Happy Anniversary!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Baby Shower
This week I co-hosted a baby shower for my beautiful assistant Emma. She is due to welcome baby Xavier into the world in a few weeks and is finishing up work.
We had the shower in the conference room in my office.
Our local bakearella Annette made these cute cupcakes. That icing was very blue!
Whoever invented chocolate spiders was a genius! A little weird and warped, but a genius!
I did a tray of lunch meats and a tray of vegetable crudites with a dip. I also made a sweet dip to go with the fruit plate prepared by another girl.
I also did the table and the decorations. I think it all looked lovely! There is only so much you can do with a boring conference room in a law office.
Here I am with Emma. This is truly an awful picture of me, but this blog is all about the honesty...
We had the shower in the conference room in my office.
Our local bakearella Annette made these cute cupcakes. That icing was very blue!
Whoever invented chocolate spiders was a genius! A little weird and warped, but a genius!
I did a tray of lunch meats and a tray of vegetable crudites with a dip. I also made a sweet dip to go with the fruit plate prepared by another girl.
I also did the table and the decorations. I think it all looked lovely! There is only so much you can do with a boring conference room in a law office.
Here I am with Emma. This is truly an awful picture of me, but this blog is all about the honesty...
Here is Emma with my co-host Cara.
We all had a lovely time at the shower and Emma was blown away by our efforts. We also gave her a very special gift - a voucher for a session of newborn photos with the photographer who took her wedding pictures! She was so excited! It is so much more special than clothes or nursery bits and pieces.
I will be very sad to see Emma leave work, but I cannot wait to meet baby Xavier!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
My Country
Never have the words of Dorothea Mackellar been more apt:
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold -
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land -
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand -
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
Three quarters of all of Queensland is a certified disaster. This in a state that makes up 25% of Australia's land mass, which is four times the size of Japan, nearly six times the size of the UK and more than twice the size of Texas.
The brutal severity of the floods is a bitter epilogue to the hardest drought this land has known. This wide brown land is a fickle mistress. Through bushfires and floods the people of Australia have rallied. This disaster is no different.
The continuous television coverage of the floods and now the relief effort is breathtaking. I am at once seized by the epic and devastating powers of mother nature and by the heroic and loyal nature of my fellow Australians.
I have never been prouder to be an Australian than I was to see former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wading through flood waters assisting with the evacuations in his electorate. What a brave and noble man, still with so much to give to a country that treated him so poorly.
I have never been prouder of my country than I was today, when I saw the devastation of floods in Brazil and Sri Lanka. Hundreds dead. Poorly constructed, illegal homes washed away. No armies of volunteers in gumboots and shorts rushing in with brooms and shovels to restore order.
Weeping widows and orphaned children roaming the muddy streets. In Queensland we have huge relief centres with warm blankets, cold beer and safe shoulders to cry on. Soldiers armed with engineering equipment and not guns. Politicians working together to lift citizens from panic and despair.
Oh how I love this sunburnt country.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold -
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land -
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand -
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
Three quarters of all of Queensland is a certified disaster. This in a state that makes up 25% of Australia's land mass, which is four times the size of Japan, nearly six times the size of the UK and more than twice the size of Texas.
The brutal severity of the floods is a bitter epilogue to the hardest drought this land has known. This wide brown land is a fickle mistress. Through bushfires and floods the people of Australia have rallied. This disaster is no different.
The continuous television coverage of the floods and now the relief effort is breathtaking. I am at once seized by the epic and devastating powers of mother nature and by the heroic and loyal nature of my fellow Australians.
I have never been prouder to be an Australian than I was to see former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wading through flood waters assisting with the evacuations in his electorate. What a brave and noble man, still with so much to give to a country that treated him so poorly.
I have never been prouder of my country than I was today, when I saw the devastation of floods in Brazil and Sri Lanka. Hundreds dead. Poorly constructed, illegal homes washed away. No armies of volunteers in gumboots and shorts rushing in with brooms and shovels to restore order.
Weeping widows and orphaned children roaming the muddy streets. In Queensland we have huge relief centres with warm blankets, cold beer and safe shoulders to cry on. Soldiers armed with engineering equipment and not guns. Politicians working together to lift citizens from panic and despair.
Oh how I love this sunburnt country.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Williams-Sonoma Care Package
In early December I put in a big order with Williams Sonoma. I fell in love with WS when I was in America last year and new his Christmas would not be the same without some goodies.
WS do not ship to Australia, so I had the package delivered to my sister's in Boston and she blessed it forward! Handy!
These peppermint creams were meant to be a gift for my mother..... FAIL.
G took one look at them and re-gifted them to.......us. We did take some for mum on Christmas Day.
We really enjoyed the ho-cho during the annual Polar Express viewing. As it was mostly 1000 degrees here over the Christmas we have now put it away to enjoy over winter. The Serendipity frozen ho-cho is yet to make an appearance on our festive table. Maybe today.
I had high hopes for these mixes! Sadly, the tins out-shone the cookies. The gingerbread and cookies I made from a recipe turned out better than this mix. We will keep the beautiful tins though!
The absolute, hands down, would sell our souls at the cross roads, winner, was peppermint bark! I am not sure why I don't have a picture of the peppermint bark.
It. Was. AMAZING.
Angels floating on clouds in Heaven eat this peppermint bark. I am quite sure of it.
If we gave this peppermint bark to people in Africa and the Middle East peace would break out all across the world!
Next year I will definitely place an order for, a few a couple a dozen........ tins of peppermint bark!!
Monday, January 3, 2011
Carols by sunlight
One of the great Christmas traditions here is Carols by Candlelight. It is warm enough (or stinking hot!) to stay outdoors well into the night, singing carols and waving a candle.
We always attend a local Carols event. It is small town cheesy, with local "celebrities", some dancing school numbers and the MC from the local football team. It is daggy and cringe-inducing but we love it!
This year it was upgraded to the local football stadium. We grabbed the rug and the Aeroguard and headed off!
Some people were clearing settling in for a long evening, with eskys full of picnic dinner (and possibly the odd cold festive beverage).
Those that did not bring a picnic dinner partook in that greatest of Aussie traditions: a sausage sizzle!
I have to say we were disappointed by the event. Moving it to the stadium turned it from a hokey local event to something on a grand scale. Sadly the talent and organization did not upgrade to match the new digs.
Our Rockfest kids (with us at the helm) could have put on a much better show! Hubs thinks I should join (take over) the local Rotary branch to get on the organizing committee.
Maybe next year.....
I do have a few thoughts....
We always attend a local Carols event. It is small town cheesy, with local "celebrities", some dancing school numbers and the MC from the local football team. It is daggy and cringe-inducing but we love it!
This year it was upgraded to the local football stadium. We grabbed the rug and the Aeroguard and headed off!
Some people were clearing settling in for a long evening, with eskys full of picnic dinner (and possibly the odd cold festive beverage).
Those that did not bring a picnic dinner partook in that greatest of Aussie traditions: a sausage sizzle!
I have to say we were disappointed by the event. Moving it to the stadium turned it from a hokey local event to something on a grand scale. Sadly the talent and organization did not upgrade to match the new digs.
Our Rockfest kids (with us at the helm) could have put on a much better show! Hubs thinks I should join (take over) the local Rotary branch to get on the organizing committee.
Maybe next year.....
I do have a few thoughts....
A Swinging Christmas?
Last Christmas Hubs and I were in America. We spent a week in New York and captured every Hallmark / Hollywood Christmas moment. From Macy's to Rockefeller's to seeing White Christmas on Broadway. it was magical.
We then spent an entirely too short time in Washington, followed by two glorious weeks with my sister in Boston.
We fulfilled every white Christmas dream any southern hemisphere child has ever dreamed.
G and I both knew that this Christmas would be.... different. Hard. It is the first real Christmas without G's wonderful dad and the first away from my sister.
We both knew that nothing we could possibly do here would compare to New York at Christmas time. To avoid the inevitable comparisons and any gormless moping that would ensue, we decided to pack into December as much activity as we could!
We were SO BUSY in December I hardly even read blogs, let alone wrote any. I will do a few whirlwind posts to fill you in (and so I can remember this wonderful Festival of Christmas for ever).
One of the wackiest things we did was visit the Historical Houses Trust home, Rose Siedler House, for a Swinging Christmas. The website promised a jazz band doing 50s Christmas carols and songs. Perfect!
We have visited this property before for the 50s Fair. It is an award winning innovative home designed in the 50s and preserved.
At the 50s Fair there were about 1000 people there and a large band shell erected on the lawn. We anticipated a similar crowd for the Swinging Christmas. Boy, were we wrong.
We strolled down the drive and I was instantly anxious that we had got the date wrong. There was nobody about. Very different to the bustling throng of the 50s Fair.
As we approached the house we saw some ladies posing for pictures out front. One lady had a beautiful big Betty Draper frock on, complete with petticoats. The other had a form fitting Joan Holloway dress hugging her curves.
I instantly regretted the skirt and blouse (think Lands End Canvas not Mad Men) and regretted not dressing up.
As we entered the home and removed our shoes, I was instantly calmed. We were greeted by a lovely gentleman in a bow tie who marked our names off the list and gave us a martini.
A martini?
This is a preserved heritage property. We have to take our shoes off, but we can drink martinis in here???
There were about thirty people there in total (judging by the shoes!)
Most people were not dressed up. Everyone was sipping martinis and eating canapes (in the house.....)
It truly felt like we were at a party at some one's home. I expected to see Betty and Francine come bustling out of the kitchen with another tray of drinks and canapes.
For the briefest of moments I had a little panic. This was a Swinging Christmas. There were loads of drinks, lots of couples.....
What if this really was a SWINGING CHRISTMAS?? I looked frantically around for a bowl with keys in it, and found none. I then checked my Blackberry and confirmed that this was actually an official Historic Houses Trust event.
Hubs proceeded to get shlickered on martinis while I eyeballed the other couples to see if they were swingers or SWINGERS. I decided it was hard to tell.
We explored the house. It felt so intimate to wander the rooms with our drinks and just a few other people.
The bow tied man was the Director of the Rose Seidler House and was both a wonderful host (kept the drinks flowing and the canapes hot) and an amazing tour guide!
The house is really amazing. It is filled with "technology" that was award winning in the 1950s.
The band was wonderful. There was a drummer, double bass, keys and a wind man who alternated flute and saxophone. They played all the old time Christmas carols and songs and also period songs like Cole Porter and Benny Goodman.
We had a wonderful night!
And yes - we left with the same partner we arrived with!
We then spent an entirely too short time in Washington, followed by two glorious weeks with my sister in Boston.
We fulfilled every white Christmas dream any southern hemisphere child has ever dreamed.
G and I both knew that this Christmas would be.... different. Hard. It is the first real Christmas without G's wonderful dad and the first away from my sister.
We both knew that nothing we could possibly do here would compare to New York at Christmas time. To avoid the inevitable comparisons and any gormless moping that would ensue, we decided to pack into December as much activity as we could!
We were SO BUSY in December I hardly even read blogs, let alone wrote any. I will do a few whirlwind posts to fill you in (and so I can remember this wonderful Festival of Christmas for ever).
One of the wackiest things we did was visit the Historical Houses Trust home, Rose Siedler House, for a Swinging Christmas. The website promised a jazz band doing 50s Christmas carols and songs. Perfect!
We have visited this property before for the 50s Fair. It is an award winning innovative home designed in the 50s and preserved.
At the 50s Fair there were about 1000 people there and a large band shell erected on the lawn. We anticipated a similar crowd for the Swinging Christmas. Boy, were we wrong.
We strolled down the drive and I was instantly anxious that we had got the date wrong. There was nobody about. Very different to the bustling throng of the 50s Fair.
As we approached the house we saw some ladies posing for pictures out front. One lady had a beautiful big Betty Draper frock on, complete with petticoats. The other had a form fitting Joan Holloway dress hugging her curves.
I instantly regretted the skirt and blouse (think Lands End Canvas not Mad Men) and regretted not dressing up.
As we entered the home and removed our shoes, I was instantly calmed. We were greeted by a lovely gentleman in a bow tie who marked our names off the list and gave us a martini.
A martini?
This is a preserved heritage property. We have to take our shoes off, but we can drink martinis in here???
There were about thirty people there in total (judging by the shoes!)
Most people were not dressed up. Everyone was sipping martinis and eating canapes (in the house.....)
It truly felt like we were at a party at some one's home. I expected to see Betty and Francine come bustling out of the kitchen with another tray of drinks and canapes.
For the briefest of moments I had a little panic. This was a Swinging Christmas. There were loads of drinks, lots of couples.....
What if this really was a SWINGING CHRISTMAS?? I looked frantically around for a bowl with keys in it, and found none. I then checked my Blackberry and confirmed that this was actually an official Historic Houses Trust event.
Hubs proceeded to get shlickered on martinis while I eyeballed the other couples to see if they were swingers or SWINGERS. I decided it was hard to tell.
We explored the house. It felt so intimate to wander the rooms with our drinks and just a few other people.
The bow tied man was the Director of the Rose Seidler House and was both a wonderful host (kept the drinks flowing and the canapes hot) and an amazing tour guide!
Imagine cooking Christmas dinner on this?
The house is really amazing. It is filled with "technology" that was award winning in the 1950s.
My KitchenAid looks EXACTLY like this! Perfect for 50 years!
The band was wonderful. There was a drummer, double bass, keys and a wind man who alternated flute and saxophone. They played all the old time Christmas carols and songs and also period songs like Cole Porter and Benny Goodman.
We had a wonderful night!
And yes - we left with the same partner we arrived with!
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