Happy 40th Birthday!

We went to an awesome 40th birthday party on the weekend. It was in an old church hall that's also been used as a local theatre since the early 80s. It was simple and fun and reminded me of when I was a kid doing dancing lessons in the old church hall. Times were so simple back then.

The theatre part was so very authentic. The lights were rigged up to old wooden beams and there were photos of all the previous shows performed there since 1980. 

They had old fashioned spit roast catering, served up in the old hall kitchen. There was loads of food that I remember from childhood Christmas parties - roast potatoes, roast chicken, lamb on a spit, potato salad...and cake served up on individual plastic plates. How very authentic!

And...love this GIANT cookie birthday cake.  Happy 40th birthday Malcolm!

Homewares and Treats

How much am I loving all these homewares stores that are opening cafes as well. Shopping and coffee...love it. 

I love the homewares at Lily-G, but I'm so loving the cafe inside. They're serving Blue Sky Coffee, which is divine (and local I think), but this pistachio and Lime muffin was melt in your mouth delicious.

My other favourite homewares/cafe is Hampton's Home Living. I looove that place!

Lunch with my baby boy

Sometimes I feel like I live an insanely hectic life. We're always going somewhere, doing something, getting ready to go somewhere or getting ready to do something. Work, schedules, lunches.

Josh was born in Melbourne and we lived there until he was about 3 and then we moved to Sydney. I had him pretty young and I carted him everywhere. He grew up in cafes, museums, festivals, concerts, everything. And he was a good baby and good little toddler. 

In the last few years he's grown up and we haven't had the time to do the stuff we used to do. So for the first weekend in what seems like months, we went to lunch. 

We had sushi. Josh's choice. It's been his favourite food since he was about 2. He used to like picking all the dishes off the sushi train and dipping them in soy sauce. 

Hard to believe he's 12. He still loves sushi though. Some things will never change.

Our Haus

Another weekend, another catch up with friends...another haloumi breakfast. Caught up with foodie cousin Tehana and her hubby just back from their tour of China and hankering for some Western food. I drive past Our Haus at Hawthorne every morning before work and it always looks busy. Another great Brissie cafe - food was great, service was great, coffee was great, atmosphere was great. *Smiles*.

PS: I noticed bacon and egg ice cream on the breakfast menu...wtf?

Fabulous Finds

Sometimes you find the coolest stuff in the oddest places. We've been working on a big project now for a few months, but in the last couple of weeks we've been doing the most insane hours. 3am nights have been the norm. It's killings us, but there just doesn't seem like enough time in the day.

We actually lose track of time. Graham said, "need some dates" (the food variety, not the relationship variety), so off we went, in search of dates.  I thought it was about 8.30pm, Graham thought maybe 9pm so we were both shocked when we found out it was 11.30pm. Not much open for dates at that time of night, except the IGA at East Brisbane. 

This place is open until midnight every night, stocking all your standard convenience store supplies, but also a treasure trove of ice cream!!

Look at this!! I didn't even know Maggie Beer made ice cream! This place rocks! We found our dates...and $63.95 worth of other "stuff".

Casting Couch

Ohhhhh *want*

This is so going in my category of "things I have to have".  You can't really see the colour very well, but it's a gorgeous baby blue and the most beautiful couch ever! I went to see my Bestie Bernice in at Dumonde and ended up falling in love. She tells me it's the same company that made Big's couch in the Sex & The City 2 movie. Great. That just makes me want it more.

Hamptons Home Living

I'm loving all these homewares stores lately that have or are adding a cafe. I can't imagine anything better than browsing homeswares AND enjoying breakfast or lunch with friends. Faaaaaabulous!!! 

Hamptons Home Living at Paddington is one of my favourite places for this. Gorgeous homewares, divine food and a view out the back to the city. Ahhh.

I was having lunch with my favourite Courier Mail journo, and this was my crispy corn cakes, chorizo and pepper salad, rouille and preserved lemon, without the chorizo...they substituted it with persian feta. Soo delicious. Thanks @hamptonshome.