Good Food. Relaxation. New Magazine.

So since my last post.... I don't know how many people are still reading or lurking (I'll settle for lurking). Guess I may just have to start from scratch and build up my 'readership' again..... tee hee

Jorja and Eric invited my family over for dinner on Saturday night. She also had Ruey and family, as well as her friends, Roula, Koulla and Katerina whom I met when we went out to see the movie, Sex and The City. Peter got to meet some new Greek friends and they hit it off straight away. Kids had the Wii to keep them entertained. Of course I had great food and company, the best combination. Jorja, like a typical Greek host, cooked enough food to feed 3 villages. It was an awesome night. My son was upset with me when I called it a night at midnight. Of course, he fell asleep in the car before we even hit the main road. Jorja told me the next day, that her son, Darius commented that Ellen must be a very smart girl. She corrected him that her name needs to be spelled with a capital letter E, and also some other word that was supposed to have an apostrophe. He asked her, "are you the smartest in class?". Being the 'humble' girl she is, came her reply, "Sometimes."

On Sunday, I decided to have my FIL, my SIL and my nephew over for dinner. I saw this Roast Pork from Better Homes and Garden with perfect crackling I had to try making. So we did some shopping for the right cut of pork. I was determined to succeed..... and it turned out exactly like this... MMMmmmmmmmm

http://au.video.yahoo.com/watch/3091341/8797655



I was very impressed by myself. For the first time, we had perfect crispy crackling, as opposed to part crispy part chewy. So were my guests. :) :)

On Monday, I went for a Hot Stones Massage just before I saw my chiropractor. All I can say, is hot-stone me anytime babe! If you live in Melbourne, you would know how ridiculously cold this winter has been. The hot stones on my body felt like hugging your hands around your hot cup of coffee. And the massage was excellent. The warmth, comfort and relaxation ..... I swear I imagined I was in a tropical resort, having an outdoor massage in a hut overlooking blue seas, with my red cocktail next to me just like those postcards you remember seeing. The hour ended too soon.

Tuesday night, I decided I want a seafood dinner. I bought Basa fillets (Ruey got me into this fish) and some prawns. Fish fillets in plum sauce, and Prawns in black bean and garlic sauce. My family loves the way I do basa fillets. My son still won't try prawns but I'll work on that. He's been getting better at trying new foods. My kids' palate are getting more workouts as they get older. We went for Vietnamese Pho (beef noodles soup) and they were slurping the noodles and the soup like a real Asian! I know they'll eat greens like baby buk choy, snake beans, beans, garlic shoots, broccolini, asparagus and peas and I don't need to disguise them, and they'll even ask for seconds. Ellen is obviously more adventurous with food than Phaedon is. Lately, she has upgraded to Birds Eye's crumbed fish fillets (ones I eat for my lunch!) for her school lunch instead of just the kiddy fish fingers! But.... I'm a typical mother.... I'm just happy that my children will eat what I cook. :)

I will be working on some Scrapware albums and some cards for Creative Cardmaking magazine. If you haven't seen the revamped magazine, you should. I hardly call myself a cardmaker but this magazine has cards to suit all interests. If you have been meaning to try cardmaking this magazine has plenty of variety and really clear instructions. The supplies lists are detailed and the photography is amazing. Julia Matthews, previously at For Keeps is now at Derwent Howard Media, and the new look for this magazine, has got her clean style all over it. I also saw on Aussie Pub Calls that she is looking for submissions and has made a call for a magazine DT. It’s past the deadline but she probably hasn’t made any decisions yet. Send submissions to letters@creativecardmaking.com.au

Here’s the press release from Julia:

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Press Release
August 19 2008

We’re very excited to be revamping Creative Cardmaking and Papercraft. Our philosophy is simple. We’re filling the magazine with cards you will love to make and everything you need for foolproof results!

There’s something for everyone, and all levels of experience. The Spring issue is packed with projects, 50 cards to recreate plus scrapbooking layouts. The magazine is beautiful to flick through but it’s much more than a gallery, it’s loaded with simple-to-follow instructions and many of the projects come with helpful ‘step-by-step’ photography to refer back to. Each issue also features articles, interviews and reviews to enjoy leisurely over a cup of tea, and plenty of product reviews. More than ever before, cardmakers can break out their supplies with total confidence, knowing that making great looking cards has never been easier!

Creative Cardmaking is onsale in newsagents nationally and in New Zealand. Look out for the free stickers on the cover!


Julia Matthews
Associate Publisher –Craft Division
Derwent Howard Media

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Layouts. Routine. 5 habits.

Belinda has officially kicked my phat royal bum to update my blog. I've run out of excuses .... so all I can say is sorry. I really really am. Please, someone push me to update my blog when you are sick of coming back and seeing the same old post from a month ago?

Firstly, I'll share some layouts (to make peace). These layouts were done at the Scraptacular retreat in mid July. I don't know... just feel that I am a bit out of touch, they are not very inspiring layouts to me. So .... ordinary? But anyway... here they are. Most of them need journaling (which I haven't had time to do)....















And some cards.... *insert embarrassed emoticon*




Anyways... let's change a topic. While you are badgering me for not updating my blog, I think I've come up with a tiny little excuse. I have been blogging... just not my own blog.... but here... Aussie Scrapbooking. There are many Aussie scrapbookers, including Ruey Enanoria, Mistra Hoolihan, Lee Scott, Sarah Pearcy, Karen McLauchlin, etc etc, who are contributing to that website with a lot of light-hearted articles about scrapbooking. You can easily subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking on SUBSCRIBE on the top panel, and you'll be getting notification of new updates on the website.

So ... I have gone stamping mad lately. No, let's rephrase.... I've gone stamp-shopping mad lately. Stampin' Up new ones from the mini catalogue, Stampin' Up old ones from eBay, Studio G, Inkadinkadoo, Autumn Leaves... and even some made to order stamps too. Not to mention, lots of CHA new buys.... ooops, hubby better not be reading this!

I think I have finally settled down and become a typical school mum. Crawl out of bed a 7am, wake the kids up, make breakfast for them, get their uniforms ready while they are eating, nag at them to quickly eat their breakfast, go brush my teeth and get changed, make their lunchboxes, nag at them to eat their breakfast again, nag at them to brush their teeth and get changed, nag at them to hurry up, comb and tie Ellen's hair, get them to put on their socks and shoes, out the door at 8.15pm. Most of the time, I'll do grocery shopping after that and run any other errands. By lunch time, I have to go pick Phaedon up from kinder, come home and have lunch, then out again at 2.30pm to do school pick up. This is not including the other activities we do. Mondays and Wednesdays, we go straight to Tae Kwon Do from school pick up for both kids, on Wednesdays, Ellen has CPCA (drama/singing/dancing) lessons while Phaedon does TKD. Saturday mornings are TKD again. You like my daily schedule? LOL... I know many of you probably have busier schedules than me, but hey... I'm sure you started off like me too, struggling to get the 24-hour clock work for you. There are things I enjoy out of this though.... I like the gas-bagging I get to do with the school mums and the TKD mums while we wait for our children. I enjoy the adult interaction and the friendships we made.

Kids were sick for about a week leading up to the Olympics ... the longest they have ever been sick for. Constant fevers which we could do nothing about but dosing them up with Nurofen, Panadol and lots of hugs and kisses. Needless to say, I was stuck at home for a week. By the end of the week, supermarket shopping sounded like a holiday! Then one day, they started arguing and fighting over something, and I started yelling. Then I realised... life is back to normal now.

Anyways, enough of this 'days of my life' stuff. So I was doing some supermarket shopping today, and I thought of a fun thing to do. I'll tell you 5 things about my shopping habits, in case you don't know me well enough yet, just so you can have a good giggle what goes on in my head, hahaha...

1. Buying beans - I am a picker, not a grabber. Seriously, I see people just grab bunches and stuff them in the bag. I mean, don't you want to get just the good ones? So yes, I stand there and pick bean by bean.

2. Buying mandarins - I will pick each mandarin and weigh it in my hand, the heavier it is, the juicier it is. I hate mandarins that are dry enough to soak up Murray River.

3. Buying eggs - I will open the carton, push the flap out (has to be out or this won't work), put the cover back on (with flap outside) , tip it so all the eggs get turned onto the cover, open the carton from the bottom, to check that all eggs are perfect, close the carton, flip it back so all the eggs land back into their slots, open carton, push the flap back in, then finally close / lock it. If there is an imperfect egg, or if any egg is stuck in its slot, I will not buy that carton, move on to the next carton and repeat the QC.... hehehehe

4. Unit pricing - I will stand there and calculate which is a cheaper option to buy - the 1kg or the 1.7kg washing powder, the 375g or 500g tub of butter, the 2kg or 3kg packet of sugar. Miser? No way... :) :) :) Wait till you read the next one...

5. I may go into the supermarket with a 'list' of things to buy. But I will still have to go through every aisle in case I miss something. So the 'list' is never just a 'list'. Even my 5yo son knows, 'the list'. He'll ask me before I start shopping,
"Do you have a list?"
"Yes"
"How many things?"
"Just 5"
He'll literally count the number of things I put in the trolley. If it goes over 5, he'll start complaining... "But you said 5!!" I swear my hubby trained him to spy on me.

OK... my dinner is here. Gotta go.... blog again soon! :D