Eighteen. Crazy Weekend Ahead!

Last night marked the first evening of the Great Moving Long Weekend.
(six people (including the amazing Diana), three entire houses, one weekend. Cleaning. Packing. Sorting. INSANITY. Nice of us all to choose the same few days to all move house!)

Spomes and I had chugged up to IKEA in the morning to pick up our two giant DVD shelves and coffee tables and had invited the lovely Amy over that evening for a mini-construction party.
While they were both at work, I'd spent the afternoon at the shops on a frantic buying spree at Kmart and Woolworths grabbing cleaning products, tea towels, mops, buckets, even a shower curtain. All those bits and pieces that one usually forgets that they need to buy for a new house until they go to use them and realise that they don't exist. I even had to get a kettle because I'd be mortified to discover in the middle of the moving craziness that i could make a round of tea for everyone.

The house is Inspection Clean but i still need to go over it again because it's been sitting unloved for over a week and i discovered yesterday that the inside of all the kitchen cupboards are sticky, there is a layer of dust settled over everything and everything seems stuff and musty.
Mr S and I have been a little clever and have started each taking a car load of things to the house before or after work each day for the last week, so all the smaller boxes and bags full of junk are neatly lined up in each room of the new place, waiting to be placed into their new home when the big stuff comes on Saturday.



Oh IKEA, i love your instructions.

The mini-contraction party was fun. I made a few pizzas and the three of us sat around on a sheet on the floor and ate off paper plates in the empty house. Once we were stuffed full, we started constructing the shelves, tables, spice racks and entertainment unit. Most things went according to plan. There were a few minor injuries like Amy using her fist to bash bits of wood in, only to accidentally hit a screw that was sticking out, a few bruised feet from having things dropped on them and some minor scratches and paper cuts from the ridiculous amount of packing that IKEA wraps their products in. Everything turned out more or less like it should of. I did hammer in a shelf back wards and Spomes nailed carefully nailed a hole through the back of his cabinet, but we now have half a house assembled! It was exhausting, but we were kind of excited so after Amy left we unpacked the boxes containing our beloved DVD's and lined them up on our new shelves. (Alphabetically of course. Two movie nuts here!)



What we probably would of ended up with if we have gone any further into the night.

Today is more cleaning, sorting and unpacking of the rest of our stuff and then tomorrow is day one of the BIG MOVE.
Wish us luck! Photos to come!


Love.

Seventeen. It's hard being the new kid.

I'm busy, busy at my new work at the Deli. It's been a little difficult adjusting for me seen as i was so attached to my job in Melbourne. Today was the first day that i felt more comfortable working there, i finally remembered every ones names, I'm getting more into the groove of how it's run and what my position is going to end up being.

They brought their coffee rep in to show me how they make coffee the 'Merlo Way', which was quite hard for me to take too because they makes coffee in a completely different way to every other place that i have been trained, or worked at.
I had to forget most of the things i had learnt about extraction times, the beans i am used to working with, and tamping. Basically Merlo's beans are so fresh that they require only the gentlest of tamps as opposed to the several kilo's of weight you generally place on the coffee when you tamp it. Seriously, it's so light, it is just brushing the surface of the coffee, no pressure at all. Merlo ideal extraction time is 17 - 19 seconds, which is about 8ish seconds less than what I'm (and every non-Merlo barista) is used too.

I had a really difficult time adjusting to this new way of doing thing and started to find it hard to enjoy my work, which is making it difficult to enjoy the whole working experience. I was getting frustrated at myself because i am just learning this new way of coffee making and am not generally patient with myself, i kept reverting back to my old way of making coffee resulting in an espresso that wasn't perfect tasting (read - shit), which was upsetting to me.
When made the Merlo Way, the coffees are very nice, there is no change to how i steam the milk, or present the coffee, it is just the espresso shot itself that is a huge difference. They make a good coffee, but i;m worried that after a while i will start to lose the way that i made coffee's before this job (and how most other coffee places require you to make coffee) and will find it hard again to readjust if i ever need another job or decide to move on.
Maybe I'm just stubborn and refuse to learn anything new without making it a hassle? I think I'm still a little defensive about my Melbourne job and miss my adoring regulars and compliments.



I still make with the pretty.

Other than my temporary coffee woes. Work is going good. I did my first close today so i finally know how an entire day works. It's a tiny, little place but when it gets busy, it gets hectic so it was nice to keep busy and occupied the entire day. The girls seem nice, chirpy and friendly and i even got my shifts changed this week because one of them asked specifically to work with me because i can handle myself better than the others. (I've never met these Others, so I'll be the judge of that, but also YAY! REQUEST!).
Most of them don't seem to know how old i am and the majority of them are fresh out of school/just into uni so they are babies in my book. Their current obsession seems to be a new gym that has opened up close-by which at least three of them have joined, Masterchef and drinking until they puke at those horrid, loud clubs in the city where everyone is wearing fluro and is a slight orange colour from too much fake tan. It was cute because when they found out i was 24 (old to some) and currently do not own a TV or know who the winner of Masterchef was (UGH - I WORK WITH REAL CHEFS, PEOPLE.) or i that could never join a gym or resort to any sort of strenuous excercise which would result in my being blotchy, sweaty and panting for breath and that i prefer to cook giant and delicious dinners for my friends and stay curled up on the couch at home with a book, i finally started to get treated like a grown up (read- nanna) - It did get me out of a lot of crap Junior jobs (scrubbing, dishes, bins) and having simple things explained to me in painfully slow detail ( I've known everything that has been explained to me in the last three days, even politely explaining that i know how to do it still did not help). It also leaves me free to drink as much tea as i want and bore people with my talk of cats, sewing and jam making. Bliss.

I am actually part of the sloth family in terms of lack of physical movement when not necessary and although i have my wibbly days, I'd much rather go for a nice walk and only have one slice of tea cake instead of two than pay ridiculous amounts of money to sweat in a room with other people while tiny bottomed women shout encouraging words at me.


Apart from that, nothing new has been happening in my end of town. My new house got power today, so the move is officially on. Spomey and I are doing another trip to IKEA to pick up our DVD cases and bookshelves now my big car is empty. We also need curtains and hand towels and all those things that make me swoon. This post is terribly lacking in photos, so here are a few snippets from my bust weekend.





I gave favorite Brendan his birthday present.
A set of four, pretty white espresso cups and saucers.
I love this photo, Brendan has some of the best facial expressions ever.











We all said Goodbye to our wonderful friend Helen at the Polish Club in Milton (she's off to a remote part of Australia for a few months to save the world, then she's moving to Canberra).
It was a crazy night. After wearing Amy's glasses for most of it, i so desperately want a pair.









The next day we gathered at Brendan's beautiful house and feasted on amazing food to celebrate his birthday. He made a mouth watering roast lamb, quiches and various salads, breads and dips and then treated us all to freshly ground coffee from his machine.



Spomes, looking disgustingly hung over and me with my new Creamer and Sugar pot earrings that my mum bought for me during her trip.

Much love to all.

Sixteen. Floofy fest. 2010.

Last Sunday was Amy's birthday and to celebrate we decided to attend a cat show!
Both of us are infatuated with Cats. We stalk daily blogs about rescue kitties, pictures of kitties, things for kitties, kitties dressed as things. Kitties. Kittes! We had no choice but to attend. We were also joined by the heavenly Nicola and Amy's sister Em, also avid lovers of all things feline.




We had to physically wrench Amy from this little Muffin. She was just the sweetest little thing the world had ever seen. I can't remember her name but it had to be something like Pumpkin, or Sweetheart or Smooshypants. Something dripping with sweetness because you practically melt when you look at her.



See?



The magnificent Mr Darcy. Easily the biggest cat i had ever seen. A Maine Coon. His owner was a lovely lady who told me that she had bred nearly all of the Maine's at this particular show and now they were all competing against each other. I fell in love with this breed, that are so majestic and GIANT. I love the way they sit so elegantly and the giant ruffs around their necks. Sigh. We got to have a quick cuddle with Mr Darcy and he just lazed around in our arms like a king.



This was the first cat we saw. Amy and I named her Princess due to the large amount of pink in her cage and the fact that she had her own mini-chandelier. Ridiculous.
(yet i secretly wanted one for my Future Kitties home)


Tiny MAOW cat. A little baby Ragdoll at her first show. Her owner was an English lady who plonked one of her other show cats happily in our arms ( a big male, floofy ragdoll) and told us in great detail about the fifteen or so cats she kept at home.




This cat had a bib. That is all.



Ah Figaro. What a handsome devil. Same owner as Mr Darcy. He was the highlight of the show. Probably the most beautiful cat I've ever seen. Look how happy i am!



Nicola with Figaro.



LOOK AT HIM. Le sigh.



Oh Rexy, you so sexy.



YES. I almost walked right past this cats cage and then i saw a big, ginger tail sticking out and i had to have a peek. CROOKSHANKS. If you are a Harry Potter fan, you will understand my excitement.



Another favorite. Purely because every time he breathed, a tiny bubble of snot would form on his nose. He was trying to look like a snob, but failing miserably.



Happy cat does not actually care if you are happy or not.



Amy got her nose Nommed by this little leopard Bengal.




Heeeh..

While i was posting this i was looking at all the Adoption centres in the Brisbane area. I go to Japan in September and once I'm back I'll be looking for a baby of my very own to adopt. I'm seriously the most crazy of cat ladies and it has been over two years since i have had a cat of my own. Now i am back and settled it is time. I'm going to have real difficulty coming back with just one kitten. I get really overwhelmed when i go to rescue shelters, it upsets me that not all of the creatures there will find a home and they have done nothing wrong. If i could, I'd take all of them, but realistically one or sometime down the track, two cats will be enough. Amy has two cats and i don't know how she shares the love between each one, they are both wonderful and i love them dearly. (They know me as that mad-red-headed woman who pesters us with kisses and hugs and is constantly taking photos of us)

Oh cats. You make my happy.

Fifteen. Worlds most spoilt.

So today it was decided that Mr S and i would go to IKEA to price and possibly purchase the larger bits of furniture we need for the new house. We both have massive collections of DVD's, so we required two, large dvd shelves, a stand for the giant, plasma-HD-5-million-inch-television-flatscreen-rardirah that he has been obsessing over for months, coffee tables and various kitchen bits and bobs that we both will be using.
I'm slightly obsessed with IKEA, it fascinates me because it's like a whole other ridiculous world. Everything is always slightly odd, the people are WAY TOO friendly, it's clean, neat (and as i discovered today) with full, cooked breakfasts for $1.95. Bizarre.
Anyway, we got there and i was already off sprinting across the car park before Spomes had even locked the car. I collected my unnecessary giant, yellow canvas back, my catalogue and my tiny pencil and off i went. We didn't do too bad, we collected everything on our Sensible List and few things that weren't anywhere near any list at all.
The DVD shelves were too big to fit in Spomes car, so we had to leave them for the second (YAY) trip to IKEA and they were out of the coffee table that we wanted, but everything else was perfectly priced and now resting in big piles around the house waiting to be transported to their new home.


The 'Billy' book/dvd/everything shelves that we picked up.




Shiny, new colour coordinated chopping boards.

Magnetic strip for my knives.


The coffee table that they had run out of. They are actually just little everything tables that when put together look like a coffee table. Plus they only cost $20 each.


New tea towels!

Ridiculous $3 big, glass bowls. Perfect for the pasta salad I'm making Brendan for his Birthday BBQ.


Spomes entertainment unit thing.


My adorable, tiny spice racks. A mere $2.49. So charming that i had to purchase two.

Bread boards.




And of course, something that we COULDN'T live without. One of these sharks.
Inspired by this shark comic. We named him Cornelious Sharksbury.
After Spomes had gone too work i met up with my Mumma and my Aunty Jo Jo. They are holidaying on the Sunshine Coast for the week so they hired a car and drove to Brisbane to see the new house, my new place of work and catch up with some of my friends. My mum, being the most incredible and BEST MUM IN THE WORLD bought me the set of Baccarat pans that i have been obsessing over for a while. Aunty Jo Jo bought me, as a house warming gift, a Mezzaluna, a block with five knives and a mortar and pestle. I was so overcome with sheer gratitude (i've finally achieved the perfect starter kitchen, all of my own) that i burst into tears in the middle of the store, causing my mum to start crying, then my Aunty Jo Jo THEN the lady that was serving us behind the counter. Ah women.






We went out to The Grove for dinner with Amy & Nick, Diana & Brendan and Spomes. There was an amazing steak special on and 6 of us decided on that. Amy had Gorgonzola and mushroom gnocchi and Nick had a Haloumi salad. Everything was delicious. My amazing Mum is the one with the red glasses, she never smiles in photos!

Today, i've truly been spoilt rotten.
Tommorow is the first day of my new job at the Deli so it's off to bed with me!

Fourteen. An ordinary day.

Today Mr S and i payed a visit to the glorious Helen. She's back in Brisbane for a whirlwind tour before she jets off to a desert island to be a teachers aid and we were lucky enough to snatch a quickie lunch with her. Helen is the most fabulous, crazy, beautiful and brilliant person i know. She's my Trophy Wife and i adore her.
It was wonderful to see her again.



She made us a yummy winter vegetable salad with rocket and spinach, feta and some shaved ham.She looked like a pro, flinging it all together casually while Spomes and i peeked over the bench like children, eagerly awaiting a lick of the spoon. It was delicious.

I had two bowls.



Chime had some pumpkin and carrot. She also thought it was delicious.

I went shopping at the Indooropilly shopping centre once Spomes went off to work. I had a giant list of bits and pieces to get done but of course i ended up getting terribly distracted and not finishing my list.
There were these cute, little pots of herbs at Woolworths which i HAD to buy. (They were calling me)
I am now the proud owner of two types of parsley, coriander, oregano, mint and of course my chocolate mint plant. They are currently residing on the balcony at Nicks house until i learn how to care for them and until they move to the the kitchen bench of my new house.
Any hints on how to care for herbs?

I've also been daydreaming about little pots for my new herb babies and (of course) searching Etsy. I found this set of white pots and of course these little hanging signs to match. Sigh.
I bought my cousin Teri some heart shaped measuring spoons for her birthday. She is the cupcake queen.

I got my passport forms for Japan and picked up Favorite Brendans birthday present. (He will probably read this, so I'm not telling you what i bought - NER NE NER NER BRENDAN) in preparation for his birthday barbecue. I'm thinking of making this Pasta Salad for the event. Although I'll replace the green beans with delicious snow peas (because they are SUPERIOR) and take out the ham so our vegetarian friends can enjoy too. Yummy.




I got home and this present was awaiting me.
Most adorable pillows ever? I KNOW.
Mr Spomes is the best. He made me literally cry with joy when i saw them.
They are the sweetest.
Yesterday he also bought me these amazing CTRL, ALT, DEL serving dishes too.
Our house is going to be nerdy heaven.






To celebrate i made a chunky chicken, leek, bacon and veggie pie with chunky chips and a garden salad.
It was gone in minutes!

Tomorrow morning it's IKEA trip number one.
Oh dear. Somebody take my money from me so i don't go insane.


Goodnight my dears.

Thirteen. High Tea in pictures.

HELLO!
Our High Tea was a glorious success and seen as I've been blabbering on about it for the last few posts i thought I'd let you actually see how wonderful it turned out with some of the squillion photographs Amy and I took.


Amy's cups, teapots and saucers. I'm ridiculously jealous of that collection.



The tall teapot on the right is heaven.



Our serious supervisor, Madam Penny. She ensured that the cream was the freshest.




While Violet stopped to smell the flowers.




Spinach and Feta being smooshed into submission. The bandaid on my thumb is from grating off half my skin on an unfriendly grater.





MESS.



Pumpkin, zucchini and red capsicum, waiting to be made into finger sandwiches after being roasted.



The incredible Volcano cookies after erupting in the oven.



Zucchini and Haloumi fritters, sizzling away.



Spinach and Feta puffs, ready for cooking.




The massive amount of chocolate that went into Amy's Owl cake, and the base of the cake being iced.



Chocolate mint brownies, hazelnut truffles and more volcano cookies on my pretty new serving plates.



My favorite! Strawberry and Toblerone Friands.



The Spinach and Feta bites, served with Corn Relish and Tomato Chutney.



Amy's delicious balsamic onion, pumpkin and goats cheese tarts.



The fritters, ready with chutney and aioli.



Lemon curd tartlets.



Scones with blue cheese dressing, chives and prosciutto.



Scones with fresh cream, strawberry jam, plum and cinnamon jam or apple and berry sauce.




Itty bitty cupcake made by Amy's sister.



Assembled savory scone.



Chicken, herb and avocado finger sandwiches.



Roasted vegetable, feta and pesto finger sandwiches.



Pretty Napkins from Woolies!



Diana, darling.



Amy and her favourite teacup.



Me, enjoying some Earl.



Sleeve.



Mr S.



Like Amy said, We were so proud.



House filled!



Fave picture.



Nicola and Penny.






I'm not sure the boys were entertained by such finery.



Ashley and his tiny tea cup.



I surprised Amy with an Owl cake i made for her birthday.
This picture makes me happy. Look at her face! So cute.








Heeeh.









I think we did a spectacular job.