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.

Crafting to report....

I am going to let you in on a little secret, most often than not my pages sit for a few days or even weeks stuck in unfinished limbo.  Titles, journalling and adding those final touches are something that I really struggle with.  I am okay with this but am trying to fit in more crafting time so maybe I can push through the road blocks that are the final important touches to my layouts.  The two layouts below are two that I have been working on for a few weeks now.

 Behind That Smile

I have had these photos for quite some time now and I really struggled trying to find some papers that seemed to work.

Well that is some seriously old paper right there....

Remember when Making Memories was actually making consumable products and the paper had bar code stickers on the back?  I scored this paper in my local RSPCA thrift store in a bundle with some other old papers.  I was rather uninterested in the double orange and olive green block pattern but the plain olive coloured side was the perfect shade for this layout.  

 I usually don't mix my alphas up so this is a nice change, I used Echo Park, Sassafras Lass which I inked brown and covered in glossy accents and font cut with the Cricut, I think it was Happy Phantom.

This is actually a really nice and simple layout, not too much going on just took forever to get finished as I was too lazy to print out the journalling.

Week In Review....

 Healthy Lunch.  My kids are amazing eaters but I kind of hate the daily routine of sandwiches and fruit bars so on non kindy days I am implementing healthy lunches.  The best thing is they actually eat all of this without being hassled or bribed.

How many four year olds do you know that love spinach?  Miss T is a odd ball child who often chooses to eat a salad over things like chicken nuggets and chips and will eat spinach straight from the container in the fridge rather than crackers.

Chocolate fudge pie, the burnt crust was a nice extra touch :(

In all seriousness though I used to bake for a living and I had my own business supplying cakes and slices etc.. I have not properly baked since I closed up but I did get the urge to bake during this week.  Too much going on, kids interrupting and an unfamiliar oven all led to a nice fudge part and a sad and burnt over cooked pastry.  Am going to go back and attempt it again at some stage.

One year ago today....

One Year ago today.

 The most nervous I have ever been....ever, even more so than having my kids.

The hardest I have ever worked, organised or been dedicated too.

One of the most special days in my life with the most special people to me.

Six and a half years after we met, we finally became an official family.

Layout Complete....

I have no idea how it can take me over two weeks to print off and attach journaling but I swear that is the most painful part for me in getting a layout finished.

I have had this layout finished and sitting on my desk for a few days now and finally with a wee bit of sun out I actually managed to get a decent shot

I found this positively ancient and original year 2000 photo in a pile. 

Don't worry I always had doubles printed off so it was in my scrapbook photos. 

The photo is an unedited from the days of film cameras and it had a bit going on in the background so it needed to be cropped down.  I am not a fan of the small photo in the corner and lot of white space so I turned my small photo into a fake Polaroid.  the dimensions are just slightly off but I tried to make it as close as possible to the real thing.  I actually really love this layout and it's purple, purple has always been a bit of a scrapbooking nemesis for me but I love how this turned out.... 

Week In Review....

Easter has come and gone, so has the holidays (bahh humbug), I feel like I have had a chocolate coma, I caught up with quite a few good friends and sadly missed out out seeing others, we had illness go through the whole family and my over indulgence in vodka lead to a horrible hangover, blech...

Cocktails with the best company...A surprise visit from my bestie and a few well earned drinkies, yes this was all after the hangover incident...glutton for punishment.

Reese's Pieces, these things should be illegal

 The aptly titled Being Boy....It never ceases to amaze me just how much boy he can be.

Fixing the pile of broken jewellery.  After finishing up making a Turquoise bracelet set for my Bestie I decided to hunker down and re-make and repair my old faithful and broken bracelets.

The sick little man, sleeping his little heart out over the holidays :(

Discovering another track that takes me away to my musical happy place.  Music plays a huge part of my life and always has and this track just has that magic formula that is a perfect fit for me.

Easter....

Just a quick post on the Easter parcels that I made for Teela's teachers.
I ran out of time this year to make a big deal of Easter so I decided to make a small treat bag of Easter M&M's and home made Oreo truffle chocolates to hand out to the teachers.

I make Chocolates a bit but its usually for Birthdays and Hens nights so I had to find some more "appropriate" chocolate moulds.  Being Easter time I had a few to choose from and I am pretty sure the two silicone moulds I found came in at under $5 at the cheapy store, the bunny mould I already owned.

 Tags made with the Cricut Doodle Charm cartridge, easy and a free option for the treat bags.

I always have a stash of cellophane bags but I snagged these treat bags at Aldi of all places for 99c and they have little bunnies on them, perfect.  I bought a roll of bunny ribbon for $2 and tied the top of the bags, done.

I love the ease of using treat/cellophane bags and the fact that they are so cheap and have become so ready available.  Ribbon is another thing that can be found pretty much anywhere and really cheap and as a little easy and cheap token of appreciation they do the job wonderfully.

Sneaky Peeks....

I have been in the process of completing three layouts over the last week or so and I am nearly finished, I was hoping to have them all done before the four day Easter break but sadly it looks like that will not happen and I have had a very sick little boy that has needed lots of mummy attention to keep me busy and away from the scrap supplies.

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Week in review

This was the last week of Miss T being at kindy before the school holidays and from the sounds of it they had an awesome last two days.  I am going to miss the reprieve that I get when I send her off but I am looking forward to a few days holiday back home to visit all my friends and have a few long over due drinks, ohh and lots of chocolate

One of the parents made all the kids at the kindy marshmallow bunnies and  the kids got to decorate them with food dye.  How awesome is that, hearing things like this make me very happy that we have sent Miss T to a community kindy.

I have been on a chocolate making fix the last few days for the teachers presents, cute white chocolate bunny lollipops and Oreo truffle filled Easter shaped chocolates

Rib Roast. 
I have a confession to make on this one...
This my first beef roast ever.  Yes ever.  My mum has always been the roast person and it was not until I moved in with J that I learned how to cook a roast chicken and then we were vegetarian for a while so obviously no beef roast for us.  I will say that I was rather chuffed with myself and how it all turned out, it was nice but I am no meat eater and would rather have a nice big plate of roast veggies, J however J thought it was amazing and can't wait for the next one.

24 hours my friends, my whole Saturday was spent with this book, from cover to cover.

Long story, my mother in law bought me The Lost Symbol for Christmas a few years ago and I was always under the impression that The Dan Brown books had some kind of order that you had to read them in, the book has sat for years untouched.

Last week I took my friend into a thrift store that I frequent and I happened upon the DaVinci Code in almost new condition for $5, so I thought why not?

It was good, I really enjoyed it and I am loving the fact that I have been reading more books in the last four months than I have in the last four years, why did I stop reading?  I used to live with my nose in a book, my first love in life was books and when I say first love I mean my first passion and reason for living was books.  Books they are pretty awesome :D

Discovering bands especially well established and older ones that leave me wondering how they escaped my notice.  Bent a British band that falls under the electronica/lounge/down tempo/chill out category that I have so fallen in love with over the last few years.  I am no longer a happy hardcore raver kid who likes my doof doof music loud and full of bass, instead I like my electronic music a little more relaxed these days.  I have always been a fan of music that is a little left of the norm and happily these guys fill that spot rather nicely.  I have spent a whole day with them today and I can't wait to get my hands on an album or two.

Because it's a Massive Attack kind of day....

It was the kind of day today that demanded some glorious ageless beats and what could be better than Massive Attack?  I have had a very long love affair with this band that goes all the way back to my very early teen years, this righteous taste is music probably only added to my all round uncool status back in the day but whose laughing now?  Not a shameful Coolio or Mariah Carey album in my CD collection thank you but I do have Massive Attack, I think that qualifies me as cool before I knew it, no?

Ohhh, how I LOVE this new song by Australian House Music DJ Cassian.  Seeing as it is a Friday night and sadly I am at home again (see; every Friday night in the last three years, sigh) I thought I would post this get up off your seat and shake it gem of a track up.

I Love Sia, I am kind of responsive to David Guetta (see; was much better before he got discovered and started doing mainstream radio friendly tracks) but I do love a smashing pop/dance crossover and this my friends is a bit of techno/dance/pop fun. 

Week in review

Just another standard normal week here at the Joffe household, plenty more tantys from the little one, more hilarious things to pop out of miss T's mouth and the usual daily grind.  The only saving grace was a whole weekend of J being at home and a sunny Saturday which after all the rain we have had in South East Queensland was a lovely reprieve .

 My old school, flooded, insane.

I was born in Brisbane but did my teenage years and early twenties on the Sunshine Coast and to this day I still consider it my home.  In all my years I have never seen anything like the flooding that happened on the coast last week, it was sad and scary and unbelievable all at the same time, so much water and I am really glad that I no longer live in one of my old houses as I have no doubt that the whole house would be filled with stinky dirty canal water.

Ohhh happiness in a glass, vodka, cranberry, soda and lime.  Epic Win :)

Epic sad :(

Saturday was sunny after almost two weeks of rain so we bundled the kidlets into the car and went out to the Mt Cootha Botanical gardens, part of the fun was the kids adventure walk and trying to find all the hidden stuff in the gardens

Possibly my favourite part of the gardens in the area which houses all the cacti, so amazingly strange and beautiful in their own way.

Layout to share....

The wedding album.
Here is a little story, I was so determined to have the cheapest but beautiful budget friendly wedding possible and I believe that I had exactly that.  In saying that having a cheap wedding often means doing a lot DIY and boy did we DIY.  I made all the wedding and hens invitations, the food and decorations for the hens, my dress was made by a friend, we did the flowers, I did all the candy buffet, I made the the cupcakes and the 100's of flowers and monogrammed hearts for the top etc.....

Basically it was an entire year of wedding planning, preparations, shopping, e-bay buying, Internet comparing, find storage room for a whole wedding of decorations kind of event,  and apart from a wee little bit of rain on the day it was amazing and went off perfectly.

As soon as that wedding was over however I wanted nothing, absolutely nothing to do with weddings ever again, I have still not looked at all the photos, I have still not watched the video and I still have not done thank you's (very naughty and a wee bit rude and I think that ship has sailed).  I was so over weddings that I never wanted to have ANYTHING to do with another wedding again, ever.

Last week 11 months since the big day I finally got the empty wedding photo album out and started adding photos to it.  I also paid for an online class and one of the prompts was using multiple photos, I only had leftover wedding photos lying around so a wedding scrapbook page was made

I am really pleased with this layout, it ticks all the right boxes, the right colours, its nice and simple and I managed to use the paper from our wedding invites on there, perfect.  Now that I have actually got a start at the album I now need to sort out what photos I  want to use and I need to order the paper, and then maybe I just might have the start of an actual scrapbooked wedding album.

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......

Layouts to share....

The last few months have been a whirl wind of ups and downs and an extremely busy period in our life and to top all of it off we decided at the last moment that moving house was a brilliant idea.

So sewing machine, decorating goodies and scrapbooking supplies were all packed away into boxes and were amongst the last of the stuff to be unpacked, no creativity was happening until I had our new place in some kind of order.

These are some older iPhone photos that I forgot about so the quality is not the greatest but once I re-found them I knew I had to do a layout with them.  Actually this is the last layout that I made in our last place but as soon as it was finished it got packed away so no photos of it.  This design from this layout is another of Shimelle's 4x6 photo love classes this time I have used February as the inspiration.  This was also the first layout that I used any of the Sassafras warehouse sale paper that I received before Christmas.

Car Show Love most certainly, J and I love a good car show and the highlight of living where we do is the once a year Rodz Rock n Roll festival, we love the cars and can bribe the kids with the promise of getting carnival food and kids rides after we look at the cars.

I have used some SERIOUSLY OLD stash on this layout.  Both the striped paper (KI Memories) and the background paper (Karen Foster c.2002) are ancient and true to form this layout is a good mixture of new and old products. 

I apologise for the tired and sad edges on these papers.  That Karen Foster has actually moved countries and has possibly had seven plus house moves behind it so I guess I can cut it some slack....
What I love the most about this layout is the cogs (especially the ultra shimmery charcoal/silver colour) and the fake glimmer mist/paint splatter stamp that I have used.

Just a boy being a typical boy, lets not create art with this paint, lets eat it and make a huge mess with it instead, I just wished I had a photo of the aftermath, head to toe dark khaki paint, awesome.

Again I used that coveted glimmer mist/paint splatter stamp.  I also cut the circles from a sheet of Bella pattern paper and made the star embellishments using some die cut shapes, brads and distress ink.  I do not own all that much in the way embellishments I am more of a paper hoarder and I am not a huge over embellisher anyway so not having the perfect little bit of extra to top off a page is sometimes not a huge deal, it is amazing what you can create with just a few bits and pieces from what you already have on hand. 

Pinterest picks of the week....

1.Gobsmackingly Gorgeous Kitchen

Wow, wow, wow, I am in love...

 2.DIY Mouse Mat

Seriosuly how easy is that?  I am making one ASAP

3. Greatest Colour Combo EVER.....

No, Seriously I must and will have this exact room one day, untill then I am destined to stare at my electric blue wall, thanks colour inept landlord

4. As Close As It Gets....

My back deck and as close to the pink, black, white and damask beauty that is above, still at least I have it somewhere at home.