Danks Street, Waterloo

On the weekend I had a brief break from the massive de-cluttering that is taking place Chez Pirate to head East as Ross was craving Wagyu Burgers from Cafe Wah Wah.  I love Dank St as many of my favourite shops are located in the area but I had never been to the Bromley Arcade, clearly an oversight as he is one of my most loved artists.  I have one of his paintings, which I treasure and I am also obsessed with Mark Tuckey.  Tuckey and Bromley established the Bromley Arcade as a joint venture and for me it was a heavenly combination....

The boys recognised Pirate Boy immediately!

This would be divine in the little one's room!

Love!

My pond yacht obsessed pirates adored this little boy as well.

After exploring the wonders of the Arcade (if in Sydney you must visit!) we popped into Eco Outdoor.  The shop where we sourced the stone for our retaining walls around the pool and I noticed that they had the same vintage wine baskets as I do.  Only I had never had the brilliant idea of using them as hanging baskets for plants.  They literally had them hanging en masse at the entrance of the shop and they looked stunning. 

Watch this space to see my interpretation of this brilliant idea!

They also had very interesting lighting, I guess for any room but especially fantastic for outdoor rooms.  These ones reminded me of Mark Tuckeys work and also conjured up images in my head of paddocks and barbed wire fences (I went to boarding school in the country!).

These lights are made from Tumbleweeds and were very impressive in real life, unfortunately the photo does not do them justice. A visit to the shop is well worth it!

David Bromley's "Pirate"

For many years I have coveted David Bromley's paintings, in particular the "Childrens Series." My passion for collecting vintage childrens books, in particular first edition Enid Blytons probably led to my love of his artwork.  More recently, since the arrival of my two little pirates I have longed for a Bromley featuring "pirate boy."  Well, my wonderful husband just arrived home from work with a suprise package for me.

I recognised the painting immediately, despite the packaging and burst into tears!  I have long adored it, other bloggers have blogged about it!   I really can't quite believe that it is hanging on our wall!  Thank you to my lovely husband.

Happy Birthday Captain - The Pirate Party

I woke on Saturday morning to the Captain standing next to the bed, fully dressed in his pirate outfit.  It was 6.03 am and the first thing he said was, "how long until everyone gets here?"  Blinking in the light shining in through the shutters he had opened, I was so thrilled to see it was a beautiful day. 

A sign outside the house welcoming our guests!

Eye-patches, bandannas, cutlasses and hats ready to hand out to the little pirates.

Warning sign on the pool fence.  As the decking is still unfinished we wanted to avoid anyone going into this part of the garden for safety reasons.

Baby Pirate.

The ship cake.

Cup-cakes.

The "thank you for coming" favours.  We wrapped little chocolate bars in gold paper as "ingots" and the skull shaped cookie cutter I found on the Thurs at Aldi of all places, after trying all the more obvious baking suppliers unsuccessfully!

Finally, some pirates arrived and so did Pirate Peacock.  From the moment these little pirates spotted Pirate Peacock sauntering down our street, lugging his pirate chest full of treasure, they were mesmerised.  Apparently he had docked his ship nearby and was looking for some buccaneers. 

Pass theTreasure Chest.

Tug-O-War (the little pirates LOVED this activity!)

Even this super-cute Pirate Princess had to walk the plank for being rude to the Queen.  (Pirate Peacock was also very funny!)

The Treasure Hunt

Where is that treasure?  The X is on the ship wrecked dinghy!

Finally they found it and had to whack it open with their cutlasses to get to the Pieces of Eight!

The Captain and his cake.

Thank you for coming to my party! 

For those that have asked about Pirate Peacock contact:

 http://www.fairycrystal.com.au/

He was absolutely fantastic!  Brilliant at keeping in character and entertaining the children, I could not recommend him more highly!

Pirate Party - Preparations Continue.

Preparations for the Pirate Party this weekend are well and truly underway now.   So far we have made the treasure map,  as you can see the Captain got into the spirit of things:

The clues for the treasure map are stored inside these little pouches I found at a $2 shop.  The sword is the final clue and is the weapon to "open" the Treasure Chest pinata:

Filling the pinata full of "pieces of eight" (chocolate coins):

Making the pinata shell, hopefully when it is finished it will loosely resemble a Treasure Chest:

I am making 21 of these newspaper swords, see Alphamom for the tutorial: 

The Captain's hearty approval:

Lastly I chopped up the sun-shade umbrella to begin converting the outdoor table into a pirate ship.  Do you think my husband will be cross?  As he has been in Melbourne, gallivanting about and wining and dining with friends and I have been at home, alone with two children.  Left to deal with amongst other day to day things, a rogue snake (eeek!) and a broken dishwasher (gah!), he had better not say anything:

More on the rogue snake and other recent domestic issues tomorrow!

Pirate Party - the Invitations

So this is what I have spent my morning doing!  I copied a treasure map image I found through google images, faded it to make a background and then typed the invitation wording across the top. The font is blackadder.  Once printed, I cut out the invitation and dunked it in a baking tray of very strong tea.  Singed the edges with a lighter and lastly, tied with twine!

I think I will have to hand deliver them!

Pirates, and a pool update.

I have always been fascinated by pirates, ever since I can remember. As a kid we used to go camping on remote islands off the coast of Malaysia and I can still remember my parents and the friends we often travelled with discussing what to do if we were attacked by pirates. We would travel out to the islands on rickety old wooden fishing boats and all the kids would be crowded around the bow, scouring the horizon, desperately hoping to spot an approaching pirate ship. We really had no idea of the the true dangers associated with a pirate attack! Now as an adult and the mother of two pirate obsessed boys I wonder who the pirates employed to do their PR and marketing? What is it about plunder, pillage and rape that is so glamourous? Is it simply the idea of the individual living outside of society's constraints? Seeking their fortune and sailing the seven seas? Hmmm, it does sound glamourous when you omit the villainous aspects!

Number 1 pirate attended a pirate party on the weekend and also celebrated International Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept 19th if you fancy celebrating next year) at pre-school. He LOVED it! His birthday is approaching and he has asked to have a pirate party, of course!





Meanwhile, the swimming pool renovation continued. As the Captain was off at pre-school, the little one sat by the pool mesmerised:



Or if the tile cutting machine got too noisy, he relocated to the chatterbean:

The coping is now finished:

Tiling has begun:

Hopefully photos of us swimming in it to follow soon!