Post wedding bliss!

Hello lovelies,
First of all, I have something to say....I'm married! I'm not long home from a wonderful honeymoon with the most amazing husband a girl could ever hope to have.
This also means that I have lots of exciting news and pictures to share, which I will do over the coming days/weeks - I'm dying to start going through the photos myself, not to mention waiting for our professional wedding photos.

Back to pre-wedding times, I had the most amazing hen's day/night arranged by my bridesmaids. the typical hen's boozy night really isn't for me, so they arranged for a wine tour in the Swan Valley just out of Perth for the day, followed by dinner and drinks at a favourite tapas/winebar just down the road, at Amphoras in West Perth.
It was a fantastic day, and meant I could bring my mama and some other favourite ladies along, as well as all of my girlfriends!

I wore this white 50's dress, from Gorgeous Vintage and Collectables in Inglewood. It was the first 50's dress I ever owned, and was a Christmas gift from my Mum and Dad a few years ago. Thanks Mum and Dad!!

xxxx
P.S. Notice the serious bling on my finger? A gift to celebrate the day from my lovely bridesmaids ;)

Hen's cellar-bration!

I have a bit of a confession to make.....

I'm getting married! With just under two weeks to go, it's quite a busy time (I know, starting a blog right now - maybe I'm just a tad mad, too).
So, Saturday just gone by, my favourite ladies threw me a wonderful hen's party. We spent the day on a wine tour in the Swan Valley (just out of Perth), and continued with dinner at one of my favourite tapas restaurants/wine bars, and a snuggly movie in our pj's. This was just perfect for me, as I got to spend the day catching up with all the wonderful, special women in my life!
I promise there will be pictures to follow...I did something pretty special...and very decadent on Sunday, too!

The Peppercorn Tree

My last weekend was spent in York at my Nanna's house, as we had a family weekend for a cousin's 18th Birthday.

Nanna gave me a cutting of one of her pretty geraniums to grow in my garden at home!

She has the most beautiful garden spread over two acres just on the edge of town. I have two favourite little hideaways there. One is in her beautiful rose garden, the other is on a seat hidden away under the boughs of a peppercorn tree.
I really am a country girl, so it's always lovely to be back there.

Clara
xx

Dress: vintage, from Love and Hate Bookshop/Clothing Store in Maylands

Veggie garden!

My boy and I started a project earlier in the year, with the aim of feeding both of us and his family (Mum, Dad, younger sister, older sister, her husband and two little kiddly-winks) - at least as far as vegetables go.
We started out by choosing a plot of land. Unfortunately where we are, we have a very small courtyard that gets hardly any sun, so we commandeered a section of my boy's parents place - which they very kindly let us have to play with!

Digging!

It all started out with a lot of digging (which I largely missed out on, thanks to my work shifts), to loosen up the soil and mix in all sorts of mulchy-manurey goodness...

...and ended with lots of happy little plants - lettuce (3 types!), cabbage, cauliflower, silver beet, spinach, broccoli, broccolini, sugar snap peas, snow peas, other peas and beans, broad beans, carrots, onions, spring onions, leek, parsnip, beetroot, potatoes...and more!

Lettuce

This bird was so curious, it hung about the whole day!

Well, we've been harvesting lettuce, silver beet, spinach and peas for quite a while now, as this all happened before my entry into blogland. Our garden has certainly been keeping us all fed, and we've been giving veggies away to family and friends, too! We recently had to go through and thin out the carrots so the rest can grow up to be big and strong.

This means lots of little baby carrots! So I made a yummy stirfry tonight, it was so delicious, and the only thing in it that we didn't grow was the chicken! I love the idea of growing all our own vegetables - pesticide and chemical free, but the reality of it is just even better (and yummier!).

Clara
xx

Wine country!

Earlier in the year (over easter break!), my boy and I went for a lovely trip down to Margaret River with some friends. I love the forest down that way, it's so lush and green - it's some of my favourite countryside, I just had to share these pics!

I thrifted this cute top on a holiday in Vancouver!

A day in the park

What a beautiful day in the park!
I haven't bought a new piece of clothing in over 2 years - apart from one pair of jeans, shoes (because of my big hoofers), and underwear (because I have to draw a line somewhere - slips and petticoats yes, underwear no!).
I bought this dress a few years ago at the shop where I used to work, and it's one of my few 'new' pieces of clothing that I still wear and love. It's luscious silk, and i just love the colours and the pretty, pretty flowers!

My plaid boy's reflection!

This little family of ducks and duckling were just so sweet!!

I'm embracing spring - more, please!!

xx

Old soul

I sometimes feel that I should have been born in another era.

I'm sure many of my fellow vintage-lovers feel this way on a fairly regular basis. However, it's never quite so simple as it seems at first thought.

(I love the glamour of these pool-side beauties, don't you?)

Had I been my born in the same era as my Nan, and been a young woman 60 years ago, I probably wouldn't be working in my field. I really, truly love my job. I'm passionate about what I do, but sometimes I long for another life, another time.

I find it hard to express my feelings, even to myself sometimes, and seem to alternate and swing between nostalgia and romanticism, and the reality of my every day job.

So what's a girl to do? I keep working, but bring vintage charm into my life in every way possible!

How do you negotiate your reality vs your ideal world?