My Birthday!

Not telling....don't ask...I've stopped counting anyway.
I got some lovely cards and flowers; Bec made me some bonfire toffee - which always brings back wonderful memories for me of November 5th in England; Guy Fawkes night. I'll post the recipe - its very addictive stuff! Zac made me a lovely windchime in metalwork at school, and Dan got me an apple ipod - which is the best invention ever (once he showed me how to use it) as I can now listen to all my favourite music without having to switch cd's; the best feature being that it plays all the songs randomly. With a new camera off my wonderful hubby, I don't mind getting older if birthdays are as good as this one!!

For more Great birthday gifts and ideas see website

Pressies

Just had to include this pic of my beautifully wrapped birthday pressies that just arrived from mum & dad in NZ. I'm really enjoying just looking at them sitting on the dresser; makes me realise how important it is to take time to just appreciate things, whether it be a meal, a thoughtful gift or something picked from the garden.

Making Birthday's Special!

You can't go wrong with a beautiful table setting.

..and a lovely candelit dinner. Roast lamb with mint aioli, hasselback potatoes and steamed spring vegetables in a lemon butter sauce on this occasion. Kids enjoy designing and making the menu and may even volunteer to be the waiter/waitress for the evening! (bribery works well).

Desert was carrot cake with raspberry ripple ice cream

Simple glass candlesticks that I've added wire and beads too, joined into a 'candelabra' with a glass bead necklace. The tablecloth and placemats/serviettes are fabric offcuts that I've hemmed around.

Home-made Chocolate truffles in a christmas sleigh (one of my many 'garage sale' finds)!

One of lifes greatest pleasures has to be picking fresh flowers from the garden, that you've grown yourself from seed. Dan made the pot a long time ago when I was doing some pottery with them.

Nana's 60th Birthday Celebrations !!

Mum flew over from New Zealand to spend a few days with us for her birthday. We had a lovely time together although it went far too quickly! We had a lovely Sunday lunch at the Norman Lindsay cafe.Bec & I made some yummy cup cakes especially for the occasion.

We are looking after the balloons for her as it was a bit hard to take them back on the aeroplane! (Apart from the large balloon - the kids took it in turns using the helium to talk funny)....

The best part - opening the pressies!

Of course, we missed grandad heaps...

This was the frittata - a lovely dish for Sunday lunch...

...And the steak sandwich

We shared the tiramisu - delicious...

..The birthday girl laden down with pressies... beautiful mountain weather!

Monday was spent at Scenic World, Katoomba. There's a lovely board-walk through the Jamison Valley - we thought it best to do some exercise before we did lunch again!! We also went back up to the top in the world's steepest railway...very brave we were.

We certainly enjoyed our hot bowl of soup in the local cafe. The next day was followed by some good old retail therapy down at Penrith shops (ppffffttt... 5 items only in the changing rooms...yeah, right!) Very exhausting though, so we had a nice big Indian meal for lunch. Unfortunately by this time, Grandad was missing Nana too much so we had to put her on a plane back to NZ....
HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY - HAVE A WONDERFUL YEAR!!

Growing Old Gracefully

Couldn't resist this lovely birthday card for a friend - it reads;-
'I refuse to think of them as chin hairs. I think of them as stray eyebrows'...