Cushions.... and a mix of random things

I am feeling the need to share, so here it goes....

We had some rain about a week ago.... Cue excitement from all us farmers!


While the rain was beautiful, the mushies started popping up.

You have to pick them really quickly because they don't last long. Also, trying to get the dirt off them poses challenges in itself. Usually you will consume a bit of dirt with wild mushrooms, but they are amazing all the same. Just a bit gritty on occasion!

My boys have been swimming their little hearts out and made it to our Western Region carnival. Then they made it to our Diocesean Carnival.

Just for one race each.

They were pretty nervous, and the excitement at the carnival was insane. Now they know what it is like to "Level up" with their swimming. They have never made it so far with their swimming before - they did work hard to get there though.

I am proud of them for pushing through and trying their very best in their swimming. Had they made it through to the next level, it would of been State, so they have done really well this year.

Our town has lots of amazing little swimmers, so I am grateful that our little town has lots of great coaches to help them reach their goals.

F in the Diocesan carnival

This little one has been dragged from pillar to post lately. We are having a relaxation day today because Preschool and swimming wears him out.

Look at those brown legs!

Have to show off some goodies that I have been hoarding for a while!


My Scalamandre cushion covers have arrived!

I found these ones on sale half price at Scalamandre itself, but they were still pretty expensive. That is why there is only two....

The shipping was the killer, they came from New York. I just closed my eyes and tried to go to my happy place when I saw the shipping charges.

Aren't they beautiful!

Yep, all the way from the other side of the world!

I love the wallpaper that matches this fabric, and I would die to wallpaper a room in it. Why, why are you so expensive Scalamandre????

Something a little bit cheaper here.

I loove Schumacher Nanjing too, this pattern is divine!

Here she is in large cushion cover form.

Those pagodas..... those colours.......... that superb quality of linen.

I bought those from Etsy.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/118723953/schumacher-nanjing-cushion-cover?

The lady who creates these has an amazing range of beautiful cushion covers. I highly recommend her shop.

Found these pretty throws at http://www.laura-ashley.com.au/

On sale.

love them to bits!

Should of bought more as presents for people though.....






Jo xx

Otomi on a shoestring

What would my blog be without some cushions on it occasionally?

I just love embroidered Otomi fabrics from Mexico, and I know they can be pretty pricey usually. There is a lot of work that goes into them, and they can take weeks to embroider, so if you can source the look without the pricetag - that is gold!


Temple and Webster has Otomi look cushions on there for half the price of the real deal today. Screen printed instead of embroidered, so they are a lot cheaper, and they come in some vibrant colours.

Sunshiny yellow to brighten up a room

Black - always classic

Perfect for a girl's bedroom!

How about some colour of the year - emerald green?

This is not a sponsored post, but I have bought things from Temple and Webster from time to time.

Sharing is caring!

http://www.templeandwebster.com.au/urban-road/canvas-art-prints-3.html



Jo xx

Eggless Dairy-free Muffin Recipe

I have wanted to share this for a while as it is my "Go to" recipe when I don't have anything to pack for school.

It is also my "Go to" when I have people over and I need a super quick treat to pull out of nowhere.

It is egg free and dairy free, so it is great for people with allergies. I would like to say I invented this recipe, but it is actually my Sister-in-Law's. She has children with lots of allergies, so she trialled every egg/dairy/wheat free recipe going until she found a few that didn't flop.

When my first son was a baby he developed a bit of eczema, I could control it with cutting out dairy (and I cut eggs out for good measure). He eats dairy now without too much hassle, but we cut it out for a while if he starts to get eczema again.

Anyway, these muffins are seriously easy and are a great freezer staple to have on hand for lunchboxes, drop in guests, even with a coffee at morning tea. You won't be disappointed!


Step by step instructions:


Firstly, find yourself two bananas that are past their best. I don't know anyone who doesn't have a couple of sad looking bananas in their fruit bowl, so it is perfect for using up those bananas no one can bear to look at anymore.

My hot tip is to freeze crappy bananas, if you have them lying around and then you always have a steady supply.

Throw those sad bananas in your mixer. If you don't have a mixer, don't stress! You can mash bananas with a fork and mix this by hand. Not very hard!

Pop a cup of sugar in, and mix on low until combined.

It will look like this.


Put 2 cups of Self-Raising flour in.

Put a tablespoon of vanilla essence and 2/3 of a cup of canola oil. (I try to use Dick Smith's as it's Aussie).

It will look like this.

Mix all that stuff up on low until just combined.

Don't overmix it or it will be tough and dry!

Now is the time to add the milk. I usually don't measure it, but you could put 1 cup of rice milk in and then see if it is enough. I make sure the batter is not too claggy, but not too runny - if you know what I mean.

It should look a bit like this.

You can substitute Soy milk instead of rice milk. Hell, you could make it with dairy if you feel like.

There is no need for eggs though, since the banana binds it all together.

Spoon that mix into muffin pans and bake it at about 160 degrees (Celsius). For about 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Cool in tin for 5 minutes and place on a wire rack to cool further.

I like to bag them in freezer bags ready for lunches, or if you have time gladwrap them individually - and then you can throw them straight in those lunchboxes. Saving you time in the school rush - win/win!

There you have it, the easiest recipe ever, and done in under half an hour.

Enjoy!


Jo

Random stuff

Not too much going on here at the moment, boys at cricket tonight and I have a few things on my mind.

We are at the stage where we need to choose a school for our boys. Our small school in our town is such a lovely school, but it only caters until year 6. Then you either have to send your children to the local public secondary school, or send them to boarding school.

Our secondary school doesn't have the facilities and there are a few issues with it socially and academically, so boarding school from year 7 is our priority now.

We are looking at two schools so far.

One is a city school and one is in the country. They both have pros and cons when we look at them. Both are expensive. The city one is expensive in the extreme. My husband is an old boy of the city one and he loved it. Only problem, it is about $20,000 more per year than the country one.

The city one has more bursaries and scholarships on offer, but that is because they have very generous benefactors who have set up wonderful scholarships.

The country one is closer to us (travel wise) and we have family in the same town, which is a huge bonus. It is co-ed, and I am not a massive fan of co-ed in the older years.

May I remind you, we have three boys to school!

So this is weighing heavily on my mind at the moment. We are going to take a look at both schools in the next month or so, and H is sitting a scholarship exam soon.

We will have to see which school wins!

When the prospectus comes beautifully tied with a ribbon, you know you aren't in cheap fee territory.

This is my husband's old doona cover from his old school. H uses it on his bed at the moment. I think it has preppy style potential! ;)

And to finish up tonight's post  I bring you my new animal print. I thought the only ones available were the hippo and the leopard. So I found this one on Temple and Webster a few months ago, and now I am in a dilemma of having an odd number of prints to hang! I want to find another one to balance my room, or my hanging will be all wrong. First World Problem - I know.

Hope you are having a good Friday night so far!

Jo.

Swimming boys

We had our swimming carnival yesterday.

H & F swim quite a bit usually each summer as there isn't much else to do in this heat, and they enjoy it immensely.

When I started out lessons with H he did swimsafe lessons when he was two, because I wanted him to be confident and happy about getting in the water. Also, because I am terrified that he could easily drown living here with dams and rivers everywhere. I can't swim, and my husband can't swim, and we were hell-bent on getting H swimming as soon as possible as it is just so important top prevent our kids drowning.

H actually started learning properly when he was 3. Because this is the age that they can touch the bottom of the bigger pool and they can work with a kickboard to get going.

By the time he was ready to start Kindergarten, he could swim 25 metres without stopping and doing his arms and breathing correctly.

The same story applies to F.

And now I am getting little N taught too, and he has progressed a lot this summer. He is close to putting his breathing/arms/legs together so he can swim without stopping. He just turned 4. So he is getting it together much earlier as he spends much more time in the pool than H & F did at that age.

This is mostly due to the fact H and F do stroke correction and training 3-4 times a week. And everyday in the pool mucking about at home.

Since we moved to our new house I have been terrified that N would drown because he couldn't swim at all. I was terrified that someone would leave the gate open, or he could climb in himself, so I am a bit hardcore on little N's swimming lessons.
I am still vigilant with H & F, even though they are good swimmers. Accidents can happen anytime, so I watch them all the time at home. N used to wear a bubble only a two months ago - he can swim without it now, so we are passing it on to a nephew to use.

Anyway, my ramblings have a message. And that is get your kids swimming! As soon as you can, and as often as you can. Swimming is something that needs working on all the time. And once or twice a week isn't enough time in the pool to get the little ones going, they take much longer the less you do, and it can be years for them to put it together. So do it early and do it often!

Ok, rant over - here's some pics of yesterday.

H & F went in every event yesterday. They tried their little hearts out. Surprisingly so, our little town has some amazing swimmers. Due to the time the coaches put into the kids and the kids working really hard at it. It is a great thing to see them so fit and focused.

F waiting his turn in the relay

H doing the I.M

The spoils

The boys won a few ribbons and H ended up with 11 year boys Champion trophy. They were both pretty stoked and happy with their swims. A few shaky nervous starts from H (he doesn't like pressure). But in the end they both relaxed a bit and enjoyed it all. I am pretty proud of how they have come along with swimming and I love the confidence they get from doing it. It translates through to all their other sports (fitness and strength) and school work.

I won't lie, the last few weeks has been hard for them with starting school again, and getting back into the swing of things (Cricket too). So they have been busy and tired and telling me they are sick of going to training. The weeks are long, and they have been hanging out to do the school carnival for a while, so it has been like waiting for Christmas - seems to never come quick enough.

Now they can swim to save themselves, they can give it up if they choose and I will be fine with it. I can relax knowing if they want to waterski, jetski, swim in the beach, etc. they have a good chance that they won't drown now.

2013 year of the snake

Apparently 2013 is the year of the snake.

I am not a fan of snakes. I have been trying to "get over" my absolute fear and phobia of snakes. It has taken me a very long time to get to a point where I don't go into panic mode. I can see a snake now without totally losing the plot, but I still hate them. They are evil animals with evil beady eyes that freak me out!

When I see one on the road I try to run them over if I can. We have a lot of snakes here, and I have grown up with my mother instilling a fear of snakes to the max. So, it is no surprise that I developed a phobia of them.

When I used to see them in the garden, I used to run squealing into the house having a full blown panic attack, and that awful feeling when the blood totally drains from your face.

After a few "Get a hold of yourself girl!" and "Snakes are everywhere and you probably walk past a hundred that you don't know about!". From my lovely husband, I have learnt to try to live with them.

I probably got better at handling my fear when I saw how calm he was when dealing with them. Somehow, it helped. I still sometimes jump up and have that horrible shivery feeling when I have a close encounter with them, but I am not a sobbing mess anymore afterwards.




My worst nightmare, but a pretty cool pic!
http://angelagilltrap.tumblr.com/image/37000664558

I almost stepped on a young brown snake yesterday when I was watering my fruit trees. It whipped around, and I jumped up and sprinted away from it. It was my own silly fault for wearing thongs out there! You don't have much chance of getting bitten with big boots or gumboots on, so I really should of been wearing better protective gear.

And I also realised that I am getting a bit better at dealing with them than I used to.

I read today that the Chinese New Year is all about fire and water colliding together. And that you should not do any landscaping or renovations on the South East of your home as the snake is making his way in that direction, and nothing should block a snake's path as he makes his journey through the year. Who knows if this is true? It sounds strange, but now I wish I had my verandah all completed since it is on the South East! Lucky there isn't any digging or major work to be done there, just a bit more gauzing and painting to go.

Also the year of the snake brings violence, which sounds pretty awful. Sept 11 happened in the last year of the snake. It all sounds very strange, and I am not superstitious at all about things like this. I just hope that I don't see too many scary brown snakes around my house anymore!

Hmmm will wait and see what it all means....

Hello

Hello,

I know, I have been rather slack on the blog front lately. I have been chastising myself every day for not posting something interesting or pretty when I have so many posts I have created in my head.

Time to get onto it and put it out there on the 'ole bloggy!

I'll start with a catch up for you....

I left my last post before Christmas so I will take it from there.

Christmas was lovely. Saw lots of family, had lots of fun with lots of lovely relatives and I was lucky to be gifted some lovely things.

Introducing my new love...

No, not the beer. The Nespresso behind it!

Although that is another love of mine too!

Next love is this baby.

Installed just before Christmas and just in time too!

The weekend before all the air-con units went in was so damn hot. It was 43.8 degrees.  Just unbearable really. I appreciate the chilled rooms I walk into, and sleeping is easy now. So good.

We did the lounge/dining and all the bedrooms with split systems. Ended up being a better decision to go for these than one massive ducted unit for us.

I had splits at my old house and I loved them. Never had a problem with them usually, frogs and geckos are the enemy though.

Summer isn't summer without a slip-n-slide.


Summer out here isn't really nice and we have been spoilt last year as we got weeks of rain and it was pretty cool.

We knew it was back to a normal summer this time though. We had quite a few weeks of 40 degree days. One day was 47.8 degrees.

I have NEVER in my life ever seen the mercury rise so high. I couldn't imagine a day like that, and I now know what hell must feel like. We knew it was going to be a hot day so I tossed the boys into the pool at 8am. I told them to have a swim, and by 9am we were inside bunkered in. We had a cousin from a cold climate staying with us and he was feeling it. He could not get over how hot it was, and I just kept feeding him iceblocks and ice and water constantly.

It was 43 in my kitchen that day. The air-con was working hard and we hung some curtains whilst we were stuck inside.

Amazing the difference a few curtains make to the temperature of a house!

Yes, curtains are pretty expensive to buy. But the heat they cut that day more than made up for that.

I had a Birthday after Christmas and it was lovely. My favourite champers, and my new butler's tray made from local timber by a local lady! (keeping it real....keeping it real peeps).

My Birthday signalled our one year anniversary in our house. Yes, we moved in on my birthday last year! It wasn't the most fun way to spend a birthday lugging a fridge in with my husband. We moved everything ourselves over a few weeks. Backbreaking times they were!

I am glad that we moved though. We love the house, we love the pool and I love that each child has their own bedroom. And we have space to get away from each other when we want to.

Little N turned four in the holidays.

I can't believe how fast my baby boy has grown up! Time flies when you have children - that's for sure!

Seems like yesterday he decided to make a speedy entrance to the world before I could get to a well-equipped hospital!


On that note I will love you and leave you. We have had fun these holidays, swimming all the time, playing, trying to keep cattle and sheep alive. We didn't find any time to get away as it is just too hot, and cattle need to have water checked every day. So we holidayed at home this time.

I was not looking forward to having a proper routine again! I am already over packing lunches and I am looking forward to next holidays already. Jam packed weeks ahead with swimming carnivals and school things.

Are you ready for the next holidays to swing around like me?