white fluffyness

I baked some chocolate cupcakes with white fluffy icing for work yesterday. D had a shared morning tea and my work colleagues always appreciate my baking! D wanted chocolate cupcakes with caramel filling and white marshmallowy icing. (To be honest, it sounded gross to me! too sweet!) I topped with a choc-covered coffee bean. They turned out alright, I added coffee to a standard chocolate batter for extra richness. I then made a caramel filling from condensed milk - but due to time pressure I was a bit lazy and didn't pipe it in after baking. Instead I folded it in with the batter. I immediately regretted this when I realised it had just sunk to the bottom.

I'll definitely pipe in after baking next time!! The other mini-diaster was that I didn't beat my first batch of icing enough. When I got up in the morning the fluffy icing had kind of lost their piped shape .... so there was a mix of melted looking and pretty. (Second batch I obviously whipped enough!!) They still looked OK....

Depsite my disappointment, it seemed everyone loved them. D got rave reviews from his dept, and one of my colleauges declared they were the best thing ever (and ate two!). I didn't eat any - for two reasons; I'm trying to be good, and they were waaaay too sweet for me.

Also from my recent cupcake exploits, I baked for when the in-laws came over. We had a BBQ for D's birthday. When I asked what cupcakes he wanted - he said purple with butterflies. I'm trying to reassure myself that he was thinking of our niece... (hehehe). So that's what I made!

I've been thinking about cupcakes a lot lately. Not eating them, creating them. It seems it is an affliction that has affected many many others in recent times. I can spend hours perusing cupcake blogs. I'm seriously thinking about trying to join Iron Cupcake or Cupcake Hero. Both are monthly challenges to bake cupcakes with a particular ingredient....

December is such a busy month, so far I've been to 6 christmas functions. I'm all christmas'ed out. (Though that won't stop me baking gingerbread this weekend...).

Some of our babies are leaving us on Saturday morning. Its going to be kinda sad, I've grown really attached. We are keeping a couple (read: three plus mum), but I'm very impressed with our ability to resist keeping them all. Two of the boys aren't going to their new home til early January so we'll have them for a wee bit longer.

OK, very much my bedtime.

x x M

Happy birthday Rochelle

Today is my sister-in-law's birthday...

Happy Birthday Rochelle!!!

We are going to their place for a BBQ this weekend, so I'll have to whip up a fantastic birthday cake.....

M

another birthday cake

Here is the football field cake, I made for my darling husband D. I am still very slack at posting at the moment - I'm soo busy!

Hopefully I'll catch up soon. Guides has nearly finished for the year, so that gives me a couple more free nights!

Apologies to those that have tried to get in touch with me and have been a bit ignored.. I love you really!!

M

pinata cake

This weekend we had the birthday celebrations for D's sister, Sandra. To be honest, I'll be quite glad when this wee spate of birthdays is over! That said, there was a new addition to the October birthday calendar with the arrival of this wee bundle:

Isn't she cute? She is our 10 day old niece. She was a very big baby, weighing around 10 pounds and she was born with that thick wad of hair!! Congrats to her mummy and daddy.

On with the birthday-ness..

This is the 'pinata' cake that D and I made for Sandra...

The "treasure" cake inside:

and the pinata shell (chocolate with LOTS of different sized M&Ms)



and after Sandra had smashed it (as opposed to blowing out her candles):

It turned out pretty awesome. Very colourful and fun for Sandra to smash up! So here is a belated...

Happy Birthday Sandra!!!

M

labour weekend

Labour weekend seems to traditionally be a weekend of crap weather. Well not this year! Its been absolutely gorgeous. And now that summer is on the way and we've turned our clocks forward, it is 6pm and still sunny as. I love it! Roll on summer!!

I haven't posted for a wee while for a few reasons. Firstly, I got struck down with the flu and it was horrible horrible. I was very tired, grouchy, and snotty. I also started my new job (at the same time as getting the flu) so I have been very busy busy at work. I also now go to Guides twice a week, once to my training unit and once to my permanent unit. Still, no excuse not to blog. And especially no excuse to ignore my 101 list. It will be April 2010 before I know it and I really really wanna complete this list.

So for the tiny amount of people who actually read my blog, apologies. Lots of updates to come :)

Another birthday has been and gone so a bit belated:

Happy Birthday Ron aka Father-in-Law!

We went to the in-laws on Saturday for lunch and cake. D and I made a train cake!! I've always wanted to make one. Sadly, I didn't get any really good photos of the cake. It turned out HUGE at 1 metre long. D and I had a blast making it and Ron seemed to really like it. I'm sure they will be eating cake for a week! I think next time we make this, we might just do the engine!

Each carriage has different cargo. One has mini marshmallows, one has fruit jellies, and one has oreo 'wheels'. Our niece Abby loved it.

Ron is really into model trains and the family put together to get him some new trains for his railway track.

It seems D and I have become the birthday cake makers of the family. Its D's sisters birthday next so we have a special cake in store for her!





After the birthday celebrations we visited my dad and his family. Dad cooked a lovely roast beef (which admittedly I didn't eat much of - too full of cake!). D and I watched 'Toy Story 2' with our cute little nephews Latrell and Lazereth.

D and I in our Phoenix gears

D and I being the staunch Phoenix supporters that we are, headed off to the game last night against the Central Coast Mariners. Unfortunately it was a loss, but still a really good game. The Mariners are at the top of the table and we definitely game them a run for their money. It was one all at full time and then the Mariners scored a second goal in overtime. I have my reservations about the yellow card happy ref and his decisions (or lack of). At the end of the day, it was the Phoenix's defence that let us down. One of the goals was literally walked in by the Mariners' player. All that said, they are our team and we love them. (And Perth lost this weekend so we aren't bottom of the table!!).

gorgeous weather for the football

It has been a weekend of football, D and I headed to our nearby park and kicked a ball around for an hour or so in the sun today. We really enjoyed ourselves and plan to do it on a regular basis. D is playing his indoor football game at the moment (I'm supposed to be preparing dinner...)

Speaking of food, I only have one bento to post. We've been quiet slack these past weeks and really need to get back into the swing of things. Maybe this week can be the first week of my regular posting of bento! (Item# 87 on my 101 list)

mini meat patties (made+ frozen specially for bento), mini vege fritatta, toast onigiri, cucumber flowers, laughing cow cheese wedge, and wine gum lollies to fill the gap.
lime flavoured jelly, mandarin slices, and tamarillo.
peanuts and raisins, and some durian chips.
citrus herbal tea and an instant miso

M

big catch up...

On Tuesday night we were lucky enough to see the lunar eclipse. The weather wasn't the best in Welly so the moon was often obscured by clouds. Apparently it was the best kind of lunar eclipse as it lasted so long. It was very cool -and quite freaky to see the moon so red.

And yes, I am obsessed with Bento. I have spent countless hours looking at bento blogs and wishing we could get cool bento accessories in NZ. I am making a bento of sorts for lunch tomorrow. I'd love to get into the habit of making really funky packed lunches - first I'd eat healthier and second its cheaper! Maybe then I can justify spending money on a bento box!!

My 101 list hasn't been progessing so well, with all the getting married excitements. We did managed to open a joint bank account so that is number 56 crossed off. Sadly that only brings me to a total of 6 completed! I have managed to read a few more books, and change a few of the books that were on my list.

It has also been a busy week for my Guides involvement. I had a full day workshop yesterday that goes towards my leaders certificate. It was really fun and great to meet some other leaders. I am also selling Girl Guide Biscuits! The "season" is basically over, but both the units I am involved with have a few boxes left. So if you want some Girl Guide biccies..... hehe.
In fact, I think I have taken enough steps towards becoming a Guide Leader than I can cross of number 26 - Become a volunteer. I am really enjoying Guides and I am keen to get more involved.

And I cannot forget a very Happy Birthday to my bestest friend Kate, her birthday was on Monday 27 August 2007. I'm afraid I haven't been a very good friend this birthday time - things have got away on me. However, I am very lucky she is coming up to visit me and help celebrate our marriage.

Happy Birthday Kate!!

It is only 4 days til D and I actually get married. I am not in the slightest bit stressed (yay for low key weddings) but I am getting very excited and a tad nervous... I am also looking forward to catching up with my family and good friends that are coming to help us celebrate.

I also have some very sad news. My dear Grandad is very ill with pneumonia and is not expected to recover. It is very upsetting and I really feel for my mum at this time as she is stressed about coming to Welly for our wedding and also about what will happen to Grandad.

Love you Grandad.....

M

bento boxes!!

First of all; a picture of the Green Elephant Cake we made for Angela:

It didn't turn out the best - but we are learning all the time! We had a great day at D's folk's house. As usual, we played lots of games and ate far to much food! Today the card game of choice was memory, which is good game when Abby (D's niece) is there too.

I haven't done any of the tidying/cleaning I promised myself I would do this weekend so its going to be busy busy in the days leading up to our BIG DAY... (God, I am so excited and so NERVOUS!). Mum + G are coming to stay for a few nights so we need to make room to fit them in. Only 12 days til D and I are married! I booked the hotel today using my new last name - god it felt weird - but very exciting. I noticed D had a huge grin on his face when he heard me using it. How cute is that?

Today, while doing my usual blog reading procrastination I found/remembered BENTO BOXES! Bento boxes are basically a Japanese concept of lunchboxes. Mums in Japan go hard out to make flash bento boxes for their kids/husbands to take. Anyway there is quite an online culture of bento - lots of tutorials/advice and tips for new bento-ers. I also found several cool bento flickr groups. Best of all, a bento blog! Lunch in a box has heaps of cool ideas/recipes and funky bento ideas. I wish we could get all that cool stuff in NZ!

I think lunch would be far more exciting if we had an amazing bento to open each day. I think I'll keep an eye out for any containers I could use for bento. It would be much cheaper than buying lunch and would hopefully motivate us to spend the time making lunch. And of course - bento is so visually attractive so that makes for great photos for you dear blog!

Here is a beautiful bento made by lilergy (a flickr bento member)

I've looked at ALOT of bento pics today and I consistently love Lilergy's styles.

I've been neglecting my 101 list lately, with all the getting married plans :P You'll be pleased to know that "get married" is one of the private items on my list, so I will be able to cross that off soon... :D

M *bounce*

sooo busy

Wagh. Where has this week/month/year gone?? We have quite a lot on at the moment and it doesn't feel like I am accomplishing much. I need to get the rattie/craft/spare room sorted so we have room when my Mum comes to stay. I can't believe that we are getting married in less than two weeks?!~! I am not stressed at all (in fact I LOVE how not-stressed things are) but I am quite nervous and of course excited!

Today I helped out at a Community Market Day where some of the Guides had some stalls:

It was good fun - sold some Girl Guide Biscuits (and took a box to sell at work) and there was a hangi. We sold some of the crafty stuff the Guides have made over the last few weeks.

D's brother Graeme and his partner Rochelle are currently pregnant - and are around 32 weeks. R went into premature labour today which is a bit scary. Apparently they managed to stop the labour, but the baby (they think its a girl!) will definitely be premature. Its quite exciting having a new baby in the family - but also quite emotional for D and I as we lost a baby a couple of years ago. I hope all goes well for G + R - we'll be thinking of them lots over the next few weeks.

In other family news... its D's sister Angela's birthday today!!

Happy Birthday Angela !!!

We are baking her a cake - will take photos and post tomorrow.. Anyways I have to go to bed, its been a loong week.

M

birthday cake bonanza

I've been flicking through the "Australian Women's Weekly: Children's Birthday Cake Book" and found sooo many cakes I want to decorate! D's mum has nominated me the birthday cake maker for the family now so I'm sure we'll get LOTS of opportunity to make some.

In fact, I was so taken with the old book - I purchased the new version:

Its not quite as good as the old school one, but its pretty good and has some new designs that are cool. I'd still be very keen to pick up a copy of the old one if I find one!

D's sister Angela has her birthday next weekend so we're planning a cake for her. I'm also going to make and decorate some cupcakes this weekend so we went on a mission to find the necessary lollies to decorate. We cannot find Liquorice Straps! We've been EVERYWHERE! I hope they still make them! Cupcakes is on my list - so hopefully I can cross another thing of my list.

Speaking of crossing another thing off my list - GRRRRRRRR
I dropped my sewing machine in to be serviced a couple of weeks ago and finally made it in to pick it up today, only to find that NOTHING had been done. The repair/service guy had apparently ignored the instructions to give it a service and had instead "assessed" the machine and noted that the "hook" was broken and needed replacing. I had left it with instructions to fix anything that was wrong, but to call me if it exceeded a certain amount. Well I got no call an no fix!~! Boy was I grumpy. Especially as I'd already paid the $27 deposit! The lady in the shop said they'd had a lot of problems with the repair man lately and perhaps I should take it to someone else?!!

The other repair guy in Welly is open tomorrow I think so I'll take it down and see what he thinks. A new sewing machine is NOT in the budget right now!

In much happier news - eeep I'm engaged! Its so exciting. I didn't think that much would change but it kinda has and I get really excited looking at my ring! I love D so much and can't wait to marry him. We are going to find out about dates for the registry office on Monday!

M

red sky in the morning, shepherds warning...

I took these pictures the other morning when we were walking to work. And sure enough, it rained later that day. The sky looked incredible, almost angry!.

Its been 1 week since my 101 things project started and I haven't completed anything!! That said, I do have a few work in progress and a pretty good excuse! I managed to pull some kind of muscle/thing in my neck/back and I've hardly been able to move my head for the last four days. I haven't been able to sit at the computer (so no blog) and haven't been able to do much else. D has been getting a bit frustrated with me I think. I've needed lots of massages with anti-flam and my wheat bag constantly needs reheating.


Items 53 + 16:
I did manage to drop my sewing machine in to be serviced yesterday however! I haven't crossed it off as it won't come back for another week or so. This gives me some time to work on my crochet! I have bought yarn and crochet needles and borrowed "Stitch'nBitch -Happy Hooker" from S so now I just have to find (make?) the time to sit down and practice!!

Items 100 + 96
I made a quick trip to the library yesterday and picked up a few of the books and films on my 101 list. So far I've watched '12 monkeys' and ' the godfather', and read 'mrs frisby and the rats of nimh' and the 'birth of the firebringer'. Both books were from the children's section and as such were quick light reads. I read a lot of fantasy novels when I was younger and this element appealed to me in 'the birth of the firebringer'. It was an enjoyable read, but I wouldn't rate it as one of my favourite books.

'mrs frisby and the rats of nimh' was a gorgeous rattie story and I think I will read the other 'rats of nimh' books. Many of my rattie friends have named their furkids after characters from these books and I've never had any idea what they were referring to! It was also a light quick read but a pleasant deterrent from the sharp pains in my back.

'the godfather' was exactly as I thought it would be. You hear some much about this and that from the godfather movies and so many movies and TV shows have taken elements from them. Despite the violence, I find the italian mafia setting really interesting.

I am still trying to decide if I've seen '12 monkeys' before or not. I seemed to remember bits of it but not all. I was really disappointed with the end, I'm one of those people who likes the story to be more complete! As far as I know, there was no sequel made.

I also got out 'I, Claudius' (book), 'Animal Farm' (book), 'The Godfather II' (DVD), 'Reservoir Dogs' (DVD), and 'Elephant Man' (DVD). If I aim to get out three or four books and movies a week, I'll be through that element of my list in no time!

I haven't discovered anything I absolutely love in these books/films but I think it is going to be a great adventure working my way through the list!

Yesterday was D's niece's 6th birthday! We had a birthday party at D's parents house today. D and were in charge of the birthday cake and had a few disasters but all was OK in the end. We baked an orange + choc melt cake with plans to do fancy decorating. However we realised that the cake was slightly overcooked and not all that nice. We decided to ice up a plain sponge instead. What dramas! D and I learnt not to leave such things to the last minute! The cake was far from perfect, but it had Abby's name and fancy candles!

Its got me thinking about D's birthday and Item 83 on my 101 list. D's birthday is in November and I want to make him a really funky cake. I've been trying to track down a copy of the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book:

There are a couple on Trademe but they seem to be a bit like gold and I'm not prepared to pay megabucks. The library's copies are on loan or lost. I rang mum to borrow her copy but she is also looking for a copy as hers has gone missing! I'll have to keep looking...

Anyway, off to reheat the wheatbag and then bedtime I think!

M

Happy Birthday Daddy

I forgot to wish my dad a HAPPY BIRTHDAY for the 14th. I baked him a scrumptious chocolate cake. Sadly, there was an "accident" on the way to visit Dad. (Cake fell off the carseat = chocolate icing right through car). Sorry Dad! I was tempted to take a picture of the smashed cakey mess, but D scraped it into the bin before I could.

Anyway HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY DAD!! Love you.

Seriously my bedtime..
M

happy birthday marie

It is D's mum's birthday today so went we out to their place for lunch. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARIE!!

I'm still attempting the Impossible Quiz. I've made it to 88 but there was a bomb that went off before I could finish the question.. back to the beginning!

I'll crack it if it kills me!! :D

I went out for dinner + cocktails with some work buddies last night. We had a really good time. Dinner was at Thai House on Cuba St and then nextdoor to Goodluck for cocktails & sake. I love the atmosphere at Goodluck, I could have easily stayed there all night.

my "pad thai" dinner


ambiance at Goodluck


sake, sake, sake...

It was a great night, and very cool to hang with some work mates who I don't see often. The cocktails at Goodluck are very very good.

D has convinced me to make him chocolate pudding in the crockpot, and is calling from the lounge "its smells good honey, is it ready yet??" I'd better go check.

Happy Long Weekend!

M