First World problems

Lesson of the day, even if you think you can trust your 8 year old with your itunes password, you probably can't. Master L racked up a $140 bill in two days buying coins in some fascinating game called 'kick the buddy'....I know who I'd like to kick right now !!!! Thankfully charges are invoiced daily, hell knows what he would have spent if I hadn't picked this up this early, sigh. Master L's birthday party is now in jeaporday as punishment. Is this too harsh ? He's also been banned from the iphone and xbox. I'm more disappointed then anything and have had a chat with him about this although he doesn't seem to 'get it'......

On more pressing matters, window covering selection for the new home has begun. I find this along with light fittings really tough. For the boys rooms and bathroom I think we will go with white plantation shutters. For the family/dining, rumpus slider and family bi-folds I like the idea of roman blinds, just not sure on the colour and for the Master guest bedrooms which are at the front of the home I am leaning towards black roman blinds. What do you think?

Weekend wonderings and wanderings

We had a busy weekend this past weekend. Friday night we saw the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises. It was great! A tad slow in parts and could have been 30 mins shorter but it was great none the less !

Saturday Master L had a birthday party so J and Master J hung out together and I had lunch and a shopping afternoon with my mum. We feasted on calamari, arancini balls and lamb meatballs with a gorgeous Sav Blanc from South Australia at a local Tapas restaurant. Picked up a great little caardi from Harris Scarfe (seriously! ) and a couple more scarves to add to my collection. I lurve a great scarf !

Saturday night was a lovely relaxing evening, steak with baked spuds and sour cream and salad for dinner, Sav Blanc and a movie (movie can't have been that great as I can't remember what we watched, oops!)

On Sunday J had a golf day so I did my best Nigella impersonation and got cooking in the kitchen. I baked some Choc chip cupcakes for RSPCA cupcake day on Monday.

Next Up I baked some sweet potato chunks and whole garlic cloves drizzled in olive oil and sea salt for a salad. It's our favourite, a mixture of baby spinch leaves, shaved parmesan, roasted sweet potato and toasted pine nuts with a dressing of balsamic salad dressing, divine !!!!!

We had slow roasted lamb shoulder with this, cooked on a bed of sliced potatoes and rosemary !

And that was another weekend done and dusted, wonder what the week has in store ?

Here another photo of the 'plus two'

Kitchen ponderings

This is our third time building. Hopefully this time we have got it right ! It's an exciting yet stressful process. I mean, what if it doesn't turn out how we pictured, what if we have forgotten something, will we be happy ?

Our kitchen is in and the tiling is complete. To say I love it is an understatement. Finally I have drawers, can't wait to be able to put all the drink bottles and tupperware in a drawer so i won't have a cascade of it all falling all over the floor every time a cupboard door is open. The island bench is 1100mm deep and 3200mm long, a great size for drinking wine and eating nibblies around ;-) Love my undermount sinks, no bench space taken up by an ugly drainer.

My pride and joy though is the walk in pantry, no longer will I have an excuse for finding items 10 years past their expiry date because they were lurking in the back of a cupboard.

Can't wait to get in here and cook up a storm !

Should have been a Vet !

Scooby's going to be one of those dogs, you know, the type I said I'd never had. We were never going to:

*Have a small dog
*Have two dogs
*Have a fussy eater
*Have a 'delicate' dog
*Talk baby talk to our dog
*Let the dog on the couch
*Let the dog in the bed
*Spoil the dog

So far, we have broken every one of our 'rules'. My husband has been the worst offender ! Scooby can often be found snuggling up on the couch with J. Aside from all this Scooby seems to have a delicate stomach, he has been admitted to animal hospital twice costing a total of around $1300. I should have been a Vet, the charges are frightening, it's no wonder so many animals are dumped. Seriously, I could never do this but I wonder how people cope when faced with huge Vet bills that they just can't afford ? We wouldn't hesitate to pay for treatment but we are lucky that it's not an issue.....yet........ 

Hopefully he toughens up a little, he's already been labelled as the 6 million dollar dog !

Real Living

We are building our third home. Hopefully we've got it right this time ! This is to be our 'forever'home, well until the boys leave the nest anyway. According to statistics children are now enjoying the fruits of their parents labour and staying at home longer. I was 18 when I first left the nest, I couldn't wait to get my own place and assert my independence. Many a weekend was spent trawling the paper, yes paper, no realestate.com.au back then ! Furniture was sparse, I had a hand me down lounge suite from my parents, a rented tv and my bed. Flash ! Interest free wasn't an option, tv's were expensive and  discount furniture stores were few and far between.

Each month I eagerly wait for the latest Real Living, Home Beautiful and House & Garden magazines. Pouring over the pages, soaking up the beautiful interiors and gathering ideas. I can't wait to see the feature homes every month, of real people, with real lives and families. It's frustrating though, as I look at the images of these magazine perfect homes I wonder how these people get their style and decorate so amazingly. Frustratingly most of the time these are homes of interior decorators/stylists, architects, fashion designers or people in the 'industry', you get my drift ? Where are the homes of people like me? Who like beautiful interiors but have a limited budget. Who can't afford to employ a stylist or decorator. Who are living on one (average) income. I understand these publications are aspirational but some reality every now and then would be great too !

Ladies who lunch

Today I had lunch with a girlfriend. Since resigning from my job in May I have found myself lacking in motivation regarding all things domestic. Contrary to popular belief, being a domestic goddess is not all organic produce and Martha Stewart handcrafts. Some days I find it really hard to keep the momentum of daily routine going. My mantra at times seems to be "if it's not done today it can be done tomorrow". My resolve to 'live in the now and be always present" is short lived at times !

 The past few weeks we have started to have lunch on a Friday, at a different restaurant every time.We solve the problems of the world, have a laugh, share good food and have a wine (only one, sigh). It's great to have a reason to get 'dressed up', slap a bit of make up on and make sure the hair is clean. I was alerted to the fact It doesn't happen often enough now when upon seeing me freshly made up the first question was "are you working today mum ?"

I'll miss these lunches when we move out of the area, they are my little sanity saver at the end of the week.

Love you Trace !

Losing my blogging virginity

Well sort of anyway. So far, I've been pretty hopeless at blogging regularly, currently I have 5 neglected blogs on the go. This is a fresh start, I figure if I put it in writing then it must be true ! (well, I hope so anyway)

My husband already thinks I spend far too much time on my laptop, so I figure while I'm on it I may as well be a tad productive. I adore blogs, truly ! Although i would never admit this to many of my friends as I just don't think they 'get it'. In fact a lot of them probably don't even know what an online blog is.

So, what makes a blog interesting to me ? A template that is clean and not too busy, photos and interesting writing. I want the real stuff, not the fairytale stuff. The nitty gritty, not the Hallmark version. Hopefully thats what you'll get here :)

A pic of the 'plus two'