Cookie goodness

I found this recipe for these yummo cookies on Taste.com.au. Give them a whirl, they are fool proof.

Peanut butter & choc-chip cookies

Preparation Time - 30 minutes

Cooking Time - 10 minutes

Makes 30

Ingredients

1 cup (260g) crunchy peanut butter

1 cup (200g) brown sugar
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup (185g) dark choc bits

Method

• Preheat oven to 200°C. Lightly grease two baking trays and line with non-stick baking paper. Combine peanut butter, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and egg in a bowl. Stir in choc bits.
• Roll teaspoonfuls of the mixture into balls and place on the prepared tray. Press lightly with a fork. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until light golden. Leave to cool on the trays then place into an airtight container.

Makeup mahem

Unless you have six arms, please don't attempt this in the morning traffic rush!

When I was little, weekday mornings were always a mad rush to get my brother and I to school.

My mum successfully managed to juggle packing our lunches, making breakfast, ironing our uniforms and my dad’s work shirt, getting us dressed and making sure we brushed our teeth/hair, then showering herself and getting dressed before heading out the door. 

The only thing she would never put on before she left the house was her makeup. That was left for the car…

Now I used to watch my mum as she quickly and effectively applied foundation, mascara, blush, lipstick and combed her hair in a matter of two or three traffic light stops – she was quick, no mucking around here!

Now I know this is dangerous to do in the car, and I myself don’t have the coordination to even contemplate doing it, but it seems as though others who really should take more time in the morning to do their face, unfortunately leave it for the drive to work.

I had the unhappy pleasure of driving behind one such tragic this morning – she was hardly as deft as my mother in the applying-makeup-in-car department, and proceeded to swerve around in her lane, then into the other lane, narrowly missing oncoming traffic.

It wasn’t as if she even waited to stop at a light or anything – she thought she could do this while moving at more than 80km/hour. Oh the rush and the stress of it all!

I couldn’t even get around the maniac – she was swerving so much that if I had gone around her I probably would have been side-swiped. Cars were dodging her as they zoomed past, some even breaking to take a gander at the crazy behind the wheel.

Once we eventually stopped at a traffic light, she missed the light once it turned green. I let her know it was time to move (well, my horn let her know) to which I got a rude response – she gave me the finger.

Well that’s fine love, but next time you’re wrapped around a light pole because you’re trying to fix your ugly mug in the tiny rear-view mirror instead of waking up 15 minutes earlier in the morning and being better organised to do it at home, maybe you will then re-assess how important it was to apply makeup in the car.

If you have mastered the art like my mum did back in the day, then hats off to you. In the meantime, please leave this task to your bathroom ladies!

Please, enjoy!

Yesterday I went to a supermarket (I won’t name which one) to buy a couple of mundane items including paper towel, insect spray and a zucchini.

As I lined up with all the other people at the checkout I noticed that the supermarket clerk had a strange farewell line he used for each customer – “enjoy!”

As I looked down at the three items I had in my hand, I wondered if you can really ‘enjoy’ insect spray, paper towel and a zucchini. I suppose there are ways?

So as it came to be my turn to be served and upon handing over my cash and receiving my change, the young man whipped out a big cheesy smile and said in a pleasant supermakety voice that you hear over the loudspeaker, ‘enjoy!’.

I raised my eyebrows and gave him a knowing look and with a hint of a wink I told him “oh, I intend to” as a bit of a joke, to which he gave a fleeting glance at my zucchini gripped in my hand and then gave me a smirk while snorting though his nose.

Dirty bastard!

So, word to the wise buddy, for those customers, even the elderly that you may serve, please don’t tell them to ‘enjoy’ what they have bought. It doesn’t make sense, especially when it isn't a food item. What if someone was there to purchase batteries or super glue or even a bottle of laxatives – people don’t always ‘enjoy’ their purchases.

Decorating for Christmas

I am so freaking excited about Christmas.

Reasons why:

1.                  I just love Christmas in general – it’s my favourite time of year.

2.                  We get to celebrate in our new home this year (YAY!)

3.                  It’s summer, which is my favourite season, and I love nothing better than entertaining and being with my best friends and family relaxing and celebrating the year that was.

4.                  Christmas means that New Years is just around the corner, which means even more celebrating!

Although, I must say I am starting to get a tad stressed out about shopping for gifts. I really don’t like the Christmas rush and the bedlam that is every single shopping centre from about now until the end of the Christmas sales in January…

I like the idea of Secret Santa – you only have to buy one gift if you do it with your family, and you can do it with your friends too. It takes the stress off having to buy dozens of pressies for people and breaking the bank so to speak.

One thing I will be hitting the shops for however, is Christmas decorations for the new abode. I love decking out the house in festive ornaments and will dedicate this post to yuletide inspiration for the home.  

Love the pink and green - cute!

We have always had stockings hung over my parent's fireplace - doesn't feel like Christmas without them!

Turquoise and greys are a surprisingly good Christmas colour theme

I can't wait to start decorating - I am not sure what colours we are going to go with yet, but I am excited to start making our home feel Christmasy!

Moving sucks

Maybe it’s because I’ve got paint under my fingernails, gyprock dust in my hair and have been cleaning and unpacking constantly for the past two weeks that I feel like an emotional wreck.

Moving house should be illegal. I know there are some people who really don’t mind doing it, but I am certainly not one of them.

Flat-pack furniture is another thing that should be prohibited. Things come cracked and with much less gleam than what they looked like on the shop floor… and it is just a pain in the arse to make! Bits don’t fit and parts that should slide in with ease don’t want to budge…

To give you an idea of my emotional state, as I was unpacking some kitchen ware the other day I stumbled upon some old-school bake ware that was given to us by Ben’s grandmother. I burst into tears upon seeing it. As most of you know I love cooking, and I like to think that I’ll make meals for people I care about using these items – just as they were used by Ben’s grandparents in the same way.

I don’t think that it really called for uncontrollable sobbing though? Usually I am not that bad…

Another thing – my neat freak persona hates the fact that one minute I’ll have a spotless house after three hours of scrubbing, vacuuming, dusting and mopping and the next I’ll turn around and it’s a filthy mess! They say that even after six months you’ll still be sucking up construction dust in a newly built home.

Great! I have another six months of this to look forward too…

And the dog. Oh, the dog.

I get that it’s a new yard Charlie, but seriously, do you want the neighbours to hate us before they’ve even gotten to know us? If I was a dog I would probably be excited about getting a new yard too, but please try and tone it down a notch!

The howling, chasing birds and barking at neighbours when they walk by with their baby in a stroller isn’t going to make us popular in the new street.

Honestly, I am glad my partner in crime feels the same way – with an aching back, sunburned skin and irritated eyes from sawdust, I am somewhat glad that Ben feels as shit as I do right now. He has transformed a mud pit into a stunning and perfectly preened yard.

At least we can see the prize at the finishing line and I am sure one day, we will sit back after all the cleaning, unpacking and hard labour and say yep, we did this and it’s all ours.

Please don't bitch to me, I don't care for your whingeing

Sometimes people just want to live a life of drama.

I’m talking about the kind of person who thrives off gossip, nastiness and plain old shit-stirring.

I understand that at times it’s easy to be angry at people and have disagreements – fighting with people you care about is an unfortunate part of life. 

However moving on with dignity without dragging someone's name through mud is something that a lot of young people on the Gold Coast need to learn.

I am nearly 30 years old and have been to three different schools. In my time (I sound like an old Geezer, but moving on…) I have been part of many friendship ‘groups’ and hung out with some people who in the end, I didn’t stay friends with for various reasons.

The term ‘group’ is toxic, especially when you’re an adolescent growing up and going through high school – so much so that who you hang out with defines who you are as a person. It’s bullshit!

Now that I’m older I have some incredible friends that I have known for over ten years. What I love about these people is that I think I’ve had fights and disagreements with all of them over the years, and we’re still the best of friends.

With us, the connotation of ‘group’ has been dropped – we’re old enough now to make up our minds about who we love and want to invest time in, and who we had been wasting our breath on.

Being bitter about a failed friendship is shit. Slagging off that friend is even more shit. It’s hard to let go of a friendship because you may hold good memories, but you can’t fix something that’s broke – it will never be the same.

I don’t care for petty gossip, whispers and other people’s drama – I just want to live my life and enjoy the people in my life who actually matter and bring meaning to my existence.  

This is my solemn vow that I, Ashleigh, will no longer waste any time on people who can’t see past their spiteful resentment and just be a nice person.

Maybe it’s what the Gold Coast culture has done to them? But then that’s no excuse – I was born and bred here and have lived her for nearly 27 years and I’m not a cold-hearted bitch.

People should take note – because being a bitch is a pretty ugly trait.

World Animal Week and Collars not Cruelty campaign

After a bit of a break (hey, it was my first wedding anniversary) I am back and wanting to discuss something very close to my heart.

Animal cruelty.

My husband and I are the type of people who will honestly tear up about a news reports about an animal that has been abused at the hands of a person or hearing about how it is customary for other cultures around the world to torture animals as part of their food processing...

My beautiful Cocker Spaniel, Charlie. Dogs deserve to live happy and full lives without cruelty and torture. No animal should have to suffer at the hands of a human unnecessarily.

I want everyone to remember this - animals don't have a voice and they can't fight back when they are trapped, scared or abused. It is not acceptable to treat any creature, no matter how big or small, young or old in a way that is not respectful of its life.

According to the WSPA website, 20 million dogs are killed every year in a cruel way. That's 38 every minute. People believe that killing a dog will end rabies - this is not true.

From today until October 10, it is World Animal Week and WSPA Australia is running a 'Collars not Cruelty" campaign to protect dogs from being drugged, gassed, strangled and tortured to death in the fight agains rabies.

I think that education is key - people need to know about what is going on so that they can inform others. Please go here to show your support: http://www.wspa.org.au/

This is a really important cause, and if you're like me and love your dog like it is your own child, you'll back this very important cause.

Remember that animals don't have a voice and it's not fair for humans to treat them in an inhumane way.