Some photography motivation

I'm joining in with this.... are you in too???

Head over to White Peach Photography for all the details.

Wordless Sunday

Taken on Sunday but a bit late posting it....

Happy Birthday Gorgeous Boy

Today my gorgeous boy is 8 years old!

Like with every birthday it's quite hard to believe... 8 years!!!

My sweet boy
I love you
I love your gentle nature
I love your thirst and gift for learning
I love your attitude and determination
I love your hugs and your beautiful smile
I love the way you look out for your sisters
I love the way you believe wholeheartedly in God
I love that you aren't ashamed to give kiss Mum goodbye
I love that you are our son and we have been blessed with you in our lives

love Mum
xx

Cushion Cover swap

The other day I shared with you the cushion cover I have sent off for the Cushion Cover swap over at Punky and Me.

Well I have received my one  - it was wrapped beautifully...

and its so perfect for me!!!

I love red and white polka dots and love blue too!

it actually looks really good with my daughters chair!

Thanks Rhiannon, I love it! and I appreciate the amount of work you have put into this!

Creative space

Inspired by a friend I went on the hunt for an old book to turn into a gratitude book.

I thought this one was totally perfect!  Love the title and love the little mushrooms... and all for $1 - woohoo!

Ive started 'repurposing' a few of the pages

and the next step is writing about the things I am grateful for...everyday.

linking up to Our creative spaces

The Nutty Pensioner

Today is my Dad's birthday... he is very excited as he finally qualifies as a Pensioner.

He's a bit of a nut my Dad, he has a very dry sense of humour and always makes the kids laugh.

For his birthday we made him a Pensioner Emergency Pack

I think he liked it..... lol

It was perfect for the Nutty Pensioner!!

He blew out his candles with my boy (who is celebrating his birthday in a few days too)

puffer fish comes to mind.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Dad!! hope you have a great day!

Cushion Swap - what I have sent

I joined in with Punky and Me's Cushion Cover Swap.

Of course I'm a 'last minute' kinda girl!

But with sick kids all week I decided to get stuck in.

This is totally different to what I planned to do... but im really liking how it turned out :)

Hope the recipient likes it too :)

this week's loving...

So I'm being a bit slack at my 'Loving' at the moment. Things have been up and down again... but I still have so much to be grateful for..

I am loving supportive, caring, kind and understanding friends.  They make life so much easier..the phone calls, the texts, the emails and facebook messages.  Thanks my beautiful friends xx.

And my Mum who is helping me with the kids... sleepovers... meals.... she rocks.
I am loving crafting with my gorgeous Bloggy friends.

I am loving my 'nutty' Dad who is celebrating his 65th birthday this week (more on that in another post).

puffer fish springs to mind here...

And my crazy girl!!!

I am loving this wee girls fierce determination at the moment (and the teachers are loving her too!)

Loving taking some time for me to do some sewing... and achieving so much more than I set out to do!!

Finishing my scarf

Loving listening to the sound of the waves crashing on the beach at night....

Loving decisions made.

Wow, I have a lot to be grateful for!!

Joining in with Paisley Jades....

My Creative Space

In my creative space today, I am working on finishing this scarf...

Because my friends, in New Zealand it is COLD!!!! Brrr.....

Especially after three Queensland winters... not. aclimatising.well - lol.

Linking up to Kootoyoo Our Creative spaces here (for the first time in ages!!!) go check out all the other super creative links!!

Tea Towel Swap

Hi folks

just organising swap partners for the Tea Towel swap...just was missing a couple of addresses.

Watch your inbox :)

Leonie

chasing away those cobwebs

Its been a tough week here.

I am so grateful to my parents and some very good friends who are helping us through.

Today I promised the kids a run around at the beach...

to fly a Star Wars ship, made yesterday with Poppa....

to practice writing in the sand (for a word obsessed girl)

to walk on the beach....

to watch my beautiful children and remember all the things I have to be thankful for.....

Taste of a Traveller

Who doesn't love Masterchef? I am addicted to it!  Introducing Taste of a Traveller from New Zealand's first Masterchef, Brett McGregor.



If there is one cookbook you NEED to have in your kitchen this year... this is it!!

On first look this cookbook is beautiful, the images are just lovely. They take you away to far away places and then bring you back home again... to some delicious takes on Kiwi fare we love.

I love the way the book is laid out. It is seperated into different sections for recipes from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Spain, Morroco and New Zealand, with a few sweet treats at the end. There are also sections introducing the pantry essentials for each style of cooking and must have utensils.

We are very much into NZ inspired cuisine in our house so I chose 2 recipes to try from that section, and then a recipe from the Spanish and Moroccon sections.

Now before I tell you about the recipes, one thing that stood out for me in this book is that the recipes are about eating good wholesome foods. Everything is made from scratch which is something that really appeals to me when feeding our family.  And most of the ingredients were easy to find, I found curry leaves at Bin Inn in the fridge for only about $2.70.

The first recipe to try with the Goan Fish Curry. It was delicious. I didn't make it too spicy as the kids were eating it but it was still so tasty and will definately feature in our future meal plans.

Ive had to take the photographs from the book as I am not very good at photographing food!!!

Next up we tried the Butternut and Lamb Stew from the Morrocon Section.  A good hearty meal, great winter comfort food.

For my birthday Mum made Mum's Lambs Shanks (from the New Zealand section). OH. MY. GOODNESS!! They were delicious. I love Lamb Shanks!

 

The final recipe we tried was the Chickpea Stew and Pancetta from the Spanish section.

When making this I just wasn't sure it was going to work... right up the end I was questioning whether, what appeared to be glorified baked beans, were going to even taste any good. 

Well, I was pleasantly surprised!!  These turned out to be my FAVOURITE recipe of the whole book (so far!). The recipe was SO easy and oh the taste!!!!  Superb.... I um got so excited by the taste I completely forgot to take a photo!... so here's another from the book!!

I am looking forward to trying more recipes from this great book.  It is full of recipes that appeal to our family and also they are easy to adapt to my food allergies.

I would throughly recommend getting a copy for your own shelf!!!

Roasted Pumpkin and Capsicum Soup

I have had a hankering for more pumpkin soup... because really, you can never have too much, right?

Watching River Cottage Everyday the other night I was interested that he put nut butter in the soup..sounds yum to me. I love Almond butter so will have to try it. I LOVE that show. REAL FOOD!!

But... I was dreaming of pumpkin soup and some roasted capsicum.  So this is what I came up with...

and it got the thumbs up from my Mum and Dad and ALL three kids!! YUSS!!!

Of course it has to be served with some freshly baked gluten free bread ...YUM!

happy mothers day

Happy Mothers Day to all the Mum's out there. Hope you've all had a lovely day.

Happy Mother's Day to my Mum too :)

In keeping things real, I can't say Ive had a great mother's day here.
Yes, I am lucky to have my beautiful children and yes, I should be rejoicing that the first thing I woke to this morning was them fighting, one screaming followed by lots of banging as they all made and flew paper airplanes all around the room. Nice.

Then my eldest wanted to make pancakes... which of course, I ended up doing.  Sigh.

But I guess I'm missing having hubby here to make the pancakes, referee the fights, allow me a sleep in. So yes, Im feeling a lot for those Mum's out there who do it on their own all the time! You are AMAZING women! all credit to you.

The day did get better.... (maybe it was my tears at the Four Square?)

Once they had agreed on who was giving what, they did spoil me some lovely Mother's Day presents and cards....

Mum and Dad came for lunch and I made a very yummy Roasted Pumpkin and Capsicum Soup (recipe to follow- made up by ME!).

Thank goodness for Mums... Mum saw the stress, the tiredness... and offered a sleepover to my eldest ...because for some reason my kids stop fighting when one is out of the mix??? (and it doesnt matter which one!)

I am so lucky to be a Mum and so lucky to have these three little miracles who are destined to do great things with all the great communication skills they are developing with each other (lol).
For that I am thankful.

I'm off to give them a big cuddle before they go to bed.

How was your day?

Things Im Loving....

Loving that for the next few months... this is the view I will wake up to....

(not loving that for the first time in like FOREVER I won't have a dishwasher..but them's the breaks, I have three children desperate to be trained ......mwahahaa)

Catching up with very special life long friends....

and feeling like barely a day has passed.

my nutty kids at the Auckland Museum

and my darling boy's new 'do' (I had very specific instructions and am now called upon to gel it just right every morning before school, I may or may not stop the car and go back if we forget- just saying!)

isn't he just adorable!!!

and making birthday cakes ... its what I love.... (even for another special person's special little person)

aaah... bunting... it never grows old for me....

NOT loving my hubby heading back to Oz again - nuff said or slipping over this morning and twisting my ankle...so not cool with moving (especially when its up 20 stairs!!)

What you loving?

Linking up with Kristy... over here