This week - Birthdays, Summer dresses and books

We've had a funny week with the weather - started hot, went freezing cold, then pleasantly warm today. I've broken out a few of my summer dresses. I love a dress in summer - you put no thought into your outfit and look effortlessly pulled together. Plus, a flattering cut hides a multitude of sins. Saturday evening we were invited to a drinks party in a house down at the beach (Henley Beach). It was a pretty blustery afternoon, so I wore a cardigan and this navy and white chevron print Milly dress with my seaglass green Kate Spade necklace. I thought it looked slightly nautical...









Earlier in the week I wore for the first time a new by Marlene Birger dress. It was very cheap on The Outnet, however when I tried to wear it the first time I discovered that it was fairly see through, necessitating the purchase of a slip to wear under it. That cost more than the actual dress.....oh well. I guess sometimes a bargain isn't really one...










This week, my oldest child, H, turned 7. This meant that I made 3 cakes. Three because the first one I made was an epic failure (do not attempt to make Self Raising flour out of wholemeal flour, it ends up with a rather chewy textured cake). So I remade the cake for the actual birthday day afternoon tea with the family. And today was the party with a small group of H's friends at the Adelaide Zoo. I made these cupcakes for the lunch portion of the party (this was all I had to provide. It was complete bliss after doing every aspect of every child's birthday for the past 7 years). The little flag toppers and cupcake wrappers were by Meri Meri, purchased via Peters of Kensington. They fancied up the cupcakes quite nicely.









The zoo ran the boys ragged. And the guide was excellent. I highly recommend it to any Adelaide readers.















My daughter E. feeding the Kangaroos. Wearing a Liberty print dress that wasn't looking so fresh by the time she arrived home......



I finished the book "That Woman" about the life of Wallis Simpson. I had previously read a biography about her back in the late 80's, and so had heard the allegations of her being an hermaphrodite, however the Duke of Windsor being on the Autism spectrum was new to me. It did remind me however, that I owned some Jewels belonging to Wallis..... a bit of digging in the dim recesses of my costume jewellery produced this necklace and matching clip on earrings. I bought them to wear to a school formal back in 1991 from a costume jewellery chain store called "Ooh La La". It is probable I was wearing a velvet bustier and tartan taffeta skirt with them. Nice.







I picked some of my Fig branches for an arrangement on the Drinks Table in the Study. There are some figs on the tree this year, and providing the Possums don't get to them first, I'm anticipating a good crop around Christmas time maybe?







 And lastly, here is a beautiful Delbard "Camille Pissaro" rose growing in the wilds of the back garden. This is also slated for removal in the upcoming renovations and is thriving on my neglect. As I've said before, Roses grow like weeds in Adelaide. Apparently David Austin himself has said that his roses grow twice as large as they do in England - they are Trifford like. We have them in nature strips and lining the middle of roads and on roundabouts, and they chainsaw them in Winter for pruning.








And I've spent a large amount of time continuing to draft up our house plans for the builders to price, fingers crossed I don't get a horrific shock as to the budget blowout......