Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Spring is in the air......

 
 
 
Good morning and what a beautiful morning it is here in sunny Queensland....I can feel the warmth of the sun on my back as I sit at my dinning room table blogging.
 
 
 
The weather has been perfect this last week and I think Spring has arrived a week earlier.
All we need now is some spring rain as my tanks are getting empty, we are on the emergency supply..I have become the water police walking around in the evening mumbling 3 min showers that's it, hair washing in the laundry....My new backpackers that arrived yesterday think I'm nuts...hahaha
 
 
I would like you to meet my new cooking companion, Web. Boy is teaching me a whole new way of cooking..Throw a roast on the barby or a chicken or 2, a potato bake some fish whatever, walk away do some gardening come in wash your hands, set the table, make a salad and presto Web has cooked dinner for me....Last night we had Roast pork, potato bake and salad...Yummmmmoooo


I admit he doesn't look real pretty sitting here on my veranda, but I have decided to let him stay as he is so handy...I'm yet to try pizza on Web I'll keep you updated...Does any one else cook there meals on the barby????
 
Only 3 more sleeps to Chloe's wedding.........and 3 more sleeps until I see my big boy David and Karen. Yep I am getting excited....touched with sadness....
The sadness comes from knowing I will be walking Chloe down that aisle when really my Greg should be here to walk his first daughter down...We talked about this for so many years...There has been a lot of tears from me this week as the hole in my heart seems to have split open again with the wanting of Greg here. I know he will be here in our hearts and minds, but some times that's not enough.
 Sorry for that bit of rambling but those of you that have followed my blog will under stand......I know that Saturday will be touched with a little of that sorrow but Greg would want us to be happy and celebrate his daughters wedding the way he would, and Greg knew how to celebrate.....
 
 
Blessings to you All
Mandy

Thursday, August 23, 2012

In the garden....

 Thank you all for your wonderful comments  on my last post...I am tyring to reply to your comments but blogger won't let me email from comments so I don't know what I'm doing wrong,any ideas????
 
 
I Have had a lovely day in the garden weeding, planting out cuttings from my Mum and Auntie that I got at Easter Time....mulching and general cleaning up. I also have backpackers helping me every day, without them I would not be able to keep the garden looking as good as it does.
 

Chloe and Damian get married in this section of the garden in 10 days....Yes another wedding. This is also the only area to get frosted so I'm watering the grass to try to green it up a little bit. It will all look so good on the day I'm sure.
 
 
 
 I do need to add a bit of color though to the garden I think' a few more daisies and flowers should do the trick and give the added colour...
 
 
My cupboard is filling up fast as you can see....Lately I have found some silver salt and pepper shakers..Not enough to do all the tables, but the 3 pairs will add some bling to the bridal table very nicely I think.
 
 
I also have found lots of cake stand plates with the holes in them but the stand part I can not find...I wonder if any one will notice there plate has I whole in it??????? I will keep looking for the stands though but I think every one else looks for them too.
 
 
Bruce found the chairs above for me at the dump, so that makes them free. I love them so retro and worn to just the right shabby, they look great out side with my metal table...I find that one can never have to many chairs.....
 
Actully I am selling some chairs, my red leather ones are going. I love them but they are to big for in the kitchen, so I am getting rid of the table and chairs in there and putting my smaller one back in..$4oo for the lot if any one is interested let me know...
 


Enjoy your week end
 
Blessings
Mandy


Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Favorite Finds.


Hi All,
I wanted to show you all a few of my favorite finds.


I have madly been doing the second hand shops in Toowoomba and I have came across some lovely things. I got the glass cake stand for only $5. I put my dome over it, and sat my silver bird and a ceramic rose i there as well.



 I have seen so many blogs that use the domes for decorating and they look lovely, so I was excited I found this one on my Honey moon at the Woolloongabba Antique Centre in Brisbane. I even saw Sandy from www.paintmewhite.com   There is some great stuff in there to see.


Plates is what I have been hunting for though....


Dinner plates, wine glasses, drinking glasses, bread and butter plates theses are just some of the things I have been buying from the Op shops.

When I walk into Vinnie's and the lady asks me how the plate hunting is going I know that I have been in there WAY to many times....hahah

Their is nothing like having lovely old china plates to eat off..and set the table with. All the colour comes from the plates and light glimmering on the glass makes a elegant table setting.


This set below I got on Friday from a op shop I didn't even know was there.....I know I missed one..
This was only $6 for the lot.
It's not a full set but close enough...


I needed some where to store all this china so I brought down this old cupboard from the dairy, it used to have all my material stored in it...Now though the dairy is always full of back packers and I have no sewing room..I love this old girl though.


And as you can see she is filling up fast with china.



The inside was already painted the teal colour which I'm loving at the moment.



Thanks for spending time reading my blog....

Mandy



























HEY MANDY GUESS WHO MWAHAHAH

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

A Love Story.......


HI.....
Remember me? Well I used to blog regularly once but things slipped there for a while and blogging was on the back burner,but I'm back......One of my dear blogging friends Deb asked me what my married name is now? Well.........It is still Storey...
O.K there's a story to this so go make a cuppa and I will tell you..

 

To make a long story short Bruce is Greg's brother......Yeah I married another Storey some story hahahaha...

Getting married again was not high on my to do list that is for sure and certainly not to one of my brother in laws....Bruce and I were often on the phone talking as he was always there to listen to my ramblings after Greg died, and I to his as he didn't have a very happy life at all.

One evening Bruce turned up on the door step and told me he had fallen in love with me and wanted to make my life happy again...To say I was shocked is a understatement, I looked at him and just laughed....really laughed. To Bruce's credit he didn't turn around and go...

After a week of tyring to convince me that it was a good idea for us to go out I decided to give it a go..
Boy did he have his work cut out, I found it all very strange at first. I mean he went from brother in law to boy friend that is some change...
Emotions were varied as you can imagine. The three youngest kids still living at home Will, Robbie and Cassie were all fine about it.( I think they were glad I had stopped crying) The older children didn't cope as well, but they were all living there own lives and they  had always had two loving parents while growing up to help them grow into the strong adults they are today.....The younger three needed that as well.  Greg and Bruce's family and friends, well some were happy others not as happy.
 One thing I did learn is people are selfish and don't like change....I found that me being happy made people angry at me.....At first I couldn't under stand why they weren't happy for me. Now I know that the were unable to move on and would rather I stay at home sad and miserable for the rest of my life as that is what good widows are supposed to do...This surprised me....I realized that it wouldn't matter who I went out with they would feel the some way.....

Being with Bruce I have learnt even more about my Greg. Listening to Bruce talk about the things that Greg got up to as a kid gives as all a good laugh....Greg was the eldest Brother in his family and Bruce was 8 yeas younger and the 2nd youngest brother...There was 6 in all...Greg and Bruce were also the only  Christians in there family...As Brothers in there adult years they were very close....One thing I find about being with Bruce is he understands when even now I still have days when the grief of loosing Greg still over whelms me....He to has sadness as he lost a brother and friend....

So together we are moving on...Bruce will always be Uncle to the kids and that's what they call him....William calls him Unky which is cute......We are a family now may be not your run of the mill family but we make it work, and I know that we are all so much happier than I thought possible.......

That is my story as to why I am still
Mandy Storey


Blessings to you all

Mandy