Boston Ear Flap Beanie Free Pattern

Here is the free pattern for the Boston Beanie!
Boston Ear Flap Beanie

A Month In My 30s...

It'a already over a month since I turned 30. I wasn't too scared about it - I don't know what my 'scary age' is - but I was a bit annoyed that I couldn't have a celebratory drink due to being pregnant. Ahh, well, that's why God invented mocktails!

I had the house to myself for the day as my husband works Saturdays. My local pool had a Facebook promotion whereby, if you announced a codeword at the front desk, you got in for only $2. Bargain! So I started my day with a nice swim. After, I met my mum for coffee and then had a nap in the afternoon.

Dinner was out at a place called Richmond Oysters. I hadn't been before, but my sister was keen to go as she and her husband had read good reviews online. Myself, my mum, my husband, my sister, my grandma, and my uncle all came - was especially good for my uncle to come as he drove down for the night from his home in country Victoria - a quick 4 hour drive away!

I asked for a fruity mocktail - it was delicious!

 Most of us went for fried options for dinner. I just wanted to try a bit of everything so I had the fisherman's platter, as did Derek. My mum and uncle had fish and chips, and my sister and grandma had grilled fish and chips with salad and veggies. If I went back I would definitely get a grilled fish as I love grilled fish.

Someone should have told me my hair was stupid. My sister took the photo so wasn't in it. Not sure why my uncle is posing like a weirdo. 

Derek and I at dinner.  

The food was delicious and reasonably priced. Parking was surprisingly simple given the Swan St/Church Street location in Richmond. I was especially impressed that the restaurant didn't put on a set menu or bump up the prices given it was Valentine's Day - one of the 'perks' of having your birthday on Valentine's Day is that you are often the only party in a restaurant of couples, and you have to pay for the privilege of eating off a set menu. I would definitely go back.

What I wore:

Ripe Maternity textured skater dress in black, $84.95 AUD. This dress is a good buy as will work when not pregnant. I am barely wearing any maternity clothes even though I've got less than 4 weeks to go.

NineWest 'Nicetime' wedges, white, $139.95 AUD

Urban Decay Naked2 Basics eyeshadow palette

I also played around with my Urban Decay Naked2 Basics palette which I got for Christmas from my mother in law. I will do a full review on this in the future, but it's an amazing, high quality eyeshadow palette which allows you to create a myriad of wonderful looks. 

Anyway, that was my birthday! Have you got a scary age?

Finding a Car Seat...

For some reason, the whole idea of purchasing a car seat was really daunting to me, more so than a pram (which seems to sell themselves as mini-cars, talking about 'chassis'-this and 'interior'-that. I think it's because I'm totally hopeless with cars (ie. the mechanics) and just don't want to know how they work, that when it was time to look for a car seat, some part of my brain was triggered to tune out and get overwhelmed.

Anyway, I tried to keep the process simple. Car seats are surprisingly cheap (I was expecting them to cost around as much as a pram), but I wanted to knock out anything below about $250 as it seemed too basic and maybe not as safe if it's that cheap, even though I know every seat on the market has to meet safety standards. I read a few blogs and forums and reviews online and narrowed it down to two similar seats - any more than this and I would just tune out again.

We were looking between the Safe N Sound Meridian ($399 AUD at Baby Bunting) and the Maxi Cosi Hera ISOGO ($429 AUD on sale at Baby Bunting). Of course I pronounced it 'cozzie' like a swimming costume, and was told it was pronounced like 'cozy'. All this stupid infant-style spelling everywhere!

In the end we chose the Maxi Cosi Hera ISOGO:

Maxi Cosi Hera ISOGO, 'moonlight', $429 AUD (RRP $529 AUD), Baby Bunting

We chose the Maxi Cosi over the Safe N Sound Meridian for the following reasons:

• Looked a bit nicer.
• Fit fine in our small car (Mazda 2), although the front passenger seat will have to come forward a little while this seat is in the rear-facing position.
• Plenty of neck support, which was more comfortable and felt more padded but firm than the Safe N Sound which felt harder and more plastic.
• Moisture-wicking fabric - I am trying to get everything in a cooling, moisture wicking fabric, as it gets so hot here in Summer, and since both of us don't do well in the heat, we are assuming we are going to have a sweaty baby too.
• ISOFIX installation - this is apparently a simple way to correctly install the seat, which was approved in Australia in September 2014 but has been able to be used in the US and Europe for around 10 years now. My car has ISOFIX points, so basically you just clip your ISOFIX clips into the points in the car, tighten the belts from red to green, and when they indicate green you're good to go. Sounded much simpler than the old lap sash and fiddling around in your boot option of past. In Australia, you still have to use a top tether strap by law however it is not required in other countries.

As for Baby Bunting itself? The service was nice, albeit a little slow to arrive (I had to find someone to help me after being told at the door there were plenty of people down by the car seats to help me). The lady was happy for us to ensure the seat fit in our car, and pickup of the seat was ready and waiting when we left the store. My only complaint was they weren't running their air conditioning which was immediately noticeable on a 35 degree morning in Melbourne in a huge shop. The lady serving us was really hot, as were we, and I don't think it's a great idea to not be running air con in a shop full of pregnant women. It was basically suggested to us by our server that the owner was too tight to run the air con!!

What baby purchases overwhelm you? What are you most looking forward to shopping for when you have a baby?

Winging Decorating A Cake...

I've decided I want to have a go at cake decorating. I have no idea what I'm doing, as I've never taken classes, but I'm pretty creative so thought I'd try my hand at it. I was just having a play at applying fondant, using some cutter shapes, and making some bows. Here's my results of my first ever cake:

I baked a white chocolate mud cake and covered it in pink buttercream. It was actually really huge so I was able to bake two full size cakes and layer them together. I'm interested to see how the recipe tastes as I've not used this recipe before. All my equipment is ready to go - the silicone rolling mat, the giant rolling pin, colours, fondant smoother, cutters, and the fondant has a lemon yellow tint already applied.

The cake with the fondant covered. It was easier than I thought. I thought I'd have folds and pleats and air bubbles everywhere but it was pretty simple. It did take me a while to roll out the right size fondant.

I then added hearts and stars using a dab of water. The stars were much harder to apply as there were quite fiddly. I also have some other shapes, as well as a kit with the alphabet and a kit with numbers.

 I then added a bow. It looks alright but not too great, but not bad for my first attempt. I let the loops dry a little around some rolled up Glad Wrap before applying them with water.

The finished product! I added little colour balls down the bottom to hide the rough edge. This is why people either use colour balls or ribbon on the bottom of cakes! 

I'm taking my cake to work tomorrow and then making a few more during the week. I'm having a gender reveal BBQ this coming weekend so will make a cake for that - my husband asked if I'd be modelling a baby for the top of the cake! I don't think I'm quite there yet!

Have you ever tried your hand at a new hobby? How has your success been?

Telstra Thanks Presents Katy Perry - This Is How We Do Our School...

This post comes because I'm a little annoyed at the results of this competition. A couple of months ago, Telstra ran a nation-wide competition for schools to make a video showing how their school is creative and unique, with the winning school receiving a $10,000 grant for their arts department along with 20 tickets to their closest Katy Perry concert and a visit at school from Katy Perry herself. Two runner up schools receive $5000 each for their arts departments. I will preface this post by also stating (as some of you probably know) that I am a teacher at a public primary school in suburban Melbourne. One of our amazing teachers put together an entry for this competition, and it was very clever. I haven't watched all the videos so I don't know if it should have won, but I do think it was definitely more creative and entertaining than the winner.

The winning school was Loreto Mandeville Hall in Toorak, probably the most affluent suburb in Melbourne, and one of the most expensive Catholic girls' schools to attend. Fees in 2015 for Prep are $16,317, moving up to $24,585 for Year 12, plus an annual building levy of $2085. At around 1000 students, that is a lot of money they are raking in each year, before even considering their government funding and Catholic church funding.

Sure, a visit from Katy Perry is an amazing prize (although, having attended a pretty strict Catholic girls' secondary college myself, I'm not sure how much Katy Perry's style and music fits in with a traditional Catholic ethos, but that is another post altogether), but is this a school that really needs a $10,000 grant for their arts department? I don't think so.

This is a school that boasts an orchestra in its video entry to the competition, for goodness sake! Their website tells of the 'industry professionals' its visual arts department is comprised of. Music camps are offered to students. The fees the four girls who apparently were the masterminds behind creating the entry video accumulate to almost $72,000 - a $10,000 grant being a pretty small slice of that pie of four students alone, let alone the whole school's fees.

Should a school that is so affluent be eligible for a competition such as this? I think not. Even people from the competition were quoted in newspapers as saying that, upon attending the school for Katy Perry's visit on Thursday and viewing the grounds and facilities, they didn't feel this school needed $10,000. This competition should have only been open to public schools across the country, who receive less funding and charge nominal fees to parents (my school is currently around $200 per child per year, in a school of around 240 students, which is reduced for extra children in the family), in order to better support the lack of private funding they receive. Some people may argue that private schools, both religious and independent, receive less government funding than state schools, which may be true, but this is purely balancing out all the additional sources of revenue that state schools simply can't access. A visit from Katy Perry is an exciting prize, but a $10,000 grant is an opportunity that Loreto simply did not need. Our school's video was filmed on a 5 year old FlipCam, and put together in iMovie on a staff laptop (which staff have to rent from the department of education). Again, I'm not saying our school should have necessarily won, but I am saying that only state schools should have been eligible for entry, given their comparable facilities, budgets, and sources of income.

Take a look at the winning video here  along with some other videos that were entered in the competition. The video alone isn't the most entertaining and creative of all of them out there, and I'll let you be the judge on how much professional technology was used in the creation of the video.

Take a look at Loreto's website and you be the judge on whether or not this school needed $10,000. I'd be very keen to hear exactly how Loreto plans on spending their newly acquired 'loose change', because in a school that affluent, that sum of money is simply just that.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Should a competition that involves such a substantial grant be open to all schools, regardless of affluence, sources of income, and resources? Is the only way to make a competition such as this to open it to all schools in Australia? Should there be some sort of entry criteria, such as my proposal that only state schools should be invited to enter? Is this then disadvantaging our private school student counterparts, excluding them just because their parents have chosen or are able to afford to send them to a private school?

Mariah...

Last night I FINALLY got to see Mariah Carey in concert. I have liked Mariah Carey since about 1994. Back when she first visited Melbourne in 1998 I was in year 8 and didn't have my own money (apart from a couple of dollars a week pocket money) so couldn't afford to go. The next time I had the chance to see her was when I was living in Boston in early 2010. Unfortunately, the horrible people I worked for (I was an au pair) refused to let me have a Saturday night off to go see her, making me hate that nasty family even more than I already did. The next time she came to Melbourne, January 2013, I was in Boston visiting so couldn't go again!! Aah! When I heard she was back in November this year, I booked my tickets as soon as I could. Finally I got to see one of my all time favourites live!

Well, the wait was at times a little disappointing. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the show for the most part, but it was not the best concert I've been to by a long shot. After over an hour of waiting after the support act (Nathaniel, some dude from X Factor, I know him as the guy who sings like his area is being pinched he sings so high), Mariah finally showed up after a lengthy musical introduction, which was just too long to wait in my opinion. Fantasy was a great opener to the show (although her outfit of a hot pink ballgown was a little misguided for an uptempo song, as were the two songs that followed), but three songs in she was off stage for close to 10 minutes for a very lengthy costume change. The beginning of the second 'act' saw her sing some songs basically no one knew, which served as a good time for a toilet or drink break. The mood here went really downhill and I found myself yawning and looking at my watch, which was a shame. Eventually, she picked things back up again with a very long medley of about 10 'fan favourites' (I think songs she personally likes from her back catalogue as she mentioned when singing a few songs, since when is the obscure Crybaby, a song I quite like, a fan favourite when it is about track 9 on the Rainbow album?). Another lengthy costume change and the opportunity for us to watch the beginning of the cinematic Honey film clip opening, and out she came to sing a further three songs and a lengthy parade through the crowd to sing 'Oh, you're thirsty' over and over and over and over and over again for a good 5 or so minutes, before yet another customer change into yet another gown (perhaps the most ridiculous yet, something that would have been better suited to the Academy Awards red carpet than singing pop songs at Rod Laver, and by the way, can she stop it with the one gloved hand?). The show finished on a bit of a higher note, with Hero and Always Be My Baby (I will ignore the ridiculous Supernatural in between these two songs, something she only performs for her kids and has hideous high-pitched toddler giggling throughout the song which does not sound great through arena speakers), and We Belong Together finished the show. No encore. I am always left pretty furious at a show that doesn't have an encore, to me it doesn't seem like a real show, like the artist doesn't care that much, and can't wait to get back to their hotel.

Mariah singing We Belong Together as the final song. No encore. 

Cons:
-Did she lip synch? I had my suspicions at times she had some definite 'assisted singing'. The cameras never focussed close enough on her face to reveal enough.
-Mariah basically never talked to the crowd - anything she 'said' was sung, which got highly annoying very quickly - she would even sing that she was going to walk over to the piano and look how far her microphone cord went.
-I hate medleys. Play the whole damn song.
-The dancers. What is up with Mariah needing backup dancers? Especially when she is tottering around the stage in sky high heels and ball gowns, it was just totally out of place.
-Too many costume changes. I've come to watch you sing, not to a fashion show. Also, the lengthy periods off stage changing to a new ball gown meant the show lost any momentum being built and lost the energy. The band had to take over while she was getting changed and it made me feel like I was in some weird early 90's club in Manhattan listening to a band trying to break the big time in a small joint.
-She seemed a bit distant, like she didn't really care about getting the crowd involved. I expected her to be a far more engaging and involving performer, considering how long she has been doing this. It was almost like a parody of herself.

Pros:
-It's Mariah. I can say I've finally been to one of my favourite's concerts.

While I was sitting in the concert I started to think of all the concerts I have been to over the last few years, and the things that made them more engaging was that they played their own instruments and therefore had more control over their show, and they interacted with the crowd in long, varied, crowd-pleasing sets without lengthy breaks for getting changed.

Would I rush back? No. Would I go if the price was right? Sure.

What concert have you been to this year that you loved or didn't quite live up to expectations?

What I Wore Today...

Haven't really done many of these posts, and it is technically what I wore yesterday, but oh well. Excuse the giant pile of clothes on the floor behind me. There is another giant pile of clothes in my wardrobe. I need to sort them all out over my long weekend - put away the winter stuff, find places for the new stuff, sort the maternity purchases into winter and summer, etc. As you can see, I'm dressed for a typical Melbourne afternoon. Yesterday's weather was typical Melbourne - sunny one minute, raining the next.

Bad quality photo of my outfit.

Where I went: My aunty and uncle's house for afternoon tea.

What I wore: Jeanswest t-shirt, Jeanswest 7/8 jeans (perfect length on me without needing taking up, hitting just at the ankle), Lululemon cool racerback in white (under t-shirt), Lululemon vinyasa scarf in steep stripe black/heathered dune (I need to master the many different ways this scarf can be worn), Frye Melissa button boots in cognac, Fossil watch.

What is your favourite way to wear a scarf? Do you have a vinyasa scarf and have mastered the many ways it can be worn? 

Baby Expo...

Last Sunday, we went to the Pregnancy, Babies and Children's Expo at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (Jeff's Shed) in the city. We parked at Crown for $6, which was cheaper and easier than taking the train in to Spencer Street. We also got free tickets online, basically by signing up to be spam-emailed by them and their affiliates for the rest of our lives.

Anyway, we went with one thing in mind - prams. I had in mind what pram I wanted but I wanted to see if anything else jumped out at me.

We wound up putting a deposit down on the Joolz Day Earth pram in lobster red.

Joolz Day Earth pram, lobster red, $1499 AUD

OK, this pram is insanely expensive, but most of them are. The reasons why I liked this pram over others was because it has leather handlebars (more comfortable and also more durable than the black foam-type ones most prams have which, a lady in the shop when we looked about a month ago pointed out, have a tendency to wear out and split apart), and also because of the height - when the pram is in chair mode, it sits at table height (perfect when at a cafe/restaurant), and when in cot mode, it is nice and high, so not much bending or hunching over requited which saves the poor back, especially as the baby gets heavier. Also, it is nice to be closer to eye level with your baby when you're walking around! I also like grey (but the grey in the Day Studio which was $100 more for quilted handlebars which wasn't worth it, the grey in the Day Earth wasn't as nice a grey), so red it was (I have been keen on a red pram for as long as I've been thinking about prams) - as I told several people, red goes faster!

Me with the Joolz Day Earth in lobster red at the expo!

This pram moves really smoothly and looks really good. The only downside is the small basket underneath the pram, but the plus to that is that it is a fully-enclosed basket as opposed to most prams which have a giant, wide open basket which any distracted parent could have stuff swiped out of, or stuff could bounce out of.

We decided to put a deposit on the pram (picking up in January) because they were having $450 of extras included as an expo special - the nursery bag, the sleeping bag/foot muff (the cover that zips over the front of the pram to keep the baby warm in colder months, and the XL shopping bag. I added a cup holder ($25 from $30) to my order, but I will be requesting a couple of extras as potential birth/baby shower gifts for people who ask for suggestions - I want the Summer seat, the UV cover, and possibly the comfort cover down the track.

We also had a great time at the ErgoBaby stall, as my husband is super keen for what we have (somewhat wrongly) calling the 'baby strap on'. The girls at the stall looked great in lovely orange dresses and were super friendly without being pushy in demonstrating how the ErgoBaby carrier works.

Modelling the baby carrier!

The stall had dummy babies filled with sand to the weight of a newborn (it felt more like a 2-3 month old weight though). Derek was all too happy to try the carrier on and was very impressed with how much the weight of the baby was eliminated as the carrier sits around your hips. Although he is trying on the new 360 model (four positions, front of parent/forward facing baby, front of parent/parent facing baby, back of parent piggy back style, and hip of parent), we wound up purchasing the Original Earth Baby Carrier (which has three positions, all except the front of parent/forward facing baby) as we didn't see it as being worth an extra $80 for one position - the carrier was also on special at the expo. We also got a newborn insert which allows the carrier to be used from birth. I can see this carrier come in really handy when we travel.

ErgoBaby Original Earth baby carrier, black, RRP $143 AUD (plus newborn insert, RRP $35.00 AUD, not pictured)

We got the carrier for just over $100 plus the newborn insert at the expo, so was a good deal. I am keen to give it a go in the real world down the track.

There was sooooooo much on display at the expo - stuff you wouldn't know what the purpose of is, stuff you know you won't need, and stuff I didn't want to look at yet (like car seats - I need to go to a shop and make sure it fits in my small car), as well as stuff I couldn't buy yet because I don't know the gender of the baby (3 weeks to go!).

After, we had lunch at the food court in Crown, before heading home for a giant nap.

This weekend is the long weekend with Melbourne Cup Day on Tuesday - one of the reasons I love living in Melbourne! Spring Racing is always a fun time of year. I have an afternoon tea at my aunty's house this afternoon, movies Monday afternoon, and Cup Day races watching on TV at my Mum's house on Tuesday. I'd like to go for a swim a couple of times at the local pool if I can manage. I also have mountains of work to do which I really can't continue putting off. I will be working every spare minute this long weekend - lucky Monday is 'work from home' day for us this year, as I really need the time as I've got a bit behind with my work recovering from morning sickness (all day) and being super exhausted (I'm slowly coming out of the fog of exhaustion and have got back on the coffee after a couple of months - let's say Thursday morning at work I came to work completely wired, telling everyone I'd had coffee that morning, and didn't blink for a good two hours, lol).

What are you getting up to this weekend? Are you lucky enough to have Cup Day off?

An Explanation On My Absence...

OK, OK, I know it looked like for a while there in July that I was going to get back into blogging and keep back into the swing of things with keeping this updated, however that wasn't to be...

Today I was reading one of my favourite blogs, A Cup Of Jo, which I have followed for years (it's probably the first blog I ever read), and found out that there was a 25% off sale on Shopbop.com - off everything! Not bad at all. Only a code needed, 'FAMILY25', and it lasts until Thursday US time/Friday Australian time. I decided that since there was such a good discount I was going to purchase this bag:

Kate Spade Stevie Baby Bag, black/cream stripe, down to $318USD.

Hang on a second..."baby bag?" I hear you ask. That's right - a BABY bag. Turns out the reason why I've been absent is because I'm pregnant! I've been throwing up non-stop the past 10 weeks. It's barrels of fun. I wound up in hospital a few weeks ago to get rehydrated (three bags of fluid, thanks) as I have hyperemesis garvadium (HG) (same as what Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge has), so it hasn't been fun at all. I've lost 8kg since becoming pregnant, which any other time I'd rejoice about. I am ridiculously tired and go to bed and actually go to sleep at 8 P.M. each night. I've had more days off work due to throwing up over the past couple of months than I think I've had the rest of my career combined. Apparently sufferers of HG tend to stay sick for longer - most women settle around 12 weeks, while HG sufferers settle around 16-20, if at all. I'm currently at 14 weeks, so hopefully things are on the improve soon enough.

Anyway, enough whinging. It's all very exciting, even though it doesn't quite seem real. The baby is due in April and we get to find out whether it's a boy or girl in late November, which I can't wait for! And now I have this baby bag's arrival to look forward to, yay! I was choosing between a few bags but in the end I decided to go with this one which was the one I really wanted only because it was over $100 off.

So that's that! What have you been up to the past couple of months? Any exciting news your way? Did you pick up anything exciting at the Shopbop sale?

The rest of my week...

This weekend has been nothing special, which is sometimes the kind of weekend you need.

I met my Mum on Friday at Chadstone and David Jones had the 5 piece Royal Albert set for only $20 more than the 3 piece set I purchased on Tuesday:

Royal Albert 'Rose Confetti' 5 piece setting, $119.00 AUD, David Jones

As this was an insane special (the largest plate can be used as a cake plate) and it also included the smaller 'biscuit' plate (which was the plate I really wanted) as well as the larger 'bread and butter' plate, I decided to purchase the 5 piece, then take the cup, saucer, and larger bread and butter plate and return these in the original 3 piece set I purchased on Tuesday, which I did with no problems.

We went to Wicked on Wednesday night, which was quite good with the special effects, however the girl who played Glinda had an irritating voice, and not knowing any of the songs made it a bit less enjoyable. We had Emerald Fizz cocktails beforehand which were only $14 (not bad for a novelty item at a theatre) and tasted tropical and yum!

Emerald Fizz cocktails (my Mum is not great at taking photos with the iPhone, she tends to click the button about 20 times, and each of the photos is blurry).

 Today I started the Couch To 5K program. It was tough but not as impossible as I thought. The app on my phone allowed me to use my own music while I walked/ran.

C25K app

 Afterwards I did some weights and realised that I need proper headphones as the sound quality is not great in the iPhone/iPod earphones and they keep slipping out of my ears. We went looking at JB but I decided I would buy online cheaper, along with a couple of other things off Amazon.

I am wondering how I am going to go back at work tomorrow as I have had at least one coffee each day of the holidays, and now I won't be able to get one. I think I might have to stop on the way to work somewhere, I have a feeling I'm going to be tired.

Hudsons Coffee in Myer makes great coffees. 

 Looked at watches which I don't need. These rose gold ones were really pretty. I didn't purchase, and this took a lot of self control. When you know how cheap Fossil is in America and how it is nearly double the price here it makes you angry.

Other things I have been doing:

• Visiting family.
• Baked an orange and poppyseed cake.
• Did yoga with my mum at the beautiful Elevate Yoga studio in Black Rock. 
• Spring cleaning.
• My 3000 piece Seurat jigsaw puzzle.
• Drinking lots of tea.

What have you been up to this weekend?

In The City...

Yesterday we went to the city to check out the new H&M and the Melbourne Emporium.

H&M was ridiculously busy, being school holidays. I was surprised how busy it was given it has been open for 3 months now. The place was huge but it was so packed (it's only H&M, people) that it wasn't worth looking hard.

The Emporium was nice, however not all the shops were open. We discovered a Victoria's Secret beauty store (I wish they would stop opening these and start opening proper lingerie stores) which was also jam packed so basically impossible to look at anything. I found out on Facebook this morning it was so packed (they stopped letting people in) because yesterday was it's opening day.

Anyway, I wound up getting a teacup so now I don't have to use my February teacup anymore. I am petrified I'm going to break it and if I do I will be without the cup as they don't make the cup of the month series anymore:

Royal Albert 'Rose Confetti' cup, saucer and plate box set, $99.00 AUD, David Jones.

 The Royal Albert range is on sale at David Jones at the moment. I don't know that I need the plate however I was gifted another cup for my 21st birthday which didn't come with a plate and it bugs me. Now they sell the cup and saucer with a large 21 cm plate as opposed to the smaller 16 cm plates they used to sell.

It is really beautiful!

My old cups - Royal Albert Ruby Celebration Gold Damask cup and saucer (the cup I have no plate for) and Royal Albert Flower of the Month Feburary cup and saucer (I got this for my 18th or 21st birthday, can't remember which one, also comes with a 16cm plate, not pictured). Both these cups are irreplaceable but the Feburary one is more important to me so I'm going to keep it as a display option.

The three cups. You can see how wide the dessert plate is on the new cup.

What do you like to drink your tea from? Do you like it from a nice china cup and saucer or do you just go with whatever's clean? Are you a mug or cup person?

An Afternoon In The Dandenongs...

Yesterday afternoon we decided we needed to conquer the 1000 Steps which begins at the foot of the Dandenongs in Upper Ferntree Gully/Tremont and finishes at the end of One Tree Hill Road. Our reward at the end was to be scones.

I have not done the 1000 Steps before, but we wanted to see if it was easier or harder than the Diamond Head hike in Oahu. Diamond Head was a tricky, but not impossible walk, it was tough at times but generally you moved pretty quickly and the view at the end was amazing. The 1000 Steps is a memorial track for the Kokoda Trail, and has different signposts along the way.

Going up the steps - looks simple, right? WRONG.

 The actual steps start about a 10-15 minute walk from the car park, and they are brutal. You think they're not so bad at first but they just keep coming and coming. You often have to dodge giant puddles of mud. You have to let quicker people past you. You stop any flat stretch you get because flat stretches feel good on the legs. The steps get steeper and steeper and eventually you are basically dragging your body up by hoisting yourself along the handrails, finding an upper body strength you did not know existed. And when you finally get to the top? This:

This is the result at the top of the steps. Not even worth it! 

Let me remind you of the view at the top of Diamond Head, for comparison:

View from the top of Diamond Head (one of the many great views from the top/along the way up).

You can read more about our Diamond Head hike here.

Anyway, I took about 40 minutes to do the steps, with many stops, from the base of the walk leading up to the steps (so the end of the car park) to the top of the steps. I was about 5 minutes slower than my mum and husband. I really struggled. About a third of the way up I thought I couldn't keep going but I didn't let it defeat me. Be warned - there is no drink bubbler at the top either!

After a rest and the urge to throw up subsided, we made our way down via the more spacious Lyrebird Track. This was at least a 20-30 minute walk down as well.

Happy to be on the way down.

In hindsight, I probably should not have gone to BodyPump in the morning of doing the 1000 Steps, but at the time I thought I'd be right!

Afterwards, we headed back to the car and into Sassafrass for some well deserved scones. We put our name down at Miss Marples and, with a 45 minute wait ahead, went into the Tea Leaves shop next door. We purchased seven bags of tea in the end! Some basic ones and some flavoured ones too. Looking forward to trying them all.

Some of the amazing teapots on display.

These cups were really pretty but they were about $250 each!!

We went back to Miss Marples early and our table was ready so we sat down for our scones. If you have not been to Miss Marples before, let me say that it is a real tourist trap. The scones, as you can see, are obviously baked in giant square tins and cut up like pieces of cake, which is a shame as you lose the crunchiness of the outside of the scones, and who has ever heard of a square scone anyway? The scones are quite nice, but if you're bringing Americans over for scones, this is not the place to go for authentic scones. I say scones, rather than Devonshire Tea, because Miss Marples does not do Devonshire Tea, instead calling them 'Devonshire Scones' which is just wrong, because without the tea (you have to buy your tea or other drink separate), there is nothing 'Devonshire' about them - they are just scones. My husband and I had a milkshake each (quite reasonably priced at $5 each) and my mum had a pot of tea (served in standard nursing home style white cups). Our scones came with only two serves of jam and cream, even though we had three serves of scones, so we could have done with more jam (I don't eat cream), but it was enough. Also, Miss Marples was decked out in Christmas decorations for Christmas in July and was playing really dreary Christmas carols (think 'Good King Wencalas' and 'We Three Kings') so that was a bit annoying.

Our afternoon tea.

We had an enjoyable afternoon regardless of the fact our afternoon tea cost $42.50 which is a lot for some scones and drinks, really.

Have you done the 100 Steps? Have you got another challenging walk in the Melbourne/Victoria area for us to try? Do you like scones?

Recent Purchases...

With a break from work comes shopping. Being that it is almost time for my husband's (D) parents' birthdays, both in July, we needed to do some present shopping for them. He usually gets them online gift vouchers (they live in America), but I thought it would be nice to send some stuff if we could as his mother always sends us presents.

For the mother-in-law: a beanie from Peter Alexander (was $22.95, down to $7.20!), Glasshouse Tahaa hand cream, T2 All Sorts tea bag pack - perfect for gifts. 

For the father-in-law: Essendon drink bottle and Essendon polo shirt.

While we were in Rebel Sport shopping for the Essendon gear, we noticed they had a buy one, get one half off sale on all shoes, which was a pretty good deal. D picked up a new pair of runners, as did I, however I took much longer to choose (of course the ones I liked best they didn't have in my size in the colour I wanted). The ones I got were super comfy and I wore them to BodyPump at the gym this morning where they did a great job.

New Balance women's 890V4, black/pink. 

I would highly recommend getting down to Rebel Sport because the sale is a really good one. My shoes were already reduced to $110 and D's to $90 so we wound up getting two pairs for $155!

On Friday I went to Doncaster for a change of scenery and picked up this shirt from Forever New which I will be able to wear when it is a little warmer:

Forever New 'Kitty' printed shirt, white/black, $69.95 AUD.

Earlier in the week I ordered some new Wunder Unders from Lululemon, the bruised berry/black reversible. However, I saw them in Chadstone for only $89.95 whereas online they were $99.95. So I got them in Chadstone then returned the post ones when they arrived at Doncaster a few days later. These are definitely tighter than regular Wunder Unders, however the purple is a really nice shade (will have to make sure I don't wear to high impact workouts as I think they will show booty sweat!) but they reverse to black with a purple cuff which is something different.

Lululemon Wunder Under crops, bruised berry/black, $89.95 AUD

I also spent some time in T2 and got Mint Mix at 18% off (I think the sale ended yesterday) and they were giving away a free box of tea to all members with a purchase - you could either pick English Breakfast, Creme Brûlée, or Lemongrass & Ginger. I picked Creme Brûlée, and it is super tasty! Smells like caramel. 

 I hosted a 4th of July dinner on Friday night so also stopped by USA Foods in Morrabbin and picked up some US goodies. This is only some of the selection:

Pringles Tortilla chips in Ranch, Cheez-its (eew), Milanos in milk chocolate and dark chocolate. I could live off Milanos!

What have you been shopping for recently? Scored any bargains or special items?

Breville Tea Maker and T2 Breakfast Club Teas Reviews...

A month or so ago, I purchased the Breville Tea Maker after seeing it in my yoga studio and enjoying some delicious tea from it. The best thing about the Breville one over other tea makers is that it keeps the tea warm for an hour, so if you're someone who likes to make a jug for yourself on a Saturday afternoon, you can have a cup now and a cup later. I purchased my Tea Maker from Myer and it was on sale then (looks like it's on sale again now). It's not cheap but I have such delicious tea now, and I'm drinking tea basically nightly, whereas before I was drinking it maybe once or twice a week with the tongs infuser I have from T2.

The Breville Tea Maker, (currently) $254.15 AUD, myer.com.au/Myer in store.

Preparing the tea maker is really simple. You fill the jug to the appropriate water level. Then, you place one spoonful of loose leaf tea in the basket per cup (unfortunately it only makes a minimum of two cups, so that is where the keep warm function comes in handy, although the last couple of weeks I have finally got my husband drinking tea), place the lid on the basket, and then you drop the basket onto the metallic pole inside the jug which clings to it magnetically. Pop the lid on, choose your tea type and strength and press 'tea'. What happens next is pretty cool.

 The water begins to boil and bubble.

As the water boils, the screen tells you the current temperature and how long the tea will brew for. Notice I've chosen black tea and strong. You can also customise how long you want to brew for.

Once the water has boiled, the basket slowly lowers into the water and sits there for as long as the brew time. The timer counts down how long until the tea is ready.

When the tea has finished brewing, the basket ascends the metal pole, and the tea maker beeps to say your tea is done. You then simply pour your tea and enjoy! 

Once you've poured you can press the 'keep warm' button and the timer will count up how long the tea has been sitting there since it brewed. And this button keeps the tea nice and hot.

Here's today's tea in my Royal Albert Ruby Celebration cup. I got this as a 21st birthday present back in the day. It didn't come with a dessert plate so I've been desperately searching the internet the last couple of months for a matching plate, as it just feels wrong to have the cup and saucer but no plate.

T2 had 18% off storewide today so I kind of went nuts. I got a birthday present for my grandmother, and a couple of boxes of tea for myself, and then my mum saw this set of small canisters with all the breakfast flavours in one box. It wasn't cheap, but with 18% off it was justifiable. I'm secretly hoping Melbourne beats all the other flavours! Today I've tried the Hobart Breakfast which is a nice, fruity, mild black tea. The guy in T2 Southland was super friendly (not in an annoying way which is good), and he was wearing a tie with diamantes on it which looked really good, he started telling me he was a 'bit overdressed for the occasion but why not since it's our 18th birthday!', which was pretty funny.

Anyway, my final comments on the Breville Tea Maker:

Pros:

• Makes a perfect cup of tea every time.
• Easy to use and clean.
• Not really any floating bits of tea leaves in your cup.
• Adjustable to different tea types and strengths.
• Also heats hot water quicker than your gas top kettle.
• Has a 'brew in the morning' function where you can set it up the night before on a timer and it will brew when you wake up in the morning.
• Keep warm function keeps the tea nice and hot.
• Looks good on the bench top and as a cool design.

Cons:

• It is really expensive for something that is basically able to be done with a stove top kettle and an infuser.
• You can't make one cup - you have to make a minimum of two cups.
• You can't run the outside of the jug under water - you can only clean it with a damp cloth.
• The electricity cord is ridiculously short (apparently to stop accidents) - so it required a significant rearranging of my kitchen bench tops as the jug has to be sat basically directly in front of a power point.

Do you like to drink tea? Do you prefer blacks, greens, whites, reds, or herbals?