Kindness



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Today as I was flicking through Twitter waiting at school pick up, I came across a Tweet from Nathalie at Easy Peasy Kids that had me mortified.

You see she saw a man take a tumble out of his wheel chair and not one of the people around helped him, instead choosing to walk right on by.  She pulled her car over and with her Miss 16 and Mr 6 they helped the man back into his chair and get on his way again.

What is the world coming to if we don't come to another human being's aide?

Nathalie said her children are dumb struck that not one person helped.  And I'm proud that my Mr 13 would say exactly the same thing.

Where has kindness gone? 

We lead by example to our children, let's show them that kindness, compassion and tolerance MATTER.

Uber Celebrations {featured submission}

Today on Uber Celebrations we are featuring a party submitted by Renee from Dotti Candles for her daughter Erin's 9th birthday.

Spa Party was the theme for the day, and by all accounts the girls had a fabulous day, including one of Erin's friends who's in a wheel chair and was able to participate fully in all the activities.

On arrival all the girls received a pair of thongs to wear at the Spa! Love that idea.

While indulging in sweet treats from the lolly buffet the girls gave each other pedicures,

painted their nails and chocolate facials were even on offer!

Take home gifts were in keeping with the Spa theme and Renee put together an indulgent pack for the lucky little ladies inlcuding a face washer cup cake, lip balm, allsorts soap and bath salts.

It looked like a fabulous, pretty and fun party!

Renee is the creator and owner of Dotti Candles . 

She makes all her quality products herself, and I can vouch for the that as I have several of her goodies and you know how I LOVE my candles!  You can also follow Dotti Candles on Face Book here.

If you would like to share your celebration and have it featured on the blog then please click here for further details.

I Need That Ticket!

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Ok so there is fabulous Say Hello Workshop being run by the gorgeous team at Hello Blogger Events.

It's being held in Brisbane on 11th March 2012 and suffice to say I REALLY REALLY want to go!

Why?

Because I'm a newbie to blogging and have SO MUCH TO LEARN! Simple. As. That.

This blog post is a competition entry to win a Golden Ticket to the event.  There have been so many fabulous entries with videos (no idea how to do that!) so I had to employ the services of my 13 year old son, this is his video for my entry....

Pretty cool hey?!

Fingers and toes are crossed that I get that Golden Ticket!

Piquing My Pinterest {cup cake edition}

Ok NOW that I've got your attention, this week it's all about little works of art commonly referred to as cup cakes.

And yes indeed real men do eat cup cakes!

I love baking and decorating cup cakes.  Have done so since I was a little girl helping my Grandma in the kitchen making butterfly cup cakes.  I'm not big on fondant icing on cup cakes, without a doubt they look fabulous but generally people and especially children don't like it.  You can't beat a cup cake with good old fashioned icing!

The flavour and colour combinations are just endless, but all I know is that cup cakes bring back so many wonderful childhood memories.  Why not bake some with your loved ones today.

All these pictures can be found on my Cupcakes & Icing Board on Pinterest. 

You can follow all my boards here.

If you haven't joined up to Pinterest yet I'd love to send you and invite,

just let me know via email and one will be on it's way to you!

 Linking up with the lovely Tina Gray {dot} Me for another edition of Piquing My Pinterest.

Go on make cup cakes today, I know you want to!

Follow Me

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Ok so as a Blogger I have lots of ways you can follow me on social media.  Thought I'd put them together all on one page for easy reference.  Groovy hey?!



follow me on facebook here



follow me on twitter here



follow me on pinterest here

 the above all have permanent links at the top right hand side of the blog

my fav is instagram, you can follow me @ubersimplicity

now how to follow the blog....

RSS Feeds - located on the top right side is a subscribe link, if you click on this you can add my blog to your favourite RSS reader

Google Friend Connect - as my blog is on Blogger, I've left the "Join this Site via Google Friend Connect" on the blog (those blogs not on Blogger will have this removed in the coming months), this option is located toward the bottom of the page

Networked Blogs - another way to follow is via Networked Blogs, this option is located underneath Google Friend Connect at the bottom of the page

Majority of the time you will find me on FB and Instagram as they are my favs.

Righto clear as mud?!

As always if you want to contact me directly please just drop me an email.

Oh nearly forgot!  If a post has really spoken to you I would LOVE for you to share it.  And it's so easy to do.  At the bottom of the post, just above "add new comment" you will find small little boxes this allows you to do the following:

• email the post
• blog the post
• tweet the post
• share the post to FB
• and if you are with Google+ it will allow you to publicly +1 the post

Ok there you have it my friends, follow and connect!

Headache

I have a headache, quite a bad one, and I don't really know why I'm on the computer.

It's a bit of a boo hoo blog post so I don't mind if you click away.  Well actually I do mind, and I hope that you stay!

Headaches have plagued me for as a long as I can remember.  The only time I haven't had a headache is when I was pregnant with my son.  9 months of not ONE headache, YAY!

But at the end of last year I had my first migraine, all I can say is ouch.  Doctor said stress caused the migraine, yes blah blah I know that, and also changing hormones going in early menoapuse. Great another very glamorous addition.  So if I don't melt into a pile of lovely sweat, or go into a rage because we have simply run out of milk (my boys very quickly leave the room!), or cry at the drop of hat, or have waves of nausea, or extreme fatigue then I can now add to the list the feeling of my head about to explode!

Glad you're here aren't you?!

With the headaches of course self doubt kicks in and the wonderful feeling of being sorry for myself.

And it's raining today.

Now that I've totally made you feel good, I'm heading off to lay down for an hour until I have to do the school run pick up.

But before you go I would LOVE any headache remedies or what has helped your early menopause (if you are lucky enough to be in my club!) or menopause afflictions.

Ginger + Salted Caramel Tarts

These are just the easiest and scrummy little tarts to make next time you have guests over.   Shhhh don't tell them that it's store bought biscuits and caramel! Yep told you it was easy.

I love Donna Hay Magazine  and that's where I found this recipie, in the Short Cuts section of Issue 58 which is the August/September 2011 magazine.

Ingredients

(makes 8)
packet of ginger nut biscuts
store bought caramel filling  (I used nestle top n fill caramel)
sea salt flakes

Method

• preheat oven to 180C (350F)
• place biscuits into 8 x 30ml capacity lightly greased mini muffin tins
• bake for 5 - 6 minutes or until soft
• press the biscuits into the tins to form a shell, allow to cool
• place 1/4 cup caramel filling in a bowl and whisk until smooth
• divide the caramel between the biscuit shells
• sprinkle with sea salt flakes just before serving

Linking up with Domeblissity for Thriving Thursday

Enjoy!

Uber Cellar Door {goddess 2009 pink moscato}



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Welcome to our first edition of Cellar Door.

You may have noticed that I like a good drop of wine every now and again (ok probably more than that but who's counting?!)  I don't profess to know everything about wine, but I know what I like.  And sometimes it's great to have suggestions made to you about wines that you may have never thought of trying, or even knew about.

My husband, Joe, is a wine buff and knows all the technical terminology, so every now and again you might see him guest posting here at Uber Cellar Door.

We are both passionate about boutique Australian vineyards.  Wines that you just don't find in bottleshops as they don't have the funds, nor quantity, to sell to the big boys.  Yes, you have to PAY to sell your wines in some of the larger chain bottleshops.

These wines are equal in quality and more often than not better than some of the bigger vineyards.  Small vineyards don't use presevatives and additives which means little or no headaches the next morning, that's your bonus right there!

Recently we went to the Gold Coast Food and Wine Show, and sampled some amazing wines, and I may or may not have come home with a bottle or 2 or 3!

One of my favourites which I fell in love with last year is the Goddess Sparkling Pink Moscato.  And blow me down with a feather the gorgeous lady remembered me from last year! Now that's customer service.

Goddess comes from Cherry Tree Hill, a cool climate vineyard located in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, run by the Lorentz family for over 30 years.

"The Goddess Sparkling Pink Moscato is a fun summer wine. It is a universal lifestyle beverage ideal for the family barbeque, great at party events, or comfortable at brunch events. This nouveau style wine is created from premium Australian Merlot and Muscat of Alexandria grapes. The finished wine is carbonated via the traditional French Charmat process. It has a lifted intense strawberry and cherry nose and a refreshing bubbly palate. Enjoy as an aperitif on ice or on its own on a summer afternoon."

Basically what they are saying is that it's very versatile and light which you can drink either on it's own or with a meal.  For those that love a sweet little wine with a some bubbles then this is for you.  I've had it over ice as well, on really hot days, and it's quite refreshing. 

I find it a great alternative to champagne or sparkling wine, and Moscato is actually my girlfriends and mine choice of drink at the moment!

Make sure you check them out as they have other wonderful award winning wines.

So what's your favourite wine at the moment?

Craving Caffeine {piccolo latte}

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Piccolo is an Italian word and translates to English as "little".  So essentially a Piccolo Latte is a small version of a latte, with one point of difference.

It's made with a ristretto shot of coffee. 

So what's a ristretto?

A ristretto shot, is a shot of espresso that is stopped early.  It has less water running through the coffee resulting in a higher ratio of caffeine and oil which gives a stronger flavour.

Basically it's an espresso for the coffee geeks and snobs out there!  One of which is my darling Husband.  His espresso of choice is either a short black or piccolo.  He takes great joy finding new cafes and asking for a ristretto shot.  It's his way of testing them to see if they know their trade!  And boy have we found a fabulous new espresso bar, one word, AMAZING.  But more on them in next weeks edition.

If you are in the mood for a smooth tasting strong espresso with a little milk, then the piccolo is just for you.

Let me know if you've tried one.

Uber Celebrations {my own dessert tables}

I love styling parties, have done it since I was in primary school.  I clearly remember styling my 21st birthday celebration and ending up in tears as I just didn't want tupperware bowls for the chips!! Thank goodness for my sister Jeanette calming me down.  Again the perfectionist in me rearing it's ugly little head, have tamed it somewhat since then!

These are pictures of a small Dessert Table I put together for my own birthday last year with my girlfriends.  I made all the goodies, love baking!  Forgive the not so perfect pictures, they were taken in a huge rush minutes before the first guest arrived.

salted caramel tarts

chocolate brownies with mint cream cheese frosting

chocolate pops on a stick
(ps my gorgeous Mr 13 made the stand for me!)

white chocolate mud cake with chocolate frosting
I love good old fashioned icing and frosting, not a big fan of fondant personally

gorgeous flowers I picked up at the local market in the morning

the completed table
second to the right are the baked mini cheesecakes
first on the left are vanilla cupcakes with crushed oreo frosting

I love keeping things simple, even on dessert and lolly tables.  You don't have to go overboard to make an impression and you don't have to make everything on the table.  The key is too enjoy and have fun with the process.

So this leads me to Monday posts.....

Each Monday is PARTY MONDAY! This is where I will show pictures of sweets tables that I have styled,  hints and tips to create your own stylish table and drum roll please as this is where YOU come in ......... featuring parties that you have styled and created!

Yep that's right I want to show off your skills and talents, a day that you created and styled for your loved one.

So get onto it and email your submission HERE.

Can't wait to see all the party gorgeousness you ladies (and gents) come up with!

Piquing My Pinterst {the white board edition}

White...is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black...God paints in many colours; but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white. - G. K. Chesterton

White projects purity, cleanliness, neutrality and enables fresh beginings. 

It affects us physically in that it aides thinking, clarity, clearing of  clutter, cleanses negative thoughts,

can help with insomnia and even menstrual cycles! 



white paint is the highest selling colour



 And yes WHITE is my favoutie colour (well it's not considerd a colour but hey!) for interior design and furnishings, oh and my car!  I love the freshness and versatility of white and it really highlights your chosen accent colour.

 white on white, simple and elegant

white photos frames on a white wall,

broken up with a single black chair and mat

old suitcase is painted white and serves as a bedside table

white dressing table on white floor boards

white ruffled curtain

my favourite combo white with accent colour of green, so fresh



All these pictures can be found on The White Board on Pinterest. 

You can follow all my boards here.

If you haven't joined up to Pinterest yet I'd love to send you and invite,

just let me know via email and one will be on it's way to you!

 Linking up with the lovely Tina Gray {dot} Me for another edition of Piquing My Pinterest.

Are you a fan of white, if not what's your favourite colour?

Ten Questions

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Oh how I love Dr Seuss, first books I read to my son when he was a Bub, but onto the ten questions!

I love these tagging games when fellow Bloggers tag you to answer the questions.  It allows us to open up to your the reader, so you can get to know us better.  I've been tagged by Peggy from Cake Crumbs and Beach Sand one of my favourite bloggers, these are her answers to the questions.

describe yourself in seven words

mother, loyal, compassionate, family, friend, caring and loving

what keeps you up at night

fear and worry,  I'm a born worrier, but am learning to live in the now and not in the past or present, and it's making a huge difference

who would you like to be

an equal combination of my Grandma and Nanny, two of the most amazing fiercely loving women I have ever known, I wouldn't be who I am without either of them in my life

what are you wearing right now

casual 'house' clothes

what scares me

loss of love and respect from family and friends, equal to that is my depression which at its worst really scared me, thankfully it's under control now but the potential to go back to that dark place terrifies me

what are the best and worst things about blogging

best

as I've said in a previous post  the comaraderie without a doubt, talking to other like minded women.  you get to know when they are having a down day, and just a quick word of encouragement really spurs them or you on, plus celebrating their acheivements.  for me none of my friends are on FaceBook that much, and not one of them does Pinterest, Instagram (my two favs!) or Twitter, the horror I know! so I get to enjoy these with fellow bloggers and readers.

worst

as yet (touch wood) I haven't had any bad experiences with blogging.  I can be too hard on myself though tyring to get a blogging schedule happening, but after the death of my Grandmother earlier this year I had to listen to what my heart and body was saying in that I needed to slow down my pace for just a little while, to re-focus.

what was the last website you visited

no websites today but I just read Eden's last blog over at Eden Land

what is the one thing you would change about yourself

like the majority of women where does one begin?! number one without question is too loose weight, pretty standard answer really isn't it? so I'm going to bypass that one.  I think in the last 12 months I've changed quite a bit, for the better, I will now speak up for myself if I need to, I'm stonger and more focused on what makes me and my family happy.  but the one thing I'd like to learn more is too stop being such a perfectionist, it's the dam Virgo in me and it does my head in at times!

tell us something about the person that tagged you

peggy's blog was one of the very first I started reading when I entered the blogging world.  our blogs are both designed by the fabulous Sass from Moo Zoo Designs, so Peggy's was one of the ones I liked in terms of layout and design.  But I think regardless of that I would have eventually stumbled upon her blog.

we are both mother's of one gorgeous boy, perhaps that's what drew me in intially, as so many blogs are about multiple children families! once I started reading I loved that she wrote from the heart in such a joyous positive way.  loving that I get excitied and passionate about vegetarian food, she makes it look sooo good! and we both love photography.  so many things in common but she's all the way in WA!



the fun part continues! now I get to tag five awsome bloggers so they in turn carn share ten things about themselves, I tag:

Seven Cherubs love love Naomi's blog! I discovered firstly her FB page over a year ago and then her blog.  I'm drawn to her deep honesty, compassion and positive approach to life.

Suger Coat It you'll note Melissa sense of humour immediately!  she's super passionate about life and the blogging world, learnt so much from her already without even meeting her YET :)  love her sense of fashion, she wears gorgeous colours, something that I need to learn to do and move away from black black and more black....

Eat Read Love doesn't the name just get you in already?! Natalie's blog is super gorgeous, full of images of food, places, homewares and books of course.  Really enjoying reading about her finds of tucked away cafes and restaurants, plus did I mention HOMEWARES?! My ulitmate downfall, my Mr 13 will always walk between me and a homewares shop so I DON'T go in haha :)

Life Love and Hiccups another one of my fav's from my entry into the blogging world.  Sonia's blog is cheeky and full of life with an excellent sense of humour, feel like I know her personally! love it that she loves to embarrass her boys, something we have in common hehe (always in a good Mumma way though!) cheers!

Crash Test Mummy what brought me over to Laney's blog? her love of a good wine, just like me!  that and the fact her blog is full of funny mummy and life moments :)

love for you to check out these blogs if you haven't already.

What it means to SHINE

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I came across a wonderful new page on FB yesterday called Shine, a place where women in biz can celebrate their success and showcase their businesses.  A fun exciting format.  It's the brainchild of a woman that I have been a fan of for over a year now, Karen Gunton from Build a Little Biz.

Karen put out a challenge to write about what it means to shine as a woman, in busiess or whatever you would like to write about.

So here goes.....

I've been in business before owning a large franchised coffee store, so I know full well the implications in your life from being a business owner.  For me it sucked the life and soul out of me, and now more than 12 months later from moving on from the business I think I'm getting back to my normal self, well I'd like to think that I am anyway!

But this isn't about the negatives it's about moving forward and once again SHINING!

I'm don't want to talk about shining as a Mum, Wife, Daugther, Neice, Aunt or Cousin.  I want to talk about shining as a WOMAN, because sometimes that gets lost.

When we moved on from the business I was lost in very dark place, I was 40 and really didn't know what I wanted to do or be.  I had girlfriends saying I should really follow interior design as it's been a passion of mine for a long time, but somehow that didn't feel right.  Then I dabbled in party and event styling, another area that I love, but again that just didn't seem right.  Perhaps I pushed myself to hard and to quick in the hope of finding what I wanted to do and in turn really lost my way.

I lost my shine, sparkle and zest for life.

I wasn't waving I was drowning and needed to STOP.  So I did just that, I stopped everything and gave myself a chance to heal.  Something I should have done right from the very begining. 

Learning just to be still allowed me to find myself again.  In that time I discovered some amazing blogs.  Fabulous women writing and talking about everything from food, the mundane, life and love just to name a few.  I felt a sense of comaraderie.  A place where women were understood. 

This is where I needed to be at this point in my life and my blog was born.

For me SHINING as a woman is allowing you to love yourself, the good the bad and the ugly!  If we can take that onboard and stop being so hard on ourselves (and others) we can free up so much negative energy, and that's when you allow yourself to not only shine but SPARKLE.



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We need to embrace and celebrate women in business cause they're doing a dam fine job!

I really look forward to following theses women in business and watching them SHINE!

follow Shine on

FACEBOOK

WEBSITE

WHAT'S ONE THING THAT MAKES YOU SHINE AS A WOMAN

OR A WOMAN IN BUSINESS?

The Week That Was

It was a week of our lives getting back to normal.

As most of you know I spent the majority of January in Canberra with my Grandmother, during her final days of terminal melanoma and then her funeral. I've been lucky enough to have all my Grandparents into my adult life and was very close to all four of them. But Nanny passing I can't put it into words, it seems surreal.

But this was a week settling back into routine.

My son loves his sport so with the summer season of baseball nearing the end of its season he has made his choice of winter sport. Last year it was winter baseball down in Lismore, this year he's decided to have a break and go back to Rugby! And is his Mother a little scared?! Hell yeah! Some of these boys are HUGE! Now my boy isn't tiny, he's a front rower but these other boys are giants!

So with the cross over of the two sports he's training four days a week after school. Then on Thursday he had try outs at school for the touch team. Getting into the car after school the poor boy could hardly walk!

But he loves it and is loving school and the subjects he has chosen, so we're off to a great start.

I settled back into the routine of my week. On top of my agenda is getting a blogging schedule happening!

I'm a self confessed neat freak, so I was surprised with myself that I had amassed what was to me a great deal of clutter in my office. We've been in our new home for just on a year so when I was tidying up my 'lady cave' and making it more girly I came across more clutter than what I would like so things were turfed to the bin and crafting supplies given to my nephews!

The weekend bought my gorgeous man's birthday. We celebrated with his Mum, Dad, Sister and her Hubby on Friday night. Last night we had a BBQ with our closest friends. You know the friends that are so special you can't put into words? One super special family was missing though struck down with the dreaded gastro! Lots of laughs were had and just as much wine was consummed.

Today has been a very relaxed family day getting ready for another busy week ahead.

Wishing you all a great week!

Banana Bread

A simple but oh so yummy banana bread!

Preparation Time

15 minutes

Cooking Time

50 minutes

Makes

1 loaf

Ingredients

serves 10

• 1 3/4 cups self raising flour
• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 milk
• 2 eggs lightly whisked
• 50g butter, melted and cooled
• 2 overripe bananas mashed

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush an 11 x 21cm (base measurement) loaf pan with melted butter to lightly grease. Line the base and 2 opposite sides with non-stick baking paper, allowing it to overhang.

Sift the combined flours and cinnamon into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and make a well in the centre. Place the milk, eggs, melted butter and banana in a medium bowl, and stir until well combined. Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface.

Bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from oven and set aside in the pan for 5 minutes. Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into slices to serve.

Notes

This banana bread will keep in an airtight container out of direct sunlight for up to 3 days. Alternatively, place in an airtight container and freeze for up to 1 month. Place in the fridge overnight to thaw.

I ran out of baking paper so just greased and floured the tin and it slid out easily.

The cupboard was bare of ground cinnamon so I used cinnamon sugar instead, this didn't alter the taste.

 

Best served warm just out of the oven with a side of butter!
And extra special served on my Grandmother's plate and using her knife.

Recipe Credit

All images taken by Uber Simplicity.

 

Do you have a favourite Banana Bread recipe?

Piquing My Pinterest {word edition}

Today is a really flat day for me.  Still grappling and coming to terms that my beloved Nanny is in Heaven.  And that all four of my Grandparents have gone.  For me this is hard, I was close to all four of them.

So today's Piquing My Pinterest is about prints and prose that really inspired me this week.  Pretty sure my Wise Words board is my biggest!



my Hubby who is my rock and strength



my son who's happiness and joy constantly inspire me

a very wise Spanish Proverb





sometimes we forget it's the little things than can make us the most happy

remember the little voice



a few wise words from the wonderful Maya Angelou

acceptance is the key to moving forward

 life is short be a wonderful part of it

All these pictures can be found on my Wise Words Board on Pinterest. 

You can follow all my boards here.

If you haven't joined up to Pinterest yet I'd love to send you and invite,

just let me know via email and one will be on it's way to you!

 Linking up with the lovely Tina Gray {dot} Me for another edition of Piquing My Pinterest.

 

Do you have a favourite quote or poem that inspires you?