Believe it

This is for you. Read it. Believe this truth. Marinate in it. You are loved

Garden of lights

After two years of trying and 5 missed highway exits ( just last night ) Mr Big and I finally made it to Garden d'lights in Bellevue.

If you've never been you should go. It's sensational! Must take alongs are gloves, hat and cozy coat - we had all three

...and so, time to stroll. Usually it's $5 per person, which I would have gladly paid, but tonight was free. Probably because it was 21 degrees out!

It was quite a lovely evening - I was grateful for the hubs taking me and holding my hand the whole way round.

My two favorite Christmas songs

These two links will peg your joy meters. Have a terrific week!

Sweetness

Isnt it wonderful how little things can tip your mood.  A huge thanks to my sissy in law Verna.  Thankfully she is not on facebook so she shares things with me one on one instead of a huge blast out to 200 of her nearest and dearest.  I love facebook but I hate it at the same time because it has squashed some of the intimacy that people used to have (like sharing a photo with a family member one on one).  I love getting her emails with photos...and with videos of my precious nephew Riley.  It made my day seeing his sweet cherub face and im sure it will delight you too:

40th Birthday

I saw the movie Shirley Valentine, some 20 years ago.  I dont know why but it really affected me on a deep level, so much so, that I developed a game plan there and then that when I turned 40 (which seemed like an eternity away) I wouldnt celebrate like an old person, letting the day go by like "another birthday" but I would celebrate being fabulous at 40 (which I assumed I would be) and I would do as Shirley Valentine did - I would celebrate in Greece, specifically I would be there with my nearest and dearest and we would all skinny dip in the Agean sea at 12.02am, on the morning of my 40th.

It turned out to be completely different. 

The most celebratory thing I did was to buy MYSELF a bottle of Veuve Clicquot French Champagne...which I didnt drink.  In fact this morning when I went out on the porch there was the box, sitting there ontop of the pantry. 

Birthdays in general tend to be on the sucky side for me.  Its my own fault.  I set my own expectations way too high.  I remember my thirtyith birthday arrghhh...I was living in Christchurch, I was seperated, my best friend (who was the only person I knew in the town I just moved to) had moved so I was completely alone.  Thirty.  Its a big birthday right?  I ended up sitting propped up against a tree in Hagley Park drinking some kind of hard liquor that was camoflaged in a paper bag, and crying.  The heaving, really ugly crying - it was a full on pity party and a really sad state of affairs.  I was so lonely, my life was falling apart and 9/11 had left a massive hole in my heart.  So....as you might imagine, I really really thought that after a decade things would be much more dazzling on my birthday.

I ended up in Sequim instead of Mykonos.  Till the last minute it looked like it was going to be spent watching Mamma Mia (savor the irony, its set on a Greek Island!) on a 14 inch telly in a room of the Econolodge Sequim but we actually did end up going "out"....to seven cedars casino.  So instead of breathing fresh sea air it was stale smoky casino air, instead of sipping ouzo it was a overly sweet margarita, instead of eating Greek delicacies it was 1/2 a bacon cheeseburger at 11.45pm.  I tried my best to be chipper but this really was very divorced from my vision of celebrating my 40th.

"....but wasnt your birthday months ago...like, September?" you might ask... Yes, yes, it was...and I know that that was a while ago but dang!  Seeing that bottle on the top of the pantry this morning brought back all of the disappointment and bitterness to the forefront again.  Thats the reason im writing about it.  Im need to let go of it and let go of all the feelings associated with it.

So tonight, Im going to have a mini micro version of a celebration.  I just asked the hubs to put the veuve in the fridge.  Tonight is "prep night" for our annual Christmas Cocktail Party where we celebrate our friends and family.  We make all the appetizers and special drinks and decorate the house all pretty.  Its usually a lovely lovely time and I am sure this year will be no different.  So I figure nows as good a time as any to release my concerns and move on in perfect fashion - while making a million cake pops with Tadpole I will be sipping veuve and I intended on finishing at least half the bottle with him. 

Fogalicious

I like waking up to a foggy morning.  Yes, it's cold and grey but I feel like fog is natures wrapping paper in someways, hiding the gift of the day.  It was that kind of morning this morning, I cant wait to see what today brings

A beautiful message

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TBd-UCwVAY

Be brave

A beautiful quote I just read:

Courage doesn't always roar, sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying " I will try again tomorrow "

Mary Ann Radmaker

I love that. As I was looking at the clock counting down the minutes to bed time, making our breakfast and lunch for the next day, I got that all familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach - the anxiety of what the next day might bring... then I read this quote.

It helped calm my nerves and remind me that everythings gonna be ok - in fact, it might even be the best day ever. Stay tuned...

Oscar the octopus

Yesterday, while Christmas shopping for my dear sweet niece I found a gift for myself. Meet Oscar, the octopus. Mr Bigs not so keen on it but I'm in love. Thoughts?

Sausage roll recipe for TJ

On a day when I really needed it an old friend told me he read my blog. I was thrilled when he told me this and then to also ask for my sausage roll recipe - well that was hard proof he REALLY had looked at it. Thanks TJ !

Now comes the embarrassing culinary truth, TJ... World ... Sausage rolls are crazy simple.... Take the ingredient list for example :

Pepperidge farm puff pastry sheets
Jimmy dean sausage

Yeek. I know - 2 items. The hardest part comes next. Assembly:

Unwrap package of pastry.

Rest a while. You deserve a break after all that unwrapping angst

Next flour a hard surface and roll out the pastry sheet so it's about 1/2 as thick as it comes out of the package. Cut in half length ways.

On the first piece put a generous line of sausage (:-) ) in the middle of the pastry length ways. Roll it up, crimp the edges together and slice into chunks. Bake until golden.

These are so delicious. Everyone loves them and I am definatley making then for thanksgiving.

In NZ a lot of people make them more fancy than I.. You can add herbs and onion to the meat - I've even known people that have put chopped apple into the mix. But I like it to be simple.

Thanks TJ for reading. Let me know how the sausage rolls turn out.

Howdy

First thing first sorry. Sorry ive been AWOL. It's been, let's say, a challenging month or so. Deep breath. Haaaaaaaaaaaaa

Now that I'm back lets start with this past weekend. Regular guest stars on our weekend adventures are Tadpole and Ronnie. You know them so I won't bother with a long winded intro. This weekend we got to hang out with them on Sarurday. I'd really re-he-ally been looking forward to Saturday. Of course because I would see two of my favorite people's but also... It was forecast (drumroll) for SNOW.

As is normal this kinda transpired in some areas but not in Everett where we live. Sad.... On the flip side though, Saturday was a glorious blue sky sunny day and the mountains were just gorgeous all snow covered.

First things first I baked some sausage rolls

These are fan favorites. Next stop was for liquid refreshments at Starbucks. Luckily Tadpole had the perfect accompaniment

Then it was time to load up the car... With guns and ammo and head for the country. Yes. Guns. Ammo. GAH!

And before we knew it we had arrived. .. And the boys seemed excited

I was excited too. At the snow! Do we unloaded the guns, the sausage rolls, the ammo and the targets

It was weird to this little kiwi seeing all the guns and ammo but what was even weirder was

Lil Elliott was an awesome shot

I even tried my hand at it. As you can see, I don't really have the stance of a real shooter

It was a fun time. But its the weirdest feeling in the world shooting a gun.

Prayer request

You might recall that I'm a very lucky lamb and have a fabulous BFF called Tadpole. Tadpole is more than a BFF truth be told, he's like a family member and I love him dearly.

His fur baby Ashley is really unwell and is headed for surgery today. If you have some spare prayers and love could you send it Ashley and Tadpoles way? Thanks friends!!

Everett homecoming weekend

This was Everett Homecoming weekend. Luckily for us we were all organized so it was a pretty easy day for the young pup. So easy in fact that Mr Big and I decided to start the day with an antique show at Rust and Ruffles. This is basically a old junk and craft festopia, and we love love love this kind of thing. Mostly it's an idea gathering mission. When you are in the company of so much creativity it kind of rubs off on you... As you might expect my mind is overflowing with ideas for projays. I loved that there where tonnes of inspirational quotes around as you travelled the booths

The only bummer is that most of the vendors only took cash, so I couldnt buy this awesome little collection of initials that would have been perfect at Castle Allen

After a few hours of junking it was time to get into homecoming mode. Lil Gary was in full chill out mode when we got home do I grabbed him to pick up a few groceries. I thought it was hysterical while we were there we had the following convo:
Elliott: (picks up ham steak) when I get married this is going in my wedding gift registry
Me: OMG - it looks like a mouth

Hilarity ensued...

Next was trying to get said boy outdoors for some pictures. The light was really poor ( it is late October after all ) but I think we got a couple of good ones. I can't believe this was his last homecoming dance. July is coming way too soon. He looked do handsome ... I think you can see where he gets those good looks from ...

Elliott went with his gal-pal Mairin. They made a fine looking pair!

And I was thrilled to have them plus Elliott's BFF and his date at the Castle for photos

Next day we set out for a day in the country. We got to visit two pumpkin patches and invented a fabulous coffee concoction - a hot buttered rum mocha latte. Try it, you'll thank me later

I really need a few days of this

I loved this window

Our haul - corn stalks, three pumpkins and some babykins. Can't wait to put them up at home!

Blazing glory

So much beauty abounds. I love fall

Ghoulish delights

And so.. Halloween is soon to befall us. Being from the antipodes I never celebrated Halloween. Now I'm here in the states I do as the Yankees do and immerse myself in culture. Still though I'm not a fan of the gruesome or scary... Even though the fam LOVE IT.. This is more my style:

But this is more the style of my fam

You gotta love em!

Question

Have you ever seen those ladies with huge handbags in the fashion
Magazines ? They usually look like lollipops dwarfed by their arm candy but it's a fashion statement I guess. As you know, I myself have a certain penchant for a larger bag, but I think that's in the hopes that someone will mistake me for a lollipop rather than a beluga whale.... Anyhoo can you imagine my excitement when unnamed friend was seen like this

What you see seeing here friends is no CGI (computer generated image) its real. Unnamed friend has not one giant sized bag, not two... Neigh. It's four giant bags. Wow. Impressive.

Holiday treat

I live simple gift giving ideas.

Orient Express Set Up

I just discovered Pamie.  I think you will love her.  If you are looking for an entertaining story (and lets face it, WHO ISNT) - take 2 minutes to read this hilarious recounting of a special occasion she orchestrated for her Mum.  Its great http://pamie.com/2011/09/mother-on-the-orient-express-part-six-the-train/

Friendship bracelet

This past week we visited Chunkanut Drive. I'm not sure if you've taken this stretch of 21 miles but I highly recommend it if you love nature. It's breathtaking. You weave through the old highway with views of Puget sound one side and huge boulders and trees on the other. If you start in Skagit Valley like we did you end up in Fairhaven which is a. The delightfully named hamlet b. Home of dos padres - best melon margarita in the world, and home of the most lip smakingly scrumptilicious homemade habanero jelly. It's also where we decided to wash the car.

All that nature on Chucks drive got me in a silly mood and while the car wash paused, changing cycles I decided it would be a great time to wind the window down and touch the washer twirlers, ya know those big yellow things? Well in the midst of my personal adventure the cycle changed and as I rolled up the window one of the tentacles from the twirlers caught in the window and amputated itself. Most people would have simply opened the window to released the tentacle to the wind... But not me.

Said item was the EXACT yellow of a Lance Armstrong live strong bracelet ... And I wanted to take a little gifty poo to my BFF Tadpole who, coincidentally we were meeting for wine soooo I retrieved it, tied a knot with love and gifted it to my bestie.

A few days later I revealed that origins of the bracelet to Tadpole, suffice to say I think he is not sporting a yellow carwash tentacle any longer BUT... Now I see that he would wear a friendship bracelet to display our mutual amor for one another. So sometime soon I will be crafting one for him. Stand by for photos.

Happy day one and all

Vacay

While stalking someone else's blog I was struck with a realization that apart from a childhood short stay in a Rotorua Motel with ill fated bunk beds and a leaky roof... I, have never had a summer vacay.

This seems wrong. Am I the only one that dosent have summer vacays?

Maybe the reason is because I'm always working towards a vacation in NZ to visit with family? Or maybe it's just really poor planning in general on my part. I think me needs to pow wow with Mr Big to plan a getaway of some sort, course a summer vacay literally is not possible for me - we have our lovely kids for the majority of summer - but how bout a fall or winter getaway? Maybe Whistler or Bampf? Ah sweet dreams....