Friday Favourites

Hey, friends hope you are all well and have had a really great week. I’m so glad to see Friday again as I’m sure you all are too. It’s been a really busy week and so now I am just so excited for the weekend! We have a couple of fun things planned and I am really looking forward to having a bit of a sleep-in. I’m so bad at going to bed early, I just love staying up late. So I think I need to catch up on some sleep! Anyway, as usual, I am so happy that you have stopped by and I am linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s Friday Favourites post so let’s jump right in with the first Favourite for this week. It’s Been So Sunny! The weather has been so gloriously warm and sunny. I can almost smell Spring in the air and I can not wait!! But in saying that I am fully prepared and expecting that we will see more cold days before we settle into the warmer weather. But that’s ok, not long now and we will be hitting spring soon. Amen!! My pot plants in the courtyard have been happy to see the sun too! Loving My Walks I have been walking to and from work every day this week. So that’s about 6.5km each day from Monday to Friday! I have even closed all my rings every day so far. I know people do this all the time but I was never one of them! The Birds Every morning I walk past a particular house that always has a line of birds perched above on the electricity wires. Reminds me of that Alfred Hitchcock movie called “The Birds” haha!! I’m not worried that they’ll attack me as I know that they are just waiting to be fed. One morning I was walking along and some bread pieces came flying over the fence of the house. I waited till whoever was flinging all the bread stopped and then I kept walking. Every time I walk past this spot I’m half expecting to either get showered with bread or get poop on my head! A Favourite Cleaning Hack I have always used window and glass cleaning products to clean my mirrors and shower screens. And I have always ended up with annoying streaks!! I recently read an article by a hotel maid who shared secrets that some big five-star hotels use to clean their mirrors and shower screens fast and effectively. Apparently, they use a damp microfiber cloth and then wipe the glass over with a used pillowcase! I’m not sure if this happens at all hotels but anyway I went ahead and tried it. I didn’t use a used pillowcase because that just grosses me out. But I did use an old cotton tea towel and it worked a treat!! There were no streaks left behind at all. Making Leftovers Interesting I made a chicken casserole on Tuesday night and we had some leftovers. I like leftovers and so does my family but I thought that I would jazz things up a bit. Instead of just reheating the casserole I turned it into a pie! I had some frozen puff pastry and then all I did was mix together the chicken casserole, and leftover rice added some grated tasty cheese, and used this mixture as the filling. It was a big winner!! I also do this sometimes when we have leftover beef stew or even beef stroganoff. Next time you want to change your leftovers up a bit to make them more interesting turn them into a pie! Stovetop Potpourri We had fish for dinner earlier this week and the house smelled so fishy. so I threw some leftover lemon, a cinnamon stick, a good dash of vanilla essence, and a slice of pineapple into a pot with some water. I made some stovetop potpourri to make the house smell much fresher and nicer. Thankfully it got rid of that cooking smell. I did a post on stovetop potpourri recipes that you might like to try. It works a treat and it really leaves a lovely long-lasting scent! That wraps up this week’s Friday favourites. Yes, indeed I am so excited that it’s Friday again! Wishing you all the best weekend.

Hey everyone, hope you are all feeling great on this fine Friday. It’s the last Friday of July, can you believe it? I’m really happy to be linking up again with Andrea and Erika for today’s Friday favourites. Thanks so much for stopping by to have a read of a few of this week’s favourites. A Funny Favourite Earlier in the week, I was busy in the kitchen and I noticed that Sam was looking for something. He’d been going back and forth between his bedroom and the laundry quite a few times. So I asked him if he needed something. He said he was looking for his favourite blue tracksuit pants. Just after he said this he burst out laughing. He realised that he had been wearing them the whole time!! Hahahaha!!! We both had such a good laugh. It also made me feel a whole lot better about all the times when I have been searching high and low for my glasses. Only to realise that they have either been sitting on top of my head or I had been actually wearing them the whole time! A Yummy Favourite I received a delicious box of chocolates from one of my gorgeous little preschoolers last week. I saved them up and we had them as a weekend treat. Believe me, they didn’t last very long. They were so delicious and it was such a lovely kind gift. I was super touched! A Sunny Day After so many rainy days it was just so good to wake up to the glorious sun shining so brightly! I walked into the kitchen on Monday morning and the lovely sun was peeking in. Hello, sunshine!! Flowers Monday just kept getting better and better! One of my Sweet little preschoolers gave me some pretty flowers. I took them home and put them in this cute vase. So special!! I Posted More Than Usual This Week I’m really excited that including today’s post I will have posted four times this week on my blog. It’s a goal that I had set for myself this week and heading into the future. Monday I wrote about my One Year Of Blogging on Hello Monday. On Wednesday I joined the monthly What’s Up Wednesday link-up. Thursday my post was all about How To Make Your Home Smell Amazing on Encouraging Hearts And Home Blog Hop. And I’m back here today for this week’s Friday Favourites. Yay!! Preschool Favourites We had a pretend Doctors surgery in the home corner this week. So the kids were very busy writing up important medical reports. They also worked on puzzles. Built train tracks that went all around the playroom. Drew pretty rainbows Enjoyed fun sensory play with shaving cream Friday we cooked pizzas!! The kids had so much fun rolling out their own dough. They sliced up the vegetables. This poor capsicum was a bit smooshed. It’s hard for little hands to cut tricky vegetables! Don’t worry they used safe kids’ knives The mushrooms were much easier to cut. The children got to choose three healthy toppings. We’ve been discussing healthy choices at preschool this week. Then it was time to eat! Cooking is a super fun activity and the kids always love it. It sure made the morning go fast and both the classroom teacher and I were so busy making sure everyone had a turn and that no one cut themselves. We also kept reminding the children to please not sneeze all over the ingredients! Haha. So that wraps up the last week of July! And it sure went by so fast. I really hope that you have the best weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday! Happy Friday!      

  Happy one year of blogging to me!! Wow one year already, that sure went by so fast!!  I actually forgot that I wrote my first post back in May of last year. So it’s really one year and two months since I first started blogging. I had been toying with the idea of starting a blog for many years before I actually plucked up the courage to just go ahead and do it. I have always really enjoyed reading blogs from so many lovely ladies living in all different parts of the world. I loved hearing about their day-to-day lives and seeing their kids grow up was so much fun to read. I almost felt like I was reading about a friend living out there in the big wide world somewhere. So a really big reason why I was keen to blog was that I saw it as a fantastic way to document some special moments in my life. I also thought that it was a great way to have a record of the average day-to-day stuff that happens in life too. Sort of like keeping a journal. So after a very long time of just thinking about it, I finally plucked up some courage and jumped in. COVID Lockdown 2021 was a year of restrictions and lockdowns. So I found that this was the perfect opportunity to get really get serious about starting a blog. I honestly think that if it wasn’t for COVID lockdown I might not have been able to give blogging a good go. Because it just took way longer than I had ever anticipated! And I’m really not at all sure that I could have managed to get my head around the technical side of blogging as well as work full time. Start A Blog In Five Minutes They Said I had no clue where to start so I did what I always do when I’m trying to decide something. I asked Google. Some articles that I read assured me that it was easy peasy and that I could get this blog up and running in five minutes. Ahem……no!! Yes, I could download WordPress but that was THE only thing that took five minutes. The rest was a whole lot of technical stuff and I have to admit. I really felt out of my league and my head was exploding with so many new things that I had never heard of before like widgets, plugins, template choices, web hosting, domain name…….aaaaaarrrggghhh!!! I watched a LOT of YouTube tutorials and I did a lot of reading. Bit by bit things started to make sense. And slowly and I mean very very slowly my little blog started to take shape. I had envisioned myself setting up my blog quick as a flash and then starting writing articles and posts straight away. No way did that happen! So to find that I had to spend so long doing all the technical stuff was such a huge surprise! And not always a fun one. At one point I remember that I seriously had to resist the urge to pick up my computer and just hurl it out the window!! But on the plus side, I didn’t lose my mind, and I think that I may have even developed some more neural pathways in my brain. Win/win. Being Brave! Once the blog looked sort of ok I wrote my first post and my heart was thumping so hard when I hit that publish button for the very first time. I’m really quite shy and putting myself out there is such a huge deal for me! I wanted everyone to read my blog but at the same time, I wanted no one to read it!! haha, talk about being conflicted!! I didn’t tell anyone about my blog for quite a while and then one day I felt brave enough to confide in my bestie and she was SO encouraging. She cheered me on and made me feel like I could actually make this little project of mine happen. Everyone needs a friend like her and I am so lucky to have her in my life. Favourite Things About Blogging Blogging Is A Fun And Creative Outlet! Blogging has become my favourite hobby and it doesn’t feel like a chore or something that I have to do. I would love to dedicate more time so I could post more often. Way back when I first started I was posting every day! I loved it and had a really great rhythm going for a while. Sadly when I lost my dear mum I just couldn’t bring myself to even look at the blog. So I gave myself some time off and then I slowly started to post about twice a week. Just recently I am beginning to want to really get back into posting again more often and that makes me happy. Reading Other People’s Blogs Reading other people’s blogs was what actually inspired me to start my own in the first place. So I still love reading blogs from so many fantastic writers and getting to “know” them. A Great Blogging Community I feel like I am part of a really nice community of bloggers. I love how many of them take the time to read my blog and when I get comments they are always so kind and encouraging! I know everyone is busy so the fact that people take the time to comment means the absolute world to me. Thank you so much!! So there we have it! My one year of blogging and happy blogging birthday to me! I am so glad that I started this fun journey and I am really excited for the future and to continue posting. Hopefully more often! I love you guys and like I always say and really mean it. Thank you so much for stopping by to have a read. Linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s Friday Favourites

Hi friends, Happy Friday! Yes, I do love Fridays but this week I am a bit (a lot) sad because it means that this is my last weekend before going back to work on Monday. I haven’t gone out a whole lot during the school holidays. Mainly just a couple of outings here and there. But I have really enjoyed my routine free days. Still, I am very grateful that I do enjoy working at our little local community preschool. I work with a great bunch of ladies and it’s only another ten weeks before the next holidays haha!! So here I am again on this fine Friday and happy to share with you a few of this week’s school holiday favourites. A Super Fun Party Last Saturday we managed to pull off a surprise Star Wars-themed birthday party for my cousin’s 30th. I will get around to doing a recap soon. It was such a fun night and I think that I must have danced the whole time. I couldn’t stop, the music just kept calling and calling me! I dressed up as Boba Fett for the party! Painting I am so happy with myself because I did a lot of painting! A while ago I mentioned that I wanted to paint my bedroom during these school holidays. My goal was to paint my bedroom and maybe the small hallway. Well, I just kept on going and did way more than I had originally planned.  I painted my bedroom, the hallway, the entryway, and the dining room. I painted in the afternoon and well into the night when I was home by myself. Sam went to the library in the afternoons with his lovely girlfriend and then back to her house afterward. They are both busy with schoolwork and upcoming exams. Steve was at work and painting is just so much easier when there is no one around. Now all I have left to do is the lounge room which I might do either this weekend or the next. I have to tell you that our house is small and that’s why I could get so much painting done. But still, there was a lot of prep work (ugh) and two coats on each wall. The walls in our house were painted with a colour called Grand Piano but this time I painted it with Casper White Quarter. Which is just white if you ask me but if you compare it to other whites it’s a different shade of white. My goodness so many whites to choose from!!!! I like white. it feels so fresh and bright!! We want to get the floorboards redone eventually. Which is a good thing because I was on my hands and knees cleaning up afterward. I used a drop sheet but I still managed to get some tiny annoying paint spots on the floor. Not Much Time For Cooking I was so determined to get a lot of painting done which meant that I didn’t have time to do much cooking. Normally during the school holidays, I like to bake some treats. And I have been really wanting to make my delicious jam drops. I didn’t even have time to make proper meals on some days. Steve would have cooked but he works afternoon/evening shifts every night except for Tuesday. So for a couple of days, we survived on pizza! oh yes, and coke (which is a school holiday treat). I did a whole post on Monday on how I keep healthy. But while I was busy painting this past week we really didn’t eat a very healthy diet on some days! But oh well, you just have to roll with it sometimes and do the best you can. The pizza was very delicious and a welcome treat!! A Delicious Breakfast I took Tuesday off from painting and Steve and I went out for breakfast. We went back to the local cafe that we visited a couple of weeks ago. Then in the evening, we binge-watched more ‘Line of Duty’. Such a great show, I really recommend it!! A Coffee Catch-Up I caught up for coffee with my friend on Wednesday morning. We went to a cafe that is not too far from where we live, maybe about a ten-minute drive. I have been there before but not for ages. This time we were seated in the courtyard, which I think might be a new addition. It was really cute and cozy. They had heaters there so even though it was a cold day we felt warm sitting under the heaters. A Quick Trip To Ikea I made a dash to Ikea to pick up some frames. I had some photos enlarged and wanted to hang them in the entryway. While I was there I picked up some bits and pieces that I needed. Like candles, storage things, clothes hamper and of course meatballs!!   I guess that wraps up this week’s Friday favourites. Thanks so much for stopping by to have a read. I really hope that you have a wonderful weekend! See you on Monday. Happy Friday Linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s Friday Favourites post.    

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