family friends

 

 

 

A couple of weekends ago we went to visit some really special family friends {Bill & Cheryl} of ours to deliver their very belated birthday gifts and to have a much needed catch up.

 

Our visits are always too short. There’s always so much to chat about and share. I always go away feeling like we need to catch up so much more. Life often gets in the way of these best laid plans and too much time seems to go by between catch ups.

 

I have known these lovely people forever … nearly. I was 7 and they were 17 and my Dad was 27 when we all first met way back on the Northern Beaches in the late 70’s. There’s a magical number 10 going on there. Dad worked with Bill and they became great friends. Mum became friends with Cheryl. My brother and I loved them both lots.

 

A few months before my  9th birthday we left Sydney and came to live down here on the far south coast. Not all that long afterwards Bill and Cheryl also moved down … into the farm house next door to ours!

As a child it felt so good to have lovely familiar faces nearby. These people very quickly became family to me and my younger brother. Sometimes I forget that we are not actually related by blood and I’ll call them my ‘aunty’ or ‘uncle’ when I’m talking about them to other people. I get a little jolt every time I realise what I’ve said.

 

 

It’s funny, there’s a photo in an album somewhere within Bill and Cheryl’s family {I’m pretty sure it’s Bill’s sister who has the photo} that is a shot of  Narrabeen Beach with one of their family members in the foreground. It’s just one of those quick shots. A photo to remember the day by, nothing more. In the background are two people. My Mum and Dad! The photo was taken before we all met so it was all just a funny coincidence that Mum and Dad happened to be on Narrabeen Beach on the same afternoon right when that photo was being taken. But it was such a lovely coincidence {not that I’m into coincidences} and is one of the many little threads of the tapestry that is our family friendship over all of the years.

 

 

Oh, nostalgia! I so love it. The connectedness and the threads that draw us together – I love that too.

To the photos …. I have always felt inspired after a wander through Cheryl’s garden. She was one of the people I leaned heavily upon when I first began gardening with our first little old house in town. I had no idea what I was doing way back then {I still have so much to learn!} and I remember the very first garden I made which was a pathetic thin strip of a thing with a few tufty, gordy looking polyanthus all in a row. Ugh! I remember Cheryl saying to me, ever so gently, that I might like to try making that bed a little bigger. So I did. Cheryl guided me and shared her garden with me and eventually I turned into a garden fanatic. I remember one of the first times that I could share something from my garden with her. It was such a lovely moment to be able to give back to the person who had helped me the most in getting my own garden going.

 

There’s so much more to tell about these lovely people but I’ll save it for that special Guest Nest post that will hopefully happen sooner rather than later … beg beg grovel grovel ….

I’m off to get ready for our home church here this morning. Have a lovely Sunday oh, and before I forget, I’ve decided to make Second Hand Styling something other than every single week. It’s a pretty quiet little gathering but it’s such a nice one that I don’t want to pull the plug on it but I thought fortnightly may give you all a little extra time to get your treasures together and photographed and maybe you may be a little more tempted to join in then. Do you think?

 

from the garden to the plate

 

 

The carrots have been bountiful. Not one has made it to the stove. They are so delicious straight from the ground, a quick wash and then into the mouth! The broccoli may not look like what you find in the supermarket. It’s a bit, OK, very moth eaten {I’m yet to win the battle over these horrid little white moths} and the heads are not huge but oh wow, the flavour is out of this world. I could eat this broccoli all day – slightly cooked with a touch of sea salt and then straight down the hatch and it’s so, so green. The kale is also really moth eaten and it’s been struggling with aphids lately too but it’s delish and lately I’ve been turning it into kale chips and scoffing them down like there’s no tomorrow. Lew’s not in love with the kale, unfortunately. I’ve had a nice amount of fresh salad leaves too – the mizuna is doing really well, so too the chinese mustard and lettuce. The lettuce has actually gone berko and is coming up all over the place. It’s like a little weed.

So that’s my garden to plate lovelies.

How about you? Have you been eating from your garden this winter?

 

oo.com.au sheets for me

 

 

 

Woo hoo, I’ve got  new sheets! They are fresh, crisp, lovely, white cotton sheets and they have a nice little thread count. They are also Egyptian. I am happy.

How did I come across these lovely, brand new, fresh, crisp {I love saying fresh and crisp} white Egyptian {did I mention they were Egyptian??} sheets?

Well, the lovely Charlotte from oo.com.au sent me a little email asking if I’d do a product review on their ‘oo’ sheets or rugs or quilt covers {my choice} in exchange for the product. What a lovely offer that was. To be honest, I’d never bought anything from their online store before, though I have seen it around about my googling adventures. The trickiest part bit was in the choosing. So many to choose from!  I needed all 3 of those things on offer so it was a very painful process having to narrow my decision down to just one item. But, narrow it down I did.

 

 

Unfortunately I still can’t show you a photo of my bedroom, nor the sheets upon my bed because it’s not all styled and finished  yet. I’m still waiting to find the cover layering's that I want {though I am getting closer…} and my room needs to have the dressing table taken out of it and a much narrower but still practical piece of furniture put in it’s place to give me more room. It is a small bedroom but once I get the right furniture and colours happening in there it will feel and look fine.

 

   At least I’ve got some new sheets. That’s a really great start.

 

The range at ‘oo’ is amazing. You can buy anything from Sheridan right through to the cheaper end of the market. The sales are amazing too. There’s really no need to go to the cheaper end when the prices are like they are at oo.com.au. These actual sheets were RRP $179 but they had a mark down price of $79.00 when I was choosing. Now, those same sheets are down to $51.97!!! Bargain or what??? The customer service is reliable and quick and I look forward to buying through  oo.com.au in the future.

I can thoroughly recommend oo.com.au for almost anything nesty that you may need and I’m so very thankful to Charlotte for sending me these lovely sheets. What a treat!

 

Do you buy online? If you do, what sorts of things do you buy?

 

 

This post is obviously a sponsored post. All opinions are totally my own, however. I will not endorse a product, company or person that I do not feel warrants endorsing. This product is certainly a good one:)

the guest nest :: my pinterest nest

 

Today’s Guest Nest is going to be  a little bit a fun. Instead of visiting one single person’s nest, I thought I’d make a virtual  nest out of my pinterest boards and share each room with you like it’s all one big nest. Should be fun.

If you go to my pinterest boards you’ll find all of these images and more spread all over the place. The links to each of them are found there so you can check out the lot once you pop on over to pinterest.

Let’s get straight into the sticky beaking shall we?

 

OK, first up we have my virtual pinterest nest kitchen. I love the white everywhere with hints of warm, honey coloured timber here and there. This kitchen was one I have admired for a long time now and based parts of my own kitchen on.  ….

 

my kitchen love board

 

If we move on over just a little bit we find an open plan dining room attached to this kitchen space. It’s the same space as the first photo. I love the white, white, white and the long table facing those gorgeous windows. The lights are pretty special too, don’t you think?

 

my kitchen love board

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        A bit of this on the shelf would be nice.

 

 

 

And maybe some of this too. What do you reckon? It pretties up the white and adds a little bit of sunshine.

 

Now we can move on into the living area. It’s cosy and eclectic and I love that lacey table cloth draped over the back of the lounge. A real mix and match happening here which I love.

 

my interior love board

 

I love the simpleness of this living space as well. A bit of both would be perfect.

The bathroom is white too and filled with light. I love the drapey, billowy shower curtain and other bits of white linen here and there. Flowers in the bathroom complete it, don’t you think?

 

my bathroom board

Now to the bedroom. yep, lots of white again. It’s only small but it holds everything needed for a luxurious sleep. Hints of blue and green give a little added splash of colour. Simple and to the point.

 

my bedroom board

 

This next room would be Lew’s teeny bopper room. I love the whole maps on the wall thing and I particularly love the vivid blues and greens in this one. Orange and green are the go too.

 

my bedroom board

The study is a little nook somewhere cosy looking out a window. It’s a restful space but not so restful that I’d fall asleep! There’d be a pretty veggie garden view out of that window and I’d be easily able to grab a cuppa and a choccy bickie from the kitchen when needed.

 

my study love board

This would be my loft space. Perfect roofline and open timbers. That hammock would be a dream.

 

my rooflines board

 

And that’s it. My Virtual Pinterest Guest Nest. I reckon I could make another 10 homes based on my Pinterest boards. There’s so much on Pinterest to love.

What did you think?

What was your favourite room?

Are you a Pinterest nut like me?

 

we have chooks!

 

We have chooks.

 

Real chooks!

 

 

Finally!

Lew and I were looking through our chook books cramming information before the big day of picking the girls up when I noticed that 2 of the books were given to me by my friend’s for my birthday, both on the same year – way back in 2008! That’s how long it’s taken me to get my act together and actually get some real, live chooks.

 

 

We got our girls from a fellow home schooling family who live on a property out of town. Their animals live a lovely free range life and it felt nice to know that our chooks have come from a farm life and have been raised well.

 

Lew really is happy than he looks in this photo about having chooks:)

We meant to buy 3 chookies – 2 pullets and a point of lay girl, all of them siblings {hopefully they are sisters and there’s no brothers in the mix}.

 

 

But on opening the box to let them out into their new home, 4 not 3 black chooks jumped out!

 

 

Woops! 

 

 

Once we let them out they ran around all scattered and nervy. It was obvious they were scared out of their wits.

  

 

After a little while they found their coop and didn’t venture out very much for the next few days.

 

 

Every day Lew’s been handling them. Quite a few times a day, when we are home, he goes down to the chook pen and hangs out with the girls. He’s so in his element with the chooks and I’m so glad that we’ve got another interest for him to pursue. He’s totally looking after them – let’s them out, locks them up, gives them fresh water and food everyday. He’s also trying to train the dog’s to get used to them. The dogs are getting used to the chooks, slowly. Poppy is going to be the hardest – bird loving, cockerspaniel that she is.

 

 

Yesterday we noticed the chooks outside a lot more. This morning they were at the front of their coop ready to be let out and as soon as Lew opened their gate they came straight out pecking and scratching around all comfy. It’s lovely to see them happy and content now in their new surroundings.

 

  

The naming of them is now underway. I have a list of names that I’ve been collecting since … oh …. 2008. Not one of those name’s appeals to Lew. Though he did share way back then that if we ever had a rooster {and he was adamant that we would definitely be getting a rooster} we would be calling it Fungus. That fits, I spose.

Let me share my list with you and then I’ll share the one and only name that Lew wants to use for that little chookie up there. Oh, except of course, Fungus if it turns out we get a rooster out of this lot.

My names:

Flower                                                                                                                                Petal                                                                                                                             Violet                                                                                                                                 Clover                                                                                                                                   Ivy                                                                                                                                  Pansy                                                                                                                              Petunia                                                                                                                                 Tansy                                                                                                                              Cinnamon                                                                                                                          Cocoa                                                                                                                             Rosemary                                                                                                                          Thyme                                                                                                                           Lavender                                                                                                                     Honey                                                                                                                              Nutmeg                                                                                                                          Olive                                                                                                                                 Sweet Pea                                                                                                                             Willow                                                                                                                                    Rose                                                                                                                                Lilac                                                                                                                               Daisy                                                                                                                             Blossom                                                                                                                               Mabel

{Those last 3 are saved for cows or goats or sheep if we ever have them}

Can you see where I’m going with these names, apart from Mabel? A bit of a theme is happening up there. They go with Poppy, you see. You can also probably see that Fungus could kind of fit with these so Lew was well on my train track back then.

So I tell Lew that of course he can choose names too but I’d really like it if we could stick to the herby/flowery/foody sort of names that I’ve been building on for all of those years. I’m neurotic like that.

Yep, no worries, he says.

He grabs his Skyrim Gaming Guide, as you do when you’re about to choose a name for you pet, and he points to a word and says: “That’s what I want to call my chook, the one with the whitish throat.”

Before I look at the name I ask him:

“Are you sure this name is a herby/flowery/foody type name, Matey, cos you know how I’m feeling about that theme, don’t you?”

“Yeh, of course it is.”

I looked at the name.

“Nirnroot!” “What the heck?”

“Yep, Nirnroot is a plant in Skyrim, mum, so it fits perfectly with your ‘theme’. {I’m sure, in his head he actually said: neurotic little theme but I can’t be certain}.

So it’s  Nirnroot. Yep, and he won’t budge on it.

 

Nirnroot has her/his name. The other 3 will have my names up there. Lew doesn’t want to name any more. I guess when you chose a name like Nirnroot there’s nothing that can really match it so you just stick to the one name. I’m guessing.

 

Back ot my list. It’s hard to choose. At the moment I’m thinking Olive {is that OK with you Annie & Genevieve?} Sweet Pea and Violet {is that OK with you, Tania????} You’ve got to be so careful these days cos everyone choses such cool names for their kids that they leave none for us who have finished having kids but still want cool names for our animals.

Which ones would you choose if you were naming 3 black Australorp chookies?

Comment and share….please? xx

 

second hand styling :: week 5

 

 

It’s Second Hand Styling day once again. Gosh the week’s fly by, but before we get started on our fresh new theme for this week I thought I’d share a couple of last week’s Collection Second Hand Stylist’s {our theme was Collection} and their lovely treasures.

Naomi from Look See shared her gorgeous milk glass, old books and cutlery. Such a pretty collection.




Allison from Just Underneath shares her lovely blue Pyrex dish – don’t you love the colour of that one? jugs, jelly moulds and glass wares.
You can check out their blogs and see their full posts on Second Hand Styling :: Collections. These girl’s have some lovely treasures to drool all over.



It’s been a pretty quiet little link up party over here each Saturday and I would love to have more of you joining in – you know how much I love to sticky beak at old treasures,  but as long as there’s at least one other second hand treasure sharer here I’m going to keep on going with this little party.
OK, well this week I’m stealing a theme from the lovely Jen Bishop’s #7vignettes monthly instagram challenge {which I’m love, love, loving!}….Vintage!

Yep, Vintage, which was Thursday’s #7vignettes theme was one after my own heart and when I saw it I thought: ‘that’s going to be such an easy one’. Oh, how wrong I was! I have so many vintage treasures that I didn’t know where to start. Then the perfection issue came into play and I became frozen by my own imperfection. Thankfully I did manage to style a few different vintagey bits and pieces of mine and as imperfect as the styling is – and this link up is so not about perfection so I feel much better about showing you all my photos. If you go over to the #7vignettes on instagram you’ll find some extremely talented stylist’s and you’ll see why I do feel a little cringey after posting my images over there, sometimes.

Anyway … here’s my Vintage Second Hand Styling for this week.


 

There are so many vintage treasures of mine that I love. Rolling pins are up there, so too vintage china. I love old books, especially this lovely copy of Enid Blyton’s A Picnic Party. I got this for a $1 at a garage sale about a year ago. I love my vintage cotton reels too. I got those on ebay and they normally live in an old glass jar with a vintage green lid that I picked up for somewhere along the line. I love old tins. That teeny tiny one is an old Empire Ointment sample tin. My littlest sister, who is still a teenager, gave it to me which makes me treasure it even more. I’m loving vintage measuring tapes and rulers and getting quite a collection now for my Lewi who loves them in his room. And green glass is pretty lovely too:)





That old fan was one of two that I scored at an auction years ago. It was the auction of Old Bega Wares, a lovely local second hand shop where I got a lot of my recycled things {windows and doors and other bits and pieces} for the building of the Purple Nest. It was a sad day to see that place close down. Those bowls up there are another lot of my vintage favourites. I love fowler bowls and anything used for mixing in the old days.





Love that tea cup and saucer. I tend to use that in a lot of my vignette styling. It’s pretty and I love the colours.





This is part of my vintage green collection. That jug is a Robert Gordon and not vintage but the colour is and the style is so it goes with the rest of my green vintage bits. There’s lots of Johnson Bros in that lot and some Meikin and fowler and a few others.





Well, that’s some of my vintage treasure. How about you? I bet you’ve got some too. And if you’re wondering what makes a second hand treasure vintage …if it is pre-1994 it’s classified as vintage. Isn’t that frightening? I remember 1994 like it was yesterday and now it’s considered vintage?

Now it’s your turn. Let your  Second Hand Styling, Vintage Style fun begin!

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Grab something second hand from around your nest {or outside it} that’s related to this week’s theme and then go mad with the styling. You can choose one thing to style or 1000. You can be as creative or as low key as you like. Just have fun and enjoy your lovely second hand treasures.

 2. Share a photo or 10 of your Second Hand Styling via a blog post on your blog.  

3. Link up your actual blog post  to the Second Hand Styling  link party down there.

4. Share  on facebook, twitter or instagram if you want to:)

5. Pop on over to some of the other links. Leave a comment and say hi! This linky party is open from today until the 14th of June so get styling your second hand lovelies and link up here.  

Can’t wait to sticky beak around your place this week:)  

Happy Second Hand Styling!