Southern Highland Getaway

Catch up........

I havent blogged for weeks now , but boy have I been busy. The kitchen is in but still no lights or power points. Why is it so hard for lighting shops to give the same information regarding led lighting ? What type of bulbs, what colour gives different effects , I cant get a consistant answer. And any of the hanging lights I am after are only available in America. So the renovation has come to a standstill. Maybe I should post the kitchen pics so far. The tiler was supposed to tile the bathroom floor when we were on holidays pre-christmas. But alas we returned to nothing done.............

We had a week away in our hometown of Bowral & a couple of days in Sydney. Catching up with family was lovely but sadly my hometown is showing signs of wear. Many empty shops & now more multi national companies opening in town. Local shop owners tell me the empty shops are due to the high rent increases. I go shopping in Bowral a couple of times a year because it is were I find all the lovely acc. in a small radius that I just cant get on the Gold Coast. So I dont want to be going there to see all the brand name shops that is all we have to pick from here.

On a positive note some old favourites are still there Barbara's Store House, So french, My Place (featured in this months house & garden, the photo dosent do it justice though, its way cuter at the front with its rosemary bushes & cobble paving) It made me think of Ness at Marley & Lockyer Blog. She would love the setup. The largest most fabuloust (is that a word) kitchen store & a few more but the names escape me at the moment.

So I went to the historic town of Berrima to Peppers antique store & bought some buttons , yes, antique buttons , just because they were speaking to me from the glass top drawers & a lovely french wire cake cooler (love it). Visited the art gallery out there , stunning collection. And then out of the blue there was the round mirror in a store better than I had imagined for our family room renovation. I had to have it and decided to figure out later how I would get it back to Qld.

I discovered the most amazing antique on consignment place in a house at Braemar , I am so glad I dont live there anymore , how would I not go there on a weekly basis & not pick out items from there outdoor area full of fountains from france , windows from chateaus ..... so many things my head was spinning with sheer joy.

We stayed for the first time at the lovely Briars Country Lodge which was perfect with the kids . Lovely view from the french doors looking out to the pond & gazebo with ducks galore. The image so special of the kids running from the room , my daughters hair blowing back behind her & my sons squeals of joy. Great location as I visited my nanna at Harbison homes in Moss Vale each day. Cant wait to go back in Spring !

I wasnt prepared for the cold mornings & nights though. After not living here for 15 years I had forgotten you can have three seasons in one day.

Then we had two days in Sydney at the Crowne Plaza near Darling Harbour visiting the aquarium & Wildlife world (which is fabulous). The highlight was discovering the Lindt Coffee Shop. OMG the hot chocolate is to die for , all four of us took a sip at the same time & our eyes lit up. I am ruined forever of enjoying a hot chocolate unless it is lindt. We used to like going to Max Brenners (the chocolate everything cafe) at Marina Mirage but alas we went last week & it was positively ordinary now.

As for the round mirror the day before we were leaving I thought i had better organise having it sent to Qld with pack & send. I had hoped it wouldnt be more than $50 & thought they will probably say $80 but to my shock it would be $169. So the mirror stayed with my mother-in-law until a later date , which turned out to be only two weeks when she drove to qld for a few days after Christmas. So the mirror is now up , lovely.

This is the first of a few catch up blogs. I would love to download more photos but it takes 10 minutes for each one. Need to find out how to speed up that process.

Karyn x