Sunday Afternoon Tea

I always love catching up with my girlfriends. We had an awesome spread this afternoon! Such a wonderful variety of food and of course more than enough for the five of us.

M was the healthiest, bringing along a fruit salad. P made vegetarian quiche and EJ a lovely cheese and fruit platter. N wowed us with her chocolate macarons. Beautiful and melt in the mouth they were! I tried a new brownie recipe as well as making some sandwiches. In general we have mostly sweet foods so I was trying to balance it all out.

I was also able to use some of my pretty china, and the teapot and milk jug that C and I received as a wedding present.

Sorry about the spelling mistakes in the title, hopefully I have removed them all now!

My cheeky boy

I love this photo from our wedding. C is in the middle of his speech. I cannot now remember exactly what he was speaking about however you can see from my expression and my sister E's that he has made us laugh. The cheeky grin he gives the camera says it all! I love you C.

PS I am finally getting some wedding photos up on the web, if you would like to see head to K's Wedding Book. They should be all up over the next week.

Image C Photography

Hot cross buns

I bought a packet of hot cross buns this morning. Usually I am a conscientious objecter to what I consider to be an indecently early appearance in the shops of Easter buns and eggs (and the same with fruit mince pies at Christmas) but today I decided that it didn't really matter. I ate easter eggs in January so buns in late February does not rate any more.

Yum! I have eaten two already and I am sure that the rest of the packet will not last much longer.

Image and a recipe!

BUILD: Ground floor slab

Our block is a little slopey and so our ground floor is on a few different levels. The entry and laundry are one one level, the theatre room and office on the middle level and the open plan living is at the back on a third level. There will be two steps between each level as the block gradually slopes up the hill.

Entry level. The pipes are for our laundry!

Formwork for the middle level. For some reason I didn't snap a photo of the mid-level slab so that is as exciting as it gets.

Foundation work for the living area slab.

Living area slab. Yay! Looking to the back you can see our back fence and lots of sand.

Wednesday Workout

This post is for my sister E. She has recently started exercising and I thought that I would post some of the training that I do as a source for ideas on how to mix things up and keep things interesting.

Yesterday I was put through the following. At all times of course go as hard as you can.

500m cross trainer (level 7)
20 each of jump squats, pushups, situps
500m rowing machine
20 each of jump squats, pushups, situps
400m cross trainer (level 7)
20 each of jump lunges, tricep dips, reverse situps
400m rowing machine
20 each of jump lunges, tricep dips, reverse situps
300m cross trainer (level 7)
20 each of jump squats, jump lunges, pushups, tricep dips, situps, reverse situps
300m rowing machine

We are so proud of you for getting started! Keep it up!

WWotW: Drawer

At work recently there has been some discussion of drawers. Or draws. There is a world of difference, and one is in general a noun, the other a verb! All that I am saying is that if you are going to send out a company wide lesson learnt then it might be advisable to make sure that you are talking about furniture rather than a the act of putting a picture on a piece of paper.

drawer noun a box-shaped container without a top which is part of a piece of furniture. It slides in and out to open and close and is used for keeping things in =

draw verb to make a picture of something or someone with a pencil or pen =

Rosemary teacups

This morning on my way to work I noticed a teacup planted with rosemary on the windowsill of the new building opposite King Street on the Terrace. I was thinking how surprised that I was that the retail space of building was still empty, and wondering what kinds of interesting shops could end up there. I noticed the little teacup and rosemary, and also noticed that it had a tag. Without the tag I would not have thought more of it, but I stopped to have a look.

I counted seven more cups on my path to work, all numbered and all with the sweet little note. It made me smile, and I noticed one or two others stop to see what the fuss was about.

I was not sure if I was meant to take a cup or leave them, so I left them there for everyone else to enjoy!

The cups were left by aMoment and it appears that 100 have been left around the city. The philosophy of aMoment seems to be to help us to remember to stop occasionally and take the time to reflect.

When I walked past again on my way home this afternoon, all of the cups had gone. I hope that they went to good homes

Manning Farmers Market

We finally made it to the Manning Farmer's Markets. They have been running for over a year now and we have been meaning to go for almost that long.

The market is on Saturday mornings at Clontarf Campus on Manning Road, open from 7.30am to 12.30pm.

We did an initial lap to scope out the market and see what was on offer. We had come with fruit and vegetables in mind however in future we could also stock up on eggs, preserves, bread tea, flowers, plants and many other delights, as well as enjoying breakfast or morning tea.

We bought from a few different producers, and soon filled up our shopping bag. We left with two types of plum, nectarines, organic figs, onions, beans, carrot, broccoli, cherry tomatoes and tea.

We were impressed with the variety and the reasonable prices for fresh food! Now we just need to get ourselves into the habit of Saturday morning grocery shopping...

For more information check out their website.

Updating Perth!

The state government today announced the latest plan for the Perth waterfront. They have been talking about doing something for years. The previous government's grandiose plans included an island in the shape of a swan. Thankfully that has been toned down somewhat! There is still an island but it seems to be more rabbit shaped, and the site of the development is conveniently located next to a train station, bus station and also ferry terminal.

There will be hotels, promenades, bars and cafes and it will hopefully help to reenergise our city.

For more photos and information see The West or the ABC.

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Happy Valentine's Day!

Truly I am not a huge fan of this day. I think it is a lovely excuse to spend time with your loved one (or ones!) but the whole commercialised nature makes me cringe. My ideal way to celebrate would be a lovely picnic on the river! Mosquitoes and wind permitting of course.

C gave me a lovely bunch of flowers, and that is about as romantic as we got this year.

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Australia Day is not all unhealthy...

Our snack container for the boat on Australia Day. We made it through all of the vegetables. Yum!

C was very excited about us getting one of these snack trays. We have used it now three times - the last three Australia Days! We need to think of other excuses to use it to get better value for money.

BUILD: Starting the earthworks

We came back from our honeymoon last year to find that the builder had started siteworks on our block. It was very exciting!

Our block is not the flattest - from front to back is a difference of approximately 6m - so there is some serious work going in to make sure that the house is properly supported and the sand held back.

The other difficulty is that we are building between two houses, one established and the other being built. Our block is fairly narrow at 12m wide and so access to the block is a challenge for the builder, as well as for us once we move in and start trying to landscape and live.

These photos are taken the day after we landed from Bali. The sand is still being moved around in preparation for concrete to be poured. Yay!

Australia Day 2011

Our Australia Day celebrations this year were on the Swan River once more. Perth has fireworks every year on Australia Day and we have found that a good way to avoid the crowds on the foreshore is to spend the day on the river.

It is a fairly full day, we head onto the water around lunch time and sit and chill on the boat. This year we had four boats all tied up together. The weather was windy and conditions quite choppy. Thankfully it all settled down in time for the big show!

The day is very cruisy, we listen to the Triple J Hottest 100 countdown and chill. As the sun goes down we swap to the commercial stations to wait for the fireworks music. This year we all concurred that the music was worse than ever! Eep.

J with her Australian themed outfit.

C and I. Australian theming is not really our strong point, although there was some green on my shirt.

Homemade hamburgers for our lunch. Yum!

The setting sun over the other boats.

Fireworks. Yay!