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.