Visitors ...

As you can see from recent my recent blog posts, there hasn't been much creativity happening ... in fact there's been none since I was on holidays over Christmas/New Years.

We did have visitors recently though and that was a nice change from the norm. Good friends Pam and Barry from the Gold Coast came to visit from Wednesday 14th March until Sunday. We didn't do too much together during the week because we were still working, but we did go to the Austrian Schnitzel House for dinner one night.

We had a great day on Saturday - St Patricks Day - even though the grey skies were out in abundance all day.  We started by visiting the Reverse Garbage centre in Marrickville (http://www.reversegarbage.org.au/) ... Pam and I would have loved to spend more time browsing around, but with the husbands in tow it was a quick visit.

Our next stop was Sydney Fish Markets. We spent a fair bit of time at De Costi Seafoods ... the array of seafood in that place alone was amazing. We had lunch at a one of the seafood places inside the market area, then bought prawns, mussels, marinara and monk fish in an attempt to increase our seafood intake during the week.
As Pam is very creative, I thought she might enjoy heading to the Art Gallery to check out Art Express, which is the senior school students end of year artworks. Every time I go to this free exhibition, I am amazed at the talent and depth of these young artists.  The exhibition is on until 22nd April in Sydney and a must see if you get the chance (http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/artexpress-2012/).

Saturday night saw us at the Hunters Hill Hotel for Irish fare and St Patties Day entertainment.
Some pictures of amazing art but there was much much more: beautiful sculpture made out of paper - Flourish - Hannah Clements Sydney; A collection of postcards from wits end - Lisa Koesterke Mullumbimby; amazing hand drawn girl - Muse - Eva Nolan Port Macquarie; capturing the playfulness of a dog - No Inhibitions - Karmen Fong Sydney.

Pics of me and Pam, Barry and Ferg.

Spoiled!

My birthday was on 9th March and I got totally spoiled ... Ferg bought me a beautiful bunch of flowers and took me out to a local restaurant called Banjo Patterson's Cottage; my sister Nat organised for my brother and his partner to cook our whole family a dinner worthy of a hatted restaurant; and I also received some fabulous gifts ... some new boots for the winter and a Kindle!

Photos: Beautiful pot of roses; Ferg & I out the front of Banjo Patterson's cottage; picture of the beautifully set up dining table; the family; My birthday menu: Canape - smoked salmon blinis & Pissaladiere; Entree - crispy gnocchi with baby spinach, roast pumpkin and pinenuts; Main - spiced spatchcock with cous cous and herbed yoghurt service with garlic buttered mixed vegetables; Dessert - chocolate fondant (OMG) with vanilla ice cream.

Don't you wish you were invited!!

10 years on ...

I have so many things I want to write about on my blog, as I always get my blog printed into a physical book and tend to wonder how long all those blog posts will stay online!  I just love to sit back and have a look over what I got up to over the past year ... and am amazed to see the growth and changes in my little niece & nephew too.

But then I get so busy with my job-life and realise a month has gone by and there's so many things I forgot to write about.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm just putting too much pressure on myself to have everything posted in chronological order ... but that's just the way I like things.

So this post is to record my 10th wedding anniversary on 10th February.  My darling hubby Ferg was in the UK for a month for work and wasn't actually home on our anniversary, but we celebrated by going out to a local Italian restaurant together the weekend after.

I have to say, I still love him as much as when we  first met ... if not more!  What a cutie-pie!

Ciao!

A quick trip to Queensland ...

My nephew turned 3 in February, so I went up for the weekend of 10th - 12th Feb to spend some time with him and also catch up with the family and some friends.  Whilst there we went to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on Saturday.  It was a whirlwind trip as always when you fly interstate for a weekend, but a nice change from the usual.

Here are some pics: picking up my niece Alexis from School; Max still hanging in there with nephew Harry - Max keeps breaking into the house in his old age!; Alexis collected eggs with Kyla's girls Summer and Ella; Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary - Harry & Alexis with a kangaroo; having lunch in the red tent; my sister Sylvia with Alexis & Harry waiting for the wild bird show; a beautiful Red Tree Kangaroo; massive Queensland Water Dragon lizards all over the park;  me and Alexis. My friend Jill took this pic of me with Kila ... it's been way too long between visits & it was so nice to catch up over a cuppa.