Funky stationery for kids

Came across a few sites that sell handmade greeting cards, lolly bags and the like for kids and tweens whilst hunting for invitations and bags for Miss 6.75's birthday. Here are some faves from:
shopforcards.htm
fairydustdesign

I usually make my own ... but these are adorable if you're time poor:

Yummy textiles

.. these Galbraith and Paul textiles ... I'd bend over backwards and do a cartwheel to get a few lengths for my lovely chair and a matching lamp shade. Hmmmm maybe not the cartwheel.

The fence dilemma

We have a temporary side fence up so the builders can get through and build the house next door.

Apart from the mess the trades have made on our new pavers with blobs of render and paint all over the place, they keep moving the fence and letting the 'doodle out to play.

The 'doodle (as we affectionately call her) is a large, woolly labradoodle who loves to muck about in wet cement and anything extremely smelly ... like sewer drains. So the people across the road who just finished laying their new driveway and perimeter cement are not overly pleased with said 'doodle, who clomped and pawed her way across their pristine wet cement not once but TWICE.

I think we will have to send a bottle of wine over there when they move in. She must think she is a doggie starlet ... after all the breeder named her after Nicole Kidman.

Growing menagerie ... snail country

Mia decided to bring home a plastic container full of snails the other day she called 'snail country'. She said she felt sorry for them because the other kids at school were stepping on them. The other kids were teasing her affinity for grubs and bugs, but I could tell she was really worried about the baby ones.

I told her snails are nomads and prefer the great outdoors, because I wasn't too keen on them living in our veggie patch. With a few tears ... she released them to the wild, knowing they'd have a fine house to retreat to if it rained.


Update: today we purchased a few snails from the local petshop that can live in the pond instead of the veggie patch. So everyone is happy. They are biggies so hope they don't eat the fish!

Textiles

I'm looking for some fabric to cover an antique chair in our lounge room. Something a bit startling would be nice. I've found some great botanical prints but they are overseas. So the hunt is on for local, or at least on this continent, textiles for our room.

Here are a few from Red Seed Studio - I like the chair a lot. I think it would look really nice in our bedroom or on the balcony. Might have to hunt through ebay and auction rooms for something similar.

















Galbraith and Paul

What we've been up to ...

First the bad news:
We had a car accident the other day and Michael cracked his vertebrae, 12th rib and tore a hole in his stomach lining. He was in hospital for 5 nights poor thing. We missed him terribly but he is home now and we are driving him nuts overwhelming him with love and affection.

You can't please everyone.

And the rest:
I've been trawling sites looking for homewares and textiles. Found a great artist from Melbourne who is doing some lovely work. Purchased some prints from Etsy which I'll frame and put up on the stairwell along with the new pics from Tsk tsk.

Now we are working on our garden which is a blessing as we both enjoy working in the rain!!!

We have built up the back yard with a red gum sleeper raised garden bed along the back fence and will bring it along the sides as well. Still thinking about how to screen our fences ... at this stage we are thinking that perhaps bamboo or nature reed is a goer.

Right now the Magnolias are starting to bloom and they smell delicious. The front yard is definitely Aussie native and we are trying to use plants out the front that are indigenous to the area.

We saw some great ponds the other day ... would love to have a billabong in the back yard ... Miss 6 would love it as well!!

New Pics

After a new table, buffet and the rest the house is starting to come together. We planted a series of 10 Little Gem Magnolias out the back and I can't wait for spring/summer when they bloom. Seriously beautiful plants.

Few pics