A little hiatus

Those of you visiting my blog would have noticed my lapse in posting this year. Alot of exciting things are happening at the moment (like the birth of my niece Sophia) with alot of change so I've decided to take a little break away from posting for the next couple of months to focus on these priorities. But I will be back in the near future with news about my decorating attempts and I'll still be visiting all my favourite blogs in the meantime of course.

A happy belated 2009 to everyone!

1 week to Christmas!

It's exactly one week until Christmas! I am getting really excited at the prospect. My mother in law Helen is putting on Christmas this year and she does the entire traditional spread with a beautifully laid out table. She really makes Christmas an occasion to look forward to.

Christmas Eve is pretty big too with a more casual bbq and neighbours joining us at Helen's for drinks. My sister in law is making a zuchinni slice, Fred will be cooking some prawns and fish on the bbq and the rest of us will whip up some salads and a fruit platter. That's the beauty of an Australian christmas...warm weather and an outdoors barbie where you can truly relax...just compensation for missing out on white Christmases I'd say!

Speaking of Zuchinni slice, my sister in law does a great one. Here's a popular recipe from taste.com.au for the dish.

Zuchinni Slice
Ingredients (serves 15)
• 5 eggs
• 150g (1 cup) self-raising flour, sifted
• 375g zucchini, grated
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 200g rindless bacon, chopped
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 60ml (1/4 cup) vegetable oil
Method
1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Grease and line a 30 x 20cm lamington pan.
2. Beat the eggs in a large bowl until combined. Add the flour and beat until smooth, then add zucchini, onion, bacon, cheese and oil and stir to combine. Pour into the prepared pan and bake in oven for 30 minutes or until cooked through.

You've got mail

This arrived the other day....it's my gorgeous giveaway prize from Danielle over at Dannimezza! Isn't it just gorgeous with a matching card to boot! Thanks Danielle it really made my day. So what will I fill it with? Paperclips in the office? Another storage box for my (many many) earrings? I might sit it on my bedside table just looking pretty for now while I consider all the options. Thanks Danielle...Patchys in the new year promise!

Reading this...

The Olive Sisters...halfway through and brilliant so far.

A teaspoon of cement and a side table

I've been down in the dumps lately working in finance and seeing friends and colleagues being retrenched from their jobs has been not been easy, especially this time of year. Then you get consumed by this nagging feeling that your own job is not so safe and suddenly you lose sight of all the good things to look forward to like Christmas and having three whole uninterrupted weeks off and spending it with family and friends.

Sometime ago I was listening to Fred recount a story from work where someone was whining away constantly about this or that. Eventually a colleague told him to "take a teaspoon of cement". "What?" said whingy guy. "Take a teaspoon of cement buddy and harden the %$*! up!" said his colleague.

So as I take my own teaspoon of cement (ah hmm) I am trying to focus on the good things coming up.

Here's another ebay purchase....a side table to acompany the other ebay table I redid earlir this year. I am planning on refinishing it with a lick of shiny black paint.

Waiting around

I've spent the past week waiting for some news. I can't share what that news is just yet but the point is that it's left me feeling very frustrated. I'm not so good with just seeing how things turn out. Taking the bull by the horns and getting an outcome one way or another is more my style and I get a whole lot of comfort from having closure in any situation.
So you can see that being in limbo land is my equaivalent of, well, you know not a good place to be in.

So as I wait and wait I will try to distract myself with the Melbourne Cup race today and the office sweeps being planned. Good luck to all who are having a flutter!

Mabel's giveaway (well Liz's actually)...

Liz over at Mabel's House blog is having a brilliant giveaway. Her taste in books is fab so be sure to enter on her blog http://mabelshouse.blogspot.com/
Liz's blog is an amusing daily read and she's a talented writer herself.