Today is a good day for:

* my favourite new old jumper. It even has an elbow lovingly darned.
* Staying in bed, drinking earl grey tea, and watching crap tv.
* Going for a walk in boots, wearing scarfes, kicking leaves, taking pictures.
* Drinking cider in a pub with a fire.
* Catching ferrys.
* Holding hands, rubbing noses.
* laughing really hard so you cry.
* Dreaming about the future.

I went to work instead, but in my mind I am doing all these things.

{via}

Things that drive me batty.

This is meant to be a positive blog, but sometimes it's fun to vent. Plus I adore writing lists!

Things that drive me batty:
* Slow internet.
* No matter how hard I try, I always get dirty whenever there is paint within a 10 metre radius of me. Or when I eat honey.
* How the cuffs of long sleeved clothes stretch.
* When someone says "I'm sorry, but..."
* Being cut off, on purpose in traffic = angry cyclist!
* Running late.
* Dirty sinks.
* Two bits of music playing at once. If someone else starts playing music and I can hear it I will turn mine off.
* Un-popped pimples. I neeeeeeeed to squeeze...
* Tooth ache. There is no worse pain.
* Not getting a please or thank you.
* Bad hair days. Sometimes there is just nothing to be done.
* Overpriced milk. Come-on It's MILK!
* If the sound in a movie goes out of sync with the picture.
* Forgetting peoples name - just as they approach. Damn it brain - could there be any worse timing?
* Being ignored.
* Being tickled.
* My fingernails/lack thereof. Always dirty. Always chewed. Always wonky. How do other people have nice nails??? 

What gets your goat? (now where on earth did that expression originate from??)

{via}

Around the interwebs: Modern 50

Modern 50 is an amazing collection of stuff. Old stuff. If you like vintage this is *droooool* land for you. Here's a taster....

Drooling? Yep, you might wanna not do that on your keyboard...

I love the lamps so much... and the colour of that wall actually. Bit like "licorice" from Porters chalkboard paints...

*Around the interwebs* is a series of nice things to be spied around the net. I stumble upon all sorts of magical marvelous things in my travels and this is a great way to remember them all. More found here.

ink calander

How cool is this. Shame it's not available for my kitchen wall.... It comes in a different coloured ink for each month of the year. Designed by Oscar Diaz. And isn't that just a great name?

Found {via}

Here's a little something to get you going this morning

This isn't the real video, because the embedding is disabled on it. But if you go here: Modest Mouse - Dashboard then you can see the real McCoy... I love this song so much - good mood guarenteed!

Things to be thankful for.

It's been a good week. I am thankful for:
* The new mattress. I know I sound like a broken record, but it is SO good.
* All the old cd's that have been dug up, dusted and off and put on to the computer for some new-old song listening.
* An amazing conversation last Sunday night with dear friends. (And I got to cuddle their baby. Bonus!)
* A mostly succesful Ikea trip (there's always one thing not in stock) - and husband and I didnt want to kill each other once.
* My little brother got into the police force and will be starting in a few weeks. I'm so proud of him. Best of all, I'll be able to see him on weekends occasionally now, coz he'll be closer to Sydney!
* Husband bought me crumpets. *happy*
* Work has been good this week. (I rarely say that - so I'm super thankful to be able too)
* I got a parcel from America with my new gap swimmers. And it fits and I got a bonus present from our sweet friend who organised it all for me. (Gap don't ship to Australia)
* Sunday night wine making with my house mates. We are a happy family.
* Numerous catch ups that have been arranged for the coming days and days past. Friends are special.

{things to be thankful for is a post I do every Saturday. It helps me sum up my week and remind myself of all the good things in my life. Feel free to play too and leave your *thankful's* in the comments or a link to yours on your blog. I will definatly check it out. *s*}


1. {via}
2. Baby Luke Noah.

Two metres?

There's a lot of variation in 2 metres. Especially if you've been rolling electrical cables all day that all say they are 2 metres, but are quite clearly all different. What did you do today?!

{via}

wine making

Fine Tumburumba pinot noir grapes... Crushed in a crusher (this is the bit that's traditionally done with feet...)

Hand pick out all the stems...

Yep, there they are.

Let it sit for a week, then on a fine Sunday evening prepare for a fun family pressing session!

Out of the fermentation bucket...

and into the press

Through a fine seive into the "demigons" or flagons...

It's all cloudy for the first little while... thats yeast .... mmm

The grapes after having the buggery pressed out of them. Its a fermented grape cake!

It's great when your housemates take up a hobby everyone gets to participate in... I'm especially looking forward to the participating in a few months time!

Green cinema experience?

I'm finding all the "green washing" that is springing up everywhere rather interesting. Green washing is people jumping on the band wagon of stating how green a product/service is because being green is the trendy / important thing at the moment.
For instance, a few weeks ago we went to see Alice In Wonderland in 3D - it was great. We took our housemates 3D glasses that she had got from seeing it, mostly because we didnt want to have to buy 2 pairs, but also because it's the green thing to do. In the cinema on the big screen they told us that the movie is green because you can keep you're 3D glasses. This is a) true. Reusing is always the best option but b) Amusing in that a statement about the movie experience being good for the environment is being projected onto a screen with about 12000 watts!
I don't begrudge green washing by any means. In fact the more people are made aware that everything has an environmental impact the better, its just that it can all be so wishy washy. This Ted talk is an excellent look at how hard it is to know how to be green, just in the home:

Dresser

I got a new mirror for our dresser from a little country shop. And so a re-arrange was in order... My favourite!

New, New, New!

We've got a new mattress! I'm so flipping excited about not having springs poke into me, about not waking up with a stiff back about not having the slats collapse out under me! Bring on bed time! It arrived this morning and we wrestled it up the stairs, tore off its plastic cover, and burried ourselves into its so soft yet firm fluffy goodness!
In other 'yay' worthy news: tomorrow heralds an Ikea trip! It's all change in the sophntim living space (aka our bedroom) and once it is shiny and beautiful I will show photos.

{via}

Around the interwebs: Shelf / Life

Shelf / Life. I, rather: husband and I discovered it yesterday. I literally stopped mid conversation to stare lustily through the window. Naturally we went in. If you're in Sydney, I recommend you do too. It's full of stunning ceramics, cushions, letterpressed papers and cards and other cuteness that you'd definatly want to put pride of place on your best shelf. They have admirable ethics too. I love a shop that cares. Check out their blog here. I believe they are soon to be featured in the never endingly yummy Frankie magazine too, so get in before all the cool kids are doing it!

Images are from the shelf / life blog.

*Around the interwebs* is a new series for Wednesday's (for a while) featuring the many magical and marvelous things I stumble upon on my internet travels (it's what I do instead of television!) Enjoy!

Wonderment...

Last night I saw an entire escalator on a truck. How do they do that?

{image}

Different neck of the woods...

We went to visit my lovely friend Lizzie who is living off a $1.40 for all of April. We cycled over to her and bought her a coffee (poor love!) and went on a big long walk. One of the few free things that there is to do in the city... It was such a glorious day. Just a hint of autumn on the air, crisp, fresh, yet golden. The area we walked around was full of well loved front gardens and beautiful houses (some even with turrets - I want a house with a turret so much). Happiness!

Love (heart) it

Seeing as lots of people have asked about the love heart tea cup in this post, I did a bit of research as to where a person who isn't as lucky as my friend Mia (who has a mother who finds love heart tea cups in random shops in Tamworth and buys them for her daughter...)  could get such a thing.
So you can buy similar from an online shop called bits & pieces and I think they ship international and its a good price, they look like this:

Or these ones are heaps more expensive, but look more like Mia's:

Or I found these at a wedding things, a better price but a different look:

Oh and then I just found this whole listing here, but I dont really get how it works...

Things to be thankful for

* We are able to afford the new mattress we just bought. I can not WAIT for wednesday night!

* Having a lovely dinner with my old housey on Monday night. She cooked yummyness.

* Having a huge baking session and then a tea party with lovely ladies on Friday.

* I have 20 followers. It may seem small but it feels lovely :) Thanks chaps.

* Although it is ridiculous in some ways that I am at work on a show where I literally have nothing to do, it's kinda cool getting some forced alone time to work, read and watch movies *shhh* oh and get paid for it.

* I live with amazing people, who are caring, fun, love coffee as much as I do and give superb hugs.

* I am married to the man of my dreams.

* I can drink water straight out of the tap. I still remember how good this is from time to time, post Africa.

* I don't have a huge cloud of ash hanging over my country. Sucks for you North Europe :(

* Tim has now raised $430 for homeless and marginalised people in Sydney by not wearing underpants for all of April! And apparently he has greatly increased his sperm count in the process (OVERSHARE! HA!). Sponsor him here... Find out why here.

{things to be thankful for is a post I do every Saturday. It helps me sum up my week and remind myself of all the good things in my life. Feel free to play too and leave your *thankful's* in the comments or a link to yours on your blog. I will definatly check it out. *s*}

Tea time...

Yes, it is true. I participated in a morning tea party. We sat outside, on brightly coloured rugs and cushions. There were roses and lavender bushes around us and we were under a jacaranda tree. And every single one of us wore dresses. 

And then we drank tea. And then we ate: Caramalised onion tart, stuffed curried eggs, brie, gouder, quince paste and blue cheese, cucumber sandwiches (crusts removed), scones with strawberry jam and whipped cream, honey & cinnamon cupcakes, chocolate mousse (out of tea cups) and fairy bread. And then we couldn't move. Yes, I feel your jealousy rays emanating towards me. And fair enough too.