Product review: Herbal Essences Set me up mousse

Clairol Herbal Essences

Set me up range

Lily bliss fragrance mousse

I'm not really a huge fan of mousses or unnatural products in general. but if you can go to the trouble of using it properly, it's well worth the effort. After towel drying your hair, use a small amount of the mousse and run through hair then using a 'finger style' diffuser and low heat on your hair dryer without using your hands. I don't normally bother with a hair dryer but it certainly makes your hair stay in place all day. No frizzies or flyaways :) And the scent is amazing. So if you like mousses then this would definitely be one to try!
7/10

Product review: Just Juice Summer Strawberry & Kiwifruit

Just Juice Summer Strawberry & Kiwifruit

Mmm this was a very refreshing drink. The strawberry flavour was a bit stronger than the kiwifruit which is the right way around because you don't get an acidic aftertaste from the kiwifruit. It goes down very smoothly. Delicious, refreshing & perfect sweetness. My husband fell in love with it from the first mouthful. Perhaps I should be worried...

9/10

Product review: Just Juice Sunkissed orange

Product review of Just Juice orchard range...

The first one of these juices we tried was the sunkissed orange. To be perfectly honest, it tasted just like any other orange juice out there on the market. I couldn't taste anything special about it. Perhaps it wasn't quite as strong or heavy as others (which is a good thing). It did however taste a whole lot better when drunk out of a glass rather then straight from the bottle! So for those who like the just juice range then this is a great option for your standard orange drink.

7/10

Product Review: 5 grain cereal range, Be natural

Product Review:

Be natural 5 grain cereal range

Cashew, almond, hazelnut & coconut

This cereal has to be right up there with my all time favourite cereal, Sanitarium Toasted Muesli. Crunchy, full of flavour, sweet but not sickening, lots of coconut and nuts. Probably if I wanted to be really picky, I could say that adding cashews into a so called 'healthy' cereal is a bit of an oxymoron as cashews are right up there with being the worst type for you. If they added brazil nuts instead that would be great. The flavours of the nut are only subtle anyway and could do with a bit more intensity as well as more coconut. However it is very tasty and I have been enjoying it over the Christmas period. Great texture and a must for every family home as this is one I'm sure even the kids will enjoy :)

9/10

Product Review: Be natural 5 grain cereal

So we got sent these goodies in the post just before Christmas. I'll be doing a few reviews over the next couple of weeks when I get time.

The first one is for the new Be Natural range of cereals. I quite like a good bran cereal and it helps knowing that this one is packed full of goodness without the unnecessary sugar like most cereals these days seem to have. It was a bit bland & would probably take some getting used to on its own (unless you load it with sugar which of course really defeats the point of a healthy cereal), but most bran cereals are quite bland unless they add sultanas. I usually have them with fresh fruit and greek yoghurt to liven them up.

So overall, a great texture, not too sweet. I would definitely have this in my cupboard. 8/10

Things I'm loving!

Linking up with the fabulous PJ!

Wow I am so slack! It's been weeks since I last blogged so here goes...

* I joined pinterest! Finally haha check me out here

* I'm loving getting heaps of flowers from hubby's work as they are constantly trimming things.

* Wondering if Master Hollywood is going to grow up to be an actor... Lots of dramas lately! How am I going to cope once he can talk properly?? Oh the tantrums

* I've been trying to cut costs and make presents for the mountains of 1st birthdays that are this year. Sorry about the terrible photos! I need a new camera desperately. Tutorial for the shorts found here and the top is based loosely from this site here...

Little girls shorts with matching top

 * This was my original top from this tutorial but I found it was no way going to fit a 1year old even though the pattern stated it was for 18m! I would say more a 6-9month size unless they were really skinny. But very cute nonetheless..

* I am hoping to get a few more gifts for 1st birthdays out of the way soon...

* We had a fabulous time at a friend of mine's 'surprise' baby shower last week. A nice dessert at Shiraz. Excellent service.

What have you been up to lately?

Things I'm loving!

Linking up with the fabulous Paisley Jade...

 So thankful that we got to go away for our anniversary for a few days last weekend. Even if we had to take Master T with us & spent most of the time traveling, it was still a much needed break for us. Hubby's grandma (who is the only grandparent still alive between us) got to meet Mister Sunshine & we caught up with heaps of his relatives in Tauranga plus my brother in Te Aroha. Yay!

 

 

Loving this new 'scone' recipe I've found... Click here for the recipe

Hubby thoughtfully bought me some flowers in our wedding colours (although he didn't realise that they were until I pointed it out hehe). Roses & orchids - they last a long time too!

Loving that it is a teeny bit better weather today and I might actually be able to get some washing dry again.

What things are you loving?

Bean Biscuits (Semi-Healthy Scones)

I stumbled across this recipe today while looking for a dip recipe so I could use up my dry kidney beans in the cupboard. This is a super easy (and semi-healthy) recipe for scones. They taste great & you'd never know that they use kidney beans as one of the key ingredients! They also use some wholemeal flour which is great and a lot less butter than standard scones I believe.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup wholemeal/whole wheat flour

4tsps baking powder

1tbsn granulated sugar (I used raw as it's much better for you)

1/2 tsp salt

75g butter

You can use margarine but it's not good for you :)

1cup cooked kidney beans either white or red

(I soak mine overnight or all day, tip out the water and then boil them until slightly soft, but you may have other methods)

2/3 cup milk

Method:

Sift all-purpose flour and baking powder and then stir all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles crumbs. In a food processor or blender, puree the beans with the milk OR mash the beans & stir in the milk. Stir the mixture into the dry ingredients all at once to make a light, soft dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured board, sprinkle with flour & knead for about 20 seconds. Shape biscuits as you would scones by rolling (1-2cm thick), patting and cutting dough into squares (makes about 16 if doing squares) or triangle shapes or I just used a cookie cutter to make pretty heart patterns & made a lot more pieces by doing it this way. Bake at 180 degrees Celcius (or just under) for about 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. I also brushed the tops of mine with milk before cooking. If making these again, I would probably add a small amount of Parmesan cheese & perhaps some parsley or herbs.

My fabulous weekend

Linking up with:

Is it cold today or what? Or maybe it's just me. I feel like winter has returned again, but then I look out my window and see this

and I know it's definitely still spring.

I had a tiring, but wonderful weekend. Coffee with friends at the excellent Nectar! Great customer service. Even when we were the last ones there and we knew they wanted us to leave so they could clean up, we didn't get asked or even any dirty looks AND they cleaned up the mess my lovely 9month old made. IE, a lot! Without complaining, and with a smile. The food was incredible as was the coffee even if it was a bit small for my liking. I only have a pic from their website. I don't seem to carry my camera at convenient times.

A friend came over on Saturday night while hubby was away in Auckland for the France v All Blacks game. Enjoyed a salmon steak with a barley, brocolli and orange salad. Sounds like a weird combo but was delicious! 

It was quite ironic that I watched two Johnny Depp movies - Rango & The Tourist and the one I thought I was going to enjoy I didn't, while the other I thought would be filled with swearing & violence wasn't. Rango was super strange and definitely not a kids movie like I thought it would be. And the Tourist was surprisingly good. Not cliche, had a great twist at the end, very clean with little swearing with only one blasphemy. Incredible. Hardly any movies that I know of like that these days. Needless to say I watched it again today while Master T slept.

Hubby created this for me on Sunday night

And I had fun turning foccacia dough into olive & herb pita pockets for our shrimp & chicken stir fry dish. Delicious!

How was your weekend?

For the sake of a post

Crazy busy weeks lately and both me and the boy have been sick :( but we had a fabulous parenting tips night on Saturday which the beautiful and talented Paisley Jade organised.

This is a terrible pic of me and the boy but never mind. Hehe deliberately deleted the one that shows off my unflattering belly. I have been trying my hand at drafting patterns. It's definitely not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm on the right track I think. These pants are the first attempt. Anyone know of any good books on pattern drafting?

These were made using an easy chocolate cake recipe and simply pouring the mixture into silicone muffin cases. Yum!

Master T is on the move! First crawling steps today. Nothing has been safe for awhile now (ever since he could roll over), but it's going to get worse I know. Wish he could of delayed it just a few more months hehe our house just isn't ready for a crawling bubba!

Things I'm loving!

I'm loving coming home from a fun night out

Bye Leonie-we will miss you!

 and seeing this on the table... I have the bestest hubby ever and he's all MINE! Hehe :)

Getting ready to sing/play guitar again for our Youth Church after probably a 9month sabbatical haha
eeek nervous much!

That's about all I have pictures of :) but I'm thankful for heaps of things

What I've been up to lately

Trying out new recipes...

This yummy bean salad was so easy to make

A bit hard to see, but Sunshine likes to pull on his
own hair and it leaves cute little patterns in it.

Attempting to create some crazy hair cupcakes for our girls movie night..

Winning choccys and a great dvd. See here for more on these antics.

Awesome Prizes by the lovely PJ

What have you been up to lately?

Lunch in Birkenhead...

The day finally arrived - bright and cheery even. We had meant to leave Whangarei by 8:30 at the latest in order to drop hubby off in Howick and be back in Birkenhead by midday. Well of course, planning a day with a baby doesn't help get things packed very quickly. We ended up leaving at 9 & forgot the two most important things - the portacot and the previously expressed breastmilk! By the time we realised this, it was far too late to turn back.

I had fun turning this...

Into this

 Here is the final name badge made with love especially for Penny from 'My Spirited baby'

 Sorry for the terrible photo - I swiped it from PJ :)

On we chugged on this glorious day. I found myself getting more nervous and more shy as it came closer to the time. I had seen a few photos online and checked out most of the blogs before but only knew two people at the event. After dropping off Master T (8mnths) off at his uncles house along with the hubby and MIL, I got back in the car to make the drive. I finally arrived at the Mediterranean not long after 12. Thankfully the restaurant was pretty easy to find - I don't think I would have coped with the day if I had gotten lost!

Well all the people were lovely and friendly and I had a wonderful time. The restaurant staff were amazing as was the food. I don't have any photos as was too bummed to bring my old point and shoot along hehe everyone was pulling out flash SLR Canons left right and centre so it's just as well I think! So nice to meet everyone and put a real face to the blog. 

We headed back to Whangarei that night and arrived around 10:30pm. Needless to say a long day, but highly worth it. To top the weekend off, my wonderful man cooked breakfast, lunch AND dinner for me on Sunday and we celebrated with a teddy bears picnic on our deck...

 

The end result

 Linking up with the wonderful Paisley Jade and the fabulous Leonie from Kiwi at heart.

Blogger meet up

So I haven't blogged in like, forever it seems! I feel like I am so busy. But, I am super excited for this weekend!! We are having a blogger meet up in Auckland and having never been to one before it's going to be so exciting I think! We get to make nametags for a blogger we don't know :)

If all goes to plan, here's a little sneak preview...

And that's all you're getting! I hope you like the end result Penny :)

Here's something else I've had a chance to whip up..

Super cute pincushion

  I found this pants pattern here and decided to give them a go. Will have to adapt them slightly for Master T, but I think they turned out rather cute. What do you think?

We visited our local cafe last weekend... Just love the table numbers. The downside is they are always packed & their high chairs aren't very good. But they make really nice coffee, have great indoor AND outdoor seating areas, great friendly service & their carrot cake is divine.

What have you been up to this week?