Panda at the Beach....?

I had a lovely find yesterday at a few local thrift shops, some great, clean linen a wonderful vintage old card and plastic flowers hankerchief box and a beautiful brooch. 

And Yet Another Quilt..... This One Retro

It's another beautiful day, and I am inspired to do some crafting.  I'm in the mood.  What though?  My craft room is full of half finished projects.  After spending a couple of hours rumaging through drawers and cupboards I have decided on working on this wonderful hand sewn hexagon quilt.  I purchased this off an on-line auction site.  All of the pieces were cut and hand sewn into the flowers and about 10 flowers hand sewn together.  I see myself as the completer of this quilt.  The material and design was already chosen for me. Some of the newspapers used in the templates are dated from the 70's, as is some of the material.  I can't wait to see it finished. 

The garden is looking wonderful.  This is the view from the entrance side of the verandah.

I love to vote....?

Well off to the polling booths this morning, what a drag.  Waiting in line for 10 minutes only to find out you could have been in the shorter sometimes, non-existent line all this time, thanks.  Then off to get some chook food and wild bird seed mix.  I was able to wangle a detour to my favourite op shop.  I normally don't go there on a Saturday, but because we had to vote, I grabbed the chance, and glad I am.

It has no cracks or chips and unfortunately no lid, hence the pot plant holder.  It is soooooo cheery.

It's a keeper!

Not using the flash allows you to see the pattern the candle makes, but the trade off is the picutre is blurry. 

Outsourcing old age to countries who don't dislike the old....

This morning started the usual way a Friday begins, with running around picking things up before Dawn arrives, then on to Pilates.  It was quite intense today, everytime the teacher joins in

it's guaranteed to test us meer mortals.  My poor legs, ouch!

Then off to the op shops.  I didn't find much, but what I did, I'm soooooooooo chuffed.  I'll let the photos tell their own story, the little bakelite ring box is my favourite find today and only .50c... got to love that.  All four items cost me $7.00 total.  I'm a happy camper.

Pyrex Rose Serving Platter/Plate.... lovely!

A gorgeous small, but not too small butter dish.

A gorgeous shabby chic tea light burner/holder.

My favourite a bakelite ring box...... I have just the ring for it!

Add caption

Then this afternoon I went to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, hence the title of this blog (a line from the movie, or close to it as I can remember, but the gist is the same).... and it was fantastic.  I laughed and cried.  As I am beginning to see my age look back at me in the mirror, the movie has hit a chord with me and has me thinking, and that has to be a good thing.

Oh goody, it's happy hour, what a perfect way to end the week.  Cheers.



Water Lilly

I met Kathy for lunch at the River Mill on Wednesday last week.  It is a lovely setting.  While I was waiting for her, only 5 minutes, I watched the turtles being fed.

Kate Miller-Heidke - Caught In The Crowd

Stop bullying, wear orange to show you care on Friday 16th March 2012.  We can make
a difference.  Peace and Love

Spooky Pencil Moves by itself.MOV

1950's 1960's Op Shop Bonanza

Yet another great day both weather wise and in Op Shop finds.  As I think I might

have mentioned already, my style is rather eclectic. Where am I going to put it all?

The ever so cute 1960's Tea Towel.

The Leaf that wouldn't fall.

I was in my "craft" room when I noticed this leaf floating and blowing in the breeze.

It is suspended by a cobweb.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Well I have finally made a batch of Mazavaroo Chilli Paste.

Life is so much better with 'Maz' in it.  Things just taste better.

I was also able to dry some chillies and make my own chilli flakes, guaranteed HOT.

We are now set for winter.... curries, dips, cheese toast yum, yum, yum.

The Perfect Gold Coast Day

What a perfect Gold Coast day.  The weather  was/is lovely, sunny and warm, although the humidity did rise as the day progressed, as was evident by the soft chocolates at lunch.

Forever, the "greenie", I was only too happy to hold an Enjo Demonstration.  NO I am not selling it, just telling you about my morning, so please read on.

There were 10 of us including the demonstrators, and it was a great mix of people, with being environmental conscience the common factor.

Of course it was the light lunch after the demo that was my true (sorry Kym and Sue) reason for the get together.  I was only too happy to use some of my recent finds and of course do a little bit of baking.  Only being new to blogging I now, looking back over the day, realise how important it is to take photos.   When I got everything made, displayed and on the table it was great, I just don't have the photo's to prove it.  There was several plates of sandwich triangles, canapes etc.   I remembered before and after, but forgot the in between, lesson learnt.

Help yourself to Tea and Coffee.

A four year old's flower arrangement, thank you Monique, it's lovely.

1960's in a Plate

Couldn't wait to share my op shop finds.  I am having a brunch tomorrow, after a demo for Enjo, so I'll get to show them off then, yippee.  All for less than $5.00.  What a find.  Sooooooooooooooo very 1960's.  As an added bonus they threw in the old Christmas tree lightbulbs.

And yet another collection, or two, this time the bathroom

As I am always buying new old things, my collections continuously evolve, grow and change.  Some of the pieces I have in the bathroom I've had for over 25 years, while others I've had for only a few months.  The theme is always the same though, as if you couldn't tell, the bathrooms theme is nautical/ocean.  My collections include shells, tall ships, shaving mugs, ocean  mammals etc.  I tend to collect only a few items, normally less than 10 of the same type except things like shells.  That way I'm not restricted in my shopping.  I don't have to always buy dolphins for example.

The Tall Ship on the bottom left of the wall shelf is musical.
You wind a key and the ship moves up and down as if on waves and it plays a tune.

The aluminium Tall Ship plaque on the wall is actually a front door plaque.  I bought it off Ebay for a couple of dollars.

We have collected all the shells, even the ones in the shadow box on the wall.

Today in the Herb Garden

We are running low on our personal supply of Maz (Mazavaroo Chilli), so I have to make some and for that I had to harvest my chillies. With all this rain I'm down on numbers of ripe chillies, but the ones I have are nice and plumb.  I’m going to let the photos and there is quite a few, talk for themselves. 

The Herb Garden

The bush with the most chillies and that isn't that many, sadly.

Yet another chilli plant and Tumeric in the back, both going great guns, the ginger didn't survive unfortunately.
I'll try again next season, it just didn't like all this rain.

The lettuce in the top bed is going great as are the beans in the back of the front bed,
 but sadly the beetroot in the front of the front bed aren't doing to well.
Boo Hoo, I love roasted beetroot salad. Yummmmmm

The sage, golden oregano, basil and thyme are thriving.

I'm hoping the Paw Paw are the red variety, they just come up by themselves from the compost.

White Rhubarb.

Bay leaf tree and rosemary.

Again more chillies, cherry tomatos, peanuts and more tumeric all going well.

Beautiful day lilly.