Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Vintage clobber and friends with chainsaws


It was a weekend of epic proportions over here at Betsy's. The momentous occasion involved both children going for their first sleepover together at Nonna's. Not being the sort of people who would waste such an opportunity we packed in as much as we could. We had dinner at a Thai restaurant, saw a movie, slept in until 8 am (the first 8 continuous hours of sleep had for about 5 years) and then went out for brunch at our favourite West End cafe.
Then there was even time for a little prowl around the West End shops. The above photo is from a cute little shop called

and they had some wonderful local designers as well as the cute little under the stairs arrangement of vintage inspired kids clothes and a toy room and blackboard.

A few doors down was a haven of vintage goodies called Bang Doll Vintage.




It was a visual feast of colour with outfits for the whole family. Fancy some lederhosen for your 7 yo son, yep they had those as well (on the left behind that lovely mustard coloured bag) . I was also quite inspired by the vintage apron collection and  a gorgeous red velvet brocade lounge that the owner  proudly told me he rescued  mere minutes before an encounter with a bulldozer at the tip.



I was quite enamoured with the green and yellow ensemble. Legoman was relieved that it appeared to be a tiny size 6. Yellow and lime green are really not my colours but gosh such a glorious sight to feast the eyes on.

We wanted to pop into Nook which is the cutest little shop of hand made bits and bobs but unfortunately they were shut. The shop cat was most welcoming however and was more than happy to come and smooch us.



Other than breakfast we displayed superb shopping restraint. Probably because later that day we planned to head off to an art gallery to look at an exhibition of one of our favourite artists. More on that soon.....

Back home, children all delivered it was time for some friends with chainsaws. One of our friends who follows the blog offered to send her hubby over with his chainsaw expertise to help Legoman with that massive branch. There was much pontificating over weights, angles and anticipated trajectories before one  large branch swung down on the end of a rope. Another small tree was felled before they became nervous and moved onto warming the barbie instead. As I was anticipating many more felled branches than actually occurred the photos are frankly almost as unimpressive as the actual branch felling but watching the good man with the machine was pure artistry.



Meanwhile the boys armed themselves with hammers and got stuck into some serious macadamnia nut collecting and cracking. We have a random 70's style concrete slab in our backyard which is the home of all nut cracking attempts and chalk art works. Legoman keeps wanting to dig it up but boys love nothing more than a good concrete slab and for the time being it is staying.



And the girls, well there were numerous tea parties, baking of sandpit cakes and a hearty game of Dora snakes and ladders. When you are 2 that actually involves lots of excited dice throwing and shouting of random unrelated numbers.



Eternal gratitude to Nonnas and understanding friends with powertools.

11 comments:

  1. Yeah for Nonna's:) I'm glad you and your hubby got some adult time together and a lovely sleep in, those weekends alone are special. I get scared when my hubby gets the chainsaw out especially after a little incident with a chainsaw, a tree and some power lines, very scary.

    When I cook my pizzas I put all the toppings straight onto the base and cook them in the oven for around 15-20 mins on 200 degrees. I always check them but that seems to be the average time. I hope you enjoy cooking some pizzas. xo

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  2. Oh your weekend sounds like bliss. Eight hours of continuous sleep! And I reckon that lederhosen was my brother's from 1976. Yes, our parents used to dress my brothers like that! Ha. It's criminal, isn't it? xx

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  3. Yeah, that eight hours of continuous sleep does sound good, but I'd swap that for a brunch and shop at West End anyday! Love the Lime and yellow! I'd almost forgotten about west end, now that I'm hiding out here in the bush. Sounds like you had a lovely time. Looks like the kidlets are happy to be home and hanging again too. ;)

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  4. That sounds like a gorgeous weekend. I am quite jealous - particularly of the 8am sleep in!

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  5. sounds absolutely lovely, glad you too had some time together - loving the images of those shops, I see a feel a visit to West End is definitely needed next child free Tuesday xx

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  6. Oh what I would give to have a full night of glorious sleep. Sounds like a fantastic weekend and those shops look right up my alley.
    x

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  7. Sounds like you made the most of your weekend and Iove the look of those little shops!

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  8. What bliss. Love the nook in the first pic. Must make our way to West End for a peek sometime soon... gxo

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  9. What a wonderful time you guys had.
    The food, the shops and galleries, the time alone and the sleep...perfect. I hope you get more of the above sooner than later.

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  10. Such fabulous places to visit! Lucky you two having some time to yourselves. Gotta love it! x

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  11. I love breakfast at Atomica, but I've never been into Don't Tell Fannie, which is practically next door. Looks like I should next time I'm in West End for brekkie!

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