Friday, December 30, 2011

Top 4 posts

Today I thought I would share with you my Top 4 Posts!!
The first is our Christmas In July table all decked out in pink. We actually held it later than July as we had toruble getting the family together!! Check it out here.

 The next post was one I did I my collection of Royal Albert china. If you'd like to see more go here.

I just love Royal Albert china – I think I have from the day I first day I ever saw it.  It is stored away in the cupboard at the moment but it won’t be long and it will be out on display again.


My home tour was another well liked post. How inviting does this  bed look?? I could certainly do with some R & R at the moment. You can see this post here.


I love the white china with that little bit of bright green – nice  and fresh. Pop over and have a look here. This was a small makeover in the kitchen.


Suzy

I'm joining Show&TellFriday@MyRomanticHome
Rhoda@SouthernHospitality
FeatureYourselfFriday@FingerprintsontheFridge
FlauntItFriday@ChiconaShoestring
FeatheredNestFriday@FrenchCountryCottage
HomeSweetHomeFriday@TheCharmofHome

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

What a Christmas!!

We had a really lovely Christmas with our children, their partners and children plus many members of my family. Christmas Day saw us enjoying wonderful food, presents and great company. Boxing Day however, was another story……

Mr FH had a massive reaction to ‘something’! on Boxing Day night. We still don’t know what caused this but it was so scary. He started having problems breathing and his face and lips had started to swell at an alarming pace. Luckily I had our daughter and son with us (one is a nurse, the other a paramedic) so I had a great support crew. After spending the night in hospital he came home to the beach house and slept all day yesterday. Today he’s up and about but still not bubbling over. We have come home to the farm for a couple of days then back to the beach house for New Year.

I have some photos to share with you of my sideboard at the beach house. I have taken photos of our Christmas tables but with all the confusion (and worry!!) I haven’t even looked at them yet. Hopefully I will have time for all of that tomorrow.






























I love the look of silver and white – especially at Christmas.

Suzy


Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas Wishes

 

                                                                                  

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Merry Christmas to all!! I hope you have a happy and safe Christmas with your family.

 

                            Suzy

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Christmas Re-do

I have been having a tough week – what with all the weather problems we are having (Mr FH just had the header bogged today!) I have now torn my groin muscle! Talk about it never rains unless it pours. I haven’t been able to get a post ready for you but I didn’t want to miss the fun so here’s what I have to offer.
I am doing a re-post of our Christmas a couple of years ago when I first started blogging!! How things have changed……

                                                                                             Does anyone recognise this box??

I found this tucked under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning - it was a beautiful diamond ring from my husband.  It is just stunning.....what a start to a fabulous day! We had the most wonderful time at my sister's town house on the canals in Mandurah - a gorgeous seaside town on our coast. Our kids were all there (at some stage or other) as were my sister and her family and my MUM.  My other sister and her family were unfortunately not able to come too.
          
We decorated the table in black and silver (not colours I normally use) but I thought they looked very elegant. What do you think??
We started our morning with icey cold champagne (we arrived at 12.30 so it wasn't that early for champagne!) then we sat down to wonderful seafood crepes for our entree. We always have the traditional roast turkey with cranberry sauce, ham, baked potatoes, stuffed pumpkin, cauliflower cheese, peas and corn regardless of what the temperature is - this year the weather man was kind to us.
For dessert we always have plum pudding or pavlova with strawberries. Yummo!!
                                         
After a short nap we all hopped onto the two boats we had (one belongs to my sister and her husband and the other to Daughter No 2 and her husband) and cruised around the waterways, I tried to take photos of the magnificent Christmas lights on the water front but they didn't turn out so well (maybe too many champagnes by then!!). Eventually we headed home to start eating again. This time we had cold meats, crayfish, prawns, salad and a fabulous whole fish which we stuffed and baked. Dessert was a lemon tart, individual cherry puddings and a yummy white chocolate, macadamia and mango torte.
Boxing Day was very similar to Christmas Day - just eating, drinking, cruising the waterways and enjoying having our family together.
I hope you all had a wonderful day with your family and friends.

The table looks so bare compared to what I have set for you this year. I have it all ready at the beach house but forgot to take my camera with me on the weekend so I’ll snap some pics on Christmas morning.
Suzy

I’m joining

Christmas Table


This week I have done a traditional red and silver table for Susan's Tablescape Thursday. I have been looking at the gorgeous charger everyone is using and just had to have some (these are not used much here in Australia) so was so thrilled when I went to the city last week and got them at Adairs for 50% off. Six for the price of three - can't get better than that.



I was also lucky enough to find these wonderful Christmas plates on sale at Myer so I bought eight of these - they are something I will be able to have forever to use at Christmas.


The chargers look gold in this photo but they are really silver. My gorgeous red stemware I have had for a few years now. The napkins came from Ikea and  and the white napkin rings are about 20 years old.


This Christmas tree is new this year (also from Adairs I think) and the mercury glass candle holders are from Spotlight. The flatware is Onieda which I have had and used for many years.


I love tealight candles on a table - they are so simple but just seem to add that bit of magic.
Have a wonderful Christmas everyone! I'm sure there will be some wonderful tablescapes to look at next week.

Suzy

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Unseasonal Sunday

We are supposed to be having lovely hot weather here to finish our harvest but instead we are having cool, wet weather. Over the last 10 days we have had 6 inches of rain!!! last year we had a drought an received only 4 inches for the year and to date this year we have had just over 24 inches!! What a contrast! So I thought I would join Seasonal Sunday with some photos from last week when we were busy harvesting and now some photos from this week when we can’t even drive on the paddocks!! Talk about unseasonal. These photos were taken about 6 hours after the storm had hit. We were harvesting the best crops we have ever had but now it looks as though the grain will be downgraded – who would be a farmer……

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I finished work on Wednesday for our Summer break but it was so unusual as it is always hot for our school Christmas party but this year it was quite a cool day.

I hope Santa has his boat ready or we might just miss out on our pressies!!

Suzy

I’m joining SeasonalSunday@TheTablescaper

OutdoorWednesday@ASouthernDaydreamer

 

Monday, December 12, 2011

Metamorphosis Monday

I have been trying to finish off my Christmas decorating. I have found this a little hard this year as I have decorations at the farm house and also at the beach house and they all seem to be at the wrong house!! Talking of houses we’ve had a busy time this last week…..last Monday we were hit by a severe storm and it dumped 4 1/2 inches of rain – mainly on the farmhouse!! Rain like that at this time of the year is just what we don’t need. Harvest has come to a grinding holt and we’ve been busy doing sheep work. We had a quick trip to the beach house which was unexpected but nice. We received quite a bit of flooding in our house – mainly on the south side where our familyroom, office and main bedroom are. Carpets have been really soaked so we are waiting for our insurance company to sort this out. I’m still trying to finalise last months storm damage to our electrical goods!

In between all of this I have done a quick redo of the kitchen dresser with a few Christmas plates. It’s amazing how you get into the feel of Christmas once the decorations start to appear!

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I was able to set our Christmas lunch table while I was at the beach house on the weekend so I was happy to have that ready and waiting!!
Suzy

I'm joining

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Copycat Tablescape

When I saw that Debbie Doo’s was having a copycat party I knew exactly what I was going to do. I had just seen a gorgeous table and had thought to myself ‘I can do that!!’ I already had just about everything I needed so I fiddled around until I was happy with the result.
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I did have a bag of lovely red apples for the centre but before I could set my table someone has eaten them!!! I just substituted some red Christmas balls.

I hope you enjoy this gorgeous country Christmas table.
Suzy

               TablescapeThursday@BetweenNapsonthePorch



Monday, November 28, 2011

Candy Stripes

 I was all set yesterday with a post (in my head!!) ready for Seasonal Sunday but it is now Monday night here in Australia so I guess I missed that!! I had a lovely few days in the city with my daughters and their children. I didn’t get much Christmas shopping done but I guess that will happen sometime in the next few weeks!
We have had some strange weather -  finally the rain has stopped so we are able to start our harvest then we had two days of extremely dangerous conditions (you may have heard about the fires at Margaret River) then we had some rain and today it has been perfect for harvest.  I took the opportunity to set a little candy striped table outside before it gets too hot. Mind you the flies just about carried me away!!
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There is nothing new on this table. Just bits and bobs I have gathered up from around the house. The flatware is my favourite by far… I also love the napkins folded like that so I could tuck a flower into them…….and the striped cups and saucers are also very cute….in fact these really are my favourite colours.
Suzy

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