My little Dinosaur and her Fish dinner...

Ok, so you may have noticed, I've become a little obsessed with creating food pictures for my daughter!
And each week they're getting more elaborate...

Yesterdays design was an ocean scene, complete bubble blowing fish, seaweed, coral and sand...

Her facials tell it all, I don't even need to make my own comments about how it went down!


Today unfortunately my little dinosaur has awoken rather unwell and docile. One trip to the doctors and a script of antibiotics later, little Miss Muffit has crashed out on the couch, Master 10 months is in bed having a snooze (also sick, along with Daddy and I), and I am here at my dining table enjoying a cuppa coffee and admiring the stunning double daff's I bought from work on Saturday! They are about the only cheery thing about this household at the moment, too bad there isn't some sunshine to brighten things up in here further!

Poor little chookin pie :(

And as Murpheys law would have it, now that I've written about both kids being asleep and me enjoying a cuppa...Master 10 months has awoken!
That's my cue to get off the computer and carry on with the chaos. :-P

So for now, keep well, keep warm and stay beautiful! x

Flowerrrrs

So I've recently scored myself a part time florist job, and it's been SO nice to get back into it!

Being a stay at home Mum has its perks of course, for example; I am currently sitting here on my laptop, in trackies and a hoodie, its 10:56am, the heater is on, nice cuppa coffee in hand. The baby is asleep, and 4 year old is quietly munching on some morning tea. It's a cold gloomy winter's day outside and I know I don't have to go anywhere, I even managed to get washing on, dishes done, 4 year old's room tidied, the house vacuumed, and tonight's roast prepped ready to go in the oven a bit later!
Talk about a productive morning!

The downside, is I had to get up 4x last night (a regular night is 3x) to a teething, sick, croupy baby boy, there is a pile of (clean) washing a mile high sitting on my couch which I just cannot face folding right now, and I feel like drowning in a pool of coffee, or energy drink or just sleep for a week solid! *Dreams are free hey? :P *
As soon as Miss 4 has finished her morning tea, she'll be back to her hyperactive, cannot sit still, needs your 24/7 undivided attention, so this is a mere quiet moment in all the madness!
Don't get me wrong, I love my kiddos, but sometimes I get super jealous of hubby, getting to disappear for 8 hours a day and hangout with adults all day!

Sooo this new part time job has been blissful, one day a week I get to leave the madness behind, get 40 minutes of quiet time relaxing on the train ride into the city, get this view on the way in and the way home.

No matter the weather, I always find the seaside beautiful, the ever changing colours of the water, and the sky. Gloomy weather is equally as beautiful as a clear sunny day....only not quite as nice to be out in haha!

 

 

 

Best of all I get to spend the day playing with flowers and get paid for it!
I'm sure if it was full time, the novelty would ware off pretty quick, but for now, it's a bit like a paid holiday.

Some days when it's a glorious sunny morning...and if I've managed to get out of bed by the second snooze..haha...I catch an earlier train and head down to the waterfront with a coffee and just breathe in the peace and quiet. How many times can one person say bliss before it looses all meaning??? Well I'll say it one more time, BLISS!
It really does become the little things in life which are the most enjoyable...and now that I sound like a complete sunshine and rainbows, stop and smell the roses hippy, I'll move on...

So here is some yummy flowery stuff I've been up to, seeing as my blog is aptly named the Florist Mama, and I rarely post any floristry pics, thought I'd better catch up on that little aspect...

This next one, is accompanies a cute little anecdote. Guy comes in looking for a "cottagey, girly bouquet". He was planning on surprising a girl at the airport with a big romantic gesture, only it was at the airport as she was about to LEAVE the country...Possibly would have been a better idea to do the big romantic gesture as she arrived home...or better yet, before she decided to go overseas. But oh well, good luck to the guy, hoping it all went to plan! So nice to know there are still some romantic men out there!

and just a couple more :)

Righteo my lovelies, that's my floristry input for now, I have a roast for tonight's dinner I need to crack on with!
So for now, go buy some flowers, decorate your house, and stay beautiful!

Parrot for dessert...

Well the success of the Island fruit salad, sent me into creative food display overdrive, and I decided to amp things up a bit!
Saw a very similar design to this next one on Pinterest made with peaches, and decided to give it a whirl.
We don't have any peaches in my local supermarket here in NZ at the moment (or at least not that I could find?).
So nectarines it was...I spose you could use any round fruit, persimmons might be nice...though I'd avoid apples in case they go gross and brown while you're fiddling round with your placement...that would take the novelty of eating the fruit right away!
I just liked the idea of the variegated colours in the peaches or nectarines, kind of like the colours through a birds actual feathers...I'm sure you made that connection without my help though :-P

Pretty impressed at how this turned out and how easy it was to create.

All you need is:

- Some mad knife skills
-4 nectarines (that's 2 for the body, wings and beak, and 2 for back up in case you stuff things up, or eat too much of the trimmings haha)

- Mini marshmallows and raisins for the eyes
-Pretzel sticks
-Mint leaves, or any edible leaves you fancy.

Now go construct an awesome parrot and make fruit eating a novelty for your kiddos, my picture says it all! My daughter looooved this bird and ate every last bit.


Just a short post today, I have a sick wee bub at home with me and he is not letting me get a lot done, so off I go to sit on the floor and snuggle him while I *TRY* to get some washing folded...could use a nice strong coffee if anyone is offering???....please??? ;-)

Go get creative and stay beautiful! x

Island Fruit Salad?

So  3 days a week my little girl attends the most amazing preschool here in Upper Hutt, ('Children First' is what they're called, if you're looking to send your kids somewhere great!), and each month they have a different learning topic. This months focus topic is on countries of the world and other cultures, where they have discovered different foods other cultures enjoy etc.

Today is not a preschool day...today is a stay at home and hangout with Mum and Alexander day (AKA Mum gets nothing productive done day, due to Alia's constant need for entertainment and stimulation).

It was nearing lunch time, and she suddenly came out with "Mum! I want an Island fruit salad for lunch!"
I presume she meant tropical, or that she had learnt about exotic fruits which come from tropical islands while at preschool....or something...
So my brain twigged into overdrive, and thought, well I don't have any 'exotic' island fruits in the fruit bowl at the moment...just your standard fruit bowl....nana's, kiwifruit, mandarins, pears, apples...a few bags of frozen berries in the freezer...
I recalled seeing something on the internet ages ago of someone creating an island out of fruit, tried to find the picture again but failed, so I winged it and came out with this!

I don't think she was expecting me to take her literally and make an actual Island...but her eyes nearly popped out of her head with excitement! About 3 minutes later, there was nothing left but a bit of blueberry stained kiwifruit juice on the plate, and a berry blue faced *sorrrry bad pun!* little girl licking her lips in satisfaction!

Being that it is a rather miserable wet cold winters day, *and there is only so many episodes of 'My Little Pony" one person can bare to hear in the background!!!* I raided my craft cupboards and set Miss 4 up at the table with a bunch of paint, glitter glue, craft glue, bits of coloured paper ripped up for collage and I punched out a bunch of hearts with my paper shape hole punch thingy. (Gotta get more of those!)

Kept her busy for about 2 hours, made some cool art work, and I got to enjoy a coffee...while actually still hot for once!! woohoo!

 After a few practices at collage art on some paper, I let Alia have a go at making her own collage canvas for her bedroom. I gave her a wee hand with the 'pink sky' and the the glitter glue stripes coming out of her hearts (goodness knows what they're about, shooting heart stars perhaps?) But the rest she did herself, pretty impressed to be honest!! Got a great little artist in the making!

FYI empty egg cartons are a craft cupboards best friend...especially when you have littlies!
I use them for paint pots as well as sorting and holding all sorts of little bits and pieces, and my little miss can just help herself.

Righto, last on my list of things to share today is my renewed discovery and love of coconut cream!
Far far back in my blog I mentioned trying to track down the perfect coconut cream brand to make whipped coconut cream...and through many brand tries and fails, I have FINALLY landed my favourite brand.

Family Choice Coconut Cream.

No Preservatives          - Tick
No Artificial Flavouring - Tick
No Artificial Colouring  - Tick

This is my kinda product. 

This is the first brand I have found which separates the cream solids from the coconut water, WHILE REMAINING SILKY SMOOTH!
All the other brands I've tried, either don't separate, because they add things in to prevent it from splitting, or they do separate but the creamy solids are a bit gritty in texture and do not whip up into smooth creamy peaks...they're just...bleugh.
This stuff is amazing...I am pretty much addicted, as soon as I open a can, ive got a teaspoon out and just eating the solid cream right out of the tin...it's like coconut mousse!
Anyway...so normally when I have any whipped cream in the fridge, left over from scones or something I've made, I like to treat myself to a coffee topped with whipped cream and cinnamon. (This is a rare treat, but boy it's a good one!) and my newly whipped, perfect coconut cream was just sitting here going "Use me on something!!!!" 

So I thought...hmmm...I wonder...If this would behave like regular whipped cream in my coffee...and would the coconutty flavour be horrible with my coffee?
Obviously, there was no other way to find out the answers to these important questions,  I had to try it.

And just in case you were wondering...
YES! DO IT!

Its delicious! It behaves just like regular whipped cream, it melts into a foamy frothy top of goodness and mixed with the cinnamon is just delish! The coconutty flavour doesn't really come through into your coffee, mind you, I like to use so much cinnamon I cant really taste much other than that haha.

Give it a go!! Whether you're lactose intolerant, vegan or just wanna try something a bit different, this is a winner. Yummyness.

So for now get into some coconutty goodness, and stay beautiful x

Gettin Skinny Off Salad

So I am currently on a quest to drop one more dress size before I get married in January.
However it is now winter here in lil ol' NZ, annd quite frankly, the thought of yet another salad has been turning me right off.
I have had a lapse, a bit of a fall off the bandwagon if you will...
Last week we had, Kebabs, Pizza (It was home made... wholemeal base and all...if that counts for anything???? yes?? I'll take it anyway) AND a lovely wintery comfort food classic, home made steak and vegetable pie.
Ok ok, I know, my muffin top and pooch pants aren't going to dissapare when I'm eating that kind of food...but I was in a bit of a healthy food eating rut.
BORED BORED BORED.

After my weekly weigh in displayed the results of my bad eating week... (+1.5kg if you must know) I was quickly lerched back into weight loss reality and headed off to the supermarket hoping to find some new salad inspiration.
Grabbed a bunch of things I rarely buy and got stuck in.

To my sheer delight, I created, possibly the tastiest salad I've ever had the pleasure of filling my face with!

So here I am, blogging away, coffee in hand, dreaming of the divinity of that salad and thinking *Im putting that on my dinner menu at least once once a week, whether the fusspot man of mine and kid-faces like it or not*

So in case you're in a salad rut too, or just wanna try something a bit different, here is my recipe for the best salad ever.
Apologies about the not so flash picture, my camera decided to have a battery crisis and my phone camera had to make do...

Smoked Chicky Salad with Kale Toasted Nuts & Fennel

You will need:

- 5x Stalks of curly kale (de-stalked and curly leafy bits torn up)
- Half a fresh fennel bulb
- Olive oil
- Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1x breast of smoked chicken (smoked salmon might work well in here too, I'll try it sometime soon and let you know)
- 2 Tablespoons of raw walnuts
- 2 Tablespoons of raw sunflower seeds
- 2 Tablespoons raw hazelnuts **
- 25g Feta cheese
- Small handful of fresh Parmesan shavings (optional)

What to do:

1.Start by chucking the oven on to 200°C (Sorry if you're reading this from America, I haven't a clue what that is in °F but I'm sure google can help you :smile: )

2. Grab your kale stalks and shred the curly leafy bits off the stalks....discard the stalks (or better yet, go feed them to the chooks or chuck em in the compost pile). Now put your leafy bits in a bowl with a lug of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Get your hands in there and give them a good scrunch! This gets the olive oil, salt and pepper all over them properly, and also the scrunching reduces a bit of the bitterness you can get in kale.
Now divide your kale into 2 portions. One half you're going to leave raw, and nommy nommy, the other half you're going to toast up in the oven and make kale chips with.

3. Pop one half of your kale on a baking tray, spread it out so they crisp up. If there is room, spread out your seeds and nuts on the same baking tray.
However you wanna keep them within their groups...they will toast at varying speeds, so you will need to be able to take them off the tray at different times...if they're all muddled together, this will be tricky, if not downright annoying...don't say I didn't warn you!
Now drizzle them with a LITTLE BIT of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and freshly cracked black pepper and bung em in the oven on the top shelf.
KEEP AN EYE ON THEM!!!! They will turn quicker than your back does to flick the kettle on.

Keep checking them, as soon as any one of your groups has turned golden, bring the tray out, pull off whatever is done and throw in your bowl with the fresh kale, then place the tray back in the oven so the rest can finish up....repeat until theyre all golden brown and finished up.

4. Shred your chicken breast and add to your bowl of kale and nuts.

5.With a mandolin (or some mad knife skills) finely slice up your fennel bulb and place in ice water. (Or if you're lazy like me, throw it in the food processor on the fine slicing attachment)
The ice water? I saw it on a cooking show once, I forget why, I think it has something to do with shocking it into crispness...or something...I'm not sure, but I've always done it and will probably continue to do so. You of course don't have to or probably even need to!

5. Now chop up your feta into little diced chunks and shave some parmesan.(Did anyone else just get an image of a block of cheese shaving its hairy little legs?? No? Just me??....)

6. Ok, drain your fennel bulb of the ice water if you decided to bathe it, and throw it along with your Feta, into your salad bowl, squeeze your fresh lemon juice in, toss it all together, nuts and all, and pop your Parmesan shavings ontop.

BOOM

BEST. SALAD. EVER.


** The hazelnuts were a last moment thought, I saw a few left in my collection of nuts and seeds, and thought, what the heck I'll pop them in....SO GLAD I DID, the hazelnuts were actually my favourite element of this salad. A bit different and unexpected, which is what I was really looking for to get out of my salad rut.

So there you have it, something a bit different. Worth a go, I ate this for lunch and for dinner today it was so good!

Oh and for anyone wondering about the semolina pudding I posted about last week, YUM definitely give it a go. My one tip though, STIR, STIR, STIR! The second you stop stirring when the semolina is being added to your got milk mixture, you get giant lumps that you can't get rid of!
Enjoy!!

Right, I have a grumpy 10 month old adorable little man climbing up my leg who I need to go and feed!
So for now,

Make some salad, and stay beautiful! x

Trial Time!

Hello my lovelies!
Today is an exciting post for me, my first product review!

So I belong to this pretty sweet online parenting group " Kidspot.co.nz "
Fantastic place for all things parenting!!
Great place to chat with other parents, get advice, enter competitions, find easy family friendly recipes, and everything in between.

A couple of weeks ago on the Kidspot website they asked all mums who were interested to apply for the chance to be one of 20 Mums selected to review the new Maybelline Fit Me 2-In-One foundation stick.
Of course I jumped at this chance, not only is my current foundation down to the last few drops, but I loved the idea of a foundation stick over a bottle of liquid foundation, or even the mineral compact with brush.
It looked quick, easy and conveniently sized to pop into the handbag and take with you anywhere for touch up's on the go.
This is perfect for Mums with very little time to get ready in the morning!

So I signed up, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

Low and behold, a mysterious package arrived at my doorstep on Friday morning...in all honesty I'd completely forgotten about the review, and being that only 20 Mums were being chosen to review, I didn't think my chances were all that high.
Having not done any online shopping or ordered anything online recently I was rather confused as to what could possibly be turning up from the courier for me??!!

Opened up the package curiously and, BOOM!

Lucky me! I was chosen! Yes it's the little things like this in life that get stay at home mums excited.
I work one day a week (Saturday's) at a florist shop in the city, so this gave me the perfect opportunity to try it out.

HELLO HANDYNESS!!!
It's quick and easy, silky smooth and nice coverage. Though maybe I should have asked for the next shade down when I applied for the review. This one was the Porcelain 110 shade, annnnd made me just a weeee bit pasty white. But not terribly so...
Now you have to promise you wont laugh at my before makeup photo! This is my skin all its blotchy makeupless glory, but hey its all part of the reviewer journey right??

After work I met my fella and our two kiddies at a big get together bbq with his work mates/their families. So pretty impressed with how well the makeup lasted through a whole day at work, and then an after work function as well. The foundation could have used a tiny touch up, but not desperately. My lippy and eye makeup and hair needed more attention than my foundation.

Over all, thumbs up from me, you should go try it!

I can hear my 10 month old waking up from his morning nap, so that's my cue to skedaddle out of my blogging world!

Stay beautiful x

Wintery pretties

Well it's nearly the end of May, and the temperature has dropped dramatically in the past week!

Yep...that's the ice on my car which greeted me in all its crazy cold prettiness yesterday morning as I was trying to get the kids in and off to preschool! I looove the patterns it created, can't say I've ever seen the frost do that on the car before...I'im wondering if its from the insane wind we had that blew the water around on the car as it was freezing???
Who knows, but I didn't want to defrost the car!

Today isn't quite as cold, but I'm currently clutching my 4th cup of coffee for the day and dreaming up something hot and nommy to make for dinner tonight.
Also, trying to find a recipe for using semolina, after I mistakenly picked up a bag of semolina instead of polenta...I don't even know how that happened, but I'm going to put it out there and blame baby brain!

So I seem to have settled on a chocolate semolina pudding, from here
http://www.cookitsimply.com/recipe-0010-085c56.html
I'll let you know later if it turns out nice or not haha.

Annnnd I think tonight's dinner is going to be some kinda all in one tray roasted veges and chicken breasts with herby goodness and tomatoes! Yummmmm!

In other news, I scored a part time florist job through my awesome friend who I trained with a few years back (a few years back! Jeez, where does the time go?!?!)
Soooo I'm having a ball getting back into my Floristy Mama groove, while my fella gets to play stay at home Dad once a week and learns all about the fun of entertaining 2 little people with no Mama bear around to help.
 I must admit, a large part of me feels deliciously avenged about this, because for so long he's been going on about how he's the working parent so he shouldn't have to help out with dinner etc in the evenings....
You better bet your bottom dollar I expect dinner on the table and a tidy house when I come home from work now hahaha.

Had my first proper day last weekend and was so much fun playing around with arrangements again...albeit rather terrifying being dropped in the deep end when I was left to run the store by myself for the afternoon with minimal training. I survived though and live to work another day.

So for now I will get back to my steamy kitchen and I shall leave you with a couple of arrangements from last Saturday.
Stay warm and stay beautiful! x

Top      - Anemone, Freesia and Pieris.
Bottom - Kale, Lily, miniature white spray Roses, spray Stock with Magnolia foliage.

Ooooh Sparkly!

I am currently in the midst of planning my wedding, and being the crafty creative soul that I am, decided everything I could possibly manage, was going to be DIY.
After finally settling on a chic modern vintage theme, (yes I do realise modern vintage is an oxymoron, but it works! Trust me!) my bridesmaids and I are in full vintage decorating swing!
Invitations are well under way, the ones for overseas relatives are made and sent, and after much playing around and perfecting, this is the final product.

Yes I hand stitched those bunting flags after I roped my *soon to be* hubby into cutting all the little triangles out for me...haha...it was 600 flags or something ridiculous.

Hand stamped initials, I originally started off with lovely silver letter stickers, but I would have had to buy dozens of sheets of silver alphabet stickers just for the H's and the D's....so we thought a stamp would be more cost effective. Not as nice looking, but still pretty cool!

The inside continues on with the cute bunting theme, and then I cut little slits inside the folds of the invitation, threaded through some organza ribbon, and attached the (hand folded) RSVP card inside it's (hand made) envelopes with the cutest little wooden peg!

Inside those cutie tootie envelopes, are the most painstakingly folded origami hearts which I printed our RSVP details onto.

Gorgeous result....but with 60+ to do....I'm beginning to think it was a terrible idea!

Phew! Pretty impressed with myself....but at the end of the day, I guess most of them will end up in someones bin after a while of sitting there looking pretty....and all that time seems kind of a waste...Buuuuut I wouldn't have it any other way! I love hand made everything!

Along with hand made invitations, I have also embarked on an eclectic vintage bottles collection journey, with which I am slowly hand decorating with gold glitter.
Oooooooh Sparkly!
 So far I am very impressed with the result of simply painting them with PVA glue and sprinkling over gold glitter...but there will be glitter EVERYWHERE....so I think I will give them another coat of the glue to seal it and see how that turns out.

Can you just imagine these filled with soft pastel Stock, Lisianthus, Roses and Dusty Miller?! *florist porn!*

I thought I would be happy with a rough wobbly *rustic* edge to where the glitter ends, so I just hand painted on the glue with no guide....but after completing a couple, I decided it really didn't look as nice like that. 

Soooo I improvised, grabbed some handy dandy cello tape, and used that as you would painting tape, then peeled off at the end which resulted in a beautiful clean edge. Woohoo!

I seriously recommend doing that, the wobbly line at the top kind of gives it a "my kids made this" look...heh...which, yah know...is cute for some things....not so cute for reception tables!

The sweet corked jar with the love hearts I did on a whim, used up some heart stickers on something else, and thought, heyyyy the remaining sticker backing could make a little stencil, so I peeled it off, stuck it to my jar, and went nuts with some gold spray paint! Took a couple of coats, and a tiny bit got under the sticker stencil but it was easily fixed with some terps on the end of a cotton bud. Few gentle wipes and it was perfect! Easy peasy, cute jar gone to cuter in 5 minutes flat. (Quick dry spray paint is a must if you are as impatient as I am!)

Vintage Pretties!

Two of my lovely bridesmaids and I are having a girls night this coming Friday! Woop! Annnnd what better way to spend girly bridesmaidy/bride time than to get another wedding project on the go??

We are going to attempt to make our own buntings with this GORGEOUS vintagey fabric we picked up on the weekend....here's hoping the wine doesn't result in terribly wobbly stitching, haha, wish us luck!

Aren't those floral prints just delicious!?

And to finish off this post, I will share with you one more DIY creation you can do to showcase your domesticated goddess within!

Home made tahini!

Yuummmmooo! So many uses for tahini, use in hummus, use in dressings, use in desserts, you could even enjoy it simply on some toast in place of peanut butter! MMmmmmmmMMM!

Now some recipes say DO NOT brown the sesame seeds...and others say, DO IT! TOAST THOSE BABY'S!  (Ok maybe not so excited, I may have embellished a little)
So not knowing which direction to take, I did a batch of each...annnnnnd they both taste identical...so I'll leave it for you to decide.

Home Made Tahini

What you need:

2C sesame seeds

aprox 50-100ml olive (or other vegetable) oil

Method:

Place all the sesame seeds on an oven tray and put on the top rack at 200C. I don't know exact times, as I just  kept an eye on them and gave them a stir every couple of minutes until lightly golden (or not, up to you)
The main thing, is they are in the oven until fragrant, because thats when they have warmed up their natual oils enough to work in your tahini.
Just make sure you WATCH THEM because they can turn from lovely light golden brown, to black within a matter of moments.

When your seeds are toasted to your desired level, throw them all in a food processor and wizz them up until a dry paste starts to form. 

Sloooooowly drizzle a little at a time, the olive oil in while its going, and with much patience, (about 15 minutes on high, with a couple of scrape downs during that time) your tahini will turn from a dry paste to a luscious shiny oozy consistency. This is what you want!

Then simply throw in a jar and keep in the fridge, from what I've read, it can keep in your fridge for several months... (as if it will last that long with me around! ;) )
This made around aboooooout 200ml.

NEVER spending $12 on a 150ml jar of tahini from the supermarket again!

Happy DIYing! 

Stay beautiful! xx