Magazines - my inspiration

I am pretty obsessive about magazines... Most months I get US Country Living, Country Home and Romantic Homes as well as UK Country living and I subscribe to Australian Country Style and I will of course buy Victoria when it returns... I get a lot of my inspiration for design through there pages and they open my eyes to the beauty in the world through peoples homes... I especially love reading about people's businesses and where they started and such... I have a chunky white timber book stand and I place my favourite magazine there open up to inspire... I change it regularly... This page is out of a Country Living, January 2002 and I think it has all my loves... White ironstone, beautiful linen, old iron beds, cooler weather, ornate frames and fresh flowers...

More photos

My dear friends just sent me this photo after arriving home in Melbourne... I loved the photo they took of the front of our house. The other photo is taken at my favourite cafe called the Chocolate Cottage... this is outside on the lawn... It was such a lovely warm winters day unlike the freezing conditions we have been having the last couple of days....Can't wait to see them again....

A friend is some one that reaches for your hand but touches your heart

Friendship -

What an absolutely lovely weekend we have just had... A delightful story of friendship... Sharyn, Andy, Anika and Emily are our dearest friends... Sharyn first came to me through a beautiful letter she wrote to me as a customer of Cathy Penton Designs... She ordered one of my original patterns and the rest they say is history... I phoned to thank her for the beautiful words she had said and since that we have talked to each other every week... She lives 1500 kilometres away in the beautiful ranges behind Melbourne in Victoria. In the sweetest little 1930's cottage with her family, she is a wonderful mum and wife, a nurse and also runs a B & B...We have been lucky enough to visit her on two different occasions... This was the first time she has been to my house and it was so lovely to be able to show her my place.... I must say I miss them already as we often say how wonderful it would be to live around the corner as our boys (hubbies) love renovating and getting up to mischief.... We went to my favourite little cafe called the Chocolate Cottage today and sat and talked and laughed....I am very blessed.....

Nearly finished -take a look

Just a few photos today from our pergola area... We have paved, planted rosemary hedges, found some old cast iron edge work to add to back corners and across the front... Made a table from an old door from my Nan's house (that has been since demolished -so very sentimental to me)....Pear trees have been planted and a lovely cast iron candelabra is hanging (no candles yet). See the before photos on May 5....

My kitchen clock

It is really hard to take photos of my kitchen as it is so very dark so I apologise for this photo... My darlin hubby and I have conflict over our kitchen... I would love to paint it all off-white as it is so dark in there (light on through the daytime) but it was built in the 1880's and my hubbies philosophy is that if it has never been painted we shouldn't paint it.... So I am slowly buying things to make it look like what I want without the paint if that makes sense... I purchased this clock last Friday, it is quiet huge but it is just what the wall needed (I think)... I need to have some things on my mantel as the tiny candles definitely don't look right... My house is a constant work in progress and it always will be and I must say I like it that way....