Paris Je t'aime

It's hard to believe that our trip to Paris was 13 months ago! It was such a fantastic break for my husband and I getting away together without the kids for the first time!!! We had 6 lovely days in the most beautiful city in the world whilst our boys had a fantastic time with our wonderful family in Ireland.

Probably a bit late to be sharing photos but still thought I'd put a few up here. I'm one of those people who's perfectly at home with a digital camera and all its functions but is completely mystified by the process of backing up photos from an iPhone. But I've done it so here are a few Instagram snaps :-)



The stunning Sacré Coeur. We walked up many, many steps to see this and it was worth every single one of them. Because we were there in December there were lots of little Winter market stalls everywhere and such a fantastic atmosphere.





Beautiful rooftops with lovely little apartments tucked away inside. It's always been one of my dreams to stay in a tiny little Paris rooftop apartment and that dream was fulfilled on our trip. We stayed in a gorgeous little place at the top of many flights of little winding stairs, French windows opening out onto gorgeous views of all the other rooftops, I was in heaven!





This structure needs no introduction. Who doesn't love the Eiffel Tower, the most famous symbol of this beautiful city.



Selfie!!



The Moulin Rouge!



The Louvre. We were lucky the day we visited that it wasn't crazy busy and were able to have a good long look at the Mona Lisa and the many other stunning treasures this unbelievable museum houses.



Notre Dame Cathedral.



Shakespeare and Company - possibly the most famous bookshop in the world. It doesn't disappoint on the inside either, a little warren of book-stuffed rooms with arty types lounging around on sofas, in one room a guy playing guitar, in another a poetry reading, I could have spent a whole day there!



Delicious seafood at one of the many produce markets.

Jim Morrison's grave at the Pere Lachaise cemetery.

Sigh, I have another squillion photos on my camera that I haven't sorted yet but these pictures really bring back memories and make me ache to go back again. As Audrey Hepburn is famous for saying "Paris is always a good idea".

Where are the boys?

It was back to school day here in Sydney yesterday! The start of a brand new year, shiny new shoes (won't look like that for long) and new teachers and friends. I can't believe how quickly the last year went. My baby boy started kindy and now in the blink of an eye he's in year 1.

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while now may have noticed the absence of my 3 little rascals here. It was a decision I made early last year. When I started this blog I had never intended to blog about my kids at all. It was simply going to be about my vintage finds. But of course the little rascals, who fill my heart absolutely, infiltrated my blog every now and then. Not that much, just occasional little posts about birthdays, starting school etc. 

But then I read a couple of stories that made me uncomfortable. A well-known blogger whose photos of her kids were used by a random person on Facebook who was passing the kids off as her own! Then another story of an Instragram user whose kids' photos were being shared on different groups.

My blog isn't that big, it generally only attracts the attention of fellow vintage-enthusiasts, thrift-store addicts etc and I was probably worrying about nothing, but still I made the decision to remove the boys from my blog. I did feel a bit sad deleting the posts, there were some nice ones there including my Dad's visits and stuff but in the end I think it was the right decision.

Maybe they will appear now and then, their feet, the backs of their heads, who knows?

Tray Jolie

OK, so the French for "very pretty" is "tres jolie" and I thought I'd be hilarious and change it to "Tray Jolie" 'cos this post is about pretty baking trays. I'm nothing if not original.

Anyway, I know I'm not the only one who has a thing for vintage baking trays. I love their patina, their pretty patterns and their history.

Here are my 3 faves!

I also love that they were made in Australia, France and England. The majority of cookware these days is made cheaply in China and just doesn't last like these gorgeous vintage trays have.







My favourite is the madeleine tray which is from France. I'm going to try Rachel Khoo's recipe soon :-)

Le Creuset in action

The best thing about Le Creuset...

... is using it :-)

Lifestyley shot attempt (and fail).

I really love "Mum blogs"! You know the type, a glamorous mum with at LEAST 4 kids and a beautiful home blogging about life with children, recipes, shopping tips etc. Their blogs always exude such calm, their photos are always fabulous. I know deep down they must deal with the same chaos and mess all mums do but still I love to aspire to the calm domestic goddessness they exude.

Anyway about 20 minutes ago I put the kids to bed (they were being feral, had to be done), my hubbie is out for the evening and just as I grabbed my Home Beautiful mag and iPad for a nice evening's read I thought, hey I'll try to do one of those lifestyle shots with my food and mags. I put my apple pie on a pretty vintage plate instead of the crappy BigW dishes we use most days, I put it on a nice robin-egg blue napkin (not ironed) to hide the scratches on the table and then carefully arranged my magazine and FAB new iPad mini with retina display (whatever that is).

The result is pretty poor, I couldn't get it looking right, then the kids were calling me for various reasons "I need a drink", "I need my inhaler", I need to go to the toilet", "He threw his pillow at me" (they all share a room) and as my apple pie got colder and my ice-cream started to melt, I thought "Sod this" and wolfed it down.

But anyway, here's my little attempt at giving the illusion of being a calm, relaxed domestic goddess with time to spare..

Yes, I DID save the last piece of apple pie for myself, I bloody deserve it ;-)

Summer days

Happy New Year!!! I know I'm a bit late but it's been a busy month with Christmas, school holidays etc! Here in Australia the kids get their 6 weeks school summer break in December - January. It's been really hot in Sydney with beach trips being the only source of relief from the sweltering temps. BUT thankfully it has cooled down the last couple of days, today was actually cool enough to BAKE!!!

Here is a team effort from my little men and I...

Really yummy apple pie, I can't guarantee there'll be any left by the time their Daddy gets home :-)

PS. one of my many new year's resolutions is to get my blog back on track so hopefully it will be a little more active around here!