Farmers Market Demonstrations

As part of the REAL New Zealand Festival, among other things free Farmers Market demonstrations are being run throughout the country by Farmer's Market New Zealand. 

I'm looking forward to checking out the Tauranga Farmers Market Demo on Saturday the 8th of October. Stephen Barry (of Mount Bistro, Mt Maunganui) will be using local and seasonal produce in his demonstration.

Check out the website here or Facebook for more information about both the Tauranga demonstration and/or to find out where else these will be happening around the country!

Much Love Monday: Something different

I've been thinking about changing my hair colour for a while now, going a little bit darker. But it was turning into one of those things I go on and on about doing, but never do, so over the weekend I just went and actually did it.

My hair is my pride and joy, I have been growing it a few years now since an incident right before my OE when I thought it would be a good idea to go all low maintenance and cut my hair really short, and absolutely hated it. And I haven't coloured it in years, this philosophy sprung half out of necessity -my hair gets a pretty rough deal as it is with straightening it every few days, and half out of laziness and not wanting to colour it on a regular basis until I actually have to, when I go grey!

I do sometimes need a little (ok, a lot) of encouragement to step out of my comfort zone, but I am almost always glad when I do. I love my new look now I have gotten used to it, but it did take a little while for the love to kick in - and yes, there were tears. Silly I know.

Anyway. This is my before shot:



And after!

Ta Da!

What do you think?

What I am loving and looking forward to this week . . .
trying new things and changing up my look a little!  

Taste of Summer @ the Mount

Had gorgeous weather this weekend . . . made the most of it down by the beach, Saturday with a walk around the Mount, then returned again on Sunday for a little more sunshine and brunch out!

Blue Restaurant

Marine Parade 

Mount Manganui

We ate at Blue Restaurant. It was really busy and we missed out on a spot in the sun but still managed to find a nice and sheltered spot just outside. Did notice that a number of clever people had anticipated the rush due to the good weather and had booked ahead to reserve tables out on the deck.

I dined on a Salmon Eggs Benedict, which was absolutely delicious. Served on focaccia bread and a bed of spinach. Very generous serving as well. The coffee was perfect. Blue has table service, which is unusual amongst the oceanside cafes at the Mount and the wait staff were attentive without making us feel like we were being hurried. 

Then we wandered across the road to enjoy the view:

Ah, just lovely!

Good Bye Demo!

Today is Demo Streetwear's last day, they are closing their doors after 15 years in Tauranga.  Still plenty of stock when we popped down this morning but with all of the prices on jeans etc slashed were hoping to move the majority of the stock left today.

I've been lucky enough to pick to up a few pairs of jeans etc the last few weeks and a gorgeous Blue Juice dress as well.

Hopefully the void left is filled by other retailers in the area . . . Demo was a bit of a rock 'n' roll clothing store that will be missed! 

 

Daffodil Day

Today. Love daffodils, such a pretty flower!
And such a good cause -  

Wonder how much will be raised for the Cancer society this year? 

Wannabe Vegetarian. (+warm olives recipe!)

I am such a wannabe vegetarian . . . and lucky for me my husband shares the same taste in food as I. We waiver more towards pescetarian (fish/seafood only) most of the time and eat free range meat when we do go there.

I know a lot of people who are not quite as enthralled with vege only eating: (friend: 'maybe we could have a meat free meal once a week?' friends' partner: 'No.') I think a lot of people still think vege eating is going to mean a big plate of lettuce. Or silverbeet! 

Lately we've been trying to be a bit more experimental with our main meal of the day. Here are a couple of the meat free meals we have come up with!

My husband makes the best indian food . . . tasty and hot hot hot. Quite often I'll end up with a bit of a sweat going on after eating one of his curries! This is the Chickpea Korma he served up earlier this week . . .

One night we dined on Bangers and Mash - vege styles - with soy protein sausages and onion gravy. It was pretty tasty!

Pumpkin, Feta and Pine nut  spaghetti - This one is a winner!

And one night we were more peckish then anything and didn't want a full meal . . . so we snacked on Warm Olives with feta and garlic pita bread:

Warming olives seems to really enhance their flavour. This recipe is quick and easy and is the perfect starter / snack food.

1 small red onion

1 crushed clove of garlic

1 cup of stuffed olives, drained

1 lemon

Finely chop the onion and brown in a frying pan, add garlic. Add to this the rind and juice of the lemon and stir through before adding the olives. Warm the olives through. Serve with feta cheese. 


Vege food definitely doesn't mean for boring eating! Plus bypassing the meat section at the supermarket saves heaps (leaving more money for treats like wine & beer!)  x

Wedding Gift Ideas

We are off to a wedding in Brisbane in a few weeks, and I am trying to come up with gift ideas for the Bride and Groom.

They have chosen not to use a gift registry and are heading over to the UK for their OE in the near future. Homey stuff/ homewares is therefore not really appropriate unless it is the kind of thing they could pop in storage to hold on to forever, and anything too heavy is out of the question as we are travelling with carry-on luggage only. Plus we arrive in Australia the day before the wedding, and with a lot of catching up to do I wouldn't think we will have the time to shop for a gift once we get over there.    

So . . . I have narrowed it down and this is my shortlist:

A piece of personalised art - Etsy

A bottle of vintage Champagne - Duty free of course!

Engraved glassware - Trademe

Or my least favourite option - a
local department store gift card
and let them choose for themselves?!?

  

 . . . decisions, decisions!

Wholly Bagels

Thanks to a recently purchased TreatMe voucher I indulged in a delicious bagel from Wholly Bagels. I was very impressed, and am now looking forward to an opportunity to order in one of their massive New York style pizzas, maybe when we have people around to watch a game during the Rugby World Cup?

Wholly Bagels

801 Cameron Road

Tauranga

This was the vege 'special' - Falafel patty 

mmmmm  yum!

Lucky I don't work down by the hospital, would find it very
difficult to resist the thought of one of these at lunchtimes!

Much Love Monday . . . waffles!

This week my mission in life has been to score myself breakfast in bed . . . unfortunately I failed at all attempts. I am the resident 'morning person' and getting the man of the house out of bed for anything other then a shower and a scramble to get ready is pretty much out of the question. 

As a compromise my lovely husband suggested we have breakfast for dinner one night. So we had waffles. Because we can.

Just Lovely.

My highs for the week included:

An awesome makeup sale which came to town, I spent next to nothing and feel like I was able to restock pretty much my entire makeup bag! Nothing more satisfying then knowing you should chuck your mascara after six months and actually doing it (something I'm usually terribly slack at).

Entertaining, what felt like all weekend. Nice to have plenty of people coming and going, especially with the sun shining and lots of leftovers to live off now for the rest of the week! 

Getting to 50 Twitter followers! Woop Woop! May not seem a lot to some, but for me it was a milestone :)

Aaaaand . . . ticking off the first of my 30 Little Things . . . even if I did cheat a little! 

Have a lovely week everyone!

Pretty Bow Scarf

When I decided I might like to knit myself a scarf, I didn't really think it through properly, at all . . . seeing as I can't knit to save my own life. Anyway, as it was one of my 30 Little Things, I thought I really must give it a go before winter slips away.

Not too successfully.

This is my version of 'How to knit yourself a Scarf'.

1. Find a pattern. I had spotted a bow scarf in an old copy of the Notebook magazine so went in search of something similar. That's when I started to freak out a little, as I didn't understand a word of it!

2. Buy wool. Easy Peasy.

3. Procrastinate.

4. Moan to MIL about said procrastination.

5. Procrastinate a little more. Stare longingly at wool as imagining how nice it would be to have a scarf magically knit itself.  

6. Leave pattern and wool lying around while staying at MIL's one weekend. Leave the house for a few hours. 

6. Ta Da!  Pretty Bow Scarf? Done. 

Not really what I had envisioned when I started out but . . . ended up with what I wanted, a pretty bow scarf . . . definitely bit off more than I could chew with this project, but wasn't that hard in the end, with a little help!  ;) 

Thirsty Thursday: El Diablo

Cocktail hour, mexicano styles. Thanks to the mix for introducing me to the El Diablo a while back. Fill tall glass with ice. Add one shot of tequila, then almost fill glass with ginger bear, leaving enough room for a dash of blackcurrent cordial. Squeeze and drop in two lemon or lime wedges.

Perfect accompaniment to mexican food.

Unfortunately this picture proves all too clearly why I feel

the need to invest in a tortilla press, quick smart. Cheers!

Little bites!

First of the season Kiwifruit:

Brumbys - Best Bran Muffins. ever. and less than 3 bucks!

Yoghurt covered raisins:

I actually ate way too many of these and felt really sick 

An effort to 'posh up' my cup of soup lunches with blue cheese crostini -

 

Strawberry Oreos!

Yum

Much Love Monday . . . Mr Tui Bird

This week I'm Loving the view out back . . .

This is our resident Tui!  Isn't he gorgeous?

 

♥ Starting the week with a Little positivity thanks to Much Love Monday ♥

 

Soundtrack for a Lazy Sunday

A little easy listening for a Lovely Lazy Sunday - a few old favourites and a couple new finds:

Best Coast - Crazy for You

Death Cab for Cutie -  Transatlanticism

Cat Power - The Greatest

Lawrence Arabia - Chant Darling

Apple Pie Bed

Grizzly Bear- Yellow House

Lisa Hannigan - Sea Sew

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

Imogen Heap - Speak for Yourself

Alexander

Princess Chelsea - Lil' Golden Book

She and him - Volume One

Enjoy! x

Baby Cakes (Quick cupcake flag tutorial)

Baby Showers call for cute cupcakes. Whipped up a batch of Sticky Toffee Cupcakes (thanks to Jamie Oliver!) and used a Toffee Icing recipe from here.
 

Too Cute!

Love making my own cupcake flags, and today I used this (baby shower appropriate) image. I know there are a million and one cupcake flag tutorials available, however, still wanted to quickly share the method I use, because it is just so simple . . . 

I copy and paste images into Word and adjust size if necessary. I was lucky in this instance as the image is already doubled over - if you are using a single image you will need to duplicate it. Print onto A4 sticker paper, then cut out and fold over before attaching to toothpicks. Easy Peasy!

Bargain Hunting in Tauranga

Did a quick whip around a few of the Tauranga Op Shops this afternoon. 

These are a few of the Bits and Pieces I picked up:

Two dollars

Three Dollars

One Dollar, Fifty Cents

Five Dollars

All up I spent less than $20 . . .

Now that's what I call Retail Therapy!

Mexican bean dip + Teddy Tortilla Chips

I almost can't believe I ever actually brought pre-packaged tortillas. Love making these at home. Am crap at rolling tortillas and havn't yet invested in a tortilla press (on my to-do list!) And I needed a good excuse to 'test' out my new teddy bear cookie cutters, so thought I'd give teddy tortilla chips a try. 

Basically I rolled out the tortilla dough nice and thin, stamped out the teddies, cooked each side quickly in a pan and then whipped under the grill to crisp up.

  Seasoned with a little garlic salt. 

So delicious served up with Bean dip - vege black bean chilli popped into the oven for ten minutes or so with a layer of cheese on top. If you haven't tried this before you are in for a treat! 

Almost too cute to eat!