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Friday Favorites

  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.

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Friday favourites graphic

Friday Favourites

Hi, All and happy Friday to you! Thanks so much for joining me to have a look at some fun things for today’s  Friday Favourites.  As usual, I am linking up with Andrea and Erika. Wishing you all the Happiest of Fridays and a most wonderful weekend!! 1 Seeing my fun work colleague and friend was my favourite part of the week! She is the sweetest, kindest person and I just love her sunny smile! I had really missed her as I hadn’t seen her since the last term of preschool. We have to wear masks at work now but trust me underneath those masks there were some super big smiles! 2 See this little nook here? When we had our new kitchen built, we added this cute breakfast nook for one! Our kitchen is small and that little space would have been way too awkward for more cupboards.  I am just so happy with how it turned out. All this week I have been using it to do some work. Definitely a favourite spot in the house. 3 Mmmmmm What can I say? Who doesn’t love a little cheese, crackers, and salami? We enjoyed some nibbles on Wednesday afternoon. So good! One of the fun things about being at home is yummy moments like these. 4 I have just been loving the beautiful sunshine and bright blue sky! I sat out on the verandah during the week and enjoyed a hot drink while I soaked up the sun. It’s been so cold but around about mid-morning on a clear, nice day it can get super sunny. I have to admit that at the beginning of the week I did try and sit out there but only lasted a little while as it was so windy. I felt like I was going to get blown away. But sunny days like this were all the go later in the week. 5 Toilet paper with a seal! (my husband thinks I’m crazy) but it just makes me so happy. A while ago I watched a cleaning and organization video from a YouTube channel called ‘Til Vacuum Do Us Part’ and it showed how to seal your toilet paper so it looks pretty sitting there in your bathroom. Well now that I have so much time because of lockdown, I have been sealing my toilet paper and I’m just loving it ha! Well, that wraps up this weeks Friday Favourites, Thanks for following along! I hope you all stay safe and well!!      

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australian animal small world

Australian Animal Small World Play!

Earlier in the last Term of Preschool, we were looking at native Australian animals. My clever colleague thought it would be fun to make an Australian animal small world for the children to play with. Putting together the small world- I set to work and started by looking around the preschool for materials to create this super cute small world. It’s amazing what you can find in a preschool, you open up cupboards and there is always a world of creative possibilities! I found some great Australian outback scenery which I printed and then pasted around a big box. Next, I scattered some small rocks and added the plastic animals. We had kangaroos, Bilbies, Koalas and platypus.  Finally, I collected some native Australian plants we have growing in the front garden of our preschool and placed these around the box. They not only looked fantastic but they also gave off a nice fresh scent. That was it! a small world ready for the children to enjoy. The Great thing about Small World Play- Small world play has many benefits for children’s development. It gives them a perfect opportunity to enjoy imaginative play, it supports their language development and builds their confidence and self-esteem. I just love hearing the little conversations and creative ideas the children have while playing together. Another positive thing about small world play is that it is nice and contained and the children can revisit it again and again. I just love putting together small worlds for the children. A while ago I made a Dinosaur world and you can read about that here. It’s so fun to see the children playing and enjoying the preschool activities. Definitely one of the highlights of being an early childhood educator!

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Friday favourites

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’!

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Friday favourites post

Friday favourites

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.  

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Friday favourites post

Friday Favourites

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   

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Dinosaur Small World Play

I’d like to show you a fun and simple Dinosaur small world play idea, but before I do let me tell you a little bit about my work as an educator in a small local preschool. I have been working with children as an educator for many years and I really enjoy it! It can be exhausting demanding, and stressful (Term one. I’m referring to you) BUT I do love it. The best part about working in a small preschool is that I have been fortunate enough to meet so many beautiful families over the years. The team I work with is fantastic and very dedicated. I am also lucky enough to call them my friends and a couple of them have even become my besties! oh yes, and did I mention I also live super close, like a three-minute drive away! My days are never dull as children say the funniest things. Over the years I have heard some hilarious stories! and a little word of warning. The kids tell us everything! I love decorating and making learning areas inviting and interesting. It’s very rewarding when the children are engaged in the activities that are set up for them. The best days at preschool are when the children are really enjoying themselves and playing well. After all, PLAY is what it’s all about isn’t it? It’s how they learn! Over time I’ll be sharing some photos of things I’ve set up for the kids. I really think it will be fun to take a peek into an everyday preschool setup.  Here is a Dinosaur Small World I set up a couple of weeks ago. The laminator has become one of my best friends. I printed off some Jurassic-looking background images and laminated them. I then stuck this background around the blue trough we use for water/sand play. I also used some leftover fake grass we had from when the playground got a makeover. I grabbed some rocks we have in the playground. And pulled off some small tree branches to stick around the edges of the trough. I found some plastic lilies and mossy rocks in the cupboard. And of course the dinosaurs! There you have it! A simple Dinosaur small world play idea. It was fun to look around the preschool, find resources and put this little world together.

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PINTEREST PIN FOR BLOG POST FINDING THE RIGHT CAT FOR YOU

How to Find the Right Cat for You

How to find the right cat- Adding a beautiful cat to our family was one of the best decisions we ever made. She has brought us so much love and companionship and she is such a treasured member of our family. We just love her so much! She is such a funny little thing. She loves to cozy up to us and is so friendly to anyone who visits. She can even high-five. How clever is that? Here are just a few things I found helpful when it came to finding the right cat. I hope you’ll find them helpful too.   This is our girl “Sushi”. My oldest son Luke named her that because he decided she was all black and reminded him of a Sushi Roll. Isn’t she cute? How To Find The Right Cat Kitten Or Cat? Nine years ago we all had our hearts set on finding a cat to join our family. The first decision we had to make was “Should we get a kitten or a cat?”. I think that was a good place to start. We had to take into account that kittens require a lot of time and care while adult cats can provide love and companionship but with much less work. We decided on a kitten because let’s face it, they are unbelievably cute! and I had my heart set on a girl as I was the only girl in the family We were coming up to the end of the school year and into the summer holidays, this meant that because I work at a preschool I too would be home on holidays with my boys for about eight glorious weeks. This gave us a nice amount of time to focus on looking after our new kitten and litter training her.                                                  Look how small they both were. Sam is now 16 Finding The Right Breed My goodness! This was interesting. I had no idea there were so many breeds. I think I did some sort of “What Cat Breed Should I Get” test on the internet and in the end, after my head was spinning I decided on keeping things simple and go for a short-breed domestic Cat. In other words a Moggy. Moggy cats are low-maintenance, friendly, and generally pretty healthy. Plus I also read online that there were ethical considerations with some breeds as well as health issues to consider. Indoor Or Outdoor Cat This decision was easy to make. As I said before we live in a villa and part of the strata rules is that if we keep a cat it should not be allowed to roam around on the common property. (Except for my neighbours, they let their cats roam around). But anyway I like that our cat is an indoor cat as I don’t need to worry about her well-being. While some believe that letting cats outside gives them a better quality of life, keeping cats indoors is definitely a healthier choice. I also read that indoor cats live much longer than outdoor cats. So there’s that. Our girl gets the best of both worlds as she can spend time lying in the sun safe in our enclosed courtyard.                                                   She just loves to roll around in the sun Choose A Cat With A Personality You Like I know this might sound really ignorant of me but I hadn’t really considered that like humans cats have unique and interesting personalities. While doing some research this became something that we really needed to think about. We all wanted a cuddly cat. I wanted a calm cat. After being at preschool all day the last thing I wanted was a hyperactive cat! When it came time to choose our cat, I spent time watching how the kittens all interacted with each other. Honestly, it wasn’t that different from being in the classroom at work! There was the “Can’t keep their hands to themselves” kind of cat. There was the “Don’t touch/look at me/come near me” cat and there was the “Impulsive watch me jump” cat. Then thankfully there was the ” Calm well behaved” cat. Yep, I went for calm. Cat on a Hat               She always tries to pack herself into the nearest available backpack Bringing Our Kitten Home Before we brought our kitten home we made sure we set up a special space for her. We got a litter box, a scratching post, a comfy bed, a feeding station, and some toys. I was a little nervous. No, I lied, I was a lot nervous. She was just so tiny! I was afraid we’d step on her. Well, we didn’t but we sure were careful and very very gentle. We had to keep in mind that she was coming into a totally unfamiliar place so we made sure that the space we made up for her would help her get comfortable and feel secure and familiar. Phew, I was relieved when she got bigger. Like I said before she really was tiny. Haha, always likes to be in the middle of everything! Well, that was fun going down memory lane, and while by no means does this post cover everything about how to find the right cat. I think I’ve been able to look at some of the things that stood out in my mind that were important when it came to finding the right cat to join our family. if you do a Google search you’ll get an incredible amount of helpful information. Just remember that having a cat will bring unconditional love to your life, companionship, and fun!      

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About

About Hi, I’m Ruth. Thanks for visiting my blog! I’m based in Sydney, Australia and I am a mum to two wonderful grown-up sons, one of whom still lives with my husband and me. By day, I’m a full-time Early Childhood Educator at a preschool, where I have the joy of supporting children’s growth and creating fun experiences. My blog is a reflection of my passion for life’s simple pleasures, which include a mix of my favourite things – fashion, home organisation, cooking, home decor and a deep love for all things 80s! I love exploring fashion trends, decluttering and organising my living spaces, whipping up delicious and nutritious meals for my family and creating inviting environments in our home. For me, it’s all about finding joy in life’s little moments like slipping into bed with fresh sheets after a long day or sipping a delicious steamy cup of tea on a cozy night. I love summer, hanging out with friends and family and a good belly laugh as often as possible. Life is too short to be grumpy (even when you’re hormonal). I’m so glad you’re here and I’d love for you to stay a while. We should be friends.

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