Friday Favourites

  I have a bunch of fun things to share on today’s Fun Friday-favorite things for Friday post! Let’s get started with N0 1 I had to take my mum to a medical appointment on Monday and I was feeling a bit stressed, medical appointments are not my favorite. When I got to the doctor’s office this lovely and friendly young girl at reception took my mum’s details and then she asked me if my name was Ruth? As soon as she said this I recognized her instantly. It was Aly one of my former preschoolers from seventeen years ago! That’s right seventeen years ago!!! and we both recognized each other masks and all! I love Aly and often wondered how she was doing. All those years ago she had given me a beautiful little Christmas angel her mum had made. Every year I hung this little angel ornament on my tree and every time I did I would think of Aly and say a prayer for her and her family. And here she was right in front of me all grown up. I’m getting goosebumps just typing this. We squealed, we got teary, we wanted to hug but couldn’t because of Covid ugh!! So we both did a happy dance right there in front of everyone at the doctor’s office with patients all around us wondering what on earth was going on? The great thing is we have promised to keep in contact and get together once covid restrictions are lifted. No.2 The other day I mentioned that I had not been able to buy my favorite shampoo from Aldi. I haven’t been shopping there because they don’t deliver so I’m only shopping at Woolworths. When I got to work on Tuesday morning I found the most thoughtful surprise from my work colleague and bestie. My favorite shampoo and conditioner!!  I am so grateful for her friendship, kindness, and thoughtfulness. She always has an understanding listening ear and offers the sweetest advice and words of comfort whenever I’ve been down. On top of that, she’s just so fun to be around. I love my dear sweet friend! No.3 These veggie Lavosh crackers were half price online from Woolworths the other day so I thought I’d give them a try. They were so good and made a perfect addition to our little cheese platter that I like to have on Friday nights. Friday cheese plates are so fun! These crackers also tasted really great with my hummus and they had a really nice flavor that was just right and not overbearing.  My husband knows that whenever I buy something new to try it’s because it must have been half price. Ha, he’s right! No.4 The length of my hair was really bothering me. Do you ever get like that, where you just have to get it cut/trimmed NOW!  I do!! Anyway, who knows when hairdressers will be able to reopen again. We are still in lockdown for at least one more month if not more. So I watched a few YouTube videos and went ahead and cut it myself. I know it’s not totally straight and I need to fix it but I’m ok with it. I even like it and may just cut it myself from now on. My hairdresser always cuts the layers too short anyway and I’m trying to grow them out. No.5 This pork knuckle is a must-try. I got it from Woolworths, no I don’t get any commission or affiliates from mentioning Woolworths, they just sell great food! When I got home from work later than usual on Thursday because we had a staff meeting I was so happy that I had this in the fridge. All I had to do was rub the skin with oil, sprinkle some salt, and pop it in the oven for an hour. Oh my, It was divine. The crackling worked, I never have any luck when I make roast pork with crackling but I did this time. No.6 I served the pork knuckle with creamy mashed potatoes, green beans, spinach, and this gravy. I like to make my own gravy but on nights like Thursday night, this was never going to happen. So I always have these sachets in the pantry and I must say, you really get gravy that tastes homemade. No.7 Look at this fun bright painting one of my little preschool friends made. He was so proud and I loved it too. It was great to see some of the children at preschool this week, there was only a handful of them. But today the premier of NSW announced that kindy school children will be back to classes from 25th October, so I guess we’ll see what happens. This was a really great week of fun surprises, Thank you for joining me for today’s Fun Friday post where I shared a few of this week’s favorites. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend. Stay safe! Linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s post

Yes indeed it’s finally Friday and it’s fantastic.Hooray for the weekend! I hope you are all well and safe. Thank you so much for joining me to have a look at some of the things we got up to this week. Again it was a quiet low-key week but with a sprinkle of very funny moments. ~1~ This week we started off the week celebrating Steves’s birthday! Of course, we couldn’t have anybody over to help us celebrate because of the lockdown. But we did enjoy dinner together. Steve’s birthday was actually on Tuesday but Monday was his only night off from work and the only night we could all have dinner together. We decided to leave the cake for his actual birthday on Tuesday. We ordered Thai food for the occasion and it was delicious! ~2~ I have been staying home as we have all been ordered to do so. The only places I go to are work and the local fruit shop. I am trying hard to avoid supermarkets so I had my groceries delivered on Tuesday. I deliberately picked Tuesday so that we would have a nice fresh cake delivered with the groceries to celebrate Steves actual birthday before he went to work in the evening. This is what I got! Bahahahahaha!!! I saw this and  I couldn’t stop laughing. I don’t think I have laughed so hard in a long time. When I was doing my online order I saw that this was a mango and passionfruit cake. Steves two favorite ingredients. I was so excited at my discovery that I didn’t bother to check the size and just added it to my cart. He did love it though and we all enjoyed watching him eat it!! ~3~ We gave Steve some nice soft Peter Alexander pajamas for his birthday. ~4~ I washed all my fruit and vegetables that arrived with my grocery delivery before I put them away. I just love the look of a pile of fresh fruit and veggies! ~5~ Wednesday afternoon, I went for a walk and on my way home I stopped off at our local fruit shop and I picked up this delicious bread to go with our pasta that I made for dinner. Fresh bread and butter to go with pasta YUM!! ~6~ Thursday morning I woke up to this little face. Ha! she’s so cute and funny. Sushi knows she’s not allowed on my bed so she will sit on the wooden bedhead because that doesn’t count right? ~7~ I tried a new shampoo. It’s not a brand I am familiar with but I thought I would give it a try as it was half price from Woolworths. I usually buy the Aldi shampoo with Argan Oil but I haven’t been shopping at Aldi because they don’t deliver. The new shampoo was ok but it didn’t leave my hair as soft as the Aldi one. The Aldi shampoo is my favorite! ~8~ Thursday I tried to get most of my household chores done because I was working on Friday. I just love this shower cleaner. The orange smell is my favorite. I have been using it for a while now and it’s a keeper. This day I gave the bathrooms a deep clean. I have this routine where I will clean my bathrooms every day to keep them fresh all week but I give myself the weekend off. You can read about this here. I leave the deep cleaning to when it’s needed. ~9~ I tidied up my washcloths and hand towels. Seeing them all neat and tidy is a big favorite. Thank you so much for joining me today for a very short quick look at my week. Today the Premier of NSW announced that we will be locked down for another month taking us until the end of September. So I guess most of my days will be very low-key. But I am still staying positive and really looking forward to spring. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and enjoy your weekend!! For today’s post, I am linking up with Andrea and Erika!    

Hi everyone! Yes, it’s finally Friday!! My goodness, we are racing towards the end of the year so fast. We have had a very warm week here in Sydney. The weather has just been absolutely glorious, with lots of blue skies and sunny days and temperatures reaching around the mid twentys. It’s making me excited for spring, with only a few weeks to go!! We are still in lockdown, and I think I really need to stop saying ‘we are still in lockdown’ and just accept that this will most likely be going on until November. As it is becoming apparent that there is no way we are getting out any time soon. The Covid cases just keep going up and up! But let’s move on to brighter topics and be grateful that it is indeed finally Friday! Here are some big favourites for this weeks post. ~1~ On Monday night we treated ourselves to some delicious dessert from Oliver Brown. We used Uber eats to order in. Oliver Brown serves up THE most delicious hot chocolate ever. It has just the right consistency and sweetness. Sam and I both ordered some hot chocolates. Steve and Sam had a New York cheesecake each and I got a blueberry friand. Everything was super delicious and it was just such a lovely indulgence, I guess being in lockdown means we are trying to enjoy treats like this just for fun! ~2~ I’ve been playing Words with Friends and I’m really loving it, especially when I score big points on one word! Now that it is finally Friday and I have the weekend I will get back to more of this favourite game! ~3~ These salt and vinegar chips are my favourite and I have been snacking on these all week. I just can’t seem to get enough of the salty vinegary flavour! I have been eating these delicious chips since I was a kid in primary school. Whenever I had some pocket money I would buy them from the school canteen. I usually keep my snacking for the weekend but this week I caved. ~4~ I worked three days this week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The most number of children we had was on Tuesday and we had a total of five! They have been busy building all sorts of interesting things with the magnetic tiles on the lightbox. I just love the lightbox we have at preschool, don’t the colours of the tiles look pretty? The children also used these colourful cubes to make a rainbow wall. Last week I did a blog post about lightbox activities and you can find it here. ~5~ Another favourite moment this week at preschool was reading to a couple of the little boys. They don’t often like to sit still for too long, but they were very still when they listened intently to ‘The Gruffalo” ~6~ A couple of the girls continued making ‘Gruffalo worlds’ in the block corner. This week they used the fluoro coloured scarves! ~7~ The children did some sponge painting using stencils with pretty patterns. Look at the lovely colours! ~8~ I am so happy that my plant is actually growing. I have been really making a huge effort to look after it so I’m very proud of myself as this is not one of my strengths. This little plant sits nicely on my kitchen shelf and I love how it hangs down, definitely a favourite. ~9~ My family has been enjoying playing ‘Bananagrams’. This is a fun and fast game where you have to race each other to build words. I love playing family games and I’m really looking forward to when my whole family can get together again to play. ~10~ I walked into Sams room and saw his new keyboard. Look at all the pretty lights! What a surprise as I had no idea it lit up like this and I can now finally understand why he was so excited to buy it. This just about sums up all of this week’s favourites, a short and sweet post for today where I am linking up with Andrea and Erika. I’m sure you are as glad as I am that is indeed finally Friday and we can move on to the weekend. Hope you all stay safe and well!  

Hi, Friends, and Happy Friday to you all. Thank you for joining me again for this week’s Friday Favorites. As usual for today’s post, I am linking up with Andrea and Erika. ~1~ As we are still in lockdown my hours of work have been reduced to half. Therefore I was only rostered to go into preschool on Monday and Friday this week. I feel like I blinked and bam the week was over.  What a short working week for me!! Not at all like my usual full-time load. Of course, I was happy to see my work colleagues and the handful of children we had attending. Only four on Monday and two on Friday. I enjoyed my coffee in this cute coffee cup. Most of the staff drink either tea or coffee and we use these safe non-spill cups in the classroom. I like my pink glittery one, it is definitely a favorite and puts a smile on my face, especially on Monday mornings! All the preschool staff got to choose the design and colour of their cups when we ordered them from a shop called Victorias Basement. And the other day, one of my work colleagues commented that she thought the design and colours we picked reflected our personalities. Ha! I thought that was interesting and very true! ~2~ Tuesday I had my first shot of the Pfizer vaccine. I was feeling ok about it until I was in the waiting room reading the consent form about all the things that could go wrong and then I started to panic. I know, I know there are risks with everything but it still freaked me out. Afterward when my first vaccine shot was over and done with I felt a huge relief. That feeling of relief is a real favorite! My next dose is in six weeks’ time. The Delta strain is hitting us so hard in Sydney and the case numbers and community transmission is unable to be contained at the moment. Therefore we are all being urged to get vaccinated so we can move forward and get out of lockdown. ~3~ I used some delicious fresh parsley we have growing in our garden for the dinner I was cooking. Fresh herbs are always a big favorite but I am the first to admit that I am not a gardener. If anything the further I stay away from any plants the more they flourish. A while ago when I was trying hard to actually grow and maintain a herb garden. I planted some parsley. Of course, I failed to look after it and it soon died. Somehow the parsley plant must have gone to seed and planted itself. As a result, we now have parsley growing in the garden and not the original pot plant. It’s also growing in between the bricks Ha! ~4~ We ate some yummy pizza for dinner on Wednesday night. I picked the Capriciosa and the Mexicana. They both had lots of olives which we all love. The Capriciosa also had anchovies and I really liked them, funny as I don’t usually go for anchovies. ~5~ The Australian beach volleyball women’s team got through to the Grand Final of the Olympic games! I was super excited about this. One of the girls on the team is Indigenous Australian and the other girl was born in Peru. I’m originally from Peru too! Both of the teams played a great game but the USA team was so strong! Congratulations to the USA on their Gold Medal win and congratulations to the Aussie girls on their Silver Medal win! I was at work on Friday and we sat outside in the winter sunshine to watch the game on my Ipad. It was just myself, the other staff and two little friends. I loved hearing them cheer for the Australian team “Aussie Aussie Assie Oi Oi Oi” Ha! one of them even asked me “Do you think they can hear us, Ruth?” Awww so cute. Definitely a favorite moment for me this week. ~6~ I walked into preschool on Friday morning and I was met with this beautiful Gruffalo World! Apparently, the two children who attended the previous day had set up their own ‘Gruffalo world.’  They used some materials the classroom teacher had provided and in addition, they also helped themselves to some loose parts available around the classroom. I love how the children used the splats and the colorful cubes from the lightbox. They collected the shells, sea creatures, and butterflies from the preschool shelves. I always appreciate how well resourced our classrooms are and I love how we value children’s play. At our preschool, we try really hard to provide inspiring and aesthetically pleasing materials for the children to use.   ‘The Gruffalo” by Julia Donaldson is a huge favorite at our preschool, and it’s one of my favorite stories too! ~7~ My cat ‘Sushi ‘just loves this cat food. It’s her favorite, so that makes it my favorite too as I know she will eat it all up. She just goes nuts for it! and she will purr and purr when she sees her food being poured into her bowl. So if for some reason I am running late to give her dinner, she lets me know with lots of incessant meowing! funny girl!! That wraps up this week’s Friday favorites for me. Thank you for stopping by for a little peek into some of the things that are happening in my corner of the world. Hope you all have an amazing weekend and stay safe!  

  Hooray for Friday and I hope everyone finds themselves well! I am linking up today with Andrea and Erika for a look at some of this week’s favourites!! ~1~ Look at our favourite girl, she looks so small. Soon our Sushi will be turning ten and we just love her so much. I honestly think she would have to be the friendliest cat ever. She loves to have a ‘chat’ and If you say “Hi Sushi” she will always answer back with a meow. Ha! look at my work shoes, they are not the fanciest but definitely the most comfortable for running around preschool all day. Every evening around 10 pm Sushi will come over to where we are sitting on the lounge watching TV, she will hi-five Steve and stay for a nice long pat. Isn’t she clever? This has become a favourite evening tradition!  ~2~ I thought this year it would be fun to celebrate Christmas in July. Some years when I am feeling exceptionally festive, I will put up little trees in everyone’s bedroom. This year I used one of the little trees as a table decoration for our impromptu Christmas in July celebrations, I just added battery-operated fairy lights and they gave off a really nice glow. I set the table with Christmas linen and even found some old crackers that hadn’t been used. We had Christmas music playing softly in the background and feasted on a delicious roast chicken dinner with all the trimmings. Presents for everyone! Nothing expensive or fancy. I just wrapped up a couple of favourites for each family member. Sam got a big jar of Mayvers Peanut Butter and a bag of chocolates. Steve got liquorice and a car air freshener. And I got my mum a new notepad and her favourite chocolates, Ferrero Rocher. ~3~ Lockdown means everything is so quiet as hardly anyone is out and about, consequently the days just seem so long. This week, I worked three days at preschool and I found myself joining in going around and around the obstacle course with my little friends. We had three children come to preschool on the days I worked. Usually, we are run off our feet trying to keep up with all the things and there is always a constant bubble of noise and excitement until the last child goes home. Until lockdown ends the pace is most definitely going to be much slower. I’m really looking forward to the day when things are back to ‘normal’. But I will admit, not having to rush around is definitely a huge favourite. ~4~ We ventured out to the front garden and the children watered the plants. We’ve got some Bok Choi and Silverbeet growing. The children love tending to the garden and they get such a kick out of watching everything grow and once the vegetables are ready we pick them and use them in our cooking experiences. In the past, we have cooked noodles with the bok choi and added some soy and honey sauce. This is always such a hit and a great way for the children to appreciate how food grows. In addition, another big bonus is that it also tempts the fussier eaters to try vegetables they normally wouldn’t. I looked up and noticed that our wattle tree was blooming. I love this as I see it as a sign that spring is on its way. Later that day we received a delivery of some new toys for our lightbox. I love new toys as they are so shiny but not for long when busy little hands get to work building and playing. ~5~ On Tuesday evening after work, when dinner was all done and the household chores were under control, I treated myself to a nice hot cup of tea in my favourite teacup! Quite a few years ago I received this beautiful teacup and saucer as a gift from one of the preschool mums whose last child was finishing up with us. So of course, every time I use it I think of her and her lovely boys, who are now teenagers ~6~ To go with my tea, Steve and I shared an almond croissant. What an absolute treat! ~7~ Olympics, Olympics, Olympics! When we are home, we have the television on all day and night watching the Olympics! ~8~ On Thursday while I was at the local fruit shop picking up some things we needed as well as ingredients for my homemade hummus. I spotted this almond nougat at the checkout. Apparently, I must have an almond obsession. I couldn’t resist and now I understand the battle the poor little children have with all those tempting lollies and treats that are always found at the checkout. ~9~ Another favourite this week has been avocados as they have just been so incredibly cheap. I’ve added them to sandwiches and salads plus we’ve made some good old guac! ~10~ I fried up a couple of eggs and look. They randomly came out like the shape of Australia! How funny, must be because of all that Olympic spirit we’ve got going on around here!! That wraps up Friday Favourites for me this week. Thank you so much for stopping by and I truly hope you all have a great weekend.

Hi, friends, Thanks for stopping by to have a look at this week’s Friday Favourites. Hope you all had a great week and as usual, I’m excited to be linking up with Andrea and Erika today. First up, this delicious tea – I picked up this cute and inexpensive teapot at Ikea before lockdown as I had a real urge to make ‘real’ tea just like a good friend of mine always does (she’s from England and she knows her tea!). Usually, I just use teabags but I discovered this Australian leaf tea and gave it a try. I’m happy to say that I really loved it, it made me all warm and cosy. Coffee is great too but I generally prefer tea. My English friend gave me this really cute tea towel which explains It all! Back to work – Yup! Back to work for me after two weeks off for term break. All school children are back to online learning but Preschools, schools, and long daycare centres are open for children whose parents are essential workers. This means that this week we’ve had either one or three children at the most come along to preschool. As there are hardly any children attending, all of our staff have been put on a part-time roster. Although I work full time I am now only rostered on for half my usual load. So it was great to see some of my work colleagues but will miss seeing all of them until things get back to normal. Whenever that will be, who knows at this point? The only two little friends who turned up on Friday made this. Isn’t it cute? So fun seeing how creative preschoolers can be. Healthy food favourites- For this weeks Friday favourites I have to include these delicious vegetables. I chopped all these to go into my chicken stir fry on Wednesday night. It was a real winner! Making focaccia was so great this week. It goes to show how resourceful you can be when you run out of bread during lockdown! Yum so crunchy on the outside but soft in the middle. You can read about it here Friday night snacks- I love starting off the weekend with this- I’ve tried other ginger beers but this one is my favourite for sure! I drink water during the week but once the weekend hits, this is how I like to start, with a glass or three of Bundaberg ginger beer! Yes ma’am. I also love Kit Kats! especially on Fridays. I feel less guilty eating them on a Friday night. I buy the small ones in a fun pack and you get eleven of them. This way I only ever eat one small one because I know that if I bought the big blocks I would be way too tempted to eat more. A sweet movie – Lastly for this weeks Friday Favourites, Thursday night we watched Silver Skates on Netflix. Lockdown has us watching a lot more Netflix and Stan. The movie was all in Russian with English subtitles. It was a really lovely romantic movie with beautiful scenery. Thanks for joining me in having a look at some of this week’s Friday favourites. I hope you all have a safe and happy weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday for ‘Hello Monday’!

Hi, friends, and Happy Friday to you!! I’m excited to be linking up with Andrea and Erika today First up, look at these delicious Jam drops! I made these earlier in the week and they were definitely popular. My recipe is a classic but with a healthy twist and you can find it here. They sure didn’t last long at my house!! I added a pumpkin to my grocery order this week and look at this beauty! So big!! I’ll soon be making more wintery soups and pumpkin mash. Oh my goodness, my roots were in desperate need of colouring. A while ago I noticed my work colleague’s hair looking exceptionally shiny, so I asked her what she had used and she put me onto Garnier Olia. My previous hair colour product left my hair dull and dry after a couple of weeks. But after using The Garnier Olia, I’m finding my hair to be much healthier! Hot chocolates for the win! It was a cold night, so we had some hot chocolates and marshmallows. We settled in for a movie night but it was so cozy and warm, that unfortunately, I fell asleep halfway through the movie. I did wake up for the ending. Haha the movie felt very short. My cat ‘Sushi’ is so loved.  I caught her having a nap on my soft blanket. She’s so cute. Dinners together with my family always make my heart sing. That’s it Friends, a short Friday Favourites post this week. We are still in lockdown and at this point, we don’t know when it will end. Sigh! I go back to work at preschool next week after the Term break. Schools and Early childhood Services are open. But only for children whose parents are essential workers. I guess we’ll see what happens. I’ll let you know. Hope you all have a great weekend. Thank you so much for stopping by.  

Hey! Happy Friday everyone! Welcome to my very first Friday Favourites Post!! and on this fine Friday I’m linking up with Andrea and Erika Covid Again- Well! what can I say, we’re in lockdown here in Sydney, Australia. Initially, it was for a two-week period. But after hearing Our Prime Minister and Premier speak at a press conference this morning, I really won’t be surprised if the period is extended. Sadly we just have too many cases popping up at the moment. So….. This has been a favourite this week Words With Friends-  My sweet friend and I have been playing this throughout the week. In fact, we both work at the same preschool and had been really looking forward to the end-of-term break. We had big plans to go to lunch, High Tea and maybe even a Spa day. But you know, COVID. Anyway, Words With Friends has been a fun way to keep in contact plus we’re chatting on messenger a lot. Click and Collect- As we can only go out for essential purposes. I made sure I did a big shop earlier in the week and used Woolworths Click and Collect. Click and Collect was a great way to get in and get out fast!  Definitely a favourite!!  I do know some Woolworths stores offer Direct to boot service but my local one doesn’t. Argan Oil Infused Brush- I found this brush a couple of weeks ago. My old brush fell apart so when I spotted this one I thought I’d give it a try plus it was half price at $8.00. It’s infused in Argan Oil. What on earth did that mean?   I Immediately stopped and googled while at the shops and read that apparently, Argan oil is infused into the prongs of the brush. So it detangles, adds shine, and smooths frizz. In fact, I’m probably the last person on earth to discover this. Anyhow, If you read my post on my lifelong frizzy hair battle you’ll for sure understand how excited I was to discover this brush. Less frizz…. I was sold!!   Rainbow Pencils- Aren’t these rainbow pencils the cutest? We ordered them from Amazon and the pencils were delivered to my house earlier this week. Our preschool runs an annual Treasure-Hunt-a-Thon. It’s a fun holiday project for the families and a fundraiser for our preschool! Families sponsor the use of recycled materials to make a fantastic creation during the holidays. The Children bring their projects back to preschool the first week back of Term 3. Each child receives a certificate and a small prize. This year we thought these pencils would be the prize. Win-Win!! This made me smile- Notice The Hope decoration next to the hand sanitizer. My husband (Steve) hung his sanitizer there so as not to forget it.                  Lastly- Steve and I did a drive through Mcdonald’s and treated ourselves! That was most definitely a highlight for me. I had really been craving a Big Mac!! and after being stuck at home all week this was a BIG favourite!! That’s it for now Friends. Thanks so much for joining me! Hope you all have a fantastic weekend