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.

Loving my time with my friends from uni yesterday. At uni (those 7-10 long years ago) I had a small group of close friends who still get together every school holidays and they're great! 2 of us have had little people now and we spent a lot of time yesterday boggling our minds over this fact.  And might I add that they are 2 of the most gorgeous babies EVER.

Loving our dinner on Wednesday night. My stomach (and def not my waistline) is still thanking me. You can get the recipe here.

Loving the holidays and that I get to both do lots of things I have put on the back burner for a while and completely blob out and read books/watch crap/play temple run all day. One of those things I've been putting off is getting my new tattoo, which I also love.

For the first time in a few months I actually love all 3 of the photos I'm entering into photo club for next week.  Fingers crossed for a good outcome!

What are you loving this week?

“Sometimes you can't see yourself clearly until you see yourself through the eyes of others.”

Isn't that true?  The two things I managed to cross off my 101 list today were an interesting exercise.

I've been working on this for weeks.  Yes, weeks.  It took me that long to finally agree with myself that I had some things that I do really like about myself and that that is OK. I would write something down and then think... "isn't that a bit up myself to think that?" and delete it. All out of the printer in ink to go up on the mirror now so there's no turning back!

The second was similar in nature but again very difficult.  I had to be very selective.  There's so many things I would love to be and be thought of as.  These are what made the top ten.  Let's see if I can live up to them.

Cream Cheese & Bacon Chicken Parcels

This recipe is another pinterest inspired one.  Is there anything that site can't do?

There are heaps of variations of this recipe on the net but the original recipe I was inspired by can be found here. After trial and error on my part I do do things a little bit differently. 

Here's my take on it.

You'll need;
2 chicken breats
125g cream cheese
Spring onion
2 Rashers bacon
3 sheets of puff pastry
1 whisked egg for brushing the pastry before cooking.


Method;

Cook the bacon to your liking.  It's probably best you make it crispy for this recipe but as you'll see, we like ours only just cooked.

Chop the spring onion finely and dice the bacon into small chunks. 

In a bowl mix the spring onion, bacon and cream cheese.

Slice the chicken breast down the middle about 3/4 of the way through.  I cut my chicken breasts into two portions before doing this as I was using premade sheets of puff pastry and being square it doesn't fit the breasts properly.

Pile the cream cheese mixture in the cuts you have made in the chicken.

Using the puff pastry encase the chicken in small parcels and seal.  It doesn't matter how you do this so much, as long as they're sealed.  This is how mine look :)

Be careful you don't leave the chicken for too long. It might come across danger....

Whisk the egg and brush over the pastry before cooking at 160 degrees celcius for 45 mins - 1 hour or until golden brown. 

Yum Yum!

Weetbix Slice

Is SUPER yummy.  Recipe here.

I have been ticking along....promise

I have somewhat fallen off the blogging band wagon recently.  I'm gonna call it SAD because of all the bad weather today and the fact that for the past 3 weeks I've been going to work and coming home in dark - yuck!  Luckily, the 21st of June has passed and it's all up an onward to summer now - YAY.  I love spring so can't wait for September.

In saying that, I have been ticking along doing my 101 challenge and  will be back onto 'things I'm loving' this Friday. So much easier while I'm on school holidays.

Just to prove that I've been keeping up with my 101 things, here are some stats and updates for you;

Stats;

• 26 complete challenges complete, 75 to go.
• Of those 75 still to complete there are 20 challenges underway (I've begun to work on them in some way).
• I'm really worried 3 won't be done...but am trying to hatch a plan to at least get them started or have a plan in place at the completion of the year I've set myself.

Hmmm... more than half a year done and less than half of the challenges complete or ont he way to completion... scary.  Time to get my A into G.

Today I completed the following;

And just to prove it;

And there are a couple of things I've been working on in the past week that I just need to complete. Luckily for me it's the holidays! Here is another I completed today;

Make you own Glitter Polish

I must admit I don't actually paint my nails all that often but seeing inspiringly beautiful nails on piterest so often and following blogs like Steffels I began to covet these beautiful glitter style polishes.

After finding a place that would ship to NZ (Plug: Dollish Polish) I made a big list of polishes I would purchase but upon going to the website I found that they were all out of stock - many of the places that make this polish are hot in demand.

Which got me to thinking... surely it's only as difficult as glitter + clear polish = glory, right? Wrong... ish.  Yes, that is the basic formula... no it does not always work out that way. I personally was looking for a glitter polish, not one that had colour in it also (as you will see below I got the latter from my concoction, best guess is cheap glitter and/or clear polish?).  So although I share my world changing formula with you, as you will see, it doesn't always end up exactly as you would like. I encourage trial and error my pretties, trial and error.

You'll need - clear polish, a selection of glitters in your chosen colour/s and a funnel or paper to make one.

Like I said.. the method is bascially glitter + polish.  And also like I said, trial and error.  Play around with it and have some fun.  If it gets too gluggy pop in some nail polish remover.

Enjoy x

And just to see you out a pretty song quote with one of my bokeh shots <3

Silent Sunday

Day 6: Paper
Not the greatest photo but a great message!