A couple more holiday stops...

I thought I would share some more holiday highlights today.  I have actually been sewing but it is all secret squirrel business so I can't share any of it until next month.  


I usually share all my holiday adventures on my blog, so my next two stops on our cruise were Champagne Bay and Vila, Vanuatu.  This post has lots of photos.


Champagne Bay is a little Island and absolutely beautiful.  The water was clear and warm and we had a really great day. We had to catch the tender across to the island for the day.

There were lots of market stalls along the beach.  I do have to say though that I was disappointed with the markets.  Most of the stuff for sale was made in China kinda stuff and I was just looking for hand made things to collect.  I found this on all the islands we went to.

This crab/lobster pot was just on the beach full of deliciousness to eat.  Many people were eating the fresh lobster and crab that was cooked up by the locals along the beach but we didn't.  I am slightly petrified of eating stuff like that.  I do not want food poisoning on my holiday.

Yummy fresh coconuts.

And it wouldn't be a holiday without holding a snake.

 Some locals. 

 The swimming and snorkelling was great.

Who could resist taking a photo of this gorgeous face.

And some photos from the tender on our way back to the ship, that water is just beautiful.

Vila, Vanuatu was our next stop.  We have been here a few times before so we did a morning cultural tour and then spent the afternoon shopping.  These first few photos I just took as we drove to our tours destination.

The ticket desk when we arrived.

Nathan and Emma had a ball here, holding all sorts of creatures and you will see more snakes.  What is it with my kids and snakes?

We learned a bit about island cooking.  This lady is showing us how you grate the coconut.

And this lady is grating the banana.

Smashing a coconut with his bare hands.

 And some traditional costume.

We had a good shopping day too, with new shoes and watches and shirts (all for the kids) and some other little treasures from the local market. It wouldn't be a holiday without some shopping would it?


I've been thinking a lot about our holiday photos of late.  I am passionate about photos and would die if I didn't capture an important experience with them (like many know I did have a major melt down when my camera broke in Paris last year).  So after a bit of thought I have decided that our photos just don't get looked at and appreciated enough so I am going back to printing our photos and putting them in photo albums. I started this weekend by printing off all the photos I want from our cruise and part of our Europe holiday from last year.  


Does anyone else print their photos?  I worked out that years ago I would of spent hundreds of dollars printing photos.  These days they are so much cheaper and you can pick and choose the prints you want.  We often enjoy sitting with the kids and looking at photo albums but they are all photos from before they were born.  


I have also been thinking about purchasing a digital photo frame to put up.  I might put it on my Mother's Day list!  

Trying to sew...and a little bit of soccer

I have been spending my time over that last few days trying to get some sewing done.  The trouble is I have a few projects on the go and cutting them out has taken me for ages.  I have sewn something though.  First of all this pile of 144 squares is a project I am working on for someone special.  I actually did manage to sew an x shape across all of these.

And I also managed to finish 2 easy skirts.  The first one somehow ended up way too short for it's recipient so I had to make a second one that was longer... not sure how that happened.  

And I also cut out another project for three special people (although I can't share it right now) but it was a lot of cutting!


I thought I would also share some photos from our recent trip to see the Brisbane Roar play the grand final in Brisbane.  We had an awesome afternoon.

It was even better when we won!  

Today...

Today was a rainy rainy day here, so after a wonderful sleep in listening to the rain outside I decided it was a good day for sewing.


I have not felt like sewing since Christmas and it felt really lovely to get back into it and create something again.  I'll be back to share photos tomorrow, I just wanted to share my happiness today :)


Now, since I am eager to go I have a huge pile of fabric and patterns ready to go...I hope the mojo stays around so I can get them all sewn up!

Lest we forget...

Today we remembered those who sacrificed for us (and still do today) and contributed to the wonderful life we have in Australia.

Nathan and Anthony got up super early and went to our local dawn service and then Emma and I joined them for our town's march.  I am always so proud to see Nathan march with his scout group on Anzac Day.

Then back home I made Anzac biscuits and Emma told me all she had learned at school about the biscuits and their recipe and Simpson and his donkey.  

Lest we forget

Mondays Menu...

Today I thought I would share my latest menu with you.  I have blogged before about how I write myself a menu (with 15 meals to cover 3 weeks) before I do my groceries and I then shop to the menu.  This works for me, it saves me lots of money as I am not throwing away food I did not need or use and it makes life easier not having to think of meals on the run.  I only shop every 3 weeks so I write out 15 meals and find that works because we have days where we eat left overs or a toasted sandwich or we may go out or have take away.


We have a really busy week in our house, we are out four weeknights each week at sport, dancing etc so I  make my menu with meals that are quick and easy to prepare but are mostly pretty healthy.  This is what is on our menu right now.  

• Vegetable pasta (made with a tomato based sauce)
• Sausages with vegetables
• Steak and salad
• Roast chicken
• Roast beef wraps (made with a marinated roast beef in the slow cooker)
• Roast Beef  (also made with a marinated roast beef in the slow cooker) with vegetables or salad
• Tray baked chicken with tomatoes and bacon (Jamie Oliver recipe)
• Thai red prawn curry (Jamie Oliver recipe)
• Satay chicken with rice (Jamie Oliver recipe)
• Pasta bake
• Sweet 'n' Sour pork with rice
• Lamb chops with vegetables or salad
• Roast beef and salad
• Steak and salad
• Quiche and salad

We also added and extra this menu - Leek and bacon pasta. We also use a few Jamie Oliver meals from his 30 Minute Meals book which are super easy to make.

If you have any favourite meals for your family I would love to hear them, I am always up for new ideas and variety.  I find it really hard to vary our menu each time with new and different meals.

Cruising Noumea

We have been home for almost two weeks now from our cruise and I am left wondering where the time went.  Time goes by so fast these days.  


I wanted to share some pics of our latest trip.  Our first stop on the cruise was Noumea in New Caledonia.  It is not our favourite place, in fact we would rather not go there.  But we ended up having a pretty good day and made the most of it.  


First of all we hopped off the boat and looked at the local market before heading over the road to the local supermarket to show the kids some different type of food etc.


First we went to the freezer section because I knew I would find these there, snails, ready meals just heat and eat.

And then to the fresh section where these crabs were snapping and moving around all crowded in a big bin.

We also saw the most delicious looking cheeses and pastries, which I know would have tasted awesome because Noumea is French.

Then we headed back to the boat to wait for our tour which was a trip around Noumea on the little yellow train.

We stopped at two look outs on our trip and this was the first, you can see our ship in the photo.

  

And at the next stop we ate yummy french pastries and had a cool drink. Emma picked the biggest most chocolaty one she could find.

And this was the view. 

The weather was beautiful.