This is a sponsored post. The girls’ birthdays fall a week apart in July. The timing is educationally fortuitous according to the Big Sister’s Kindy teacher. I tend to view it as having unknowingly committed myself to an extra year at home with the girls. There’s another upside to mid year birthdays - they fall around the time of the annual Target Toy Sale. The year the Little Sister was ...
time-worn tucker
vignettes for the unfashionable
We all have that one mate who effortlessly throws together a man's shirt, some buttons she turned into earrings & a jaunty bowler hat and looks fabulous. I am not that mate. Similarly, I know there are people with immaculate Better-Homes-and-Gardens-ready living rooms. People who's homes are always within a cashmere throw of being magazine ready. I am not those people. In fact, those ...
pumpkin barley risotto + a little help from the little sister
It was so wet this weekend that Bearhands bucked the status quo and didn't disappear into the paddock or the shed. I spent some time experimenting in the kitchen while he watched documentaries about people from the southern states of America catching, finding, shooting or brewing things. I've wanted to try making risotto using barley for ages, but I've been a bit hesitant - Bearhands is not a ...
okonomiyaki, (almost) banged up abroad + a recipe for what you want
I was very nearly locked up in the early hours of my third day in Japan. It was about 4am when the cops pounded on our door and I was groggy from jet lag and learning to sleep on a futon. I opened the door and three policemen stepped into our tiny rented flat, shouting and demanding our passports. I was terrified. I’d never had any dealings with the police at home, much less these officers who ...
fat rascals, purple leopard skin + a time-share cardigan
During our uni years, my mate Chantal and I had a Friday night ritual. When we weren't working for a functions company, we’d get tarted up and head into town. We’d start the night with one drink at a fancy establishment – the Hilton Piano Bar was a favourite destination. We’d swan in and pretend we were flush. We'd sip a single cocktail in salubrious surroundings and then head to a pub, where ...
spicy soup + loaded lyrics
You can’t help but be influenced by your parents taste in music. I sing along whenever Anne Murray tells sleepy Jean to cheer up, and there’s no stopping me if Billy Joel gets in a New York state of mind. When Bearhand’s sister gave him a Toby Keith CD a few years back, it got a lot of air time on our Fraser Island holiday. The Big Sister, then three, declared a song called ‘Bullets in the Gun’ ...