Hard at work today.....

Today I have been at work - well not my real work at school but my 'fun work'. My sister and her husband own a nursery, coffee shop and gift shop and they are away in Sydney buying giftware so I am 'minding the shop'! Not really hard work, as you can imagine. I have the job of displaying all the giftware and I love it.
I just go and rearrange the shop whenever she wants me to and I really love it. I get to play around all day!!
I have taken some photos today to share with you.

I still have three more days to work so by then I should have everything changed around and nice and clean.

It is really interesting doing displays with colours that I don't normally work with,

Have a lovely weekend.

Suzy

PS  How cute are these cute pink wire baskets - I have purchased some and I keep my table napkins in them!

It's all white..

Today I am feeling much better. SNo 1 is looking ok today after his surgery yesterday so that's enough to make any mother feel better. He hopes to be discharged from hospital tomorrow so heres hoping the surgery was successful. Also my darling little grandson had his first birthday today. It's so hard to believe we have had such wonderful times with him for 12 months now. We spent a couple of hours with him before returning to the farm- he is having a birthday party next Sunday on our Labour Day holiday weekend.

I have quickly decided to join the girls at White Wednesday at Faded Charm with these few photos I took of a display I have on the tv cabinet. When I packed the Christmas decorations away I decided I would like to keep the candles sitting up there for a while so I gathered up a group of white and silver candles. I just love these mercury candle holders....

Suzy

A day of ups and downs....

Today I'm really feeling a little 'up in the air'. My gorgeous 24 year old son had major surgery on his knee today - this is his 3rd big op so I'm really feeling as most mothers would....stressed. We came up to Perth yesterday to be with him today. We are just about to make our way back into the hospital to check on him then hopefully have a good sleep. Last night was a bit restless as you can imagine.
But tomorrow we are hoping for a much better day - we hope SNo 1 is feeling a lot better and it is also our first grandson's first birthday. So you can see why my emotions are all over that place.
Today while my son had surgery I had a lovely pedicure from one of my favourite beauticians - she really pampered me when I needed it..
We are off back to the farm tomorrow after seeing both our 'boys' (big and little) so I hope to have some nice tablescape photos to share with you soon - these are not in my home but somewhere else!!!!
Be back soon....

Suzy

Cupcakes and chocolate muffins!

Last weekend we were lucky enough to spend the weekend in Mandurah (a beautiful seaside town) with DNo 1 and her family. As usual we hit the shops - Spotlight to be exact and we picked up the pack of 4 cupcake plates for $10 - wow!! We both bought a pack so we have 8 between us to share!

They really inspired me to do some baking so it thought the most obvious thing to bake would be...

chocolate muffins!! While out shopping we also purchased some lovely Robert Gordon patty pans in a cute blue floral print. Just perfect I thought!

I had puchased a length of brown fabric with blue polka dots on it for the cloth (think the dots sent my camera funny cos the pictures aren't too good!) so used that with some pale blue napkins. I used my very old  brown cups and saucers from our wedding (33 years!!) and they matched perfectly. I still have the complete set with no chips. To frill things up a little I used a small white doily under the cup - these I 'borrowed' from my sister's coffee shop. I had this gorgeous cottage garden book that we browsed through as we had our cuppa.

 

The Donna Hay sugar sticks are my favourites - I don't know what I will do when they run out! They come in a container with four different colours - all pastels - pink, green, blue and a creamy colour.

I am still using my old camera while my good one is being fixed so I'm sorry the photos aren't too flash - I thought they looked better cropped!!

Suzy

Secrets

Shhhh...can you keep a secret???
Yesterday I decided I needed to tidy the cupboard where I keep my t-shirts/tank tops etc. It was looking a bit messy after the busy Christmas/holiday season.Well, I was busy folding and stacking, folding and stacking when I suddenly thought what a lot of tops I have (it takes a while to notice these things!)...

As you can see I like my wardrobe to be colour coded for easy access er, diving in to grab something!

So after I had a little pile all neatly stacked I decided to do a quick count......well I got to 77!!!!!

I was so shocked - this is without my shirts which hang in my wardrobe and also my 'farm' clothes I wear everyday.

As you can see this pile isn't quite in order (this was done after the count up!) but I think you get the picture!

They really do make a nice picture with all the colours though don't you think?

So please, if you ever meet Mr FH please don't tell him my secret. I promise not to buy anything new for a while -unless of course it is a bargain too good to refuse!

Suzy

Show and Tell

This week we have had the hottest weather you could imagine so I have been stuck inside for days. I have all the office work up to date (a job I hate but must do!!) and washing and ironing finished so yesterday I made myself a little button necklace (I showed you the vintage one I bought earlier.)
It was so easy - I just spread the buttons on an old towel on the floor and sat and treaded them onto black wool - very effective. 

Aren't these colours just fabulous together!!

A plan to wear them with this cute little cardi (if the weather ever gets cool enough!!) and my jeans.

(Sorry about this photo below -I found it quite hard to take the photo of my cardi.)

It really doesn't take much to keep me happy...

Suzy

Breakfast In Bed

Who doesn't like breakfast in bed?? I am certainly one person who does... usually I just get a cuppa but that's better than nothing. This week I am joining Susan @ Between Naps on the Porch for her gorgeous Tablescape Thursday (I know I am early but things are a little busy here so you have to  do these things whenever there is time!). I have done a quick little breakfast tray that I would just love to see coming through my bedroom door...somehow I think it would be more likely my daughters who did this not Mr FH..

I had just bought these cute little egg cups for $1.50 each so they were the start of my tray. The flatware is really pretty polka dot pink - very me...

I used a very plain white cup, saucer and plate I had which belong to a coffee set. The striped napkin I had purchased a couple of years ago from Bed, Bath and Table - it is a set of six but there are three different pink striped designs - this one looked the prettiest.

 

I started off with this lovely pink depression bowl for the fruit but changed my mind and added this lovely pink bowl Daughter No 1 had given me a couple of years ago for my birthday.

I had pink candles sitting in them (there are two!) when suddenly they caught my attention - much better I think.

Our bed head is very wide so I am able to display things on it - this gorgeous candelabra sits up there all the time - I hope it never falls off as it is very heavy!

Please sit back, relax and enjoy this breakfast tray I have prepared for you...

Suzy

Vintage buttons

Today I want to show you a cute necklace my Mum gave me last week for my birthday. She bought it in the Barossa Valley on our trip in January. It is handmade from beautiful vintage buttons...

Aren't the colours just gorgeous - it is all stitched together with black wool. Some of the larger buttons have smaller ones stitched on top - I just love it!!

While I was away on the weekend I picked up this lovely bag of mixed buttons to try to make a necklace myself - I also happened to pick up a cute little cardi in this gorgeous green colour too!

I'll show you when I get it done - maybe I'll make some to give to friends for birthday presents!

Suzy

Valentine Love

Finally, our weather has cooled off enough for me to get outside and set a table... I thought I would do this little table suitable for a Valentine's Day breakfast with Mr FH.  I shifted  lugged my table and chairs off the front porch (in Australia we call it a verandah but I think porch is so much more romantic..) and set them up under a tree in the shade. Then I gathered up lots of vintage bits and pieces I had put away just for a table like this and packed it all up in a picnic hamper..

I love the soft creamy white colours of the old china and the cute bowls I added for fruit.

How beautiful are these wonderful old salt and peper shakers? When I found them they were so dirty I have had to scrub them clean - I haven't used silver cleaner as I really love them the way they are.

Life on the farm looks pretty good here - it's hard to believe we had the most amazing storm yesterday...

I found a box of vintage cutlery but sadly most of the bone handles have all broken so I will be on the look out for some replacements.

I will be joining Susan @ Between Naps On The Porch for her lovely Tablescape Thursday to see all the wonderful tables this week.

Suzy

 Sorry these photos are a bit blurry - I have had to send my camera 'away' - does anyone else wonder where 'away' is and why it takes so long for anything to come back???

Cliff Richards Live..

Howdy everyone, Well I have just returned from a lovely weekend in Perth - we have a couple of birthdays this week so Mr FH and I went to Perth on Friday and along with our three kids and their partners/husbands had a wonderful dinner together. Our meal was just wonderful and all being together was so special.

On Saturday night Mr FH and I went along to see Cliff Richards and The Shadows (I'm showing my age here!!) - it was just unbelievable!! I can't get over the fact that he is nearly 70!!! I hope I look that good then...

Suzy

Sorry about this blurry photo but my camera has decided to stop working and I had to fish the old one out!

Tablescape Thursday.....

Wow, my new book was just so lovely - just looking at the wonderful old collectables makes my heart miss a beat. For my table this week I have included some old china - depressionware and lovely old rose covered plates.  The starting point for my table was this cute table runner I purchased while away on my holiday. It was in a little garden centre (the only one left AND my colours!!) and it caught my attention.

The runner is 6m long and 33cm wide and made of the finest tissue paper which you just cut to your required length - what a great idea don't you think??

I started gathering up lots of bits and pieces to match the colours of the runner -  thought I might even cut smaller pieces at some stage and use for placemats.

    

Once again I used my lovely white tablecloth - I have had this for years but I wouldn't call it vintage yet!

I really love these silk roses - they actually belong in my sunroom - it is so amazing just what you can pick up from room to room to get the table to come together.

I'm joining Susan at Between Naps On the Porch for her Tablescape Thursday - I can't wait to see this weeks creations.

Suzy