What a weekend! Waterfalls, mountains and family time

Wow, I need a weekend to recover from our weekend! On Saturday we headed down to the Gold Coast. A quick stop at Harbour Town to do some outlet shopping then we were on our way to spend some family time together away from all technology & computers. First stop was lunch by a lovely warm fire at one of the local cafes.



We headed off on a bush walk at The Natural Bridge. Mr P & I have not been there since I was a teenager. I have been swimming there before but now it is only for viewing. And what a spectacular view it is! We used to go there quite a lot so it was nice to head back there with our kids.



It is a truly magical place & it is a pretty easy walk to get to.








It was a wonderful day & the girls are still talking about how much fun they had. They are already planning our next bush walk for next month to another spot that Mr P & I used to go to before we had kids. I am loving the age that my girls are at as they are able to fully enjoy every moment of our outings. The only problem is when one of them gets a little too brave & you can’t find her. Then out of the bush, you see her on the other side of a waterfall!



Yes, she was standing there smiling while I am yelling across a waterfall! One of those moments when you know that your babies are growing way to fast! Then the cheeky thing pulled out her iPhone & took a photo of me yelling at her!

It was a fantastic day & it was great to be able to do some physical activity while enjoying the scenery & spending time with the family.

To top off a fantastic day, we then called into Ikea on the way home! I now have a new white rug for the lounge room!



Linking up here with Nee Say

We are painting it all white!

I have taken on some pretty big projects around our house before. I love everything DIY. But this could be the biggest project yet. Mr P has agreed to let me paint ALL of the furniture white! It has been my dream for so long. I feel that now the girls are no longer little kids & spend most of their time either locked in their rooms with the music blaring or doing some sort of sporting activity that I can finally have the home that I have dreamed of. We brought out home 9 & 1/2 years ago. It is time to either re-do or move. It is a lot easier to re-do. We live close to the girls schools & they are very established so there is no chance that I would ever make them change schools so moving is just not really an option. So I have been searching Pinterest for inspiration.

Image source Charming Cottage in French

Image source Mlle magpie

Image source

Image source The Lennoxx

Image source Country Workshop

This is why I like white & aqua together!

Image source iubiree

It makes me feel calm, relaxed & refreshed. Just like you are on holidays everyday!

Want to see what else I am dreaming of & inspired by?

Follow me on Pinterest

A blog with a view

Today I caught up with some awesome bloggers. We all live near each other so it is nice to get out of the house every now & then to spend some time with other bloggers. Tina Gray {Dot} Me has recently done 2 blogs, about bloggers joining up with bloggers to form an alliance {here} & how to form a bloggers alliance {here}. I love my blogging buddies & I look forward to our catch ups. I mean who wouldn’t want to have a “meeting” in an office like this!









When my girls were little, I used to run a playgroup. I am a pretty social person. So this is the natural next step for me. The girls are at school all week, Mr P is away for work & I want to be able to talk to people who are doing the same things as me. We do not all blog about the same things. We have our own little niche. But we all blog. It is very easy to get off topic though. I mean all bloggers blog because they have something to say. Yes, bloggers love to talk! Ok, maybe I am getting more & more vocal at each catch up but isn’t that part of becoming comfortable with your friends? It is so nice to get out from behind the computer & visit the outside world. Sometimes I wonder if maybe we get too caught up with social media & we don’t get out to see real people in a real place. Not just some cyber friends in a cyber room or a cyber page.
Do you have a group that you catch up with regularly?
A playgroup?
A group of friends from high school that you still see now?
Neighbours that get together for a cup of coffee?
Mum’s from the kids schools?
A sewing or craft group? (oh, I so want to join one of those!)
Or do you have your own group of blogging buddies?

A giveaway! Do you crochet?

{free crochet tutorials included at the end of this post}

If you remember, last week, I posted about a fabulous new crochet hook called Sharp Crochet Hook. Well, the fabulous Jessica from Sharp Crochet Hook would like to give one of my fabulous readers the chance to win one for themselves!

This hook is super awesome & you can add beautiful crochet borders to all of your projects. You can even use it to crochet through paper/card to make beautiful keepsake cards & invitations. You can crochet onto baby blankets, socks, gloves, tea towels, pillowcases, scrapbooking pages, etc.

More patterns & designs here

Blog found here with even more exciting ideas & projects

Ok, now to be in the running to receive your very own sharp crochet hook & crochet project handbook,

Leave a comment below with what would be your first project that you would want to make with this hook.

This competition is open to readers from Europe, Australia, and North America.

I will notify Jessica of the winner & she will the prize directly to the winner.

Just make sure that you have a valid email address linked to your comment (or leave your email address in the comment) so that I can notify you if you are the winner.

This giveaway will end on Tuesday the 24th of July 2012.

More ideas using the Sharp Crochet Hook

(click on the pics to take you to the blog)

Wordless Wednesday.

My garden is blooming!

I am still learning the ins & outs of my camera but I am enjoying the learning process.

P.S. I love my new camera, just saying!

Linking up with My Little Drummer Boys for Wordless Wednesday

Homemade Tomato soup recipe

Continuing on with the tomato theme from yesterday, I am going to share this awesome (if I do say so myself!) Tomato soup recipe. This soup is so yummy & delicious. It is very filling & perfect to freeze for lunches or dinners.

It is really easy & simple to make. I don’t even peel the tomatoes! More on that later. Lets get started.
The key to a good tomato soup is to use very ripe tomatoes. Bright red & juicy are the best as they have the most flavour.

In a large saucepan, place

2 kg of chopped tomatoes

2 medium sliced zucchini’s

2 medium sliced carrots

1 sliced red capsicum

2 shallots cut into 1 cm pieces

1/8 of a cup of olive oil

Cook on medium high until it starts to form a chunky sauce.

Add 500ml of stock. I used stock made with Vegeta  which is a vegetable stock powder.

Using a stick blender, puree until smooth.

At this point you can strain the soup if you want to get rid of any tomato peels but I do have to say that if you blend it well enough, there really won’t be many (if any) at all.

Serve with croutons.

If you have leftovers, freeze it in serving sized containers.

Label & store in the freezer for lunches or dinners.

This is a great recipe to keep you feeling full & warm during these cold winters day without adding to the waistline.

Breakfast for champions or hardworking Mum’s. Tomato, mushroom & corn fry up.

Today is day one of my healthy new life. You are going to find that there is going to be a lot of healthier recipes here on the blog. Don’t worry though, I will still be treating myself to sweet treats every now & then so you will still find some yummy indulgent food here too. If you want to follow me on my new healthy lifestyle (and hopefully a lot of weight loss) you can follow the journey at Living Sweet & Simple. I will be sharing the recipes here though. Today I kicked off the new healthy life with a beautiful breakfast.

I prepared this on the weekend & then this morning I just had to reheat in the microwave, cook some wholemeal toast & eat. When I was doing the fruit & veg shopping on Friday, I found a bargain at my local fruit & veg shop when I spotted a box of tomatoes for $4.99. That’s right! A whole box that would normally have been the price of 1 kilo. A lot of this weeks recipes will involve tomatoes if you didn’t just guess that. I used to make this breakfast when I was a gym junkie. Yes, hard to believe but I used to get up every morning & go to the gym for at least an hour. I found that this breakfast was filling & kept me full of energy a lot longer than breakfast cereals. It is seriously easy to make & if you make a huge batch then you will have your breakfast organised for weeks!

In a big saucepan, throw in tomatoes, mushrooms & drained tin corn with a generous amount of olive oil.

Cook on medium high, uncovered for around 10 minutes. I like to cook it until it starts to look a bit like a chunky sauce. Then increase the heat to high for around 5 minutes or until it starts to thicken. If you are making it in advance for breakfast, freeze in 250ml containers (freezer safe & microwave safe).

When you want a quick & nutritious breakfast that takes as long as cooking toast, pop the lid off a container & reheat while your toast is cooking (follow your microwave instructions from the manufacturer)

This is delicious!

I like to eat breakfast after the kids have gone to school so this morning I had an apple & a cup of warm water with fresh lemon squeezed in when I got up this morning to keep me going.

What did you have for breakfast this morning?

Sunday Snapshots- kids in the kitchen

On Sundays, I like to let the girls take over the kitchen. Mr P had left for work early this morning so it was the perfect time to make a mess! Today was cupcake day. The girls love watching Cupcake Wars, Cake Boss, Ace of Cakes….you name it. If there is a cake making show, they watch it! Ok, I must admit, I too love a good cake making show. Today they went with Chocolate fudge cupcakes with chocolate butter cream icing. There was a few gel icing pens in the cupboard so they put them to good use. There was also some fondant so Kiara got a little extra creative.

We have a Martha Stewart in the making!

This is when I like to close my eyes & just let the mess happen!

Do you let your kids loose in the kitchen? I love to see what they can create.