Vanessa's Mad Tea Party (of the Costume variety!)

I'm Late I'm Late for a very important date! Ok so I made sure I was late so I could open with that line, silly sense of humour here.... Well the very important date is Vanessa's Mad Tea Party! Make sure you check out her incredible party, it is SO much fun, a feast for the senses!

Welcome to my little part of it...

What mad tea party would be complete without a mask?

With beautiful peacock feathers no less!
And pure silver glitter
The table is set, chandelier is twinkling....
Hi there! I'm your host! Hiding behind a fun feathery foofy fan

Would you like some tea?

It's flowering tea of course!
Yes, best hide behind that mask....
You might like a cupcake?


The ballerinas came to the party too, they're dancing and twirling away on top of cupcakes...


And little Miss Princess here is being quite contrary - she doesn't want to share her cupcakes. She won't let go of the one on her lap. AND notice she has another three stashed away under her mushroom?! Naughty little girl!



Even the birds and love birds came out to play. Just don't eat that bit of cake underneath them... I wouldn't recommend it personally....

Hope you had fun at the party! Be sure to visit all of Vanessa's party friends all over the world by clicking HERE and clicking on the names on her sidebar.

Enjoy your day!

Natasha oxox

PS. My Father in law is doing better - he might be out of intensive care on Friday and in the general hospital ward for a couple of weeks after that. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, they are working! xo

Miss Laurence's One Day Holiday (or in my case 6 days later!)

Miss Laurence's ONE DAY HOLIDAY has stretched to a 6 day one for me! I'm late but want to share pics that I did actually have ready for her one day holiday party around the world. Be sure to check out Laurence's blog HERE to see all the amazing places around the world. Thanks so much for hosting a fantastic event!

Some pictures of some beautiful old homes right in the heart of Melbourne, Australia, literally a couple of blocks from the city buildings. I love these, (and they're worth a small fortune!)
This grand old place has been rejuvenated. How sad they need bars on the windows down below. Must get some crazies through there at night...

Across from the first homes is the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, and on the left, the modern structure is the Museum. In Melbourne there is a lot of the old beside the new. In homes I'm not so fond of people building a warehouse style ultra modern home in a street full of old period homes, not being sympathetic to the aesthetics (and history) of the area, but I know people who do it and think the old homes should be demolished. A matter of taste I suppose!!!
On my way home from the city that day I snapped some pics of some more old homes in a lovely area of Melbourne, Carlton.


This grand home above is closer to home again, it's right next door to Leroy's school next year. I'd almost kill to have this home but I don't have a spare one or two mill.....drats!
Not all homes are brick around Melbourne, there are plenty of weatherboards (my personal fave if I was to build from scratch) or as my friends in the US call it, "siding" (is that right?). Love this sweet little Californian Bungalow style home (that's what we call it). Another prohibitive price tag, sadly way out of reach for us, boo hoo!!

Thought I'd include a few homes in my suburb, that are very newly built to show people outside of Australia a few of the different styles of new homes here. The above is pretty typical of a rendered brick double storey home, you'll find tons of these in all the new estates. They're usually really big inside.

And the one above is a townhouse/unit on a regular house block. They have three of these units one behind the other.

Be sure to go to Laurence's blog for some amazing homes and architecture from around the world...France....ah France....

Next party - Vanessa's Mad Tea Party! In a few weeks, Laura's Whimsical Children's Room party. So many parties, what a lot of fun!!!

Ciao for now,

Natasha xo

Saucy's Virtual Wedding Party

Well I've been late to the parties lately (Miss Laurence I will catch up!) so today I'm just squeezing in on time! Before the wedding pics I want to again say thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers for my father in law and my hubby and his family - F.I.L is doing a little better today, it's a day-to-day thing. Hopefully he will be out of intensive care by next Wednesday if all goes smoothly.

Saucy is having a virtual wedding party! I've got a few wedding pics to share from our wedding in 1998. November is our 10th wedding anniversary already!

That gorgeous fabric with flowers and sparkles attached is my wedding gown. Still love it...

With Miss Molly, now my mum's dog (cute little Maltese X Shih-Tzu)

I love black and white photos....

Hubby goofed around and pretended he couldn't get the ring on my finger, such a joker!

Our photos were at the airport with an old aeroplane, it was such fun and so windy!

Thanks for hosting Saucy! Be sure to check out the other wedding parties on her blog post.

See you next time, painting awaits me...

Natasha xo

Thank you!

Thank you so much to all the beautiful people, my sweet friends, who have left me sweet messages and emails the past few days.  One of the issues my stomach was churning with worry about is resolved thank goodness and your thoughts and prayers have helped me smile so thank you from the bottom of my heart.

We do have another worry in our household, a rather serious one.  My father-in-law is very ill in hospital and has been for more than two weeks. I've tried to keep it out of my blog but it's not really getting any better so I hope by putting it out there you can send a small thought or prayer his way.  He has had pneumonia and for a week was under a medically induced coma. He started to come good, became conscious, and eventually was breathing on his own without a respirator for 12 hours the other day. Yesterday he went downhill back to 2 hours without a respirator so now they are doing other things like inserting tubes in his heart, monitoring him and he is fighting it and trying to pull out the tubes and so needed to be restrained. It must be so awful and frustrating for him to not be able to communicate and to be in bed for such a lengthy time.  My hubby is worried sick for both his dad and the stress it is putting his mother under, who has so so so much on her plate you wouldn't believe it if I told you.  So if you could spare a thought or prayer for my in-laws and my hubby who is so flat right now and worried sick, I'd hugely appreciate it.

I'm so thankful the other issue is resolved now and we can focus on worrying about my F-I-L.

I'm back to blogging and will take a while to catch up with everyone and all my work I need to do so please bear with me.

Thanks so much for the kindness and friendships,

Natasha xoxo

Something came up

Sorry, I was supposed to show my part of the world for Miss Laurence's party (see sidebar) but due to some not so fantastic circumstances that I don't want to go into I can't join in. Not sure when I'll blog next, sorry I'm not around vising you. Everyone is ok and safe, please don't worry, just something personal and totally unexpected came up.

Take care,

Natasha xo

She loved it

Thanks so much for the sweet comments about my mum's quilt and I had a good chuckle about how much you thought my lavender loo was funny, glad it made people laugh because I sure hated it!!!

Mum's birthday was yesterday. She turned 58, ssssssssshhhh don't tell her I said how old... Anyway, in case you were biting your nails worried, like I know you were (!!!) YES i did finish the quilt!!! I really seriously thought I wouldn't but a few nights of 3am bedtimes and voila it's amazing what you can get done! You can also get a very sore index finger sewing on over 200 buttons AND hand stitching one side of the binding on...

So I wrapped it up all pretty. I made this fun paper - if anyone wants to know how -

you just get waxed lunch wrap paper, cut two pieces the same size and I experimented by placing pink tissue paper between and bits of vintage lace and fabric flowers I pulled apart. Place a cloth over the top and you iron them together. Make sure the shiny waxy sides of the paper are facing towards each other inwards though or nothing will stick together!Simple! And effective.

Mum kept the paper, lol!!!

So you want to see the infamous quilt? The one that was 6 years in the making???

Here it is spread across our king size bed. It started out as a small lap quilt, a quarter of the size it is now. I got that part pieced really quickly so decided to make it single bed size. That's where the 6 year part comes into it.
Every Summer for the past 6 years I have worked on it. It has been my project down at the beach house. It technically didn't take a whole 6 years to actually make, but I did start it back in January 2002.
That is the back, love those fabrics....

And this is its new home - Mum loves it! That's her with it on one of her chairs - she'll move it though so the buttons don't scratch the leather, it will go on her rocker.

See how the colours are just so 'her house'? How could I NOT give her the quilt. Mum is not afraid of colour and uses it so nicely. Her home is so warm and cosy. Here's a mini tour of it....
(BTW That gorgeous pin cushion above is one I had custom made by the incredibly creative Beth of Beths Bagz)
Quilts galore at her house - Mum is a quilter - one day I'll share her quilts with you, she is amazing.
Even her bathroom has a cute bit of fabric on the box above the lights on top of the mirrors there

So in case you were wondering, the doily baskets were a success!!! Stiffy worked great!

I've put a few of my faux cupcakes and some flowers in them, they are so sweet and I like the way they look grouped. Any ideas, what would you suggest to go in them? Needs to be lightweight....

If anyone tries it, a few tips....

• Squeeze out the excess Stiffy, don't let it dribble down the bowl you are using as a mould. You'll only waste it and it won't be any less stiff with the excess squeezed out (gently).
• Another tip. Let it dry fully (at least a day) on the bowl you are using. Don't be impatient like me!
• Lastly - don't let stuff squash it and leave it there because it will distort.... I had to re-stiff one bowl because of that - Tonka trucks in the car and a doily bowl don't go well together.
  

Ensuite update - in case you were interested, lol!!! This is actually the 2nd bathroom, the one off our bedroom. Our main one is quite nice and it is bigger, not much but it does fit a bath at least. The floor is stripped further now... and there is a huge hole leading to the dirt under our house where the shower will go! Eeeek I hope we don't have any rats or mice under the house right now!!!!

And this my dear friends is the buy of the century. This is my pedestal basin!!! I've wanted one forever. Well, 7 years. I found some online and they were $300 without the taps or anything else. That was reasonable compared to the ones that were $600 at another shop. Today we went to find these $300 ones and what do we find????? Most of them are on sale..... and this one here that will find its way home was down from $395 to...... wait for it..... don't hate me.... $99. Yes, $99. I can't tell you how excited I am that we actually got a bargain for a change!!! Normally this happens AFTER you buy the more expensive one. If anyone here in Australia wants them, they are at Recollections. RUN!!!!

That's all for now folks, thanks for staying this long!


Catch you later,

Natasha xo

While the guys are busy with destruction.... I've gone quilting

I'm going on a little short blogging hiatus - on a birthday deadline... Mum's birthday is in a few days and I am working furiously on her quilt - it has taken me 6 years so far (I've hand stitched every piece together with a needle and thread, no machine whatsoever... crazy huh?) - and now I am up to the part where I'm 'quilting' it together though instead I am attaching the layers with a button in each corner. Only 157 buttons to go. Yikes.

In the meantime I want to share my excitement with you! Our ghastly ugly ensuite ....the one with the water that goes through the tiles in the shower, the one where the tiles are actually falling out because the grout is so old and damaged it doesn't work any more..... the one with the leaking sink because it has a crack in the basin.... the one with the constantly dripping old toilet.....the one with the gap so tiny between the shower and the basin that anything that drops in there goes to no-man's land because even the thinnest feather duster or vacuum attachment won't fit... the one with the horrendous 70's original floor tiles on the floor AND on the base of the shower that get so icky after such a short time....the one with the ugliest lavender coloured toilet in the whole world......the one I refuse to shower in because of aforementioned faults (I shower in the clean white tiled shower!).....
(Yup see it really is lavender....)

....Well.... today it was attacked!!! and it has GONE!!!

WOOHOO!!!!! There's water damage on the floorboards that need fixing and now a whole new ensuite is coming! A shower with a glass shower door and not a shower curtain! How funny that after a certain age we can be excited about such mundane things?

So for now, I've Gone Quilting.

Ready to hand stitch another 157 buttons... wish me luck!

Catch you later,

Natasha xo

PS. A few of my friends are having giveaways on their blogs to celebrate the opening of their new blog shops! You can visit Connie here and Stephanie here and you might win a prize!