what's cooking this week?

This week = busy. Therefore here's a meal plan to suit:

Tonight: Ballet and it's a wee bit on the frosty side. I'm thinking pork cutlets, mashed pumpkin, green beans with almonds and some sweet potato chips for my pumpkin-loathing lass.

Wednesday: Steak and salad

Thursday: French lessons, so I'll whip up a Provencal chicken, rice and salad.

Friday: I'm at my mum's night out {squeee!}, gal's at her nana's having a sleepover with her cousins so it's just my hubby home-alone. He'll enjoy a t-bone steak and steamed vegies.

Saturday: English cousins having a sleepover at our house so their mum can enjoy time with her mum. We should make home-made pizza - complete with home-made dough. Either that or I'm thinking those honey soy chicken wings and noodle salad from Jr MasterChef last night - yum!

Sunday: Leg of lamb and roasted vegies all in the slow-cooker.

Monday: Twilight netball night, therefore a chicken curry that I've prepared earlier for the slowcooker will go down a treat. All I'll have to do is cook some rice and wilt some greens and serve.

penny pinching for paris {and provence}

My saving needs to spill over in Christmas pressie buying this year. Luckily we do a Secret Santa with all the adults in from my husband's side of the family and we don't exchange gifts with my mum and step-dad. I want to save, but also support small businesses so I'll be shopping on etsy, rudy and the dodo {cute little aussie company www.rudyandthedodo.com.au} and I might even be inspired to make the odd pressie. I do love these pretty teacup candles featured on Martha - how adorable are they!

Thoughtful, thrifty shopping means getting in early and checking out what's on offer - so I'm determined to spend a little time each week checking out what's available. Normally I just do the last minute rush - but not this year. Nope, organisation's going to be my middle name!

oooh, what a manic monday

This morning started off manic {rush to buy milk for breakfast, dash over to the next suburb so hubby can pick up the car we left at our friends' on Saturday night, race to canteen to report for duty} and now I'm looking at a list around a kilometre-long and trying to breathe...

I'll start with the essentials {such as finding these fabbo D&G heels on Zappos.com}, move on to paying the deposit for the farmhouse we're renting in Provence {yep, our second place is booked - will post pics soon! Squeee!}. It's all do-able - if I can keep my cool.

How's your week looking?

all fired up

We went to friends' house for dinner last night {an absolutely delicious Jamie Oliver-inspired meal of roasted chicken, vegies and white beans - I must have the recipe - it was divine!}. Along with all the chatting, eating and {ahem} drinking, I also found the time to fall in love. See, our friends are also Mac-fiends, and their love runs even deeper and truer than mine. They have iPhones, iMacs {including the adorably retro coloured-belly mac!} and, le sigh, an iPad.

Now remember how I said I'd be sensible and look into buying a laptop to take with me OS? Changed my mind. I need an iPad. I tested out the screen-accessed keypad and was easily able to type a few sentences, even after a fair bit of champagne and with fingernails too long to type properly {I miss netball because I always trimmed my nails weekly to play - now I tend to forget...}

Apparently you can buy a dock that contains a keyboard - sold!

Oh, iPad, you must be mine...

rocking my foundations

Wow, did we have some wind last night. At one stage I was pretty sure our house was going to be picked up and transported elsewhere it was so crazy. Everything still seems to be in the right place this morning - so that's a good thing.

Apparently it's snowing in Goulburn today - which helps explain this crazy cold as well.

Oh spring - come back, please...

it gets better

I am loving this new project where famous faces are putting themselves forward to tell teens who are being bullied, ostracised or are experiencing any difficulties due to their sexuality: "It Gets Better". Their messages are heartbreakingly honest and I've found it hard to watch any without shedding a tear. Tim Gunn is spectacularly honest in his video, and if even one teen is helped by his words it's been a massive success.

Chatterbox Sara has written a beautiful post over on her blog that covers this subject in far more detail: check it out.

Here's hoping that our children grow into a world that practices tolerance, love and understanding - regardless of any differences of sexuality, colour, looks or practices.

Along with hoping we can do our best to raise children who not only aspire to these ideals - but will be brave enough to stand up for them too.

what's in a name?

If you'd asked me two days ago how I came up with the name for my blog I would have said, "Oh, I don't know - it just sort of came to me". But if you asked me today I would have realised that the name came to me because my gal's first ever pair of shoes were a pair of bright pink patent mary janes {and we continued the mary jane theme for as long as possible - damn they're a classic shoe...}.

I do like a story behind a name. Our gal's name has a story: a good one. When I was barely pregnant we travelled to the UK for my sister-in-law's wedding and as she was getting married up near the scottish border we decided to travel to my ancestoral town in Scotland. My grandfather had recently given me an oral history of our family which went back to the town of Crieff in Scotland - so I knew I had to go there. Visiting I realised how popular my family name was: streets, pubs and even the castle above bore my family name. It was while we were reading the history of the castle that a girl's name leapt out at us. She was the Queen who lived in the castle in the 16th century and both of us knew that would be our daughter's name.

Sure enough, we were blessed with a wee bonny lass and she has a name with history, a story and great beauty. It's a name to be proud of and one that just suits her to a T!

loving mr lynch

Twin Peaks, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, even the virtually incomprehensible Mullholland Drive, all leave me with a lasting love for David Lynch.

I'd love to see this exhibition of his photographic work in Paris. Sigh.

But for now I'll content myself with the fact that Foxtel are about to start screening Twin Peaks from the end of the month {squeeeeee!}

friday flowers

I do love Crepuscule roses - their pretty peach faces look ever so lovely rambling all over buildings and arches. Before our wisteria took off I was thinking about replacing it with a crepuscule rose, but now I'm far too deeply in love with the pendulous violet blooms - as fleeting as they are.

It's another grey and murky day here - why does Australia turn on the worst weather when we have overseas visitors? My gal also has a pool party to attend this afternoon - although a bit of grey sky's never put a child off a swim. But I hope for the birthday gal's sake that the sky clears before the party.

Aaaah, Friday. Gotta love the day that signals a weekend!

hey girly

It will come as no surprise to anyone who's had more than a cursory glance at this blog that I'm quite a girly girl. I only wear dresses and skirts - pants are for sport and the odd spot of lounging. My nails are never nude - but always clothed in pretty colours. Going up means glamming up with make-up and I take no greater delight in planning how to make-up my face well in advance of the event. My home is filled with flowers, pretty colours and fripperies that cause me delight.

But in some ways I'm the antithesis of what's expected of a girly girl.

I shower quickly. In, wash, out.

I loathe shopping. Window shopping is my idea of personal hell - I shop with a purpose and much like showering I'm in, buy, then out.

Chatting on the phone - eek, not my thing. But commenting on blogs, facebook statuses and twitter - oh-so-my-style...

High maintenance? Nope. My hair's home-dyed {thank you Clairol Nice'N'Easy}, I don't do regular facials - my only indulgence is leg waxing - which is an essential really.

I don't buy new frocks for special events - I just re-accessorise. {frugal - but if I'm honest it's my loathing of shopping that makes this a necessity}

I'm the first one in my family who's ready to go out - even when I've done the full make-up. I've learned not to stand fretting at the front door and now I lie on the bed and read until they're out the door.

You?

getting closer...

We're finally getting a Gold Class cinema in this neck of the woods - and it's meant to be open in time for the premiere of Harry Potter - S.Q.U.E.E.E.E!

jeff probst i heart you so

Have you seen this? I've been a huge Survivor fan since the very start, missing a few series in the middle when Channel 9 decided to either screen it at Midnight Saturdays or not at all. And I'm loving this new series to bits - especially now Jeff's blogging about the episodes! I adore how he's sitting at home, watching with us and offering up insights - and how he loves and loathes the same people I do {Naonka - evil piece of work}. Tragically they've now moved it back to a later time slot so I'll need to prop open my eyes with match-sticks to keep viewing it - but oh, it's worth it...

my baby's a buddy!

It feels like only yesterday when my gal went off to Kinder Orientation to meet her 'buddy' - and today she's training to be a buddy herself! She's desperate to meet her little kinder friend and to guide her through that first school year.

Today's an out of uniform day for Buddy Training and my gal's looking cute-as-a-box-of-buttons in shades of pink and green {right down to green toenails, bless!}. In just a few short weeks she'll meet her lil buddy - can't wait!

aaaaand, back to bed

Ouch. Have a migraine. Developed last night, and has refused to abate despite drugs and sleep - so more drugs and sleep it is.

See you tomorrow x

glee + rocky horror = squeeeeeeee

Can.

Not.

WAIT!

Go here if you want more {more, more, more}

penny pinching for paris {and provence}

I think the most important thing about being frugal and saving is to make it enjoyable. Rather than concentrating on what you're missing out on, focus on what you're creating. Keep tabs of how much you've saved and celebrate milestones with something the family can enjoy.

We had a family picnic the other day with my sister-in-law and her two gals. Now, normally when we picnic I head straight for the shops for baguettes, cheeses, olives and all manner of yummies. This time I made chicken, avocado and lettuce sandwiches, popped some popcorn, grabbed some crackers and a dip from the fridge. I filled a big bottle with water, took down a tablecloth and we set up at the beach. Guess whether we had just as much of an enjoyable time with a put-together meal as opposed to a $50+ banquet?

It's easy to fall into expensive traps. I know that I've done so in the past. Spending money's a helluva lot easier than saving it. Saving takes a little thought and preparation - but boy, does it make life simpler in the long run.

It also helps to include your child in the frugality - and helps set them up on the path to financial freedom in the future. They don't need to worry about money, just learn that there are more frugal options - and often ones that are more environmentally responsible too.

you little sew-and-sew

With the Australian dollar virtually equal to the US dollar I'm going crazy checking out Amazon and Etsy. On Amazon I found THIS what I believe to be the book that will help me learn to sew. I need it, I want it, I must have it...

meal-planning monday

Woohoo, school's back! Now we can get back into something resembling normality. Starting with meal-planning: here's what we're eating this week.

Tonight: twilight netball resumes, so it's an easy, thrifty dinner. I've removed some salmon patties from the freezer and we'll have them with salad. Perfect!

Tuesday: We'll be eating the pork roast I bought from the markets but didn't have time to cook last night as we were out visiting until late.

Wednesday: Chicken and chorizo pasta bake.

Thursday: French lessons resume, and then I'm off to a party afterwards {I know!} So I'll put a beef curry in the slow cooker for the boy and the gal. There'll be plenty leftover for a thrifty freezer meal next week.

Friday: Now the weather's warming up I want to start bbq Fridays. I'm thinking some fish on the bbq with a thai salad on the side.

Saturday: Steak and salad will be easy/peasy.

Sunday: Roast chicken and vegies {normal meal traditions will resume...}

I also need to get in and do some school lunch baking. I'm thinking pizza scrolls {puff pastry, pizza sauce, cheese, diced onion and bacon, rolled up and baked.} Luckily I bought a yummy banana bread at the markets yesterday so it's been sliced and individually-wrapped and frozen. I love having options in the freezer ready to load up the lunchbox - the more the merrier.

purple power

There's just something about the colour purple that screams strength to me. I don't know about you, but I'm extremely influenced by colours. Even though navy and white are a classic combination I still can't wear them as they remind me of my school uniform and signify the opposite of elegance. In winter I love black and not because it's safe, or 'slimming' but because I think it's a truly striking colour when accessorised well.

In spring and summer I burst out in colours - the brighter and bolder the better. I'm also lusting after paler shades of peach and apricot and shall need to find at least one item in these colours.

Do you have a confident colour?

sunny sundays - hurrah

It's a lovely sunny sunday today - which is lucky as we've quite a bit planned. We've just finished breakfast and soon we'll be heading off to the Darby Street Fair, followed by the Farmer's Markets and then off to Morpeth with the English rellos. We're also hoping to fit in a quick visit to our fave nursery just outside of Maitland - and, as I have nary a bottle of champers in the house, I think we'll need to stop off at Dan Murphys too.

Dinner will be something roasted from the Farmer's Markets. Love a Sunday roast.

What are your plans for the day?