A goodbye & a give-away!

This coming Monday will be the 1st of September and for us here Down Under it will be the first official day of Spring. For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while now you will know just how much I was looking forward to Winter (relief from the Summer humidity!), and now in the blink of an eye it is over for another year. And speaking of over for another year, this week marks the one year anniversary of my blog so I am holding a give away from us here at Jacaranda Cottage to you! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post (even if you have never commented before, please feel free to enter). I will leave this post up for a few days and draw the winner next Friday. Until then I will leave you with some photo's of Winter here where I live that were taken last weekend. Have a wonderful weekend ladies, and don't forget to enter the give away to celebrate with me! Love Amanda xxx

A drive by.....

Today is Friday, that means it's grocery day and a trip to the farmer's market to stock up on deliciously fresh fruit and veg for the weekend. I remembered to take my camera with me today to show you some of the houses I have to pass on the way there. I hope you enjoy the drive by, and have a fantastic weekend ahead! Love Amanda xxx

Chocolate time!

Yep, that's right! Lately I have been making Barefoot Contessa's chocolate sheetcake recipe for my Princess because she is a chocolate cake-o-holic, and today I thought I'd share it with you too. So please come in, get comfy and help yourself to a slice, and there's ice cold milk or fresh coffee to go with it too if you'd like. I hope you're all having a wonderful day my sweet friends! Love Amanda xxx

Barefoot Contessa's Chocolate Sheetcake:

1/2lb (250g) softened unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
cream these together......

2 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 cups cocoa
2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
sift these together......

3 room temp eggs, and 3 teaspoons vanilla into butter/sugar batter.....

1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3/4 cup (or 200ml tub) sour cream
3 tablespoons brewed coffee
whisk these together......

Add dry and wet mixes alternatively to batter starting and ending with dry mix.
Bake 180 deg C or 350 deg F for 30 mins or until cooked. Top with any frosting you choose. I made chocolate butter icing. This recipe will make 2 cakes, and they freeze beautifully. Enjoy!

Girl talk...

Hello dear sweet friends! Oh how I have missed you all! I've just made myself a cuppa and thought I'd sit down now to have a little chat with you all. I promised myself when I started this blog that I would 'keep it as real as possible' and be open and honest with out exposing myself or my family too much in the process. So in saying that, I wanted to be honest and say that I have been feeling a little overwhelmed and sad lately. I mentioned a couple of posts ago that we were at a crossroads in our lives here at Jacaranda Cottage with big decisions to make, and while these things are happy and exciting things, I am finding them to be a little too much for me to deal with at times. I think it's more that I am afraid of us making the wrong decision because once it's done, it's done. The reason I am rambling on here telling you all of this is to explain why I haven't blogged or visited for a long time. Just the thought of blogging made my head spin most days, and I hate doing posts that aren't happy or upbeat, but then today I thought 'well life is ups and downs, so why can't I share that too'? A few of you dear ladies have emailed me asking if I'm ok and to let me know that you are thinking of me. What sweet friends you are! Your emails and comments have brought a smile to my face just when I needed one. Your friendships mean a lot to me, and I think of you all often though-out the day. Today I decided to go for a nice long walk along the waterside to clear my head and breathe in the last of the fast disappearing winter weather, and naturally I took you all with me. I can't promise to post again soon although I do 'plan' to, so please bare with me if you don't see a post for a little while, and maybe send a little prayer of comfort my way if you feel so inclined. I hope you enjoy our little winter waterside walk, and that you are all having a wonderful end to your summer. See you soon....love Amanda xxx

I love the weekends.....

.....because they are always full of fun shared with family & friends. This weekend we went for a drive down to The Bay to visit with my favourite Aunt & Uncle. They have a gorgeous home right on the water front, but they are renting that out at the moment because they went for a year long holiday to Canada to visit their daughter and her family. Now that they are back home in OZ they are house sitting for friends who are away visiting their daughter and family. So we went to visit my Aunt & Uncle at the house where they are house sitting for a couple of months. This home was completely amazing. It was a 3 story house, and by that I don't mean that it was a 2 story home with split level to make it look 3 story, I mean that it had 3 complete story's to it. It had 2 kitchens, 6 bathrooms, 5 bedrooms, 2 laundry's, an office, a library, a workshop, 4 living areas, 6 fire places,and 3 wrap around decks one on each story of the house. The thing that toally blew me away was that the inground swimming pool was actually on the second floor of the house making it seem like it was suspended in the air. The view from the pool were the tops of the huge trees growing up near the house! Amazing. The couple who own the house have lived there for a long time, so the decor was a little dated for my taste so I didn't take too many photo's of the inside, mainly of the views and the pool. Then after we enjoyed a lovely morning tea with my Aunt & Uncle we piled into my brand new truck (which is why we went to visit, to show them my new car) and drove down to the water. The tide was way out when we were there, so it didn't look as nice as it does when the tide is full, but it was still a gorgeous day to be out walking along the beach and through the many parks. It was so windy, making our normally mild winter days feel colder than usual, but we had a wonderful time anyway. Then we all went back to the house for a delicious lunch and spent the afternoon watching the sun set over the mountains in the distance. I am so grateful and blessed to have my elderly Aunt & Uncle in my life, they are the most amazing Godly people and everyone who knows them loves them just as much as we do! So now on for the tour I promised!

Here are a couple of photo's of the pool. It's hard to show you that it's way up in the air just by these photo's because it just looks like an inground pool, but if you look to the left you will see the tree tops!



Some pool views......





A stroll along the beach on a winter's day......






This Ibis bird was enjoying someone's picnic lunch while they played in the park! lol Cheeky little fella!


Along the beach front there is a man made wading pool that has been here for years and years. Recently the whole area went through a 16 million dollar upgrade. It looks really nice again now, clean and new. This wading pool has a sand bottom and the water is ocean water that goes through this huge filtration system. During the Summer this pool is crowded with children laughing and splashing, but today the only ones brave enough to get into the icy water were......


these little boats. There were heaps of men with their little remote controls racing these mini yachts all around the pool. We had a good laugh watching their faces! lol




Well there were a couple of others who were brave/crazy enough to go into the Winter water, these 2 little girls thought playing on the slippery dip was just so much fun!


One of the many picnic areas. These are full of people in the Summer, but the day we were there only the picnic tables near the play grounds were full.


Can you see how windy it was?! Oh my goodness! I thought for sure that our little Paris Fifi was going to become airbourne at any moment! lol


See the cute little fish that are imbedded in the walkway paths. Nice touch!


So that concludes our little tour from our day at The Bay. I love to go for drives down there because it holds special memories for me from my childhood. Many a school holiday was spent down with my Aunt & Uncle while my mum had to work, and I enjoyed every second I shared with them. I hope you are all having a wonderful start to the week. The next time I post, I have some awards to say thank you for and to share with you all too! Until next time..............Amanda xxx