lazy weekends

I have been doing an online blogging course called 'blog with Pip' with Pip Lincoln of Meet me at mikes fame. It has been so awesome and I finally feel like I am getting my blogging mojo back. Not to mention all the awesome people I have (virtually) met during the course. (Hello!)

This week we had a little assignment which was to take 5 photos of our weekend. Our weekend was pretty lazy as I have been getting over a horrid virus that left me in bed for 4 days straight last week. Ugh! I have never been so sick in my life!

It did, however, give me a bit of time to catch up on lots of bloggity blogs (as my husband always calls them). Here are a few great posts I read this week:

+ 12 eco-friendly gift ideas -just in time for Christmas!

+ These beetroot, quinoa and chocolate muffins look amazing!

+ Check out Anna's awesome Brooklyn abode!

+ Excellent tips for getting a better nights sleep, and

+ A fabulous Christmas giveaway (if you are good at writing poetry!)

Would you like to share a link to something great you read this week?

P.s Look at the roses in our courtyard!

down on the farm

Every second weekend or so we like to head up to the farm where Tom's parents live. Only it's not really a farm.. there are grape vines at the front of the property and horse paddocks at the back but saying "we are just heading up to the vineyard darh-ling" always sounded a bit hoity-toity so we just call it 'the farm'.

The farm is in the swan valley, about 45 minutes from Perth. Tom's parents (well, mum and step-dad) moved up here about 6 years ago when the sold their house in the city and were looking for a more relaxed way of life. We feel so lucky that we have this little get away so close to us.. we drive for less than an hour yet once we get there we feel like we are a million miles away from the city.

Tom's mum has the most amazing veggie patch. Her veggie patch alone could take up a whole post!
There are 4 horses on the property (at one point they had 12!) including a little two week old foal. We collect eggs from the chickens, which is always lots of fun for Sophie and her cousin Ella as the chooks are allowed to wonder around the farm during the day so they always lay their eggs in strange places (this time on a bale of hay in the stables). We make lunch from the food harvested from the garden.. potatoes, lettuce, broad beans, beetroot, corn.. whatever is ready to eat!

Sometimes when I'm having one of those horrible evenings -when two kids are screaming and the house is a mess and you're trying to cook dinner and the washing machine decides to explode all over the floor when I think 'I wish Tom's mum lived around the corner!' but then we drive up to the farm on the weekend and I am so glad they live out here and we get to visit.

Are you lucky enough to have a home away from home?

The Richmond Weekender

I have been meaning to write a post for ages about how being married to my husband is very bad for ones self-esteem. Because his parents, step-parents and his 5 little sisters are all freakin' geniuses!

One of Tom's little sisters graduated from RMIT last year and landed the coolest job working for a super trendy little design studio in Melbourne. Their latest project was 'The Richmond Weekender'.

Doesn't it look like the coolest place to spend a lazy weekend? You can read more about it here.

|Photos by Maria Gemmola via The Design Files|

Fancy Shmancy

Yesterday Tom, Sophie and I went to a fancy lunch at a beautiful restaurant on the river. It was Tom's step-mum's brother's wife's 50th. (Get that?)
It was the most beautiful afternoon and we had a lovely time. It's hard to believe that when we lived in Sydney, before Sophie was born, Tom and I spent a large percentage of our income going out to fancy restaurants. Tom loves to cook, but he also loves to eat good food and we were always heading out to trendy new restaurants and spending more money on one meal than we would now spend in a week!
It's funny.. now we never go out and our favourite thing to do is stay home and cook, all together. Sometimes we are tempted to go out when we hear about a great new restaurant (and they are few and far between in Perth), but we always think about all the other things we could do with that money and then Tom will say "I don't want to go out without Sophie" (and he is only half joking!)

Funny how life changes.

P.s Don't ask what is on my daughters head. She found it in the bargain basket at Spotlight when we were out buying fabric one day and will not take it off.

Other yummy things..

That we have made lately.

*All photos were taken with Instagram, you may have noticed that I have become slightly obsessed with Instagram. I can't believe that we spent $2000 on on DSLR and my iPhone takes better photos!

lazy town

We just got back from a few days up at the farm and so far 2012 has been pretty damn good to us.
We spent the last few days eating delicious food, doing lots of baking, having afternoon naps, reading books and generally being lazy.. quite perfect if you ask me.

The weekend that was..

Life is so busy at the moment, but in a good way! Can you believe that is it less than a week till Christmas? Crazy!

We had a lovely weekend.. We celebrated Tom's dad's 67th birthday with a big family breakfast and pavlova later that night, We went for a swim at the beach and tried to teach Sophie how to surf, We went up to the farm, We went out to Sushi train (Sophie's favourite), We did some Christmas shopping, We had lovely Christmas pies from this bakery (Tom's little sister flew in from Melbourne and had picked them up on the way to the airport), I spent a few hours curled up with the latest issue of Frankie and a peppermint tea, Tom and I went to the Moonlight Cinema and drank Champagne together under the stars*, We ate more pavlova and then (all of a sudden) it was Sunday night.

*It sounds like it was very romantic, but I should note here that I complained about all the people spraying insect repellent on every inch of their body and how it was toxic and I could not breath and it was stinging my eyes, and could we move somewhere else and Tom told me that I have the ability to find something negative in every single situation. We still cuddled under the blanket though.

The weekend that I needed. (Gotye included).

We had a lovely weekend up at the farm. (We call it 'the farm' even though it is really half vineyard and half horse stables.. I think because "Shall we head up to the vineyard this weekend" sounds a bit wanky).

It was just what I needed I think, and best of all we went and saw Gotye play at the Belvoir Amphitheatre (it's the most amazing outdoor venue) that is conveniently located about 5 minutes from the farm.

Tom and I used to go and see live music all the time and we both really miss it. The Gotye concert was really good, but I must be getting old because it was so loud and went soo late (I'm such a granny!)

I was thinking today about all the good music we went and saw before Sophie was born. Seeing the French singer Camille live in concert was probably one of the best things I have ever seen, and pretty close second was C.W Stoneking and Regina Spektor.

So tell me.. what was the best concert you have ever been to?

Photo of Sophie and her cousin Ella (and Tom's feet) up at the farm.

Fun, Not so fun, Fun.

We went to a fairy birthday on the weekend. Sophie thought it was the best thing ever.

Today I had a Hysterosalpingograph. (Yep!) It is where they inject radioactive dye into your uterus to make sure your fallopian tubes are working. It hurt. ALOT.

Last night Tom and I went and saw 'Midnight in Paris'. I thought it was brilliant.

Rosie's

A few months ago we spent the day at our friend Rosie's place in the country.
It was the most adorable little cottage I have ever seen..















Can you believe that it is actually one of the oldest buildings in Western Australia? It was built around 1830.
Amazballs.

Matilda Bay

These photos were taken a month or so ago, when we spent a lovely Sunday at Matilda Bay.
Can you believe this is Perth in Winter?!

(P.s We can't go anywhere these days without that scooter!)