Cheerful

Last week I came home from a very busy day at work to these lovely flowers from James. 

Isn't that bright yellow just so cheerful? 

I hope everyone remembered to participate in Faux Fuchsia's sequin festival over the long weekend! I sure did. 

You can't really see but my scarf there is a sort of nude pink colour with a pattern of silver sequins! The top is from Vincenzo's but before that it was from Ezibuy.

I'm a bit indifferent to this black Targét dress but it has been very good to me. 

I'm not indifferent to this black dress with gold sequins:

It's from one of those cheap shops in Cronulla - I had to search through a lot of  "festival wear"* to find it. 

Found these pink glitter shoes in Cronulla too:

Pink, glitter and shoes are pretty much my three favourite things. Followed closely by thrift, which is lucky 'cause they were only $10!

Do you like my Andrew and Fergie royal wedding plate?

In other news I had a super long weekend, thanks for asking. 

Meg and I went to the Pedestrian Blogster Awards on Friday night to eat popcorn and hot dogs. 

It was good fun - thanks Meg for inviting me!

I spent the rest of the weekend going out to eat and drink.

Nice to do something different. 

Had the family over for a BBQ too. 

And I still adore my KitchenAid:

*Festival Wear is the official name for fluro tops, denim shorts and flowered headbands. 

Birthday Princess

I had my birthday the weekend before last. I know lots of people don't get that excited about birthdays once they're past childhood but not me, I love my birthday!

The night before, some of my best lady friends treated me to dinner with a veritable buffet of BYO beverages:

After which we went to the pub for karaoke. It was such fun! I made all my friends sing the Grease Megamix and I even got a lady called Valerie (who I don't know) to sing Valerie for me. Thanks friends and Valerie!

Cara and I made a bet which neither of us won so we both had to drink the Cocktail of the Month - I forget what was in it but it was something like equal parts petrol and cough syrup topped with creaming soda.

Emily made me a birthday cake - I didn't take a photo but it was delicious, thanks Em! I'm so lucky to have such a kind friend - she also gave some lovely gifts including the fabulous tiara below:

On my actual birthday Jimmy gave me this big box - can you guess what was inside?

Tada! A pink KitchenAid! I may or may not have squealed when I saw it...

Thanks James I love it!!!!!

After I opened the Best Gift Ever, James told me to put on something comfy and not too fancy for a surprise birthday date. But he also said "I'd better start making the picnic"...

We borrowed his dad's car and drove down to the national park. 

When we got there Jim hired a boat and rowed us down the river for a picnic!

The food was really delicious too. Well played Jimmy!

Spinach And Cob Castle Dip

This easy retro dip is by far my most popular dish. I'm not really sure what that says about the rest of my cooking, but people always ask for the recipe so here it is!

Ingredients

1 cob bread

1 box frozen spinach

250 ml light sour cream

250ml regular sour cream

1 pkt French Onion powdered soup mix

Grated cheese (optional)

Method

1. To prepare the bread, cut a big circle out of the top and pull the inside out until you have a sort of bowl left. Tear the inside bits into small pieces for dipping, then put all your bread on a tray and pop it in the oven for a few minutes to toast it.  

2. Mix sour creams together and add French Onion soup mix to taste. 

3. Microwave frozen spinach according to instructions and combine with sour cream mix. 

5. Add cheese if you like, and warm it up in the microwave. 

6. Pour the dip into the bread bowl and serve. When you run out of pieces of bread to dip, start tearing up the crust. 

Tips

Be careful not to make any holes in the bread! If you do, just squash some extra over the hole before you put it in the oven. 

For some reason I can never get my hands on a cob when I need one. I try to keep one in the freezer, but a Vienna bread does the job too. Just don't get sourdough!

Think Pink

I don't think there are many things that aren't improved by a bit of pink. 

See?