New addition to kitchen appliances

Our not so new but new to us Chinese Red Docle Gusto Machine! ;D

We have inherited a coffee machine from the Bernardo who works for Nestle on Sunday. They actually offered the machine to us before Christmas last year but there wasn't any place at that time to put it.

Now its sitting near our dinning table above my sewing drawers. Its a Dolce Gusto machine and not the Nespresso. Good thing as well, as we could make other drinks besides coffee. But then again, I don't think I'll be using it THAT often unless we have people over. Reason being the capsules are rather expensive to purchase on daily basis. A box of 16 capsules of decaffe Caffè Lungo would costs me CHF6.40. The same price for cappuccino light (8 cofffe & 8 milk capsules each). So for the moment, I'll stick to my Italiano stove top cafetiere and my battery operated milk frother for every day use....

Perhaps when mum comes over this Saturday, I'll give her a treat. She's such a coffee drinker! hahahahahaa....

Being 3.....

I'm now 3!

Owen had his 3rd birthday party on Saturday. His actual birth date is on 11th June, and he shares the same birth date as June of NNC! ;) Now more the reason NOT to forget June's special day eh? *wink*wink

We just had a small gathering with some close friends as our families aren't technically able to be here. We have limited entertaining space at home and we don't really entertain that often. So whenever we have friends over he'll get so excited that he'll forgo his afternoon nap!

Spidey cake!

There's Carmen & her boy, Jules; the Bernardos: Cheche, Tony & Regina, the Kuntz: Nina, Andreas and their little princess, Emily and a long time uni friend, Azni. The weather was cloudy but still really warm and thank goodness it didn't rain! We had a little barbecue, with our electric grill of course, on our balcony. As usual hubs man the grill.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OUR SWEET BOY!

Look! Even Grandpa Tony is helping.... ;)

BTW, what's with men and grill? Perhaps its the ONLY time to show off their "cooking" abilities? I've notice how men tend to LOVE grilling meat over fire (even on electric grill!!). I think its genetics or due to our ancestral heritage OR they could be reminiscing about their camping days?

Any ways, we got him a Spiderman cake. I seriously do not have the patience to decorate cakes, although I'd like to learn the basics next time. So this time round, I ordered it from a Filipino friend who makes really gorgeous birthday cakes at home. LOVE the marshmallow icing and cake as it wasn't too heavy nor too sweet. But we did ended up with blueish/pinkish teeth/mouth! LOL!

It really felt like it was yesterday when he was born. How time flies! And now with him being fully toilet trained (day time and no need reminding. YAY!) before his 3rd birthday, I really hope that he keeps up his good work and then we could be able to rid off his night time diapers as well. He'll be going to school/kindergarten next year at 4, which is hard to believe for myself. I guess we'll better take advantage of having short breaks/holidays out of school holidays BEFORE September 2011.

My cuppa

Toasted English muffins with cappuccino.... heaven!

Cappuccino (decaf of course!) happens to be just the thing for a sunny morning like today. I do not have a machine, we don't drink enough coffee to buy one and plus there's just no place in the kitchen for another hardly use bulky thing. So what I bought a year ago was a 1 cup coffee percolator also known as Moka Pot. Why 1 cup? Hubs is not really a coffee drinker, will only drink coffee while driving long distance.... LOL!

My cute moka pot with its tall frother

So I got that and also a battery operated milk frother. Having worked at coffee shops (no, not like the ones in Netherlands!) during internships and part-time jobs, basically learned a little about making milk foams that could make a toothpick stand manually. Which is taking cold milk, pour it into a steel jug, turn on the "arm" of the coffee machine full and then steam the milk in the jug by just making sure the tip is just below the surface. Full cream milk creates the best froth. And if you're using a battery operated one like mine, make sure the milk is warm enough and just put the tip of the frother into the milk and froth away! :D Btw, you'll need a container that is tall enough as frothing milk could rise up....

Big, plum and juicy strawberries

Since we're having spring at the moment, strawberries are abundant now and we're eating them almost every week. I think I'll buy some more today to make strawberry compote (sauce) for that bucket of vanilla ice-cream in the freezer..... Can't wait till end of June though. That's when we're having cherries!

Home of a Needle Worker (too!) - FINISHED!

Mental note: need to polish up photo taking skills....

Hurray! I actually finished it a few days ago but didn't really had the time to blog about it. I could say this piece is actually a very relaxing piece to do. Made some changes to the house and also the spool of thread. At 1st I wanted to change the white heart into red but decide against it. Colour too clashing and so I left it as it is.

Recently hubs was asking me what am I going to do for work in the future and he suggested that I sell some of my work online. I was like; how much am I going to sell them? Do I have the time to do them with the kids? My workmanship to me is not that good to actually sell yet, and finally; I don't have a proper place where I could actually put all my stash and my finished work, AWAY from the kids.

Honestly, I really feel my stitching and sewing is not as good some friends I know from NNC. So doubt that anyone would buy beginners work as well... And then hubs mentioned something about buying our own place in the future and then I could have a work room to myself! That would be a dream come true if we EVER decide to buy....