Friday Favourites

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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