Spring Break & Holly's House!

Hello friends and welcome to NatashaInOz.com Thanks so much for dropping by and visiting!

It's hard to believe that our Spring break is nearly over...it seems as though our two week vacation only started yesterday! I have had such a wonderful time with my family and our beach vacation was definitely the highlight. We did so many fun things I thought I might share some "Happy Snaps" of some of the activities we enjoyed.

The first week of our vacation was spent at our favourite place, Mooloolaba beach on the Sunshine Coast.

There are lots of things to do at Mooloolaba....

We had a wonderful time at Mooloolaba!

During the second week of our vacation Mr Attorney had to go back to work so Maddy, Big Al and I spent time visiting family and relaxing at home. We had a lovely day visiting my sister Holly and her family. She is 28 weeks pregnant-doesn't she look amazing!

Holly and John have been busy renovating their home and they have done an amazing job. John is a real handyman and has done much of the work himself. Here are some of the lovely things they have been doing:

This piano used to belong to us but my kids are now focussing on the Cello and Double Bass. Holly and John have added their own Shabby Chic touch to it and it looks fabulous!

Our parents used to own this old cabinet and it too received the shabby white treatment and looks fabulous in this little nook.

I would love to show you some more pictures but I think I will dedicate a whole blog post to their amazing renovation! In the meantime here is one last collage of a lovely party they had for their son Jasper's birthday.

So, as you can see, we have had a great Spring break. Now I am counting down to 8 weeks of summer vacation in December.

Woo hoo!

Well, I'm off to go and have a cup of tea and catch up on some TV. The kids are at some friend's houses so I'm going to watch some taped episodes of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and New York in peace and quiet!

Today I am linking to:

Open House Party; White Wednesday @ Faded Charm, Strut your Stuff, Treasure Hunt Thursday, Transformation Thursday, Hookin Up with HoH, Time Travel Thursday, Delightfully Inspiring Thursday Party,
Katherines Corner; Feathered Nest Friday; Common Ground's Vintage Inspiration Friday; Inspiration Friday; Tickled Pink; Pot Pourri Friday; Show and Tell Friday; Home Sweet Home; Fridays Unfoldeded; Feature yourself Friday,I'm Lovin' it Fridays with Tidy Mom;  Knick of Time Tuesday

I hope you will join me for this weekend's Say G'day Saturday Party! You can link up recipes, decorating ideas, gardening tips, tutorials, Pinterest inspired posts...anything that you would like to share with friends from all around the world!


Just click the button to join in and Link up!

Best wishes,

Natasha In Oz 

Say G'day Saturday Linky Party!

Hello my dear friends and welcome to a very late Say G'Day Saturday Linky Party! I was in the middle of typing up this post late last night and then the whole suburb was blacked out! Hardly anything saved so I have had to re-do the post this morning!

Oh well, as they say, better late than never!

I've been a very relaxed blogger this week as I have just had a wonderful week with my family at the beach. It  has been very difficult to get back into the swing of things and I'm sure that Mr Attorney is going to have an even harder time going back to work on Monday morning! 

The weather at Mooloolaba was sensational and we had a brilliant time relaxing at the beach every morning and afternoon.

We stayed at the beach-front apartments you can see below and the weather was like this every single day...it was glorious!

Say G'day Saturday Linky Party ~ Autumn!

Hello my dear friends and welcome to Natasha In Oz and welcome to another Say G'day Saturday Linky Party!

This week has been another busy one for our family. The kids have been busy with assessment and school commitments. They have also been counting down to their two week Spring Break which starts at approximately 3:05 today!!!  We are heading off to the beach for a couple of days and then we will be catching up with family and friends for the rest of the break.

We are also enjoying the gorgeous Spring weather Down Under! The days are getting longer and warmer and Mr Attorney has even been swimming in our pool! It's so strange to think that as we are warming up my friends "up north" are celebrating the arrival of autumn and are cooling down! Isn't the world an amazing place!

So, since I have already celebrated the arrival of Spring, I thought it would be nice to celebrate the arrival of Fall.

Today I will be sharing some seasonal pins from my sweet blogging friend Jessa Irene. Jessa Irene is listed on the Natasha In Oz Pinning Bloggers Master List and she is the lady behind the fabulous Holiday blog, A Holiday Haven.

Jessa Irene's site is full of great craft ideas, decorating posts and seasonal recipes. Last week she posted some gorgeous Fall pins and she also posted some excellent advice on preparing for the colder months and she even provided a check list! Jessa Irene really is a brilliant Pinning Blogger!

While you are looking at these gorgeous Fall pins, you might like to listen to Stacey Kent singing 'Tis Autumn. I just love listening to Stacey Kent and have been playing this song all week! She is so talented and her voice is beautiful but the thing I love about her most is that you can actually understand what she is singing!

I hope you enjoy listening to Stacey Kent and looking at some of my favourite pins from Jessa Irene's Pinterest Boards.

 

Halloween tablescape idea from midwestliving.com

Elegant Halloween Tablescape idea from curbly.com

Candle ideas from laurenconrad.com

From choosetothrive.blogspot.com

Mini Pumpkin Cakes from southernliving.com

Pumpkin in a stocking from bhg.com

Gauzy-Glow Pumpkin

Halloween Entrance from midwestliving.com

Source: midwestliving.com

Fall decorating ideas from countryliving.com

Pumpkin Pie White Hot Chocolate from closetcooking.com

Carrot, Apple, & Ginger Soup from joythebaker.com

Gift Wrapping idea from carolynshomework.blogspot.com

So, what have you been up to this week? this week? Maybe you have posted a song, created a new recipe, discovered a new idea or posted about your favourite crafts on your blog?  I would love it if you could share your favourite post with me at this weekend's Say G'Day Saturday Linky Party!

If you would like to link up a post, old or new, just add the url of your particular blog post that you would like us to visit to the Linky tool below.

Feel free to grab the code for the Say G'Day Saturday button and add that to your post so that your readers might be able to find other bloggers who would like to also Say G'Day!





Thanks so much for joining in and linking up! Don't forget to come back later and visit some of the lovely bloggers who have linked up!

I just wanted to share some other "Pinteresting" news. If you haven't already heard, I have created a central list of Blogging Pinners so we can all find each other's Pinterest pages more easily. It is called....

The Pinning Bloggers Master List.

If you would like to add your name to the Pinning Blogger's Master List just click the button below:



Before I go and pack my bags for a few days at the beach, I must thank the lovely people who are hosting the following linky parties-thanks so much for having me and hosting your fabulous memes each week:

Courtney (Feathered Nest Friday), Common Ground's Vintage Inspiration Friday, At the Picket Fence (Inspiration Friday) , Holly (Tickled Pink), Pot Pourri Friday at 2805, Cindy (Show and Tell Friday), Home Sweet Home with Sherry, Katherine's Corner, Michael Lee (Foodie Friday), Fall Nesting Party at The Inspired Room , Feature yourself Friday, I'm Lovin' it Fridays with Tidy Mom and Pink Saturday with Beverly; Fall into Fall party and  Whatever Wednesday @ Momma Hens's; Fall Craft Challenge; Autumn Link up at Savvy Seasons

Thank you so very much for stopping by and spending time with me in my little corner of the world today. As always, your visit means so much to me.

Best wishes for a beautiful weekend,

Natasha In Oz 

Please join me each weekend for the Say G'day Saturday Linky Party! You can also visit me at PINTEREST, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM andFACEBOOK!

Copy Cat Cooking ~ Boursin stuffed chicken

Hello my dear friends! Thanks so much for dropping by and visiting today.

Since it Spring I have been doing lost of Spring cleaning at our place and the main things I am trying to rid of are old magazines. I love reading magazines and since I subscribe to quite a few I have quite a large collection that are getting old and need to be tossed. It pains me to do this but I just can't keep hoarding them any more!

My sweet daughter Maddy is helping me clear out the old magazines...

While I was clearing I ripped out a few pages of inspirational images and I also found some great recipes that I hadn't yet tried. One recipe that caught my eye was this one for stuffed chicken breasts from the May 2010 issue of Good Housekeeping UK.

I knew this would be a good recipe to try because it contains two of my favourite ingredients, Boursin cheese and smoked pork!

The recipe is still available on line and can be found here. It looked so delicious I knew I had to make it. I also knew it would be perfect for Debbie's Magazine Copy Cat Challenge!

Boursin Stuffed Chicken 

allaboutyou.com

Source: natashainoz.com via Natasha @ natashainoz.com on Pinterest

Ingredients:

75 gram(s) Boursin Garlic & Fine Herbs Cheese
30 mls finely chopped curly parsley, plus extra to garnish
Finely grated zest of ½ lemon
4 chicken breasts, skin removed
4 slice(s) parma ham (I used Pancetta)
100 ml (3½fl oz) each dry white wine and chicken stock
2 sprig(s) thyme, leaves removed

Method:


Preheat oven to 200°C/ 390°F (180°C fan) mark 6. In a bowl, mix together the Boursin, parsley and lemon zest. Make a horizontal cut in each chicken breast, then stuff each with a quarter of the cheese mix. Wrap a  ham slice horizontally around each breast, covering the cheese, then put seam-side down in an ovenproof dish.

Pour over the wine and stock, drop in the thyme, then season well with black pepper. Bake for 25-30min until the chicken is cooked through. Sprinkle with parsley.

I served our meal chicken with a salad and French fries but it also suggested that the chicken be served with with vegetables and crushed new potatoes to soak up the cooking juices.

I am quite sure you will love this dish as much as we did. It was so easy to make but it tasted like I had spent hours making it! This is a Wow recipe for sure!

I'd better go while I'm on a roll and go and throw away some more magazines...Maybe I will find another great recipe to share at Debbie's next party?  Thanks for the great idea Debbie! Thanks also to Kim for having me at her weekly Wow Me Wednesday Party and to Michele for hosting Primp your Stuff Wednesday and to Beverly who is hosting Think Pink Sundays.


Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you will be back soon to visit me in my little corner of the world Down Under!

Best wishes,

Natasha In Oz 

Say G'Day Saturday ~ Rugby and Father's Day!

G'Day dear friends and welcome to another Say G'Day Saturday Linky Party!

I'm glad you visited because I have some pictures to share from a special Father's Day party we had at our place on the weekend.

I don't know why Father's Day is celebrated in September over here but it sure is a great time of year to have a family gathering!

Are you a Pinning Blogger? Link up to the Pinning Bloggers Master List!

Welcome to Natasha In Oz, home of the 
 Pinning Blogger's Master List!

I am so inspired by Pinterest! I love finding new ideas and cataloguing them online. I know that many of my bloggy friends are also enamoured with Pinterest so I thought it would be nice to get to know more Pinning Bloggers from all around the world! I have created a central list of Blogging Pinners so we can all find each other's Pinterest pages more easily.

All you need to do is link to your main Pinterest page for example: http://pinterest.com/natashainoz/and then add your blog in the text box when you link up, like this: Natasha @ NatashainOz.com

Don't forget to link your website to your Pinterest profile so we can visit your blog more easily.

If you would like to link up your Pinterest Boards just click the Pinning Blogger Button above to go straight to the Master List Page.

Thanks for joining in and I hope to see you back here on Saturday for this week's Say G'Day Saturday Linky Party or on Sunday for this week's #SundaySong Link up!

Best wishes and Happy Pinning!

Natasha In Oz 

#FashionFriday and Say G'Day Saturday ~ Finally it's Spring!

Hello dear friends! Welcome to this week's Say G'day Saturday Linky Party!

Spring is my favourite season because it is all about 

rebirth, renewal and hope.

Source: smilelikeyoumeanit.net 

This is going to be my next craft project-isn't it divine!

Source: ragwreath.artfire.com

The sun is out, warm and bright, breaking the ice and bringing light to dark cold days.

Source: natashainoz.com via Natasha @ natashainoz.com on Pinterest

Source: natashainoz.com via Natasha @ natashainoz.com on Pinterest

Source: natashainoz.com via Natasha @ natashainoz.com on Pinterest

Source: natashainoz.com via Natasha @ natashainoz.com on Pinterest

It is during Spring that we are greeted with the optimism and beauty at the dawn of each new day.

Source: countryliving.com 

Spring Pasta with Peas and Asparagus

Source: tastespotting.com 

Thistled Spring, a beautiful song by Horse Feathers is a song about about moving on, looking forward and relishing the sun’s life-giving rays....

Today's #TuesdayTune is all about the promise of Spring!

creen19 

As you can see, I have been just a bit preoccupied 
by the arrival of Spring this week!

What have you been pinning to your Pinterest boards this week? Have you posted any songs on your blog lately? I would love it if you could share your favourite post at this week's Say G'Day Party! If you would like to link up a post, old or new, ust add the url of your particular blog post that you would like us to visit to the Linky tool below.

Feel free to grab the code for the Say G'Day Saturday Linky Party button and add that to your post so that your readers might be able to join in too!

<a href="http://www.natashainoz.com/search/label/Say%20G%27day%20Saturday%20Linky%20Party" title="Say G'day saturday"><img src="http://poofycheeks.webs.com/NatinOz/saygday.jpg" alt="Poofy Cheeks" style="border:none;" /></a>

Thanks for linking up!

By the way, if you would like an invitation to join Pinterest please let me know! Just email me and I will send you an invite so you can join in with all the pinning fun!

Now, before I go I have to thank everyone who entered my recent Scrapbooking give away. I wish everyone could have won something but there can only be one winner and that lucky person is Joy, a wonderful blogger  who loves Christmas as much as I do! If you haven't visited her Christmas Blog, Christmas Spirit All year Long already then please go and say hi!

Congratulations Joy! I hope you enjoy your prize.

I hope that the joy and happiness of spring is with all of my Down Under friends and that the lovely memories of summer carry through into the following months for my dear Northern Hemisphere friends who are heading into Fall.

Thank you so very much for stopping by and spending time with me today. As always, your visit means so much to me.

Best wishes for a beautiful weekend,

Natasha In Oz