Sweet Memories

Hi there lovely ladies,

This beautiful posey of sweet peas was given to me by my youngest daughter on Thursday afternoon. They were proudly grown & maintained by the children in my daughters class in the schools Eco Garden.

They smell lovely.....exactly the same as the ones my Grandmother used to grow at her home when I was a child.

The sweet fragrence of sweet peas is one I will always remember, along with the memories of them growing up the side wall of her garage.

I love how certain smells can evoke memories & take you right back to a particular time or event in your life.

I wonder what will be that sweet fragrence that my kids remember me by?

~Sarah~

P.S: I am loving the new look of blogger, doing a post has never been so easy!

Holiday Adventures

Hi Girls,

Well we are back fresh from our little driving holiday down to Victoria. Our main aim was to drive along The Great Ocean Road & see the 12 Apostles before any more of them fall down.

Day 1: We drove from home to Geelong, 8 long hours. These wind turbines are just amazing, they are on the Yass side of Goulburn & so imposing as you drive towards & past them.

The Dog on the Tucker Box at Gundagai. An Australian legend.


Day2: After we left the motel we went down on to the foreshore, the girls had a ride on the big indoor carousel & played around some of the buoys that have been painted up.

Adam spotted the turn off the the iconic Bells Beach, so we went for a look. Unfortunately the surf was non existent but at least we can say we have been there.

Next stop was The Great Ocean Road Arch.

This next picture is looking back from one of the many lookouts back up one of the windiest parts of the road, you can just make out the road about a quarter of the way up from the shore line.

Part of The Great Ocean Road goes inland for a bit & this is where it passes Cape Otway, we drove the 12.2klms out there to see the light house but when we saw that it was $15 per person we didn't go in. But on the way back we found a colony of koala's about 10metres off the road, so we stopped & had a look. It made the kids day to get this close to a koala especially in their natural habitat.

The defining moment of our travels was next, seeing The 12 Apostles. It is just breath taking.

We stayed at Warrnambooll after we did The Great Ocean Road & took the kids to the laser light show that tells the story of the Loch Ard ship wreck. No cameras were allowed so I unfortunately have no pictures of this.
Day 3: Warrnambool to Ballarat. Enjoyed the lazy drive to Ballarat, after many phone calls to find somewhere to stay we found a place that had a heated pool so the kids could have some much earned down time.

Day4: Ballarat: Sovereign Hill, the gold mining town is a tourist park in which you can see what it was like to live way back in the gold rush days....it was such a pity that it rained pretty much the whole time we were there.

The girls gold panning in the creek & yes we found speckles of gold, not enough to keep but it was exciting all the same.

We got to watch them pour 3kgs of melted gold into the bar shaped mold, it's current value is $107,000.00 not bad hey & yes it's in a safe!

Next stop was to the home of one of the most lovely ladies that I have ever met. Mandii's even more lovely in person that she come across in her blog. Mandii's home is filled with the most beautiful creations I have ever seen, her palette is of the softest pinks, blues, yellows & greens. It really is a shabby girls dream! I also got to meet 2 other amazing blog ladies at Mandii's as well, Kirstie & Natasha. I feel truly lucky to have been able to have met them all at once. Kirstie is so funny & full of ideas & inspiration. Natasha shares my sense of wicked, sometime sarcastic humour & I am still in awe of her painting abilities. My only wish was to have been able to have spend more time with these wonderful ladies but with $40 flights between Sydney & Melbourne, I don't think it will be too long before I will hopefully see them again. Thanks Mandii for the beautiful afternoon tea. Tea & coffee served was served in lovely old china & cakes & biscuits & those oh so lovely made from scratch cupcakes with frosting (it's funny all of us share a love of Betty Crocker frosting & no it's not wrong to go to the fridge & eat it by the spoon full!!!!)

L to R: Natasha, Me, Mandii & Kirstie.

Day 5: Ballarat to home, 9 hours drive! My butt felt like a numb block!!!!After such a wonderful trip we arrived home to some not so wonderful news. Some low life had stolen & burnt out our ute. To say that I am gutted in an understatement.

Hope I haven't bored you with all of this but decided to keep it all in 1 post. I am now going to go & do some crafting, not sure yet but I am feeling the urge to be creative so I am going to ride the wave while it lasts!

~Sarah~

Happy Weekend

Good glorious morning to you all!

Hi girls, hope you are all enjoying the start of the weekend. I am for sure, I'm not at work! I have done 6 days a week for the last 3 weeks & am so glad I now get 2 consecutive days off. Happy, hell yeah!

With money so tight for most at the moment, I have been trying to come up with some little newish price competitive things to sell in my web store. Things that chickie's like me can have & enjoy without breaking the bank. So I have now included key rings to my stores offerings. Here are a sample of what sort of things will be available. Size is 4 X 4cm's & price is $4.00 each including postage.

It seems that since I have shrunk the images the quality has also shrunk, will try & upload better pics later this arvo.
Will get these listed hopefully by this afternoon.

Yesterday I was feeling a little creative, so I armed myself with my camera & had some fun.

I can't wait until I can mount this on the wall, would look great with a mirror behind it & some shutters on the side, what do you think?

A beautiful Natasha Burns print, just need to get a picture surround to finish it off.


^This my favourite shot of the day.^

And one with me too.

Enjoy your weekend girls, I know I will be.

I am going to do some changing/moving around today, not even going to think about cleaning windows after the dust storm, as there is proberly going to be another one soon.

Sarah

Vintage clothing

Just had to share with you all a beautiful little shop that is in The Metcalf Arcade at The Rocks in Sydney. We had a look in there on Sunday & unfortunately the dress I really liked was not on the web site but here is a sample of what you will find.

www.rokit.com.au

Hope you are all well & coping with the dust storm that is blanketing us a the moment, it's very odd to look outside & see that after it rained here there are puddles of red mud on the concrete driveway.

Shabby day's to you all.

Sarah

I want one of these, please!

I love Veranda magazine.

This cover is by far my favourite, imagine having a garden pavilion just like this.

Hope you all had a great weekend. We had a lovely day wondering up around The Rocks in Sydney today, will post pics soon.

Sarah

Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Stores Re-Opening!!!

Imagine my delight when I turned on my computer this morning only to discover this fabulous email sitting in my in-box.

Have a superbly shabby day girls!

Sarah

P.S: Don't forget to read my post below & collect your flowers!

Some roses for you & you & YOU!

I love giving flowers just as much as I love receiving them, so this bunch is for all of my blogging girl friends, near & far.

(Insert HUG here!)

Photo courtsey The Poundbury Florist

Earlier this evening I was in a right foul mood BUT after reading some of the beautiful & inspiring blogs you girls write, I am now in better spirits.

So this bunch of flowers is just to say

THANKS.

Copy & paste & pass on to others it you want, because we all know girls love to get flowers!

Sarah

Rachel Ashwell's New Book

I have ordered my copy of Rachel Ashwell's new book

Shabby Chic Interiors.

And YES I am so EXCITED!

I ordered mine through Angus & Robertson (Australia)

$59.95 (but who cares I would have paid $100 for it!)

Release date is early October.

Enjoy you day.

Sarah

Internet = Inspiration

After countless hours searching the net for inspirational photos, I think I may have found some.

I am gearing up to do a heap of Spring Cleaning & needed some inspiration for my house.

I am forever falling in love with new ideas that I am seeing on the net & this has given me heaps of ideas to try out. Even on a budget I'm sure it can be achieved!

Le Creme Spa in San Francisco

I love this idea for a room divider

How about sitting here for a pedicure.....

This is the outside deck area.

Next is Denise Richards pad that is up for sale in Hidden Hills USA for a cool $4.25US

Now for the Queen of shabby herself, Rachel Ashwell's house is also on the market

I hope you liked looking at the above photo's as much as I did, maybe it even gave you a little inspiration too.

Have a fabulous weekend girls,

Sarah

Shabby Market Finds

Found it!

Found what? I hear you ask.

Well for ages I have wanted a little table & chairs set to go out on the front verandah. So off to the markets I went on Saturday morning, hoping & silently praying that I would find something suitable. And find I did!

I was not after something too tizzy or something that looked like it came straight out of a brand new box. The chairs match each other but are different from the table, but that's fine by me. All I wanted was something comfy to sit my keister on & have my coffee while I watch my kids playing outside.

This is before the magic of white paint!

So this afternoon while my parents were over, I painted (well we all had a go, mum & the two girls as well).This is only the 1st coat of undercoat (I use Dulux 1 step, it's a primer, sealer & undercoat all in one) I am also thinking of getting my dad to spray paint the chairs to make my life easier.

My find of the day was this lovely old mirror, it was heavely stained & is not perfect but I can just see it perched on a table or buffet.....I took 4 pics to show you what it went from, to what it went to. Before, ugly but has potential.

Sanded (I love my Black & Decker sanding Mouse!)

Undercoat (Because of the wind I painted it on top of the washing machine!)

The finished product...I promise I will get a better photo but decided to do this post & well you will get the drift of what it looks like at least.

So that was my weekend of bargain hunting. Did you find anything interesting on your travels over the weekend? I would love to hear if you did, or even if you didn't, what you are chasing.

~Sarah~