nyonyamansor09

If you're one of the four hardy souls who visit this abandoned dump on a regular basis, I can only assume you're suffering from Alzheimer's. Only someone without a memory could keep returning to read the same post day after day without update. If that's you, you've already read this yesterday. Now I can't even remember why I started this obnoxious site. I recall getting a little annoyed with BS real estate media reports. Something that may have been noticeable at one time or another. Initially, I had nothing more than mild contempt for the media. It has grown. It was fun for a while. People talked on forums. Came to visit. Occasionally left a comment. Even babes writing for respectable publications referenced me in their work. The impact had some Tasmanian media peeps actually being more measured in their spruiking. And fewer real estate goons were prepared to take ice-cold stats and pimp them in the media as scorching hot. Someone was watching. But why did it a...

We have just spent 10 days away from home! It was the best but I am tired today. Back to reality tomorrow...our final week of summer before school starts. I have mixed emotions because we have a big milestone coming up...Camille starts kindergarten. I can't believe it and I am a little anxious about the transition. And I am not sure I am ready for summer to end. We have had such a great one...Camille and Clyde have been so much fun this summer and we done so many wonderful things. Here are some highlights from our week away. Two Fridays ago, we dropped Camille and Clyde with Michael's parents (Neena and Moe) and then went with friends to Wintergreen for two nights. It was unseasonably cool which was great and we had probably a little too much fun as evidenced by the picture below. Meanwhile, Neena and Moe took Camille and Clyde to a sleepover at the Aquarium which they loved! How is that for fun grandparents! Sunday, Michael and I drove from Wintergreen to Sandbridge and we sta...

I cook a lot! I feels like I am always in the kitchen preparing something for someone. Here is a round up of my favorite, can't live without, kitchen gadgets! My mother in law gave me this for Christmas and I love it. I use it to puree veggies for my muffins, make smoothies and sauces.  Cuisinart Mini Prep Chopper I use this pan probably every single day!  Calphalon Nonstick 12 Inch Omelette Pan My friend Erica gave me the  Williams Sonoma Spoonula  as a wedding shower gift. It is the best and I use it to brown ground turkey and saute veggies in my nonstick skillet . I have a pink one!  As a wedding gift, a good friend of my moms gave me some of her favorite kitchen gadgets. This was one of them and I use it often for juicing lemons.  OXO Good Grips Wooden Reamer This was another one of her favorite gadgets and I use it for lemon zest or grating ginger.  Microplane 40020 Classic Zester/Grater So many recipes I come across call for minced garlic. I use...

Last year, I started created picture pages for each one of Camille & Clyde's birthday! Here is Camille's for this year. See other posts here , here and here . 

My kids are picky eaters! Camille is better than Clyde who will not touch a fruit or vegetable. But he does like muffins...cold out of the freezer. Whatever floats your boat, right? Over the years, I have made quite a few muffin recipes sneaking in veggies here and there. There were carrot cake and zucchini bread and banana muffin recipes. I decided to combine and make a recipe with all three! Here goes with what I call Hidden Goodness Muffins. Hidden Goodness Muffins 1/2 Cup Carrot Puree (2 medium carrots) 1/2 Cup Zucchini Puree (1 medium zucchini) 1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour 3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour 1 Tsp Baking Soda 1 Tsp Salt 1/2 Cup (1 Stick) Unsalted Butter, Room Tempature 1/3 Cup Granulated Sugar 1/3 Cup Light Brown Sugar 2 Large Eggs 2 Ripe Bananas 1 Tsp Vanilla Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin pan with paper liners. Steam carrots for 8-10 minutes or until soft.  Reserve water from steamed carrots. Puree carrots in a food    processor adding 2-3 Tbsp of ...

Camille and I have been out shopping on numerous occasions for Back to School clothes. Last Friday, my mom took my sisters, nieces and Camille and me out shopping and generously bought her a few items. My mother-in-law got Camille the adorable raincoat for her birthday!  Here is a round up of some of my favorite items we picked up.  1. Reebok Realflex Transition  2. Striped HeartTank  3. Floral Jeggings  4. Colorblock Dress with Orange 5. Pink Ballet Flat  6. Colorblock Dress  7. Blingy Striped Top   8. Jeggings  9. Raincoat Click here for Back to School: Clyde's Edition. 

 We had a big back to school shopping excursion and lunch on Friday with my mom, sisters and nieces! It was a fun girl's day!     After shopping, we surprised Camille & Clyde with the Disney Junior Live Princess and Pirates show. They loved it!  Here goes with this week's menu planner.... Sunday - Sea Bass in Shredded Potato Skin served with Squash, Zucchini, Red Onion Saute Monday - Best Stir Fry Chicken, Fried Rice with Kale & Scallions Tuesday - Ground Chicken Enchiladas (similar to this ) Wednesday - Stuffed Pork Chops with Stove Top Thursday - Take out or dinner out!

This weekend had been about rebranding this almost derelict blog. It was to rebirth as one of those delightful cheapskate efforts. You know the ones - where I'd offer handy hints, like dropping a brick in your crapper to save money on every flush. The real estate element wasn't being abandoned, just complemented, with neat ideas like how to get the most out of your underwear elastic. It won't be this weekend. The unsettled masses and Google detectives have seen to that. Our story begins as most of these narratives do, talent was needed to fill one of those tired and lazy morning after stories - home owner welcomes interest rate cut. Insipid space filler, but much loved by the real estate cabal. What better marketing tool than an earnest home owner letting slip how hefty their mortgage is and how they're better to be contributing to it, than renting or actually putting the numbers into a Casio. Normalise the behaviour and you'll get people thinking, "well if tha...

My sweet Camille turned 6 on Wednesday. I haven't mentioned it too much on my blog but those who know Camille also know Mimi. Mimi is a 10 inch tall stuffed elephant who Camille has mothered since she was a year old. Mimi has more clothes than I do and has been given more attention that any parent has ever given their child. And Mimi has created an elephant obsession. And as much as Camille loves Mimi, she also loves to swim which leads us to the theme of this year's birthday party....an elephant pool party! Mimi As usual, I got fairly wrapped up in the details. Here goes with tons of pictures and notes on the party. Let's start with the invitation. I contacted Elizabeth with Sunshine Ink Studio to design the invitation. She also helped me with Clyde's birthday invitation and did a fabulous job on both. Pool parties are nice because you don't have to come up with games and other activities. The kids were mainly in the pool or on the playground. For drinks, I foun...