Etsy shop now open!

Hello, the day/night has finally come! I have opened my beloved little Etsy shop!
The Pieces
Please go have a little looksie, I would love to hear what you think. It has been a big learning curve for me but I am just so excited to finally have it as a reality after months of planning. At the moment I am doing card and envelope sets and hopefully other types of papery goodness in the future.

I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to a little giveaway! If you comment on this post and tell me your favourite card set from my shop you will win the set! Please leave your email address too so I can contact you. Entries close Sunday the 13th November at 6pm AEST. Good luck and thankyou for having a look, it means alot to me. xoxo

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED.

Days that end in y

Dear Blogger,

I have been looking forward to this moment all week. It's Thursday afternoon and I got to finish work early so I get home when it's still light outside. I have a nice glass of icey raspberry soda and our internet is back to it's normal speed so I can finally catch up on reading some blogs in peace and quiet. I am rostered to work tomorrow but I feel like I need a "mental health day" off. Also, there are (hopefully) hundreds of jobs online waiting for me to apply for. Work is causing me all sorts of grief lately and blogs are one of the little things that are keeping me sane these days. Thank goodness for wonderful blogs :)

Some other things making me happy this week..
-Ryan (always!)
-Registering for Oxfam Trailwalker (100km hike in 48 hours, wooo!)
-Possibly doing a admin/business scholarship
-Getting tickets to see Bright Eyes next week
-Seeing my bestie next week!
-My wedding dress getting all pretty and altered

xo Sharni

And all things nice.

A few weeks ago I made these cupcakes.. it kinda felt like I was eating a muffin because it was more fruity and less sweet than your average cupcake. But alas my theory is.. if it has frosting on top.. it's a cupcake. So anyway, the flavour was apple with cinnamon. The recipe is pretty simple, pretty much it's just vanilla batter with like 4 big apples chopped up with some cinnamon and I made the frosting to be maple with cinnamon. It tasted like autumn, I liked it. Pretty pictures..

♥ Sharni

Sparkle Swap

I love swaps so much and I sign up to most that I hear about and I recently participated in Kaileen Elises Sparkle Swap. Last week I received a lovely parcel all the way from Elisse in Canada! I don't think I have ever received mail from Canada! My boyfriend was so cute he even bought it with him when he picked me up from the train station so I could open it in the car. Cute! As soon as I opened the parcel I could smell some yummy tea (mojito and earl grey.. my favourites!) There was also a cute floral airmail card set, earrings, lip gloss, little pouch, fancy chocolate and other nice things. Awwww. Thanks Elisse!


The person I got to send to was Katie in America. I sent her some lovely herbal tea, a mix cd of my favourite songs , Australian chocolate (Wagon Wheels, Cherry Ripe, Caramello Koala etc), notebook, hairclips, badges and other little bits and pieces. This is her photo of what I sent..
Let me know if you know of any other parcel swaps! I'm looking forward to Micaelas ornament swap and Nadias package project coming up soon xoxo

Guacamole

A few years ago I went to the lovely land of Mexico! So, a few weeks ago when Laura asked me to do a guest post on my favourite holiday place.. I knew Mexico was numero uno. Read a bit about it here if you like :)


Here I am marvelling at the old agave plant in the town of Tequila! Hahaha, oh dear..

Mail room: update.

Here are few of the pretty little things that have made their way into my letter box lately. I have also been letter writing and parcel posting but I always forget to take photos of them before I send them. Also on the subject of stationary type things.. the past few days I have been busy setting up my Etsy shop! It's all a big learning curve! Still not ready to publicly open but I will let you know when I do :)
This is just one of the lovely pages from the "about me" book made by the lovely Freckle Fancy, part of Gracies Happy Mail Group.Do you know A Beautiful Mess? Of course you do! But if you don't you probably should. A few months ago I help fund their Kickstarter dream for the new Red Velvet dress line and I got this colourful print in return. It was a pretty exciting day for me :)
Laura and I did a little mix cd swap. How big are English stamps? HUGE! And how good is that cd case? So good. I love brown card and mix cds and dancing Moomin!
Gracie is one of my penpals and this is the sweet envelope that arrived this week. It was such a fun filled envelope and I can't wait to write back :)

Good mail days are the best xo

I made: Ninja bread men!

Last week I decided to crack open another engagement present and put it to use in my sweet little kitchen. This time it was ninja bread men! Awesome right!? The pack came with 3 different dudes making ninja moves. I didn't follow the packaging recipe as it involved shortening. I don't like cooking with shortening so I consulted the ever trusty Australian Women's Weekly biscuit cookbook from 1990.. and sure enough there was a ginger biscuit recipe. It's a pretty standard recipe and I highly recommend it if you haven't had a gingerbread biscuit before. I wonder if anyone has never tried one? Anyone..?

INGREDIENTS

125g butter
110g (½ cup) sugar
1 egg yolk
300g (2 cups) plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
3 teaspoons ground ginger
2½ tablespoons golden syrup

METHOD

1. Warm golden syrup first.. I just microwaved mine for 30 seconds. Cream butter and sugar until creamy, add egg yolk, beat well. Gradually add sifted dry ingredients and warm syrup, mix well. Easy as!
2. Knead mixture lightly, roll out to mm (1/8 in) thickness on lightly floured board. this can get pretty messy but it's worth it! At this point try not to eat the raw dough.. (as I am guilty of..)
3. Cut out biscuits, lift carefully on to lightly greased oven trays. Dough should make at least 20 biscuits. Bake at 180°C for 15 minutes; cool on trays. When cold, decorate biscuits with icing. You can make royal icing, I used a black icing tube I had in my cupboard which made my ninjas look super tough! I gave them robes and belts and all.
4.Eat them all! Or share them!

By the way, Lauren (Glossary) and Sian (Pink made it punk) are doing a fun new thing called Kitchen Pen Pals. Basically, two girls, two countries, one recipe. Lauren learns and cooks recipes as provided by Sian. I love reading it because they are both in Africa, the recipes sound amazing & Lauren is funny.

Mmmmm lammmmmington

Hello friends! The other day I cooked up a delicious storm in my kitchen to make lamingtons and I documented my cooking adventure over at Halleys blog Life of Something New. It was my first ever guest post and it was fun! Check it out here. I just read on Wikipedia that they are popular in Cleveland, Ohio. WHY!? They are big down under regardless!

I made: donuts!

For our engagement party months ago we got some super sweet donut moulded pans! I finally broke them out and got baking! The packaging had an actual recipe which was pretty much cake batter. The shape was perfect but taste wise it was a little dense.. not as fluffy as real ones.. but then again.. aren't real ones pretty much fried dough? There was no deep frying for these ones. The original recipe called for buttermilk but I redid them a few days later with just a basic sponge cake mix and they were much better. I actually realised that I had no icing sugar after I had begun baking so instead I invented my own peanut butter and honey drizzle icing for it plus sprinkles on top. Pretty tasty! Next on the list of things to make: ninja bread men!

To be frank..

Dear blogger friends,
Do you know Frankie? It's a pretty magazine from Australia that has lovely pictures, nice articles, good fonts on sweet matte paper. I like it! I've been reading it since it came out years ago but in the past year or so I have only been reading it at the library/newsagent because it's a little pricey for me. Then a few weeks ago when I got my first big paycheck I splashed out and bought a copy! I read it, it was okay (I don't know why but I wasn't so into it as I used to be! I think it's gotten too cool for me or something? I don't even know half of what they are talking about! But that's a whole other blog post in itself!) and so anyway now it's just sitting in my room collecting dust. I was going to hack it apart for all the pretty pictures but I decided not to. I thought it would be nice to send it to a blog friend that perhaps has not ever read the loveliness of Frankie (or has, no biggie). So, first person here to comment with your email address will get my copy! Then I will email you for your postal address so I can it send to you.
Cool beans xoxo

FQ vintage sheet swap!

I got my sweet little return parcel of vintage fabrics the other day as part of Green Tea & Red Nails vintage sheet swap! It is such a good idea for a swap and thank you so much to Kellie for organising it so, so well! I got lots of lovely brown and pink florals.. so pretty! I don't actually have a sewing machine at the moment but I have a few ideas of things I think I can make without a machine..

• A door draught stopper thing
• A plastic bag holder
• Tote bag
• A fabric mobile!
• Book cover sleeve
• Coasters!
• Christmas tree ornaments
• Door stopper
• Cushion covers

Or I might just save them for my patchwork quilt that I am going to make one day. Any ideas for things I can make without a sewing machine?

SOS: Send love

One of my blogger buddies, Halley from Life of Something New is doing a wonderful thing. A few months ago she started SOS: Send Love. A beautiful idea to have lovely people from around the world send her Mum postcards! Her Mum is ill, loves postcards and never really got the chance to see world. I sent her my first postcard a few months ago and I thought it's about time I sent another. I had a look through my postcard stash this morning but none really appealed to me to send so I used the iPhone app called Instapost (thanks Bianca for the idea!) to use my beloved Instagram photos to send one of my own photos and write on the back.. all without leaving my couch! Pretty nifty hey! Some Dromana beach love is coming her way soon!

So anyway, If you want to brighten someones day, please send a postcard to Sandy..

Sandy Waldau
P.O. Box 15
Glastonbury, CT
06033 USA

xoxo

I did: Zumba

As you may have read previously.. I joined a gym. I really only go for the classes and ummm.. to watch tv (While on the treadmill! We don't have a tv at home!) Anyway, I finally went to a Zumba class and I didn't like it. I have been to enough classes on my own so I wasn't nervous about being alone, I am however a bit unco when it comes to salsa dancing. The instructor was way too chipper, she was wearing a silly hat (not sombrero silly but still, silly!) The whole time I felt like I was in a Doritos corn chip commercial and when I left I was actually craving guacamole and tequila. Seriously! There were people sweating there.. I didn't even begin to break a sweat! In the change room afterwards I overheard a girl remark with glee "Zumba just blows my mind!" WHAT. Every song that was played was all like "ZUMBAZUMBAPARTYZUMBA!" I really don't like salsa music so I guess it wasn't destined to be plus I wasn't very comfortable shaking my booty and shaking other things so freely in public. I will stick to my RPM bike class and swing dancing I think!

Have you ever done Zumba? Did you like it?

365 day project: survival guide

This past week I finally finished my 365 Day Project! I had tried to do it a few years ago but didn't get past a month. I am a little surprised that I stuck it out for so long this time! It has been fun and it's really interesting to look back over the year with tiny insights into each day. I don't feel like my photography skills have improved much as I just have a basic point and shoot camera but I have learnt more about its settings.. it also really makes me want a DSLR. Since finishing I keep seeing things throughout my day and I think "that will be my photo of the day!" I started the project as I felt like I wasn't taking enough photos. I had been travelling for the past 2 years and so my Flickr was full of travel photos and then I came home and found that I wasn't taking many photos anymore. I now have a huge stash of photos! So anyway, I thought I would write out some of my survival tips if any of you are thinking of doing this project too!

Take your camera everywhere I quite often left my camera at home only to wish I had had with me. Or I haven't ended up coming home and then left with no chance to take photo. This was made easier at times with my iPhone camera.
Use a small camera I even find mine is a bit heavy and it really isn't very fancy at all. I could have done it on my iPhone but I started it on my camera so I wanted to finish it on my camera.
Try to take photos in the morning Because if your like me, you have high chance of forgetting in the afternoon/after dinner.
Take a photo of your dinner or your shoes if all else fails I think over half of mine are actually food.. and maybe 20% are of my shoes. Plus, alot of mine are with my carpet or doona as background.
Keep the battery charged I was caught out when we went away for a weekend and I had 3 days of dead battery. (But luckily iPhone saved the day..)
Keep going! There was never time when I wanted to stop doing it. I think I had forgotten to take a photo maybe 5-6 times in the whole time.. which had resulted in me to jump out of bed in the middle of the night and snap something boring like my doona or lamp.
Remember to upload frequently It has been a quite a chore remembering to upload my photos to Flickr. I do it about once a month and with my super slow internet it isn't much fun. It can be a little overwhelming and it was quite time consuming so I am glad to have that time back!

I don't know if I would do it again but I am definitely glad I have done it. I hope these tips help :)

I did: 40 Hour Famine

Last weekend I did the 40 Hour Famine on my iPhone.. I survived! It feels a bit materialistic but it was hard! Even on the first night I had dreams about my iPhone. I missed it! It was tough not being able to call my Mum when I needed help with the gardening, call my Mister on his lunch break, I couldn't listen to any of my music on the train or at work.. that was lame. Plus, at the supermarket.. couldn't quickly Google a recipe. Ahhhh! First world problems I tell you! It's easy when you are on holiday with no phone.. but in real day to day life.. I am pretty dependant on it! But nevertheless, we survived and raised some money for World Vision :)

This weekend I have the house to my self so I am working on my Etsy store (still a few weeks away but I'm making cards and papery goods!), housework, maybe going to yoga and dinner tonight to an Italian restaurant for a friends birthday. Plus this week is my last week of the 365 Day Project!!! Expect more photos of my dinner plate and my shoes.

Bookers

I love books! I also love blogs.. sometimes bloggers make books in real life and I like that! Here are some that I really really wanna get super soon. Although I am pretty sure none are actually released yet. Just knowing that they will be released soon is exciting enough for me. I love the anticipation! Don't they just look amazing! They sure make me wanna log off my silly little dial up internet and make things and learn things :)
The Bust DIY Guide to Life: Making Your Way Through Every Day by Debbie Stoller and Laurie Henzel

Make! Hey! by Pip Lincolne

Design*Sponge at Home by Grace Bonney

Phone famine

This weekend is the 40 Hour Famine and so, I have given up my iPhone! We are about 12 hours in and last night I had dreams that I was on my phone.. oh dear! Last night we had to navigate how to drive home without Google Maps.. tough! We had to set the morning alarm on an actual alarm clock.. weird! No pretty re-pins on Pinterest.. wah! It is a strange feeling having no iPhone.. just a standard phone would be ok but no iPhone.. argh! It is a good challenge though and sure makes you think, "what did we do before we had iPhones!?"

My plan for today is building my very first veggie garden! Going to start with lettuce, tomatoes and herbs. I can't wait for the day I don't have to pay $4 for a bunch of parsley. Plus, I am going to start a compost bin. Tonight we are having out first real dinner party.. I am making a Mexican fiesta! Grilled corn, chile Colorado, tequila sunrise, apple enchiladas etc. Cannot wait! xo

Up & up!

Hello hello! Today is my day off and I realised I haven't turned on my computer for well over a week, oh dear. I have a nice big list of things to do today but not before I catch up on my some blogs. Plus, I have mega updates since last time!

#1 My wonderful fiance is now living in my house! It's really fun and now my old housemate is gone it is much more homely and "us" I love it! It literally smells like apple pie (thanks to a yummy Mozi candle) It was such a blessing that I didn't have to move out and my old housemate (our landlord) let us keep most of the furniture. We have a spare room now for music and Etsy making! We are having out first dinner party on Saturday night!

#2 I got a new job! Well kinda.. the same company I have been with for 3+ years (an outdoor adventure store) but in the city and full time! Phew! Full time is pretty exhausting but it is what I need to save for the wedding so hooray!

#3 My old housemate transferred her gym membership to me! So I have been going one or twice a week. It's ok.. I only really go for the classes.. the spin cycle classes are good but the ones like body combat where we pretend we are ninjas are a bit lame.

Well, that's the big news anyway! I realised yesterday that I haven't had broadband internet for over a year! My Mister is pretty keen on getting it connected here (and so am I) so hopefully more blogging in the future. Also, my 365 day project is almost over! So many photos!

xoxoxo

A list for cheering up.

This past week I had to fly home to sunny Perth, WA to see my family (and to ride bikes, have spas, eat some good home cooking and deliver my wedding dress to my Mum who has offered to alter it for me!) It is meant to be winter.. the sun shined all the time! I wore 2 layers not 5 layers of clothing, ha! I applied for alot of jobs and still nothing and it's all getting very annoying (although the 9:30am sleep today was nice..). I just really want a full time job! So anyway, here is a list of things that are keeping me sane and making me smile..

I made: home made pasta! The greatest fun ever and pretty tasty too! This is the only photo I took but as you can see..it's fettuccine. Sure, it took a while longer than packet stuff but, it's fun! Packet pasta is rarely fun! Me, Mum & Dad all helped out and made the kitchen very floury.

If I had a spare $50: Gemma Correll has made pug and kitten brooches! Ahhhhh. She is one of my most favourite illustrators and I just love wooden jewellery, plus the lovely (Aussie!) people at Made By White actually made the brooches! I love them both!
Where I am using all my internet time: Pinterest! At first I didn't understand but then I realised.. you can put things in FOLDERS! I love being organised and folders and the fact that you can refer back to a picture later (not so easy on Tumblr..)
Watching on DVD til late at night: Parks & Recreation. I love that there is a main female character, Amy Poehler is amazing. I am only on season 1 so far. So good.

Book I finally finished: Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I think it took me about 5 or 6 weeks, but unlike my other "current" book, this one I wanted to finish. I love books about lists, goals and self improvement. Love it! It could be why I was inspired to start blogging again too (well that & Sarah Von)


A nice video: I am seeing this band, The Paperkites tonight! I love this film clip.. very Where The Wild Things are, nice for a wintery morning. If anyone has any other nice Melbourne bands please let me know as my local music knowledge is pretty low around these parts.


That's all! Have a lovely weekend xoxo

I made: Doctor Who blue velvet cake

Last week it my misters birthday and he is a big Doctor Who fan so I decided to make him a dalek cake.. with a tardis center! So on the outside it looked like a standard cake decorated to look like dalek (robot).. but then you cut it open.. and it's a two layer blue velvet cake with cream cheese frosting on the inside with the colour of the tardis (time machine)! The recipe I used was from One For The Oven. (click link for recipe and pretty picture)

Some things I learnt from the recipe..

• It says add 1 tablespoon of food colouring.. but I used about 4 tablespoons to get that deep blue colour.. but maybe my colours weren't deep enough to begin with.
  
• I learnt that "1 stick of butter" means about 1 cup.
• Cake flour isn't readily available in Australia but to make a similar version you mix 1 part cornflour to 3 parts plain flour.
• My cream cheese frosting looked a bit yellow.. but I'm sure if I used good quality Philly it would have looked better, so probably my fault.
  
• I am not sure why but I thought it was a bit more dense than I expected.
• I used frozen blueberries in the centre so it didn't quite look the same but tasted fine.
  
• To make the shape I had to cut bits of the cake off so when I applied the frosting it got a bit crumbly so it was a bit tricky to make the cream cheese frosting stay white (not with crumbs of blue..)
• I decorated the outside with gumballs, blue licorice and other bits of lollies.
  

All in all it was good.. a bit of a longer process than what I am used to but I learnt all sorts of new things. It was pretty tasty.. I had been tasting the mix all day so at the party I didn't enjoy it that much but all the cake went quickly and everyone was super impressed. I can't wait to have kids (or more parties!) and bake them epic cakes! xo

25 while I'm 25!

So, when I started this blog I planned to do the whole 101 things in 1001 Days thing.. well I have done a fair bit from my list but alot of them don't interest me anymore so I am not too into it now. I think 1001 days is such a long time and 101 things is so many things! Sheez! So, back in April I turned 25 and I know that was months ago but whatever, I make the rules. So here is my new list.. 25 things to do when I am 25 before I am 26 on April 14! And also just because I love lists.

1. Run a half marathon
2. List 100 things that make me happy
3. Build a sandcastle
4. Hike & camp overnight
5. Make a herb box
6. Get a crazy manicure
7. Get & use a birthday date book
8. Get my drivers lisence
9. Get a full time job that I like
10. Finish my 365 Day Project!
11. Take a whole roll of film with my SLR
12. Go ice skating
13. Go to a food festival
14. Watch a roller derby match
15. Go to a Zumba class
16. Wear false eyelashes
17. Make homemade marshmallows
18. Go to a hot yoga class
19. Go to a pick your own fruit farm.
20. Put $1000 into my home saver account
21. Sell something on Etsy
22. Watch a football game with my uncle- done
23. Use a underwater camera
24. Do 40 Hour Famine - done
25. Sponsor a child.

The burning house.

Have you heard of the website The Burning House? I love it because you see what it really important to people plus I love the whole "whats in my bag" thing too so this is similar. When I started taking photos of what I would take if my house was burning down it started off with 5 items.. which then ended up being 9 items when I had finished. What would you take if your house was burning down?

• Wedding dress! (I only got it last week!)
• My 3 Kurt Halsey books.
• Signed Gyroscope CD (plus their vinyl record but that's at home in Perth..)
  
• Engagement ring
• Small stack of special Polaroids
• Passport
• Bible
• My iPhone
  
• Moleskine daily planner (I am lost without it even for a few hours)
  

Dry July

It's July! I meant to write this yesterday but I didn't get around to it. Anyway, it's July! Also known as.. dry July! One of my favourite Bloggers, Pip (Meet Me At Mikes), is raising money for a month long pledge to not drink alchohol for the whole of July. Funds raised from Dry July benefit people who are battling cancer. I only really drink once a week and then it's only one beer or something. So, July.. zero beers.. easy! None at all. No excuses! Stay tuned..

Support the cause!

Collection: cassettes

I thought I would share my wee collection of cassette themed things I have. I actually have a fair bit more back home so this is just what I have here in Melbourne. When I was little I would spend my afternoons when I got home from school making mixes dubbed off the radio and then listen to them all night, then when I was old enough to buy CD's I would make mixes for family car trips. I didn't start making mix tapes for friends til high school. My friends and I would make each other ones every couple of months and I still treasure that collection back home so much (never ever throwing out), I have at least 15 I think. I can't wait til I get my own car.. because then I can pump out my mix tapes again! P.S How good is Picnik for photo editing? So good!
1. My old battered coin purse that I take everywhere.
2. I have a cassette pillow! It is tiny and when I first saw it I couldn't believe someone would make a pillow so small! It is the size of a novel.
3. Mooks tshirt.. pretty sure this was the first ever white shirt I ever purchased.
4. Hair tie purse. I got it somewhere in Manchester years ago.
5. Months ago I participated in a package swap and my lovely partner Noella made me this! I was so impressed! It's a little notebook bound to the cassette. Amazing!
6. iPhone case! It is a rubbery old thing and isn't the most protective but I love it!
7. Engagement ring! My most favourite thing in the world! <3
8. My BFF have me this so long ago. It has been all over the world with me, I keep bobby pins and such inside.
9. Real cassettes I found on the side of the road. I am thinking of using them to decorate the Christmas tree this year.

This is my engagement ring! My fiance had it custom made by my favourite jeweller, Victoria Mason right here in Melbourne. Months in the making! She is such a lovely lady and I have been buying her stuff for a few years and I am in awe of it every time I see it on my hand. She even blogged about it here which I think is pretty amazing to see how it all came together.

Hello again!

Hello hello!

Last Friday night I went to a blog meet up! I met one of my all time favourite bloggers, Sarah from Yes & Yes! She is just so awesome and very inspiring. There was about 10 of us, a mix of bloggers and readers, and we spent the whole night talking about blogs and the internet and eating dumplings. It was pretty great! So, since then I haven't really stopped thinking about blogging. I noticed I haven't posted here since November last year! Quite a bit has changed.. I am still in Melbourne but my then boyfriend is now my fiance! I am still doing my 365 day project. I have abandoned my 101 in 1000 days project. I still read the same blogs and still adore them all. I still love pen pals, mix cds and writing lists. I am currently looking for full time work and feeling a bit bummed about it all so I thought.. blogging would be nice again. I sure have missed it! I still don't have very good internet connection at home but that's ok. Who said you need internet to blog! Haha. So yeah, here I am on a chilly Thursday afternoon, listening to Biffy Clyro, drinking ginger tea and about to post my first blog post in over 6 months! Cool beans! I am excited about blogging more here. And that is more exciting than having no blog I must say! xo