Thumbs up: Outrageous Fortune

A bunch of stars from Outrageous Fortune have posed nude for the September cover of Metro magazine.

This is one of the T.V. shows that I try to never miss an episode of, I absolutely love it – the story lines are great.  And I always buy Metro too.  Two of my must-not-miss things combined.  I do wonder though, if the school library will put this issue of Metro on display as I know they have a subscription :)

Extra thumbs up for Robyn Malcolm – I think she is very cool for getting involved in politics, eco campaigns and standing up for what she believes in.

OMG cool! Cute cabinetry.

I got the new ‘INSIDE OUT: inspiring homes with heart’ magazine today, and one of the homes featured in it had these awesome old apothecary cabinets with old sign writing on them.  I will scan in a pic tomorrow.  In the mean time I found this cute cabinet on inspireco.

You could fill all the jars with cute craft bits or candy :)

Photo Project - Ruakaka Beach

Chicken and Corn Soup

This looks a little gross in the picture, but it tastes delicious.

Serves 6.

3 teaspoons chicken stock powder
3 1/2 cups boiling water
1 cup chopped cooked chicken (I just shred mine)
1 cup canned cream-style sweet corn
2 teaspoons corn flour
a little cold water
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
sprinkle of pepper

Put stock powder and boiling water in a big microwave safe bowl.
Add the chicken and the canned corn (I tend to put a whole can in). Stir well.
Cover with a paper towel and cook on high in the microwave for 6 to 6 1/2 minutes until boiling, stirring once.
Mix corn flour and cold water in a cup until smooth. Stir in to the soup.
Re-cover with the paper towel and microwave on high for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.
Stir in parsley (I am lazy and used 1 teaspoon of dried parsley) and pepper. Serve :)

Mini Steamed Puddings

These are so easy to make and are so yummy :)

Serves 2.

25g butter
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 egg
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons jam or golden syrup

Wet the inside of two mugs and put the jam or syrup in the bottom.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl.
Rub in the butter and sugar to a near dough-like consistency.
Whisk egg, halve, and collect milk. Add milk and egg to the flour mixture and mix well.
Half fill the mugs with the batter. Cover with glad wrap leaving a small opening.
Microwave on high for 1 and a half minutes or until the mixture is springy to touch (time based on a 1100 watt microwave).
Stand for two minutes before turning out and serving.

Photo Project - Auckland City

Before the grey skies, rain and wind that was the Auckland weather today, there were blue skies.  This always seems to be the case when I am being lazy and still lying in bed, then as soon as I’m up, the crappy weather is too.  Anyways, the blue sky reminded me a day that I spent in town testing out my new camera.  The pictures above were all taken on 07/01/09.  What a lovely day :)      

(Please don’t be too critical – I only know how to press the button on the camera to take the photo.  That is about the extent of my photography skills.  And presenting them to look like Polaroid's has cropped some of the photos funny.)

Mmmmm… Fairy bread!

Remember eating fairy bread as a kid?  It was always a staple on the menu at birthday parties. 

I was talking to someone about fairy bread the other day, then coincidentally I got sent an email about this t-shirt yesterday.  I think it is very cute and I may go try one on next weekend.  I would look very cool wearing this to school – might make all the kids hungry tho!  It is available from Mr Vintage, and it’s cheap!

Thumbs up: Rhys Darby

I just finished watching ‘Rocked the Nation 2’ on C4 and it has made me feel inspired to write this blog post so I can rave about Rhys Darby.  I think it is really cool that someone from little ol’ NZ has done so well overseas but still remains humble and involved in New Zealand projects.  Scott and I always go along to a few comedy gigs during the Auckland Comedy Festival and we saw Rhys a few years back when he did a show with Dai Henwood – it was absolutely hilarious and I would definitely rush out (well, more likely I would be on the ticketmaster website – so much easier!) for a ticket if he was to do a show again.  We also saw Flight of the Conchords do a show, which I think was the comedy festival before we saw Rhys Darby, so I love that they have all teamed together and had so much success with the Flight of the Conchords TV series. 

If you haven’t seen Rhys Darby live, he has a great DVD out and you should buy it.  I also loved his performance in ‘Yes Man’, but I am yet to see ‘The boat that rocked’ – I will have to get my hands on a copy of the DVD.

If you haven’t seen Rhys and his comedy before, or you have but just want a laugh, check out the video below.  He is talking about Rainbows End, New Zealand’s only real theme park, in Manukau, Auckland.  I find this clip funny because Rainbows End really is as Rhys describes it, just a little more lame, but such and icon.

Love ya Rhys!

Cheap weekend activities

I caused a car accident about five weeks ago now :(.  I’m so sorry for the hassle that I caused the other party and I’m not too happy with myself, as I have to pay for the repairs to my car (I only had 3rd party insurance coz my car is cheap).  So, while I have the money available, I want to spend as little as possible so that I can replace it into my savings asap. I did a brainstorm last night of things I could do this weekend that don’t involve me spending much.

• Visit the library
• Do some baking
• Craft – crochet, make a model etc.
• Listen to music
• Go for a walk
• Play a musical instrument
• Go out for a coffee and some cake
• Housework, cleaning, laundry
• Play old-school video games
• Laze in bed / sleep
• Produce some resources for school
• Read any of the millions of books I have piling up
• Go swimming
• Trawl magazines for pictures and cut out the most inspiring
• Watch a DVD
• Peruse a borders store
• Blog and search the internet
• Play a board game – monopoly, chess etc.
• Grab a camera and immerse self in a photo project
• Find stuff that I can sell to make up for my loss
• Check out what is on TV – might be a good movie or doco
• Go out for a cheap brunch
• Check out if there are any free gigs, shows etc. on
• Get someone to give me a massage
• Volunteer work
• Scour op-shops
• Try something new – skateboarding, roller-skate, drawing etc.
• Search online auctions for the cup and saucer set I want
• Go somewhere interesting, i.e. the tunnels built during the war at Devonport, Auckland.
• Re-arrange the furniture in a room
• Do some gardening
• Go to the museum
• Pack a picnic
• Lounge around with friends / family
• Wash the car that has made me a spendthrift

Anyone have any other ideas?  I hope everyone else is having more interesting and exciting weekends.

25 / 5 = 14?

I hate maths, so for me to being posting math clips on my blog they must be good.  We had a teacher only day at school and the math department shared the 25/5=14 video, its very clever.

This is the same thing with different numbers:

Crowning Glory

Right.  Using my limited knowledge of ‘the secret’ from the Oprah show has so far been a fruitless endeavour.  The universe hasn’t delivered me my house yet, so I thought I would ask for something smaller, let the universe take baby steps towards my house.

I want a set of Crown Lynn colourglaze cups and saucers that are displayed on a cute little stand.

Aren’t they adorable?  There were two different sets on Trade Me last week, but I forgot about them and other people won the auctions.  Now I can’t find any sets for sale :(

Searching for a cup and saucer set I learnt that the jugs surrounding the set in the above pic are quite valuable.  I stumbled across a baby blue one which was cute, but it was chipped, so, I’ll keep my eye out for one of these too.  However, I would be over the moon if I found a Crown Lynn colourglaze cup and saucer set at a reasonable price with the sweet little stand.

The Lovely Bones Trailer

I think this trailer was released just today.  I will definitely be going to see this as I loved the book written by Alice Seabold, and the film is directed by an awesome fellow New Zealander, Peter Jackson.

I am a little worried though, because there will be the dreaded book vs. film debate – which was better?

The other movie I am planning to go see when it is released in NZ is ‘My sister’s Keeper’ because again, I loved the book, written by Jodi Picoult who is my favourite author. 

Auckland Food Show

The Auckland food show was great, and packed, as usual.  I went this morning and got there early so I could watch the Donna Hay demonstration.  She made some recipes out of her ‘No Time to Cook’ cookbook, which I own but have never made anything out of it – I’m inspired now :).  The recipes are available off the Food Show website, by clicking here.  While walking around I also spied Paul Holmes there to promote his olive oil, Annabelle White signing copies of her latest cookbook, and Laurel Waston (who sometimes cooks on the Good Morning Show) was at the Woman’s Weekly stand.

Exceptionally yummy things on offer at the show, according to me, were the Kohu Road Ice Cream (It was to die for! But, I didn’t buy any – its expensive, so I will have to wait for a special occasion to justify getting some) and the Loaf bread company’s Gooey Caramel Slice (or sugar loaf as they call it) – I got one to tuck into after dinner tonight - can’t wait!