Sorry, I couldn't resist...

Turkish Delight

Look at the gorgeous bowls and dishes I bought today at Target!!!

Aren't they lovely? I think turquoise and purple look so gorgeous and exotic together. But as I stashed them in my shopping basket something was nagging at the back of my mind, they were familiar somehow. Then when I laid them on my table to photograph them I was getting serious deja vu...

Bingo! I remembered this fab image I had pinned on Pinterest AGES ago...

Image from the ever-fabulous Decor8 blog

Spooky or what? ;-) Pinterest has crawled into my subconscious...

Seriously though, I LOVE them! The pieces pictured above are beautifully hand-crafted in Turkey but I'm still happy with my little "Made in China" collection :-)

Nesting

Wow! I HAVE been a slack blogger so far this year but I am officially back! It's been a busy few months with D starting school, recovering from our big trip and moving house. It always takes a while to find the right place for everything when you move doesn't it? But here's a little corner of our new kitchen that I am 100% happy with :-)

You might recognise my pale blue painted shelves from a previous post on the playroom in our last house, well let's just say that "display" is not a word in my boys' vocabulary and this shelf always ended up lying empty despite my efforts to make it "all nice" so now it has a new home in the kitchen :-)

On the top shelf (left to right) a cute vintage blue flowered canister, Villeroy and Boch "Acapulco" ramekin, retro aqua and white egg cups, red and white dandelion bowls from "Meadows and Byrne" in Ireland, a Nigella Lawson ceramic blue juicer and tiny duck-egg blue tagine, I bought a set of 4 of these in TK Maxx in Ireland, they are so cute for storing spices, salt and pepper :-)

On the next shelf are a pair of birdie bowls, blue and white on top is by Marie Claire from Myer and the bottom bowl is from Target, a set of 4 dessert bowls from Kmart, 2 more of those tiny tagines and a gorgeous pair of turquoise Le Creuset hearts from TK Maxx in Ireland.

On the bottom shelf a set of Jamie Oliver blue fluted bowls, ANOTHER tagine, a tiny orange Le Creuset cast iron casserole, a pair of bowls from Anthropologie and a Fortnum and Mason tea caddy.

Up on the white built in shelves are various vintage "things" (left to right), vintage green Royal Staffordshire plate, Finel teapot, Krups white scales, made in Ireland, specials chalkboard and red Persinware scales, made in Australia.

On the lower shelf (left to right) gorgeous Gien French vintage plate, aqua berry crate from Anthropologie, Nigella Lawson cookie jar, red vintage plate, Nigella Lawson cups and saucers, white rooster platter and pair of Fowler Ware bowls, Made in Australia.

I love the sight of all these little bits and pieces brought together, they get used a lot and I love the mix of old and new. I did a LOT of shopping in Ireland actually, so I foresee a post on that in the near future as well as a heap of photos from our trip, there are just so many it will be a mammoth task going through them all!

Brrrrrrr

After days and days of sticky horrible humidity here in Sydney the temperature has dropped to a paltry 19 degrees Celsius, cold enough to get out my giant Le Creuset casserole and bubble up a big supply of yummy leek and potato soup :)

We're baaaack!!!

Well, we're back in Sydney after 5 wonderful weeks in Europe. I have squillions of photos to trawl through before I can do a proper post but just thought I'd share this pic in the meantime...

Thanks to our wonderful families my hubbie and I managed to escape to Paris for 6 nights WITHOUT THE KIDS!!! It was a fantastic, much-needed break. One morning we took the TGV up to Annecy in the French Alps for the day, what a beautiful town, I'm pictured above in front of the canal in the old town. Kelly and Penny, you guys are very lucky to live somewhere so beautiful!!!

Watch out for some very lengthy posts coming soon on Ireland, special times with family, Paris and shopping :-)

PS Happy New Year!!!  :-)

Winter!

A sight that warms my heart, my boys throwing pebbles into the Irish sea :-)

We're spending our Christmas in Ireland, having a lovely time with our family, so excited for the boys to experience a Northern Hemisphere cold, wintery Christmas!!! Logs on the fire, rosy cheeks from the cold, perfect (ignoring the fact that we've picked up every virus going so far, but are all on the mend :-)

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!!

Dear Santa...

This year, I ask nothing of you. I have more in life than I could ever have possibly wished for.

So I repeat I ask absolutely nothing of you...

BUT

If you did manage to fit any one of these in your sleigh just for me I would not complain one little bit...

Not one little bit  ;-)