Our basil is booming!

The basil is going banana's at the moment. It has gone to seed and it has small pretty white flowers, so I picked them and brought them inside to enjoy.

 

 

Lou x

Miss E button craft idea...

Whenever an item of Evie's baby clothing became outgrown and too stained to pass on, I would cut the pretty buttons off the fabric before recycling the fabric for rags. By the time Evie was ready for her big girl room, I decided to do something with all these buttons.




I purchased a white cushion cover that had thin green stitched stripes on it. I then traced on a large 'E', PVA glued the buttons on to work out the colours and sizes, then stitched them in place. I gave this to Evie on her 3rd Birthday as a final touch to her new room.

Whenever I look at it, I can remember the outfits the buttons came from and it's a great way to save those precious baby memories.

My sewing is not the best in the world!

 

Lou x

More Teeny Tiny Food...

I love all things TINY! Miniature food is all the rage.There is so many pictures of Tiny Food all over the web including on Pinterest.  For kids parties, it is loved by adults and children alike. Here are a few of the tiny foods I did for Evie's tiny party.

 

Mini Oreo's

 

Cute chocolate crackles

 

Little lolly shop

 

 

Cute as a button cup strawberry cakes

 

Tiny Tarts: Custard, Lemon and Caramel.

 

Mini 3 tier coconut and pineapple Birthday cake.

Lou x

Darl...

I have had so much joy out of this $5 bunch of roadside stall Dahlias.

They are the most divine colours.

 

As we purchased the bunch, the elderly lady was in her front garden, which was full of Dahlias cutting more bunches to add to her roadside stall.

 

This is the sort of stuff that makes my heart sing.

 

Lou x

Not too shabby, vintage rose vase

This is one of my latest  items for sale on eBay at the moment. It's an Avon Hobnail bud vase from the 1970's. So pretty.

 

 

Lou x

Breeze blocks beauties...

 

I am loving that our current home has white painted breeze blocks instead of a window. It lets the air flow in and out and we have a fly screen that we attached in summer. I am thinking I would love to use breeze blocks somehow in the new home, maybe even an outside wall or screen.

 

 

Here are few ideas from pinterest that I love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lou x

Last hints of Summer...

Last weekend, we jumped in the car and went for a lovely drive.

 

 

 

 We ended up here at Tallebudgera Creek.

It was so divine, Evie could not resist going for a swim in her undies as we had not thought to bring togs as it had been chilly that morning. But it turned into such a gorgeously warm day.

 

Lou x

You live and learn... total devastation to a bit less devastated

After 2 weeks of not having a home computer due to a faulty laptop screen, caused by no fault of our own, we are glad to have it back. However, since getting it back on Wednesday, I have been devastated to discover that the last 12 months of photos have been lost. Our final days in our old home, Vanuatu, Sydney, Gwinganna, purcashing our new home, Birthdays, Christimas, Toby's 1st day back at School and his lost front tooth.  Not to mention all our special emails we had been keeping and Danny's work information.

So far, in the last 2 days, I have spent over 20 hours trying to retrieve what photos I can. I called HP today, just to see if anything could be done, HP were extremely unsympathetic, with the reminder that we signed a form that all data may be lost when it is taken in for repair. Before putting the laptop in for the repair, we went to great lengths to explain that as it was broken we are unable to back it up. When arranging to get it fixed, we were assured during several phone calls, they would do all they could to keep the photos etc. as they knew we could not save them ourselves.

 

When we got the laptop back, no information was given, other than a written report. But reading the notes, an entire new hard drive was put in. When I rang the repair company in Brisbane today, they told me that it is against privacy laws to back up our data before replacing our hard drive, so they never do that. I asked where the hard drive goes and was advised these parts get couriered to HP twice daily. I rang HP to ask for the old hard drive only to be told that they take no responsibility as we did sign the agreement, and even if they could locate it, the moment the old hard drive is removed it is deleted and classed at "e-junk" as it no longer contains any information. I burst into tears to hear my precious information described as e-junk.

Had we been told this straight up, that when its taken out, it is not backed up first, due to privacy and it is then deleted and thrown away, rather than being told something to falsely reassure us that they will make every effort not to delete all our information, we would have taken the laptop to a computer expert first before handing it in for repair. We purchased this pricier, higher range laptop less than a year ago when we sold our house, so that for once we would not have to deal with "cheap crap". You live and learn. Due to moving twice and normal busy lives we had not done a back up since moving at the end of March last year. I have really learnt my lesson to back up continually.

I remind myself it's not the end of the world and a lot worse happens in life. But I am kicking myself for not backing up more often but I think HP are very callous with people hearts.

 

 

I have since purchased a program to retrieve deleted photos off my camera SD card which after a few hours work I was thrilled and relieved to find about 3 months worth of old photos, much to my relief and I have also, one by one, been able to copy photos from anywhere my photos are on-line such as Facebook and this blog. Family and friends, I will be asking you to also look for any photos you may have as well please.

On a happy note, I am in love with the roses from my garden sitting in my Nan's anodised travel cup.



Lou x

An amazing vintage trunk

This trunk was used on a voyage from the UK to Sydney sometime in the late 70's , although  the trunk is even older than that.

It came to Australia on a Russian cruise ship called the LEONID SOBINOV.

All this information is from the well preserved sticker on the side of the trunk. It's so exciting to learn a bit of the history of an item.





Lou x



A look back at our old "Enchanthing Forest"...

It's been one year since we said goodbye to our beloved home of 15 years.

What now stays in my mind about this home are all the wonderful times we had there. The many parties, like my baby shower, kitchen tea for my best friend and many family birthday parties.

 We lived here when we got married, went overseas and the most special moment was bringing our 2 babies to this home. We transformed our home slowly, from a small, out of date 2 bedroom home to a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home with a deck making it look and work so much better. After a year away from it, I still miss this home. But we knew that after all that time it was time to move on to a new adventure.

Here's some of my favorite photos from my old home.



The side fence became divine every August with the amazing fragrance and beautiful look of the Jasmine





The newly renovated main bathroom.

 



These flowers sprung to life after it rained.



The front courtyard provided privacy and was like having an extra room.



 



Newly planted Lemon trees





We loved the result of the pressed metal wall and would consider doing it again in the next home



One of our last gatherings, to say goodbye to our home.

Lou x