Earl Grey Cupcakes

Today I wanted to do something nice for Luke while he was at work, so while I was having a cup of tea and reading some blogs this morning, I decided to bake him something. After I saw Miss Kait Online's Earl Grey Cupcake recipe last week, I was pretty keen to try them. So that is what I made today! They sure don't look as lovely as the ones that she made, but they sure do taste lovely!

Kitchen Covets

1. Venture Horizon Granite Top Kitchen Island 2. Eco Print

3. Laura Ashley Pots & Pan Hook 4. Red Smeg Fridge

5. Yellow Pepper Artisan Kitchen Aid 6. Single Saddle Seat Stool

7. Four Seasons Rob Ryan Plates

Start Your Week Off With..

• My better half by Amanda Jane Jones
• The most amazing bookmark in the world made by Opps I Craft My Pants
• Dial C for chicken by Anne Mage
• Two ingredient ice cream by The Perfect Pear
• Earl grey cupcakes by Miss Kait Online

I came across Amanda Jane Jones' blog this week, and she does this really adorable feature 'my better half' with couples. I found an awesome bookmark diy, a funny office story about chicken, a delicious tea flavoured cupcake recipe, and two ingredient ice-cream. 

Also.. would you like the chance to win a custom illustration of yourself by me? You would?! Well, head on over to Miss Teacups to enter her giveaway where she is giving one of her lucky readers the chance to win an illustration done by me. And if you just can't wait, check out my custom page for information on getting your own illustration, or send me an email if you would like to know more! Have a great week!

A Kitchen Tea, A Coffee Date & A Wedding

1. At Elisha's kitchen tea 2. Making a wedding dress out of paper

3. A coffee date with Ally 4. Mr & Mrs Ayton 

5. Me, Elisha & Abby 6. Reception

Thursday evening I attended Elisha's kitchen tea and got the chance to meet a couple of her old school friends, and members of her new family. It was a lovely evening which was spent playing a 'getting to know you game' with toilet paper, I'd never played it before, but it was a lot of fun. A roll of toilet paper was passed around and we were told to tear off as many pieces as we liked. Once everybody had, starting with Elisha, for every square of t.p you had to share a fact about yourself with everyone. It was a great way to start the evening and get into a good comfort zone amongst friendly strangers. And we got into little girl gangs for a paper dress competition where you were given a stack of newspaper and had to make a boss wedding dress out of it. The whole evening made me that much more excited for Elisha to get married on Saturday!

I left my house Saturday morning a little earlier to meet up with one of my lovely friends Alyssa for a morning coffee date at one of my old favourite cafes in Newcastle. I can positively say that I frequented this cafe at least twice a week, not including take away coffees! After raisin toast and coffee, I dropped her home so I could meet her new ferrets. I'm still a little freaked out by them, so I'll have to visit a couple of more times while I work my way up for a full on nurse of them! They are little furry babes though. 

The wedding was on afterwards, and it was a slight 'amazing race' moment trying to get there on time! The ceremony was in a lovely, sunny park/hill reserve and the weather was perfect! Elisha looked beyond stunning in her wedding dress with bright yellow heels. It was exactly how I imagined it! The ceremony was short and sweet, and afterwards Abby & I made a quick stop off to buy shoes before going to the reception so she could ease her high heel regret. The reception was on the waterfront at Newcastle and it was just a casual drinks and canapés type function, which was great. I love laid back, easy weddings.

After Elisha's wedding, I came back to the coast to help out at another wedding my family was catering for, and had dinner at my parents house & then came home to a cup of tea with Luke & an episode of Daria before bed. It was a pretty lovely Saturday!

Mr & Mrs Dirty Linen

(source)

It is my friend Elisha's wedding tomorrow and I'm so excited to see her get married. And to give her my awesome wedding present! We met each other a couple of years ago when we both lived in a share house. I let her have one of the rooms in the house because she was the biggest babe & liked maxi dresses! As I haven't been to her new house (as she lives in another state), I wasn't sure what things she would need for her new house etc. So I browsed on Etsy and found these bad boys! There are almost too good to give away! I found lots of cute variations on the design by other Etsy patrons but was most drawn to the Dustys & Lulu Mr & Mrs pillow case set. I was so excited when it arrived in the mail, and was even more thrilled to open the package and find the pillowcases neatly wrapped with accompanying Dustys & Lulu postcards with awesome illustrations. The quality of the pillowcases are excellent and I received them within a eight days after purchasing them. I'm pleased as punch with these and I cannot wait to give them to her tomorrow! I also think that I need a set for myself.

Zig Zag Nails

A couple of weeks ago The Dainty Squid & Elycia did a nail art tutorial for zig zag nails. I tried it out this week and was a little bit impressed with myself! I'm going to try water melon-esque colours next. 

Start Your Week Off With..

• Easy pick-me-up's by A New View 365
• Someone like you by Caught Up In Cake
• One girl, one dream by Apple Blue
• Ruff water by Little Friends Photography
• Mckenzie of Basil featured on A Girl Named Leney

Another Monday it seems! Throughout this past week I've stumbled upon some really neat blogs that I can't believe I hadn't already read. So this week I incorporated a little blogging strategy - linking a guest post on a blog. A Girl Named Leney is such a wonderful, cute little blog I've recently started reading. And through Leney's blog I found Basil. So to share them both, I've included a link for Leney's blog that features Basil's so you can start your week off with two new blogs! Also! I highly recommend you check out the Ruff Water series by Little Friends Photography. Puppies jumping in water. Genius! Its been my desktop background all week!

I started my week off with a teeny sleep in, & a delicious mocha from my work. And because the sun was actually out today, I did three loads of washing, went to the shops to pick a shirt up for Luke & a cute little mustard number for myself. Luke finished work a little earlier today and when he got home we played Mario Party and had cups of tea before he went back to work. I also finally invested in a water bottle with a filter to ease my e. coli paranoia!

Guest Post / Elissiam

My featured February sponsor Kirsten, who blogs over at Elissiam, is here today to answer a couple of questions about herself and her blog. If you haven't already exchanged pleasantries with this fine little lady, I do suggest you do so. Kirsten knows how to put together a cute outfit, and turn it into a sassy blog post! I love her blog, and I hope you all do too!

When did you start blogging/why/what is your blog about?

I started blogging in August 2011 for no particular reason other than I thought it would be fun. I had been reading fashion, beauty and lifestyle blogs for about a year prior to starting my blog, and then decided to start one of my own once I bought a fancy-pants camera. My blog is just about my silly little life, and what I wear during it. So far I have found blogging to be heaps of fun and it really has become one of my favourite things to do!

What character are you most like?

Ohhh I have no idea. I just googled "what character are you most like quiz" to try and get an accurate answer. Unfortunatley pretty much all the results are along the lines of "What Twilight character are you?" and as much as I love Twilight, I don't want to risk being compared to a certain whiney Swan girl. So I will leave you with a picture of who I wish I could be more like because she is awesome and I would like to marry her please.

What is a typical day for you?

It depends! At the moment I am doing absolutely shit all, because I am on holidays, so I just spend most of my days watching intelligent shows such as Snog, Marry Avoid and Hotter Than My Daughter (soooo gooooodddddd) and hanging with my best friend Mr Laptop. In a couple of weeks university and work starts again, so I'll have a bit more of a routine then. Not sure if I am looking forward to it or dreading it! A bit of both probably.

What are your plans for 2012?

Wellity wellity well. I'm not too sure really. All of the excitement seems to be happening in April, which is when I am moving to a nice house overlooking the ocean, and also going to Sydney for my grandmother's 80th birthday. Other than that I don't know, besides the usual "uni and work" crap. I'd quite like to set up a piano teaching business, or start performing at weddings and functions, but I don't know if that will happen this year. I hope it does!

Do you collect anything?

Haha, do clothes count? I have a lot of clothes! Other than that ... no I do not. Although I would like to one day be an old crazy woman with millions of cat-related items. Looking around my house right now, I realise that my mother owns a suspiciously large amount of ceramic cats. This means that I am the offspring of a crazy cat lady, so it is a scientific fact that I will morph into a crazy cat lady myself one day.

What is on your bedside table?

I don't have a bedside table. I do, however, have two bedside crap-holders. I don't know whether to feel proud or embarrassed about having a Thomas the Tank Engine lamp at the age of 23. I think I feel mainly proud.

Be sure to stop by her blog & say hello!

Tea For Two

1. Early morning coffees 2. My sister flipping her hurr

3. Coffee 4. Cucumber sandwiches 5. Gluten free delights

6. A quick selfy before Ash went back to work 7. Driving home

A couple of months ago my sister Ashleigh suggested we go have 'tea for two' at this cute little gluten free patisserie in Newcastle. We've been meaning to do it for ages, and this week we finally went. I've been sleeping through my alarms lately, and because I was driving to Newcastle (which is an hour from where I live) I had to get up a little earlier to get ready. Lucky my sister didn't send me the address of the patisserie, she called me in the morning, about 15 minutes before I should have been leaving. So I frantically started to get ready and because Luke is super lovely he walked to the cafe just around the corner from us to get me a coffee cos I ran out of time. 

The little patisserie was so cute. Everything was gluten free and there was a sweet bread loaf with dried fruit that was amazing! Even though it was called 'tea for two', we both got coffees. The cucumber sandwiches were slightly different to the average high tea type sandwich. The cucumber was piled on top of a slice of bread, and it was so delicious. I've been putting cucumber and zucchini in most things lately, so it was just right! And the sweet jelly squares were made with gelatine free jelly. On our way out, I picked Luke up a treat to take home with me, a white chocolate and raspberry macaroon. I didn't actually get to see Luke for valentines day until about 11pm because he was working, so when he got home he had it with a cup of tea. It was a pretty lovely day, and the nice weather held out just long enough for me to do three loads of washing!

Monday Afternoon

1. Mid afternoon stroll 2. Mid afternoon stroll to the post office

3. Afternoon brunch 4. Luke measuring out ingredients

5. Making banana bread 6. Burrito mix 7. Banana bread & tea

Luke & I had the day together, so we started it off with a big lazy sleep in. And it was a rainy Monday morning, so really what else are you going to do. When the rain suddenly decided to stop and the sun came out we got up and planned our day. We decided to make banana bread, do some banking, pick up our much anticipated passports, go grab some coffees & make some delightful banana bread to have with cups of tea. It started to rain late in the afternoon, so we swung by my parents house for a quick drink while we used their dryer. When we got home, our house smelt like delicious banana bread and honey. While that rested straight from the oven, we made vegetarian burritos and watched 'Revenge'. 

It was a pretty lovely way to spend a Monday afternoon, and to finish the evening off with some home made banana, chocolate & walnut bread with some tea & 'Daria'.

Start Your Week Off With..

• Know your stone by Lost Cabin
• Tips for a successful blog from The Curious Pug
• Dear little Kaleigh from Kaleigh
• Hey Girl by The Lovely Hunter
• Ten simple smoothies by The Wearwithal
• Pixelated pop valentines card by The Glue Gun Girl

I've been really excited to post this weeks 'start your week off with..' post because there are some really great reads. I really loved the 'Dear little Kaleigh' letter that blogger Kaleigh wrote to her younger self, its really funny and sweet and reminded me of a couple of things I used to think when I was little. The Curious Pug shared some really great blogging tips she's gained though her own experience, so if you've just started blogging, this is a great read. Be sure to check them all out!

Custom Portrait

I'm really excited to share my new illustration, which was a custom portrait I did recently for the very lovely Felicity who blogs over at Pursuit Of Felicity.

To read more about this illustration, check out her latest blog post.

It was such a pleasure drawing Felicity & her boyfriend and I'm super happy with the result.

To read more about my custom illustrations, check out my custom page.

You can also see another custom illustration I did for another fine lady, Hannah from A Cup Of Subtle Tea. If you're interested in having a custom illustration drawn for yourself, or for a friend, send me an email, I'd love to hear from you!

Start Your Week Off With..

• Welcome to the revolution by A is for Ampersand
• Only the cutest photo, ever by Shaktidove
• The sweetest save the date design by Simply Melissa Ashley
• The ballad of 'what if' by Casual Bedlam

Its almost mid-week, but I'm sure it'll be okay! If you haven't popped over to 'A is for Ampersand' this month so far, make sure you do. Theres some pretty awesome stuff going on over there. And Amy is also a babe. The cutest photo ever posted by Shaktidove made my little heart do a couple of flips its so cute! And I wanted everybody else to feel the same as well. I know how you lovely bloggers like yourselves some cute cats! I've also included a nice post to read by Casual Bedlam, who posts a lot of good, interesting reads. And lastly, a super neat save the date designed by Simply, Melissa Ashley. That girl is a boss! Have a great week!

Ghost Blogging

Every Monday I like to do a 'start your week off with..' post linking a sweet handful of blog posts that I have liked throughout the week. And when you do a regular post like this, well I find anyway, that I notice more the posts in between. Or lack there of. I've been a little bit of a ghost blogger these past couple of weeks. I've been so busy with work, and drawing and general things that bulk out your week, that Luke & I have barely had much spare time to have any cute little daily adventures. And that is generally what I blog about. I sometimes get a little self conscious about what I put on my blog & what I would like to branch out and put on my blog. But then I think, 'why blog at all if you're so worried about what people think'. Because ultimately I really do love to post about the little things I do and the places I go, and if a handful of people 'in real life' read my blog and wear their judgey bear jumpers over it, it really doesn't need to be my problem. Haters gonna hate. 

Things are starting to quiet down around these parts, so I'll have a couple of more days out of my week to do heaps of cool things with. And more time to do some sweet little drawings. I'm really excited about a custom illustration that I'm currently working on and am looking forward to sharing. In the mean time, if you would like a custom drawing of your fine self, check out my custom page!

Aunty Dean Came To Visit

Today was a pretty lovely day.

I used my birthday tea cup for the first time, & tried a green tea + cranberry blend.

My lovely husband gave me his Cotton On voucher to buy a new dress that I clearly needed.

I finally uploaded my copy of CS5 on my new Mac.

 And worked on a new custom illustration.

I watched those Shit Fashion Girls Say videos.

And my lovely little friend Dean came to visit me. 

I hadn't seen Dean since last year when Luke & I went to Newtown for the weekend for our anniversary. So it was super lovely getting to spend the afternoon with him catching up with coffees, cupcakes & youtube. We flipped our hurr to One Direction. And broke in my photo booth - which is so much more awesome than my antique macbook photo booth!