Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Spooky spooky night

As the rest of the world (or so it seems) gears up for Halloween it seems Australia is just catching on to this fun time. As a child we never ever celebrated Halloween but these days the number of kids out trick or treating is increasing greatly. My daughter who lives in the city is surprised by the number of little visitors she has knocking on the door.
I needed to make a quick display at school just to tide me over for a few weeks so I decided to set up a quick little table to display our spooky books. I explained to the students some of the things I knew about Halloween and also some I had googled. I even had one students ask if I was saying ‘Chicken Treat” or trick or treat!!  Chicken Treat is our nearest fast food outlet…some 70 kms away, mind you!  I had picked up the piece of fabric last year when everything for Halloween was out on sale so that was my starting point. I quickly printed off a few signs and pumpkins grabbed a piece of net (only had white, so that had to do!) then gathered up as many books as I could and I was done. I just love this fabric – how cool would this be for a tablecloth??  At the last minute I remembered my gorgeous black spider I had made out of paper plates and wool for a previous display so he came out to join in!   The kids loved the colours and the fact that spooky books can also be fun!!
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Suzy
 
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Monday, October 21, 2013

Winter Wonderland

It really is hard to believe it’s spring. We are having such funny weather – it has rained all weekend here at the farmhouse while the eastern side of Australia is being hit by the devastating bushfires. It is just so early for this to be happening. I am dreading summer this year as we have so much wild grasses along the sides of the roads due to the extended rainy season we have had. My heart goes out to all the families who have lost their homes and also the families of the fire fighters who’s loved ones are away fighting this terrible fire. I pray everyone keeps safe.
I spent Saturday at the gift shop setting up the first Christmas display. The colours we were working with this year are silver, white and beautiful Tiffany blue. Last year I fell in love with the ladder Christmas Tree I had seen on Home Is Where The Boat Is blog. It was just divine. I used my dear old Dad’s wooden ladder as my tree and wound 350 little twinkling Christmas lights around it. It looks just gorgeous. Because it was raining when I had finished and took the photos from outside it really looked like a winter wonderland….something we don’t usually see here in Australia!!! It was very hard to take photos from inside as I was looking into the window and had too much light coming in. I’m sure you will get the idea though.
PS  This really is a bit of photo overload today!! LOL
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I am promising myself that one day I will have a white Christmas…….not sure how I will cope being away from my family at Christmas though!!

Suzy


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Monday, October 14, 2013

Le Beau Day Spa

I have been enjoying our mid-semester break from work. Daughter No 2 and her two beautiful little girls joined me at the beachhouse for a few ‘girly’ days. We had a lovely time…. eating out, drinking wine, walking and of course, shopping!! After 3 days I went onto stay in the city with Daughter No 1 and her darling boys and enjoyed some ‘me’ time. (I have been working very hard on the farm these last few weeks so I really needed some TLC!). I spent an enjoyable afternoon at a wonderful day spa and indulged in a massage, facial and a pedicure. Just what I needed ready for the lovely warm weather we are starting to enjoy. Today I had another quick trip to the city (600 km round trip!) to take my dear Mum for some specialist appointments. Once we start to get a little older health problems start to get a little complicated. Today, however, the results were better than what we had been expecting so for that we are very grateful.
Here are a few quick pics I took at the day spa. I just loved the fish bowls on the wall above where I was having my pedicure. At first I thought they were lights….just shows how old I’m getting!!
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When I returned home for the weekend we were joined by our gorgeous son and his fiance for the weekend. So much fun…they came to do a final ‘crop inspection’ before harvest begins and we had a meal at our local pub and talked wedding plans. Such a delight to spend time with all my kids last week!!

Suzy

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Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Red hot summer on it’s way

We had a short visit to the city on the weekend. Mr FH’s mate was having a dinner at the casino to celebrate his 60th birthday and we had the pleasure of attending. It was so lovely to have the opportunity to dress up a little. I took these photos (on my phone, after a few champagnes!!) of our meals. Mr FH had the Black Angus steak with mushroom ravioli and I had the barramundi (the safest option I thought seeing I still have only a temporary front tooth!!) and it was beautiful. I forgot to take snaps of the entree – Mr FH had pumpkin soup and I had spinach tortellini – yummy…..I love Italian food!! Our dessert was a cherry ripe cheesecake. We had such a fun night and didn’t get to bed until nearly 3. These late night take a little more getting over than they used to!!!
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While in the city I made a quick trip to Target as our second little granddaughter turns 2 on Friday and I just wanted some extras to go with her birthday present. I quickly was drawn to the homewares department and was so taken by the great display of picnic ware and china they have ready for summer entertaining.  Not long now and we will be enjoying lots of outdoor wining and dining!! I have never liked summer too much until we bought the beachhouse and now I really enjoy it. With our pool at the back and the beach at the front of the house life is pretty good. Much nicer than the long hot days on the farm where the risk of fire is always on my mind.
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I really love the white china with the hearts!!!! The blue and green glasses are just gorgeous- all melamine so perfect for using near the pool. How good would these last plates in the black and orange be for a Halloween table!!!
Have a lovely week. I have all of my grandies coming to stay this week….not all at once thankfully so life will be busy!


Suzy
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