A year ago today

we welcomed Juno to the world....

and over the course of the year this....

Has changed to this...

Happy birthday bug

Kate x

I'll bake a cake soon, promise...

It's been a long time, I'll admit it. Life in our household has been pretty hectic, but what's new!

We have had a house guest for a few weeks, Anton's sister the lovely Ema and we have been busy, busy, busy.  There's been trips to the beach, the park, into town (RWC don't ya know), out to the burbs for coffee at the Kohu road factory (you should visit here- just not on a Sunday or a public holiday - we've tried both and it was closed!!!), numerous donuts from the bakery up the road, Kelly Tarltons, the zoo and more-PHEW! Is it any wonder i've been absent from the blogosphere and missing from the kitchen??

That being said, Christmas is around the corner and that can only mean lots and lots of baking.  This year i'm going to hone my baking skills and get Harriet to help me with the decorative elements- she's so talented in that department. So don't give up on me, from now on i promise there'll be one baking post per week.

But not till next week.  Till then, here's some photos to keep you entertained... (As if the photo at the top wasn't entertaining enough!)

Turns out Juno is a big fan of the beach, we couldn't keep her out of the sand...

Self portrait of the Birthday girl's foot, sporting a brand new sandal

Baby sister getting amongst the birthday balloons...

Working on my Kate Sylvester wishlist, with sartorial advice from the four year old...

M.I.A

I've been woefully absent lately i know.  I don't really have a good excuse, just general laziness after work, and, to be truthful, i've been a bit on the apathetic-side when it comes to baking.  I'm trying to lose the last of my post-baby weight and cakes and biscuits are not helping my cause!  That's not to say i haven't been baking them though....

Above is a pic of the chocolate date cake and lemon yoghurt cake i made for the boys at work. I've also made them a batch of chocolate chippies, which seem to have been the most popular so far.  Tomorrow it's my birthday so i'm taking in gingerbread cupcakes with a caramel frosting and some chocolate crunch.  The gingerbread recipe is one of Harriet's- 'moist spicy gingerbread' and it's really good. The caramel frosting is kind of like russian fudge- yum yum (goodbye diet)  The chocolate crunch is my grannie's recipe and is one of my go-to baking items.  Sometimes i think Mila and Anton would be happy if they never had to see another piece of crunch ever again but its just so easy and forgiving to bake and it's the one thing i always seem to have the ingredients for, so i'm always in favour of baking it!

In other exciting news.. my friend Viv gave birth to a gorgeous wee baby boy on the 16th- Luca Waller.  He's a real cutey, you can definitely tell he's a boy, in fact i think he looks exactly like his dad. He's smaller than both my girls were at birth so i felt a bit nervous about holding him at first- it's unnerving having somebody else's life in your hands. And he's quite a jerky fella too- wee little arms and legs moving all over the place.

I don't have much else to report- that's the problem with working all week, it really interferes with your social life!

Below is my life over the past few weeks in iPhone photos- thank you work phone for documenting my boring life :-)  Has anyone out there been up to anything noteworthy?

Kate xx

Kitch'n'colourful

I can't get enough of Homebrand Jellybeans at the moment...they are all glossy and shiny..they even come in pale pink..and they do a bag that's entirely black jellybeans! Yum! I just wish they did one full of blue jellybeans too...then life would be complete.
I also love the girls' new mini Keep Cups (for their morning shot of hot chocolate), and the pretty combination of colours on my bench.
 Last, but not least, I love this time of year for homegrown grapefruit (though it seems I can never get enough!). The ones in the picture are not only beautiful in colour, but have the most amazing taste too..I cut them up in wedges and devour like they're oranges..dribbly but delicious!

Happy Wednesday folks!

x Harriet

And another one gone...

On Saturday afternoon me and my girls decided to be totally unneccessarily indulgent and so we baked chocolate cupcakes...with pieces of chocolate inside...and chocolate butter cream icing on top. Very very sweet. The chocolate we used was the cadbury block that has different types of filling...orange, pineappple, caramel, strawberry and coconut ice..so it was a bit of a surprise in each cupcake. The baking process itself was pretty sweet too...the girls are really into it and there are not enough tasks to keep them both satisfied! We also listened to a bit of classic Bon Jovi and they were singing along to 'Livin' on a prayer'...it doesn't get much sweeter than that.

Meanwhile, Herbert was enjoying a nap in a pot...as you do...

Later in the afternoon we brought out the singstar...the girls particularly like the 80s songs: Heaven is a place on earth, Material Girl, Wake me up before you go.... James even wanted to be Alice Cooper, but it's not that easy. I remember liking that song when I was about her age...strange as that seems. I feel like such a mum at times like these! Before long I'll be telling her about my long walks to school, barefoot through the snow .....

And today I bought Rory a new (to her), totally rad, bike. And she is almost able to ride it herself...it was awesome. Rory was so excited, giggling with nervous hysteria and likening it to a bit of a rocket launch. It was a bit of a workout for me running along with her this afternoon...trying to keep up, and keep yelling 'keep pedalling, keep pedalling!' at the same time...i'm rather unfit! But it was fun. I took some awful first photos of Rad Rory and her Rad bike (hey, i was exhausted by then)...and they don't even begn to convey the full extent of her enthusiasm...or the RADNESS of her bicycle!!

Anyway that's the weekend roundup. I'm pretty much over cupcakes now - it's merely the thrill of piping icing that keeps me hanging in there. Time for some new baking terrain to be explored.
What i'm not over is my bookshelf/ poster wall which I have just completed lately...My walls have been bare for too long and I know it will be awhile before I can spend money on art - or frames - so in the meantime I have chosen some pretty pictures, mostly from Frankie and NO magazines , plus a couple of others..got 2 picture walls going at the moment, still a work in progress, but they bring me much pleasure to the eye...as do all my books...I like to gaze at all the familiar titles and just feel a general comfort in their appearance and the knowledge of the words inside...what a geek. But now i'm a geek with some pretty wall coverings! Lovely...

Next time I will show you 'the hot dog lady'...a family favourite.

xx Harriet

Another Weekend....

Another market, and no baking!! Shameful really, but i just kinda ran out of time. I had some very squishy bananas that would have made a great cake, but when i went to transform them this morning they'd gone totally yuck, so into the compost they went.

It was pretty grey in Auckland this weekend but didn't rain as much as predicted so we were able to get out and about, which was cool. On Saturday, Mila went with her Nana to hang out on the shore and Anton and I took Juno out to Wynyard Quarter to check out its grand opening, walk over the cool new bridge, and to grab some lunch. It was pretty packed down on the waterfront, heaps of people milling about- cool atmosphere.

We ate lunch at Queenies Lunchroom (poached eggs on toast, great coffee) and spent up large at eco-store before making our way back to the bus stop.

Later on Anton had to do boring 'house-stuff' so Mila and I danced together for a couple of hours before she went off to bed and we watched the rugby...phew.

Today, Tori and I took the ferry over to Devonport to check out another popular craft market. I took my camera with me but it was so cold and blustery that all my focus was on staying warm and i forgot to take any photos!

The market was cool, Tori bought some yummy rum and raisin fudge and some earrings for her sister. I bought a vege and pesto muffin which was pretty tasty and pretty good value too.

There were a lot of stalls selling baby stuff and it was probably a blessing in disguise that i didn't have any cashola, or Juno would be sporting a dozen new outfits by now, one including a super super cute pink hat with pompoms. I think i will head back to Devo next month and hit the market again with some money in my pocket- there are bargains to be had!

Later i went round to my mum's and Harriet and I did a spot of party planning. We are catering for a baby shower next weekend and Harriet is doing a box of sweet treats as a prize for an upcoming school social event (it's a trivia night, and we've entered a team- scary....).

We have lots of yum things up our sleeve, its gonna be so much fun baking little baby goodies next weekend, i can't wait.  And that was pretty much my weekend- no baking, but lots of family and friend fun time....

Below are some photos of my weekend....