Around the interwebs: Juliette Hogan

As a whole I'm not really a fashion kinda girl... I like jeans and tshirts. However my heart has been captured by this stunning collection I stumbled upon. Give me dresses now!!! Oh and a lifestyle in which it is practical to wear them... Oh and the money to earn them too... damn. Juliette Hogan you are a magic maker. Please come to Australia and be in my price range...

*Around the interwebs* is a series of nice things to be spied around the net. I stumble upon all sorts of magical marvelous things in my travels and this is a great way to remember them all. More found here.

Birthday Girl 3!

This girl is very sweet... and craftastic, and creative and not a teenager anymore! Happy Birthday Emily! She runs the lonely tea party collective and has a brand spanking new etsy and she lives with me & I with her. Her cards are delicious and her baking is nutritious - I know - she made me a birthday cake! Now if she'd only come back home I'd make her one...

Chat roulette

So has anyone ever been on chat roulette? I'd only advise it if you have a stomach of steel. There are many ahem... *whispers* penises to wade through before you can find anyone to have a real conversation with... It's an amazing concept really, there's a video screen of you from your computer and a blank one. You hit next and someone else will pop up in the video screen. If you don't like the look of them you can next them or... they might next you first. Eventually we found a nice chap in California wearing a chimpanzee mask... believe me this did not seem strange considering all the things we had speedily next-ed through previously. We chatted about where we were from, whether we liked the leaders of our countries and what kind of monkey we thought he was. Vaguely amusing to try... but I don't think I'll be going back in a hurry.

A song for the week

This song makes me so happy. Happy Monday dear ones.

Monday picture time

Some pictures from last week... prettyness from my walk into work, a colleague's awesome watch, and my big toy that I've been spending most of my time on (ETC Eos lighting consol) It's all about the touch screens baby.

Things to be thankful for.

* Thanks largely to Australia, Japan can't resume whaling in the Southern ocean.
* Even though I didn't think we needed a new prime minister at least when we get one in this country it doesn't involve the military...
* Awesome tv series that equal an hour (atleast) of snuggled-up-in-bed time with my boy.
* Having a few good hours to myself this week.
* A cruisy bump in working with my favourite lighting designer. Watching him work is so inspiring. He paints with light.
* My folks are safely back from their travels and are over the moon about seeing their dogs and horses (oh and their children) again!
* This weeks birthday extension of parcels from England and penguin postcards by the hundred!
* Walks in the misty rain with music in my ears and sights of red and amber leaves around the beautiful city I live in.
* Leftovers.Yum. (and cheap!)
* My dear friends are heading overseas to work in south east asia today! We're going to miss them but am so excited for the adventure ahead of them.
* This week I have been able to focus on the good things in my life now and not be so dreamy about the future. It means I've been in an outstanding mood all week and I'm really thankful for that.
* My blog. I'm loving this more and more. And I love reading all those wonderful sites listed down the side there.


{things to be thankful for is a post I do every Saturday. It helps me sum up my week and remind myself of all the good things in my life. Feel free to play too and leave your *thankful's* in the comments or a link to yours on your blog. I will definitely check it out. *s*}  

Chocolate orange...

Oh yeah... remember how I said I do cupcakes well... Check out these puppies!

Its Nigella's cupcake recipe with a bit of cocoa and orange juice added then dark chocolate, butter, sugar and orange juice for icing....  Needless to say, they're all gone now.
Oh, plus me and husband had a stab at some food photography to go with them, what do you think?!

***EDIT*** The link to Nigellas cupcakes is now there. I added about 1/2 cup of cocoa powder and half a squeezed orange to the batter. The icing is half a block of melted dark chocolate, a big splodge (technical chefs term) of butter, icing sugar and orange juice until it tastes yummy and is a good consitency...

More recipes from me...

Actually...

It just got better. The production manager bought 2 boxes of krispy kreme for us lighting crew. Doughnuts for dinner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You know it's a good day when...

Husband offers you crumpets for breakfast, your housie bounds into the kitchen to give you a belated (the best for extending those happy birthday feelings!) birthday present, including a zine of happyness and 100 penguin classic postcards and your tummy is full of one of these little beauties below that the same housie baked! Yep. Good day.

ps. That card of extreme cuteness?.. Yeah she makes those and will be selling them soon... I'll let you know all about it!
pps. For the observent who are wondering where the picture of husband supposedly procurring crumpets is... as if there's time to take a picture when theres a hot crumpet in front of you!

Absent

Lovelies, we have a show coming into the theatre this week and so I'm not gonna be around here much. I have a couple of scheduled things, but I just wanted to let you know... its not you..its me.

Pictures from the Sesse Islands in Uganda.

Hanging garden

Look! Look! Look what we made!  Its a garden and it's vertical! On our very derelict fence. This is a stupendous idea that I saw on the internet and had been wanting to do for agges. Its just a shoe organiser thingy. With holes punched into the bottom of each baggy, filled with lovely soil and planted with spinach, lettuce, chives and a pansy or two for good measure (and prettyness). Its great because each section is see through so the soil gets to warm up a lot more than in a normal pot which is perfect for our current chilly weather. Also its fairly pest proof which is good for leafy vegetables. 

Also we bought this dinky Aussie esky the other day for a dollar. Yes a dollar! Macho man drilled holes in the bottom et voila! A planter box... kinda like one we have at the front of our house too.

 

Things to be thankful for.

You know, I've started measuring my week by this post... I just had a moment of "my gosh I can't believe its time to write another list again!" Not to fear - I love writing lists! Sorry its late this week, I was working all day Saturday.
Away we go!
* Being woken up with a cup of tea and a chirpy husband dancing on the bed to Architecture in Helsinki.
* Friends who pop over to drink red wine with you.
* Early finishes at work.
* Movie dates with my boy. (recommending New York, I love you)
* Sunny Sundays filled with gardening and cooking.
* Hangovers. They remind me how much I should actually drink in a night...
* I get to work with a really good (the best) lighting designer for the next two weeks. This means much more job satisfaction for me.
* The taste of winter oranges.
* Craftsmen... who can fix my leather satchel when it breaks!
*  That most broken technology starts working if you turn it off and on again... (mobile phone, internet, juicer etc...)

{things to be thankful for is a post I do every Saturday. It helps me sum up my week and remind myself of all the good things in my life. Feel free to play too and leave your *thankful's* in the comments or a link to yours on your blog. I will definitely check it out. *s*}  
 

Honey & cinnamon cupcakes

 

Okay this is top secret stuff. So you gotta not spread this round like. But I'm gonna share something pretty fantabulous with you. Basically it is the worlds best cupcake recipe. Hands down. And then modified a bit, by me. Cupcakes are kinda my thing. I tried making muffins the other day and they were okay, but not spectacular. I do cupcakes. I do cupcakes well. (as the shoveller in 'Mystery Men' would say - God i love that movie) So I've been making this Nigella recipe for yonks and got this idea in my head to replace a bit of the sugar with some Australian bush honey we have. Even though I just put in a table spoon  (okay a generous tablespoon...)  the flavour really comes through. And honey and cinnamon are just meant to be.
Its Nigella's cupcake recipe. It is no fail. And I know people say that alll the time and they almost always screw you over... but this. This is it. The shiz.

You Need:
125g Self raising flour
100g castor sugar
Large tablespoon of really good honey
125g soft butter
2 eggs (beaten)
Teaspoon vanilla extract
About 3 tablespoons of milk

Cream cheese, softened
Butter
Icing sugar
cinnamon

Then:
Preheat oven to 200degrees, put cupcake cases in a tin.
Cream your butter and sugar together, then alternate mixing in egg, flour (sifting it is important!) when you're all out of egg alternate flour with the milk. Then mix in your honey and vanilla. It should be a fairly runny mixture. eg. It needs to drop off the spoon easily.
I don't fill up the cases too much, literally just one tablespoon per case because then they are easier to ice.
Bake on the top shelf for 15-20 mins until they are glorious golden!
Usually makes around about 12 and this mixture is fine to double.
With icing I don't do measurements, just chuck it in a bowl and when it is the right consistency and taste it's done.

More food...
{via}

Sensitive flower..

I'm as sensitive as a sensitive thing at the moment. My British, stiff upper lip, tough techy side is finding it rather annoying. On the other hand how great are flight of the conchords?

Around the interwebs: Posters

I keep coming across wonderously good posters at the moment. Here are some favourites:

 This is Ciara and she has a series of things her 3 year old daughter says. It gets me thinking that 3 year olds are pretty awesome. So are Ciara's posters.  Found Via The Ever Dazzling.

 The Small Stakes sell amazing band posters. Of really good bands too. I love the simplicty and the graphics:

Some work at Nottinghill station uncovered these 1950's advertisement posters. Taken by Mikey Ashworth over on Flickr. Found via someone else's blog but I can't remember whos any more...

Finally I found these from Felt and Wire just the other day. So beautiful. I am particularly in love with the perculator. Of course. Next birthday maybe?

*Around the interwebs* is a series of nice things to be spied around the net. I stumble upon all sorts of magical marvelous things in my travels and this is a great way to remember them all. More found here.