If Life gives You Lemons.......

Ronnie sent us home from Natimuk with an enormous bag of lemons accompanied by his blind faith that I would be able to whip up all sorts of delights with them.  He is deluded, but it was quite sweet to see the faith he had in my kitchen skills.  Surfer Boy just chuckled and asked what I was going to make, with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek.

I was therefore determined to prove Ronnie's faith was not misguided and accepted the gift with promises to deliver something edible.  After staring in bemusment at my bag of lemons for a couple of days I decided to start with something simple - and something that used up the most amount of lemons in one recipe..... Lemon Cordial.  I figured it couldn't be that hard and we all love cordial so it was worth a try.

I turned the music up loud and started squeezing - a bucket load of sugar went onto the stove and before you knew it I had actually produced my first batch of home made lemon cordial.  No one was more surprised than me!

 I was quite chuffed with myself (hence a whole post devoted to it) and figure I should bottle some up to send to Ronnie and show him his faith was justified.

Love the Mailman

Look what came today....  time for a Gin Sling and hors d'oeuvres, preferably on a little cocktail stick, while I peruse my magazine

Natimuk

Nothing like a little time in the bush to make you appreciate living in Australia - after a couple of weeks on our stunning coast it was nice to experience another aspect of our great outdoors.

After our epic drive up we arrived in the tiny town of Natimuk (somewhere near The Grampians) and settled in for a couple of days with our lovely friend Ronnie.  Surfer Boy became 'Climber Boy' and had us scaling cliff faces and generally soaking in the ancient atmosphere of Mt Arapalies.

Lots of food was consumed, many beers were drunk, couches were dragged outside and there was lots of time to sit around the fire while billions of stars wheeled overhead.  There was even a mandatory Red Heeler/Dingo called Freckles to keep us company

 

Day two saw us back in the truck and off to explore 'Little Desert'.  I think there may have been some disappointment from Moondoggie who quite naturally assumed that a desert would consist of rolling sand dunes and mirages.  Instead he got low scrub and red dirt but a satisfying number of bones!

For three days we did not see one cloud in the sky - we made a point of looking - and I had forgotten just how enormous an Australian sky looks when you can see the horizon in all directions.  It's not an easy land but gee it's beautiful.

Gidget wanted me to delete this photo so don't tell her you've seen it - they shared a double bed and every night I would sneak in just to gaze at them, and occasionally call Surfer Boy in to laugh at the positions they'd got themselves in to.  
this is one photo that will NEVER be deleted!  Sorry Gidg.

That's it for the Natimuk trip - hope your holidays are just a wonderful as ours are proving to be.  Have a great New Year.  Jen.

Junk Heaven

Last weekend Surfer Boy took the family on a rock climbing road trip for four days.  We piled in the car and headed off to the Wimmera (far Western Victoria). Our four hour trip ended up taking seven as we stopped in at a few places that took our fancy.  First up was The Big Koala for the kids followed by various stops to peruse the junk shops along the route.  By far the most astonishing was this one that we came across outside Horsham.....

 

 

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It was a complete sensory overload and Surfer Boy and I were like kids in a candy shop until we discovered that the prices were ridiculously high - thank god or the kids may have ridden the rest of the way on the roof racks to fit in all the things we wanted to buy.

Amy's Kitchen

Surfer Boy and I have been finalising some of the details of our kitchen as most of it will be made by us (when I say 'us' I mean him while I watch and provide encouragement)  I'm not a huge fan of the whole cooking thing so as long as there is a spot for take-away menus and a freezer for icecream then I'm pretty much sorted.  Here are some images of Amy's kitchen that I held back from the previous post as I thought they deserved one all their own. 

Shasta

 

I have posted a picture of this caravan previously but I have now discovered more about this gem.

  She is owned by 'Enjoy Cupcakes' who have a bakery in Los Olivos California.  They use the  restored vintage Shasta caravan to travel to events with their gorgeous cupcakes, and she is often the focal point for wedding receptions and special occassions with guests served from this lovley girl.

 

images from Enjoy Cupcakes

Peeping In - Amy Butler

 

I've been needing to get the taste of Melissa Gilbert's house out of my mouth so I thought who better to counteract M.G's design style than .... Amy Butler.

Amy and her husband David live in Granville, Ohio - America's mid-west and their home is an absolute treat. 

 

  

 

I have been a long time lover of Amy's fabric designs and can spend hours scrolling through her design images wishing I had somewhere to put a little piece of everything.  As a fabric designer, there is none better in my opinion and Amy and David's home beautifully reflects her design style.

Most of these images are courtesy of Apartment Therapy with some from flikr thrown in.