28 June 2013

Things I'm Loving 28.6.13



I wholeheartedly believe that no matter what is happening in your life, there is always something you can be thankful for..no matter how simple it is.

Peely Wally
Loving this absolutely delightful children's story that I found in the library last week. It has been a much requested story at our house since then, so much so that Mylo can just about quote it word for word now!


The boys were so into the story that when I suggested they make their own Peely Wally and baby bird they didn't need asking twice - this was our rainy Saturday morning activity last week.


It's been a while
With one thing and another it had been aaaaaages since I'd taken the boys down to Te Papa for the afternoon. It was remarkably quiet being a Friday afternoon (and the day after the storm of the century here in Wellington) so we had the run of the place. When you spend an hour here you barely scratch the surface of all there is to see - on this visit we hung out in the natural world area, discovering all the native wildlife, watching the Colossal Squid movie, hanging out in the Discovery Centre, and discovering the position of the Southern Cross in the galaxy.


Not forgetting the opportunity to crawl all over the North Island getting our bearings of where our friends and family live and all the places we have been.


As the time crept closer to 5pm on the longest night of the year, we decided we'd better head home especially with the stormy southerly ready to pound us for Round 2 (it didn't stop raining all weekend). Which made it even more amazing that we were greeted with these amazing skies as we left Te Papa that night. 


Thumbs up for the brownie
From time to time, Mark takes his special recipe chocolate brownie in for the daycare teachers.


This time they made they thanked him by getting the children to help make a special thank-you banner which Mylo was so excited to unravel and show Daddy when he got home.


Gourmet Pizzas
Loving having a hubby who is an awesome cook - way better than me (although I do try and hold my own in the baking stakes).  Last weekend we got our usual $3 pizza dough from The Mediterranean Warehouse and Mark whipped up two very tasty, very different pizzas. The first was one we've had before but not for a while - Mince Potato and Rosemary pizza, and the other one which was a first was divine - Pear Camembert and Caramelized Onion. He got the idea as we'd had some nashi pears sitting on the kitchen bench not getting eaten so figured he might as well put them to good use and so googled 'Pear and Camembert Pizza' - God Bless Google! So it was a pretty good use of some otherwise unwanted ingredients if you ask me - an utterly unusual and delicious combination!


Counting down the months
I watched this trailer the other day for the official LEGO movie. It doesn't come out until April next year, but it looks like it is definitely going to be a good one to watch! And with the school holidays not far away I'm pretty sure there will be an abundance of kid's movies about to hit our screens soon too - Monsters University, Despicable Me 2 and Epic just to name a few!


Basket fungus
We had quite the unexpected science lesson last weekend when Mark brought in a funny looking item from the garden - it looked (as Sarah Lee suggested) like it could easily have been dumped in the garden by the storm - having been picked up from some far shore.


During the day, we found a couple more of these strange exhibits in various stages of growth.


But in fact, after a shout-out through Instagram and Facebook we discovered it was actually a fungus - a basket fungus and apparently common in NZ. Amazing to think that our Creator created this - an innocuous looking fungus but one that contains a special surprise that will pop out when it's least expected!

A bit of a result
Last week I got quite the surprise when my name was picked out to win an amazing boots and bag combo from Overland Footwear through Instagram. And they were super quick to deliver them - I had them in my hot little hands (or should that be on my hot little feet!) the very next day. Wow - talk about super service.




And talk about feeling like a gal about town - this coming from someone who usually doesn't spend more than $50 on boots it was quite the moment of excitement for me in what was an otherwise pretty nondescript week!

So......how are you holding up through these deep winter months peeps - if you're like me, you're probably feeling the need to dig a little deeper to find the moments to love amongst the days of cold, damp and rain. But if you're prepared to look hard enough for the nuggets of gold in the every day, I'm sure they really are there!

Here's how you can join in this week:

Link up below with your blog post telling us what you're loving, and grab the Things I'm Loving button below for your post too. Don't forget to share the love by visiting all the other lovelies who have joined in - the linky is open till same time next week!





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26 June 2013

AMAZE-balls

Seriously, where have you been all my life you little amaze-balls?!



They're not really called that of course but it's what I've nicknamed them after making them for the first time. Sounds so much better than Date, Nut & Cocoa Balls don't ya think?!

I honestly feel like I am eating chocolate balls when I eat these and there is not a smidgen of sugar in sight. And they are gluten free, dairy free and egg free. If you add the nuts, I guess they're not really totally allergy friendly but you could leave them out - but in my opinion the nuttiness really adds to the flavour!

Ingredients:
1 cup dates (chopped)
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup coconut
1/4 cup cocoa
200gm nuts (any kind, I used almonds and walnuts and a little bit of LSA - linseed sunflower almond mix)
Optional: I also sprinkled in some chia seeds

1. Put the dates and water in a bowl and heat in microwave until dates are soft and water is all absorbed.
2. Put the cocoa, coconut and nuts in a food processor and blend until nuts are finely chopped.
3. Cool the date mixture and add into the food processor.
4. Take tablespoonfuls of the mixture and roll in coconut.
5. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes (if you can wait that long!). Keep stored in the fridge.


You could easily switch up this recipe however you wanted for variation, like adding in a bit of orange zest and a dash of cinnamon for a Christmas festive taste.

Thanks to my mum for sharing the recipe with me! And for a great selection of my other tasty recipes, go here.


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24 June 2013

Remembering....the Enchanted Wood

After a weekend of staring out the window at rain, rain and more rain (and who could forget the wind in Wellington too - phewph!), I was reminded of this time two years ago, when on one sunny day in May, an afternoon filled with moments of pure magic occurred.

It lightened my spirits to re-read this story and made me a little less resentful about being cooped up indoors ALL weekend.

Hopefully it has the same effect on you too.




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21 June 2013

Things I'm Loving 21.6.13



I wholeheartedly believe that no matter what is happening in your life, there is always something you can be thankful for..no matter how simple it is.


Getting jiggy
Loving how much fun both boys had at the disco last week. Mylo gatecrashed the first half an hour and was merrily wandering around with his flashing baton soaking up the atmosphere while Noah and his mates got high on sugar, soft drinks and funky tunes.

While the cats dads away
Mark was away last weekend having some bloke time with his mates. I had a great old time with the boys, who were beautifully behaved (for the most part) which may or may not have had anything to do with the fact I had promised them dinner at McDonalds if they tried really hard to get along and be helpful during the weekend.

We have a bit of a thing about Maccas in our house. Mark has chosen not to eat there since he lost 30kg weight 8 years ago, so we have never taken the kids there to eat a meal before. Well I do take the kids there from time to time to get a 60c kiddy cone but that's about it.


So the excitement factor was pretty high when we rolled up to get 2 Happy Meals and I was quite amazed by the mix-n-match choice for a kids Happy Meal these days - I'm so out of touch! Back in my day there was only the choice of cheeseburger or hamburger, and now you can have a wrap, fruit bag instead of fries, water, orange juice, a shake or a fizzy drink - it kinda blew my mind. And the tacky Skylander Giants toys blew their little minds too.

Balloon-powered Internet
Loving the concept of Internet being available anywhere in the world thanks to this ground-breaking idea by Google - trialled as a world first in NZ last week.

Google

Who said winter was dull?
Loving that even though we traditionally think of winter as grey skies and rain, I was able to capture these gorgeous shots over 2 days last weekend.


Loving how still the air was (almost unheard of at Karori Park) at Noah's football - the smoke from the houses with open fires in the vicinity was just hanging in the air and not dissipating at all.


Loving this gorgeous sunrise that greeted my 7am Saturday morning.


And loving the brilliance of this rainbow (it was even a double) from my office window.

A long time between overs
Loving that Noah got an award in assembly last week. It's been a long time since the last one which he got nearly 2 years ago within about 3 weeks of starting school. Not loving that we didn't know he was getting it or one of us might have tried to get to assembly to see him be presented with it. But loving that he was so chuffed with being recognised in any case - he couldn't WAIT to get the certificate out of his bag after school to show me!


Our planet - worthy of inspiration
Loving all the truly awe-inspiring facts about Earth over here at Stuff. Mind bogglingly awesome facts about our world.

Earth

It's all up from here
Loving that today (or maybe it's tomorrow) is the shortest day. I often find it strange that the shortest day doesn't coincide with the middle of winter - it feels like it should, but nevertheless it is a mental hurdle to get over knowing that after today the days will only get lighter and longer (and eventually warmer!).

Here's how you can join in this week:

Link up below with your blog post telling us what you're loving, and grab the Things I'm Loving button below for your post too. Don't forget to share the love by visiting all the other lovelies who have joined in - the linky is open till same time next week!





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20 June 2013

It's raining rocks

I love three-year old snippets of gold. On the way home from church on Sunday, we drove under a long row of trees in the rain and Mylo exclaimed "it's raining rocks".



The sound of the big drips from the tree branches hitting the car roof was indeed making a noise that sounded a lot like stones.

What followed was a decision to tiki tour the slow way back home finding as many opportunities as possible to drive under trees laden with water just waiting to rain their 'rocks' down on us.

Precious memories of little people.

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18 June 2013

Blogging backseat

Life is pretty full-on at the moment.

There's a lot going on, and this new job is really taking it out of me - a huge amount of extra brainpower and energy required with a very steep learning curve - and this leaves not a lot of time and energy for lots of creative writing of blog posts in the evenings because to be honest I'm a bit shagged and completely out of inspiration by then!

Oh...and I'm also starting to plan an Olympics party for a certain someone's 7th party in a month's time - that in itself takes a fair amount of energy and organisation

Here's the Olympic Stadium ticket I made last week for the invitations - what do you think?


And I'm looking forward to making this set of Olympic Ring cupcakes for the birthday cake.

Source: Catchmyparty

That was my bright idea to be able to re-use all those gel icing colours I bought for Mylo's crazy colour cake last year that are just sitting in the cupboard gathering dust.


So this is really just me checking in saying hi - but don't be too surprised if things are a little quieter around here for the next wee while - I just know that something's gotta give. I've also cut back on my Words with Friends games and pared back my blog reading list too - I just can't get through them all at the moment. Don't fear, I'll still be around at least once a week for Things I'm Loving - that's a given - but any other inspiration will have to just be as and when!


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14 June 2013

Things I'm Loving 14.6.13



I wholeheartedly believe that no matter what is happening in your life, there is always something you can be thankful for..no matter how simple it is.

Little Messi's
Loving these awesome Barcelona football kits that Mark found dirt cheap online. Met Messi #1 and Messi #2.


A lovely story
I can't believe I'd never read this story before Noah brought it home from the school library last week. It has a beautiful story of friendship against the odds and that it doesn't matter how small you are, you can still do great things - something we should all remember!


The best of our city
Loving this cool time lapse video of Wellington shot over six months in the summer. Gives me goosies watching it!


Wellington - alive and vibrant from Stephen Patience Photography on Vimeo

The best wedding photo ever
Loving this cool photo that was on Stuff the other week. This is how to make a wedding shot that you'll never forget!



Sweet smells
Loving this cute air freshener that Mark secretly put in my car when he went and took my car to get 2 new tyres the other day. It reminds me every day that I am surrounded by boys in this house and I love it!


Funnies
Loving this funny text convo I had with my Dad whilst we were travelling up to the Waikato a couple of weeks ago. The concept of a night light was somewhat lost on him, but he got there in the end!



Art galore
Loving the current phase the boys are in that they are so into their artwork. Not loving so much that its usually at 5.30am that their best masterpieces are being worked on but at least it means they work happily away reasonably quietly.

Loving this rainbow jet complete with bombs


And loving that the wee guy is getting confident writing his own name. Not a skerrick of help from anyone - all his own work.


Loving that everywhere I look I spy artwork on the walls around the house, including this Tree Rex (a Skylander Giant figure) purposefully placed at the front door to scare people as they walk in!


Here's how you can join in this week:

Link up below with your blog post telling us what you're loving, and grab the Things I'm Loving button below for your post too. Don't forget to share the love by visiting all the other lovelies who have joined in - the linky is open till same time next week!





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