Little lavender pillows, sewn from squares of beautiful fabric and filled with fragrant dried lavender flowers, make simple and lovely handmade gifts. Little handmade lavender pillows.Surrounded by the serene scent of lavender, I sewed up half a dozen of these little pillows in an afternoon. From the offcuts of a favourite Nani Iro fabric, printed with soft purple, yellow and white flowers, and ..read more

I began my more frugal journey with Rhonda Hetzel's Down-to-Earth blog and book and since then have gathered lots of ideas from many more blogs and books. I really enjoy reading about the simple everyday savings that people make and that I can do in our home too. Here are five frugal savings I've made of late:Homemade lavender room spray.I made up a simple and fragrant lavender room spray ..read more

Different shades of pink, from delicate and pale to bright and deep, ... Pink petals of a Cranberry Hibiscus bloom.Pale pink strawberry  smoothie.Deep foxglove pink.A fluffy pink puffball.Playing with pinks for a quilt patch.Bright pink salvia bloom....are such pretty variations on a sweet colour.Meg ..read more

I ? vintage tea and biscuit tins. With pretty designs or distinctive logos, rusty edges and battered lids, they take me back to those olden days before plastic became ever-present and persistent in our lives. I can imagine my grandmother prising the lid off a tea tin and scooping out the leaves for the teapot! Many such tins were on display in the kitchen of an old cottage at the historical ..read more

We moseyed our way back home after our time up at Rainbow Beach.  As we were in no hurry, we stopped off at the Gympie Gold Mining & Historical Museum and spent a couple of hours exploring all its old buildings and collections from yesteryear. As well as its Gold Display, based on the discovery of alluvial gold by James Nash in 1867 and the subsequent establishment of the township of Gympie ..read more

As the view of the Carlo Sandblow opens up, at the end of the forest track that takes you up there, the sheer size of it takes your breath away.  A vast expanse of golden sand covers the landscape in every direction; a 15hectare sandy "moonscape" whose colours change along with daytime's light.It's impossible to capture the enormity of the sandblow in one single photograph. Instead, your eyes ..read more

There's a spectacular place, about a three hour drive from here, where stunning cliffs of rainbow-coloured sands tower over the shore. Of course, it's called Rainbow Beach, after the more than 70 different coloured sands that make these cliffs, and this place, so very unique.     A distant view of the cliffs at Rainbow Beach.      A closer look!     A rainbow of colours  in the ancient ..read more

I woke up early and just felt like cinnamon scrolls.  Maybe it was because it was a weekend or maybe it was the beginning of the school holidays that swayed me away from our usual porridge or omelettes and toast. Most likely though, it was the thought of a warm scroll filled with tart apple, crunchy walnuts and the distinctive scent of cinnamon. I didn't want to fuss around with yeast and waiting ..read more

Warm breezes and a different quality to afternoon's light signal a change to Spring here in our subtropical home. Although the nights have still been cool, a sense of the season turning came earlier again this year than the flipping of our calender's page to September. It is a glorious time of year here which I relish before the heat of Summer takes hold. Out in the garden, green-tipped new ..read more

There are several op-shops to visit very close to where I live. I often pop in if I'm passing to see what is hanging on the racks or stocked on the shelves. Sometimes, I have a specific item I'm hoping to find second-hand and other times I may just be in the right shop at the right time! These are my recent op-shop finds:A set of four of these blue-ringed pasta bowls. They cost $8 total.  Their ..read more