Why blog ?

It's been a big week in the Picket Fence house. Lots of appointments here and there, lots of driving to those appointments here and there ,lots of sitting ,waiting ,sighing and thumbing through year old women's weekly magazines,waiting for appointments here and there.... School assemblies and domestic duties took the front stage and a couple of birthdays flew into visit :) Phew, makes me want to sit out the back with a glass of something dry and sweet and play cloud dreaming for a while !
That aside, I've been doing some thinking :) Not mummy thinking , you know, appointments, school uniforms, assemblies, birthday kind of thinking; But really thinking; the introspective kind of thinking, that sits waiting for a busy mummy to find a quiet moment and really think about the stuff that makes her tick. Bare with me here ;)

Recently a certain girl went out out bought herself a very flash camera from sunny Hong Kong , hesitantly typed out a blog post and  knowing virtually nothing about photography and even less about blog land , sat there with heart pounding feeling very exposed but ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL. A first blog post meant a whole lot to this certain girl, it was a goal achieved, a journey commenced!
 I love to ramble, to contemplate, to relish my life and loves, photographing them and writing about them in the form of a blog ,hopefully ,gives me some parameters in which to do this.  The essence of blog writing is about refining what you love, photographing your glass half full rather than half empty and singing your song with gusto. Its about looking at who you are and then going ,Yep my world is awesome and totally worth sharing.

In a world full of necessity, blogging is somewhat unnecessary and yet in other ways essential. It makes you stop, and create something, use that part of your brain which involves your eyes and emotions , its intimate and therefore intrinsically valuable. Its a common mans art :) It makes me happy.

This week,I had someone mentally hold me to a mirror and take stock of my belief system. I walked away realising that these parts of my world , my vintage treasure hunting, my sometimes messy but beautiful child filled home, my seaside walks and now my blog....these are important. This is who I am , its good and I have every right to blow my trumpet.
 So here, as I stagger along learning how to use my beautiful shiny new camera, photographing my tarnished and often shabby treasure, as I describe my chaotic and noisy family of 6 , humour me ,because its a warts and all unique song, a personal journey, a focus on the things that make my heart sing.

Now, time for that glass of something sweet and dry , Ive got an appointment with some children and clouds on my back verandah :)  Its been a Huge week!
                 More now than ever, Thanks for sharing my ride

                                      xx Ava

Welcome to Picket Fence Fancy

Welcome to my first ever attempt at blogging  "Picket Fence Fancy"
 I begin by confessing that I'm a complete pleb when it comes to the world of blogging,  I've always thought it would be a challenging and fun thing to do, but shelved it for "one day".That day when I had more time, more confidence  and less commitments, older children, more knowledge. But ; life moves so fast, sometimes you need to jump on in and have a go regardless...seize the day, live :)

Picket Fence Fancy is about some of my favourite things, collecting vintage treasure, photographing same , and the endless renovation of our Californian bungalow by the sea. Colourful and often chaotic,  I live with my four young children and very patient husband  on the beautiful far south coast of NSW Australia .   Come on in sit down and share it with me .... because life is so much finer this way.

Picket Fence Fancy is so named due to  a long ago made plan, that time in life where life is full of promise and you begin to fashion a  mud map of what you want from this world... for me it was a secure domesticated life, you know, apple trees , husband, babies and yes the picket fence. I 'm not ashamed to admit that this was a quiet goal of mine and one that I'm living in the here and now.  Yep the picket fence I pursued , despite university, career, and other constraints of reality....but I didnt want an ordinary picket fence life , I wanted something a little , well,  fancy ;)

And so , Picket Fence Fancy it is,  Welcome , wish me luck !
                                             xx Ava

Breathing out........

Well Hello! Welcome :)  Excuse the chaos ; we've had a load of rain here, my washings been mounting up and the house would dearly love to be aired, the Picket Fence kids are driving each other crazy and the cats are hiding under the bed...its been getting a little crazy.

I had planned to pack up the family and drive off into the countryside, climb some fences and photograph some of the old sheds I've been eyeing off for years. I mentally packed the picnic basket last night, it was going to be fabulous yes indeed .....but..... the weather did what it does, which is what it wants to do ,and, sometimes like today ,it did what I hadn't planned for and yep you guessed it, it poured rain .

We had a break in the weather at around 1pm so I grabbed the two middle children ( the only willing Picket Fencers ) and we went for a walk in our own back yard. Took some time to breath out.Thought I'd share.

Being a coastal village there is only one way in from the north, go over this bridge and I think you will agree you've found paradise, there's something about old bridges that makes me think South Coast.

This is the break wall , risky for fisherman who try to cross .... I go walking here in the mornings, it's exhilarating and fresh and I think you'll agree , absolutely beautiful . That's Montague Island in the background  ( well worth a visit)

Helps at hand just in case you need it ( really hope you don't !)

One of the buildings I pass always makes me want to buy breakfast , Yes I do believe you can't beat fresh lobster .It's beautiful in its innocence.  Industrial vintage fishing style :)

 Cheap at half the price ;)

I dearly hope they never ever replace this roof, love the signage, the patina on the metal and the view yonder :) It's a piece of local history.

We stopped a while and watched some people charter a boat.A little excited for them as it's such a great place to go fishing. Hope the weather holds out guys xx

And then ,because we couldn't afford to charter a boat ,we went wave watching ( because its fabulous and free!)

At the top of the hill , the girls were getting grumbly so we took a break, they were a lot happier after looking out over this , we may have had some yummy chocolate biscuits from the left behind picnic basket , they went well with the view  .... don't tell though ;)

OK Freak of nature it is....This is Australia rock, nice huh....

We have a large seal colony who entertain the tourists ; I'd love to be a seal, lounge around all day fat and lazy...and have people take my photo!  Anyway they're well fed by local fisherman and not silly, they know that they're onto a good thing :) In actual fact in the scheme of things I think they've got it all sorted ;)

The girls had a paddle, I got wet feet too, we went looking for crabs and then all scooted off home, just in time for afternoon tea ....more chocolate biscuits ;)

 I've promised the girls we will go out again tomorrow, perhaps I can bring that picnic basket, Will let you know !

Be seeing you soon I hope . Huge thanks for dropping by!

                                                   xx Ava

Belated Pancake Gratitude

Last night after a particularly busy day , Miss Picket Fence 6 requested pancakes on rising. " Because it was Pancake Tuesday last week Mum, and we missed it , Please can we please ? You can get up early and when we wake up it will be all done.  " I confess I may have groaned and quite frankly shelved it with the other "not in a month of Sunday" ideas frequently suggested by Miss PF 6 ; after all it was a school day, raining and I was busy right ?
Then I thought about Japan, the nightmare our neighbours are living right in the here and now . People with busy lives ; just like ours, bills, neighbours, persistent children just like ours , houses , businesses,  pets....pancakes just like ours ; and how in a heartbeat, through no fault of their own it was all taken away from them , destroyed.

 I felt guilty, very guilty, and so got up , made a mess, cracked eggs and sizzled pancakes at 5am.

 We sat , the children  delighted , with eyes wide and tummy's  rumbling; Mr Picket Fence in nearly too much of a hurry to eat, mumbling, your going to photograph the dirty dishes too right (wink) ? And we ate pancakes feeling very very safe and very very thankful and very very lucky.

Be grateful for what you have,all you have , right now . What we have is precious, be it pancakes at home or drive through McDonald's , give thanks .

                          Thanks for dropping by xx Ava

A Sea-side Fair xx

One of the nicest things about a country town is when they put themselves on show. Country Fairs are a unique Australian experience and the fair in Bermagui  truly stepped up to the mark. After about 20kms of "are we there yet ? " and around 3 arguments over the in car DVD player we arrived  in this beautiful coastal community.

Now we've had months of pouring rain here, not grumbling but despite the blue day I wished I'd worn gumboots :) It was muddy and squishy and oh so humid ,  the ice cream came soft and the fairy floss sticky , it was not going to be a tidy day, but still so much  to see and so much fun to be had .

What's a parade without a pipe band , by golly they do a lovely job and they got hero points from me because they could walk and pipe all while wearing a kilt on a very hot day xx
  

Followed by my dream car .....

And its matching caravan !

Where would we be without the CWA, these girls were so slick, check out the uniforms , and THEY SANG. We love country women  yes indeedy.

while an Aussie icon deserves a place on her own xx

Surfing Bermi style.

We fed the hungry locals :)

And listened to the top ten...!

Cant be my  blog without an industrial antique...loving the patina xx

A local in taffeta...  the owner was wearing worse ;) but obviously loves her  (hot) dog.

 My Dad would have said he'd wished he hadn't lent this one out .

 We love Designer frocks by superminx! A Fabulous local designer , find her here.

 and Homeless teddies $5 a piece , yes we did take one home :)

Beautiful old local man who makes wooden cars for little ones, we took a car home too by gosh !

We rode rides, dribbled sauce down our fronts, and plodded around gawking at stalls and exhibits and smiled at funny people walking about. It was simply a lovely way to waste some time.
On a final note my mum bought me a surprise gift  , just what every girl needs....... kind of speaks volumes about country fairs without saying much at all. Now off to find somewhere special to put it  ;)

                 
   Thanks for stopping by
                                              xx   Ava