Cinderella at Brindabella

three bags full + a wedding snippet

2012-01-13T17:31:00.000+11:00

I couldn't resist, two things actually.

One...sharing a snippet of our wedding day joy, made all the more joyful by our fabulous photographer Lou. Honestly, she is the bees knees. People gush about their wedding photographer and I think it's a bit ridiculous to be honest. But she nailed it. Thank you, amazing Lou. Thank you.

Secondly, I am already experiencing withdrawal from being a homebody. I love to nest. It's my thing. I bake, and sew, and ok I don't clean too well...but I love having a home. Now we don't. And it is slowly driving my creative mind mushy. I don't like creative mushy mind, so I decided to do something about it. Enter Three Bags Full. A new blog to release some of that creative energy, pent up and frustrated. Three Bags Full won't be a blog like Cinderella at Brindabella has been. There will be minimal, to none at all, photos taken by myself. It is about what inspires me, things I like, catches my eye.

I can hear you from here though: "We've seen it all before." You'd be right too. There a million blogs out there sprouting about products they want to buy, 'wish lists' and Pinterest finds. All a bit self-indulgent and consumer-gone-mad isn't it? Well I truly am hoping Three Bags Full won't become one of those blogs. Also, I might not even have the time/energy/internet service to blog on Three Bags Full as well as The Happy Campers. We'll see.

If you'd like to, pop over to see what I'm up to over there. If not, that's fine also.

farewell brindabella

2011-12-30T12:01:00.000+11:00

Let's cut to the chase here - moving sucks. Enormously. I have moved too many times to count. Ok maybe that's exaggerating - three times when I was at uni in Melbourne (all on scorching February days), then home to Thorpdale, then to Glenburn, within two weeks, when I moved in with Mr M and followed him to 'the bush', again to the cottage at Ythanbrae (also known as paradise/our other happy place) and then to Brindabella. Where we said we would be for a long time. Never again, we said to moving.

Well things don't always turn out the way you plan. And that's ok. It's all a part of my new mantra: change is inevitable, fluidity is fine and progression essential. Onwards and upwards.

After our wedding, we spent three nights and four days at Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula. It was blissful, as a honeymoon should be. A beautiful hotel room with a balcony overlooking the ocean, lazy evenings drinking champagne and eating leftover wedding cake, bike rides around Point Nepean, perusing the pretty shops and galleries in the afternoons and lovely dinners by the sea with my husband.

We came home to Brindabella and began to pack. And pack. And pack. It seemed neverending. The stuff. It spewed from our little ramshackle farmhouse. From my sewing room. From Mr M's shed. From everywhere. With the help of Mr M's hard working parents we managed to get everything sorted. The problem was some things were going into storage, some things were going into the new house at Inverloch, some things were being stored at my mum's for easy access (like paperwork and clothes and art pieces we didn't want in storage) and some things we were taking away with us. So. Much. Sorting.

We planned to be on the road to Boort, where we were headed to help friends with their grain harvest, on the Sunday after the wedding. We didn't end up leaving Brindabella until the wee hours of Wednesday morning after that (12.17am to be precise), we fell into bed at my mum's, got up a few hours later and hauled out headed for the Mallee dust and heat at 4.50am Wednesday 21st December. The next four days were spent helping finish off harvest before Christmas, then turning around and heading the almost 5 hours back to Gippsland for Christmas. Madness.

We're now back in Boort and the holiday/honeymoon/reality really starts now. All we have is packed in our camper. We really have no fixed address anymore, no more clothes other than what I packed (very minimal). Is it liberating? Amazingly so. Scary? Not at all, which surprised me. Exciting? Yes!

Was I upset leaving Brindabella? Not at all. Yes, we worked our tails off there in the past year. But it was not home. We were not happy there. At all. I didn't blog about the trials of the past year (who wants to hear about that, really?!) but we honestly had a pretty crappy 2011 - minus our beautiful wedding day, quite simply the best day of my life for the fact that I married my best friend. But take that away, and I'd really rather forget 2011 ever happened.

So, all good things must come to an end. This blog is one of them.

I am no longer Cinderella at Brindabella. I am, however, still a keen blogger. Mr M and I plan to blog our way around Australia, where we can. I'm not going to blog about pretty homewares or gardening or renovating anymore. I'm not going to blog to get readers or hits, not that I ever really did, but I think I do write consciously for the readers of this blog. No, from now on I we are going to blog for ourselves, for our friends and family who want to track our travels and share our adventures. You can most certainly come along for the ride also, but if it's Etsy purchases, baking recipes or things I've blogged about before you are after, perhaps that chapter in my blogging career has closed for the moment.

Our new blog, The Happy Campers, can be found here. It's a work in progress so stay tuned for active links, photos of the camper and oh yeah...some actual posts!

Cinderella at Brindabella will remain open to read the previous two + years of posts. I will also post on here some wedding photos and a re-cap of the day and details when I can. And you know that as soon as I can I will :)

Thank-you to my lovely and loyal readers, some of you I have come to really know like 'real life' friends, all of you I have appreciated. The blogging community is a beautiful place in the world wide web because of the people and the connections we create. I hope you continue to follow my blogging journey, but if not, thank you and farewell...

Images by Emma Steendam for Cinderella at Brindabella

a nomad's christmas

2011-12-30T09:35:00.000+11:00

What's that you hear? Deafening silence? Sorry about that...been a bit busy! You know how it is - getting married, having a mini-honeymoon, packing up a life, sorting through a life of where it is to be stored (note: all over the countryside?!) and somewhere in there shoving my face full of turkey, ham and pudding. Ah the joys...

We spent Christmas at home in Gippsland - our last hurrah before heading off into the sunset on our around Australia honeymoon adventure. Christmas Eve was spent at my Dad's new house having a pool party with all five of my nieces, my two sisters, my brother-in-law, my brother and my sister-in-law. Oysters and champagne were called for, as well as copious amounts of prawns, crayfish fresh from Flinders Island my Dad flew down to get a few days before and loads of watersliding antics. All followed by traditional Christmas Eve mass at our local parish where we all grew up, and my niece is now going to school.

Christmas morning at my Mum's was met with squeals of delight when Scarlett and Ava found Santa's beer had been half drunk (who choose the dodgy beer?!) and the carrots nibbled by the reindeer, leaving a big mess on Grandi's box hedge!

Cousins arrived from next door to more squeals. So much squealing with five little girls! Santa was generous, as was Mum/Grandi with the traditional Christmas lunch spread. Roast turkey, roast chicken, a leg of baked ham and a buffet roast turkey. Followed by plum pudding with the most brandy-infused sauce we've ever had - woooo!

In the afternoon we headed down to Mr M's family by the sea to spend our first Christmas in the new and improved 'Shirwell' - a home that has been in his family for generations and has just undergone a serious renovation and extension. Floors had just been sanded and there isn't any furniture in yet but we enjoyed a (somewhat soggy) Christmas dinner on the new deck.

We set up our camper (our new home!) next door at Mr M's mum's cousin's house (confused yet?!), the beautifully restored 'Charnwood' - quite possibly the oldest house in Inverloch. This is our happy place. Mr M's parents are building a new house just in front of 'Shirwell' which will be our new family home. All this will happen this year whilst we're gallavanting about the country, which makes Mr M a tad sad that he'll be missing out on the action. But we're so looking forward to returning and having so many more beautiful meals with beautiful people on the deck at 'Shirwell' and the new house.

I know most of you are all busting to see wedding photos, hear about our movements, how we left Brindabella, where we are now, what our plans are...but that will have to wait for another day. Right now I just wanted to share some love from the past week :)

We're off to Mildura to ring in the new year with friends and waterski to our hearts content. Until then...

Images by Emma Steendam for Cinderella at Brindabella

christmas blessings

2011-12-25T09:22:00.000+11:00

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Hug your little ones closer, eat far too much pudding, believe in the magic of Christmas.

Most importantly, remember the reason for the season. Give. Laugh. Love. Count your blessings.

xxx

little mrs emma

2011-12-15T15:32:00.000+11:00

We did it.

We're married.

Happily.

Finally.

Exhausted.

We are packing up Brindabella as I type, in an empty study, just my computer left. Surrounded by boxes and packing tape and newspaper and bubble-wrap. The moving truck comes tomorrow. And then we hit the road on the weekend. Just each other. The husband and the wife, chasing the sun and our dreams and our unknown future.

I will check back in soon, promise xxx

Image by Louise Buma for sunny + scout photography

signing off

2011-11-24T08:22:00.000+11:00

Ok so I thought I could keep blogging in the lead up to the wedding. Turns out I am an insane person who has bitten off far more than she can chew.

This week I have been...

taking people to hospital

sourcing antique jewelry

organising church visits for nervous kids

editing a huge photography job

shooting another photography job this morning

selling my car

selling our kelpie bitch

printing ceremony programs

picking up suits

returning shirts

finding new shirts

writing speech

delivering decking boards

picking up trailer from decking boards mission

giving pony rides

dropping off 100 + jars to my florist

inspecting the progress on the camper at the welders workshop

constant delivery to op shop

listing 'stuff' on ebay

Christmas shopping, wrapping and storing gifts

cutting and posting fabric sold on Craftumi

packing

packing.

So...I have decided I must sign off from the blogosphere until after the wedding day (10.12.11)

Thank-you all so much for your words of encouragement in the planning and lead up to our big day. I will 'see' you all on the other side, when I am Mrs Emma!

Image by Emma Durkin Photographics at Walkerville beach last week

christmas dresses 2011

2011-11-16T13:59:00.000+11:00

As I slowly but surely pack away all our worldly belongings, (moving day has been finalised the week after the wedding - eeeek!) I am coming to terms with the fact that for the next year I will be living out of a bag. Or a camper. Whatever. Point is that we are trying to narrow down exactly what it is we will take on our big trip. Nitty gritty's like which shoes, books, electronic chargers, first aid supplies, and clothes. Clothes. Hmmm...can I do the next 12 months with 3 pairs of jeans, 2 jumpers, 5 tops, 3 shorts and 2 skirts? Because that's basically all I'm taking. Because that's basically all we can fit. Hmph.

So as I start to think and look towards Christmas day I'm getting a bit sad that I won't have a pretty dress with me as usual to wear on the jolly holiday. We are planning on coming home for Christmas from where we will be in December (Boort in north west Victoria), but by then all our clothes will be in storage. No matter, here are some that I would like to be wearing, a little bit of sparkle or a little bit of Mrs Clause...

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

Do you wear something special on Christmas day? Or do you go more for board shorts and thongs and a hit of cricket on the beach? I like to wear something special as I think it's a special day!

one month

2011-11-11T11:06:00.000+11:00

It is now officially less than one month until The Wedding.

Less than one month.

As you can imagine, things are all go here at the moment. Grass is growing on the marquee site and being mown every five days religiously, running sheets of how the day will run are being written, RSVP's are coming in thick and fast, hens and bucks parties are being organised, wedding night accommodation is booked, ceremony booklets finalised, dresses fitted and hair and make-up bookings and trials confirmed.

In previous monthly countdowns I've shared with you my latest wedding inspirations from around the wedding blog scene - this month, as we get to the pointy end of it all, I'll share some snippets of real wedding 'stuff'. Actual wedding paraphernalia, which seems to be taking over and consuming our house/garden/shed. Snippets, of course, in a very controlled manner. Less is more, after all.

29 more sleeps...

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

brindabella: one year on

2011-11-09T14:48:00.002+11:00

Twelve months and two weeks ago we moved from our cosy little cottage at Ythanbrae to the ramshackle farmhouse here at Brindabella.

We have worked our tails off every weekend, after work, every spare moment we had between busy full time jobs and wedding planning, to make this little abode a home.

I thought I would share some before, during and after photos with you all. Get ready for an onslaught of images...

Before: The back porch (excuse dodgy photo)

After: The back porch today!

Before: The backyard, looking from the shed to the house

After: The backyard, looking from the shed to the house

Before: The backyard, down the path

After: The backyard, down the path

Before: The backyard

After: The backyard

Before: The backyard

After: The backyard

Before: The backyard

After: The backyard

Before: The front driveway

After: The front driveway

Before: The front of the farmhouse

After: The front of the farmhouse

Before: The western side of the house, paddock

After: The western side of the house, now yard

Before: Western side of house, cypress trees, rubbish, rubble and paddock

After: Western side of the house, trees removed, all rocks, sticks, roots picked up, ground levelled, ripped x 3, more rocks, sticks roots, sown and mown

And finally just some 'in progress' shots...

Although we've only been here for 12 months, looking through these photos it has made me think it has been a lot more! But then on the other hand, we do not have a great sense of 'home' here, which I think is so important. So many hours of blood, sweat and tears have gone into transforming Brindabella, and yes we will be walking away from all our hard work when we leave here after our wedding. I am so, so very proud of what we have achieved here though - if nothing else it has been relationship strengthening stuff!

One day when we do have a place of our own we will look back and laugh at our funny old ramshackle farmhouse we lived in before we were married...

A new adventure awaits.

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

great changes

2011-11-09T09:34:00.000+11:00

Yes. I need to remember this in the coming weeks. I feel it is the calm before the storm. Head down, bum up...

Image found via my pins

the big sell

2011-11-08T12:17:00.000+11:00

Well, well, well, well...we meet again boxes and packing tape! Yep, I've started packing up the house, little by little sorting and storing our lives into boxes. Sigh! And along with sorting and organising comes de-cluttering, already I have done two runs to the local charity shop laden with bags and boxes.

My sewing room usually looks like a bomb has hit it, but I've tidied it up enough to realise I have way. too. much. fabric! So to Craftumi I went and listed some bits and bobs, if you are interested pop over to check it out. I have my minky for sale (in hot pink, lime green, red and black) which I have loads of yards of on bolts. This minky I buy from a U.S. wholesaler and isn't available in Australia (Spotlight and Lincraft have started selling minky dot in pastel colours, not these colours though).

I am also over on eBay selling my soul our stuff. Go there for a bargain too ;)

I am slowly but surely adding items as I find things in random cupboards and under beds. Stay tuned on both my Craftumi and eBay accounts as I still have lots of crafty items like flowers, buttons, beads, more fabric to list, as well as some things Mr M wants to sell on eBay (LED camping lights anyone? UHF radios?) and I have an (expensive!) Big by Fiona Scanlon girls tutu skirt bought from David Jones and missing a receipt to return! To eBay it shall go.

Right, back to the packing tape and newspaper...

point + shoot: the pretty house

2011-11-07T08:13:00.000+11:00

I have been stalking a pretty house - in real life driving past and on the Facebook page checking out photos of the interior. It is a display called 'The Laila' for Smart Homes Victoria and is literally 200m from my best friend's house in Drouin. So of course I snooped around with iPhone in hand to share some photos with you all.

See, isn't she pretty? There's Elisha heading inside...

So whilst the boys got building a deck, we got shopping for a new house. Of course we weren't legitimate potential buyers...Elisha and her husband have just built in the same estate and Mr M and I at this rate will never be building our own home as we will most likely always be managing other peoples land and living in other people's homes on farm. Sigh. But it's nice to look at things if we did ever have the chance to build.

The Laila design has a central wide hallway which I loved, with a master bedroom at the front with a walk through wardrobe to ensuite (which I also loved). Across the hall is a little lounge room which we were thinking would either be a great parents retreat sitting room with no TV or a kids playroom to throw all the toys! There's a study with French doors into the hallway, a functional laundry, a family bathroom with white subway tiles and a claw foot slipper bath (yes!), two good sized bedrooms further down the hall and then eventually opens out onto the open plan kitchen/living/dining.

The main living area is a great space, I was thinking it was going to look much smaller in real life but in reality we decided we could definitely move straight in with no complaints! The big farmhouse kitchen sink had me, as did the big gas stove and traditional surround. I also loved the soft muted dove grey paint colour throughout the house. Not unlike what Josh and Jenna used on The Block.

Of course, there were lots of things we thought we would change - "I would've moved the shower over three inches for easier cleaning" or "I'm not sold on a kitchen sink in the island bench". That sort of thing. But if it were your own home build I'm sure you would figure all those things out.

The way Laila is designed I think she would make a beautiful and functional family home. As we were leaving (and checking out the gorgeous wrap around veranda, dry creek bed front garden and cute garage) I looked back and noticed the little windows in the roofline which I liked so much - but where in the house are they? We went back in and realised they weren't windows into the house anywhere, they must just be into the roof space - which had my head filled with ideas of an attic sewing room...one day?

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

P.S. Playing along with Lou over at sunny + scout to share photos of your weekend :)

burlap bunting tutorial

2011-11-03T12:51:00.000+11:00

Hello there - apologies for the lack of blogging, as you can imagine I have lots going on in the lead up to the big day, not to mention all the things we have to tick off our list before we pack up our house and hit the road.

If you would like a little dose of Cinderella at Brindabella country style I am a guest blogger over on Polka Dot Made today with an easy tutorial to make some cute wedding decor bunting. Speaking of which I need to go and heed my own advice and make some more...

Head over here if you'd like to make some yourself :)

Image by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

wordless wednesday: at the bottom of my mum's garden...

2011-11-02T13:18:00.000+11:00

Playing along with Faith, Hope and a whole lotta Love.

Image by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

it's beginning to look a lot like...

2011-10-31T18:11:00.000+11:00

...Christmas!!!

As you may or may not know, I am a lover of all things Christmas. Give me some baubles, some ribbon to wrap up gifts and some carols to sway along to and I am one happy little elf.

This year I am putting my graphic design and photography skills to the test forefront with a series of custom Christmas cards available to order with your own images and supplied as a digital file. This way you can print as many as you like as a 6 x 4 inch (standard size) photo and send them all off with sprinklings of merriment and good cheer to your loved ones this Chrissy! A custom digital Christmas card to do with as you please (print it, email it, homing pigeon?) will set you back $26.00.

If you don't have any recent photos you think perfectly fitting for Christmas cards, that's ok too. I am offering a Christmas special portraiture shoot fee of $240, which includes a CD chock-a-block full of high resolution images and your personalised custom Christmas card to boot. (Usually my portraiture sitting fee with a full CD is $300).

You can head over to my photography website or my facebook page to find out more.

So what are you waiting for - which one's your favourite? I'd love to hear...

point + shoot: return to ythanbrae

2011-10-24T09:02:00.000+11:00

This past weekend we travelled back to our old stomping ground in the beautiful Murrindindi valley. It was oh so bittersweet - I actually got excited going to the crappy overpriced little supermarket I used to loathe and Mr M thought I was a total freak (not unjustified). But here in overpopulated Gippsland I never run into anyone I know in the supermarket, I used to spend at least three times longer than needed as I'd run into old Mrs whats-her-name in aisle five in Yea and chinwag about last week's cattle prices.

We stayed with dear friends in their amazing home, who I used to nanny for and Mr M bred some (pretty awesome if I do say so myself) embryo transfer calves for. The weekend was full of great friends, great local wine, great memories, great organic meals, great house which I secretly want to move in to. A new pony for the boys, who had both grown a foot! Some silage bale jumping in the sunshine, admiring new art purchases and some beautiful looking heifers at Ythanbrae.

Enough words...as always pictures say more.

How was your weekend? Playing along with Lou's point + shoot.

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

on flowers

2011-10-21T10:14:00.000+11:00

Last week I travelled down the highway, closer to Melbourne, to visit my florist. Yeah I have a florist. Well, for our wedding anyway. My rad mum has taken up her lifelong goal of doing floristry courses - and I mean some serious floristry, she started with one class and now is totally obsessed and comes home with this amazing creations. It all happens at a little country dairy, converted by the lovely Georgie into her floristry workshop where she holds classes. Georgie doesn't advertise to do weddings anymore, she used to be a big shot florist in the big smoke, but now just prefers to run her classes and do an occasional wedding for friends or through word of mouth. Here is a wedding she did recently featured on Style Me Pretty (and psssst she's doing Giann Rooney's wedding at the beautiful Euroa Butter Factory around the same time as our wedding!)

There was no question in who would 'do my florals' for our wedding - Georgie was totally my go-to woman. She lives in this cute federation cottage with daisy bushes and red brick paths, has two adorable fluffy Border Collies and surrounds herself in flowers, beautiful flowers, all day. And her workshop blew my mind, I wish I had taken my camera but I was super silly and didn't. Fail! But it is a barn conversion type configuration, she has gutted the old stone building other than the original beams which have been polished and rubbed. There's a giant big worktable where students sit around and make their arrangements, when I was there it was laden with Christmas goodies like lush green wreaths, glittered cherries and pears and branches of holly. It's gorgeous - nirvana for the diehard cottage country style like myself.

I digress...Georgie and I talked all things flowers. I'm not going to divulge too much (I am still working on that balancing act of sharing our wedding planning journey on my blog and revealing too much to actual guests!) But here is a snippet of what we brainstormed...

It's probably no surprises...but I'll let you know there are some examples in there that I actually don't like at all and have just thrown in there to throw you all off the scent ;) Yeah, I'm crazy like that. Others are exactly what I asked Georgie to replicate.

Can you guess which ones are which?

Basically, I wasn't all bridezilla on poor Georgie - I totally trust her, she gets me and what our vision is for our wedding. We've left a lot of room for movement and I have given Georgie fairly free reign to create what she thinks works. That was a big step for control freak bride!

I think I enjoyed the flower selecting and brainstorming ideas as much as the stationery...almost.

Image boards made by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella from my pins

our beautiful tree

2011-10-19T15:56:00.000+11:00

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - the big old horse chestnut tree in our backyard makes our house. Absolutely. When we first moved in 12 months ago we had no idea what it was - some sort of oak? A liquid amber? The family who used to farm Brindabella came to the rescue by informing us it was a horse chestnut tree. I'd never even heard of them, on my grandparents farm Ballina Park there are two enormous 80+ year old plain old chestnut trees, but horse chestnuts were...well a different chestnut altogether. My sister recently told me that in London the parks are full of these trees, but the Brits think that these are the real deal chestnuts and the 'regular' chestnut trees are quite the novelty? I don't know...all I know is that they are both beautiful trees. Big, beautiful, strong, shady in summer, crunchy in autumn - just the way I like my trees.

This beauty is estimated to be about 60-70 years old, the elderly gentleman who built the ramshackle farmhouse in 1938 told us he remembers planting it 'Oh sometime in the 40's, love!' It's towering limbs are bare all through the cold Thorpdale winters and spring into blossom come September.

On Monday I got a phone call from lovely Lou - she lives an hour further away from Melbourne than me and was on her journey home from the big smoke, would I mind popping on the kettle for a quick cuppa and battery re-charge? Of course not! We had tea out by our beautiful tree, chatted about all things weddings and her own beauties - her girls Sunny and Scout - explored my garden and became professional egg collectors.

Lou arrived bearing a sweet birthday surprise - these lovely roses. I am such a roses girl, and promptly put them in a vase jug to admire and ooh and ahh over (and have been doing ever since)...

But back to the tree...next to the tree stands our 'wishing well'. When we moved here it was covered in goodness knows what (moss, mildew, creepy vines and dead plants in it). We debated whether to push it over entirely but decided to keep it. We then discovered (from the lovely elderly couple who's home this used to be, a wealth of knowledge!) that the 'well' was in fact built to be a kiln. The former lady of the house at Brindabella was a keen ceramicist and would fire her pottery in the 'well' - there is even a vent on the side which made oh so much more sense when we found out it was a kiln! We considered making a water feature out of the well/kiln but ended up filling it with soil and planting it out with petunias earlier in the year, and now strawberries from my generous friend Amy. Alas I think the well/kiln is somewhat lacking in the drainage department and the strawberries are not thriving. We'll see...

The beautiful tree has shades us for spring and summer barbeques under it's branches and produces lovely crunchy leaves through Autumn. I gaze at it from the kitchen sink, play with Tessa beneath it and look upon it as somewhat of a guardian of the ramshackle farmhouse. I especially love the initials carved into it's big knotted trunk - I wonder the stories this tree would tell if it could talk?

Love you long time our beauty, we will miss you terribly also. So many things to miss, but so many things to look forward to.

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

power up png

2011-10-18T21:13:00.000+11:00

You might remember that last year Mr M and I travelled to Papua New Guinea to visit friends who had just moved there with their two girls (and now new addition third girl).

We got to explore PNG a bit and live in the community with the lovely locals of Gusap, in between Lae and Madang. We loved every minute (and really want to go back asap!)

Recently though it was brought to my attention that the local hospital at Gusap no longer has power. What? I hear you say. A hospital with no power? I know. The Gusap Health Centre services roughly about 20,000 people in the Ramu Valley, most have moved to the area to gain employment in agriculture (sugar, palm and beef). The hospital this year couldn't afford to pay their power bill...and so subsequently their electricity was cut off. As you can imagine a hospital without electricity is quite the problem. And this was in February.

Since then they have been 'making do' - moving beds into rooms with more light. There is a delivery room for women to have their babies but it has no windows, so now this is where the babies are being born...

If a baby comes at night, they simply deliver it my the light of their mobile phones.

My friend, Ange, who lives at Gusap discovered the hospital's crisis and set about finding out what she could do. The power company agreed that if $5000 were raised they would turn the power back on. So this is our goal. I swiftly offered to set up a facebook page with information, how to donate and we are in the midst of trying to organise a fundraising auction night to be held on Sunday 30th October.

Head to Power Up PNG Hospital facebook page for more information - and if you would like to donate any goods it would be greatly appreciated, simply email me at ellaatbella@gmail.com. Little Miss Emma has got some things up on the auction, we will be updating the album as we receive donations.

Stay tuned, I will keep you all posted on our fundraising efforts.

ten things

2011-10-17T10:36:00.000+11:00

The lovely Hannah over at Dali Cottage has thrown my name in the ring to find out ten things people might not know about me, so despite really racking my brains for things, here goes... (please forgive me if they are oh so boring, I'm not feeling very creative!)

1. Despite my best efforts at appearing to be the perfect almost-wife - it is Mr M who does the majority of our housework...he stacks the dishwasher to perfection, he does all our washing, he tidies up the kitchen after dinner, he is constantly picking up after me like a three year old, he folds all our clothes, he mops and sorts and scrubs and sweeps. He is the neat freak, I am the cook. It works. He does not, however, do dishes! Anything not in the dishwasher I am on my own.

2. I have really long fingers. And toes. I think they are normal length, Mr M and other friends find them either intriguing or freakish.

3. Despite actually going to live in our camper for an indefinite amount of time next year, I actually only went on my first camping trip 6 years ago. Mr M took me to Dargo (in the Victorian high country) just with a swag on the back of the ute - no chairs, no cooking utensils, nothing. I think we ate a lot of bad cheap sausages and beer. I was 18 and hated it. Then I realised well if this is going to be a regular thing we better do it properly...and since then have slowly been adding to my 'camping repertoire', resulting in the purchase of our camper and lots of mod-cons to take on the road. Not too much though - keep it simple!

4. I hate driving. Well long distances anyway. I don't think I have ever driven in a car with Mr M longer than ten minutes - he always drives, regardless of tiredness. This might be his control freak coming out or my laziness. This might have to change on our travels next year...

5. Once upon a time I wanted to be in the airforce. I know. What the hell was I thinking? Watched Top Gun one too many times me thinks...

6. I think I have about 48 first cousins on my mum's side...maybe more, maybe I haven't even met some? Mum is one of 11 children. Irish. Catholic. No TV. Say no more.

7. I'm already being asked when we are having babies and it's making my palms sweaty. Can we just get married first people?!

8. There is a farm for sale in Thorpdale that I want to buy...when I win tattslotto. Seven or eight mil anyone?

9. I've lived in eight houses throughout my life. Two growing up (one for only a few months when I was a baby, the other for my entire childhood/adolescence), three over three years at uni in Melbourne (including a dark flat in Richmond, a hundred year old terrace in North Melbourne with a serious rat problem, washing our clothes in the bath and the lounge room wall partially fell on us one night, and a great flat in Kew too close to KFC), then the dreaded bull unit house in Yea (no shower, frostbite on my toes, dirt floor bedroom, fun) then the beautiful cottage at Ythanbrae and now the ramshackle farmhouse at Brindabella. Where to next?!

10. After I had a bad fall off my horse at Ythanbrae (bolted down a cliff, I came off, got dragged, hooves in helmet, terrible concussion and headaches, swelling on brain, multiple cat scans later, stitches, dead tooth and a root canal) I have not been back on a horse. I know - I KNOW! Terrible. Dad always told me to get back on that bloody horse! Easier said than done.

Now wasn't that entertaining? Probably not! You decide.

a quarter

2011-10-14T09:32:00.000+11:00

A quarter of a century old I turn today. Just a regular day at Brindabella, maybe some wedding invites to finish, some photos to edit, some muffins to bake, some little people clothes to sew, some dogs to walk...that sort of thing. My nan is coming over for afternoon tea (I'm going to bust out the good china!) M y sister is coming for a roast (we're going to bust out the beers!)

When I was a little girl I had 'a plan' - I would marry at 22, have a baby at 24, I would be an author and then a 'homemaker'. I thought this was terribly sensible...and conservative - 24 was ancient, after all, to be having a baby. If you were 18 you were a grown up. Yes yes, I was quite the radical.

It hasn't panned out exactly that way, but perhaps not far off...although I am not marrying that little boy up the road who used to throw rocks at me (he got married this year too in case you were wondering - ha!)

Here is my sister and I playing dress-ups circa 1993 - me as a bride. Naturally.

Yes. I was that little girl.

Image probably taken by my mum :)

our wedding invitations

2011-10-13T12:15:00.002+11:00

I am a self-confessed super stationery and graphic design geek. I love nothing more than designing beautiful notes, prints, cards and what not. Hours of entertainment can be had by me in photoshop and some creative juices flowing. Some brides-to-be are most excited about the dress, some about the flowers. Me? For me it was the stationery.

One night about a year ago, just after becoming engaged, I had a severe case of insomnia. I was tossing and turning in bed in the cottage staring out the glass doors across the dam (oh how I miss you sweet little cottage). Ideas of vintage illustrations, cursive fonts and different paper weights swirled in my mind. I got up, padded softly through the cottage to my computer, careful not to wake a restful Mr M and a snoozing Tessa in her little kennel on the back porch. I switched on my mac and got designing what would become our wedding stationery, I sat there for hours just by the light of my screen until dawn broke.

So without further adieu, I give you our invitation suite...

As you will know, our wedding is a celebration of all things rural, natural, agriculture, nature, livestock, country charm and rustic elegance = us.

We knew we would have to be including a few cards in with our invites - things like a map, a reply card for our guests to easily RSVP, some information about a brunch we wanted to hold the following morning and accommodation details, as well as a gift registry card. A pocketfold seemed the logical choice, but after searching high and low I could not find for the life of me a kraft card A5 version (although I did find very similar but they were more of just a beige/tan paper, not my much coveted recycled kraft card!) After ruling out using an ivory one I took it upon myself to make them. Why yes I am quite bananas - I made all 75 of them (plus extra ones and more extras for ones that I stuffed up).

I wanted a thick, luxurious, yummy ivory card for the invites and inserts. I headed straight to my favourite paper shop in Melbourne, Paper Point on Church Street in Richmond. Once upon a time I frequented here when I lived in the city and designed lots of pretty little things for pretty little people. Armed with a few samples Mr M and I trialled lots of different settings on my trusty home printer until we were confident that we had the right weight and stipple of card. These photos, on my monitor at least, read a bit more white than they are in real life, they're really creeeammmy!

The illustrations were purchased from various sources, mostly istock.com though and mostly were black and white - I tweaked them all in photoshop to give a sepia feel to match our coffee coloured lettering. I made the little chapel and marquee illustrations used on our map myself. After a giant search for the perfect tree we found the old knotted oak with feathery leaves and fell in love. Our map sports a Hereford, our information card some stalks of wheat, our gift registry card a cute pig and our reply card a beautiful Border Collie just like my Lily.

The fonts chosen were Centaur for the majority of text, in all capitals and widely spaced, with Kunstler Script for our names, our guests names and 'Brindabella'. The perfect mix of classic and easy to read with elegant calligraphy. I thought if you don't use a calligraphy font for a wedding, when will you? :)

Our pocketfolds are wrapped in stretch lace bands to close them, which slide off. I then tied all with twine in a little bow. I wanted to create a layered ivory on kraft on ivory on kraft look. The pretty lace a rough twine were the perfect mix of rustic and elegant.

* For privacy reasons I have blurred a lot of the information on the actual invitations and inserts, I hope you get the sense and feel for them though.

A3 kraft card used for pocketfolds: Papermarc, Burwood Road in Hawthorn

Invites and inserts thick card: Rives Design in cream, Paper Point, Church Street in Richmond

Stretch ivory lace: Mary not Martha on Etsy

Twine: local bargain store

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

a pretty little violet

2011-10-11T13:21:00.001+11:00

This morning my family welcomed another little beauty into our world - baby Violet ~~Creina~~ Gabby (late name change!) joined us with a mop of dark hair and alert clear eyes. A third daughter for my sister and her husband.

Last week, before my mum headed up to Brisbane to look after big sisters Scarlett and Ava, I made this unisex blanket for the impending bambino. Red minky was called for, along with a grey and white polka dot print. I wrapped it up pretty and sent it off with one excited Grandma-to-be-(again).

Welcome sweet Violet - we just know that you're going to be totally rad, just like your Mum and Dad xxx

Love you, Aunty Em + Uncle Matt

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

point + shoot: two months

2011-10-10T17:02:00.001+11:00

When I decided to DIY lots of little (and big!) details for our wedding I don't think I realised I was literally giving up all of my weekends, which are now devoted to spray painting chairs...

...folding, folding, scoring, slicing, folding, folding, gluing...

...wrangling rusty ringlock into light fixtures, inspired my Katrina and Amie's...

...hand stitching little ruffles...

...designing and printing...

...so. many. jars!

...as well as co-ordinating little outfits and becoming a professional hot-glue-gun-wielder.

Not to mention The Scrapbook #1 and #2 which are in constant evolution and varying states of disarray...

Two months to go today...

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

P.S. Head over to Lou's place to play point + shoot just like me.

a little tea set

2011-10-07T12:29:00.000+11:00

When Mr M's parents were packing up after selling Dumerilli, his mum was giving away these sweet little tea cups and assorted saucers. Naturally, I snapped them up to take to our house, against Mr M's protests of 'no more stuff'!

There was also a very special complete tea set in a little suitcase which Mr M's mum had as a little girl, it has gone to live with Mr M's niece. I'd love to one day have tea parties with my own little girl using these tea cups of her grandmothers.

Aren't they pretty?

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

remembering steve

2011-10-06T21:46:00.000+11:00

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart you'll know when you find it"

He really did change the world.

my hens day wardrobe

2011-10-06T09:08:00.000+11:00

So I know it's still 8 weeks away but I have been scouting around for a dress to wear to my hens day (my sisters have organised a marquee at the local country races). If you follow me on Pinterest I'm sorry for the bombardment of pretty dresses I've been pinning! So undecided, but then...

...yesterday whilst on a shopping mission for bridesmaids shoes I found the dress - very similar to this one from Asos. It was a little bit too big though and no size 8's left :( but my mum assured me she could take in the side seams. Sold.

But how to accesorise? I am thinking nude! Seeing as though it's a day at the races I wanted a great hat or fascinator, but can not for the life of me find anything 'nude'? I do like this ivory one from Forever New though, their new website in dangerous. Plus I'm scared my bridesmaids might want me to wear a stupid veil or something...?! I did purchase a pearl and gold bracelet from Big W - but it's way better than this Diva one! And it was $4! Brilliant.

Psssst....secret: these shoes are actually the ones I ended up buying for the bridesmaids after hunting all over Australia for 4 different sizes ;)

Image board by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

wordless wednesday: you are my sunshine

2011-10-05T08:01:00.000+11:00

Playing along with Faith, Hope and a whole lotta Love.

Image by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

roast veg + cous cous salad

2011-10-04T13:56:00.000+11:00

As I mentioned yesterday, I made quite the cous cous salad for our grand final lunch we hosted on the weekend. With a bit over two months to go before The Wedding / The Big Move I am starting to fossick around in our pantry for items which I need to use up. For some reason we have an extreme amount of couscous for a household that doesn't actually eat much of the stuff (perhaps that's the reason it is sitting in my pantry unloved?!)

Anyway, here is my made up couscous salad recipe which can be thrown together with whatever veggies you happen to have in the fridge, this is just what I had...

Ingredients...

2 cups cous cous

2 cups vegetable stock

Half a butternut pumpkin

1 large zucchini

2 cups field mushrooms

1 large red capsicum

2 handfuls of kalamata olives

1 small red onion

Handful of baby spinach

Quarter cup of balsamic vinegar

Olive oil + salt

Few good blobs of butter

Cut the butternut pumpkin into bite sized cubes, drizzle generously with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 200 degrees in fan forced oven for 30 minutes, turning once. Whilst that is all happening cut the zucchini and capsicum into chunky pieces, throw in with the pumpkin after it's been in there for 30 minutes. Bake for a further 15 minutes. Pull it all out and set aside.

Heat the vegetable stock in a saucepan, bring to boil and add couscous, stir, cover, set aside for 2-3 minutes. Add few good tablespoons of butter to couscous and stir through, it will melt and make your couscous less lumpy : miraculous!

Cut up mushrooms and throw in a pan and sauté with some butter until just soft and delicious. Add mushrooms + yummy juices as well as pumpkin, zucchini and capsicum + left over oil to couscous. Toss baby spinach through as well whilst hot veggies are in there to slightly wilt spinach. Finely dice the red onion and add to salad along with olives. Pour balsamic vinegar over the lot and stir through.

Dig in.

Image by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

spring with lily

2011-10-04T08:15:00.000+11:00

Yesterday the weather was gorgeous - sunshine, blue skies, flowers blooming, birds chirping type weather. I took a moment to smell the roses crabapple blossom, a tree which my sister and brother-in-law gave us for our engagement almost 12 months ago. After a rough winter of possum attack I'm surprised to see it going so well...

Our giant horse chestnut tree has broken out into leaf from it's bare hibernation. Have I mentioned how much I love this tree? Love it.

And my little friend beside me whilst I admire our Spring garden? None other than my lovely, lovely Lily - such a gentle soul is my Lily-pad. She really is the pin-up girl around here. Tessa has her fair share of mischief making and barking at night, Pippa generally just creates utter chaos wherever she goes, but Lily...well dare I say it, she's just perfect.

Lily is most likely going to live with friends/family whilst we live out our travel dreams next year. She is not a trouble at all, we have quite a few people putting their hands up for her! She may even go to the city to live with Mr M's brother, the thought of Lily trotting down Lygon Street makes me chuckle. Lily who is used to galavanting about the hills of Ythanbrae, jumping in stock troughs and riding on the back of the motorbike. She might need a bath before she goes to the big smoke!

She doesn't work much anymore and it breaks my heart to see her getting so old. I watched her out the study window the other evening making her way from the back gate down the driveway to the bonfire, she stopped three times for a rest and I nearly cried. Mr M mentioned to me the other day that Lily might not be around when (if?) we come home. But we won't think about that for now.

Love you long time Lil, you're up pretty high on my list of the things I'll miss terribly xxx

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

point + shoot: the recap

2011-10-03T07:58:00.000+11:00

This Monday morning I am unashamedly totally stealing Chantelle's weekend stats counter from last week. So there you go, unoriginal but fun all the same. We had friends over to watch the big game, including a cats supporter and a pies supporter. On Friday I picked up all the sample desserts for The Wedding from our lovely cake lady. One word: deliciousness. My mum obliged Mr M and made her famous sausage rolls, I outdid myself with a cous cous salad recipe I made up and we kicked the footy in the drizzle at half time with all the hounds going a bit mental. Sunday brought some sunshine, some gardening, some more chocolate eating and some wedding projects.

How was your weekend? Hope your team got up! Go here to see some other fun weekends...

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

potato planting

2011-09-25T13:30:00.000+10:00

The show must go on here at Brindabella, regardless of the fact we are leaving. And so planting time has rolled around again on the farm...

Mr M has been doing a lot of tractor work of late, early mornings and late nights to work around the rain, ho-ing with the big new fancy rotary ho e.

The idea of growing potatoes is fairly simple really. I'm always surprised how many people ask me how to grow potatoes. Well...you get a potato...you put it in the ground...you wait. Ok so there's a lot more to it than that, but you get the general jist.

We use certified seed (from seed growers, not ware growers like us who grow potatoes you actually see in Woolies and Coles and end up eating). First you can see Mr M in his tractor going along and hoe-ing the earth, preparing it to plant the little 'taties. Then our farm manager Rod goes along in his tractor with the planter on, filled with the certified seed potatoes. We use un-cut seed, meaning a whole potato is put in the ground, some people use 'cut seed' which we used to do when I was growing up (back in the good ol' days). Cut seed is now seen to let more diseases into the potato as they have exposed flesh, but a lot of people still use cut seed - some say pot-ah-toes some same pot-ey-toes! Next my Dad goes along in his tractor and 'moulds' or 'bed forms' the rows.

Dad pacing out and counting the rows

This is on the south side of Brindabella, across the Narracan Creek - you can see the ramshackle farmhouse over on the hill there...

Mr M on the left ho-ing, Rod on the right planting

With a little bit of luck these spuddies will be poking their little green shoots out of the ground in no time, given some spring showers and sunshine. Then they will grow big and tall, flower and die, we will harvest, work the earth again and sow down to pasture before the whole process starts again.

All in a days work. Ok, enough of the tractor photos already...

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

rain rain go away

2011-09-23T07:37:00.000+10:00

In my mind our wedding day is on a warm summers evening where we can utilise the outdoor space that abounds us and have the photos I've been dreaming of in the paddocks of Brindabella and at our shearing shed. Guests will play bocce on the lawn and sip on champagne, my Golden Delights will run about under the gum trees and the two clear walls of the marquee will be flung open to have a dancefloor almost under the stars.

In reality, I am very aware that we live in Gippsland. The weather could be anything on December 10th (for the record last year I noted that it was overcast and about 20 degrees which I would be more than happy with!) But it could rain, and it is the one thing I have been dreading, but is also the one thing I can't do a thing about. Unless I employ the Chinese government to do some cloud seeing the week before the wedding...don't tempt me. As much as I am a control freak with my spreadsheets and endless to-do lists for every aspect of this wedding - the weather is one thing I have no control over. And it's kind of driving me nutty.

No matter - I am telling myself the key is to prepare, prepare, prepare. Our ceremony is already being held in the local church as I was fearful of rain if we had the ceremony outdoors on the farm. Our guests will move to Brindabella after the ceremony for our pre-dinner drinks and canapes hour/s whilst we are photographed. This part is all outdoors and in the open - if it rains I'm screwed! So I promptly upped the size of the marquee we ordered to accomodate our guests mingling inside in the event it does happen to rain and everyone would have to down pre-dinner drinks and eats in the big tent.

Photos would have to be...creative. There are loads of cool gumboots and umbrellas I looked at, just in case we needed them (everything is crossed that we don't though!) I thought about fun and quirky umbrellas, clear umbrellas, rainbow colours but kept coming back to the big classic black tall umbrellas with a crook handle. We are trying to create a wedding that is fairly classic and timeless, still with homemade touches and personality thrown in, but we don't want to look at our wedding photos in 10, 20, 30 years time and scratch our heads! What were we thinking?!

After scouring ebay I found some great options - some white ones, some black ones, even this one which I thought would be nice. Then I was in the local $2 shop the other day and saw these for $7.95...and promptly grabbed three!

I am thinking about going back and getting another two - then the bride and groom has one plus bridesmaid/groomsmen duo as well...or actually looking at that coffee-coloured one on ebay perhaps we could have that one and the bridesmaids/groomsmen could have black? Undecided!

The Bureau of Meterology website has also become my new best friend. I have learnt that last year on December 10th in west Gippsland there was 3.8mm of rain, it was 18.4 degrees, one of the coldest days in December and overcast. Hmmm...not really telling me much about how this year's December 10 will play out but now I know how to read big long meterology reports. Handy. Oh and this December there is 60-70% chance of it being wetter than average apparently. Awesome (not!)

Did it rain on your wedding day? Did you have a wet weather plan or any fun splashing in puddles? Is it really good luck or do they just tell you that so you won't cry?!

Images found via my pins and by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

a site for sore eyes

2011-09-19T20:20:00.020+10:00

Upon further reflection (have we had enough already of the lengthy/wordy posts?!) I realised I haven't really shared with my lovely readers where it is exactly we will be holding our wedding reception. I know, how rude! Especially seeing as though almost a year ago I said a post would be coming with the possibilities for marquee sites. Bad blogger.

My initial reaction after getting engaged was that we needed (yes, needed) to have a big fat marquee wedding in the middle of an open paddock - I had just the paddock in mind on my grandparents farm, our original farm here in Thorpdale, 'Ballina Park'. Perfect - a sense of home, history and a killer view.

Upon closer inspection this site was determined far too steep, I had convinced myself in my mind it was flat...in Thorpdale. Ha! The site was also a good two paddock drive from any road, making access a nightmare, not to mention power, toilets and if it (heaven forbid) rains on our wedding day. To say I was crushed would be an understatement. Sad bridezilla.

Site possibility #2 was above our 'gum tree paddock' - it was certainly flatter than site possibility #1 but it would still need the help of an excavator and still had access, power and toilet issues. Ugh. We originally envisaged getting married under the gum trees, that was until I decided the threat of bad weather was too much for my brain to cope with (and we also wanted a more intimate ceremony indoors and with religious aspects) and headed to our local country chapel. The issue with site possibility #2 was that this paddock would be sown down to potatoes at the time of our wedding. Great! Was my first reaction, the idea of a marquee in the middle of a flowering potato patch sounded pretty amazing. Then the sensible Mr M pointed out to me the nightmare of no parking in the paddock for guests and the ground all being cultivated. Imagine if it rained - mud pit!

Cue sad bridezilla again. Where oh where could we put our marquee which was flat, close to a road, not in a paddock with spuds in it so people could park and had access to power? We sat in our study one night earlier this year perplexed...until I looked out the window...

Admittedly it did NOT look like this at that point. It looked more like a demolition site full of rocks and sticks and roots and the remnants of 17 cypress trees and 39 stumps (go here to see it once we had removed all that, smudged it, ripped it, spent about three weekends straight picking up more rocks, sticks and roots and then finally sowed it). We had only just established the fence and the rest was dirt, no lawn, not even a patch of paddock grass beyond the fence due to the ripping out of the trees and machinery churning up the earth. But it had everything ticked - flat (relatively, or easy to make flat), next to a house so no trouble with power or toilets, the caterers could even use our kitchen.

It had the big gum trees which were a must for us, a water view over the dam at sunset, the paddock across the dam would be in flower with potatoes in December and guests could park in the paddock surrounding the ramshackle farmhouse. Talk about a lightbulb moment!

So that is part of the reason we worked so hard on getting the new west wing of the garden (which used to be paddock) underway, flattened and sown down to beautiful flat lawn. And isn't our garden gate cute? It will be an access point from the marquee to the house for guests and the caterers (who are actually going to set up shop in our carport = perfect).

The big bonfire needs to be burnt and cleared - it contains all the cypress trees we pushed over as well as ALL the plants/shrubs/trees that we pulled out of the jungle garden. The big logs we stacked there for firewood also have to be moved, as well as the old red bricks from the hothouse which we demolished. (Love me some old red bricks, we planned to do red brick paths around the farmhouse - obviously now those plans are no longer! So many plans are no longer...)

Mr M is going to mow the marquee site regularly in the weeks/months before the wedding and under the trees where our pre-dinner drinks and canapes will take place. We will probably fence it off from sheep also from now on, as the marquee site is essentially in a paddock outside our house yard.

So what do you think? Isn't it always the obvious solutions that are the best? Any lightbulb moments going on for you?

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

questions answered

2011-09-19T12:05:00.000+10:00

Firstly, thank-you for all your lovely comments, emails and messages after our big news. I felt so encouraged by every. single. one of them, like the blogging community just gave me a great big hug! And I felt reassured that we have not lost the plot entirely!

I was inevitably flooded with questions, so I thought it would be just plain rude not to respond... :)

Where to now?

Those that know us personally would know that we have always toyed with the idea of heading north and jackarooing/jillarooing/governessing. Well this is exactly what we plan to do - we don't want to be sitting here in our rocking chairs resentful that we did not seize every opportunity in our youth, do all the things we wanted to do and experienced all we wanted to. Our plan is to travel and work around Australia for an indefinite amount of time - 6 months, a year, forever?! We really are not sure. We're happy to play it by ear and see what unfolds for us. We might find somewhere half way along our trip and stay there for five years! We might only last three months and want a roof over our heads again! Whatever happens I am open to it, which is great. It is freeing, and liberating and fine. My friend Amy is fantastically telling me: "Everything happens for a reason" - I'm throwing caution to the wind and putting my faith in this, my new mantra! I did this also when six months after moving to Yea Mr M lost his job and we were homeless, jobless, destitute! I (strangely) did not panic - I told him one door closed and another will open. I knew it. I prayed, as I often do, and then he was appointed manager of Ythanbrae. We found a new home we fell in love with. The same will happen this time, I know it. I'm praying, again.

This will essentially be our honeymoon - a great big adventure! Homeless and jobless but happy, that's our dream believe it or not.

When are you leaving?

Our first stop is to help friends in north west Victoria with their grain harvest. As my farming friends will know, harvest will be well underway at about the time of our wedding - which means that Mr M will be needed ASAP after our wedding. Yikes! Our plan is to try and be as organised as possible before the wedding and then Mr M to go start work the week following the wedding. Depending how organised we are I might join him straight away or I might stay here to pack up and organise our things into storage/sell my car/re-home our dogs etc.

Do we regret leaving Ythanbrae/coming to Brindabella?

Not at all. We always said we came here with nothing to lose - we had in the back of our minds that it may not work, which it hasn't. Our time at Ythanbrae was brilliant, but it really had run it's course. We were going to do something else regardless of if we came to Brindabella or not. If we had done something else perhaps Brindabella would always be in the back of our mind, a niggling 'what if'. Now, we won't have that niggling - we have tried our hardest and it is not the right fit for us at this point. Like my bloganista-sister A Farmer's Wife told me - family farming situations are complicated. So complicated and complex and ever-changing and multi-dimensional...this is at the best of times, at the worst of times it can get hard. Succession planning in agriculture involves a lot of push/shove/things all lining up perfectly. I don't have to tell a lot of my readers that, who are in, or have been in, similar situations.

So you're walking away from all the work you've done on the ramshackle farmhouse?

Yes. This was what made the decision very hard. We have transformed the property in the 12 months we have been here, planting lots of trees which we got for our engagement, spending a lot of money on our house which at the end of the day we do not own and will be walking away from. This sucks. For those that don't know, we are holding our wedding right next door to our ramshackle farmhouse. Where we get married will essentially not be our home anymore. This also sucks. But it's ok also, our wedding will still be special. We did see this house as where we would have children, where we would raise a family. Getting our head around leaving that was hard - but now that we have decided to leave I have accepted that here is not the place we thought. I cried rivers of tears when we left the cottage, driving out the long winding driveway of Ythanbrae for the last time. I won't do that here at Brindabella. It's just not the same. It's not home. I have no idea where 'home' is but I know it's not going to come and find us, we have to go and find it, chase it, creat it and hold onto it.

Are you going to keep blogging?

I really hope so. This June marked my two year anniversary of a blogger in some capacity - either as Little Miss Emma or Cinderella at Brindabella. As with everything, we really don't know what our future holds at the moment, but the good parts about the present include blogging and we are hoping to take the good parts forward. Cinderella at Brindabella will cease to exist really...but something new might be born from it. Stay tuned.

But you're coming back right?

No. Another reason it was a very hard decision to make. We do feel that perhaps we came here ten years too early, so who knows - we may be back? But we made the decision to go in the mindset that we will not return. And we had to be comfortable with that, which was what we were finding the most hard., me in particular as I am essentially walking away from my family farm, where I grew up, where my Dad grew up, where my grandfather settled and raised his family and died mustering stock. It's hard. What we are doing is saying no to dinner on a Friday night with friends we grew up with, no to having parents nearby to mind (eventual) children. We might regret that! When we go this will no longer be our house - it will become somebody else's. We will essentially be homeless! Scary, yes. But we're taking comfort in the idea of seeking out our own path, our own dream, forging our own story and creating something else for ourselves.

So basically it's head down bum up! Now not only do I have to organise the wedding and all the crazy plans I have for that, we have to pack up our entire lives into storage, try and fit out our camper to live in properly for a year and still work our 40-50 hour a week jobs! No doubt there will be many, many, more posts updating you of our plans and our impending adventure.

Let the craziness begin...

Images by the ever fabulous birthday girl Lou from sunny + scout

the big news

2011-09-17T17:43:00.000+10:00

Some people might have got a sense that somethings going on around here, other than I'm flat stick with the wedding plans...something else, something big, and scary and important and exciting all at once. (Some people are dying to know!)

We decided to come 'home' to Gippsland and leave behind our life at Ythanbrae 12 months ago, as it (Gippsland) was always where we thought we would eventually be. It was all part of The Plan. We missed being closer to our family and friends, we wanted to take a step up for Mr M's career and thought that this was the natural next step, into the family business and away from farm management. Our eventual dream is to own our own farm, our own business, our own home. We saw an opportunity here at Brindabella. We thought in farm management jobs like we had been working in this was not a possibility (which it's not really, you work somebody's else's land for them which isn't our ideal, but was still very rewarding and we ran and loved Ythanbrae as if it were ours).

Over the past 12 months I've learnt a lot. A year ago I thought I had it all figured out - The Plan was swinging into action. Perhaps I shouldn't have counted my chickens and all that. Perhaps I shouldn't have even had A Plan. So I've learnt a lot. I've learnt that you can not manufacture happiness. I've learnt that all the promises in the world don't amount to much if there is no action. I've learnt that a house which is almost yours, your dream garden, closeness to family and friends, all means not much if at the end of every day you're not happy. Truly happy. If you still don't feel right within yourself as to how you are spending your life. Do what you love. It's simple but hard all at the same time.

Yes I've learnt much, but the greatest lesson learnt for 2011 would be what a sense of 'home' is. What it is, not where it is. That was a big lesson to learn. Yes.

Thorpdale was always home. Yes, Gippsland is where the majority of our family and friends are. Yes, this is where we grew up. But is it still home? Perhaps. But Ythanbrae was our home also, and before we embarked on that crazy adventure I would've never said anywhere but Thorpdale would be 'home'. I borderline would say Ythanbrae felt more like home than my family farm here does. Over the past few months I've had many a sleepless night asking myself why? It's hard to put our fingers on - but at the end of a day here we are not happy. We are not content, fulfilled. We want more. That we know.

We want to explore, to discover new opportunities, which we just know are out there for us. We want to have amazing experiences and open doors throughout the agri-industry for ourselves. We're 25 years old - we want to travel and do all of these things before we have kids and 'settle'.

Settle. I always thought that's exactly what I wanted. I wanted the white picket fence, the scones in the oven, the dream. It was all in The Plan. I wanted to build a home with Mr M, raise our children and live happily ever after. What I know now is that I don't need a white picket fence and my perfect home to actually have 'the dream'. That reality smacked me hard in the face. It was like a lightbulb was on. No, a floodlight. I could see clearly. Things don't make you happy, people do, experiences do. Perhaps The Plan wasn't a bad idea, but The Plan can change. And that's ok.

And so, we have made the hardest decision I have ever had to make.

We are walking away from what we thought was our dream here at Brindabella. No we are not 'walking away' - this is not a failure or a disappointment. No. Perhaps we were wrong to even come here. Perhaps we are wrong in this decision to leave. Only time will tell. But we can not not make this decision. Forward movement is vital, essential to healthier, happier selves.

Mr M is my home and I am his. This we know. A roof or a door or a tree or the perfect paint colour are not our home. We are our home. Us. Not much else matters is what I keep telling the doubting voices in my mind.

We have a new Plan. A better Plan. That plan is rough and sketchy and flexible. It's a good Plan.

Images of prints from A Typical A

wordless wednesday: slice, score, fold, repeat

2011-09-14T16:46:00.000+10:00

Playing along with Faith, Hope and a whole lotta Love.

Image by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

this past week

2011-09-13T18:02:00.000+10:00

I'm back. Perhaps not as refreshed as I was hoping. The dreaded lurgy has struck me down over the weekend, after Mr M contracted 'man flu' last week he oh-so-generously passed it along to me it seems. Ugh. My head only feels like a small bowling ball now.

So what did I get up to in my projected-productive week of hibernation? Well...I started making the monster amount of pocket folds needed for our invitations, we finally got our act together for our tax (exciting I know, but it was on the list so a tick is a tick), we went and looked at wedding rings at the jewellers (highway robbery), I stuck 80 labels on 80 bottles for a little wedding project I have up my sleeve, I tidied up my sewing room and put some excess fabric on Craftumi for sale, had a visit to the local hospital emergency room with Mr M care of a nasty piece of metal in his eye (he's fine now), asked my Nan to make her famous rum balls for our dessert buffet, finally found some shoes for my Golden Delights and finally got the fabric needed for my bridesmaids and my wedding dress.

Oh - and I got this bad boy (girl?) in the post...

Glorious, no? I am well smitten. But I just have to figure out how to get it to 'talk' to my big boy Mac and get all my photos on both computers. Epic Gen Y failure.

Do I feel more organised? A little bit. Have I ticked off some things from my mammoth to-do list? A few. Am I still feeling 'whelmed'? Yes. But that's ok. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

How has your week been? Are you feeling organised and ready for a Spring clean? I don't know about organised, but I sure feel a de-clutter coming on!

Image by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

a break

2011-09-07T15:46:00.000+10:00

As you might have noticed, I have a lot going on at the moment...

via my pins

So, I have decided to take a little blogging break. Just to clear my head, re-assess a lot of things, and hopefully come back refreshed and re-energised to throw myself back into blogging, creative pursuits and well...everything. Sometimes you just need to log off, you know?

I hope you don't miss me too much, be back in about a week. Promise.

whelmed

2011-09-06T08:02:00.001+10:00

POST PUBLISH NOTE: IT APPEARS I AM NO MOVIE BUFF AND THE QUOTE IS FROM 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU NOT CLUELESS...CLUELESS INDEED!

"I know you can be overwhelmed...and you can be underwhelmed...but can you ever just be whelmed?"

Good point. Ah Clueless, the answer always lies with you. Ok maybe not always, but lately I have been feeling that being 'whelmed' could actually be a highly plausible phenomenon. Totally.

Yes I have a ten page long, five tab wide spreadsheet to get a handle on The Wedding preparations (no I am not kidding). No I don't have screaming children to deal with (as I know a lot of my readers do). Yes I do have a demanding 40+ hour/week job away from this blog, away from weddings, away from my photography business. Yes I have booked every supplier needed for The Wedding, so I don't feel overwhelmed, I seem to have a handle on it, everything's cool. But I am definitely not underwhelmed.

I felt I still needed A List. So I made one. And promptly stuck it on our fridge as some sort of validation of my thought process. 'Here's my list for all to see - I dare you to not complete it!' is what it says to myself. I am promising myself not to get distracted by other ~~shiny~~ easier tasks on a bigger list I could have written. I could have made the list three pages long, not one, but these are the things I need to do first. So I will.

Image by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

point + shoot: a berry good time

2011-09-05T18:20:00.000+10:00

The weekend...

Melbourne.
Myer gift registry.
Groomsmen suit shopping.
Sunshine.
Groomsmen suit purchasing.
Burger lunch.
Bridesmaid dress fabric shopping.
Camping show.
Mass purchases.
Best apple cinnamon muffin.
Contemplating inevitable poverty from mass purchases (felt bad about $4.20 muffin).
Traffic.
Cup of tea at 9pm on way home with friend.
Contemplating the grandma-ness of my Saturday night as a 24 year old.
Sunday breakfast of fresh eggs. Scrambled. Cheesy.
Opening 'presents' from mass purchases.
Getting our jam on.
Bulk sugar.
Bulk berries.
Bulk orange zest.
Bulk vanilla.
Bulk lemon juice.
Bulk cinnamon.
Bulk jars.
Bulk splattered blueberries all over kitchen...and self.
Yummy lunch with Mr M's parents.
More splatter.
Jars. Jars. Jars.
Done and dusted.
Home and hosed.
No more jars, no more berries.
Ever.

Playing along with Lou at sunny + scout.

How was your weekend? Any mass purchases, amazing muffin experiences or bulk food producing efforts?

Image by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

in case you missed it

2011-09-02T07:24:00.000+10:00

Beth's gorgeous home - by the fabulous Tim Coulson

This week heralded the real start to Spring, well according to a calendar anyway. I'm still eagerly awaiting that glorious Spring sunshine and a fog/frost free morning. I'll know it's Spring when we consider not keeping the fire going. I well and truly booted winter good-bye this week, good riddance, see you next year! I think God made a wise decision in making seasons only three months long - just enough to make you want a change at the end, but enough to get you excited in the beginning.

What are you looking forward to this Spring? We'll be busily preparing the marquee site for our wedding, as now some grass can really get growing (I'm hoping for a dry Spring so it doesn't end up a mud pit as it has been all winter long), and doing lots of projects for our DIY early summer nuptials. Stay tuned!

Here's something to click about...

A fifties fair full of coifs and cherry red lips and full skirted jiving' and dapper young gents.

Totally lovely to 'meet' Beth - the voice behind one of my favourite blogs, Baby Mac (can I please live in her house?!)

Cornishware pudding bowl...coz y'know, my birthday is coming up...

I may, or may not, have just purchased one of these babies

Oh to have a powder blue Aga...or a fire engine red one...or a glossy black one...

One day we will have a tufted bedhead, maybe we could make it?

Super cute airmail thank-you card printables

YHL has had a makeover - and I loooove it

Have a happy weekend :)

oh snap

2011-09-01T17:21:00.000+10:00

What???

Doesn't everyone carry a humungus camera with them to bring in the washing?

No?

Ok.
Just me.

Image by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

winter 2011

2011-09-01T08:14:00.000+10:00

Better late than never right? Usually I do a 'what-I-want-to-wear' mood board at the start of a season, well this time I'm doing a 'what-I-actually-wore' scenario instead. This winter was super wet in my part of the world, meaning I lived in my boots. My wardrobe staple these days is also black skinny leg jeans and basic black tops, bit boring I know but it's my true Melbournian coming out, plus you can splash colour around like this warm rusty red...

DUFFLE COAT - MODCLOTH

SKINNY LEG JEANS - JUST JEANS

BOOTS - TONY BIANCO

COWL NECK TOP - WITCHERY

SATCHEL BAG - FOREVER NEW

STUD EARRINGS - SPORTSGIRL

SCARF - FOREVER 21

How did you keep cosy this winter? Do you have winter staples that you wear religiously? I am a sucker for being clad head to toe in grey and black for three months of the year, bring on Spring colour!

Mood board by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

our farmers, our future

2011-08-31T18:14:00.002+10:00

As an almost farmers wife, I feel strongly about supporting rural women and their families. Despite what might be portrayed on The Farmer Wants A Wife, this gig isn't all sitting on wide verandas of your country estate sipping cups of tea and flicking through Country Style magazines.

Oh no. Sometimes it's hard. In fact, a lot of the time it's hard. Bloody hard.

Some nights your husband won't crawl into bed until 3am because he's out ripping a paddock preparing to sow because the rain will be here later in the week. Some days you will find yourself literally up to your armpits in a heifer trying to help her with a difficult calf. Some nights you will find yourself in the pitch black holding a torch trying to fix a trough so your livestock can be watered. Some days you will be screamed at by angry farmers who are at breaking point financially due to market conditions. Some days you'll spend all morning preparing a beautiful lunch whilst caring for a sick child to be told there's 'just 60 more to go' when you're AI'ing (true story). Some days you'll be knee deep in mud (it's mud right?!) and directing wayward cattle dogs to 'get away back and push push push!'. Some days you'll be hurtling through a blizzard on the back of the motorbike trying to muster ewes and lambs, the next day you'll be cursing the flies and heat and dust - so much dust - whilst helping to needle 200 stroppy mama cows.

Yes, some days it's hard. You are a cook, a financial planner, a counsellor, a trainee agronomist, a livestock agent, a plumbers apprentice, a vet nurse, a jillaroo of all trades. But you have your best friend beside you.

If you have ever walked into your local supermarket and picked up a potato, an onion, some flour, some bread, some sugar, some meat and thought you appreciated where it comes from - please please please think about what you are truly appreciating. That cup of sugar, that piece of bread, those eggs and milk, have all come from hard working families. Families who sacrifice an awful lot to feed your family. Farmers are undervalued, underpaid and overworked. But for most they would not do any other job. It's not a job, it is a vocation. It's a misconception that farming is a low skilled industry, please take five minutes to watch this video to mark 2012 - the year of the farmer, and hopefully come away from it with a greater understanding of just what goes into producing the food you eat this evening.

wordless wednesday: site supervisor

2011-08-31T07:42:00.000+10:00

Playing along with Faith Hope and a whole lotta Love.

Image by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

the blues

2011-08-30T18:35:00.000+10:00

I'm in need of a little perking up, as I find myself in some sort of end-of-winter blues. A rut. Blah.

This all makes me smile though.

White kitchens. Puppies. Pastels. Daisies. Pink cardigans. Sprinkles and ice-cream.
Yep. All must be right with ~~the world~~ me after all.

Images all via my pins on Pinterest

chateau le chookie: part deux

2011-08-30T07:52:00.000+10:00

Our ~~humble chook pen~~ state of the art poultry facility is finally completed! After 10 months living here at Brindabella and the chook pen being (apparently) high on the priority list we thought it about time our poor hens have somewhere to call home of an evening. (We only got the chooks back recently, they were staying at Mr M's parents prior to that).

Last time you saw Chateau le Chookie it may have resembled something like this, minus the aviary wire which Mr M started doing before I got my camera out!

We'd rammed the posts in, strained the assemblies, put guide wires up for the netting and put a sloping tin roof on half of the pen. Next step was to dig the wire into the ground all the way around the pen to fox proof it. Even though you may think this wire looks fancy and new (and we had taken an oath of using only found materials on the farm to build Chateau le Chookie) this 10mm aviary wire which is usually used for, you guessed it, aviary's, was used to fence off my Dad's new pool area on the garden side to make it kid friendly. So there - we didn't purchase anything!

After the wire was dug into the ground to stop the sneaky Mr Foxsy Loxsy's Mr M screwed tin sheeting we already had lying about to the back wall, enclosing the chookies little house. He also built their raised platform where their perch and nesting boxes would be.

The nesting boxes we put on the outside of the overall structure, with a tilted tin roof to weatherproof and a lift top to easily collect the eggs. Mr M was busying himself making the nesting box extension and then in a panic called me over. "Can you reach in there and get eggs?! Have I made it too high?!" Ah the joys of being 6'5" and thinking the rest of the world is too. It was fine though, I can easily reach in and get the eggs.

After putting the nesting box extension together, fiddling with the lift top, dividers and finding an appropriate stick to be their perch we turned our attention to the door. We put down a little pad of old red bricks to fox proof the doorway as well and hung our old door.

Then the other weekend Mr M and his brother completed Chateau le Chookie with a hinged door into the nesting area and added a little ladder for the little ladies, as well as hooked up their watering system to easily get a drink by themselves.

We used hay straw in their nesting boxes and sawdust on the raised platform. The mesh wire under their perch is so their dropping fall underneath the platform and can be easily collected for my garden! We've noticed a marked improvement on egg production, but the silly chookies don't seem to be able to perch at night and we've been literally putting them to bed of an evening! Any ideas how to make them perch or are they a lost cause? Perhaps the perch is too high or not smooth enough?

Chateau le Chookie I think could just be our greatest construction to date!

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

point + shoot: garden splendour

2011-08-29T09:29:00.000+10:00

This weekend I could hear my garden waking up, stretching and blinking into the early Spring sunshine.

My favourite Avon View lavender, which I grew so abundantly at the cottage, is starting to peek through the winter fog of my Gippsland garden...

Endless Summer hydrangeas (also transplanted from the cottage) which I thought I had sent to an early grave with a harsh Autumn prune are proving me wrong...

Eggs abound at Brindabella at the moment...

Daffodils are trumpeting after their winter hibernation...

And we came away from visiting generous friends (who are living the dream) laden with their yummy produce.

Life is good.

Playing along with Lou at sunny + scout.

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

blueberry + vanilla jam

2011-08-23T07:37:00.000+10:00

You might remember when I got a special delivery of 30kg of blueberries to my desk, followed by a frenzied purchase of bottles and jars from a jar wholesaler as I thought I would have to make the jam using fresh berries. Well, turns out I didn't have to and we ended up freezing them. Our freezer for many months has been looking like this...

...with every trip to the freezer followed by a thud, plastic crushing sound and a 'bloody blueberries!' curse under one's breath. We decided enough was enough and we had to get cracking with our blueberry of a dilemma. The big question: should we make one jar per couple or one jar per person? I had 160 jars on hand (as this was the minimum order from the jar wholesaler, Cospak in Melbourne), but we would probably only just have enough blueberries for one jar per person. We could always buy more berries we thought, so onward with the one jar per guest idea.

First thing, we needed a recipe seeing as though Mr M's mum wasn't familiar with blueberry jam making, although she could make raspberry jam in her sleep. Questions swirled, like: 'Do blueberries have pectin? In their skins? Maybe we'll just buy pectin...can we do that? What is pectin anyway? Maybe we don't need it...' Long story short, Mr M's mum found a blueberry and vanilla recipe (stating no pectin required) and infused with orange zest, lemon juice and cinnamon. After a small test batch I was convinced. Yum-yum, blueberry vanilla jam here I come. Next step - the farmhouse kitchen is totally lacking in benchspace so we brought the outdoor table inside to get everything ready - the berries, the sugar, the cinnamon, the oranges, the lemons, the vanilla, the scales, the cup measures, the jugs, the ladles, the giant pots. Check, checkity, check, check.

Then the recipe goes a little like this...

9 cups of blueberries

3 cups of sugar

12 strips of orange zest (about 7cm x 2cm)

6 tablespoons lemon juice

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Pinch of salt

3 teaspoons vanilla to add at end of cooking

Pop your jars on a baking tray and put them in the oven whilst you cook the jam, just bring them up to about 60 degrees, warm to the touch. If they are cold when you put the jam in it won't set properly. If you are using old jars you need to really thoroughly wash and sterilise them, but ours were brand spanking new. Bonus.

Put all your above ingredients onto boil, boil, boil. Once the sugar melts and it's combined you boil it hard for about twenty minutes. This can get a bit messy with it spitting and spurting about, and apparently the better quality sugar you use the less foam will be created meaning a more 'pure' jam. What comes in here is a bit of mum-know-how, you can't really say to boil it for twenty minutes or for ten, or for however long, it's all to do with when the consistency is juuuust right. Mr M's mum had a very sophisticated droopy-goopy spoon and saucer test which she has used for forty odd years. I wasn't going to argue.

Once chief jam maker was satisfied with the consistency, it was off with the heat, add three teaspoons of vanilla essence (not imitation vanilla, oh no) and stir through. Then ladle into a jug and pour into the jars, taking out the orange zest as you pour. Top pro-jam maker tip is the jug for pouring, much easier. Genius.

Sorry I don't have more photos of the goopy-jam stage but it got a bit crazy in the heat of the moment as chief jar-er and quality controller...

Repeat five times and we got 35 little jars all lined up in a row. My jam jar army needs to grow to 118, we're thinking one more jam making day will do it (we only spent a few hours on Sunday afternoon doing these). I'll keep you posted on the jam jar army's growth.

Any jam making going on at your house? Or top jam making tips from seasoned professionals giving the orders? Anyone a professional in the pectin department?

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

the curtains that were!

2011-08-22T11:06:00.003+10:00

I'm back with the second installment in my curtain saga...(catch up here if you missed the boat).

So we had our fancy butterfly screws (due to the crummy fibro sheeting the dining room is built out of and worrying normal screws would just pull the wall to shreds), then upon measuring, measuring and re-measuring we realised the screws for the brackets would just be going into studs anyway! Basically I couldn't hang them widey-wide like I wanted to because these curtains were only just going to meet in the middle if we put the brackets on the edge of the window frame (i.e. not about six inches out like I had originally planned). So good-bye fancy butterfly screws, we don't even need you after all.

Up go the brackets. Then we have to measure the rods and cut to size using a hack saw. Because the windows are so wide I had to get two rods per window plus this crazy joiner thing-o. Bobs-your-uncle and rod's are in place.

Up go the curtains. Now, I tried to explain to Mr M that it's 'on-trend' to have extra long curtains that 'pool' on the floor but he just thought it was super dumb. I had to admit they were a tad on the long side, there's 'on-trend' and then there's just plain annoying when you're vacuuming and mopping around them...

I must admit though, things were looking a whole lot better in the dining room, long curtains and all...

But to the sewing machine I must go - hem, hem, hemming! So. Much. Fabric. I ended up cutting 10 inches off the bottom and then putting a one inch hem on them. Let's face it, for some of them I cut too much off (!!!!) and they ended up not skimming the floor. Oops. By this point in the months-and-months-long curtain saga I was over it and just pretty excited to have some curtains hanging, let alone less than desirable length.

Moral of the story? Don't sweat the small stuff, the curtains turned out fine, even if according to my list at the start they don't match up, they are still looking mighty fine! Making our dining room much more homely and cosy like our lounge room.

Happy days :)

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

point + shoot: birthday boy

2011-08-22T08:24:00.001+10:00

This past weekend brought lots of family to Brindabella - it was Mr M's birthday! Quarter of a century. Older than me (for a few months anyway). He wasn't forthcoming with a birthday cake suggestion so I took it upon myself to make him a white chocolate mud cake...and it was a winner! Super easy to make and worked perfectly, even though the recipe was a bit vague as to cooking time I baked mine for 1 hour 20 minutes. Perfect.

We also finally finished Chateau le Chookie, played a mean game of Monopoly (ragers, I know), made some pretty awesome pizzas and cooked up 35 jars of jam for our wedding favours. Only 83 to go...

Playing point + shoot over at Lou's place.

Photos by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

the curtains that weren't...

2011-08-19T17:27:00.000+10:00

I started writing this post and realised this whole curtain saga was reeeeally lengthy. So, to cut a long story short here's part one, and I'll be back next week with part two!

The dining room is basically a big bare box with a table plonked in the middle of it. As described in the farmhouse floor plan it was a later addition to the original house, it used to be the back veranda but was walled in to create this sunroom type arrangement (seeing as though we have this big dining table we use it as a dining room, although our kitchen is big enough to fit a table and chairs in there for dining). The room has massive non-standard sized windows, which I was worried would cost a fortune to have curtains custom made for, mainly because I wanted them to hang really wide to make the whole wall seem like a window. Anyway, here's what I'm working with...

I wanted the curtains to be heavy backed also to keep the heat in, which would mean they would weigh a bit, which would mean I'd need some serious hardware to hold them up and the dining room extension is made out of crummy fibro sheeting type stuff. Boo. I wanted linen-like fabric to tie in with the lounge room (has white curtains with wheat coloured couches). The seagrass rug in the dining room is also a new addition, from Freedom. Basically the curtain saga went like this...

Want loads of fabric to possibly make curtains.
Bought thermal curtain fabric backing at Spotlight for a small fortune in hope of finding perfect curtain fabric sometime in near future.
Thought these looked pretty good and loved the linen look fabric in the light beige colour, hate tab top curtains though, were miles too long (could easily hem) and possibly not wide enough. Might have to forgo extra wide curtain look.
Perhaps I could cut off the tabs, fold over the fabric, sew on some curtain tape from Spotlight and use their curtain tracks to create custom Ikea-hacked curtains? Yes yes. Excellent plan! Am genius.
Sent Mum to Ikea to purchase curtains on next Melbourne trip.
Got curtains. Realised that brackets that come with them will not be strong enough to hold hefty weight once I sewed on (expensive) backing fabric I had previously purchased.
Decide that the look of exposed curtain tracks is not the go anyway (one's in lounge and bedroom have pelmets hiding this). Perhaps a nice classy curtain rod would be the go? Yes.
Decide these are lovely in white. Then realise they aren't long enough for our widey-wide windows. Doh.
Discover that Ikea has this nifty jigger. Interesting prospect. Send Mum again on Ikea mission. None of the right curtain rod lengths in stock. Mum goes back and forth to Ikea/Melbourne over space of five weeks until they get the right combination in stock. Yes, she is awesome.
Finally get curtain rods and curtains together for a meeting. Decide I will have to get over my tab top phobia. At this point I am beyond caring.
Also decide that the backing might make us roast even more in our cosy lounge room. Scrap the backing idea. Can't find receipt to return expensive backing fabric. Consider selling it on ebay. Weighs a ton. Bugger it.
Right, we're going to put the brackets up. But into this crummy fibro sheeting stuff not sure if it's going to fall apart/crumble so need to get fancy butterfly screws....(and chaos ensues on the dining room table as you can see).

Stay tuned for round 2 of Emma vs. Curtains...

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

abc

2011-08-19T11:19:00.001+10:00

image via here

Ok so it's Friday, and I'm a lazy blogger, so I'm going to play the ABC game because Lou told me too. I am such a sheep - baaaa!

AGE - 24 years and 10 months
BED SIZE - Queen, but I would love a king. Oh the space!

CHORE THAT I HATE - Cleaning the bathroom? Although our bathroom is tiny so it's really a ten minute job. Hmmm...maybe vacuuming because our vacuum sucks. Or doesn't. Depending how you look at it. Pleeeease get me a fancypants Dyson for my wedding! I also have not washed the windows of the farmhouse. Ever. And they are foul!

DOGS - Three. Tessa the wonder puppy and Mr M's two working dogs, Lily and Pippa. Lily came to live with us when Mr M's old boss went on holiday...and then she just kind of never left, and I'm so glad because she is the most wonderful, lovely, gentle soul. Love my Lily-pad. I want to clone her but Mr M says I'm weird. Tessa is my baby, as I always say she's pretty much the best dog in the world. And Pippa. Oh Pippa...we have a love/hate relationship. She means well, really she does, but sometimes I get sick of having to scream at her like a fish wife or wrangle her away from vistors children for fear of legalities involved or have to pull out the stock whip to get her back from her latest adventure. Sigh. Then she looks at me with the big puppy sad eyes and tilts her head as if to say 'Who me?' Gets me every time, dang it.
ESSENTIAL START TO MY DAY - A hot shower and cup of really hot English breakfast tea with a small dash of milk, although I would love a proper espresso coffee (skinny latte, no sugar) but I'll have to be a good girl and maybe that's another wedding gift. Or it's a half hour round trip to nearest espresso available for purchase.

FAVOURITE COLOUR - always has been pink, still is, but I like lots of other colours like dove grey and sage green and sunshiney yellow and caramel taupe and duck egg blue these days too.

GOLD OR SILVER - my engagement ring is white gold, I have a lot of silver too though.

HEIGHT - How bad is this, I don't even know?? I think I'm like 5'7"? Does that sound right? I have no clue.

INSTRUMENTS - Piano, although I am getting pretty rusty without a piano in the house. Must remedy this.

JOB TITLE - I guess I'm some sort of 'administration assistant' but that title encompasses a lot of things, like truck driver wrangler, angry phone call maker/receiver, debt collecter, logistics manager, report writer, bill payer...oh yeah and I'm a photographer too when I'm not in an office for 40 hours a week.
KIDS - Not yet.

LIVES - With the lovely Mr M in a ramshackle farmhouse on a sheep and potato farm in Gippsland.

MUM'S NAME - Gabrielle (pronounced like the angel, not Gabri-elle or Gabriella), also known as Gab, Gabby, the Gabmiester, Gabaroonie, Grandi Gabs.
NICKNAMES - Durks, Durkatron, Durkino, Durka-Durka...I wonder what people will call me in a few months?!

OVERNIGHT HOSPITAL STAYS - None! Boring. Or lucky?

PET PEEVES - Ignorance. It's not bliss. Be informed, people! Preferably before you open your big mouth and spout your opinions without knowing the facts. Rant over.

QUOTE FROM A MOVIE - Funny or inspirational? Can't think. Jerry McGuire gets me, and no not 'you had me at hello' *vomit* More the little kid and Jerry: "You said f*%! I won't tell. I gotta go! My mom's coming! I gotta go!" hehehehe

RIGHT OR LEFT HANDED - Left for writing, right for everything else. I play tennis right handed, but play Mr M left handed as handicap - ha!

SIBLINGS - Two big sisters and a big brother above us all. I'm the baby girl.

TIME TO WAKE UP - I'd love to say I get up at 5.30am and go for a run and make myself some sort of green bile-like substance and take heaps of vitamins before leaping in to my day...but who am I kidding, I get out of bed at about 7.15am after Mr M has yelled at me, poked me and pulled the doona off me for about 15 minutes (I'm meant to get up at 7 according to him, who gets up at 6 - ugh).

UNDERWEAR - Right now? Well that's a bit much isn't it?! Usually something comfy, pretty too but only if it's still comfy.

VEGETABLE I HATE - I don't think I hate any vegetables? I eat anything and everything! Mr M won't let me buy/cook brussel sprouts which makes me sad. They are misunderstood!

WHAT MAKES ME RUN LATE - Mr M! Definitely. He is the world's worst time manager. Drives me bonkers, well it used to drive me more bonkers until I reached a point where I just had to accept that that's how he is, that's what makes him super laid back and kind and gentle and easy going, so if I have to make him run on time but sacrifice those other things, no thanks. I still say I'll beat him to the church on our wedding day though.
X-RAYS - Teeth for when I had braces and some extractions to make way for the braces. I've had a cat scan too because I get bad migraines.

YUMMY FOOD THAT I MAKE - I do make a mean cookies and cream cheescake...just saying.
ZOO ANIMAL - You are not going to believe this but when I was a little girl I loved the bison at the Melbourne Zoo. I know - what sort of child was I?! The bison??? On the last trip to the zoo we thought the seals were pretty cool though. And any kind of monkey is pretty funny/freakishly human.

And if you've got to this point, I salute you. You have just found out a whole heap of fairly useless information about me.

Enjoy your weekend...

ythanbrae dreaming

2011-08-16T10:39:00.000+10:00

I love Gippsland. I do. It's home to me. Always will be.

But when I saw this image, my heart yearned for the wild and magical hills of Ythanbrae. It was our home, not just my childhood home. It was something we did together. Us against the world.

Sometimes I miss that feeling.

Image via Style Me Pretty

get your craft on #6: diy invitation pocketfold

2011-08-15T22:23:00.000+10:00

With The Wedding Day approaching, my attention has turned to all things papercraft as I gear up to send out our invitations. In my true DIY wedding style I have taken it upon myself to make all the stationery for the wedding - this includes the invites, the reply cards, the gift registry cards, the map and any extra information we might want to include for our guests. All these inserts meant only one thing: pocketfolds (for anyone wondering what the heck I am on about you can go here to catch up).

In keeping with our rustic elegant theme we are going to use all classic creamy thick ivory card with kraft paper accents. After a search high and low for all things pocketfold I only came up with one supplier which did a kraft paper one. I got samples sent from the U.S to no avail as they were just not what I was imagining (too pale, not grainy enough and a bit flimsy rather than sturdy card). So I thought to myself how hard could it be to make them? All 70 of them?! Here goes...

To begin you will need...

A3 size sheet of kraft card, or any colour/pattern which takes your fancy (I got mine from Papermarc)
Paper trimmer (I use a fairly cheap Fiskars for this sort of work, I also have a more heavy duty guillotine but don't find it as accurate - you need accuracy for these pocketfolds to work!)
Sharp paper scissors (for any spots you can't reach with trusty paper trimmer)
Pencil
Ruler
Paper scorer (I use Martha Stewart Craft's paper tool, purchased from Spotlight)
Magic dot adhesive tape (available from craft stores and I find very accurate and strong, you can also just use double sided tape but I think it would be more fiddly and less adhesive)

I wanted our invites to be 5 x 7 inches and the pocketfolds to open like a book, with two sides as opposed to the popular tri-fold you often see with a wrap around cover. To allow some room around the invite I decided that each side of the pocketfold would need to be 5.5 inches x 7.5 inches, allowing half an inch border around the invites and inserts.

On your piece of A3 card measure and rule the following lines using your pencil and ruler, make sure they are accurate and straight as when you fold it together it will make a difference!

You should have two 5.5 x 7.5 rectangles as well as a rectangle below the right one which will become your pocket flap. To make the pocket flap sturdy and for your inserts to sit neatly inside the pocket you will need to add some 'wings'. My magic dot adhesive tape is 80mm wide, so I made my pocket wings 100mm wide to allow room to run the dispenser along the strips of wings.

Now you can cut out your pocketfold template using your paper trimmer. Slice down the 7.5 inches, careful not to slice off your 1cm wings, and then all around the shape you have ruled up. You may need to use your scissors to accurately get in around the 1cm wings. You should end up with a template like this:

Using your paper scorer and ruler, score down the main fold line of your pocketfold. Then score the pocket flap fold and the two wings. Fold on all your scores to create your pocketfold. See how it's coming together now???

At this point I realised I wanted my pocket flap to not be as large so decided to trim that down to 2.5 inches. Ideally I should've done this in the trimming process, or at least before I scored and folded my wings. A lot of pocketfolds have a v-shaped pocket flap also, I wanted mine to be straight but you could cut whatever shape you like into yours.

Roll some adhesive tape along the outside of your wings (the side which will be pressed against the main body of the pocketfold). Don't tape down the inside of the wings, as this is what is creating a sturdy little pocket for you to fit your inserts in perfectly.

Now fold your pocket flap up and press the wings down to stick to the main body of the pocketfold. You can fold your pocketfold closed and press under some heavy books to make it sit nice and neat (and to make sure that the adhesive tape really sticks and your pocket flap doesn't jump back out).

There you have it - my DIY pocketfolds for our wedding invitations. Easy as pie. Now just another 69 to go...

*Note that this pocketfold was actually my third I had attempted and I still made a few mistakes! You will get really good at them after a few I promise, it's all in the accurate and straight cutting. The straighter your lines, the less room for error!

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

point + shoot: the hipster

2011-08-15T07:59:00.000+10:00

My weekend, according to Hipstamatic...

What on earth did we do before iphones?

Playing point + shoot over at sunny + scout.

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

in case you missed it

2011-08-12T12:52:00.002+10:00

Happy Friday!

Here's something to click about...

image

Possible honeymoon. When we win the lottery.

I want to sew here forever.

Really, really, really wish I had an exposed brick wall to try some moss graffiti. I don't think a weatherboard wall will cut it.

Beautiful Havana.

I feel some pie making coming on, and it's going to look just like this.

My latest wedding crush. Enough said really.

Anyone else obsessed with The Block? Love the sisters, but Josh and Jenna will win. For sure.

And I told you I loved cardigans...

Have a great weekend, I'm off to Melbourne tonight to do our bridal gift registry, look at some pretty invitation paper, then tomorrow I'm meeting with our florist and finishing Chateau le Chookie hopefully. Hope the sun shines for you this weekend, however you spend it...

new digs

2011-08-11T18:21:00.000+10:00

After many a late night fiddling about with margins and slideshows and fonts and cropping and re-sizing and culling and adjustment...well you get the picture - I am very proud (and relieved) to present my new website for Emma Durkin Photographics...

Pop over to have a squiz, I am not quite finished yet as I'd like to add some of my landscapes, more family sessions as well as a few weddings I've done plus some new additions to The Lifestyle Collection.

The hardest part? Writing the 'About Me' page. Self promotion? Cringe.

I am available for bookings on all days ending in 'y' so drop me a line if you like what you see :)

Screen capture of www.emmadurkinphotographics.com.au

four months

2011-08-10T17:56:00.001+10:00

Seventeen weeks. One hundred and twenty-one sleeps. However you want to put it, our wedding date is inevitably approaching. Today is 10.08.11, The Wedding Day is 10.12.11. Four months.

It's at about this time that I've started daily referring to The Spreadsheet - my behemoth list of everything I need to know, do, wrap my brain around in order to actually pull this off.

Everything.

How many jars I have for our blueberry jam favours, what shoe size my Golden Delights are, what size dancefloor we've ordered, what piece of furniture I want to use and where, which photo booth prop I have organised, which illustration I am using on which piece of stationery.

Everything.

Projected budgets, deposits paid, contact name and numbers, caterers, marquee hire, dressmaker, cake maker, florist, guest lists, addresses. Needless to say I have back-ups of The Spreadsheet on three separate computers and hard drives!

What the inside of my brain looks like at the moment...

At this point we've nailed the big ones: photographers, band, food, marquee and equipment, hair, make-up, cars, church, minister...Now I'm starting to think details (not that I wasn't before!)

Questions are bouncing, bouncing, bouncing around in my brain. What earrings will my bridesmaids wear? Will the groomsmen all wear the same shoes? Do we need two tiers or three on the cake? Which car will the kids get to the church in? What's Mr M's cousin's boyfriend's surname for the invite? Is the lawn too sloping to even consider a game of bocce? How long is the bridal table for the table runner?

Deep breaths.

Image collage by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella, from photos from my pins.

construction destruction

2011-08-09T19:12:00.000+10:00

Amidst all the painting going around here our handy man on the farm, Woody, has been getting busy around the farmhouse also. First stop: the carport roof.

Oh dear. Here you can see the new corrugated tin Woody is putting on instead of the older tin which had zero drainage. To begin with we thought we were going to have to put a whole new slant on the roof (meaning bit of a bigger job) but with the corrugated tin instead of the older flat style tin and without the cypress trees next to the carport to drop a heap of leaves, branches and gunk on the roof we decided no bigger slant was needed.

Here's how rotten the wood was though after zero drainage. Poor Mr Woody nearly went straight through the old roof!

And here it is mid-construction. New roof (left), old roof (right). Aaaahhh new roof...

Due to the carport roof drainage issues we had some serious problems in the storage room at the back of the carport. We had three buckets in there to contain the leaks but with all the rain this season it was at times fruitless, which kind of defeated the purpose of having a handy storage room if all the furniture and things were going to get wet anyway! So Woody fixed that with the new roof, no more buckets - hurruh!

A few months ago Mr M picked up a cheap window from a nearby town's old supermarket (he's nifty like that). It was almost the perfect size to replace the carport storage room's old louvre windows, half of which were smashed so basically the whole window needed replacing anyway. Woody was all over that job too (he's nifty like that).

Next stop: the back porch. Once upon a time our back porch had a little skylight, I'm sure in it's hey day it looked a little like it does now, but when we arrived at the farmhouse we hardly even knew it existed. The laser-light was black with grime and slime and filth - totally defeating the purpose of it being above the kitchen window to allow light into the dark cave of a room. It also had some drainage issues, making the surrounds rotten and harbouring some serious water. Woody cut me up some brand spanking new laser-light and popped that in too. I can not tell you how much it has brightened my cave-like kitchen. Amazing.

Next stop: the front porch guttering. Drainage issues again. Guttering basically doing nothing, falling off and needing replacing. So rather than having the painters paint bad guttering we had Woody fix 'er up. Inevitably, Woody pulled it apart and found it was a much bigger problem and ended up having to replace most of the front porch bearers and framing due to all the rotten wood. But at least it's done now.

Notice how the house colour closer up looks more taupe than grey?? It's weird. Driving up the driveway I kind of don't like it, it's far too grey, but up close and next to the white windows it's exactly what I wanted. My mum thinks it's because I don't yet have much garden up against the house. I think it will look different again when the painters finally finish and the base boards are the darker double strength to 'ground' the house. What do you think?

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

point + shoot: the one with the sponge

2011-08-08T17:14:00.001+10:00

The weekend brought some dear fellow farming friends to Brindabella. Since moving further south we don't see Tyler and Kate nearly as much, which really is shameful, but a five hour drive is hard to slot in sometimes. It was Kate's birthday on Friday so a cake was in order. I asked her during the week if she had a preference for a type of cake. The reply? A sponge. A sponge! To her credit she had no idea they were quite the tricky cake to perfect (and I had never made one before) and when she found out about my fluster over room temperature eggs and triple sifting dry ingredients she felt terrible! I, however, absolutely outdid myself in the Masterchef ranks though, even if I do so say myself. As luck would have it when I was flipping through last week's Weekly Times I came across a recipe submitted by one of our old neighbours at Ythanbrae: 'never fail sponge'. And fail it did not. Thanks Denise!

The rest of the weekend was filled with far too much farmer and wedding talk, garden walks and thinking about whether things in my garden at Brindabella would work up in the dry north west of the state. We went to see the church where we are getting married, pegged out the marquee size on the site where it will go, went for a drive to find an elusive canola crop we could see on a nearby hill, took Kate for bridesmaid dress fittings (!!!!!) and general mass cheese, quince paste and beetroot dip eating followed by a lamb roast and washed down with a bottle (or three) of Larnoo red talking about the inevitable: The Future. That pesky thing.

A serious case of Mondayitis ensued today. Great, great friends. Feeling blessed to have them in our lives and our future, no matter what that might bring xxx

Head over to Lou's to play point + shoot with me.

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

wordless wednesday: is that you spring?

2011-08-03T07:24:00.000+10:00

Playing along with Faith, Hope and a whole lotta Love.

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

frock it

2011-08-02T18:05:00.000+10:00

Inevitably, my sister's are in the midst of planning my hen's day. A day at the country races is planned sipping champagne. Splendid.

In other news, over at This Mid 30's Life there is a little play-along going on called Frock It. The idea is to choose a frock that has caught your eye this week. Something beautiful, something silly, something you see yourself wearing, you see yourself not being able to afford (!!!) or something you thought was worthy of telling the world about.

Well, you can see where I'm going can't you? Thoughts wandered to what I would wear to an occasion such as one's own hen's day. I saw this pretty frock which caught my eye...

via my Pinterest boards

Cute right? Not too sure I'd want something so short though. I'd want to be comfortable after all. And let's face it, I probably have five dresses hanging in my wardrobe right now suitable for the occasion. Like this electric blue maxi dress which is a standout favourite staple of mine...

My cousins, me and my sister. Don't mind the sunburnt nose.

Kmart. Thirty bucks. Thank you very much.

store feature: the vintage shed of tyabb

2011-08-02T08:27:00.000+10:00

Down a quiet country road down by the Mornington peninsula sits a shed. Not just any shed though. Oh no, this shed is full to the rafters with stuff. Big stuff, small stuff, old stuff, new stuff. Stuff which may seem useless to one person and beyond value to the next. The Vintage Shed at Tyabb is like any other vintage or antique shop you've ever been fond of...only on steroids. The only thing I can liken it to is the Camberwell market, except without the 5am alarm and wrestling an MLC schoolgirl for a pair of vintage boots.

Here is what you are greeted with at The Shed's entrance...

I know. They sure know a way to a girls heart. Wine barrel + industrial chair + wicker trunk + amazing vintage lights + other bits and bobs = Emma having minor heart failure before even entering. But I did recover and ended up having the longest snoop around in history in there. Let's explore...

First up I came across these old industrial school chairs and fell in love. I could see them in a kids room or play room at a craft table. There were loads of enamelware, which I love as I am a little obsessed with vintage Australiana of the 1930's and 40's. I find there is lots of French/American/British farmhouse style but Australian farmhouse is definitely a style of it's own - enamelware like these pots and jugs fit perfectly.

The Vintage Shed is basically run as a giant co-op, with people holding different stalls (about 3 x 4 metres) and I am assuming giving a commission to sell their goods there. This enables The Shed to take on a truly eclectic feel, with each vendor decorating, arranging and showcasing their wares uniquely. Seriously, it's like stepping into a visual merchandising graduation exhibition, eye candy galore!

What really surprised me was how much things change and are constantly evolving. I was only at The Vintage Shed a few weeks ago with Mr M and already there seemed to be a huge turnover in stock. Items for sale are very 'on trend' also, like this botanical print, wooden spools and rulers = academia industrial. The little red lift-top desk would be perfect for a little person to sit and colour at, storing their pencils and crayons inside. Love the colour.

This beauty immediately caught our eye on our previous visit - a big farmhouse style table in oak. It was still sitting waiting patiently...for it's new owners. Yep, sold. Bummer. The little white paint chippy cupboard to the right there also took my fancy as a shabby bedside table...

There were loads of old rustic wooden ladders, industrial numbers and letters from old petrol stations and I spotted this wardrobe which reminded me of mine (you can see that makeover here). I'm also lusting after a big white and blue enamel bread bin. Yes please.

Everyone needs some ruby slippers right? Apparently my mum had one of those humungus Emmaljunga style prams for my brother in the 70's. Can you imagine lugging it around in your car and through shopping centres these days?!

You can pretty much find anything and everything your little vintage-obsessed heart desires at The Vintage Shed. I could seriously furnish my whole house from there, but I was very refrained and only bought wedding related items. I ended up walking away with four vintage chairs (one of these one's below we found in the shed when we moved to Brindabella). I wonder what I'll do with them - I feel a wedding project a'brewing!

The Vintage Shed is at 93 Mornington-Tyabb Road, Tyabb and is open Thursday to Sunday from 10am-5pm.

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

point + shoot: hunter gatherer

2011-08-01T08:13:00.000+10:00

On the weekend Mr M headed away for a golf weekend. He doesn't play golf. He caught two trains, two buses and drove three hours in a 24 hour turnaround for a sport he does not understand nor enjoy. Madness.

And whilst Mr M is away, Emma will play. So off I trundled down the highway and across the swamp to Tyabb - antique and vintage heaven for many a once loved object. I will have a full re-cap tomorrow of my fossicking and findings but here is a little snapshot of my nirvana...

Did you go on any crazy shopping adventures on the weekend? Am I the only one that gets a sudden urge to go on shopping adventures whilst the Mister isn't around to critique my spending?

Playing along with Lou over at sunny + scout.

lamp make-over via spray paint

2011-07-28T07:48:00.000+10:00

Remember when I showed you my lamp I scored at the op shop? Sure you remember, here it is. Well, after sitting on our hall table for the longest time in all its forest green glory (I hope you can 'hear' sarcasm in my typing), I decided enough was enough. This little green monster needed some help.

Having never painted anything of the ceramic variety I was a bit lost. According to the most helpful lady at Bunnings I needed to just clean down the lamp, give it a light sand, a wipe with a cloth to get all the dust off and two coats of different types of paint - Dulux Quickdry Undercoat and Dulux Quickdry Vivid White to give it the gloss finish I was after. There was a cheaper generic brand available but I thought I'd better go with the quality choice. This after all was going to be one luxe lamp. I armed myself with some trusty blue painter's tape also to tape off the top fitting I didn't want to get paint in.

So on the lawn I went with my cardboard box to contain the spray, my lamp, my sandpaper, my two spray paint cans and my old rag (formally known as Mr M's farmer work jeans). After a quick sand with fine sandpaper and a wipe down a'spraying I did go. Like Sherry says: 'If you are a'sprayin', your arm is a'swayin'!' Amen sister, keep it moving.

I knew the undercoat primer wasn't going to be glossy like how I wanted, and yet I still panicked and thought 'Oh my goodness what have I done, this is going to be a horrible mess with this dull hideous paint job!' I quickly reassured myself (y'know in my head, talking to myself) that this lamp as it was screamed ugly so I really had nothing to lose. Oh and I also quickly realised the lamp needed to stand on top of the box rather than in it in order for me to spray the bottom of the lamp. Genius.

I let the undercoat primer dry for a few hours, in the midst of which some misty rain descended upon Brindabella and I was madly running about with a half painted lamp to get it under the back porch. Crisis averted. Once dry, and thanks to a break in the weather, I went for the top spray coat of the gloss white.

And oo la la! Gloss white lamp at your service. Enter me doing a happy dance with Tessa on the lawn. Ooooh yeah. Straight from the pages of Belle I told Mr M. His reply? 'Belle who?'

One lampshade from Freedom later in a rustic linen later and hey presto, instant hallway appeal teamed with my vintage typewriter, a milk bottle, a peony and our hall table which we picked up at a local market shortly after moving into the ramshackle farmhouse. It's made from 100+ year old recycled floorboards and it has become quite the favourite around here. Now all my favourites can hang out together in the hall.

Any DIY projects going on over at your place? Lamp make-over stories? I love a good rags to riches tale.

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

wordless wednesday: construction zone

2011-07-27T17:46:00.001+10:00

Playing along with Faith, Hope and a whole lotta Love.

Image by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

of weddings past

2011-07-27T08:22:00.001+10:00

At our wedding we want to display photos of our grandparents wedding days. I have been on the search for some candid ones as well as the traditional portrait ones, which I am familiar with from hanging on my grandparents and parents walls.

Here are my paternal grandparents on their wedding day, April 19th 1947...

And here is my maternal grandparents on their wedding day. I'm unsure of the date, I think it is mid 1930's. I love how elegant my grandma looks with her train and dashing new husband. They look happy. I wonder if they knew they would go on to have over 10 children?!

In the album with my Nana's wedding photos I found these ones as well. The one on the left is of my great-grandmother all dressed up to the nines in her fur for the occasion. The photo on the right is of my Aunty Mary and Uncle Mark. The caption on the back of the photo read: "My sister Mary and her fiance". They went on to have a long and happy marriage, but to me Aunty Mary has always seemed so elderly, once upon a time she was a young girl attending her sister's wedding with her fiance though. I think she looks like she'd have a good time in this photo :)

Do you have any family history stashed away in wedding photos of a bygone era?

chateau le chookie: part une

2011-07-25T17:20:00.001+10:00

Since our little chookies have come back to live with us they have been residing in *ahem* somewhat confined and substandard conditions. A simple stock crate construction with random tin sheeting sides to keep the weather out and an old rabbit hutch as their nesting box. Please don't report me to the RSPCA - I promise they have clean water, fresh food, warm nesting boxes, a roof and walls to keep the rain off and I let them free range around my garden destroying everything in their paths because I feel bad enough about their temporary housing. Bad chookie mama. Like we said, it was only a temporary solution, a chook pen was coming, we promised. Well this weekend seemed as good a time as any to get started.

With visions like this beauty in my mind I was quickly brought back to earth by my friendly farmer who basically snorted loudly at any notions of gables or archways or white painted eaves and pretty grey shingles on a mere chook pen. No, we would use only materials we had already or could scavenge from around the farm. Fair enough. But only the best for my chookies, so this little chook pen would be known as 'Chateau le Chookie'. Why yes I have been watching too much Tour de France and yes I seem to have developed a French accent whilst passing screws and tape measures to Mr M as he builds Chateau le Chookie.

First things first, we marked out where we wanted to put Chateau le Chookie - in the general area next to the shed on the eastern side of the backyard. The area next to the shed used to have a gate into the yard, but with the construction of the new fence we decided this is actually where we would like to put the dog pens (which we had at Ythanbrae but are yet to construct here at Brindabella, yes we have lived here for nine months and our dogs are still homeless!) So dog pens at the back against the fence, right next to the shed and chook pen in front of that with a little walkway up to the dog pen. We knocked together some rough old plans (yes the measurements are in feet, pine posts are measured this way so we worked this way) and got a few trusty friends on the case: can of pink spray paint and the fence post rammer on the tractor. Thankfully we are old friends after the great new fence construction earlier this year.

The pen will have a yard area for them to run about in as well as a raised nesting box house and an egg collection flap. We rammed in ten ex-vineyard posts we actually brought with us all the way from Ythanbrae (the other farm in Yea had a vineyard). Lots of me jumping about again telling Mr M the post was 'as crooked as an Indian spin bowler!' Eventually we got them in though. Lily and Pippa were site managers today as Tessa was off exploring in the paddock making friends with the lambs. Too busy and important for mundane Chateau building.

Next came the strainers along the top. The front section of Chateau le Chookie will just have wire on the roof (i.e. no need to be sloped). The rear section however will have a tin roof so we needed to put a slight angle on that to allow rain to run off. Pine posts acted as the top stays on the front section, with wooden boards on the rear section. String lines helped.

I will admit a bit of cursing and head scratching with a few crooked angles and bent posts. Then to top it all off Mr M went and put a strainer wire on his assembly too tight and threw the whole project a kilter. Let's just say trying to fix the issues with a hand winch for a good few hours was a waste of time and we should've just cut the wire and started again. Sigh.

What I think is most exciting me about Chateau le Chookie is the door. Yup, the door. This door used to be the doorway through to the new western wing of the garden we made (it used to be paddock), we were going to remove it anyway to open up to the new part of the garden and I suggested using it as the chook pen's door. 'You can't buy a door like that!' I believe was my plea. Here it is in its former home, and ready to be installed in Chateau le Chookie.

At this point Mr M's Dad arrived as reinforcements and I was stood down as right hand ~~man~~ woman. The rest of the afternoon they managed to get the tin roof on the rear section as well as dig a trench for the wire to go into (to keep those pesky digging foxes away from my chookies!) Most of this however was done in the half light then absolute pitch black, no time for great photography, so I will have more photos of the Chateau le Chookie soon. Promise.

Have you got chooks? Where do they live? Please don't tell me they live in a Taj Mahal of the poultry world, I just might cry.

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

Pssst....check in over at Lou's to see some other lovely people's weekends

painting predicaments

2011-07-21T15:10:00.000+10:00

The painting of the ramshackle farmhouse continues. Still not finished. What should have been a two week job has turned into more like a two month job due to all this rain we've been having. No matter, I thought I'd better keep you up to speed - here is the house before we went to Darwin, grey undercoat on and windows prepped...

Please excuse the dying plants...must do something about that. After much deliberation and one random door knock on a house in a nearby town which I liked the colour of, we finally decided that the main colour of the house was to be Colorbond's 'Dune', with 'Surfmist' as the window colour.

Here is the farmhouse as it looks today...

The baseboards are yet to be painted the double-strength, and the little front porch roof fascia hasn't been done yet either. The windows have been done though, hallelujah! Most of the windows in the farmhouse were painted shut, now with a bit of elbow grease and a new paint job they are slip-sliding like little beauties. Love, love, love the old sash windows, especially if they are actually functional.

I thought it was going to be as easy as picking a main colour and a window trim colour - wrong! I had questions coming at me from the painters about baseboards, fascias, gutters, downpipes, the chimney, the back porch support post?! All these things I hadn't really thought about. We ummed and ahhed for awhile, scratched our heads and then went ahead and told the painters to do the baseboards in a double strength of the 'Dune' (to 'ground' the house, these are still to be painted) and to paint under the eaves and the back porch roof the 'Surfmist' (to 'lift' the house). The chimney is the standard 1950's-60's yellow/orange brick, nothing too special, but we still wanted to keep the exposed brick as a bit of a feature. Plus we'd like to convert it into a working fireplace again one day so a painted hot chimney would probably just peel and blister.

At the moment the windows have been done but the house needs another coat, as you can see with the cutting in around the windows. This little window is in the lounge room, isn't it cute? I want to get a special stained glass to go in it (at the moment it's not even glass, it's like a diffused perspex? Weird).

So far I am loving the colour. I wanted a taupe/camel colour but didn't want to go too yellow or too green, I wanted the undertone to be grey and totally neutral which I think we have achieved. Mr M was super skeptical about the white windows, but is now convinced with the 'Surfmist'. He wanted a darker colour and would not be convinced with my ideas of cooler colours receeding. What would he know - who has the creative arts tertiary education here? Pfft.

The western wall, which was the worst area of the house copping all the weather, has scrubbed up a treat. You can see how bad the paint job, or lack there of, was in this post here. Just a few more patches and cutting in around the windows to be done now. And how well does my lovely 'Dune' blend with the colour of the hot water system outside the bathroom which used to stick out like a sore thumb?

Painters reckon they only have another two days with good weather and they'll be done. Praying for sunshiney days here. I am sick of stumbling out of the shower to come face to face with a tradie in the morning.

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

P.S. Winner announced for the CWA Cook Book giveaway! Scroll down...

wordless wednesday: jars jars jars for the wedding

2011-07-20T13:19:00.000+10:00

Playing along with Faith, Hope and a whole lotta Love.

Image by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

give it away, give it away now - cwa cookbook giveaway

2011-07-18T16:31:00.001+10:00

Two years ago I clicked on the little button saying 'sign up' for a Blogger account. I really had no idea what I was doing, all I knew was that I had discovered a world full of inspiring voices, ideas, musings, images and people who seemed much more than a computer screen. People who thought like me, wrote like me. Like minded creative people. I wanted in. Through my blogging experiences I've met (both physically and virtually) some fabulous people, I have been offered lots of opportunities I wouldn't have otherwise and opened a whole can of worms I didn't know existed until I clicked on that button. I'm so glad I did.

So to celebrate my two years in the blogosphere I am having a wee little giveaway here on ye ol' blog. Oh yes - free stuff! And what better to giveaway than a cookbook, this one is especially befitting to my blog I think: The Country Women's Association's Cook Book - Seventy Years in the Kitchen. It's absolutley chocka-block full of tried and tested tasty recipes, from beetroot salad to chocolate blanc mange and how to make the perfect scones. All the important and practical stuff is covered, it is literally an Australian kitchen bible to treasure forever, your go-to for any culinery query.

I am almost at the magic 300 followers also, so once I hit that mark (at time of writing I'm at 296) I am going to randomly pick one of my lovely readers to be the lucky owner of the CWA Cook Book.

To be in the running to win simply leave a comment here telling me what is your favourite thing to cook or eat which reminds you of home, of nanna's and open fires, of winter and family and all things cosy.

P.S. Entries only open to Australia residents.

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

WINNER ANNOUNCED: Congratulations Jess from Where My Heart Is, you are the proud new owner of the CWA Cook Book - Seventy Years in the Kitchen. I couldn't agree more that a sticky date pudding in the quintessential winter dessert - yum!

Please email me your postal address, ellaatbella@gmail.com

Enjoy! Thank-you to everyone who entered and welcome to the new followers :)

get your craft on #5: easy peasy baby beanie

2011-07-14T17:35:00.001+10:00

Now say that five times with a mouthful of Doritos! Or is that just me? Anyway...I'm back with the latest installment of Get Your Craft On, I know I missed one in June but am hoping to do two in July? At the rate time is flying by I think I might have to do three in August! I know, crazy.

With the babies currently sprouting up in my life (latest edition Pepe and my sister is pregnant at the moment) I thought I'd do a quick tutorial on how to make a little new baby gift. I make these all. the. time. Like literally always have a few floating about on my sewing table. I started making them as 'sales boosters' for when I did markets with Little Miss Emma. Basically my big ticket items were canvas's and minky blankets, but a lot of the time I needed smaller and more affordable items for mums on the run to buy without thinking too hard about the family budget. Plus they cost me next to nothing to make in materials and labour. Winner.

To start you will need the following...

- a baby beanie

- baking paper to make pattern

- pencil to trace pattern

- scissors (fabric scissors and paper scissors - don't use your nice sewing scissors to cut baking paper!)

- a stretchy-knit fabric like jersey

- pins

- co-ordinating thread in your trusty sewing machine

Originally I got this pattern out of a library book, now unless you are near the Murrindindi Shire Library in Yea (anyone?) I suggest you pick yourself up a little beanie to use as a template. I bought this spotty one in a discount store for $2 to use as an example. Then you can make the pattern and have it forever and make thousands more beanies, all from starting with your $2 one :)

Get some of your baking paper and with your pencil use your beanie as a template to trace around it - add about 3-4cm for seam allowances and about 10cm to the bottom, you'll find out later why. For the top of the beanie I like to do a pixie hat which I will later knot. I think they look super cute and add a bit of a difference to an otherwise plain beanie. As you can see I just freehand drew mine, trying to make it as symmetrical as possibly and rounding the top off. If you like you can precisely measure yours but I'm a freehand kind of sewer/pattern maker! You can always trim down your pattern piece later.

Cut out the shape, you should end up with a pattern piece like this:

Now using the baking paper pattern you just made pin it to a folded piece of your stretch fabric (so that you get two pieces when cut out). I used a bright pink and watermelon striped jersey but have seen lots of great gender neutral knits in greys, whites and reds around lately perfect for a baby shower gift.

Once you've pinned your pattern to your folded fabric, cut it out and you should have two beanie pieces (front and back)...

Now you can pin them together all the way around, except for the bottom which will be left open. Off you go. Pin, pin, pin.

Next step is to sew it all together. Start at one end and go up over the long pixie-hat and down the other side. If you're not used to sewing a stretch fabric go slooowly, it can be super frustrating the way the fabric rolls and won't sit flat like a nice simple quilting cotton. I am no stretch fabric sewing expert like my mum (she has a certificate to say she is a 'Knit-Wit'. Yeah. All over that.)

Once you have trimmed some excess fabric away you might have something resembling this...

Go ahead and turn the hat inside out (or right side out...confused?), iron it all out nice and flat and tie a knot in the long pixie-hat. You'll see now that the cornering at the top point of the hat doesn't matter too much as it is hidden in the knot. No need for perfect sewing? My kind of sewing.

But what about the bottom I hear you ask? Well, like I said earlier when you made the pattern piece, if you left a bit extra then you should be able to fold the bottom up, and then again you should see some nice neat stitching like so...

...and still have a big enough beanie for a newborn. Simply hand stitch two stitches on each side of the hat to secure the fold-up bottom, or if you are an embroidery wizz you could even do some French knots along the fold, and voila! The perfect new baby gift or something to quickly whip up for a baby shower. Once you get going on these beanies I swear they will take you ten minutes tops, and be quite addictive to get rid of some scrap fabric lying about.

Happy sewing!

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

the darwin wedding

2011-07-13T16:49:00.000+10:00

I'm baaack....refreshed, relaxed and a little bit browner. Ok maybe not more relaxed, it seems I may just need a holiday from the holiday?! I don't think I've drunk so much, eaten so much, talked so much in one week then the one I've just had. Lots of great friends in a great place having a great time.

And the wedding? Well the wedding was amazing. Fun, relaxed, just like the happy couple wanted with all their nearest and dearest in the tropical sun to celebrate with them.

Mr M and I had a blast hitting the Mindil Beach Markets with mates, going on a sunset cruise with the rest of the bridal party (as a surprise to the bride and myself!) and exploring Litchfield National Park where we discovered the most beautiful waterfalls, went on a few walks and found some great secluded swimming spots away from the tourist crowds.

Oh yeah and I totally rocked it as Maid of Honour for all of those wondering - lovely in lemon, frocked out in frangipani's and with an impromptu speech to boot. Sorry I don't have more photos of the actual wedding but well, I was busy!

Holiday over. Boo! Back to work I guess, far far away from the tropics. Reality bites.

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella and some by my friend Tegan - thanks! :)

bon voyage

2011-07-06T15:22:00.001+10:00

We're off on a little jaunt north! A whole lot north actually. To Darwin to be precise, and not just for any old escape-the-winter-blues holiday. My best friend is getting married, to an ace bloke, and there's all sorts of week long activities and celebrations to be had.

I'm going to try and prepare some posts for you all whilst I'm away, but if get too busy today ~~daydreaming about mojitos under a palm tree~~ packing just be assured there are some good posts up my sleeve - including a sneaky giveaway, another installment of Get Your Craft On, some features of lovely rural businesswomen doing their thing and an update on the farmhouse's paint job. Phew! No wonder I need a holiday.

Catch you on the flipside, or alternatively in about a week. Now here's hoping I get some beauty sleep on the red eye flight tonight...

Image from Etsy seller Belle Hibou

wordless wednesday: baby pepe

2011-07-06T11:51:00.000+10:00

Playing along with Faith, Hope and a whole lotta Love.

Image by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella