Do the fandango.......

I have this thing for flamingos. 

It started when I was about 12 years old.

I was looking through a National Geographic magazine and there was a magnificent two page photo feature of a flock of flamingos. 

My 12 year old brain had never seen such a display of exotic colour. 

To this day I think they are beautiful.

I imagine that they are all slightly crazy, outrageously flamboyant, calling everyone Daarrllling as they dance the fandango while sipping cocktails.

I always wanted the retro kitsch hot pink plastic ones that live on your front lawn but was discouraged years ago by a former partner, so I've never got around to getting them. 

And of course now that I want them, I can't find them anywhere!!

Beauty knows about my obsession and surprised me with a secret Christmas present.

 It is a mini neon flamingo that lights up hot pink at night.

Its going to sit on my bedside table. I'm looking at it right now and I'm already smiling......

I'm definitely keeping this and it will be packed in the Italy box when it's time to go.

Now if only I could find two full size lawn flamingos.

 I'd be a very happy woman.

I wonder what the Italians will think when I place them under the olive trees!

What do you collect? I collect balls......

I remember that I once told a friend that I collect balls. She looked at me and said, "are they attached?"

I stared at her, laughed and said "no they are not!"

These are the balls I collect.

I started of with the black and white chequered one in the background. As with most collections once you start they can get out of hand pretty quickly.

I have limited myself to this large brown bowl which is now full. 

To be honest it was full about 4 balls ago and there are a few that are just balancing there, defying gravity. When the front door closes they fall onto the coffee table and roll around but I quickly put them back in place before anyone knows I'm obsessed and gone over the limit.

Now I know that if I see a new ball that I like, I have to sacrifice one I already have to make it fit in the bowl.

It will have to be pretty special.

So it's pretty obvious that yes, I'm keeping my balls and they will be coming to Italy with me.

Unfortunately the bowl will be too heavy to pack, will probably break, will not match the new decor, etc, excuse, etc, excuse....

This means that I will have to buy my balls a new bowl that I know will be bigger, as I have heard that all the small bowls in Italy have sold out.

So with that in mind, one of these Italian Murano glass balls is on my wish list!

My fur hot water bottle......

Italy winters are freezing so I have started to get prepared.

I have been looking for hot water bottle covers for ages but I have not been able to find any that I liked and then I found two on the same day in different stores.

One is an animal print cover in a furry soft velvet fabric and the other is a fluffy velvet wool cover in cream.

Both will be snuggly warm and I have placed them in an Italy storage box already.

Now I only have to find about 12 more!!!!

(and resist using these during this cold winter in Melbourne)

DVDs-Take them or leave them?......

Today I started taking photos of all my DVDs to sell on ebay.

I was about 30 photos into the big pile when I suddenly thought, "is this the right decision"?

After all I'm moving to a country where English speaking DVDs will not readily be available for purchase.

With a multi region DVD player I could keep them and watch them in Italy.

It would sure save on the expense of having to purchase them all over again.

The problem is that they would fill 3 tea chests and I could use that space to pack something more precious than DVDs.

Then Beauty came up with a brilliant plan. Take them out of the plastic cases!!!!!

All that is left is a flat DVD and a slip of paper (the cover insert)

All I will have to do when I unpack them in Italy is purchase a few bulk packs of DVD covers.

So it looks like all 355 DVDs will be coming to Italy with us.

At least when we are snowed in in winter we will have something to watch!!!

Thrift store finds....

I spent a few days with my parents last week and we went shopping at the one and only antique store in their small country town.

I was so glad we did as I found three treasures that are coming to Italy with me.

Black large and very heavy cast iron candle stick with swivel arms so it's perfect for a corner table


Silver square angel plant holder that polished up beautifully.

English Pheasant dish in grey and white

I have saved the best news for last!
I got the three items for a combined cost of $10
What a bargain!!!!!!!

The corner bookcase....

How many of your rooms have an empty corner?
Four rooms in my house do and what a waste of space it is.

This book case is great.
It's simple, unobtrusive and a very smart way to use the dead space in the room.
It also gives you stylish storage options.

I am a collector of a great many things and if I use the corner spaces in the Villa rooms, this will give me an opportunity to display all of my treasures.

Such as my pear collection that's coming to Italy with me.

Four pears from my collection of twenty-two

The kitchen windowsill.......

This is how the kitchen window looks at the moment in my home in Melbourne Australia.

As you can see by the bird walk I am a bit obsessed with them.
I know the pirate ship with the bird ship mates is a weird item for a kitchen but it was a gift from Beauty and The Knight as they know I love pirates and it makes me smile when I wash the dishes.
The white squirrel is a nut cracker, the green bottle in elderflower cordial from the UK and the vintage green glass is filled with chalk as The Knight writes our menu up every day on the chalk board.

All will make the "moving to Italy box" except the cordial as it will be consumed tonight!

Postcard paperweights...

These are 2 very thick glass paperweights featuring portions of vintage postcards in black and white.
They look lovely on my desk and as I have only had them for about four months I'm going to keep them.
They have been transferred to the Italy box.

Are you a ? or a !.....

I recently purchased two vintage signage items that were rescued from an old drive-in movie theater.

They are HUGE at 43cm/17inches high, made from black perspex and are a Question Mark and Exclamation Point.

I could have chosen the first initial of my name but I thought these were great.

I have hung them on the wall in our current kitchen but they will definitely be packed to move to Italy with us.


If you would like your own vintage initial you can pursue the available collection from their Etsy store here-http://www.etsy.com/people/raleighmodern

I'm such a pansy sometimes...

I'm sure that many of you have asked yourself the following question.

If the house was on fire what prized possession would I grab first?

Five years ago my answer was easy. I would have grabbed my three overflowing photo albums and run for my life.

Now five years later those 3 photo albums have developed into 24 beautifully scrapbooked photo albums full of mementos, photos and generations of family history. It would be impossible to grab them all in a hurry and make a run for it unless I had 6 toga wearing, strapping, strong, male Roman slaves and a pack mule.

This got me thinking and I made the wise decision to copy everything onto 3 USBs and I have left them with my mother for safe keeping.

From now on whenever I complete another scrapbook and add it to the overflowing bookcase, I place it on a new $6.00 USB and post it to my mother.
It's the best insurance money could buy.

The reason I broached this subject is because yesterday I nearly burnt down the kitchen.

I was stupid...I was wiping the dishes...got distracted...placed the cloth on a stove top that was still hot and WOOOSSSHHHH!
The tea towel was on fire and I'm standing there doing the "oh shit, what do I do?" dance.

Anyway I mentally slapped myself, pulled it together, put the fire out, knocked the smoke detector of the ceiling with the broom handle (as I am too short to turn it off) and ran and grabbed my pansy plate out of the cupboard and hugged it tight.

Five minutes of deep breathing go by and a it finally dawns on me that I'm clutching a plate.

I open my arms and look in amazement at what I'm holding. It's a plate I have not used for at least 5 years. I didn't even know where it was! (obviously my brain did)

I placed it on the counter top and as I stared at it the memories come flooding back.

I first found this plate at a farm clearing sale years and years ago. It had belonged to an elderly English lady and she had told me that it was the only piece left of a large dinner set that was given to her as a wedding gift. I owned an antique store at the time but it never made it to the shop, instead I took it home with me, gently washed it and placed it on the plate shelf in the kitchen.

At that time I lived in a renovated weatherboard cottage with very uneven floor boards.

An artist drawing of my little cottage

Every time a door would slam the kitchen buffet that held the plates would shake.
I was so proud of the restoration work I did on it. It was antique huen pine and I'd stenciled folk art cottages and hearts along the shelf edges (as you did in the 1980s) I was collecting vintage English Alfred Meakin green china and I had found 23 pieces.


The pansy plate looked odd with the green and gold china but I loved it. Two weeks after it found a home on the china cabinet a huge gust of wind slammed the kitchen door so hard that it shook the floor boards and the plate cabinet toppled over. Every single piece of Meakin china broke. The pansy plate was buried under all that broken china but did not have one mark on it.

Once again I gently washed it. I knew it was a special plate. The pansy's were so delicate, yet their colors so vibrant. I use to think that if I rubbed my finger along the flowers on the plate that they would have that smooth velvety feel like all pansy's do. Most of all I think I loved the plate because it reminded me of home.

No that's not true. I loved the plate because it reminded me of my mother.

It reminded me of her love of pansy's and the many punnets she would plant in abundance every year. The "fresh from her garden" pansy and violet posy's she used to bring me when she'd visit. And the way she taught my son and daughter to run their fingers along the petals so they too could feel how velvety smooth it was. Just like she did was I was young.

So there I was in a smoke filled kitchen with tears in my eyes. Not because of the smoke or the fire or the mess but because I'd forgotten. I'd forgotten about pansy's, about the memory of my mother and about that damn plate.

At that precise moment Beauty arrived home. She walked into the kitchen, looked at me, surveyed the damage and walked over to stand beside me. She noticed the plate next to me on the counter top and softly runs her finger over the purple pansy's petals.

She said, "I love this plate"
I said, "Me too. If the house ever catches on fire we have to take this plate"
She said, "Deal. (she pauses) Whats for dinner?'
I said, "Blueberry Cheesecake"
She looks at me, shrugs her shoulders, smiles and simply said, "Ok"