slowly does it sunday

I've discovered that if you drink pretty consistently from 12.30 to 10pm your Sunday morning moves at a very, very slow speed... My catch-up with my old uni paper alumni was fabulous. Lunch and a few beers at the Beach Hotel was perfect - the sky was blue, the ocean magnificent - the ideal spot to chat and enjoy the view. Lunch turned into drinks, which then turned into a meal at the rather lovely Kitchen on Darby Street. A rare steak with bernaise sauce and frites was my way of soaking up just a smidgen of the alcohol. Then it was off to another pub before I had to retire - leaving three die-hard party people on their merry way to yet another pub...

How cute is this window box? We snapped it at an open garden a few years ago and it's what I'd like to include on our shed when we build it. How adorable is the triple-toned glass panelled window?

Off to the Farmer's Markets shortly. Hopefully a chicken golzeme will help me recuperate sufficiently to go for a bike ride this afternoon. Surely if it's combined with a coke zero it'll do the trick. Enjoy your Sunday.

woweeee it's the weekend

Today I'm going to be sitting on the veranda of an Art Deco hotel overlooking a beach. There will be eating, there will be drinking, and there will be chatting. Thankfully it's an utterly glorious day - fingers and toes crossed that we'll see a few whales or dolphins on the horizon. How amazing would that be?

Now, the icecream last night was amazing. Rich, creamy, vanilla-infused and blissful. I'm officially even deeper in love with my KitchenAid - I can't believe I've waited so many years to have one in my life.

Enjoy your weekend x

ooooooh yeah

This here's the french vanilla ice-cream churning in the KitchenAid. 15 minutes of churning and it was done. Now it's in the freezer awaiting its imminent demise...

friday's flowers

Admittedly my last post did feature one very pretty freesia in the image - but I've been saving these lilacs, peonies and roses especially for today. Oh, I wish I lived in the Southern Highlands, or Tasmania, where the climate is ripe for peonies and lilacs. As I don't I'll just have to content myself with holidays during their blooming period. Sounds reasonable doesn't it?

fantastically friday

Hands up if you can believe it's friday... yep, me neither. Excuse me, but where does the week go? I've had a busy morning. My in-laws popped in for a cup of tea and to check out my study {ooohs and aahs were appropriately metered out} and I made up my vanilla custard for my ice-cream. Oh yes, we'll be having fresh French Vanilla Ice-Cream churned in my KitchenAid after dinner tonight.

My gal has a friend staying for a sleepover tonight and I reckon I'll get some serious brownie points for serving fresh ice-cream. So much so that the main course will barely matter.

It's an absolutely beautiful day today. The sky's blue, there's no wind, and my garden's looking fit to burst with spring's promise. I have lanky stalks and white buds on the primula's that are circling the dovecote, my violas have their pretty faces dancing in the sun, the roses are covered in new red shoots - and the jasmine has me squealing in delight at the promise of its sweetly scented display.

Did I tell you that this weekend I'm catching up with my buddies from the Uni Newspaper days? 20 years on we've arranged a catch-up and I can't wait. Funnily enough we've all gone on to work in the media - nice as that was the aim. I'm sure there'll be some hilarious reminiscing going on. If you hear laughter carried down the ocean from Merewether you'll know who's to blame...

testing, testing

Okay, fingers and toes crossed that this post works. I'm just back from a lovely girly lunch to celebrate my birthday - hurrah! I'd written two posts this morning that vanished in a sea of HTML and then crashed Safari so hopefully this'll work.

Now, guess how much my Sushi-lovin' gal would adore these Hello Kitty morsels? Cuteness incorporated or what?

technical glitch

Okay, I'm not sure why - but blogger's refusing to allow me to post pics today.

I'll be back with a regular post as soon as some form of normality's restored!

oh pulease

So, as you may have heard, it's my birthday today... and, as such, I'd decided not to work but to potter. As part of this pottering I thought I'd treat myself to a movie. I know! In the middle of the day!! Well, you can imagine my delight when I spied the name John Corbett {aka: Chris in the morning, aka: Aiden from SATC, aka: Tara's husband in United States of Tara aka: yum} so I settle in to watch I Hate Valentines Day.

I lasted 35 minutes. Now, as much as I love John Corbett, apparently you can double that love and turn it into loathe and you start to get an idea how I felt about Nia Vardalos's character. Damn. That wide-eyed ingenue look works rather well when you're actually a wide-eyed ingenue but I was having trouble accepting it from a grown-woman.

Erk.

Did anyone make it further into the film that I did? Was I just in a mood? Did my advanced age leave me with little or no regard for coy glances and hair flicks that belonged in the swimwear shoot for Australia's Next Top Model {btw: how GOOD is this series becoming...}.

I'm normally pretty forgiving of characters in films. Books I may well fling across the room in frustration {Lady Chatterley's Lover I am referring to you...} but films, I guess because I know they'll be over with soon I give 'em two, three, four, five chances.

How about you? Does your loving or loathing of a character influence your viewing or reading?

what's cooking wednesday

Things are slowing down now. Netball's finished {well, until Twilight Netball starts next month} so that's making my meal planning a little different. Here's what we're eating this week:

Tonight: Well, it's my birthday so we're off to Bistro Tartine. French yumminess shall be consumed - and washed down with French bubbles...

Thursday: French lessons: I didn't make a chicken curry last week, so I'll make it this week. Complete with rice and garlic naan.

Friday: My gal's been begging for salmon so salmon it is. Served with lemon roasted potatoes and garlic greens. For dessert - well I'm glad you asked. My freezer has been rearranged and now the KitchenAid ice cream bowl is freezing in preparation for some vanilla bean icecream. Oh yes.

Saturday: I'm catching up with my old alumni from the Uni Newspaper - so it's only the boy and the girl at home. They can create home-made pizza.

Sunday: Toasty roasty. Last week I bought a divine pork rib roast and roasted it on a bed of rhubarb. This week I might aim for Saltbush Lamb.

Monday: Early game of netball. Chorizo pasta bake and salad.

Tuesday: Ballet: pork and cider casserole with greens.

What's on your plates this week?

oh, i'm dying!

I'm loving this photoshoot that's appearing in the US Harpers. Rachel Zoe in "I Die" - a series of photographs with designers {such as the delish Marc Jacobs} enacting her demise.

Love! {and seriously, Marc Jacobs in a skirt? I die!}

happy birthday to me!

See this very beautiful Black Beauty of a bike? Well it's MINE! Oh yes, my birthday's been celebrated with this gorgeously retro-styled critter. Squeeeee! Can you just SEE a baguette propped in that basket?

Oh, and you know that KitchenAid ice cream maker I posted of yesterday? Also mine! And some pretty new netball trainers - white, silver and purple {bound to make me run faster}. There's also a rather delightful hurricane lamp with grey roses around the base - I'll have to take a shot of it so you can check out its full glory.

An omlette and a bol of coffee later I'm sated - and planning on pottering around enjoying the day. Dinner tonight? Bistro Tartine naturally. Enjoy your day!

neverending story

Okay, time to knuckle down. I currently have the world's cleanest and tidiest study - but every other room in the house looks dreadful. I still have so many boxes of "stuff" and piles of "things" that need to go "somewhere".

Oh my.

I'm determined not to spend my birthday {one more sleep - hurrah!} in a hovel so I'm going to put in a two-hour stretch and blitz through the house from bedroom to kitchen. The recyling bin's empty thanks to yesterday's collection, the boot's ready to be filled with more boxes of books for the Salvos and anything else that's left will be housed - but only if it's totally and utterly deserving of a place in my home.

Okay, ready? Set? Go!

ice, ice baby

In Essential Ingredient yesterday I spied the most covetous object - an icecream making attachment for my KitchenAid. Yep, it's a bowl that you freeze and then you churn the icecream in your KitchenAid. Guess how much I want/need it...

You can guarantee that every dinner party will end with fresh icecream or sorbet. Oooh limoncello and blood orange sorbet. Or lavender and vanilla. Rose petal icecream...

Oh, the possibilities...

bookshelf bliss

Sometimes bigger isn't better. While I adore my massive bookshelf with the ladder, this wee number also holds a place in my heart. My step-father built it for me years ago, and with a coat of paint it fits in beautifully in the study. The pigeon holes are the perfect size for books and also a few knicknacks such as my pretty violette cups - probably totally deserving a close-up of their own.

Now, I know you're keen to check out my desk, but as I don't have a blind and I'm relying on my iPhone for pics it's hard to get a good shot as the desk has a massive window behind it. Perhaps if I shot it at night? I'll try and see what I can come up with.

Anticipation makes everything better don't you think?

oooooh, i absolutely adore the plaza

Excuse me for a moment while I contain myself... I've just found out that Betsey Johnson has designed the Eloise suite in the New York Plaza hotel. Squeeeeeeee! I know one gal who'd just die to spend a night there. It's pricey, but like Eloise, she'd just say "Charge it please".

monday, monday

I'm off to canteen duty this morning - in a pair of shoes that aren't anywhere near as fierce as these Bottega Veneta beauties. After a weekend that just whirled by I'm not surprised that this morning seems to be following suit.

Did you have a good weekend? Delight me with tales of your adventures - pretty please!

film fest

I noticed last night that SBS are holding some kind of French Film Season, so I forced myself to stay up waaaaaay past my bedtime to view La Vie en Rose for the second time. The first viewing is a harrowing adventure - Edith's life took tragic to whole new depths. But oh, the love story between Edith and the married boxer Marcel was just amazing. Looking at this shot of the real couple you realise just how astonishing the casting of this film was. To see the intensely beautiful Marion Cottilard play the extraordinarily aging Piaf was dumbfounding - and oh, did they cast the right sexy kind of beast to play Marcel...

This film will make you hug your children tight, so thankful will you be for their childhood, and it's a film that will stay with you long after the final credits role. Emotional, harrowing, breathtaking and raw, La Vie on Rose doesn't depict a rosy life for the little sparrow - but it does reveal an extraordinary one.

what a day

Well, my girls played beautifully for their last game of the season - they didn't win score-wise, but they really won team-wise. This bunch of girls are just all so beautiful. Their passion and enthusiasm is contagious - I've adored coaching them.

We just had a fabulous party down by the beach with the girls giggling, playing and racing around. If I'm lucky enough to coach them next year I'm going to organise a party at the start of the year too.

The parents gave me a beautiful present - a gift voucher at Essential Ingredient - woo hoo! Oh I'll have fun spending that - and the girls all wrote on a card which was just gorgeous. One of my girls came up to me at the party and handed me a card she'd designed and written which just made me so teary. She told me she loved my positivity and hoped that when she grew up she'd be like me. Higher praise? There is none.

I love the girls I coach. My aim is to make them the best netballer, the best team player and the most self-assured person possible. Some of the skills I'm teaching don't improve their game - but they strengthen their body to avoid injury and when they're older these skills will really come into play. My girls mightn't win every game - but they come off knowing they've done their best and that next week they'll do even better.

What more could you ask for?

time saving tip

Lately I've been feeling bogged down in time-wasting stuff and I've just done the most liberating thing to help save myself. Now, I get a lot of emails, up to 100 is normal, but up to 200 is not unknown. Per day. Checking them, replying, deleting, filing them just takes up time. So here's what I just did - I unsubscribed to about 15 different sites that regularly send me updates - that I really don't use. And oh, the feeling of clicking "Un-subscribe" was just utterly amazing.

I might only receive those emails once or twice a week, but I always feel obligated to read through them just-in-case. Well, now they're not there I needn't worry - out of sight, completely and utterly out of my mind.

friday's flowers

I love Redoute's botanical etchings. His roses always sing out to me. I've got a few vintage prints that are awaiting a hanging either side of my desk with the window separating them - they'll cheer me up no end.

Apparently Napleon's Josephine learned to draw under Redoute's tutelage. Imagine...