love is...

Here's one very happy lass with her new dolly. Not a Kate Finn as previously suggested, but an Aussie-made Alimrose Designs Caitlin doll. Pretty and cuddly and sure to be much-loved.

what a wonder

I've got a lot to get done this week, so I shall be channelling Wonder Woman I think. Lists are made, coffee is consumed, plans are in action - all I need to do is buckle down and get on with it.

I'm taking my mum and step-dad to the airport this afternoon. I'll miss their company a lot, but boy, will I miss what they've done for us. Alan paved the area all around the side of the house, extended the back veranda, made gates for the pool equipment room, fixed the leaky toilet and performed dozens of other teeny jobs.

Mum spent time with my gal, taking her to and from school, and has cleaned my house like it hasn't been cleaned for quite some time. She's done washing, made beds, washed up, packed away the diswasher... Hopefully, if we don't breathe too hard it'll stay clean until Christmas...

Last night we had an early Christmas and birthday and our gal got her pressies from her grandparents. She was utterly delighted with them all, but the one that brought the most bliss was a gorgeous cloth doll. She smiled, hugged her to death and said "I've wanted one of these for years!" I'm so glad that at almost 10 she's still a girl that loves make-believe and to play with her toys. Luckily she has friends that are the same - with parents who also believe in children having a childhood. They grow up so quickly it's nice to let them enjoy being a kid for as long as possible.

we wish you...

Some things on my Christmas to-do list are looking good {shopping} others, not-so-hot {Christmas card - yep, I've written out one and addressed one more. 25 to go...}

But I'm refusing to allow stress to raise its ugly head in my direction. I'm going to do what I can, and what I can't will just have to wait.

Tonight's my last night with my mum and step-dad :( They fly out tomorrow night. So, to celebrate, tonight we'll have a lovely summer bbq dinner on our newly extended back veranda - built with loads of sweat and tears by my step-dad and assisted by hubby.

It's been a lovely visit and a rather pleasant start to the festive season.

anniversaire de mariage

It's our wedding anniversary today. Eight years married to a lovely, lovely man.

Lucky me!

vegie delights

I didn't end up following the recipe for corn and capsicum burritos yesterday - I made up my own. And, yum, it was good. So I don't forget, here's the recipe-ish:

4 cobs of corn, kernals removed

1/2 large spanish onion, finely diced

one red capsicum, roasted and skin removed, and then diced

1/2 cup fresh coriander leaves and stems

jalepenos, to taste

2 tablespoons fresh tomato sauce (or pasta sauce)

1 lime, juice and zest

salt and pepper

Stand the corn cobs on their end and use a sharp knife to take all the kernals off as close to the core as possible. Then toss them in a bowl and combine them with all the other ingredients.

Then, use them to fill a burrito, placing a bit of grated cheese down the centre, and some strips of proscuitto or jamon for non-vegies who need their meat. Roll up and toast in a sandwich press till golden and then serve with guacamole, sour cream and sweet chilli sauce.

Now, I'm not a corn fan, but fresh, raw corn kernals are not only tasty - they're soft enough to chew. Delish. My mum's also not keen on corn, but she loved the taste too. Husband and step-dad {corn lovers} were in raptures.

Go on, try it sometime...

vegging out

Having spent 20 years as a vegetarian you think I'd have a huge stockpile of vegies recipes ready to whip out when my vegetarian mother and step-dad were up. Wrong. I've forgotten almost everything I ever made.

So tonight I'm thinking of making these corn and capsicum burritos I found over at taste.com.au

Hubby's a keen corn lover so this'll make him happy - and I'll make up guacamole versions for my gal - which should make her happy. Served with a glass of rosé? Nice.

numbers game

Okay, deep breaths... only 14 more posts till I reach 1000 posts. I know!!! Monu-freakin'-mental.

The pressure's on.

It'll be a doozy.

Eeek.

Enjoy your weekend.

snackariffic

I just finished nibbling on wasabi peas. Are they the ultimate snack? Crunchy, tasty - and sinus-clearing. Perfect.

What's your favourite nibble?

cruisin'

We've had our car for nearly five years now {no, not an e-type jag, a holden astra...} and I've never really found much of a use for cruise control. On the freeway from Newcastle to Sydney I tend to find that people slow down and cut in front of me so much that cruising at a certain speed just isn't viable.

However, I've found the best use for it - in School Zones. Sticking to the 40km limit in a school zone is never easy. I find that I keep glancing down at the speedo to check I'm not speeding - which negates the purpose of the limit as I probably won't see any children darting out before me.

Now what I do is slow to 40km before the school zone and pop the car in cruise control. It keeps me at an even speed and I can keep my eyes peeled for any children {or parents who jaywalk!} instead of on the speedo!

fabulously friday

T'is Friday, and the weekend's stretching out ahead. Ahhhhh. We're already into the hectic social whirl. My dad and step-mother left after their week's visit on Wednesday morning, and now we're settling into my mum and step-father's visit.

Hubby's had the day off to be apprentice to my step-father as they extend our rear veranda a little to the side to give us a wee bit more space for the bbq and tables. I imagine that's a weekend job!

Mum and I are off to see the film about Valentino at some stage on the weekend and on monday it's our 8th wedding anniversary - shall have to do something to celebrate that non?

Meanwhile enjoy this gorgeous shot of Miss Dita in Dior. Guess how much I want that outfit {especially the shoes!} for our Christmas social engagements?

pasta primavera

We had a rather delish pasta dish last night - all fresh and filled with the season's produce. Firstly, I took some mini roma tomatoes and squooshed them into a bowl - popping and breaking them with my fingers so the juice ran out and they were broken into smaller pieces. I sprinkled this with salt, pepper and dried mint then sliced up some amazing garlic shallots I bought - long green snake-bean like critters with a bitey garlic scent and flavour. Mmmm. On top of this I tore up some amazing cheese - mini buffalo Mozzarella - heavenly mini-morsels of yummyness.

Then I sauteed some yellow zucchini slices and asparagus, left them to cool then tossed all of this through some mini farfalle pasta and lavished plenty of grated grana pandano over the top. Served with olive sourdough and a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc it was a rather scrumptuous mid-week meal.

christmas decorations

If ever there's an excuse for some major frocking up it's Christmas. In my imagination I've been invited to a very swooshy ball - hence the Oscar de la Renta frock and the Roberto Cavalli shoes featured above. Nice, non?

Actually, we've yet to plan anything for Christmas - aside from lots of family stuff when our British relos arrive in Aus.

We've had our gal's ballet concert - glorious as always. We really lucked out stumbling on the best ballet school in town - Miss Heidi puts on a show like no other, without the many hundreds of dollars costume fees that other school's charge. It was a beautiful start to the season. Yesterday our daughter's school had a Christmas concert with each class performing an Aussie Christmas song - and wow, it was fantastic. Every single child threw themselves into their performance and there were many a tear of joy, laughter and emotion around the audience. Bless them all.

This weekend will be big. The tree will go up, Santa photos will be taken and we'll start on our first weekend of Christmas light viewing. I love visiting all the suburbs that are hotspots for Christmas lights. The dedication these people show just makes me all terribly teary.

But now I'm throwing myself into work. My mum and step-dad are here at the moment, so mum's going to do some housework that I haven't been able to do with my crippled back and my step-dad's working on some jobs outside the house. Woo hoo - I love me some getting-stuff-done-action {particularly when it's done by someone else...}

plastic surgery's bad, okay

Guess who this is?

No, it's okay, I'll wait...

Still haven't got it?

Look again.

He's an actor.

A British actor.

Used to be devastatingly handsome.

And looked nothing like this.

Give in?

You sure?

Okay, I'll spill...

It's Rupert Everett.

I kid you not.

take me away...

As a wee lass I was utterly besotted with Nancy Drew. I'm quite sure that I read absolutely every single one of her adventures - and some more than once.

She was a rather dashing heroine - with a lively bunch of buddies and always had the coolest adventures. Oh, and she had titian locks - I'm a HUGE lover of titian locks {let me tell you, should I actually have titian locks I'd find a way to weave that into every conversation...}

I'm feeling the urge to revisit - but the new paperback versions don't have the same appeal at these vintage hardcover numbers. Oh, if only I'd held onto my old book collections. Guess I'll now have to start collecting these for my gal - her 10th birthday could be the ideal age of introduction to Miss Nancy...

monday motivation

After yesterday's dust-whatever it's nice to see blue sky and feel mild spring weather. Today I'm going to start on a month-long state of chill. I went shopping on Saturday and couldn't believe that the Christmas Crankies have already hit so many people.

So I'm going to stop, reflect on my blessings and the true meaning of the season, and get on with stuff.

Also, I'll be sending lots of love to friends and readers who are going through tough times. Thinking of you xxx

faded beauty

I don't think we appreciate beauty in all its stages. You know how every year some scientists or somesuch come up with an identikit of The Ideal Man or Woman. And it's this face that's been put together with Johnny Depp's lips, Brad Pitt's eyes, Zac Ephron's hair, Hugh Jackman's forehead... and, well, they just look weird. Not attractive, just odd. Too perfect is odd.

Quirky, and yes, I'm banging on about this again, is gorgeous. But apparently, so few people believe this. Reese Witherspoon is button-cute and one of the reasons why is because of her chin - her heart-shaped face is what makes her so gorgeous. Which is why I'm always so sad when I see it photo-shopped smaller - or, as in her current Avon perfume ads, hidden behind a damned bottle!

Last month's Australian Women's Weekly had one of the first genuinely happy smiles I've seen on a cover because Sarah Murdoch didn't have her smile lines photoshopped off her face. This month's Women's Weekly is photoshopped - but it's a really curvalicious woman that's featured - Julie from MasterChef who is well above the standard size 6 - 8 covermodel. Brava.

So when I was wandering around my garden taking photos of my roses, this caught my eye. These two Tess of the D'Urberville beauties are well-past their namesake's prime - but aren't they glorious? Sure, some of the petals have fallen, the rich red hue has faded - but they're beautiful nonetheless.

Let's look around and appreciate the quirks, the flaws and the differences and rejoice in what they have to offer. What do you see?

fleurs de friday

mmmmm marni

A sensuous line in a shoe will always tickle my fancy. Check out these heels - and that amazingly blunt square toe! A hidden platform's always a must-have for extra length too.

Personally I'm aching for an electric blue evening gown to wear with these numbers. Oh my yes!

hip, hip, hooray

Sigh.

There's debate raging on the internet about this covershot of Demi Moore. An unnaturally beautiful woman, obviously. However, the call is out that part of her hip's been chopped off - to which, Demi, on twitter responded: "Here is the original image people, my hips were not touched don't let those people bulls**t you".

And I agree - her hips haven't been touched... as for the model whose body was photoshopped to include Demi's head...

Wow. It's one thing to deny that you've had surgery when you had half rockmelon's strapped to your chest in Striptease, but c'mon - why participate in a charade that doesn't allow that your body is enough for a cover?

I don't begrudge Demi the surgery, I begrudge her the participation in the charade.

I know that people such as Demi don't sign up to be role models, but as soon as they're in the spotlight that's what they become. In fact, one of the reasons I quit reading Perez Hilton earlier this year was because of the utterly appalling things he wrote about two of Demi's daughters. I don't want to participate in that.

The amount of surgery that women in Hollywood feel compelled to undergo to stay relevant saddens me - but, must say, if I was seeing pap shots of myself every day chances are I'd be first in line at the surgeon's office. And they're still getting hired - check out Meg Ryan - she's in a new role despite what she's done to her face {ps, that film, looks kinda hilarious...}

My issue isn't with the surgery, although personally I feel that beauty needs a little quirk to really work. My problem is that frozen faces detract from an actor being able to perform a role - with acting it's all about the face.

Undoubtedly the saddest thing about controversies such as these is how they bring out the worst in so many women. Over at the forums on MamaMia vitriol and attacks have spewed forth and it's just so disheartening. It's like the endless working mum vs stay-at-home mum vs non-parents attacks. We're all different, let's just build a bridge and get over it.

Vive la difference...

r&r

Sorry for the lack of posts yesterday. I've managed to cause myself some serious damage to my back and have been ordered to rest. So here's a self-portrait I snapped off during my lolling about... {tee hee}.

I don't know what it is with me and the near-arrival of December. Last year it was the broken ankle, now, my back. Sigh. Obviously my body just wants me to hibernate...

So I'll take advantage of the fact that I've bought the Christmas cards and make a start on them. I had ever-such a difficult decision yesterday when buying them. Luckily 90 per cent of the cards on offer at David Jones were charity cards - but then I had to find just the right charity {I chose two} and then, the perfectly pretty card that matched the charity. It's all done now and I've got two different red and white lovelies all ready to write on and send out.

Enforced rest has to have some benefits non?