ideas.

I love the idea of the jar with the 365 grateful things that occurred during the year, I am not doing it, I have the blog for that, I am trying to keep upbeat and well just enjoying amazing things that are occurring.  New clients, new things, happenings and progress.

The first part is the progress on the house. It has been so lovely having the insulation in the lounge, kitchen area done.  Makes a huge difference, also the awnings love having 2 now.  The sanding has been done, the undercoat was attached by all the family and then fell to my other half to complete. I dashed off to do a massage, our kiddies just dashed off.

A trip to Savers proved very very positive.  The first find was the cast iron fry pan.  We have not have a frypan for a while that we have been happy with.  We have bought and paid good money and watched them destroy themselves for no no reason. So I researched and found that the best one could be a cast iron as long as we can handle the weight.  It is HEAVY.  Nice and even cooking.  It had no price thought there was a smaller one being sold or $30.00 we held our breath, asked and was given a wonderful surprise of the price of $10.00 SOLD!

My other half cleaned and seasoned his new friend twice! Looks as good as new.  We are yet to use it but I am sure that it will be very exciting when we do.  Probably tonight.

We also found some nice designer jeans for my other half in his size and length.  Sometimes it pays to shop second hand as the alterations have been done.   These brands would have been close to $200 mark each if we had bought them retail then alterations on top.  We spent  just over $40.00 for both.  So a very happy man.  

This is the start of the new year and well it is progressing alone nicely.

A dinner with a good friend last night and he bought dessert Macaroons amazing treat.

A dinner with Nanny and a few quiet drinks has been really lovely.

Now all I have to do is choose the paint colour, yes I know I said I already had however I have changed my mind, opps.

Photo's to come, my silly phone camera is not behaving at the moment.

A new year drinkies

What happened one minute I was counting the days until Christmas and feeling like they were racing by the next it's New Year.

So we are working on renovating as we normally try to around this time of the year unless the weather is just too hot to do anything.  We are coming up to a heat wave however we have made the most of it the last couple of days.

I have wanted to work on this part o the house for so very long. The outside front or side whatever your view is. Anyhow, it is being done. Happy dance occuring. The insulation is in. The boards are all replaced and the holes filled, the 2 awnings are up. (One still needs to be wired but it's happening)  I have sanded the boards ready for painting and that is it.  The heatwave is on the way and I am going to catch up and finish my assignments and hand them in.

My Petal has been driving me made to make a special drink.  So I decided to combine this with something that mummy and daddy would enjoy too.  With her little Pink (made by her Auntie) apron on my Petal was busy starting with the spice syrup, the house was filled with amazing smells so lovely.

an Almost Hercules Morse’s Apple Spiced Pimm's & Dry.

• Apple juice with Mandarin
• 15ml spice syrup*

• Pimm's (we added a bit more)
• (recipe called for gin we left this out, didn't have any in the cupboard)

• Schweppes dry ginger ale
• Ice (lots)

*Recipe for syrup

Method:
Pour the Pimm's, juice and syrup into a cocktail shaker along with ice. Shake until cold, then pour over a glass filled with ice and top with Schweppes dry ginger ale. 

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 cinnamon sticks, broken up
• 6 whole cloves
• 1 star anise ( the recipe said 2,we decided that this might be a little overpowering) 
• 3 all spice berries
• 1 cardamom pod
• 6 black pepper corns
• 1/8 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 cup sugar

Method:
Bring water to boil, add spices. Boil for five minutes, then add sugar and stir to dissolve. When sufficiently cooled, strain and pour into sterilised bottles. Store in fridge. 

We kept the Pimms seperate and another little jug of Lemonade for the children. So they had a version without Pimms and with lemonade to taste. We had the Pimms. YUM

The syrup is wonderful and will be flavouring many more drinks in the near future. 

Cheers, Happy New Year.