Start Your Week Off With..

DIY Hanging Terrarium by The Charley Girl

7 Things About Copenhagen by Musings

1st Blogaversary by Roni Feels Nostaligic

Garden Party & Flower Crown Making by Miss Kait Online

Over the next two weeks I'll be working a lot because my boss is overseas. Today was my only day off this week and I didn't use it as wisely as I could have. After a handful of 5am starts last week I gave myself a sleep in, bought some vitamins & had cups of tea with my Mum. I hope everybody else's Monday was more productive than mine!

Let's Swap Buttons For November!

It's that time of the month again!

If you would like to swap buttons for the month of November, and we have similar blog content, then send me an email - laurenemily[at]y7mail[dot]com - with a 230x110 button.

I'd love to hear from you!

Mother Daughter Weekend On The Gold Coast

Top L-R: Rikki, me, Mum, Aunty Lea, Aunty Sharon, Mandy, my sister Ash, Sophie & Kate

Bottom L-R: Me, Rikki + Jackson, Sophie + Nick, Gertie & Mandy, Ash, Kate + Andrew

Last Friday my Sister Ash, my Mum & myself hoped on a plane to the Gold Coast for our second MDWE (Mother Daughter Weekend) of the year. This one was a little extra special because my cousin Sophie was back in Australia after living overseas for almost two years, my cousin Kate was about to drop a baby, and there was a new addition to our MDWE - my cousin's girlfriend Rikki! Rikki is an absolute babe fox, she takes dreamy pictures that could be postcards sent from love club island & she is also super duper sweet.

We arrived early at the Gold Coast where Kate picked us up from the airport and we went for breakfast. After our eggs, we made our first stop at Mandy's house for a quick tour. I wish Mandy blogged, because if she did and took pictures of her house, it would seem more like a dreamers pinterest pin board than somebodies humble abode. We then made our way to Kate's house to check out her little set up that awaits her baby, and then we checked into our rooms at the resort. Our afternoon was spent around a cheese plate, with cups of tea and catching up. Throughout the afternoon my cousin's partners came to visit too as they all live on the Gold Coast, and it was really lovely getting to see everyone after such a long time. We went for dinner at this cute gourmet burger place across from the resort where we had lettuce cup burgers. I was secretly beyond excited to try out this whole lettuce cup burger thing after seeing them on a couple of blogs, and they were definitely amazing! 

On Saturday morning we woke up to Kate & Ash making pancakes and fruit salad. Whenever we go away on these MDWE's, breakfast is always one of the funnest parts, and the biggest deals. It takes us all forever to get up and get ready and sit down at once to eat together, but Kate got her mother on and bossed us all into line! After everyone was dressed and had their post breakfast cup of tea, we went for a walk to find our lunch destination. And yes, (unfortunately) we left the resort wearing those hideous blue t-shirts. I am such a grinch when it comes to dressing up or fancy dress, I've just never ever been into it. However, everybody in my family seems to love it and therefore it is part of MDWE. Last MDWE the theme was 'sparkles' and the Daughter's organised a sparkly super hero outfit, while the Mother's went over the top and blinded us with their sparkles. We thought we had the cat in the bag with our costumes and would win our little dress up competition, but we didn't. So this time around we had the idea to go with a t-shirt saying 'You Win -MDWE'. And once again the Mother's went above and beyond with the 'medical' theme and had cute little nurse get ups. I wish I had of taken a photo to share because it was hilarious!

Aside from getting to spend quality time with my family when we go away together on these weekends, I love going away with them because I'm always introduced to something new. This time around I tried white leaf tea, ginger in a fresh juice, lettuce cup burgers and a vegetarian bento box when we went for lunch at this mixed Japanese restaurant. It's just so lovely spending time with your family as an adult, because it isn't something our parents make us do, we all want to. Our MDWE's are something that I really look forward to because we're all so lucky to be friends and share the similar interests, especially ones that clearly run in the family like watching cyst videos on youtube!

Start Your Week Off With..

Magical Glow Stick Jar by Magical Day Dream

My Library by Ever So Juliet

Insta-life by Sweet Dreams

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Fall Feathers

I hope you all had a more productive Monday than I did. Luke & I went to The Black Keys concert on Sunday evening in Newcastle & visited my Sister for her birthday, which ended up being a late evening for us by the time we drove back to the coast. We woke up today after lunch, watched some bad day time tv with cups of tea and French pastries and went grocery shopping. Whenever I sleep in late and waste the day I feel really guilty and rather than turn the day into a productive one I generally have a sook in bed. So that is what I did. Luke put on Beauty & The Beast, filled up a hot water bottle and tucked me into bed and then he made dinner. I woke up in a better mood to a lovely dinner, X-factor & cups of tea. I may just have to bake Luke some cookies tomorrow for being such a boss! 

Do You Have Instagram?

A couple of weeks ago I joined the iPhone club and one of the first things I did was get instagram. It is seriously addictive, and a way better time waster/filler than Facebook. So if you have an instagram account let me know! Until I change my blog layout and include a instagram widget, this will have to do! Oh, and my username is tasteslikelove.

Start Your Week Off With..

Autumn In The City by Rockstar Diaries

True Perspective by The Beetle Shack

A New Look by Chandelier Jenny

Making A Collage In Photoshop by My Billie

Now that the holidays are over Mondays have gone back to being my day off. And today I've penned my game plan for the day on my first to-do list in ages! I may have been a little ambitious with my planning because this morning I have a little more energy than usual, which I am going to attribute to banana on toast this morning. I am super excited about my upcoming week. Today I have lots of things planned, I'm working three days this week, and the rest of the week will be spent on the Gold Coast with my family for a Mother Daughter Weekend! I hope you all have a fantastic week, and check out this lovely blog posts, especially if you want to do some DIY on your blog this week - check out My Billie's collage post, and Chandelier Jenny's new look post.

Recent Purchases

In the last two weeks I had a mini break from blogging, but I didn't have a break from going to the shops! These are a couple of my recent colourful purchases. I really can't remember what my life was like before the all types-of-cute store Typo. The first three pictures are my Typo purchases. In the main living area space of my flat I have a polo cube bookcase which is jam packed with books, and on top of the bookcase itself is decorated with these pretty magazine holders. And now on the side of the bookcase my new mini chalk board hangs. I've been wanting one of these for a while, and even though it could be bigger it will do for now. And the last of my Typo purchases were an 'oh deer!' stamp, a measuring tape so I can now safely purchase clothes online and a letter holder to neaten up the notebooks on my desk. One of the best things about having an iPhone, is picking out cute cases. I settled for these two, until I get the melting ice-cream case. The zig zag case was unbelievably cheap at just $2 from Dotti, where I also picked up this floral summer dress for $10. I'm really not much into this whole neon phases thats currently happening (mostly because neons don't suit me), but I thought this necklace looked fun.

The Most Delightful Hazelnut Cake

A couple of weeks ago Luke & I baked a cake together and I promised I would post the recipe here. So today I spent the morning with my Mum baking this delicious cake, and now I'm delivering on my promise!

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Serves 8-10 ~ Preparation 20 mins ~ Cooking 45 mins 

For this cake you will need:

• 100g butter, chopped
• 175g dark chocolate, chopped
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 150g hazelnut meal
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 4 eggs, separated

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C/160 FF. Grease a 20cm springform pan and line the base with non-stick baking paper.
2. Place the butter and chocolate into a large heatproof bowl. Stand bowl over pan of barely simmering water, and stir occasionally until melted. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla, sugar, hazelnut meal, sifted cocoa and egg yolks.
3. Using electric beaters, beat the egg whites in a clean bowl until soft peaks form. Mix 1/4 of egg whites into chocolate mixture to soften it. Use a large metal spoon to fold in remaining, and combine until there are no streaks of white, taking care not to lose volume. 
4. Spoon mixture into prepared tin, and bake for 45 mins. Cool in tin. Chill until firm. Run a knife around edge of cake, remove from tin.
5. Place cake onto serving plate and using chocolate frosting mixture (which is optional, but I would definitely recommend finishing your cake off with this!), ice cake. Serve slices of cake!

Chocolate Frosting:

To make chocolate frosting mixture, sift 1 cup of icing sugar mixture and 1 tbsp cocoa powder into a bowl. Add 30g soft butter and stir in 1 1/2 tbsp of boiling water, adding a tiny bit more if needed, beat until smooth. Spread onto cake!

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Enjoy! Let me know if you try this out.

Start Your Week Off With..

Changing Seasons by My Billie

How Much Is My Face Worth by Pursuit Of Felicity

An Open Letter To Amanda Bynes by Cheeky Cheeky

My Top 5 Favourite Combos Guest Posted on Chestnut Mocha

Geo Label DIY by Pin N' The Sky

I haven't posted one of these 'Start Your Week Off With..'s in a couple of weeks, so there are a few older posts in here. A couple of changes have been happening offline, and I can't wait to share them with you very, very soon! But until then, have a great week and my regular posting will resume!