Holiday Snaps- Seaside views and opshop scores!

Do yourself a favour. For your next holiday, or break, or weekend away or day trip or lunch break, head down to Rosebud. It's not far if you live in melbourne now with all the different new roads linking people to other places in an instant. That's where we went for a weeks holiday with my hubby, percy boy, sister, mum, my twin brother and his lovely gal, oh and Yahoo, the dog! Besides having the beach at the end of the road where we stayed (and really anywhere in Rosebud your not far), there are also about 8 opshops, that we could find, in the area. Then once you've spent all your pennies at those, jump in your car and drive for another 10 min to rye then onto sorrento for another few opshops. Well thats what we did anyway! It was a fabulous week away with walks on the beach, opshopping, card games, eating out, watching movies and just all being together. Here are some of my holiday snaps!

*Some beautiful seaside shots*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Some of the best opshop finds..*

 

 

 

Fun kiddy fabric

 

 

pillowcases

 

A old christmas pillowcase I will use as Percy's stocking

 

A fabulous old cookbook

 

 

Tablecloth

 

 

This amazing coat. It was $1!!!

 

and hubby bought all these books!

 

 

 

We also enjoyed sundaes,

 

 

homemade sticky banana balls (just used my banana cake recipe and rolled it into balls with a caramel sauce) and lemon slice,

 

 

 

 

Yahoo and Percy played together,

 

 

 

And I finally learnt how to crochet! I'm still learning but yay! Thanks to my sister for teaching me.

 

 

 

 

 

Wow, ok, I feel I need a cup of tea after writing this post. Tired! Hope you enjoyed looking at these photos! I look forward to our holiday again next year!

 

Taz xx

 

 

BY FRYD.

Iv'e been cutting up the pictures from last years calendar to use for cards, gift tags, decorations etc and thought I would share with you exactly why. The photos on the calendar were BY FRYD and they are just lovely. Have a look..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm happy that I get to see/use these pictures a little bit longer even though the calendar itself has since been replaced. If you would like to see more of BY FRYD's pretty photos just click here.

 

Now to think of creative ways to use mine!

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Taz xx

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty Plate Friday!

Here's todays plate design. It's a favourite that I have seen.

 

 

 

Happy Friday!

 

Taz xx

Pretty Plate Friday!

Its hot today in melbourne. 41 degrees. Its not nice. But here is a pretty plate that is nice. Its blue too, to help you feel cool!

 

 

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

 

Taz xx

A creative christmas.

Before we are well and truly out of the christmas season and into baking hot cross buns, I wanted to share with you a little snippet of my christmas and how creativity was all around. Whether it was items I made as gifts, or gifts from others, everyone seemed to be on the same page, with handmade, recycled, pre loved gifts and things to encourage our creativity. Here are some photos (that I remembered to take) to show you why this christmas was such a good one.

Made this bunting for my mum

Recieved this handmade brooch

 

Recieved this handmade necklace

 

Bought these cute badges from a little craft shop. Put them on some pretty card and gave as gifts.

 

My sister made this for Percy!!!!

 

 

My mum in law made this lovely felt picture for us.

 

Made a couple of gadget cases for my aunty

 

I bought some vintage wallpaper scraps for my family to get crafty with from teawagontales.blogspot.com

 

Recieved these amazing pre loved serving dishes

 

I made this bunting for my sister

 

My sis in law made bags to give her gifts in! We have 3!!!

 

Hubby recieved some really good books

 

Made up a sewing kit in an amazing preloved case I found as a gift

 

I went to the Scandinavian Christmas Bazaar where I found cute hand made wooden decorations. Gave them as gifts.

 

Sis in law handmade this mat for me

 

My sister made name tags for hubbys garden

 

Mum knows me. She got me this craft book and a craft mag subscription!

 

Gave this pretty pre loved brooch.

 

Made this patchwork picnic rug for sis in law

 

Made tubs of ice cream for bro in law

 

Recieved this painting of Ben Harper

 

My sis in law made christmas decorations for my house

 

Found some vintage paper to give away for card making etc

 

Percy got this handmade western bulldogs sock monkey from sis in law

 

Made this drawstring backpack for my niece

 

 

Perhaps you've gotten some ideas or feel encouraged to get creative this year from these photos! Thankyou to all my talented family and friends!

 

taz xx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year!

We are in the new year, and what a year it's been already!! Today, despite lack of sleep from playing uno and cards until late new years eve, I have buckets of energy! We started our day with the best brekky...homemade blackberry ripple ice cream on hot spelt pancakes! How could the rest of the day not go well! Will share the recipe further down.
Today, i cleaned the shower..serious clean. Tile by tile. I sorted out clothes. I planned the hard rubbish collection. Ive gone for a walk. Ive eaten a scrumptious lunch cooked by hubby. Ive made a dinner that brought back a million memories of my childhood. Eggs, steak and chips. Ive done about 3 loads of dishes. Ive planned our meals for the week. Ive cleaned the bread maker for fresh, homemade bread tomorrow. Gosh, I dont know whats hit me!

I guess there is nothing quite like opening a new diary, and putting a new pretty calander on the wall with no scribbles or mess. All clean and ready to be written on! I don't really care for resolutions as I just want to live and do what I can but Im excited for this year, and the next 12 months to get creative. What will I make? I have no idea! But I like that.

To start off, here is my recipe for homemade blackberry ripple icecream!

You will need:

300 ml full cream milk

100gm honey, or you can use sugar

1 egg, well beaten

2 tsp vanilla beans or extract

100gm fresh or thawed blackberrys

200 ml double cream

Heat the milk, egg, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan until it thickens but do not boil, stirring constantly. Let cool. Add the cream to the cooled custard mixture and churn in a ice cream maker for abour 20-25 minutes. Puree the berries. Take a quater of the ice cream and place in a container. Then pour some puree on. Keep on layering like this until all finished. Stick a knife into the icecream and swirl. Freeze to harden a little more then enjoy!

This ice cream is good. Sometime in the next 12 months, I encourage you to try making homemade ice cream!

I hope you all feel excited and positive about this new year and I look forward to sharing with you what I and my lovely family get up to. Please do share what you do with me too!

Hooray for a new year!

Taz xx