LuLu's been a busy bee...

Good morning ladies! Can you believe how fast time is going?! Another week is over, and we're down to 35 days till Christmas already!

This little lady, Miss LuLu La Rue has been a very busy bee of late. There's been exploring to do, and sniffing too...


yes, LuLu has been a busy little girl.....


playing with her favourite piece of string takes a great deal of her time....


it has to be investigated anew each and every day....


quality tested......


and approved.....


then there's the really important stuff to do like catching a quick 40 winks...


but then with Christmas drawing near, it's time to get all gussied up in your Christmas finest to pose for the family Christmas card photo.....


which will then be sent to all our family, friends and acquaintance's.....


some of which are just from LuLu, like the one to our Vet......


and now after all of LuLu's hard work and a helping paw for her mummy, our family Christmas cards are all ready to send out on December 1st....


See, I told you LuLu's been a very busy bee of late. And she asked me to tell you all that she hopes you have a lovely weekend and wishes you as much fun as she has!

Ho Ho Ho........Amanda & LuLu La Rue xxx

The next generation....

Good morning ladies! I hope you're all well and having a lovely week? Today I thought I'd share with you one of the things that's been happening here at Jacaranda Cottage......

This lovely young woman is our darling daughter, our baby, our precious princess...


and right now she's doing this! Oh my!


and according to the learn to drive guide, she had better be aware of these when she's driving......lol


yes, my baby who's nearly sweet 16, will be taking her learners test in January so there's been lots of studying......


and some practical driving experience with dear ole dad......


Good ole dad......who'll guide her on her way with good advice......


and always ready to jump in with a helping hand if need be.....


cruising around and around the neighbourhood......


even if it is a little stressful.....for the instructor! Princess looks like she's having a ball, while her daddy........well let's just say he was glad when the FIRST lesson was o-v-e-r. LOL


all kidding aside though, our baby did a great job and gives us the feeling that she'll be a really good and responsible driver in the not too distant future.....


and of course, good ole dad has a motto....


"if you want to drive it, you have to wash it!"


and naturally being the loving mother that I am, I wanted to give my baby as much practice as I could, so I offered my truck up for a washing too after Princess had finished washing her daddy's car. That was good of me, wasn't it. heheheh.....



Wishing you all a wonderful day my dear friends!

Love Amanda xxx

A little gift for the cottage.......

Hi Ladies, I've missed you! I trust you've all been well and happy, and for most of you, preparing for your upcoming Thanksgiving season? Since we don't celebrate Thanksgiving here, Down Under, I have started decorating our little Jacaranda Cottage for the Christmas season. Our family loves Christmas very much, so Princess and I were delighted to drag out all the boxes from the shed last weekend and start decorating! Today I thought I'd show you just a few little areas that we've been working on........

Princess was in charge of decorating all of our Christmas trees this year. This little tree sits upon our dining table and has a pink and silver theme to it. I think my daughter did a really nice job of it too. Thank you for all your help my angelheart!


It's amazing how one thing leads to another around here and nothing ever turns out to be as simple as I first think. Since last Christmas I have collected quite a few soup tureens, which normally grace the top of the china cabinet through out the year. Now that Christmas is coming, naturally I wanted to decorate the china cabinet with a more festive look, so that meant that I had to re-house the tureens. I had the brilliant idea of putting them up on the top of the kitchen cabinets, and of course that meant a big clean out of the things that were already up there.......you get the idea. Sorting, cleaning, rearranging.....and this is what it looks like now.


All of my soup tureens couldn't quite fit in the kitchen so a couple of them had to spill over onto the hutch..........


I'm still pottering and tweaking with decorations, but this is the current look. Planning on going thrifting again soon, so this is highly likely to change, yet again, depending on what I find! lol


I took this photo of the dining area to mainly show you the lighting. I really dislike the down light above the dining table, so I have decided to treat our little Jacaranda Cottage to an early Christmas gift......


and here it is.......


this gorgeous light is just what I've been wanting for this area and I believe that it will really lift the whole area and make it more inviting. I'm not a big online shopper, but only because I am a very hands on type person and I'm always out and about poking through the stores (both new and thrift) looking for a lovely bargain for the cottage. Recently though I happened upon this online lighting store called buyster lighting and found so many beautiful lamps and lights that I was almost beside myself with excitement! After a good long look through the store, I controlled my drooling over the chandeliers, and placed an order for this little sweetie. Hopefully it will arrive asap and I will have my handy, handsome husband to install the new light. Naturally you will be the first to know when this happens my dear friends!

Anyhoo, I guess I should shake my tail feather and get hopping. Life is officially hectic here right now. Princess is just about to complete her final year of school, also she has her end of year dance concert very soon, and we're preparing for our darling little girl, our baby, to go for her........drivers license! Throw all that on top of the regular stuff life sends our way and well.........busy and stressed! Please just hang in there with me for another couple of weeks and then things should be far more settled and I'll have time for regular blogging and visiting. Until then though, just know that I am thinking of you and wishing you all the most wonderful season ahead!

Lots of love and hugs........Amanda xxx

Time for a rest...

Hi ladies! I trust you've all been well, and enjoying your days where ever you are and what ever you may be doing? Firstly I'd like to thank all of you who took the time to leave a comment regarding our sweet little Mia BonBon. We read all of your comments and want you to know that we appreciate you all so very much! LuLu is still missing her little mate and still looks for her at times it seems, but life is settling into a new routine for us all with out little Mia. Like life is for all of us these days, life has been pretty busy here at our little Jacaranda Cottage. Princess is nearing the end of a very important year in her schooling career, and she has her annual dance concert coming up in a couple of weeks too. It's been a whirl of school exams, dance exams, dance rehearsals and costume fittings for us lately so I have decided to take a little break from blogging for a bit. It may only be for a week or two, perhaps longer, I'm not sure. I just know that I am feeling completely worn out lately and have lost my blogging mojo. I hope that after a good brain and body rest that I'll be back to feeling all inspired and ready to show you something fun again here at Jacaranda Cottage.

Before I sign off though I wanted to share with you my latest finds......

This white wrought iron out door setting was an absolute steal at $20. I have been looking for one for the longest time and recently I just happened upon a lady who wanted to get rid of them. She was happy to give them to me for free, but I just couldn't take them for nothing, so I offered her $20 and she was tickled pink with that......and so was I!


Then I popped into my favourite local thrift store to have my weekly poke around and seeing nothing of interest I was just about to head out the door when out of the corner of my eye I saw these two little lovelies.......


and all for the costly sum of $2 each! Cute hey? Just goes to show that you never know what you'll find if you're prepared to look!



Well my dear friends, it's about time for me to sign off. I'll be back soon, just need to recharge my inner batteries for a bit, so please don't forget me ok?

See you soon..........love and hugs ~ Amanda xxx

Mia's gone...

Mia BonBon 14th May 2009 ~ 14th October 2009


Our darling little girl, our Mia BonBon, crossed over the Rainbow Bridge this morning at 10.25am. We are heartbroken. Rest in peace sweetheart, we love you.

~Amanda.

Mia update & a question for you...

Good morning ladies! Sorry for the delay in posting an update about Mia, I just haven't wanted to talk about it until I could fully wrap my head around it. After taking Mia in for her ultrasound, bile acids tests, and in depth blood analysis last Thursday, we got a call from the Specialist last Friday with the results....and they weren't good. Mia's liver condition is inoperable. There's nothing that can be done for her except helping to control her liver disfunction by diet and meds. So ok, that part I can deal with no worries, have gone out and bought all her special food and have been cooking her up fresh pasta and veggies each day too. What I am having a hard time accepting is that they told us that Mia's condition is really, really bad. Her liver looked to them like the liver of a dog who was already very old and at the advanced and last stages of liver disease.......not like a 5 month old puppy like Mia should have. They've told us that Mia could surprise us all and live to a ripe old age, but say that is highly unlikely. The 3 Specialists in the room with us told us that she was very close to death the day we rushed her in to see them, and to just take her home and love her and give her a good life............



well, there's no doubt that we will certainly do that! Our darling little Mia BonBon may or may not have a long life, but I guarantee that it will be the most wonderful pampered and fun life that we can possibly provide. You'll have to excuse me if my blog becomes flooded with Mia and LuLu posts from time to time, but since this is our family blog I want to capture as much of them together playing like healthy young puppies while I can and preserving it on here for our family records.

So I have decided to just live in the moment with my babies and enjoy every moment I have with them. We're doing everything we can for her, so now it's time to focus on the fact that we still have her here with us to love and enjoy, and we'll deal with things as they come, not dwell on the sadness of it all.


Changing topics completely...............I have a question for you all. In the new year we will be having a double surprise party at our house for my mum who will be turning 70 and for our beautiful daughter who will be turning Sweet 16. I have the invitations all printed out and ready to post off later today, and if everyone who's been invited is able to attend then we would have 80 adults and 20 children. My question for you is this, no not am I CRAZY?! We already know the answer to that one! lol My question is do you have any tips for me on catering to that many people all by yourself, and do you have any wonderful recipes to share that you can make in very large quantities?

The party will be held just after New Year's, so that's right in the middle of summer for us aussies. We're planning to have a BBQ with steaks, rissoles, kebabs, chops, and sausages done on the grill. I am planning to do other dishes like lasange, a couple of different quiches, spaghetti bol, a chicken curry, and lots of different salads. Now, what kinds of salads? Also desserts, do you have any really delicious desserts that keep well in the heat and are easy to make. I need recipes for mains and desserts that I can make mainly the day before, so that I don't have everything to cook on the day, and they will need to be able to keep well in the heat once they are put out on the night. Also if you have any tips on having an at home party for 100 guests, then I would really appreciate that A LOT! I'm used to being able to cater for 40 people with out any worries all by myself as we do this at least a couple of times a year with family get-togethers, but 100 people......well that's keeping me up at night in a slight PANIC! lol

Ok ladies, it's time I got moving and got some chores done. I hope you're having a wonderful week my dear friends. Hugs for you all.......love Amanda xxx

Yes darlin' we do need them.......

and they are TREASURES, not junk......contrary to what my husband believes! LOL!


***editing to add that there's a problem with blogger. I typed out a big long bit about each photo, but all of my words didn't publish! ARGH!!!! Well it took me over an hour to do this post, so I'll go crazy if I try to type it all again (can't remember half of what I rambled on about anyway!). Suffice to say that this post was just to show you some newly thrifted treasures and how they match some of things we already have. Ok, I'm off to have a break down...and a coffee......argh!