Friday Favourites

Hi friends, I hope that you have all had a great week and are looking forward to a nice weekend. When I’m on holiday from work I really want the time to slow down. But as usual, this week has sped by and here we are again saying hello to the weekend. Thanks so much for stopping by to have a read where I’m excited to share with you my five quick favourites for this week. #1 It was so lovely not having to worry about routine so I indulged in lots of Netflix and Stan, especially over the weekend. I stayed up late and got up late too. Last Saturday I was still in my pyjamas until midday and on my phone mindlessly scrolling. This is something that I rarely do, so when Sam saw me he laughed. “Good on you Mum,” he said, “so good to see you enjoying the break”. Haha!! #2 We kickstarted the week with our usual monthly dinner at our local club on Monday night. It was freezing cold and rainy night but my black pea coat kept me warm. We met up with our friends and enjoyed a nice cocktail before dinner. I had my usual steamed barramundi with broccoli and rice. #3 Tuesday was Steve’s day off from work so we went into the city! We had dinner at a cute little french restaurant. After dinner, we went to an underground bar called Mr Mings. My co-worker had recommended this place to us. She keeps us up to date on all the cool places to visit. The bar was a perfect place to go to on a cold winter’s night. It was all warm and lit up with Chinese lanterns. My cocktail came in a tall tiki mug with delicious calorie-worthy coconut whipped cream! #4 With all this rain it has been almost impossible to get any of our laundry dry. We haven’t had a clothes dryer for about 15 years. But getting our clothes dry has never been a big issue until this year. I always hang out my washing on the clothesline and we’ve managed just fine. But this year it has been raining non-stop. I don’t actually remember ever having so many endless days of rain. Getting our washing to dry has been almost impossible. So recently Steve has been practically begging me to agree to buy a clothes dryer. Mainly because he had to wear damp pants to work on more than one occasion…oops!! I wanted to wait until we got the laundry renovated first. But with the prices of materials going crazy, I don’t think that this is going to happen anytime soon. The damp washing was making me crazy too so by Wednesday I was more than happy to go pick out a dryer. We got our new dryer delivered on Thursday and it has been working beautifully. I had to rearrange our small laundry but it’s fitted in fine and I love it. I actually can’t believe that I took so long to be convinced. Yeah, crazy. I know!! #5 I finally started painting our bedroom. The prep work kills me and it’s the part that I don’t enjoy at all but I have been very careful to do it well. I was going to listen to a podcast while I was painting but instead, I thought I would try something different and so I borrowed an audiobook from the library. While I was painting I listened to my first ever audiobook “Becoming” read by Michelle Obama herself. This is such a great book and I have really been enjoying it. I have learnt so much about the Obamas and I think Michelle Obama is such a lovely and very classy lady. That’s it for my Friday favourites this week. Five quick favourites, I’m going to jump off the computer now and get back to finish painting my bedroom. We have a super fun thing happening this weekend and I can’t wait to share it with you on Monday. Hope you all have the best weekend! Happy Friday!   Linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s post  

Happy Friday friends! It’s the end of term and when 3.40 pm hit today I was officially off on winter break for the next two weeks. Yay!!!! Oh my goodness I am so looking forward to staying up late, sleeping in, and not having to stick to a schedule! I have a couple of favourites for this week’s Friday favourites post that I am excited to share with you. Thanks so much for stopping by to have a read and let’s jump into my first favourite for this week! Elvis I went to see the movie ‘Elvis’. Now I have to tell you that I was not a huge Elvis fan. I didn’t grow up listening to his music and I only ever heard his name for the first time when I was seven years old. We were at a birthday party and my friend’s mum started crying as she must have just heard that Elvis had died. I had no clue who Elvis was and so I remember thinking that she must clearly have been very closely related to this Elvis because she was just so distressed! Mixed Reviews I read a couple of mixed reviews for ‘Elvis’ and then when I found out that the movie went on for about three hours! I was NOT excited to see it AT ALL. Steve and I went with another couple of friends on Tuesday night (his only night off from work)  Our lovely friends who we went with had invited us over for dinner after the movie and the only session that suited us was the 4.15 pm session. Any later than that and we would be having dinner at midnight. So I finished work at 3.40 then raced home and had a super-fast shower. Because I always feel a bit icky after work. We made it to the cinema just in time. I planned to have a snooze during the movie because I was so sure that I wouldn’t like it. Then I thought that I would be all refreshed and ready to have fun at our friend’s place when we went there for dinner after the movie. I Loved The Movie! Well, I was SO wrong about the movie! It was fantastic and I loved every minute of it. I did NOT nap as I had intended to. And now I can honestly say that I really appreciate Elvis’s great talent. I was even teary at the end of the movie because I was really sad to learn so much about how Elvis was basically used and mismanaged by a very greedy man and his hangers-on. So if you haven’t seen it, please do. You will really love it. Trust me, because this is coming from someone who was so sure that the movie was going to be awful! Dinner Dinner after the movie was so delicious and fun. My friend had lamb shanks all ready for us in her slow cooker when we got to her place. It was a cold night and there’s nothing better than a hearty meal on a cold night. With wine of course!! We all talked about the movie and how great it was. Then we got onto topics like “Where were you and what were you doing?” when Elvis died, September Eleven happened, and when Princess Diana was killed? We all had our stories to share and it was such an interesting night full of reminiscing. But it was so hard to get up for work on Wednesday morning!! The Grounds Of The City On Monday I shared with you about my fun trip with my friend to see the beautiful digital installation ‘Walking through a Songline’ at The Museum of Sydney. After the museum, we were both hungry so we decided to try a cafe called ‘The Grounds’. A while ago we both went to ‘The Grounds of Alexandria’ but we had never tried out this one in the heart of the city. The cafe looked quite small from the outside but we were surprised by how much bigger it was on the inside. It had a really cosy vibe with fun old-style decor. As well as music playing from the 1940s (I think). I was starving so I ordered the burger which came with a lot of fries! My lovely friend had the (much smaller) eggplant and hummus. I did share my fries with her though! Family Dinner We have our monthly family dinner tonight which I am so excited about and this is probably this week’s favourite! My cousin is hosting it at her place, and it’s sure to be a fun night. I really hope that you have the best weekend! Happy Friday! Linking up with Andrea and Erika.    

Hi everyone, hope you are all well and have enjoyed a great week. I think that I say this every week. But I really am always genuinely amazed at how fast the week goes by. I know that when I wake up on Monday mornings it doesn’t feel like that at all. But sure enough, Friday rolls around pretty fast. Again, thanks so much for stopping by to have a read and letting me share with you eight favourites for this week. 1. A Muddy Front Garden There was a broken water pipe in the front of my house. While this is definitely not on my list of favourites. I am relieved that the plumbers have now fixed it. The grass was so wet for weeks and we just thought that it was due to all the rain we had been having…….ummm no! When we started to see a puddle forming on top of the grass and there had been no rain for quite a while we soon realised that it must be a broken water pipe. The plumbers had to dig down really deep to fix it and they did try to save the grass but because it was so wet and muddy. It just wasn’t possible, so now we are looking into getting the lawn back to the way it was before. Oh well, at least the pipe is all fixed now. 2. Top Gun Maverick Tuesday night we finally went to see Top Gun Maverick and friends you were right it did not disappoint! If you haven’t gone to see it you totally have to. It was fantastic and I loved it way better than the first one. Steve and I went to see the movie with another couple of friends. After the movie, we went to the local pub for dinner where the food was meh…. but the wine was great! We had such a fun night with some really proper belly laughs. I have not laughed so hard in ages and it felt so good! 3. New Shoes I ordered some very practical and comfortable (but not very good-looking) shoes for work and they arrived earlier this week. My kitty was so happy with the box! 4. Work Lunches It’s nearly the end of term and I am just so over packing work lunches. So this week it’s really mainly been toast with vegemite and avocado. Good thing that the avocado and vegemite combo is a big favourite for me! 5. No Covid After the super fun 80th birthday lunch for my dear uncle last weekend. My cousin rang to say that a couple of people from the party had tested positive. I was chatting and hugged one of these lovely relatives but so far I have no symptoms. Fingers crossed!!!! 6. The Amazing Race I know that I am super late to the party but I am currently watching the latest season of The Amazing Race. Somehow I have managed to not find out who wins so that’s great! I am really enjoying it. The Amazing Race is one of my favourite shows. 7. Chicken Bolognese I made chicken bolognese instead of the usual beef bolognese and it was delicious! My son’s lovely girlfriend doesn’t eat red meat. So lately I have been using chicken instead of meat when I know that she is staying for dinner. 8. New Coffee Cups At preschool, we drink out of super-safe cups that will not spill. The cups that we were using were gradually starting to fall apart. So one of our lovely colleagues ordered some new ones and they arrived today. They are very different to the old ones we had and I like these ones much better! We even picked the colours we wanted. We ordered them from the Frank Green website which allowed us to choose the colour of the lid, base and even the colour of the top button. I went with pink, pink and hot pink. *********** That’s it for now, eight favourites for this week. I look forward to seeing you back here on Monday and I really hope that you have an amazing weekend! Happy Friday! Linking up with Andrea and Erika

Hi everyone, it’s so great to see Friday again and I really hope you are all well and have had a great week. I’m just dropping by to share a few favourites for this week. I was sick with a cold last week and I thought that I was shaking it off really well. But I started going downhill again on Wednesday and I ended up with a sinus infection. So now I’m on antibiotics and I had to take a couple of days off from work. Thankfully I am feeling much better now. Anyway, I still had a few favourites sprinkled into my week aside from just being in bed and looking at this tissue box for most of Thursday. 1. Last weekend  I made a trip into the city with my sweet friend and her two lovely kids. We went in for the Vivid Sydney light festival. It was a really fun night and we enjoyed looking at the beautiful light displays around Circular Quay. There were also some cool light sculptures and SO many people out and about on a cold winter’s night. You can watch a little video that I made which shows some really beautiful light projections and read all about it here. 2. We stopped off at a little store for some snacks on our way back to the train station after Vivid. I spotted my favourite chocolate bars. They were $6.00 each!! I didn’t buy any and I was happy to know that I still had one left at home. My cousin had been to the U.S.A last year and she brought some back for me. Baby Ruth’s are hard to find in Australia so they are always a big treat and I always make sure to make them last! 3. It was the Queen’s Birthday Long weekend last weekend so Monday was a public holiday. Some of my friends came over for dinner and to watch Top Gun. We are all excited to go and see Top Gun Maverick next week. We had some drinks and enjoyed a cheeseboard while we watched the movie. Then for dinner, we had some penne pasta with Vodka sauce that I made. 4. I felt really unwell all day on Wednesday while I was at work and I couldn’t stop sneezing AGAIN!! I didn’t have the best day. Steve had the night off from work and he had this waiting for me when I got home. We also had plans to go out for dinner later on. I was determined to go even though I just felt so sick that I wanted to crawl into bed. We don’t get many evenings together as Steve works nights. I was not going to give in to a cold!!! I had a shower and took some panadol and Dimetapp (not together). And we went out. We both had delicious steaks, a couple of drinks and we shared a dessert. We had a lovely time and got home at around 8.50 and I was in bed by 9. I made it!! And that was it for me, I woke up with pain above my eye the next morning and I knew that I had a sinus infection. 5. Thursday I went to the doctors who put me on some antibiotics. In the afternoon my kind aunty dropped off some herbal teas for me and then I mostly had soup and stayed in bed for the next couple of days. 6. My favourite kitty came to see me. She was confused because it was well past midday and I was still in bed on Thursday. Or maybe she was annoyed that I was home and she couldn’t secretly lie on my bed. Thankfully I am feeling much better again and I am looking forward to a nice weekend. I hope you have the best weekend too. Thank you so much for stopping by and letting me share with you a few of this week’s favourites. Happy Friday! Linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s Friday Favourites post

Hi friends, hope you are all well and have had a great week. It’s always good to welcome back Friday after a busy few days. As usual, I am really happy to be linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s Friday favourites post! We Are Going To A Wedding! Well, it’s still ages away but our invitation to our niece’s wedding arrived in the post earlier this week. It’s not until January next year BUT it’s a destination wedding so we will be having a five-night holiday too. Steve’s niece is getting married in Noosa which is a resort area on Queensland’s sunshine coast. I have never been but it looks absolutely beautiful. I am super excited! The only part that I am not excited about is the flying part. I’m scared of flying so I’m trying not to think about that and concentrate on how fun it will be. After all, it’s only a 1-hour and 30-minute flight. (Yep, I’ll be all good 😬) Dinner At The Club We had our usual first Monday of the month dinner catch-up with friends. It was a fun night and I ordered my usual steamed barramundi. It comes with lots of broccoli and a side of rice. Very delicious!! That night I wore one of my favourite jumpers that I got last winter from Witchery. This jumper is so soft and warm. I also really love the colour. It’s a bit hard to see in the photo but it’s a lovely soft pastel mint. An Early Start My son had a school excursion to Wollongong University. He is in his final year of school and so this excursion was to show his class what a day in the life of a Uni student looks like. When I asked Sam how it went. He happily told me that the Uni has a great op-shop and that he bought a vintage Jacket. I kind of would have liked to hear more about the courses and how inspired he was by the campus. (insert eye roll here) Anyway, I had to drop Sam off at school really early so that he could catch the bus with his class to the excursion. It was about 7.15 am and the Winter sun was so strong! It was hitting me directly in the eyes and I could hardly see while I was driving. Thankfully the roads weren’t busy at that time. Because I had so much extra time I stopped off to get a coffee at our local corner cafe called Stevie’s. Such a cute place where they sell the best coffee. They also have a lovely selection of gourmet food items, preprepared meals, and delicious things to either eat there or take away. I just had my coffee in the warm car and did my morning devotions with the YouVersion Bible app on my phone and then got to work really early. It was a lovely way to start the day and I should do it more often! This was the prayer on the app for that day. I Got Sick Wednesday I started to get a sore throat and I was gargling salt water to try and make it go away. I did a COVID test at home but thankfully it was negative. I ploughed on and even went to Bible study that night even though I was very tempted to stay home. I’m glad that I went and met up with some wonderful encouraging friends. Thursday morning I felt worse, again I did another test but still negative. I went to work and just deteriorated as the day went on. We had a staff meeting after work that went until 5.30 pm. At one point I was feeling so unwell that I even started dozing off. I looked up and my funny, sweet, kind colleague gave me a look that woke me up Haha!! Friday I just stayed home and in bed for most of the day. My husband brought home some yummy treats from a really nice cafe for lunch to cheer me up. Favourites From Preschool It was another windy and freezing week in the playground but the kids had a wonderful time….. Fishing Digging and baking cakes in the sandpit Making long trains with mobilo During inside play, the kids liked making patterns with the pretty glass beads. The resident artist visited again to paint native animal tracks with the children. This Weekend It’s the Queen’s Birthday long weekend!! And I am determined to get better fast as we have some fun plans. Anyway, I’ll see how I feel in the morning after a day at home and a good night’s rest. I am grateful that I don’t have COVID and it’s just an annoying cold. What are you guys up to this weekend? I really hope you have a great one! Take care and have fun, thanks so much for stopping by to have a read. Happy Friday!      

  Can you believe it’s Friday already? Friends this week has gone by so fast! I am super excited for the weekend as I am sure you all are too. This past week has been soooo cold!! I am tempted to take back what I said a few weeks ago. That I was excited about the cooler weather and looking forward to cosy winter nights at home. Indeed I am enjoying cosy nights at home but freezing cold days are not my thing at all. So this leads me to my very first favourite for this week. 1. My Jacket Oh, my warm Calvin Klein jacket I love you so much!!! I have been working at the same preschool for 25 years this October and every winter I freeze in the playground. I usually wear short jackets and I even invested in a Uniqlo feather jacket a while ago. But nothing compares to this jacket which I bought before winter hit. It is long, warm and cosy. I know that winter in Sydney Australia is pretty mild compared to some other countries. But anything under 15C is just like Arctic conditions for me. This week was one of those weeks where it got down to under 15C. It was so windy and because our preschool sits up high, the playground feels like it’s a wind tunnel. The kids are ok because they run around and get warm really fast. There are also some nice sunny spots around the playground. But in the afternoon it gets shady and even colder. So this jacket makes the top of the list for this week’s favourites!! 2. A Mecca Store I went to my local Westfield the other day and couldn’t believe my eyes! We have a new Mecca store that has just opened!! Mecca is an Australian retail store that sells all things cosmetics, skincare and perfume. The reason why I am so excited is if I ever needed to buy any really nice skincare or cosmetics. Then I would need to take a trip into the city as we don’t really have anything locally. A trip into the city isn’t really that far as it’s only about 25 minutes by train. But having a closer option is so much more convenient. Our local Westfield Shopping Centre is only about 2 minutes drive from my house. There’s nothing like the opening of a brand new store. It was buzzing with people, pretty bright lights and lots of friendly staff. 3. A New Concealer I was running out of concealer so it was a perfect opportunity to try a new one. I spoke to the lovely sales assistant and she suggested a few different concealers from different brands. In the end, based on my skin type she found this one for me. It’s made by a brand that I have never used before but I am so happy with it. I think that it suits my skin type and tone much better than my previous Chanel one. The sales assistant spent such a long time with me, very patiently finding the right one.  Then as part of the new opening store promotion I also received a free gift in a lovely Mecca bag. This mecca mascara was all wrapped up in pretty tissue paper. I felt like it was my birthday! 4. Favourite Preschool Moments There was lots of building happening with blocks, Duplo and of course those fun Magna tiles. A very clever little friend made a house out of the Magna tiles. She was so proud of her work! There was more fun messy box construction! Puzzles This week was Reconciliation Week where we celebrate Indigenous history and culture in Australia. So at preschool we……. Had the sensory table with some fun Australian animals, pebbles and sand. Red, black and yellow playdough We also had a visiting indigenous artist who is working with the children for the next few weeks. The theme this week was waterholes so the artist showed the children how to paint them on their own small canvases. It was a fun week at preschool. Freezing but fun! I guess that’s it for this week’s Friday favourites. Four quick favourites, I’m having all my family over for dinner tonight. That includes my lovely children, cousins and their partners as well as my aunty and I am beyond excited. We made a decision earlier this year that every first Friday of the month we would get together for dinner. We are rotating where we meet and so this month we are back at my place. Wishing you the best weekend! Happy Friday friends! Linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s post    

Hi friends, I really hope you all had a great week and are as excited to see Friday as I am! For me getting back into routine again and being back at work means that the days just seem to fly by so fast. Seriously feels like it was Monday only five minutes ago! I just hope time slows down over the weekend!! #1 I’m actually happy to be at work and back into a routine again. Having had so much time off from work during term one meant that I hadn’t met some of the children in my class yet. Others I had met briefly only for a week or so. Anyway, it’s been really nice to get to know all the kids during the last couple of weeks. #2 It’s been all about this super fun sensory activity at preschool this week. Our classroom teacher programmed slime as one of this week’s activities and I found a really easy recipe. All you need is cornflour and handsoap! Smells so good and a lot of the kids have had the best time playing with it. It’s funny, some kids stay far away and can’t stand the mess. Others love this activity and can’t get enough of it. We had one little boy get so excited while he was playing that he started shaking his hands around making big slimy swirls in the air. Well, you can imagine what happened next…yep it went everywhere. The walls, the floor, one of the teacher’s hair! EVERYWHERE!! Haha. Look at my pants and shoes!! You should have seen my colleague’s entire black outfit. She was covered in white blotches. I meant to take a photo but we were so busy I forgot. We both had a good laugh though! #3 Another huge favourite of the week is this hair care remedy. I caught up with a friend one afternoon and I commented on her beautiful glossy hair. She really has the best hair! So she put me on to this egg remedy by “too cool for school”. If you have been reading along you’ll know about my constant battle with frizzy hair ugh!! I have tried many different products for frizzy hair with varying degrees of success. Anyway, this egg hair product smells really nice (not like egg at all) so I am giving it a go. So far so good, but I have to say that we have recently had some very sunny dry days this week. So my hair has been behaving itself because it hasn’t been very humid. But this weekend we are back to rainy miserable weather again. Hopefully, this new product will work a miracle. Watch this space! #4 I have been loving my lunch box from Kikki. K!! This gorgeous lunch box was in a beautiful care package that I received from my lovely work colleagues. I have really been enjoying eating my salads every day at work in this cute bento lunchbox! #5 My thoughtful, kind cousin gifted me this lovely pink mug from one of my favourite clothing and homeware stores, Country Road. It was a Mother’s day gift for me. She knew this year’s Mother’s day was going to be tough. So she dropped in with her lovely family and surprised me with this lovely gift a couple of weeks ago. It was so great to see them and they really cheered me up. I used it for the first time on Tuesday night and enjoyed a delicious steamy Moccona cappuccino coffee. #6 I enjoyed meeting up with my Gospel team on Wednesday night and our group leader made us these bible verses. I’m going to cut them out and stick them in my planner. #7 Another big favourite is this… I finished painting my Mums room and we have now converted it into a fun spare room where Sam can hang out with his friends. It’s not a very big room, and I guess you could call it cozy. But He’s super happy and I am too. It’s so much better than having the door closed all the time. I just felt so sad every time I walked past it. Now it feels like a whole new space and that makes me feel better. #8 Seeing the sun has been absolutely glorious!! We’ve had endless days of rain over the last few weeks. This has meant that at preschool we’ve been stuck inside all day with the kids. However this week we have all been enjoying the sun in the playground. Recently the weather has turned super chilly and I can definitely feel that winter is coming. But it’s been lovely to have the sun shining brightly for at least a couple of days this week.   I guess that’s it for this week’s Friday favourites. I am so tired, it’s like my body has to get used to being back at work full time again. Wishing you all the best weekend and I look forward to “seeing” you back here on Monday! Happy Friday! Linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s post      

My goodness, it’s been a long time between Friday favourites for me. But I’m happy to be back again. Really hope you are all well and thanks so much for stopping by to have a read at some of this week’s favourites! As usual, I’m linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s fun post! #1 Let’s kick off with favourite number one!…….. I’ve decided to paint the house!! I started off by painting what used to be my dear mum’s room. It was a grey colour with a slight blueish tint. I desperately need to keep busy to stop my mind from wandering to sad places. My husband thinks I may be a bit nutty to want to take on this task as I already work full time. He wanted to pay for the house to be painted professionally. But after he realised how keen I was and how well the room I painted turned out, he was happy to give me the gig! Haha!! Our house is not huge and I will take my time painting it. But I’m super pumped that I will have an ongoing project for a while. At the moment the house is painted in a colour called “Grand Piano” But I’m thinking I might continue with the white. I’m a huge fan of neutral colours and you can’t get more neutral than white. But seriously who knew there could be so many shades of white!!! #2 I went to visit a very dear friend who lives at Avoca beach. It’s a beautiful part of the central coast region of NSW. Luckily the weather was beautiful when I visited last Saturday, it’s been absolutely miserable lately with endless days and days of rain in Sydney. I went by train because I’m too chicken to drive so far. But I really enjoyed the relaxing train ride and I even had a bit of a snooze on the way home. It was a two-hour train ride but as I got further and further towards the coast, the views were really quite lovely. My friend made a delicious lunch. We enjoyed ravioli, salad and a glass or two of Pinot Noir! We then went for a walk, it was just so nice to catch up with her. I had the best day and the time just flew by so fast. My friend has invited me to stay the night next time I visit and I think I will take her up on that offer. #3 Have you tried this delicious Taramasalata dip? It’s a Greek dip made of fish roe, as I type this it doesn’t sound great but trust me. It really and truly is yummy!! I was at Costco with my Aunty the other day and I picked up this large tub which lasted about five minutes at my house. It’s my son who especially can’t stop eating it and it’s most definitely a huge family favourite! I went to have some the other day and found this in the fridge… Seriously! does anybody else have a teenager who does this?! It reminded me of how my oldest son used to change the toilet paper when he was a teenager and living at home! I took this photo in 2013 because I walked into the bathroom and couldn’t believe it. Makes me laugh now but not so much back then! #4 Speaking of Costco, I love going to Costco! This amazing superstore only came to Sydney in 2012 I think. I am not a member because our closest store is still too far from where I live. But my aunty is a member and so is my cousin. While I was off from work last term, I enjoyed a few trips to Costco with them. I picked up this huge container of peanut butter pretzels. Soooo good!! The thing with Costco as you probably know is that everything is HUGE, and we just don’t have the pantry or fridge space in our house. So I’m careful with the number of things I buy and limit myself to things that I wouldn’t normally find in my local supermarket. These peanut butter pretzels are one of them. I also love the hot dogs we ate after our shopping trip. Hmmm diced onions, relish and tomato sauce!! Ha! I’m sure most of the world is used to Costco and it’s not a big deal but for me, it’s a novelty and a fun day out! #5 This is a favourite from last month, but I thought I would share it anyway because I haven’t posted in a while. Last year we got some tickets to see Crowded House for March of this year. When we got the tickets I couldn’t ever have imagined how my world was going to be turned upside down this year! Anyway, my husband and I went along and it was such a welcome relief to do something fun together. The concert was amazing and we had such a great time. I loved that we knew most of the songs and I felt like an eighties teenager again for a couple of hours as we sang along. #6 My lovely kind sweet friend bought me this gorgeous climbing plant that flowers the most beautiful red flowers. It had been sitting in its original pot for a while. So a few weekends ago I planted it in the front garden. Looks so pretty, doesn’t it? I can’t wait until it wraps itself around the verandah and flowers more. #7 I’ve joined a bible study! Our church actually calls them Gospel Teams and they run a whole heap of them on Wednesday and Thursday nights in different homes. I never had the time to commit to one. I tried to in the past but always ended up having to give it up because I just had too much going on. There are about 13 of us in the Gospel Team I have joined. I’ve been

Hi everyone, hope you are all well and have had a really great week! It’s nice to be back again for today’s Friday favourites. I’m excited to share with you some fun things for Friday! Thanks so much for stopping by! #1 My little friends at preschool. I just love seeing their busy hands at work. Here they are getting a good fine motor workout by playing with the colourful pegs and pegboards. Lots of fun block building Exercising their brains by working on some tricky puzzles. Making endless cups of coffee for me. And generously serving me some delicious sponge cakes. #2 My Apple watch is such a huge favourite. I am loving the Mindfulness app and I try to use it throughout the day. I’m really bad at remembering to take deep breaths. So the guided breathing feature is so good. I am one of these constant shallow breathers. Not good! I also like to use the reflect feature to help me focus and relax. All part of self-care! #3 We celebrated Valentine’s Day on Tuesday night because Steve was off work. We had our usual wine and cheese. Then we ordered dessert from Oliver Brown. They do the best hot chocolates that I have ever tasted from anywhere. Their chocolate is my favourite for sure!!! It’s not hot chocolate weather here in Sydney at all. In fact, it’s been boiling hot but I still ordered one anyway. So good!!!! I also got the churros with strawberries and delicious creamy chocolate sauce. Steve ordered the Nutella ricotta cake and Sam chose the baked New York cheesecake. They both agreed that next time they will be ordering the churros!! #4 My neighbours went on holidays for a week and they asked me to feed their cat. She was very friendly and would follow me to the door every time I went to leave after I had fed her. So I think she must have been feeling lonely. #5 Look at this beautiful sunset, I was on my way to pick up Sam from the station when I spotted it. So I decided to stop the car and take a quick photo. I was so glad that I did because it disappeared really fast. Sunsets like this one are my favourite.   I guess that’s about it for this weeks quick Friday favourites. It’s actually my birthday today and I have been really spoiled with so many lovely unexpected surprises!! I look forward to sharing all of these with you on Monday. Happy Friday friends! Linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s Friday Favorites post      

Hello Friday! So good to see you again, what a week indeed and I have to be honest and say that I am so glad to see the back of this one! If you’ve been reading along you’ll know that my Mum fell over and hurt herself really badly last Friday. I have been so worried for her as she’s 92 and quite frail. But thankfully she has pulled through like a champ and is now recovering at home. Thank you so much for the prayers and well wishes!! They truly meant so much. This brings me to my big favourite for this week My Mum Came Home From Hospital My mum has been living with us for about 7 years and thankfully my husband and I can tag-team when it comes to looking after her. He leaves for work at 2.30 and I get home at 4.00. So she’s not home by herself for very long. I took two days off from work, Thursday and Friday so that I could be with her. Then first thing Thursday morning I went to pick her up from the hospital. She was in very good spirits, cracking jokes and happy to be coming home. Her poor little face is pretty bruised but much better than I was expecting.  Because of COVID, the hospital is completely closed off to visitors. So I had not seen her up until the morning when I picked her up. A Much Safer Chair When the hospital rang me Wednesday afternoon to say that my Mum would be ok to come home I went and bought her a new and much safer chair than her previous one. Her old chair was the reason for her fall, and I’m super annoyed at myself for not having realised that she wasn’t safe in her old chair anymore. A Sweet Treat Steve surprised me with a cappuccino and a friand for morning tea after I got home from picking mum up at the hospital. He knows how stressed I have been and this was such a sweet gesture. New Clothes For Around The House I now have a capsule wardrobe for preschool which makes getting ready in the morning super easy. I then decided that the clothes that I was wearing around the house had seen much better days. So I bought a couple of t-shirts and shorts online from Target. They are super comfortable and the quality is great, so I’m thinking I might just get a couple more pieces. I want to look decent when I’m at home and then be able to just run out of the house without worrying about what I’m wearing. I wore my extremely comfortable shorts and T-shirt to pick up some panadol for my mum. When I stopped to take a pic the thought crossed my mind that I might look like I was wearing pyjamas!!”  Haha, certainly felt comfortable like I do in my pyjamas and then I thought “Who cares!!” Limes for Lemonade I picked up some limes from my local fruit shop and they were so cheap. Only $2.00 for a whole bag. Sometimes they cost $2.00 each!!! I squeezed them and made some lemonade. It has been so hot this week so this was a real refreshing treat! I froze the rest of the lime juice in these big ice cube trays for next time. Citrus Squeezer See this wooden citrus squeezer, it’s my favourite. It will squeeze out every last drop of juice! I used to have a plastic handheld squeezer with a bunch of attachments and it drove me nuts for years. It was just too complicated, I could never find all the pieces and there was so much washing up afterward. Ugh!! The only downside of using the small compact wooden squeezer is that it doesn’t strain any pips. But that’s ok I still prefer it over the other one that I previously owned. I actually bought this one from Funkis, the shop where I like to buy my cool clogs. Afternoon Tea I was super happy to have my lovely friend come over to my house for afternoon tea. It was so nice to chat with her and my little cat was absolutely in love with her. What’s not to love, she’s so sweet and kind!! The Dinner Ladies Is a Big Hit!! A few weeks ago I ordered some frozen meals from The Dinner Ladies. I had never tried them before but some of my work friends had recommended them. I was short on time the other day with everything that has been going on. So I went ahead and pulled out some frozen salmon cakes and quickly panfried them. Oh my goodness they were so good!! They honestly tasted homemade and I was able to serve them up with some leftover mashed potato and vegetables from the previous nights’ dinner. I have about four other meals from The Dinner Ladies in the freezer and I am excited to try these over the next few weeks. I have been really good about meal planning and have been sticking to the plan. But when life throws the unexpected, at least I know that I have a healthy and tasty backup in the freezer. Totally a lifesaver!! Peaches! These peaches in a handy container have been really great. Normally I buy the tinned ones but thought I would give these a go. I think I will just stick to these from now on as once they are opened I can just put them in the fridge. The container and lid are recyclable too so that’s a plus. Tuesday Night Cheese We enjoyed a super simple cheese plate on Tuesday night. This time instead of crackers we had some sourdough. I bought the sourdough from the fruit shop and it was really delicious. I loved that it had olives through it and olives are a big favourite!! It’s Nearly Valentines Day! Wow, that crept up fast!