I'm lovin' it

Country Road

Is this dress just divine or what? I love the print and the shape of the sleeves.  For those of you with enough disposal income, you can get it from the new collection at Country Road for $199.  It is 100% silk which actually puts me off slightly as it would probably crease horribly (am I starting to sound like my mom?)

It would look great over coloured skinnies in the summer but equally good with brown legs and bright shoes.  I might go and try it on, just to see if it looks as good in the flesh.  I won't buy it, of course......

Seasonal dysfunction

One of the biggest advantages to living in WA, apart from the weather, the easy going people and the beaches is the fact that we're exactly one season behind the UK.  Ergo, you can buy all your clobber in the UK sales, get it shipped over here and look pretty cool on a pretty slim budget. 

Fashion in WA follows the UK pretty closely so I can guarantee that all the bright colours seen for S/S11 in the UK will be hitting the shops over here quite soon.  In fact, I saw a bright tangerine silk tee in Target that I have my eye on for Summer.  Witchery have a bright yellow clutch appearing in stores too.

So go have a shufty at ASOS.com and see what bargains there are to be had to see you through spring and summer, particularly as they ship to Australia for F.R.E.E!  Cool, eh?



Collage made with photovisi



New threads

I wonder if that should be "thread" when you've only bought one thing?

Out of all the shops over here in WA, I think Witchery is probably my favourite.  It's overpriced and sometimes a bit pedestrian, but the quality of the clobber is just divine and it has some really great timeless pieces that kind of "nod" in the direction of being fashion forward.  This season's stuff in Witchery has been all about nudes and neutrals with loads of grey, camel and khaki.  All of which suits me just fine as I find it a bit of a struggle to wear anything bright (more of which in a later post as I WILL be attempting some colour blocking for S/S11)

A couple of weeks ago via email, the lovely Witchery offered a $20 reward for the first 5,000 people to fill out a survey.  I obviously had a crack and was duly rewarded on my loyalty card - woohoo!

I hotfooted it down to Joondalup and purchased this very versatile little skirt for the princely sum of $29, reduced from $109 (see what I mean about being overpriced?)

Bloglovin' - here I am!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

For those vaguely interested in my ramblings you can now follow me on Bloglovin' - though for some reason it hasn't updated with the new Blog name yet.  Bloody technology.

I feel so dirty :(

Please forgive me, followers, for I have sinned.  I have succumbed to the lure of the boxed cake mix...... it wasn't for me, honest, it was for the kids to keep them busy this morning. It worked for all of about 7 minutes, then they went back to torturing each other - and me.

Smartie pants

Is it just me, or does everyone elses' cookies spread horribly and end up wafer thin?  It doesn't seem to matter what recipe I use, they're always exactly the same. EXCEPT for today -woohoo!

Today, I used a Nigella recipe - why I didn't search for one of hers first as they're always successful,aren't they?  It seems to have a pretty high flour content so the dough was "rollable" rather than "spoonable".  This seems to make all the difference, plus I rolled it into balls then baked them once they were really cold.

I didn't actually have enough smarties so used some hundreds and thousands pressed onto the dough and also some freckles chocolates.

This is the recipe, taken straight from Nigella's site, though now I've re-read it, it's not one of hers at all, but one of her fan's recipes!  How funny, just shows how rubbish I am at cookie making, huh?

Smartie Cookies

Ingredients

345g (690ml) plain flour

5ml Bicarbonate of Soda

3ml baking powder
2ml salt

250g butter (or block margarine) softened

300g (375ml) sugar

1 extra large egg, beaten

5ml vanilla extract

2 x 150g Smarties

Method

Makes around 24 big cookies

1. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl and set aside.
2. Cream together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, beat in egg and vanilla extract.
3. Gradually beat in sifted dry ingredients to form a stiff dough. Stir in one box of Smarties.
4. Roll dough into large walnut sized balls and place on un-greased baking trays. Leave plenty of room to expand!
5. Press three or four Smarties into each ball.
6. Bake at 190 degrees, 12 to 15 minutes until pale golden brown. Leave on trays 2 minutes and remove to cooling racks to cool completely. Store in airtight tins
7. Scoff (ok, I added that bit in)

A change of direction

Don't get too excited, it's nothing earth shattering in the slightest.  We're not moving to the other side of the world again or anything like that.  Nope, I've just decided to take a different course with this blog.

I'm sure the 2.5 people who actually read this are mildly interested in this news but I've kind of come to the conclusion that not many people are actually interested in the bumps and scrapes of my kids or the ups and downs of our household. Soooooo. I'm renaming the blog "Cupcakes in my Closet" - cute, eh?

It's going to be a kind of lifestyle/baking/fashion blog obviously based around WA.  I'm going to be writing about the things that interest me and to hell with the rest of you.

Keep following if you're vaguely interested in such things, hopefully there'll be lots of nice photos to look at and the like.

Sunday bloody sunday

Have I already called an entry this?  It rings a bill somewhere in the back of my swiss cheese brain.  There's a distinct possibility I have since when you've got 3 small children, most days include blood to some extent or another.  Today's drama occured at King's Park - Grace and Ruben were playing the usual who can do the stupidest thing on the playground and today's challenge consisted or climbing the wrong way up the helter skelter slide, both at the same time.  Ruben's knee connected with Grace's nose and voila, Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Despite this, it's a nice day out and the kids never seem to tire of going there.  There's plenty of outdoor barbeques that you can make use of, and if you get there early, you could do yourself an nice full English in the great outdoors. What more can you ask for?  Coffee you say?  Of course there's a coffee shop!  What self respecting WA park doesn't have a coffee shop...tsk.

In other news, we have a house inspection tomorrow - for that read "the Gestapo come round and check your skirting boards for dust".  I hate HATE HATE them and it's just the worst part of renting a house over here.  Even though our house is usually fairly clean and tidy I feel like I have to go over the place with a fine toothed comb.

Ruben is currently reading the girls a bedtime story.  He's practising Julia Donaldson's Stickman for a "Lamplighter's Night" at school next week.  The Year One children are reading stories to the kindy kids at 6pm after school.  Cute, eh?

They do quite a lot of stuff like this at school.  For example, next Friday at 5.30pm they're having a PJ & Movie night.  The kids all arrive back at school with a pillow, togged up ready for bed and get given hot chocolate, marshmallows and watch "Up".  Wish I could join them actually, but I'll be looking after the whirlwind, otherwise known as Agatha.

Gala Day for our little Auskicker!

Today Ruben spent the morning playing "real" Auskick against some other teams at a Gala day at Kingsway Sports Stadium.  Ruben and his fellow Magpies played incredibly well and were well rewarded with the obligatory Aussie tradition of a sausage sizzle (read "hot dog").

It was great to see the boys getting really stuck in and some great goals were scored, including one by Haydn, who was playing his first ever game.

Auskick, for those not in the know, nor in Australia, is Aussie Rules footie for little people.  It's hugely well supported over here and for boys AND girls, which is great. 

We then spent the rainy afternoon at The Beach House in Osborne Park, one of the better indoor soft play places in the Northern Suburbs.  Unlike the ones in England, there appears to be no sick stains on the carpets, nor any overly large 12 year olds tearing the place up.  Oh, and the coffee is significantly better too.

Have I ever mentioned the Aussies' obsession with coffee?  OMG, nobody seems able to function without a coffee in hand or at least one on order.  In fact, if you don't feel like you can finish your car journey without a caffeine hit, you can stop at a drive through coffee bar, such as Muzz Buzz or One for the Road.

I like my coffee, me, but don't find it necessary to balance a steaming grande skinny latte whilst driving (a manual I hasten to add), refereeing the kids in the back seat and doing a U-ey to go and pick up my gym bag that I left in the car park (true story).  Maybe it's just me, or maybe Aussies have a special coffee cup holder in their cars that I know nothing of.....

Rain, rain go away

Or not actually, as we're in desperate need of a bit of the wet stuff here in WA.  But, despite that, it makes for a horrid day when you're stuck indoors with a 2 year old.  So we decided to go to the playground, yes, in the rain, then did some puddle jumping in the garden.  Aggie's boots were FULL of water by the time she'd finished!

I can't get you outta my head

I'm sure everyone knows which song that line is from and also sings it whilst doing a very uncool robotics style dance.  WE'RE OFF TO SEE KYLIE!!!!!!

She's currently taking her Aphrodite tour around Australia and gets to Perth on the 22nd June.  My fabby friend Sam and I are going to go, looking hot, of course and ready for a boogie.

I'm very much liking the costumes on the show, though I think the "winged ears" are taking it a bit far, don't you?

The wanderer returns....

Oh Em Gee.... I'm so, so sorry for leaving you all in the lurch, desperate to know what the Thompson family have been upto.  What was that?  You mean you didn't even notice that I hadn't posted for 6 months?? Charming, I'm sure.....

Well, I'm back and promise to update this on a much more regular basis.  In the meantime, I'm going to do a few rush posts to bring you all back to speed on what's been "goin' dawwwwn".

I successfully ran the HBF run for a reason - a whole 14km of it!  Proud of meself?  You betcha.  I followed a Hal Higdon training programme which transformed me from an ashmatic uphill wheezer to a 10km/hr runner (prob should call myself a jogger, but hate the legwarmer conotations of that word).

I ran the whole race and finished in 1hr 27min, a very respectable time for my first race, so well pleased with that.

That's me, looking a bit of a nobber, but feeling very pleased with myself.

My next stop is the City to Surf run which is in August. My only problem at the moment is that I can't decide whether to do the 12km or whether to tackle the 21km half marathon - any thoughts?

The other biggie that has happened of late....my best mate Rebecca has been over to visit with her lovely family.

Bek is the hottie on the left, I'm the wrinkly one on the right.  We had such a lovely time whilst she was here, and I'm really hoping that she liked Perth as much as we do.

Here are a few gratutious shots of them and us enjoying our 7 precious days together.

Happy 2011!

Firstly, big apologies for not updating this blogs for what seems like months.  Actually, I think it has been months!

Secondly, welcome to 2011, our first full year to be enjoyed on the West Coast of Australia - very excited about this!

Not that much has happened over the last couple of months, though there have been a couple of events that are probably more interesting to tell you about.

Just before Christmas, Grace had a concert at Kindy, which all the mums attended.  Very cute, with lots of triangle playing and the like.



On the way out, whilst carrying Aggie and holding Grace's hand, I walked straight into a swarm of bees - apparently they have a nest in one of the trees at the back of kindy.

Christ, it was terrifying.  I screamed at the girls to run away and a couple of the parents grabbed them and looked after them.  I could see Grace screaming and this mom was swatting bees off of her.

I, however, couldn't escape them.  They were in my hair, inside my dress, just everywhere. :-(  I was stung countless times, mostly on the face and scalp with a few on my chest and back.

I've never been so frightened in my entire life and still have no idea why they attacked me - thank god it wasn't one of the kindy children though.

On a lighter note, Paul and I (and recently arrived Pom, Kevin) went to see U2 at the Subiaco Oval.  We saw the 360 degree tour in Glasgow last year, but it was so fabby that it was really no hardship to watch it again.  Bono didn't disappoint and was his usual modest self - ahem......

To update you all on our weather, as I know that all the English readers like to be pissed off at our current enjoyment of sunshine, it's around 40 degrees most days and unbearably hot! 

So happy new year to you all - wishing everyone a safe and happy 2011.  (and I promise to update more!)

The day I met my idols

Which might actually be phrasing it a bit strongly, but I was very excited to find out that fashion know-it-alls, Trinny and Susannah were coming to town as part of their Australia wide promo of their new show.   They cam to Whiftords shopping centre, a pretty average Westfield place that hosting a pretty impressive extravaganza today!

I arrived an hour early (as people who know me is pretty standard stuff!) and had a wander down to the piazza....only to find that all the seats were already taken!  Aussies must be in need of some serious wardrobe assistance, I figured (yep, actually that is quite true in lots of cases!).  So little A and I went for a wander and came back just before kick off and stood in the sunshine waiting for the dynamic duo.

They didn't dissapoint - there was plenty of boob prodding, bra hoisting, saddlebag jiggling and the like.  They both came into the crowd to find their victims and I was in stroking distance of Susannah!  She was wearing a leopard print bodycon dress with  shrug and amazing heels.  She looked very slim, prob a smallish 10 I'd say, but was def wearing plenty of control undies to keep it all in place.

Trinny is apparently favouring tutu style underskirts whilst touring Oz - I'm sure that was fine on the east coast, but she forgot to allow for the Fremantle Doctor and she gave us all a flash of more than she meant to!!

As for other news, I've joined a nice gym, not sure whether I'd already mentioned that.

The kids went back to school today after their two week hols - we had a lovely time just hanging out.

Paul's dad arrives next week which we're all verrrry excited about! The kids can't wait to see their grandad.

Happy Days

Sometimes the simplest of days are just the nicest, aren't they?  When you don't plan to particularly do anything and the empty day lies ahead of you, full of promise.  Today has been one of those days.

We started with Ruben and I walking the dogs in the park - glorious blue skies, no-one else around, just lovely.  Then we spent the day just kinda hanging out.  We braved the pool for a while, I was the only one brave (ie stupid) enough to actually swim in it, rather than just stand there going "oooh it's freeeezing!".

We sat in the sun whilst the kids played indoors and Aggie snoozed on the sofa, then we had a bbq for tea and packed the kids into bed by 7pm sharp.  Great stuff!

The ballet yesterday was fantastic too - Sleeping Beauty performed by the Western Australia Ballet.  The kids were really well behaved throughout it all too which was lovely. Even Agatha seemed to enjoy it - though that may have been that I was plying her with fruit pastilles for most of it!

Tomorrow is a public holiday then it's 2 weeks school hols - hope I'll be topping up my tan!

Love to everyone in Blighty - hope the Autumn is suiting you all nicely.x

Happy Birthday to you....your majesty!

It's the Queen's birthday on Monday, which means it's a public holiday - woohoo!  Actually, if I were being pedantic, I'd tell you it's not actually the Queen's birthday in September - it's in June. Which is when the rest of Australia celebrate it.  Here, however in WA, it is decreed that we will celebrate the monarch's birthday based on when the kids break up from school and when the Perth Royal Show is.  WA is indeed a law unto itself!

The rest of Australia apparently also has Daylight Saving Time, but WA decided it wasn't a great idea, so we don't.  It makes me wonder if it was just to complicated a concept for them to implement.

It's been a fairly busy week in the Thompson household so far.  At the weekend we ventured north, through Swan Valley, up to Walyunga national park.  The kids had a great time climbing on rocks, finding sticks and the like.  Apparently the river that runs through there is the best white water rafting to be found in Australia.

Pretty, isn't it?

Grace has a trail ballet lesson tomorrow which she's very excited about and I had my initial appraisal at the gym today.  Agatha had a wonderful time in the creche at the gym and didn't want to come home.

It's Paul's birthday on Thursday (for all of those who haven't sent him a card yet!) and we're going to see Sleeping Beauty on Saturday, performed by Western Australia Ballet - apparently the set is so huge they had to move the show to a larger theatre.

We haven't told the kids about it - partly to avoid Grace getting too excited, and partly to stop Ruben from trying to get out of it!


Not sure if I've already mentioned this, but I've got an iPhone 4 on order - too exciting, eh?  Apple have woefully underestimated the demand over here and hence the average waiting time is 5 weeks.  Hopefully I won't have to wait that long!

So that's it - nothing more to report, folks!

Just wanted to say a quick thanks to those few people that follow my blog, either publicly (or privately - you stalkers, you!!)

Sunday, bloody Sunday

Ups and downs today, ups and downs folks....

Ups
1. Grace's fave film is Mama mia, and she was watching it for the umpteenth time this morning. Aggie is pretty intrigued by it too, bless her. The bit where Julie Walters falls in the water Aggie jumped up and shouted "NANNY!!" at the tv.

<------- My gorgeous mom

My mom, gorgeous as she is, bears a striking resemblance to the British comedienne and always has done. Very funny that Agatha should notice it though!


2. Paul took the girls and the dogs to Scarborough dog beach this morning. He tells me it was really hard work and that the girls fought over the bucket and spade and that Aggie screamed none stop at the waves (mild Sea-phobia for some reason!) but actually I think they all had a pretty good time.

Funnily enough, I don't see that she's screaming here, do you?

3. Paul has finally had his hair cut, after 4 months of looking like a yeti we shaved it all off today. He officially looks ten years younger. I did it with our Wahl clippers and left an attractive Aussie mullet at the back. I did take pics for this blog but decided against publishing them - far too embarrassing!

4. Whilst shopping yesterday, I tried on a cute silver key pendant and have now decided that my life is incomplete without one. On searching the net for them this morning I discovered that the one I tried on was a Tiffany copy of a range of keys that came out last year.......

On discussing this discovery with Paul he naturally had no idea why I "needed" such an item but I think I've managed to negotiate a deal whereby I'll be a proud owner of the real deal before Xmas arrives. How, I here you cry - well, that's for me to know, and you to, well, you'll have to guess what the deal is I've struck! ;-)








Downs

1. Ruben was attacked in the park by a dog. A young Staffy cross who is exhuberant to say the least. The dog seemed to think that Ruben wanted to play, but his version of playing was to grab R's jumper in his teeth and scratch him pretty hard on his bottom. :-( R is ok, a bit shook up and has some pretty bad scratches but he'll live. Not a great end to a lovely weekend.

2. Top gear is on. Again. And the Grand Prix......nuff said.

Easy, Breezy Saturdays

Did I mention that last weekend we took the stabilisers off Ruben's bike? He was indeed crapping himself about the idea of riding without them, but at the age of "almost 6", we deemed it was time.

He wibbled and he wobbled and got very pee'd off with cracking his shins on the pedals, but a week later, he has absolutely cracked it! He can now push off by himself, and ride in a pretty good straight line. BIG UP THE RUBE-STER!

Grace is quite keen to hang on to her stabilisers for the moment......but watch this space!

We've spent a pretty chilled out Saturday - took the kids to the park this morning with the dogs - kids on bikes etc. And this afternoon we took Paul to see the 'roos at Pinnaroo which was nice then off to Whitford Shopping Centre for some retail therapy.

Ruben spent all his pocket money on a Lego Hero somethingorother (note to Aunty Becky - can you send him one for his birthday? ;-)) and Grace got more teensy weensy Polly Pocket stuff. Agatha came away with a baby kangaroo which she has taken to bed with her - awwwwww.

Even though it's Paul birthday next week I was treated to a cool pair of clog sandals and some funky khaki extreme cuff sandals too, though need to experiment with these to avoid the dreaded "cankle scenario" - ideas gratefully received.

Tomorrow we are planning a picnic if the weather brightens up.

Love to mom , who's holidaying somewhere pretty with her main man.

Love to Bek, who may be ironing a strange man's pants as I type.....

Hi to the Caveens who will be joining us shortly. :-)

Happy Father's Day!

Today has been Father's Day in Australia, and they make a pretty big thing of it over here. Ruben and Grace spent all week making gifts and cards and they were presented this morning with much excitement.

We spent the day with the Burfords, first visiting Fremantle Prison, which was pretty interesting.
The history of Fremantle Prison dates back to the early beginnings of Western Australia and its role in the development of this State is unparalleled. It is the largest convict built structure in Western Australia and the most intact convict establishment in the nation.

On 01 August 2010, Fremantle Prison became the first built environment in Western Australia to be included on the World Heritage list. It's inscription on the World Heritage list was part of a serial nomination with ten other Australian Convict Sites.

We saw lots of grim and depressing things, such as tiny prison cells and the hangman's noose, all of which was hugely fascinating to Ruben!

These pics were taken inside the prison chapel where you can now have your wedding, should you be that peverse.....

We all then trooped down into Freo which was incredibly busy. It was a lovely sunny day, so everyone had had the same idea as us! We had a wander round Freo market where they were having a Father's Day oyster shucking competition, then went down to the harbour.

All the restaurants were packed to the rafters so we did the sensible thing and bought fish and chips and sat in the park with our bottles of fizzy pop - bliss!

All in all, a great day in great company, and best of all the kids are all now fast asleep - hurrah!

Roo and 'roos

So, although Ruben seems to be getting on pretty well at school, I thought I'd go have a quick chat with his Teacher yesterday, just to make sure.

It turns out that he's one of the more, erm, physical boys in the class. Apparently he's constantly having to be told "keep your hands on your own body" or "keep your hands to yourself" by the teachers. This isn't a huge worry for me, he's always been quite touchy-feely, but apparently he's getting quite aggressive if kids don't play his game or whatever.

So, out comes the reward chart, backed by teacher, and we'll see if it helps at all. Poor kid doesn't know which way is up right now.

On a lighter note, "Don the dog walker" who I meet occasionally in the park is always telling me to take the kids to see the kangaroos in Pinnaroo memorial park. So we did, yesterday after school.

It was amazing to see loads of roos just hanging out in the sun, the coolest part being those with little joeys snuggled in their pouches - too cute!

Sorry the vid gives you neck ache, I never get this right!