Esmeralda's shoes

My new fab sandals $24 can't go wrong

When disaster struck!!

Yesterday morning I was at a school event when my gorgeous friend called we arranged to meet we were having a fab time window shopping and chatting.

let me tell you about my friend lets call her Esmeralda she is just fabulous I am going to come back as her in my next life, she is gorgeous in every sense good looking, super amazing personality and she is a fashionista to the max with her Jimmy choo and incredible wardrobe. When we met she commented in my sandals which I must say they are my favourite they make my horrid feet look half decent and they are comfortable so there we were walking around looking at clothes trying clothes, when disaster struck I heard my sandal snap WHAT!!!!!! I thought I can’t believe this is happening……………

so I shuffled and shuffled we were borderline peeing our pants laughing I couldn’t believe my sandals broke specially after she commented on how nice they were. I asked her whether she yinks me when giving me the compliment by this time she had bought several pair of shoes and Moi nil so off we went to every single store we could find how can it be that we are two days away from summer and there is hardly any choice on sandals and the shop that did have sandals did not have my size I needed something PRONTO!

I was just about feel defeated when we had a light bulb moment – TARGET – or TARRRR….GET as MR Gok says if it is good enough for Mr Gok is good enough for Moi I found so many sandals to choose from so the day was safe and I could continue our shopping expedition and I must say I am loving my $24 bargain.

After school pick up I dropped by to another friend’s house and she commented how lovely my shoes were and asked me if I got them at Witchery.

So here I am from distaster to fab again I know where to go and buy some pretty cool shoes now and thanks Esmeralda for laughing with me the whole way.

Cheers

Karla

What's growing around the WhiteCottage

 

Green Beans

 

Corn

 

Strawberries

 

Rosemary

 

 Sage

 

cant wait for this beauties.....Radishes

We have had loads of rain in recent times and the garden has gone beserko it is great after 3 years we have had enough strawberries to have as a meal we usually only have one or two but the last few weeks we have been able to have a bunch each day super delish!!!!

We planted green beans, they grown incredibly and they were so sweet and crispy we made crispy bean salad, I could eat green beans everyday I never get tired of eating them.

The garden is looking good we really needed all that rain and,

I am really enjoying what the rain brought to our garden fresh vegies from the patch and all wonderful flowers for our house.

cheers 

Karla

Back to nature

A few weeks ago the council chopped down all the paper bark trees in our street apparently they were interfering with the drainage, I felt so sad that the trees were gone, our neighbourhood is changing.

The chopping of the trees has brought lots of emotions and memories, When I look out of my window or sit in our garden I look at trees and birds, the munchkins and I usually go for bush walks picking up sticks and searching for cockatoos we usually see them at the end of the street.

When I was small child I spent a lot of my time in the countryside in my grandma's farm, my cousins and I would run around the farm climbing trees, swimming in the creek and having races on the train line, the train line was barely used, it was only used for transporting sugar cane during harvest time.

I am trying for our children to have similar experiences where they have a relationship with nature, it can be difficult at times, we live in such a technological world where children are spending so much time with their ipad and all types of gadgets.

Something funny happened the other day at my munchkin's tennis lesson, I was sitting with another mum just watching the kids hitting the balls and she was telling me how she likes to keep her 3 children contained inside the house and she doesn't let them go to the park as she is a homebody and it made me think, do lots of people not let children become in touch with nature? have we become such a technological society?.

I was reading "littlegreenshed" a personal blog, Lou the writer had a short film by Project wild thing, when I watched it, it resonated with me, I hope our children have a connection with nature just the same way Farmer Joe and I had and have.

I'll let you be the judge
Cheers Karla

Weekend Baking - Banana Cake

After a week of running around with normal life, work, school, volunteering or whatever it might be, when the weekend arrives we just enjoy the moment going for drive having a picnic or just simply relaxing at the WhiteCottage there is always some gardening to do.

I always bake or cook something for those moments where we just want to enjoy a cuppa.

Today I baked a Banana Cake it is dead simple and delish!!

Enjoy 

Karla

WhiteCottage - Banana Cake

Ingredients

125g butter
3/4 cup sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
2 ripe bananas mashed
1 1/2  cup self raising flour
1/4 cup milk

Method

*Melt butter, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan

*remove from heat

*add mashed bananas and stir through until blended

*add egg and mix well

*stir in flour, add milk and mix

*bake at 170c for approximately 40 minutes

You can always count on fresh flowers and good friends

The last couple of weeks have been like a blur I have been so busy just being a mum to three wonderful munchkins, volunteering, actually doing paid work and trying to start my baking business, today was one of those days that I came to the realisation that I will have to pull on the brakes and maybe have more cuppas (if that is humanly possible).

I had one of those days that nothing was going right I should have known it was not going to be a good day when I couldn't sleep last night and I was just there lying listening to the rain.

This morning I forgot our eldest munchkin's swimming shirt so I came home to fetch it and I thought I should cook dinner early as I will be busy in the afternoon with tennis lesson so I cooked dinner and I left home and did not put the food away needless to say it ended up in the rubbish bin.

I was on the blog earlier today and I haven't mentioned it before but I am a technologically challenged so while changing a picture on my blog it went Kaput and I had no idea what to do

I was sitting here just thinking what to do and kept thinking I must enrol myself to that course to learn how to fix blog problems, then I thought is there such a thing so you get my drift I was going mental if it wasn't for the fresh Hydrangeas that I had just cut from the garden and plastered them all over instragram I would have been in the fetal position.

Then I had a light bulb moment and thought "phone a friend Eddie" and called a friend who even though she is so busy with her busy business, and family life she always makes time for friends I know this as I called her she was just coming from helping someone else I felt bad asking her to help me but what am to do I was suffering from technological challenge syndrome.

so here we are at!!

my wonderful friend helped me I have a beautiful vase with hydrangeas grown from our garden. 

A good end to a horrid day.

Thank you Lady XH for being an amaze ball person and equally as beautiful as the hydrangeas.

Karla

At the school 12 months on

Today I had the pleasure of volunteering at the munchkin's school for a welcome morning tea for the new parents for 2014. I had all sort of emotions I can't believe that was us 12 months ago,  I remember how nervous we were well specially me I was so nervous for my little munchkin and for me I had thoughts about what if he hates school or he finds it hard to make friends and as for me I was worried about whether we were going to be accepted and welcomed into the school by other parents and especially mothers.

Why I had those fears, well in regards to our munchkin he is the first of our children to go to school and the unknown was just so scary and for us we dont actually live in the neighborhood where the school is located the WhiteCottage is about 10k out so there was always the questions "oh you live so far out" "why this school" and we felt like we had to justify our decision to all these strangers.

The truth is that we chose that school because I had been attending the church on and off for about 2o years and it was a coincidence that farmer Joe had met the priest through some dear friends of his and he always thought he would be the one to marry us which he did we had all our wedding arrangements through the church and we followed this by having all the munchkins christened at the church,  so for us the natural step was for the children to go to the school attached to the parish.

I remember going to the interview and the principal was so warm and welcoming he took all our fears away when the interview finished we left with that sensation of that we had made the right decision for our son and our children's schooling.

In the last 12 months it's just been a joy our initial fears could have not been so wrong, our munchkin just loves school he loves his teachers, his friends, he never wants to take a day off even when he is sick and can not attend he tells me "he needs to go back to school because his school friends might be looking for him" so cute.

As for us it's been wonderful we  love that the school is very small, we love that in the mornings the school principal is by the front entrance greeting the students and parents by first name, we love that most of the staff knows you by first name and are always there to answer questions and as for the munchkin's teachers we hit the jackpot they are just incredible so knowledgeable and caring for the children and us parents.

And me well I was accepted by other mothers and parents I have met some liked minded people and have made some cool friends we volunteer at school, we have coffees and lunches  together.

12 months on ...... I made some homemade goodies and greeted and met some new parents who probably felt just like us last year I hope those parents and their children enjoy this journey as much as we have, ours is just starting but what a great start to our children's schooling experience.

Cheers,
Karla

Melbourne Cup Lunch

Today was Melbourne Cup it's a huge horse race in Australia

I remember when I was younger the girls and I would get all dolled up  wear our facinator, high heels and make our way to Doomben to have a few champers and just have fun.

As a mother of 3 age 5 and under that does not happen very often in fact I haven't celebrated Melbourne Cup for a few years now except today 10 of us decided it would be nice to celebrate Melbourne Cup so off we went to a nice restaurant to celebrate with the rest of the nation. We were all dolled up, facinators and hats were in order, today's lunch was not so much about drinking or the horse racing really as no one in the table gambles but it was more of a good excuse of having good food, a good chat with good friends.

I am now at the WhiteCottage in my comfy shoes waiting for the pasta to finish boiling so all in all it has been a good Melbourne Cup Day.

Cheers,

Karla

Pork Ribs in an Aromatic Rosemary tomatoes salsa

The other day I had to cook something sort of quick well in the sense that I didn't have loads of time for preparing a dish for dinner so I just made WhiteCottage pork ribs in a aromatic rosemary tomato salsa, it is easy, it is not gourmet but it is delicious, it is full of flavour.

 

Ingredients

  10 pork ribs
  1 onion (diced)
1 tsp Hungarian paprika (sweet)
1 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp chicken stock (Massel*)
400g tin tomatoes x2
2 sprigs of rosemary
a handful of fresh sage

Method

1. saute onion in olive oil when soft set aside
2. in same pan brown the ribs on both sides
3. add the onions, hungarian paprika, chicken stock, rosemary, sage
4. Cook on slow heat for approximately 45 minutes or until meat is tender, stir occasionally.
5. when fully cooked remove the rosemary sprigs.

*I usually use Massel or Vegeta stock because they are gluten free, no MSG or artificial flavours added.

* Chicken can be substituted for pork.
 
This dish is very rustic it is super easy we ate it with a side of green beans.

Cheers,
 The Cupcake Lady