A delightful Bookazine!

I have been following Carolyn from Aitken House & Gardens blog for a few years and was excited to see she has published her first 'Bookazine' that showcases many of her lovely photos from her blog.

She is a passionate gardener and home maker, combine that with her photographic and writing skills and you have a blog that is always a delight to visit. I purchased her 'Bookazine' and have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy the images and snippets contained within. You can preview it and purchase it here if you're interested.

Autumn has come and gone and our big Claret Ash has just about lost all its leaves. It makes a lovely show when it changes colour.

The cooler weather always has me making good old hearty soups and casseroles. I put together a quick and easy Sausage Casserole last weekend. I was going to put a link to the recipe but the site I got it from is showing it's been attacked!! 

 

We are off for an overnight stay at one of my sisters today, to go through some of Mum and Dad's treasures that are left from when we cleared out their unit. All of us girls always contribute as far as food goes when we get together, so I made a batch of Cup Cakes yesterday.

 

It's just a basic vanilla cup cake recipe which can be found here (I doubled it), but instead of 3 cups of SR Flour, I used 2 of flour and 1 of Almond Meal. 

One of our sons Daniel is a cabinet/furniture maker and in their new home he has made many pieces to give it a unique look. One of those things is a backing for their TV. He has recently added the shelves. He made a table with the same oak timber.

 

Another sign that winter is here is when I pick up my knitting needles!! A friend inspired me yesterday with a couple of cowls she had made (thanks Jeanette!), so I started one last night. Here is the pattern I'm following...very simple.  I'm using 2 balls of wool at the same time and have chose 2 slightly different tones of a similar color. Can't really tell the pattern from my few rows yet, but I'll post another pic when it grows.

 That's it for now...enjoy your weekend!

A few pics and a recipe!

No we didn't get lost at sea!!  Had a great 8 days away with 5 of those being on the cruise. We loved it and would certainly do another one. It was so relaxing and free to do as much or as little as you wanted onboard.
The below photo gives a bit of an idea of how huge the ship is!

The food was great with lots of variety. This Tiramsu was delicious!

 

Last year our youngest son Dan and his fiance Telesha built their house and now our eldest son Adrian and his partner Chelsea are in the process building theirs.  Exciting times!

Mothers Day this year was spent at a Nephew's wedding. So it was lovely for Mum to have all her family together for it. The wedding was a lovely occasion, very casual and fun.

This photo is of my Mum with her first very first grandson Darren and his wife Amy.

 

As we are going to be grandparents for the first time in September, I received a 'Nan' mug for Mother's Day from Dan & Telesha!

A couple of weeks back I boiled and mashed some pumpkin as I was going to use it on some pizzas, however while I was putting the pizza toppings on I had forgotten to add the pumpkin so I was left with this delicious orange mash. What could I do with it? A quick google search for 'pumpkin scones' provided me with a recipe to utilise the mash.
They turned out really nice....never made them before.

 

Here is the recipe I used ....click here  

I purchased a lovely coffee table book that had been published by one of my favourite bloggers....I'll tell you about it in a different post soon!

Thoughts are with all those in the US that are experiencing devastating tornados. 

All aboard the Dawn Princess

We are currently on board the impressive ship the Dawn Princess, enjoying a 5 day cruise. We flew out of Adelaide Tuesday morning to melbourne where we boarded. After boarding we reflected back on our morning where we had experienced many modes of transport eg. Car, shuttle bus, plane, sky bus, taxi and then ship. The transport was very efficient with no waiting at all.

From melbourne the ship travelled to Burnie where we could disembark for a few hours and have a look around the town. We enjoyed talking to the shop owners and wandering around. A very friendly and welcoming place with great shuttle buses running from the ship to town all the while the ship was docked.

We arrived in Hobart yesterday lunchtime and head off around 4pm today. We then spend the next 2 days at sea on our way to our final destination, Sydney.

On board the boat has been amazing, you can partake in planned activities, watch movies on the big outdoor cinema, or indoor theatre, there is different entertainment each night. We enjoyed a comedian the other night. All the passengers and service staff are so friendly and easy to talk to. We are also enjoying having plenty of time to just chill out in our lovely room which has a private balcony with table and chairs...a great place to read a book, get some fresh air and watch the passing scenery.

Here are some photos that I've taken over the past few days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's all for now...hope it all uploads ok....Annette

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Nearly time!

All the planning has been done and we look forward to board the Dawn Princess cruise ship from Melbourne on Tuesday for 5 days. We then have a couple of days in sydney before flying back home.

I have installed the blogsy app for my ipad so I'm testing out this post with it.

We look forward to...

A balcony room...

Trying out the many eateries...

Maybe a spa or relaxing with a book on the day beds...

Maybe taking in a movie.

If this post uploads ok, I'll try and do a post or two while we are away.

Annette

 

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Time for a laugh!

I came across this home made video of a farming family who have put together their story to the Gagnam Style tune...it's so well done I thought I'd share it. Sit back for a few minutes and enjoy!




 

Healthy Banana Muffins

Over the past few months I've been cutting out a lot of processed foods and amending recipes to be more healthy.
I've discovered Almond meal to be a great replacement for flour and I've also been replacing butter/marg with olive oil.

I tried some Banana Muffins on the weekend and they were delicious.
I did make some amendments to the original recipe and next time I reckon I'll tweak it some more by replacing the 1 cup of SR Flour with wholemeal flour and taking the sugar out altogether and perhaps adding a bit more golden syrup/honey to compensate.

 

The original recipe can be found here.  And below is my version. I've made a note on my recipe as to what changes I made from the original. No need for a mixer either, I just used the whisk to gently mix all the ingredients together...simple and quick!

 

I'd love to hear of how you have altered recipes to be a healthier option.

 

A bit of this and a bit of that!

Looking back at the photos I've taken over the past few weeks took me only a few seconds!!! I have not been good at clicking away lately so don't have much to show unfortunately.

Once a year we have a 'sisters' weekend away, where it's just us and no partners. This year we stayed at the Marion Caravan Park again for a couple of nights in a 6 berth cabin.
It's always a great time of chilling, shopping, eating, drinking, talking, laughing etc. The below photos are from the caravan park website....I may put some others up at a later stage.

We spent a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon in this pool. It was just beautiful.

This was our unit...we had our own BBQ outside with seating for 6. The surroundings were so tranquil with large trees and ducks wandering around.

Last year it was fun watching Dan & Telesha's house being built and turned into a lovely home. Now our eldest son Adrian and his partner Chelsea's house has just started, so we look forward to the progress of theirs.

Last Sunday we spent the morning out at D&T's house, helping them plant out trees and shrubs on their border lines. 

We are very fortunate to have both our sons living close by so we can help
them out with practical things like this. 

In about a months time we are having a weeks holiday and doing a 5 day cruise onboard the Dawn Princess. We finish up in Sydney where we will spend another 2 days having a look around. We are looking forward to this and hopefully we have good sea legs!!

 

 While watching the Adelaide Crows first AFL match for the season last night, I gave myself a manicure and tried out a new nail polish. Quite happy with it! Thanks to hubby for putting up with the smell of the varnish!

My Pinterest find for the week is this wrap...think I might try it for lunch today.

The filling is 4 hard boiled eggs, 1 large avocado, 2 tblspns yoghurt, 1 tspn curry, pinch of salt and pepper....sounds good to me!

Have a great weekend

Some exciting news!

Yes, very exciting...our son Daniel who got engaged to Telesha in December are going to have a baby in September!  Paul and I are delighted and look forward to the fun times ahead.

That's all for now...short and sweet!

Oops!

Just a quick post...not much happening besides work and normal routines! Paul's Dad is improving daily and will hopefully be home in the coming weeks.

I have a bit of an 'oops' situation the other day. I opened one of my kitchen cupboards and out slid one of my glass casserole dishes from the top shelf. It smashed to smitherines and I was very fortunate not to have any shards land on my feet as I had thongs on.

How's this for a cute birthday cake?

I saw this on facebook the other day...very funny and maybe even a clever idea?!

Today is a new day...enjoy!