Autumn colour inside and out

I love this time of year, watching the trees around the neighbourhood changing colour. I particularly enjoy looking out at the centrepiece of our garden, a beautiful Canadian Maple.

As we head into the cooler months I have also added more of the warming colour red to my interior and the view of the Maple really sets this off.

Unfortunately in the last day the tree has lost a lot of leaves and anticipating this, last week I brought some small branches inside for decoration.

It is hard to believe that just a week ago our Maple still had some green. It has changed quickly.

I have also brought in some Manchurian Pear branches. Our trees haven't changed colour yet even though many down the street have.

Just an aside I have taken all this photos using Instagram, so if you are on Instagram look out for me @georgygdesign.

Garden to plate - tomato, coriander salsa

It has been so hot in Melbourne and the heat is going to continue for another few days. The heat is really starting to effect me, the kids and the garden. My poor herbs, are dropping, even though I water them daily and they are in the shade.

Luckily I was able to get enough coriander and probably almost our last crop of cherry tomatoes for the season and make a refreshing salsa. This one is well worth making and can be eaten by itself or goes well on garlic / herb bread, lamb or chicken.

For the one pictured above I used:

14 cherry tomatoes

2 tablespoons of fresh coriander

2 avocados (have to try growing these next)

1 glove of crushed garlic

2 tablespoons of lime juice

A pinch of salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy!

New direction - house to home, garden to plate

Now the extension is finished I have been thinking what next with the blog? As many of you know even though an extension or house might have finished being built there is still lots to then do to make a house a home. This is what I am now going to focus on.

I had a good Summer break with the kids and now they are back at school and kinder, I have had a little head space and time to reflect.

A big thing for me is making our house a home, somewhere we feel comfortable, have fun and enjoy. Somewhere family and friends love to visit and spend time with us. The same goes for the garden, we would love a mini oasis in the middle of suburbia.

Over Summer holidays I quickly realised a few things, to have a comfortable home you want it to be cool and shaded. There is lots of  sun about and so was glad we got the solar panels in. For the garden water is obviously a necessity so hence a good size water tank. Other factors will come into play in Winter, so I am looking at sustainability measures to make our house comfortable all year around. This will also help keep the heating / cooling bills down.

The other thing I took in is with a lot of entertaining and the kids being home over the holidays we wasted a lot of fresh food by buying too much and then it spoiling before we ate it. So now I not only want to make a beautiful garden but a productive one. This has started with my bumper crop of cherry tomatoes which the kids, hubby and I not only enjoyed eating but the kids loved planting and picking them too. This also brings up the topic of fun things to do with the kids around the house and garden, another focus for my future posts.

Over Spring and Summer we have been working on our garden and thinking ahead we have started to plant tress that will not only grow to hide the fence and look good but will eventually grow fruit, our mini orchard in the middle of suburbia (see picture below-planting was something Hubby and son enjoyed together). 

So with all this in mind I hope you can join my journey of making my house a home and my garden a productive one. I am also aiming to come up with some great recipes, that use the fresh produce we have grown. I would love it too if you could share ideas with me along the way. So stay tuned for my garden to plate posts.

Pool next to the deck!

I finally got to use a pool next to our new deck, well paddling pool at least!

Today it was finally hot in Melbourne, the first really hot day since we have had our wrap around deck put in, so we finally got to use the deck in the way I imagined.

 

These photos were taken around 12ish when the Maple in the middle of our garden was giving good shade. A little later in the day the extension gives the shade to this area, so perfect place to set up a pool.

Our deck was finished in May this year when Winter had already set in, so all these months later we are now finally getting the chance to use it in so many different ways.

Tomorrow I plan to plant my new Olive tree you can see on top of the wine barrel here. I will share more photos in my Friday food and flower post.

Making paper lanterns and more

I love this time of year with all the festivities, and I have decided that this year, I am going to try and make paper decorations and more. Now it will all be easy to make things that I can do with the kids.

So as Halloween is only two days away we just made paper lanterns, treat bags and ghost lollipops.

Instructions on how to make both the lanterns and ghost lollipops can be found on kidspot.com.au 

 The treat bags were my daughters invention which she just made with an A4 piece of paper folded in half width ways and sticky taped together. She then put her little trick or treat message inside along with a lollipop and presented it to me, her brother and Dad. She is our creative child and I love her gifts, they always make me smile.

As you can also see by these photos I have been playing around with Instagram today. I am a complete novice at this point. If you are on Instagram look out for me @georgygdesign.

Colour inspiration

I often find inspiration from walking past cafes and this is no exception. Love the colour pop and at the moment I am trying to introduce yellow, red and orange into my home and garden. I will share photos soon.

Food and flowers - basil, lemons and red

'Go on it's the weekend so get your hands dirty.'

Ok this is my Friday food and flowers post a day late but what a hectic week it has been.

My first week of not doing paid office work and it has flown. I thought I would have all this spare time but no, with a list a mile long of things I wanted to get done and with my daughter home from school for two days (she strained her quad muscle playing basketball, a big deal for a six year old), I didn't get to the blog much at all.

I did however manage to pot some basil and flowers plus mulch my lemon tree. I am looking forward to using the basil in summer salads, pasta, and on pizza.

 

It is obviously going to be a while before I get lemons and I plan to pot at least one other lemon tree, as there are so many things I love to make with lemon in.

 Mmmm, Lemoncello!