Prawn Boulder @ Girraween National Park

We went for a drive to the beautiful Girraween national Park on Saturday. There's some stunning country side out there. We went off the beaten track on a little rock climb and came across this:

I think that rock formation looks like a prawn… A agreed so i'm not mad. What you think?

Sitting on top of one of the massive boulders overlooking the prawn amongst other much larger formations, I felt like I was in a day spa listening to a relaxation cd. I could hear water running, birds chattering near and far, slight rustle of the leaves. Very peaceful. The boulders are so enormous that I wondered what would happen if they all decided to start rolling? Then I realized I’d be in deep s**t and stopped wondering.

On the drive out I snapped these wildflowers. Gorgeous.

They say that the best time of year to visit the Girraween National Park is spring because all the wildflowers are in bloom and it isn't too hot. We drove out through Warwick and Stanthorpe and then to the National Park.  After an exhaustive walk/climb (i'm exaggerating) we then drove to Tenterfield, but just prior we came through Wallangarra. I've been through here a tonne of times and have always admired this old train station. It’s frozen in time and I felt so nostalgic roaming around and taking photos of it.

Built in 1887 the railway was used to link the different railway gauages adopted by Queensland and New South Wales. (Wallangarra is on the border) Qld trains used the western side and NSW the eastern. The passenger station is still used now and is referred to as Wallangarra Queensland. I didn’t get the snap, but there’s two other original buildings still there, one used as the Post Office and the other for storage of something it think.

The olive vinyl seats are all still in good nick and are propped along the station walls. I wonder how long they’ve been there for? Train stations of today are so uninteresting by comparison. They had so much more attention to detail back then with far more attractive architecture. I s'pose there was a passenger train every 7000 hours in the early 1900's so you needed something to look at.

We then drove back through Kyogle along Lions Road which brings you to the back end of Beaudesert. There's a Horse Stud called GlenLogan that had what seemed like hundreds of foals awkwardly roaming around the perfectly white fenced paddocks. Beaaauuuuttttiiiifffuuuull drive. This little chap was sleeping in the middle of the road, and is still smoozing in this picture. He was really cute when his front and back legs stretched out, I love turtles.

I'm going to try something new in 2012. That's go somewhere and not buy anything. This was our back seat passenger for the majority of the drive. $5 at a Garage Sale in Warwick.  

It originally came hanging with rope but by the time I took a pic A had already nailed into the wall. Not the wall I envisioned but a wall none the less. Maybe I’ll actually use a hat in the garden now that they’re more accessible.

Morale of the story is: Go for a drive out to Girraween, take a packed lunch and if you have kids, best to stay overnight somewhere. We drove it all in one day which is perfect when you don’t have to entertain anyone except yourself. There are many creek crossings along the drive that If you had the time you can stop and swim in, or camp – dig into a chicken sandwich, explore.

We’ve got a pretty cool country and so much close by, makes you realize how boring computers, televisions and mobile phones are (says the person writing a blog post whilst text messaging a friend …)

Happy Monday! x

Cocktails with Don Draper?

If only that were fact not fiction. I bought this lil vintage coat off ebay in the HOPE that Don materialises in a couple of months on Madison Avenue.

Ain't she a pearler?

It seems everyone's off skipping the light fantastic in the US over the coming months. A girl i work with is right this second in LA and loads of other peeps are gearing up for a sneaky O/S hol. Including moi. Uh huh. That's right. I'm outta here and closely eyeing the AUD as it slowly redeems itself from a pitiful two weeks. Thankfully, majority of my cash was exchanged back in August, but i have a sneaking suspicion that come November, it'll be pretty attractive again for more spending.

I had planned on attending an LA Lakers game and i'm being told that the NBA may not be playing until the end of the year!!!!!! What's with all the Union disputing carry on everywhere. Just get on with it people!

Colour, colour and more colour!

As most of you would know, the latest online edition of Adore Magazine is out ... and faaaab. I'm loving sick these paintings for the wall by Nicole Cohen

She's got a groovy blog called http://sketch42blog.com/. Check it out. You can purchase these via her etsy site. I really like this one above, the colours are spectacular.

This is pretty too.

Do you remember Ken Done the artist?

I associate him with Expo '88' in Brisbane. Myself, and fellow Irish Dancers of the time, were asked to perform in that big stage area and were all given a 'thank you' Ken Done scarf which he'd designed specifically for Expo 88. It had the exact same colours as Nicole's piece above. Looking back at some of his works now, i really like them. This one done in 1990 in particular.

It's called reflections. You get lost in it i think. Ken Done's still very prevalent and a huge success for Aussie art. I think i'll find that scarf (which i gave to my mother 20 years ago) and frame it as a little momento.

Expo was so fun. I wish they'd do it again. I loved the pavillion that you could ski in. Even though Mum wouldn't let me it looked totally rad!

It's nice to admire colour on an overcast Brisbane Day. The local farmers markets are on tomorrow - can't wait to snag some fresh flowers and mango yoghurt.

Happy Friday.x

Welcome home!

Isn't that a fab photo? I'd love to have a pet cow standing in my doorway. They have such lovely eyes. My favourite cows are Aberdeen Angus. They're all black with fluffy ears.

Entryway's are important - for two reasons i think. You want the practicality of somewhere to dump the handbag and store such things as umbrellas, coats, a torch/lantern (very important coming into storm season, get onto that), but you also want something inviting ...

 and somewhere for the dog to lay in the winter sun and protect your handbag.

Our house at mo doesn't exactly have an entryway other than the front deck that i'm playing around with but one day i'm sure i'll have one and hopefully i'll have a cow and a dog too. I'm not sure if you noticed but there are reindeer in the little piccy above. Woooo christmas ... actually, christmas is a problem for me this year. Since the room divider came to town it's encroached on the christmas trees normal habitat. Just not sure how to go about that. I love christmas trees and love mine, but truth be told, i always feel a little relieved to pull it down again. It just messes with the order of the house, you know?

I'm a little infatuated with the front door you can see a hint of in the above shot. Beautifully distressed isn't it?

So pretty .. for $1

Aren't these just so pretty?

$1 each from a local op shop. I'm looking forward to framing them. You can see the plastic they're still in is discoloured and a little ferol, but underneath,  the pics are in super fine form.

I've reached around 9 paintings/prints kicking around the house wedged between cabinets and walls which require 'space'. I have no wall space left. I mean, i do, but i'm living in comfortable clutter at the moment - the white walls that are available need to stay that way or the tide will change very quickly.

These are flowering in my garden at the moment. So vibrant. They soothed the fact it's Monday again. I have some gorgeous lillies just beginning to flower too - a lovely gift from friends who came to dinner Saturday night.

On that topic. 'A's "latest" is a spit roaster. We went to a dinner party last Saturday night and F's husband cooked up some cracking meat on this little roaster. A was besotted. Absolutely enamoured with it. He's been wanting one for years and seeing this little sized one sealed-the-deal.  So, of course, one appeared at home and spit roasted lamb was on the menu Sat night. This is one purchase i highly recommend. The meat was diiiivine! Buy one for him for christmas. It spins on batteries and you just put those coal things in to heat it up.

Lamp transformation

Ever since i hung the vintage map and then stumbled across the old bedhead, i've been determined to change my bedside lampshades. There's only so much 'mis-match' i can handle in one room. I wanted something even - identicle, matchy.

So i decided to recover my lampshades. I enlisted the help of u-tube. This is the shades on my work bench.

They say to draw the shape of the shade onto paper and then cut out the fabric from the paper pattern allowing a cm top and bottom. I chose to just cut out enough width that looked like it would fit and that was that.

I then sprayed adhesive glue like it was going out of fashion on the shade and also on the fabric. I also added some double sided tape around the top outer shade and bottom. I did this because the fabric is hessian and i intended to cut the top and bottom raw rather than try to fold under and glue (i didn't want to risk fraying). I then left the glue to get tacky for a couple of mins and rolled the shade onto the fabric, smoothed it all off and then cut the excess top and bottom.

This is the finished result.

This one above has a slight fold in the fabric that i didn't iron out well enough prior to sticking, you can see it in this pic toward the top ... i'll pop it on 'A's side. He doesn't care about aesthetics unless it has an engine or resides in a shed.

A close up of the raw edge... looks ok for me 

And this is the duo tying everything together. The map has great muted blues, pinks, yellows and greens so the brighter colours in the shades and cushions give it a bit more life.

Fabric was $8 and the spray $13. For something i'll possibly change again in 6months time (or redo the creased one), it's a total bargain!

Farmers Flowers

I look forward to the farmers markets every month for one reason.

Flowers!

These pretties brightened up morning tea with some girlfriends on the front deck ...

  The kitchen

 The living room

 And the bedroom smells divine with these fragrant roses

 

I'm thinking of getting a canary. I was at cottage garden nursery and the little canary down there sings so sweetly, it really made me smile.

Spring is such a glorious season. The streets are lined with flowers and the smell of jasmine and freshly cut grass fills the air. If only it could always be spring - but then, if it was, we wouldn't appreciate it as much would we?

Hangin'round

Hanging plants are so lovely and can make such a stunning statement. I've just been admiring some - they're very pretty.

Have a great weekend!

x

Chair Revitalise # 2

I've had these chairs for a while and had planned on selling them at WAC once i'd done them up but never found the time. My sis-in-law's mum took a liking to them on Mothers Day. I know ... all those months ago, and i promised i'd 'get onto it' ...

This is 'then' (with the bottoms taken out), oh and a table too, not a traditional match but a match all the same ...

I wanted to preserve the timber arms and legs, it's a gorgeous tone, the cane had discolouration so I pondered painting black or white - opted for white. This is them bandaged up ready to be sprayed.

With white in mind, I tracked down a neutral linen for the cushioning and an off-white piping.  They've been stacked (and a little squashed) in the office for months ... waiting

This is the finished product.

  

I'm really quite smitten wtih them. The timber has come up beautifully, and their shape from every angle is gorgeous.

They look fab and are completely comfy without the back cushion too.

I just need to do a few rounds of fabric protector and this little project is finite. Let's hope they still have a home to go to.