I'M DREAMING OF VAMPIRES! OBSESSED MUCH?

So, last night I dreamt of Vampires.

Nothing specific, just them doing walk on parts in my dreams.

I’m not surprised really.

I am currently reading these:

And have recently watched the first two seasons of this:

Last night I also finished watching the first 10 episodes of this:

And have done this to death (pardon the pun):

Why am I so obsessed with Vampire stuff?

And I can understand the True Blood stuff because it makes Twilight look like a children’s book. Oh wait. It is a children’s book.

Anywhoo I can’t get enough of it. I mean I am not obsessed in a I want Edward to bite me kind of way but I am absorbing like a sponge.

Mind you I wouldn’t mind being bitten by Mr Kwanten here:


So what is a 36 year old woman doing reading and watching teenagers run around biting each other?

The more I think about it the more I realize that I think it is about the passion and the romance of it all and the fact that they are set in the modern age.

Twilight for me could be placed in any moment in time. There is hardly any references to pop culture so it will last the distance for many years to come and will probably become a classic piece of literature. I also see a lot of Jane Austen in Twilight. The fact that there is no PDA but they fall in deeply in love anyway, all very romantic.

True Blood is a different bottle of blood though. The books are more Mills and Boons, but the R rated show is more like soft porn! True Blood has the more danger side of the romance and passion just oooozzzzeeesss from every pore and so much more for adults. It would be Twilight in their 20’s…oh wait they don’t grow old to they…well you know what I mean!

The Vampire Diaries I am new at. I watch the first 10 episodes in a row over a couple of nights. I like that it is a cross between the two and I have to say I am hooked! I love the characters especially Damon as he is just evil but you kind of love him anyway and hope that he has a shred of humanity left in him. I also love the periphery characters they make the show more rounded. I imagine there are books that this is based on the show too so I will no doubt hunt them down too!

So for now I will keep up the obsession until a new one comes along. Revel in the lives (and deaths) of these characters that are the modern day heroes and heroines of our time and still fight the teenagers to get to the front of the movie line to watch the next installment of Twilight.

So Bite Me!!

THE POST WHERE I CONTRADICT MYSELF or LOOK AT MY PRETTY FLOWERS!

Many long time readers will know my opinion on receiving flowers after my He Don't Bring Me Flowers post last June.

It's a good post...you should read it! It was quite controversial.

So now here is the post where I contradict myself! There are some flowers that I do like...or love in fact and they are Frangipanis!

There are two reasons for this.

The first one being that I decided to have Frangipanis for as my wedding flowers. This was before everything that possibly could have a Frangipani on it did. For the record I don't have any of that stuff!

I searched high and low for stationery and ended up buying greeting cards from the Internet and turning them into my wedding invites and had real Frangipanis for the rest.

Below are pictures of my wedding bouquet, my bridesmaids bouquets and the flower girls wire bags that they carried...soo cute!
I also had real Frangipanis adorn my wedding cake!


I still gasp when I see the photo of that cake!

But the second and main reason I love Frangipanis is that as a wedding gift my Hubby bought me my very own Frangipani tree. Which is planted directly out the front of my house at the front door!

And every year about this time they bloom and it brings back all the memories of my wedding day. It really is the gift that keeps on giving! The flowers are so pretty and the smell is awesome!

These are the ones in bloom on my tree that I took pictures of this morning.

Pretty, Pink & all mine!!

Grown Up Party Food or What Some Foodies Call Canapes!

We thought about many different things to do for Hubby's 40th Birthday. We tossed up whether to have just an afternoon BBQ with all our friends and their kids or go out to dinner but in the end we decided to have a party at our place. One of the main reasons for that is because (get your violins ready) Hubby had never before had a birthday party. Like. Never.

So me being the big sap and having only child guilt over having lots of birthday parties from my childhood, it made up my mind that we would have a party for him at home. But that it would be a grown up party sans children. Including our own, who would be put to bed before the guests arrived.

Well that was the plan, I had to drag Grotbag to bed before he started to ask the guests to join him in break dancing! He was actually very good and went to bed and didn't get up again!

But I digress. Because this was essentially a grown up party I wanted grown up food. But I also didn't want it to be catered, to be slaving over a hot stove or stuck in the kitchen all night. So I set about finding some good canape recipes. My first stop is always Taste.com.au

I wanted canapes that could be prepared during the day and then quickly put together just before serving. I ended up doing 8 different canapes, 4 I made myself and 4 prepared by family & friends with spring rolls in the freezer as back-up food, which I didn't end up needing.

However, I have no photos of MY canapes as I was too busy making and serving them so I had to go back to Taste.com.au to find photos of the ones I took from their recipes. If you click on the photo's below it will take you to the recipe if you were so inclined.

The first one is Mini Prawn Cocktails which were lovely and went down a treat with the guests. Very easy to prepare (I made the sauce, cut the chives and peeled the prawns earlier in the day) and serve. I took the tails off my prawns for less mess for my guests but they looked pretty much the same as the picture.

Mini Prawn Cocktails

OK so the next ones the Smoked Salmon Blinis I cheated a bit. I bought the little Blinis but made the mascapone spread earlier in the day and then just put them together again just before serving. There was not one left at the end of the night!

Smoked Salmon Blini with Mascapone

My mum made a couple of dishes for me. One was some Lamb Kofta Meatballs with a tomato curry dip. Yum. And she also came to the rescue with these Arancini balls (photo below)which were one of the guests favourites from the night. They are a bit of a kerfuffle to make but re-heat really well in the oven. They only took 10 mins to re-heat and stay nice and crunchy on the outside with risotto and oozing cheese in the middle. Mmmmmm

Arancini

These Cheese, Apple & Walnut stacks were the easiest to make just before serving and were really different. It is basically a slice of apple with a slice of blue brie topped with some chopped walnuts. I ended up making two batches of these as they were so popular! I would definitely do these again or even add some salad leaves and appropriate dressing and serve as an entree. Divine!

Cheese, Apple & Walnut Stacks

A friend of my Mum's also made me some mini Satay Chicken Pies which were heaven and again only needed 10 mins in the oven to re-heat and also my Auntie Barb made me some home made sausage rolls which again were sooooo nice.

I also did a couple of cheese plates and placed some nuts, olives, salami's and sundried tomatoes for the guests to nibble on as they came in.

All in all the food was a great success and I was pleased (and so were my guest's it seems) with all of the dishes I had chosen to serve! It was also nice to do some grown up food rather than the normal 'chip & dip' for more casual affairs.

Now I wonder what Hubby will do in 3 years time for my 40th birthday.......

MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL - MY FIRST GIVEAWAY!!!

If you read my last post you would know that my Hubby turned 40 this month and so last night we had a party for him! It was awesome and Hubby & I had a great time! I did some "grown up food" which I will feature in another post and decided to wear my strapless black top regardless of my tiny bit of sunburn!!





One of my gorgeous friends B who owns Mirror Mirror Accessories popped over a couple of weeks before the party for a catch up and bought me some lovely pieces to try and wear for the party. These are them below:

Did you gasp?

Because I certainly did when I saw them! I can honestly say that as good as they look in the picture - they look 10 times better in the real world.

The Hollywood Dahling Earrings (the blingy ones and my absolute favourites) are a touch of glamour that every girl needs without the Hollywood price tag!

And because I am cheeky I had worn all the pieces BEFORE Hubby's party (don't tell B!) including the Crystal Pony Tie which I have in pink and really just gives your pony tail a bit more juz!

For Hubby's party I decided to wear the Aztec Earrings (the black & gold ones, you can see me wearing them in the pic above) and the Snow Crystal Bracelet which I get comments on EVERY time I wear it - it is that cute!

So because I am even cheekier I asked B if she could provide me with a giveaway from Mirror Mirror Accessories for all my loyal readers for my VERY FIRST GIVEAWAY!

And YAY for B - Mirror Mirror Accessories is letting me giveaway a $50 Voucher to one of you wonderful readers! That's $50 Aussie Dollars for you to spend at the Mirror Mirror online store and it is open to ALL my followers!! Even those in other counties because Mirror Mirror ships internationally!

How. Cool. Is. That.



So how do you enter I hear you ask?

Well you can gain up to 4 entries per person just by:

1. Becoming a follower of mine! And not just a lurker a proper Follower by using Google Friend Connect on my side bar. If you are already a Follower then let me know you are entering in the comments.
2. Signing up for the Mirror Mirror Accessories Newsletter so you can be kept up to date with everything that will keep you on trend.
3. Become a fan of the Mirror Mirror Accessories Fan Page on Facebook.
4. Doing all 3 of the above will get you an extra bonus entry!

Let me know in the comments which ones you have signed up for or if it's all three for your chance to have 4 entries!

Rules - The giveaway will run from Sunday 24th January till Midday (WST - Australia) Monday 1st February. The winner will be chosen at random and notified on Tuesday 2nd February by email and has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

So what are you waiting for....

I DO LOVE A MAN IN A DRIVING SUIT...

At the beginning of January my Hubby turned 40!

It was just another day for him.

I am getting palpitations already and I have another 3 1/2 years to go!

He LOVES the V8 Supercars and so for his birthday I bought him a morning at a local track which is on the national tour. Basically he had 8 laps driving a V8 around the track with a coach and then as a bonus he had a couple of "Hot Laps" where he is a passenger and the drivers show him how its really done!

He was like a pig in poo!! He loved it!

I also loved him in a driving suit! Looks like he was born to be a Racing Car Driver!!

On another note, we are having a small belated birthday party for him tomorrow night! I was going to wear a strapless top after weeks of agonising over what to wear. But today I went and got myself a little suntan (read "sunburn" even though I applied sunscreen) while watching him do his boy thing in a fast car so now I have to re-evaluate what I am wearing.

Still I have a ton of food to make including his cake so I think if I actually have time to get dressed it will be a miracle!! So better go start that cake.....

Weight Watchers Recipe Cards From The 70's - Really you HAVE to check these out!!!

AB just sent me this link to a site called Candyboots.com which has a hilarious link to some 70's Weight Watchers recipe cards. Brilliant!! Thanks AB (and Ren who I think they originated from)!

They are seriously disturbing - not so much the food which is disturbing in it's self but food stylist must have been on some kind of trip!!! Really, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!!

So for a slimmers culinary trip from the 70's click HERE!

Thanks CandyBoots

I HEART JAMIE OLIVER

For those who read this and actually know me this post is not going to be much of a surprise.

It is well known among my nearest and dearest that I indeed heart Jamie Oliver. So much so I named my first born son after him (Oliver AKA Grotbag)!


Not in the I-want-to-marry-him-and-have-his-babies type of way but more in the your-kind-of-cool-and-your-food-rocks-my-world kind of way.


I have all Jamie's cookbooks and I recieved Jamie's first book The Naked Chef for a birthday present in 2000 and so this my 10th Anniversary cooking with Jamie.


I think I like him for many reasons but one of the main ones is that I feel a kind of affinity with him. I haven't talked about my Dad on this blog (again for many reasons) but my Dad runs a pub in Essex in the UK. Like Jamie's Dad. They are not actually too far from each other and I spent the early part of my twenties working for my Dad in the pub and restaurant kitchen. So when Jamie tells a story about working in his Dad's pub - I get it. I relate.


I also think Jamie is one of the "good guys". He is uses his skills for good not evil and trys to educate with his food not just preach. He is a family man and has good morals.


OK Jamie just don't go and do a Gordon Ramsay on me now OK!!


But, back to the food.....


I have cooked many a Jamie Oliver dish from my library of books. But my two favourites are Jamies Ministry of Food and The Naked Chef. I cooked the most dishes from these books and they never fail to impress. Well impress me anyway. Even Hubby has cooked a few recipes from both these books with great success so he is completely OK with my adoration of another man.


I attribute Jamie for starting the whole "Celebrity Chef" phenomenon and proudly proclaim him the King of Celebrity Chefs. He also brought everyday cooking back to the kitchen. I also blame him for making the price of some foods sky rocket.


One of the first recipes I attempted from The Naked Chef was Lamb Shanks. Now you can get lamb shanks everywhere but back then before he made them fashionable again you couldn't find the bloody things anywhere. In the end I asked a butcher to cut some for me and they cost me $1.50 for 4 shanks - he was practically giving them away.


But I still heart JO. He is always my Go To Guy when I want some inspiration and I love actually reading his cook books. He has such passion.


And so I will passionately keep buying and reading his books and trying recipes that he has written. My loyalty will never be waivered and my foodie heart will always belong to Jamie!

My newest book I have just realised is not here....Jamie's America... it is on my bedside table!

THERE IS SOMETHING I FORGOT TO TELL YOU or HOW TO BE GIVEN EVILS IN THE ER!

I have started compiling photos of the past year, kind of like the "Best Of Our Family" for 2009 that I will then get made into a photo book.

While looking through the year that was, it brought back some memories that I thought I had blogged about but somehow had managed to miss. I think I confuse myself with my blogs and my status updates on Facebook!

One of those sweet little memories is how I gave myself a chemical burn. Yeah I know how could I have not blogged about that little doozie!!

It was just before we went on holiday to Busselton and just after my Pink Ribbon Breakfast it probably wasn't up there with the top blog fodder.

Anyway I thought I would share it with you now because although I may seem refined and demur *cough splutter* I do tend to do the oddest things at times and they always backfire! Plus I think it is slightly funny...

Because we were going on holiday I decided a few nights before we would leave that I would defuzz myself before possibly having to put on bathers. I didn't want to be doing any impersonations of Miranda from the Sex In The City Movie.

"Honey, there is always time for THAT"!

Usually I shave or wax but time was of the essence and I thought I would give the old depilatory cream a try. I look back now and think "What were you thinking???" but hey just call me spontaneous!!

I did a little test patch something I wouldn't normally bother with (because I am too lazy) but because it was in a 'sensitive' area thought I had better.

Test area fine! So took myself off to the bathroom and set about ridding myself the unwanted hair. Everything was going well but I was a bit messy and managed to get some cream just above my bikini line just above my lovely C-Section scar. No problem I thought, I will just wipe it off at the end with the rest.

After 5 minutes I checked how the cream was working. It's then that I saw a very angry line and where I had managed to get the cream above my bikini it had gone VERY red and looked VERY sore. Thing was, I couldn't feel anything. This area was still numb (because of the nerve endings) from my C-Section with Bugalugs and not much feeling had returned anyway from my C-section with Grotbag.

But even I could see that if I could have felt it I would be screaming right about now!

So I quickly jumped in the shower and washed it all off as I was freaking out a bit by now. I dried the red area thoroughly and put some antiseptic cream on it but an hour later it looked weepy and blistered. I showed Hubby and he suggested a trip to the ER just to be sure.

This was a Saturday night buy the way. So knowing I would probably be there for a while I packed a book and a drink and set off. Hey it was a trip without the kids!!

Remember I couldn't feel anything so it was all a little bit surreal by this point.

The ER was PACKED with people and not just the usual rowdy Saturday night crowd. There were people that looked REALLY sick!

I was triage'd pretty quickly. I explained to the nurse what had happened and she seemed quite taken aback that I wasn't in any pain. Apparently I should be in a lot of pain as we ascertained that it was some kind of chemical burn.

So then I take a seat and settle in for the next 20 minutes with my book. Yes that's all folks just 20 minutes - I wait longer to see my GP for a referral!

Apparently burns are fast tracked in the ER. But remember I had NO signs of actually being sick. Imagine you were there, really really ill and you saw me just waltz into the ER, have seat and pull my book out and then get seen before ANYONE that was there before you.

The evil stares could have stripped wallpaper. Plus all the looks of "what the hell is wrong with her, she looks fine and I am REALLY sick!"

I was in and out with the Doctor in 5 minutes. He treated the burn, gave me some dressing as I had to keep it dry for the next 5 days and I was out of there.

Literally, I ran in case of a mob attack!!

So after all that I couldn't swim on my holiday anyway!! The burn cleared up in a few days and I have vowed never to use the cream again.

Waxing is a lot less painful....in many ways!!!

So any of you got a silly story you have forgotten to blog about? Or is it just me...

INTERPRETING WHAT A 11 MONTH OLD WANTS VIA SCREAMING - IF ONLY I KNEW HOW I WOULD EARN MILLIONS!

So Bugalugs has decided after 11 months he has had enough of being a placid, giggly, cute as a button baby and turned into Rosemary's Baby!

If I leave the room = screaming

If he thinks I might leave the room = screaming

If I put the dogs in the garden because he is watching them = screaming

Pick him up = screaming

Put him down = screaming

Put him in the swing outside = giggles - but only for about 15 mins then = screaming

Seriously the child has become a nightmare and for the life of me I cannot decipher what the hell he wants!!

Usually he is like this:

Then it dissolves into this:

Typical man sending me mixed signals!

There is only so much you can blame teething on right?

He has also become seriously offended by me putting him in his playpen. OK so the Mummy police I don't want to hear what you think of playpens or prisons as some of you might think - just a warning - not the blog to comment!!

He loved it and I knew he was safe and on the only rug in the house and he couldn't put Grotbags Lego or Hot Wheels cars in his mouth.

Oh no..now he wants to roam around...and despite having the entire catalogue of toys made by Fisher Price he thinks that the DVR and Wii are much better toys to touch and hear mummy say a firm "NO!". THE ONLY things he can reach that I can't move anywhere else. Either that or the hard drive on the computer which now has some elaborate cage system around it made up from other toys from the playroom!

So I am happy to have him roam, I think it's kind of cute if he follows me around and really there is not much to touch. If he wants to put a handful of dust bunnies in his mouth then hey, I'm cool with that too. BUT he will be roaming around having a wander then all of a sudden sit up, scream and cry like a proper tantrum! So I will pick him up.

Still screaming.

Drink. Food. Nappy. Put down again. All result in the screaming and then just as sudden as it started. Stops!

I really am scratching my head on this one and just hoping it passes. And soon!

Mummy just can't take this for much longer!!!!

WOW - TWO WEEKS IS LIKE A YEAR IN BLOG TIME!!!

Well I wanted to start 2010 with some posts I had going round in my brain all over the Christmas period and then life came and put a stop to it!

My Hubby turned 40, Bugalugs is 1 in 4 weeks and Grotbag starts school full time in a month too. Hubby was home the whole of December which was fantastic but threw me off course from my routine. Bugalugs, now 11 months old and the past week has had a viral infection causing him to be the most irritable baby ever, therefore keeping me up most nights. This of course equals grumpy mummy, dusty house and the pause button on the blogging. Plus it is school holidays here and quite frankly I am going slightly insane keeping Grotbag occupied.

Not only that but I haven't visited any blogs and have lost a follower!

I am also at a quandry as to where my blog is heading. Should it head anywhere or just follow it's own course?

But the longer I think about it the longer it takes me to write a post and then another day goes by and I don't write anything.

I have really enjoyed writing these past 6 months. I have loved the freedom of being about to put words on the page and send them out into the world. It is a joy I had forgotten about since High School. And I want to do more, so I am just going to write and write (and then probably edit) and keep sending it out into the world.

So I guess it is going to follow it's own course...hope you will come along for the ride!