Green Dining Room Tour

Given that my favourite colour is green, it was very kind of the previous owners of our house to paint the dining room green, don't you think?

I really love this room, with its two-way fireplace and French doors leading to the front porch.

The china cabinet came from my husband's grandparents, as did the dining room table...

...which is being used as a desk, as the dining room is currently doubling as our home office. 

This dining room tour is part of Show Us Your Life Friday: Dining Rooms at Kelly's Korner.

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Dancing on the ceiling

A Ashley Meaders faz coisas mesmo lindas! Designer, stylist e crafter, esta organizadora de casamentos da Georgia tem um site giríssimo e faz coisas lindas de morrer para festas de casamento. Não, não me vou casar outra vez!! Mas, como adoro decorações de tecto, quis mostrar-vos esta, que chamou a minha atenção (e, já agora, que gostava de ter) - e acho que pode utilizar-se noutras festas que não apenas casamentos.

Quem me quer fazer umas florzinhas destas? Não conheço quem faça disto por cá, e eu gostava de ter destas mãos de oiro!... :-)

Credits: Ashley Meaders

Ashley Meaders makes beautiful things. This designer, stylist, crafter and event planner from Georgia does really amazing wedding stuff that you can see on her wonderful site. No, I'm not getting married again!!It's just that I love ceiling decorations and these flowers caught my eye, so I wanted to share it with you.  I also think that we can have a centerpiece like this in other parties besides weddings. 

I wish I had fairy hands and do such beautiful things... Does anyone know how to do it? :-) 

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Spring Greens

The green of early spring is the greenest, most vivid, most emerald green there is, isn't it?

Unfortunately, early spring is not a great time in the vegetable garden.  None of the fun, showstopper crops like tomatoes or eggplants are producing.  We don't even have peas or broadbeans yet, although they are growing like crazy.

What we do have is lots of greens, which makes for great salads and stir fries (and looks of despair from some of my children who think I am trying to poison them, green being their least favourite colour in the food world).

Yesterday's harvest for a chicken stir fry, shown above, was fenugreek greens, silverbeet, garlic scapes, green onions and coriander.  Yum!

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A Very Special Housewarming Gift

When my father-in-law came to visit a few weeks ago he brought a very special housewarming gift - a map of Asia drawn by his grandfather when he was a schoolboy in 1889.

Old and faded and watermarked, this map is nonetheless a treasure.  Its elegant, spidery writing draws us back to an era when the British Empire ruled, when Iran was Persia and Thailand was Siam; an era when beautiful handwriting was a skill to be developed and admired.

The map doesn't have a permanent home yet.  At present it's on our sitting room mantelpiece.  However, it is the kind of treasure that we want to keep forever.

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Candle in the wind

Olá a todos! É fim-de-semana e adoro estar em casa, com mais algum tempo para ler e procurar imagens de coisas de que gosto e que me inspiram. Ultimamente, concentro as minhas poucas horas à procura de ideias para a festa dos meus anos e ando às voltas com tanta coisa linda que me passa pela cabeça e a sua adaptação à realidade: o espaço, a logística, os materiais, enfim, uma série de coisas que temos que planear para que no dia não falte nada!

Por isso, hoje deixo-vos com umas imagens de um elemento decorativo que adoro e que acho que faz toda a diferença nos eventos feitos à noite: iluminação com velas. Aqui estão algumas de que gostei.

E vocês, também usam velas nas decorações de festas?

 

 

Credits: 

Martha Stewart

Style Me Pretty 

Wedding Chicks

Hi everyone! It's weekend and I'm happy at home, having a little extra time for researching and reading and also looking for inspirational images. Lately, I spend my free time searching for ideas for my birthday party, as so many things are going through my mind and I have to put them into practise: I need to adapt those ideas to the space, plan all the details, look out for tableware and other bits and pieces...

So today I leave with with these images of candles, which are a decoration item that I really like for night events. 

And what about you? Do you use candles for your parties as well?

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Spring Walk with Flowers

Today three happy, laughing kids came home from the park with spring bouquets for their (equally happy) mother.

They then set about some creative, collective flower arranging in tiny cups.  Just perfect for the middle of the table at afternoon tea time.

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My Pretty Bedroom

I had so much fun joining in Show Us Your Life Friday at Kelly's Korner last week that I have decided to join in again with a tour of our master bedroom.  

Green, pink and cream has always been my favourite bedroom colour combination, and this room was already painted in these colours when we moved in last March. (The previous owners had fabulous taste!)

The master bedroom is in the original part of our 1915 house and has a 12 foot high ceiling and lovely old-fashioned windows that open outwards.  Are these called dormer windows?  Although you can't see in these pictures because of the bright light, the top row of panes is tinted pink.  

The green coverlet came from Laura Ashley a few years ago and the quilt cover, which is difficult to see, is green and pink on a white background - light and fresh and pretty for our Australian spring.

I don't like a lot of clutter in a bedroom, nor do I like bedroom televisions or other technology.  There is so much stress in our lives these days that I think it is worth making bedrooms as peaceful and restful as possible.  Anything I bring into my bedroom has to earn its place.

Our dressing table and bedside tables belonged to my husband's grandparents who married in the 1930s and I think they date from that period.  The cover on the dressing table is a scarf that belonged to my grandmother.  The silver picture frame was given to us by some Melbourne friends at our farewell party and I still haven't put a picture of us in it yet!

You can find some bedroom pictures that I took just after we moved in here. 

Thank you for visiting.  I hope you have a lovely weekend.

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Love in bloom

E quem disse que as flores artificiais não podem ser bonitas? Olhem-me só para estas fotos das flores  feitas pela Diane Phillips! Descobri estas preciosidades no blog Pinga Amor, da Ana Jordão, e estou apaixonada por elas! Queria comprar uma destas maravilhas para o meu aniversário, mas antes gostava de ouvir a vossa opinião. Qual devo escolher??..

 

 

Credits: DK Designs 

And why can't artificial flowers be beautiful as well? I found these lovelies made by Diane Phillips via Pinga Amor and I am totally in love with them! I am thinking about buying one of these for my birthday party, but I'd like to hear your opinion first. Which one should I buy?

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Miss Ladybird

ladybird on one of my rosebushes

'Oh my!' said the Ladybird primly.  'What a heavenly taste!'  She looked up at James, and she smiled, and James smiled back at her.  They sat down on the deck together, both of them chewing away happily. 'You know, James,' the Ladybird said, 'up until this moment, I have never in my life tasted anything except those tiny little green flies that live on rosebushes.  They have a perfectly delightful flavour.  But this peach is even better.'

Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach

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That's what friends are for!

Hoje gostava de agradecer a todos os que têm demonstrado o seu apoio através dos comentários que têm tido tempo para deixar aqui. Qualquer pessoa que tenha um blog gosta de ter feedback dos seus leitores, principalmente quando se tratam de opiniões construtivas ou quando as pessoas transmitem carinho nas coisas que escrevem. Tal tem sido especialmente o caso da Sofia Ferreira, da Susana Esteves Pinto e da Olga Puga. Acreditem, a vossa opinião é muito importante para mim! :-)

Para elas, deixo esta bandeirola da Ravenhill, que representa as celebrações de que tanto gostamos! Thanks for the support, girls!

Credits: Ravenhill

Today I'd like to thank all my blog readers, especially those that have the time to leave their sweet comments. Anyone who has a blog likes to get feedback from their readers, and  if their comments are helpful, kind and friendly we like them even more! That is the case with Sofia Ferreira, Susana Esteves Pinto and Olga Puga. Trust me, your opinion is very important to me! :-)

I leave them this photo, of a bunting that I bought from Ravenhill and that I'm keeping for a special occasion. It represents celebration and beauty, things we all love!

Thanks for the support, girls!

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Popcorn: A Cheap and Delicious Snack

On a cold day, popcorn is the perfect afternoon snack. We cook ours the old-fashioned way, in a saucepan, which makes it a very economical snack too.  

Just heat a little oil and butter in a large saucepan and add a pinch of salt.  Put in one kernel of corn and when it starts to dance and sizzle add in the rest.  Half a cup of kernels will feed a crowd.  Put the lid on tight and shake the pan over the heat until the popping finishes.  Add extra salt if you like and serve.

I think popcorn is at its best this way: hot, salty, buttery and fresh.

How do you like your popcorn?

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The Joy of Natural Light

One of the commenters on my last post noted how bright with natural light my family room is, and how she wished she had known more about natural light when she bought her first home.  I agree with her.  Having plenty of natural light really does make a difference, and we often only realise this when we are forced to live in a dark house.

Our last house was very, very dark.  There were few windows and the rooms were painted in dark colours.  Of particular note was the windowless, blood-red dining room.  While by candlelight that room could be atmospheric and dramatic, the rest of the time it was off-putting.  

Frustratingly, there was nothing I could do about the paint colours because we were renting.  However, one of the things I was looking for when we bought a home of our own again was natural light.  

Looking to buy in an old, established area with many 19th and early 20th century homes, good natural light was not a given.  Many of the old houses we inspected were very dark - a combination of a Victorian unwillingness to bring the outside in and a natural reaction to Adelaide's hot climate which led to wide eaves and wide, shady verandahs.

I am so happy that the house we eventually bought has plenty of windows, and many of those windows are large.  As you can see, our family room has huge windows which provide wonderful natural light.  Those windows extend right across the back of the house and mean that we don't need lights on in the daytime even in midwinter.  The pergola outside will hopefully provide some shade in summer whilst still letting light in.  The room faces south east, so gets morning sun (we're in the Southern Hemisphere so the north-western side is the hottest part of the house.)

Every time I enter this room I feel like smiling.  I'm sure it's the light brightening my mood.

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My milk glass is better than yours!

Olá! Hoje vou-vos mostrar algumas fotos das peças em milk glass que tenho juntado. Bem sei que não são muitas, mas a procura continua e espero, brevemente, ter mais coisas lindas para vos mostrar! Perdoem-me as flores, que são artificiais, mas quis aproveitar o pouco tempo que estou em casa para ter luz para tirar estas fotos.

Espero que aproveitem bem o fim-de-semana!

  

  

  

Hi everyone! Today I'm posting some photos of the few milk glass pieces that I have found along the way. I know they're not many but hopefully I'll have more beautiful items to show you soon. Forgive me for the flowers - they are artificial - but I wanted to take the photos while there's light and I'm at home, which doesn't happen that often!

I hope you have a nice weekend!

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I just can't get you out of my head!

Muitas coisas a acontecerem e muita inspiração! Este é o moodboard que criei para a próxima mesa que vou fazer.

Espero que gostem!

Credits: Peggy Porschen, Erica O'Brien, Martha Stewart, Amy Atlas, Style Me Pretty, Rie Elise Larsen

Too much going on and lots of inspiration! This is my moodboard for my next party table. 

Enjoy!

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Show Us Your Life: Living Rooms

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is doing a series called "Show us Your Life Friday".  Well, it's Saturday here in Australia but I thought I'd join in anyway!

Our house is a traditional 1915 South Australian villa.  It has a formal sitting room at the front of the house and  there is a family room extension at the back. (You can see our formal sitting room here.)  Today I am featuring the family room as it is where we spend most of our time - largely because we haven't bought a sofa for the front room yet!

We are very fortunate that the previous owners of this house renovated it so beautifully, maintaining the high ceilings, cornices and double-brick structure.

One of the things I love about this room is the natural light.  The windows are huge - they go almost all the way up to the 12 foot ceiling.  The last house we lived in (a rental) was very dark so this is a vast improvement.

The room below forms part of a great room that includes our kitchen and a dining area.  There are still things that I want to do to the family room, but that will take time - we have only been living here since March.  The coffee table is wrong - a larger square one would look better - and a large area rug would also be an improvement.  At present the pictures are too high because we have used existing hooks, but I'll get some picture wire soon and lower them.

The cream bookcase has only been there since last weekend.  I found it during our district's hard rubbish collection and painted it.  It holds some of the very tall books that don't fit anywhere else.

I'm not rushing to buy anything for this house because I only want to buy things that I really love and want to keep for a long time - I would *love* this to be my forever home.

This ceiling rose is really lovely and was commissioned by the previous owner.  We think the leaves on it are either oak or fig leaves.

Well, that's it from me for today!  If you'd like to see more living room tours go and visit Kelly.

Have a great weekend!

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Backyard Harvest: Coriander

 coriander flowers

I hope the weather warms up soon or I won't have anything to do my Friday "Backyard Harvest" posts on!  I am starting my spring and summer vegetable and flower seeds in egg cartons outdoors and they are germinating very slowly at present.  I have only lived in Adelaide for two years so I don't know if this cool spring weather is typical.  

The subject of this week's post is coriander.  In Australia coriander is usually grown as a cool season crop because in warmer weather it goes to seed too quickly.  I use fresh coriander leaves in all the usual ways: in curries and salsas, as a garnish and to make coriander pesto.

Some people think coriander smells disgusting, like squashed bugs, but I really like it.  Once the plants set seed I collect the seeds and use them in cooking and for next year's crop.

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