all in a nap's work

In my extremely exciting recent post about Tidying My Desk (it's a thrill a minute around here folks), I made reference to still wanting to do a couple of things to my work space before I'd regard it as Done.
This is one of those things: a reference / mood / inspiration / wtfamIgoingtodowiththisohwaitI'lljuststickithere board.

Which I whipped up during Frieda's afternoon nap on Sunday. I'm nothing if not swift. It helps when one has a DIY-handy husband who is a total hoarder (as is self) and ergo have a house full of tools, random stuff like manky polystyrene offcuts and an outside loo full of wood offcuts. Doesn't everyone?

(Uh-oh, please note curiousity making a concerted effort to ensnare an inquisitive kitty ...)

It all came together beautifully, and swiftly (did I mention that?).

Step 1: stick manky polysytrene offcuts to each other and cover with The Perfect Paper

Step 2: saw strips of wood to desired length and hammer full of tacks

Step 3: press strips tack-down into polystyrene, thereby making a temporary supportive frame (and here's the ingenious part) which one can simply pull out when one would like the change the paper.

 

 (I know it looks skew ok, this is the back see)

Aren't you amazed by my brilliant design? Let's hope I'm as successful with those cupcakes ...

Final product installed. With addition of a ribbon strung in front to hang more crap beautiful inspirational images.

And while there's been some offline (read: real time) criticism of my counting my caprese pasta as one of my 100 things , I do believe I'm totally justified in counting this! Number 27 !

'mutant' lemons

A little while ago I posted a pic of our fecund and burgeoning lemon tree, fat with fruit, ready for it's bi-annual explosion of more-lemons-than-one-(extended)-family-and-neighbours-and-random-strangers can eat.

That picture caused Julochka to comment on my 'ginormous mutant lemons'. That comment made me think about my lemons a bit more thoroughly, and that little think made me realise I got a whole post worth of lemon related trivia here. Brace yourself.

• our lemons are so prolific that my mother has been known to fill shopping bags and give them away to passing policemen
• I once lined lemons up all along our garden wall for passers-by to help themselves. They looked very pretty but few got taken. Do people really think there is no such thing as a free lunch?
• after Frieda was born we gave my obstetrician a 'Thank You Lemon Basket' - a gift purely of our own invention. It had a pretty ribbon on the handle
• we like to call our lemons 'organic'
• we suspect they could be that size 'cos they're growing over a septic tank
• my Mum says deep yellow lemons against a dark stormy sky is one of her iconic Cape winter images
• our whole backyard smells heavenly when the tree blooms
• our whole backyard smells frikkin awful mid-fruit when a bunch of lemons lie, rotting and inaccessible, on the roof of the shed
• our lemons have thick, knobbly skins so they're perfect for zesting
• this also makes them far superior to smooth-skinned, hot-house, shop-bought lemons
• those knobbly skins sure can collect a lot of grime
• our lemon tree has some mean-ass thorns and harvesting lemons is a hazardous task 

And yes, that's my one-of-a-kind absolutely divinely gorgeous Skinny laMinx bag in the background : )

cupcake consternation

Basically it's my parent's fault.

I was all geared up for another epic 'upagar' (translate: helicopter) cake for a certain 2nd birthday we'll be celebrating next weekend. Maybe with less military realism and more colourful kindergarten icing this time.

But no, while Husband and I were away on our dirty weekend romantic mini-break, my parents introduced Frieda to the Simonstown Penguins. And 'upagars', once a most beloved obsession, were relagated to that dusty corner of her psyche where I like to imagine she stores Former Beloved Things. Along with my boobs, and pureed butternut.

Anyhoo, so now, having thought the birthday cake was in the bag, I'm finding myself googling 'Penguin Cupcakes' and oh lordy, you won't believe the ridiculousness I've found ...

Let's kick off with this a commendable and gorgeous effort but I just can't spend the next week making fondant penguins. I'm just not that kind of Mum. And dudes, check the icing on those things - real snowflake print. Yowzer.

(photo from here) 

Then there's these And I know I should probably refrain from being too snobby until I've tried this shit
fun family project myself, but I'm afraid I think these are amateur. (God how I'll be eating these words in a few days time - and probably a lot of half-iced cupcakes!).

But my absolute dripping-with-sarcasm-favourite has to be this: Ladies Home Journal's 'simple steps to make a kid-friendly dessert that's cute and delicious at the same time'. Please note the use of the word 'simple'.
Don't follow the link if you don't want to be inundated with a trillion annoying pop-ups, but here's just one photo. Just to show how 'simple' they really are.

 (photo from LHJ yada yada yada)

Ja. Riiiiiight.

  

Nope, I guess I'll have to forge my own path in penguin cupcake decor. Boldly go where no other mother of a penguin-obsessed 2 yr old has gone before and all that. I'm still in the conceptualisation phase, I've a couple of theories, a few drafts, some sneaky plans and clever tricks, but I'm also pretty sure that just when I latch on to the perfect method, my Sweet Little Angel will find a new object of passionate desire. And I, like a parenting fool, will forego sleep and sanity to bring that passion to life.

On a cupcake.

Really?

the very best of friends (vol.1)

Friendship hey. Shew, I could write a book. In my life thus far, even as a wife and mother (both of which are really just another type of friend), I think I can honestly say that friendship is the thing that's taught me the most (about others and myself), inspired me, challenged me, made me think and reassess and examine and analyse and goddamn just live.

I have an amazing array of friends - big ones and small ones, happy ones and sad ones, red ones and yellow ones (ok no wait, this is starting to sound like a Dr Sueuss book ...), but basically a pick 'n mix of astounding people, all of whom deserve a monster post all of their own.

But this is about just two of them. For now.

They were friends before I met them. We met through a boy, then the boyfriend of one, later the boyfriend of the other. Their friendship survived this brief love triangle, and my friendship strengthened with both of them.

The ex-girlfriend set off on her own path, travelled the world, had adventures and a little girl who she ended up raising on her own. This child was the first in our circle of friends, they lived around the corner from us for years, and we shared with our friend the immense challenges and sacrifices of raising a child as a single-parent. She's a Libran, and a strong one; ballsy and tough, creative and compassionate, fiercely independent, naturally gregarious.

Her Mum was diagnosed with all kinds of terrible cancer about 2 years ago, and their family's been living with all the awful sadness and emotional highs and lows related to that. My friend's Mum died last week, and she and her heart-broken daughter left this morning to go home and bury her.

My other friend ended up marrying that guy. For better or for worse. The latter it seems. The stupid shmo (I say shmo, but obviously I mean fucktard) upped and left when their son was 8 weeks old, plunging my friend into a (still ongoing) nightmare of divorce, custody battle, life realignment and all the horrible stuff about single parenting. She's also a Libran, and another strong one (have you ever met a Libran who wasn't?). She's insightful and thoughtful, hugely generous, immensely creative and wakes up every single morning of her life with renewed vigor and zeal.

None of us, least of all her, thought she'd be a single-parent too one day, but as I see these friend's paths falling more into parallel, I see them regarding each other anew. They've known each other for well on 20 years, and yet their friendship is still adapting, still growing, still aligning.

And it hasn't ended there. The second friend's Dad finally succumbed to his cancer too last week, just days before the first friend's loss.

So these two women - buddies from Varsity, drinking buddies, feed-you-ice-cream-and-cry-on-my-shoulder buddies, hare-brained schemes and crazy missions buddies, shared outfits and shared boyfriend buddies - grow up to be single parent, nurse a parent, console a parent buddies, friends for life with more in common than they ever thought they'd have.

And here I stand, honoured to call them both friend, to give them a big fucking round of applause for the grace and humour with which they've faced life's challenges and to say I'm sorry friends, for the pain you're both feeling now.

life stuff

Life's been a bit weird lately. I've 3 friends who've lost parents to cancer in the last week. 3. All in the same week. Weird.

But we also christened one of last year's premmies on the weekend - an wonderful (edit: on rereading this I've decided 'wonderful affirmation' sounds naff) affirmation of life in the midst of the sadness - and the sun has been shining, which just makes everything seem more bearable.

And I stole a moment this morning to have a lovely brunch, courtesy of a generous birthday present from my fabulous boss, and hatch a most sneaky plan for husband's birthday next month ...

(relevant details erased gnh gnh gnh ... )

an hour in stats

number of minutes spent clearing (and cleaning!) my desk: 55

number of black bags full of recyclable paper produced: 1

number of omg it's lost for ever items found: 4 (including new MAC make-up lost for approx. 3 weeks - yay!)

number of small, hairless cats I could 're-hair' with cleaned up cat fur: approx. 1.3

number of as yet unopened bills: stack 7cm high

number of Urgent Overdue OMFG How Could I Have Forgotten To Do That??! items: see pile on laptop keyboard

number of things still To Do Before I'm Completely Happy with Desk: 3

number of times I need to re-learn the lesson that if you just buckle down and Get It Done you feel much better: 10 gazillion million 

number of comments I'm expecting about how sad it is that I don't have a Mac: at least 1, from Julochka (but get this, I'm ok with my ole PC. Gasp!)

May I present .... BEFORE ... 

... aaaaaaaaand .... AFTER!

Now lets see how long it stays this way!

the week in stats

number of days it has rained in succession: 7

number of fender-benders I've seen: 5

number of wardrobe crises I've had: 8 (dinner out on Tuesday night necessitated a wardrobe change. ack.)

number of pregnancy tests bought: 1 (just got a funny feeling ... )

number of positive results: 0 (turns out it was PMT. duh.)

number of episodes of Postman Pat watched: 8 (4 x 2)

number of times I've read Penguin: 4562

number of times poor Lego has missed out on a walk due to rain: 3

number of chew toys Lego's annihilated: 4

number of tissues Frieda's used: 852

number of times I've shuddered at the thought of Nu-Skin: 53

number of times I've done something, anything, to avoid tidying my desk: 8

number of blog posts I will allow myself to write before I tidy desk: 0

Goodbye dear blog, I may be some time.

foodie april retrospective: caprese pasta

Ah, remember the heydays of foodie april? Those crazy days of food and wine and love, every meal a masterpiece, every morsel a momentary miracle of delight? Good times ...

And I harken back to them in these dark days of nightfall by 5.50pm and ready-made lasagne from Woolworths (dudes, R49.95 for 1kg! That's totally the perfect yoga-night supper right there. But I digress ...).

So here goes, a quick foodie retrospective, and possibly really, and this time truly, the simplest, easiest pasta ever!

Caprese Pasta

At least a couple of hours before you want to eat this (can be 24, can be 2), chop up a punnet of cherry or baby roma tomatoes, cube a medium size block of hard white cheese (edam, tussers etc) and a handful of sweet basil and mix it all together with some good glugs of olive oil, salt & pepper. Leave to marinade.

When you're ready to nosh, cook up some pasta shapes, reserve a leetle bit of the cooking water, chuck the tomato mix in with the hot pasta and (leetle bit of) water, and eat immediately.

The hot pasta wilts the tomatoes (which've already soften in the marinading process) and just melts the cheese to a soft and chewy consistency.

Can be optionally served with anchovy & caper buttered crostini. 'Cos we're all about carb-on-carb action in this house.

It's summer in a bowl ~ a beautiful thing.

And incidentally, no. twentyfrikkinsix, 'cos Julochka's totally lapping me on this 100 things malarkey and soon I'm going to have to start counting particularly good cups of tea to get my numbers up!

lists of 5: 5 signs that it is, undoubtably, winter.

1. I have nothing to wear. No. Thing.

2. The cats have doubled in size and the Ginger, who usually sleeps in really obscure places, has moved to her winter abode - our bed. (The Black is a stoically perennial resident.)

3. Everytime I leave the house I see any number of fender-benders. How quickly morons people forget how to drive on wet roads...

4. Our lemon tree is about 30 seconds away from busting out in fruit and showering us and the neighbours with lemons faster than any of us could possibly use them. Their big yellow globes are particularly fetching against a brooding stormy sky however.

5. Underfloor Heating has just moved up my Must Have list. A couple of months ago it was item about 435, it currently occupies slot no. 2, after New Winter Wardrobe.

(snotty) frieda monday

And so, with the first winter storms, we welcome the return of The Adenoid ... Obviously us bad bad parents didn't have it removed 'early in 2009' as we'd planned (much self-flagellation ensues), but our hesitance has really been from not wanting to put our little Precious through the whole traumatic process, and possibly a naive hope that The 'noid would just Go Away, and not a shirking of parental duty.

So now it's back. From outer space. I just walked in to find it here with that sad look upon it's face. Yada yada yada.

But all credit to Frieda who has remained remarkably sunny and bright. And to her Mama who found innovative and restful things to do on a rainy, snotty Frieda Monday.

Polishing up her 4x4 skillz in front of an off-road instructional video which she loves.

'More Jeep!' 

Arts 'n Crafts. 

'Look Mummy - dog.'

Pancakes.

'More stars!'

We is in yr krib, stealing yr warm spot.

'Look Mummy - bad titties!'

Indeed.