Things I'm loving

"Every week may not be good but there is something good in every week."

Look at me! Two weeks in a row. I must be back!

It wasn't something that happened this week but I was looking back through my camera roll and I must add some more love to this picture. As a nostalgic horror movie fan I found this absolutely hysterical. As found on my instagram feed, quite aptly, on Friday the 13th.

Love my new installment of nails. 80s/90s throwback to 'My Little Pony' this forrnight.

Loving Sunday mornings. Mr Man had some work friends out to our neck of the woods on Saturday night so was feeling slightly worse for wear on Sunday morning. He woke up to yummy cooked breakfast (how nice is it to do something nice for someone you love?) and then Leah and I left him to play with his cars while we had a fun time at a local Garden Cafe. Fluffies and hot chocolates all round!

And still loving these best friends. Boy is mummy going to have a huge cry in the future when the inevitable happens.

Love that I am now being read to by this girl - look at that pointing!

Love getting a personal shout out on Instagram... does being a  good customer mean I spend too much money? Probably. Do I care? No. lol.

 LOOOOOVE buying baby things. 

I was also very surprised today by a lovely little lady in my class who has come out of her shell a lot this year. The job of teaching is certainly one that touches your heart many times in many different ways but I must say that the lovely class that I've had to teach during the first part of this year has seen some little personalities emerge that I'm really going to miss. I will miss this little poppet as much as she says she'll miss me, that's for sure.

xx

What are you loving this week?

Silent Sunday

@Calendula Cottage

Shut the front door!

I saw the cute little idea on Pinterest a wee while back and knowing that my front entrance needed a clean after getting a battering over the summer months (coming home day after day with sandy feet) it all seemed to dove tail into a beautifying of our front door area.

Couldn't be happier with the result. :D

Things I'm Loving - The Grand Return!

"Every week may not be good but there is something good in every week."

It has been a long time coming but I am determined to get back into the habit of at least having this post every week. I just read through my older 'Things I'm loving" posts and they just give me the warm fuzzies, as well as being a great little recollection of my weeks.

So for my grand return, I recollect a somethings from the past little while - weeks, months I've missed and even bring you a new button. Pink and black, very Kate. Here we go...

I'm loving Harty Nails who have been providing me with gorgeous and affordable nail art for a few months now. The best thing about Sally Ann is that she'll give your ideas a go. After seeing so many sweet ideas on pinterest (and knowing that I would cock it up if I had a go at doing it myself), it was so cool to find someone who would try some cool designs. Here a a few I've had over the past few months.

Loving haircuts on a very well behaved girl. Leah has a whinge at the sight of a hairbrush, so I wasn't looking forward to first haircut time. Turns out I was worried about nothing. She was spectacular. Cute fringe too!

Here is the transformation! Fringe!

Loving having time to bake and having a very diligent helper.

Loving etsy.com still. I love that you can get unique things from there for (usually) quite a cheap price. I love my phone covers from the states and my materials from Japan, my pac man ring from Malaysia and my newest bunting necklace. How cute is the colourfulness?

Love that even in June it's still sunny enough to play happily in our sandpit on a bright weekend's morning.

Loving getting that nesting feeling early. So far I've organised and labeled the linen closet and master bedroom cupboard, made a set of drawers pretty, created the baby's nursary and kids playroom, got a whole lot of rubbish out of the garage, and organised the garage and tidied two pantries in the kitchen, complete with labels. It's pretty intense! Lol, but looking good.

And love my two little helpers that put up shelving for me in the garage. Thanks bestest people in the world!

What's got your love this week?

"I guess you don't really own a dog, you rent them, and you have to be thankful that you had a long lease."

During the weekend a lovely friend of mine lost a furry friend who was very special. So I hope you don't mind Lynn, but seeing we had been through a very similar journey a few years ago I thought a quick blog post about the beautiful Hugo would be fitting.

TRIBUTE TO A BEST FRIEND

Sunlight streams through window pane onto a spot on the floor.....
then I remember,
it's where you used to lie, but now you are no more.

Our feet walk down a hall of carpet, and muted echoes sound.....
then I remember,
it's where your paws would joyously abound.

A voice is heard along the road, and up beyond the hill,
then I remember,
it can't be yours..... your golden voice is still.

But I'll take that vacant spot of floor and empty muted hall,
and lay them with the absent voice and unused dish along the wall.

I'll wrap these treasured memories in a blanket of my love,
and keep them for my best friend until we meet above.

        ~Author Unknown


I will remember all the lovely cuddles and attention that was poured over me whenever I came to visit, the mischievous nudges of the nose to entice pats and how absolutely beautiful and stunning looking you were Hugo (even though you're not a real dog...more of a glorified cat really, lol right Lynn? <3).

Jake meeting Hugo. Jake as a puppy... Hugo does not look pleased.....

 

 

......understandably.

I'm not sure if this is Hugo or Stirling but it shows the lovely nature of Lynn's dogs... as well as their cute little noses.

Sticky Chicken Nibbles

Sticky Chicken Nibbles

3/4 cup tomato sauce
1/3 cup sweet chilli sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2t Grated ginger
1T Sesame oil
2kg Chicken Nibbles
Optional: 2t Sesame seeds

 
 1. Preheat over to 200 degrees celcius. Combine sauces, garlic, ginger and sesame seed oil. Reserve 1/3 cup  and add the rest to the chicken to marinade in a bowl for 30 mins while chilled.

2. Line a large roasting pan with baking paper. Place chickn in a single layer. Bake, basting with the reserved marinade and turning occasionally for 35-40 minutes or until glazed and cooked. Remove from oven.

3. Sprinkle over sesame seeds and serve.

Getting organised

When we moved house almost a year ago (!!!) I was excited at the prospect of having a playroom for Leah, and anyone else who might come along. As I spoke about in this post it was very easy in a bigger house to stick everything in a place and just forget about it, because the house was so much bigger than our first little home. Of course, without proper organisation, I just wasn't happy with the state of affairs around here, so have begun doing bits and pieces here and there that are making me far too happy (Read: OCD nerd).

So far I've done:
The linen closet
The ensuite walk in wardrobe
and I even beautified a set of plastic drawers.

With our impending arrival (T minus less than three months GULP!) we needed to make a space for the cot and changing table etc, and in addition to this it was high time our 'spare room' was utilised for us, rather than just waiting for a guest to come and stay (as nice as having a space for this is). I'd been pinning up a storm of ideas for play rooms for ages, and with fixing up the garage (post to come tomorrow), it was the perfect time to get some things into storage

, have a bit of a shift around, and some organisation.

I'm pretty happy with the result. Here are the before pics.

And as we were in the midst of it.

And here are the pics I took this morning with everything finished up. The only thing I'd like to add is a bit of bunting here and there.

This last photo shows an image of Leah's craft table in her room, which has now been moved into her craft nook in the play room (pics two and three). She loves it. Just looking into getting some more light in there!