Tada!

My dears,
I have to confess I've been sitting on some exciting news. It's been killing me keeping it in but we had to make certain before I blurted it out to the internet. This news does not involve vomiting, pooing, crying or anything else baby related. Though it is baby blue in colour... Blog  readers here's our first home, first home meet my blog, I think you two are going to hear a lot about each other in time to come:

It's cute huh?!!
Baby blue, weatherboard, 1920's, wooden floorboards, high ceilings, fireplaces, 1000m2 garden, rustic sheds and in the country. Le blissful blissful sigh.
It's been a rocky road getting it. It has the misfortune of being on a tiny bit of a flood plain. You may have noticed floods have had a bit of bad press right now... That and buying a house is a complicated business. Seriously, they need to teach you this stuff in high school. Or give you some papers on it or something. Yes, some clear, not in jargon papers handed over in high school with a "keep this somewhere safe until you want to buy a house then read this and it will explain what all the crazy things you have to do and what all the big words that people start saying mean."
Aye me! Right. That feels so much better to have gotten off my chest. How did you find house buying (If you have indeed ever bought a house)?
I should add that as stressful as the whole business has been - we've been helped by some amazing people along the way. I believe we have met the most decent real estate agent in the world and both are families have been wonderfully supportive.
Anyway, enough about getting the darn lovely thing, here, have some average real estate shots of the interior and garden and swoon with me! (Ignore the beige and the curtains, look at the floorboards and the coloured glass in the front door!)

ps. I should clarify that we are not moving to the country this instant, we will be renting it out for a little while first. But I'm already dreaming up names for a dog when we move there!

Flea Market Finds

Okay so not found at the fleas or the thrifts but on the street. We've got some pure gold from the Sydney streets over the last 6 years of living here. Now in our bathroom rests our new-to-us washing machine, it's about a 4 year old LG and it's in perfect working order and completely spotless. Also pictured a gorgeous vintage chest of drawers, not as spotless but nothing a bit of sugar soap and hot water can't fix. The whole thing is solid as and it even has a touch of stripped off paint - I love it when I don't have to apply the rustic touch myself! Score! Thank you back alley. Do you get awesome off the street stuff in your hood?
Sorry for the shoddy iphone pic!
More flea market finds over here...

Things to be thankful for.

* Really good news which I will share with you on Monday.
* More interstate visitors, which means more reasons to get out and explore.
* Jam. Cream. Together in holy matrimony. Amen.
* Telephones. I know they're annoying but I'd miss people if I couldn't chat with them while Im on lunch at work.
* The empty city streets to cycle down on a midweek public holiday.
* Buskers.
* Movie dates with my boy.
* My boy.
* Laughing so hard you cry.
* The smell of onion cooking.

{Things to be thankful for is a list I started when I began blogging. It helps me reflect on my week and remember all the good things in my life. I would love it if you played along too, leave a link below or comment and link to me on your post. *s*}   

Link love for Friday...

* Beautiful book image art!
* An amazing festival of murals - check out some of these walls.
* Chewing gum as art?
* Cute inspiration board idea.
* The title kinda describes itself... newseum.
* This gown is gorgeous.
* I've just found my new helmet...
* Tell someone you love them!
* Spray on fashion! Holy wow!
* New online magazine... Matchbook.
* And the alphabet in font form...

The Alphabet from n9ve on Vimeo.

My creative space...

So this is the felt I bought aggggges ago. I eventually got round to going to spotlight and buying some filling to make these cushions I've had sitting in my head. I've only made two so far, I'm thinking some button decoration needs to happen though... but which ones? Which ones?

More creative spaces here
More animation Fridays here

The dilemma

...Was solved for me by the most manly of menly men. My husbando. You know what he did? He, (who only dislikes spiders a little bit less than I do) caught the bloody thing (it was still in the same spot at 8pm) with an ice cream container - no glasses here, a glass wouldn't have been big enough - and walked it three blocks away and released it. A super duper, kind to all gods creatures, wife dilemma solving husbando. I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

Morning glory...

This is the first thing I saw when I woke up this morning. Well truthfully it's the second thing. The first thing I see when I open my eyes is the off button for the alarm, obviously. But anyway the second thing I see when I open my eyes is this: A 5cm (that's TWO inches people) wide spider, and we know how I feel about spiders.  Happy flippin' Australia day. Hooray you live in a country with ludicrously terrifying insects. Hooray you live in a country where it's too hot to sleep at night. Hooflippinray.
I'm joking of course. Australia is obviously wonderful. For all the obvious reasons.
Anyway, it was easier to get out of bed than usual with this lurking over me... and despite my initial feelings I decided I would get dressed to go to work, rather than just avoiding the bedroom completely and going in my pajamas. Quite brave of me really. Of course the dillemma is... what to do if he's still there when I get back or even worse what to do if he's not there - if he's not there then where the hell is he!

The weekend in pictures...

How was your weekend lovelies? Mine was most wonderful, it's rare for me to have two days off in a row, so the boy and I made the most of it. I went looking for a new bicycle here, we had an impromptu picnic in the backyard, did the Spit Bridge to Manly walk, enjoyeda most rewarding beer (it tastes sweeter after 12ks of walking I swear), inspected flowers in the garden and ate home grown carrots. Pretty damn good really.

Apricot coconut tart

 

So a baking urge came over me and it had to be to do with all the amazing stone fruit that is in season... I searched all the usual places for an enticing apricot pie recipe, but without luck. In the end I made this one up. I made wholemeal pastry because I was all out of plain white flour, you could go either way - though I like wholemeal because it adds a semblance of healthiness to any dessert (which of course means you can eat more of it!) It's pretty bloody nice I have to say but it must be accompanied by vanilla ice cream on a warm summer night..

You Need

* 240gs plain or wholemeal flour

* 180gs butter

* 1 tblsp cold water

---

* 1kg apricots, washed, cut in half with the stones removed

* 1/2 an orange's juice

* 100g brown sugar

* 50g white sugar

* 1 tsp cinnamon

---

* 1 cup dessicated coconut

* 1 cup of ground hazlenuts (or other nuts probably)

* 1/2 cup brown sugar

* 60gs butter

Things to be thankful for*

* Red wine and how it makes conversation flow
* Being made dinner.
* A proper two day sunshiney weekend.
* Lovely people who comment on my blog.
* How quickly sunflowers grow
* A good book to sink into.
* A nothing but supportive family.
* Sweet potato. I love sweet potato.
* Making new friends.
* Soap.


{Things to be thankful for is a list I started when I began blogging. It helps me reflect on my week and remember all the good things in my life. I would love it if you played along too, leave a link below or comment and link to me on your post. *s*}   

Link love for Friday...

* This photography is amazing and so is the story that goes with it. 
* Amazing garage before and after.
* Some more pretty incredible photography.
* Jason makes cool random stuff..
* A fun and informative way to kill some time.
* Niiiiiiiiice house.
* Celia and Jamie have a new blog...
* Wanna know who rides a bike?
* These guys did a gig at my work... I'll admit there are some perks to my job ;)

*

*

Me: Oh crap we didn't put the bins out last night.
He: Oh we might not of missed them, I'll put them out now.
Me: Umm... but you're only wearing a towel...
He: Yep. It's great isn't it.



* Not my real husband

Bicycle pj's... completed at last!

I finished them and gave them to the boy for Christmas! He dig's 'em and so do I.

If it sinks...

...fill the middle of it with blueberrys. Then nobody's gotstaknow.
Stephanie Alexanders Lemon cake, with my addition of frozen blueberrys. Hells to the yeah.

Things to be thankful for.

 * We live in a country where if natural disaster strikes the government will fix it, they will contribute and they will send in the army quickly. (This is not New Orleans)
* We live in a country where if natural disaster strikes the general public will contribute and help more than just their neighbour. (This is not Pakistan)
* We live in a country where if natural disaster strikes our economy will suffer a bit but it won't fall apart. (This is not Haiti)
* The sunshine yesterday.
* A fun opening night catching up with old uni friends and free drinks.
* Cooked breakfast, coffee, all my housemates in the one room, rocking out to rage against the machine this morning. Awesome.
* Home grown carrots.
* Not having everything and therefore having stuff to look forward to.
* A small nugget of time that was spent alone reading this with the breeze blowing in the window.

{via}

{Things to be thankful for is a list I started when I began blogging. It helps me reflect on my week and remember all the good things in my life. I would love it if you played along too, leave a link below or comment and link to me on your post. *s*}  

Should I work for free?

This. This is genius. It's doing the blog rounds at the moment, but still.. Jessica Hische, will her wonders never cease?

Link love for Friday...

* Check out this dorm room!
* Sweet page for a guys future wife.
* Water sculptures.
* Cute cute cute stop motion story.
* A new issue of Lonny magazine.
* Gardens hanging on string!
* Loving these bags and cushions.
* These prints are fabulous!

New Years Birthday

 

It was my dear friends birthday on new years eve. She has a thing for cherry ripes, so I invented a cherry ripe cake*. It was full on rich and quite amazing, thats solid dark chocolate on top there. We built a fort in our back yard using the clothes line, all our sheets and table clothes, the wheely bin, cable ties and of course pegs. My boy dragged the tv out and we watched the fireworks and the Muppets movie, ate too many snacks, wore silly hates, danced with sparklers and kept mosquitoes at bay with copious amounts of repellent. Oh and went to bed at a very reasonable time.

* recipe to come if I can remember what I did...