Cook a l'orange

My little collection of orange cast iron cookware has a couple of new additions...

A gorgeous vintage Le Creuset casserole - I use it for making sauces :-)

And this lovely little Le Creuset casserole, in mint condition, perfect for making pies...

Happily sitting with its big brother :-)

A little recap on my other pieces...

Now please excuse me while I squeal with excitement!!! My Dad is arriving from Ireland tomorrow!!! My boys have lots of fun planned for Grandad - swimming races, light saber battles, picnics... I hope he's well rested when he arrives ;-)

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day :-) It's been years since my man and I celebrated the day of love, romance and all that! We both think it's a lot of commercial nonsense to be honest (although it took a few years of sending me red roses, chocolates and giant teddies for my hubbie to admit this - false advertising on his part? ;-)

Anyway, this year for some reason I decided to have a little bit of fun with Valentine's, hiding chocolate hearts in my boys' lunch boxes (including my hubbie) and decorating the dinner table with valentine balloons and glittery hearts, surrounded by which we enjoyed a yummy Indian takeaway and a bottle of wine followed by the most delicious little chocolate cake my lovely man brought home, all in all a very lovely evening :-)

Pictured here are a recent Etsy purchase I thought was fitting for the day, I love this set of clay hearts, beautifully glazed, they were on a recent Etsy treasury and I couldn't resist them and bought them straight away! Ah l'amour :-)

Green Eyed MONSTER!!!

Look at all this beautiful vintage Le Creuset snapped up for the princely sum of $7!!!

That's right, $7 for the LOT.

Jealous? Yeah? Well so am I! Because alas, this is not my own find.

Now I know one of the ten commandments is "Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbour's Goods" but seriously when I read this post on Flickr I felt physically SICK with envy... I mean a large casserole, 2 pots and 3 pans in great condition and in such a beautiful colour (it's called Paris Blue) for $7!!!

I then discovered Stephanie has a lovely blog called Kitchen Culinaria, she's a brand new blogger and I have a feeling that if this find is anything to go by, this is a blog to watch!

I'm still feeling more than slightly jealous, I will NEVER EVER have a find that good!

Teardrops

Australia Day is coming up on January 26th and I thought I could take the opportunity to share with you something that happened on this national day of celebration back in 2007.

It was the day an obsession was born.

My husband and I were wandering through the city with our 2 little men, D was yet to be born, on our way to the harbour celebrations. Along Macquarie street every Australia Day, is an exhibition of classic vehicles, cars, motorcycles, buses and caravans. I was oohing and aahing over classic Jaguars, Ferraris and such when I spotted this...

I should explain I have an obsession with miniature versions of anything (seriously I nearly sobbed once at the sight of a tiny tube of Colgate in a hotel) and the sight of this tiny caravan nearly sent me over the edge!!!

I mean seriously, look at the little curtains over the window and the teeny kitchen.

I got chatting with the owner and she explained that these little caravans/campers are called Teardrops and were originally made in the 1930s. They are tiny and literally just have a kitchen space in the trunk and enough interior space for a mattress. They have had a resurgence in popularity and clever people out there are making brand new versions!

Check out these cuties...

Go-fast stripes!

Wood-panelled luxury.

Fully-fitted kitchen.

Hotel-style boudoir.

Why not bring the boat?

It really doesn't help that these are available on the market now at not-ridiculous prices! Check this one out...

Turquoise - check!

Wining and dining function - check!

Even the hubcaps are blue, seriously did somebody crawl inside my head and build this for me? Sob!

And look at the sleeping area, complete with porthole window, bookshelf and bunch of flowers!

If YOUR husband will let you get one of these here is the listing on eBay.

The only possible change I would make to this tiny thing of beauty is the kitchen, I think I would kit it out more like this...

I know!!! Duck egg blue accents and appliances, sigh... This one is for sale here.

I know these probably aren't the most practical caravans for a family of five but I want one soooo badly!!!

Winner!

Drum roll please....

and over to my little assistant in PJs...

and the winner is...

Congratulations to Tara Beaulieu over at Scarborough Seashells. I sent you a comment Tara asking for your address details so I can order your book pronto :-)

Pale and Interesting

Well, I'm trying to get my blog back on track and share my finds more regularly so here's some "stuff" I've bought over the last few months or so...

I think these may well be the cutest egg cups I've ever seen! The perfect colour combination of turquoise and white and only 50 cents each!

This gorgeous robin egg blue bowl is quite similar to a larger one I found a while back - it was $1 in Vinnie's.

I love the colours on this lovely pottery bowl - $1 in Vinnie's.

This juicer is BIG! Maybe it's for juicing giant fruit, anyway I LOVE it - $2 at a flea market.

A lovely aqua chip and dip platter - 50 cents at a carboot market.

A set of four mugs at 50 cents each, I think blue might just be my favourite colour ;-)

This lovely mixing bowl cost $1 at a flea market.

Four gorgeous dip bowls - $2 for the set!

And finally, this cute pair of fish candle holders - $1 each in Vinnie's.

I have lots more "stuff" to share so watch this space.

Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway :-)

Blogoversary Giveaway!

In a few days I will have been blogging for 3 years!!! I can't believe I've been writing this little blog for so long. I have always been dire at keeping up anything like this, my diaries always last a month at most and I initially assumed the blog would suffer the same fate. But I have really enjoyed it, I love reading the lovely comments I have received (thank you) and reading about other people's goings on.

So I thought I would have a little giveaway to celebrate. It's very easy to enter, this is a giveaway to thank my followers, so if you are a follower and would like to enter, just leave a comment to say so. That's it! And if you're not a follower but enjoy reading the blog and would like to become one, it's very easy, there's a link there on the left hand side of the page, just click to follow :-)

And the prize...

I will order a copy of "Happy Chic Accessorizing" by Jonathan Adler for the lucky winner! I don't have this book myself, but it looks fab and is definitely on my wish list.

The giveaway is open to ALL followers worldwide. I will draw the winner one week from today using a random number generator!

Good luck :-)