badness

To the man in the chemist who, while I was struggling with a wriggling and screeching child grabbing all the vitamins off the shelf as I was trying to answer the real estate agents calling me on the phone, stole my wallet, I do hope a dog bites your penis off.

WIN

Ok, so with new photos and description, we had 6 couples come and look at our place at the open for inspection today and 2 are definitely coming back for a second inspection, which is AWESOME. I have been punching the air like I just won a kick boxing tournament against my jerk enemy, and stole his girl from some dodgy 1980s teen movie. Google images wouldn't give me anything to depict that, so air punch it is.

It's a start anyway.


Other than that, I haven't stopped listening to Laura Marling's new album since I got it. It's so ace. You should get it too. Say if you like Joni Mitchell .. or The Decemberists. That is what it reminds me of. Or at least listen to that sweet song above. (LORDY. SHE IS ADORABLE)

Hope your weekend is a whirlwind of WIN.

the difference a good photographer makes

So DrMr, Rubester and I live in a quirky house. We have loved it, but it's too small for us now and we need a change, so we are selling it. You know all of this, right? Anyway, it's been on the market for nearly a month and in that time we have only had THREE inspections. The Real Estate Agents took the photos themselves, they looked terrible and after pushing for them we finally got the professional photos taken, what a freaking difference:


Before


After


Before


After


Before


After



Maybe people will now come and see our house, which is odd and not for everyone, but it is a cute and cosy place in the middle of a forest. It is a happy house which has been much loved by everyone who has ever lived there. Fingers crossed. Still more cleaning. BECAUSE, I LOVE IT.

All I am pretty much doing at the moment is cleaning for our house that NO ONE WANTS TO COME SEE, LET ALONE BUY. I think I have realised how much maintenance a clean and tidy house routinely requires and I have to say that I am learning to embrace mess. A clean house is so overrated. So I am just cleaning and ignoring all the other things I should be thinking about (Georgie Love is turning 4 in less than a month and I have no ideas or excitment, DrMr is having a birthday in a month and I am usually SUPER ORGANISED, but have no ideas this year, I think I used up all my ideas at Christmas), I have a lot of work to catch up on, emails to respond to and I am just meh about it all. We've been watching season 4 of Entourage and I am reading this.


I never used to be a fan of short stories and if you asked me now, I would still probably tell you that I wasn't a fan of short stories, but I am loving this. Me and You and Everyone We Know is one of my favourite films and Miranda July is just lovely. I think I have one story to go and that makes me sad. I have enjoyed her little melancholy and off-beat world. I think you should read it too, maybe your library has it.


Even though she looks like she has just had a crying fit and is on the verge of a panic attack in her otherwise lovely author photo on the book.

Georgie Love's 1000 vegetable quesadilla recipe

So, I have definitely been appreciative of all the Veg recipes shared with me recently and have used more than one so far - I am going to try most of them, I think. I wanted to share you my SUPER EASY and MEGA healthy quesadilla recipe which everyone here in the family eats, which is a rare thing.

Step 1 - using any or all vegies in your fridge, grate them all together (I use the grating tool on my food processor and it takes no time at all, such a brilliant invention). I made these last night and grated together: onion, pumpkin, sweet potato, carrot, zucchini, mushroom, spinach, corn and a can of 5 bean mix

Step 2 - in a large pan with a little oil and garlic, stir and stir until soft

Step 3 - on a wholegrain tortilla spread a layer of avocado and then a layer of refried beans. This is all I have, but DrMr adds Sweet Chili Sauce here, or you could easily put a mild or spicy salsa which would work brilliantly.

Step 4 - sprinkle some grated cheese on top and on half of the tortilla spoon and spread the vegie mixture, with some more cheese on top of that half if it takes your fancy

Step 5 - in a frying pan, heat a little oil on a medium heat

Step 6 - fold one side of the tortilla over so it's a half circle and put in pan, until it's golden brown on one side, flip it and brown the other.

Step 6 - Serve and eat, it's really delicious. We serve it with a dollop of sour cream to dip it in, but you could have salsa, guacamole or nothing. It's really, really tasty, super easy SO HEALTHY with a million hidden vegetables that just look like an unidentifiable mush for vegie haters out there. I usually make one each extra for lunch the next day, it's still good cold or reheated.

We usually have a pan full of vegie mix left over at the end, so what I will do tonight is reheat it with some basil pesto and spiral pasta and serve that as the second super easy dish from it, which is another one that everyone likes. Yum!

(ps; it's usually eaten before I can photograph it, so I used that photo from here)

(pps: we need some good vibes on our house for sale, which is such a tedious thing and our agent is giving us the shits and we think we might have chosen the wrong people to represent us. :-( Will trade you good vibes if you comment below what good vibes I can send you!)

(ppps: seriously, time to put some sunscreen on and enjoy the sunshine. Do it!)

Don't be hatin,' playaz.

No Open For Inspections today, obviously. But there has been a visit to the park, a hot cross bun and now a nap. This afternoon, more of the same except with roasted vegies, ponds and ducks. We're taking it quiet as she's got the teething blues.

Where I tell you what an anal retentitve hypocrite I am.

1. No television. Well, there is still very little television in the house, but we discovered the 5:30pm In The Night Garden session which is perfect. It's after 5pm dinner and before the 6:00pm bath, formerly known as "The Awkward Time". When she is getting tired, cranky and more than a little violent. These multiple scratches on my face aren't from scraps in the street with people invading my personal space. DrMr and her watch it together while I get the bath ready, so he is completely across the whole thing, while I am still quite baffled about the appeal. He sums it up for me as "they all just do tripped out things in the garden and then go to sleep".



2. No eating and watching tv. Ruby is RIDICULOUSLY fussy and mealtimes often involve her pointing to various random things in the kitchen and getting hysterical at whatever I put in front of her. Which is homemade and delicious and different every day. She is FINALLY over the yoghurt obsession, but has a new obsession. CHEESE. But not any cheese, it has to be grated and it has to be available in abundance. But she won't eat enough to fill herself up and not wake in the night HUNGRY. I discovered one mealtime when DrMr was vacuuming the kitchen and Rubes was having her dinner upstairs in the lounge that when the tv is on and she is eating, she will eat anything. In large quantities. I don't know if it's the trigger of being distracted, away from the fridge of cheesy delights or what, but it's true. I know ALL the advice of start how you want to finish and it's such a dangerous habit to get in to, but she EATS and doesn't SCREAM and sometimes that's good enough. It's not every day and when the weather is good we eat outside or elsewhere and change the scenery, but after a few days of dinners of just cheese or bread and butter and I want to get some vegetables in her, it does the trick.

And seriously, I have tried everything - we eat with her all together as a family, we have her favourite toys around and pretend they are enjoying everything on the plate too, we make it as relaxed as possible (she is the only one in tears) once we figure out what she wants to eat, then we serve it to her.


3. No brand name or merchandise toys. Oh lordy. Obviously Rubes has a ton of handmade toys, wooden and sensory toys, musical instruments, things with a Steiner or Montessori slant. I have been really careful when choosing books and toys for her, there are of course things she has with lights and noises which she loves, but you know - I am a self righteous and anal parent, so meh. ;-) We went to buy her an easel yesterday and I rejected the ones available (Dora and Thomas) and DrMr says, let's look at the Night Garden toys. Well we did. She saw IgglePiggle in a box and hyperventilated. DrMr insists we buy it for her, I am like ehh... ok, she seems to like it (hugging the box at this stage, refusing to let go anyway). DrMr said, well look they have Night Garden WOODEN toys, let's get her one of those too (a carousel thing) and then on the way out of the store, we see that the DVDS are on sale. I say, well it's on tv like 3 times a day, she is probably ok with just that but he insists 2 hours of entertainment for $12 is a baragin. Ok, so pick one, no all all three he says. So we leave with soft toys, a wooden thing and three dvds. IT. IS. OVER.


4. Ruby is not having a boyfriend until she is 45. We took IgglePiggle out of the box and instead of sleeping in the car as predicted on the way home, she hugged, chatted to and made out with her toy. He is her new boyfriend. It's the CUTEST and most disturbing thing I have ever seen. She has not let go of him since she got him. Hysteria when he could not go in the bath with her. Went to sleep and woke up cuddling him. That girl is in big L Love. When did this happen? We only started watching the show about a week or so ago. And he has a BEAN SHAPED HEAD. Love my friends, is blind.

I went out yesterday and came home to find Rubes wandering about cuddling the Iggle Piggle softy and the little wooden version clutched tightly in her hand. I give in, nothing else has ever brought her as much joy.


5. I am going to grow my hair long. Nope. The Javier Bardem look bested me, and I went and saw my hairguy and insisted he cut it all off. Which he did. I can't seem to take a nice photo of myself to save my life at the moment, so just imagine it. Shorter. And a little bit syled. Yep.

6. Never Participate in Public Speaking. Ever Again. on 19 April Craft Vic are holding another Craft to Consumer forum about how to sell your craft. These always sell out, so book in soon if you are interested. And when you are there remember that I hate public speaking and it fills me with anxiety, but I genuinely feel I can pass on some helpful stuff so I do it.

IN RANDOM BONUS NEWS: After 4 or so hours cleaning, the long weekend and forecast storm brought only ONE person to our open for inspection last weekend. Fingers crossed for a better turn out tomorrow or I am never making an effort again. EVER. With ANYTHING. I am tired and boy does it show.

WINNER!

Wow, the LouLou givaway was our BIGGEST ever with a final entry count of 131 (and counting, a rush of late entries from the US), but random.org tells me that the winner is number 14 - FIONA.

Congratulations! Fiona please make an order on Georgie Love with the buttons you want (select bank transfer for payment and obviously - don't pay) and I will get these out to you QUICK SMART. Hooray!


THANK YOU to everyone who took the time out to enter AND send me recipes, I have seriously been using them and getting my cooking mojo on, which is awesome. Of course, stay tuned as there will be more giveaways soon. YAY! And lordy, there could even a normal blog entry too. WHO CAN BELIEVE IT.