HOW cute are these?

Howdy,
long time no write.
I have been spending most of my time over at instagram but I had to pop over here and show you these. If there is still anyone reading this blog.
At least I know the spammers are active. 114 spams to delete. What a pain!

Anywho take a peek at these babies.......

They are so cute!

check out the tongue

http://www.zermatt.ch/

photo via: lady0sheep.blogspot.com

They are Valais Blacknose Sheepare my new favorite breed of sheep.  

They should look great with a herd of highland cattle.

Hope you are well and happy.

Magical sunset

It's our turn to see a bit of beach action.this gorgeous sunset is a lovely way to end the day. Nothing like sipping a quiet wine and marveling in the pretty sky.

Christmas 2012, celebrating firsts.

Merry Christmas to you all.

I hope you had a lovely time.

We certainly did.

After all the hustle and bustle and planning and mental exhaustion we are loving these hot lazy summer days at home.

I just wanted to share some Christmas pictures.

And, celebrate some "firsts"

My first ever Christmas cake.

A little dry to be perfectly honest but it smells divine.

My Mum suggests just pouring a little more brandy over the top to keep it moist.

Like your thinking Mum!

First ever washi tape Christmas card tree.

Loved this and will definitely do it again.

Master B's first solo decorating effort!

I resisted all control freak urges and let it remain.

We always make a gingerbread house, but this year it was modelled on our own.

Complete with fretwork.

Mr M's first year with his Moerkey business.

He was so busy, so happy and very grateful to the wonderful customers who supported him.

First year of making strawberry santas, even if their eyes do look zombie like,

We loved them!

First year of these pretties.

First batch of mince tarts. 

I revelled in the glory for a full five minutes until the whole tray went crashing to the floor.

They say "pride comes before fall", it's even written in the snakes and ladders game!

Master B's first photo styling gig with his homemade lemonade.

Hope yours was Merry and Bright.

See you in 2013.

Merry Christmas...best intentions

via Pinterest, sorry no source

I had to title this post "best intentions", because as you are aware I have been rather AWOL in blogland lately.

It is all Instagrams fault.

I have been having some fun learning how to layer my photos to add labels like this one.

Thanks to clever Katrina Chambers for pointing me in the right direction.

Now the silly season is upon us, I just had to show some of my favourite pictures this year.

bodie and fou

Simple and white, perfect!

dreamy whites

One of my favourite blogs for eye candy.

dreamy whites

 I found the picture via pinterest and added the words to make my own. However despite my best intentions, it hasn't happened. 

Maybe next year!

I have tons of other pretty images, 

If you pop over to my Pinterest page (link is on the sidebar) you can see them.

dreamy whites

and

via pinterest sorry no link

Not long to go now.

In the meantime, I will be cooking up a storm, doing some frenzied wrapping and sitting back sipping my homemade limoncello.

That is a whole other blog post.

Hope you and yours enjoy the festive season.

10 tips for a successful garage sale

We have had a few garage sales in our time. The last one was on the weekend.  We team up with our neighbour and have the whole thing pretty well organised.  We both made a very healthy profit, just in time for Christmas. 
So here are our top ten tips for a great garage sale.

1. Price everything, I mean EVERYTHING. This makes it so much easier for everybody.

2. Organise and display your goods attractively, this will really help. we like to organise into "departments". 

3. Have some things in boxes to hunt through, eg snap lock bags of jewellery or hair clips etc, some people enjoy the thrill of the chase and scrabbling through boxes is their thing.

4.Hang the clothes on hangers, they present so much better. we hang a curtain rod between two ladders, it works a treat!

5. Hang feature goods in prominent spots, it draws people in. 

6. Provide shelter. We don't have a carport or garage so in yesterdays 33 degree heat we erected a large sunshade and some shade cloth. People were more comfortable and stayed longer to browse.

7. Join forces, we always have a sale with our neighbour and are happy for others to put some stuff in. The deal is they have to pick up what doesn't sell, the same day. This makes for a greater variety and a more interesting sale.

8.Wear something that lets people know you are the vendors. If people want to ask a question, they know who to go to.  My neighbour and I wear matching aprons, (which does tend to make us want to talk like Trude and Prue from Kath and Kim.) Always greet people when then come in.

9. Provide bags for people, its a little thing but much appreciated.

10. If you can offer delivery of big items it might just clinch the sale. We sold a big heavy desk and bbq because it was easy to toss them on the back of the ute and drop them off.

Hope these tips are handy if you are contemplating a sale.

We always have a few funny things happen. It's good, but exhausting fun.

Have you had a garage sale? Any good tips?

Kitchen dissillusion

We went out to dinner the other night.  Had a great night BUT we were sitting next to a lovely man who was a cabinet maker specializing in kitchens.

I held back as long as I could.  Waited until he had had sufficient quantities of red wine.

Then started peppering him with questions.

What sort of bench tops does he think last the best? (composite)

What his opinion on undermounted sinks? (not good, haven for germs)

Were my vinyl wrap cupboards a poor choice 13 years ago? (duh of course)

So many of my plans for my next kitchen were shattered.

I think a second opinion might be in order.

In the meantime this one via BHG is lovely eye candy.

Have you ever made a poor kitchen decision?

The one where he tries to melt the kitchen

I came home from squash the other night ( and yes, thanks for asking I did have a win and so far all body parts are still functioning).

To find a lovely candlelit glow emanating from the kitchen.

Mr M had made a hanging key ball. (not sure about the chain, but that's probably another discussion)

There were two of these dangling beautifully casting lovely shadows against the kitchen tiles along with the smell of hot plastic.

So picture the scene,

Hubby relaxing by the tv, wife walks in,

drops squash gear says, referring to the key balls, "they are pretty"

quickly followed by

"shit, they are melting the cupboard @#$@&%

Hubby leaps up in disbelief followed by shock.

grabs the sticky tape, blows out the candle and proceeds to tape up the offending melted plastic.

Wife heads to the shower and goes to bed.

The next day hubby quietly peels off the sticky tape to reveal the damage.

If you didn't know it was there,

you wouldn't know.

Problem is,

I know it's there.

Better sell lots of balls Mr M,

I may need a new kitchen soon!