what do you like about your house?

Last night we had some lovely friends over to dinner. It was one of those perfect nights. Everyone was relaxed, happy and in holiday mode. We sat up in the pavillion while the kids swam, and then, once it was dark we moved down to have our dinner on the back veranda while the kids ate inside and watched a DVD. Then, at about 8.30 the kids asked if they could go for another swim and we said "Why not?" and turned on the pool lights, and moved back up to the pavillion.

Bliss.

That's the kind of night memories are made of. I love that we've managed to make so many lovely friends who are also raising such gorgeous children. Seriously good kids. The two boys happily played with my gal, which is great as they'll be spending a week together in Provence, and our other friends have the most gorgeous little girl who enchanted us all. You know those children that are just so sweet, lovely, funny and fabulous that you can't take your eyes off them? That was Miss R. My gal hasn't stopped raving about her - she really was utterly enchanting. And so happy! She didn't have her swimmers, but happily sat there watching the big kids swim with the most beautiful little smile playing about her lips.

Bless.

But on to the topic of this post. What I love about our house is that it makes nights like that possible. Where the kids can have fun, the adults know their safe, and that we have enough changes of scene to keep things interesting.

You've got to be happy with that.

PS: this shot is not my house - but don't you love that candelabra in the corner? Why waste a spot when you can make it pretty?

totally tuesday

It's a quiet old Australia Day in this household. My husband's taken our daughter and her bestie down to Westfield Bondi Junction for some shopping and I'm home getting some work done. I've realised lately that I'm quite shopping phobic. While my sister-in-law was out here she and our niece went shopping. They left at 8.30am and got home at 6pm after spending the day at our local Westfield. I was horrified - what could they do? Shopped apparently. Window-shopped, actual-shopped, lunched in David Jones...

When it comes to shopping centres I like to get in, get what I need then quickly leave. There's no browsing. The only way I know about something new is if I've seen it on-line or in a magazine. Window shopping is a form of personal hell {unless I'm checking out the windows of high end stores in Paris - that I can do...}

But op-shops... Now that's different. See, in an op-shop I can uncover treasure. I never know what to expect and am often surprised. A new op-shop's opening in my neighborhood on Feb 3. My gal cracked that I'd probably set up a mattress and camp out on the doorstep over night. Which got me to thinking...

a little shhhhhhh

Today I'm on go-slow. I woke slowly, had a big bowl of coffee, slowly swept the debris from the pavilion after yesterday's windstorm and now I'm slowly browsing through a few blogs and am just going to chill.

Hubby and I will go for a walk with our gal later on, down to the beach, and she can check out the playground equipment while we breathe in the salty air - and maybe jump on a swing ourselves.

There were big hugs and tears at the departure gates yesterday as we saw off my sister-in-law and our two nieces. It's bittersweet having adored relatives who live so far away. It does mean we've got a base to go visit them when we hit the UK, and that we get an intense few weeks when they come out here, but there's no casual drop-in - and phone calls have to be timed precisely {something I completely suck at}.

It's been a busy few months, and I've enjoyed every second of them, but today, I think a bit of relaxation's in order. I need to recharge and gear up for school starting this week {hurrah! although there's a larger hurrah from a certain young lass who's made herself an I heart school badge and is displaying it on her jammies as we speak!}.