Christmas at Lake Tabourie

sparklers

presents

Cubby houses....I'm still cool :)

sand castles

rock pools

star fish

sea shells

 heaven on earth

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas too. 

Alisa x

Merry Christmas everyone!

Well, Christmas is here and I am pooped. I had every intention of doing more posts on the silly season but i have just run out of time :(

 I would like to thank you for following my blog and for all the lovely comments. I absolutely love blogging and through it I have met lots of new friends. All of whom are so lovely and talented.

I'll leave you with two of my favourite Christmas songs (and two of my favourite ladies)

I couldn't leave you without a Dolly clip now could I?

Merry Christmas, and a big god bless.

Alisa x

Marshmallow slice

We've been making sweets for our friends and this one has to be my favourite. It's packed with lots of naughty ingredients that is bad for the hips but the taste is well worth it!

INGREDIENTS

1 packet of Scotch Finger biscuits

125g of cold butter cut into cubes (it must be butter, otherwise it won't set)

1 packet of small marshmallows (you can use large marshmallows too but you'll need to cut them up)

390g can of sweetened condensed milk

some shredded coconut

RECIPE

Firstly blend the scotch finger biscuits with the butter.

Put the mixture into a bowl. Add the marshmallows and the sweetened condensed milk.

Mix it all up and place in a shallow baking tray lined with baking paper. Spread it all out and sprinkle with coconut.

Place it in the fridge to set overnight until it is solid enough to cut into little squares.

And there you have it. Paula Deen would LOVE this!

I've wrapped them up in baking paper tied with string. It's yet another simple and inexpensive way to give something that looks lovely and tastes amazing! 

Alisa x

Christmas Giveaway Winner!

And the winner is Carrie from The Vintage Wren, congratulations sweets! Please give me your mailing address and I'll send them to you right away!

Thankyou so much to everyone that participated. I love doing my giveaways :)

Have a lovely day!

Alisa x

Last chance to enter my giveaway!

I'd hate for anyone to miss out! Thy really are gorgeous... details here.

The winner will be drawn on Friday morning. Good luck!

Alisa x

Red wine and "Lakme"

And that is how I'm spending this evening. Loving Erika :)

Alisa x

An inexpensive gift idea for little friends

Today we are off to Amelias pre- school Christmas party and have been busy preparing gifts for her little circle of friends. We decided to give them each one of Amelias favourite games, elastics. I love how it has all come together, and it was so inexpensive!

 Firstly I made a little board to wind the elastic onto out of Christmas themed scrap-booking paper and a page from one of my vintage books. I then tied some red ribbon around the elastic to finish it off.  It looks so sweet!

Next Amelia and I worked on some instructions.....

I love her little drawing of using chairs to hold up the elastic! Too cute!

We've teamed each gift up with a couple of lolly pop soaps from BIG W and we're done! All up each gift cost less than $5.00 and I just know her friends will adore playing this game. I know I do and I'm 30!

Needless to say I'm very pleased :)

Alisa x

P.S. A reminder about my giveaway (see below). I haven't had any entries yet :)

Christmas Giveaway!

Well it is the time of giving, isn't it? Up for grabs is a beautiful pair of earrings made from swarovski crystals, swarovski pearls, chinese crystals, spiral bead caps and vintage plastic flowers. They are truly beautiful and being in neutral tones will go well with virtually anything!

Now heres how we play......Firstly, you must be a follower. Just leave a comment under this post to be in the draw. Blog about this giveaway and you will receive an extra two entries, thats right......TWO entries! (yes, I am aware that I sound like Delilah)....  Just let me know if you have done this.

Entries will close on the 15th of December at 8pm.

Good luck!

Alisa x

Sunset through my hallway

Aaaah the sun is back....lovng it! 


Alisa x

Rain.

Please spare a thought today for all of the people affected by the recent floodings. This rain is crazy! Below is a photograph of Mudgee taken from the Mudgee Guardian. Many of the roads out of town have been closed so we have been house bound. The one time I did venture out was to drop my father in law back home. At first it was sunny, then it started to rain a little and before I knew it, we were in the middle of a deluge. I managed to get him home but on the way back I was stopped by a teenager in a pigging ute who told me that I wouldn't make it through as the road was flooded. Poo.

Thankfully I could make my way back to the in-laws, via their neighbours place to use their phone (I can't get my car down Rob and Liz's driveway when it's this wet, thanks Patty and Lester). We waited a couple of hours until the water had subsided then made our way home. The whole experience has only reinforced the fact that we need to get a new car (well, a second hand new car anyways) the commodore ain't cutting the mustard!

photo courtesy of the Mudgee Guardian.

It's so important to heed all the warnings and not push your luck in this weather. There are too many cases of people being washed away by flood waters and alot of these incidents can be avoided if one just plays it safe. 

It's hard to believe that this time last year we were experiencing the other end of the spectrum (see here). Nuts!!

I feel so dreadful for all the families having to go through this. But I also love seeing how everyone sticks together and helps one another. It restores faith in the human spirit.

I'm off now to catch up on all the blogs I'm following. I haven't had a chance to read anything! I need some inspiration and I'm sure I'll find plenty.

Take care all,

Alisa x

Feeling the rush

Christmas has hit our house like a tonne of bricks! We've had a lot of rainy days so to keep the girls sane I allowed them go nuts with decorating the house. The back room is gloriously tacky with tinsel and metallic boughs cascading from the ceiling and lots of handmade decorations. I even splashed out and got an enormous tinsel chandelier from IGA that hangs quite low in the middle of the room. I don't know how long it will last though as the girls love to jump up to see if they can reach it! Like I said...gloriously tacky :)

I feel a bit overwhelmed with how much I have to do. I'm running so far behind with listing my goodies and I have to wait to do my Christmas shopping for another week (when hubby has his next day off).  I just know the days are going to fly by and it's making me feel quite anxious that I won't get it all done. I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling this way. Am I?

I hope you all have a fulfilling day and a lovely weekend, I'm off to work (in the cafe today).

Alisa x

7 questions....

Hello everyone! I've been tagged by the lovely Simone from Honey and Fizz to share a questionnaire  that is doing the rounds. I was lucky enough to meet Simone at The Bloggers High Tea and she's a real sweetie. So, here goes...


1. What is one thing you cannot stand? 
 Greed and lack of appreciation. When people just want more and are never satisfied. I believe that until one is truly thankful for the blessings they already have, they will never be happy with anything else that comes along. Many of these things are materialistic and in this age of "the next big thing" we have become a throw away society. It saddens me.  :(

Greed aint good Gordon!

2. If you could go back to your childhood what cartoon or t.v show would you pick to be your favourite? 
Oh Lordy, so many!  As far as toonies were concerned  I loved Thundercats, Transformers (the original and the best), Defenders of the Earth,  Shera, Jem, He-man and Silver Hawkes. I have 3 brothers so I was exposed to a lot of their favourites.
  If I had to choose ONE show that I loved the best as a child  then it would have to be "The Storyteller".  My darling brother Damien bought the girls the DVD last year for Christmas. I was so chuffed because it isn't available in Australia. I also loved watching the BBC production of "The Children of Green Knowe" and last but not least "Anne of Green Gables".... Gilbert Blythe  *sigh*






3. What's something you do or have done that would surprise a lot of people?
 I'm a bit of a goose so nothing really surprises anyone anymore!  I like to be silly and don't get embarrassed easily. If I've had a few drinks a few characters emerge... Ivana (a Russian mistress) and Steven Tyler (from Aerosmith) are the most popular. Nothing says your drunk more than bumping and grinding against a tree, singing "Love In An Elevator" with a tie wrapped around your head.
I also have a very freakish memory. I can recall things in such detail as long ago as 1983, yet I can't remember to pack Amelias item for "show and tell" at  kindy. Go figure.


4.Do you believe in ghosts? 
Hmmm, I'm not sure about this one. I certainly believe that evidence suggests such things but I don't understand how?  I'd say yes. I believe in both evil and good spirits. 

5. When you go into a store what's your weakness, something you just can't help yourself buying more of? 
Doilies and vintage books, tea towels and tablecloths. Kandos Vinnies, I love you :)  


6. What is your proudest moment of being a parent?
Every time I see my girls being lovely to each other. It melts my heart

7. If you could go back and relive one day of your life which would you choose?
There have been so many happy days for me. The obvious ones being my wedding day and the birth of both my girls (even though their labours were REALLY long). But I think I'd like to go back to my childhood. Probably the day  my school friend Sam had his 12th birthday party on Rodd Island in Drummoyne. We played Commandos with two separate bases, The best one being a cave. We had the whole island to ourselves and no, it wasn't as extreme as "Lord of the Flies" but it was intense. We had to try and steal party food off one another! I just remember it being so much fun so I'd love to go back to that day.  



Now to keep it going I'm going to tag Tina from Rubies place and Sarah from Gifts Created.


Please don't feel obliged to take part ladies, tis just a bit of fun!


Thankyou Simone :)


Alisa x

Mothers love, painting, wreaths and fuschias

It's been busy at our place this week (hence the lack of posts). Thank you everyone for your lovely comments regarding the shop. It's super exciting! We're just finishing the walls today and tonight I'm going to sit and finish off the lampshades. It's all coming together so well. I'm also chuffed that my roses and fuschias are in full bloom. "Mothers Love" is very dear to us as we planted it in memory of someone very special. It flowered for the first time this week and is such a beautiful rose. My love for fuschias began when I was a small child sitting at my mothers piano. The piano has a beautiful fuschia pattern carved into the front. I remember how the carved flowers would inspire my little songs, thus my love for playing the piano was born. As for the wreaths, well..... it's the season!

I trust everyone is having a good day? It's been raining quite heavily here. Bad news for my washing pile!

Alisa x

View from my shop window

Wow, I think it's time to start pruning. Otherwise no-one will be able to see it!

We're getting there folks....

We recycled the old fence palings. I love that we have used a lot of "found" materials. Good for the back pocket too! I'm envisaging a lovely garden area with a table and chairs and lots of pretty flowers. Geraniums would probably work best out there. The only thing waiting to be done on the outside is the little awning that was on the old laundry. Very cute:)

The front of the shop minus light fittings cornices and skirting boards etc. I'm having a bench and stools put in under the windows for my "tea and book nook". The windows and door are from my folks place. They've been there for as long as I can remember, tucked away in the shed.

The studio part....My first pink room! I want to paint the window a bright yellow. It sounds crazy I know but I think it'll work with what I want to do in there. This window is from our old place. It's nice to have it in here.

Just a few more touches and I can start moving in. I'm very keen :)

Alisa x

Older works

It's hard to believe it now but most of my past work was done with white. I loved the freshness of white, It was pure and calm. Looking back now I realize that I was using it as a way to balance the chaotic life I was leading. I used to love experimenting with shade and texture.....lathering on impasto, painting it then sanding back to see what lies beneath. I also incorporated vintage laces, pearls, papers and even butterfly wings.  I still love them. They were all very pretty and adorned my walls in Sydney.

Something happened when I moved out to the country. I became braver in my work and used my new connection to the beautiful landscape as inspiration. I started to explore pattern and found the repetitiveness of it quite cathartic. Things had switched. I was now leading a calm existence. I was happy. My paintings were now loud and colourful. And I loved it.

It's funny how one can look back at their own work and see the journey that has taken place. I wonder what my current phase will lead me to?

Today will be spent making more wreaths and listing goodies for the shop. I have new brooches that are so pretty. Lace and tulle sweetness!

I hope you all  have a lovely day!

Alisa x

A lovely Sunday

photo taken by Paula at The Little project Room and Eggshell blue

I just wanted to take the time to thank all the lovely ladies that came along to The Bloggers High Tea at The Queen Victoria Building in Sydney. This event was orchestrated by  the beautiful Anna from Lona de Anna and was just superb. We enjoyed yummy cakes, sandwiches and tea (of course) that was served in Royal Albert teacups (my grandmother has this collection and it reminded me of her). Anna also surprised each of us with a gift! She's such a gem! I had a wonderful time and was so happy to meet these gorgeous girls....

Anna from Lona de Anna

Paula from The Little Project Room and Eggshell blue

Belinda from Cupcakes, Frocks and Pink

Simone from Honey and Fizz 

Janette from My Sweet Prints

Anna from Cornflake

I wish I took my camera with me. I can't believe I forgot it... What a putz! 


Thanks again Anna!

Alisa x

New jewels

I hope to have them all listed by days end but I can't promise anything. Etsy listings can be very time consuming and one of my little cherubs is having a grumble bum day. I'll also be adding some of my cones to the shop, they look lovely hanging in the Christmas tree.

Have a lovely afternoon! 

Alisa 

I'm a busy bee!

How is it the middle of November already? That means Christmas will be here toot sweet and I'm not ready! I've been trying to work on some new goodies in my spare time. Heres a sneaky peek at what I've been up to. 

Firstly, my story book collages. I'm using up my collection of broken and defaced (by their previous owners) Little Golden Books. I keep the good ones for myself and the girls. I can't bring myself to cut those ones up. Here is one of my faves.....

Next up my Christmas Wreaths, very sweet and simple. Again using vintage illustrations, book pages, beads, Japanese papers, scrapbooking card, fabric and ribbon....

And lastly, my dear tweets. These little ones are waiting to be finished off....

Unfortunately all this work has resulted in an incredibly messy abode. I'm still waiting to move into my new studio and stuff is EVERYWHERE! I can't wait for it to be finished. Not long to go now!

I hope you're all having a lovely day. The sun has decided to shine at Rylstone today after so much rain. It's glorious! I have alot of washing to hang out though (and fold). Poo.

Alisa x