelf and display cabinet packed full of trinkets and treasures. I managed to come away with a cute little antique dish. I also loved how our lunch was served on mismatched crockery, a bit like a Mad Hatters tea party and the soup I ordered was one of the nicest bowls of soup I've ever tasted.

So now, we're home sweet home and Paul has the rest of the week off work which is nice. I have our next Cooking Club to plan for and am hoping to buy a few last fabrics so I can finally sew Grace's quilt.

I hope you are all having an enjoyable week and I hope to catch up on all your blog posts I've missed over the next few days...

Computer Issues

Image above found via Poppies and Sunshine

Thank you all so much for your kind and thoughtful words and prayers yesterday. You don't know how much all those messages of support meant to me.

I'm having a few computer issues at the moment so I will be back as soon as I can sort them all out over the next few days.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend ahead.

July 21st… Another Year On

Today it is two years since my Dad passed away. I think I feel sadder this year knowing that we are expecting another baby… a baby Dad won’t be around to see. He would have been so thrilled knowing he had another grandchild on the way.

One of the things I miss most is the genuine interest and support Dad showed for us. He shared our excitement over good news, was always keen to hear what we’d been up to over the weekend and listened eagerly to us describing plans for projects around our home. Most of all, he used to love hearing about Grace’s latest developments. I can picture how his face would have lit up watching her now as a little girl.

Today (depending on the non-stop rain that is forecast), I’ll visit the cemetery and leave some carnations on Dad’s grave (these were the last bunch of flowers he gave to me) and I’ll spend some time thinking about the father I’m proud to say was mine.

Source of top image unknown sorry.

The bottom photo is the most recent one I have of my Dad.
My favourite photo however is the one here of the two of us.

My Weekend

Hope you've all enjoyed the weekend. Mine was a productive one, even though a few things didn't go in my favour. On a positive note though, lots of good things happened over the weekend too. We purchased a new print recently for our lounge room and yesterday Paul put it up (I'll share some photos of our lounge room later in the week). I also crossed another project off my 'nesting' list which I am happy about. I had photos scattered everywhere as I had accumulated all of Dad's old photos, a bunch my Mum had recently passed on to me and a whole heap of my own which were literally thrown in a cupboard. Yesterday afternoon, I sorted through them all and while they are not organised neatly in a photo box yet as I'd like, they are organised in piles and I have managed to whittle them down to just those I want or have a need for. Aren't the photos above so lovely? I adore old photos like this - the school boy is my Dad and the one of my Nanna on the right is one of my favourite natural shots of her.



On Friday, Grace spent the day at my Mum's while I had a sewing day with my friend and her fellow quilting buddies. I spent virtually the whole time cutting out blocks for Grace's quilt. Now they are laid out on our lounge room floor so I can try and perfect their arrangement. Every now and then I walk past and swap a square around. I've been debating whether or not to add a touch of green fabric to the mix (the green square above is a piece of cardboard) and the grey Russian doll fabric is not going to stay, it's just there while I wait for the version with a white background to arrive in my mailbox. Today I went to buy some more of a particular fabric I had decided to use to bind my quilt only to discover they had none left.

Another thing I missed out on was that cane chair. After blogging about it in my last post, I must have jinxed myself as I was all set to arrange to go and look at it (after it had been listed for a few weeks) only to receive an email that the item was no longer available. I was so disappointed, especially as so many of you could see its potential like I could. Paul was secretly happy. I'll have to keep hunting.

How was your weekend?