souper douper

The other day I bought a rather bland butternut pumpkin. We had a little of it roasted with our beef on Sunday night, but it was immensely unsatisfying. So today, as I nearly froze to death, I thought I might as well make some pumpkin soup with the stuff.

To up the taste factor I sauteed a brown onion in olive oil until translucent, then I added a diced slice of Spring Hill Free-range bacon {from the farmer's markets - if you ever see Spring Hill meat please buy it - and not just because it's from my favourite holiday house in Burrawang!}. Then I diced the pumpkin and a peeled potato, threw them in for a few minutes then added a litre of chicken stock and a good amount of ground black pepper.

This simmered for around 30 minutes and then I popped in the stick blender to puree it all and that's it. No cream, no milk, but the tastiest, creamiest pumpkin soup ever. {I reckon it's the bacon that made the difference - everything tastes better with bacon...}

what's cooking this week*

Brrrrrrrrrrrr. Well, that was quite the storm we had last night. Wild rain and winds so strong it blew our wheely bin right across the yard and into a rose bush {luckily a very recently pruned rose bush so no real damage}. It's still raining and very frosty, so that's going to influence this week's meals.

For lunch today I'm going to cook up a pot of butternut pumpkin and bacon soup. Mmmmm. For dinner? Well I'm thinking a beef stew with dumplings and herbed potatoes.

Wednesday: my last netball training session for the season: Chicken curry in the slow cooker served with rice, garlic naan and wilted greens {we didn't get around to making this last saturday}

Thursday: French lessons: spaghetti bolognaise will do just nicely

Friday: home-made pizza

Saturday: pork and cider casserole, cauliflower and broccoli au gratin

Sunday: Roast chicken dinner - with roasted parsnips and carrots along with the usual suspects

Monday: Late game of netball - really late - so an early dinner. I'm going to try Maxabella's pasta bake.

Tuesday: Lamb and green bean stew, pumpkin mash and garlic-sodden greens.

What's on your plates this week?

*Thanks Beth for reminding me that, yes, today is tuesday not wednesday...

perfect paint

Having done a fair bit of painting since moving into this house {gal's bedroom once, hall twice, living room twice and study once} I can say that the right paint makes the world of difference. We painted our living room in a deep, rich red and the paint we used was a nightmare. Thick, goopy and yet with little coverage. However, the British Paint we've used in our gal's room, and in the study have been magnificent. The colours are lovely and just a dream to apply. Should you be crazy enough to consider painting your home, may I suggest you give British Paints a go.

lucky numbers

There cannot just be one shoe of the week this week as I've reached quite a milestone post. Guess how many?

One thousand, five hundred*. I know - apparently I never shut up. I think it's because I work from home so I don't have any workmates to turn to and say, "ooooh, guess what?" so you're all effectively my workmates. Want to go grab a coffee?

So, for your viewing pleasure this morning I've selected a range of shoes from net-a-porter - there's "Shiny!", "Lacey", "Bows!" and "Scallops!" {the edging, not the mollusc} for us all to delight over.

Now, I'm off to count down the seconds till Wednesday afternoon when my carpet is laid and my furniture returns, or is placed, in its rightful position. I'm looking forward to actually being able to walk in a straight line and not have to squish between things to find something I need. Oh, and to be able to open my bedroom drawers more than 3cm. OOOOH, and to have a completed study - that's my real dream. Bliss...

*Or, alternatively, it could be 1450. I swear to god that yesterday blogger told me I was up to 1499 but today it's told me a different tale. Oh well, the shoes are cute, and 1450 is still a damned lot of posts...

weekend wonders

Now, for those who've been asking the big reveal of my study will be on Thursday, or maybe Friday of this week. The carpet's getting laid on Wednesday afternoon and then we'll start moving the furniture into the room... I'm a wee bit on the excited side. We painted the hall yesterday, and will spend the morning laying another coat of high gloss on the skirting boards, chair rails and picture rails {so much to paint in a Victorian home!}.

Next thing is we'll need to paint the frames of most of the pictures that go in our hall white, with maybe the odd antique gold mixing it up. We'd love to have a gallery effect in our narrow hallway - don't you just love groupings of images?

parisian delights

As I'm always looking for an excuse to travel to Paris, or extend my stay, so hearing about what must be the most magnificent idea ever has got me hankering to celebrate my birthday in Paris one year. Cinema au clair de lune is an outdoor cinema that travels around arrondissements in Paris in August. Oh yes please!

happy weekend

Hello, how's this for a late post? Sorry! Last night was all about the painting - we've now completely finished the ceiling and cornices and have a coat of lavender on the walls - and I'm sooooooooo glad we've gone with the colour. Oh it's happy, oh it's pretty. Now we've just got one more coat to do on the walls... before we move into the hall... I know, it's addictive stuff this painting business.

Photos to come soon. In the meantime, regale me with what's going on in your world. I'm keen to peak into a weekend that's not sodden with paint fumes.

friday's flowers

If my house weren't in disarray, I'd totally have at least two vase-full's of flowers on display. Until it's back in order I'll have to content myself with this lovely collection I found over at Martha Stewart. Pretty non?

white out

I realised last night, as we put the final coat of white undercoat on the study walls, that while I like the concept of all-white interiors, the reality leaves me a little cold. Thankfully we've decided to go with a coat of Lavender Rose on the walls - a pale lavender with a hint of pink {shhh, don't tell Maxabella and Life In A Pink Fibro - a family that was scarred by the colour lavender if ever I've heard of one}. Combined with my massive white bookcase {in four pieces in my bedroom - and even in bits I'm still besotted with it}, white desk {in a box on the front veranda} and charcoal carpet I think the hint of colour will add a touch of glamour and warm up the room nicely.

Cannot wait to put the first coat on tonight. Squeeeeeeee!

phew, friday

Heya, sorry for my late posting but I've been waiting on deliveries and installing my new wireless modem {all by myself - yay me!}. We now have two new bookcases and one new desk all sitting in odd places awaiting their new homes. Last night we got in and painted. I had a migraine yesterday so spent most of the day sleeping, so by 8.30pm I was awake and ready to work. We've completed one coat on the ceiling and an undercoat which means I'm now in a completely white study. I'd take a photo to show you but, of course, my camera's dead. Typical.

This weekend does, of course, involve much painting. Our first coat of real paint on the walls and another coat on the ceiling and cornices. Tell you what, I do love my nine foot ceilings, except when it comes to climbing up and down a ladder to do the cutting in.

Enjoy your friday, and hope you're revving up for a fabulous weekend.

holidaze

The photos I treasure the most of our daughter are when she's on holiday. She's always so blissfully happy. The only time she looks any happier would be when she's with her cousins. So this photo, taken in a field in London, with her two English cousins, is just about the perfect picture.

I'm playing along with BellaMumma's beauty-full pics. You?

time flies

Oh, much to do, but where's the time to do it? I just started writing out a to-do list for the day but had to stop as it was giving me palpitations. See, much of my day requires me to make phone calls - and I loathe making phone calls. I'll do anything to avoid calling: email, text, dropping in - hell, I'd even write a letter if I thought it would help. All the calls are chase-ups too - my most dreaded kind.

In happy news, my beautiful bookshelf and ladder arrived yesterday. It's in four parts, in two different rooms, but oh my it's delicious. I cannot wait till next week to install it - and to finally pull all my books from boxes and place them on the shelves. Bliss.

Okay, I can't put it off any longer. I'm going to start making phone calls... I'll just make myself a cup of coffee first...

a cinderella moment

I have a black-tie ball to attend in September. Guess how much I'm craving something a little ruffly, something a smokey dove grey... Guess how much I wish I could sew...

what's cooking wednesday

It's a rainy old wednesday today, so much so that I'll cancel netball training if it's still raining at 11am. My gal's staying home for a rest today. She's getting a cold and is all chesty and feverish - so a day spent snuggled up inside is the best solution. She's also shaped tonight's meal:

Today: Chicken noodle soup - heavy on the garlic

Thursday: French lessons: Meatloaf, mash, corn on the cob and peas

Friday: Gal at a sleepover. Steak sandwiches on baguette with caramelised onion and a side salad.

Saturday: Fuel needed for painting: chicken curry in the slow cooker with rice, wilted greens and garlic naan.

Sunday: Probably still painting: Roast beef and all the trimmings.

Monday: Early game of netball for me, so late dinner: burritos it is.

Tuesday: Ballet: lamb shanks, creamy polenta and ratatouille.

perfectly pretty

I'm loving this image of Riley Keough in Vogue - although it does make me feel 900 years old - Elvis's little girl has a little girl this grown-up? Oh my!

Things from this shot I'll be needing? That bike, that garden, that skirt, that cardi, that hairstyle, those eyebrows, that cherry-red pout.

on the shelf

With my bookshelf due to arrive any moment now, I'm in full-on panic mode. Luckily I've sent of the article due today and have nothing pressing on the horizon - except for getting this house in order. I have a new motivation - the mortification index. If I'm trying to consider if something needs doing I consider how mortified I'd be if I didn't, and someone dropped by. At the moment I can safely say I'd be terminally mortified by the state of every single room in the house.

So I'm going to start in the hallway. As I've mentioned, everything that was on the bookshelves in the study is in piles in the hallway so I've been going through them, sorting out, tossing out, recyling, filing... I have managed to find all but one report card, school photo and santa photo {all from the same year mind - what was I doing that year?}. Once the hall's under control and cleared so the bookshelf can come through I'll clear some space in the bedroom for the shelf to sit for the next week - while we paint the study and wait for the carpet to be laid - next Wednesday afternoon. Woo hoo!

Okay, I'm off - wish me buckets of luck.

sweet treat

Oh my. Working when it's frosty really isn't my favourite thing. Because my study's now perfumed with the scent of eau de oil paint I'm keeping the air-con off so the fumes don't go through the whole house.

I'm close to finishing up my story that's due tomorrow - and oh boy, will I give myself a reward at the end. Maybe not a cake as enormous and gorgeous as the one here with Miss Kylie - but something lovely non-the-less. I have managed to pain my nails with a matte lavender shade {Orly Lollipop - love!} which has given me a glimmer of inspiration. Maybe I just need to pop on my iTunes and belt out a few Kylie tunes to get me through the next hour before school pick-up. Reckon that'll help me polish off a first-draft won't it?

miu miu for monday

Look at these shoes. Can you possibly bear to look at them and not feel like coming over all Mad Men. I'm in love.

So, were we happy with the finale of MasterChef last night? I was. Adam proved himself a worthy winner and Callum scrubbed up pretty well as runner-up {actually, every time they cut to that glorious Macaron Callum made in London I swooned...}. Adam, of course, had me at pork belly - and pork belly three ways? Hello, I think I love you. I was crying away when he won, and then when they wheeled in his nana in a wheelchair? Oh, I started blubbing like crazy. Much better than last year's finale when I was just incredulous at the result.

I have my last spurt of busyness today before I get a breather. I'll give myself a day to move all the stuff from the hallway and do a spot of work in the study and then Wednesday it'll be back into the usual freelancers life of pitching story ideas like a maniac.

Speaking of the study, husband and daughter set to work painting the trims gloss white while I had a sneaky nap yesterday {I know!} The trim was cream gloss, but looked more tired and dirty than antique. The white freshness is already zinging it up. Now we just need to make a decision on the wall colour. Paint samples are on the wall, and so far I have a fave, and my husband has a fave, let's see who's sample wins out shall we...

chop chop

So, who gets your vote in MasterChef tonight? I'm hoping for Adam, but won't be surprised if Callum romps home. I think Callum will end up becoming one of Australia's best chefs if some of his sweet sensations are anything to go by. I'd also happily snap up a copy of Adam's cookbook - I desperately need some guidance in the Asian cookery field.

put your feet up

There were a few moments yesterday when I had absolutely nothing to do. I'd dropped the gal at a birthday party, husband was at a boy's day, I'd pruned the lilly pillies and fertilised the roses so I sat on the couch and read the paper at a leisurely pace.

Bliss.

After I'd finished I started to get twitchy and look around for something to do: should I clean the bathroom, mop the kitchen floor? Something? Anything? Bueller? But I forced myself to chill and today I feel positively rejuvenated.

We've got a netball game in an hour - it's a rain make-up game. The sky's a delicate shade of blue, it's not too chilly and the gal's in a good mood. Hopefully we'll have a full team today - I was a player down yesterday which always makes for a tough game. Fingers crossed.

Enjoy your Sunday - hope you get to put your feet up - if only for 15 minutes {go on, make up a "Do Not Disturb" sign and give it a shot}.