Things I'm Loving

So I'm joining in with my beautiful friend Paisley Jade in Things I'm Loving....

Honey Oat Cookies - these remind me of this icecream my mum made when we were kids!  Recipe at bottom....

[caption id="attachment_265" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="YUM!"][/caption]

 

This amazing lady - she is my Oma.  She turns 80 next Sunday.  She is one of the most beautiful and courageous women I know.  She has so much to tell me.  I have recenlty been making an effort to see her once a week - and I am so rewarded by this special time... and she loves it.

[caption id="attachment_268" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="with her great grandbaby - my little miss"][/caption]

 

These are in my garden!!  I grew them - yes I'm amazing!! (haha)

[caption id="attachment_267" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="pretty pink hibiscus!! might paint this someday..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_266" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="sunflower remnants - the plants have one big flower, but then produce all these babies!"][/caption]

I got out my crochet hook earlier this week...... ready for winter -

[caption id="attachment_264" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The first hat I've made that actually has NO mistakes! YAY"][/caption]

And buying this - in preparation for some teeny-tiny hats for a teeny-tiny I'm expecting in August :D

[caption id="attachment_263" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="loving the warm earthy coloured wool!!"][/caption]

I'm also looking forward to a few things:

• 
  
  celebrating a special little girls 1st birthday next week


• 
  
  Young Mum's night out with my girlfriends TOMORROW!!

 

Now for the recipe:

Honey Oat Cookies - Edmonds cook book

125g butter

1/2 c sugar

2 T honey

1 C flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 c rolled oats

Method: cream butter, sugar and honey until pale.  Sift flour, cinnamon and baking powder and add to dry ingredients.  Add rolled oats and mix well.  Roll tablespoon amounts into balls and place on well greased oven tray.  Flatten with a floured fork.

Bake at 180 for 15 minutes or until golden.

YUM!!  they'd also be nice with choc chips in I reckon!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Would you like trim, or full fat milk with that????

Sometimes - I forget to be thankful.

Three weeks after our wedding, I turned 21.  For my birthday, my husband bought me this amazing (and expensive) espresso machine.

3 and a half years on, I have to confess that I haven't used it all that much.

Most people that know me, know I LOVE a good coffee.  Really LOVE.  I enjoy coffee dates more than nearly anything else.  A celebration for me, is best celebrated in a coffee date & a card.

But I've hardly used my coffee machine....??

Ok, so there are reasons.  It is partly to do with the fact that I don't do trim milk.  And to me, trim and latte in the same sentence is ridiculous.  It's like having a massive feed of macca's and having a diet coke.  (I must also confess that I do just that).

In the year following our wedding, I worked at losing 20kgs.  Full fat milk coffee's on a regular basis were just not going to work in achieving this goal.  So, the machine got neglected.

That is pretty much the only good reason I have, apart from making them takes time - but probably less time than boiling the jug and preparing for a perk or (dare I say it) instant.

Anywho - on the thankfulness part.

Last week, I randomly started discovering tiny baby white-tail spiders on my bench.  With ant-sized bodies.  Being pregnant, of course - this was much of an over-reacted drama series, inclusive of very premature nesting.  I pulled out the oven and fridge and cleaning everything and fly-spraying everything.

Of course - just like one of those terrifying films, it didn't work.  I was still finding baby white-tails on my bench.  Some dead (mostly because of the gallons of fly spray floating in the atmosphere at my disposal) - but most of them ALIVE! 

All I could imagine was eventually finding this massive nest of white-tails all running frantically - and FURIOUS mumma ones who are going to bite me all over.  (Yes I am a walking drama sometimes.)

Well, after a search operation, I discovered their source.  They were alive and kicking in bulk, inside my COFFEE MACHINE!

On the discovery of this, they were completely obliterated by fly-spray.  If that did not kill them, they probably would have drowned in it anyway.  I found no adult ones, there was no drama - it all happened very slowly.  After all, I was pretty sure an ant-sized one couldn't really do much harm.

The point is - it made me think about the fact that I have this amazing, well thought out gift - from my best friend.  I have hardly shown my appreciation for it, apart from that it takes up a lot of space on my tiny bench a prized position on my bench.

My husband is NOT at all a gift giver, nor is he a card writer.  I purchase all the gifts in our house.  He gets really stressed when it comes to our anniversary, my birthday, Christmas or Valentine's day - when he has to think about a gift or something 'romantic' to do.  It does not at all come naturally to him.  In fact, it works best if a few weeks before my birthday I write him a list of things I would/could like, and he picks something.  Or, like he has done for the last two years, he gives me money.

This gift was thought out, meaningful and something awesome!  I have sent a pretty poor message of appreciation for it.

Perhaps it's time we sit and just have a little think about thankfulness.  What kind of message of thankfulness are you demonstrating to your family, your love and your kids?

Happy Valentine's Day New Zealand!  Make sure you tell those people who are special that you love them!  ♥

Humour me.....?

Today, just for fun, I'll humour you a little - here are some pics of Lily -

 with her new "hat"...

 

  

 

She walks around with it completely covering her face - can't see a thing, and bangs into stuff all the time - but loves it....??

 

 

 

 

Humour #2.  We made a cake last week.  A mammoth of a cake.  My little bro turned 21, and my mum asked me to do his cake.  Then she "suggested" it could be in the shape of a guitar.

 

I obliged (I quite like working my creativity out on tasty things).  I'm not that skilled, this is only the 2nd cake I've ever made into something other than an oblong with standard icing.  But I'm learning...

 

  

 

So here is the finished product - before it left my house....

 

 

 

I didn't get any really decent pics - it was so big it was sitting on cardboard which didn't help!

However, (here's the humour), when it arrived to it's destination - it was dropped on the rug in the hallway (it wasn't me).  My 2 hours of icing went out the window :( 

So when I arrived at the party, my cake had been redecorated quickly by my sister.  And looked quite different. 

In my brother's words "still looked good still tasted good so its all good".

I did laugh about it later.

Well, apart from that and a festivity filled weekend - I must update you -

I'm 13 weeks today (scan changed my DD to 15/08), and I'm feeling much less sick, exhausted and nil energy.

So, miss 1 and I went for a stroll in the bush at a local park, and I did 10 mins of rowing.  It is about all my unfit body can handle after not being able to do any exercise for the last 9 weeks!  Working on it!  Will keep you posted on that one.

I'll leave you with this....

the delight of my life......

Humour me Monday.....

Today, just for fun, I'll humour you a little - here are some pics of Lily -

 with her new "hat"...

[caption id="attachment_244" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="show me your hat!She walks around with it completely covering her face - can't see a thing, and bangs into stuff all the time - but loves it....??walking the lawn..."][/caption]

Festival of Lights

So, if you want a holiday in an amazing city - where over summer they run a 6 week long festival - with family friendly entertainment EVERY NIGHT, activities for kids, an amazing park, friendly people and nearly everything is FREE - FREE - I kid not.... I do recommend New Plymouth. 

[caption id="attachment_231" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="the girls danced to the excellent singers...."][/caption]

My brother and his family relocated there a year ago - and to sum it up - apart from being away from their family (her's are in Ireland, his are north NZ), they LOVE it!  I was told of free sausage sizzles, free entertainment, free parties for kids with face painting, the free zoo...... lots to do!

[caption id="attachment_232" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="the beautiful changing colours waterfall - amazing"][/caption]

Each summer from mid December to end of Jan, they host a 'Festival of Lights' - where the features of their main Pukekura park are lit up. 

[caption id="attachment_233" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="dragonflies on the bridge..."][/caption]

It means a late night, because it's only dark enough around 9.20pm, but it's definitely worth it.  Even miss 1 and miss 2 got a good time out of it.

[caption id="attachment_234" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="punga tree..."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_235" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="this had these pirate birds, making a heck of a noise, good times..."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_236" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="wow"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_237" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="this is the reflection in the lake of the actual feature - hanging above"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_238" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="palms and ferns..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_239" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="and my favourite - the 3D balls and ultra violet lights"][/caption]

Holiday adventures....

We went away for a week recently, for a wedding and to catch up with family who live far away. 

[caption id="attachment_220" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="practising for her big day ;-)"][/caption]

Here are some highlights (haha) for all you mums out there......

It was a typical family holiday.... it rained with the remnants of cyclone Wilma the first weekend.  The wedding day it just poured, so it was quickly changed from a beach wedding to indoors.  There was flooding and slips and major roadworks along the road on our way to Hamilton then New Plmouth.  Lily vomited all over herself, her blankey and her carseat.  It was a beautiful day the next day, and she was sick... ALL DAY.  She was better the following day - it RAINED all day.  We left for home on Friday, got stuck in rush hour traffic which took 2 hours to get from South Auckland to Albany.  We left for Whangarei, another cyclone was making its presence well known, so we turned back.  We turned back again on Saturday morning, when thousands of others were trying to make the same trip north and the main part of State Highway 1 north was closed.  We finally got home at 9pm that night after a long detoured drive north.

Thankfully, our animals were all alive and well fed.   Our house was intact and tidy (thanks to my epic cleaning spree the day before we left) and our car made the trip!

We really did have a good time.  A sense of humour on holiday meant that we found most of the above chaotic things funny.  Here are some real highlights....

I got to play/dance/read-to and hang out with this princess....

[caption id="attachment_221" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="my beautiful niece"][/caption]

 

I met for the first time, and got cuddles and loads of grins from this handsome little man...

[caption id="attachment_223" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="gorgeous nephew!"][/caption]

watching cousins play...

[caption id="attachment_222" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="People actually thought they were both mine.... and that I was crazy! (they're 8 months apart)"][/caption]

we killed some time on Saturday at Auckland Zoo...

[caption id="attachment_224" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="the zoo! oh, the Harris' - at the zoo"][/caption]

 

We got a visual treat at New Plymouth's festival of lights...

[caption id="attachment_225" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="waterfall - it changed colours...."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_226" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="ultra-violet lights and 3D balls!"][/caption]

 

That's all for now... stay tuned for highlights of the zoo and the lights over the next couple of days - got some awesome pics!

Hope you're all good out there!