more of lately

eamon: being a rad dude at south beach (a lovely day for a picnic!) // plane watching with the cousins // new timber chopping boards - yay! // a warm snuggly eamon under his new doona // look who found the only oil patch on the driveway // happiness: cup of tea and a new mag // pretty pink cupcakes for mia's second birthday // eamon a bit depressed about not being a girl // getting back into crafting // selection of macarons at jean pierre sancho @ mundaring truffle festival // my picks: pistachio (top) and truffle (bottom) // baci chocolate fountain // crowds at truffle festival // my favourite new drink: crio bru.

thats all for now lovelies - have a super great week!

made for me

check out these ever-so-cute little ply wood coasters... made just for yummy cups of tea (and coffee i suppose too!)

i couldn't help but include them - the seller must have had me in mind when she made them as they are just perfect. i may just have to put them on my wish list :)

thanks to my lovely sis chantelle for sharing these etsy beauties with me x

afternoon tea

i love afternoon tea with the girlies on a saturday afternoon.
i think sarah does too!

she treated us to a rather fine one yesterday and it was just terrific to be able to take a break from the mayhem at home and catch up with everyone again.
AND, not to mention, start planning our next faith in action weekend! can't wait.

maraschino tea + espresso bar

i have been known for eating burgers much bigger than my mouth! (remember that time mandy?)

if you are into lovely wholesome food, a HUGE selection of teas and lots of other yummies including burgers like this then maraschino in freo is the place to go! they also have a great breakfast menu.

mum + eamon + i stopped by when we were in freo last week - very pram friendly which is always a bonus :)

and they give you big wooden red letters instead of table numbers!

thanks to my beautiful mum for a lovely day out x

a fruity nutty loaf

this here - teamed with a steaming cup of green tea - has been my little survival kit for winter's chilly mornings... my home-baked fruit + nut loaf (mmmm!)

a little tired of spending up to $7 or $8 for designer fruit bread, i decided to embark on my own fruit bread baking adventure!

and although winter (thankfully) is now in the past, i still delight in this little luxury most mornings and have no doubt this little habit will continue well into the warmer months... ...although i should work on reducing the amount of butter i've been spreading on it!

to make follow these here easy intructions...

take one packet of crusty white breadmix, prepare and add to breadmaker according to packet instructions. set the cycle time to three and a half hours or thereabouts (sweet or french, depending on your machine). fifteen to twenty minutes into the cycle (while the dough is kneading) add a small handful of roughly chopped walnuts, around 3/4 cup of sultanas, two tablespoons of brown sugar and a teaspoon each of nutmeg and cinnamon. then leave the breadmaker to do its thing. if you're the particularly adventurous type or have some dough know-how you could most certainly do this by hand.

a bit over three hours later you will have wonderfully sweet baking aromas wafting through the house and a great fruit loaf too. best served toasted with a generous spreading of real butter :)

into your window

on my most recent trip to the west on one of the many mornings that aimee and i were dilly-dallying around i came up with the idea to do to her what she does to so many people she knows – make her room in its entirety the subject of a blog post.

in the past aimee has blogged the rooms or houses of some of her friends, my friends and her sister chantelle’s. i’m sure at this very moment she is conspiring ways to bring her next “into my window” to life.

but for now its time aimee and her room were subject to a creative and descriptive post of their own… enjoy xx

"i think what makes my room especially mine is all the little things that i've put together to create a space that hopefully reflects a little of who i am. if all the things in my room are separate, they're just peices of art or gifts or bits of junk that i've collected over time. if you look at them as part of a whole however, they're like little bits of a puzzle that come together to make the whole. My room is a bit of an amalgamation of everything that i like and am interested in. I guess in that way, all the little things that I put in my room and the way it is set up make it my little space. My photoboard has lots of memories on it from my "lomo" days and represents my love of photography. i like reading and books, and i'm studying literature, so the recent addition of the bookshelf has added to the "nerdy" side of the room. i've got a few photo books hanging around that are a bit inspiring, like the lonely planet "one people" book. i love my cooking books too (mainly because i'd love to be a food photographer!!). "apples for jam" by tessa kiros has some great recipes and stories and my frankie baking book is also delightful - i love all the photography in it! i've made the yoyo biscuits and took a picture of them, a bit like the one on the front cover! i also love tea! my collection of loose leaf teas is slowly building! the latest edition is "mango tea" from broome, which is yummy! if you walked into my room you'd see that i like birds and branches, the colour white, patterns, little flowers, cutesy pictures, 50mm bokeh, cole clark guitars, pretty guitars, music, fresh flowers in glass vases, all things tea, twine, frankie magazine, photos, etsy and probably brown paper bags."


when i asked aimee if there was anything in her room she felt she couldn't live without she replied "i couldn't do without my bible, that's for sure :) and although its technically not a part of my room, i couldn't do without my guitar either. i got it as a birthday present and i think its something that i'll keep forever - its a little bit beautiful :) cupboards are probably an important part of my room as well - they hide my hoardes of junk away! i have things in my cupboards that i've kept since preschool - i think its time for a springclean!"

"i can't put a geographical location on my most favourite part..but...i think the thing that i like most in my at the moment would be my bookshelf, because i can put so many things on it and recreate it's displays in so many ways that i don't think i'll ever get bored. my room looks the best in the late afternoon when the sun is starting to go down. the light reflects off the white bedspread and all the little dust particles float around in the dappled sunlight. it's rather poetic :)"



"i've been in this room for a while now, and a lot of things have changed from when i was a kid to how i am now as a much older and wiser adult (chortle). i've painted the walls a different colour, got a new bedspread, adopted a new bed frame, shifted the furniture multiple times, covered my walls with posters, taken them all off again, made a photoboard, cleaned my drawers only for them to get messy again, re-organised my wardrobe, assembled a bookshelf....my room is ever evolving! a lot of the stuff i have retained from childhood is in my cupboards. i used to write a journal nearly every day - they date back to 1998 when i was in grade 4 - kind of cute reading back over them and seeing what i thought as a kid, and then a teenager. the journals are the one thing i think i'll keep so my grandchildren (?) can read them and see how much of a dork i was. i've got heeps of letters from friends that i've kept as well that i think i'll always keep. i guess its all a bit sentimental. then there is other stuff i've kept like old jewelry and barbie dolls and slinkies that i should really throw out but i guess the nephews and neices can play with now. the other day one of the kids was playing with one of those slinky's that i had since year 2. wasn't long before it was broken and i was feeling a little cut :) i also went through a phase where i wanted to learn the panflute - i did it for a little while but i got over it as you do...i still have the panflute and maybe it'll come in handy one day - maybe it will feature on our debut album haha!

the story of "doggie" : i've had that teddy bear since i was five. i got it as a birthday present from one of my brothers i think. i remember waking up on my birthday and my brother came in my room wearing this really scary mask - i had a little cry because i was a bit scared and then he took the mask off and gave me the teddy bear which was promptly named "doggie". his neck has since been opened and stitched back up again, he's had eye surgery before i think, his entrails are slowly leaking through the seams and he is missing one ear. but he still sits on the end of my bed with my grumpy white teddy bear. teddy bears are one of those things that people seem to keep because they got them when they were born or they have a story attached to them..so i think i'll keep this one for a little while yet!"


"music is a big part of my room too..my guitar isn't always in my room, as its one of those travelling instruments, but i love to just sit on my bed and sing a tune. i think i've probably even made some songs in that room just by looking at the things around me.

my room doesn't really have a set theme, but then again, neither does my life. in that way, my room really reflects who i am :)"