10 Day Blogging Challenge - Day 10

Day 10: One confession

This might shock you.... but, I just don't care about this.

10 day blogging challenge - Day 9

I had a weeny bit of a break - recipes, work and 'Things I'm loving' getting in the way, but I didn't want to leave this unfinished.

Day 9: Two emotions that describe my life right now.

Excitement.
There's a baby on the way!

I'm excited about so much and there's a lot of excitement around me from many, but most of all from big sister Leah.

Can't wait to start this next little chapter of our lives.

Reluctance.
The other emotion that I feel is reluctance. Based around the same major life event I'm really not looking forward to not working for 6 months - financially and career wise. I hate being out of the game for that long. But, what a good reason to be huh? I'm sure once I look into this new little girls eyes I won't even think about what I'm missing out on.

Things I'm loving

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

 

Loving that I have a job I love returning to. So much so that I'm in two minds about how I feel about leaving in 3 weeks time for maternity leave. Sigh.

Loving amazing friends and cute little baby things.

Last Sunday my beautiful and wonderful friend Nicola threw me a baby shower. And for someone who said she didn't really want a baby shower second time around, I definitely got delivered one.  It was amaze balls.

Everyone raved about the food. Rightly so too, it was delicious. Baby was thoroughly spoiled and hilarity ensued with the playing of 'Chubby Bunny'. Our record was 11 marshmallows in one participants mouth... freakish :P

Can't wait to get this little pressie onto the feet of the new addition.

Loving getting to meet a new addition to our family. Even though she was asleep for the entire visit! Welcome to the world little Savannah <3 Someone was pretty excited to go and see her too.

Loved having the opportunity to take some photos of an old friend's little one.  I'm not terribly happy with the shots but mummy loved them so I'm happy about that. She also gifted me some of the props we used on the night so I'm loving adding to my baby photography prop box. It's getting quite big now.

What are you loving this week?

xox

Lemon Curd and Lemon Curd Tarts

Microwave Lemon Curd

1/2 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
200g unsalted butter, chopped

Combine ingredients in a microwave safe bowl, cook, stirring with a whisk after each minute cooking, on medium (50%) for 2 minutes and low (25%) for 6 minutes. Place bowl in a sink of cool water (stops cooking process) and whisk curd until cool.

Lemon Curd Tarts

Short sweet pastry
Lemon curd, cooled
Melted white chocolate

It's as easy as, blind bake pastry cases, fill with lemon curd, chill in the fridge for an hour, cover with chocolate and chill for 10 mins or more. Yum!

Roast Honey Carrots

A super easy and super yummy side dish.

Roast Honey Carrots

1/3 cup olive oil

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1T finely chopped ginger

1/4 cup clear honey
1kg Carrots, quartered lengthwise, halved

1.  Preheat oven to 220 degrees celcius. Combine oil, garlic, ginger and honey in a large bowl, season with salt and pepper.

2. Add carrot, toss until well coasted in honey mixture.

3. Transfer carrot mixture to a large greased ovenproof dish or roasting pan. Roast, turning occasionally for 20-25 minutes or until tender.

Things I'm loving...even when I'm sick!

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

 

 It's hard to think of anything to love today - I have the manflu and it's just got to me. I say manflu because I can usually muscle through a cold, but this one has just hit me. Ergh. Maybe it's because I'm also pregnant? Body is rebelling, whatever it is.... uuuuuurgh!

But of course... there's always something to be thankful for. I'm thankful for courier drivers! Bringing me little goodies all week - a bike and reading teddy for someone's birthday and photo props mostly. Even better when you forget what you've ordered. Surprises all week! Look at this beautiful photo set... can't wait to have the newborn to go with it.

Loving having time off from work. I only go back for 4 weeks after the holiday is over, but these 2 weeks have given me an opportunity to recharge ready for those 4 weeks. Aaaaand it's given me time to catch the reading bug again (among other things). I've finished three books, all of which I've had on my radar for a while. Done, done and done!

Loving keeping birthday traditions, not only with my little girl, but also with my fur baby. Jake turned 4 yesterday and, as per usual, he got his dog food cake (very exciting after dog biscuits day in, day out!), sung happy birthday by his two forever admirers (Leah and I) and got to have super fun opening his own birthday present (the toys which were inside have both already been destroyed somewhat - it's how he shows the love!). He gets truly excited about his birthday things, I'm convinced of it. It's heart warming to see. I love my big boy.

Time for more pain killers. 

What are you loving this week? xox

Chocolate and Jam Pudding

Chocolate and Jam Pudding
This is said to be a lower calorie version of a Bread and Butter pudding, but I don't know about that - jam and chocolate? Must still be pretty bad!

5-6 Slices of fruit bread
Raspberry Jam (or any flavour you like)
2T dark chocolate bits
2 eggs
1 1/2T Caster sugar
1 1/3 cups skim milk

Ice cream to serve.

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree celcius and spray a 20cm square dish with cooking spray. Spread bread with jam and then cut diagonally into triangles.

2. Arrange bread in an overlapping fashion in the prepared dish. Sprinkle chocolate over and between bread slices. Whisk together eggs, sugar and milk in a jug until well combined. Pour mixture over bread and stand for 10 minutes.

3. Bake for 40 minutes or until just set. Stand for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with ice cream.

10 Day Blogging Challenge - Day 8

Day 8: Three Turn Ons

Intelligence and humour (sorry it's on par, I can't have one or the other!)
Tattoos
Being a dog person.

Or... if all else fails, be Channing...

...or Leo...

...or Seth... OK I'll stop. :P

Snickers Brownie

Snickers Brownie

150g butter, chopped
200g dark chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup plain flour, sifted
1/2 cup self raising flour, sifted
2x snicker's bars

1. Grease a 3cm-deep, 18x28cm slice pan. Line with baking paper, allowing for a 2cm overhang at long ends.

2 Place butter, dark chocolate and sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat. Cook while stirring occasionally, for 3 to 5 mins or until chocolate has melted. Set aside for 15 mins to cool.  Preheat over to 180 degrees celcius.

3. Whisk eggs and then flours into chocolate mixture. Fold in snickers. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Smooth top.

4. Bake for 25 mins or until a skewer inserted to the center comes out with crumbs clinging. Cool in pan. Serve.

omnomnomnomnomnom!

 

10 Day Blogging Challenge - Day 7

Day 7: Four Turn Offs

 The know-it-all.
You don't know it all. I do. End of. I like intelligent guys, no end...but when you have to tell me you're intelligent, and not show me, it says it all. Also in this category is 'over-embellish your BS story' guy, 'the name dropper' and 'I think I'm the shit' guy.

Long hair.
I just can't get into long hair on guys. There is the rare exception, but overall, no thanks.

Smells.
Now, don't get me wrong here. You can cross the line into faaaar too metrosexual here very easily. I like my men to be men, but when you smell.. nothing can bring you back. Man stink is acceptable, 'I haven't had a shower for going on 3 weeks' is unacceptable.

And last but not least... a bit of back linking :) If you fit into any of these categories, you're a douche.

10 Day Blogging Challenge - Day 6

Day 6: Five people who mean a lot (In no order whatsoever).

10 Day Blogging Challange - Day 5

Day 5: Six things you wish you had never done.

Phoar. This one was hard.

The first thing that came to mind is dating. I could probably list 6 boyfriends that I should have never had. Throughout my teen years I was a serial monogamist... and if there's one piece of advice I could give girls that might be possibly going down the same track it's don't do it! I missed out on a lot of fun times with girlfriends because I was all 'Loved up'. That time is definitely a time to discover who you are and get up to some silly things with your friends... not for testing the dating waters. Leave that until you're over 18, and even then,  caution!

I wish I hadn't looked after myself so poorly. I'm embarking on a 30 goals before 30 soon and one of them is to simply 'Look after myself better'. Eating, dentistry, skin routine. I go through bouts of looking after myself well and then fall back to old habits. It was alright until a few years ago when I started to get old! I'm no spring chicken anymore and it's time for some 'me time'.

I wish I spent more time reading my whole life. I've always been 'booky' but was never really a big reader until recently. I wish I was a huge reader in my teens as I had a whole tonne more time on my hands. Now I'm trying to catch up!

This is probably a terrible, terrible thing to say, so I'll say it quietly.... I should have never signed  up to facebook. I spend a lot of time on there, I spend a lot of money on the online shops on there, I sometimes argue on there... BUT in facebook's defense, I love that I get to 'talk' with people I normally would have lost contact with or just talked to once in a while, I loooooove the things I buy and I never do it to a point where it's worrying financially and I love a good 'debate' lol.


Two more things? I try not to regret too much. Everything that I've done has got me to where I am with what I have... and I think it's a pretty good spot. There's a lot of things I wish I had done, versus what I wish I hadn't, and even this list is border line, because I still have a tonne of time to do what I want. 

Hmmm, so I'm sorry. But, I am going to leave the list at 4! Boooo! Hissss! :P

In searching for that last quote to accompany how I feel about 'things I wish I hadn't done' I found this... which is definitely food for thought. Hmmm, that work one definitely gets me.

Things I'm loving - Just a weeny bit late :)

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

It's been both a very relaxing week (Mon-Wed) and then a very busy one (Thurs and Fri). I had every intention to post 'Things I'm loving' last night, but a warm couch and a re-run of The Footy Show won out. Saturday AM it shall be!

I'm absolutely loving being on holiday, one week down, one to go. It's given me a chance to relax, read, get some jobs done and spend some time with my little girl. As I'm very conscious of the fact that she's going to have to share this time soon, the last one on that list has been really important to me. Enter, end of the week shinanigans.

Loving (and a little bit loathing) see how big these guys have got. Waaaaay too fast for our liking though.

Loving the super fun day that was Thursday - Mini golf, ice skating and the fairy shop! And lots of kisses with Aunty Nicola. I love seeing Leah spending time with her friends. She loves Maddie so much and it was nice to see her for a little while, when she had gone Leah said that she missed her very much again. Jeeez, talk about pull at the heart strings!

Loving that my last manicure of My Little Pony looked exactly like Leah's toy in her happy meal. Harty Nails did an excellent job!

Looooove online shopping, is there a week that I don't? Cute little bubba set. The bibs from Lola's Nest are amaaaaazing. I have about 7 now I think. Time to stop? Only until another cute fabric is shown!

And last but never least, I love when colouring gets so serious you have to get this close to the page. She was even getting frustrated with her hair getting in the way - 'Hair, move, I can't see!'

What are you loving this week?

xox

10 Day Blogging Challenge - Day 4

Day 4: Seven things that cross my mind a lot.

I don't know why but when I read this, the meme of Keanu Reeves, 'Conspiracy Keanu' came to mind Lol. And one of them actually did fit with something I wonder often.

Are all sports matches (or a large portion) fixed?

I also often wonder how people don't see an idea the same way I do. I often struggle to explain my thinking to others and wish there was an easier way.

It also made me think of the Philosoraptop meme, which often cracks me up. This one made me giggle. I would be first in line to sign the petition that changed the currency in Africa to 'Afros'.

 

I often wonder about death. Morbid I know. I try to think what it will be like, nothingness, forever. It makes my mind explode.

Food crosses my mind a lot... mmmm.

I worry a lot, about anything really. The more I think about something the more I worry about it. It's really, really annoying.

My dad crosses my mind a lot. Memories in general I suppose. I spend a lot of my life at the moment traveling, living about 50 mins drive from work. I often think about things I remember, why I remember them and not other parts of my life, and trying to remember other parts.

And just currently....I'm wondering why the hell True Blood has come to an end. Booo hooo. Must. Savour. Every. Last. Episode. 

Hehe 

xox