Project Life: Week 38

This is another week with almost no photos taken during the week so it’s more of a ‘what we did this weekend’ kind of thing.  It was a great weekend though because it was Mike’s birthday.

Here’s an overview of Week 38 – September 14th – 20th

I’ve made pizza dough for years and I actually like kneading the dough… what I don’t like quite so much is getting the dough started… it’s always sticky and messy and it gets under my fingernails… but not anymore!  I’ve discovered that the Kitchen Aide dough mixer attachment is fantastic!  It makes quick work of turning a few simple ingredients into a super smooth dough in just a matter of minutes.

Mike really wanted some pizzas for his birthday so I got onto making the dough early.  It’s a really great recipe that you can make up to 24 hours ahead of time and it has a ‘sour dough bread’ flavour… very light and crispy!

Here’s a closer look at the left side of the album:

Toby really wanted to get Daddy something different for his birthday and he’s been ‘discussing’ ideas with me so when I found the MAN CAVE sign I knew it would be perfect and Toby really loved it although he did find wrapping to be quite difficult… it’s due to him not having thumbs of course!

Mike was busy on Saturday morning and he got the French doors on the art studio all primed.  They look really fantastic now and hopefully over the summer we’ll get some top coat onto them.

Mike is a bit of a self confessed ‘princess’.  He’s often seen flicking his ‘beautiful golden hair’ around and declaring that he’s gorgeous.  He also goes on about the colour pink and how it’s his favourite of ALL the colours! It’s certainly keeps us all amused that’s for sure! 

Mike is also good at pushing the limits!… in a fun way of course :)  A few months ago Mike kept using the word ‘moist’ in very inappropriate ways. He said it as often as he could and in every situation he could… and he got himself banned from saying it!  It’s become a bit of a joke now… especially with Krystal and Chris.  They often post ‘moist’ jokes onto Mike’s timeline! 

So for his birthday Krystal and I bought a combination of ‘moist’ and ‘princess’ gifts for him.  Krystal made up labels for each item and ‘Princess Michael’ had a wonderful time opening them all up!

We also had to have a ‘Princess Party’ with all Mike’s favourite party food!  Here’s a closer look at the right side of the album:

We had sausage rolls, little pink cocktail sausages with sauce, chips, nibbles and of course fairy cakes!  Krystal and Chris came and we all sat around wearing party hats. 

Most of the afternoon was spent playing Rummikub although Chris has declined to play with us again because he says we’re all ‘too competitive’!  Is there such a thing as being too competitive at board games???

We had salami,camembert and mozzarella pizzas for dinner along with a few drinks and it was a lovely day.  Mike also received a cool card from Mum:

The inside reads: ain’t for sissies!

On Sunday Mike made us a ‘wardrobe’ in the garage for all our bike gear.  It actually works really well and definitely keeps everything clean and dry.  Toby was very impressed that Daddy put up his ‘Man Cave’ sign straight away as well.

We finished the weekend off with a blackberry sponge for dessert.  We were supposed to have half for dessert on Sunday and half for dessert on Monday but when I got up on Monday morning it was all GONE!  It seems that Mike’s sweet tooth kicked in and he couldn’t possibly resist it.  Oh well… I suppose it is his birthday LOL

So that was our life in Week 38.  Thanks for stopping by xx

Project Life: Week 37

Today I headed into work and when I got there I found there’d been a major muck up and they really didn’t need me today so I’m working on Wednesday instead. I’ve picked up a .5 teaching position at a special needs school which means I work 2 1/2 days per week. 

It’s a gorgeous day here in Rotorua and so far I’ve got a couple of loads of washing on the line… started weeding the front garden and organised some more stuff for my art studio.  Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up the momentum for the whole day and get lots done!

Here’s a look at our Week 37 – September 7th – 13th

Mike mentioned that he quite liked peanut brownies which I don’t usually make so I searched out a recipe and got baking.  Funnily enough, Mike and Danny turned up from work early… just as the cookies came out of the oven!

Toby might not be allowed chocolate cookies but he DOES like to have one of his biscuits in front of the fire.  The only real down side to having a fire is the mess… there’s dust and ash all over the place and Toby likes to munch on pieces of firewood so there’s little bits of sharp sticks everywhere!!

Here’s a closer look at the left side of my album:

Mike’s been making fabulous progress in the art studio… he’s even been doing a ‘make over’ on my big table.  It’s a little bit too wide and the edges are quite sharp so Mike cut some off the width and then did an angle cut on all four sides. 

On the cooking front we’ve been trying some new recipes and Mike quite likes ‘that green stuff from the garden’ chopped up in his dinner.  The ‘green stuff’ is actually Italian parsley and it does taste pretty good!

We discovered last week that we had some Fly Buys points that were going to expire so I had a look at the various rewards you could get and found a beginners cheese making kit was right within our points range.  I ordered it and it was super speedy to arrive!

I decided to give mozzarella cheese a go… I read all the instructions… watched the little video and did exactly what they said to do and it turned out perfectly!  Mike was actually pretty impressed too :)

Since we had our fresh mozzarella as well as the cheeses we bought the previous weekend we decided to get a smoked chicken and make ourselves a cheese platter for dinner… SOOO good!

The next night we had smoked chicken pizzas with fresh mozzarella cheese for dinner… YUM!!

Here’s a closer look at the right side of the page:

Mike cleaned up the window frames with his scraper tool and then once the primer was dry on my table he gave it a coat of paint.  It’s all looking pretty amazing and it won’t be long now until I can move my stuff in.

On Saturday we went over to Mum’s place with the chainsaw to cut down a tree for her.  Mike really likes getting into ‘demolition mode’!  It definitely didn’t take long for the tree to come down… in fact it was almost done before I even had a chance to get the camera out!  Mum’s neighbours saw what was happening and came to ask if Mike could take the top off another tree that was blocking their sunlight.  Mike was only too happy to help… he was up the tree with the pruners and a saw and before you knew it the top of the tree was lopped off.

On Sunday I spent a bit of time helping Krystal out with one of her teaching assignments.  She wanted some ‘alternative’ fairy stories for an assignment and not only did I know of quite a few titles but I actually owned a few of them.  So nice to be able to help her out.

So that was our week… plenty to do and lots of jobs ticked off our list. 

Thanks for visiting xx

Project Life: Week 36

I’m definitely feeling very productive this weekend.  I’ve actually managed to finish FOUR WEEKS worth of photos to print off for my album and now I’m blogging again!  Thank goodness I’ve still been taking photos and organising them into my dated folders over the past couple of months.

Here’s an overview of Week 36:

Mike and decided that we might try a few new options for putting in our ‘lunch boxes’ and some savoury muffins fitted the bill.  Actually they were pretty delicious and we scoffed them a little too quickly!

During August the District Council cut down all the eucalyptus trees from the park as they were causing problems… especially when it was windy.  There were a couple of other trees that were just over our back fence and they’d been blocking off the sunlight and dropping leaves in our backyard.  We’d rung the council before about having them trimmed with no success so when they were doing the eucalyptus trees we gave them another call and they said that they would ‘look into it’.  We didn’t expect a lot and didn’t hear back from them so figured that nothing was going to happen.  On Monday I was at home and Toby and I both heard a huge noise… it turned out to be huge machinery that almost pulled the tree out by the roots.  We have lost a little bit of privacy in the backyard but we’ve also gained a LOT of sunlight!

Here’s a close up of the left side of my album:

Sometimes it’s nice to just capture some of the every day chores we do and on this morning I got a photo of all the dishes done… including my pink gloves!  One day we’ll get ourselves a dishwasher but for now we do the dishes by hand.

We spent almost every evening of this week working in the art studio painting.  It was definitely a team effort and brushes and rollers going constantly.  It looked dramatically different when the old red/brown walls were covered with primer.  It gave the first glimpse of what the finished room was going to be like.

I spent ages choosing my paint colours and had a pretty good idea of what I wanted.  I love how it all turned out and am very happy with my final choices!

Here’s the rest of the photos from this week:

On Saturday my friend Carey rang me to see if I wanted to do a photo shoot with her on Sunday morning.  We decided to go up to the Tree Trust at 6am to capture the sunrise but unfortunately it was a cloudy gloomy morning.  We actually  had a good time trying out different settings and playing with the lighting.  I’ve got a few photos that I’m pretty happy with.

Sunday morning was also Father’s Day!  Toby was super clever and he made up a ‘treasure hunt’ for Daddy!  Since I was going out early to take photos Mike had to participate in the treasure hunt early so that the surprise wasn’t spoilt! 

Mike loves Star Wars so Toby typed all his clues with little pictures of Yoda beside them… he’s a clever puppy!  All of the clues led to a new little present… all Star Wars and Darth Vader related.

The ‘basket’ would be the basket of new toilet paper rolls.

And inside the wood basket was the new circular saw that Mike had been looking forward to buying!  We was pretty happy with what Toby had put together for him.

After I got back from the Tree Trust we got changed and headed off on the bike to a little cheese shop in Putaruru.  They don’t just do cheese tasting there… they do ‘cheese educating’.  The lady in charge of the taste testing actually talked to us about how the cheeses were made, the types of processes and milks they use and also ideas for enjoying them more.  We actually learnt a LOT from her and confidently bought several of our favourites.

Then we were off to Tirau for lunch.  We had a wonderful brunch and sat outside in the sunshine enjoying our delicious food.  Since we were in Tirau we HAD to visit the Christmas Heirloom shop as well and we bought a few new decorations for our Christmas tree. 

Mike really enjoyed his Father’s Day and he was pretty pleased with our efforts to spoil him… so that was our Week 36. 

I hope you’re all enjoying the weekend xx