Scrap Gremlins. House Hunting. Dinners.

I SWEAR.... I have scrap gremlins in this household. That, or someone in this house secretly scraps using my stash OR I could be sleep-scrapping!!!!

I bought these gorgeous Purple Onion Designs stamps a few months back. I took them to Ruey's house for a show & tell, brought it home and never saw it again.

A few weeks ago, I asked Ruey to get another Heidi Swapp word stamp for me - FABULOUS. You know, her new stamps that is actually a collage of letters forming the word? She bought it, received it, passed it to me, I ooohed and aaahed over it, and never saw it again.

Last week, she gave me from her stash, 4 of those Li'l Davis Love Affair chipboard borders. I brought them home, and specifically witnessed myself putting the 4 of them standing in my Cropper Hopper paper holder. I had them standing so I could still see them and that will remind myself to use them asap. 2 days later, I only had 1 left, 3 others went missing.

I finally was resigned to the fact that I have lost the Purple Onion stamps. So I placed another order on Sunday. Yesterday, I decided to turn all my cropper hoppers out to hunt down my Lil Davis chipboard borders. I found my Purple Onion stamps, in a clear plastic bag, stashed in between my no-brand-name papers. Luckily, the ever-so-nice Michele from Purple Onion Designs cancelled my order and I bought something else from her cos she was just too nice.

Then I also decided to look into my other black trendy storage boxes. I found the rest of my LD chipboard borders. How they got separated..... heaven only knows.

I've yet to find my FABULOUS stamp. It's probably going to play with my head for a while longer before it shows up. Or perhaps I have to place another order for the same thing before it shows up.

All these things missing and things showing up.... it's doing my head in. What do you think? I have scrap gremlins? Or was I sleep-scrapping?

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House Hunting

OK, we have been wishing for a bigger house for a while (but if you asked Peter, he'll probably say that I was the one wishing). We have been going through a lot of possibilities - extending our existing home .... then went and bought a block of land in Bacchus Marsh (some 30km further out from the city) wanting to build a home, then realised that it just doesn't make financial sense and sold the land .... then back to extension idea except bigger and better .....

It was all good except that it stayed a plan. On paper. Well, not even on paper, it was just in Peter's head. Year after year, he keeps telling me we will get a quote but nothing gets done.

To cut the long story short, I finally proposed that we go look for house and land packages. They are generally at least $30 Gs cheaper than if you bought a block of land, and building your own. And it takes away all the stress of renovating, which I know I won't handle very well. So we looked at some completed houses and were quite happy with what we saw. We went home and Peter made arrangements to get our own property valued, spoke to his banker, and I think we are on the right track to buying a new house!!!

We are still looking around for similar deals, but hopefully a better floor plan, better kitchens, better finishings... etc etc. Fussy me, I couldn't live with a worse kitchen now that I have one that I love. Is that too much to ask?? We are looking at some tomorrow. I'm so excited!!!! My kids will be getting their own bedrooms, we'll have a proper study (not one stashed with crap and invisible floors), and I might just be so lucky to get a scrap room!!!

Oh and in case you haven't been to my house .... because we had to have the estate agents value our house, my house right now, has to be at its cleanest and tidiest state... EVER. So neat, so decluttered .... I can't scrap! I have 2 deadlines... but I cannot bear to bring out my scrap stuff and lay it out all over the lounge room again!

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Dinners

For the past week, I've been very good, cooking dinner every night. This has been our menu....

Sunday - 1. Beef & Broccolini stir fry, 2. Blanched Baby Bok Choy with oyster sauce, 3. steam rice
Monday - 1. Stewed Pork Noodles, 2. Blanched Baby Bok Choy with oyster sauce
Tuesday - 1. Chicken stew, 2. steam rice
Wednesday - 1. Lamb and potato casserole, 2. steam rice
Thursday - 1. Lamb and potato casserole (leftovers), 2. noodles, 3. Garlic bread
Friday - 1. Grilled chicken wings, 2. Cucumber, 3. Fresh tomatoes, 4. chicken rice

Ok,.. granted.... there was more than half a pot of the lamb casserole leftover so I wasn't going to cook something else. I just thought.... I'll make noodles instead of steam rice... that'll be different. WRONG! When my son saw that I was serving the same casserole, even though it was with noodles.... he screamed, "MOMMY!!! We already had this yesterday!!!"

Oh... I'm so sorry! Forgive me for putting food on the table!

And yes, I repeated the Baby Bok Choy with oyster sauce... but it was too good to only have it once! Look at it! Love the crunchy fried onion bits .... mmmmmmmm..... Ellen loves this dish, she gets to have all the super mini baby bok choys (those from the core).


This is the Stewed Pork Noodles. Super quick, faster than fast food fast, yet home-cooked!!


These were the Grilled Chicken Wings we had tonight. My first time serving this to my kids. It was surprisingly a hit. Ellen has now learnt to eat the drummettes. Phaedon didn't want to have anything to do with dinner, but when I peeled bits and pieces of the chicken wings into his bowl, he dug in and from then on, he had completely forgotten that he had a grudge with dinner. See I had left the wing tips on the wingettes? Phaedon even thought that that must be something crispy, proceeded to shove the wing tip in his mouth, chomped on it relentlessly for 1/2 a minute before I realised it. He had the tip sticking out of his mouth, and it looked like the scene in Stuart Little where Snowbell had Stuart in its mouth but Stuart's tail was still wagging outside Snowbell's mouth. ROFL... I removed the wing tip from his mouth, and half of it was 'gone'. Yes, bones and all. I guess calcium is good for kids??


OK... this must be CUI (cooking under influence). 6 nights of cooking is way over my cooking potential. I need to recuperate now. It's Saturday and Sunday coming up, the kitchen is off duty, and so am I.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!! I know I will be looking at dream homes..... BWAHAHAHAHAAAA

xxxooo mich