Marit's World

There's nothing like family

2010-03-21T22:55:00.000-07:00

We were so lucky to be able to have my mum over from Norway for a visit a few weeks back. The visit only lasted two weeks, but we all had a ball, and Charlie loved having his "mormor" here.
It also gave us some excuses for a few outings.

There is lots of fun things to do at the playground in Tailem Bend, which is a little country town by the River Murray. These big lumps provided plenty of entertainment (and a decent biceps work-out).

The full size locomotive was also a big hit (although very, very hot).

Any spiders in there?

And nothing says holiday like crystal clear water and sand between you toes....

and we always find an excuse for lunch at our favourite cafe Zest, just off Jetty rd in Glenelg.

Unfortunatelly, all visits must come to an end, and on Thursday 11th I had to take mum back to the airport. But we had a great time for as long as it lasted, and Charlie got to spend lots of time with his mormor again.

Yes, yes...

2010-03-21T07:57:00.000-07:00

I know, I know... I have been a very neglectful blogger over the last two months. It's been a mix of many things really. We decided to drop Charlie down to only 3 days a week at child care, which means that I'm slightly more busy during my days (nights) off work, but in a good way, as I get to spend time with my awesome little boy. I've also been a lot more tired lately, which is due to to the fact that...

I'm PREGNANT!!

Currently 11 weeks and 2 days, with a due date in October
We are so excited about adding to our family, and Charlie can't wait to be a big brother. So I'll have plenty to blog about over the next 29 weeks and beyond, and I can't wait to share the journey with you all.

Photo Tag

2010-01-13T07:05:00.000-08:00

The gorgeous Cat at All Cats are Grey at Night tagged me in a photo tag on her blog, so now I will carry the game on. Here's what you do...

Photo tag:

The Rules -

1. Open your 1st photo folder

2. Scroll to the 10th picture

3. Post the photo and the story behind it

4. Tag 5 people

This photo was taken at Lisa (Ben's cousin) and Jon's wedding last year. The wedding was on the beach at Port Elliott. It was such a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine (luckily since it was raining in Adelaide that day).

For the next part of this game, I have tagged some blogs I follow.

http://superorganizer.blogspot.com/
http://bells-kitchen.blogspot.com/
http://eyesbiggerthanbelly.blogspot.com/
http://snowflakethatmeltsyourheart.blogspot.com/
http://karirasmussen.blogg.no/

Keep the game going.

Some Charlie photos

2009-12-20T05:36:00.000-08:00

Just because I can, I'll show you some cute photos that I took of Charlie last weekend. We were having Christmas drinks at Julie's (aunties house), and Charlie was having a ball playing for hours in the spa.

My happy little boy!

Just checking to see if the hair is still there. Looking very cool with his spikes.

Get ready....to Wiggle

2009-12-19T23:42:00.000-08:00

On the 4th of December The Wiggles held their concerts here in Adelaide. Charlie has loved them since he was about 6 months old, so when some friends were organizing tickets, I decided that we should go as well. The concert was at the Entertainment Centre, which was packed full of excited children for the occasion. This year was all about circus, which meant there was lots of acrobatics and funny things to watch, all to the catchy tunes from The Wiggles. There was even a big trampoline in the middle of the stage!

Everyone was wiggling to the music and both kids and adults had an absolute ball.

Picnic with the girls

2009-11-23T04:49:00.000-08:00

When planning my wedding, I came across an australian bridal forum online www.beyondthebride.com.au the help I got in the lead up to the big day was great, when the sister forum Beyond the Baby started, we all jumped over there too. A few of us Adelaide girls catch up every so often. So for an excuse to meet again, we decided it was a good idea to have a pre Christmas picnic.

There were plenty of gorgeous bumps

And a beautiful bub

And both kids and adults enjoyed some cake. A wonderful day in other words. Now to think of an excuse to do it again :)

I can sing a rainbow too

2009-11-21T03:27:00.000-08:00

After days of melting away in the sun, the cool change finally came, and brought with it some much needed rain. Together of course, sun and rain makes rainbows, which brings me to the subject of my post.

For my Wilton class today our project was to make a rainbow themed cake decorated with buttercream.
The cake was a vanilla sponge, filled with a passion fruit custard, and then covered with a layer of lemon buttercream. The decorating was done in class. As the cake was to be for a baby forum picnic, I chose to use pastel colours for a light summery feel, and with pink, yellow, green and blue, both gener specific and gender neutral colours were represented.

Bon appetite girls. Hope you enjoy it!

And it's Hot Hot Hot...

2009-11-19T04:00:00.000-08:00

Summer is well and truly upon us, with everything that comes with it. The mercury has climbed above 40 degrees (celsius), the first heat wave has been and gone, and everyone are doing their best to keep cool. The beach being a definite favourite, especially with Charlie.

Unfortunately, summer in Australia also brings with it the terrifying reality of bush fires. The Black Saturday fires in Victoria in February 2009 was the worst in australian history, and 173 people died. This week, South Australia has seen temperatures in the high 40s, and the seasons first bush fires started on the York Peninsula.
So here's my plea to everyone. Get ready for the bush fire season, clear you gardens, have a plan, and be ready to leave your house on a moments notice. We don't want to see another Black Saturday, we don't have anyone too lose.

A day in my life - hour by hour

2009-11-07T21:59:00.000-08:00

This is an idea I heard about thought Catherine, the author of the blog http://allcatsaregrayatnight.blogspot.com and is something that has been going around in the world of blogging for a while. All you need to do is to take a photo every hour for one day, and then blog about it. It's a bit like a fancy photo diary really. So here you go, welcome to a day in the life of me.

Saturday 7th November 2009

09.00: Breakfast. Crisp bread with tomato, cucumber, green alfalfa and ham, and a nice cup of camomile tea.

10.00: Charlie comes running in "mummy mummy, come and see, I've put the animals to bed".

11.00: "One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish" by Dr Seuss

12.00: We're down the beach, and Charlie has found some gorgeous "treasures" in the sand.

13.00: We've just had lunch, and are now eating chocolate donuts, at nanna and pop's house.

14.00: Relaxing in Bill and Julie's garden

15.00: We put Teddy to bed, and Charlie is making him a picture.

16.00: Relaxing with this weeks New Idea magazine.

17.00: Charlie is exhausted and has fallen asleep in the chair

18.00: Watching The Simpsons on TV

19.00: Just got into the car. Going to video store to rent some dvds.

20.00: Watching "The Duchess". I just adore Keira Knightley.

21.00: Eating Toblerone while watching the movie. yum yum yum

And that was my day. Hope you enjoyed this little insight. Now it's your turn!

Pretty in Pink

2009-11-07T04:51:00.000-08:00

I'm what you can classify as a pink girl. I love pink, and it always make me feel happy. So when the order came for wedding cake with the theme pink and silver, it was almost too good to be true.

The cake was for the wedding of Samantha and Marcus, and they wanted a square, three tier cake to serve about 90 guests. We decided on a dense, rich chocolate mud cake, with soft pink icing and hot pink trimmings to match the theme, and with silver as the accenting colour.

We wanted the cake to be totally edible, so for decoration we went with silver coloured, sugar beads as the main feature on the cake. To break it up a bit I decided to use royal icing in the same shade of pink as the sugar paste for the second tier. The effect was great, and the design was beyond approved by an excited bride at pick up time.

Samantha and Marcus, I wish you all the happiness in the world. Happy wedding day!

A wonderful day out

2009-11-06T03:29:00.000-08:00

A 30 degree day in Adelaide, is the perfect day to spend outside. Especially when you get to spend it with your favourite boy, and good friends. So today we went to Adelaide Botanical Garden, in the city.

This huge tree made a great "playground" for Charlie. It's huge massive system provided hours of fun, and with a child's imagination, who needs fancy toys. The twigs on the ground became fishing rods....

and the roots made an amazing mountain.

We were joined by my friend Rhiannon, who brought her two kids, Bailey and little baby Kara. Bailey and Charlie had so much fun together. They found plenty of sticks, and used them to play the drums on the trees, and dig for bugs in the ground.

Gorgeous little Kara, only 3.5 weeks old, slept through most of the day, and lucky as I was, I got to cuddle her for most of the afternoon too :)

Of course there is no better end to the day then with chocolate paddle pops at the kiosk. The faces just says it all. Thank you for a wonderful day Rhiannon!

Wedding cake project

2009-10-30T20:49:00.001-07:00

For my big wedding cake project this week, the order is for a three tier chocolate mud cake with soft pink icing.

It takes a lot of ingredients to make a cake that size, and I've also discovered that the biggest cake I can make in my KitchenAid mixer is a 10 inch square.

The last tier will be made today, and over the next few days I will start the decorating process. And I will of course post about the finished product.

Wedding cupcakes

2009-10-23T22:30:00.001-07:00

As I was already making vanilla cupcakes today, I took a few aside to practice on. Made a pink Glace icing, and decorated with little edible silver pearls which went really well with the silver foil casing. I could definitely see those on a stand for a wedding.

Vanilla Cupcakes

2009-10-23T22:02:00.001-07:00

Found some awesome cupcake paper on special at General Traders the other day, so when Charlie ordered cupcakes (see previous post) I knew I had to test them out. I also bought two moulds, a frangipani and a little rose, so made some flowers out of some leftover sugar paste and coloured them pink.. Quite pleased with the overall result, and they tasted great too.

New Toy

2009-10-23T03:05:00.000-07:00

I remember that when I was little I used to love it when mum got out her kitchen stand mixer. Because the mixer meant there was a cake coming, and I always got to lick the bowl afterwards. Now, as an adult with a love of baking, I can really see the how these stand mixers would come in handy, and for the good part of the year I've been drooling over the KitchenAid Artisan one.

I just love the retro look of them, and the fact that they make cake making so much easier. So after having thought about it long and hard, yesterday I decided to have a look at the shops to see what I could find. I went to a few different places, none of which had anything even remotely close to what I was after. Then... there it was... starring at me from the shelf at David Jones. There was only one left in the store, and the girl kindly took $70 off the price for me, so I bought it.

So now it's sitting on my kitchen bench, all shiny and new, just waiting to be used. Charlie has ordered cupcakes tomorrow. Can't wait to make them!

My family

2009-10-21T15:20:00.000-07:00

I though I'd take this opportunity to introduce the members of my family, considering I'll most likely mention them over the course of my blogging, and it would be nice for everyone to know who I'm talking about.

This is us. Ben, Charlie and me. Ben and I have been married for 8 months today, and I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. The photo was taken while on our familymoon (meaning a honeymoon with a child) to Bali in June this year.

This is my side of the family. From left to right we've got my dad, (Ben and I of course), my mum, and my siblings, Siri, Ida and Jonas. They all came over from Norway to celebrate our wedding with us. My dad, Oyvind, used to be a pilot, but unfortunately had to give up his license due to an illness, he has also done some radio programs. My mum, Nina, is a Principal for a year 8-10 school in Oslo, Norway, she's also been a teacher at the same school since I was about 1 or 2 years old. My sister, Siri (25), is educated as a ballet teacher, she is also the coach for Norway's national team in cheer-dance who got bronze at the last world championship. My sister Ida (16) is a high-school student, and works for a pet shop. And my brother Jonas (17), is

also in high-school.

This is my youngest brother, Mathias. He is 13 and could unfortunately not come to Australia with the others. This photo is from May 2008, when Charlie and I went over to Norway to visit. Mathias is a year 8 student, and he is very good at making animation movies.

This is Ben's side of the family. from left we've got Julie (Ben's mum), Bill (Ben's dad), Simon, and on the far right is Abby. Julie, work in the school system helping vision impaired kids, Bill is a butcher, Simon has just started work as a landscaper, and Abby is a high-school student and works at Boost Juice.

So now you know my family. They are a good bunch of people, and I'm sure to mention them several times in my blog.

A day out

2009-10-18T00:27:00.000-07:00

After weeks of pouring rain and storms, we finally got some proper spring weather. With a forecasted 20 degrees and sunny, we decided to go for a nice long drive.

Our first stop was Mount Bold reservoir in the Adelaide Hills.

We have been at Mt Bold a few times before, but this is the first time we have actually seen it at 100% capacity, which is promising going into summer. Everything was so green, and it was just beautiful.

The view from the top of the dam is just amazing. There's a nice big drop straight down, and down the bottom is a suspension bridge over the river. We've never been down there before, so decided to go for a look. It was pretty steep, and many steps, but Charlie was so good, and walked the whole way, although he needed a little help to get back up again.

Because of all the recent rain, it was so beautiful and green. There were flowers everywhere, and even the normally dry creeks were full of water. And since I love taking photos of flowers, I just had to snap one of these little cuties, blossoming just next to the stairs.

We saw plenty of animals too. A few kangaroos relaxing by the water, and just after our little stop we spotted this emu just next to the road. Charlie however, was much more interested in the two little duckies that were walking just next to it....

Our next stop was at Meningie, a little town by Lake Albert. We grabbed some lunch, and sat down next to the playground, meaning we could relax, while Charlie could run wild.

Charlie had a ball. With swings, a "rocking horse", and slippery-dips, how can you go wrong? He even found another little boy, also named Charlie, to play with.

We had a wonderful day together, and after all that fresh air, I'm sure all of us will definitely sleep very well tonight.

A little sweet-tooth

2009-10-14T16:29:00.000-07:00

I LOVE to bake and decorate cakes! The funny thing is that I only discovered cake decorating just before Christmas last year. Just thought it would be fun to make a Christmas themed cake for the family party, so off I went and bought a big, fat, book. I ended up buying two square fruit cakes and some sugar paste, and sat down with my book, ready to be inspired. This was the first time I had ever used sugar paste (or fondant) on a cake, and the result wasn't too bad.

Since then, I've jumped at any occasion to make a cake (I normally bake them, I just didn't have enough time to make a proper fruit cake). I found plenty of videos on YouTube, and started learning more about how to work with the fondant, and all the things you can make with it..flowers, figures, plaques etc! The list seems almost endless.

These were the first flowers I ever made. They were made out of marzipan, and wasn't too hard to make when using a five petal cutter. Was pretty pleased with the result, at least since it was the first time trying. I was also trying out different ways of colouring sugar paste, and for this one I tried to get a marble effect going. A bit hard to see in the photo, but it's there.

When Charlie turned 3, and was asked what he wanted for his birthday, the answer was simple,"A rocketship cake, mummy!". And as he didn't ask for anything else, what can a mum do but to make said cake. I searched the internet to find some inspiration, and found a photo of a perfect cake, made by using a footy shaped tin. Once the design was settled upon, the rest wasn't too hard. I went to my favourite cake supply store, and rented the tin for $3. I used a normal chocolate cake recipe (all kids love chocolate cake), and baked the cake without much too much problems... I did however try a choc mud recipe first, that ended up getting stuck in the tin, so I ended up having to line it, and I also changed to the normal choc cake, as the mud cake was bit to unstable for the shape. The second attempt worked perfectly. I coloured the sugarpaste blue, and covered the cake using some sugar syrup as "glue". The flames, smoke and stars were made from royal icing (and I did correct the slightly uneven fire after the photo was taken), while the legs and "glass" on the windows were cardboard covered in foil. Everything else, including the little astronaut was made from sugarpaste.

The cake was a great success, and Charlie still talks about his "rocketship birthday".

My very first blog

2009-10-13T14:37:00.000-07:00

Hi, I'm Marit, and this is my very first blog!

I'm a norwegian who, packed up her things and moved half way across the world to study nursing at a university in Adelaide, South Australia. Little did I know that I would find love, have a baby, get married and actually stay here.

My husband is Ben, a born and bred aussie, who I met after 1 year in Australia. We got married in February 2009 at Mclaren Vale, South Australia. A perfect day that we got to share with all the people we love.

In 2006 we had our little boy, Charlie. He is now 3 years old, with plenty of energy and lots of questions about how the world works.

Other then my family, and my job as a nurse, I love to travel, which is of course how I ended up in Australia in the first place. Some of my favourite destinations are, London, Singapore and Bali, and of course my home country, Norway. And I'm very happy that I've infected Ben with my travel bug. Hopefully we'll have many incredible destinations ahead of us.