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How to Make a Pebble Garden

So my gardening skills are not exactly desirable…. since moving from a small apartment to a townhouse with garden beds, I have killed the following plants: Daisies, coriander (cilatro for my American readers), basil (yes, they said it was a hardy plant, but I took the challenge and was able to destroy it), pansies and a miscellaneous pretty yellow flower which did not live long enough to mention its name to me.

*Cue gardening TV Show theme song music*

Following my plant killing rampage, I decided to set about creating a desert style pebble garden.

You might have seen my back garden makeover post – I was able (with the help of my mum!!) to resurect the back garden, which is now home to flowers and herbs, but despite my many attempts at watering our front garden bed, in the scorching Sydney summer, the poor flowers died a sad death!!

I decided that maintaining two (albeit small!!) gardens was just two hard, and set on a quest to create a Pintrest worthy, super-low maintenance, no green-thumb required pebble garden.

This is how I did it (with the help of my lovely friend Agatha, as seen here, having a tea party with me):

Shopping List:

1 roll of Weed mat
Weed mat pegs
3 Agave plants
1 yucca plant
Several pots of Little Red Ruby for hedging
A LOT of white river pebbles (p.s – however many of these things you think you might need….order more!! I underestimated how many I needed, ordering 100kg for a small garden bed….I actually needed 1 tonne!! Unfortunately this ended being quite expensive – I found that Masters Hardware have the best price on the white pebbles for anyone who is looking
Some packaging foam (“why the foam??” you ask – all will be revealed shortly!!)
Stepping stones or pavers

The how to:

Select your plants (I choose Agaves, a yucca, and some red ruby to use for edging – they are all low maintenance plants which do not require much anything…rain water is generally enough in the cooler seasons, but you can give them a quick water once a week in hot weather). The Agaves can grow quite large with time, and the yucca plant will grow tall.
Map out where you will place your plants and dig deep enough holes in your soil…then..*drum roll,* break up some pieces of your packing foam, and put this in the bottom of your hole. (“What the….!?”) This will help the soil to drain better!! (Thanks to my friend Agatha for this tip!!). Plant your plants!! Give them a good watering to help them settle in.
Roll out your weed mats (cut holes where your plants are). You will need scissors to cut the mats to size (they come in a big roll, about a metre wide. Make sure you cover all the soil where you plan on placing your pebbles. The weed mat should help deter weeds from growing through in between your pebbles, and will save you lots of work down the track. Pin the weed mat down with pegs.
Place your pavers over the top of the weed mats, rather than cutting the mats around them (I did this so that weeds did not grow between the gaps of the pavers and the mats)
Spread your river pebbles down over the top of your weed mats. You will need a lot of pebbles to cover any gaps (I still need to purchase more as you will see from the gaps in my photos!!!).

and you are done….now you can sit back and not water or weed your super-low maintenance garden!!

Do you have any low-maintenance garden tips you would like to share? Have you done a garden makeover recently?

Chocolate Espresso Cake

Coffee and chocolate – two of my favourite things!! Today those two delicious delights combined, to make the most indulgent chocolate espresso cake in all of history!! Now I just need an espresso martini to top it off, and my Sunday afternoon would truly be complete!!

This cake is flourless and gluten free, and uses almond meal instead of flour. The almond flavour compliments the coffee, making it even more delicious!!

I used this recipe from Jamie Oliver, but made a few small changes, including tripling the amount of espresso in the recipe to make a really strong coffee flavour, and baking it for 40 mins instead of 30 as suggested – you can bake it for less if you want it to be more gooey and pudding like in consistency. I also added flaked almonds, for an extra almondy hit!!

Ingredients

200 grams almond meal
200 grams dark chocolate
175 grams butter
4 eggs (separated)
70 grams caster sugar
60mls strong espresso coffee
Flaked almonds

Method

Melt butter, chocolate and espresso coffee in a bowl over a pot of simmering hot water (make sure the bowl goes not touch the water)
Whisk egg yolks and sugar with an electric mixer for approximately five minutes until stiff and creamy
Fold chocolate mixture into egg and sugar mixture. Fold in almond meal.
In a separate clean bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff peaks form
Fold egg whites into other ingredients
Coat with flaked almonds
Bake for 40 minutes (or less, for a gooier texture)
Grate chocolate over the top for serving

Go forth and caffeinate, my friends!!

Travelling Overseas with a Baby – Thailand Adventures

We booked our flights with trepidation and a mix of emotion; on the one hand, a relaxing holiday to Thailand was exactly what we needed…on the other, the fear of flying to a foreign country with a small (and feisty) baby was pretty darn terrifying!! I am happy to say that our first overseas holiday as a family of three went extremely well (and I can’t wait to go back)!!

For those of you that read my earlier post on travelling with a baby, we’d taken Dash on several domestic flights around Australia, and all had gone swimmingly, but at the time, he was quite young (barely five weeks for his first flight!) and things were a lot simpler. Now he is nine months old, and seriously on the move!!

Here are some of my tips for your overseas adventures with your little one!!

Getting around

Rather than bringing our usual pram, which is quite bulky, I bought the Yoyo Babyzen, which is a lightweight stroller which is small enough to store as cabin baggage when it folds up (and surprisingly easy to fold up!!). We were able to take Dash through the airport in the stroller, which made things way easier (and freed me up for duty free shopping!!).

Mosquito Protection

I was super nervous about Dash getting bitten by mosquitoes, as Dengue Fever can be carried by mosquitoes in Thailand (but luckily in coastal areas, Mozzies aren’t so bad). I used this citrus based mozzie repellent which studies show is just as effective as DEET, but without the harsh chemicals. My doctor advised this was fine for a nine month old bub, but it’s always worth checking with your doctor about any insect repellents for small babies….it seemed to work, and Dash managed to stay mosquito bite free the entire time without us covering him in nasty chemicals.

Out and About in the Sun

Little Dash still needs two naps a day, or he becomes particularly feisty (he’s already a feisty guy in general!!). I was worried he wouldn’t nap in the stroller, but luckily the lovely team at Fly Babee had sent me the new Fly Babee Sleep Easy Cover to road test. The cover clips over your stroller (see photo below, and in the top photo!) and blocks out 97% of light!! This meant that wherever we went, we could pop this over the stroller and Dash could have a nap distraction free!! It’s also UV protected, which meant we could go for walks on sunny days without worrying about him getting sunburnt. It’s 100% breathable and is made of a light mesh fabric, which means it’s nice and cool inside, and safe for baby. This also doubled as a fantastic mosquito net, which was another added bonus. We’ve used this baby on walks, in restaurants and cafes and he goes to sleep every time – this is my new absolute favourite baby product!!!

Little Dashy was sound asleep under his Fly Babee Sleep Easy Cover!!

Lachy walking on the beautiful beach in Hua Hin just before sunset

The gorgeous resort we stayed in – Baan Baayan at Hua Hin

The Flight

The flight from Sydney to Bangkok is 9 hours – a very long haul with a little bubba!! Luckily, the flights turned out to be fantastic with our new Fly Babee Sleep Easy Cover, which clips over airline bassinets, and forms a small tent which blocks out 97% of light. All the bright lights and people moving around the cabin were a massive distraction for Dash, but he was able to sleep for 6 hours with the Fly Babee (pictured below)!! Once the cheeky little fella settled in and we covered him up, he was out like a light, and had a big sleep. This was fantastic, as it meant Lachy and I could actually relax and watch a movie.

For awake times, I used this great teether/rusk holder, to keep Dash’s rusks from falling on the ground all the time.

That cheeky Dash slept 6 hours on the flight underneath his Fly Babee Sleep Easy Cover!!

Nappies/Wipes

Nappies and wipes were easy to find. Tesco seems to be everywhere in Thailand, and we stocked up on Mamy Poko nappies and wipes, which seem to be Huggies of Thailand!!

Food/Sterilising

I was quite nervous about how we would feed Dash overseas, now that he is eating solids. I decided to pack enough sachets of baby food to last the trip (this was no problems taking through customs at the airport) to save worrying about what to feed Dash – this made feeding when out and about nice and easy, and we didn’t have to stress about the risk of tummy bugs. In addition, we also gave Dash fresh bananas every day, which he loved!! Our doctor advised us to be safe, that it’s best to give little babies fruit that comes in a peel only (like bananas, mangoes and lychees) and to avoid anything that’s been washed in water. By the end of the trip, we loosed up quite a bit, and he was also eating rice and bits and pieces of our meals (he even gnawed on his first chicken bone – who knew what a great teether they make!!)

I also packed a can of formula (it can be hard to find your usual brand of formula in Thailand, so it’s easiest to pack your own if you can) and a set of bottles.

For sterilising, we used Milton tablets. I bought a plastic tub to keep in our hotel room which we could make up the Milton solution in, and bought a bottle brush and dishwashing soap to clean the bottles beforehand. You make up the Milton solution, and can add items in over 24 hours, and items stay sterile until you remove them. It was really handy and meant we could also easily sterilise dummies and plastic toys. We used bottled water for Dash’s formula to be safe also. Dash was fine the whole trip and had no tummy problems (phew!!).

We found Thailand to be the most wonderful place to travel to with a bubba. Travelling with baby Dash was honestly like travelling with Madonna – everywhere we went, people would come up to say hello and to give little Dash a cuddle!! Dash loved the attention, and made so many new friends in Thailand.

We can’t wait to return to Hua Hin for our next holiday – this was truly a magical trip!!

Have you travelled overseas with your baby? Do you have any travel tips? I’d love to hear them!!

Jem's White Dress - TBags Los Angeles

Stroller - Yoyo Babyzen

Stroller/Bassinet Cover - Fly Babee

Raspberry Tea Cake

So about 90% of the recipes on this blog seem to be lemon flavoured….lemon bars, lemon yoghurt cake, coconut lemon cake, lemon cupcakes etc etc etc 🙂 If we haven’t already established this, I do enjoy a lemon flavoured baked good!!

Today I was contemplating what other delicious cake I could attempt to bake, when I realise I had neglected the most wonderful fruit of all, the humble raspberry! (p.s, although, at $8 a tub, I used frozen raspberries instead!!)

I did a search and couldn’t seem to find many raspberry cake recipes out there!! I found this one, on the BBC food network, and gave it a whirl!! The only tweak I will make next time is….more raspberries!! I will definitely be adding a second layer of raspberries to the top of the cake before baking next time I attempt this one.

Here is the recipe (you can see above that I’ve already eaten a very large slice of this baby!!

Ingredients

140g almond meal
140g butter, softened
140g golden caster sugar
140g self-raising flour
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g raspberries
2 tbsp flaked almonds
icing sugar, to serve

Method

Heat oven to 180Cand base-line and grease a deep 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin. mix the almond meal, butter, sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla extract in a food processor until well combined. I don’t have a food processor, and used a hand mixer instead, and it was fine.
Spread half the mix over the cake tin and smooth over the top. Scatter the raspberries over, then dollop the remaining cake mixture on top and roughly spread – you might find this easier to do with your fingers. Scatter with flaked almonds and bake for 50 mins until golden. Cool, remove from the tin and dust with icing sugar to serve.

This only took about 10 mins to prepare – you can mix it all in the one bowl (woohoo, less washing up!!)

Serve with…..raspberries and cream!! Yum!! Do you enjoy a good raspberry!?

Are you a High Hoper?

Hope is a psychological construct which is receiving more and more attention in the field of positive psychology. Hope helps us to achieve our goals in the face of adversity and gives us the willpower to keep going. High hopers have higher levels of well-being including improved relationships and performance and decreased negative emotions (Worgan, 2013).

Hope is different from optimism. Optimism can be defined as the extent to which people hold generable favourable expectancies for their future (Carver, Scheier & Segerstorm, 2010). Hope can be defined as the extent to which individuals can find pathways to reach their goals, and become motivated to reach those pathways (Synder, Rand & Sigmon) and is more goal specific than optimism.

There are three key elements to hope:

1) Goal directed thinking – our perception of our short and long term goals

2) Pathways thinking – or the ability to find different paths to reach our goals

3) Agency thinking – the motivation and will power to work towards our goals. We can call this our determination to achieve our goals!!

So how can we increase our levels of hope? Here are a few ideas!!

Do a brainstorming session, writing down as many possible paths to achieving your goal as possible.
Have a discussion with a friend or colleague – share your goal and ask how they would achieve the goal if it were their own!!
Write a list of five reasons why achieving your goal is important.
Reflect on your values. What are your top three values? Go back to your goal and relate it to your top three values.
Imagine you have achieved your goal. How would this feel? What would be different in your life? Make a list of the positive changes that achieving your goal would bring!!

Are you working on achieving an important goal? Would you try these ideas? I’d love to hear about your experiences!!

Little Lemon Cakes

Just when you thought I couldn’t possibly post another lemon flavoured baked good recipe, I go and prove you wrong!! BAM!!! These lemon cakes are zesty, buttery and delicious!!!

They are quick and easy to make, and great for sharing (or for a rough day where you need to eat a lot of cupcakes).

If you’re looking for a healthier lemon cake, try this lemon yoghurt cake. Or for a dairy free option, try the lemon friands!!

I used this recipe from BBC Good Food, but decided not to ice them. They’re sweet enough without icing, but you can try a butter cream, or a lemon glaze if you want to jazz them up a bit more.

Ingredients

125g of softened butter
125g of caster sugar
2 medium eggs
100g of self raising flour
2 tbsp of milk
2 lemons (zested)

Method

Heat the oven to 180 degrees.
Using a whisk, beat together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, flour (sifted), milk and the zest of the two lemons and a little squeeze of juice.
Mix everything until it is a smooth mixture.
Spoon one and a half tea spoons of the mix into the cake cases.
Bake in the oven for 15-20 mins or until golden brown

Positive Ageing

The thought of ageing is a scary concept for many of us. We’re constantly bombarded with messages about the beauty of youth, and the concept of old age is regarded by many as a time for dependency and losing the ability to enjoy the things one previously loved.

The way we age however, is heavily shaped by our perceptions around ageing.

Research in the field of positive psychology is extending to examine well-being during old age. Research by psychologist Carol Ryff describes the most important criteria for being well adjusted during old age as:

Being socially responsible and interested in others
Having the capacity to accept change
Being compassionate, caring and responsive to others

Harvard Professor of Psychiatry, Dr George Vaillant, in his book Positive Ageing, conducted research which followed 824 people for 60 years, from teen years to becoming grandparents! Based on this, Valliant outlines several predictors, which if adhered to before the age of 50, can lead to good physical and mental health at ages 70, 80 and beyond:

Positive relationships, including a good marriage
Alcohol used in moderation only
Creativity and playfulness
Learning to make younger friends and form new relationships as older friends are lost
Pursuing education and achievement
Ability to find creative ways to cope with difficult situations
Altruistic behaviour
Staying physically active
Being a non-smoker
Having a healthy weight

Some amazing research was done by Ellen Langer, Harvard Psychology Profession, in her “Counter Clockwise” study. Dr Langer had elderly men in their 70’s and 80’s attend a one week retreat where they were required to live like it was 1959!! The study involved the men reading only material from the time of 1959 or before, discussing the politics of the time and writing letters as their younger selves in 1959 to share with the other participants. At the end of the study, the men were evaluated as appearing taller, having better posture, having higher scores on intelligence tests and being perceived as younger by others viewing photographs of them. The researcher, Dr Langer, even reported that at the end of the week she was playing football with elderly men who had previously been walking with canes!! Some of the men who had been dependent on family members to help them with many activities of daily living were functioning independently during the retreat, including helping with meals and tidying up.

What amazing evidence to show that having a “young” mindset can have massive impacts of the physical body!!

Will you continue to maintain a “young” mind as you age? Do you have grandparents/parents/friends/relatives who have achieved amazing things in their old age? I would love to hear your stories!!

Acts of kindness can boost your happiness

Can doing something kind for others make you feel happier?

In a study by Lyubomirsky, Tkach & Sheldon (2004) students were asked to perform five acts of kindness each week, for a period of six weeks. The type of acts included things like visiting an elderly relative, donating blood, helping a friend with a paper, writing a thankyou note etc. Students completed measures of well-being before and after the six week period.

The results showed that the well-being of the students increased following the intervention….however, the researchers found that the timing of the acts of kindness was crucial…..only the students who did all of their acts of kindness in a single day each week showed increased well-being, not the students who spread their generosity over the entire week!!

So why is this!? A reason may be that because many of the kind acts performed by the students were small ones, spreading them out over a whole week may have decreased their power, or made them harder to distinguish from day-to-day habitual kind behaviours.

This fits in with another study by Baumester, Vohs, Aasker & Garbinsky (2013) which outlined that helping others is not correlated with happiness, but that people who help others have higher levels of meaning in their lives than people who don’t help others.

What does this mean? Helping others is related to higher levels of meaning in our lives and can help our well-being, but several small acts of kindness over one day are more likely to achieve this!!

Would you do a weekly “kindness” day? How might you do it? I would love to hear your ideas!!

Tomato, feta and basil tarts

What’s that, a savoury recipe on Pop Therapy!? Yes – you heard me – savory!! “You’ve changed man!” I hear you say….but don’t fret, these babies are just as delicious as a lemon cake (or even better, make a great prelude to a lemon cake!!).

I made these for a Sunday afternoon party and they went down a treat!! I used a store bought puff pastry which meant they were quick and easy to make – you can also try substituting different combinations of flavours instead of tomato and basil if you want some variety!!

Here is the recipe!!

Ingredients (to make 16 tarts)

4 sheets of frozen puff pastry
4 eggs, whisked
1 block of Danish feta cheese
Juice of half a lemon
Cherry tomatoes
Fresh basil
1 extra egg (for brushing the pastry)
Sea salt and cracked pepper

Method

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celcius
De-frost pastry. Cut each sheet of pastry into 4 squares
Fold edges of pastry over to create a border – press edges of pastry with a fork to flatten
To make filling, whisk eggs, then combine with danish feta and lemon juice
Spoon filling in to centre of tart shells
Top tarts with tomato and basil, then season with salt and pepper
Brush edges of pastry with egg
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until pastry has risen and looks golden brown

How to Beat Performance Anxiety

Brooks (2013) conducted a series of studies looking at performance anxiety across different settings including giving a speech, singing karaoke and completing a maths test.

The studies found that individuals who “reappraised” their anxiety into thoughts of excitement, performed better than people who told themselves to remain calm.

Trying to deal with pre-performance anxiety? Try re-framing your feelings of anxiety into thoughts of excitement! Try some positive self talk with simple phrases like “lets get excited!” or “I can’t wait to do this!!” This is more effective than attempting to calm down.

Also – remember, we have an optimum level of anxiety that helps us to perform better! A little bit of nerves may actually help you!! (Just don’t tell yourself to calm down!!)

What techniques do you use to beat pre-performance anxiety? Would you try this technique?