And the Winner is.......

Hiya!

Remember my Donna Hay Giveaway that ended earlier today?

Well, it has been won by........

*Nat*

who told me that her favourite treats to bake at home are muffins (coz there are really hard to stuff up!).

Congratulations Nat! Look out for an email from me shortly!

Thank you to everyone who entered.......you have given me some really YUMMY ideas for afternoon teas in our household!

Karen xx

Memory loss.

 I just entered a giveaway on Three Li'l Princesses blog here, which required me to tell Kelli what my favourite toy was as a child.

The problem I had was that I can't remember very much of my childhood. I don't know why. Maybe a shrink will tell me one day. I don't even see a shrink.

The easy answer is that my parents separated when I was 9, therefore one could be forgiven for thinking I have pyschologically blocked out a miserable childhood. But I didn't have a miserable childhood. Dad had a good job in high end banking, Mum stayed home with the 3 kids, we went to a good school, we always lived in a nice house (the last one was even 2 storey!), we had a pool, we had friends to play with. I felt secure. I only remember one,  two, three arguments between my parents in that whole 9 years. It's sad when you can't remember living with both parents. I do remember that I felt loved.

So I don't know why I am "missing" a whole chunk of my life. It's in there somewhere.

I am hoping it's just an age thing. The older I get (and I'm not REALLY old yet), the less of my younger years I recall. I barely remember my teenage years anymore. Maybe I simply have limited storage space in my brain.

It reminds me of the TV show "Married with Children". You know the one, with Al and Peggy and their teenage kids Kelly and Bud (?). Al was fixated on (many things) the high school touchdown he scored & his "stardom" was drilled into the family. Kelly didn't seem to be able to learn anything about anything except boys. She was a contestant on a quiz show & had learned how to spell "cat", just in case she was asked to. However, her brain had limited space. Every fact she learned, she lost another. The tiebreaker question was who scored the winning touchdown and of course she had forgotten that the answer was her dad!

So that's the excuse I'm going with in regards to my own memory loss. My brain can only hold so much at a time.

It's still sad though.

What's your own memory like?

A Day with Friends

We had a picnic scheduled for yesterday. We try to have one each school holidays to catch up with anyone who is available on the day. No pressures, no expectations. If you make it you make it, if you don't then you don't. Extra friends and extra kids are welcome. Having kids is not a pre-requisite. These picnics are open to anyone who wants to sit around & chat whilst the kids are busy playing in the park.

With the windy weather the last few days I didn't know if our picnic would eventuate this time. We had to cancel it last time due to dodgy weather (& then it fined up so we could have gone after all!). To cut a long story short, we went to the park so the kids could play. But it was too windy to set out lunch stuff, never mind try to cook a bbq lunch. So after freezing for a while we came back to my place.

 A lovely afternoon was spent with the girls women chatting, snacking & cuppa-ing around the dining table (with Tanya's endless mars bar slice along with other goodies) and the kids playing around the place.

I love the simplicity. I love that everything becomes communal. I love that nobody judges anybody else. I love that we can just be ourselves in a world where we have to be so much at other times.

And I am relieved the kids & I had spent a day cleaning the house earlier this week.

When did you last have a catch up with friends?

Karen xx

Image Credit: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

Who Loves To Win Stuff?!

Check out the lovely Tina Gray {dot} Me for some wonderful giveaways!

So now, not only can you enter my Donna Hay giveaway here, you can also enter any or all of the others. Take your pic! Now that's gotta be good.

image:weheartit.com

And you know what else? You may just find some wonderful bloggers out there with fabulous stories to share. Come and explore their experiences with me. Make some online friends.

Happy clicking!

Karen xx

You Know It's Going To Be Special (A Donna Hay Giveaway!)

You know it's going to be special when it comes in a pretty box:

Complete with blue tissue paper.....

Donna Hay has teamed up with Goodman Fielder to develop a range of bake-at-home goodies for grown ups. 

Donna Hay is a respected home cook and her style of clever food ideas for time-poor cooks has earned her a trusted place in the kitchens of Australian families.

Available in  national supermarkets now is a selection of indulgent, time saving baking mixes, enabling you to bake delicious treats that are promised to taste as good as baking from scratch. There are no artificial colours or flavours in the range. Nor are there any preservatives. I like that. Simply add a couple of fresh ingredients and with a flick of the wrist (wave that magic wand) - voila! A perfect home-baked sweet. Just like magic. "It's the perfect way to bake with confidence and ease." (Donna Hay).

The range includes:

* Donna Hay Molten Chocolate Chunk Brownie

* Donna Hay Vanilla Cupcakes

* Donna Hay Chocolate Cupcakes

* Donna Hay Almond Macaron Mix with Chocolate Filling.

 Let me tell you, I pack shelves in a supermaket and my mouth salivates whenever I pack the Donna Hay range! Priced at $7.99 each, this premium range has been designed for food lovers looking for a solution to last-minute baking needs (impress everyone when you take a plate to that meeting) or those wanting somthing special to indulge in at home because these are too special to share at that meeting. 

Would I like to bake and review the Molten Chocolate Chunk Brownie? You betcha! (Shush! Don't tell them I am hopeless at baking).

Would I like a giveaway for one of my readers? You betcha!

All I had to add was melted butter.........

and 2 eggs, then bake it in the oven.

Megan thought this bit was great......

Never too old to lick the spoon!

Mmmmm.....fresh from the oven!

A crispy top over chocolate cake encasing molten chocolate.

My brownie didn't look exactly like the one on the box, thanks to my dodgy oven. (Hurry up tax time so I can buy a new one).

However,

As the saying goes, the proof is in the tasting:

My opinion? Chocolicious!

Charlotte's opionion? a bit chewy but still yummy - "you don't need a photo of me"

Liam's opinion? fabulous mum!

Oh, and my taste tesing friend Bek liked them too!

"Mum, this is om nom nomilicious!"

Thumbs up from Zac.

Now for the GIVEAWAY!

I have one packet of Donna Hay Molten Chocolate Chunk Brownie mix to giveaway to one of my lucky readers. (Australian residents only, sorry).

All you have to do is leave me a comment below telling me how you follow my blog (Google, email, Facebook or Twitter) AND what your favourite treat to bake at home is.

For extra entries, share this on Facebook or retweet me on Twitter. You need to leave a separate comment below for each one.

The winner will be chosen at random. Competition closes 2pm 17th July.

Important bit: I received a complimentary box of Donna Hay Molten Chocolate Chunk Brownie mix to bake and review. I have not been offered nor accepted any other payment. The opinions are those of myself and my family members.

Happy Baking!

Karen xx

Off to the Theatre

Tomorrow night we are off to the theatre. Roo Theatre. At Shellharbour. Small theatre about 15 minutes' drive from our house. (for those of you who are not local!).

Yes, it's school musical time. They are dress rehearsing today and have 6 shows over Wed, Fri & Sat. That equals a lot of tired teens!

The theme is "Generation Why??" and apparently is a Glee type show. It covers bullying, peer pressure, body image and other issues that come to light predominantly in the teenage years. Charlotte is dancing in it. And she has a small speaking part. There are no singers in our household!

These kids have worked very hard for months, after school, in lunchbreaks and on weekends to get the show up & running. They have been writing, choreographing, set decorating (stage crew rocks!), costuming, all with the help of some pretty dedicated teachers and parents. The student band is also playing. Such a showcase of talent!

I have seen the song list for the musical and I am pretty impressed. The Beatles, AC/DC, Joan Jett, Queen, Bruno Mars, Frank Sinatra and Katy Perry - and that's only some of them!

I LOVE school musicals. I was always in them when I was in high school. The teamwork. The opportunity to be on stage, even though I am neither a singer nor a dancer. I was still given the chance. And it's the very same high school is where our kids go & I am very excited to see the talent of these youngsters. Of course they have come a long way since the mid 1980's, when the school was still in its infancy. (I was part of the first cohort in a new school).

Did you participate in any school productions?

Yours musically,

Karen.

Image from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Sympathy in Sickness.....

After reading Tina Gray's so poxy this morning, I though I'd share how our household is going today.

Liam is home on a Pupil Free Day and has been very pale, with a sore tummy & not feeling very well at all. He has barely moved off the lounge and any of you who know our Liam will know that he is usually a ball of energy and noise.

Not long ago he was moving from one lounge room to the other when he stopped by the kitchen to ask for some of the lemonade I had just done a Woollies run to buy for him. He promptly threw up. Thankfully it was all over the tiles, not in the carpeted lounge, nor on the lounge itself.

Hubby Ray, who is home on an annual leave day & not feeling the best either, almost did the same in sympathy for him. He may have a cast iron stomach foodwise, but not sickness wise. He made a quick exit!

Mess # 1 all cleaned up.

Liam asks for that lemonade that he didn't actually get. Ray - "hang on, I have to make it flat first". (The only way I know how to do that is to leave it out for hours). Pours some out. Adds a sugar sachet to the bottle, warning me that is will fizz up. Yep, too much sugar. Lemonade all over the bench, floor, cupboards (in the cupboard too), newspaper (that I had just bought & nobody had read yet), and bread board (where my now cold toasted sandwiches were that I had abandoned to clean up Liam's mess).

Yep. That was Mess # 2. But I got Ray to clean that one up!

Both within 20 minutes of each other.

Liam is now feeling much bettter and has some colour back in his face.

just check my temp again mum

 I now have another load of washing to do. Just. When. I. Had. Finished.

I guess my work is never finished.

How's your day going?