Croftville

4 day birthday

It was my birthday on Friday, and I kind of had a four day celebration!
Thursday I had lunch with friends at Cafe Giraffe in Little Lonsdale St. It's one of my favourite lunch places, because not only do they have a lot of vegetarian options, they also have a tree in the middle of the cafe.

(photo from cafegiraffe.com)

Then on Friday I had baked cheesecake at work, and went for lunch at Gingerboy. Even though I was really really full, I still managed to stuff down the corn cakes. They were sooo good.

(photo from The Age)

That night, ignoring the fullness to the point of waddling that would make normal people cancel dinner except for maybe a piece of toast, I instead pushed on to Taco Bills where they have half price Margaritas on Fridays and Saturdays before 8 o'clock. I managed to fit in 2 strawberry, 1 Midori and 1 pineapple before half price ended and I ended up half pished.

Saturday saw me without a hangover (no, I don't know how either) and hosting a crit group meeting with the Lulus.

Then Saturday night was my friend's engagement party in South Melbourne. Everyone was given one of these amazing-looking cupcakes to take home. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it has glitter on it.

Sunday I walked into town with the boys to pick up the car, and Sunday night the Usual Suspects came over for African food, organised by Elizabeth and Sasha. (Although I think Sasha would have just eaten the packaging.)

And here's some pics of my awesome presents:

Beci Orpin papercut, that makes a pair with my other one. I especially love the little castles. And now the fox and the deer can shout out to the rabbit who lives in my 1st one.

Alpaca scarf, incredibly warm and hand-knittd by Uli. And she's just posted about our present syncability. We are skillful at that. Actually, her pics show the colours better. Go look there. But only after you finish looking at the rest of my loot.

Perfect Potion, so now I'll smell Zesty and irresistible. I'm madly using my current soap, so I can move on to minty lavender lather in the shower.

I'm not sure of the technical name, but it's a vintage flower holding thingy to sit inside a bowl and stop the flowers from being unruly. Which is one of my deep dark secrets. I always have vases of unruly flowers. Some even form gangs and challenge the other flowers to thorn fights.

Notebook and pen, which is always welcome when you're a writer. Of course, it means I should do some writing...

Cookbook, which I am planning to work my way through recipe by recipe. Or maybe Open Book at Random, Cook, and hope that next time book is opened at random it doesn't open at the same page otherwise I'll only make the one recipe, over and over.

 

Smiggle and Purple. It couldn't be more ace. I will have to hide the eraser-onna-stick from Oliver. It looks tasty.

Monkeys. They're keeping my keys funky. Funky Monkey, even.

red shoes

My new red shoes make me happy.

Until I get a blister. Then I am less happy.

Nuts the Squirrel

I'm quite enamored with this squirrel.
I've joined his facebook page, and now I've gone to The Squirrelizer and inserted him in a pic with Oliver.

The Squirrelizer offers minutes and minutes of fun, allowing you to insert Nuts the Squirrel into any picture.

Awesome cookie

Elizabeth gave me some of the rolled oat biscuits she made (because she is ace but also so she wouldn't eat them all) and they were AWESOME!

They were rolled oat and white chocolate, but the best bit was the hollow, macaroon-like texture and the flakes of salt nestled on the chewy surface - ooh, I've gone all poetic and slightly drooly.

The recipe is from smitten kitchen, but I haven't made them myself yet, so I can't say if I would make any changes, and I wish the butter measurement was easier to understand.

  

when travelling to Adelaide...

If you are driving from Melbourne, you must stop at the Giant Koala. He lives near Horsham. Here he is.

He's 14 metres tall. And yes, you can go inside.

And when you get there, you should also go to Henley Beach. And curl your toes in the sand.

 

knitted dishcloths

I've been meaning to post about my knitted dishcloths for ages. Uli knitted them for me and they've been fantastic!
I must admit, I was skeptical. Scattered throughout the blogs I read were people raving about them, urging others to get knitty. There are whole message boards devoted to knitting dishcloths, filled, no doubt, with more people raving about them.
Easily impressionable, I urged Uli to get knitty as I am not a Master of the Needles, and so far I have two dishcloths in a lovely shade of bamboo/natural.
And now I love them. They clean the dishes really well and they just go into the front loader with the wash.

So here is my rave. Go knitted dishcloths!

Here's a pic of mine, that shows my simply stunning 70s brown taps and chipped paintwork on my work surfaces. Hence the future extensive renovation.

If you're feeling knitty, you can start here or here.