31 year old Me...

I had my 31st birthday last month and to celebrate my parents and I went for a day trip to Mt Glorious, Mt Nebo and Mt Cootha. The three of us love bushwalking and photography so that is how we spent the day. There are some lovely walks with lookouts looking both east and west along the drive to Mt Glorious. We started at Mt Glorious then made our way to Mt Nebo then Mt Cootha stopping along the way for morning tea and a few scenic walks. There were a few cafes along the way but only one of them was open, the others must only open on the weekends.

31 year old me...

The only cafe that was open had really good coffee and the yummiest peacan pie I can remember having. It was very busy with hordes of leather clad bike riders and a couple of tourist types like us.





Some more photos from the day...

We finished the day with something to eat at the cafe on Mt Cootha.

Mel...

Camping at the dam...so fun...

We went camping at Moogerah Dam with family and friends last weekend. Fun was had by all in spite of the magpie and the cold nights. It was Kathryn (Leon's sister) and family's first camping trip in the new camper trailer and our second camping trip in a fabulous tent. The other people with us were seasoned campers.

We went kayaking on the lake, ate yummy food, played volleyball, tried slacklinging again (and decided that I should give up trying as it really hurts) and did a bit of star gazing. The kids also got chased by a very territorial magpie that only attacked children.

I forgot to pack our sleeping bags so we had to wear layers of clothing to bed and borrow blankets from friends. It was a great weekend and I look forward to more camping trips this summer...

Cheese, Chocolate, Pizza and Brisbane Festival...

The Brisbane Cheese Festival was on a Hamilton's Portside last Sunday. Being rather fond of cheese, Leon and I were waiting in anticipation all week for a taste of all the lovely cheeses on display. With wine for me and apple cider for Leon, we wondered around the stalls tasting yummy cheese and trying to decide which ones we wanted to take home. We ended up with a lovely washed rind cheese, marinated feta and a mature vintage. All very good!

After cheese we discovered that Max Brenner had opened at Portside. So it was time for coffee and chocolate. We shared a yummy, rich choc sundae...chocolate icecream, melted chocolate, choc waffer balls and choc brownie....sooooo good. ( So hungry as I write this.)

In the evening we went to Southbank for the Laser Light show and all the other festivities. We had yummy pizza for dinner and sat on the riverbank and watched the light show.
On the whole it was a lovely day out...

Mel...

P.S. I just found this post that I was going to put up last week...opps

Today I....

• did 4.5 hours of productive study...
• washed 2 loads of laundry....
• made hummus (using Gary Mehigan's recipe)find resipe here
• made bread (find recipe here)
• played with the dogs....
• spent 2.5 hours in the vegie patch, planting seedingling and pruning herbs...
• watched the adorable baby rainbow lorikeets learn to fly.

On the whole, it was a very satisfying day.

Exciting new possibilities...

I have often regretted not going to University when I finished High School. At the start of this year I was thinking why not? Why can't I go to uni? So I applied. After much waiting I finally got an offer from USQ to study a Bachelor of General Studies. I was sooooo excited. Today was my first day of serious study. I think it might take a little while to get used to the amount of reading that I have to do. I happen to have chosen a major that has an enormous amount of reading. But that is ok, I am excited about what I am going to learn over the next few months. This semester my fun subject is World History from 1500 to 1914.

Here is how I spent most of my day today...


Have a lovely week...
Mel

Top of Town, Ipswich and Sunday Sport...

Leon was off to climb Mt Warning in northern N.S.W on Saturday so I decided to spend the morning exploring the Op Shops in the Top of Town Precinct in Ipswich. Oh what fun...I love a good Op Shop forage and the Top of Town feels so festive on a Saturday morning. The people of Ipswich and beyond all come out for a jaunt in the coffee shops and boutiques that line Brisbane Street.
There are four Op Shops in the Top of Town and several more within a 5 minute walking distance. My favorite is the Hospice which also has a secondhand book shop next door.

In the Old Flour Mill across the road from the Hospice is a Vintage Boutique full of awesome vintage loveliness...

It has lots of vintage kitchenware, ceramics, jewellery and books.
After exploring all of the Op Shops I stopped in for a coffee at the new shop on the block, Urban Pantry. The coffee here is really good, the service is great and there are lots of lovely products for the pantry to buy.
It was a lovely way to spend the morning.

On Sunday, we were off to the St Lucia campus of UQ for Leon to play Volleyball in the Corporate Games. I watched him play for a while and then found my way to the Co-op Bookshop and the Wordsmith Cafe. They serve Campos coffee here, probably my favorite coffee in Brisbane. I had a coffee and spent several hours in the Bookshop, I love this bookshop. This bookshop and Mary Ryan on Park Road, Milton are my most favorite bookshops in Brisbane.
On the whole, it was a lovely day and a lovely weekend...
Have a great week,
Mel
(P.s please excuse the overuse of the word "lovely", can't be bothered rewriting...)

Home-Sweet-Home...

Tuesdays are the day I spend at home all day, all by myself. This is the day that I can have all to myself to craft, sew, crochet, play with the dogs, bake...you get the picture. Today I decided to to a bit of redecorating. Last weekend was hard rubbish pickup in our area and I scored some new/old things to play with. I have also been very blessed with lots of Thrift Shop goodies from recent trips around the local shops, I have also found some beautiful vintage books.
On a side note, I looove vintage books. My two favorites that I have bought this week are a beautifully bound copy of Shakespeare's Histories and a book titled " Familiar Quotations".
Today I set to work cleaning the things I had found and wondering what I should do with them...among the found objects were some drawers from a Singer Sewing Machine (incidentally they are something I have been wanting for awhile as I am not about to pull apart my vintage sewing machine that is in almost perfect condition). I thought they would be lovely on top of my bookcase, here is the result...

I have used a mixture of thrift shop finds (the books, teapot, vintage stamps and vintage cotton spools) and inherited treasures from my Grandmother's (the mint green tiny tea cup and saucer and the doggies). The Peach print is a free printable found at The Paper Mama.

Yesterday when I went Thrift Store Shopping, I found a gorgeous mirror. It was only $10 so it had to come home with me. I have a T.V. cabinet that is very much like having a huge mantelpiece and I thought the mirror would be perfect on top of it.

On a crafty note, I was inspired to make a terrarium by my friend Jess (you will find her pretty blog here) who made one to decorate the food table at her daughter's first birthday party. I bought some tiny ferns from Bunnings and used some thrift shop bought jars. I searched the web for a tutorial but ended up not needing one. You just: get jar, put dirt in jar (I used Yates seedraising mix) plant plants in dirt and decorate. Joy-of-joys I found some real moss and tiny fungi in my backyard so I dug those up and put them in as well. I had so much fun and like it so much that I made three. The bambi figurine I inherited from my grandma. Take a look...

Lovely...

Have a fun week...
Mel