Merry Christmas!!

Just quickly taking a break from the day's festivities to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! May it be safe and joyous! For those that don't celebrate Christmas, may you also have a safe and happy festive season :)

Rocky Road Recipe

It's almost midnight and I've just put a batch of my Rocky Road in the fridge to set ready for Caitlin to take to her class Christmas party tomorrow. I came up with my version this time last year whilst searching for something quick and easy to make for the kids' class parties. I discovered a recipe for Rocky Road in one of Caitlin's "girly" magazines and made a few adjustments. The recipe suggested using raspberry lollies (sweets, candies for non-Aussie readers) instead of glace cherries which I thought was a brilliant idea (no one in this family likes glace cherries!). Due to the unavailability of some ingredients I made a couple more changes and made a test batch which went down well with Caitlin's class mates and teacher last year . Since it is my type of "baking" I made a few more batches for gifts and parties. It has proven to be popular and I have at least two friends asking me to make some for them this year :)

Anyway, I thought I would share the very simple recipe with my readers as my Christmas gift to you all :)

Mel's Rocky Road

Ingredients:
400g block of milk chocolate (I use Galaxy because that's the only brand of chocolate I can find in that size here)
340g bag of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (I use Hershey's)
165g bag Maltesers (these are malt balls covered in milk chocolate - I use them in place of nuts)
300g bag Mini Marshmallows (white or coloured, doesn't matter - you can also use full size marshmallows - just cut them in half)
375g bag of Raspberry lollies (these are a soft jube like candy - I struggle to find these here so I use whatever I can find that is close!)

Method:
Line a lamington or lasagne tin with aluminium foil or greaseproof paper. In a LARGE mixing bowl put the Maltesers, marshmallows and raspberries (you can cut these in half or leave them whole - up to you). Give them a bit of mix and then set the bowl aside.

In a microwave safe bowl break up the large milk chocolate block. Add the chocolate chips. Microwave in bursts of 40 seconds until the chocolate has melted. Stir in between each burst - do not overcook the chocolate. It usually takes me 2-3 lots of 40 second bursts to melt my chocolate. We have a fairly high powered microwave.

Stir the chocolate mixture well to make sure both chocolates have combined well, then pour over the dry ingredients in the other bowl. Mix well until all ingredients are coated with the chocolate mixture.

Scoop the mixture into the lined tin and smoosh it evenly into all corners. The whole process takes about 10 minutes.

Pop the tin into the fridge until the mixture has set - I will leave mine in overnight - or you can pop it into the freezer for 30 minutes. Remove from fridge/freezer, break into bite sized chunks, bag it up in cellophane bags for gifts or place on a plate ready to eat!

Enjoy!

Just call me slack!

Sorry I haven't posted for so long - I've gotten out of the irregular habit I had before I had the problems with my wrist and fingers!!

Anyway, I have seen the specialist about my wrist and it turns out that the tingling in the fingers isn't anything to do with the cyst - apparently it would be different fingers. I'm still none the wiser about the tingling but as it seems to be gradually going away (only in the tips now) the doc thinks I may have damaged a nerve in my elbow doing something at the gym or leaning on it too hard. I do tend to rest my chin in that hand and then lean on my elbow when I'm reading at the computer or at the table. If it hasn't settled then I need to go back and see the specialist so they can investigate further.

As for the cyst, I got the doc to aspirate it anyway - it only took a few minutes. I had to wear a pressure bandage for a couple of days and I had a mighty bruise but other than that it seems to be fine now. I do think it will come back as there seems to be a bit of a lump there but it may just be that my skin hasn't settled from the original one.

Thanks for the well wishes. I will try and get into regular blog posts again but with the holidays coming up I may still be a bit sporadic with them for a few more weeks.

No stitching to speak of but I have finished a book - "The Sultan's Seal" by Jenny White. Nicely written but I found it confusing and I'm still not sure who did what! Maybe I'm just missing something or I need to reread it ... not for a while yet though. I've just started Labyrinth by Kate Mosse - not sure what I think of it yet - it is still early days :)

Better go and sort dinner out!

Change of Plans

Thank you for the well wishes, Cathy, Kim and Anne, but I won't be seeing the specialist today after all. My appointment for this afternoon was right at school pick up time so I had DH all organised to pick the children up from school and then cart them off to their various after school activities. My poor DH was up at 5am and out the door at 6am so he could be at his meeting by 8am (it was being held just over an hour's drive away). He rings me at 9.45am to say that the meeting has been put back to 3pm! The time of my appointment! Anyway, this is Dubai and these things happen so I told him not to worry and I would change my appointment to tomorrow. Except the specialist is all booked out tomorrow, Friday and Saturday is the weekend, and the earliest I can get to see him is Sunday *sigh*. Still, I guess if I was in Australia it would probably take longer to get in to see him :)

If the kids didn't have their after school activities today I could have picked them up early and taken them with me this afternoon - it is times like these that I wish I had my mum here! She would have sorted out the kids while I went off and did what I had to do. I can't ask any of the small group of friends I know here to run my kids around for me. So I'll just have to put up with a few more days of tingling fingers - I have a full range of movement and they are not turning blue or anything like that - they just feel weird - lol!

Typing is making them feel weirder so I'll finish up for now - think I might go and read a book :)

I may be out of action for a little bit ...

I have what appears to be a ganglion cyst on my left wrist. It has been there for a few months and they usually go away by themselves ... except mine appears to be putting pressure on a nerve as for the last couple of days I have had a "pins and needles" type feeling in my left ring and pinky fingers. I saw the doctor today and she has referred me to a specialist who I am seeing tomorrow afternoon for assessment. I am not sure whether he will aspirate the cyst or suggest surgical removal. In either case, I probably will not be able to use my left hand for a few days. No typing or stitching - thankfully I can still play The Sims 2 as that only requires the use of the mouse and my right hand - lol!

I will update you when I can :)

What's been keeping me quiet :)

Oh my goodness I didn't realise how long it had been since I last posted! Thanks for thinking of me Anne L - I'm okay, just the usual running around with the kids, plus I have just been offline for a few days (internet has been acting up again too!).

Below is one of the things that has kept me from blogging ... :)

Plum Gothic QS
by Heaven & Earth Designs (c) 2006
Original Artwork (c) Caron Vinson 2006

Started 9 November 2006
Stitched on 27 count white Linda evenweave
with DMC threads (no sparkles in this one)

Recently however I've been sucked in to the Sims2verse again - I'm trying to get some of my older generations to pass on so the younger ones can rule the world for a bit - lol! I need to get out more!!

Actually I did get out this morning - Caitlin's year level (four classes in total) went on a field trip to SkiDubai for a skiing or snowboarding lesson each (her brother is furious - lol) and I went along as a parent helper. They could have done with a few more parent helpers (particularly when getting 80 odd 8-9 year olds kitted up) and I'm surprised they didn't get them, but we managed and the kids had fun. I could have skied if I wanted to but I decided to just help out the instructor of DD's group, picking up those that fell over etc. The Year 4s are learning about different sports for their Point of Inquiry this term, hence the field trip. We are off to the Dubai Rugby Sevens next week, and I am going along to that one too! Since I am not helping out as much with school stuff as I did last year I nominate myself to help out on as many of the field trips as I can :)

A week or two ago I went with Liam's year level (Yr 6) to the Jumeriah Mosque. It was quite interesting and I wished I had taken my camera. Out of respect I didn't bother as I didn't think we would be allowed to but it would have been okay. You have to cover up (long loose clothing, scarf over hair for women), no shoes inside the mosque etc but I expected to have to do that anyway. I will have to go back one day and make sure I take my camera with me :)

Right, time to put my chauffeur's hat on and head out to pick up No. 2 child from her tennis lesson now!

Till next time!

Music Thingy

I've seen this on a few blogs so I decided to give it a whirl :)

Here are the rules: List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre. Whether or not they have words or even if they are any good but they must be songs you’re really enjoying right now! Post these instructions in your blog along with with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

Come Clean (Remix 2005) - "Most Wanted" Hilary Duff

Party Up (Remix 2005) - "Most Wanted" Hilary Duff

Me & My Girl - "Gasoline" Theory of a Deadman

Just Like A Man - "Change Everything" Del Amitri

Rebel Yell - "Greatest Hits" Billy Idol

Next Contestant - "All The Right Reasons" Nickelback

Chained To You - "Affirmation" Savage Garden

DD's Hilary Duff CD is in the player in my truck at the moment and I must confess to having both of the songs listed above on my iPod as well. They are great working out/walking songs :) That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it - lol! The rest are just favourites that I'm into right now - my step noticeably quickens when I'm out walking and any of these songs come on. Great for the heart rate although the dog is not so impressed especially when there is sniffing to be done :) !!

Consider yourself tagged if you've not done this before :)

Sleeping Dingo :)

I was browsing Vicky's blog the other day and came across her post about her recent visit to Dreamworld, a theme park on the Gold Coast, Queensland.

Check out her photo of sleeping dingoes (third photo) and then compare it to the photo of our muttley, Tikki, that DH managed to capture the other night (she's very camera shy). How freaky is that?!

I think I've got this template thing sorted out now :)

With some helpful advice from Holley and Annette (thank you so much ladies!) and a bit of online investigating, I've discovered that I can't use the Panna templates with the new drag and drop editing features of beta Blogger. Not yet anyway. The code is different and the re-writing of the current Panna templates will take time. However, I can use them in their current form if I revert back to the Blogger classic view template which, as you can see, is what I decided to do :)

Short, sharp and shiny post this afternoon - I need to go and make sure the kids are getting ready for karate and then get myself ready for the gym. I pretend to look like I know what I'm doing in there while the kids are training to become mini Jackie Chan's!

I've been playing again :)

See, I told you I wasn't happy with the look of my blog :) I went back to what I had before and then played around with the colours and added a couple more things to my side bar.

Annette, thanks for your tip :). I used to use Panna whatsmacallit templates before I switched to Blogger Beta but for some reason I get error messages whenever I try to use them now. Not knowing enough about HTML I can't work out where the errors are. I think its a beta thing and if I revert back to my classic template then I could use them but then I can't use the page layout elements that come with beta ... and I really like that feature :) Anyway, I think I might head to Borders next week (now that we have one here - yay!) and see if I can find myself a basic teach yourself HTML book and have a play. I may then steal borrow DH's PowerMac and have a fiddle with PhotoShop and see what I can come up with :).

I actually went to bed early AND before DH last night (which just doesn't happen usually). I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow and I slept for 10 hours straight!! Very definitely not me at all - I am lucky if I average five hours a night, six is a bonus, and usually I wake at least once or twice during that time. Still, I've had a headache free day today so I guess the sleep was what I needed.

In between headaches I did manage a few stitches in Snowflake QS and even managed some frogging!! I'd used the wrong colour in a dozen or so stitches the last time I worked on her it seems, so they had to come out. They are restitched with the correct colour now so all is well :)

HAED are having a Veteran's Day Sale and they have also released three new Selina Fenech charts - Keeper of Secrets, Guardian and Small Things (Coloured). Arghhh! I'm quite partial to Keeper of Secrets but I ordered a couple of charts earlier this week (Plum Gothic QS and Midnight Orchard QS) so I think I will be good and just put her on my wish list for now. There will be other sales :)

Yes, I know I've changed the look of my blog ... again!

I'm not completely happy with it - I want something different. The standard Blogger templates are a bit dull, and the other templates I used to use won't work. I'm not sure if it's a Blogger beta thing or if it's just me. One day I will get html savvy!! I'm thinking of changing my blog name too.

This is a short post as I've been struggling with bad headaches on and off the past couple of days so I'm trying to stay off the computer for a little bit. I just wanted to come and say a big THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by and left wonderful comments about Girly Gothic. I'm hoping to add Snowflake QS to the finished list by the end of this year (which isn't all that far away!!).

She is done!

QS Girly Gothic
By Michele Sayetta of Heaven & Earth Designs
Artwork by Caron Vinson
Copyright Heaven & Earth Designs 2006
Copyright Caron Vinson 2006

Stitched on 25 count Lavender Bliss lugana one over one with DMC stranded cotton and Rainbow Gallery Petite Treasure Braid for the sparkles.

Started: 14 August 2006
Finished: 7 November 2006

My first HAED finish ... at long last :) Out of all my HAED WIPs this is not the one I thought I would finish first.

Next up, to try and have Snowflake QS finished by the end of the year (which is the one I thought I would finish first - lol)!

How cool!

I stole this from WhizGidget's blog ...

You scored as Serenity (Firefly). You like to live your own way and don't enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you.

Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

I was a latecomer to this series. I bought the series on DVD without watching a single episode and loved it. Drove the customer service staff at the Virgin Megastore here mad waiting for the movie, Serenity, to come out on DVD :)

My latest TV obsession is Veronica Mars (how old am I again - lol?). Luckily for me one of the cable channels is showing Season 1 episodes every day but I'm sure I've missed a few. Season 2 is airing at night once a week as well. I can see however that this will be my next TV series DVD purchase :) Look out Virgin, here I come - rofl!!!

Fish Lasagne

Anne L asked for the recipe for my tuna mornay which Liam calls fish lasagne. I am not sure why he calls it that as there is no pasta or tomatoes involved :)

Anyway, here's the recipe ...

Tuna Mornay Casserole (or "Fish Lasagne")

The link will take you to the recipe I base my dish on. It only serves two so I usually double the quantities and add the following ingredients:

1 small tin of corn niblets
1 small tin of Cream of Broccoli soup
a pinch of Italian Herbs
a pinch of cayenne pepper or a pinch of curry powder (add more if you like a bit more of a kick!)
a little ground black pepper and sea salt if desired

After Step 9 I add the corn and soup, mix well and then continue on with the rest of the recipe to Step 12 where I add the extra herbs above as suggested. Continue on from Step 13. I usually cook mine in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. Be careful when eating as it will be piping hot!!

There you have it - enjoy!

Today was a quieter day. Stitched a little on and off then Caitlin and I made brownies after lunch which she and Liam then decorated.

We've had two power outages this evening, the first one just as I was about to start cooking dinner. The power came back on just long enough for me to actually start the cooking process when it went out again! I'd just re-lit all the candles when the blasted thing came back on again - lol! Talk about Murphy's Law!!

Thank you, Lisa, Carol and Leonie, for your comments of concern for Caitlin. She is just fine today - her only complaint being the "disgusting" antibiotics she has to take :) She has her friend sleeping over and Liam has gone down the road to sleep at his friend's house so all is well.

Tikki however hasn't moved out from under my desk all evening. I don't think she liked the power going off and the kids running around with torches, nor the fireworks that were going off a little distance away during the first black-out! Not even a treat of some egg and milk has lured her out - lol! She'll come out when I go to stitch though - she's my little shadow :)

I'm off to grab a cuppa and then go stitch in front of the telly :)

What a day!

Today I had nothing planned - the dog had had her morning walk, there wasn't any grocery shopping to be done, no school field trips to help out with, or any other errands. Just a date with Girly Gothic QS and my stitching spot. I want to finish this little lady by the end of this coming weekend.

Ha!

Around 9.30am my mobile phone rings. It's the school. I wasn't particularly worried as they sometimes ring to confirm if I can help with a field trip etc. I am not an hysterical person but I must admit to feeling slightly concerned when the caller identified herself as the school nurse. Poor Caitlin had been bitten on her right hand pinky by her class's pet hamster, Speedy Max, while cleaning it's cage. The nurse wanted to know when Caitlin's last tetanus shot was because even though she was wearing gloves the hamster bite broke the skin. When I told her Caitlin's last lot of vaccinations (including tetanus) were done just over three years ago she checked with the doctor who said if it was less than five years then she should be okay. She would clean the wound with Betadine, put some antibiotic cream on it and bandaid it up. Now I debated with myself about going and getting Caitlin and taking her to the doctor just in case but when I spoke to Caitlin she said it hurt a little but she was fine, so I left it at that.

I tried to go back to my stitching but couldn't settle so I pottered around doing bits and pieces and caught up on a couple of emails.

Caitlin had a couple of after school activities this afternoon so I left home for school early to drop her tennis gear off and to make sure she was okay and check out this bite. While there I found out that the hamster had not been vaccinated, and after discussing this with the school nurse I decided that I would take Caitlin to the doctor to have a tetanus shot just in case. I had to pull her out of her after school activities (which she wasn't impressed about!) to get to the clinic before it closed. It is a 24 hour emergency clinic but the paedatric department closed at 4.30pm.

We hadn't been to this clinic before but I had heard it was good and they were much closer to home to the clinic we usually go to. I have to admit they were very thorough - checked Cait's temperature, weight, height, ears, eyes, nose, mouth - the works. They even did a skin test 20 minutes before giving her the vaccine to make sure she wouldn't have a reaction to it - not something I've experienced before. Back home you are in and out in five minutes! They cleaned and redressed the wound and prescribed a course of antibiotics just in case there was any bacteria still lurking around that may cause infection. I have to take her back on Monday for a follow-up.

Anyway, roughly 350Dhs and a couple of hours later she was done and I feel much better. Caitlin will have a tender spot on her rump for a couple of days but she forgives me :) Of course, a promise of making brownies tomorrow kind of helped too - lol!

We did have a bit of fun though - trying to explain what a hamster was!!

I'm hoping tomorrow is a little less eventful!!

Another page done (Girly Gothic QS)!

Just a quick post - I hit the floor running today! Anyway, I managed to finish the third page at some ungodly hour this morning so I'm on the home stretch. Mmmmm, I still have a couple of days before the end of October - I wonder if I will manage to just scrape in a finish?!!

Thanks as always for everyone's comments - they've helped motivate me the last couple of days :)

I must be off - things to do before school pick up! Anne L - I haven't forgotten the recipe ... soon :) Oh, and Leonie, hope you are having a wonderful time away - wahhhh, I miss those stitchy weekends away!

Pics at last :)

Firstly... sorry, Leonie, about not telling you what my new starts were ... but you know how evil I can be (mwhahahaha!) - LOL!

Anyway, not only will I now tell you what my new starts were but I will give pics as well!!

First up however is my current progress on Girly Gothic QS ... I cannot see myself finishing her by the end of this month ... not with the munchkins currently on holiday for Eid and of course, my penchant for new starts! I will go back to her tonight though I think :) You can't see it very well in this photo but there is quite a bit of pale pink and sparkles in the lower right corner - I think the flash going off wiped that section out!

**Oooo, and I think I've finally worked out why Blogger photos was being a pain in the ass! If you try and upload anything more than 3MB at a time it has a hissy fit so some resizing is necessary. And look at that ... it works!!**

Girly Gothic QS ((c) Vinson & HAED)

Okay, the first of my new starts ... Selina Fenech's Dragon Soul QS. The link actually takes you to the full size chart. The Quick Stitch (part of the dragon and woman's face) was a freebie for BB members and isn't available for purchase at the moment.

Dragon Soul QS ((c) Selina Fenech & HAED)

My second new start is Molly Harrison's Fairy of the Sea ((c) HAED) for the HAED BB's New Start SAL last weekend. This is what I managed to get done over the four days.

So there you have it :)

In non-stitching related babble, I picked up the latest expansion pack for The Sims 2 the other day - Pets - so I may be MIA for a bit while I create some weird and wonderful pets for my Sims :) Another reason why Girly Gothic QS won't be finished by the end of this month!!

Oh, and Anne L, I will try and get my brain in order and post the "fish lasagne" recipe for you over the next couple of days. I am what you would call a bit of an adhoc cook - I take a basic recipe and add bits and pieces as I go so the dish never turns out qute the same as the last time I cooked it - lol!

I'm here ...

I just haven't felt like being on the computer much. Of course you would think that my stitching output would reflect this but sadly not really :) At least I don't think so anyway.

I have had two new starts in the last couple of weeks - one only a couple of days ago for the HAED BB New Start SAL. I love a new start but it's not good for my aim of finishing Girly Gothic by the end of this month though. I may still make it - it depends if I can put this new start down after Monday and pick up GG again. I would say I'm almost done with page 3 but there is quite a bit of detail stitching in her hair to be done yet. I will post some updated WIP pics later this week.

I must go and start dinner preparations - a good old fashioned (with my own twist!) Tuna Mornay ... or as DS calls it "fish lasagne" - LOL.

For Anne L in Manila

Karen's shop in NSW is called Dragonfly Dreams. I have a link to her site in the sidebar to the right. You will be able to find the address details (and directions) etc there. The shop is definitely worth a visit if you are that way :)

Here ya go ...

by mel_w

Sorry, Blogger Photos is being uncooperative again.