bestie morning tea

this morning was spent enjoying morning tea at maison st honore with my favourite person before her birthday this weekend. it's been a long time since we have been anywhere with just the two of us, without any running and nutty children. sweet little millie was there, but she was very happy to chill in her pram and gurgle away.

zoom in if you please, to see the absolutely incredible earrings i got her for her birthday. handmade by a friend here in ellenbrook, they are little half pieces of fairy bread! i love them so much that i had to get a pair for myself as well. 

well bestie. happy early birthday to you! studies show that if you make it through seven years of friendship, you'll remain friends for life. well, we have known each other 28 years and been best friends for 21 years, so i guess you have earned yourself 3 lifetimes worth of friendship with me! congratulations! love you xx 

a surprise birthday morning tea for elena

it's our beautiful elenas birthday tomorrow and my gal pal luisa decided we needed to throw a surprise morning tea for her today. it was super fun and i am so glad we managed to pull it off.

she was so chuffed with it all and it was lovely being able to spoil her. we played a game of "who knows elena best?" with answers that lu had maanged to get out of her under the pretense that we needed them for a relief society lesson next week. the best bit was hearing what her husband had said in answer to each one. crack up!

all the ladies bar one who had just left!

decorations were easy, i had pretty much everything on hand, but nipped down to an undeveloped area that's less than 5 minutes drive away, that has geraldton wax growing wild everywhere! it's amazing cause i could just snip off what i needed and race back home afterwards to put together huge vases of it... then gift what was left afterwards in old empty jars. i love real flowers so much more than fakes when they are an option. 

tea cups from mums house... used over and over and over. i think they are probably the best investment she's ever made!

ready for our game...

balloons delivered by luisas mum just in time and gorgeous bunting made by mum whilst working in the home ec department at pesega in samoa on her mission.

of course there was food galore as everyone turned up with something...

was a lovely little morning. happy birthday lanes! ♥

blueberry muffins ♥

i have a friend coming for morning tea tomorrow and i am well excited for a catch up... as it's been quite some time since we have seen each other. i've made these awesome blueberry streusel muffins that i saw on another blog i follow (little baby garvin, you can see the original post here, not my recipe but i have translated for those making them in australia). this is the fourth time i have made them in the last month hahaha, so i think it's important that i share the recipe now, as everyone i have given them to has asked for it.

blueberry struesel muffins

muffins:

2 cups plain flour

1/2 tsp. salt

3 tsp. baking powder

2 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup greek yoghurt

1/2 cup cooking oil

1 tsp. vanilla escense

2 cups of blueberries (i used frozen, without defrosting and they worked just fine)

topping:

1/2 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

55g melted butter

method:

1. preheat oven to 180 degrees fan forced, line muffin pan

2. mix eggs and sugar. add yoghurt, oil and vanilla

3. add dry ingredients and mix well

4. fold in blueberries and set aside

5. for topping: combine flour, sugar and butter and stir with a fork until it is crumbly

6. divide muffin mix into liners (around 2/3 full) then spoon topping onto the mix until it is all used

7. bake for 16-18 mins or until brown on top

they are delicious! enjoy warm with cream or yoghurt ♥

charlee turns 8

my cousins daughter turned 8 this week and we were invited to help celebrate at their house today! charlee is such a lovely girl, with wonderful parents and we had a great time hanging out with them.

madeline thought it was christmas and her birthday all at once, charlee has a lot of nice toys and was happy to share, so the girls played and played between chatting with the adults.

and my clever cousin dion who constantly puts the rest of us to shame with her mad domestic skills, had whipped up this bright rainbow icecream cake. yum. 

happy birthday charlee!

farewell morning tea

jo, thomas and baby estela are going back to melbourne tonight to live so today some of the ladies in our relief society threw her a morning tea. it was a cute little get together and a nice fun morning.

with the cutest food!

maddie finally got to have a hold of baby estela and she was absolutely in her element. she is just obsessed with babies, maybe i'll have to get her another one one day. haha. but seriously, if anyone has a baby, maddie is over there trying to push her way in to have a better look.

we even went and had lunch with mel and her kids afterwards, so madeline got to hang with her bestie ngawai. they are so sweet together. it was a good day. ♥

afternoon tea

so flipping excited! found this book yesterday while waiting for my pics at k-mart... and had to have it. you see i'm a bit of a sucker for a good afternoon tea - and after the awesome job we did at jen's kitchen tea and my girlies did at my baby shower i just couldn't resist.

can't wait to make some of the stuff in it - and am very much looking for a good excuse to throw another one... just waiting! :)