Life Cricle

Life circle is an excellent strategy for goal setting that I found here.

I am able to cross it off my 101 list and I feel much better for doing it.  I have done it on my journal blog as I feel it was a bit personal to share with everyone.  But to prove that I have done it you can check the pics below. <3

Stuck On You Personalised Bib.

If there's one this we know about our lovely little Leah it's that she likes to get messy.  Remember this? And Day 172 of her 365 says it all really. So I was delighted when I was asked to do a review for a personalised bib from 'Stuck on you'.

I was straight in there deciding which style to order - and I was happily surprised to find I had a huge range to choose from. Over 30 in fact.  Lots of cutesy little motifs.  I settled on a Russian Doll style which I loved. You can check the range of styles out here.

I love getting parcels in the mail and mummy bubba was super excited when the bibby turned up.
The bib is made of 100% cotton and you can tell it's good quality - neat stitching, thick material and the lovely motif I asked for. I was somewhat disappointed to see that the bib had velcro and not a stud dome fastener like the web page says as we prefer the domed fasteners, but the way in which the bib is made means that the velcro doesn't rub and scratch on Leah's neck like we've had with some other bibs.

I adored the Russian doll motif that I had chosen and was happy that the one that was on the bib with Leah's name was represented well on the website when choosing.  I know some things I've bought online haven't come up to scratch when I get them in the mail box!  The motif on the bib was an exception to this and was exactly what I was expecting - the colours were bright, it was placed in the center and seems like it would stand up to come wear and tear, awesome!

We got it thoroughly messy on Tuesday night with a meal of Lambs Fry and Bacon and it's washed up beautifully white again today - a plus in this perfectionists little world.

So all in all a really great bib.  I would thoroughly recommend one for your little one or as a gift for someone.  In my (almost) 9 months of motherhood I've really enjoyed getting anything that's personalised and have wanted after many things on the Stuck On You website before.

You can find Stuck on You products at the above links throughout the post or on facebook here, twitter here and you can search for them on Google+ and add them to your circle.

Thanks for letting me sample your goods Stuck on You!

Things I'm loving...

 I wholeheartedly believe that no matter what is happening in your life, there is always something that you can be thankful for... no matter how simple it is.

 

1.  Loving very much the supportive people who help when you baby is sick again! Thank you to my lovely management team at work who understand what it's like having a little one sick, to my lovely husband who helps out all the time and to my lovely mother who looked after Leah yesterday.  SICKNESS GO AWAY!

 

 

 

2. Love the truth in this video.

 

 

3. Love the doggy who sleeps outside the bedroom door when mummy isn't feeling well and needs an afternoon nap.

 

 

 

4. Loving bubba's new, free (because I'm writing a blog review - tune in tomorrow) bibby from stuckonyou.com.au 

5. Love the cheeky girl that told me to stuff my version of a photo shoot and we were doing this one on her terms - standing up is the preferred nowadays.  Cheeky monkey.

The land of Painted Cave - Finally finished!

At the age of 15 I began to read 'The Clan of the Cave Bear" at my mum's recommendation.  At 15 I couldn't get into it but gave it a go again when I was about 21 and LOVED it. In fact, it became my favourite book.

The story is set in Europe during the last Ice age. It is about a young girl named Ayla who is of cro-magnon decent and at the beginning of the tale is found by a group of neanderthal humans. It follows her story living with them.  If you want to read more about it you can here. I thoroughly recommend it.

My favourite quote from the book is;
"...and because no one told her she couldn't, she did."


Having loved 'The Clan of the Cave Bear' so much I decided to read the entire series.  At that stage that was 4 more books, which I quickly made my way through.  I loved the second the the third novels - "Valley of the Horses" and "The Mammoth Hunters".

The second follows Ayla after she is cast out from the 'clan' and considered dead by them.  She lives in a valley by herself and befriends a baby lion, a horse and a wolf.  It's a dual story line.  Her story and that of two traveling brothers. At a point the two stories cross paths and Ayla falls in love with one of the brothers who she has to nurse back to health.

The third is about the couples travels to the settlement of mammoth hunters called the Mamutoi and their time living with them. Excellent stories, both of them.

The fourth novel, "The plains of passage" is about Ayla and Jondalar's trip back to Jondalar's people - the Zealandonii.  Very long, very detailed.  Not my favourite of the series and it was a big job to get through it but I did enjoy all the descriptions of the land around them as they travelled, animals, flora and fauna.

The fifth novel is about when the couple reach Jondalar's family and his people. It's not great.

I've just recently finished the 6th novel.  Which, even though I didn't enjoy the 5th so much, was really looking forward to prior to it's release early last year.  I was extremely excited when Mr. Man came home with it on the day of release to surprise me. I started it that night but it fell off with my busy 'getting ready for baby schedule'.

I started reading it again a month or so back and waded through pages and pages of (sadly) boredom :(. The book repeats waaaaay to much of the stuff that you already know.  Surely at the 6th novel the only people reading it would be those that have followed the story all the way through?
The storyline is incredibly detailed again, which previously I've liked, but it was a little bit TMI at some points - I don't want to know everytime the baby needs to pee! I ended up just flicking through the last 10 chapters of the book and was able to get the gist of the story.

So a very boring end to a much loved series of books. I wonder if Jean M Auel lost her mojo at some point?  Her writing was GREAT in the 80s and early 90s!

Things I'm Loving

 I wholeheartedly believe that no matter what is happening in your life, there is always something that you can be thankful for... no matter how simple it is.

Well it sure has been a week for us here.  We're glad daddy's home but the sickness rages on.

I'm loving my little girl that tackles her cough and (as we found out last night) tonsillitis with a smile. I used to get tonsillitis all the time when I was a little mite so I'm hoping that this isn't the case with little one.

 Speaking of sickness.  I'm very proud of my little boy who, upon daddy coming home from 2 weeks away last Friday night and all the excitement, broke his toe nail in half and has been a brave boy about it.  Jake isn't one for the vet but he (with the help of two chewy treats) let the vet pop in two injections last night to help with pain and fight off infection if it comes about.

Loving our free trip to the zoo (& lunch! Thanks Mr. Man's work) and the beautiful snaps that I was lucky to get of Nisha the tiger.

Loving how this little treasure trove of kitchen goodies amused little miss for hours.  It's true, that old wooden spoon and pot yarn. <3

 Love this story in Leah's portfolio from daycare about hugs and friendship. She's such a social little butterfly and loves her friends at daycare.  These two upclose photos were my faves.

 Loving Rottie cuddles with the 55kg mess that thinks he's a lapdog.  It might not be completely clear from the pic but this is up on one of our reclined lazy boy chairs on top of daddy. Big wuss of a dog!

And lastly, loving my wonderful husband who turns 29 today. What an old man!  We've got grandma coming to watch bubba and heading out on the town tonight but today he's staying home from work with a sicked up Leah. What a way to spend your birthday...better than work I suppose.  Thanks hunny, love you!

What are you loving this week?

Please link up.  Last week I had no one (sad face) and would really love at least one person to link up today. <3

Things I'm loving

 I wholeheartedly believe that no matter what is happening in your life, there is always something that you can be thankful for... no matter how simple it is. 

There's only one Thing I'm wanting to write about loving this week.

This man.

Mr. Man has been away for two weeks with his work. Tonight at 7:35 his plane will touch down in Auckland and bubba and I will be picking him up.  

Weekend of bliss with my favourite man back in the house.  Cuddles on! <3

PS:  My beloved Paisley Jade who I usually link up with for this post has announced that this week will be her last week for hosting the 'Things I'm Loving' linky.  Because this is the only post that I have continued religiously I will host a linky for this.  I don't think I'll be getting many people to come to but, hey, it'll be here.

PPS: "Stuck on you", an online store for peronalised merchandise has asked me to do a review for them.  In future this might mean giveaways for the readers.  Exciting!

Admittedly, all but one of these is up north. The place where I feel closest to my dad <3

Tim Tam Cheesecake

This is my 'go to' desert recipe. I've made it many many times and it always goes down well.

The actual recipe is for Oreos and is a 'cookies and cream' cheesecake but the photos that I have from last week are made with tim tams and I'm also keep to try is with snickers... mm.  Basically I would think you could sub out the oreos/tim tams with anything similar that you would like.

Enjoy!

Tim tam Cheesecake.
250g plain chocolate biscuits
150g butter, melted
2t gelatine
1/4 cup water
375g package of cream cheese - softened
300ml thickened cream
1t vanilla extract
1/2 cup cater sugar
180g white eating chocolate - melted
150g of tim tams (or oreos or what every you like) - cut into chunks.
50g dark/milk eating chocolate - melted.

1.  Line the base of a 23cm springform tin with baking paper.

2. Blend of process the plain chocolate biscuits until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Add the butter; process until just combine.  Using your hand, press the biscuit mixture evenly over the base and 3cm up the side of the prepared tin, cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes or until the base has 'set'.

3.  Sprinkle the gelatine over the water in a small heatproof jug, then stand the jug in a small saucepan of simmering water.  Stir until the gelatine dissolves; allow to cool for 5 mins.

4. Beat cheese, cream, vanilla extract andsugar in a bowl with an electric mixer until smooth.  Stir in gelatine mixture and white chocolate; fold in the chunks of tim tams.  Pour the cheesecake mixture in tin, cover and refrigerate for about 3 hours until set (I always do this over night (:)

5.  Drizzle with melted dark/milk chocolate to serve.

"A drawing is simply a line going for a walk"

How cool is that title quote?... adorable.  Yet another thing off my list done.  Truthfully I didn't quite finish it in 30 days and there was a couple of catch up days.  But I'm done! 

Now I warn you.  I'm no good at drawing, I just enjoy it. I have my own style and it is not terribly artistic by any means... very cartoony.  I like it (:

Here are some of my favourites from the 30 days.