Hearty soups

Oh, that chill in the air means a few things to me - ankle boots, cardies, sitting in the yard drinking tea and SOUP! Bowls, and bowls of hearty winter soup.

I have already bought out this fine drop, and I have been stirring up a few new recipes, courtesy of Hugh, of course.

I made two of his soups from Veg Every Day!  They were both so scrumptious, hearty and wholesome - perfect for a cold day - and without all of the added preservatives, sweeteners and cream.

Just lovely.

Thank-Hugh.

Pascal perfection

I remember seeing a little post, picture or comment about this poster a while ago.

I saw it, and instantly googled the title, eagerly awaiting when this new film about Walt Disney would be released.

I should have read more into the blurb, because this film doesn't exist.

It is the wonderful work of Pascal Witaszek, and my gosh, do I wish it was real - Imagine it? A beautiful film about Walt Disney, starring Ryan Gosling.

A story of a mouse and a man.

What talent!

Easter Sunday soiree

The rest of our Easter weekend was also really relaxing. After our little fishing expedition ended, our family headed to the Fairbairn Dam on Sunday for lunch.

We enjoyed most part of the morning, and well into the afternoon, lazing around on a hill under a shady tree, while the kids swam in the water, and played with paper aeroplanes. (Good Easter gift, aunty Meghan and uncle Jake).

There were heaps of families out and about up there with their boats, pets and fishing rods in tow. It was lovely to see, and a perfect way to spend the last day off before I headed back to work on Monday.

Lovely weekend, and the Easter Bunny visited everyone too, along with mini saltana loaf cupcakes, passionfruit cheesecake, an upbeat pumpkin salad, and fresh seafood.

*Also, I think I got a little carried away with Easter this year at work. In most of my articles I was trying to work, cool, words and phrases into print: eggcellent day, stock is hopping out the door, and eggstra eggstra, were just a few of those corkers!

* Look at Sadie's chubby little arms. It melts me, like an Easter egg left out in the sun. (Which mine were, whoops!)

Good Friday fishing

I hope everyone had a beautiful Easter, and enjoyed their breaks. I had Friday off, but had to be back at work on Monday because we went to print, but I still had a lovely three days off.

On Thursday night after I drove home from work in Emerald, Jake and I headed into Rockhampton to go fishing on Friday.  We were up early Friday morning, stocked up on some bait, grabbed a coffee to go, and drove out to Fisherman's Creek in Yeppoon.

We ended up heading to Sandy Point a little later on in the morning, and fished off the beach. We stumbled into a sand bed and started catching dart and whiting quicker than we could reel them in. I also caught a few of those pesky little crabs that have spikes on them - they constantly bite Jake on the toes (haha). 

The fish were in so close to the shore, so it was really fast-paced for a while.

I'm not going to lie. After an hour, I headed up to our towels, and read the new Marie Claire.

After that though, Jake and I headed inland a few kilometres to a saltwater dam, and spent the rest of the afternoon there fishing. We backed the big girl Nissan into the water's edge, and caught more whiting.

Jake also caught some herring, and I caught about three mud crabs on my line, however, they got away just as we had the bucket ready to catch those bad boy's. Slippery suckers!

We drove home late in the afternoon, cooked the fish and enjoyed our catches of the day (haha).

Sadie Meg Russell

My new niece, or shall I say, my new favourite girl, arrived a few weeks early on February 23 at 6.06pm, weighing 7lb 12 oz, and has brought so much love to our family, it's hard to even imagine our life with her not in it - happily laying in her moses basket, owled eyes and plump cheeks. 

Sadie Meg is just beautiful; my sister Sophie and her husband Justin couldn't have created a more perfect pink package if they tried.

She's growing quickly, being spoilt daily, and cuddled copiously as our family welcomes my sister's first child, my parent's first grandaughter, my eldest sister's first time at being an aunty within us sisters, and my first niece. *

*Not to mention, Sophie's obsession with bunnies and mice, alongside their own wooden ironing boards, clothes lines and cane chairs. A girl can never have too many bunnies, I say... or in fact hair clips, floral rompers, crochet rugs and vintage pieces, which Sadie has plenty of.

Antiquing

And, no not the flour-type. I didn't spend last weekend sneaking in to people's rooms and throwing flour in the direction of their faces.

What I did do, was spend Thursday, Friday and Saturday with Jake's lovely mum, Leanne and his sister Ashleigh, browsing shops, antiquing, and drinking plenty of coffee.

I was in Rockhampton, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new addition to our family (more on that later), and during those three days, I got to spend lots of time with Jake's family who have a house in Gracemere.

We hit the shops on Friday morning, and sourced the most beautiful antiques. I got a gorgeous bevelled edge mirror (which I've been hunting down for months) and some lovely floral saucers for tea cups. 

We stopped in for coffee, had a jam drop or two, and had a lovely time in each other's company.

It was the icing on the cake, to the best weekend of the year - welcoming my beautiful new niece Sadie Meg. Oh, she is just lovely, and there will be many posts obsessing over her button nose, owl eyes and thick dark hair very, very soon!