The past weeks happenings...

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Friday was Gus' birthday and both our girls came home from the city for the weekend. They love coming home for some of Mum and Dad's cooking and to catch up. I made cupcakes to take to work for 'smoko'. Whoever is the birthday boy or girl, they have to supply cake for 'smoko'.

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In other exciting news... I lost my wallet on Friday afternoon. At 5 o'clock I was frantic. I retraced my steps back to the Subway where I bought Gus' lunch. No, they hadn't seen it. I reported it missing with the police.
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At six o'clock I decided I had better cancel my credit cards so I rang Amex, the Commonwealth Bank and our Credit Union. All said my new cards would be with me within 3-5 working days. It is so hard not to live with a key card for accessing cash! Luckily, living in a small town, my bank will let me withdraw money over the counter without a card - try doing that in a city!
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Anyhoo - my phone rings at 7pm Friday night. It is the lady who has found my wallet. Turns out, I must have dropped it out of the back drivers side door when I put a package on the back seat. I drove off oblivious. The lady went to pull out of her park and saw something on the road, stopped and retrieved it. Unfortunately, she had to attend an appointment so couldn't contact me straight away (before I cancelled the cards!). I was so happy knowing that I would get my wallet back with all the other cards in it - Medicare, Private Health, Drivers Licence plus some other store cards.
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The dear woman delivered it to my door and gave me a hug too! I thanked her profusely and gave her a nice bottle of wine in thanks. I had never seen her before but it turns out she knows my mother in law quite well as she salvaged some standard roses from her when my M-I-L was moving house. Small world. Anyway, she is a darling for finding my purse! End of saga!
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(red velvet cake batter)
Saturday morning, Kirby asked me to knock up some cupcakes for her to take to her friend when she visited. The girl's mother is ill with Motor Neurone Disease and my baking has become quite renowned as Kirby usually takes cookies for the younger kids. Kirby thought they'd appreciate them.
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Red Velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting...
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... and a batch of chocolate ones too!
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This is the platter Kirby took to her friend when she visited. They were snapped up immediately and enjoyed by all!
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We saved some for ourselves... Oh, red velvet! The recipe is at Kelli's There Is No Place Like Home blog. (I use SR flour in the recipe) She is having a blog break at the moment but her site is lovely.
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(Olive Tapenade twists and olive and parmesan scrolls)
Something else I made on the weekend were these bread sticks. The recipe is from Joyfulhomemaker. I followed it to the letter using my Breville mixer with dough hook. The dough turned out smooth and silky after 10 minutes of kneading.
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These are the poppy seed bread sticks - so good and delicious!
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The girls always enjoy a visit with little Brax (my niece's son) when they come home. He is growing like a mushroom and is always such a happy little fella.
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Cheeky chops!
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Bonnie says hello! Oi, get off my car!
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... and finally, dinner of Monday night - a Madras Curry from Taste.com.au - I added a tablespoon of brown sugar just to sweeten it off a bit and 2 kaffir lime leaves and one red chilli instead of the chilli powder. I also added carrot, potato and green beans so we got our veggies in there. Served with Basmati rice and pappadums.
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You might have noticed, I have stopped doing the Photo a Day thing - I struggled with one topic then the weekend got away from me and this week is quite hectic being the 'last week of the financial year' - plenty to do at work so I guess 21/30 days is better than nothing.
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Enjoy your week and I hope the weather is kind to you - it's just cold, wet, windy, sunny, foggy here - just not all at once!
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Cheers - Joolz