Sunday Morning

 

Sunday morning + farm fresh eggs + bacon + husband home =

BEST THING EVER!

Image via Pinterest

Towels

I bought some towels online a few weeks ago.  These are no ordinary towels… they are super special.  Not only are they extra soft, fluffy and absorbent, but they are made in Australia – at the Australian Weaving Mill in Tasmania to be exact - AND the cotton that they are made from is grown just down the road from me, on a farm belonging to one of my closest friends!

You’ll find Dri Glo towels in Myer, David Jones, Pillow Talk and are also available online through the Dri Glo website.  If you happen to be wandering around in the towel section in-store,  you’ll see big posters of a farmer bloke standing in a cotton field holding towels.

I can confirm that he is NOT a model.   He is a REAL farmer, growing REAL cotton.  In fact that’s my friends’ husband, Glenn.  Sorry ladies, this farmer has a wife!

I’m still here

I haven’t been doing too much lately…  just pottering around at home, spending time with my boys,  working on assignments and spending way too much time watching renovation shows. I’ve been scheming a few little housey projects of my own lately. At the moment, I adore maps and globes and would love to incorporate them into the boys rooms.

    Images from Pinterest

Letter to Poppy

Dear Poppy,

You were born on the 28th June, 1926 and grew up in a 2 bedroom cottage with your parents, two older brothers and three younger sisters. 

You finished school at the age of 14, and got a job working in the mines, following in your older brother’s footsteps.  Your first job was riding the pit pony, Tony.  Tony the Pit Pony. You were responsible for making sure that Tony was well looked after, fed and properly groomed. 

You were quite the sportsman.  You played cricket in the summer and soccer in the winter, captaining many teams and even being selected to play on the Queensland A-Grade soccer team. Unfortunately, the war started not long after the selection and you never had the opportunity to represent the side.

You met Nanna at a local country dance. That night, you went home and told your Mum that you had just met the girl you were going to marry. Nanna worked as a tailor at a department store so the next day your Mum went into town to check her out.  When she got home, her response to you was “you haven’t got a chance with her!”

Little did she know…

 

You and Nanna bought your first home not long after you married.  You were a modest and proud man and worked really hard to pay it off in record time.

You went on to have two children,  Brian (Dad) and Rosma.  Your family meant everything to you. 

Dad and Rosma both married in their early 20’s. I’m sure you would have been proud as punch on their wedding days. But tragedy stuck the family when Rosma passed away from an obstetric complication on her 23rd Birthday.  I can only imagine how heartbreaking that must have been.

You only had two grandkids…  Bee, and of course me…

 

… And three great-grandkids, Jack, Harry and Toby.  We were a very small and very close family.

My earliest memory of you would have to be, one Friday afternoon, waiting in your front yard for you to come home after hard day of working in the mine, then sitting down to a delicious roast dinner that Nanna had cooked.

Every Sunday, you and Nanna would come over for afternoon tea.  I remember us all sitting around the table eating freshly cooked pikelets with jam and cream and delicious iced fruit buns from the bakery. And whenever I eat pikelets or fruit buns now, I’m taken back to those wonderful times.

When you retired, you and Nanna went travelling around Australia on various bus trips.  Poppy, do you remember, not long ago, when I visited you in the Nursing home, I asked you what your favourite trip was?  Your response was “The Melbourne Cup”.  I asked Nanna later about that trip to the Melbourne Cup and her response was “It was all just silly nonsense, a big hoo-haa, and I would never go again”. 

Poppy, you loved your garden. Your lawn was immaculate, as was your home.  But it was so clear that your family meant more to you than anything. You were always there for us.  Every birthday, every celebration, every sickness, every dance lesson!

At the beginning of the year, your health deteriorated and we had to move you into a nursing home.  I know that was the most difficult decision that Dad has ever had to make. 

Sadly, on the 17th July, just two weeks after your 85th Birthday, we had to say our final goodbye.  It was the hardest goodbye I’ve ever had to say. 

Poppy, I want to thank you for everything you have done for us, our family.   I’m going to miss your kindness, your generosity, and your cheeky smile.  I will always hold those wonderful memories and all that love, close to my heart.

K xx

Ps.  You know your old wireless that was sitting on the bench downstairs?

 

Yeah?   Well Dad was going to toss it because he didn’t think it worked anymore.  But guess what?  I saved it.  I brought it home, cleaned it up, plugged it in and it works!!! Gold!   It’s now sitting proudly on one of my shelves in the library!

Long time, no see

It has been a while and I do apologise.  So, to bring you up to speed with what’s been happening in our life, here’s the rundown:

1.  My new Kitchenaid arrived…

2.  …as did my new coffee machine..

3.  My Brother-in-law had a heart attack which gave us all a huge fright, but thankfully he’s now on the mend.

4.  Harry turned 3!

 

5.  I made Harry’s “key cake” with my new kitchenaid.

6.  I was in the process of making it when I got the call about my Brother-in-law.

7.  Egg shells were added for that extra bit of crunch….

8.  …Milk was forgotten, because we all love the taste of rock hard cake…

9.  And it ended up looking like a deformed/diseased koala rather than a key *sigh* 

10. Actually, now that I’m looking at the photo of it,  it doesn’t really look like anything, apart from a total disaster.

I’ll move on…

11. I’ve started doing an interior design diploma course… something just for me.

12.  I’m 4 modules down and I received 100% for all 4 assignments.  

13.  Only 8 more assignments to go and the pressure is on to maintain my perfect score.

14.  I’m obsessed with “The Block”.

15.  I want Katrina and Amie to win.

16.  I’m also hanging out for Jamie Durie’s new renovation show, “Top Design” which starts on Wednesday night.

17.  Yes, I’ve become house obsessed.

18.  We went on a farm tour of our friend’s property,  “Benelong”.

19.  It was the most gorgeous afternoon. 

20.  School holidays are now over and I’m going to miss my big boy.

21.  I’m now dreaming of our next holiday which is still 5 months away.  Where should we go?  Noosa or Kingscliff?

Baking Day

I’ve had a baking day today. First time in a while actually.  I’ve avoided baking for a few months now… do you remember back here, when my mixer broke?  Then here, when my Father-in-law fixed it?  Well, it’s broken again and with Harry’s birthday looming, along with his request for a “Key Cake” (do you remember, back in the day, when key shaped cakes were all the rage for 21st Birthdays? Well, my three year old, key obsessed, son requested one, so that’s what he’s getting), it’s time to make a decision about what to do about my mixer situation.

1.  Do I make do with  my cheapo hand held beaters? (who has time to stand around all day holding beaters in a bowl, right?)

or

2.  Do I go all out and buy a KitchenAid?

Hmmm…

To help with my decision making, my lovely neighbour offered to bring over her BRAND NEW KitchenAid for me to try! 

Aren’t we lucky to have the best neighbours on the planet?

So, using her gorgeous Almond Cream KitchenAid, I made 2 chocolate cakes.

One for us…

and one to take back across to our neighbour as a thankyou…

 

I’ve never really made chocolate cakes before and I have no idea if these have turned out nice and moist or dry.  But I have to say, I was very impressed with the KitchenAid.  Adam even agreed that I should get one (the fact that he wants to buy a new shot gun for clay pigeon shooting may have helped my situation).   So it’s a done deal!

Now to the most important decision… colour.  I always thought that if I was ever to get one, I’d choose the almond cream.  My kitchen is cream and white so I figured the cream would be a perfect match… which it was… too perfect in fact.  It kind of blended into the wall and bench top, and remember,  I’m trying very hard to introduce colour into our house.

So, with that in mind I settled on the Pistachio. 

It should arrive in the mail next week… now that’s going to be an exciting parcel to open!!

Oh and back to the topic of introducing colour… to help me with this predicament, I’m embarking on a new and exciting adventure.  I’m not going to say too much just yet, because I’m a little bit scared and I’m still trying to find my feet. But stay tuned!

The rock

It has been brought to my attention that I have been living under a rock and it appears that I’ve been living there for quite some time.

It was just this past weekend, when I caught up with my young, hip, fashionista cousins, that I found out about Zara. Kind of embarrassing really.

When I Googled it upon my return home, I found their US website, checked out their clothes and even picked out a few gorgeous dresses.  Then I discovered that Zara opened their Sydney store a few months ago, and just yesterday, opened their Melbourne store. 

You can watch a little video about their opening here.

It’s a real shame that they don’t have an online store though and unfortunately for me, a trip to Sydney, Melbourne or anywhere overseas for that matter is just not on the radar.   So no gorgeous dresses for me.  

But, under my little rock, I’ve come to the realisation that if there’s a shop out there that doesn’t have an online store, then it’s unlikely that I know about it.