have a sunshiney kind of weekend

Thank goodness it's Friday!

I've been looking forward to the end of this week a lot! As much as I love Josh to bits, he is really extra exhausting at the moment. Can't wait for some Josh + daddy time this weekend.

The other reason I'm excited is it's the Buffet of Life tomorrow organised and hosted by the lovely Sunny Mummy Stacey. I'm taking my mum and my sis and we are going to have a lovely, girly, happy breakfast together and soak in all the rays of sunshine. Any other Sydney-siders going to this?

I hope there is some real sunshine too after all this rain we have had.

 xo

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it's raining it's pouring

What do you when it rains?

We are really fortunate to have an outdoor covered balcony. So our sanity is saved from being stuck indoors totally to being able to escape outside for a little. Josh has his little car he likes to drive and Zoe loves to push her babies in a pram around. I love that the kids think they are still getting outside but we are still protected by even the most torrential of rain - that's if we can brave the cold!

my favourite banana bread

It's perfect banana bread weather at the moment, don't you think?

This is my favourite recipe. I've used it over and over again with a few of my own amendments. It's a Donna Hay recipe and the best one I've tried. My favourite thing about it is the hazelnut meal in it. It just makes it that much denser, more wholesome and less cakey than a lot of other ones I've tried.

Here's the recipe:

Banana cinnamon breads

140g butter

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups plain four, sifted

3/4 teaspoon baking powder, sifted

1/2 cup hazelnut meal

1/3 cup buttermilk (I've just used normal milk if I haven't any buttermilk and it still works fine)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 large or 2 small bananas, sliced (I also mash 1-2 bananas and mix into the mixture at the end)

melted butter for brushing

demerara sugar for sprinkling (it's worth using this sugar, it's chunkier and more caramel-y than normal sugar)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Add the egg and beat well. Add the flour, baking powder, hazelnut meal, buttermilk and cinnamon and fold through until smooth.

Grease 6 x 3/4 cup capacity tins. (I don't do this, I just put it all into a loaf tin.) Spoon in the mixture and place the banana slices on top. Brush with the melted butter, sprinkle with demerara sugar and bake for 35 minutes or until golden and cooked when tested with a skewer. Then enjoy!

I always seem to have overripe bananas in the fruit bowl and I make sure there always hazelnut meal in the pantry, just in case I get the hankering for some banana bread, though I have done this with almond meal as well. Not quite the same but still works. 

I love eating this bread any time of the day, but particularly in the mornings with my coffee. Heaven!

free as a bird

Have you been on a swing lately?

All children love swings don't they? I still love it even as an adult. There is something so liberating about flying through the air back and forth.

As a teenager, I used to sometimes get off my bus at a later stop than usual just so I could walk through a park that had swings on my way home. I'd stop and have a turn for a while. The higher I went the more glimpses of the bay below I could see. It was a great way to end the day. No matter what had happened or how I felt, a good swing was enough to wipe the stresses of the day away and leave me feeling free and happy.

Now as an adult I sometimes feel a bit silly on a swing, but it's worth it just to get that feeling back.

point and shoot at my house

With all this rain lately, we've been spending lots of time indoors. The other thing I'm getting used to, is that now Zoe is walking and running everywhere, I often don't know where she has disappeared to in the house, and I get a little laugh when I see what she's up to after I find her.

This is an example of the cute little moments I stumble across when I walk into a room at the moment in our house.

This post is part of point + shoot and at my house.

good day sunshine

Morning!!

Before I head off to try and start this week off well and entertaining the little people, I am here to announce the winners of my blog birthday giveaway.

Thanks to random.org the winner of the the stamps, print and cards is:

Flick,

and the winner of the second set of cards is:

Sarah

Congratulations! Please send me your postal address and I'll have them to you in no time.

Thank you to everyone who stops by here and reads and comments. You all brighten my week that little bit more. Here's to another year of blogging!

hurrah for friday

So glad it's the end of the week. In more ways than one....

I love weekends for:

♥ hubby being home = extra pair of hands = me not being outnumbered

♥ getting some 'me' time, even if for only for an hour and I'm doing the fruit and veg shopping

♥ getting into the garden

♥ feeling free of the pressures and obligations of the week

♥ spending time with friends and family

Thank you for all your lovely comments so far in my blog birthday post. If you haven't had a look yet, drop by at this post and leave me a comment to be in the running to win one of two lovely prizes! I'll be drawing and announcing the winner on Monday morning.

Well, this afternoon, I'm off to the hairdresser for a cut and blowdry. I can't wait. My hair will be all shiny and new, and to top that off, I'll be going out for a family dinner (all expenses paid by FIL!) at Somersault restaurant. Although, the reason for the dinner may bring about lots of awkward moments and possible conflict, I'm going to try and just sit back and enjoy the delicious child free meal and keep my head in the clouds and out of family dramas!

What are you up to this weekend?

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