Wordless Wednesday - Dress Ups

A friend recently tagged a photo of me on Facebook (don't you just love that!!) in a very old and crumpled photo, I am dressed as Superman - yep thats a black curl on my face, it took me awhile to work it out!!!!
Darby was soooo impressed when he saw it.. He already knows I'm a super mum, I tell him all the time (haha).. but this reaffirmed that being a superhero really is pretty cool if mum is dressing up like one!! (Im sure in a few years, this will get him running in the opposite direction from superheros, when cool and mum never go together!) 

As I sit in my lounge room now writing this, my caped crusader by my side.. I realise it might be me who is fuelling his obsession with dress ups.. Yes, I don't think I have the first child obsessed with dressing as a favourite character .. but I know I really encourage it.. 
It wasn't so long ago that I was obsessed with dress ups! No, not as a child but as an adult.. Any dress up party I'd be there.. I keep wanting some one to throw one. Come to think of it.. I should just throw a dress up party myself!  (Oh and as you can see  I have an obsession with dress up Sunglasses as well... I'm  building a bit of collection!!) 

I am Linking up today with Trish for Wordless Wednesday at  My Little Drummer Boys

Until next time, Life is too short for crappy coffee

How cool are we!!??

Dame Edna eat your heart out!!

Hi there buzz.... 

I think the dress ups obsession might have
started with my dad!! Best dressed by far at
Darbys party last year!!

Spiderman!

Nothing beats mums dress

Ok not technically a dress up.. but this was Darbys nickname
and I thought he had a resemblance to McDreamy (I was  delusional)
Doesn't help that one of McDreamys kids in real life is called
Darby!!! (obsessed much??!!)

Starting early... dishing out some orders!

Channeling inner red head.... I should go back!! Half
Sexy/Half Lion King!

Hello Cowgirl .....

Calamity Jane... Watch out I'm holding a pistol!!

Poison Ivy- my sexiest dress up to date!!

Well maybe not- here I am a cheap 1800's hooker!!!

Work it baby!!

I obviously liked to pull up my dress!! This one
revealing my Hip replacement scar!! Classy!

My modern family heartache

I took Darby to the beach on the weekend, it was an unplanned trip to kill some time on Saturday afternoon. We are lucky as our local beach is less than 5kms away. It was a nice day, a sunny 28 degrees, not hot enough in my books to go swimming, but hot enough to have an ice-cream and to make the most of the sea breeze....but today, something was off, a miss, not quite right.. Darby was happy as happy, I parked perfectly for a change, but as soon as we got out of the car I wanted to get back in.. I felt an almost shame I haven't felt  since I became a single parent almost 2 years ago.. A dread, a sadness, a guilt, a fear and a tinge of jealousy of seeing all the families playing happily like families do at the beach. I was one of them not that long ago. Normally this kind of thing doesn't worry me,  I am good at taking no notice, maybe its a skill learnt as part of my heartache, that I can easily remain in our insular world not worrying about whats happening around me.. Its our little bubble! 

But today my heart ached... It felt raw, it longed for something I  couldn't put my finger on.
I love my own little modern family.. my relationship with Darby and my relationship with Darby's dad.. and the families surrounding me.. It just works, its happy, its not forced or pretend, there is no fakeness   involved. It makes me happy that it can work like that, just easy, no real anger, or resentment, that has dissipated over time..(if you had asked me 12 months ago it may have been a very different answer!)
I know nothing defines the perfect family, they come in all shapes and sizes.. Some big, some small, and although my situation is not ideal, it has its own place... Its a happy unit.. I have a happy boy, I have a nice apartment.. Things are good....
So it got me thinking maybe there is something missing for me, a large piece still seems like it needs to fall into place.. I know I have ignored this part for a long time, but I think now I have realised how much I would like the company of another in my life. To share this and that, and talk about my day with someone who cares in the way a partner does.. In a way it is a good thing I have reached this point and I can acknowledge this.. it means I am ready to find that person or a person... but it now means I have to actually go out there and do it.. which is where I find it hard, tiring and more depressing... 
And this is where my own self doubt creeps in, I know I am partner worthy, but of course I question even myself about how good I am at being able to sustain a relationship.. 
I have a picture in my head of how things should be, but I really need to scrap it, as I will just be disappointed if i don't see it! It will do my head in... I need to have no picture, a clean slate ... just be at peace with myself and things will happen right??? I don't think its as easy as that but I can only hope... Im a go getter so I feel as though I should be doing more. I need to find that energy within myself and start somewhere...
These kinds of posts are incredibly hard for me to write, it makes me feel exposed and naked and they exhaust me of energy... I know I have such incredible support around me, but this battle is one I have to tackle myself, I don't know where to begin... but the fact I am going to begin, means something..
Not really a fun an uplifting post from me to start the week.. but ah well, sometimes you need some dark to see the light! 

I am linking up with the adorable and gorgeous Son at Life Love & Hiccups....

Until next time , life is too short  to drink crappy coffee... 

Recipe: My Healthy Banana & Blueberry Cake

image via

Working in Wellness my work place is all for good Health and Well being.. My colleagues uphold this by  going  for runs around the Tan at lunch.. or heading off to a sweaty class at the gym. We have health and skin checks yearly to make sure we are fit, healthy and aware....  It is also  easy to eat healthy at work  as we also have fresh fruit delivered weekly.. For such a small workplace we get a whole lot of fruit! Even for the healthiest of healthy we can't get through all of it and there is a lot of wastage! The first to show the signs of ageing are the good old bananas.

A while back eating a banana was a treat .. remember when it cost over $3.00 for one single piece of yellow goodness.. Well now, they sit there going brown and going to waste..The baker in me hates seeing that, so I this week I took them home.. I knew I could turn 5 black bananas into some cake magic!! 

So here is the recipe I made up for my healthy banana cake, I used more bananas so I could cut out some of the sugar!! 


INGREDIENTS: 
4 Very Ripe Bananas
125ml/gm of Coconut Oil
2 Eggs 
1/2 Cup of Soy Milk 
2 teaspoons of vanilla essence
2 Table spoons of Low Fat Sour Cream (I used Weight Watchers)
2 Cups of Spelt or Wholemeal Flour
2 Teaspoons of Baking Powder
1/2 cup of Brown Sugar
2 teaspoons of Cinnamon
1/2 cup of Blueberries (I used Frozen) 


Icing (optional)
1pack of low fat cream cheese
1 cup of icing sugar
A squeeze of lemon 
A hint of vanilla essence 


METHOD 
Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease a cake tin, I used a big round tin. 
Mash the bananas in a bowl, add the eggs and the coconut oil, add the soy milk, sour cream & vanilla essence. In another bowl add Flour, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar. Add the wet ingredients gently to the dry. Lastly gently fold in the blueberries to the mix. Then pour into greased tin and put in the preheated oven for 45 mins-1 hour. I kept checking and got it out at the one hour mark. Keep checking with a skewer and if it comes out clean, you know its ready! 
To make the icing, make sure the Cream cheese is at room temperature. Mix it with the icing sugar, lemon juice and vanilla.. Try not to eat too much of it before it goes on the cake.. it will be hard as it tastes out of this world delicious! 


Once the cake is cooled, ice with the cream cheese icing, sprinkle with some coconut, cut yourself a slice and indulge!!! 
If you want to keep it really healthy just don't add the icing! 
Ill be making this again... Yum YumYum!!!

Until next time.. Bon Appetite! 

Oh Where has the time gone...

I am currently going through the process of finding a school for Darby.. and it got me thinking.. where the bloody hell have the last 5 years gone.. If they went this fast it will be in a blink of an eye that I am sending him to high school and then into the scary world of adulthood ... such a scary thought... I will try not to think about it as when I  do the maths that makes me mighty old too!! Yikes.. 

Anyone else feeling the time is flashing before them??

So here are a few* pics of my baby... from birth to now... oh my!! 

If you feel like doing something new... come and like me at my Facebook Page  I'd really love you too!! 

I am Linking up today with Trish for Wordless Wednesday at  My Little Drummer Boys

Until next time, Life is too short for crappy coffee

* a few pics to me is always around 20 (sorry!!) ; ) 

Wonderful Weekends... Superhero fun!

This weekend was very quiet... I think I am still catching my breath from such a tumultuous start to the year... From now I  really need to crank it up a notch to start enjoying 2012... Although having just booked an Overseas holiday, I now have something amazing to look forward to!  

I seem to however know how to do add spark to my life in all the wrong ways... like banging up my car... Yep I had an issue with my parking once again.. It always seems to fail me.. So I started the weekend with a car looking like it should be on the back of a tow truck, well it is all taped up now.. but this was the before... (no way I was going to be driving like this!) Needless to say, I kept pretty close to home.. and I am not worried about it getting stolen!!

On Friday night we had a family dinner.. and then I enjoyed a night on the couch catching up on my reading... this was accompanied by chocolate... So much for my pre wedding diet... Hoping that motivation will kick in soon!

On Saturday I dropped Darby at his Aunties (it is so handy that she lives around the corner now!) Then I went for 3 hours of "me" time at the hairdressers.. My hairdresser was sick, which I was so disappointed with... it is like catching up with an old friend when she is there.... oh well it was still relaxing, reading trashy magazines and having head massages.. Ill take that over most things! I then went to and got a coffee and I was set.... except I had no where to go.. a very quiet night in! I really need to coordinate my hair appointments with my social calendar, such a waste of a good hair day! 

Later in the day I did a makeup trial for a bride of a friend.. I haven't done any one's makeup for ages, so I thought I may have lost my touch.. but it worked out in the end and the bride was very happy, which was the main thing! I have two weddings lined up in the next month which will be good for my confidence and my hip pocket! After  that Darby and I headed to the shops to get him his Batman Pyjama's, this was as a result of stickers he has been rewarded for over the week! 

The highlight of my weekend by far was Darby's costume change in a public place...  stripping off his Spiderman costume at the Clinique counter in Myer... down to his undies and singlet... and then putting on his new Pyjama's... I couldn't help but giggle (and get a few shots of him!!) So cute and absolutely no shame at all!!

My weekend, although quiet, was a nice chance to spend quality time with Darby and soak up his cuteness!! 
 I am linking up with the adorable and gorgeous Son at Life Love & Hiccups....

Until next time , life is too short  to drink crappy coffee... 

Funeral Song

I was reading Edenland's blog about Funeral Songs last night and it really struck a chord..as morbid as it is,  I have been thinking about   this  alot lately..

With my cousins death so raw in my mind and my heart... all I was dreading (and looking forward to at the same time - very weird I know) was the music she had selected for her funeral... I know that she would have had a big part in selecting the songs that spoke about her life... and they really did represent her; Bob Dylan, Etta James, Weddings Parties Anything, Florence and the Machine... to name just a few..You could hear that these songs were pieces of her life... a tapestry of years put together, of different memories and different decades, different friends, different loves.. They were her, all her.... and it did get me thinking...
Such an amazing selection made me think it would be good for people to know my ideas for my Funeral Songs..( I just wish I didn't keep changing my mind about what songs I  would like!)

I always thought I would want an upbeat song like this..(although it wouldn't really apply if I made it to 95!!?)  
I then had a rethink.. and I think I would want this song.. so haunting and so beautiful and I have been a crazy Fleetwood Mac fan for sooo long.. Just listening to this makes me tear up ! 
But of late, I have been hearing this song a lot on the radio, always when I am deep in thought... and I have thought that this would be a beautiful song to have at my funeral... 

This concept is something I am sure I will keep thinking about from time to time, it just seems to be front of mind at the moment. After being to someone I loves last tribute... her music made it all the more emotional, intense, special ... So to have control of selecting these songs and then putting them in a public forum  is actually very therapeutic (albeit slightly morbid)..

I am linking up today with the amazing Eden Riley... over at Edenland (her blog is amazing full stop!) 

Until next time, Life is too short for crappy coffee

Exciting News - I'm going overseas!!!

Oh I have just got to share the news.. I know I hinted at it pretty obviously last week.. But now I can shout it out to the world today.. It's official.. I have handed over the cold hard cash - Drum roll.....      I am going overseas!! Woo hoo!! This is probably the most exciting, scary and liberating thing I have done in as long as I can remember... and I don't even have a current passport yet!! 

Ok I should hold my horses, it's only for  three weeks.. But that three weeks is longer than I ever thought possible!!(the last time I was overseas was in 2011 and I went to Ireland for 3 weeks as my Uncles chaperone for his 50th birthday!!) I have my ticket and am ready to go... only problem is I don't leave until July!  So here is the low down of the trip I have booked:

The real purpose behind my magical trip is for a wedding! I have the honor of getting to be a bridesmaid to one of my very dear friends! She is getting married in Mauritius - a beautiful beach side  place, I can't wait to get here and swim in the blue waters, I have only heard good things and the pictures look soo amazing...  I am here for a week lapping up the wedding celebrations... From here I was just going to come home.. but I knew I would get the itch.. the travelling bug.. As a Sagittarius we are meant to love travel and I thought I was missing this gene, but once I discovered  I was going abroad I needed to go somewhere else .... So from Mauritius I am heading to London (Yay!!), well to a quaint little town called Charlbury near Oxford to be exact to stay with my best friend (the other bridesmaid) for 2 weeks!! 

My friend Shaz... who Ill spend time with in London

My friend Elisha who is getting married!!

 In this time I am going to visit a city most girls just dream to go to- and one I have wanted to go to for as long as I can remember:  Paris!   There are so many things I want to do here... I think I will stay for a few days and explore the city.. as well as drink coffee (hope its good) and eat croissants!!

Yay... how exciting..... and then I may fit in Scotland, a few English day trips and catching up with friends in London... I will also be there with my bestie  who will have a new born baby.. so just hanging out and catching up will be bliss...

But here comes the clincher (I'm taking deep breaths in now thinking about it!) - I am going alone, solo, unescorted, by myself.. No little sidekick, no coffee buddy, just me, only me.. This part scares me to death.. The thought of being on the other side of the world from my little man is excuse the pun- out of this world! I hate it when he is at his dads, who lives just around the corner..
I ummed and ahhed about taking him.. But too many factors made sense for me to leave him in Melbourne.. At this point I am trying not to think about it too much... It's just when someone asks me I tear up and go to pieces!! I am sure I will have plenty of sleepless nights about it...  In the end  I think this will be a confident boosting holiday to help me feel good about me.. (well I'm hoping!!) 

Ok so back to the trip I am on a mission to look fit and fab for my first stint as a bridesmaid so I am going to set myself a challenge for the next 20 weeks.. I'm not sure what yet.. but if you have any ideas on how to get motivated and fit (and lose about 5 kgs) for a time poor single mum, please share!! I'd love to hear!!!


Images via We Heart It 

Anyway I wrote this very fast and with no review so apologies if it is just blah blah... verbal diarrhoea...

Until next time, Life is too short for crappy coffee