drumroll..........

I'm 40!!!

Before I talk about that.....I forgot to say that last week...I went to a crop...yes...my wheeled tote got taken on an outing!!!  My wheeled tote doesn't get to go out very often.....I think this is the 2nd time this year I've been out scrapping.  I went to Mich's place for an all day crop last saturday.  A 12 hour crop....that is pretty amazing for me ok.....to go out for that long.  I had so much fun!!!  I got to catch up with Jorja, Suzanne, Jess, Anne Marie  & Trish and as usual...Mich spoilt me...very very much!  I had two wishes.....peanut butter on toast....got to have that twice...once with nutella and the other with banana.  I can't even remember the last time I got to indulge in peanut butter.  For those who don't know...I live in a peanut free house...and if I have peanuts....I have to leave a 2 hour window before I see my little anaphylactic son.  And my other wish was galaktobouriko.  That wish was a very dangerous wish.  Mich wanted to get me a cake for my birthday....I said....nah..just make galaktobouriko.  The galaktobouriko was absolutely delish...but the making part.....oh....I wanted to run and hide and wished that I didn't ask 'them' to make galaktobouriko....I thought 'they' were going to divorce!!!  Luckily it turned out fabulous and 'they' are still happily married...please Mr&Mrs Vass.....I beg you.....never ever ever cook a sponge cake together!!!  LOL

hehehehe...my birthday was great!!!  Happy Birthday too to my birthday sister Jane!!  We lunched together and Mich, Felicity, Vita, Linda and Helen came too.  At the beginning, it was only Vita, Mich and myself there...and then Jane arrived and when she introduced us to her friend Linda...she called us her asian mafia friends.  hehehe....I've never been called that before...I think it's cool.....if anyone knows all 3 of us...then you probably didn't know that you too have 'Asian Mafia friends'....hahaha

I had the best time chatting with these beautiful beautiful friends of mine on Thursday....they make me laugh and reflect on life.  They help me see the 'bigger picture', they inspire me and they make me feel loved.  One of the main topics of our conversation that day was the new magazine Creative Paper (old FK).....we had lots to say about that!!!

And I also got very very spoilt.....I got a gorgeous Crafty matters hand painted plate and lots of little bits of crafty matters and some $ from Miss Jane.  Jane has just relaunched her gorgeous range of celebration plates...so go and check them out!!! A gorgeous cushion from Vita....I think I need to get another one off you Vita....it's getting fought over in this house come tv time!  And I got Myer vouchers from Mich and Felicity....and from Jorja too who gave it to me last week at Mich's place.  I hope to go out shopping this afternoon ....so I'll take pics of everything all together.

The food was ummm.......hmmm....I ordered a chicken caesar salad.  The caesar salad part was absolutely delish....the chicken part...they stuffed up on that...the chicken breast was all dried out and hardened and disgusting...I sent it back....it came better but still disgusting...it looked as if they had a frozen chicken breast fillet which they sliced so it would defrost faster...and either microwaved or boiled....it was grey and horrid.  How hard is it to do a decent breast fillet?  Mich was livid...she said 'would you like me to go into the kitchen and show them how to cook a breast fillet?'.....hehehehe....now that would have been something.  Anyways....I didn't eat the chicken and when I was leaving I complained and got a voucher.  So yes Jane...next year a change of venue for our birthday for sure...we're heading across the road...hehehe....but we can do lunch again within the next few weeks...I have a voucher!  lol

After a very long leisurely lunch....raced back just in time to pick Jeromel up from school, got him to hop in the shower and get ready.  Made afternoon snacks for the boys and then we headed off in peak hour traffic to get to the Jam Factory to meet DH as he had bought movie tickets to watch Prince Caspian at 6.15pm.  Fabulous fabulous movie ...it was long!!!  By the time we got out of the cinema it was 9.15pm!!  Grabbed something to eat there and by the time we got home it was late.....very late....but a fab day.

And I think I forgot to announce that I'm now a contributor for Aussie Scrapbooking !  It's a brand spanking new website....it's an informative website....nothing to buy...you can chat, you can read product reviews, it's like a scrapbooking newspaper.....short little articles on all aspects of scrapbooking.  And because it's just launched...there are lots of prizes to be won.  In particular...go and check out the article that I wrote on Scrapware's new journalling bits and if you leave me a comment there, I'll pick out a winner by tuesday!!!    I also popped in to see Ange this week and it's incredible how fast time flies when we're chatting!!!  That woman is absolutely gorgeous and incredibly generous as I left with a few more new goodies to play with and got to see some sneaks on new new new stuff too!!!

My oh my....I got a lot of birthday wishes!!  I'll be picking out the rak winners in the next few days...thank you sooo much for all the lovely comments and the love.  So stay tuned for rak winner announcements!!!  

Here are some layouts which I haven't shared on the blog yet....hehehe...done about a month ago I think.....hope you like them!!!

Oh and for those who asked about the pizza dough recipe:

2 cups plain flour

1 sachet dried yeast (8g)

1 teaspoon caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup warm water

2 tablespoons olive oil

Mix together until it's a pliable dough (takes about a min...seriously minimal effort)...then cover and leave to rise in a warm place for half an hour.  Then punch the dough down once to remove the excess air...then take out of the bowl and knead on a floured board for a min.  Then ...

1.  For pizza....for a thick crust pizza...just use the whole lot on a pizza pan (get a proper pizza pan with holes in it...they're about $10).   Just use your hands to pull the dough into a flattened round (don't use a rolling pin).  Then spread some pizza sauce and your ingredients n bake.  The crust is yummy  and not oily at all.

2.  For olive bread....I flatted the dough and then just sprinkled on a big handful of chopped up mixed marinated olives.  Then just rolled it up so that all the olives is in the middle and then just baked it.  So I guess it's more like a foccacia?  So yummy to dip the freshly baked olive bread into some warmed olive oil.

Enjoy!!!