Curry night !

It was curry night in the G house last night, and OMG the house still smells delicious.  And even better, there will be leftovers tonight and the curry flavour will be more intense.  YUMMO!  I love the smell of cooking in the house, I know there are a lot of people who don't like it, but to me there's nothing more welcoming than coming in from outside and smelling baking, or roasting, or the delicious smells that I remember from kitchens of my childhood.

A curry has been definitely needed this weekend, it's been cold and rainy and drizzly and grey and bleak.  I think we've gone straight from Summer to Winter and skipped the whole Autumn bit, which I'm a bit miffed about being that it's my favourite season.  We'll see.

We had about 5 metres of wood delivered on Friday, YAY!  So we're set for the winter.  Makes me very happy to see all that chopped wood sitting in the wood pile.  And Thursday was the first fire we've lit for the year, so that's telling how chilly it has become.  I came home and the loungeroom was deliciously warm, and it was so nice sitting by the fire and keeping toasty watching telly on Thursday.

On the scrapping front, I was tripping through some old photos and came across this one of my mum at the Twelve Apostles.  So back into the photo folders again to dig out one of me in the same spot.   What a difference.   I'm imagining way back when mum was there, there was probably no guard rail, I can even imagine they probably parked on the side of the Great Ocean Road.  Looking closely and comparing you can see the erosion in some of the Apostles too, and in the comparison the one at my elbow is the one that completely collapsed into the sea.     What a difference that area is now, the big parking area across the road, the visitor's centre, the walk in the tunnel under the Great Ocean Road to get to the other side, the decking viewing vantage point areas.  All so different.   But then you look at these photos, and essentially the same.

Credits Designer Digitals.

So lucky to live down this neck of the woods, only an hour or so drive away.  I just love this place and one of the plans on my bucket list is to go on a helicopter ride over the coastline there.   One day.

Now, off to do some baking, I had Anzac Cookies on the agenda today.   Mmmmmm.

First time this year

Well yes the year is still young, but who'd have thought in March it would be cold enough, rainy enough, windy enough to warrant lighting the wood fire.  But yes, today was the day.  I came home from work and walked into a lovely toasty loungeroom.   And it was so nice tonight, listening to the rain outside, lounging around watching TV with the glow of the fireplace keeping me warm.

Does this mean we've seen the last of the warm weather?  I hope not.  I have always loved those bright but crisp days of Autumn, with a few warm ones out of the box thrown in, it's my favourite month of the year.

So with this cold and rainy weather today, it might balance things out if I show this page I created a little bit ago, with a photo taken on what was probably the hottest night of the year!   This was New Years Eve down at Port Fairy, Mike was playing with the pipe band in the street parade, and as it happened my scrapping friend and Designer Digitals CT cohort ;-) Esther was down at Port Fairy with her family, so we got to catch up for a while and play papparazzi while the parade was happening.

Credits Designer Digitals

Thanks to Esther's husband for taking a photo with no chins!   Got to like a man who knows the importance of that! te he.   One of the main things I remember about this parade was that the day had been so hot that the road actually melted!  They had to throw gravel down the road to mop up the soggy tar.

One more day and then the weekend, yay!

Lightening doesn't strike twice

Mike went off this morning, back to the same place he went last week, with the thoughts he would clean up! ha.  Well he fast learnt that lightening doesn't strike twice in the same place and came home empty handed.  No gold.   He still came home pumped, I swear being out in the bush really recharges his batteries.  Although recharged maybe isn't the right word, he's now snoozing on the couch whilst our roast pork does its important cooking work.  It is smelling delicious!

And we had a very special day during the week on Thursday.   Someone had a birthday  :-)

Credits Designer Digitals.

I can say it's been two days and the chew toy doesn't even look like a mark has been made.   Let me tell you Lucky is pretty tough on his toys and well I'm thinking maybe the claim of "indestructible" on the box might just well be true.  

We interrupt your regular viewing to tell you this important news story...

I did say in the last post I hoped to be back the next day with something fabulous to tell you.   Well here I am.   And here is something fabulous.

NUMBER ONE STEPSON HAS MADE THE VFL !!!!!

Okay so for readers outside of Australia you will be scratching your head wondering what I'm going on about.   In fact for readers outside of Victoria you may be doing the same.  Victorian Football League.  Number one stepson is a mad keen goal umpire and has been umpiring for a number of years now.  He has set his mind to it and trained so hard and was selected to try out for the VFL.  Only three spots were vacant and the head coach rang on Sunday night and told him he was one of them.

This little boy who I met when he was 11, is now a man, an athletic man at that.  The paces they put the umpires through each year is nothing short of incredible.  Particularly when a goal umpire doesn't have to run!!! He now has contacts as you can't wear glasses, he is broad and muscly, he can run X amount of kilometres in X amount of time (I can't remember what it was, but I know it was impressive).  He romped the pinch test in.  He is mature beyond his year.

Mike had a goofy smile all Sunday night after Wes rang us.  He said that all a father can want is for his son to do better than he did, and he said at 22 here he is, a qualified apprentice, now chasing his dream with football umpiring, making a life for himself in Melbourne, a popular young man.  So wonderful.  We are so proud of him.

Mind you I did have to remind Mike that his son as a lot of his dad's qualities in him too.  Dream a dream, set a goal, work towards it.  He grudgingly agreed.  :-)

To that end, Mike's goal is to strike the big time!  And although okay in these photographs it only looks small and in reality it *IS* small, but it's the biggest nugget he has found yet.   He was over the moon excited.

Credits Designer Digitals.

And with that, I'm off to bed!

Gotta love weekends like this, no plans, well nothing huge, three days (thank you Labour Day in Victoria on Monday!!) and just cruising.   I even had a nana nap this afternoon, bliss !   Woke up to find the dogs on the floor beside the bed napping too, ha!  Must have been the walk I took Lucky on earlier today had worn us out.  Molly stayed at home munching on a bone.  She's getting too old for a walk a couple of times round the lake.  Around the block or up the side of the golf course up the road is enough for her these days.

Still tagging like crazy, it will NEVER end !  Of that I'm sure.

Had number one stepson for dinner here last night which was terrific.  I love it when he comes for dinner, he was travelling through and sometimes stops for a bite.  He's waiting for a very important phone call tonight.  No news yet, so once we find out about something I'll be able to tell.  I'm crossing fingers and toes like no other.   Lets hope by tomorrow I have something wonderful to tell you.  :-)

Katie has some beautiful pocket templates in the store at the moment for Project Life, and although I'm not doing the Project, it isn't stopping me from using them for regular scrapping.  I feel so cheaty though, these particular ones are so beautiful as is, you just need to pick some paper and call it a day.  I did add a few extra embellishments in the butterflies and change the pockets around.  Love scrapping when someone else has done the thinking!

I also LOVE this photograph of my grandparents, probably my favourite photograph of them.  And if you want to read my journalling, here tis:

"I look at my grandparents in awe and hope that my marriage with Mike mirrors what they had throughout the ages. They married in June of 1940, along with plenty of jokes as it was the shortest day and the longest night of the year. I do believe that humour was a basis to their love and commitment over the years. Mike is a lot like grandpa, a hardworking larrikin and I guess I’m a lot like grandma, devoted to the man I love. They were never afraid to show affection, always a look here, a touch there and a sneaky kiss, with Harry always making Ivy laugh. They were married for 57 years before Harry passed away in 1997 with Ivy by his side. With the love of her life gone, Ivy missed him desperately, but lived another ten years before slipping away in her sleep in 2007, more than likely dreaming of her handsome prince Harry. At last, together again."

Credits Designer Digitals.

 And see what I mean, how creative are these templates for speed scrapping at it's finest!

Okay well it's leftovers for dinner tonight, I made the chicken casserole again from the school cookbook that the Chocolate Cat sent me.  It's going to be a regular in the G house I do believe.

I feel mildly unsatisfied ...

Came home tonight about 6.15 and knew Mike had to be somewhere at 7pm, and having planned for it, I had already worked out the quickest meal I have on the menu.   My zucchini, bacon and tomato pasta.  Okay so I may as well add here that being that Mike works at home, and knowing he had to go out, why he couldn't have started dinner, well that's one of the mysteries of the universe, lets just say.

So I go to the fridge right now to grab some milk for my cuppa and what do I see sitting there ... the zucchini.  I made dinner in such record time I had completely forgotten the zucchini, and didn't even realise it.  Now I am a bit miffed.

So anyway, for the quickest eat ever and there are really no quantities, just add how much of each that you wish.

• Boil up some pasta, I usually use penne noodles.
• In the meantime fry up a chopped onion, chopped few rashers of bacon and chopped zucchini (ha!)
• Once they are soft and look nice a cooked, throw in a can of tomatoes, I usually use crushed tomatoes.
• Heat in the pan and add a number of spoons of lite sour cream, however much you want for a creamy consistency.
• Add the drained pasta.
• Throw in some parmesan cheese.  For convenience I buy the already grated one and keep a bag in the freezer.
• Mix, serve, add more parmesan on top if you want.
• Done.

Gotta love meals like that.   Now I'm left with an unused zucchini    :-(

Here's a page I did recently with my beautiful menagerie in it.   Although tonight I'm not so sure.   Lucky just went chasing Bo down the passageway, and she's turned into scatty cat, every now and then doing a lap up and down the passageway and then under the bed, Molly got such a fright she yelped as they went past and now she wants her tummy rubbed.  Never a dull moment.

Credits Designer Digitals.


I'm just loving this aqua paper, such texture to it, I can't wait to see how it prints up.    Which reminds me, another order to Persnickety will need to be made.   I've been getting some single pages done.  I do plan on making yearly books with random pages in it, once I know I've scrapped every single photo from a year that I want to, but in the meantime I just love to have something tangible.

Here's the paper pack, such pretty colours:

Right, that's it, long weekend is fast looming, can't wait for a lovely 3 day break.

Another Sunday done and dusted

Sunday night rocks around oh too quickly, don't you think?   After all the rain last night, I pulled some weeds from the garden today and they slipped out like butter.   I also needed to plant the pink cordylines I had bought for down the driveway.   A couple of weeks ago I bought one pink cordyline just to see how it would go.  It has thrived.   Since pulling out the lavender from along the driveway that really had seen better days, I now have a row of seven pink cordylines, which apparently will grow about a metre or so high and wide, so it "should" give a lovely line of pink.   (I say should, because with me, who knows!)

Mike has also been working hard, after band practice this afternoon he came home and went straight up on the carport roof to repair where the wind recently had ripped up the ripply perspex sheets and thrown them across the yard early one morning.   Be blowed if I know what the correct term is for those sheets, but you know what I mean, I'm sure.   So he was up and down a ladder between rain showers this afternoon.

I made a page two today with some of the other photographs I had taken of the aftermath of the fire, so I now have a double page spread.  It's almost like a lunar landscape.

Credits Designer Digitals.

So time for bed.   After a particularly harrowing week last week at work, I do believe next week may be more of the same.  I'm not looking forward to it.   One day at a time, right?

This is what's been happening here ...

Actually it was on the night I was returning from Melbourne, so I missed it all, but Mike could see the smoke from our house, being that we live on the west end of town and the fire was around 4km west of us.   No houses lost, a couple singed I believe.   Mike and I went out a few days after the fire for some photos.   I've never been so near to a large fire like that.  The smell.  And apart from some sheds, feed for animals, fencing, there were no major losses, not like bushfires in days gone by.   So we can thank our lucky stars for that.

Credits Designer Digitals.


You might recall last year I did Jana Morton's Blending & Beyond class. Well okay, so I did TWO WHOLE LESSONS of it! Before life got in the way. Now that she's moved to a new site to teach her classes, she very graciously allowed past students to come over and so here I am the year later finishing off the lessons. This lesson was the spill lesson.

I may not have mentioned it previously, but in the sidebar there you'll see a link to a blog The Chocolate Cat.   I remember when I saw that name, two of my favourite things.  I love to follow her on her crafty endeavours and family exploits.   I'm a bit of a slacko when it comes to reading blogs lately, but the kindness of beautiful bloggers like her must not go unmentioned.   At Christmas time I received a beautiful parcel which contained their school's cook book.  A cook book like no other I might add, so incredibly professionally done.

Well Lise, I made yet another recipe tonight, the Chicken Casserole on page 102 and it was ooooooh so good!   Mike had seconds.  I was planning on having the leftovers for dinner tomorrow night.   Hmmm, next time I may just need to double the recipe.

Okay, better go do something.