Capital Kitchen Melbourne

I had a coffee with a beautiful friend this morning at one of my favourite cafes. Capital Kitchen at Chadstone is so lovely. My friend ordered Bircher Muesli, which was to die for. It came with Yoghurt and berries with apple pieces on top. The presentation was so simple but effective. It was delicious. We are so time poor and it is nice to meet somewhere special even only for an hour.

I couldn't help myself , but I loved these simple white pots out the front of Capital Kitchen. This has given me some ideas.

My Life Size Organiser....... HELP!

My favourite shop right now is Kikki K. I need as much help as I can get, to organise my day to day life. I talk to so many friends and family, continually asking them, how do you organise your life and know where you are meant to be? My girlfriend use to have an excel spreadsheet for each child and husband, so everyone knew who was where, when. I have tried paper diaries, my IPhone diary, Outlook on my email account at work, daily planners and so on. I cannot keep up, I don't know how to run a work diary, uni diary, kids diary, home diary, social diary ( the most important )  and try and sync with my husbands diary. So, I have attempted this life size monthly planner on the fridge from Kikki K, and this seems to be working. Ridiculous I know, but no one can miss it. If anyone has any other great ideas please do share. I still do not believe that there is one answer here, but it sure is helping.

Wedding Anniversary!

This year my husband and I thought we would celebrate our 12th Wedding Anniversary by hosting a lovely dinner with our family. There is nothing better than a home cooked meal. We went the eye fillet, potatoes and a beautiful new vegetable salad, from Donna Hay, via my gorgeous friends, Pen and Dan. I have to say, I'm such a fan of Donna Hay, she makes food so easy. Roasted Carrot, Parsnip and feta salad, marinated in honey and cummin . Delicious. A very simple table setting and beautiful raspberry vanilla cheesecakes for dessert, another DH recipe.

Donna Hay's Dessert Recipe
Vanilla Raspberrie Cheesecakes

100g plain sweet biscuits  80g butter, melted  250g cream cheese, softened  ¼ cup (40g) icing (confectioner's) sugar  2 teaspoons vanilla extract  ½ cup (125ml) single (pouring) cream marinated raspberries  120g raspberries+  1 ½ tablespoon dessert wine or your favourite liqueur  2 teaspoons icing (confectioner's) sugar   Place the biscuits in the bowl of a food processor and process until they resemble fine breadcrumbs. Add the butter and stir until well combined. Cut 4 strips of non-stick baking paper and use these to line the bases of 4 x ½ cup-capacity (125ml) lightly greased muffin tins). Press the biscuit mixture into the tins and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.      Place the cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla and cream in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 8–10 minutes or until light and smooth. Set aside.  To make the marinated raspberries, place the raspberries, wine and sugar in a bowl and mix to combine. Set aside for 10 minutes to marinate. Remove the biscuit cases from the tins using the paper strips. Spoon the cream cheese mixture into the cases and top with the marinated raspberries to serve. Serves 4. + You could also use thawed frozen raspberries in this recipe.

Happy Valentine's Day

I got baking for the family today. Love heart cookies and a beautiful white chocolate raspberry dessert. My husband and my lovely neighbours loved it. Nicholas took his little gifts to school and had a great day. Happy V Day!

Valentines Day tomorrow!

I'm not normally interested in Valentines Day, but since it is so close to my husband and my 20 year anniversary of when he asked me to go " out with him"ha ha back in March 1991, I thought I might get a little festive. I decorated our little white tree, with notes for the kids and I to write on and give to each other tomorrow. I have also made some little Valentine marshmallow bags for Nicholas to take to school tomorrow and a bag of marshmallow's for his teacher. Hopefully teaching him the lesson of generosity and compassion. Just something little. Thank you to "Project Girl ", "Pink Trike Designs " and " Super Organiser Mum" for the downloads.

Reversing Cars out of driveways, all too close!

Recently my son and his friends have been riding their bikes and scooters up and down the street. However as a mother you are constantly concerned about their safety. The other day a neighbour of ours reversed out of her driveway and missed the kids on their bikes by an inch. We are continually reminding our children to watch out for reversing cars as it could of been a real disaster. A few of the mothers in the street have come together and thought that we would put out a note for all our neighbours to support us in being vigilant with our children's safety when it comes to car awareness. I have put this together and will do a mailbox drop tomorrow. What do you think?

A little note for our neighbours

Morning Tea with the Girls, so nice.

I planned a morning tea after school drop off, with my gorgeous girlfriends. What a lovely morning. There is something to be said about girlfriends. They all came over with their gorgeous smiles and a chance for us all to sit and chat without interruption. I cannot remember the last time we were able to do that. Thanks girls. Love you x
I made magnolia cup cakes with toppers, lemon slice and added some fruit for our morning tea. You can't have a morning tea without lovely fresh flowers. My gorgeous friend bought me these lovely orchards.

Nicholas and Isabelle's folders

I decided to create these folders for Nicholas and Isabelle for all their notices and documents that come home from school and kinder on a daily basis. I always find that I have notices left in school bags, on benches and in cars, this way the folders will be left on our shelf in the kitchen for my husband and I to access easily.