A holiday! (short but sweet)

Despite our less than healthy bank balances, Ed and I decided it was time for a holiday, so we packed the car, dropped off the puss at my parents house and headed down to their holiday place at Somers. As luck would have it, the Bittern market was on on the Sunday we drove down (a market is like a siren song for both of us) so we stopped in there and had lunch and a browse before heading down to the beach. I've never been the type to enjoy lying on the beach all day in blistering heat (with my white skin that's probably a damn good thing) but give me windy, slightly overcast day, and I feel much more at home walking barefoot on the shore, peering into rockpools. We sussed out a wonderfully sculptural piece of driftwood lying on the beach which we thought would look great in one of our fish tanks, but quiet inconveniently, it was attached to an entire fallen tree! Figuring that bringing a hack saw to the beach in broad daylight to cut it down to a managable size might not be received so well by our fellow beach goers be decided to return that night. It wasn't easy, but it was worth it. It's not often  you find a piece of wood like this which has practically tied itself in a knot.

The next day, after a fruitless fishing attempt we took ourselves off to Ashcombe maze (the largest and oldest hedge maze in Australia) It's really beautiful, as are the surrounding gardens. We made it through the first hedge maze but the second one defeated us.

But we redeemed ourselves by making it to the centre of the Rose Maze.

On our final day we drove to Mornington. The pier there is really cool. It's not like your average tame little pier. Instead, the sea crashes up through it's wooden boardwalk making the structure move and groan. Kind of wild and wooly feeling to be on it-quite exciting really.

Ahhh, nature...

On the drive back from Mornington we came across one of the best Op-shop strips I've been to.
A huge Salvos, Vinnies and another charity oppy, as well as a great place called Outlook Environmental which is like a cross between an Op-shop and the tip, with lots of furniture and building materials. I was in heaven! Here's what I picked up.

The mirror is set into a door with a great retro handle retained, and that particular 50s shade of green is my absolute fave. The fabric shown is only part of an enormous curtain I picked up for $1 (I'll make some funky skirts out of that). And the little poof...what can I say! It's green and circular (I have a bit of a fetish for circular furniture! So, all in all, it was a really enjoyable break- our kind of holiday.

Back at home, in the spirit of the New Year, we did a big clean out and rearrange of the house. This is my new favourite interior vista.