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