even in the middle of winter in Queensland.....


is a beautiful thing.....


*sigh*......I love my home!

Wishing you all a wonderful day full of happiness and sunshine........love Amanda xxx

Happy Pink Saturday ladies! I hope you're all having a wonderfully fun weekend and enjoying your Pink Saturday! For this week's pink post I put together a collection of pink flowers that I've taken photo's of over the last 12 months, and I hope that you think they're as pretty as I do!



For more Pink Saturday fun click on the title of this post to take you to our lovely Pink Saturday hostess, Beverly, from How Sweet The Sound.

I've gotta run, it's a busy weekend here at Jacaranda Cottage! I'll see you all soon....................love Amanda xxx

Feeling a little nostalgic today....


reminiscing.....


remembering......


and wondering....


where the time went?


Life......it goes so fast, doesn't it. It's school holidays here now for 3 weeks, so I'm going to stop and smell the roses with my Precious Princess....and enjoy every minute I have with her.

Wishing you a wonderful day..........love Amanda xxx

Hello ladies! How's your day been today? Mine was busy, doing laundry, cleaning the house, baking, and running Precious Princess and myself back to the Doctor yet again. This time Princess has been put onto anti-biotics, and I have been put onto a puffer for asthma caused by the chest infection that still haunts me. Argh, I'm so sick of being, well....sick! Ick. So lets move on to a happier topic shall we? The other day when I went grocery shopping I saw these lovely (to me anyway) white winter flannel sheets with roses all over them and thought they would go perfectly with the new doona/quilt cover I was given for Mother's Day. So in the trolley they went! lol

Aren't they just so sweet?!......


and for just $25 I think they are even more gorgeous! lol


do you think they match well with the doona/quilt cover too?


I know, you're probably thinking it's sad that I'm getting so excited over new sheets, and ok Amanda has to get a life, lol, but hey...surely I can't be the only one who gets excited over such simple pleasures?

Ok, I'm off to get dinner on the table. My One True Love should be walking through the door any minute! Wishing you a wonderfully happy day! May it be full of life's simple pleasures..........love Amanda xxx

Good evening ladies, I hope you've been having a great start to the week! Our week has started off with a bang......we went to Puppy Pre-School tonight!




After us, Milly was the next to arrive......


us.......looking a little worried



then Tiger showed up.....


then Diago.....


Lucy.......


and Ninja......


after seeing her classmates, LuLu was a little....freaked out. To say the least!


and while the other puppies......


mingled........


and sniffed.......


and exchanged email addresses.......


we spent all our free time trying to be invisible.....


and plotting an escape route........



Next week it's sniff or be sniffed. Ever see a Mini Foxy have a breakdown? It's not pretty........ah yes, puppy pre-school. Wish us luck! lol

Have a great day all................love Amanda xxx

Hi ladies! Hope everyone's having a fun weekend so far. We've been having a very quiet, relaxing weekend watching old movies like Singing In The Rain, Pillow Talk, and On The Town. Resting, recovering, and baking some delicious warming winter comfort food while we relax together as a family. It's wonderful to just do nothing for one weekend!

Last night I asked my husband to keep an eye on LuLu for me while I went for a shower. Walking back into the room this is the sight that greeted me, and it made me laugh, so I thought you might too.....


oh my....pardon moi LuLu!


these are the things.....


that happen......


around here......


when my husband babysits.......


especially when.....


the football is on tv......



I hope you got a laugh out of this too, and I hope you're having a fantastic weekend!

Love Amanda xxx

Hi ladies! I know posting a photo of your bedroom and titling your post cheap thrills can be slightly misleading.....but it's not what you may be thinking! lol


no, the cheap thrills I'm talking about are these.....


I'm still not well, but had to drag myself to the grocery store so that my beloved family do not perish from starvation over the weekend, and decided to pop these little pretties in my shopping trolley....


and for $2.99 from Aldi, the happy feeling they give me each time I walk into my bedroom is priceless....


and my other cheap thrill today was finding this juicer for $6 at Coles grocery store. This is just perfect for juicing a few lemons and oranges when I make my favourite Barefoot Contessa lemon or orange pound cakes. Will save me dragging out my big food processor with it's juicer attachment. Yay! Like I said...cheap thrills!


Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. May it be full of little unexpected pleasures for you too.............love Amanda xxx

Good morning ladies, I hope you're all having a lovely day today doing what ever it is that takes your fancy. I am going to be taking a rest for a couple of days, I think. Went to the Doctor yesterday and he gave me some antibiotics to clear up this bronchitis and infected sinuses, so now I just have to rest so I can shake it off faster.

To help myself along a little I've made some cinnamon and maple pikelets...


topped with melted butter. I'll worry about the diet later, right now I need warm comfort food......


Also, wanted to show you this sweet little butter dish I picked up at the thrift store a couple of weeks ago for $3. Now that it's winter here, I can safely leave the butter out in this glass butter dish. If it were summer, this would be melted all over the counter. Not good! Just another reason I love winter (except for the getting sick part!).....


I've always wanted a butter dish. My sister has a gorgeous engraved sterling silver one, but I'm happy with my little glass cheepie that I can pop in the dishwasher with out a worry!


So now I'm going to curl up with a couple of good books I got from the library, a pot of tea and some of these deliciously hot sweet cinnamon and maple pikelets...


I hope you have a great end to the week and I'll see you in a couple of days when my head and chest aren't feeling like they're going to explode. Until then, take care and have fun!

Love Amanda xxx

No rest for the wicked? Then I must be pretty wicked cause I ain't gettin' no rest, that's for sure! lol Today Our Precious Princess had her dance exam. It lasted for 90 mins. We won't get her grade and ranking for a few weeks yet, but she feels that she did really well, and came out feeling happy and confident. It helped a lot that her cold is almost gone too, so she was feeling pretty great over all. Next lot of exams will be in September, then in a couple of weeks we have state dance competitions. Busy and exciting times for us at Jacaranda Cottage!

While Princess was in having her dance exam, LuLu and I waited in the car together...


and while we waited, LuLu decided it was time to go exploring.....


to check things out, and catch some warming winter rays....


but it didn't take her long to realize that the best seat in the house is on mummy's lap......


After dancing it was LuLu's turn and we headed off to the Vet's for her second round of immunisations, and we also got her micro chipped today as well. Tomorrow it's my turn with a visit to the Dentist in the morning, then off to the Doctor after lunch for this flu. So how about you, how are you going? I have been slowly getting around to visit with you all, but with all this running around, being unwell, and our high speed broadband internet running at the speed of a snail for some reason, well it's been a little difficult to visit as I would like to. I hope you're all having a great start to the week, and I will continue to crawl around at this snails pace to visit with you my sweet friends. Right now though, I have to get Princess back off to dancing for her next class, home to fix dinner, back to pick up Princess, then I'm gonna have a REST. Yes I am. I am. I hope. lol

See you soon............love Amanda xxx

I'm sick. My daughter lovingly shared her cold and flu with me. Isn't she kind? If I survive I'll be back in a couple of days. Until then I'll be the one slumped over the keyboard clutching tissues. And coughing.....


Where's LuLu, I need a cuddle..........love Amanda xxx

Hello ladies! I hope you've all been having a wonderfully relaxing weekend? It's Sunday afternoon here and we've just finished having a leisurely lunch with my mum. It's a little cool too, so we enjoyed a hot lunch and sitting together sorting through old family photo's. Such a nice way to while away a winter's afternoon. And speaking of winter afternoons, today I'm going to share part 2 of our drive last weekend in the country with you. Before we get on to all the photo's though, I promised to draw a winner for my give away. We put the names in a bowl and my daughter drew out number.........1! Terri & Bob from Lakewood Manor, you are the winners of my little patriotic give away. Congratulations sweetie, I hope you like it! Terri, if you could email me your address, I'll get your parcel off to you asap!

Now on the with tour.....winter in the Queensland countyside.......


After having morning tea in Allora, we continued on to the very pretty town of Warwick where we stopped for lunch in their beautiful park. The first thing we saw as we entered town was the lovely old building that houses our boys in blue....


This beautiful old sandstone building was built in 1900. Isn't it just lovely with it's palm trees standing proudly outside......


driving down the main street......


passing some more gorgeous old buildings.....


This little town, Warwick, has many beautiful old churches to it's name.....


This little cottage was across from the church in the last photo. From the look of it, it looks like it's a business now and not a private residence anymore....


but I thought it was just so adorable......


such a pretty little place.......I love Warwick!


at the main intersection of town there was a statue of one of Queensland's Premiers who was raised in Warwick. Can't remember his name now, but I think the statue is great!


and some beautiful blooms.......


right in the middle of the street......


I mentioned in the part 1 post that I love the post office buildings in the little country towns. They are always so full of character.......


and to me, just so beautiful.......


after a walk around town, we stopped at the park to give LuLu a run and to have our lunch amongst the sweet blooms.....


that delighted us all, especially LuLu who found the bee's very interesting!


driving out of town we stopped yet another lovely old building, this time a country pub......


that was built in 1908......


and then it was time to head for home........


along the winding country roads.....


that treated us to some of natures beauty.....


did I mention what gorgeous weather we were having that day, and do typically have for most of our winter.......


hitting the highway, not long until home now....


just around the bend....


past the hills....


around the mountain.......


down the range......


and up the road to home........


I hope you've enjoyed coming along with us on our family drive in the country this winter. I thought too that you might find it interesting to know what the winter temps are like where we live. Our night time temps on average get down to around 6 deg C (43 deg F) and the day time temps on average are around 22 deg C (71 deg F). I know that's not cold to people who live in snowy areas, but to us Queenslanders who are used to the HEAT, then that's pretty cold for us! As soon as the temp hits 19 deg C my husband is rugged up to the eyeballs! lol You should see us when we are on vacation to the snowfields. We are a sight to behold, that's for sure! heheheeeeeee

Anyhoo, I wish you all a terrific week my dear friends. Things will be hectic this week, so I'll be back when I can. Until then...............love ya!

Amanda xxx