How cute are these little shortbreads? I found them at my local cafe today and had to have them.

I don’t really need an annual occasion to remind me that I’m the luckiest girl in the world, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. Valentines Day is pretty special to us, so much so that we once celebrated it in April because we were on opposite sides of the world in February! If we count that one (and we do), this is our 5th Valentines Day together.

We don’t go overboard on February 14, we just try to spend time together. This year I put together a photo frame full of childhood photos of both of us, and he cooked up a beautiful breakfast of sausages, eggs and mushrooms cups with brie cheese. I’m banned from the kitchen because he has something big planned for dinner too.

He makes me laugh, he gives me butterflies and loves me at my worst. I think I’d better keep this one.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Tim.
You can stay
xxx

• Life
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My internet connection is back, and so is Smiley Sunday!

This week’s Smiley Sunday comes from Fiona, who has been blogging since 2002 at Little Lioness. She is a Speech Pathologist living in Canberra and studying for her Masters.

SMILEY SUNDAY WITH FIONA, FROM LITTLE LIONESS

Seven things that make me smile;

1. teeny tiny flowers
2. bubbles
3. the smell of fresh cut grass. or rain. or both at once.
4. kittens
5. toddlers
6. when kids just ‘get’ something for the first time in our therapy sessions.
7. early morning walks

A memory I keep on file;

Aside from my whole flickr back catalogue? http://www.flickr.com/photos/phonakins/

From when my hair was long, the first summer in Canberra, living at the college.

Three blogs that never go out of style;

http://rainbowofchaos.wordpress.com/
http://friendlyatheist.com/
http://the-riotact.com/

A piece of advice I’ve found worthwhile.

It’s like the slogan Just Do It. It’s true.

Thanks for sending in your answers Fiona!

If you would like to be featured in the next installment of Smiley Sunday, send me an email (elizabeth@this domain) with your name, URL and the answers to the questions above. Each Sunday I’ll post a new set of answers.

• Smiley Sunday
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I’m coming out of my moving-house haze to post this lovely thought from the aptly-named Perfect Sentiment. Thanks to pois rouge for pointing me in the direction of this lovely blog!

I’ll be updating here again soon. Moving and working has sucked everything out of the tank over the past fortnight, but we’re nearly on top of things. Can’t wait to show you our pretty new abode!

• Art , Cool stuff
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Today, after a particularly frantic day at work, Tim and I picked up the keys to our new house.

We ducked home to pick up a car-load of stuff to take over there, and of course we packed the puppy dog too. It was pretty wonderful to watch him explore the place and investigate all the delicious new smells.

Our little home is lovely and I can’t wait to have all our things into place. It will be a long process though, as we’re going to need to buy a whole bunch of storage furniture that was built-in in our current place.

Patience isn’t my forte.

Tonight we set up our little coffee table in the dining room, covered it with butchers paper that had been used to wrap our glasses, and put fancy-folded paper napkins on top of our disposable plastic plates. Then we ordered pizza and talked about where all our furniture will go.

This next chapter feels good.

It was time to move on.

• Life , Melbourne
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This week’s Smiley Sunday comes from Louise, author of Scottiemonster. She is obsessed in all things Scottie dog (is anybody looking for a puppy? She has three who need a home!) and also begin a 101 Things in 1001 Days list at the same time as me!

SMILEY SUNDAY WITH SCOTTIEMONSTER!

Seven things that make me smile;

1. watching the puppies find something new
2. listening to people watch fire works
3. riding my motorcycle, anywhere other than my commute to work and back
4. finally working something out that has been a battle (this is usually a computer software based problem)
5. watching Neil sleep
6. hmmm chocolate
7. Ask me not to… I smile every time!

A memory I keep on file;

I have found this one hard, looks like I don’t look back on memory’s that much. Here are some mini ones:

- Pretending to swim around the school yard with my friends
- The bushwalk I got together with Neil on
- Happy dinners with friends at our house
- Road trips with friends or family
- Going to get my first dog

Three blogs that never go out of style;

Melbourne Today
Forever Amber
Scottish Terrier and Dog News

A piece of advice I’ve found worthwhile.

No one is perfect, just some people are better at pretending than others.

Thanks for sending in your answers Louise!

If you would like to be featured in the next installment of Smiley Sunday, send me an email (elizabeth@this domain) with your name, URL and the answers to the questions above. Each Sunday I’ll post a new set of answers.

• Smiley Sunday
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“Leno” is a dirty word in this household, after the events of the past couple of weeks. If you’ve been following the messy tale of the NBC late-night talk show lineup you’ll know what I’m talking about.

If not, Pee-wee Herman explained it briefly a few nights ago on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien – a show which ended on Friday.

Tim and I have been downloading his shows like crazy since it all blew up a couple of weeks ago. It has been almost exactly 3 years since we both sat in the audience for his “Late Night” show in New York City, and last night we took a break from packing boxes to watch his last ever show on NBC.

Is this not the classiest man in show business? Who’d have thought that he could somehow wrap up the whole situation with such grace.

I won’t attempt a deep autopsy of this situation, especially as most Australians are largely unaware of Conan and the long history with NBC that ended last week. But if you do happen to know his show, you really need to see this clip from 1998.

Sad, right?

I can’t wait to see him back on the air a year from now, kicking NBC’s butt from another network the way that Letterman did…

• Celebrities , TV/Movies
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STEP ONE: Put the dog in the box

STEP TWO: Close the lid of the box

STEP THREE: Let him out of the box…

… it’s my dog in a box!

Ahh, procrastination. Is there anything you can’t do?

• Harry
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So, we’re moving house.

We are really excited about our new place and can’t wait to fill it with our stuff when we get the keys on Monday. However, before this can happen we need to stash it all into cardboard boxes and label it and pick it up and carry it places without tripping over other stuff and then watch as strangers load it into a dirty bumpy truck and hope that nothing smashes on the way.

So no pressure, then.

There are many words to describe the challenging stylistic direction we have chosen for our home this week. I won’t give it all away, but I can reveal that it centres mostly around one particular textile.

Cardboard.

Perhaps Martha Stewart could make something of this, but here at Casa Scarlet the decor is missing that certain “something”. Which of the following images do you think most resembles our lovely little home right now?

Is it “A”…

(With thanks to the very fancy definatalie)

Or “B”

(moving is FUN if you’re a modern prairie girl!)

Or perhaps “C”?

(Hint: way too fun to be the correct answer)

If you guessed “D – None of the above” you’d be correct! The correct answer was this:

Especially if you added lots of dust, laundry, a very concerned dog and maybe a few extra boxes.

So we’re going to go right ahead and clean up this mess rather than checking into the site for a few days. Please talk amongst yourselves, and enjoy your fabulous weekend!

(If you hear crying, just turn up your TV. It’ll be over soon.)

• Life
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This week’s Smiley Sunday comes from Lulu, author of Cherry Blossom Adventures.  Ex-Brisbane girls are pretty great, as a rule, and Lulu is no exception!

SMILEY SUNDAY WITH LULU

Seven things that make me smile;

1. My son Noah – he has only been in my life (in the outside world) for a couple of weeks but already I can see him becoming the light of my life.
2. Getting flowers- nothing better than getting flowers from a lover or a friend.
3. Cherry blossom season in Japan
4. Starting a good book
5.Hearing my husband say cute things in English like “work was bored” when he means boring or “I love you mostest” in my response to “I love you more”
6. Receiving parcels in the mail- living overseas means I miss out on a lot of things from home but my family and friends are constantly sending things in the mail especially in recent months for the baby! The same goes for phone calls from home- they always make me smile!
7. Christmas decorations- Japan is not a Christian country but they still do great christmas decorations and it makes the holiday seem just that little bit better!

A memory I keep on file;

A photo from when I first met Shumpei, my husband. This was taken on one of our last dates before I returned to Australia for a year. We took it ourselves on a ferris wheel in Odaiba- while we had fallen madly in love neither of us were sure if long distance would work but we made it work and now, 5 years later we are married with a baby.

Three blogs that never go out of style;

For me, reading blogs by others living in Japan helps keep me sane, and here are three of my favourites.

http://gaijinwife.blogspot.com
http://riceprincess.wordpress.com
http://alwaysleavingthingsunfinishe.blogspot.com

A piece of advice I’ve found worthwhile.

My mother told me constantly when I was younger “Treat people the way you want to be treated” and this has worked for me my whole life.

Thanks for sending in your answers Lulu!

If you would like to be featured in the next installment of Smiley Sunday, send me an email (elizabeth@this domain) with your name, URL and the answers to the questions above. Each Sunday I’ll post a new set of answers.

• Smiley Sunday
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So far, this week I…

+ Reorganised my office, and prepared a stack of new material for the coming year.
+ Bought two lovely dresses from Leona Edmiston (who is having a killer sale, by the way…)
+ Packed a bag for a quick interstate jaunt
+ Sent the pup to the groomer for the day, with hilarious results
+ Finished my 60th task in 101 Things in 1001 Days
+ Fell in love with a boy (the same one as before)
+ Found our next home, in a part of Melbourne that is new to us
+ Found an agent who is in love with our dog, meaning that we don’t have to hide him anymore

- Two evil 40C+ days
- An evil eBay sniper won my third Leona dress (boo!)
- Moving house is evil
- Saying goodbye to lovely memories is sad (but, also a little exciting.)

How’s yours?

• Life , Melbourne
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I didn’t think it was fair to keep this to myself when it was emailed to me this morning.

Please raise your hand if you relate!

Twas the month after Christmas,
And all through the house,
Nothing would fit me,
Not even a blouse.

The cookies I’d nibbled,
The chocolate I’d taste
At the holiday parties
Had gone to my waist.

When I got on the scales
There arose such a number!
When I walked to the store
(less a walk than a lumber),

I’d remember the marvelous meals I’d prepared;
The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared,
The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese
And the way I’d never said, “No thank you, please.”

As I dressed myself in my husband’s old shirt
And prepared once again to do battle with dirt…
I said to myself, as I only can,
“You can’t spend a winter, disguised as a man!”

So, away with the last of the sour cream dip.
Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip.
Every last bit of food that I like must be banished
Till all the additional ounces have vanished.

I won’t have a cookie, not even a lick.
I’ll want only to chew on a long celery stick.
I won’t have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie.
I’ll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.

I’m hungry, I’m lonesome, and life is a bore…
But isn’t that what January is for?
Unable to giggle, no longer a riot.
Happy New Year to all, and to all a good diet.

Perhaps I should go for a run.

• Funny Stuff
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It’s the middle of the week, and two weeks into the new year the holiday euphoria has well and truly worn off. You don’t want to read anything deep and meaningful on a day like this, right?

So, here is a post full of funny pictures.

Brought to you by my mum, and the “forward” button in her hotmail inbox.

• Funny Stuff
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How cute are these? I love that we’re still making discoveries like this.

A marine biologist has discovered a startling new crab species that resembles a large strawberry.

The unusual crustacean was found off the coast of southern Taiwan. It has a dramatic bright red shell covered with small white bumps.

Professor Ho Ping-ho from the National Taiwan Ocean University said the crab resembles a species called Neoliomera Pubescens, that lives in the areas around Hawaii, Polynesia and Mauritius.

However it has a clam-shaped shell about 1 inch wide, which makes it distinct.

Crabs are omnivores feeding primarily on algae. There are more than 5,000 known species in the world.

Professor Ho said his team found two female crabs of the new species last June off the coast of Kenting National Park, known for its rich marine life.

The crabs died shortly afterwards, possibly because the water in the area was polluted by a cargo ship that ran aground.

Taiwanese crab specialist Wang Chia-hsiang confirmed Professor Ho’s finding.

Article from dailymail.co.uk

• Cool stuff
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Here we go: a blog post in which I go right ahead and BLOW YOUR MIND.

I suppose I shouldn’t take all the credit for this recipe, considering that I stole it straight from the pages of Married/Single Parent.  You’d better go say hi to Michelle and thank her for the inspiration.

But first…

PEANUT BUTTER CUP COOKIES

INGREDIENTS
(including rough Australian conversions)

- 1.5 cups plain flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 125g butter, softened
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- 40 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups

HERE’S WHAT TO DO:

STEP 1: Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celcius, and unwrap all those little miniature peanut butter cups.  The recipe calls for 40, but you’re going to need an extra 5 or so to allow for “accidents”.  KnowwhatImean?  And never fear – Aussies can buy these online in packs of about 120 at USA Foods (or from their storefront in Melbourne).

STEP 2: Cream the butter, sugar (both types) and peanut butter in a large mixing bowl. Add the beaten egg, vanilla extract and milk and mix well.

STEP 3: In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt.  Throw it into the sugar/butter bowl and mix it all together.

STEP 4: Consider, briefly, a world in which peanut butter does not exist.  Give George Washington Carver a mental high-five, and line a tray with baking paper.

Form the dough into 40 round balls, and bake for 8 minutes (I did this in a couple of batches, but feel free to show off and cook all 40 at once).

STEP 5: Remind your dog that chocolate is a toxic substance, and that it is your duty as his owner to expose yourself to this poison on his behalf.  Give him a pat, and silently congratulate yourself for booking him into the dog groomer tomorrow.  He’s starting to look like he might be homeless.

STEP 6: Remove the tray from the oven, and immediately push a peanut butter cup into the centre of each cookie.  Allow cookies to cool completely before transferring them to a wire rack.  Don’t freak out, they’re supposed to be that soft.

STEP 7:

These cookies take a long time to cool, and disaster will strike if you try to shift them too early.  While you’re waiting, why not familiarise yourself with Diabetes Australia or find a dentist in your local area?

• Food
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The first official Smiley Sunday comes from Laura Kane, author of Rainbow Tatt and co-author of the brilliant That’s Noice! Enjoy.

SMILEY SUNDAY WITH LAURA

Seven things that make me smile;

1. Cupcakes, especially my plain patty cakes and Oreo cupcakes
2. Buttercream icing – straight from the bowl
3. Getting my payslip each fortnight
4. My cats. Especially Bear. Not that I play favourites, of course
5. Dan, the fiancé, as well as the engagement ring he had made for me
6. Random cute kids when we’re at the supermarket or walking down the street
7. Getting “poll position” parking on our street a.k.a. the closest parking spot to our house – a rare treat!

A memory I keep on file;

This was taken 5 January 2008 in London.

There’s V, me, Jo, Kat, Maz, Genna, Charlie, Shirley, Dawn, Jenno, Harriet and Becca.

I’ve known these girls for 5+ years and had only met 2 of them face-to-face before my first big overseas trip. I love how the internet brought me such awesome friends and how the internet allows me to keep in better contact with them than a lot of my local friends! We planned this big weekend for everyone to get together for the first time (honorary mention to Flora who was finishing her Uni degree and Anna who was stuck in Melbourne) and there are just so many memories from that weekend and that whole trip in general.

Three blogs that never go out of style;

The Red Deer – http://the-red-deer.blogspot.com/
Jarod and Liz – http://jarodandliz.com/
Chocolatesuze – http://www.chocolatesuze.com/

A piece of advice I’ve found worthwhile.

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” Dr. Seuss

Thanks for playing, Laura!

If you would like to be featured in the next installment of Smiley Sunday, send me an email (elizabeth@this domain) with your name, URL and the answers to the questions above. Each Sunday I’ll post a new set of answers.

• Smiley Sunday
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