What I Did 365 - Day 145

Midnight BBQ!... I want to make this a thing. Seriously! On Saturday I was knuckling down on an assignment, and suddenly it was 11.30pm and Chris came up to me and said "So... what's happening with dinner?" Bless! Many may have ducked out to McDonalds at this point, or tackled the old vegemite on toast. But not us! We set to work shelling prawns, I soaked some bamboo skewers and whipped up a marinade, and in no time at all we were enjoying delicious thai prawns with a herb and apple salad. The recipe came from Master Chef magazine and I'm nuts about it! I feel all gourmet when I make it because the marinade uses ingredients like coriander roots, and you paste it up in a mortar and pestle. Definitely best served at 12.30am. I really got so much enjoyment out of the smell of prawns on the BBQ at midnight!

What I Did 365 - Day 144

Yummy-yummy-yummy-yummy-yummy! That was the best way I could describe Kirstin's delicious strawberry tarts! On Friday night I went to my beautiful bestie Hatti's for dinner with a group of girls. Not only did Hatti put on the most mouth-watering meal of chicken pie, wedges, salad and rolls, but Kirstin smacked dessert on the head with these delicate, perfect little tarts. What a freakin' feast! It was a perfect, happy night of board games and lots of talking. Hatti is the queen of putting on dinner parties. Hopefully I'll be as committed as her when our kitchen is finally ready to go...

What I Did 365 - Day 143

Welcome to my life of late. It's assignment crunch-time at uni, and I'm finding myself a little bit addicted to the old Word Count function. Seriously, when I'm making slow progress, I actually will do a word count after writing two or three sentences! Obsessive? Yes, yes a little. The thing is, seeing my assignment grow in length, however short that length might be, is a real boost - a reminder that I'm that much closer to the end! When I'm feeling particularly achieved, I even text my word counts to friends and family. I'm the same about checking the weather report for Perth - I check it after each regular forecast (yes, I know the times that the website gets updated). So there you go... one of the weirder pieces of the Klara Puzzle!

What I Did 365 - Day 142

Tiny, but so sweet! Strawberries at the shops are past their prime - they're expensive, and terrible fruit for what you're paying. Here comes a perk of having a little garden - home grown strawberries! Now my strawberries have never gotten much bigger than this, but when it comes to taste they deliver! Yum! I've been pleasantly surprised to find that my strawberries are still growing well past Summer, and they still taste amazing - the only drawback? My dogs have also discovered the deliciousness and have been sneaking the odd berry here and there!

What I Did 365 - Day 141

Thank goodness for helpful little sisters with too much time on their hands and a big love for painting!!! Last Monday night, the walls were finally prepped to Chris's satisfaction and we were able to peel open the paint buckets and get started! Oh, the shenanigans involved with painting. Before even picking up a brush, Steph had paint smeared up her arm. And while sugar-soaping, I managed to not only stumble backwards onto a paint tray and coat my foot with Blush Mauve, but also absent-mindedly dip my sponge and hands into the bucket of paint instead of the bucket of soapy water. Good grief. Because we're ripping up the floors we opted not to put down a drop sheet, but in retrospect we probably should have! I think Chris had to choke back man-tears when he got home from his soccer game to find puddles of wet paint smeared all over the floor, and nothing to do except wait for it to dry before the dogs came inside. Yep, some lessons were learned that evening. But excitingly, I now have 2 beautiful walls that aren't the horrific rental-beige that the previous owners slathered all the way down from the cornices to the skirting boards! Small steps!

What I Did 365 - Day 140

Ewww. Right? This is our alternative to the modern kitchen sink when washing dishes. A trestle table and crate set up under the faucet. It reminds me of washing dishes at camp. Right now we're doing OK at keeping up with the dishes, perhaps because this method is a bit novel! But I'm pretty sure the novelty value will wear off soon. Oh, how I can't wait to have a dishwasher!!

What I Did 365 - Day 139

Reason why Steph is the coolest kid in town: who am I kidding? You can see her coolness emanating, without me giving you any reasons at all! Ha! It takes a special type of person to wear a ham mask...
The ham here marks the very first meal prepared sans-kitchen. Deli meat and salad sandwiches. Yum! Steph came over on kitchen-removal day under the impression that she would be painting with us, but that's not entirely how things ended up panning out. Instead she was put to work sugar-soaping and putting spackling in the walls. Not even slightly fun! She was a trooper though, and we got a lot of work done. I was so grateful to have her there, even if she did smell like meat...