A lovely day out at the Tahbilk Winery and Wetlands

Vintage Suburbia and family at Tahbilk Vineyard, Nagambie Lakes, Victoria

 

Last weekend I went to a 150 year anniversary tasting day at Tahbilk winery near Nagambie Lakes in Victoria. It was a lovely day (even though overcast), although when you are tasting great wine it doesn't matter very much what the weather is like!

The best sight in the world - wine casks!

I had never been to Tahbilk Vineyards before and I must say I absolutely loved it. Firstly the buildings are very historic and full of character - it makes for a great ambience.

I love the red and white on these old buildings - they look a bit Old American don't you think?

I stood under this spout with mouth open waiting for the gush of red wine to come out - didn't work unfortunately!

There are great retro relics littered all around the winery grounds, including this old Shell petrol pump - love it! (I am glad it was Shell and not BP though - not so fantastic!)

Now to the wines - as it was a 150 year anniversary tasting, the winery had tastings of wines from 1982 onwards. They were very very nice, the standouts being the reds from 1998 and 2002. The wines from Tahbilk are also very reasonably priced, we bought the 1998 for only $30 and the 2002 for about $18 - a bargain in my book.

The cellar door at Tahbilk is great, you can walk down some stairs to the cellar itself and see all the huge wine vats . . . 

After tasting about 15 different wines, Vintage Suburbia was feeling rather happy and proceeded to run around the lawn with her two small children. How embarrasing (my tip for the week: never look at photos of yourself tipsy when you are sober!)

After our wine tasting, my hubby and I had a lovely lunch at the Tahbilk cafe and had a walk through the vineyards and wetlands.

 The best sight in the world - a vineyard

 The wetlands (tickets cost $5 per adult, children free) were really gorgeous and, as a bit of a greenie, I was so impressed that the vineyard owners have preserved this beautiful part of nature.

Tahbilk Winery Wetlands - beautiful

Tahbilk Winery Wetlands - love the lillies on the pond and the great old bridges

All in all, this winery is a fabulous day out and is great if you want to do wine tasting with kids in tow, as there is space for them to run around in and both the cellar door and cafe was very kid-friendly. Highly recommended.

If you are interested in more info, see Tahbilk's website at: http://www.tahbilk.com.au/

Happy drinking everyone! (in moderation of course!)

A beautiful vintage nurses' cape

My husband and I went to St Kilda for a day out on Friday. For those of my readers who live outside Australia, St Kilda is a lovely seaside suburb of Melbourne with cake shops, great restaurants, and vintage and second-hand book stores - heaven! To celebrate being in bohemian rather than my dull suburban surroundings, I wore my vintage nurses cape from the US. It is just gorgeous (and very warm!).

As you can see from the photo below, the cape has 'BCH' stiched on the collar. I assume this would refer to something like 'Boston County Hospital'? I tried to do some research on google about this, but did not come up with anything. If anyone out there has some thoughts, please let me know!

I bought the cape from US etsy for the grand bargain price of US$35 (of course postage cost around $40). But I think all in all it was a bargain. The cape has a lovely red lining in it . . .

To match the lining, I teamed the cape with a red patent bag (what else?!) from etsy  . . .

Now I just need a knock-em-dead pair of red vintage heels to complete the outfit (there is always something, isn't there?)

You may notice my hair is looking much more 'vintage' (and neat!) than normal. That is because I attended the Lindy Charm School in Melbourne last weekend. I would thoroughly recommend this to those of my readers living in Australia. It is run by two lovely ladies from Brisbane and they do regular 'schools' around Australia:. The hair part of the school (they also discuss clothing and make-up tips) was the best, they show you how to do pin curls and 'up do's like the one I have tried to replicate above (I am still practising on perfecting the look!). I am also wearing a 'snood' (the crocheted hair thing at the back) which I would again highly recommend to vintage lovers to complete the vintage look. You can buy these and other essential vintage items from the Lindy Charm website.

Before I go, I wanted to show you some of the photos from my day out in St Kilda. We had lunch at a place called 'Mirka at Tolarno' in Fitroy Street.

It is named after a great lady who used to own the restaurant some years ago, Mirka Mora. She is a really unique artist and you can see her art work is featured prominently in the interior of the restaurant . .

My lovely waitress from Mirka at Tolarnos

We had a lovely lunch there of goats cheese zucchini flowers, rainbow trout and creme brulee (are you feeling hungry yet?!). They have a lunch special at the moment - 2 courses, a glass of wine and coffee for $35  (which is what we had) - an absolute bargain for fabulous food. You really must go! The waiters were also very nice (not rude or 'too cool for school' as I sometimes encounter in trendy restaurants).

I hope you enjoyed my vintage cape and a little insight into restaurants in Melbourne.

My six dollar vintage skirt - bargain!

I discovered a lovely grey/blue vintage skirt at my local op-shop last week for a whole $6! It has a lovely centre pleat in it which is quite flattering on my wide-ish hips. It does not have a tag in it, so perhaps is home-made, but I would say it is early 1970's (?). I also bought a similar, more-heavily pleated Sportscraft skirt at the same op-shop which is lovely - it was my lucky day!

This skirt is perfect to wear grocery shopping and for all my other errands during the day. It could easily be worn to work as well. It is lovely, good quality wool which is very warm, but not scratchy (I find some wools to be scratchy - yuch)

I teamed it with a nice pale pink cardi I bought (on special) from Laura Ashley a few seasons ago. I emphasise 'on special' as when I do buy contemporary clothing (which is rarely these days) I refuse to pay full-price - the quality is just not good enough to warrant that - but I do think sale-priced Laura Ashly can be good (particularly the cardigans).

A close - up of the pretty frilling on the cardigan. Very soft and feminine.

Outfit details:

vintage woollen skirt op shop/thrifted $6!

cardigan Laura Ashley - a few seasons ago

grey polka dot tights op shop $1

shoes Sandler - Myer - few seasons ago

Baking day - Cinnameg Cupcakes

Today my daughter and I had fun making 'Cinnameg cupcakes' - cupcakes with sultanas, cinnamon and nutmeg (they are actually called 'Spicy Cupcakes' but I like 'Cinnameg' better!)

I am a fairly strict 50's style mother in many respects (I am vintage in more ways than one!). I try to encourage my children to entertain themselves and to make things from scratch - one lovely thing to do together is to bake.

This cupcake recipe comes from a fantastic book I got from a mail order company when I was about 9 years old. It is directed at children, but in fact the recipes are great to make for everyone. It has great traditional things like scones and pikelets.  The recipes are very simple to follow as you can see . .

And they turned out perfectly . . . (well, perfect as I ever get things!)

Yum!

Vintage Suburbia taste testing (excuse my make-up less face!)

If you would like to make these cupcakes, I have put the recipe below.

Happy Baking!

Recipe for 'Spicy' Cinnameg Cupcakes

Ingredients:

125 g butter

1 egg

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup milk

1 cup sultanas

Method:

1. Turn oven to 190 degrees Celsius (375 F). Set out 18 paper patty trays in muffin tins.

2. Beat butter, eg and brown sugar until smooth.

3. Sift flour, soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into a separate bowl.

4. Stir in half the flour mixture and milk into the butter mixture.

5. Fold, then stir in rest of flour mixture and sultanas.

6. Spoon into muffin/cupcake tins.

7. Bake for 15 minutes.

Eat up - yum!

A Lilli Ann magazine ad to match my coat

Firstly I should apologise for my absence from the blogging world for the last few weeks. I have been very busy with work. Now, onto more excting things . . !

As my regular readers will know, I love Lilli Ann suits and coats (and other 'New Look' outfits). I recently bought a fabulous 'nipped waist' coat from ebay which, by the way, is divine (see earlier post). When I got it in the post I nearly cried it was so beautiful (yes, I know, its not normal to cry over clothes, but I don't think I am normal). An outfit shot of the coat in question will be the subject of a separate post, but for now I wanted to show you the fabulous magazine ad I just bought from ebay to match my coat!

I am going to frame it when I get it and hang it near my closet. I very much doubt I will look as fabulous in it as the model, but I have hope yet!

These ads can be purchased from ebay - just search under your desired designer and 'ad' and it should come up.

I think its a really cute idea if you really love a particular item. Perhaps I will buy some more (?!)

Let me know if you have any good ideas for showcasing vintage or other decorating ideas.