Summer time and Christmas ornaments

Greetings and hey there my lovely friends

This weekend past  I took my chicklettes to visit with my Mum and Dad who are lucky enough to live a two minute walk from the beach.

Silly me didn't think the water would be right for swimming yet - of course, I didn't factor in that kids don't care about these things.   On our first day we walked to the beach in our normal "it's too cold" clothes...and the kids just pulled up the legs on their pants and walked in...oh, all except my middle chicken, who had no qualms about going in the water with his shoes on!!!!?  

I don't know if he forgot he was wearing socks and lace up sandshoes...or whether he thought it would be fun to get the lot soaking wet! No matter the reason, I place the responsibility on genetics...on his father's side.

Sunday was a very different story: luckily, whilst packing for the trip and being completely unawares of my chill-factoring, the boys had packed board shorts, so they had a decent swim and a paddle, not to mention a decent dose of digging in the sand. 

Our little Bella Boo was quite content to roll in the wash or innocently annoy her brothers: I have no idea what the boys were hoping to find, but am pretty certain a little three year old plopping down in the middle of their hole was not part of the plan. Every time they struck water, she would migrate over to where they were and pop right into that little mini sand-bath. The boys, frustrated with a squealing happy three year old sitting in the middle of their fun, would move on to dig a new hole...and once more when they struck water, in she would plop. Happy as Larry. From where I sat, it really was very entertaining. Champagne should have been provided.

(see those knobbly knees, those are mine! )

I can't wait for a week with the kids down at Mum and Dads during the Christmas holidays; lazing, playing, swimming, eating prawns, oysters and beautiful summer fruit and just chilling out in general.

Speaking of Christmas, I am busy making ornaments for the Creative Colour Challenge - Ornament Swap that Louise Gale (Dream, Inspire, Create) is hosting.

The idea of this festive creativity is to make four Christmas ornaments; one for yourself and one each for three other people using the colours of Red, Green and/or Gold. We have to make sure they are in the post by 3rd December, and given all three of mine are overseas postings I should try to do it earlier than that!  I have played with a couple of different ideas, but think I have found a result I am happy with.  So I promise to be posting those very soon, with a tutorial (hoorah!)

Big hugs

Cath
xx

Flowers for you...

Dear blog buddies

These flowers are from my garden,

and I am giving them to you.

~

Things have been a little crazy around here of late,

so I would like to thank you for

always bringing a smile to my face,

giving me kind words,

encouragement and

most importantly,

your friendship.

 

Okay, these aren't really in our garden...

they were out the back of our place, which is close enough.

 

I loved the whole bed of daisies and the sweet memory of making

daisy chains as a child...

This tulip was the most amazing deep red I have ever seen -

 it was like velvet...just beautiful.

This little guy was in Bee heaven!

all images by me

These were itty bitty teeny weeny bulbs that popped up out of nowhere -

they were so sweet and delicate.

I hope you like them.

MWAH!


Cath
x



Sweet dreams...the bed reveal

Hello my lovelies

After much rain and great impatience on my behalf, I present to you Isobelle's new big-girls bed.

Now, remember our starting place...

the 1930's double bed from the bedroom suite I won on Ebay.

I sanded this lovely back with help from my gorgeous boys.  The immediate results for sanding those parts of the bed that weren't timber veneer was just remarkable. 

Next, came two layers of undercoat with another zap from the sander.  Then, I used two sample pots that I had on board from one of my numerous trips to the Bunnings paint section:  a beautiful blue and a whimsical pale aqua green. To be honest, I just blended those two colours together on the bed as I went along. I really loved the result from this in itself, but onwards I strove.

The top layer was a coat of pure white, mixed with one quarter Dulux Duck White - I wanted it to be a pure white, with the edge taken off, just a little. 

Then came the part that killed my arm - sanding by hand. I had never done this before ever, and my, I have got to ask you lovely ladies that do this all the time - how do you stop your bicep on one side getting too much larger than the other? My arm killed for days after I had finished...but I have to tell you, the results were so worth it and I am ready to do it all over again.

The bed was placed under a painting I had done for Isobelle before she was born and then topped off with a very pale blue quilt cover and a quilt that Isobelle's Gran made for her on Isobelle's first Christmas.

I wish I could bring you a "whole" of bed photo, but until the sun starts to shine again a photo from the "dark side of the room" just looks dark, no matter how I try to pretty it up.
So what do you think of my first foray into breathing life into an old piece?

I hope you are having a beautiful week.

Hugs

Cath

xx

It's raining, it's pouring....

...the old man is snoring...

because he has hay fever...

and can't stop sneezing!

Oh my goodness...we have just come out of a decade long drought with the most amount of rain since,...well, a good decade!  I was told today that we have already beaten our November rainfall average (over 20 years), and I could SO believe it! The gardens are lush, the flowers are blooming...the hayfever is terrible!  You would think that the rain would dampen the pollen, but this year all our hay fever is rife!  But still, the rain....glorious!

I totally adore the sound of rain on the roof and there is nothing better than an evening lightning and thunder storm. I love a good storm -  mind, as long as there is no thrashing wind - the sound of the distant rumbling getting closer, and counting the seconds between the light flash and the crash.  One elephant,...two elephants....  I had to teach my eldest that many years ago as he hates storms, so instead of seeing if they were getting closer like I would, he was all about if they were going away.

On the side of not liking the wet weather, I don't like, love or appreciate the spiders that are now moving to dry land - inside! Even right now, there is a nice big juicy huntsman trapped under a glass in the kitchen window sill waiting for my lovely to get off the phone to remove it to outside...and trust me, it was an amazing feat that I could even get so close as to put a glass over it, so bad is my "ergh" chill factor for them. The other night a big fat juicy spider was scuttling under the dishwasher, so it got a blast of spray - and explosion!! Baby spiders went everywhere! Now if there was ever a nightmare...that's it!! Hundreds of them!!   Chatlotte's web!? Die spider, die!! Okay, not really, but she wasn't real. Right!

Anyway, to strike those hideous images from my mind, let me share with you some lovely inspiration I found this weekend.

All Images Homelife

I hope everyone has had a super wonderful weekend.

big hugs

Cath

xx

Inspired to sleep

Hello dear friends

I was reminded the other day that I was due for another post; it was only then that I realised so much time had passed since I was last able to dedicate time to my visual indulgences.

For the past few weeks I have been sanding, painting, painting some more, then sanding again in an effort to revive the double bed that I managed to acquire in my grand Ebay win so that the little Belle Boo Bear can migrate from her cot/toddler bed to a big bed.

Yep - a double bed for a little mite!! Why you ask? Well, let me explain...our decision to put Boo straight into the bigger bed was due to her latest addiction - no, not the trying to steal my morning coffee - sleeping in our bed.  And why wouldn't she!  Not only is our mattress more comfortable than her little toddler mattress, but it also suits her sleeping style - that is, directly across the bed.

Yes, it is true. As long as I am sleeping in the lower bottom corner in a foetal position and Daddy doesn't mind the occassionally kick in the back, she can stretch herself out quite beautifully and have a wonderful sleep. And, if she can't sleep for whatever reason at 3am, she is patting our faces telling us she loves us...or, in a semi-sleep state, fluttering her delicate little three year old fingers over our faces like a butterfly. Truly, we are blessed. But we decided we need to sleep.

So I am glad to say that her room revamp is just about complete - there are a couple of little tweaks, but then I will post a photo of the revived bed.

In the meantime, let me share the most beautiful bedroom image that is almost exactly what I dearly wanted as a girl - a beautiful loft bedroom, tucked up and away just for me, where I could laze for hours reading books and staring out the window...

 

My Shabby Streamside Studio

 

Boo's will be nothing like this stunning creation, but I know that it will be perfect, just for her ♥

Sweet dreams.

 

Hugs

Cath
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