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Friday, April 29, 2011

What I'm loving ..

Even though I LOVE LOVE LOVE summer - there are definitely things to be grateful for in the other three (lesser) seasons! 
Also, if we didn't have Autumn, Winter and Spring - I would take Summer for granted!
Here are some things I am loving about Autumn:

Soup-in-a-Cup for lunch
(Unfortunately mine didn't look quite this yum, but you get the idea!)

Being able to use the fireplace!  
I LOVE fires - they are so awesome to watch and they heat up our house SO well!!


The fact that even though lots of days are rainy and yuk - you do get some stunners (like yesterday) and get to go for walks and take photos like these:




What are you loving?

Sima J

Linking up with Paisley Jade

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

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

oops I've been lazy ..

Sorry guys but I've been mega lazy with my blog lately.  I even am often too lazy to comment on your blogs . I DO LOVE THEM THOUGH .. honest!!  
I will read it and go 'wow that's cool' or 'that looks SO yum' and 'ohh it was so much fun doing that' but then I can't be bothered.  SORRY!! I will try be better seeing as I LOVE getting YOUR comments on here .. it's a 2 way street I know!

SO here is a post to try get me back into the groove!

I made a crock pot cake!  Thanks to PaisleyJade's recipe!  I had to halve it since my crock pot is an old small one!  It turned out pretty good though!  
Can't say it's my favourite cake, but it was fun making it a different way!



Ok so that's enough posting for now.  The little child is going to wake up any minute and we are off on a walk to enjoy this beautiful sunshine (even though the forecast was for miserable weather?!  Thanks God - I needed my washing dried!)
Hopefully I'll try and be bothered to do more posts ;-)  AND be bothered to comment on yours ;-)

Sima J
p.s. Simone G - you have made blogging SO much more enjoyable with your little tips - THANKS!!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

kai (again!)

Well I had a baking day yesterday.
I made some Oatmeal Caramelitas from here

and some Tiramisu Cupcakes from here


The Oatmeal Caramelitas were YUM and not as super sweet as I had expected which was nice (considering the amount of sugary goodness that goes into them!).

The Tiramisu Cupcakes, while delicious no doubt about that, really didn't taste Tiramisu-ish at all. They tasted more like a mini moist chocolate cake! And that was with me adding in extra coffee! My friend who dislikes coffee was skeptical at first, not willing to try one, but once she tried one she found they were quite nice. Obviously highlighting the fact that coffee-ish, they were not. I'll take that into account next time and put in less cocoa and more coffee :-)

Plus I made Pumpkin Soup for dinner. Yum.

Anyway that's all the foodie goodness I have time for right now .. I have to go see to my 'Slow Cook Beef Ragout with Gnocchi' that I have on the stove :-)

Sima J

Friday, April 15, 2011

feijoas and oven cleaner ..

Food glorious food.
All the aussies will be jealous because it's FEIJOA SEASON woop woop!!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE feijoas!
Lucky for me I have parents and in-laws with the delicious fruit up for grabs for free :-)
AND my lovely mother bottles them for us too .. LUCKY ME!!
I cut open some to eat and noticed they all had different increments of sections inside -3,4,5. Nice.


Jumping randomly to a different (yet vaguely food-related topic):
Ovens. Don't you just HATE cleaning the things!! I am VERY glad the manufacturers thought to make the insides black so you can't tell how dirty they REALLY are!
I HATE commercial oven cleaner. That stuff is just WRONG! You are supposed to clean your oven with ultra-toxic cleaners .. and then cook your FOOD in it?!?! It just doesn't add up to me. That's why I've opted to use natural ingredients to make my own! Not only is it good for the environment, it's good for ME and my families insides! And look how clean my oven is now .. you can actually see through the front window yay!


For those of you interested here's the easy and cheap alternative to toxic commercial oven cleaners:

3/4C Baking Soda
1/4C Salt
1/4C Water

Mix into a paste, spread in oven and leave overnight.
Wipe clean.
(or you can be impatient like me and spread it on and straight away scrub with a green scratchy pot scrubber until it's clean hehe)

Sima J

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

bunks and some more organisation loving ..

Well the bunks turned up YAY and we turned these ..

.. into this!
Well done us I say. I even helped heft the stupid heavy top bunk, with mattress on it, on top. Lets just say I'm not the strongest lifter and Carl laughed at my grunts as I tried not to drop the whole thing! It must've looked pretty funny.

Also, we are on HOLIDAY!! That's one of the great things about homeschooling - you can holiday when YOU want! It's so nice to be on a break when there aren't a million kids in town on their breaks! What I love about the new term is having nice fresh calendars all ready.

Ahhh, organisation I DO heart you!!

Sima J

Thursday, April 7, 2011

I heart organisation

I do like organisation.
You'd often have a hard time believing it if you ever saw my house in its natural state!
When on holiday at the bach at Pataua I noticed all the shelves were labelled according to sheet type etc. I loved this so much I thought I might have to do it in my house.
I really didn't have a reason. I'm the only one who puts linen away/gets linen out and I know where everything is. But it IS nice to have it labelled haha.



Sima J



Saturday, April 2, 2011

Bunks ..

Well I don't really have much to write seeing as I still haven't edited any photos recently, but one exciting piece of news (for me anyway) is that we bought some bunks.
I love them! Brand Spanking new off TradeMe. I can't wait til they get here. This is what they look like ..


Now we just need some mattress' (anyone got a couple single mattress' they don't want anymore?)
Sima J