Holidays are over....

Well I am back after the most wonderful 10 days - this is the Athina which I cruised on with my Mum and my two sisters. We had the most lovely time - we don't ever just have the four of us (usually husbands, kids and grandkids are there!!) so it was very special to us all. We laughed so much, ate so much and talked so much - not a bad way to spend 8 days!! The Athina was a wonderful ship with fabulous staff to provide beautiful food and really fantastic cocktails!! The only downside we had was the weather - as we were south of Australia the wind was really gusty so we weren't able to sit on the sunlounges all day reading books as I thought I would be doing - we had facials, massages and afternoon snoozes instead.

We travelled to Adelaide by boat then hired a car and drove to the Adelaide Hills and the Barossa which is a very famous winegrowing area of South Australia.

These are some photos I took while walking around an old town called Hahndorf which is Australia's oldest surviving German settlement. It was a really beautiful town where I could easily live and settle into one of the many stone cottages we saw.

There are just so many wineries, cheese factories, chocolate factories and craft shops around this area it was just amazing.

Finally we flew back to Perth where I spent a couple of days catching up with D No1, S No1 and their partners and also my dear little grandson who is now walking!! I started back at work yesterday - we had a staff inservice all day so that was a great way to break ourselves in - students start on Monday so that will really mean the end of the holiday then!!

Until next time...

Suzy

Red Hot Summer Colours

Today I have set a pretty table with really bright colours - so not my style but I'm thinking it will be great outside in the pergola. These are the placemats I purchased while in Perth recently from Myer(our big department store) in their after Christmas sale.

The red napkins I have had for ages and the cute little tealights come in a pack of four -yellow and orange ones too!! I tied my flatware up with a piece of ribbon -that's not so easy to get them to sit nicely!

The red china is new - on special in Perth last week! It is by Maxwell and Williams and is an Australian company who also produce a lot of white tableware.

I have mixed this with some purple side plates I have had for ages. The colours look very Moroccan to me - what do you think? (Not that I have been there!)

Once again I was stuck with the centrepiece - I had these purple candles which had been used- what does everyone else do with used candles - use them again or throw them out?? I'm not sure what the 'right' thing to do is. Anyway I didn't have any new ones so I had to use these but as the wick was a little way down I popped a new tealight into the candle and that seemed to work fine.

I also added my green water jug and purple and green tumblers which I had already bought for summer - they seem to work perfectly I think!

These cute little tumblers are from Ikea - I think the pattern on them is so cool for the summer!

Lastly I added my red stemmed glasses - I usually use them only at Christmas so it is wonderful to be able to combine them in this tablescape.

This is going to be my last post for a while - I am going on a cruise with my Mum and two sisters tomorrow so will be away for about 10 days. I'm hoping there will be some wonderful tablescapes for me to share with you from my holiday when I return.

Until next time,

Suzy

White on white

Boy, do I bounce around .... I have just decided I need more bright colours after seeing all the magnificent tablescapes so I went off and bought myself some colourful china..then I decided to take a few happy snaps around the house and what do I come up with...WHITE!

This is an bunch of cute white silk flowers in DNo 1's bedroom (she left home many years ago but it is still her room!).  I have the walls painted a very soft blue-grey colour so also painted this little tin tub to put the flowers in.

It is a lovely bedroom with an old iron bed I had restored for her - it belonged to Mr FH's granddad and was in very poor condition when we decided to get it fixed.

This is my daughter's first pair of shoes (she is 31 this year!) and they just sit on her bedside table.

They are just so sweet.

I am having so much fun doing mosaics with my photos - I have done a few different ones with the photos of my Christmas decorations and have printed them out and am going to use them as Christmas cards to send next year.

Until next time,

Suzy

Just a barbeque....

I hope you all had a lovely weekend -we finished off our weekend last night with friends over for a barbeque.
It was a lovely relaxing night - not too hot, nice food, icy cold champagne and lots of laughs - just how you want it to be!
Instead of my usual pink table last night I decided to use some of my blue and white china - these two cute little jugs were part of my centrepiece. The small jug on the left is from Crabtree and Evelyn and the pretty floral china is called Calico. Blue and white always looks so fresh - don't you think??

I started off with a crisp white cloth then used my new silver chargers, my everyday white china then topped it off with a small plate from the calico range. The napkins are from Ikea - I really love the texture of these!

Just as I was standing back admiring my work Mr FH walked in and declared "It is only a barbeque!"

Whoops! Perhaps the chargers were just a little over the top!! I have had these cute placemats for ages so decided to use these instead - much more relaxed (still not the paper plates which Mr FH thought we should use though!!)

Now something for the table centre.. no flowers around at the moment as it's been so hot so what do I use??? I have two of these cute little bowls (DNo 1 brought these back from Turkey for me when she was living in London) so thought they would look nice with tealights in them - anything looks good in candlelight I think!

The large oval platter seemed to be the ideal starter for my table centre. I just took a few blue and white jugs I had on the dresser and popped them on the platter, next I added tealights to them. The effect was lovely but I was a bit concerned the jugs might crack so I placed white pebbles in the jugs then added the candles.

I was so happy with the end result.

I can't believe how good my flatware looks now that I have polished it all up!!

See, I told you anything looks good in candlelight!!

Suzy

Photo Mosaic

Howdy everyone! I am just feeling so damn proud of myself -I have managed to download this photo editting program AND get some results!! These are just some pictures I had on the computer that I had taken around my house one day when I had nothing better to do!! I am so thrilled with how the mosaic turned out - Thank you Pat!

Have a great day,

Suzy

PS Think I might get the paint tin out and paint that lamp!!

Dinner at the Farm House

Today I have set my table in pinks to go with the gorgeous stripey plates I have - it is so hot here at the moment I decided it looked much cooler to use my lovely white placemats - they are made from white string all twisted around then stiffened somehow. I think they look nice and summery.

The white plates are from my everyday wear which I seem to add to everything else but as the summer in Australia is so hot it feels just right for me.

This pretty stiped plate is by an Australian company called Robert Gordon - it has such pretty colours in it. I received quite a lot of this as gifts from my friends when I had my 50th birthday a couple of years ago. I mainly have the tea set with teapot, cups and saucers and these side plates.

These crystal water glasses I have had for some years but I recently found this lovely water jug in the old house over on our other farm - I think I have just about got everything from there that's worth saving!!

After I had taken these photos I realized how dull my silver was looking so I cleaned it all so now it is ready for guests -

 why do we put these jobs off for so long when it is so satisfying when we have done it??

The pink napkins I bought from Bed, Bath and Table a couple of summers ago -I just love this colour so much!

This is the sugar bowl and creamer to match the side plates - the teapot is covered in flowers like this - it is so me! My friends certainly know me well when they purchased this.

I recently found these cute candle holders at a garage sale - $10.00 for the set of three - what a bargain!

Ideally I would like to have used darker candles but as I live 90kms from our shopping town I had to make do with what I had.

I will be joining Susan's Tablescape Thursday tomorrow to check out all the fabulous tables there.

Suzy

Chocolates and Stilettos

This is a gorgeous calendar my Mum found for me at Christmas. How cool are these pink stilettos? My two most favourite things are shoes and chocolate - I'm sure if I gave up both then I would truly be a millionaire!!

These are my favoutire shoes - I had them when DNo 2 was married last January - I would love to wear them every day but as you can imagine there isn't much call for little beauties like these at the farm house. 

Red shoes are just sooo sexy I think - I can just see myself trotting out in this gorgeous pair. I am sure that if I had a thousand pair of shoes I would still be on the lookout for more - what is it with females and shoes???

My most favourite pair for the summer season here in Australia would just have to be these...

I received this pair from a work colleague at a Christmas party - have you seen anything like these before??

During the Christmas holiday season DNo 1 was home at the farm and we really needed (yes, needed) a chocolate fix and the only ones we had in the house were these - she decided if we just bit off the heels then we would have a wonderful pair of flats - how's that for a crazy idea.

As you can see we decided to keep them whole but I really don't know if I will ever be able to eat them - they are just too cute.

Suzy

Happy New Year!

A Happy New Year to you all!!

This is a picture of my sister's townhouse where we celebrated Christmas -as you can see it was just so hard staying there and enjoying this fabulous life.

I have been sooo busy since I left this idealic scene - for two days Mr FH and I helped Daughter No 2 and her husband shift house - boy was  that hard work. I think we started on the hottest day you could imagine but by the afternoon we just worked inside the 'new' house. Mr FH and our son-in-law got called out to help fight a fire in amongst all the mess we had but fortunately that was under control after a short time. The second day I painted the pantry and linen cupboard before we shifted everything in.

 Thursday was the day I was waiting for - we were off to Perth for New Year and also back to Tiffanys!

The beautiful ring my husband gave me was a little too small and as it had diamonds all around it could not be altered so I had to get another size. I thought I would have it to show but unfortunately the next size has to be ordered in so I have to wait 2 weeks - so I can't let you have a little peep til then.

We had a lovely new year - catching up with Daughter No 1 and her family and also Son No 1 and his gorgeous girlfriend. We are home again now and getting ready for shearing our sheep (about 4000!) so that will keep us busy this week. Tomorrow I am off to help Daughter No 2 strip wallpaper from her bedroom walls.

Hope you love this sunset photo I took on Boxing Day night..

Until next time,

Suzy