Monday, June 27, 2011

Bombs and bonfire.

Every time we do this we say that we should do it more often. This being getting our gear together and heading over to 'The Farm' and have a bonfire BBQ. I love being over at The Farm and yes we need to do this more than once or twice a year.

We invited over my husbands family at the last minute, two sisters, a nephew and a niece made a show which is a only a small selection of my husbands family but nice to have company at such short notice. The kids loved running around collecting wood and cooking marshmallows and my nephew stated that he loved 'camping' which was funny as no tents or overnight stay was involved. Hee Hee. We had a slap bang dinner of sausages with bread, chops and french wings (what Master M calls 'chicken balls'). We managed to burn the spuds in the fire the first time and by the time the second lot cooked nobody felt like them. We looked at the premix bag of salad that Mr M had bought and decided against salad. All was topped off with chocolate cake, skittles and chips. Did I say this was last minute?? Lol

I am still chuckling about the same 5yo nephew who told me 'don't laugh at his bum when he sticks it out like this (shows he his bum), he is my friend and I won't laugh at him'. My son was just about to have a wee against a tree and of course at that age they wee with their pants down around their ankles. It was sweet of him to stick up for his little cousin. I was told by my an Irish friend that this male outdoors weeing must be an Aussie thing, apparently it was a bit of a shock to see' men just get their willys out here and there'. It does annoy me a bit that it is common practice when in the bush, but maybe I am just jealous.




My dad was a collector of vintage machinery such as tractors, steam engines and old cars. He was a bit of a hoarder of just about anything mechanical. Here are some of the old cars still left on The Farm.  They have been stripped by trespassers but tend to I think that at least the parts are being used instead of just rusting away here.

Don't you think this car is such a cutie pie!  It reminds me of one of the cars from the 'Cars' movie, the old rusty cars that are Lightening McQueen fans - Rust-eze.Yes you can tell I have young children can't you. This car has so much more character than the cars these days do (how old do I sound). I am a sucker for a car with curves.




I think someone had fun smashing in the front windows in this old girl. Poor thing, looks a bit lonely and forlorn. I wonder where these cars came from and who owned them, also what kind of adventures they have had in their time.




Love the funky purple/pink on this one. What a beauty she would have been in her heyday. It's funny how cars seem to be labelled as female, this one is pink though so more likely to be female. :)  I pretty sure this is the car that gave our friend a fright when he was clearing blackberries with his bulldozer. The fact that it is almost in two pieces gives it away. He said he realised he had gone too far into the bush when this car popped up and met him face to face giving him a mild heart attack.




This car has been on The Farm for as long as I can remember but of course it was in a lot better shape when I was young AND had a lot more parts on it. I even remember when it had a boot lid and all kinds of things inside the boot. It was a lot more black than brown in those days. I LOVED coming here so much when I was a child. Easter bunny even hid our eggs in the part we call 'the forest'. We call it this because it is an uncleared section of gum trees. We found chocolate there for weeks afterwards.




This was where my Great Grandparents lived while building their house. It was made of mud and so, so tiny. I can't imagine living here with no electricity or bathroom (or water for that matter). I remember it clearly when it was complete and may even have some pics somewhere. I recall when a  part of one wall fell down, my father really wanted to fix it but never got the time and bit by bit walls collapsed. Unfortunately it didn't help when people would break into it to steal whatever was inside. I wish I had a chance to see what was in there. There used to be a lot of old bottle and household bits and bobs all around this mud hut and around the main house but over the years they disappeared and unfortunately I wasn't old enough to know to salvage it.




Mr M's home made BBQ. It used to have a different top that fit it but not sure what happened there. We leave the base at The Farm but looks like it will need a new drum soon. He spent so long cleaning the hot plate before he started cooking...waiting...waiting...waiting.




Here is our rather poor excuse for a bonfire. However it was big enough for the few hours we were there and warm enough to give us rosy cheeks and scolding hot legs (you know when you stand with your back to the fire and then some smart arse comes along and slaps your jeans against the back of your thighs - ouch!).




At one stage we turned the cars headlights on for a bit so Little Miss could eat her tea. I was messing around with my camera, as you can see the stars are out. It's always hard to leave the bonfire, especially when it is still going, however all the children were tired so home it was smelling like smoke.




Mmmmm. Toasty...

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Not so vintage op shop finds.

My Sister-in-law told me about a new op shop that had just opened near her. She had done really well clothes wise as they have a deal on buy two get one free. 

I love when op shops are in their opening stages and they haven't been rummaged through by every Tom, Dick and Harry. There are still bargains to be had. I have noticed a lot of the oppies in South Australia don't seem to stock as much retro these days. The shops that do are becoming few and far between. I guess this is why I love garage sales so much. Not much vintage here at all apart from WAY over priced china. Here are my not so vintage  finds that cost a total of $20 (which is more than I normally spend in an op shop but I think I did OK anyway).



Cute skirt for Little Miss $3.





Top for Little Miss $3.








ESPRIT jumper for same little girl $3. One of these was free because of the deal.







Two brand new sample Country Road bowls. These are current Country Road stock (so I am told by my SIL - I wouldn't have a clue). $4 each.






Four matching brand new Country Road mugs for $3 each however I got two of these for free. Oh and DS bought a skipping rope for $1.



Thursday, June 16, 2011

Room to move!!






Finally after probably about three years of planning which included over a year to yet plans through the local Council our extension has started!! Poor Mr M has been sleeping in the dining room on a futon for most of the year just so he can get enough sleep to be able to go the work. Miss M is in the cot in our room (and in bed with me for half the night). I do like her sleeping in bed with me but I don't get to move much in fear of waking her, so feel like a stiff old lady by the morning. I am guessing it will still be a while until we are in the extension but at least it is starting to feel real since we are seeing things happening. Unfortunately our septic has now been partially blocked by the the excavation and we are starting to have plumbing issues. EEEKKKK! Luckily we are getting a new septic next week (fingers crossed) so it should be a short term problem. Currently our lounge room is the size of a bedroom (4m x 3.5m) so we won't know ourselves when we have space...sweet space!! All those beautiful trees around our house have cost us a bit since they have brought us up to extreme bushfire risk which means the house has to be reinforced. Just so excited I had to share!

Monday, June 13, 2011

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to...



Happy first Birthday to my gorgeous little girl!!  I had so much fun organising my first girls party after four boys ones. It was a cup cake theme party with just close family invited (because that was enough stress for me - lol).






At one stage all the children iced and decorated cup cakes that I had made earlier. It all went really well and not as messy as I was expecting. They also played pass the parcel and spent the rest of the day tearing around the back yard.

We had a yucky week though as birthday girl had a high temp that started on Monday. It finally went and she woke temp free on Friday but she still wasn't herself. She also has 4 teeth coming at once. We held the party at my mums as until we get the extension done there is no room here.  When we arrived at Mums she cried and cried so off to bed for her. Luckily everyone was late. Once she woke she had a nice time crawling around the floor looking like a little ballerina in her pettiskirt. When we got home I noticed a rash on her trunk but because she had already been in contact with her cousins we couldn't do much about it. Likely Roseola. Oops, I feel bad but what can you do?




Birthday girl loved her birthday cake -  me not so much. The first attempt wouldn't come out of the tin and crumbled so I resorted to a packet mix and then in haste broke off a part of the bottom of the cup cake but all good in the end about 1/2 an hour before the party. Of course it worked well for my practice attempt.  I was still decorating when guests arrived (late). I found the butterfly and flower icing cutters from eBay for $6 for each set of three (including postage). I saw the same thing in a cake decorating shop locally for $27 (I would like to buy in Australia but it is a bit difficult when there is such a price difference)..





This is what it looked like after she had had a play. It looks small in this pic but was quite large and big enough to take slices from the other side. Not that I had many takers since they had filled up on cup cakes and sweets.




I really enjoyed making all the party food and found out how to make the pom poms from here: tissue Paper pom poms. This was a bit easier to follow than the Martha Stewart instructions.

I was going to make decorated cup cakes myself for the party but an email came through for 24 cupcakes for $25 at a bakery in the city so I couldn't go past that.




As you can see the cup cakes arrived late with the guests (empty cupcake stand in back ground).










Have you noticed that I used pink depression glass mixed in with the modern white. I only just found one of the plates last weekend and paid more than I normally would but knew I could use it for the party. I also used a clear depression glass vase to display the gingerbread on pop sticks.

All up a great day had by all (you should have seen the house I came home to  - what a mess!!).

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Vintage apron love.


I ran into a new friend at the Pre-school gates today and she asked what I was up to this afternoon. I was dumb struck. Umm, what do I say? Do I tell her I am dying to go home and take some photos of vintage aprons on my clothes line?? She may think me slightly crazy... a bit of a nutter. I just said 'not a lot' with a stupid look on my face. It was a surprisingly great weather today for the second day of winter (written on Friday), however still a bit dark to get really good photos.

I used to sell vintage aprons but for some reason I started hanging onto them (another thing to clog up my cupboards). I know that some crafty people use the material from the aprons to make other things, however I like them as they are, being used for the purpose they were made. Have yet to get them out when I am baking though...maybe one day. Below is a small sample of what I have.































Have a lovely Sunday...
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