Saturday: Mornington Peninsula

Yesterday was a delight. A drive down to the Mornington Peninsula with my husband & son (with lots of music and idle chit chat on the way), some antique fossicking at Tyabb Packing House Antiques, a quick glimpse at the Somers Beach (far too cold for an extended stroll), a fireside lunch at the Somers General Store...

(Obviously this shot from their site was taken in summer)

(We were lucky enough to nab a table right near the fireplace - it was warm & toasty)

(Gorgeous jugs on display in the sweet little shop adjoining the cafe)

Then it was back in the car and on to Flinders to feast my eyes on the lovely store, Tree. I loved this image from their site - it captures all the wonderful things about winter...

And finally, with dusk approaching there was a lazy drive back to the Big Smoke. Once home, I whipped up a shepherd's pie - an excellent, hearty winter meal that was eaten together with a glass of T'Gallant wine from the Mornington Peninsula. This proved a great end to a lovely, leisurely Saturday.

I hope your Saturday was just as wonderful!

[Images: 1-4 - Somers General Store; 5 - Succulent Designs (Tree)]

Monday shop post: Ziguzagu

On Saturday I spent almost two hours browsing the wonderful Ziguzagu with my sister Jacky and her sweet friend Nat - they are both taking part in a fabric weaving course and wanted to check out the vintage Japanese textiles at the Ziguzagu. This amazing warehouse is located behind an obscure door in a very narrow street in Richmond (7-11Hill Street) - honestly, if you didn't know it was there you would walk right past this treasure trove of furniture and fabrics.

As the Ziguzagu site explains, the business "specialises in the importation and sale of vintage Japanese textiles, garments and dress accessories...Ziguzagu serves as a natural complement to our parent company, long time dealers in Japanese antiquities, furniture and textiles, Kazari."  The warehouse is divided into two sections - one side contains numerous pieces of Japanese furniture:

The other side of the warehouse is brim full of kimonos, textiles, books etc.:

Here's just a taste of the little piece of Japan that is contained within the four walls of Ziguzagu...

Books - all in Japanese of course, but the pictures were extaordinarily beautiful.

Silk floor cushions - you can't tell from the picture, but these are obscenely large floor cushions.

Apparently these are obi ties. Lots of gorgeous vibrant colours to match the equally vibrant kimonos.

These are Japanese ceramic weaving weights - used for purely decorative purposes here.

This is an indigo patchwork quilt made from vintage kimonos - it wasn't on display in the warehouse, but I can only imagine that it would be a truly beautiful piece.

And of course, there were reams and reams of fabrics/textiles.  My sister and Nat didn't leave empty-handed, they bought metres and metres of beautiful fabric...

And I didn't walk out of Ziguzagu empty-handed either... I bought a gorgeous little Japanese cabinet that is designed to sit on a desk top - it has two large drawers and a storage space at top with lovely little sliding doors. The cabinet wasn't in particularly good condition, but with a bit of TLC it will be wonderful. I have bought this lovely little piece for my sister and she tells me that she is going to store her paints in it. I know that this sweet little storage cabinet will be well-loved and looked after for years to come.

[Images courtesy of Ziguzagu]

Have a lovely weekend

Dear blogging friends, have a lovely weekend. I'm off to explore Sydney for the next few days, so I'll see you Monday. I hope you all have something lovely planned for the weekend. Ciao bella.

Image from John Dummer

A weekend at Cape Otway

Last weekend we made the 3+ hour journey from Melbourne to Cape Otway Lighthouse for my husband's annual family get together. The journey there was wonderful, we stopped off along the way to check out some 'old wares' stores in a quaint little town on the Otway Ranges and I scored this lovely little celadon green jug/vase to add to my collection...

Then we had a quick bite to eat at a lovely (but considerably over-priced) cafe in Lorne, and back in the car again travelling along the Great Ocean Road at Hugh's request we stopped at a little inlet to 'explore'...

We finally arrived late in the afternoon to join the 30 or so other family members, to stay at the Cape Otway Lighthouse cottages...

After a slapdash BBQ, the resident lighthouse keeper/tour guide gave us a sunset tour of the lighthouse and told us a bit about the marvellous history of this wonderful beacon of light...

The next day we had a lazy breakfast and went for a quick walk to the lighthouse station schoolhouse.  We walked through this amazing grey arch of twisted branches...

...to emerge at the schoolhouse...

After a family lunch to celebrate St Patrick's Day (my husband has Irish descendants) and a cousin's 50th birthday, it was back in the car for the journey home.  On the way out of the Cape Otway Lighthouse national park we spotted this little fellow fast asleep perched in a tree right next to the road...

All in all, a wonderful weekend away. We've vowed to leave the city more often for mini-breaks, so next month we're off to Brisbane for four days. Can't wait!

This weekend I...

Received a lovely bunch of flowers from my husband...

Made this linocut...

Discussed this book at a book club lunch with girlfriends...

Image from Book Depository

Bought some plants for the back garden...

Went for a Sunday afternoon walk and wondered what lay behind this blue door...

This weekend I...

Made this linocut and framed it for a friend for her birthday...

Baked a chocolate chip and banana cake (and ate far too much of it)...

Bought and wrapped this present for my mother-in-law's birthday...

Spent far too much time surfing the web looking at pictures like this...

Image from Luigi Rosselli Architects

And lastly, I gave this very thirsty possum that visited our front verandah a cool drink of water...

It was over 46 degrees in Melbourne on Saturday - the hottest day on record. Bushfires raged in all parts of the state and over 80 people perished in the fires. My sister's farm was right in the middle of the Bunyip Ridge state forest fires and she had to be evacuated, though her husband stayed on at the farm to help fight the fire should it threaten the property. It was a very scary 24 hours and luckily their farm was spared from the fires, although it came very, very close (within a couple of kilometres). My heart goes out to all those who have been affected by the fires.

The following image from The Age newspaper shows just one of the fires in the Bunyip area...