Flowering Geraniums

Today is the 2nd day of winter but really it feels more like spring. The sun is shining and after the rain we have had the garden is looking bright and fresh. My trusty old geraniums are starting to flower and the colours are lovely.

When I was young I used to hate geraniums and vowed never to have them in my garden - how things have changed....

As we have such a dry, harsh climate I have planted many geraniums and they just need a little water and a bit of TLC every now and again and they keep flowering.

Happy gardening.

Suzy

I'm joining A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday

A Very Special Visitor

I have a very special visitor staying at the farm house.....can you guess who it is??

I thought the old timber might give you a hint - it is my darling little grandson!! He has come to stay with Nanny and Poppy for 4 days as his Mummy and Daddy are in Melbourne on a business trip.

This is the first time he has stayed away from his parents and he is just a dream- as soon as I speak to him his little face just lights up.

This is his special chair - I bought this at a farm sale many years ago and it was covered in chippy white paint - it took me forever to get it all off and now I wish it was still like that!! If only we could see into the future.

As he is staying for a few days I thought I would polish up MrFH's silver christening mug which I have recently found in our old farm house. As you can see it hasn't been cleaned in a very long time so it was impossible to remove all the black from it.

I also found Mr FH's little silver spoon so that has been put back into action too.

 

No meal would be complete without a matching napkin so I found these pretty paper ones with sheep on for him to use during his little farm holiday.

I has been a real delight to have this little man to hop into bed with me in the morning and have special cuddles with - I will miss him when he goes home tomorrow.

Suzy

Snakes and Ladders

How long since you have played snakes and ladders??? For me it is a long time but as grandie No 1 is now 15 months I guess it won't be long and it will all start again(I can't wait!!).
While away on my cousin's weekend last weekend one of the girls presented us all with a book (160 pages!!) of our family history. It contains a photo of every person in our family from my grandparents on. It truly is amazing and something I will treasure forever. As well as that she decided to make us a game.....

It is a game of snakes and ladders with 4 snakes and 4 ladders all representing each of the cousins. Mine is fairly easy to pick with 3 shoes, lipstick, quilting memorabilia and school stickers all on the ladder.

She had spent hours gathering together all the little bits and pieces for each person.

This cousin is a tennis player, a footy fan, a gardener and enjoys a cup of tea!

This ladder is for my sister who has the coffee shop, garden centre, is a footy fan and bakes cakes for the shop.

My cousin who 'owns' this snake works in aged care (hence the wheel chair and gloves), likes gardening and has been lucky enough to regularly go on a cruise.

As you can imagine we had many laughs while we played this game - especially after a couple of glasses of wine!! I am trying to think up a fun game for next years trip.

Have a lovely weekend...

Suzy

Red Tablescape

Yesterday I gave you a sneak peak at the red tablescape I had put together. I had a lot of fun and as I said yesterday I have learnt to shop the house!

I had bought these cute napkins a couple of weeks ago and they were the start of my table. They were 50c each and the only thing I purchased so I was very pleased to be able to put this together in a colour I don't normally use - it is amazing how china looks so different in other colour combinations.

I have a few pieces of red transferware which I have teamed with some pretty cups and saucers. The white chargers were purchased a few months ago for only $10 each - it is such a shame there were only two in the shop!!

Most of this china was found in second hand shops or kindly given to me by my mum.

I have used pretty red and white tealight candles along the centre of the table.

I just love layering lots of different plates - I think it's just like unwrapping a present to see what's underneath..

The table runner was another piece of fabric from my quilting fabric stash - lucky I am able to use it in tablescapes as I haven't being doing much quilting lately.

Even though I don't drink red wine (my kids tell me I need to practice this!!) I really love these glasses. I bought them a few years ago to use at Christmas.

The clear handled flat ware matches the vellum paper I have covered the tealight candle holders with.

I had this lovely urn given to me for a birthday from a very dear friend and I wanted to use it with the white candles but I couldn't get them to stand up properly so the only thing I could find to use was the dark red apples from the fruit bowl!!

What is it about candle light that makes everything seem so special??

Suzy

I'm joining Marty@A Stroll Thru Life

Lady Katherine@Lady Katherine's Tea Parlor

Wanda Lee@The Plumed Pen

Martha's Favorite

Sandi@Rose Chintz Cottage

andPamela@Silken Purse for all the fabulous tea parties.

Seeing Red

Hi, I am back from my weekend away with my cousins and "no" I didn't get cross with any of them... We visited Kalgoorlie which is a very old gold mining town (now a city) and while we were there visited many places of interest.
 We had a tour of the 'red light' district for which the town was famous in the gold rush days of the 1800's. The little shacks are still standing today - very interesting!! There are a lot of beautiful old buildings which I have taken photos of so I hope to bring them to you later. We had the most wonderful family weekend.

Today I am joining Mosaic Monday with some 'red' photos I took of a table I set for lunch last week. I don't have a lot of red in my home so this was quite challenging to say the least.

I have learnt from looking at many other tablescapes that I really need to look around my home with my eyes wide open and it is amazing what I find.

Suzy

Weekend with the girls

I am having a weekend away!! In my family we have 8 girl cousins (I am the youngest!) and a few years ago we decided we would have a girls weekend once a year. This year is our 10th anniversary so we are heading to Kalgoorlie - a city famous for the gold mined around it. I have not been there since I was a child. It will take about 7 hours of driving to get there. We have hired a mini bus which we will drive ourselves - what fun it's going to be....

Every year we try to visit somewhere different and try different things - usually lots of shopping is included.

I am looking forward to seeing all the old building and the many, many pubs - left over from the gold mining hay day.

I will be back on Monday so hopefully I will have some stories to share.

Have a nice weekend...

Suzy

Tuesday Tea Time Again

Once again Tuesday has sprung up on us! I am home from work today with a nasty cold so have had a bit of time this morning to set a 'Tea Table for Tuesday'. I wanted to use the top of my vintage Singer sewing machine to set today's table. This is a family heirloom- I received it about 15 years ago but before me it belonged to my mum's aunt. It is one of my most treasured possessions and makes a great little table for two.

I saw this beautiful little rose bud just waiting to be picked... it is a pretty peach colour so I had to shop the house to find china with the right tonings to match.

I have many teapots but not one to match this pretty colour so I have used my silver teaset I received for my 21st birthday (just a few years ago LOL!). The milk jug looks to be scratched but it is just a little frosty from the cold milk.

I love to use different cups when I create a table so I found this pretty peach toned one then I matched it to a lovely rosebud one.

The little teaspoons with the crystal on the end came from a cute giftware shop in Perth a couple of months ago - they were $3 each so I don't think they are really silver or crystal!!!

No cuppa is complete without somehing yummy to eat - shortbread should hit the spot!!

Once again I didn't have napkins that looked just right so I resorted to raiding my quilting cupboard and found this pretty piece of fabric I cut up - I just tucked a crocheted doiley inside to soften the look a little.

Hope you stop by for a cuppa!!

Suzy 

I'm joining -  Marty@A Stroll Thru Life

Teatime Tuesday@Lady Katherine's Tea Parlor

Teacup Tuesday@Martha's Favorites

Tea Time Tuesday@Sandimyyellowdoor

Tuesday Tea for Two@The Plumed Pen