Just Like Martha

Bali...part two

The second part of our holiday was Bingin Beach, an area well known to surfers for its great surfing and relaxed lifestyle...

We spent the morning with our friend Made who collected us from Jimbaran and drove us to our next villa stopping enroute to explore the Uluwatu Temple....

We settled into our new 'home' and headed out to enjoy the first of many sunsets the beach...and a delicious dinner...Bingin Beach is located on the "bukit" which means hill in Indonesian and is its main attraction...hilltop resorts with stunning views against the dramatic water of the Indian Ocean...

Acacia Bungalows was our home for the next week and it was "perfect"...

(the following two photos are from Acacia Bungalows website)

We pent our days at the villa relaxing, reading, napping and enjoying the pool....there was also plenty of eating and happy hour started a little earlier every day lol...

Did I mention the food......it was a vegetarian paradise for us, so much choice, hard to go past the menu at our 'local' The Cashew Tree but we did enjoy a few meals along the beachfront and our villa staff made a mean Indonesian Gado Gado and Mie Goreng.

Sadly our holiday came to an end and it was back to reality...work and home beckoned...time to go home...

Fabulous Find - Lavender

 The lavender in our garden has been especially beautiful this year....

I seem to be constantly battling with the local bee community to pick bunches for friends and arrangements for home.

Everyone knows how much I love fresh flowers in my home so these past few weeks have been a real treat for me.

I delivered a bunch to a friend who was delighted but instead of putting them in a vase like I expected she put them on the window sill to dry out explaining that her hubby, once the lavender was dried would put them into sugar to flavour it...hmmmm...got me thinking what to do with all this lavender...

Here are a few FABULOUS FINDS indeed...

Fancy some lavender bath salts in your next hot bath, or perhaps a scented candle to enjoy whilst you bite into a delicious shortbread cookie (lavender flavoured of course) or enjoy a favourite drink with a lavender ice cube....????

Some ideas perhaps for the wedding I am helping a friend plan....yummo lavender ice cream would be a treat...and I love these soaps, what a pretty hostess gift they would make...ahh so many choices where does one get started, looks like I am off to battle the local bee community again!

Images: own / Pinterest

Fabulous Find - Naked Iced Cakes

Its been a while since I posted a FABULOUS FIND on a Friday....I didn't have to look far for this one...introducing Taylor...who has developed a passion for making amazing cakes. Check out this creation...SALTED CARAMEL POPCORN cake...not bad for her first attempt!!!!

Oh my when Lilly asked her to make a special cake for her friends 18th not sure this was what she envisaged LOL. Its been on Taylor's "to do" list for some time and just quietly I think she nailed it! The cake was a Martha Stewart recipe (of course), a double layer chocolate speckled vanilla cake, then iced with a "naked icing" and finished with a caramel sauce, caramel popcorn and a sprinkling of sea salt - yummo!

Her Instagram account is worth following, lots of great ideas and some of her creations @morethandesserts...I think we have 'created a cake monster' and she is already planning her next creation (hmm might need to 'up' my gym membership!!)

Pinterest is of course a huge source of inspiration, here are just a few of my favourites (hint hint Taylor)

I am off to make a cuppa...and perhaps have a jog around the block!

Thanks for stopping by x

 

 

 

Playing with dirt....

Last night I grabbed a friend and headed to the new craft space of Studio Make in Fairlight to take part in their KOKEDAMA WORKSHOP! Champagne in one hand and my 'ingredients' in the other I was ready to get started....our lovely teacher told us a little about the history of the Kokedama, basically a traditional Japanese art form that uses moss as a container for the plant, bound together by string.

All you need is a mix of bonsai soil and peat moss, dry sphagnum moss, string and of course your plant of choice. I choose a sweet little succulent for my first 'creation' then a gorgeous jade plant once I had the process down pat. It was lots of fun (and just a little dirty) all the ladies managed to create two Kokedamas in a fairly short space of time and everyone was really happy with their creations!

Your Kokedama can sit or hang - I made one of each!

Not quite sure where my new little creations will live but for now they seem happy in their new home...

I can thoroughly recommend 'creating' your very own Kokedama, quite therapeutic, relative easy, fun to create and I was really happy with the result...but beware I have a feeling it could become quite addictive....

Need more inspiration just check out these beauties from Pinterest:

Fabulous Find.....

I was reading one of my favourite blogs earlier in the week and came across a FABULOUS FIND, I just had to share....

The wonderful Leanne from Sweet Style recently photographed her wonderful range of 100% natural, toxin free make up that is believe it or not all made from food! Her photography is divine and the packaging of these little beauties, OMG I just had to buy one.

LUK is the brainchild of a local Sydney lady Cindy whom  is "quietly building lük beautifood into a cult beauty brand to take globally by pioneering clean, toxin-free, food active makeup and championing natural beauty. She wants nothing more than to disrupt the traditional beauty market and the definition of a ‘true beauty' ".

If you sign up to the LUK Beautifood newsletter you receive 10% off your first order PLUS shipping within Australia is free.....my little treat arrived the very next day and I am in lurve, OMG check out the fabric that it is wrapped in!!!

Do yourself a favour if you care about what you put on your lips then check out the wonderful range of lipsticks and why stop there when there is also foundation, mascaras and plenty more natural beauty products to choose from.

Oh and the website has lots of amazing wonderful recipes for clean living...told you it was a FABULOUS FIND!!!

Source: Sweet Style / LUK Beautifood / photos my own

 

 

 

Fabulous Finds....

Its been a while since I posted a FABULOUS FIND...this one is worthy of a mention!

I follow My Smoko Break on Facebook and she often posts handy tips and remedies...a 'property dweller' she ran out of dishwasher tablets one day and was't heading to town until later that week so made her own....I was fascinated to see if they actually worked...and yep they do...and VERY well I might add.

Now I understand not everyone has these ingredients lying in a cupboard but they were easy to source and cheap to buy.

The recipe is easy, mix together 2 cups of borax, 1/2 cup Epsom salts (I bought mine at the chemist, perfect to add to your bath for a long soak), 2 cups bi-carb soda, 1/2 cup vinegar and good quirt of lemon juice. Mix together then add to an ice cube tray and sit in the sun for a few days to harden.

A few of mine crumbled but could still be used, I must admit I was skeptical but pleasantly surprised and probably a lot less toxic (and a whole heap cheaper) than the easy store bought ones I usually use!

Hope you enjoyed this Fabulous Find - Happy Friday xox

 

Burger anyone?????

Now don't judge me but yesterday Lilly and I boarded a flight in the morning to Noosa for a burger!

Yep thats right it was the inaugural BBDO Tour....or "Bettys Burgers Day Out" Tour. A friend of ours has a slight obsession with a good burger and has been telling us for months that the burgers at Bettys Burgers are among some of the best she has tried. With that in mind when some cheap airline tickets became available she was on the phone and gathering the troops the tour was on!

We gathered at the airport eager to get away, a group of mums and daughters, 12 in total...crazy, perhaps, but the flight is only a little over an hour away AND we were hungry, first stop Bettys Burgers.

The selfie stick made more than one appearance and cased lots of giggles and comments from onlookers (lots of photos of us taking photos LOL).

We made it to Bettys after a wonderful transfer (thanks to our minibus driver Shelly) and ordered...tummies rumbling there was silence as we all devoured the most delicious burgers I have ever tasted! Now I don't eat a lot of meat and went for the chicken burger and Lilly tried the vegetarian burger but truly they were amazing, I can see why they have a reputation.

Then it was off to walk off lunch and prepare for 'take two' dinner before heading back to the airport! We spent a few hours wandering down the famous Hastings Street in Noosa, a quick visit to the beachfront to take a peek even managed a drink at the lovely Noosa Beach House, a glass of wine for the mums and a "mocktail" for the girls.

Time for one last "selfie" with the beach in the background then yep you guessed it back to Bettys for more burgers before our transfer back to the airport.

So, 12 Sydney gals, 26 burgers, 4 hours in Hastings Street and LOTS OF LAUGHS!

Crazy...NO, well worth it and who knows it may just become an annual event!

Fabulous Finds....

Its been a while since I had  FABULOUS FIND post.....I have been slowly having a clean up of my craft space (hmmm....long overdue) and although I am getting much better at offloading unwanted craft items I just can't seem to let go of the many magazines I seem to have collected along the way, especially the glossy (expensive ) ones...

Its silly really, if I am looking for a recipe its probably available at the touch of a button and everything else is probably outdated...so what to do. It got me thinking and of course searching for all the wonderful crafts out there using old magazines...recycle and repurpose of course!

Here are a few of my favourites...

 

Love, love these adorable magazine flowers...the pinwheels would be a great backdrop for a party and a canvas coated in magazines then lettering....drool

 

Okay so I could ignore the recycling bit and just repurpose them into a cool stool LOL...or perhaps start early on making these great Christmas decorations....

I think I will definitely start with these envelopes, simply, easy and effective...oh and maybe a flower or two to sit on-top a present...and another party idea, imagine these little favour bags made out of you guessed it old magazines LOL.

Lots of FABULOUS FINDS here what do you think???

Source: Images Pinterest

 

Mothers Day- lending a hand - #Onemothertoanother

I discovered a wonderful idea on a favourite blog recently...Briar from Sunday Collector posted about a very worthwhile cause called "One Mother To Another" which started with an organisation in Melbourne called St Kilda Mums.

Basically it is about giving another mother a gift this Mothers Day....let another mother know you are thinking of her this Mothers Day - she may be living in a shelter, recently lost her home, perhaps she is homeless...she needs YOUR Help!

Step One
Make up a gift bag of new women’s toiletries. Choose a nice toiletry bag and fill it with everything you would need if you had nothing 

Step Two 
Include a note for another mother to let her know you care

Step Three 
Take a photo of your gift pack and share it on Instagram or Facebook with the #onemothertoanother

Step Four 
Pack in a small box and include your name and address so that we can send you a thank you note.

Step Five
If you’d like to help a Sydney Mum post the box to:

MANLY WOMENS SHELTER / COMMUNITY CNETRE

Attention: Anona Lepage

12 Wentworth Street, Manly NSW 2095

or in Melbourne:

ST KILDA MUMS

5 Vale Street, St Kilda VIC 3182

Briar noted on her blog:

Note: I spoke to Anona, who helps women Sydney-wide, not only in Manly. She described that giving a gift like this would be giving a Mum a hug, which I thought was lovely. 

#onemothertoanother

Fabulous Find....the "Valentine" addition

This weeks Fabulous Find celebrates VALENTINES DAY, February 14...tomorrow! Lots of wonderful ideas out there, here are just a few that caught my eye...

Fun cracker bon bond filled with confetti - Oh Happy Day

Print your own beer labels instantly on Etsy - Smart Party Planning

Free printable gift tags - Brepurposed

Fun cocktail sugar for your special Valentines Day cocktail - Pinterest

Paint a rock - how cool do these look - Pinterest

"You are Loved" free printable - The Beetle Shack

Yum- yes please - chocolate covered pretzels with heart confetti - Pinterest

Heart Succulents - Down That Little Lane

We have a busy weekend ahead but I have a few sneaky plans to spoil 'my valentine'..this cake looks like a good start...how are you spoiling the ones you love???