Christmas Holidays

I am so full! I love the Christmas holidays - too much food, way too hot, going for a swim and then listening to the Boxing Day Test on my radio while finding homes for all my new presents.

I did some vintage presents for Christmas and will photograph them later today - including some that I bought for myself!

Here are some photos of food - what else - that I have been making and a photo of our new favourite little person - Ella Rose - but being in Australia we have all been calling her Rosella. She is 8 weeks old here and her and I were getting acquainted for the first time.

Boxing Day Breakfast - I made this for my husband. Toast with Christmas ham, smoked salmon, avocado, poached eggs and Bearnaise sauce.

Christmas Day Dinner - a Delia recipe for a onion and cheese tart - very good and so easy to make.

Christmas Day Lunch - a roast veggie tart with a gluten-free crust made from polenta, rice flour and cream cheese. My brother and Father always requests this.

Rosella - 8 weeks

Summer breakfast du jour

Borscht - my favourite soup and a but decadent with some Camembert and delicious bread to dip in.

The carnivores version Borscht with a some belly pork.

Bruschetta with tomatoes and basil that I grew. These are about the only 5 tomatoes not eaten by caterpillars.

101st Post

Just a few pictures to slowly ease myself back into blogging now I have 6 weeks off from teaching!

My husband and I on his 32nd birthday at the delicious Garfish, Manly.

The wood-roasted seafood platter - amazing! The Bellini's at Garfish are the perfect summer drink while you are waiting.

My Marmee and her Beau, who took all the amazing photos at our wedding and who is never seen without the camera strap over his left shoulder.

A dinner I made at home - fondue.

Myself, my Grandmother and Aunt on the afternoon of the High Tea for my Hen's. I am wearing my favourite dress that I got from the 50s Fair in 2009.

2010 Fifties Fair

As the 50s Fair was only 2 days after our wedding I didn't think the Beau would feel like going. But he did. He even went in the Best-Dressed contest. However he didn't win (the man next to him on the right - with suspenders - won). The contest was being judged by the ever-lovely Pia Anderson.

These two ladies were the finalists in the female best-dressed. The lady on the right won.

This is a guy we met there who had an amazing Wanderers Jacket. Apparently all his cousins have the jackets and they go around singing and everything! No one else was dressed like him there. He also went in the best dressed competition.

Amazing Hair - wonder how long it took.

These two ladies I thought looked great. I love the hair under the hat.

Here is a shot that the Beau took. We are having tea out of our vintage picnic set. It was good except the Bakelite plastic taste made me feel sick! Any ideas how to get hid of it without hurting the Bakelite?

This is Rose Sidler House from where we were sitting on the hill in front of the bandstand. In past years we haven't gotten a seat just walked around. This meant that we felt a bit pushed and so left early and missed all the competitions and music. I think that next year we will try and get a spot on the hill again.

This is the Beau and my father-in-law checking out a car near where we parked. I love that colour!

Newlywed

I am now a newlywed!

We got married one week ago today and it was lovely. We have not received all our photos from our photographer but I do have some to show you. Here they are...

This is the view of the mountain behind we got married at Broke. I love the colours of the landscape.

This is when we are ready to leave the house. My bridesmaid was Jessy (right) and my Maid-of-Honour Christine (left).

This is before I walked into the room of waiting people! We were supposed to have an outdoor ceremony but it was too windy.

Saying our vows.

My favourite things on the day were:

• my Maid-of-honour making me pancakes for breakfast.


• Doing all the flowers myself. It was great to spend time with my family and friends the night before playing with flowers and ribbon (and saving a small fortune)


• The amazing wedding cake made by our friend.


• The sheep in the paddock next to the cottage we got ready in.


• My dress and everything just "working" together on the day.

I will post more pictures as they come in.

Our new life

I have been taking lots of photos lately of everything to do with our new home.  Mostly they are of the garden as I don't have the interior looking as I could wish.

This tree is a mandarin that was already in the garden when we got here.  This was taken maybe 2 weeks ago and since I have had some delicious mandarins - you just have to be careful not to eat the grubs!

This beautiful rose is from our front garden - I love the clear red colour.  I cut this one because the previous two were destroyed in all the rain we have been having.  It looked like this the entire time it was in its vase.  All the petals just fell off.  It doesn't have scent.

This a picture of my favourite spot in the house - under the wonderful Norfolk pine.  When it was warmer the Beau and I would have lunch under this tree.  I love looking up into it.

Here are the three trees I got for my birthday off my brother (a landscape architect) - who also planted them because I don't have a spade, and my Mum and step-Dad.  The are from left-to-right a Dwarf Tahitian Lime, a Tangello and a grafted Avocado.

As all my casual work has dried up I also have time to do my hair.  Actually though it is not taking that long.  I put in a few pin curls at night , and then just pin it up in the morning.  It takes about 10 minutes all up so I really could do it every day and have for the past three days.  But that could also have something to do with the Joan Harris (nee Holloway) obsession that I have at the moment.  So the pictures of my hair (not taken very well and with no make-up) are using the template that Super Kawaii Mama (you can access her blog from the side bar) sets out in a tutorial.

This is my first attempt - I put in about six pin curls around my face  - which helped with my long fringe.  However, I didn't get the side swept fringe that Joan has.  Please excuse no make-up.

This shot it a better one for showing the front.  My hair is also a bit too fly-away even though I had hairspray in - how does Joan get hers to be so clean, shiny and stay up?

Here is a shot of the back on day 2 - i think the hair looks smoother and I did do the fringe differently.  Also I didn't 

create the extra loop at the back the SKM and Joan both do - I just tucked the end under as I would normally do.

Today I also did more of a side sweep fringe and curled the extra length into a kiss curl.  I also think the height is better today.

So onto the wedding.  It is coming along so quickly and only last week I got out the invites.  It is also getting a bit stressful with people giving opinions were they are not asked for or going to be listened to!

This paper is by Christina Re.  The blue and gold are going to be the main colours for the wedding.

Here I have been experimenting with flowers and table seating as myself and Maid-of-honour are going to be doing all the setting up ourselves to keep the cost down.  This is what I have decided to go with for the flowers.  Some type of greenery with some blossoms arranged on top.  I got all these things from the garden and it took al of 2 minutes to do this.  The tablecloth is vintage damask and will be what we are using at the wedding.

This picture gives more of an idea of the colours but I decided not to go with this arrangement because then I would have the lug around vases.

Lastly here is something that I made for dinner the other night.  i have been cooking pretty much every night because now we have a Mortgage we cannot eat out as much as we were.  Which is fine because I like cooking - and we are getting a dishwasher for a Wedding present!

Here is the Beau's version - A steak and a salad with roast Butternut pumpkin, roast garlic, walnuts, roast onions, avocado and lettuce.  I hat menus that read like recipes so I will call it Warm Autumn Salad.

And my lovely vegetarian the version.

Smile!

Again, I know that I have not posted in forever but am getting busy as have picked up some casual teaching work and have the wedding in less than 3 months!  Also have secured a maternity position for all of term 3 at one of the best schools in Sydney so I'm over the moon and excited about that.

I have been remembering to take pictures but haven't been posting them so here are some pictures of me mainly with pin-curled hair and in outfits I like....

This dress is one of my favourites but now it's almost falling apart.  I pin curled my hair two days before and this is how it was on the third day.

Dress - Supre

Cardigan - Glassons

Shoes - Target

Bag - Vintage

Here is my hair another time that I pic curled it.  I tired to keep the back smooth and the curls around my face and nape of my neck.  The back was a bit uneven but I though it was ok.

This not-so-flattering picture of my face - and the ones that follow are how I did my hair on the first day after sleeping in pin-curls.  My hair was being horrible and I couldn't do anything with it so I had a go at some victory rolls and tried to give it some height at the top.

Here is my favourite grouch on the planet - Coco just after we moved.  She is loving living in a house and has been for a walk on the grass once or twice with her lead on.