more newness

New cut! Springtime is a good time for freshness and I love the freshness of clean cut hair. Also good for a slightly different look. Just shorter for me really though it DID end up being one of those times I had to go home and look in the mirror and play around with it a little before I decided that I DID like it. (I think I had it cut a little shorter than I meant to and the hairdresser didn't straighten it like I was expecting; she curled it a little more.) But all's good. It's nice having some newness in your look. Now to tackle trimming the stomach...

(The cheek poke is ode to Sarah Son. Reminds me of the wacky and wonderful woman!)

newness

It's SPRING! The season of newness. Leaves will soon be budding on twiggy trees, some blossoms are out already, there's a little more sunshine and it's increasing (slowly but still...) and the expectations of baby sightings in the animal world. It's a season that inspires some newness in my life too. New starts anyway. I've seen some programs lately on healthy eating and decided I need to do more to make sure my body is getting all the nutrients it needs. Mostly I've been eating somewhat healthy mixed with a lot of sugar and fat tastebud addictions and quick non-nutritious meals. So I looked up a site about low GI foods and have been flicking through some healthy cooking books. It takes a while to get it in and filter it through. So my cooking today was of a healthy nature and also newness in the area of something I've not tried or tasted before. I made Pumpkin Curry with Couscous.

I've had couscous once before, in the USA, but this was different. I think the stuff I had in the USA was Israeli couscous and it was bigger and more ball-like. But this was good too. It worked out quite well. I sort of looked at a recipe and just took some ideas and threw stuff together and cooked the couscous as the packet directed. I put in curry paste, coconut milk, pumpkin, sweet potato, capsicum, beans, spinach and chickpeas. Even Matt said it was pretty good..."for pumpkin!"

And it was such a beautiful day today. Quite sunny. Work was spent almost entirely outside playing (that's nannying for ya) and when I got home Matt and I went and played a bit of tennis. It's been quite a while since we have. And I lost. Just.

For other newness, this week I adjusted a new opshop find to suit me. A lovely green flower print singlet top I've been wearing over my black longsleeve top. I'm also working on making a needle roll to keep all my knitting needles and crochet hooks in. With one of my housemate's in the process of moving out, Matt and I have talked about just paying the extra and having a spare room. We have plans to rearrange things which leaves me having a room for my crafting!!! How exciting is that! My own studio. (Which will also contain Matt's electric drum kit and cupboard of stuff and space to bunk up visitors so they don't have to sleep in the lounge.) Oh and I cleared my desk and its now an organised space for creating. Pics on my other blog.

So there's been a bit of newness happening for this new spring season. Hope there's some fresh newness in your world too.

vegetable tempura

Tried something new tonight. So I searched the net and had a go. I used zucchini, sweet potato, carrot, capsicum and snow peas. Tasted pretty good too. Should have cooked them a little longer I think as they weren't quite crunchy enough. Still good though.

cook up

Heather invited me to hang out with her a few weeks back while she had a cook up. I helped a little--cut up the veggies for soup--but mostly just chatted while she 'slaved over the stove'. Much delicious food preprepared for storing in the freezer ready for the school term when there's less time to cook and get some lunch together. I was quite amused by her 'cooling rack'. Haha. Ingenuitive! And I had a lovely time and lovely meal at the end of our morning.

happy jacks playworld

I've been planning to take my nephew to this great indoor playground as a birthday present. Finally did today about two months after. I met my sister and her two kids there and we settled in for hours of fun. It's a pretty good playground and I l♥ve that they make it big enough for adults to fit. (Necessary for rescuing the stuck or scared or retrieving the one who just doesn't want to go!) I fulfilled all my Aunty duties--paying for them to go, buying them food, playing with both of them on the playground including going down the slides, climbing in and out the holes, crawling through the tunnels, going in the ball pit etc, sharing my fizzy drink and assisting with social skills like sharing and taking turns and not pushing! Hmm, I think it was all partly an excuse to play myself. Ha ha.

Gotta love the ball pit! Seriously, how long has it been since you were in one!!? Jasmine was a little overwhelmed as they were really deep for her.

Huge slides and climbing through small gaps to the upper levels. They had some GREAT air driven equipment like the air gun Byron enjoyed using. Put in a ball at the top and press the button on the handle to fire it. Of course I played with these too!!

Jasmine conked out in the early afternoon for a while but later joined us on the trampoline and the jumping house.

We got there at 10am and didn't leave until 2:50pm when I had to go to work playing with other kids. I spent most of my time with the kids on the playground and Tammy spent most of the time knitting and watching. It was a great day. I'm sure Byron would tell you so!!

*note: Please excuse the photo quality. The pics were all taken with my mobile which is not so great normally but more shocking with flash.*

mudpuddles!!!!

Oh what fun! I don't have gumboots so I didn't join in but I certainly let them go for it. How could I not? Such a great part of childhood.

Of course, I'm in charge of clean up! Ü

work