Introducing Giggles into our Adventures

We'd like to introduce Giggles into our Adventures.

Spanky has known Giggles since Giggles was about 6 years old, while for Bubbles its been about 8 years.

We swim with Giggles and have known her family for a long time.We are the people who gave Giggles her Giggles name. It is at the point that lots of people call her Giggles or Gigs rather than her real name. Even Adults. We're happy with it.

So, Giggles joined us on an adventure down to Sorrento (the beach) for the weekend.

We picked her up on Friday arvo, jamed her stuff into the car (Giggles mum and us were impressed at how much the little Honda Civic could hold) and on our way went!

Welcome Giggles!

Spanky driving

Maggie trying not to sleep

We were hoping Maggie would sleep in the car, and had specifically taken her for a play with Bonnie for an hour in the hope that she would sleep, but she seemed to think that her back seat buddy (Giggles) would do something that she would miss if she went to sleep - so she kept one eye open for almost the whole 2hr trip, and only snoozed the last 30min.

The reason we went down to Sorrento, was that a number of people from swimming were swimming in the Sorrento ocean swim (not Bubbles or Spanky, but Giggles was), and one of the familys had a beach house there that everyone was staying at.

Saturday morning saw us take Maggie for her first beach visit and swim. She had to be encouraged into the water with treats, but soon was ok with it all. She can swim fine and was having fun after she realised it wasnt too bad.

After lunch and a visit to the shops, we took Maggie back for a second swim and Giggles came with us this time. No treats were needed this time to get her into the water for a swim, infact as soon as she saw people playing water cricket out on a sand bar, she was swimming out to them ready to play.

On Sunday, everyone headed down to the beach to either watch or participate in the Swim. Everyone who swam did well and were happy with their swims.

Maggie was very well behaved and meet lots of dogs & puppies.

We headed home after some lunch, and were all very tired by the time we got home.

Spanky started back at work the next day, but Bubbles was home and says Maggie slepted all day for the next 3 days as she was so tired from the big weekend.

Happy Birthday Miss Jessica!!

So this week was Miss Jessica's (the Zoo keeper) Birthday!

I was appointed cake baker, with the request of Cake Balls (as per Bakeralla.com).

So, as soon as i got home on Monday from work i quickly mixed up a Betty Crocker Devils Cake mix and popped it into the oven with just enough time for it to cook before i had to go to a meeting.

I was off work sick on Tuesday, and after sleeping the morning and some of the arvo away, i spent an hour working on the cake, which really didnt look like a cake!

So, Wednesday night, off Bubbles, Maggie and i went to have dinner with The Teacher, Golfer, Bonnie and Miss Jessica with this:

It went down well! 

Christmas Baking

For several years now Bubbles & I have been doing baked goods as Christmas presents for the extended family & friends. Some years we cook/bake a variety of cookies, or slices, or cupcakes.
This year it was cupcakes.
I wanted to try a few new recipes and decorations this year, so in early December I did a few ‘trial’ bakes of different recipes, most of which worked out well and were taste tested by some of the doctors at work and also everyone at swimming competitions.
So, for the Christmas presents I went with:

Oreo Cupcakes, with mini Oreo on top

These were made using a buttermilk recipe that I have adapted from a Lemon Buttermilk cupcake recipe. I used about 2 box's of Oreos inside the cupcake.


With the cookies, I first halved about a dozen of the cookies, placing the half with most of the cream on the bottom of the cupcake paper (cream side up), the other half and left over cookies went in the food processor and were cut up and then put in the cupcake batter.


The kids (and adults) at swimming loved this cupcake when I first made it, especially when they found the Oreo at the bottom.


For the decoration, I made a buttercream icing (from the Crabapple bakery recipe book), swirled it on to and added a mini Oreo.

Gluten free chocolate Cupcake, with chocolate ganash

I love this recipe (and so does ‘The Teacher’, Bubbles mum). The recipe is from the Crabapple Bakery recipe book and almost sends Bubbles into a diabetic coma when he helps to make it!


For decoration, I made Chocolate Ganash, again from the Crapapple bakery book, and added broken up Peppermint crisp on top

Caramel mud cake cupcake
This recipe was from the Women's Weekly Cupcake book and was something new for me, but wasn’t difficult to make, unlike some other caramel cakes can be.

I just dusted the top of the cupcake with some icing sugar, and stuck a gingerbread man on top using some buttercream icing from the other cupcakes. I got the handmade gingerbread men in a container of 20 from a seller at our local Sunday market.

Sponge cupcake

I was a bit let down by this cupcake. Almost all the cupcakes sunk, so after the first group came out of the oven and sunk, i made sure to turn the cupcakes from the second tray upside down on the cooling rack so they wouldn't sink on the top.

The cupcakes themselves were ok, although i don't think i will make them again.

I had great fun doing the butterfly's on top for the decoration though! I followed the directions from the "Hello cupcake" book. I made the Butterfly's the day before i baked the cupcakes.

Low sugar Berry Cupcakes

These little lovelies were a last minute addition as i realised i hadn't made anything Bubbles could happily eat, and therefore needed something also for a set of Aunt & Uncle.
 

 

 
So, after they were all made and decorated, i put them into these lovely boxes that i had ordered weeks back when we had chosen to do cupcakes this year.
 

Everyone loved the boxes, and the cupcakes were eaten up quickly

Blinds!!

Blinds that came with the house

Ok, so we moved into our house August 2009. We now finally have blinds in our rooms!

What we have been using as blinds/curtains for the last year.

About 3months ago I got a couple of companies in to give us measures and quotes. One company wouldn’t give us type of blinds that we wanted, so that took them out of the running, that left one company, who we were happy with on cost and why they provided and they came recommended.

So, in the middle of October, when I was off work for a few days cause Maggie had been desexed & I had an exam to study for, they came and installed the blinds.

The Lounge, Kitchen & Meals area blinds were put in first and they looked great! It was as good as I was hoping they would look. We chose to have Cellular blinds put in these rooms as they are good insulators (keep heat out in summer, cold out in winter) and when pulled up they sit very slim and are pretty much un-noticeable.

When I went to see the study and bedrooms blinds, they looks nice and how I was thinking they would look, the only problem was that the front (they are double rollers) sunscreen one was totally the wrong colour! It was a black colour and I had chosen an off white that was pretty much the same colour as the full block out.

So….. 6 weeks later and it is all sorted!! Yah!

Main bedroom

 Spare Bedroom

 Spare Bedroom

Study

We had some issues with the main bedroom blinds as they had to be spilt into 3 because of the window size, and while one of the rollers was, the other was not, so we had our outside blind down for 6 weeks so that people couldn’t see in.

But its all good now.

Just in time for Christmas!

Maggie Update

This weekend Maggie turns 7 months old. She has grown so much since the last photos posted of her.

She is almost finished her basic obedience training, and has been doing very well. We practice with her most days after work, either when we take her for a walk, or after dinner.



She was de-sexed in October. With everything going very well. It was hard to try and keep her from running around, and she was very slow on the back steps for the first day (Spanky often carried her down).



 

 

She has her good days and her ‘devil’ days. Every day when the first person gets home, they go out side and see which type of day its been. Some days there is no damage to the yard, its trees/bushes, and any objects in it. Other days there is holes all around the place, Camellia plants with no leaves left on it and a cardboard box torn to shreds.

Maggie also has now got half a clam shell (from Bonnie) to use during summer on the hot days. She had yet to sit in the water, but loves walking through it and getting her paws wet and drinking the water. She also puts her toys in there too to get them wet then plays with them.