Dinner this week

These are the pics I remembered to take this week. I have to admit I've been a bit social this week and I've forgotten to take pictures. Sorry!

Dinner on the 23rd - Gnocchi in tomato, mixed herbs and mozarella sauce sprinkled with parmesan

Dinner on the 25th - 3/4 jeans, DVF top, CL nude clichys, silver neck cuff

These are a few of my favourite things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens,
Brown paper packages tied up with strings,
These are a few of my favorite things

Hmmm, not quite what I had in mind...don't get me wrong, I do love rain, rose, kittens, mittens and packages but I thought I might do a post on some of my favourite accessories. I keep mentioning different accessories I commonly wear but I haven't really shown you what they are in any great detail.

Firstly earrings - my one true love! I have tonnes of earrings but these are my favourites.

These are the ones I wear the most. 

L-R: Chanel CC earrings, 3 x dichroic glass & silver earrings, 18kt white gold diamond drop earrings, silver crystal dangle earrings

These are my absolute favourite pairs of dichroic glass earrings. They change from blue to green depending on the light. Aren't they special?

Love these two, sparkles and colour, what more could you want?

I'm not a huge ring girl and I don't have that many yet but I feel I need to branch out and get some more.

L-R: white gold & jade ring, stainless steel ring, Bvlgari white gold Astrale ring, silver mother of pearl

Ok now for my necklaces and bracelets.

Black and white pearl, mother of pearl pendant & random costume jewellery necklace I've had forever.

Silver plated cuff - one of fave pieces!

L-R: wood & cotton bracelet from the markets in Cairns I picked up for $8, leather cuff (another market find in Sydney), blue multi-stranded beaded necklace I got from M's mother for my birthday a few years ago.

I get a lot of compliments on this one. I jokingly call it my chainmail necklace!

One of newest acquisitions - $5 from the Diva sale (I'm wearing it my last outfit post)

So there you have my little accessories collection. I have a few more pieces but none of them what I would class as 'favourites'. Hope you've enjoyed my little display and I will update as I collect more pieces!!!

Dinner - Dumplings in Sate Glaze

Since I was talking about cooking this morning I should probably show you some examples of my daily cooking habits. It's nothing fancy but it's certainly tasty! I will have to try out some fancier recipes soon.

Wow, I was momentarily distracted from my post by American Idol, some guy sang Amazing Grace and he sounded like a dying, yowling cat playing a violin in it's belly! It was horrid. He wouldn't leave and security had to 'escort' him out. They had him on the floor in cuffs!!! High voltage stuff in Orlando. Eep!

Anyhoo, back to the food!

I love taking the ordinary and making them a little different.

• Mix a sauce of water, sesame oil, sherry, sate sauce & soy sauce in a cold frypan. Measure according to taste.
• Take an amount of frozen pork and chive frozen dumplings and heat in sauce.
• Sauce will reduce and start to glaze the dumplings. Keep turning dumplings over every minute or so and make sure there is enough sauce to keep the dumplings from sticking to the pan.
• Once dumplings have browned to your satisfaction (approx 10 mins) take out and place in bowl.
• Flavour with your choice of any of the elements you made the sauce with just for extra taste.
• Enjoy!
  

Now I've made y'all drool I'll leave it there for today. Sweet dreams!

Resistance is futile...

Wowsers, how has another week flown away from me?

On Tuesday night I caught up one of my best friends and we had thai at this unbelievably cheap place. The food was fresh and came in big serves. The best part was that it was only $6 a meal!!!

And we weren't done, we had a date with Robert Downey Jnr playing the title role of Sherlock Holmes. I actually didn't mind the film, it fulfilled my requirements for entertainment - good looking men, action ahoy, and a reasonable plot.

Then work, work and more work until Friday. Since we'd been talking cupcakes on the forum I finally caved in and went and got some for afternoon tea.

How good do they look? Cupcakes on Pitt is one of the cutest little cupcake shops to have sprung up over the last few years. They're mini cupcakes but seriously you shouldn't need more than 1 or 2 of these suckers to satisfy your sweet tooth. I got the rocky road and lemon meringue ones. My fave will always be the lemon meringue as it uses real meringue and lemon curd! It's the BUSINESS! Im drooling again just thinking of it.

Speaking of lemon, you what I recently discovered? Krispy Kreme have stopped making their lemon filled donuts!!! WTF? They were my favourite flavour! I am severely disappointed. I only have KK once every 6 or so months and I really wanted a lemon one and they tell me they're no longer in production! Grrrr...!

After work M met me and we went to the cheap thai place again. Spring rolls, money bags, red curry chicken & chicken pad hokkien with satay sauce this time. DELISH! Sorry, no pic of the meal as I was starving. I tend to focus on the food when I'm hungry...

Here are some action shots from the afternoon/night though.

M looking pensive

My Christian Louboutin Penny Girl flats peeping out the window

Playing with Bails at home

 My outfit of 3/4 jeans, Bonds singlet & Supre bolero, accessorised with Diva necklace, cotton & wood bracelet from the markets in Cairns, stainless steel ring & Chanel earrings

Now it's all quiet on the western as the boys have gone camping and I'm home alone. I'm actually looking forward to it in a way. It'll be like I'm living by myself again. I was thinking I should pull out my apron and start baking again this weekend but it's going to be about 39C (104F) outside today and whilst I do have airconditioning I think putting the oven on too would be ludicrous. Then we're supposed to get a change tonight and it's supposed to thunderstorm! WTF is with this crazy weather lately? I've heard LA is getting hail and were on tornado warning plus Arizona had a tornado...the world going crazy! Or God's gonna wipe us out soon. Not sure which one scares me more.

Anyway, back to cooking/baking. I've been inspired by my friend V who linked me to some cooking blogs. I'll have to update my links column with them but the things on there are so inspiring and they make me want to do more creative cooking again. I'll keep you updated on my cooking plans!

Anxious and broke

Just a quick one tonight, hope you've all been well.

I've been admiring some bright nail polish hues on the forum of late and thought I should give it a go. I tend to steer towards natural pinks, dark reds, blues, purples and a certain grey/brown that I've just discovered. In fact I'm wearing it right now, it's OPI You Don't Know Jacques.

I recently branched out and bought a sensational shade by CND called Smoochie. It's a gorgeous bright watermelony neon pink.

It's not the best colour representation but it's dark and I can't get a good shot of the actual bottle. Can't wait to try it out though! I'll show you the results when I test it out next week. The test coat I applied to my finger was positive so I can only imagine how stunning it will look when applied in full.

I don't want to jinx it but I'm also awaiting some good news so I'm hoping that comes through tomorrow but could take up to Friday to come through. Eek. I can't stand the suspense...!!! And if it does come through then I will actually be broke. For the month...

Anyway, hope you have a great day/night, whatever it is in your part of the world.

A whole weeks worth of catchups

I can't believe it's Sunday night and I've got to back to work tomorrow! This week has whizzed by and I seem to have lost it somewhere. I guess time flies when you're busy. Last week was a bit of a fmily week as M's parents are down from Queensland.

Tuesday 12th Jan

Went to dinner at Bay Tinh in Marrickville with M's parents, uncles and aunts. The food was sensational! We've been there before and I just love Vietnamese food to death. I would eat it everyday if I could. Actually I almost do as I try and have beef pho at least once a week. Noodles, beef, onion and soup, what's not to laove I ask you? And it's not that bad for you either as there isn't too much that's deep fried. Unlike Japanese where I love all the fried stuff like katsu and teriyaki tofu....anyway, I'm digressing!

Here's what we had for dinner:

Doesn't that look great? There was crispy vietnamese style pancake with prawns & chicken, soft shell crab, grilled beef rolls, prawn meat rolls wrapped around sugar cane, prawn & chicken volcano (rice paper wrap your own rolls) & a vegetable soup with noodles to finsh up with (no pic). Sooo full by the end of it all!

We got home at about midnight or so to find out our darling puppy had peed on our bed!!! Not happy at all! So I've decided if he doesn't want to act like our usual adorable fur baby he can be treated like a dog. Time for a manners refresher course. He spent the night outdoors and we spent an hour and a half fixing up our bed.

Thursday 14th Jan

Had one of my bosses up from Melbourne today and we had a workshop on going paperless. FUN....

Went to dinner at M's uncle's place and had this beautiful dish his mother cooked. Didn't get a picture of it but it was salmon poached in mango pulp served with a macadamia crust, and a rocket & roasted tomato salad sprinkled with balsamic. It was soooo good!

Since Bailey is still serving time we put him out on the balcony for the night. He whined for 1.5hrs and finally stopped at 1am!! Then he had the hide to start up again at 4am. Needless to say it took me a while to get started on Friday. Bad timing as I had to go through something with bossman 2 and I wasn't really coherent enough to make sense.... (>.<)

Friday 15th Jan

Couldn't wait to get home and veg out with the boys (I should clarify here that I am talking about M & Bails!). Had dinner at home and watched a movie. Conked out. Bliss!

Saturday 16th Jan

Since this weekend was a dedicated "us" weekend we wandered into town around lunchtime after a nice homemade brunch of scrambled eggs and bacon.

That night we decided to have a spontaneous dinner out at El Bulli around the corner. We started with a drink at our local water hole, one that I've been dying to try out as it always looked good from the outside. To our surprise we enjoyed it and found out they served a great pub menu. Must go there for a meal one day next week or the next.

Anyway, when we finally got a table at El Bulli (note: you cannot book for 2) we had a smorgasboard of:

• PATATAS BRAVAS - crispy fried potatoes in tomato chilli sauce
• GAMBAS a la SEVILLANA - Panfried prawns in tomato based garlic, chilli & olive oil salsa
• GNOCCI con PICOS AZUL - Homemade crispy gnocchi in a serano ham, blue vein cheese & white wine cream sauce
• Bread
• Carafe of red sangria

I promise to take pics of the tapas next time but the lighting in there is quite low and I couldn't get any decent ones with my phone.

That brings us full circle to Sunday. We watched a few episodes of Top Gear and a movie called RocknRolla. I love Guy Ritchie and his films never fail to amuse and entertain. It's not in the Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrells range but it was great in it's own right.

Sorry there weren't many pictures so I'll finish off with a nice random cartoon for you...

 

End of the week...

As you know I've just gone back to work after being off for a heavenly 10 days. It's been a bit of a hard slog but I've made it to the other end of the week with no casualties! Plus M and I have been pretty good on the spending front as we've made our dinners for the last week. Pretty yummy ones too I must say, so we rewarded ourselves by going to our favourite local restaurant on Friday night.

Teriyaki beef bento box

Chicken katsu don

Sorry the colour is a little funny but my phone doesn't take great pics in weird lighting. Probably not helped by the polaroid program. Oh well!

Came home and watched a movie on Foxtel. The new Star Trek. I don't know if anyone's seen it but I thought it was ok. Admittedly I don't and have never followed the series but as a stand alone movie I though it was good.

Saturday morning was a bit of a lazy affair but we did have a schedule to keep as we had a family lunch with M's grandparents out at Bronte. But you couldn't have a weekend morning without at least one indulgent breakfast so we cooked up some french toast, bacon & hash browns. YUM!

We got to take Bails with us to M's grandparents place and he had a lot of fun rolling around on the grass and barking at birds. He doesn't get to experience a lot of grass at our apartment!

Took some really cute pics of him today.

Cheeky face peeking under the barrier we put up to stop him coming into the main part of the house

Out in the garden. Love the fact this pic is upside down.

And here's my outfit for today: a floral sun dress and my nude Clichys. Love those shoes! *sigh*

Now I'm just enjoying a quiet one at home catching up with a few things that need doing while M is out at his friend's bucks night. I mean, a boat, harbour cruise, strippers, music and food...what more does a boy need for a batchelors party? I don't know what time to expect him home but I did say that as long as I see him by Monday morning it's all good and that if he rings me from either Mexico or jail not to bother coming home!!! *roll eyes*

I was going to meet a few friends in town for the opening night of the Sydney Festival as it's usually a great night but by the time I got around to dinner and thinking about heading in it was already 9pm so I opted to stay home instead. I mean I was already in my PJ's...I know, I'm being boring but I think it's just one of those weekends where I'm quite happy to vege out and catch up on some tv.

Anyhow, I'm getting a tad sleepy so I'll chat to y'all later!

January Blues

Why is it after the hustle and bustle of Christmas and New Years Eve do you sink into a sort of post celebration blues? I'm sad yet relieved that silly season has passed and that life as we know it can go back to normal. I can also start saving money again. That is if I don't spend it on shoes or bags! Although I do have the urge to travel this year so that may cure the spending as I would have to save up quite a bit to go travelling.

But I guess after a big couple of months celebrating the festive season January always seems to crawl by at a snails pace. And you're always broke as you've spent last months pay already and are eagerly anticipating this months pay. I've pretty much spent my pay in my head! It's amazing how how broke you can be before you get paid!!

So what's on my wishlist I hear you ask? Well here are a few of the things I've been thinking about getting and doing.

I've been wanting a dslr for a while now. I think it's been about 6 or so years at least. I always buy myself a good point and shoot and then my urge for a dslr goes away for a while. This time I think I should actually get it.

I have chosen the Nikon D5000 as I love Nikons and in the reviews it has the teeniest edge over the Canon 500D. I personally like Canon for compacts and Nikons for slr's. One of the reasons I'm getting sick of my compact is that I hate the way a flash blasts the subject which is why I've included the SB-400 flash in the pic as it bounce off vertically or with a diffuser will give a soft glow to the area of the subject you're photographing rather than a strobe light effect! Just think of the pictures I can take of shoes now in low light!!! Woohoo!

Hmm, what else is on that list? Well I have to include the bags and shoes of course!

CL Alta Iowa in Black Suede (picture from trenduet ebay auction)

CL Bianca in Coral Patent (picture courtesy of tPF)

CL Banana in Lavender Patent (picture off www.christianlouboutin.fr)

CL Simple 100 in Nude Acid Wash Python

CL Lady Claude in Blue Acid Wash Python (picture from Sabrina Greco at NM)

Chanel Camellia WOC

Balenciaga Spring 2010 colours (picture from http://incultstatus.blogspot.com/)

I think the colours in the picture from L-R are black, olive, sang, papeete, canard, cyclade. I have twiggys in olive and canard on pre-order and they should be arriving some time in February/March. Hopefully I like the colours I've pre-ordered. I'm a bit sad I didn't order anything in papeete or sang! I think that's better for my wallet anyway.

And last but not least I have a burning desire to these places. Not that I don't want to visit anywhere else such as Europe but I just want to see these places first. Plus I want to meet a lot of good friends I've made off tPF who live in the States. Ok, I won't lie, plus the shopping. That was a given, was it not?

Vietnam

New York City

Las Vegas

As you can see I have a few things I want to do and get this year so which ones should I prioritise??? Hmmm, tough choice isn't it?

I think I'll sleep on it....

Welcoming 2010 with a banging weekend!

Hope you've all had a great New Years!!! I've had a great New Years weekend packed with celebrations with friends. Pity I have to go to work tomorrow!!! *sigh*

Thursday was NYE and we were running around cleaning, mopping, moving furniture, setting up visuals & getting ready for the party that night. I did something that I've never done before and went and got my hair set in curls and spoilt myself with a manicure and pedicure. I couldn't believe how much the pedi tickled!!!

Here's the result of all my primping:

I love my hair curly, gives it a bit of an edge. I can't wait for my hair to grow a bit (apparently just past my shoulder blades is not long enough!) so I can get a digital perm which will give me a natural looking curl similar to what I got done for the night.

My outfit for the night: a LBD and my CL Madame Claudes in Leopard Patent.

Bailey decided he wanted to have a picture with me so I had to include it! I've also just realised how big the shoes look here but it's only because I'm leaning forward.

This is what our place looked like at the end of the cleaning and setting up effort!

Making sure the decks work

I love this shot

Just before mignight!

Officially 2010!!! YAY!

So cruel but oh so cute!

I'm not sure what time we all crashed but we had some people staying over so when we woke up we all had bacon, eggs and hash browns for brekky. YUM! What a great way to start the year!!!

Nothing much happened yesterday (the 2nd), just spent the day recovering and cleaning up really. I'd forgotten how much damage jager bombs can do... I always think it's so ironic how much cleaning and tidying up goes into hosting a party, you have the party and you have to clean and tidy all over again. This time with a hangover.

Today (the 3rd) we had a friend's birthday lunch at a restaurant/bar called The Deck at Luna Park which is right under the Harbour Bridge on the northern side. I'd never been there before but it was pretty good. We just kept ordering nibblies such as aranchini balls, lamb kibbeh, fries and wedges to go with our cocktails. As usual I forgot to take pics of the food didn't I?

The girls

I was stuffed and little tired.

Well, I think that wraps up what we did for the NYE weekend. My annual leave is over and I must return to work tomorrow to earn my keep! How I wish I was still on holidays but I guess all good things must come to an end. It's not like I'll never have another holiday again!

I hope 2010 brings you all you could ever wish for and let's make it a special year for all!!!