The last week has felt like a blur. {You can catch me on Instagram here to see what I am up too} A blur of a constantly messy kitchen, piled up dishes, fluffing with plates of food, placating a fussy child pulling on my leg as I try to prepare another dish to photograph, dirty nappies, snotty noses (not mine) and grubby fingers but sprinkled throughout the mayhem has been some highlighted moments. Gorgeous smiles, sweet baby chatter, cuddles (albeit short ones), LONG naps (not for me unfortunately) and thank God for long hot baths (for me)!

I have started on another freelance job with Lose Baby Weight photographing a special summer recipe book along with a bunch of smoothies for them as well. I am really enjoying the creative outlet that this brings but I really wish I had a someone to clean up and wash the dishes for me at the end of the day. A dishwasher can only do so much and someone has to put it in there first to get clean. Poor hubby comes home sometimes to a piled up sink full of dirty dishes facing him. Probably not the most welcoming of sights after a long days work. The perks of photographing all this yummy food has been the leftovers that we have been able to enjoy after the days shoot. Some of the recipes this week have been scrumptious prawn skewers, quinoa salad, chicken and mango kebabs and a delicious chicken burger you can see at the top of the post. Hubby enjoyed that for lunch on Saturday and rated it quite highly. Because all the food it very healthy and low calorie we have found we have benefited from a few less kilograms gracing our bodies - Hubby especially. I think he is the lowest weight he has been our whole 7 years being married. No winter kilos creeping up in this house at the moment. The only downside to it all is they are Summer recipes and some nights all I want to wrap my hands around is a warm bowl of hot soup but there is salad in the fridge needing to be eaten so it's that instead.

Bevan has been working slowly on our laundry makeover as I mentioned in my last post and managed to get the cabinetry installed over the long weekend just gone. The room is shaping up nicely and I cannot wait until it is all finished. I just want to be able to wash my clothes without having to step around hammers, sawdust, paint and glue. There is still a ways to go yet with the some plastering and painting needing to be done, tiling the splash back and attaching architraves and fixtures. I will do a full post on when it is finished but thought you might enjoy a sneak peak of it below.

I managed to find time in what seems like a never ending battle to fit everything I need to do in a single day to finish this chair I have been working on below. I started it a few months ago now and wanted it done and ready to sell. I painted the frame and re-upholstered the cushions with a cute french print fabric. I will do a full post on the finished product too when I have a spare minute to take a breath!

Another bit of news that has happened to me this week is that I have been picked in the Top 5 for the Best Home Chef competition. I am flying down to Sydney this coming Wednesday to participate in a cook off against the other contestants. The chef mentor s selected a dish for each of us to cook from the recipes we entered. I was selected to cook my Fig and Almond Frangipane Tart. So I have been practicing the dish this weekend to perfect and problems it may have and to refresh my memory of the dish. I will be posting the progress of my trip on Instagram so pop on over and follow me to see what I am up to and how the whole event goes!