it's been a while!

yes it's absolutely time for a blog update! it truly feels like ages since i have done anything remotely close to creative on the computer but in the meantime it has been a super exciting last couple of months for us!

back in april we were thrilled to discover that we will become a family of four in december! a little brother or sister for eamon - its going to be so much fun :) after a rather intense period of morning sickness/fatigue i am finally feeling like i'm coming 'out of the cloud' and getting back into normal things again. there is so much to do! as much as i want to enjoy this special time i also want to get as many things done as possible before i become attached 24/7 to an infant again! we'll see what happens :)

winter is well and truly upon us! cold nights and super fresh mornings! definitely a lot colder than i expected of our first winter back in the sunny state :) but still a truly beautiful time. we have been spoilt with lots of sunny days and eamon & i have been a bit lazy in the sun at times. i love the bare winter trees and the clear still skies.

today it has been a year since we arrived here from dear little tassie - can you believe it??? its crazy! we are loving it here but we miss tasmania heaps. i miss the lovely people - our beautiful family & friends. ben misses the mountains - of course - and not much else. maybe time to plan a little holiday to tassie soon.

anyway i will leave you with a super duper assortment of photos courtesy of the lovely instagram. i'm a little bit addicted!! so excuse the poor photographic quality for now. my dslr hasn't been out much lately! x

my little diggers on anzac day//staple footwear this winter//beautiful bunker bay where we spent 2 nights back in april//best thing to do after rain//amazing breakfast with the girls @ harvest//an unbelievable amount of homegrown oranges here right now//flowers from my gorgeous mumma//awesome quick thermomix pumpkin soup//spoilt for choice @t2 shop//spending some time at my fave store//eamon: fresh new fringe cut//pomegranate seeds for drinks//using up all those oranges//gettin' rough//white chocolate and pistachio truffles. oh wow//tapas night//can't get enough passionfruit right now even though they are absolutely out of season//in our happy place: ikea//wholemeal spelt pancakes with strawberries, butter + maple//eek! a frog in the watering can!//having a blast unpacking the new sofa//snuggles on the new sofa//homemade free-form soy+linseed loaf//two gorgeous jars of homemade granuesli//vanilla + maple toasted oats for granuesli//eamon: so excited that we will be seeing aunty mandy on the weekend//spending a morning with aunty mandy//tree climbing (with a little help)//sunny winter day in south perth//eamon + aunty mandy//winter tree//absolutely to-die-for almond croissant (not mine - from french patisserie in sth perth)//contents: donna hay annual kids issue//a pretty weekend read: donna hay//lunch: gorgeous vegetable soup

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

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!

spaghetti night

what can i say? no explanations needed for this one i think :)

a surprise !

by now most of you would have heard about the amazing surprise birthday party that darling ed organised for his lovely christine about two weeks ago. well here are the details!

it all started with an inconspicious looking envelope which mysteriously appeared in our car one sunday afternoon about two weeks before, which held an invitation designed by the ever-talented mandy.

the invitation promised a sumptious dinner at the borst's pateena road residence to surprise christine for the 10th anniversary of her 21st birthday!

while ed was declining offers for help, we all wondered how on earth he was going to pull this off without christine clueing in. i had my suspicions that a little someone was going to help but we just had to wait and see.

by the saturday afternoon of the party we'd discovered that indeed, mandy had arrived from WA to distract christine for day so that ed could get it all together! isn't this what dream marriages are made of? ed, you are amazing!

anyway, back to the details...

when we arrived we were greeted by ed (very busy in the kitchen at this stage) and directed to hang out in/near the barn until christine arrived. with a few nibbles and a drink or two, we anticipated the arrival of christine and mandy.

before long, they arrived - christine's reaction was, of course, unforgettable! after a few minutes of composing herself in the car, she came out to say hello to all the sharply dressed family and friends who had made themselves at home in her backyard :) it was priceless.

now the party could really begin!

guests moved inside the barn where there was a beautifully set long table, above which a gorgeous lace and tulle chandelier hung from the barn roof. it was all perfectly suited to christine's taste, of course, and looked nothing like the old barn it usually is. can you believe ed did all this?

while we were all busy admiring the barn's remarkable transformation, entree was served!

in-between courses we went out to admire the sunset over the pretty pateena road fields...

ed wowed us with a delicious serve of pork belly for main course. a few of us mentioned we felt like we were in an instant restaurant of my kitchen rules! (just far better)

time for present-giving, lots of laughs and genuine dingemanse silliness!

an absolutely gorgeous chocolate meringue for dessert ended the evening on a high sweet note!

thanks so much ed, for all your hard work in achieving this truly fantastic party!

and thankyou christine for being such a good sport and sharing this incredible evening with us :) xx

zucchini mad

over at our place we are all but zucchini'd out - i guess its that time of the year when home grown zucchini's are in abundance and everyone is trying to do the same thing - use them up in as many ways as possible!

the one we have here is a lighter green variety but still tastes exactly like regular zucchini. we are very sure about that.

if you have any bright ideas about what else you can do with this monster vegetable (apart from muffins, bread, quiche, fritters) i'd love it if you shared :)

maraschino tea + espresso bar

i have been known for eating burgers much bigger than my mouth! (remember that time mandy?)

if you are into lovely wholesome food, a HUGE selection of teas and lots of other yummies including burgers like this then maraschino in freo is the place to go! they also have a great breakfast menu.

mum + eamon + i stopped by when we were in freo last week - very pram friendly which is always a bonus :)

and they give you big wooden red letters instead of table numbers!

thanks to my beautiful mum for a lovely day out x

a fruity nutty loaf

this here - teamed with a steaming cup of green tea - has been my little survival kit for winter's chilly mornings... my home-baked fruit + nut loaf (mmmm!)

a little tired of spending up to $7 or $8 for designer fruit bread, i decided to embark on my own fruit bread baking adventure!

and although winter (thankfully) is now in the past, i still delight in this little luxury most mornings and have no doubt this little habit will continue well into the warmer months... ...although i should work on reducing the amount of butter i've been spreading on it!

to make follow these here easy intructions...

take one packet of crusty white breadmix, prepare and add to breadmaker according to packet instructions. set the cycle time to three and a half hours or thereabouts (sweet or french, depending on your machine). fifteen to twenty minutes into the cycle (while the dough is kneading) add a small handful of roughly chopped walnuts, around 3/4 cup of sultanas, two tablespoons of brown sugar and a teaspoon each of nutmeg and cinnamon. then leave the breadmaker to do its thing. if you're the particularly adventurous type or have some dough know-how you could most certainly do this by hand.

a bit over three hours later you will have wonderfully sweet baking aromas wafting through the house and a great fruit loaf too. best served toasted with a generous spreading of real butter :)

to market

on saturday the 1st of may, the free reformed church of southern river held a market to raise funds for the compassion ministry drug arm.

the results of much hard work and effort by the organisers and stall-holders was a beautiful and colourful display of stalls - crafty and foodie; plants, herbs and lollies!
definately well worth visiting..

among the keen sellers was the beautiful work of aimee & emma for i.am.me as well as a fine sample of works from aimeeclaire's photography.

the moment melted

inspired by real living magazine i got stuck into baking and made the featured melting moments.
they went down well over the christmas break