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Contrast in life is good, it makes you appreciate what is really special and I think it’s so much better than plain old monotony.  Yesterday was an awesome day, I couldn’t have been happier with my little buddy tripping around the op shops with me, loving it like I do.  Everything felt simple and happy and I was in the frame of mind to stop and enjoy the small beauties of life. 

Today on the other hand, was different.  Same beautiful weather, same little buddy, just a different frame of mind.   Patience has never been a strong point of mine, but I’ve generally been pretty awesome with my little girl.  Mostly I am great, sometimes I am terrible.  If anything is going to test my patience, it’s Ivy deciding to ride her bike to the shop, how silly does that sound?  She gets tired and needs a break before we even get past the next door neighbours’, she even needed a break today as her arms were tired.  Yes, her arms.  It always ends up with me bent down pushing the bike along as she walks and I come home with sore feet from being run over so many times. 

At one point of the shemozzle she was pushing the bike along and it ran into the gutter.  We’re so proud of the fact that our nearly 3 year old, who has been talking like a parrot from such a young age, has never said a single swear word, even though pre-baby I was a terrible swearer.  She does exclaim, “Dod almighty” quite often, but nothing worse yet.  Today she still didn’t swear, but sighed (so very annoyed), “Freaking HECK this is ridiculous!”.  Freaking heck.  Do I really say that?  Apparently I do.

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The weather here has been utterly spectacular, not hot or cold, not particularly sunny, or overcast for that matter, just perfect.  I love the change of seasons, I have always been a girl who likes new things and I welcome each season with excitement for what it has in store. 

Our house is in complete disarray at the moment as I am in the midst of yet another change around, bringing out cosy things and setting up a new sewing room.  The little corner above got the addition of a bookshelf and judging by the messed up books by the time I took this photo, it has already been enjoyed by the littlest member of the house.  She loves that spot and the green armchair that my mum bought me from an antique shop while I was pregnant as my breastfeeding chair. 

I’m hoping that I will work up the courage to turn this beautiful blanket into a beanbag.  I love old woollen blankets and I have enough for beds and spares, so I buy them with the purpose of turning them into new things.  This one is soft and so lovely, it is so hard to change something that is already beautiful but I know it’ll just be packed away otherwise.

I hope you are getting to enjoy these beautiful days like Ivy and I are. 

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We’re lucky enough to have a family bach in the Coromandel, one of the most beautiful areas of New Zealand.  Brett’s mum and dad built this little holiday house when he was a baby and it has remained untouched since then. 

We have spent many months living there during our travels and adventures and it has become one of my most special places in the world.  It is amazing to see the next generation bringing out things that have been untouched for years, Ivy wore the little jandals (thongs) that Brett wore at the same age for the whole holiday… they were still sitting in the little bedroom cupboard.

It truly is a magical place, it is in a tiny beach town and generally when we’re there you can only see a few odd lights on in a few houses, the town is pretty much 90% little bach’s like ours.  We are just across the road from the beach, so we can carry our kayaks down to the water and I can watch Brett windsurfing from the deck.  Ivy leant to snorkel during this holiday and she loved surfing the waves on the kayaks.

This little bach holds 30 years of holiday memories for this family and it is evident as soon as you walk into this happy, special little place.  It couldn’t be more perfect. 

 

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The magnificent NZ West Coast holds some of my most special memories over the past 9 years.  Brett and I used to spend months at a time adventuring around this little 8hr stretch of road, exploring every little track that lead off into the bush somewhere.  The places that we discovered while doing this were beyond words and it is an experience that I will treasure for my whole life.

It is a bit different these days, the months we used to spend exploring seem to get shorter (only a few days this time) but it is still as refreshing and awe-inspiring.  It is such an extreme part of the world, massive mountain ranges to one side, wild coast on the other, littered with stones and huge tree trunks that have made their way down rapids to end up in the sea.  Every time I go there I love it a little bit more.

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One of my most beautiful friends has just been nominated for Apartment Therapy’s Best Home Design Blog. Her house is amazing and we share a very common love of things vintage and reinvented.  She has started making and selling some of her own reinvented furniture and has been giving some great tutorials and ideas on how to do things in your own home.

Courtney’s house is beautiful and I am inspired every time I go there.  Even though she has already been noticed by Apartment Therapy, she hasn’t even started to share how cool her house actually is.  She has such great style and is such a beautiful person too. 

Go and have a look at her blog here and you can vote here.

(Photos via The Apprentice Extrovert).

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I am such a country girl, but I love going to the city. This is our favourite alley in Melbourne, I could sit here, drink coffee and watch people all day.

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I’m so glad that I have had these great reading distractions over the past week.  It sounds too good to be true that a little country school cleaned out their library of all of their old 70’s and 80’s library books and that I was the lucky recipient of pretty much all of them doesn’t it?  About 40 books for a rough $10 (which included a selection of other old things I’d also picked up).  They are such a joy to read.  I don’t specifically remember any of them, but they are my era, so I’m sure they would have graced the shelves of my own little primary school library.  The borrowing pockets and cards at the back of them are awesome and I will be keeping each and every one of the books.

I found my first copy of Peppermint magazine too this week.  It’s obviously not in great demand in the country towns that surround me.  James Clark’s amazing warehouse was the absolute highlight.

Apart from having some nice reading time with the little love of my life, I have been utterly miserable.  The due date for my last pregnancy is nearing and I still have no baby in my tummy.  I had a molar pregnancy when we were last in New Zealand and it is obviously taking a little while for my body too get back into the swing of things.  I do strongly believe that everything happens for a reason though, so we must have another amazing little person that is destined to be a bit further into our future than we planned.  Luckily, I never stay miserable for too long.  We’ve just booked flights back to NZ, leaving in a couple of weeks so it’ll be a nice time to actually enjoy not being pregnant and make the most of the fun that will be had.

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I’ve just listed these vintage cuties, available here.

  

Hope you’re having a great day x

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We’re just back from the most lovely weekend at the beach with beautiful friends. 

I rediscovered this antique shop on the way, it has a new owner and is now one of my all time favourite places.  Do you love the big red scales as much as I do?  They’re huge and I’m trying to figure out where I could put them in my little house (any ideas Courtney?).

I hope that you’ve had a great weekend too.