Friday, July 22, 2011

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

Thursday, July 14, 2011

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

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

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.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

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)

Saturday, July 2, 2011

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!