Recipe Challenge 1

Ok so I'm a few weeks behind on the recipe challenge of Glenna's. It's just that trying to convince my family to try anything new is a mission in itself. Tonight they had no choice they just got something new.

Bit of a mixed reaction, Kurt loved it, Alysha wouldn't even try it and Pete just complained it was a bit late being served.

It started out as "Potatoe Rosti" then became "Root Vegetable Rosti" and ended up being "Whatever Vegetables I Had in the Fridge that Would Grate Easily Rosti".

I definitely prepared too much so it took way longer to cook and then at the last minute I added grated cheese which just finished it.

I forgot to take a picture of the before, but here are the leftovers lol...

 

Addictions

I'm addicted to...

• Chocolate coated cashew nuts which are only available from The Warehouse
• Digital Scrapbooking - downloading files that is, I am yet to extract and and then use them
• Reading the Clan of the Cavebear series of books that I borrowed from Miss Wendy... I can't put them down!!!
• Mexican Domino Train game on MindJolt Games on Facebook
• Smelling my grand-daughter Sonia-Marie's hair especially when she smells of Lavender baby wash
• Cleaning and sorting my Scrapbooking Supplies... I think I am doing this instead of actually scrapbooking, though as my Christmas Craft Challenge starts December 1st that will change in a big hurry
• Country Life and Island Paradise on facebook... I blame my mother & my Auntie

Think that is enough to last a few 12 step programmes for a while!!!!

My Gardening Prowess and the Days of Our Lives Update

Thank goodness my gardening prowess (on the face of it at least) appears to be better than my blogging prowess... cos to be honest even I am disappointed with the regularity of my blogging.

It's been 18 days since my last confession, I mean blog... and not much has been happening. Well I guess that depends upon your point of view really. Let's start with the gardening update...

Watermelons - going well though I need to transplant them as they are outgrowing the useful life of the egg carton. This of course also means I need to do some real gardening and weeding and stuff and none of this pretend egg carton gardening I have gotten away with so far. I may even have to get my hands dirty!!!
Chives - faded a wee bit there but still surviving. Will need transplanting too soon... nurse hand me the scalpel... ooops wrong transplant (that was funny!!!)
Carrots - about bloody time!!! I see leaves on like two or three - come on guys you are letting the team down. Do I need to come out and give you a pep talk???
Parsley - same as the carrots, bunch of slackers (did you get it? Bunch of parsley - am I on fire tonight or what??)
Lettuce - "Let us" not even go there. The poor things, rest their lettuce souls, didn't really stand a chance to be honest. Not after the cats attacked them at least. Bless their hearts (lettuce hearts that is)!!

Ok so enough of the bad vege jokes...

Well........ as my good friend Tania said (I mention her cos I know she is reading this - did you see I now follow your blog so its about time you did something to it)... what's happening in the "Days of Our Lives" as she so kindly refers to my life at the moment.

Hope Brady and Captain Carver... no wait you want the real Days of Our Lives...

So anyway The eldest step daughter's boyfriend moved out, again (no comment on the grounds I might incriminate myself), though he has been back every day this week but then that could because eldest step daughter is on leave all week. It all happened last Wednesday when I was minding my own business and out with Tania (Queen Tania as her royalness likes to be called) visiting with Miss Wendy and the still yet to be named Miss Tiny (both of whom better be reading this cos I read their blog!!!).

On my way home I happened to check my phone for messages... I was stopped at a set of lights so technically NOT driving at the time... and low and behold in teenage text language (which might as well be a foreign language at times and NOT English) I received a message from aforementioned boyfriend that he has moved out... Yeah thanks for the warning, mate!!!!

When I arrived home... yes he had moved out. His mummy came and picked him up. Enough said.

Well almost enough. I have put my foot down and said he doesn't move back. And though I haven't said it specifically to my darling husband (who shall from now on be referred to as DH)... if the boyfriend moves back. I move out.

The subject of my next blog... or at least somewhere in the near future... may be my search for a roof for over my head. A girl's gotta stand up for her principals!!!!!

My Gardening Prowess - Take 2

YAY... my second lot of seeds have sprouted and Double YAY... it is the watermelon. I guess I will be fighting Kurt for the produce once its fully grown. Three sprouts so far - out of 12, 25% production - I can live with those odds. Will keep you posted if I have any more success. To tell you the truth I would have been happy with only 1 seed successfully propogating. (Sheesh I even sound like I know what I'm talking about.)
Here is the evidence... (I know you wanted to see it)

And here are some more pictures of my roses. The white one we purchased about a month after my birthday last year and it was sitting on either side of our front door at home along with my birthday rose. There are also a couple of photos of this just to complete the square. The small bud was new today, so I thought I might do a daily picture of it to show the growth and development as I can't believe how quickly it can change... watch this space for the photos and then I will let you know when the completed scrapbook page is available for viewing.

 

My Gardening Prowess

At last I have some good news with regards to my prowess as a gardener. A close inspection of my seed planting aka the egg containers full of potting mix, has revealed the hint of some new life springing forth into the world.

I have finally spotted some green shoots rearing their pretty heads above the soil. I am now the proud mummy to some chives and a lone solitary watermelon shoot.

Here are the chives - 

Also here is the lily I planted... I can't wait to see these flowers when they finally bloom. A special gift from a special friend.

And finally this is my rose bush that I got last year for my 40th birthday. The blooms so far are just magnificent, as you can see...

 

Domestic Goddess

OK... so you can all stop laughing now... at least I tried! I haven't killed anyone, yet... (My OSH record is still safe and I have not been declared a "NO GO ZONE" nor has my cooking, though maybe if I contacted my old mate Davey who is in the US Army, they may be looking for something considered lethal or deadly)... anyway I digress.

I have been "attempting" to be more of a domestic goddess. Between the home baking, cooking meals, washing, spring cleaning and planting I think it has been a pretty good attempt. Of course I'll never be a Julia Child or a Martha Stewart but don't they say "God loves a trier"???

So what have I actually been doing of late...

• More triple chocloate muffins - this time, mini & midi size
• Potatoe cakes - three times in as many weeks - finally something from my childhood (thanks Mum) that my step kids ALL seem to like!!!
• Washing
• Spring Cleaning the Scrapbook Studio in particular, filling up a covered trailer (thanks Colin for the use of it, promise to have it back to you for next Friday - honest)
• Completely re-doing my website from scratch - I think I deleted something by mistake and lost all access to it, so I talked nicely to my ISP man and he deleted it for me, so now that I am wiser I can recreate it how I want... still need some help with the finer details (thanks Carrie will be taking you up on that offer very soon)
• Planting seeds and bulbs and generally looking after green type things 

I don't have pics of the muffins or the potatoe cakes, mainly because they didn't last long enough for me to get the camera out and take pics. Don't have pics of washing, though maybe I should take some next time the line is completely full lol. Still working on the Spring cleaning... I can show before shots but not after, so might wait until I am completed and show the before and after in a separate blog.

I do however have pics of the seeds I planted (but not the bulb). For those who know me well... I don't have a green finger. I have to confess to killing a cactus!!! Ok you can stop laughing again.

Anyway, now you have wiped away the tears from your eyes... here is the proof of my seed planting.

I am the proud mid-wife (hopefully soon) to Chives, Baby Carrots, Lettuce, Watermelon and Parsley. Sorry Kurt I know you just wanted me to plant only the watermelon, cos that is all you like, but I planted some of all of them. And I bought some more seeds today with the grocery shopping so will soon have some more babies under my tender care. (At least that is the plan)

 

I Don't Do Early Mornings!!

Last weekend was a busy one for me, yes I finally felt like I had a bit of a social life. Friday night was the Stampede Bar in Papakura courtesy of Miss Wendy to see Reverence competing in the first round of the Battle of the Bands Contest. 
Up until now I have only ever heard recordings and I have been promising for forever to go and see them live, so as they were playing so locally, I did.
They were fantastic and most certainly deserved to get through to the finals (even if my vote was somewhat biased). I just need to make sure that next time I listen to them I'm not so close to the speakers... my ears were ringing for a good few hours afterwards. Anyway the finals are again at Stampede on Friday 6th November from 8.30pmish so I hope to see you there to support REVERENCE.

Saturday (having recovered my hearing) was a drive down to Okoroire which is 6km out of Tirau... home of the big corregated sheep and dog. Hubbie, Pete, Mother-in-law, Lucy and I headed down there for a surprise luncheon for Pete's half-brother Wayne's birthday in the trusty "Loser Cruiser" allowing plenty of time to get there including a stop for a "Wild Bean Hot Chocolate" on the way.
Low and behold having stopped for the hot chocolate and to check the tires but as we turned onto State Highway 2 just South of Bombay (Yes there is life beyond Bombay for all those Aucklanders reading this) when something started to feel a bit dodgey with the Loser Cruiser brakes.
As we were barely into the 1 hour 45 minute journey, we turned around, drove home and swapped the Loser Cruiser for the trusty Skyline and headed South again... for Take 2 of the journey.
Got there (eventually) and had a thoroughly enjoyable lunch, having totally shocked Wayne who really did have NO IDEA we were going to be there. And then safely made it home again.


Sunday was a bit of a girl's afternoon as Stepdaughters Lavinia and Alysha, Granddaughter Sonia-Marie and I headed to a baby shower for Hannah (Sonia-Marie's Auntie). I got to show off my completed bracelet to the lovely ladies I bought most of the beads from, played some interesting baby shower games, as you do, sampled some lovely baking - especially the mini muffins and even managed to squeeze in a cuddle with Sonia-Marie.


So anyway... back to the early morning thingey. Monday I dropped the Loser Cruiser at our friendly mechanic (Big hi to Dave at Manukau Tyre & Auto) and left it there over-night for them to take a look at the tyres and brakes in order to determine if there was actually something wrong or Paula was just paranoid.
It turns out I'm NOT paranoid, the brake disks needed to be machined (yep you know as much as I do what the hell that means... it man-speak for something technical and MANLY) and the brake pads replaced cos they were worn out. Think of it as getting your best stillettos re-soled.
Anyway... because I had no vehicle, and because of the busy weekend, and because Pete didn't want to do the grocery shopping alone (poor baby) so I needed to do it today so I didn't have to peer into the faces of five starving children (including Pete) I had to drop Pete at work so I could use his car, then pick him up after work so we could go and collect the Loser Cruiser.
Why am I complaining I hear you ask... and why am I rambling in this blog... for a damn good reason I say... because the darling adorable husband of mine, Pete, starts work at the unGodly hour of 6.00am, in the morning, when its still dark and only crazy people are up, not even birds are up!!! 
In order to GET to work for 6.00am we, yes including ME, had to be up at 5.20am. 
I DON'T DO THAT EARLY IN THE MORNING UNLESS I AM SCRAPBOOKING OR JUST GETTING TO BED!!!!
Next time, the Loser Cruiser can wait, the groceries can wait, the family can starve! I will not be swayed, I will still be SLEEPING!!!
I intend to sleep in tomorrow morning!!! Look out any bugger who tries to wake me!!!

New Blog

OK so this is the first official entry into my blog about me and all the haps in my somewhat complicated, usually incredibly interesting and never straight-forward life... it's no wonder I called this "Life on the Edge".

The other blog - "ScrapFXNZ" (think that is the correct name) will be dedicated to my creative pursuits... this will be about my personal pursuits (interesting turn of phrase), trials, tribulations, successes and hopefully not too many failures (she says optimistically).

Stay tuned for more about me... (it's not intended to sound as egotisitical as that came out, but you know what I mean... I hope, too bad, do I look worried???)