at my house...

snow in blue mountains by Mark Brown

...we just returned from staying at our friend's new gorgeous grey and white painted weatherboard cottage in the Blue Mountains. So dreamy. The Blue Mountains are only a 2 hour drive from me but you feel a million miles from the bright city lights.

We ate the best devonshire tea here, I browsed here for an insanely long time (nice coffee too), I discovered a beautiful fabric store in Blackheath called Ribbons and Rainbows and walked through here. Everything is antiquated and just my cup of tea and there is a really cool mix of bohemian folk buzzing around which leads to my favourite overheard conversation of the trip;

Waitress: 'Morning Julie'

Julie: 'Morning but I'm not Julie anymore I changed my name to Ada last year'

Waitress: 'Oh ok, sorry Ada but that will take a little getting used to'

Ada: {Bemused totally unimpressed reaction}

So yes, I did manage a spot of shopping. Fabrics, buttons, ribbons and all sorts of stuff but my favourite things I found were;

Scotty dog appliques cut from original 1930's fabrics. Have a few ideas with where these will end up.....
..... and this sweet hand painted bowl for Kitty to eat cereal from when she's a bit bigger and has stopped lobbing everything across the room. It was sitting in an antique pile and when I turned it over and saw it was painted in England in 1976 (made the same year as me-does that make me antique too?!) I had to have it. It was $5! What a splurge!

Pop over to Lou for more homely insights.