jonquils

Time to catch up on the past month with a series of snapshots that seem to be mostly food and floral.

I snuck away from my desk last Friday (working from home means I’m just sneaking away from myself) and went to local whole foods store, About Life. I ate a raspberry and coconut muffin that was delicious even though it probably didn’t have refined white sugar in it. Oh well.

But refined white sugar is kind of my thing… so when I saw this 50’s-style sugar canister (which disappointingly only contained air) at Spider Boy’s school art show, I had to steal a photo. Maybe sugar itself will be a relic from the past one day, just like this canister. Sigh.

Spring jonquils at my dad’s place…

I love the way my cousin’s wife styled her kid’s birthday party table… they turned 3 and 1, two weeks apart so a combined party was the order of the day.

I made some apple pies…

I needed the whipped cream to mask the heavy pastry texture. Not quite enough carbs, fat or sugar in these little morsels I’m afraid.

On a lighter and brighter note, the blossoms have blessed our street!

And obviously I’ve drunk lots of coffee (and muffins) this month… but Spider Boy just gets water. Oh alright, sometimes he gets a hot chocolate. And chips.

Now I’m going to let you in on a little secret… colouring-in is really big right now. You know when you see a “Zen” colouring book as free gift with That’s Life magazine, that colouring-in is a thing. And the local Dymock’s has a wall of colouring books, as does the National Gallery gift shop in Canberra. But I’ve been colouring-in (as an adult) since 1997. But back then, Barbie colouring-in books were all I could find. Now there is so much choice! It is VERY relaxing.

Speaking of the National Gallery gift shop, if I had the money I would buy all of the books…

Since I know I’ll never really be Parisian, or Danish, and will never find the time for handmade projects for a cute Tokyo-inspired lifestyle, I could just go for the Mammoth Book of Losers to make me feel better about my epic failure and underachievement in NOT being Parisian or Danish, or achieving that cute Tokyo-inspired lifestyle. Sigh.

This post is coming to an end but there’s time for dessert before I go…

This cake I made last Sunday was meant to be a lime syrup cake. I had all the ingredients, except limes. I had a bottle of lemon juice in the fridge, so I used a bit of that. But then after making the cake, I RAN OUT OF SUGAR. So had no sugar to make the lemon syrup. So it wasn’t going to be a syrup cake at all, was it? So I defrosted some left-over cream-cheese icing from the Father’s Day carrot cake I’d made, and dolloped that on. Plus some hundreds and thousands just for fun and fancy.

It all worked out in the end.

What are you enjoying this week?

The past week Spider Boy has been on school holidays. There have been a few playdates, outings and a birthday party to go to, as well as a bit of quality screen-time. There have been ideas for craft – we may get to some of that today. Haven’t baked anything yet. But I have tried my hand at some furniture-assembling. A book case specifically. It all looked so promising when I bought the box with a picture of a book case on it from a chain-store. I read the instructions…

I think this book case is screwed

but… furniture disaster! I didn’t know when I purchased this slim box with the promise of a book case inside, that I would require a mallet (among other things) to put it together. What’s the difference between a mallet and a hammer anyway? I saved the hammer for the nails in the packet and utilised a 2kg dumbbell to “hammer” the dowels into place. And here is the result…

Ta da! Yes, this is what I saw after “hammering” the underside when I turned the case the right way up. Oh well, we can still use it. But I think next time I’ll buy something chic and second hand, like Sandy from Urban Rustic would suggest. And as for the nails? I couldn’t figure out where they were supposed to go once the screws were in. Let’s just say I won’t be putting anything too heavy on this “book case”.

In other, more fun news, my father returned from Italy with perfume for me, quality monogrammed towels for Spider Boy as well as the rather excitingly named “Badewasserfarber”, which means “Bath water colour” in German. Spider Boy was so excited to test out the Badewasserfarber, that he had two baths in one day, something that has never happened in his life until now.

We have had some lovely winter weather for park outings.

We bought jonquils, one of my favourites. The fragrance is a little boost of happy every time I walk past them.

And on the weekend, Spider Boy and I went to Luna Park with Lulu, Mr M and their son, the Magician. The boys loved it and it brought back many memories for the adults.

The Alexcellent Life

Writing, life and the joy in the ordinary. And cake.

Edited Highlights: Sugar, blossoms, cake and colouring-in

Edited highlights: DIY disasters, jonquils and crazy bath water