Willow!

We may have inherited a new member of the family!

Meet Willow!

She is gorgeous......but will she make Jimmy any less neurotic??? or will she become like him???

My vote apparently does not count, it is 3 to 1 and even Jimmy and the cats seem won over!!!

Time will tell..........

A fun day out! Cupcakes and more cupcakes!!!

Yesterday I spent the day with my friend Karen. For her birthday I bought us a cupcake decorating class . It was run by Jennifer Graham from Crabapple Bakery.

When we arrived these are the sample cupcakes that greeted us!

Oh my goodness!!! What had we let ourselves in for??? They were amazing!!!!

It was a large class and we spent the first section of the class with Jennifer sharing her knowledge of baking and decorating. After this came the scary part - having a go ourselves!!! We had six cupcakes to decorate but somehow I was so bad at the 'blue' one I ended up with 8 to take home. These are mine...... I am happy with how they ended up but it was much more involved and difficult than I expected. Although I bought a piping set I am not sure just how much I will use it, I am very sure though that I will  use the pot of glitter I bought, that was definitely Karen and my favorite decoration!!!

Since I last posted......

Since I last posted.......
- HS has played his first game of football and escaped uninjured but losing by a massive margin!
- no football today as he has gone on a fishing charter
- hockey began again today for the 'horsey' one who is in the A Grade team, they had a win and she got a goal
- a flying trip to the big smoke to buy shoes and jewellery for the 'horsey' one for dinner dance which is fast approaching
- a 'practice' fake tan (a freebie) for the 'horsey' one, she is now a walking advertisment
- SH has had a trip to Tassie for a conference
- while SH was away I did fulfill my parentel obligations and I did feed my children and wholesome food at that!
- Work has interfered with life!!! anyone else have that problem?
- I attended parent teacher interviews with the 'horsey' one , without SH again!, a trip to Tassie was convenient!
- I managed to get to quilting today and worked on my clamshells, left early to see some hockey but misjudged the time and missed the whole game, oops!
- made a new slice, will post photos and the recipe tomorrow!

In a nutshell that is it, nothing of any great excitement or interest...................

:)

I LOVE JUSTIN BIEBER AND ONE DIRECTION. THEY ARE THE SPUNKYEST BOYS ALIVE AND I WISH MY DAUGHTER COULD MARRY EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM XOXO

Just wondering?

If the last time you played football was in year 10 and in the first 5 minutes of the first game of the season you broke your ankle and you had 2 major injuries in the last 6 months, one  involving your left wrist and the other involving your right hand and a bone graft from your hip would you ever consider that playing football this season for a senior country side was an option or a good idea????
As he is 20 years old he is not paying a lot of attention to what Mum has to say and trust me she is saying plenty!!!!!

Easily distracted!!!

Sprung!!!! SH has just caught me bloghopping , answering emails, looking on facebook and generally doing anything rather than the pony club treasurers books that I promised to do and used as an excuse not to go for a walk with the dog......mmmm and we wonder where the 'horsey' one gets her time management skills????/

but I just found he had put the left over gravy (to be fair - in a honey jar) from the weekend in the pantry thinking it was very runny honey?????

Looks like you will not find any blog content of interest here tonight, apologies xx

Over too soon!

Well it is back to reality and work again tomorrow and I will have to limit the coffee and chocolate being consumed! Such a hardship!! Winter weather here today, a good day to have a final Easter celebration and have lunch with friends. We took a vegie dish and were in charge of dessert (what a surprise!!) so made a triple choc brownie and a white choc and caramello brownie! Even better there is still some at home to enjoy because I am sure I have been deprived over the last few days!!!!! Lucky 'horsey' one is still on holidays for another week so she will enjoy sleep ins along with a lot of year 12 study. We may have a flying trip to the city later in the week to find shoes and jewellery for dinner dance which is fast approaching.

The Perfect Easter Sunday!

Today has been a perfect Easter Sunday. I was up early to decorate the table and check that Easter Bunny had visited!! Then after completing dessert it was off to church while SH and the 'horsey' one stayed home to cook lunch. When I got home Mum had arrived. We had Pork Belly with a caramel vinegar sauce, roast and other vegies. It was delicious. A lot of time was spent sitting around the table chatting and laughing and just enjoying each others company.

My sweet jar I bought at Christmas time was filled with  Easter M & M's.

I had to have roses from our garden on the table.

Peter decided the wind up chicken was a lot of fun!!! and yes he had hopped onto the table! He was removed very quickly!

We had a special bottle of French lemonade. Don't you love the bottle? Tasted good too!

 I was spoilt with many chocolate eggs but was very happy to get this 'egg'n'spoon', can't wait to try it!

Lots of fun at the table including with spoons....

and funny faces!

We weren't sure we would ever be ready for dessert but eventually we were.... coffee with strawberries, cream and

Chocolate mousse eggs! This probably wasn't the best one to photograph but it was a Cadbury recipe I picked up. I made chocolate half eggs using balloons and then inside was a white chocolate mousse with a 'yellow' yolk colored white chocolate mousse centre. They were lots of fun to make and delicious to eat!

At this stage none of us are feeling like we will ever eat again!!!! but I am sure it won't be long before something tempts me!!!

Catching up!

When I went on 'the' road trip I was very very spoilt by a special blogging friend who made me this needle book. Another special blogging friend has a matching one and I just know that every time one of us use it we will think of our friend and smile. Thank you, I love it!

When in Nundle, again on 'the' road trip (as it will forever be known) I was able to collect my prize I won in Cardygirls giveaway. I won paper piecing goodies and wow was I lucky. I didn't have anything already so am thrilled to have some supplies as it is something I will enjoy. It all came in a Smiggle case and the goodies seemed to be neverending! Thank you Cardy!

I have seen these UK magazines on blogs but never thought much about them, I can not afford another magazine to buy regularly, I am trying to cut down! In the newsagent this week I happened to spy 2 copies and being Easter and all thought I would indulge. Even better each one came with a little free kit. It is a lovely magazine and although I will not buy each one I may be tempted every now and again!!

A beach picnic and 'that' cheesecake!!

Today we made the trip down to Barwon Heads for a beach fish & chip picnic lunch with SH's family. I of course decided we needed something a little decadent to finish the meal!!! This month's Good Taste Magazine's cover recipe is what I decided on. It is a triple chocolate cheesecake with what seems like 20 different steps! It consists of a chocolate biscuit base then a salted caramel peanut layer then a thin layer of chocolate then a white chocolate cheesecake layer then a chocolate ganache! The recipe then has a layer of piped Italian meringue but we left that off thinking it wouldn't travel so well. A slight crisis when the caramel was a little soft and runny but we know what we did wrong and the flavors were amazing!!! There is a small amount left so I am about to have a little now to finish my day!!

Nothing better than fish and chips out of the paper!

The weather was perfect and the 'horsey' one and I even enjoyed a paddle!!!

We hit terrible storms on the way home - rain and wind, we were very glad to get home!!

Finally its here...

I love Easter! I love chocolate! I love time off work! I love spending time with family! I love special meals! I love Easter church services! I love sleeping in! I just love Easter!!!! and it's here! No work for 4 whole days....... I have so much planned. Wishing everyone a holiday filled with love, laughter, chocolate, fun and please anyone travelling stay safe on the roads.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to show the 'triple chocolate cheesecake' I have spent the last 2 days creating!

A little advice....

If you go Easter shopping it is probably not a good idea to leave them in the car boot on a warm Autumn day while you go out for lunch.....................

Do yourself a favor..

and if you get the opportunity to see this movie go !!!!! I went tonight after work with a friend and loved it!!!

Another weekend away!!

SH has just had his weekend away , I was hardly in a position to complain after my road trip to Nundle but I did miss him! He played in a Masters Baseball carnival. Him and some fellow team mates joined another team and were thrilled to finish runners up. Of course they would of been more thrilled to win!!! He loves his baseball and follows the American competition. We all went to a game on our visit to the States (go Angels!!) and HS has played for about 5 years. This year SH joined to play alongside him which of course all changed when HS got injured! Not sure that he will return to tennis next summer, think there may be another baseball season in him!!!

Poor sick Jim!

Jim has been poorly this weekend, complicated by the fact that SH is away for the weekend (yes his turn) and he frets when he is left. In the early hours of Saturday morning he began vomiting and trust me cleaning carpet at 1am is not high on my list of good experiences!!! When he still wasn't well later that day we took him to the vet. He was dehydrated so given an injection to stop the nausea and vomiting and we were not allowed to feed him for 24 hours, just give him a gastrolyte type drink. Today he is still a little miserable but slightly brighter. On vets instructions I have cooked up a huge pot of very bland food for him for small but frequent meals over the next few days. SH will be home any minute so I am expecting him to pick up quickly!!!