~ snippets from the end of June ~

 1.  My reading pile.  I finished The Light Between Oceans this week - a beautifully written story.  I sobbed. A lot.  Highly recommended.

2.  We've been the house of sickness this week.  Jack has had croup (Gracie thought I described his cough as creepy not croupy) and the rest of us are coughing and hoarse too.  The chest rub smells so good...the scent lingers in the bedrooms now.

3.  Crafting...there's always crafting and drawing and making going on around here.

4.  We usually make our own cards and with 5 parties this weekend we spend the afternoon on Friday stamping, colouring and drawing.  The kikki-k stamps get quite a work out.

5.  I finished this at 11pm last night for my niece's 6th party (one of the 5 for the weekend) that we celebrated here today.  It's from the new and improved AWW kids cakes books.  A new favourite on our bookshelf.

6.  My own special candle from Autumn's fabulous shop.  I created this scent  - lots of citrus and basil and ginger (I think) - its divine.  Lily's journal is sitting under a float of petals from those roses.

7. Hellebores in my garden.


Google reader closes down tonight - if you'd like to, you can follow me over here at bloglovin.

Joining in with weekly stills and snippets over here with Em.

Have a lovely week.  I'd love to know what's in your reading pile - any recommendations?

♥

~ Friday flowers - pink icebergs ~

 

I posted some shots on instagram this week of a bunch of roses from my garden and several people seemed amazed we still had roses blooming in winter.

Quite a few of my roses are still hanging in there, mainly because we are a bit slow with the pruning shears I suspect.   The icebergs down the side of the house are still throwing up lots of buds and looking beautifully cheery though.  I brought a bunch in today and went crazy with the camera.  Interestingly, the blushing pink iceberg, is a Tassie variant - it makes a pretty variation on the plain white ones we have lining our front fence.

Hope you have a lovely weekend - we have several birthday parties, soccer and hockey - busy and fun times.  I'm also hoping to finish reading The Great Gatsby.  I saw the film last night for a school fundraiser and whilst amazed at the gorgeous costuming and lavish sets I felt it lacked an emotional connection with the audience.  I can't remember if the characters in the book felt so distant.  Have you seen the film/read the book recently?  What did you think?


♥

~ snippets ... mid-winter in Hobart ~

 

 

 

Dark MOFO hit Hobart this week and we've all been getting in the mood and celebrating all that is lovely about the dark and winter in Tassie.


1.  The skywhale in all her glory.  She was commissioned as part of the centenary celebrations in Canberra and visited here as part of our winter celebration week.  I found her curiously beautiful.  The children could not get past those boobies.

2.  Spectra a light installation by Ryoji Ikeda graced our skies all week (more MOFO action).  Sometimes shrouded in mist and fog and sometimes clear.  Beautiful and mesmerising.

3.  First night of the winter feast down at the wharves.  The shed looked beautiful - and the food and entertainment were fab.  We finished with Bruny Island icecream (it was 2 degrees outside) with hot salted caramel sauce...to die for!

4.  It's garlic planting time (apparently you are supposed to do it in the nude) - I'm wondering if this will grow. 

5.  School photos this week.  What a battle to get them all out of their sports gear and into real school shoes!

6.  They've been arranging shells.  Obsessive much?

7.  Details...I'm all about the little things

8.  While I'm busy pouring water on the windscreen, scraping off the ice and muttering under my breath about moving to Queensland they are happy to embrace the frost

9.  Daisy chains on the window ledge...little treasures and pieces of them everywhere I look.


 
I'm linking up with Em to share some snippets of life at our place. 

♥

~ lists of lists ~

{beside my bed}

{things I'd like in my fridge}

{good things about my town}

{a few of my favourite cookbooks}

I'm huddled in the study wishing I was in front of the fire.  Gosh its got cold.
I'm also wishing;   

• we had heating in here
•  I could blog from my ipad (I'm sure its possible - I just don't seem to have the necessary skill set)
• that the Fuji instax mini I ordered today would arrive soon

What's for dinner at your house?
What are you wishing for?
 
Are you making lists yet?  I'm making a list a week (roughly) as part of Pip's #52lists project on her blog and on IG.


♥

~ raindrops on roses ~

It feels like its been raining forever.
The garden is sighing with relief.
We've been inside watching the fire, snuggling, reading, drinking soup, playing games, baking more cake.
We duck outside for firewood (or to play hockey in the sleet).
 
There was a break in the mist and the rain today.
I slipped outside in the silvery afternoon light looking for some raindrops on roses.
I was not disappointed.

What are your favourite things about winter?

 ♥

~ wintery snippets ~

 

 

1.  Raindrops on roses...always one of my favourite things

2.  Those camellias from last week are hanging on but look at the wintery landscape outside the window.  

3.  Ninjas everywhere.  There's even a whole movie about them...I watched every single minute last night!

4.  Wheat grown at school...with a curiously back to front name...he rarely does that...he's adamant we plant it outside with the parsley.

5.  Long weekend mini golf fun.  I say fun...the first 14 holes were great...

6.  We painted shells after our big beach walk last week.  Jack interpreted the activity more literally than I had anticipated... but they turned out great.

7.  Chatterboxes.  And endless questions and giggles.

8.  Rainy day baking.  This is Cathie's easy (and super yummy) orange cake.  It didn't last long.


Winter is here...with a venegeance.
It's rainy and grey, cold and bitter outside.  All our winter sports were cancelled yesterday - I may have been silently cheering when those texts came through.

We've been crafting, baking and playing inside.
I'm drowning in damp washing and it festoons the rooms where the heating is - not my favourite decorating theme at all but there's only so much that likes a trip through the dryer.

I'm not sure what this week holds... but there's no more school swimming and the Doc is home all week ... its sounding pretty good already.  Hopefully we'll get to some of the DARK MOFO (Tassie's winter festival) events - the Spectra light show has already had us talking and dreaming of UFOs.

I'm linking up with  tinniegirl and Em to share some snippets of life at our place. 

♥

~one day ~

Super excited today as lovely Pip from Meet Me At Mikes has featured some of my instagram snaps on her fabulous blog.

Woohoo!

This was my June 3.  It was a pretty nice day.  Today's turning out great too.

What's made your day today?

♥

~ snippets from a week(end) in June ~

 

 

 

1.  Camellias brightening a corner of our bedroom.

2.  Master-cheffing with playdough - this was the start of spaghetti and meatballs.  I have to judge each dish on presentation and taste (!!)

3.  4 is a very interesting mix of independence and sooky mummy's boy.  This was all his own work

4.  All Jack wanted to do this weekend was go to the beach and collect shells.  We walked for ages ... dreaming, chatting, gathering... 

5.  My favourites of our gathered treasures.

6.  Choc fudge slice from the good old AWW biscuit book.  Rainbow sprinkles instead of coconut - because its more fun.

7.  I'm very reluctant to prune our roses when, even if dying, they look as pretty as this.

Another busy week - I don't think I had the camera out at all until yesterday - we've had school swimming, extra work for me and a quick trip to Canberra for the Doc. 

We're relishing this long weekend at home - date night (so nice), cooking, gardening and a long walk along an almost deserted beach searching for shells.  We've got no plans tomorrow - always the best kind of day.

I'm linking up with  tinniegirl and Em to share some snippets of our life this week

♥