Five Friday Faves (or maybe Saturday!)

1. FEIJOAS! One of the best things about this time of year.

2. THIS BEACH!! And a lovely Autumn break there..
(Can you see Cuvier Island in the background? - looks like a giant whale - love it!)

...and having the beach all to ourselves. I could watch the kids play all day.. 

3. And speaking of beaches..I stumbled across this amazing blog the other day.. The author collects,  arranges, photographs and makes funky art with non-natural stuff  (ie rubbish) she collects at her local beach.. SO COOL! I remember doing the collecting part when I was younger and the arranging (usually lining it up in rainbow formation), but sadly I never made it to the creating stage!. Also I don't believe there was as much litter.. obviously a lot more to be found these days sadly. Her blogs are fantastic though - check them out. Very inspiring!

4. This WALL of Succulents. On their own I'm not a massive fan - but wowsers!! I'm rocking this idea! It's an actual wall, not a bird's eye view.

5. Romance and fairy-tales? And an event .

And any excuse for a party.

And the only way I got the boys interested was to give them 'fish suppers' (a nod to my London heritage)  which was a great excitement - fish and chips in separate packets, and a can of lemonade from their Nana!! Wow they thought they were in heaven!  They love having dinner off of the tea trays for a treat but this was double, triple happy! I'm sure  Ben10 or something would have been more their viewing choice though!

Iris was there, just in case she ever gets interested in girly girl things in the future, like princesses and weddings. Asleep on my knee - it was hard to get that shot! 

vintage queenie.. 

THE ROYAL WEDDING

I remember so clearly the RW in 1981.. we didn't have a telly so we all (there were 8 of us) crammed into our neighbour Gayle's tiny lounge. My Mum was a total romantic nostalgic type.. and my Dad is anti-monarchy -and despite being a Londoner himself - only came so he could scoff at everything, and probably to help Mum with crowd control!!! Dad donned a pair of large Charles ears for the occasion, from memory.

Anyway, despite not being too interested in the Royal Family, I grew up a total Diana fan.. a bit of a girly-girl, I was..

The wedding of Kate and William is pretty hard to avoid. It seems like it's a must-watch whether one is a monarchist or not. It's fascinating and momentous, whatever the case!

If I were in London still I'd be tempted to throw a street party like this..

but with a bit more bunting!

And if it was Summer here I might make this for dessert tonight..

I was tempted to order one of these for my Dad and one for myself because I think they're bloody brilliant!!

And these are a couple of favourite things I've found around the place...

The wedding is on in the evening/night here.. so a lot of people are having parties that involve either dressing up as princesses and/or trying to fit into your own wedding dress (eek).. There is a fab drinking game for watch parties that absolutely cracks me up.. 

I think we'll have a celebratory red, white and blue party of some sort. Maybe we'll drink a bit of tea, but I don't think I'll keep my little princes up for a late one tonight!! 

THE CHAIR

The second hand find of the year TO BE SURE! ANd it isn't mine!! My sister-in-law picked it up ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD at the beach!!! LUCKY STARS!!


She is going to put it in her girl's room.. but I had to have a little photo session first..

Underneath it has a velvet orange cover as well..
.In supreme condition, the whole thing!!!
MAJOR SCORE!

Easter Activities

I actually managed to make something the other night!
I made Easter Hunt bags from felt for the kids..

Check out the footwear!

Easiest way to make easter biscuits! Kids decorate store bought plain oval shaped ones!

Natural dyes.. but I could not find WHITE eggs anywhere in this town!!!!! So dyes didn't take as well as they could have.. had to soak them for ages..

Kids absolutely loved it.

Repurposing paint sample cards... I saw   THIS  and this amazingly clever idea and I made

...this garland..

EASTER

As kids growing up in the Southern Hemisphere it was always hard to work out why there are bunnies, chicks, spring flowers, baby animals and bonnets at this time of year as there is a distinct lack of those around here at the moment!!

However, the eggs and chocolate thing was never a problem!!

Gil putting feijoas in the egg cups! Love that kid.

Literally the last decent flower from the garden.

Five Friday Faves

GOING TO THE BEACH FOR A WEEK.. so last post till next Fri..

1. LAST OF THE SUMMER FLOWERS FROM MY GARDEN...

2. Sindy dolls from the 70s...One day I'll collect these in homage to my childhood! 

3. WANT THIS!!!

4. LOVE it!

5. THIS PJ SHIRT.
I wore it when I was his size!

And one more more easter:  LOVE THIS SENTIMENT!!

GRATEFUL

I'm grateful for..

* The AMAZING weather we've had this week. Autumn is starting.. the days are shorter and it's cooler in the mornings and nights but SUCH glorious days!

* The Mardon Rd Op Shop.. Unfortunately it's closing down next week. It's done an amazing job in the community.. Toys and kids' books ALWAYS free.. so that's where I dropped off any of my stuff that I was getting rid of. And always a FREE box outside.. and I got some amazing things out of there often. They were cheap and cheerful and quirky and I'll miss the women in there a lot!!

* FEIJOAS. It's that time of the year again. I can't get enough of them.

* School holidays starting tomorrow.

* The moments in the day where I watch the kids quietly from afar and hope that I remember the picture that I'm seeing forever. Sometimes I take a photo to make sure I don't forget.. A bit like this one:

They spent a long time in here. It was a rocket and they had water squirter bottles to fend off the bad guys.