Friday Favourites

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.      

Happy Friday friends. Hooray for the end of a busy week and now let’s bring on the weekend! I hope you are all well and keeping safe. Today I’m linking up with Andrea and Erika to share some Friday favourites with you lovely ladies. #1 My first Favourite this week is meeting up with some church ladies on Saturday. We got together for our annual women’s conference. Normally this is held in the church building but this year because of COVID we met in small groups in different homes and everyone listened to the guest speaker via zoom. We enjoyed a really nice morning of fellowship and each of us received a cute little morning tea pack to enjoy during the scheduled break.  A group of kind ladies from the church had spent the previous day putting these together for us. Inside the pack, we had some really yummy parmesan and fennel biscuits. I’m a real savoury girl so these were my favourite. There was also a chocolate muffin, strawberries, a pink rice bubble bar and a Twining’s teabag. So good!! #2 I just love a sweet smoothie, don’t you? Usually, I just use normal milk for my smoothies but this time I tried almond milk instead just for a change and it was really delicious. The almond milk gives the smoothie a nice subtle nutty flavour. I added a banana, frozen berries and honey. It was a big hit and so filling. Warmer weather calls for smoothies!! #3 Speaking of warmer weather. I was complaining the other day about wearing jumpers and jackets because it was still cold. Then on Thursday, we got hit with some very warm weather! It was so hot in the preschool playground.  But I didn’t mind at all because I’m so excited that we are finally heading into Summer for real now! #4 Look at my shiny little Suzuki. It needed a desperate wash, my friend even commented that the mass of spider webs on the back windscreen wipers would look great for Halloween ha! I couldn’t stand them any longer so I stopped off at the car wash on Monday in the afternoon after work. It’s so nice to be able to see clearly out of the front and back windows. #5 We went out for dinner for the first time in months!! Tuesday night Steve and I went on a date night to our local club. We shared marinated crumbed squid for an entree, then we each ordered big juicy steaks for our mains. Finishing off with a really silky creme brülée for dessert. We were so happy to be able to enjoy eating out again. Yay!! #6 I made my family’s favourite quiche for dinner on Wednesday night. It’s super easy to make and just right for a busy weekday dinner. We enjoyed this with a side of chips and salad. Can’t go wrong with a good old quiche! #7 I know it’s all about Halloween this weekend but at preschool, the kids have started decorating their Christmas bags. Each child gets to take home a portfolio of their work and a gift for their parents, along with a graduation certificate. It all fits neatly inside their decorated bags. We usually start Christmas craft early because there’s always so much to do. It’s such a fun time of the year! #8 I made a quick dash to The Gamesmen on Thursday afternoon to pick up something my son had ordered. The Gamesmen is a small but very popular family-owned business. They sell new and retro video games, board games, lego and popular culture merchandise. This store is a real favourite because I used to take my boys there when they were little. So it brings back lots of memories for me. The Gamesmen has a really cool room that holds a big display featuring a timeline of the history of gaming. I guess you could say it’s like a mini-museum! It’s fun to look at all the games and consoles that were popular in the past. I have to admit that I was a bit of a gamer myself back in the day! This weekend we will be getting together with the rest of my family for Halloween. We will be having dinner and enjoying a spooky movie at my place. So I’m really looking forward to that. It should be lots of fun!! Happy Friday and enjoy your Halloween weekend!!

Hi Friends and happy Friday to you all. Thanks so much for joining me for today’s Friday Favorites post and having a look at this week’s fun moments. Oh my goodness what a super busy week it was!! Jumping straight back into real life after so many weeks of lockdown was a bit of a shock!  Not going to lie, this week was just plain exhausting and I’m not sure I’ve ever been so happy to see the weekend. Yes, it was definitely a hectic week. But thankfully it was also full of so many fun moments. #1 The Kids Returned To Preschool! I blew up a whole bunch of balloons on Sunday night to take to preschool the next day. My plan was to welcome back the kids with signs and balloons. I have to say that I felt very relieved when I was able to fit all those balloons into my tiny Suzuki on Monday morning and take them to work. It’s also lucky that I don’t live very far because it was pretty crowded inside my tiny car. The children were bursting with excitement as they came in through the gates on Monday morning. The parents were so happy to be dropping their children off and many were taking photos of their children standing outside the fence near the balloons. It was just like the very first day of preschool at the beginning of the year all over again! #2 Salad All Week I promised myself that I would begin the new school term by making sure to eat much healthier as well as cutting down on my portion sizes. Lockdown had me sneaking in lots of cups of tea and biscuits. Let’s not talk about all the chips, cheese, and dip at night in front of the TV! So I took a salad to work each day and by day three I just couldn’t look at another cherry tomato anymore. During my lunch break, I found myself staring into my lunch container wishing with all my heart that my salad would just turn into a Big Mac. Fortunately, I managed to plough on until the end of the week and jazzed things up a bit with some avocado on toast. #3 I went to Ikea to get a few things we needed. Look at this cute lunch bag I picked up for only $1.50. It’s big enough to fit my fruit and lunch container (with all that salad). I really enjoyed looking at all the Christmas decorations they had for sale. I nearly bought this cute little town. But I just couldn’t think of where I would put it in my little house. I’ve already got plenty of decorations. But I might have gotten a little carried away with the number of other things I bought! Ikea is definitely a huge favourite!! #4 Tuesday after work we had a staff meeting. So to keep us all awake and motivated our director supplied us with some treats. I’m happy to report that I resisted the urge to indulge this time based on the promise I had made myself to be good with how much I ate. Plus I knew that we were going out to my friend’s place for dinner that night and I absolutely did not want to ruin my appetite. #5 Mexican Monday On Tuesday My super hospitable friend and her husband are kind enough to have us over for dinner on Mondays for what we call Mexican Monday. Except for this week, it was on Tuesday night because Steve had to work Monday. We could have called it Taco Tuesday but we had nachos. Anyway besides all that, we had a really fun night. This was the first night back together in ages because you know, lockdown! My friend’s husband always makes a very nice Gin and Tonic. I hadn’t had one of these in months! We had a big tray of Nachos with guacamole, cheese, and sour cream. All the good stuff!! Oh yes, and there was also a big salad ha! Blueberry cake and Ice cream for dessert. So Yum! #6 Time For Another Declutter I am determined to go through some boxes that I have in my little garage/office and get rid of the clutter. I want to replace them with new boxes I bought from Ikea last weekend. So far I’ve only managed to do two. Sigh! I’ll keep persevering until it’s done. But I was running really low on motivation, time, and energy this week. Hopefully next week I’ll be on to it with more zing. These boxes are full of my boys’ old books, uni papers, toys, and Pokemon cards. I don’t like mess and clutter but for some reason, I haven’t dealt with this mess until now. While I was sorting through I found these old favourites. I must have read these books to both my boys a billion times. I threw away a lot of stuff just from two boxes but books like these I’ll keep forever. #7 I’ve been so tired when I’ve gotten home in the afternoon. The first thing I’ve done a soon as I’ve walked through the door is made myself a cup of coffee. I only usually have coffee in the morning at work. I didn’t even think caffeine really had an effect on me but I certainly felt more awake after I had a cup. #8 It’s no secret that I love Spring and it’s my favourite season.  I look forward to Spring all winter long but this week the weather has been all over the place. I rolled up the kitchen blind on Wednesday morning and it was a bit blah. It brightened up as the day went on but there was a real chill in the air. The forecast kept predicting rain and gloom with low temperatures all week. I kept wearing all the wrong clothes to work and felt either too cold or too hot. I

Happy Friday Everyone! Hope you all enjoyed a great week and are ready for a relaxing weekend. I know I sure am. Thank you for stopping by today to have a look at a few fun things that happened in my little world. Well, this is the last week I will be working part-time hours. As of  Monday, it will be all systems go as all the kids will be returning to preschool. That’s nearly 40 children each and every day Monday to Friday. Wow! Along with back to full-time work for me, it will be back to school for Sam. He’s excited to go back as he has really missed his friends and I think like a lot of kids, he’s had enough of online learning. He just wants things back to normal. I’ll put the chaos that is about to start next week out of my mind for now. As I’m sure we will all be back in the swing of things like nothing ever happened.  So for now, let’s jump in and have a look at this week and a few fun things I was able to get up to because Sydney is finally open!! #1 A few months ago I promised myself that one of the first things I was going to do post lockdown was to visit my favourite place. I’m referring to Mitchell Rd Antiques and Design Centre. I was so happy to be back, I just love this place so much. It’s a huge warehouse made up of many different stalls all independently owned. Retro Fun I strolled along looking at all the retro furniture, clothes, toys, books. Every time I visit I feel like I am stepping back in time to my childhood and all the fun 70’s and 80’s decor. I find myself wishing I hadn’t thrown so many things out when I helped my mum empty her flat. Mid-century furniture is popular all over again and the price tag for some of the furniture is quite incredible. I’m thinking we should have kept those bright orange chairs I got rid of a few years ago! Look at these fun Orla Kiely shoes I tried on. They were my size, fitted perfectly, and were brand new. I didn’t end up buying them and now I’m really annoyed at myself. If by chance they are still there next time I visit I might go ahead and get them. I just wasn’t feeling brave enough to add them to my shoe collection the other day. But now I can’t stop thinking about them. Does that ever happen to you? Ugh, I am really regretting my indecisiveness. Boo! #2 When we got home from visiting Mitchell Rd Antiques I popped a rack of lamb in the oven. I had left it marinating with garlic and rosemary before we left, luckily I had also roasted the potatoes too. There’s nothing worse than coming home from a fun outing and having to scramble to get dinner ready. The flavors of the rosemary and garlic had some time to infuse while we were away and Oh my goodness, it was so delicious!! My mouth is watering as I am typing this. We had vegetables and gravy to go with it. #3 Desserts For The Win! Steve always says that after a nice meal like that you need a dessert. I’m not arguing with this!! I hadn’t made anything so we decided to go to Mcdonalds and do a quick drive through for some sundaes and McFlurrys. Drive through desserts are a big favourite. We got back home ate our desserts and caught up on some shows I had taped during the week and hadn’t had a chance to watch yet. So many shows, so little time!! We watched a couple of episodes of FBI and called it a night. #4 Wednesday I caught up with my beautiful friend. Have I told you how much I love my friend? She is so kind, sweet, and encouraging and I am so thankful to have her. The best part is, is that I get to see her at work because we work together four days out of five. Yay!! Anyway, we were going to go for a bit of a walk over this cool bridge that is I guess you could call a walking track. It’s not far from where I live but I have never actually been on it. I have heard that it’s a really nice scenic walk too with a pleasure ground on the other side and a nice cafe. Cafe Fun Well of course it had to rain, so we ditched that plan for another day and met up in another suburb close by. I found a cafe that was actually taking dine-in customers.  Most of the cafes were still doing take away only. We parked ourselves there for the next hour or so and had the best time. We just chatted about everything and it always feels like there’s never enough time because we have so much to say. In between chatting, we took a few breaths and also indulged in some delicious brunch. This was the first time I had been out to eat anywhere since lockdown so it was such a treat. I ordered a skinny cappuccino and my lovely friend had a chai latte which smelt of delicious cinnamon and other spices. We shared eggs on toast and we both agreed that poached eggs with a runny yolk is the only way to go. So yum! #5 Thursday I took my Mumma to get her Pfizer shot. She had been so reluctant to get it. All my family has been really worried about her not being vaccinated and now with everything opened up only double vaccinated people are allowed in shops, restaurants, cafes, and other places. Even some doctors are only seeing double vaccinated patients face to face. Brave Mum! I don’t really blame my mum for being reluctant about the

Hi Friends, Happy Friday everyone! Hope you have all had a fantastic week and are super pumped for the weekend like I am. Our local Farmers’ market opened back up last weekend and so Steve and I will be heading there on Saturday. I am so excited about this, the only places I have been to for the last few months are work, supermarket, fruit shop, and petrol station. I am almost giddy thinking about doing something fun like this tomorrow. So let’s jump straight in and have a look at some of this week’s favourites! As usual, I am linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s post. Number One Good news everyone lockdown is over and done with this Monday!! As much as I am dreading the mad pace of life and going back to full-time everything ( I may have even had a bit/a lot of anxiety about this). I am so excited to see my son and his lovely fiancee. They can finally visit so they are coming over next Saturday. It’s been about four months since the last time we got together and I can NOT wait. I will for sure be cooking all their favorites and may never let them leave ha! Number Two I was back at work three days this week and we had an extra couple of children attend preschool. There were a total of six! That’s the most we’ve had for fourteen weeks. It was so funny because I’m obviously not used to the noise level anymore. Preschool has been so quiet for so long. Not on Tuesday, it was noisy again just like it should be! It was so cute to watch the kids during the day, they moved around the preschool in a little pack of six all playing together. They made a rainbow slide out of large bricks. They also worked hard together in the sandpit and made a sand volcano. The teachers added bicarb to the crater, then the kids took turns pouring vinegar with food colouring into the volcano. Can you see how it fizzes up and looks like lava? Such a big hit with the children, they had so much fun! Number Three On Wednesday my little Sam turned 17. How did this even happen? My mumma heart can’t even process this. We had a delicious takeaway dinner from “El Jannah” per Sams request. It was so good. Yummy charcoal chicken, tabouleh, garlic dip, and chips. We also ordered a couple of Lebanese pizzas from another place. Mmmmm everything was just perfection and we even had leftovers for the next day and a half. Bonus! We had a Pavlova for Sam’s birthday cake. In September when my mum turned 93 I made a pineapple upside-down cake for her. But for his birthday Sam asked for his favourite a Pavlova. This was great for me because they are just so simple to put together. After being at work more days this week I didn’t have much time. Steve usually likes to cook the base from scratch but this year he’s been so busy working late that it was just easier if I bought the base from Woolworths. Doesn’t it look fancy! All I had to do was whip the cream, cut up the fruit and arrange it nicely on top of the base with cream. Done and done!! It was really delicious, super sweet but oh so good. Pavlova is my favourite too so I’m glad Sam chose this. Even if it’s a mid-week birthday I like to buy a bunch of balloons to decorate the house and then we usually have family over on the weekend to celebrate. This year with lockdown still on it was a different story. There was nowhere to buy balloons, but it was still fun to have a little celebration with just us. Number Four On Thursday I had to make a couple of batches of playdough at preschool. We had run out and with more kids coming soon we’ll definitely be making this on repeat like we usually do. This playdough is such a favourite, it’s really easy to make and doesn’t need to be cooked. It lasts ages in the fridge and the best part is that it is super soft. All the kids love it and so do we because it doesn’t leave a crumbly mess either. We used to make it using a different recipe but this one is definitely softer and much more malleable. When my own kids were little I always used to make playdough for them. They loved it and would spend ages playing with it. I found it so much better than the store-bought stuff plus it was way cheaper and lasted longer. If you have little kids I really encourage you to give them playdough to play with. It is not only fun and entertaining for them but it also has so many amazing learning benefits too. If you are looking for a playdough recipe, I guarantee your kids will love this one. Number Five Every year at preschool we have a tea towel fundraiser. The kids each draw a picture of themselves and we send all the pictures off to a company called Expressions Fundraising. They then print everyone’s picture onto a tea towel and the parents get to buy them. The parents love them and many buy extra to give to their family members for Christmas. Each year we ask some of the kids to draw the teachers. This is what I look like this year. I’ve got the tea towel with Sams’s picture on it from when he was at preschool and I treasure it. It is such a special reminder. I don’t have one from Luke because he went to a different preschool. I hadn’t started working at my current preschool back then. Makes me teary looking at this. Sigh! Look how he drew us. We both look like angry potatoes. This is the one from Sams