Presents from Mister Mailman :-)

Hello everyone. I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas! I had a wonderful (yet very stressful) time hosting Christmas this year. (But more on that in my up-coming Christmas post)

Little did I know that at the time all the stress was making me sick. Now that the Christmas rush is over I am taking time to have a breather & focus on recovering from illness. I won't be able to post clothing posts for the next few weeks as it's painful to try clothes on right now (terrible for a dress lover like myself).

But here's one I prepared earlier. A few things that Mr. Postman delivered before Christmas from my favourite online store, Modcloth:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Tee

The Very Hungry Caterpillar was a cherished childhood story for me, as I'm sure it was for many of you :-) So you can imagine how excited I was when I discovered it in a t-shirt! If this tee could talk it would tell you the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar (obviously :P) This tee is made by a company called Out of Print. Not only is it cute, but the purchase of this tee shirt sends one book to a community in need! :D

 I also got this gorgeous cherry print dress that I had in my wishlist for over a year. Sometimes it feels good to finally splurge on the things you have been longing for for so long :-)

'Pull Up a Cherry Dress'

Here I am, caught on camera playing around with tinsel & laughing:

If this dress could talk it would tell tales of the last day at work before Christmas vacation, sneaking sips of champagne, twirling in the courtyard & tales of many more adventures to come :-)

 I will do a Christmas post in the next few days once I trawl through the 100s of photos :P

Until then enjoy the summer days,
miss_tash x

On the Road-adventures in attempting to be removalists :P

On the first weekend of summer Mr. B, his sister & I hired a truck and drove down south to help Mr. B's parents move house.

Mr. B & I have moved 3 times in the past few years, so we considered ourselves to be seasoned moving specialists....oh how we underestimated the size of this job! Hehe

We started out on the Gold Coast then drove to Toowoomba, which is west of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. We then traveled 381 km (236 miles) south interstate to Armidale, New South Wales.

Leaving Toowoomba:

At this point I was way too enthusiastic & excited as I had never been in a truck this big before!

We managed to gather quite an impressive bug collection on the windscreen through the 5 & a half hour drive. Sadly, I saw a lot of road kill on the road :-(

We stopped about half way in Stanthorpe (famous for it's apples):

This pic was taken in front of The Big Apple (please excuse Mr. B & I as we are in our 'moving clothes')

We had something sweet to eat at a lovely little cafe/supermarket/restaurant called Vincenzo's. They had an amazing menu, with quite a few yummy gluten free options. We tried the gluten free orange cake and a gluten free salted caramel macaron:

They also had this cute pasta shaped like kangaroos! I would have bought some but unfortunately it was not gluten free :-(

Next we stopped in Glen Innes, a cute little town in 'Celtic Country' NSW. There was even a mini Stonehenge-style sign that says "Welcome to Celtic Country":

We stopped at The Super Strawberry (a cute little strawberry farm/shop)  & these scotty dogs greeted us out the front:

(Just between you & me I think the dogs on the right are going through an identity crisis: "Am I a dog or reindeer?" hehe)

The shop was loaded with lots of other cute home wares & nick nacks. I found this gorgeous porcellen dish with 3 birds perched on it. It was a bargain at $9.95:

They also had homemade avocado & mango butters, chutneys, pavlova, strawberry drinks, choc dipped strawberries, strawberries & cream and loads more. We didn't have time to eat or buy anything more so we hit the road...

It was 37 degrees celsius in Armidale when we were moving & packing! We stayed over night & on the drive back to Toowoomba we passed through a crazy storm in Allora (just out of Warwick). The lighting cracking across the fields was actually really pretty, but I was too scared to take photos of the storm itself.

Sunshine coming out after the storm 

Then it was full sun half a km down the road

It took 6 hours to drive back to Toowoomba with a heavily loaded truck. Then we drove home to the Gold Coast, by the time we got home it was past midnight & we hit the pillows for work the next morning. Zzzzz

I do appologise that all of the pictures are bad quality-they were taken with my phone from a moving vehicle. I saw so many beautiful things out the truck window, but wasn't quick enough to take a photo. Australia really is a beautiful country!

We did a great job moving all the stuff in the heat within the time frame, but I don't think we will be doing too many more jobs as 'Mr. B & Tash's Removalists' :P

'Trucker Tash' lol, I won't quit my day job :P

miss_tash x

Trying my hand at rice paper rolls

I decided to get a little bit creative in the kitchen tonight (don't laugh, this is about as creative as I get when it's cooking & not baking!) & try my hand at making rice paper rolls.

These make a really tasty (& healthy) gluten free meal and can fill them with anything you wish :-)

'Unsoaked' Rice Paper

Mr. B & I chose the following ingredients:

-Roast chicken
-Baby Cos Lettuce
-Cucumber (cut into sticks)
-Grated carrots
-Sun dried tomatoes
-Red onion (Mr. B had on his)

For Dipping Sauces:
-Sweet Chilli Sauce
-Gluten free Soy & Garlic Sauce
-Teriyaki Sauce
& my favourite Kewpie Mayonnaise!

Method:

1. Prepare meat (if you are having any) as required (we used left over roast chicken, lol)
2. Cut all vegetables/salad & set aside
3. Fill a bowl with warm water & take 1 sheet of rice paper roll & wet sheet all over
4. Set sheet aside on a damp tea towel & wait 1 min until sheet is soft & pliable
5. Spread some filling ingredients on one end of rice paper. Fold the bottom edge over the fillings, fold in both sides & roll away
6. Repeat until all ingredients are used
7. Serve with dipping sauces

Volia! You have created a master piece. Well, yours are bound to look prettier than my 1st attempt :P

These were so delicious that I made two extra for my work lunch :-)

I will be putting up a post this week about Mr. B & my lil adventure trucking it down south to help move, so keep tuned for that!

miss_tash x