Friday Drool

Okay... okay... so this week's Friday Drool isn't so much of a drool but more of a lemming.  Yes they're shoes but not the kind of shoes that make you drool.

After starting back at the gym this week, I am seriously lemming some new running shoes.  And these little babies are what I want and I WANT THEM NOW!

But unfortunately I am going to have to wait until my friend goes to the US on a work trip in a couple of weeks and brings them back for me.  Oh pretty pretty please with a cherry on top!

I don't have to wait though.  I could buy them now for $270 but sheesh, why do that when I can get them from overseas for $US140.  At today's exchange rate, that's about $AUD157.  Holy schmoly!  That's more than 100 smackaroos difference.

Yep, I think I'll wait.

The Best Custom Made Invitations

 

Birth Announcement cards seem to be all the rage these days.  And since the day I stumbled upon Jump Cactus Design, I knew that I would get them to create our very own BuBba's Announcement card.

I love that all the designs created are elegant, stylish and modern.  Communication is a breeze and turn around is super fast (think less than 24 hours)!  I love them so much that Ivy even designed BuBba's Christening invitation and the accompanying Thank You card.  And in a few months time, we'll be needing invitations for BuBba's 1st Birthday too.

Have a little look-see at their blog.

Hump Day

This baby never fails to make me laugh.  I've viewed it so much that I've lost count.  We all need a good old belly laugh every now and again...

Happy Hump Day!

Trendy BuBba

Check out these mini harem pants for kiddies - Bonds Roomies 

There's three different fabrics to choose from (soft jersey, washed woven and french terry) and a bunch of colours too!  I purchased the lightweight cotton style in grey and black for BuBba and they look sooo gorgeous on.  If I see any other colours available, I'll be snapping them up too and when it gets a bit cooler, the trackpant style will be making an appearance in BuBba's wardrobe.  Oh and while we're at it, I just noticed that there's an all-in-one suit which would make a great Winter staple.  And why not?  At $15 a pair, they're a steal!

Would it be tragic if we both wore our black harem pants at the same time???  I wonder....

Weekend Activities

It was a quiet weekend in the BuBbles house.  Daddy BuBbles was away at uni lectures so BuBba and I decided to do nothing and it was fab.

Oh I lie!  I did have one little thing planned.  On Friday, Chantelle at Fat Mum Slim issued a challenge - an easy one at that.  Perfect!  At some stage during the weekend, we were to pick up our camera and take a picture and then come back today and share.  The most difficult part was choosing which photo to share.

 

2.08pm - Sunday 21st February 2010

Day 1 - Weight Loss Challenge

Exercise doesn't excite me quite frankly.  However I do understand that it needs to be an integral part of my life or I will turn in to Norm from those Life Be In It commercials.  Finally I re-joined the gym after managing to drive a hard bargain and wangle a cheaper membership than what I had pre-BuBba - go me!

I have two main weight loss goals and quite a few mini goals along the way.  I'm not yet ready to share the numbers with you but they are definitely achievable.

To start me on my way, I have decided to do the Couch to 5k Program.  I've always wanted to be able to run more than 100 metres without huffing and puffing like an asthmatic without their Ventolin and I hope this could be the thing that gets me running 5k with ease.

I've downloaded the iPhone application, got the podcasts ready to go and some sweet running music ready to play.  I went to the gym at sparrow's fart this morning and am proud to say Day 1 was a success.

Today is the first day of the 9 week program and I'm feeling positive!

Friday Drool

I'm visiting a friend later today who needs some cheering up so after coming across this Sugar (Putz) Brownie recipe over at Mary Poppins in Heels, I decided that this would be the ultimate comfort food and hopefully make my friend feel a little bit better.  In the name of quality control, I have taste tested these little bites of chocolate heaven and oh my goodness, totally Indulgent with a capital "I".  And just as all brownies should be, they are crunchie on the outside and gooey in the centre.

So it seems I've gone on a cooking binge.  Never fear though because I'm sure this phase will be gone come Monday.  If not, call the people in white jackets because there is something seriously wrong with me otherwise!

Have a great weekend!

Chicken Fettucine

 

Oh yummo, chicken fettucine.   I was looking forward to dinner.  And yes it tasted good but not worth all the effort in my humble opinion.  It took far too much time to chop up all the separate ingredients and cook them in different batches.  I'd much prefer to plop a jar of my favourite pasta sauce on to some quickly prepared al dente penne and voila!  

Just in case you're interested by the way, my favourite (store-bought) pasta sauce is Sacla Olive & Tomato.

Mountains of Salad

Years ago, pre BuBba, when we were living in London, I began collecting recipes.  Piles upon piles of recipes.  I never compiled them, in fact, I never even tried them but I still brought them back home with me to Oz in a big messy stack.  Eventually I got around to putting them into a scrapbook but they continued to remain unused.

I pulled the scrapbook out of the bottom drawer the other day when I was trying to work out what to prepare for our anniversary dinner.  I almost expected moths to come flying out!  There's some crackers of recipes in there and I intend to make more use of my scrapbook recipe book.

Now to dinner...

I seriously underestimated how much salad I was making.  There was SO much that I decided to postpone the chicken fettucine until tonight so stay tuned for that tomorrow.

Vietnamese Beef Salad

500g sirloin steak

salt and freshly ground black pepper

500g Chinese cabbage, shredded

handful coriander leaves, coarsely chopped

handful mint leaves, coarsely chopped

1 generous cup mung bean sprouts

150g peanuts, roasted and coarsely chopped

4 tbsps Asian fried shallots

Dressing

2cm piece fresh giner, peeled and coarsley chopped

1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped

2 tsps sugar

1/4 tsp chilli flakes

3 tbsps freshly squeezed lime juice

1 tbsp fish sauce

Make dressing first:  Combine ginger, garlic, sugar and chillin in a processor and whiz until finely chopped.  Add the lime jice and the fish sauce and blend until smooth.  Set aside.  Season the steak with salt and pepper, then grill over a high heat until charred on the outside, but still pink within, about 3-4 minutes per side.  Set aside for 10 minutes, then slice thinly.  Combine in a large bowl with the Chinese cabbage, coriander, mint leave, mung bean sprouts and the dressing.  Toss well and sprinkle with peanuts and fried shallots.  Serve immediately.  (Serves 4)

*I altered the recipe slightly and ommitted the mint (forgot to buy some) and ginger (don't like it) and fried my own shallots.

Awww... Surprise!

I had literally just walked in the door after lunch with a friend and her bub when the buzzer went off.

"Hello?"

"Hi, I have some flowers for BuBbles"

Squeeeeeee!

15 roses for 15 years.  Daddy BuBbles has earnt some serious brownie points in the last couple of days!

A Cooking Binge

There was some parmesan & horseradish mixture leftover from our Valentine's dinner and some extra salmon that Daddy BuBbles bought by mistake so last night I whipped up a dish of pan fried salmon with parmesan and horseradish with an accompanying cucumber and yoghurt salad.  I'm not much of a cook but this dish was a hit with the man of the house.

I like to cook but I don't care for spending masses of time in the kitchen, nor do I care for the cleaning up that comes afterwards.  Which is probably why I don't spend a lot of time on cooking and favour quick and easy recipes.

Today marks the BuBbles' 15th year together as a couple.  Jimminy Crickets - I feel so old!!!!  And to celebrate this milestone, I'm cooking again tonight but I've picked two simple recipes (I hope).  For our entree we will be having a Vietnamese Beef Salad and for the main, Chicken Fettucine.  

Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me.  I'll let you know how it all goes tomorrow. 

Valentine's Day Review

After a terrible Friday night and a disastrous Saturday, Sunday couldn't possibly be worse, could it?

Nope, it wasn't!  Thank goodness!

After reading a review of Love Grub in the Sydney Morning Herald recently, the concept of a bacon & egg sushi hand roll had piqued my interest.  So when my sister and I had planned to meet up for Sunday brunch, this is where I suggested.  I won't write another review here but let's just say the food and the service were ok, not great, but all right.  Oddly, the waiter kept apologising to us, firstly for keeping us waiting and secondly for the delay with the food, when in fact neither my sister or I noticed a delay at all.  I think the poor fellow was so run off his feet that he just didn't know if he was Arthur or Martha.

 

Later in the afternoon I finally got to have my long-awaited manicure and pedicure.  The finished product looks lovely but unfortunately it took a 25 minute wait (despite making an appointment), over an hour for the actual treatment and two bleeding toes!  Me thinks I shall not be going back to that nail salon ever again.

And finally, the best part of the day.  Valentine's Day evening.

We don't go over the top any more on Valentine's Day for a few reasons.  Mainly that we've been together yonks and we're over it and also that both our birthdays are within a couple of weeks either side of Valentine's Day so presents seem unnecessary.

However, we did agree to give each other a card (both going down the "naughty" card route this year) and Daddy BuBbles cooked his annual feast.

He doesn't cook often but when he does, WOW!

Entree:

Oysters with parmesan & Horseradish

Main:

 Balmain bugs in a lime butter sauce with a green bean & mustard salad

And for dessert, he excelled himself with a Triple Choc Cornetto.  I'm pretty sure he'd just had enough of cooking two courses on his own but it went down a treat...  along with the few glasses of bubbly!

Let's Hope It Was Just A One Off

 

What an interesting weekend we had here at Chateau BuBbles...   

Saturday morning had been planned as "me time" and boy was I excited.  I had planned to go and watch a movie by myself (Valentine's Day of course) and then indulge in a manicure & pedicure before heading back home.  Well as all my best laid plans seem to do nowadays, this one went down the gurgler in a big way.  

BuBba decided to pull an all-nighter on Friday night - the first time he's ever done this.  He awoke shortly before midnight screaming and despite our best efforts, would not settle.  Daddy BuBbles and I took turns looking after him and he would settle in our arms but as soon as we tried to put him back in to his cot, off he went again.  Was he teething?  I don't know, let's try some Bonjela.  Ba bahhh...  Did he have a fever?  Thermometer said no but he felt hot, let's try some Panadol.  Ba bahhh...  Did he get scared by the storm and all the lightening and thunder that went with it?  Let's put on a dim light and see how he goes.  Ba bahhh...  Does he have tummy pains?  Belly massaged and burped to the max.  Ba bahhh...  In one of our final desperate attempts, Daddy BuBbles bundled him in to the car and off they went for a drive, AT 3.30AM!!!  Apparently BuBba went to sleep almost immediately and after about an hour, they came home and as soon as he was back in his cot, BAM, screaming again!  It almost felt like a relay and the baton was passed to me again.  I was so close to putting BuBba in the pram and going for a walk at 4.30am in the darkness but I thought I'd try and walk him around in his pram inside the house first and guess what, he went to sleep after about another 45 minutes and stayed asleep until after 8am.

And so with very little sleep between all of us and BuBba's swimming lesson scheduled for later in the morning, I cancelled my plans.  Daddy BuBbles urged me to go but I thought to myself, if the tables were turned, would I want to be left alone after such a shocking night and the answer was no, I really wouldn't.  I stayed home to look after my two sleep deprived boys.

BuBba was almost back to normal for the rest of the day and rather hopefully, I attempted to go to the movies again later in the afternoon.  I should have realised it was just not meant to be.  All the signs were saying, stay home you foolish lady!  First of all, a woman stole my carpark at the shopping centre by driving up the wrong way.  Grrr to you lady but haha, I got an even better park than her around the next corner. Then there was a massive queue to buy movie tickets with only one person serving and with that queue seemingly full of squealing teenagers (not what one wants on minimal sleep) the movie idea was canned.  Damn it!  Coffee will solve all of my problems and off I went. Arrrgh, they got my order wrong and then I couldn't find a spare seat in the place.  Oh for goodness sake.  I was getting fed up now but sitting back and relaxing while someone pampered my hands and tootsies sounded like a fantastic idea.  Could you come back in 30 minutes?   Umm no, don't you have any idea of the kind of day I've had????  Ok, that's it, I'm going home!  I got in my car and managed to exit the carpark a whole freaking 15 minutes later because the cars were banked up.  Sheesh...  I stayed in for the rest of the night and Daddy BuBbles and I crossed our fingers that we were not going to have a repeat of the previous night's shenanigans.

And we didn't.  We still don't know why BuBba pulled an all-nighter and hopefully we won't ever have to go through that again any time soon.

Friday Drool

For this week's Friday Drool, I present to you this gorgeous piece of man hunk!  

IAN SOMERHALDER

 

He was so droolworthy as Boone in Lost but it was such a shame when he made a hasty exit.  Imagine my surprise and glee when he turned up as Stefan's evil brother, Damon, in The Vampire Diaries.  Oh yum, more chance to ogle him - weeeee!  And just to put a cherry on top, Ian recently returned for a brief appearance in Lost's last season.  Sing with me now...  HALLELUJAH!  HALLELUJAH!

Ok, one more picture just to keep us all going over the weekend.  Oh and I only realised last week, that the good looking, handsome guy that used to stare at me with those bedroom eyes every time my work colleague opened her locker was none other than you know who.  Ahhh, now there's a reason to look forward to returning to work in a couple of months.  Ian will be waiting for me...

It's most definitely the eyes... the smoldering, brooding eyes... 

Enjoy your weekend and I'll see you on Monday!

8 Months Today

Lil BuBba is 8 months old today and he's just getting more and more fun as each day goes by.

We went to the park for lunch and in true Aussie fashion, we celebrated with his first vegemite sandwich.

Precious!

Putting It Out There

*Ahem*  I have something to say but it's difficult to actually say it out loud so please bear with me.

Deep breath in...

One...

Two...

THREE...   (Three & a half)

Here goes nothing!

I need to lose weight.

Wow, the world didn't cave in!   That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but it's certainly tough seeing those five little words right out in front of me even though it's the hard truth.  

I don't need to lose an awful mega Biggest Loser type chunk of weight but a good 10 kilos would suffice.  I'm still five kilos over my pre-pregnancy weight and even that was five kilos above what I would love to be.  BuBba is eight months old tomorrow so using him as an excuse just doesn't cut the mustard any more.

It takes me a while to work up to these weight loss challenges but I know I can do it.  Currently, I'm at the "talking about it" stage and am slowly but surely working up to the "doing it" stage.  I've contacted the local gym and am waiting to hear back from them regarding their fees - gosh they're exorbitant aren't they???  I do Mums & Bubs pilates once a week and walk BuBba daily but the walks are usually interrupted half way by a cheeky coffee so I don't think I can really count that as exercise, truth be told.

Ok, so I've put it out there in internet land and now I can't take it back  Let the weight loss challenge begin!

Stay tuned!

I'm Baaack...

Apart from the torrential rain (the most Sydney and it's surrounding areas has had in over 2 years!), the weekend beach house was a fabulous success. 

Great friends, great food, great wine...  What more could you ask for?  Well, a little sunshine wouldn't go astray and wouldn't you know it, it came out yesterday morning as we were packing up to leave!

/le sigh

Friday Drool

 

You can find these little babies over at Stella Designs etsy shop.  I've had these bookmarked for a while now and I still love the filigree look.  Yes, I may just have to get me some.

A Quick One

I've got so much to do in so little time.  Tomorrow we're heading up the coast for a long weekend away with 2 other families.  So can't wait!  It's the first time we've been away on a group family holiday and it's amazing how much stuff needs to be packed now with BuBba in tow.

BuBba and Daddy BuBbles gave me the most excellent of birthday presents yesterday - a Canon EOS 500D!!!  Weeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!  The Canon will definitely be getting a workout this weekend and I'll make sure I post some photos when we're back.  I took about 42 billion (ok, maybe a few hundred) photos yesterday and I was just playing around.  

Here's one I took at dinner last night...

Have a great weekend!

Birthday Cookies

 

Mmmmnomnomnom...

One of my lovely friends I made at Mother's Group noticed on my Facebook page that it was my birthday today so she got baking and whipped up these delish choc chip and white choc chip cookies for me.  I swear these cookies give Mrs Field a run for her money!

Awwwwwwwwwww.....  I feel so special <3

Making Lunch Fun

How cute are these little Puzzle Shape Lunch Punch Cutters seen over at Tot Snob ...

You can get them here 

Now if only I had a perfect memory and could remind myself to pick me up a set in a few years when BuBba is nearing school.

Style I'm Loving

Leigh Lezark

To be honest, until I googled her, I had no idea who Leigh Lezark was or what she did but I just knew the girl had style, and bagloads of it!  Turns out not only is she a successful DJ but also a model, doing campaigns for the likes of Roberto Cavalli for H&M and Gap.  Don't you just hate her already?  DJ/model/style queen... What else can the girl do???  

 

In Chanel at a Chanel Fine Jewelry benefit Nov 09  

 

In Gucci at Gucci Icon-Temporary Flash Sneaker Store Launch Oct 09

In Hervé Léger at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring 2010

 

At the Tony Cohen show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Fall 2009

Love her hair, particularly the long bob and über shine.

Love how she rocks a mean dress.

Love her stance and ice-cold stare.

Love her simplicity.

Oh and apparently she's a natural blonde!  /gasp