Tuna Nicoise

After having a baby you have a heck of a lot less time to go out for dinner, or make a really lovely one at home. Sad but true. However, when you do have a chance to make something truly delicious and spend some quality time with your loved one you enjoy it so much more, so I think that balances it out a bit.

 

We don't tend to eat a whole lot of meat around here these days, but fish? Now that's a whole other story. I have actually woken up craving tuna and salad in the morning?? Most definitely not a breakfast food! (I am somewhat a stickler for appropriate times that things should be eaten) And no, I am most definitely NOT pregnant, but this whole healthy eating thing is making me want weird things.

 

When I was out at the Redliffe Sails restaurant with Cassie the other day I had tuna nicoise (said like: knee-swa) and it was oh so delicious that I knew I had to make it for Chris. We're heading out on the weekend to celebrate our anniversary but I wanted to make something lovely on the actual night. He approved. Immensely!

So light a few candles, pick up some tuna steaks and make this lovely meal for you and your loved one(s)

"Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity."  ~Voltaire

592 pins...

...countless pinpricks later, and I finally have something that resembles a quilt!

My normal camera was away with Chris at school yesterday so I took a few pics during the day with my iphone. This quilt has been a long time coming, it was the first thing I decided to sew, and now I realize that it was a bit of an outlandish project to be my very first one (if only I could bottle pregnancy induced focus and drive I'd put energy drink companies out of business in no time!). 

I literally learned how to sew while making those log cabin squares, and constantly had to keep re-threading the machine and unpicking so I quickly learned how to do that too. I think the squares were done in about a week but then my sciatica (again pregnancy related) hurt so bad that I couldn't sit at the machine long enough to continue quilting and had to leave it for a while and do some smaller projects instead.

Currently I am working my way through quilting the whole thing, with some more bright material as the backing and luxuriously soft bamboo wadding in the middle. Can't wait till it is finished!

I also took a bit of a break yesterday to spend some time with my Dad which was lovely, can't get over the difference in skin tone between these two!

Tavi sure does love his Anda, and I sure do looooove soy chai lattes. The company was lovely too :)

Challenge for the day: Dads, take your daughters out for lunch or a coffee, don't worry we'll supply the conversation material. I'm pretty sure its never too early or too late to start, and regardless of our age it means the world to us :)

These Two

They make my heart happy. They make me smile.

After a week of neglecting a fair amount of housework in favour of doing photoshoots, graduation and end of school celebrations, and quality time spent with people I love, suffice to say the house was not in tip top shape.

After the drudgery of cleaning early on a Saturday morning (which I hate, but I hate it more when it interferes with time that could be spent with Chris) it made me happy to hear a familiar tune. Through the kitchen window I could see my handsome husband playing the song he wrote for me to walk down the aisle to at our wedding, with Tavi sitting his lap mesmerized by the piano and slapping his legs (presumably accompanying his Daddy on the leg drum)

In a week we will have been married for 3 years! It really doesn't seem that long. Through all the ups and downs, our travels and adventures, and most recently launching into the whole parenting thing, I couldn't imagine anyone else by my side.

Although now its better, I have two loves of my life, to have and to hold, to cuddle and laugh with, to struggle on and cry with, to make my heart happy, to make me smile :)