At my house...

A bit late this week, but that's the kind of week were having. Its a cold wet rainy day here today, so lucky we have our new balloon ball to keep us entertained. I brought the boys this fantastic ball a few weeks ago at the red hill fair from the lovely Gretta of Balloon Balls and I have to say it was one of the best ideas and $15 I have spent in a long time. I will definitely be back for more for Christmas pressies this year!!! Not only is it 'house proof', it stops all those floating balloons that we normally have floating around going pop and if it gets dirty I can just pop it in the wash, perfect!
We're enjoying the harvest from our garden this week, and those passionfruits I blogged about all that time ago, are finally ripening and they are delicious! If anyone has any good passionfruit recipes send them through ;) A couple of batches of passionfruit butter are definitely on the menu.

And with all this cold rainy weather a batch of this super easy sultana and apricot slice is also on the menu with some nice hot cups of sweet tea. Yum!Hope your having a lovely week at your place wherever you may be, and don't forget to check out all the other participants over at Lou's

Bel x

Look what we found...

On a quick dash out to the veggie garden this afternoon I had a lovely surprise...
I was so excited to see that the passionfruit vine that we planted only a few months ago has about 20 ripening passionfruits on it!

My father in law only told me a few weeks ago when we told him there were lots of flowers appearing not to be surprised if they all fall off and we don't get any fruit for at least 12 months, so it really was a nice surprise indeed.

Any tips anyone has on growing passionfruit would be greatly appreciated ;)

Bel x

Guess who likes our spinach?

Well I found this little guy nibbling away on our spinach today when I went out to pick some for the yummy pumpkin and spinach lasagna I made for dinner
I just had to keep him to show Sax when he got home from Kindy. It was so cute to see him investigating the little fella

I would love to try and keep our veggie patches as chemical free as possible so if anyone has any tips for keeping these little buggers plus other pests at bay I would love to hear from you. In one patch we are growing Celery, Basil, Tomatoes, Lettuce & Broccoli and in the second patch we are growing Tomatoes, Parsley, Spinach, Thyme, Capsicums & Cucumbers

Bel x

It's the little things...

I know it's only a few salad leaves but after such a mad week that has just gone by and a very busy, hot market yesterday (more to come on that one) I am taking the time this week to enjoy the little things and get some balance back in my life. So one of the things that made me happiest today was being able to go out into my very own veggie patch and pick some lettuce for dinner :) Sometimes it really is the simplest things that are the best!

Hope you are having a happy week :)

Bel x

Family Time...

Well I know I am always saying it, but it really has been a busy few weeks in our house with no sign if things slowing down either at least not until Christmas I reckon :(

Firstly I am very proud to say Brad & I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary recently. I have to say it’s something I guess I never really thought of all those years ago and it feels like a lifetime since that magical day, but it has been an amazing journey. I am so excited to see what the next 10 years brings us, especially seeing as our family has grown from 2 to 4 members so excitement is guaranteed ;) Like any marriage we have had our ups and downs but I think it such an achievement and I can honestly say I love Brad more today than I ever thought possible ♥
(no laughing at the pic, we were really young ok and IT was a whole 10 years ago and before lack of sleep ;)
Brad finally had some time off from work last week and it was so nice for him to be able to spend some time at home with his boys and for us to go and have some ‘family outings’ and also catch up on some sleep. We took the boys to visit the Museum at Southbank. Something we have wanted to do for ages but just never seem to find the time to do it and Sax had a ball! He got to experience he’s very first train trip...

and even got to have a play in the parklands afterwards which helped burn off some energy and practice some tree climbing before we boarded the train for the trip home.

Brad also found some time to do some work on our veggie gardens. The weather has been warming up here quite quickly so we thought we better get planting before that real summer heat hits us. It’s all a bit of trial and error but I am happy to say our little seedlings seem to be fairing quite well and we even had a little bit of rain early one morning this week which they loved. We have planted a wide of variety of things including Celery, Tomatoes, Capsicums, Broccoli, Spinach, Cucumbers and some herbsI will definitely post some more pics once there is something exciting to see ;)

I even got a little bit of me time, and I was such a much happier mummy to be able to do some crafting again. It feels like ages since I have had the time to do anything that I enjoy and doesn’t involve cleaning or organising someone else. Like any crafter there seems to be a million ideas floating around in my head, so it was great to start making some of them a reality. Plus as an added bonus I even got to do some baking and whipped up a batch of my Nan’s famous Cream Puffs (I seriously forgot how good these tasted and surprisingly how easy they were to make)

It’s hard to believe but Xavier is 3 months old today, I knew the time was flying by but I seriously must have been half asleep lately because it feels like only yesterday we were driving to the hospital anxiously awaiting the arrival our baby boy.

Anyway, I best be going I have a two year climbing all over me that I promised we would make some cupcakes and a bub with the hiccups. Lots more to share so I will try and post again real soon ☺

Take care, Bel x