sunshine & flowers

I borrowed Kathryn's lovely floral crown the other day & went out to take advantage of the hazy, glowy late afternoon (early evening really) sunlight. & the resulting photos seemed like a nice way to farewell the year.

So, goodbye 2013 & here's to a big, bright, beautiful 2014 - may it be full of sunshine, smiles & surprises.

these city lights | brisbane

lights & reflections & ripples - the city & the river at night...

lovely links...

The summer weather has definitely arrived these past couple of weeks, plenty of hot, humid days - I don't mind hot days - much - but I survive much better when overnight/early morning is still nice & cool. Can't complain too much, as we've had some mild weather too. And some cool rainy weather - it really can't make up it's mind lately.

Anyway, a pretty random collection of links this month, to while away a bit of boxing day...

Going to start with some cuteness - this little dog & then there's darcy...

Kathryn finished her year-long self portrait project.

Some sweet treats (not that most of us need any extra this time of year): ginger molasses cookies, Polish vanilla custard slice, coffee roasted almond dark chocolate bark, passionfruit curd cake.

A sunny day in London.

New York in black & white.

Discovering some bits of our country, through someone else's eyes (plus those pancakes sound pretty good).

Wonder if any of these punctuation marks will catch on?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

A selection of beautiful images 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

five things | about christmas

Tonight (Christmas Eve) is a big part of our celebrations - we have a delicious, fancy dinner, exchange presents & generally have fun - celebrating with loved ones is the best. In the spirit of celebration, here are five things I love about Christmas (in no particular order)...

~ all the decorations, the sparkly tinsel, twinkly lights, trees, angels & stars.

~ food is a big part of our celebrations - all the traditional things, like uszka, pierogi, bigos, barszcz, fish patties in tomato sauce, herring, potato salad, roast & veg. Then there is dessert (home-made mint ice-cream this year) & of course all the baked goods - cheesecake, apple cake, fruitcake, honey cookies...(the biscuits in the photo are a batch of my Babcia's pastry, filled with jam....& long gone).

~ choosing, wrapping & giving presents....(getting them isn't too terrible either)

~ going through photos from the past year so we can choose which to use in our calenders - for the past few years we've been creating a calender of family portraits for my grandmother, a nature-y one for various relatives, a kitchen calender - featuring some of the more amusing portraits from the year (stuff like this) & I make one with some of my favourite photos from the year.

~ Christmas specials - Dr Who is always good fun & this year there's Miss Fisher as well.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

So, Merry Christmas everyone

may your days be filled with the people you love, good food & lots of laughter. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

december rain...

botanical | brisbane

Lush plant-life, flowing water, plenty of birds, lizards & sunshine - a lovely morning spent at the Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens. Also, a morning tea-time encounter.

bamboo photo in the second diptych courtesy of Kathryn.

wishlist wednesday

an elegant outfit, perfect for a celebration...

Gray Summer Day Dress by Lirola

 charcoal grey sparkly earrings by tinygalaxies

 

red flower hair clip by kisforkani

 Tiny snowflake charm pendant by AnnaSiivonen

translucent black with silver flakes bangle by RosellaResin

a day at the market | december

A bright, sunny day - perfect weather for the December market. Actually it was getting a bit hot by the afternoon, but that's summer for you. As it was the Christmas market, there was a bit of tinsel around, as well as a visit from Santa & lots & lots of people. We missed out on the cherries, but we did score the last bag of grapes...

a day at the market march | june | july | august | september | november

a few good things...

1. early morning sunlight & lavender.

2. baking - so nice when a new recipe works - I made lebkuchen & they went down very well.

3. magazines - the latest issues of Peppermint & Art Jewelry.

4. baby apples on our tree.

5. parks, swing sets & sisters - a lovely outing in Clare last month.

6. the macro lens, dandelions & taking photos just because.
7. a little project for next year.

colours & stitches

Making my contribution to a little family project - we're stitching some felt ornaments for market. It's lots of fun coming up with designs, picking colours & stitching...& it's a perfect sit by the window with a cup of tea (or in front of the TV in the evening) activity.

(the bottom photo shows everyone's efforts - I've only made two so far)