new favourite food blog

i'm so excited! the link to this blog was just passed on to me by my friend steph - and i just HAD to share it. i love love love love LOVE this blog!
how amazing is the photography?
it also boasts some fabulous recipes (including raw brownies, healthy mousse, wicked salads) and ideas using very very healthy ingredients - and not a drop of sugar! even if i'm not courageous enough to try any of the mouthwatering recipes (the author is a chef!) i'm sure to learn a thing or two just by reading along.

have i always been so healthy?

most certainly not.

since flying the nest of the parental home some five years ago, food eating in my life and in our household has been a bit of journey you could say. when first burdened with the responsibility of cooking for myself it was mostly about taste and not really about nutrition. sure, i ate salad and fruit and all the good stuff, but also a tonne of bad stuff and didn't really think much more about it all. the trend continued into married life at which point the portion size increased (eek! perhaps to match the enormous appetite of my husband) and the extreme busy-ness of life took over the need to eat that heathily. convenient and yummy food ruled!

then a baby came along and my intake was governed entirely by the coming and going of morning sickness during pregnancy and all the associated do's and don'ts. this was followed by my breastfeeding 'diet' which involved eating everything and anything in sight (i was constantly famished!). luckily for me, none of this resulted in any major weight gain or loss and for that i'm very thankful for.

since little eamon has been eating food like a big boy (and since we, as parents, have tried to give him the best possible start in life by providing him with healthy nutritious food as often as possible) our food eating habits have changed once again. we started eating 'baby-friendly' foods as eamon began eating family foods so that we could all sit down and eat the same thing rather than doing separate dinners. this means less salt, less sugar, less gluten (just trying to be healthy!), less processed food and less preservatives. probably the healthiest we had ever been at that point.

and THEN. last weekend i went to a seminar where naturopath Leicester and Pauline Jones spoke on the benefits of healthy lifestyle with a christian foundation. it was nothing short of amazing and i learnt so much. it made me want to change so much about the food we buy and eat, and inspired us to get stuck into the veggie garden again in a really big way. it is a huge challenge because so much of the food that is healthy is pretty foreign to me... like, i'd never heard of chia seeds before, but apparently they are extremely good for you. and coconut oil, i never knew you could just eat it by the spoonful, to me its a moisturiser for your skin! its a bit of a learning curve, trying to figure out how to prepare and cook with these wonderful new foods - so we have decided just to take it one step at a time. it was so much to take in on one day and i still have so many questions about this and that. but also so excited to try some new things.

so i'm very looking forward to reading more of what this blog has to offer. yum!

pictures from MyNewRoots blog

made for me

check out these ever-so-cute little ply wood coasters... made just for yummy cups of tea (and coffee i suppose too!)

i couldn't help but include them - the seller must have had me in mind when she made them as they are just perfect. i may just have to put them on my wish list :)

thanks to my lovely sis chantelle for sharing these etsy beauties with me x

red bridge cafe + providore

just the other day we took a merry trip down to Campbell Town - a 40 or so minute drive south of launceston.

Cambell Town is one of those places you always drive through but never stop at - unless its for a toilet/food/kid break on the way to here or there. but then some smart chaps opened the red bridge cafe + providore on the main street and Campbell Town became a place i actually wanted to stop at and explore!

we finally did that, at the easter weekend a couple of weeks back. the cafe and providore is a bit cute and cosy - it has an old-ness vibe about it due to the antique-style furniture and fit-out + combined with the modern-ness of the providore it makes for a fun place to check out.

the air definitely had that 'autumn' feel and the colours were in full swing. winter is very seriously just around the corner... eek!

harper's fifth birthday!

as it is now already eva's birthday (today!) it is well and truly time to get around to posting some photos of harper's birthday, which was about a month ago now :)

harper had a gorgeous 'garden' themed party, complete with an amazing garden scene cake, hanging butterflies and cute little badges for the party people to wear, shared with her friends and family. one of her gifts was a beautiful handmade fancy dress! (which she is wearing).

thanks for a wonderful afternoon at your party harper! x

comic relief

i just had to share this little video with you all - hopefully it will bring a little humour to your day, as it did for us :)



this was the first time eamon had managed to climb into his toy box - and i couldn't resist the temptation to record it in some way - quickly grabbed the point and shoot and started filming.

and then...oops! poor little fella. such a coincidence that i happened to be filming at the time.

i showed ben after he got home from hospital - the laughing hurt so much he made me promise not to show him again for a long time. you see these kinds of vids on funniest home videos all the time but its SO much funnier when its your own kid :)