21 Years

(image :jessi*afterImage*)

Oh my goodness ....We have just celebrated 21 Years of marriage! It was on Thursday but with all the happenings or non-happenings this week we are "rain checking" any dining out till next week.
Anniversaries are a time to reflect on where we have come from and to marvel at the time that has passed and all that we have grown together . We were just babies when we begun the journey and now I know that we have much more to this journey and many more paths to venture down .
Happy Anniversary Honey. xxx

A Crazy Week

It truly has been a crazy week...after returning from a great week in Sydney I hit the ground running then Tuesday I crashed with some mystery 'thing' ..no not swine flu but some virus I am guessing, that left me curled up on the couch not moving very far at all. Anyway I seem to have pushed through today which was good thing because I was registered to attend a state children's workers conference. I am glad I went and it is always a good time to be re inspired by very talented and motivated people in the business. I will be heading back for another day tomorrow.
We are in for a run of quite stormy days which is not the kind of weather I enjoy traveling to the city in but it is winter here finally and so that is what is expected.

Before I did hit the decks on Tuesday we had playgroup and I wanted to show you the very cute craft we did and oh so simple and fabulous if you are into recycling.

We took these and this

And did this with them...

Then this...

To make these very cute snake/crocodile.

This idea came from here. Oh we had the beads hanging around the storeroom and used pipe cleaners instead of string , which made it easier for little fingers to thread independently.

A Bron Creation

I have included a link on the sidebar that will enable you to see what sorts of things I have been creating. I love to repurpose materials and create something new that can be loved all over again.
I have lots of people asking me about my creations and those that live close by can call in and see them but if you live further a field then please feel free to browse through here over time and contact me if you see something you like or have any questions about anything you see.

Under the weather

Feeling very much under the weather tonight...will be back tomorrow.

Macadamia and white chocolate brownies

A while back I showed a book of chocolate recipes that I had bought. Well my aim is to make my way through the recipes in it...so here is the second one I made.

Macadamia and white chocolate brownies

300g dark chocolate, chopped
115g unsalted butter,chopped
150g castor sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup plain flour
180g white chocolate, chopped
100g unsalted macadamias, chopped

Preheat oven to 180c. Line tin with nonstick baking paper.
Place dark chocolate, butter and sugar in a stainless steel bowl over a pan of simmering water. stir until ingredients have melted ( I did the first part in microwave on med for 40 sec)
Remove from heat and leave to cool for 5-1o mins. Stir in the beaten eggs. Mix in the flour, then stir in white chocolate and nuts until well combined.
Spoon into prepared tin. Bake for 20-25 mins.
Remove and cool before cutting into pieces.
(recipe originally by Natali Pride)

I left mine a little longer than the 25mins because it seemed too sticky but I should have taken out it out because it cools and firms up.

What I have been up to..

Arrived in Sydney at 7.00am to this beautiful sunrise...

This is the project I was telling you about....the photos don't show really how many letters we sorted through.
Before....

After......

Oh and here is the proof of the "booty" brought back for the family...

Well what is left of it!

No Place Like Home

Home safely..tired..and very pleased to give everyone a hug.

The doughnuts were a huge hit even if it was really too late to be eating them!

More tomorrow , with photos.

Task Completed

Well it is nearly midnight and the goal for placing all 200??? or was that 500 letters in display albums has been achieved. Deb's mum wrote to her nearly every week since she moved out of home and what a neat way now to be able to reminisce about all that went on over the last 19 years.
I feel a great sense of satisfaction to head home tomorrow leaving something that we were able to get completed. Even if I haven't seen much outside the apartment it has been nice time spent together
I am looking forward to seeing my guys tomorrow night with my Krispy Kreme doughnuts in hand.
See you tomorrow - love you guys.

Task Begun

I had grand plans to take in some of the neighbourhood by foot today as we are so close to Botany Bay..but the weather was very dreary today and the warm comfortable couch was much more appealing and dry.
I have encouraged my friend to begin a task that she has wanted to do for many years..place her 300 something letters written from her mum over the last 20 years, into display albums that she will be able to read through easily. Tomorrow we will make a good effort to complete what we started tonight.

Why is it that our children sound so much older and grown up when we are apart and are communicating by phone? Love you guys !!

Arrived Safely

Well here I am in Sydney...its amazing to think that we can really travel at such ease and at such short notice.....The world -our country is such a smaller place because of air travel being so accessible.
It was nice to be greeted at the airport by a friendly face and then spend the rest of the day cooped up in a warm apartment enjoying some catchup with friends.
I did have a little snooze and begun some knitting that I am hoping to finish while I am here.(sorry no access to photo loading , will have to play catch up when I get home.)
Hopefully all is well at home ...they all seem to be coping without "mumma duck" about- I had scheduled the shopping to be delivered tonight with a few goodies for their pleasure .
Goodnight to all at home- sleep tight.

Chickens and Airplanes

Today was playgroup, I used the idea from here for the craft . The glitter is always a winner and made for some sparkly chicks.

Logan was my assistant for the photo today....

Here are a few of some of their masterpieces

That's right I did say airplanes as well.That is because I am going on one tonight!!! It has been a very spur of the moment decision...like yesterday, to go and spend a couple of days with my special friend in Sydney. I am very spoilt to have a very generous husband and a beautiful sister that are allowing me to go at all let alone at such a last minute.
Yeah for the midnight flight.

Happy Birthday ...Part 2

We continued the birthday celebrations today for the biggest guy in our house (lucky him had a rostered day off work). We spent the day fairly quiet because Meg was sad that she had to go to school while" we had all the fun". After I assured her we would not have too much fun without her she headed off to school. So true to our word we just had "not too much fun".
But we did head here for dinner......

Even better that they do this......

We did return home with them!

Happy Birthday today also to the other special people in our family Bailey, Geoff and Jackson. xxxxxxxx

Happy Birthday ...Part 1

Today we celebrated our nephew and cousin Bailey's 4th birthday (which is really tomorrow)with a family lunch gathering and of course an appropriate cake made by his mummy and daddy-well done guys!

As you can see someone else got an early practice run for tomorrow...

To be continued....

A good read

This is a book I am enjoying at the moment. I have seen and heard lots of people reviewing it lately so thought i would take a look. It is easy to read and based on some very basic principles...one of which is that "B doesn't happen until A is completed". Translated= the child doesn't get to receive the next thing until the have completed that which is expected of them, all achieved with no yelling and only asking once. As I said it is an easy read through but maybe a little tougher to achieve with out the main ingredient....consistency

You can pick up a copy from here or ask at your local bookshop to get you a copy.

Buying Presents

This weekend we are celebrating a few family birthdays, so today I went in search of the perfect gifts....of which I can't show you because the birthday boy in this house will most definitely peek.
Fraser was very keen to get them all wrapped up before daddy came home. So I will tell you more about them after the weekend.
I am off to do some scrapbooking....or maybe just to have a chat with friends as I look at my photos!

Lemon Goodness

There is something satisfying about growing something and then being able to eat it...we are really enjoying the continual fruits of our lemon tree. On Monday I said I was baking a Lemon sour cream cake so here it is and again something quick and easy..that is if you have a lemon tree to grab from.

Lemon Sour Cream Cake
125g butter
1 cup caster sugar
grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
2 eggs
1 cup self raising flour, sifted
1/2 cup sour cream
icing sugar, to dust

Beat butter until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and pale. Mix in rind. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Fold flour into mixture alternatively with sour cream and juice. Pour into a greased and base-lined round cake tin.
Bake in moderately slow (160 C) for 35-40 mins or until cooked.
Cool in tin for 5 mins. Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. Serve dusted with icing sugar

MOPS Day

Off to MOPS we went today. We had a great lady come and speak on "Who are You?" It was very insightful to think about what makes us us. Is it the work we do,the children we have,the partner we have or the parents we had? Whatever stage at life I am in I should try and embrace it and be an even bigger,better, etc version of the me that I was before I had children and suddenly became defined by everything else in my life.

(photo by Orangey Goodness)

On a lighter note we had a go at making Bags from Envelopes using this tutorial.
It is fun what you can make with simple everyday things.

Baa Black Sheep

Today being playgroup day I thought I would share the craft we did .....

(Fraser is such a good helper now he is at Kindy doing big boy things.)

I used the idea from here....the mums certainly had fun with all that cotton wool and glue!

Catch up Monday

Monday's are always spent catching up from the weekend. There is housework to do,washing to do, more housework to do,a visit to the library to return overdue books and take out a bunch more plus a couple of movies, preparation for tomorrow's playgroup session,beef hotpot and potato dumplings to get in the oven and a lemon and sourcream cake to bake.

I feel mildly prepared for the onslaught of a new week having accomplished these things today.

This Morning...

The skies were blue, the sun was shining and the air was full of moisture that just blanketed everything.

Farm Fun

A few posts ago I showed Fraser's farm block set that we bought him for his 4th Birthday. We actually found it in Myer but you can find it here. I love it because it is wooden, colourful and allows room for some imaginative play ( it also comes in a neat wooden tray to store it away in). I would love to get some of the other things in their range.

Not More Chocolate!

This is a book I bought this week - because you can never have enough chocolate recipes and it was such a bargain from the bookseller who drops into our office.
My plan is to make my way through as many recipes as my family can stand. I did make the first one today..... "Crisp cocoa cookies with chocolate chips".
I cant' say if they are a hit with everyone because I made them too close to dinner and consequently they haven't been through the "taster testers" yet. They were easy enough to make and there are plenty to go around.
I will let you know what the verdict is tomorrow.

Inspiration

I have just returned from attending a session with the very inspirational Dr Peter J Daniels. He came and gave three motivating and thought provoking speaking session at church over the last two days. I was fortunate enough to hear two of those sittings.
He has an amazing story of a very tough start to life and how he overcame it all to be one of the most influential and wealthy men in the world. Now as he is approaching 80yrs old he spends portions of his time sharing his journey and sharing some of the principles he has built his life on. The rest of his time he is still influencing world change.
If you ever have the opportunity to hear him speak - go or maybe take the time to check out here.

Lemonade and Cream Scones

Lots of friends have said that the easiest way to make tasty scones is with lemonade and cream...I have always made them with my mum's recipe that has never let me down when I need to have something quick for unexpected guests.
But I thought I would try the lemonade thing and see. They were super easy and tasty too. The only thing is that I don't always have lemonade and cream just in the fridge, so maybe they will have to become standard fridge items from now on.

Lemonade Scones

3 cups of Self- Raising Flour
300ml Fresh Cream
3/4 cup Lemonade

Sift flour into a bowl,make a well in centre and stir in cream and lemonade using a round- bladed knife until ingredients come together to form a soft dough. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly until smooth. Roll out dough approx.2cm in thickness then cut into rounds using a cutter. Place scone rounds side-by-side in a lightly greased tray.Sprinkle tops of scones lightly with extra flour. Bake in a 210C preheated oven for 15-20 min until golden. Turn scones out onto a clean tea towel.Serve warm with jam and cream.

I didn't get a photo of them cooked because you must eat them warm and there was no time to take photos with hungry ones around.

Dinosaurs Roar

Today was playgroup day for me....my guys are actually off at school and kindy while I co-ordinate and lead our church playgroup.
Today we read this story....

then we made these......found here. This one was made by my able assistant Fraser.

1st Day of Winter

Today was not only the first day of winter for us here in this part of the world but also our state's day to celebrate Foundation Day- 180 years of settlement.
So we are given the day off to do as we please- for us here, some did this... (it's a shame I can't replay the conversations that went with this play between a 10 & 4 yr old)

then this....

and this...

For the first day of winter we had the most amazing weather. We just had to visit the beach and for me a trip down memory lane of the sights and smells of the beach of my childhood. Funny how my children did just as we used to spend hours doing...running through all of this...