Jetlag

I'm back in Sydney after having the most fantastic time in Ireland. It was so wonderful being with the best family I could possibly wish for, my wonderful parents, fantastic sisters and adorable nieces and nephew...

Taking in lovely Irish scenery...

Tastes..

Textures...

And of course lots of shopping :-)

I missed my little men like crazy and realise just how lucky I am to have the BEST family in the world on both sides of the planet.

Normal blogging will resume when I have recovered from the jetlag!

Top of the morning to ye

Just saying a quick hello from Ireland, where I am being spoilt rotten by my wonderful parents who have flown me over for a much needed holiday. Spending time hanging out with the best Mum and Dad I could possibly wish for, my gorgeous sisters and adorable nieces and nephew :-)

I haven't had a chance to upload any of my photos yet, but the above image is of a beautiful gift I received yesterday from my Mum's friend. It is a fabulous tea towel with beautiful graphic representations of Dublin's landmarks and attractions. I LOVE it and am going to frame it when I get back to Sydney.

Housewife

I found a lovely collection of vintage tea towels in Vinnie's a few weeks ago. There were about 30 there in total (although I restrained myself and bought only 6). Somebody had obviously donated them all at once. I always wonder what triggers somebody to just suddenly give away a collection they've obviously been gathering over a long time, do they just crack one morning and scream "NO MORE"!!!

Lovely! Isn't it a good thing we can't see in to the future? Seriously, if at 18 I could have seen myself at 36 blogging about pyrex and tea towels I may very well have hung myself!

Yet here I am happily doing so :-) How could a housewife not get excited by all those lovely retro patterns and at only $2 each!!!

If you're looking for some fab tea towels check out this gorgeous website for some beautiful new vintage styles.

Pressies

Usually, checking our letterbox is not at all exciting, junk mail and bills just don't do it for me (although the occasional massive spider does liven things up for an arachnophobic such as myself).

Last week was a different matter altogether. Firstly I totally hit the jackpot with the person who made my Pay It Forward gift :-)

Just look what the very talented my little birdie sent me!

Beautiful handmade cards, the prettiest hairclips and a beautiful purse!

Just look at that beautiful workmanship!

Thank you so much for my beautiful gifts, I am thrilled with them :-)

I should mention to the people who are waiting on my Pay it Forward gifts that I am nowhere near this standard in crafting but will do my very best. I hope to have your gifts to you soon. I am very much a last minute person, with a 365 day deadline there's a huge chance your gifts will be sent on the 364th day (only kidding, I'll get them to you well before then ;-)

Then some goodies I ordered from the Book Depository arrived. I totally blame Kate for this purchase for reminding me the Book Depository sells gorgeous stationery aswell as books ;-)

Some lovely Cath Kidston stationery for me...

A fab Charley Harper colouring book for H...

And a beautiful set of Charley Harper flashcards for S and D, a stunning illustration for each letter of the alphabet.

Not all the surprises came in the mail though, The Thrifty Ba sent me a message to say she has awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award. Thank you so much for this, it's always lovely to know people out there are enjoying my posts and thoughts :-) I'm supposed to pass this on to 15 other bloggers but to be honest I have a large list of blogs that I read and love them ALL, so please consider yourselves all very much awarded and enjoyed :-)

This is not a post about pyrex...

...that was a lie ;-)

It's been a while since I've posted about my ever growing pyrex collection so I thought I'd share some more pieces...

These pieces have been bought over a while so I can't remember all the prices, I know the lovely little Butterprint casserole was only $1, one of my favourite pyrex finds as I have been looking for this pattern forever! A lot of the other pieces were $2 - $5 with the set of mixing bowls being the most expensive - an Ebay purchase at $15. All other pieces were bought at Op Shops.

My little collection is but a drop in the ocean, for some serious pyromaniacs visit Erin, Vonlipi or Madge.

In the Kitchen

I have found some lovely vintage kitchenalia over the past while...

This fab red Persinware scales was $6 in Vinnie's - Made in Australia :-)

Oh how I love all things aqua - this flour sifter was $3 in Vinnie's.

These retro nesting snack containers were $3.

With new Tupperware so expensive I never turn down the vintage stuff - $2 each.

I bought this beautiful colander quite a while ago and can't remember if I already posted about it, I think it was about $5.

These beautiful solid wooden salt and pepper shakers were $2 for the pair, I love their organic look.

Cute vintage kettle - $3.

A glass half-litre wine carafe - $2.

And finally a couple of Liberty anniversary mugs, the photo doesn't do them justice, they are a lovely mint green - 50 cents each.

The Commissioner

If I had to liken my 3 boys to a particular creature it would most likely be the monkey, non-stop, active, inquisitive, cute little things! Other times, vultures would be the most apt comparison, at mealtimes for example, where, even though they have already been well-fed, they insist on circling around my seat, snatching the food off my plate, until I have managed to eat only about a third of what I made myself. Then there are times where they are all intent on a task, working together, coming up with ideas where they remind me of 3 wise little owls :-)

With owls on my mind I did an etsy search a while back and came across a store called Rochelle's Little Ones. Full of beautiful handmade jewellery, adorable faux-taxidermy and charming paintings I knew straight away I would love one of her gorgeous acrylic-on-canvas paintings. She has a really cute range of animal paintings, birds, deer, owls, such a beautiful sweet style of painting. Then I saw that she does custom paintings by request. I contacted her straight away and asked if she would be able to create a painting with 3 of her gorgeous little owls on a tree and she responded promptly with a yes, at a fantastic price!!! After a few convos where we discussed colour and style etc she completed the work and here it is...

Isn't it just adorable? Without ever meeting or seeing my boys she has somehow captured them all in this painting - the gorgeous, squashy owl on the left is S, D is in the middle with the "pretty" eyes and the wise green-eyed owl on the right is H.

Rochelle also does some beautiful original screen prints and I ordered this one...

I feel so grown up (at 36) to have commissioned a work of art and am so thrilled with the result it is definitely something I will do again :-)

You can visit Rochelle's store here, she is extremely talented and a real pleasure to deal with.