Nature at it's best

Saturday August 23rd, 2008

J took some lovely pics the other day of a butterfly in our garden. Thought it would be nice to share them. Enjoy the w/end and go outside and enjoy mothernature, yes even if it's the middle of winter for some of you!

Butterfly enjoying the sunshine.

Friday Photo

Friday August 22nd, 2008

Sydney showing her excitement that it's Friday - Happy Friday everyone.

Strawberry jam anyone!

Photograph courtesy of Adam Cooper

Sunday August 17, 2008

The other day I decided to tackle our strawberry jam disaster see previous post. After S was down for her morning nap it was time to sort out the jam! We decided to just recook the lot and then add some lemon juice for pectin. The process was very slow and have to admit at one point we both looked at the strawberry syrup with doubt about it thickening up - Well it did, after 1 hour and 1/2 of cooking once the syrup came to a boil and then slowly simmering it started to become thicker, slowly we added another jar of syrup - eventually all were added into the pot.

After the jam had cooked down we let it sit in the pot for a while so we could eat our lunch before S woke up then poured the jam into the sterilized jars for processing in the water bath. S woke up towards the end so we played while J worked on the rest of the jam.

The results are below:

Yummy homemade jam on homemade bread.

18 jars of strawberry jam

July a month of birthdays.....

Monday July 28th, 2008

The last couple of weeks have been very hectic for me with J away on business for 10 days, J's birthday celebrations, playdates and summer. I've had to take a break from blogging sorry. But I'm now back again with lots of news....

Today is my 37th Birthday - yeah!! - Happy Birthday to me!!
Well for something different I'm going to celebrate it 2 times! (believe me my friends are surprised, its very unlike me to celebrate my birthday, I think this is from 1. living away from family and 2. After many, many yrs of planning exciting events for various global companies I felt burnt out!)

First event was on Sunday 27th, lovely dinner made by J for me. After Miss S went to bed we relaxed and enjoyed a lovely dinner of chicken stuffed with basil (growing almost wild on our deck!) with bacon wrapped around it, served on a bed of white truffle fettuccine with a side of asparagus! - Yummo. Dessert was chocolate molten cake served with a scoop of Ben and Jerry's latest flavor icecream. Plus I was able to enjoy a glass or two of wine, since I've finally now weaned Miss S - yes sad but true, after the last month of constant biting it was time to stop.

The next celebration will be held in mid August a BBQ for about 8 people. So should be busy couple of days. I figure I haven't properly celebrated by birthday in 10 years so time to dust of the party shoes! I'll post pics later.

J turned the big 40 early this month so finally downloaded some pics to share of his big day.

J enjoying his new birthday present with Miss S

Miss S doing her safety test for Dadda

Miss S playing with the box the hammock came in, entertainment for at least half an hour.

J blowing out his birthday cake

Miss S wondering what is going to happen next

Birthday Cake - coconut with key lime lemon filling!

The birthday boy - infront of his rosemary bush from my family

What do we do in the hot weather

Thursday July 17th, 2008

Well it's Summer in Michigan and it's hot - thank goodness we decided to get the air conditioning in the Spring! - yeah. It's not on all day, just afternoons and in the mornings I have the kitchen door open to let in the morning breeze.

Miss S is enjoying her first summer and loves to splash around on her splash mat. Well this is what S does to keep cool. I sit next to her and we have a canopy tent which we sit under after her splashy, splashy time where we eat snacks and have drinks. It's a lovely way to spend the avo together.

J resting on the job!!

Monday - cute pic time

Monday July 14th, 2008

This is what happens when Miss S wakes up way to early on the w/end!!

Party's and Gifts

Saturday July 12th, 2008

The other w/end S attended her first birthday party for a playdate friend who was celebrating his first birthday. I was surprised S was such a trouper lasted 3 hours and seemed to really enjoy herself. S was the only girl - yet again! - looks like she won't be short of dates when she is older, like 21!! - lol

I made the gift for the b'day boy - a "no sew blanket" in Disney "Cars" theme and placed the blanket in a drawstring bag made of tonka car/truck material. The blanket was completed by 90% help from my Mum and rest help from my little bro - Thanks for the help, otherwise I wouldn't have had it completed in time. Instructions for how to make the no-sew blankie

Opening of presents - oh look it's our pressie!!

Mum and Dad with B'day boy

Let him eat cake!

S inspecting the balloons - hmm - yes they are ok!

_____________________________________________________

Today is another important person's birthday - my dear hubbie - Jameson, who is turning the big 40. We are going out for a posh lunch at a nearby restaurant and will have his cake at home. I'll post pics of his cake later.

Happy Birthday J - May you have many, many more - Lots of Love from C & S xxx

Friday Photo

I think I'll have a little rest!

Prizes and Surprises...

Thursday, July 10th 2008

I received my prize tote bag the other day from Lisa at http://thetinhouse.blogspot.com/ for contest info - see previous post re contest. What a lovely surprise, since I had forgotten about receiving the tote bag, and Lisa's handwriting on the envelope looks like another Aussie gf's writing. Well I'm extremely happy with the bag - Thanks a million Lisa, very impressed with it! - tempted me to use an ol' pair of J's jeans to make a tote.

I'm now using it to hold my knitting - my latest knitting project.The jean pockets are great to store my tools - tape measure, crochet hooks (to fix dropped stitches - still trying to master that technique sometimes I just undo rows instead!), pieces of wool, labels from the wool, stitch holders etc.

Thanks again Lisa for the lovely tote, I'm enjoying using it and the bonus extras are gone!!

Pics of bag below:

Front of tote

Back of Tote
With lovely lining
& added bonus some Aussie chocs!
Perfect storage

Oh boy it's Monday.....

Monday, July 7th 2008

Oh how the w/end just flew by for me. Actually the last couple of weeks have been a total blur for me. So much has happened... Let's see.

My family arrived from OZ - first time for them to meet Miss S. A lovely time was had with S meeting Grandpa, Grandma and her Uncle. It's a shame they don't live closer the 20+ hour flight is abit far to just visit for an evening! Let's hope we win lotto!

Sitting with Grandma

S giving Grandpa an Eskimo kiss - a lucky few get this treatment!

After my family left we drove to Traverse City (4 hr drive w/out S) - our first break away with Miss S. Our mini break ended up being only 2 nights (we had originally planned 3 nights, 4 days) after Miss S decided to scream bloody murder each night when going to bed. In order to solve this problem we drove around the town for 1hr - 2 hrs until S finally feel asleep. On the 2nd night we decided it was too much for her and us and packed our stuff so we could leave the next morning. Sorry my holiday pics are not very exciting - our plans of visiting the beach and vineyards went amiss when we decided to leave early.

Leaving home

Driving to "Up North"

My new project - helped make the hours fly by during the drive.

S enjoying her first bath away from home

Separation anxiety

S is going through separation anxiety at the moment, unfortunately we have now resorted to letting S CIO (Cry it out) - I know alot of people are against this but after J and me cuddling her till she fell asleep (40 mins each) and having her wake up the moment you lie her down into her crib, the decision was made lets try CIO. Tonight will be our 3rd night.

S needs to relearn how to fall asleep for all her naps and night sleep, time and patience are now needed and the later is again being tested. I thought we had just gotten over this hurdle of sleeping - we had this problem at 2 months which lasted till 4 months of age at that time it took up to 2 hours of walking and rocking for S to fall asleep. I'm hoping this week will help with everyone gone and her routine going to back to normal, here's hoping that S can get back into her old habits of sleeping - like a baby!

Friday Photo...

Friday June 19th, 2008

Notice that S is wearing the same colours as my gf!! - it's like they planned it.

Strange thing.... when my gf and I worked together yrs ago we often came into work wearing the same colour outfits, so S is just carrying on the tradition - good girl!

Happy Friday everyone.

Friday Photo

Friday, June 13th 2008

Well it's black Friday everyone so stay away from black cats, walking under ladders and don't step on a crack!! - lol that is if you believe in superstition's (which I do.)

Some pics from this week with S to make everyone smile.


Have a great w/end.

Friday on my mind - when it's Thursday

Thursday, June 12th 2008

Sorry I've been MIA this week, busy with 4 play dates for S, catching up on my household chores and just generally being Supermum!

Thought everyone might want to see what S does on hot days...

Our Daily Bread...

Tuesday, June 10th 2008

The other day I purchased a bread maker, yeap I've decided to go modern. I was making our bread, but now that it's summer (not officially but close enough) I didn't fancy having the oven on since it only warms up the house and inturn our a/c will need to be turned up higher to cope. So I gave in and purchased it as a "Mother's Day" late present to me... (well that was my excuse).

The bread maker looks like this and makes cute little 1lb loafs, enough for 1 person to eat toast all week or sarnies for 2-3 days for 2 people.

I've used it about 6 times now and its very consistent with the end result. This is my second bread maker - a couple weeks earlier I purchased a "Big Daddy" bread maker but I found the bread to be a little undercooked in the middle and the crust just wasn't brown no matter how high you selected the crust to be, so back it went.

Below are some photos of the end result. - The 2 smaller loaves in the front are from the "Big Daddy" machine which decided not to knead the dough that day, so I had to hand knead the bread and cook it in the oven. The larger loaf in the background was made with my new machine - it's white bread, I've made whole wheat and white whole wheat, all very yummy!

Within the next couple weeks I'm going to make fruit bread and chocolate bread, I'll update everyone on the outcome. Plus the bread freezes very well and is delicious toasted with jam (homemade strawberry of course!).

Nothing is better then the smell of homemade bread, I love the smell of bread cooking. By making my own bread I know what is in it and so I'm not eating nasty preservatives and it does not cost an arm and a leg to make. I worked it out to be about $0.75 cents - $1.25 per loaf depending what you add into the bread. Now I just need to find a recipe book with good bread machine recipes. So that's my new kitchen gadget everyone.

Happy Tuesday!

Friday Photo...

Friday, June 6th

We visited a petting farm the other day & this is what S thought of it all. - yeap not very impressed.

All she could say was "hmmm." - Not sure if it was the smell, or the animals that she was not pleased with. & after her Daddy mentioned it was smelly, S then wrinkled up her nose while we walked around the barn.

Next we ventured outside to see the other farm animals. S decided to let us know she had enough by loudly saying "Aboo" followed by raspberry blowing. Oh dear, looks like my little girl is a City girl, sorry J no camping trips for us!!

TGIF..

Friday, May 30th

Today is the last day of Colour My World, it's a shame I've really have enjoyed this little project. I hope other people will do the same and notice all the colours of the rainbow around them.

Electric Blue Friday
Blue is another one of my favourite colours, but I was surprised at how little I own that is blue! - maybe it's not a fav after all and I should take it of my list. Interesting that 4/7 photos are associated with water which is a calming and peaceful element.

I find blue to be peaceful, calming and restful. Some things that seem blue to me are a baby sleeping, taking a snooze on the sofa when you get a spare 10 mins, sitting outside enjoying the weather - even if it's winter.

What ever you do this w/end make sure you take 10 minutes just for yourself. Have a great w/end everyone. Oh and below are my photos.

My blue-eyed girl

Cone flowers in the back garden

Glass bowl

Just the right size for a cuppa

Make sure to drink my 8 litres a day.

Ready for next round

Retro drying up cloth