Friday Favourites

Hi friends! Hooray for the weekend!! Yes indeed, I am super excited that this week Friday has come around pretty fast. I’ve been back at work for one full week and honestly, it almost feels like I never had a break. Christmas, New year, and the long Summer holiday all seem like a distant memory now! Staggered Start at Preschool The kids who have returned for another year of preschool, started this first week back after the break. But we do a staggered start for the new kids. This means that only a handful of the newbies came to preschool this week and we won’t have full classes till about week four. This is probably my favourite week during term one because it’s so calm! After this week it’s pretty full-on. We’ll be getting to know the new children, teaching them the routine of the day, and settling the ones that are struggling because they miss their mums. Every year we have a few sad children but thankfully they do settle. We just have to keep reminding ourselves that when they are holding onto the gate crying! Fun Classroom Set-Ups I really love setting up the classroom and making the learning areas as inviting as possible. This week we had a café. The kids made coffees and hot chocolates We had “sponge cakes” on the menu As well as macaroons made out of salt dough Along with cupcakes made from paper mache Last year we had a bakery in the home corner. So I made most of the props then. It’s surprising how well they lasted. Except for this year when one of our new students got a little carried away and pulled the sponge cakes apart. But we won’t talk about that 😉. Never mind, they are easily fixed. Sensory Play I left work about forty minutes early on Monday so that I could pop into the shops to buy some things for preschool. To celebrate Lunar New Year, the kids make red packets and fill them with a gold chocolate coin. So luckily I found some gold chocolate coins at the sweet shop. They are hard to find in the shops once Christmas is over. I also picked up some gold items for the Lunar New Year-inspired sensory tubs. All I did was dye some rice a nice bright red using edicol dye. Edicol dye is a non-toxic vegetable dye that comes in a powder form and you don’t need very much to get some very vibrant results. We use it all the time at preschool to make paints for the children to use. We also dye things like rice and pasta for sensory play. Edicol Dye comes in small tubs and you have to be careful to not spill it or drop it. It would take years to clean up because once it gets wet it stains like crazy. The kids really enjoyed playing with this activity and I was happy with how the tubs turned out. Korean BBQ We ordered Korean BBQ takeaway for the first time on Tuesday night. Well, it was the first time for Steve and I but Sam has eaten it before with his friends. He was the reason that we decided to try it as he had raved about it so much. It was delicious and I think that it’s always fun trying something new. Next time I might skip chomping on the chilies though!! Big mistake!! A Favourite Dessert We don’t usually eat dessert, but we did on Tuesday night after we had Korean BBQ. I had a Sarah Lee apple Danish in the freezer. So I heated that up and we ate it with vanilla ice cream. Yummy, I love ice cream served with anything that has apples. After dinner, we caught up on an episode of FBI Most Wanted. It’s our favourite crime show at the moment. A Funny Mistake For school, Sam accidentally packed his toiletries bag that he takes on school camps instead of his pencil case. They are both very similar in size and colour! He said all his classmates and his teacher had a good laugh when he pulled out shampoo and toothpaste instead of pens and pencils! I was laughing hard when he was telling me all about it too! Fall Apart Roasted Pork Leg Thursday night we had fish, chips, and salad for dinner. But I also made a delicious fall apart roasted pork leg. This means that I won’t have to worry about cooking on Friday night. I’ll serve the pork on bread rolls with coleslaw. This is a huge favourite in my house.   I guess that’s about it for this week’s Friday favourites. Thank you so much for stopping by, hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing weekend.   Linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s post  

Hi friends it’s great to be back here for this week’s Friday favourites. As usual, I am excited to be linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s post. I know that I say this on repeat but I seriously can’t believe how quickly the week has sped by. And someone please tell me how January is nearly all over! Back To Work Today was my first day back at work, I know it’s so weird to start back on a Friday! And this is going to make me all confused. But anyway, that’s the way the school calendar worked out this year. It was a pupil free day so we spent most of the day rearranging the furniture in the classrooms. We switched things around until we were happy with the way everything looked. We also have a pupil free day on Monday so we can keep prepping and rearranging. It was great to see all the staff again. While going back to work isn’t really a favourite, it was nice to see everyone and I am excited to see the kids when they start back next Tuesday. On a very positive note, it is probably the shortest working week that I have ever had!! But First, A Visit To Ikea On Monday I enjoyed a trip to Ikea with my lovely friend and work colleague. This time we were joined by her sweet daughter and we had a lovely time browsing very casually and taking our time. We stopped off for something to eat and drink and we chose to sit by the big windows. The Ikea in Tempe is not far from the airport and we saw a couple of planes come in for a landing. I thought that this was very exciting. They were only small planes this time. In the past, I have seen huge jumbo jets. Now that is really impressive! I’m not a fan of flying at all but I love to see the planes landing, safely from my seat inside Ikea. I hadn’t had any breakfast that day and I was really craving an egg. So I got this shrimp sandwich, it had some yummy mayonnaise and dill with slices of boiled egg. Very delicious! I had been tossing up between getting this or a ham and cheese croissant. The shrimp and egg won! I also had this fruit smoothie which was really refreshing and tasted great. Must be something new as I have never seen this in the Ikea restaurant before. I thought that I would only be getting two things that I needed from Ikea. But I ended up with about twenty-two things in my trolley instead and so did my friend. Here are a couple of things that I bought. This life-changing charging pad And a container for my dishwasher pods I didn’t have a container for the pods and I just stored them in their original packaging. It made my drawer look bulky and messy. Now with this container, everything fits in really neatly. All part of my cleaning, organising and decluttering mission these school holidays. Cheese Platter, Wine And A Movie Tuesday evening Steve and I enjoyed a small cheese platter and a glass of wine while we watched a movie. It had been ages since we had done this and it was a lovely and relaxing night. Mid Week Lunch With My Family My son and his lovely fiancee came over for lunch on Wednesday. It was Australia Day so they were both off work as it was a public holiday. I made a fall apart roast leg of lamb with potatoes and salad. I also made some fresh hummus to go with it all. My family love hummus as a dip and they love it with lamb as a condiment too. I have a really easy hummus recipe that you can find here. My recipe uses olive oil rather than canola oil, so it’s much better for you and it tastes great too! We all enjoyed a really fun time together and after lunch, we watched “Encanto”. My boys are all grown up but they still love a good Disney movie. The music was great. It’s very much like the music that I grew up with! The Dinner Ladies I was really excited to get my delivery from The Dinner Ladies. To make my life easier this year I have decided to try and have some ready-made meals in the freezer for those super busy nights. I always aim to cook dinner from scratch for my family. I don’t like to order takeaway very much, as I prefer to leave that as more of a treat. A friend of mine was telling me about how she had ordered from The Dinner Ladies and she was really impressed with the quality and the flavour. When I looked on their website I was really impressed too. The two friends who started The Dinner Ladies are a couple of mums who saw that there was a real need to supply good quality meals for busy families. They started out small and now their business has grown much bigger. They make fresh meals and deliver them frozen because they avoid using nasty preservatives. Sounds good to me! It’s nice to know that I will have some dinners ready to go on those crazy busy nights. Capsule Work Wardrobe I finally got around to putting my capsule work wardrobe together. It will make getting ready in the mornings so much faster. It’s nothing terribly exciting, just a few T-shirts, a couple of shorts, skirts and jeans. I have stuck to a neutral colour palette so that I can mix and match my outfits easily. Last year I seemed to wear the same two outfits over and over. I would wash my work clothes, fold them and put them back in the cupboard. Then in the morning, I would reach for the same things over and over. A little preschooler even

Hi friends! Hope everyone is keeping safe and well. Doesn’t Christmas feel like a lifetime ago?? I have been enjoying every minute of my Summer holidays. Instead of panicking about the beginning of the school year, which is now only two weeks away, I have been trying really hard to live in the moment. Mostly all I have been doing is staying at home which I totally love as I am a real homebody but there have been lots of favourites this week that I’m excited to share with you. #1 Anniversary Night Away Beginning with my first favourite. Tuesday Steve and I stayed overnight in North Sydney and celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary. Woah how did 32 years just whizz past in a blink !! We stayed at the North Sydney Harbourview Hotel, where we have stayed many times before and this was the view from our room. The view of the good old Sydney Harbour bridge just never gets old! So beautiful at night Normally when we stay, we enjoy a drink at the bar and then a lovely dinner in the hotel restaurant. Unfortunately, both were closed this time. I think Covid has meant fewer guests staying at the hotel. So both the bar and restaurant are only opening Thursday to Sunday. When I booked online this information wasn’t on their website. But it probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway because we don’t really have the luxury of weekends together anymore as Steve works in hospitality, so Tuesday night was really our only option. Our dinner was delicious and we had a lovely time. But we both felt a bit disappointed we weren’t able to enjoy eating in the restaurant. Fingers crossed things will be back to normal next year. Zucchini flowers as an entree Sirloin steak for Steve Barramundi for me Cheese plate and sorbet to share! Our anniversary is actually today and would you believe it we both forgot! Ha, I guess because we celebrated on Tuesday it felt like it was over. As Steve was running out the door for work he wished me a happy anniversary. Too funny! #2 A Fun Manicure While we were away I treated myself to a manicure! I wanted to get one before Christmas but I ran out of time. It’s not often that I paint my own nails or even get a manicure. I seem to go through phases where I paint my nails for a couple of months and then stop. Getting a manicure was a fun thing to do and I really enjoyed it. So maybe I should make it my aim to do this as part of my self-care routine. I’m not very good at taking time out just for myself so this year I am going to try and change that. #3 Relaxing Bubble Bath Another huge favourite for me was having a relaxing bubble bath while we were away at the hotel. I always have super quick showers. The funny thing is that we actually have a spa bath at home and I NEVER use it. Seriously what is wrong with me?? This is another thing I am going to add to the list of things that I will be doing this year!! #4 A BIG New Television A whole family favourite was finally getting a new TV and guess what? We don’t need binoculars to see this one!! Ha!! Look at the size difference!! We had a Samsung TV that was about nine years old and still works perfectly fine. But for the last couple of years, my son has been asking (practically begging) for a new TV. I have to admit even with glasses on I had trouble seeing the screen from the sofa. BUT, I had a real attachment to this old TV cabinet that held the old TV. I just couldn’t bear to get rid of it even though it was only ever made for the old-style televisions from 30 years ago. So none of the big new ones would fit into the tight space inside the cabinet. The Old TV Cabinet Had To Go I just loved this old clunky TV cabinet. It represented so much! It was the first ‘real’ piece of furniture I bought when we were first married. I had seen it in the local furniture shop and I fell instantly in love with it. But it was so expensive and money was tight back then. So I saved and saved desperately hoping that someone else didn’t buy it first. The nice man who owned the furniture store was probably sick of me coming into the shop to admire it. He let me pay for half of it and then he held onto it for me until I finished paying it off. So to say I loved this cabinet is an understatement but it was time for it to go. I also had nowhere else to put it. If I had a spare room I would for sure have stored it in there. I managed to sell it on Facebook Marketplace which took forever. (I thought there might be a frenzy of buyers desperate for it, ummm but No) And now I am so totally happy with the new TV that I don’t miss the old TV cabinet at all. It’s really out of character for me to be so attached to a piece of furniture. Our huge fancy new Sony TV has an incredible sound and makes me feel like I’m at the cinema. #5 Movie Night So during the week we popped some microwave popcorn and watched Batman Returns. We were keen to watch an action movie we hadn’t seen before. The three of us wanted to get blown away by the sound and picture quality. It’s incredible to watch, I really hope I never get used to the new TV and take it for granted. You can even see the pores on the actor’s skin on this TV!!!! #6 A New

Hi everyone! It’s so good to be back again for a fresh new year of Friday favourites. Well didn’t the last couple of weeks just fly by so fast!! It’s like we blinked and all the festivities were over. I’m excited for the next few weeks as I am off from work until the 28th of January and I really hope time shifts to a snail pace. As usual, I am linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s post. So let’s jump right in with my first favourite 1 Christmas with my family!!! I hosted this year and even though my house is small we all managed to squish in together and have a wonderful time. We ate a big delicious dinner with all the trimmings and because my side of the family is from South America that means that we traditionally celebrate on Christmas eve. Makes life easy because this means we can always spend Christmas Day with my husband’s side of the family. 2 I was so excited to make a trifle mostly from scratch and I think it turned out quite well. Last year I made one using a store-bought jam roll and it didn’t taste great. It looked pretty but I wasn’t happy with the flavour. It just didn’t taste right. So this year I made my own jam roll. The first one I made looked and tasted like a sweet omelette, ugh. Then I made a second one but I waited too long after it was cooked. So when the time came to roll it up, the jam roll had cooled off too much causing it to crack and split. Sigh, I was so determined that I made a third and I guess that’s why the saying goes, third time’s a charm because yes, my jam roll finally turned out just right!!   I also made my own cranberry jelly instead of using packet jelly and I am so glad that I did because it tasted great. I had big plans to make the custard from scratch but by then I was running out of time, energy and patience. So I used Paul’s Thick and Creamy custard from the supermarket. It tasted pretty good but I’m determined that next year I will try and make my own custard from scratch too! 3 I was happy with these Christmas party favours. They were super easy to put together. I bought the hot chocolate and marshmallow spoons from Kmart. They came in packs of four so all I had to do was divide them up and wrap them individually in cellophane bags. I made the personalised gift tags using Canva, then I just tied it up with string and added a little bell. Easy peasy!! 4 My husband had to work on New Year’s eve and my son was away on a beach holiday with his friend and his friends family so my mum and I happily stayed home. We celebrated with some prawns and oysters. Later on, we watched “Dirty Dancing” on TV. I have seen this movie so many times and I really love it but I don’t know if it was because I was watching it with my 93-year-old mum but I was almost blushing at some of the moves! Ha, it is one of my favourite movies though and I’m happy to report that it is also one of my mums’ favourites too! 5 I discovered these delicious maple flavoured cashews and I can’t stop eating them. I used them for my Christmas cheeseboard and since then I have been buying them on repeat, So good!! 6 I bought my diary, planner and a few other cute stationery supplies from kikki.K. They had a lot of their items on sale just after Christmas so I was really excited to pick up a few things. Every year I start off strong when it comes to meal planning and writing all my appointments etc in my diary. Then I kind of go off track a bit. Last year I was pretty consistent until we got locked down and then nothing much was happening for me to write down. Hopefully this year things will remain relatively normal. I just love kikki. K’s designs and I’m excited to have picked up some good bargains online! 7 Look at what my sweet cousin gave me!! My favourite chocolate bars. Ha, I love baby Ruth’s not just for their great name but also because of the yummy nutty chocolate!! These bars are not easily found here in Australia so I was super excited when she gave me these on Christmas Eve. 8 I caught up with my lovely friend for brunch the other day and it was so fun to see her! We chose to go to an outdoor cafe. Unfortunately, once again COVID has got all of us in a panic with this Omicron strain. So we thought it would be a good idea to be in an outdoor cafe rather than one that was indoors. It was such a lovely sunny day and the view was fantastic. The food was pretty good too (except for my friend’s gluten-free bread) and it was so nice to catch up and chat chat chat!! 9 I’ve been busy reorganising the house and once again throwing out and donating so much stuff!! I can’t believe how things can accumulate so fast. I am consistently decluttering but I still had a whole lot of things that I no longer needed so I have been getting rid of it all and it feels great!! 10 I have also gotten rid of some dated furniture and sold my entry hallway table on Facebook marketplace. It was also a relief to say goodbye to my old country style bookcase. I picked up this small shelving unit from Ikea and this big round mirror. I think the Ikea shelving unit suits better because it looks lighter than the old clunky bookcase. With the house

Happy Friday friends! This week was the final week of preschool for 2021 and it feels like I might have just crawled over the finishing line!! We had our end-of-year parties with the children, watched the concerts and slide shows I put together, and we farewelled some lovely families we have known for a long time! Then we spent the last two days doing lots of classroom cleaning. Yes indeed it was a HUGE week and now I can happily say…..I’m on Summer break! So I’m excited to share with you some highlights of my favourite week of the year. Number One I received some beautiful gifts from some of the preschool families this week. I am always so overwhelmed by their kindness, generosity, and creativity! Look at this jar of beautifully presented cranberry choc-chip cookie mixture. The ingredients have all been added in layers and the jar also came with a cute tag of instructions. How clever!! So all I have to do is add the egg, butter, and vanilla. The super clever mum who gave us these cookie mixture jars even added some ready-made cookies on the top layer of the jar. I love this so much I almost want to keep it just to look at and not use it. Ha! But don’t worry I will make them sometime next week. I recently did a blog post on Christmas Gift Ideas For Teachers and now I’m thinking that I might have to go back and add some of these gift ideas to the list. I also received some decorated cookies in gift boxes. Luckily I managed to take a photo before Sam ate one (or two). He loves all the sweet treats I get to bring home and I think that this is his stomach’s favourite week of the year! We also received a big box of juicy red cherries which we divided amongst all the teachers. They were incredibly sweet and big! Number Two Sam recovered nicely after his trip to the emergency department on Sunday night and after taking it easy for a couple of days. He was able to catch up with his friends on Tuesday night. So Steve and I went out for dinner and then picked Sam up from his friend’s place afterward. We had a huge steak each! So Yum!! Number Three The weather has been a big favorite this week. We have finally had some consistent sunshine and warm weather. Wednesday night I made a colourful salad full of tomatoes, beans, and crunchy celery to go with our Salmon. I usually make teriyaki salmon which everybody loves but I was in the mood for something lighter. It was a nice change to go with the change in the weather. I will definitely be making this again. Number Four Thursday and Friday of this week have been pupil-free cleaning days. Now even though cleaning is not a favorite, I have to admit that doing it as a team isn’t so bad. We put some fun music on and get to work. There is time for a chat and a good laugh and we also get the opportunity to all eat lunch together. We had a staff meeting on Thursday and then our director ordered us some lunch. We had a variety of wraps, sandwiches, and fresh fruit. Number Five  Every year on the very last clean-up day we have what we affectionately call a Maccas run. This means that instead of bringing our own lunch to work we go and get some takeaway McDonalds. One of us will usually take everyone’s order and then “run” up to our local McDonalds. Funny how this has now become a bit of a tradition for us. Number Six See my little cat Sushi here saying goodnight to me. She used to always come up to my husband and reach up to high-five him every night. But he works night shifts now so I get all the high fives from Sushi instead. She’s so cute and affectionate, I wish you could hear how loud she was purring when I snapped this picture! That’s It For My Favourite Week Of The Year! Well, I’m signing off for now and hoping for miracles next week as I do all the Christmas prep. Hopefully, all the stars and planets will align nicely for me and I will also get my Christmas shopping finished! Good luck to me!! Happy Friday!   Linking up with Andrea and Erika for this weeks Friday Favourite post  

Hi friends and Happy Friday!! It’s so nice to see the weekend again. I can hardly believe that next week is the last week of preschool! How did that even happen?? We’ve had such a lovely class and I’m sad to see the big kids go off to big school. We do have some of the younger children returning for another year, so it will be great to see them again. This past week has been super busy as well as fun and I’m happy to share with you some of my favourites. So let’s jump right in!! #1 Having the house decorated is a huge favourite! I was running a bit low on energy and time so I’m really glad I finally got it done. On Monday I shared a little Christmas home tour. The other night before I turned off the lights I was looking at some of the decorations on my tree that some preschool children have given to me as gifts over the years. Many of them are well and truly grown up now!! I’m so glad that I made sure to write the name of the child who gave me the Christmas decoration and the date. #2 Sunday morning I went out for brunch with Steve. We just went to a local cafe and enjoyed a bagel with scrambled egg, bacon, and avocado. It was supposed to come with salmon instead of bacon but they ran out of salmon. I was actually a bit disappointed, it was delicious but I would have definitely preferred the salmon. I was so hungry I nearly forgot to take a photo. Then I only remembered after I had already started eating. We enjoyed listening to some live music while we ate. There was a music festival run by the local community youth theatre group. So all the little cafes in the street hosted some very talented singers. Normally I like to have a coffee but I ordered a chai latte instead. I’m glad I did, it was yummy!! I finally started some Christmas shopping. It’s so easy for me to get distracted and start looking at things I like. The Pandora bracelets were so pretty that I was very tempted but I resisted. Then thankfully I snapped myself out of it and got into some serious Christmas shopping for my family and friends. I spotted this sign and it made me laugh! #3 During the week I made some burgers and they were a big favorite. According to my son, they were the best I have ever made! Cool! I’ll take that compliment any day!! #4 I bought this creamy vodka pasta sauce from Williams Sonoma for a quick and easy pasta meal. I had never tried it before and to be honest I rarely buy ready-made sauces as I prefer to make my own. But every day has been so busy that I thought I would give myself a break and try this sauce. I didn’t expect it to be so good!! It tasted amazing and I could kick myself for not buying more. I don’t go to Williams Sonoma very often because it’s about a 30-minute train ride to get there. The pasta sauce is worth the trip there so I will have to go back in the school holidays. #5 We went out for our monthly pool supporters dinner at our local club. The club had some fun Christmas decorations and my friend took a photo of me with this handsome guy we met in the foyer. #6 To celebrate our last meeting of the pool supporters for the year we had some cocktails. I enjoyed a cosmopolitan which came garnished with some dry edible flowers. #7 I finally did what I had been meaning to do for months!! I got rid of all my DVD covers and put my DVDs inside this case I ordered on Amazon. So many DVDs were able to fit into such a small case it was amazing! This task was on my list of things to get rid of to declutter my home. #8 I have been going through my list of favourite Christmas movies and thoroughly enjoying them but I felt like watching this the other day. It’s an oldy but a goody! #9 We had party day today at preschool. Our preschool runs by sessions so that means that children can only come on set consecutive days and we don’t offer five-day places. Children can either attend one, two, or three days. Anyway, today was the party for the children who attend from Wednesday to Friday. We have another party planned next week for the children who come to preschool at the beginning of the week. We enjoyed some pizza for lunch, the children watched the concert video we filmed of them last week. There was a game of pin the nose on Rudolph, and lots of dancing. So much fun!! #10 Tonight we are all going out for our staff Christmas dinner. We’re going to a Mediterranean restaurant and getting all dressed up!! Working with kids all the time means that any occasion which requires dressing up is a big deal and a cause for much excitement!! Happy Friday Friends! Linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s Friday Favourites post        

Hi friends, happy Friday to you all!! I’m so excited to see the weekend as it’s been such a busy week. It’s all systems go at preschool as we spent the week getting ready for Christmas concerts and parties. At home, I have also been busy with all the things!. So let’s kick things off as I share with you some favourites of the week We finally put our Christmas tree up! I had big plans to decorate last weekend but we didn’t get a chance. So instead we decided to do it on Tuesday evening. It was the only night this week when we were all be home, and everyone likes to pitch in and help. So it worked out better this way. After work on Tuesday, I popped into the supermarket and picked up some egg nog to enjoy that evening while we decorated the tree. It always feels so festive to drink egg nog and my family can never get enough of it! have never tried to make my own, so I don’t really know how different it would taste from a store-bought one. But this Pauls brand is a favourite. On the way to the supermarket, I spotted some panettones at the deli so I bought a brand I had never tried before. I’m not really a huge fan of panettone like the rest of my family are, but I really liked this one! A Fun Christmas Movie We like having a Christmas movie on while we decorate. So we chose “Christmas With The Kranks”.We stopped decorating so many times to have a good laugh at all the funny bits. This is such a great movie! Usually, I start my Christmas movie viewing on 1st December. So on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, I watched a couple on Netflix that I really enjoyed. But every year I like to make sure I watch my favourites. On Tuesday I shared with you a list of my favourite Christmas movies and TV shows. These are the ones that I absolutely must watch every year because they are so good!! and you can find them here. Delicious Treats And A Lovely Gift Well, the kind and generous parents at preschool have started bringing us some yummy Christmas treats as gifts. This week we received a huge tray of delicious sweets. It was full of chocolates, biscuits, lollies and mini cakes. So good!!! It was so hard to resist grabbing a handful of something every time we walked into the staff room! By Friday it looked like this. A lovely parent also gave us a tray of mangoes to share. She even tied each mango with a cute little red ribbon. What a nice touch! We each also received a handwash with a lovely decoration tied to the bottle. It’s made by an Australian brand called Thankyou. A Sunny Day! Another HUGE favourite this week was finally seeing the sun make an appearance!! We had not seen any sun in what seemed like forever. It had been rainy, cloudy, and gloomy for days on end. I have to admit that we are usually pretty spoiled in Sydney when it comes to blue skies and sunshine. Even though it had been forecast to rain on Thursday and Friday it didn’t which was such a fantastic surprise! The kids were out playing in the sunshine and the teachers were all grateful not to be cooped up inside like we were last week and the beginning of this week!! A New Hairdresser During Covid lockdown, I cut my own hair which worked out ok. But on Thursday it was really bothering me because it felt long and tatty. I googled some local hairdressers as I felt like I needed a change from my previous hairdresser. I found one and I gave them a call. The man was so friendly on the phone and asked if I wanted to come in for a chat about what I wanted to have done to my hair. So I did just that and when I got there I met his wife who put me at ease instantly. She trimmed all the dead ends and suggested I stop using the flat iron and just stick to the hairdryer. Sigh! So many battles with my hair to be straight!! I’ve decided to go with the frizzy hair on really wet days but I have my work Christmas party next Friday so I was keen to make sure I could get a wash and blow-dry for that evening. I will not be embracing the frizz that night!! Anyway, the new hairdresser was really nice and I like that she didn’t cut too much of my hair off. She didn’t do anything drastic, just fixed it up. I was also happy with the way she blow-dried it too. So I have made an appointment for next Friday. Not having to muck around trying to get my hair straight for our night out will be fantastic!! All The Christmas Craft Today we had so many fun Christmas crafts! The kids were busy decorating, painting, playing with playdough, doing puzzles and having the best time. It’s my favourite time of the year for sure!! So that was a peek into my busy week friends! Busy but sprinkled with many enjoyable and special moments getting ready for Christmas. I hope you have the best weekend. I’ll see you back here on Monday where I will give you a little tour of my house all decorated for Christmas!! Linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s Friday favorites post.    

Happy Friday friends hope everyone is well this fine Friday. I have a few highlights of this week for today’s Friday Favourites post. So let’s jump right in with…… Number 1 Well, look at this big surprise! My peace lily is finally blooming. I’ve had this lovely plant for a few years and when I first bought it, of course, it had a couple of beautiful flowers. Then they died and that was it. I know this is going to sound super crazy and I’m almost tempted not to say anything but about a month or two ago I spoke to it while I was watering it. Ahem….I said, “hey when are you going to give me a flower please”. I know it’s a coincidence (or maybe not). But that’s the truth, and now I have a lily blooming. The fact that I haven’t killed it yet is another miracle too. Sadly, I’ll be the first to admit that I have a brown thumb. Sigh. But hey, I’m super happy about the lily. Definitely one of the highlights this week!! Number Two Look Christmas trees and decorations at my local Westfields. How fun!! I know that these are hardly the most spectacular decorations ever. But I was happy to spot these and I was excited to hear the Christmas music playing in the shops too! Number Three I have a whole stack of DVD’s that I haven’t been able to watch because my DVD player was broken. So I bought this super cheap one the other day. I know that most movies and shows are now on Netflix, Stan, and Amazon Prime but I still have quite a few movies that are not. Like my Danielle Steele collection. So I’m excited to watch them soon. Number Four I went into TK Maxx the other day and I picked up this cute Christmas pillow. I like how it says “Peace” on it. This will go nicely with the other pillows that I bought last year. I’m planning on decorating for Christmas this weekend! Number Five I haven’t really started my Christmas shopping yet, I’m almost having trouble accepting that it’s only a few weeks away!! But I did go into EB games and found some stocking fillers. My boys are all grown up but they like that I fill their stockings with fun things they enjoyed when they were little. EB games never let me down and I was able to pick up a few Pokemon related things. Number Six Well the weather this week, actually all month has not been a favourite at all!! Goodness, you would never guess it’s spring. I looked at the weather forecast and it looks like rain for a month. I have been desperately straightening and blow drying my hair as well as piling on all the products for frizzy hair known to man. But nope, nothing is working. The frizz is winning. So Friday morning I had enough and I did something I have never ever done. I gave up and went with the frizz. I spritzed my hair with some gloss treatment Then scrunched it up with my fingers and stuck two bobby pins in it as I used to when I was in high school and that was that. Then I went out in public with fizzy hair and no fringe. I felt so exposed with no fringe, I must be used to hiding behind it. Well, the good news is that nobody ran away in fright and so from now on I think that I will be doing this more often. I can’t fight the effects of the weather anymore, I give up. On the flip side, scrunching up my hair like this will give me more time in the mornings. Plus it will probably be good not to use the straightener so often. I think it was making my hair crispy!! Number Seven One of the biggest highlights of this week was this!! I received this beautiful handmade Thank you card in the mail. It’s from my little preschool friend who is now in Year one in primary school. Every year she comes around to my place with her family trick or treating on Halloween. But this year her mum went into labour and they weren’t able to come over. So I went over to her Grandpa’s place where she was staying with her little brother and I dropped off their treats and a couple of little gifts. The good news is that her mum gave birth to a beautiful healthy baby and we get another future preschool student. Yay! I guess this wraps up this week’s short Friday Favourites, thank you so much for stopping by and letting me share a few highlights of this week. It’s Friday evening here and it’s cold, raining, and miserable. I’m planning on getting cozy, lighting some yummy-smelling candles, and watching a DVD later on. Hope you all have a safe and wonderful weekend. linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s post

Hi All and Happy Friday! I thought that for today’s Friday favourites post I would share some funny quotes. These funny quotes might just sum up my week and what I have been feeling. I honestly can’t remember the last time I was so happy to see the end of a week. Friends, it’s been a doozy. Blah! I always want to keep this blog happy and positive, but I’m not going to lie, this week was rough and I am grateful to see the weekend. I think I might just hide under a blanket this weekend and then come Monday everything will be new and fresh. Here’s hoping! This is exactly what I did earlier in the week when I was trying to do a U-turn on my way to work. I couldn’t see if I was going to hit a parked car with all that talking on the radio. Sigh! Exactly! Goodness, I thought I might have snapped my neck when I turned my head the other day. Not fair is it? This kind of thinking might have also been one of the reasons for my lack of sleep this week. I wore some pants to work that made me feel like this. Now they have either shrunk or I have expanded. Either way, I am no longer friends with them! Looking after everyone with different schedules always has me eating late. I need to fix this pronto. Most of my friends who know me well know about my constant battle with frizzy hair. I have tried so many products and while some of them do work better than others. I always end up with an annoying kink in my fringe. This week was rainy and humid. Then some mornings it was freezing and then by the afternoon, we were all melting. I applied extra hair product and that was that! It was frizzy but not scary frizzy. Small wins! Amen to this! Well, if I’m completely honest by Thursday this definitely applied to me. Thankfully I get to see my sunny friend nearly all week at work. And because my sunny friend is also one of the sweetest and kindest people in the whole world. She sent me this and so by Friday afternoon I felt much better. It’s such a blessing to have friends who care. Well, that’s it for today. I really hope you all have a fantastic weekend! Although this week was not a favourite, these quotes certainly were. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did!   For today’s post, I am linking up with Andrea and Erika    

Happy Friday friends!! There are so many things that I loved about this week. I’m really excited to share them with you on today’s Friday favourites post. #1 First up of course was our Family Halloween Party! We dressed up, ate way too much food and enjoyed one of the best cakes I’ve had in a long time. I provided the main course and my aunty brought a huge charcuterie board to share as an entree. We had prosciutto, salami, antipasto, dips, crackers and a delicious variety of hard and soft dishes. I just love a charcuterie board and this one had such a fantastic variety. My lovely cousin and her boyfriend brought us a divine mango and coconut cake decorated with chocolate macaroons. We had all eaten so much that when it came time to cut the cake for dessert we were all full. I had to laugh because every single one of us asked for a very small slice. As soon as we took a bite of the cake we agreed in unison that asking for only a small slice was a big mistake so we all went back for seconds and ahem……. thirds. It was THAT good!! #2 My Mum dressed up as Miss Universe for the party. My mum has her up and down days but overall she has a really great sense of humour. It’s hard for her now because she is no longer very mobile and so she spends all her time at home. Up until a few years ago, she was always very social and active. Catching the train or bus to get out and about was her favourite thing to do. Whenever she makes a phone call to someone in the family she will usually start by saying  “Hi it’s Miss Universe calling”. So when it came time to work out a very quick last-minute costume. We decided that she should of course be Miss Universe for the night!! #3 Monday night was our usual Pool supporters dinner at our local club. A few years ago our local pool was closed down and it almost became a development site. A small group of us from the community fought hard and after quite a few years managed to convince the local government to rebuild a much-needed aquatic centre. Needless to say our core group of “pool supporters” became fast friends and now we meet on the first Monday of the month for dinner. It’s a fun night of catching up, our kids come along and it’s so nice that they have become friends too! We shared not one but two delicious cakes for dessert. Two of the ladies brought cakes to celebrate us getting together for the first time again after lockdown! I think after this I can safely say that I’m all caked out!! #4 Another thing that I really loved about this week was having the day off from work. In fact, both Steve and I were off on Tuesday. I had accrued enough time in lieu and he normally has Tuesdays off from work. So we headed off into the city and had lunch at the cutest little French restaurant. We had a really lovely time eating and chatting together over a delicious authentic French meal and a bottle of wine. It was so quiet in the city compared to earlier in the year before lockdown. I guess a lot of people are still working from home. After lunch, we caught the tram to the shops. We had enjoyed a long lunch so it was getting a bit late and I just wanted to pop into Georg Jensen. I had some birthday money from ages ago and I finally knew what I wanted to buy. I certainly didn’t want to be walking around much because I was wearing heels and my feet were getting sore. Steve was more than happy to wait for me in a cafe while I quickly did this. Wise man!! I walked through David Jones and saw that they have Christmas things everywhere. I love David Jones, it’s my favourite store and I will be heading back there soon to have a proper browse. #5 It’s funny, after eating party food, restaurant food and enjoying all those cakes. I think we were all craving a simple home-cooked meal. Do you find that as much as eating out is so great, your body eventually just starts wanting simple food? I know mine does so I made one of my family’s favourite dishes. Chicken schnitzel, baked potatoes, pumpkin with steamed English spinach and gravy. I have had this thing for English spinach lately, it’s become a real favourite. There was so much that I loved about this week but I’m happy to say that I haven’t got anything planned for this weekend. I’m really excited to stay home and relax. Hopefully, I’ll be able to catch up on some of my favourite shows. I think we’re supposed to be getting a lot of rain for the next few days. So it’ll be perfect weather for staying home. As usual, I am linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s Friday favourites post.