Comings and goings of an inconsistent blogger

So I am fairly terrible at this blogging thing, I will most certainly not be winning any awards for the most consistent blogger of the year, but in any case a small tidbit into whats been going on in this slack bloggers life.

The school holidays were a bit of a let down in here in sunny Queensland as I can tell you that it was anything but sunny, just lots and lots of rain.  I planned a trip to stay at my parents house with the kids and visit all our friends and have picnics and fun in the parks but sadly it was lots of inside play, movies and multiple trips to Underwater World (thank goodness for yearly passes).

I have quite a few firm favourites at UnderWater World the otters being one and the "Nemo" tank being the other, I love seeing the kids take in the amazing beauty of all these different underwater beauties.

A hard day of movies, UnderWater World and grocery shopping will tucker a poor little boy out, he slept like this the whole way around the store.

Teela celebrated turning five this year and as we were a few days out from her birthday my mum decided that we needed to have a pop up party of sorts for Teela at the Grandparents place before we headed home to Brisbane.

On her actual birthday with just the four of us.

Invitations.  With my 30th creeping up it was time to get creative and make some invites to what will be the celebration of my thirtieth year, eeepp.

 Sun, finally sun!!  Taking full advantage of a beautiful sunny winters day playing outside and exploring the long forgotten yard.

My latest op shop find.  Not what I went in there for but I could not leave this spinning rack behind, currently it is filled with my inks, embossing powders, glitter and wood mounted stamps but who knows what I will end up doing with this, I think it would also suit cosmetics, bracelets even fruit.

Birthday gifts, the best kind there is...I pick and he pays :D

Another set of birthday gifts, thanks Mum.  I already had these Napoleon Perdis Set cosmetics on a layby after a really decent special but I never got around to paying them off, the annual birthday money that mum gifts me every year paid for a new cosmetics haul, droool...

Peg bags, I have wanted some peg bags for ages.  The plastic ones you buy from the grocery store are flimsy, fall apart often and in the hot Queensland sun disintegrate in next to no time.  The pretty pink peg tin I bought a few months ago was pretty but 100% impractical, the kids kept stealing it, it made a horrible noise and it was far too small so one day in the midst of boredom and the feeling of needing to tackle something I have never done before I made a peg bag, and then another as the first was just not big enough, turns out I have a LOT of pegs.  They are not perfect they have faults but they are 100% what I wanted and I made them and I actually sewed them (that happens very infrequently, I am no seamstress).

Another long winded review post....

Things have been CRAZY busy since my last post and to top it all off I have gotten sick, hence why I have not been on here or Two Peas or doing any crafting :(

We have had two weekend on the coast, three thirtieths and a third birthday.

A visit with one set of my grandparents

Making cakes galore and cards and presents

A number of tantrums and that is not just from the kids

A house that needs to be scrubbed from top too bottom, I wont lie I am no house cleaner but all this busy and two kids and trips away have culminated into an exceptionally messy house that I am currently have my blinders on for.

And an exciting instalment in my life....

 Rearranged, cleaned, reorganised my craft space and decided to do a purge in the process....that was a disappointing purge I will say...

 Experimental lime pie, it turned out amazing but was disappointed by the two child sized finger marks through the top....

Finally got the cricut out and made something.  Teela's kindy class is learning about dinosaurs so I figured why not make a whole heap of dino's for them with the paper that I will never use.

 Instagram, decided to get my hipster on....

Ploughman's lunch, I love living close enough to Patton's which is a big butchery and green grocer but also has discount cheese and grocery items, always different stuff and if it wasn't for that place nice cheese would be a hardly ever item in this house.


The thirtieths....

Three layer Caramel mud cake with chocolate mousse cream and chocolate ganache.  Did I mention that I made this?  No, well I did not just a paper crafter, actually I used to do cakes for a business and I worked in a bakery so I have had some practice.

 

 The second cake for that weekend, three layer white chocolate mud cake with white choc ganache, this is my secret recipe, i have only ever given it out to one person and that is because she asked for it at a hens night after my one hundredth cocktail...  I made this one for my life long friend and best friend Lisa and her husband Nat we have known each other for ever, all went to school together, lived together and had children at the same time, it was always my pleasure to make them their favourite cake.

Rich chocolate cake with strawberries and whipped cream.

My husband turned thirty-one this year so we had a visit to our favourite restaurant ever Ahmets and then home with my family for coffee and cake.  I was such a good wife that I actually forgot that it was his birthday and organised a trip to a friends place so the cake was a 5.30 am number and  a five minute ice job, I LOVE this cake and my mum has been making it forever, one of those stand the test of time numbers.

Teela playing with Zoobs and made herself a microphone from them and tyre.  I am always amazed at how my children's brains and imaginations work and Teela has been blowing me out of the water with her creativity lately.

What have we been up to?

So I have failed at my week in review posts and am quite behind but in my defence things have been pretty quiet around these parts, just the usual daily comings and goings of a family.

Sour Cherry Cheesecake and Key Lime tart.  I had some requests for taste trials and I pumped out these two, both delicious and no favourite can be decided.

 Pumpkin risotto and lime herb chicken.  Match made in heaven, it might not look all that amazing but certainly tasted that way.  I made the decision a few weeks ago to get back into home cooked healthy meals and am rather pleased with the direction I am going cooking wise.

 Three pumpkin limit, 10 kilos or pumpkin and all for the princely sum of 90c.  I for see lots of pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie and roast pumpkin in our future...

 Home made macadamia Anzac biscuits and my new cup and saucer.  The biscuits were amazing, thank you Women's Weekly Bake cookbook.  The cup was something I fell in love with and had to have as it was only $4, lucky I did happy Mothers Day indeed.

Pineapple upside down cake.  This is a firm favourite in our house, a Nigella Lawson recipe that I am just utterly in love with and a dish that happened only because I found a Pyrex dish with pineapple ring in the fridge, perfect coincidence I say.

 A day out at Chambers Island.  It is not the prettiest looking place and is tiny and it has a whole lots mud on one side but it is a huge part of home and a perfect day out with family and friends.  We had games in the mud flats, swimming in the river, a trip on a boat, picnics under the trees and fishing.  The most fun I have had in a long time.

 Chicken Roast Zucchini and Broccoli Pasta, not creamy at all and top it off with toasted pine nuts, almonds and Parmesan and you have one mighty fine tasting guilt free pasta dishes.

A trip to Under Water World.  We have yearly passes to this place and we do try and pop in whenever we have a bit of spare time when we are on the coast.  This time we bought Grandma and Auntie along and we even manged to sit through the entire seal show, quite an adventure.

We have also had a million trips to the grocery store, a trip to the foot specialist at the Children's hospital, a kindy disco, colds and flu's a hardcore asthma attack, a night out without kids to a friends place, the greatest cob loaf ever tasted, a daddy night out to the football and a mummy night out for dinner, a gift of home made coffee fudge, a child caused flooding in the bathroom, a wedding invitation and a surprise visit from Grandma all in all a busy but nice last few weeks.

Week in review

Cup of tea in my favourite mug with home made bagels and cream cheese, just a wee bit more than awesome.

 Strawberry and lime cider, very sweet but a nice treat occasionally.

Parents lunch afternoon at the C&K kindy, we got a show and miss T showed me all around her room

Mini sour cherry cheesecakes, I made a huge one for everyone at J's work and made a few small ones for us at home, best one I have made possibly ever.

 I pulled out the long neglected husky and made head way with the mending pile and UFO's

 One of the many UFO's I finished, matching bath mat to the trimmed towels I made miss T last year, ohh and a pedicure something that never happens but I had a voucher that was about to expire so a much needed pampering was had.

 Some photo boothing with little miss T

And plenty, plenty, way too plenty of this.  Three is a much more demanding and meltdown inducing number then two ever was, sigh......

Lately....

                                      

• The Easter decoration aftermath.  I do not really get into the spirit of holidays (8 years of retail in malls will do that) but I decided to go all holiday mode for the kids this year.  Should not have bothered, ten minutes hanging out the washing and that is what's greeting me inside.

• 
•  It has been hair clip central here for the last few weeks.  I am done for a while but the hard parts start now, choosing a name to operate under and selling some.

•   Enjoying the last of the warm sunny days, sadly I think that this day was the last that we will enjoy untill next spring :(

•   Helping my amazing friend out with her kids clothing stall, I love being around so many beautiful things that she has hand crafted on her own

•  Mixed berry cheesecake.  I used to make these bad boys for a living in so many diferent flavours, I used to make lots and lots of them every week, it has been two years and this is only the second one I have made.  It bought back all the good feelings that I get when I cook/bake and it tasted pretty amazing as well.

• J considers himself the baker in this house and weekends we are usually indugling in some home made bakery treats, usually bread but sometimes he will make something indulgent like this brioche that was not really anything like brioche but still tasted too good to be healthy.

• Scrubbing walls, yep scrubbing the walls of the house, not the greatest activity that comes to mind but something that must be done.  Two years of little grubby kid hands is starting to bother me, super spring clean here I come.