Week's update ........ from swimming to museum visits to making new friends to a welcoming surprise gift to knocking down walls and finally cheers to rebuilding them !!


I wish you all a wonderful weekend :)

Rhubarb Muffins ......


125g sugar
15ml sunflower oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100ml milk (or buttermilk if you have)
100g rhubarb finely chopped
175g plain flour
1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp of baking powder
pinch of salt
some sugar for top (it can be moscavado/brown/ normal white)

preheat the oven to 200, place paper muffins in tray or not ( i put the mixture directly into the muffin tray)
Place sugar, oil, egg canilla extract and milk in a large bowl, beat until well mixed, add the rhubard and mix. Sift the dry ingredients but do not over stir.
Fill 3/4 of the muffin cakes and sprinkle with a little of the sugar, then bake in the centre of the oven for 20 minutes. Enjoy :))

Sunday...



Upper Barrakka Gardens and the crafts market 'Patches'





Rhubarb is a very common vegetable however for us Maltese or let's say for me it's not. This is botanically classified as a vegetable; however, in the United States a New York court decided in 1947 that since it was used in the United States as a fruit it was to be counted as a fruit for the purposes of regulations and duties. A side effect was a reduction in taxes paid. Interesting.

So I've tried rhubarb muffins and they turned out delicious x

Little princess's latest menu .......



Spaghetti with meat and red sauce ......

olive oil
onion
carrots
lean mince beef
tomato puree
2 ripe tomatoes
spaghetti
...warm the oil, add the onion and saute for 3 min, add the grated carrots cook for further 2 mins, then add the mince beef once this browns add the tomato puree, tomatoes. In another pan boil water for the pasta, then cut spaghetti with your hands in small sticks and boil. ( for the first time I mashed the mince very well, maybe next time I try lumps).

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Couscous & veg

75g couscous
175ml stock
chopped carrots and chopped courgette

pour boiling water over couscous and leave for 6 min, steam the veggies and then mix together with the couscous.

tooth fairy came to visit :)

While house renovations, dust and dirt are strongly underway we still manage to get some play time :) Life cannot be good without a little bit of fun and play right?

Here I am sitting at my desk, drinking my tea and looking for design ideas for this particular area of the house. This is the entrance, the ceiling is high and vaulted. At the moment it has this horrible paint finish in yellow which I do not like. I want to expose the stone but since it has stone cornices too I would also like to create a contrast between the two. So any one of you out there has some interesting propositions or maybe some good sites where I can get more inspired with using colour together with the stones??

SO!! The house was built in 1934, that is after the first world war and before the second world war. At the time the houses had high ceilings, stone staircases and iron banisters plus lovely colourful patterned tiles. Here I am going to take you through the rooms to show you the different tile patterns!! (photos were taken with my mobile so sorry if the quality is not too good)

the floor in the kitchen...

the dinning and living .....

the hall way / staircase

the garage

the entrance

So much to blog about......so little time. This past couple of weeks I have been slightly busier than usual, however I must share with you my dear friends some photos of what we have been up to. We finally have the keys to our new (well it is really an old house) home. Our adventures include restoring this old town house we bought in order to make it our new home. I will be posting photos of the before and after of the rooms and the house. I love looking at photos of people's homes so I thought that I should share mine. With the new (old) house comes a lovely bit of garden, this my friends is the highlight of my children, they dig , they plant, they play and they have fun. Oh and we also had visits to our dear grandmother.

A visit to Ghar Dalam.........

I love the swing..........




''Let's go on the swing, to swing swing swing and swing,
until the school bell rings,
then off we go to see my siblings''

....................................................Leah, May 2010

Look what I made .....





I'm so proud of myself. Here are my first two handmade crochet handbags for girls (even though one of my models is a boy ;). The blue one is for my daughter and the other one I am going to give it as a present. I'm sure that the girl will use it and hold lots of treasures inside it!! Have a good Wednesday :)

What's with the washing machine?? little missy likes to watch the machine and she gets pretty excited too!!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Mother's day without your mother isn't good and I have to admit that I don't like mother's day. 'I must be selfish' why shouldnt' I ? I have three beautiful children and I am blessed to be a mother, but still I can never be 100% happy on mother's day. My mother died on May 20th 1998, just a month before my wedding and the last time we took my mother out was on mother's day of that year. She was diagnosed with cancer a year before and fought for a year with unbearable pain, always thinking that it will be over. I will never forget her beautiful smile and the love she had for us.

This morning I was reading a blog and by chance went into another blog. This other blog had a beautiful post about mother's day. I read it twice and kept looking at the photos and then I decided to copy her. So here you are mum, 'HAPPY MOTHER's DAY' where ever you are.



My mother, my brother and myself. This is how I mostly remember my childhood days. My father worked abroad and when he was home he worked long hours. So my mother took us every where, we never missed a thing and we usually were the last ones to leave too!!



On the Ferry, crossing from Malta to Gozo. My dad, my brother , myself and mum.



My mum in her teenage years



Dressing up for a carnival party.



When she was a little girl. Love those curls mum!!





I Love You Mom!
Mom's smiles can brighten any moment,
Mom's hugs put joy in all our days,
Mom's love will stay with us forever
and touch our lives in precious ways...
The values you've taught,
the care you've given,
and the wonderful love you've shown,
have enriched my life
in more ways than I can count.
I Love you Mom!

What will happen to the clothes if they are left in the basket and not folded immediately ?

Well the little fairy who lives with us will crawl , grab the bag and she will very neatly fold them :).......just like magic!! not to mention that she will also leave a blob or two of her dribbling!!

funday....throphies... cake ...finished project and little one standing up :)

Spring and projects .........



Sundays are the days where we relax, play the guitar, have a swing or two or three and enjoy each other during breakfast hour. My eldest is learning how to play the guitar and the little one loves to hear her play. I caught a moment here with my eldest daughter teaching my son the guitar and the little one as their audience!!

Sunday...



we decided to go to the Medivial festival in Mdina......but a 'small' problem with parking lead us to buskett instead......



.

and then of course a nice cup of hot chocolate plus cake down at the Valletta water front....



and everyone was happy :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY


,

I cannot believe my little baby boy is 6 today :) !! We woke him up with kisses and hugs, gave him his cards, best wishes and present, now we are baking a cake for later . His wish for the day is to go ice-skating. Wish you all a nice day.

note..... in one of the photos you can see my son with a big tub of Sudo-Cream...... Instead of getting really angry with him on that day all I did was laugh and laugh and took pictures and then asked hubby to help me clean up the mess (and believe me there was a BIG mess!).

Hello, It seems like ages since I've last posted. I haven't been spending much time on the computer or indoors for that matter. So here are some of the photos I've downloaded. Here's a few of the many things my family and I have been up to. We had football tournaments, walks, picnics and also we went ice-skating!! Yes Ice-skating is now also found on our tiny warm island. However I will put up a post soon on where this is found :) I hope you all had a nice Easter xx