Love a good outlook

We know I love a good horoscope.. and today's seems appropriate -

You are short of something you need. That's why you feel overwhelmed. You've got too much of something you could do with less of. Like pressure. And responsibility. For a while your life has resembled a soap opera. Now it is beginning to get more like a Victorian melodrama. Everything is larger than life. Everyone is going over the top. Exaggerated reactions are eroding your sense of perspective. Yet you are moving away from a situation that has been too much - towards a new arrangement that will be 'just right'.

Courtesy of AdelaideNow

Scrub & Glow

This post is 2 days late, but in my defence it is difficult to maintain a blog without the internet at home. I am hoping to rectify this situation soon.

In the meantime, I indulged myself in a treatment at Endota Dayspa on Sunday.

The Scrub & Glow - Designed to make your skin smoother than Barry White on Valentine's Day.

It was one hour of pure bliss.

I am a huge fan of Endota since my gorgeous sister and I began a tradition of going together for special occassions such as birthdays and weddings. I must admit that going alone isn't quite the same. Much less of an event. But still very relaxing.

On Sunday I organised my Endota treatment to coincide with my homes Open Inspection. And this method of distraction was definately superior to previous weeks spent walking laps of the local shopping centre.

Each time I leave, I promise to make the effort to treat myself more often but life gets busy and money gets tight and I never seem to take care of myself the way I should.

So Bree - come home soon so that I have an excuse to go back and be pampered!

xx

Put Your Best Foot Forward

Today I am suffering from Thursday-itis. It's a less severe form of Monday-itis and Tuesday-itis.

The cure ? Retail Therapy, of course.

And lately, I have been coveting shoes....

All shoes from Wittner

love love love

xx

Would you like oats with that ?

Question : How can you make a chocolate chip cookies 100x better ?

Answer : By adding oats.

Yep, I know it seems like an odd solution, but chocolate chip cookies with oats are awesome. Please give them a try - it's the easiest recipe in the WORLD. There's just 9 simple steps.

Embarrassingly, this recipe came from morning tv show The Circle.

Ingredients

2 + 3/4 Cups Wholemeal Self-Raising Flour

2 Cups Rolled Oats

250g Butter

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Cup Caster Sugar

2 tsp Vanilla Essence

2 Eggs

250g Choc Chips

Pre-heat your oven to 180C

Melt butter

Mix sugars and vanilla essence in a bowl

Add melted butter & stir

Add the eggs & mix thoroughly

Add the flour & mix again

Finally, add the oats and the choc chip

Now roll the dough into balls and line them up on a baxing tray lined with baking paper

Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until golden

Word of warning - You will want to eat these straight from the oven when the chocolate is all melty and the kitchen smells ah-mazing. But (and I'm telling this because I care about you, even though it seems so obvious) Melted chocolate is HOT - So be patient and wait for them to cool a little bit!!

xx

Cupcakes for Grandma

I went on an impromptu road trip on the weekend. Not too far. Just up the freeway to Mannum.

My cousin and I decided to honour our Grand-daughterly duties and pay our Nan a visit.

Anticipating an icey welcome unless I arrived with a gift of the edible kind, I baked some individual Carrot and Walnut cakes.

I know I have blogged about Carrot and Walnut cake before, but it's such an easy cake to make and I always have the ingredients available in my poorly stocked kitchen,. Plus, it turns out that these are Nan's favourite (must remember that for future..) 

So it was a win for all involved.

Nan appreciated the effort and Emmy enjoyed a ride in the car. 

And me ?

I can pretend that these cakes are practically a balanced meal, since they have vegetables in them.. Good thing too, because I ate one for dinner.

Everyone was happy.

xx

Winter Warmth

It's been cold in Adelaide.

Like, REALLY cold.

(OK, Bree - It's no Canberra!!!)

But please allow me to add some heat to your weekend courtesy of my Pinterest Board - swoon.

Chad Michael Murray - aka Lucas Scott (One Tree Hill)

Chase Crawford aka Nate Archibald (Gossip Girl)

Ed Westwick aka Chuck Bass (Gossip Girl)

Ian Somerhalder aka Damon Salvatore (The Vampire Diaries)

As my fellow Cool Pod member Jodie would say - they are Mantastic.

Happy weekend.

xx

My Style : Classic Black and White

Dreaming of warmer weather and red heels...

My Style : Classic Black and White 

It All Ends

O.. M... G...

I am feeling very emotional about the last Harry installment.

It's a mixed bag of excitement and sadness.

I actually think I might cry at the end of the movie because I will feel a sense of loss when it's all over.

On a side note - Emma Watson looked gorgeous at the Premiere. Ok, I'm not 100% sold on the dress, but she is totally rockin the short hair.

Love it.

xx

Lemoney Lemon

I have a lemon tree in my backyard.

It hasn't produced fruit for 2 years, because in the first 12 months of living in the house my mum suggested I prune the tree - "Be aggressive with it" she said. So I did. And it's taken a good 2 years for the poor tree to recover.

But FINALLY, after almost giving up on the tree, it is giving me fruit. LOTS of fruit.

And so this weekend I plan to bake with lemons. (Yes, I am already making plans for the weekend.. even though it's only Thursday!)

The only questions is - What should I bake ??

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Lemon Yoghurt Syrup Cake

Lemon Cheesecake Slice

Lemon Friands

Lemon Loaf

All requests will be considered !!

xx

Hip-Pip Hooray!

Yesterday was Miss Pip's birthday.

Knowing that our dear Pip believes cupcakes to be 'over-rated' I baked her a dairy-free cake instead.

An Orange and Almond Meal cake.

Birthday celebrations took place at Star of Siam, where Miss Pip, her bf Tom, Kimberlee and I ate so much food, we couldn't possibly indulge in cake for dessert (there was also the threat of being evicted from Cork - where we went after dinner - as consuming food is a breach of security, as previously discovered by Pip & Kimberlee during the 'Prawn Cracker Incident').

Anyway, the Birthday Festivities continued today with afternoon tea - Orange cake and green tea.

So keen were we to try the cake, that photos weren't snapped until we had consumed half...

Don't judge us.

xx

oh Friday

Image courtesy of Pinterest - my new favourite way to spend the working day.

xx