bite of bliss

I don't have a lot to thank my maternal grandfather for, he really wasn't that great a person... However, I shall always be thankful for two things.

1. I seem to have inherited his baby skin - I swear his first wrinkle appeared when he was in his 60s, so I shan't be needing botox anytime in the future.

And 2. He grew the best darned tomatoes in the world. Even now I can still taste the most perfect snack ever: slices of fresh, ruby red tomato on buttered Sao biscuits, with lashings of salt and pepper. Only slightly bettered by fresh white bread, buttered, and generously laden with slices of tomatoes, salt and pepper.

My husband and daughter aren't keen on tomatoes, probably because they never tasted my pop's. If they had, they too, like me, would be on the ever elusive hunt for the perfect tomato.

I reckon that when my vegie garden's in full swing I'll have found it. I'm going to hunt through every heirloom seed company's stock till I find the perfect beefstock tomato - and force my family to try a taste of heaven...

frock on

I really, really need this dress.

bright out

It's a strange ol' day out today. Kinda grey, kinda misty... could go either way. So I thought I'd put a zing in everyone's day with these lipstick red beauties. They're by Brian Atwood and I found 'em over at net-a-porter if you're in a shopping frame of mind. They suggest pairing them with a pair of denim skinnies, which would look mighty nice, but I'd love to see them with an emerald green sunfrock. That'd bring out the sunshine - even if only in your immediate vicinity.

bluebells for beth

Because everyone needs a little bit of pretty in their day...

and so to bed

I'm not a great sleeper. Ever since having our gal, I've slept lightly, with the slightest sound waking me - and keeping me awake for yonks. Last night I was just so tired I was tempted to go to bed at 7.30 and thought, darn it, maybe I should!

I'd felt sluggish all day, and even though I forced myself to go for a 30 minute walk at 5pm, I still felt erk.

So I forced myself to stay awake till 8.30, read a chapter of my bedtime book and snoozed until 7.45am. Bliss on a stick.

Now I'm refreshed and ready to take on anything.

spring fling

Oooh, it's the first day of spring - quite possibly my fave season {but I also like autumn, and winter, and now I've got the pool, summer...}

Here's a pic of my gal from a few years ago when we were checking out the gardens in the Southern Highlands. I adore tulips, but here in sunny newcastle it's too warm for them.

Not to worry, just gives me an excuse to buy a bunch in spring. Must say, I'm loving having pretty fleurs on my desk - makes the working day go by much more pleasantly...

time-saving tuesday

I'm not going to bore you with talk of how busy I am - mainly because I'd much prefer busy than chasing work! But even though I've got bucketloads of work to do, I still have find the time to do the essentials. So here's what I'm going to do...

This may sound shocking, but I'm going to cut back my television viewing to the bare essentials. Yep, I'm going to go through the TV guide and choose my must-watch NEW programs and only watch them - no repeat viewings, no mindless watching-the-least-offensive-crapola...

So if I'm not sitting in front of the telly, I'm doing something productive - good huh! I'll also be scheduling in my daily walks which are the only thing keeping me sane lately. I played a hellishly tough game of netball last night, in a very active position so I'm feeling a bit creaky today. Luckily I know that a good, brisk walk will lubricate the ol' joints again.

I'm still sticking to my timeline too - where everything's broken down into pieces. It really helped me get all four articles that were due on Friday in on time. Woo hoo.

Have a happy Tuesday!

busy with a capital B

I was really busy last week - and now, this week, I think I'm going to be even busier. Gotta be happy with that though! Hopefully I've got everything in place to make it a success - but if not, I'm afraid I'm going to be like that ol' deck of cards...

I've already had one stumble. Yesterday our indoors-only cat escaped, and somehow managed to get a grass seed or similar in his eye. Now his right eye's all puffy, weepy and swollen. So that's a 9.15 emergency vet visit on the cards.

I'm also going out for lunch with friends for a birthday and citizenship celebration which I shan't be cancelling - I didn't work through my Sunday to give friendships a miss!

Wish me luck {again} and let's hope I don't wear any dangly bracelets that'll cause my house to fall down {totally a Brady Bunch reference for tragics like myself who saw every episode, oh, about a hundred times...}

sunny sunday

When it's already 18 degrees at 8am you know you're in for a warm ol' day...

We had a most productive shopping day yesterday, tiring, but amazingly successful.

Firstly we went to the hell that is IKEA {seriously, are there people that actually enjoy walking that 10 kilometre trek through thousands of fighting punters? Not this little black duck...}. But we had success and bought this cute little 'butcher's block' that we're going to put in an unmanageable corner in the kitchen {after painting it white} and it's going to be our coffee zone - housing the espresso machine, cups, grinder, canisters... Freeing up a lot of bench and cupboard space and looking cute.

Next, we went waaaaaaaay out Bankstown way, to a place called Yagoona, to look at a white cane daybed for the pavillion. I wasn't holding out much hope for the fabrics. Waterproof, UV-rated stuff is often stiff, and even these days, while it has a range of colours, not much take our fancy {we are serious fusspots. Serious.}

So when the bloke toddled out and we told him what we were after, he said, "Oh, I've had some cushions made up for a photo shoot that look great on the white daybed" and I, being a cynic, thought "Yeah, right."

Now, imagine how I feel when the EXACT fabric I wanted {in my head mind, I didn't even know it existed} comes out in his hand. And instead of it being in the practical three separate cushions {that I knew I should have wanted, but preferred the look of one, long cushion} it's in the one whole cushion. Maintaining a poker face was difficult.

So now, we're getting the daybed delivered on Wednesday, he's even painting it the way we want. Woo hoo. So that means my husband's going to be out with a paintbrush today putting the final coats on the pavillion so the new daybed has a worthy home. Ooooooh, the lazy sundays I'll be spending lying on that little beauty reading the papers on a weekend, while our gal swims in the pool.

Bliss.

tonight's the night

Uber-excited as tonight I'm heading off to see Coco Avant Chanel. Woo hoo. Our gal's off to her bestie's for a sleepover as we're off to Sydney early in the morning for a shopping day, so we thought we'd take advantage of the free babysitting and head off to the movies. We might even be super-sneaky and take advantage of the local cocktail offer our local restaurant Lime has: a cocktail and a tapas plate for $15. A totally balanced meal non?

Enjoy your weekend xx

frugal friday

Sometimes it's easy to lose sight of what's good value. My gal loves mangos - eats them almost every day of mango season, and when they're out of season, is aching for when they come back into season. So on Monday, I'm in Coles and I see the first of the real mangos have hit the stands. But they're $4 each so I nearly walk past them. However, I stopped to think about it and realised that I'd be happy to spend $4 on a cupcake - so why shouldn't I spend that on something that's delicious and nutritious?

I picked one up, took a sniff and the heady aroma made me swoon. I bought one, lovingly took it home and for her afternoon snack one very excited gal had fresh mango cheeks to feast on {while her lucky mum got to gnaw on the flesh around the stone - mmmmm}.

Treating yourself and your family with something so glorious is to easiest way to breeze through a frugal lifestyle. You just need to step out of the confines of what it's acceptable to spend on - and what it's not. The $6 bunch of freesia's I bought on Tuesday are sitting on my desk still bringing me joy days later - that's $2 for happiness each day - and I think they'll last till at least next monday - under $1 per day.

Sometimes it's the little things that make you feel spoiled isn't it?

so amazingly yummy

I really should have taken a photo of tonight's dinner - that's how amazing it was. Here's what we did though {a day late, cos last night we had a hospital visit - and bbq chicken and salad for dinner}.

So, tonight, gremolata and panko crumbed pork cutlets. So, so good they bring tears to my eyes, and I find myself constantly patting myself on the back. Yep, that good.

Firstly my gal made the gremolata on her mezzaluna {doesn't every nine-year-old have a mezzaluna? They do when they spy one in a kitchen shop and sigh, "Oh, I've wanted one of these forever..." Yes, she's quite the Nigella fan...} So, 1/2 cup of flat leaf parsley, rind of one lemon, two fat cloves of garlic, all mushed together.

Then, the cutlets. I flattened them out a little, getting out some aggression with my fists, then salted them. Next, they were dipped in a beaten egg mixture and then popped on a plate where I'd mixed equal quantities of panko bread crumbs {if you've never had these, run to the nearest store and buy them - they're japanese and utterly delish}. I pushed them right into the cutlets and then placed them in about a centimetre of hot olive oil in a frypan and fried each side till golden {one minute each side?}.

Then I finished them off in a 180 degree oven for 10 minutes till they were cooked through.

Tender, crispy, lemony, garlicky... seriously, what could be yummier?

me to a t

Obviously I'm a fan of patent leather. And, yep, I love Mary Janes, however, coming in at a close second are t-bars. They have that certain something non?

Here are a pair by Jean Paul Gaultier that I'm rather fond of...

Oh, and guess what I just did? On my way to the dentist I stopped off at a shoe clearance, foraged through boxes of divine heels in a size 37 and walked out with

nothing.

Nope, I didn't fall madly, deeply in love, so I walked out empty-handed. That's what you've got to do when you're enticed by shoes that were $285 reduced to $40 - stop, step back, ignore what they used to cost and what they're reduced to. Think about whether or not they make your heart sing. If not a note escapes, then walk away.

I wasn't totally empty-handed because, at the front door they had free shoe boxes in a pretty aqua and white stripe so I grabbed a couple to house my box-less shoes. Now I just need to get hold of a polaroid and snap off some shots of my shoes so I know what is where...

oooh venizia

My love for Paris has another rival, Venice. We spent four glorious days there a few years ago, and feel like I'd barely skimmed the surface. This shoot by Karl Lagerfeld has me scheming to return to the grand canal. I'd like to actually visit the Guggenheim, rather than just viewing it from a vaporetto. Next time I'll hunt down more intricate laneways and explore every canal.

Can you see I've got the travel bug? Best start saving, I can feel a European sojourn coming on.

what's cookin' wednesday

This week I'm excited by the arrival of warmer weather {aside from the current crazy wind situation!}. Last night I cooked crispy skin salmon with salad and it was just utter spring perfection {in late winter...}. Here's what else we're having.

Wednesday: Pork cutlets with gremolata and panko crumbs with a pumpkin, almond and spinach salad.

Thursday: St Tropez chicken {which I'm actually going to cook this week - I'm buying the chicken today to marinate tonight in rosé, honey, mixed herbs and lavender flowers and then roasting it for 90 mins. Mmmmm}

Friday: Beef and cashew stirfry with noodles

Saturday: some kind of take-away, we're heading to Sydney for the day to shop for our daybed for the pavillion - roll on summer!

Sunday: Roast butterflied lamb and salad

Monday: home-made pizza

Tuesday: steak and salad

Oh, and that little table vignette above? One night our gal cooked dinner for us and set the table just so. Cute huh!

belle fleurs

There were no ranunculas at the florist today, so I bought these pretty fragrant freesias instead. I love the way the white blooms are blushing with the faintest hint of lilac.

I popped them on my 1920s french cafe table in the baywindow of our bedroom for this shot as I adore how they look against the blue sky and the old lace of my curtains. However, I think I'm going to move them from room to room to be close to me at all stages of the day.

Everything goes better with some pretty and a delicious scent.

le sigh

Airfares are crazy low at the moment. So low I could fly to New York for under $1000. And the Aussie dollar? Pretty damned good compared to the US dollar.

One day...

white out

Okay, I'm tempting fate and am switching from flannelette sheets to cotton - in AUGUST! So I dug my white cotton sheets out of the linen closet - ready to hang them out to get a little sunshine in them, when I realised that the damned things have yellowed over winter*. What the hell?

So now they're in the wash before I hang them out. Luckily it's a hot-ish, windy day - perfect drying weather. If all else fails I'll lay them on the grass in the courtyard to sun - apparently that's a surefire way to keep whites white - who knew? Although with this crazy wind they'd end up blowing into the next suburb!

Now I'm sitting here, listening out for the rinse cycle to start so I can sprinkle some lavender oil in the water. Oh, sweetly-scented dreams you're heading my way.

* Hurrah for sunshine - the yellow's been bleached out and they're looking pristine and snow-like again after only an hour on the line! Seriously, line drying - it's the best!!

time-saving tuesday

Overcommitting is probably the easiest way to lose time. But, if you're like me, you might find the word no almost impossible to utter.

I don't like to turn down work, because in an industry as fickle as mine, it's easy to be forgotten and they'll move onto the next, more accommodating person. So now I make sure that I can always offer a one-week turnaround to any work I accept. Usually I get a longer time-frame, between two and four weeks, but, if needed, I know I can juggle things about to make things work.

Take this week for example. I have four pieces of work due on Friday. One's from a long-standing deadline, another's from a long-ish deadline, and two are short-notice - but do-able. I've already sent the one from the long-standing deadline, I finished it last Friday and sent it in that afternoon. The second is finished and just waiting for a final read-over before sending this afternoon. The third is halfway to completion to be sent on Thursday and the final piece (the really short notice) has everything in place, interviews set up, research done, ready to go on Friday.

However, because I'm doing all this paid work, something's gotta give. I've told my husband that I'm busy and he's doing the school run in the morning so I can start working at 8.30am. He's also taking on some of my regular tasks - or I'll just let them go this week. I've said "bye-bye" to aimless television this week - I'm only watching what I love and will use the time I'm usually goggling at the box to get other stuff done.

Meals are simple too - and with this unseasonable weather that's an easy thing to do. Hubby and my gal will throw together a salad and tonight I'll pan fry us all a piece of crispy salmon. Tomorrow night my gal can chop the parsley, garlic and lemon rind for the gremolata and panko crumbed pork cutlets {she can crumb them too - I'll just cook them up} and dadda and daughter can prepare the side dishes too.

With a bit of delegation, a lot of organisation and a little luck we'll get through this week - setting up some habits that'll see us all through.

spring fling

To celebrate this utterly amazing weather I'm thinking of bringing out the cotton sheets and bringing in some pretty blooms. Ranunculus are just a stunning flower. They've got the tightly held blooms of Peony, with an astonishing array of colours.

While digging out in the side yard this morning, my hubby found a gorgeous old glass jar. I'm thinking I might need to clean it up and pop in a petite bunch of pretties...