New Years Eve

My dear friend Angela gave me this sweet little book for Christmas... As it is New Years Eve here I wanted to share a few of the wonderful quotes from it.... Here are some of my favourites

We find a delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude - Denis Waitley

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved - loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves - Victor Hugo

I hope you all have a wonderful New Years Eve and that 2008 brings you heaps of love and laughter.....

Home again

Hi everyone
Home again from our little trip to the coast... Lovely mild weather to bike ride, walk, swim and play a little cricket with the family... I can't believe Christmas is over again for another year... It is gently raining on my roof and the kids have just gone with Geoff to his office as he is moving and painting to start his new position next week... I am going to go and put something on for tea and have a bit of a rest and read one of my lovely new books.... I hope all of you had a joyous Christmas.... Talk with you all again soon...

Beautiful gift and the most special of friendships

Well as we get ready to head to the coast and leave my little cottage for a few days... I was sitting here thinking about the wonderful friendships I have made through what I do and I must say I feel so blessed... There are so many of you out there that have opened your hearts up to me and I feel so lucky that this is a part of what I do... I received this amazing present in the mail today from my dear, dear friend Christe Crocker... She touches my heart every day with her sweet emails of friendship and I must say I just ADORE her and her amazing work... So thank you all my friends, I can't wait for heaps more adventures together in 2008 and may Christmas dreams fill your hearts with happiness....

SO PROUD

Well I always take photos of my kids to put in cards for friends and family that live away and don't see them that often... I am running so late this year so I just took them yesterday but thought I would share them with you..... I am biased but they are amazing kids that surprise me with so much joy and some times tears each and every day..... They are such a blessing and being a mum to them is definitely the greatest gift I will ever have....

my studio - just a few more photos to share

Dear friends
Well I have a couple of tiny orders to do tomorrow and then it is all over for the Year... The only thing I am missing is the emails that usually come in every day (LOL)!!!!! My daughter has been very sick for the last 4 days so hopefully we are all fit for our time away at the coast for Christmas.... 5 days won't be enough !!!!! I hope you are all enjoying the joy of the Christmas season.... Lots of baking to do next week... I can't wait.... We had another lovely shower of rain today.... SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!!talk again soon.....

Decorations in my lounge room

Hi everyone
Just thought I would share a few photos (sorry they aren't the best) of my lounge room.... I don't do a huge amount of Christmas decorating but just like to add a few touches... This year we have 2 real trees (even though they are tiny) I wanted real ones this year... It is nearly 10 pm here in Australia and I am a little tired so will hopefully write again soon....

AND THE WINNERS ARE?????

Hi everyone...
I just want to thank you all for sharing all your wonderful stories with me and everyone else that reads my blog... You have touched my heart and sometimes even bought tears to my eyes... My little Kirstie just picked two names from a special paper hat and the winners are WENDY W and TANJA.... Thanks again

The Magic of Christmas - Give Away

Hi everyone
Well it has been a long week and I am really putting off doing orders today as my room is tidy and I really don't want to mess it up again so I decided I would have a Give Away to start this Christmas season.... For the next week - starting today..... I will give away 1 glass globe ornament to 2 people who write a comment on my blog about WHY they love the holiday season........ At the end of the week I will put your names in a hat and draw out 2 names...... Can't wait to hear from you... I am hopeful of starting to do some Christmas decorating this weekend - Yeah!!!! Can't wait.... Take care Cathy

Where I live

Hi everyone
Well these photos were taken at 5.30 am this morning... I am suffering from the flu but wanted to update my blog before another busy week started... My garden, even though we have been here for 17 years is still pretty young but slowly things are starting to grow... The hydrangeas and violets were planted when we finished our pergola earlier in the year.... I have also taken a photo of the side of our house where we have planted a small grove of apples, pears, nashi pears and a white mulberry on the end... We get really bad westerly winds (hot and cold) here and this little grove will hopefully protect us a little better from those one day... The last photo is taken off the deck outside my studio... Hopefully this countryside that I love stays for a while longer before progress of new housing comes.... Have a great week....

An Update - My plants are starting to grow...

Hi everyone
Well I just wanted to show you a couple of photos of my outdoor area now the rosemary has started to grow into a sweet little hedge... I think we decided on the weekend to stay in this house for a while.... My hubby has a very busy job and I don't think he is really ready for a big renovation and I think also the thought of selling this place after all the hard work is just too hard for him so it looks like I will have to find some more walls to paint and lots of re-arranging to constantly keep a smile on my face.... Work is so busy at the moment, I must say it has been an amazing year... Anyway need to tuck my kids into bed now and do some more work... Bye for now...................

SO VERY LUCKY - Romantic Homes December Issue

Well it is a rainy Monday afternoon and I just finished packaging up my last ever catalogue.... What a wonderfully exciting day it has been as this morning I had a wonderful comment on my blog from a lovely shop owner in America - Dawn from The Feathered Nest.....
Her blog was about the new December Issue of Romantic Homes which features a craft project of mine as well as this blog..... I was so excited to see a sneak peak... Thank you so much Dawn.. I can't wait to see a real copy of it.... Romantic Homes has been a wonderful support to me this year and I thank them so much for that....

a beautiful place

Well Saturday afternoon I had the privilege of walking through my friend Angela's garden... It was just exquisite so on the way home I had to treat myself to a couple of beautiful bunches of roses at our local rose farm.... So pretty.... Anyway life is just hectic at the moment.... I wish I truly had more time to smell the roses but I am so blessed to have so many wonderful customers and I will work very hard for them till my break in December....

My friend and inspiration

Yesterday I found this amazing parcel waiting for me at my post office box. My dear friend and constant inspiration Elizabeth Maxson of Elizabeth House had sent me all these sweet little memories from her store.... I must tell you I nearly cried as she wrote me sweet notes about every piece and why it was significant to her... It was about this time last year that Elizabeth took a risk on ordering some charms from me and I must say this changed my business and attitude to business forever... Thank you E.........

inspiration - I love mirrors

Hi everyone
Just a quick entry today as life is so hectic at the moment... My beautiful kids went back to school today and now I have to focus on these orders I have piling up.... I am in love with mirrors at the moment.. (first photo in my lounge room). I would have so many more if it was up to me.... I also received a new book the other day from Amazon that I have been waiting a little while for... It is called At Home with white by Atlanta Bartlett... Some of it is a little modern for me but overall it is just a BEAUTIFUL book ..... Very calming and a great inspirations and ideas for the courthouse.....

I'm home again

Such a lovely place to stay and it was so quiet we basically had the place to ourselves... This was from our balcony..... and the beach was just across the road... Anyway I am back in the real world now, back to a lot of big orders, fun with my kids as it is Spring break here and the weather is definitely starting to heat up....

Happy Birthday my gorgeous boy!!!!!

Well here is my very happy birthday boy... My little Andrew turned 11 today... Where did all that time go... These photos I just took after him opening his presents... Very, very blessed to have such a sweet boy in my life.......

Eye Candy

Well I just cleaned my extremely messy studio and just changed a few things around as I went.... Also what a day of wonderful parcels in the mail... I LOVE home decorating books and magazines but I am pretty choosy about what I like.. Today I received a book that I bought through Amazon called Found Style by David and Amy Butler (first three photos)... So lovely.... There were so many pages I just loved.... Anyway this will probably be my last post till we get back from the beach next Tuesday but I will be here till Saturday morning so drop by and say Hi!!!

Sunny Sunday afternoon

Lovely warm Sunday afternoon... I just dropped Kirstie off at a party and Andrew is watching car racing on the TV and Daddy is having a nap after a big morning of mowing and mowing and more mowing.... I need to take some photos for this blog but Andrew is using my camera for an animation he needs to do for school... I have been terribly slack lately but soon I will take lots of pretty photos again... I am going to sit down now and work on 3 orders I have on the go so hopefully by the end of the week I will be up-to-date again so I can enjoy my 4 days away and then some time with the kids while they are home....