Roses are Red

Giveaway Winner!!! and...

2011-08-16T00:51:00.002+09:30

Its been a while since my last post for a few reasons.

Firstly, my laptop got a virus! Seen as my laptop was about 6 years old and terribly slow I thought it was the perfect time to buy a new one....Im so so glad I did, I now have a brand new Toshiba laptop which is amazingly fast! No more waiting 5 minutes for a page to load :) Im yet to work out how to transfer my photos from my camera to this computer so you will have to bear with me until I sort it out.

I have lots to blog about starting with my Cairns trip, a few recipes, our engagement party and wedding plans. Which leads me to the other reasons I havent been around, were currently planning our engagement party, we have a lovely venue booked and have planned food and drinks for the day. Today ive finished making the invitations for the engagement party and im quite happy with how theyve turned out, I will certainly be sharing these with you.

Tommorow were off to look at a potential wedding venue so Im quite excited! And in between wedding and engagement planning we are searching for a rental property.

Anyhow, I thought it was about time I draw the winner to my most recent giveaway!

I used random.org which choose comment number 10!

Congratulations

Ester Duraes of Drawing Dreaming

Please email me your postal address (chocolatesoap(at)hotmail(dot)com) and I will have these necklaces sent off to you as soon as possible!

My Week In Photos!

2011-07-17T23:02:00.001+09:30

Ive never done a post like this before, but I always enjoy when other bloggers show some photos from their week. So here we are, some of my week in photos! .....

Mikey and I got matching crochet blankets! His is the blue and mine is the pink/purple one (of course). I really love these blankets, I have been wanting to make my own for so long, when I saw these at a handmade store I couldn't resist buying the matching pair.

Ive been reading the latest Cosmopolitan Bride, I think its my favourite of the bridal magazines, sooo many pretty pieces and ideas. Im beginning to get so many ideas for our wedding that its becoming confusing :/ Ive updated my list of bridal blogs on the left sidebar, if theres any others Ive missed please let me know.

Ive had the week off of work, which means NAILPOLISH! I cant wear nailpolish to work so when ever I have a few days off I always try to do my nails. At the moment Im loving giving my nails the 'French Manicure' look.

My cousin and his partner recently got engaged, yesterday was their engagement party. I had a nice time catching up with family, listening to the speeches and I couldn't help getting excited about my own engagement party in a few months.

I dont particualy like this photo, I look drunk, but I wanted to show you the dress I wore to the engagement party...
Tiger has been his silly self, hes a little attention seeker. We have something new in the intray...

Here he was in one of his crazy cat moods...

Ive been wishing it was warm enough to wear the new clothes I bought when I was in Queensland a couple of weeks ago. A pretty pink high waisted skirt from Forever New.

And a tan coloured dress with a silver flower pattern.

And finally ive pulled out my sneakers today and decided I have to start exercising again, starting today with a fast walk and bikeriding. Im getting really out of shape, Ive got heart disease in the family history, plus Ive got a few important events coming up in the next year so I really need to get into it again. Any tips for motivation to exercise, even on those cold rainy days?

So thats it, some of my week in photos, Ive done alot more of course including dinner with friends, a visit to Eggless Desert cafe, a trip to the Adelaide Hills with Mikey, some shopping and more! After two weeks off, im back to work tomorrow. Already thinking about my next holidays :)

If you haven't entered my giveaway yet, you can enter HERE.

GIVEAWAY time!!!

2011-07-11T15:00:00.002+09:30

Yesterday I returned from a week away by the beach in a sunny part of Australia, it was nice to get away for a while and spend time with Mikey and the family. I will share some photos of my trip with you soon.

Its time for another giveaway here on Roses are Red!

Open to bloggers Worldwide

I had intended to hold this giveaway for my two year bloggeversary which was earlier this year at the beginning of April. But here we are, a few months later and Ive just got around to it.

You have the chance to enter to recieve two pretty necklaces I choose just for the lucky winner! Both are new with tags attached.

The first is a double necklace with two opening lockets in the shape of hearts.

The second is a pretty butterfly necklace...

Anyone with a blog, anywhere in the world can enter.

So what do you have to do to enter?

- You must be a follower of Roses are Red (new followers are welcome).

- Just leave a comment telling me something you have enjoyed doing this month, or about your favourite current fashion trend, or something interesting about yourself.

- For a second entry, blog about and link to my giveaway (you must leave a second comment for this entry to count).

- You must have a blog of your own written in English.

- Please ensure I have a way to contact you if you are the winner.

The giveaway will stay open until 10th August 2011, and I will draw a winner shortly afterwards.

Goodluck :)

Delicious Dumplings

2011-06-18T22:28:00.001+09:30

Its been a while since ive posted a savory recipe. Today Im sharing a recipe which I think is quite quick and simple to make but really tasty.

Chinese Dumplings

1/8 Chinese cabbage

2-3 Carrot's

8 Cup Mushrooms

1/2 Onion

Pinch Cayenne pepper

1/3 teaspn Ginger powder

1/3 Garlic powder

Salt & pepper

1-2 Tblespn Hoysin sauce

1 Tblespn Soy sauce

Vegetable oil

Dumpling/Gow gee wrappers

- Dice carrot, cabbage, onion and mushroom into very small pieces. Heat oil in frypan, add carrot and onion, cook for a few minutes before adding the cabbage and mushroom. Add the garlic powder, ginger powder, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, hoysin sauce and soy sauce. Cook on a low to medium heat until carrots are cooked through.

- Separate wrappers, put approx one teaspoon of mixture onto the wrapper. Wet the edges of the wrapper with water and fold in half. Press together the edges to seal.

- There are various methods of steaming dumplings. I used a saucepan of boiling water with a steamer on top and a lid on top of that. Steam for about 10 minutes.

- With tongs, remove the dumplings from the steamer. Frying the dumplings is optional, of course they will be healthier not fried.

- Heat a small amound of oil, 1-2 Tablespoons should be enough, in a frypan on medium heat. Add the dumplings and fry on each side until lightly browned.

- Remove from frypan onto some paper towel to soak up any extra oil. Serve immediately.

As you can see below, the filling has to be diced very fine.

The steamer I use only fits about 7-8 dumplings.

The dumplings can be served with various types of sauces, but I profer them on their own. On this occasion I had them with fried rice. Last night I had them with hokkin stirfry which I proferred.

Have you ever made any type of dumplings? If so what did you use for the filling?

Hope your enjoying the weekend!

New Bits & Pieces

2011-06-11T23:18:00.001+09:30

Its time again to show you the new bits and pieces I have bought recently. Its getting real cold here in South Australia now, this week is around 15 degrees C most days. But I still seem to be buying some summer things, there are so many sales on at the moment!

Tops like this are great to wear under cardigans and jackets. I often wear a long sleeve top underneath short sleeve tops in winter if its super cold.

Ive been wanting a tutu to wear under my dresses for ages, I found this one for just $10!

Pretty sleeves...

This is my favourite recent purchase, pink, pearly and peter pan collar...

A dress made of pretty fabric...

Oh yeah, I did buy one piece of winter clothing :)

Or two...

Soon it will be too cold to wear tights, but I guess spring will be here in no time, right?

A pink beret, peach rosette headband, elastic flower bangle, black lace hair bow and pink beads (below)...

Have you bought anything interesting laterly?

Washington Concert & A Special Book

2011-06-06T00:10:00.002+09:30

Wow, May was a busy busy exciting month! Now that its June I feel like I can relax a little and have a little more time to share some more of what I was up to in May.

Last month I went to see Washington perform at The Gov.

If your not in Australia, chances are you haven't heard of Washington? Acutally I hadn't heard alot of her music either until earlier this year, and I have been listening to it ever since.

I took a few photos on the night although theyre not the best quality.

If you haven't heard any of Washington's songs, go ahead have a listen :) ....

I love this next song which is completely different to the one above, and deffinately profer to listen to it sung live instead of edited.

If you have a listen I would love to know what you think :)

On a completely different subject...

I just had to share this sweet book I bought with you...

I wanted a nice book to use for engagement party/wedding planning, I thought this will be perfect :) Weve started thinking about planning our engagement party for later this year which is pretty exciting! I can't believe its already been a month yesterday since we got engaged, wow! Thankyou to those of you who have recommended wedding blogs to me, I will be checking them all out soon.

Hope you have a nice week where ever you may be :)

My Birthday Happenings

2011-05-27T14:40:00.001+09:30

Firstly, thankyou for all your lovely comments on my Engagement post! Can any of you reccomend any good wedding blogs?
Last week was my birthday, and I was lucky enough to have the day off, the first ive had off in about 5 years. Unfortunately Mikey was working so my mum and I went into the city for lunch and a day of shopping. In the evening I went to The Edinburgh with Mikey, my parents, my brother and his gf and had a really nice dinner.
On Saturday Mikey and I went to one of our favourite little towns in the Adelaide Hills, Hahndorf. Because we couldnt spend my actual birthday toghther, we decided this day would make up for it. In the night time, some friends came round for a girls night with pizza and movies which was lots of fun too :)

Here are some photos from our day in Hahndorf.

One of the shops I always go into is Storison. They have lots of handmade things and cute stationary.

Autumn leaves on the main street.

This skirt I bought from Dotti on my birthday shopping trip. I love the length and rust colour. I also bought the bag on the same shopping trip from Forever New which I will show you more closely later in the post.

There are lots of nice german pubs in the town.

And so many shops to browse through.

I got lots of lovely birthday gifts this year!

These beautiful flowers from my mum...

This bag from Forever New....

I love how it opens and the floral fabric on the inside.

Pretty Earrings...

Cupcake tin, piping syrings and cupcake liners...

Two beautiful scarves, pretty gloves, headband and hair clips...

Mikey got me this cute little trinket box...

I got lots of other nice things, too many to show here including Jamie Olivers new book, a makeup kit and more.

At the moment im home sick from work, ive caught a cold from Mikey. Fingers crossed its gone by the weekend, I have a couple of things planned I was really looking forward to!

IM ENGAGED!!! :)

2011-05-16T12:12:00.001+09:30

May has been a HUGE month so far. SO much has happened, the biggest being Mikey and I getting engaged!!!

Mikey and I have been together almost 9 years and I am so so happy to finally be engaged to the guy I want to marry. I think that the day of our engagement has be to one of the happiest days of my life! I really think it was perfect and everything I had imagined it would be.

As you probably know, Mikey and I often go on outings to lovely places in the hills. This day started out like any other, a plan for the day to go to Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens in the Adelaide Hills for a picnic. I had also booked our favourite restaurant for dinner to celebrate Mikey getting a great new job.

We went about our picnic as usual and were reading some magazines when all of a sudden Mikey pulled out the most beautiful ring and proposed. I was almost speechless for about 1/2 hour afterwards.

I could not have thought of a more beautiful place to get engaged, doing something we both love, with no one else around but the autumn leaves. It will deffiantely be a day I will remember for the rest of my life.

These next four photos (and the one above) you can see where we were when Mikey popped the question :) ....

I am so glad that I had my camera with me that day, I usually take it with my most outings we go on and that day was no exception.

The colours of the botanic gardens in autumn are just amazing!

There arent too many flowers around, the autumn leaves make up for it with their beautiful colours.

We came across a lovely black swan heading to the lake...

I lovvve my ring SO much, I love that it is different to the one diamond in the middle that many rings have, with clusters also around the main diamond and along the band. And so increadibly sparkly I cant take my eyes off it :)

Mikey enjoying the view...

Autumn leaves covering the ground...

That evening we went to Regattas Bistro for dinner as planned, but celebrating more than just Mikeys new job :) but something even better, our engagement.

The food was delicious as always and a wonderful way to finish off the most amazing day.

I had capsicum stuffed with field mushrooms, tomato stuffed with herby polenta on minted pea puree surrounded by lots of different vegetables including beans, asparagus, baby carrots and beetroot.

Apart from our engagement and Mikey getting a new job (which he starts tomorrow!), a few more exciting things have happended, it is also my birthday next week! So please excuse my short absence from your blogs the last week or two, and I will be posting again soon with more May happenings :)

Im interested to know, if you are engaged or married where did your partner propose!???

I hope your May is turning out as wonderfully as mine!

Fairy Cakes, Easter Happenings, Giveaway Winner & Other Ramblings

2011-05-04T01:00:00.000+09:30

I cant believe how fast easter came and went! Its May already which means my Birthday month :D

Anyway I have just a few things from easter to show you...

Firstly our easter tree this year.

We bought the cutest plastic painted eggs.

I bought a box of pink patterened eggs...

And my mum bought pastel coloured patterened eggs...

Do you make an easter tree?

On easter Sunday we went to Mikey's Families house for lunch, I took some roast veggies, salad and these amazing fairy cakes!

Ive never made these fairy cakes before but they remind me of primary school. I can remember we use to have 'Cupcake Day' where the parents would each make a plate of cupcakes and kids would pay a small amount for a cupcake or two, these were my favourites along with the ones with a little pictured plaque on top.

I used cute easter cupcake pans too...

Pretty much they are a vanilla cupcake with cream and dusted with icing sugar - YUM!

See the plate this cupcake is on? well, its one of four I recently purchased. Im completely in love with these cute cake plates. Two of them have children playing ring-a-rosie around a tree and the others children on a see-saw infront of a tree.

Cute arent they!?

The leaves are falling in our garden as the weather gets cooler. Just a few photos from the garden to show you...

Autumn leaves

Pink orange flowers

Red roses

Recently I won a giveaway from Tera over at Tera Sue...

I won a handmade clutch, candle in a teacup and heart hair pin! Tera Sue has a shop where she sells these lovely handmade clutches amoungst other handmade goodies. She also has a wonderful blog which you can visit here
.

Now finally onto the winner of the Arbonne gift pack giveaway!

The winner, selected by Random.org is Liza! Congratulations!

Liza, I have emailed you, could you please respond asap so we can send off your prize :)

Finally, another pic of my Tiger...

Hope your week is off to a good start! My weekend is just beginning :)

A Wonderful Promotional Giveaway & Beautiful Dresses from The1727

2011-04-26T21:15:00.000+09:30

Not only does The1727 have beautiful dresses, but they also have a wonderful promotional competition currently running. And even more exciting is that the The1727 store is having its grand opening mid-May.

Many shops carry one or two dresses that I adore, but after browsing The1727 photos I found that all of their dresses are dainty and beautiful, lots of ruffles, bows, frills, pearls, lace, pink and beautiful prints and fabrics.

The photos are also shot in beautiful locations...just look at that wallpaper!...

This dress is really sweet with all of the ruffle detail on the skirt. It would be perfect for a fun girls night out, or a romantic date.
A print which Ive noticed in fashion at the moment is the Nordic print, here is a very feminine take with a pretty asymmetric shoulder dress.

These next two are my favourites...

This first dress, I love the black and pink combination, with the ruffle detail around the neck and sweet hemline I think this would be perfect to wear to a tea party or a night out with black heels.

I absolutesly adore the fabrics used in this dress. Pink with white spots matches the lacey upper part of the dress perfectly! I would wear this dress with white tights, pink shoes and a pearl headband.

I cant wait to see what more the store brings when it officially opens mid-May!

And now to introduce The1727 promotion!

The1727 are looking for a lucky 1000th member (up until 6th May), who will win $500 cash award and lifelong free shipping for The1727! How awesome is that!!

Not only will the 1000th member win, but also those who have reffered that person, and those who that person have reffered to register. They will win $75 cash (at least 1 dress!) and free shipping for their first order. This diagram better demonstrates how this works...

- All you have to do is register with The1727 to recieve email updates, you can do so here.

- When you register, you will immediately recieve your sequence number.

- If you share this promotion via Twitter, Facebook, Email etc. you can increase your chances of winning.

- For conditions, more details and to register for your chance to win, visit The1727 registration page, you can also visit their blog and Flickr page for more photos.

A Beautiful Wedding Day

2011-04-22T16:22:00.002+09:30

Last month my gorgeous friend M got married!

It was such a beautiful wedding held in the backyard of M's nanna's house. The weather was perfectly sunny and everyone seemed to have a great time. Instead of having a sit down reception, it was cocktail style which I think is great for those who want more of a layed back, relaxed type of reception.

Heres Mikey and I before we left for the wedding...

M's dress was so pretty. I really liked the beading on the front, the V back and that the dress had straps. I noticed when I went the the bridal shop with my friend Hillness who is getting married later this year that most wedding dresses are strapless, why is that?

M's sisters were her bridesmaids and wore charchol dresses which went really well with the orange and white flowers.

The ceremony was lovely, they even had their friend playing a bongo drum during some parts of the ceremony.

This is my favourite photo that I took during the wedding...

The conffeti was biodegradable which i had never heard of before. If you are married what type of conffeti did you have? rice, paper, rose petals, bubbles?

M's flowers were simple but really pretty!

I love the idea of having cupcakes for a wedding cake. The cake was also decorated in charchol and orange.

The cupcakes were jaffa and blueberry flavoured.

The decorations were white lanterns and fairy lights...

And helium ballons in the pool which looked awesome!

So many people ended up in the pool throughout the night including the bride and groom which was quite a suprise :)

Not us though! We had to catch a taxi home, I doubt the taxi driver would have wanted slopping wet seats.

I bought my dress, or should I say dress and top a few months before the wedding. The top is lace with really lovely details and scalloped sleeves and hem. I bought a bow headband with pearls and dimonties which I thought went quite well with my dress.

Here are some close ups from my outfit...

Overall Mikey and I had a fantastic time at M's wedding. A few of the girls from work were also invited which was lots of fun :)

To my aussie readers, if you haven't already, don't forget to enter my Arbonne Giveaway!

Hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend.

Giveaway!!! Arbonne Giftpack!

2011-04-15T00:36:00.001+09:30

Its time to bring you another giveaway!

This time im teaming up with Carla from Easy As Vegan Pie to give one of my lucky readers this Arbonne RE9 Advanced & SeaSource Detox Spa giftpack...

Carla has recently become an Arbonne consultant after trying and loving the products.

As taken from the Arbonne website...

Arbonne premium skin care products are formulated in Switzerland at the Arbonne Institute of Research and Development (AIRD®) and made in the U.S.A. Our proprietary skin care formulas are:

* Botanically based * pH correct * Hypoallergenic * Dermatologist tested * Never tested on animals * Formulated without animal products or by-products * Formulated without mineral oil * Formulated without dyes or chemical fragrances (unless ingredients marked otherwise)

After trying some Arbonne products for myself I was pretty impressed.

I tried the Smoothing Facial Cleanser, the clenser has a lovely mild but tangy citrus smell, and is super creamy once it foams up. Afterwards my skin felt really clean and fresh, usually I use a sorbolene wash to wash my face and my skin still feels a little oily afterwards, but I found that after using the Arbonne cleanser my face wasn't oily at all.

I also tried the Natural Radiance Mineral Powder Foundation and the Sheer Finish Tinted Moisturiser. Both of these have SPF 15 protection, and used together I thought they are the perfect pair. The powder used on its own is really great for light coverage and seems almost velvety once applied.

The prize giftpack will include:

Mini sizes of the RE9 Advanced Smoothing Facial Cleanser, Intensive Renewal Serum, Corrective Eye Crème and Night Repair Crème, plus SeaSource Detox Spa Detoxifying Rescue Wash, Renewing Body Gelée and Purifying Sea Soak (1 full-size packet).

The prize pack consists of some of the products within the two images below.

RE9 Advanced Collection...

SeaSource Detox Spa Collection.... To Enter:

- Leave a comment on this post including your name and email address. (1 entry)

For extra entries:

(you must leave a seperate comment for each entry)

- Follow my blog! (1 entry)

- Visit Abronne and tell me the product you would most like to have. (1 entry)

- Follow Carla's blog (1 entry)

Conditions:

- Sorry international readers, but this giveaway is only open to Australian residents.

I will be hosting another giveaway soon which will be open internationally.

- A seperate comment must be left for each entry, a possible 4 entries in total.

- This giveaway will be open until 30th April 2011 and will be drawn within the week following.

Goodluck!

New Lovelies

2011-04-09T23:56:00.000+09:30

Here are some lovely new things ive bought in the last couple of months. I just cant get away from pink, pearls and lacey things at the moment!

Firstly a pink top in a velvety fabric...

As the weathers getting cooler now, its the season for cardigans, especially cardigans in pretty colours with pearls and beading.

Im completely in love with this pink cardigan... I think the pearls and beads look so pretty, this goes perfectly with some of my dresses.

This might be more of a spring top, but I thought it would look really nice with a pair of jeans and sandles.

Im not usually a shorts wearing person, and to be honest I havent worn these yet. I added lace to the legs of these shorts and I love the detail at the top waistband.

I bought a couple of things from Forever New the other week during their sale...

and a silk skirt... a couple of weeks ago I wore this skirt, I had a little boy point at me and say 'look theres a fairy' to his mum, so funny but so cute!

Have you bought anything new lately?

I also have to let you know, Ive got a great giveaway for you soon, so stay tuned my lovely readers!

Of Roses and Picnicing

2011-04-06T19:38:00.000+09:30

How beauiful these roses are....

Im so lucky to have a sweet boyfriend who arrives at my door with a hand picked bunch of flowers every once in a while :)

Today Mikey and I took advantage of the returning sunshine and headed out for a picnic! We picniced at West Lakes in a water catchment area with lots of ducks... Excuse the squinting, it was super sunny :)

Afterwards we went for a walk and fed bread to the ducks. I love watching the mummy ducks feeding the baby ducks...

Do you like picnicing? Wheres your favourite place to picnic?

Teacup & Pink Prettiness

2011-04-04T20:41:00.000+09:30

The other week Mikey and I went op-shopping because Mikey needed an outfit for a themed night at work. The only thing I ended up buying was an old Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The issue is really Pink! And has some great home decorating ideas as well as recipes.

We then went to the shops where I bought a beautiful pink and white teacup. As you probably already know I LOVE teacups and have quite a few in my collection. This one I think is my favourite yet, not only because its pink and white and has a beautiful pattern, but also because its quite a big teacup.

Anyway, heres some pics of my teacup along with Better Homes and Gardens...

How awesome is this pink decor! I would love to decorate in these bright colours, but im sure Mikey would not agree!

How good does this veggie tart look! Deffinately adding it to my 'to make' list!

Finally, a photo of my Tiger :D he loves to be covered up with blankets in the colder months.

Wishing you a happy, sunny week

New Jewellery & My Favourite EVER Shop :)

2011-03-30T22:10:00.000+10:30

Yesterday I went to the shops, I didn't get anything I actually wanted, and got everything I didn't need...new jewellery.

I also went into my favourite shop Forever New. For those of you who dont have this amazing store in your country, the whole store is filled with amazing clothes and accessories, lots of pink and pastels, bows, pearls, lace, and overall prettiness. And for those of you who have been to this store, what do you think, do you love it as much as me?

So, here is not only the jewellery I bought but the new Forever New collection....

I am thinking of buying a faux fur jacket similar to the one above except they have one which is longer, 'normal' type of length which comes down to about just above the length of the pink dress. Its so super warm and the colour will go with everything, what do you think?

I adore all the ballet inspired pieces out at the moment, how cute are the ballet tights below!

These bow earrings are my new favourites, I think theyre so cute :)

Finally, these bracelets of roses.

And im completely in love with that dress on the left!

None of the jewellery I bought is from Forever New, but they do have some beautiful jewellery in similar styles.

What is your favourite shop?

Delicious Veggies & Peach Pie

2011-03-28T22:03:00.001+10:30

Lots of people ask me 'what do you eat if you dont eat meat?'. I think they must imagine I live on a diet of steamed vegetabes and lettuce? Especially the traditional aussie family who has the usual meat and three veg meal.

The great thing about vegetables is that they can be prepared in so many different ways with various spices, coated, battered, in a salad, mixed with other vegetables, the list is endless. And I certainly dont ever feel like im missing out my not eating meat!

Anyhow, I thought I would share with you one meal I made recently which was really delicious! And shows a few different ways of preparing and mixing up vegetables.

The first part of the meal (plated above), consisted of crumbed mushrooms, roasted carrot, broccoli and pumpkin, and pastry wrapped asparagus.

* Before roasting the vegetables I coated them in a small amount of vegetable oil, mixed well and then added paprika, salt, pepper, dried onion flakes, and not on this occasion but I usually add dried mixed herbs. After this is mixed well I spread out onto a greased oven tray (not packed too tightly). I put the broccoli on one side and cover it with foil until about 10 minutes before cooking is finished - otherwise it burns. If you havent tried roast broccoli, let me tell you that you are missing out! I cook them on 220 degrees C for about 30-45 minutes depending on your oven.

* The asparagus is really simple! I actually saw this idea on another blog but cant remember which one. Anyhow after the asparagus is washed and the woody ends are trimmed, simply wrap a strip of ready-bought puff pastry around each piece of asparagus, luy on a greased oven tray and then spray with oil. You could also season with salt and pepper or parmesan.

* To make the crumb mushrooms, I usually peel my mushrooms (I know its strange!) but you could just wipe them with a damp cloth if you profer. If you 'wash' them this will make for LOTS of dangerous splattering when you fry them. Next prepare a bowl of breadcrumbs in one bowl and your choice of egg mixture in another bowl. Dip each mushroom into the 'egg' mixture and then into the breadcrumbs. I like to leave my crumbed mushrooms for 10 minutes before frying so that they 'dry' slightly. Heat about 1 inch of vegetable oil in a deep saucepan, you need a deep pan because they usually spit alot, a splatter gard is also a great idea! When the oil is hot enough so that it sizzles when a mushroom is put in, it is hot enough, usually medium (or a bit more) heat is appropriate. Put all of the mushrooms into the oil and turn with tongs when the bottom is golden brown. When the both sides are golden brown remove from oil and drain on paper towel.

The other part of the meal consisted of green bean salad and potato bake.

* For the green bean salad I used a can of green beans, drained and rinsed. A cucumber diced, a tomato diced, 1-2 slices of onion finely diced, lettuce chopped, a couple of sprigs of parsley chopped. To season I used a dash of oil, a dash of white vinegar, salt, pepper and about two tablespoons of dried dill (this is a magic ingredient in salads!). Mix well, and serve, its that easy and a really fresh tasting salad.

* I had last made potato bake a very long time ago, but had to make it again after seeing it on Vegiebug's blog. I mostly followed her recipe with a few little changes...

Potato Bake

3 large potatos, sliced super thin

1 small onion, sliced super thin

1 sprig rosemary, finely chopped

1 heaped teaspoon vegie stock

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup (ish) milk

1 Tablespoon cold margarine

S+p

1/2 cup grated cheese

- Preheat your oven to 200C.

- Grease your dishes, I used three small dishes and used canola spray oil.

- Slice potatos and onion super thin.

- Heat the water and stock in a saucepan until dissolved. Add milk, rosemary and salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and switch off.

- Layer your potatos and onions (I only used a small amount in each layer) alternately and top with a little extra butter and the grated cheese. Pour the hot liquid into the pots.

- Put on the lids or cover with foil (remove foil about 1/2hr into baking) on and bake until soft all the way through and golde on top. about 45 mins to an hour, the bigger your dish/s the longer it will take, but make sure you can put a knife straight through without any resistance.

On another occasion I decided to make Peach Pie. Mikey's family has a peach tree and last month produced hundreds of peaches! I made this pie to take back to their house for dessert one evening.

I wasn't overly happy with the pastry I made. I thought it wasn't flakey or sweet enough. But it looked pretty right? It did taste ok with some vanilla icecream. The peach mixture had cinnamon, lemon juice and brown sugar mixed in with it which worked quite well.

Now that ive come to the end of my post, I was wonering, do you have a favourite vegetable dish?

Don't forget to visit Shop Rose's are Red.

Finally Finished....Some Craftiness

2011-03-23T16:32:00.000+10:30

Is it just me or do you have lots of half finished craft projects?

I really should finish projects that I start or purchase materials for, but for some reason I get half way through and become unmotivated and move onto the next thing.

Sometimes though I pick up a project to finish off...

Quite some time ago I started making these bow pillows for my bedroom. Last week I finally finished them off and im quite happy with how they turned out. They match well with my pink bedspread (above).

On the back of the pillow case I made two bow ties to keep the cover closed, they probably would have been ok without, but I think they look pretty, you can never have too many bows right?

The fabrics I choose were both pink, the front of the pillow I used fabric with a cream coloured background and pink stencil type of print, you probably cant tell but there is a tree with I think children underneath. And for the bow and the back I used pale pink fabric with a pink and green flower pattern.

I have to say it felt so good finishing these pillows!

Recently Ive been on a few shopping trips and bought some lovely things. Of course theres lots of pink, bows, pearls and lace. I will be doing a post to show you these soon, but for now, heres a sneak peek...

As soon as our beautiful sunny weather started, it has now ended, today is very gloomy, pouring with rain, grey skys and super windy...

The autumn weather is deffinately setting in, and already im missing summer. What are your favourite things about the cold rainy weather (which for many of you is just ending) and do you have any suggestions to replace sunny picnicing, beach walks, bikerides and nature walks that we enjoy in summer?

Don't forget to visit Shop Roses are Red!

My Favourite Festival!

2011-03-20T23:57:00.001+10:30

Last week Mikey and I headed to the Fringe Festival. For those of you who don't live in Adelaide, the Fringe is a yearly arts festival showcasing cabaret, comedy, dance, theatre, music and visual arts events.

We saw a comedy act by Wil Anderson called Man vs Wil which was held in a huge circuis-like tent called the Umbrella Revoltuion. Wil is a local comedian often on TV and radio here in South Australia. Mikey and I both really enjoyed ourselves, I laughed to the point of tears which is always a good thing right?

Anyways, I thought what better opportunity to wear my purple dress I purchased recently. I adore the style and colour.....

Before heading to see Wil Anderson we decided to go to Zen House for dinner. We had some delicious chinese dumplings and then I had hotplate noodles - Yum!! Zen house is one of my favourite places for dinner in the city, although I was pretty dissapointed that on this particular night we didnt get our drinks until 1/2 after we had finished our meals.

Many of the Fringe events are held in the Garden of Unearthly Delights. In the garden are also some free acts, lots of food stalls and some market type shops too. One of my favourite parts of the fringe is visiting the garden for the great atmosphere...

The tents and other locations for the various acts are really unique.

Im pretty sure events were held in the huge wooden box in the photo below.

And this has to be the most awesome pub in a double decker bus :) ....

The evening is always the best time to be in the garden with all the fairy lights...

After we looked around the garden and had seen Wil Anderson we decided to go to one of our favourite cafe's, Eggless Dessert Cafe. Youve probably heard me rant about this little cafe before, but I really lovvve it :)

This is what I ordered this time round....

{via}

Moist vanilla cake topped with poached blood plum & served with vanilla icecream! mmm was pretty good. I also had a delicious iced chai tea.

This cafe has a completely different menu every month depending on the in-season ingredients. Its always really fresh and the owners and staff are really lovely. Deffinately worth a visit if your in Adelaide :)

Don't forget to visit Shop Roses are Red!

My Blog Shop - First Listing!

2011-03-19T12:50:00.001+10:30

Hello blog friends!

Ive decided to open a lil blog shop, Shop Roses are Red.

I will be listing clothing and accessories, some new with tags, others vintage, secondhand and possibly handmade things. They are varied sizes and I will ship to most countries.

Here are some of the things in my first update...

Head on over to the shop HERE for more photos and details.

The site layout is still in progress, but ive included size and currency converters if you are somewhere other than Australia.

How can you not smile!

2011-03-15T22:03:00.001+10:30

I absolutely LOVE this short video...

They just look like theyre having the time of their lives and I adore their outfits.

Mikey and I are thinking of taking classes to learn Rock n roll dancing! Nothing quite like these teenagers, I can assure you I cant see myself jumping in the air like that any time soon. I think it would be a ton of fun and great fitness too. Ive always really wanted to learn some type of dancing, and what better style than rock n roll to dance to awesome music and wear pretty skirts.

Does anyone know of any good dance studios in Adelaide that teach rock n roll?

In other news, I attended my friends wedding last weekend and it was just beautiful! I will share some photos soon :) Tomorrow Mikey and I plan on picnicing in the sun, and make the most of possibly the end of the beautiful weather weve been having. Do you have any exciting plans for the week?

Do you like exploring old houses?

2011-03-09T11:13:00.000+10:30

Recently Mikey and I visited a lovely old house built in the 1930's.

The property is called Carrick Hill, and originally belonged to a wealthy man named Sir Edward Hayward. Its now open to the public with tours of the house available and visitors are free to roam the lovely gardens.

Mikey and I went on a tour of the house, the rooms were still decorated with original furniture, dinnerware, paintings etc. and it was wonderful to hear all about the original owners from the tour guide.

The gardens were huge!

And the outside of the house was also really lovely...

One of my favourite parts of the garden was this long arch covered in pears!

There was also a huge orchard of apples, with countless different types of apple trees, you can just see the orchard on the right of the photo below.

They also have a little cafe where we had some lunch and coffee while looking out at this view (above), you could see Adelaide and the sea over the rose garden and trees.

How nice is this statue of a young boy doing a kartwheel :)

In part of the gardens were these seats made of grass, pretty awesome hu? They were part of a local University project.

If your ever in South Australia, its deffinately worth a visit! Mikey and I plan to go back some time for a picnic.

Hope you are off to a good start of the week. Im excited for the weekend because Mikey and I are off to a friends wedding, Im keeping my fingers crossed for the sunshine to stick around until then.

Sunshine & Amazement!

2011-03-03T23:42:00.000+10:30

Today Mikey and I went to one of the most lovely beaches at Aldinga.

You can drive your car onto the sand, but we parked in the carpark and went for a walk along the sand instead. Im so sad that the summer has ended, I was really enjoying our sunshine this year and am not so much looking forward to the dreery winter.

Today it was just the right temperature although we could have done with a little more sunshine...

Yesterday my aunty and uncle came to visit. They live on a farm and have a lovely vegetable garden. They brought along one of their zucchinis....

The one on the left is one of our normal, average size zucchinis, on the right is their gigantic amazing zucchini! Its just huge, ive never seen anything like it!

To put it into perspective, here is me holding it...

Anyway, I thought it was pertty amazing :)

In Love

2011-02-28T22:27:00.002+10:30

My blog makeover is going well. I still have a few changes to make for it to end up how I had hoped, but im quite happy with how its progressing!

This post is a bit random, just a few little things I wanted to show you :)

I know that Valentines day was a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to share with you the card I made for Mikey....

Instead of giving in to buying a Hallmark card, I decided to make my own. More personal than anything you could buy, I was quite happy with how it turned out. Did any of you make a valentines day card?

I usually buy Mikey cheezy valentines day gifts, but Mikey usually buys more useful gifts. This year he bought me this awesome cookbook collection...

It contains recipes using just about any vegetable you can imagine!
Each vegetable picture has marked on it the recipes in the coordinating book. Its great because you can choose the vegetable out of the box which you have in the fridge and find a heap of recips to choose from.

I also wanted to show you the lovely coasters my mum bought me recently. Im in love!

I think they will match my future kitchen perfectly :)

A couple of recent photos I wanted to show you of my kitty cat Tiger. He is certainly a very unusual cat compared to others weve had. These photos show a couple of his usual sleeping positions...

So odd...

I sware he thinks hes a human!

Until next time...

Dresses For Sale!......and some changes.

2011-02-22T19:46:00.000+10:30

Just wondering...did you notice my new header? What do you think?

My last background recently stopped working for some reason, so what better excuse to revamp the blog which I had been meaning to do for so long anyway....theres more to come :)

If you have been following me for some time you would know that I loveee dresses. Nothing feels better than wearing a pretty dress on a warm summers day. Anyhow I have decided to start selling on Ebay, mostly dresses. Some are secondhand, some are vintage and some will be new and they will be a range of different sizes.

The first one is an adorable pink dress with a lovely crochet style back. It is new with tags still attached and is unworn.

This dress is perfect for a shopping trip, a picnic or to dress up with a belt or tights.

The back detail is really unique!

This dress is for sale, and further details are available HERE.

The next dress is a vintage pussy bow dress in a lovely pink patterned silky feel fabric.

This is the perfect day dress! To wear shopping, out to lunch or could be dressed up paired with heels and necklace.

The pussy bow may be tied in a bow or left undone as shown in the photos. Also comes with a matching belt, or the pattern could be broken up by pairing with a brown belt.

This dress is for sale, and further details are available HERE.

Im looking forward to 4 days off now. I will be doing some car shopping, going to a friends hens night, hopefully doing some baking, revamping the blog and relaxing alot :)

Wishing you a lovely week!

Giveaway Winner!

2011-02-15T16:30:00.000+10:30

Its time to announce the winner of my giveaway!

Thankyou to those who entered, and thankyou for telling me so many interesting things!

All your names were put into a teacup...

And the winner is...

Koralee from Bluebird Notes!

Could you please email me your postage details and I will have your lovlies off to you asap :)

Before I finish, I wanted to show you the list of interesting things that Nancy left in her comment...

1. During Colonial Times, people wouldn't put a tomato near their mouths, let alone try to eat one. Folklore had it that if you ate a tomato, its poison would turn your blood into acid. Instead, the colonists grew tomatoes purely for decoration.
2. If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
3. If you fart consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.
4. The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.
5. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class.
6. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined. (this one depressed me a bit)
7. Turtles can breathe through their butts.
8. The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
9. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
10. And finally: In Redondo Beach, Calif., a police officer arrested a driver after a short chase and charged him with drunk driving. Officer Joseph Fonteno's suspicions were aroused when he saw the white Mazda MX-7 rolling down Pacific Coast Highway with half of a traffic-light pole, including the lights, lying across its hood. The driver had hit the pole on a median strip and simply kept driving. According to Fonteno, when the driver was asked about the pole, he said, "It came with the car when I bought it."

Thanks Nancy, they really are interesting! :)

Vanilla Slice & Hans Heysen House & Gardens

2011-02-11T00:01:00.000+10:30

Recently Mikey and I visited Hans Heysen House and Gardens (The Cedars). These are some special gardens, the reason being that my lovely friend Jess will be getting married there this November!

We not only wanted to visit to have a look at the gardens, but to go on a tour of the house - I LOVE looking through old houses. And a tour is certainly the best way, you learn so much not only about the house and the special and interesting features, but also about the people that once lived in the house.

Hans Heysen was an artist, you may have heard of him? He won many prizes for his works and also has a South Australian walking trail named after him (Heysen Trail) which Mikey and I often walk on.

Anyhow...

The tour started by heading out Hans' studio where he displayed and completed his works...

It doesnt look like much from the outside but inside was really interesting, on show were his actual painting tools and supplies and also some original paintings by artists inspired by Hans.

Below is one of my favourites of his paintings, he painted this one of his wife whilst she was sewing childrens clothing.

Around the property were prints of his paintings overlooking the actual scene which was painted. You can see below, the trees have grown alot since.

The gardens surrounding the house are really beautiful, so much greenery!

The most beautiful flowers! These are the most pretty Hydrangeas Ive seen...

Hans Heysens car and caravan were also on display...

If any of you are in or visiting South Australia, its deffinately worth a visit!

Recently Mikey and I thought we would attempt to make vanilla slice. I had seen Kirsty blog about making it and it looked super easy! And let me tell you, it was one of the most simple recipes ive made and tasted super yummy :)

Vanilla Slice

{via}

2 sheets ready rolled puff pastry
1 cup castor sugar
3/4 cup fine cornflour
1/2 cup custard powder
1 litre your choice of milk - I used ricemilk
60g margarine

2 tsp vanilla essence

1. Bake pastry sheets at 200C for about six minutes or till lightly browned. When cool, flatten sheets with hands and set aside.

2. Combine sugar, cornflour, custard powder in saucepan and gradually stir in milk, stir until smooth.

3. Add margarine, stir over heat until mixture boils and thickens.(It will be very very thick, almost like paste)

4. Remove from heat and stir in essence.

5. Place one sheet of pastry in 23cm slab tin . A square cake tin works well.

6. Pour custard over pastry sheet in slab tin.

7. Even out and place other pastry sheet on top. Press down firmly and refrigerate until cool.

Icing

2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp margarine
Canned passionfruit pulp - enough to make a good consistency.
1 tsp water

1. Mix ingredients to a workable paste. Spread over top layer of pastry and refridgerate until set.

I found the best was to cut it into slices was to run my knife under hot water between cutting.

Don't forget...
Today is the last day to enter my giveaway!

New Clothing & Sweetcorn Patties with Salsa

2011-02-03T00:30:00.001+10:30

Hello Lovlies

Im feeling quite afraid tonight as up in Queensland they are preparing to go through a cyclone of more than 200km winds. I have some family that live in Cairns so it is very scarey! The after effects and devistation will be seen tomorrow morning.

In other news, if you haven't already, you can enter my giveaway HERE!

Time to show you some of the things I bought for my wardrobe Dec/Jan! Yes I did go a little crazy in the post christmas sales :/

One of my most favourite purchases is this pretty, floaty peach colour top...

A pretty lacy skirt...

A pastel pink top which will work well tucked into skirts, with buttons right down the back its really lovely for just $7!

This dress below you may have seen me wearing here. So comfy and I love the length.

Im loving big rings at the moment, are you? Especially flower rings. I couldnt resist these two...

And a pretty bracelet. How I love coral/peachy colours!

And finally some sandles with big flowers on top. These go with so many things because they're such a neutral colour.

There are a few other purchaes which I will have to show you in a future post.

Do you like corn?

I do, especially canned corn. So its no suprise how much I love sweetcorn patties :) Especially when paired with a delicious avocado salsa salad.

Sweetcorn Patties

1 can sweetcorn, drained
1/2 Red capsicum, chopped fine
1/2 Onion, finely diced
Handful Parsley, chopped
Plain flour
1-2 Egg/Egg replacer
Salt & pepper
Vegetable oil

* Mix sweetcorn, capsicum, onion, salt, pepper and parsley. Add egg and then enough flour to make the mix not too sticky/not too dry. Similar consistancy to cookie dough!
* Heat oil to medium heat, enough to shallow fry. Add tablespoons of mixture into oil, flatten to approx 1cm with spoon.
* Fry until brown on each side.
* Drain excess oil on paper towel.

Avocado Salsa

1 Avocado, diced
1 lebanise cucumber, diced
2 tomato, diced
1 spring onion, chopped
Few basil leaves, chopped small
1-2 Tablespoons Mayo
1 Tablespoon Sweet chilli sauce
1 squeeze Lemon juice
Salt and pepper

* Mix above ingredients well and serve with sweetcorn patties.

Lastly, thankyou to Imogen of Tia Cherie and Alicia at The Red Deer for the recent blog awards they have passed onto me, I really appreciate them :) These questions came with the award...

Why did you create this blog?
To carry on my interest in fashion and cooking. For something fun to do and to gain inspiration from others!

What types of blogs do you follow?
Blogs about fashion, outfits, crafts, crochet, veggie cooking, cupcakes, general cooking and anything else along the way that looks interesting.

What is your favourite makeup brand?
Dont have a favourite.

What is your favourite clothing brand?
Forever New and Sportsgirl.

What makeup items can you not live without?
Foundation and face powder.

What is your favourite colour?
Pink!

What is your favourite perfume?
Lovely.

What is your favourite movie?
Chocolat.

Which countries would you like to travel to?
Everywhere in Europe and the UK especially, but there are so many others!

Feel free to answer these questions too.

3 days off for me now :) How I love the start of the weekend.

GIVEAWAY time!!!

2011-01-26T22:47:00.001+10:30

Its time for another Giveaway!

Just to show how much I appreciate my readers, I have decided to hold a little givaway.

One of you will recieve firstly this cute birdy on a stick ring...

This ring really is so cute! Dont you think?

And these four sweet bows on allagator clips...

I have a set of these bows myself and wear one often, I think they cuten up any outfit, I even wear one to work occasionally :)

Both of these are brand new and in their packaging.

So how do you enter!?

* You must be a follower of my blog to enter, new followers are welcome.
* This giveaway is open to international bloggers also, no matter which country you are in.
* Secondly leave a comment on this post telling me something interesting, anything. Be sure to include an email address so I have a way to contact you if you win.
* You must have a blog written in english.
* For an extra entry, blog about this giveaway (you need to leave an extra comment with your link attached for this entry to count).

This giveaway will be open until 11th February.

Goodluck!

And to my fellow aussie bloggers, wishing you a happy Australia Day :)

Shoe Box Of Love & The Beach

2011-01-21T23:56:00.000+10:30

Have you heard about the devistating floods in Queensland, Australia?

Last month flooding in Queensland forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes and towns. There have been 70 towns and more than 200,000 people affected. So many have lost everything they own and unfortunately so many do not have flood insurance. The death toll is currantly at 30 and there are still many more missing.

My uncle lives in Brisbane in Queenslands capital and the end of his street is blocked off with the floods, hes very lucky hes on a hill.

{via}

{ via}

I have been in disbelief as I watched the disaster unfold on the news. But dispite the disasters its unbelievable how aussies have come together to help others start to rebuild their lives from scratch.

I was going to make a cash donation until I found out about the Shoe Box of Love Collection via Facebook. Although money will help the communities rebuild, I think the shoebox is a more personal donation which will go directly to someone who is worst affected by the floods.

My shoebox is for a female aged between 18-25 years.

I included shampoo, conditioner, body wash, hair ties, tissues, pads, toothbrush, toothpaste, moisturiser, a pen, notebook, sudoku book, socks, razors, watch, nail file, body sponge and chupa chups :) All things I thought would pretty useful in a time like this.

My shoe box all ready to be delivered...

So, wondering how can you help!?

* You can donate money via the Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal.

* If your into crochet, Sarah of the blog Crochet a Rainbow is collecting crochet squares made by bloggers to make rainbow crochet rugs for the flood victims. What a beautiful idea dont you think?

* If your in South Australia you can donate a shoe box of love, the drop of points can be found on their facebook page. The boxes must be delivered before Australia Day 26th January.

No donation is too small.

Last night Mikey and I headed down to the beach to watch the sunset. Were so lucky that its only a few minutes drive away!

Nothing nicer than watching the sunset down the beach on a warm night...

Sorry to delay posting my giveaway, I thought the flood crisis in QLD was much more important.

Wishing you a lovely weekend :)

An Engagement, an Outfit and a Sunset

2011-01-14T23:20:00.000+10:30

You may remember that in a previous post I mentioned that one of my closest friends Jess recently got engaged and also asked me to be on of her bridesmaides. Anyhow last weekend was Jess and Tristans Engagement Party!

The engagement party was at a hotel on the beach and it was a really lovely night.

Jess and Tristan had a beautiful cake made up of mostly cupcakes! The colour theme for the party decorations and cake was blue and silver.

Here are the lovely couple Jess and Tristan cutting the cake after some entertaining speeches.

There were plenty of helium balloons which looked wonderful around the room.

Below is a photo of the bride to be (middle), Kimmy (left) who is also one of Jess' bridesmaids, and me (right).

Overall it was a really nice night and a lovely way to celebrate Jess and Tristans engagement with all of their family and friends. Im really looking forward to the wedding which is in November and all the excitement leading up to the wedding.

Here is my outfit for the night...

I bought a peachy coloured dress from my favourite shop Forever New for the occasion...

...and some beige coloured shoes which will also come in use for another friends wedding im attending in March.

as well as a lacy clutch purse which im in love with...

I had to end this post with this photo I took last night of the most beautiful sunset ive seen in a long time. It was so amazing to watch it come and go!

I hope your having a lovely week!

Im having a midweek weekend and am off to dinner and a comedy show tonight :)

Stay tuned for my next post, Im having a little giveaway!

New Years Eve & Beyond

2011-01-03T22:20:00.001+10:30

Well firstly, I have to wish you a happy and healthy 2011 my blogging friends and readers!

{via}

How did you bring in the new year?

Mikey and I had quite a quiet new years eve...

It started by making our own pizzas for dinner...

Mine had roast pumpkin, black olives, green olives, zucchini, potato, capsicum, onion, corn, fresh herbs and cheezly on it! We also made the pizza bases too mmmm....

Later on we headed down to the local Glenelg beach to watch the 9.00 fireworks display, but not before watching the last sunset of 2010....

We had a pretty good view of the fireworks display which looked so pretty over the sea...

Then back at home we played a couple of games of our new favourite card game with my parents. Have you ever played Monopoly Deal? Its much different, quicker, fun and easier than the board game.

Then we went outside for the countdown and at midnight had party poppers and sparklers :)

I think Mikey had the most fun with the sparklers...

And that was it! 2011 had arrived.

And I cant tell you how happy I am that 2011 is here. I had a mostly terrible year in 2010 with a couple of good events...

In 2010:

* I started working in my first professional job after finishing my degree. This was pretty stressful and overwhealming at first.

* I was dissapointed by quite a few people in my life, but I have learnt not to expect anything from anyone then you wont be dissapointed. I also learnt the only person you can rely on is yourself.

* Due to stress a health condition was exacerbated which Im continuing to deal with.

* The most terrible, overwhealming, life changing event in my life occured. My dad had a cardiac arrest at home, died and then against all odds was brought back and survived. This also brought with it so much luck, its rare for someone to survive a cardiac arrest in the situation he was in. He is still recovering 3 months on.

* I started cooking and experimenting in the kitchen more often.

* Mikey and I celebrated 8 years together.

* One of my closest friends got engaged and asked me to be one of her bridesmaids - this was deffinately the highlight of 2010 for me.

* Mikey had his first piece of work published and recieved an award for it. He also completed his double degree.

* I shopped alot, too much and learnt to only buy things that I love.

* I did quite well at saving.

* My blog turned 1.

Some of my goals for 2011:

* I plan to make time for myself and exercise much more often than 2010.

* I will buy a new car within the next month.

* Mikey and I will save hard towards buying our own home.

* I will continue to be excited about my friends wedding and wedding planning.

* I will learn a whole lot more at work and try and go to bed earlier when I have an early start the following morning.

* Hopefully make some new friends and catch up more often with old friends.

* To start completing the exercises suggested for my shoulder pain.

* I will try and learn something new, a new hobbie maybe.

*I will cook loads of new things.

* I hope to have a bit of a blog makeover.

* I will try not to have clutter around me - its never a good thing. And Ive already started...

Here is a pile of just some of the clothes and things Ive gotten rid of so far this year, I already feel better!

Hope your new year is off to a good start! I returned to work today after having holidays, boy was that hard, Im already thinking when I can next have holidays haha.

Bye for now :)

Christmas Happenings, Banoffee Pie & Tirimisu

2010-12-30T23:45:00.000+10:30

Hello, and welcome again :)

I hope you had a wonderful christmas. As for me, my christmas was lovely but went much too fast, we all ate way too much and recieved and gave way too many gifts. In December I had loads of catch ups, dinners with friends, birthdays, work christmas celebrations, went to carols by candlelight, did loads of christmas shopping and caught a cold just in time for christmas eve!

I did want to post a photo of our tree prior to christmas but didnt get around to it, my December was pretty crazy. So here is our tree, we get a real tree every year from the christmas tree farm. This year the tree was a perfect shape, almost looks like a fake one doesnt it?

This year I bought this unusual christmas ornament for my dad, a oragami santa, completely made out of paper!

My mums side of the family always celebrates on Christmas Eve, so this year we headed up to my aunties farm for dinner. The weather was lovely and warm and we had lots of lovely food. I made mini vegetable pies, filo veggie slice and banoffee pie (recipe later in the post).

Above: Me, Mikey and Cousin Laura

Above: My mum, my brother and me.

On Christmas day Mikey and I headed to his grandparents place for lunch with his family and then we arrived back at my house to open presents and have dinner with my family, my mum had worked the morning shift.

Here is me and Mikey opening pressies :)

Above: the beginning of our wrapping paper pile!

I recieved loads of lovely gifts! Below is just some of my pressies, I also recieved a massage voucher, a vintage chain-mesh gold purse, gift cards, a great veggie cookbook, a pretty plate set, a cutlery set, towel set and more.

Above: Candle, pretty mug, diary, necklace, hand cream, bed wand, pj's, flowery belt, purse, purfume, earrings, christmas ornament, CD, soaps, cake decorating set.

I mentioned that I made banoffee pie for Christmas Eve, well, let me tell you this is one of the best desserts ive made!

I think this is best made a day or two in advance as it seemed to set and hold together better a couple of days later. The caramel part was a little runny as you can probably see but it didn't make it sloppy, next time I will add more cornflour.

I based my pie on this recipe for the centre but made a different base and topping.

Banoffee Pie

Crust:
300g Digestive biscuits or similar
50g Margarine

Filling:
3 Bananas
4oz Brown Sugar
4oz Margerine
1 tbsp Golden Syrup
100ml Rice milk
1 dessert spoon Cornflour
1/2 tsp Vanilla Esscence

Topping:
Cream
Chocolate

1) To make the crust blend or bash biscuits into crumbs, I used the stab blender. Then mix melted margarine with the crumbs, so that it turns into a sticky mixture. You may need more or less margarine. Press firmly into base of pie tin and refridgerate for an hour.
2) In a saucepan with sugar thermometer attached, gently heat the sugar, margerine and and golden syrup.
3) Constantly stiring the mixture with a non plastic spoon, boil upto soft ball stage. Simmer at this temperature for 5 minutes, making sure not to let the temperature go any higher. I did use a candy thermometer but you could *try* bringing it to the boil and then turning it down to the lowest heat while still simmering.
4) Heat the milk and heaped dessert spoonful of cornflour in the microwave until a thick white sauce is made. Stir in the vanilla.
5) Take the toffee off the heat and allow to cool for a couple of minutes.
6) Beat the toffee whilst slowely adding the white sauce to it. Mix thoroughly, removing any undisolved lumps of cornflour.
7) Slice the banana thinly and line the base of the pastry case evenly with a couple of layers of banana.
8) Once cooled to room temperature, carefully poor the toffee mixture over the top, making sure as to cover the bananas completely.
9) Refridgerate until completely cold. Next add your choice of cream to cover the toffee banana layer and then top with more banana and grated chocolate. Refridgerate for a few hours before enjoying. The longer you leave it the firmer and less runny the toffee will be.

Here are a couple of other things ive made in the last month....

As you probably know by now, gnocchi is one of my favourite foods. I only recently discovered that there are two types of gnocchi, the more pasta like traditional gnocchi made from potato and flour and roman gnocchi, which is made using semolina. I based my roman gnocchi on this recipe making a few changes. I decided to make a bake with the gnocchi and finely chopped up some cauliflour and broccoli, placed it in the bottom of the dish, covered it with the gnocchi and then made a decent amount of white cheezy sauce to cover the gnocchi.

If you make Roman Gnocchi, deffinately dont expect anything similar to the 'traditional' gnocchi. And beware, it is quite plain so make something tasty to add with it.

A few weeks ago our friends invited us for dinner. They said we didnt need to bring anything, but I always feel terrible going to someones house for a meal and not bringing something. So we set about making Tirimisu!

I had never actually eaten Tirimisu before and I quite liked this, although it didnt beat my banoffee pie ;) I was inspired by this recipe.

You can use a bought sponge cake, but I baked my own. I cant remember which recipe I used for the cake, but there are millions of recipes out there. Then we brewed some coffee, you can use any coffee - instant, from a plunger or coffee machine. We layered the cake and then poured the coffee over the cake to soak in. Next was cream and then the layers were repeated and then topped with grated chocolate.

Ive found loads of lovely things in the post-christmas sales - clothing, accessories and more. To be honest its dangerous for me to go shopping at the moment! Anyway I will be showing you these things in an upcoming post! I also bought a couple of things for a little giveaway in the new year.

New Years Eve is tomorrow and I cant wait for 2011 to roll in!

What do you have planned for your New Years Eve!??
I think Mikey and I will be walking down to the beach to see the local fireworks display and for dinner were making homemade pizza-the best type! The temperature is going to be 43 degrees C tomorrow which is indoors weather as far as im concerned :) Following new years day when the temperature has cooled were in for a delicious BBQ, a great way to celebrate the new year I think.

Whatever it is your doing to celebrate the new year, I hope you have a blast! And I will see you again in 2011! Finally, thankyou so so much for stopping by and reading my blog throughout 2010 :)

Middleton Beach Hut Getaway

2010-12-17T23:53:00.003+10:30

In my last post I mentioned that Mikey and took a short break. We went to stay in Middleton for a couple of nights in the Middleton Beach Huts. We often go to Middleton for a stay, Its only about an hour away and close to the beach and a few lovely little towns.

This time we stayed in the Bondi Beach Hut...

There are about 12 huts which are surrounded by a lovely garden and grassed area...

The inside of the hut is decorated in a lovely way....

Below is the beach at Middleton where we stayed. Its quite nice to walk along when its warmer.

One of the nearby towns has a great second hand bookshop, I always find something to leave with. This time we bought three cookbooks, Marie Claire Kitchen, Food of Italy and Pies & Pastries.

There are loads of lovely places to walk and we were really lucky with the weather. Here is one of our favourite spots to walk....

It would be nice to spend a whole day in this spot sometime, maybe with a picnic :)

These sheep probably have the best view in South Australia!

Closeby to the above spot is a lookout which looks over Victor Harbour...

Victor Harbour is a nice little town, popular for whale watching, as you can probably guess by the whale tale fountain below.

It was a really lovely break for us both, and a nice way to celebrate Mikey finishing his degree.

Lastly, I wanted to show you the beautiful Jacaranda trees which line our footpaths, theyre flowering at the moment...

Pretty arent they!?

Only one week until christmas now! Hopefully I will get around to another post before christmas to show you our christmas tree :)

Homemade Honeycomb & New Stuff

2010-12-07T00:12:00.002+10:30

After hours of work, my dad managed to get rid of the virus on my computer, so my computer is now virus free :) but is running terribly slow due to the new virus scanner programme. Im so lucky I didnt loose any files.

Anyhow, here are some of the new summery clothes Ive bought recently. Its really heating up here in Adelaide, some days are almost too hot to go out.

This is my favourite dress at the moment, I love the fabric.

And this dress I love the bow at the back.

The back...

Probably the best bargan ive gotten in a long time is this Country Road skirt which was $12 marked down from $120!

And perfect to wear with my skirts like the one above is this baby blue top.

Recently Kirsty over at In the Mood for Noodles made her own honeycomb. Who knew you could make your own honeycomb? not me! I had to try and make it for myself.

The ingredients are simple....

And so is the recipe.

Vegan Crunchie

{via}

4 tablespoons golden syrup

1 cup white sugar

3 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

1 cup of choc chips

1. Grease a 20 cm (or smaller size if possible) square cake tin or slice tray.

2. In a large saucepan, heat the golden syrup and sugar together, bring to a boil then simmer on low heat for 5-10 minutes. Cooking time will vary but test it by dropping a little syrup into water-it should become brittle when ready. Watch it doesn't burn.

3. Remove pot from heat and add the bicarb soda. Quickly mix it in because the mixture will foam up instantly. Pour immediately into the cake tin. Leave to set.

Once the honeycomb had set I melted the chocolate and poured it over the top of the honeycomb while still in the tin. I needed to put it into the freezer for 5 minutes for the chocolate to set.

Heating the golden syrup and sugar

After the bicarb soda had been added to the sugar/syrup mixture and immediately poured into a tin

Golden honey comb setting

Whittaker's dark chocolate ready to melt

Honeycomb once it had been covered with chocolate

A little tricky and crumbly to cut into pieces

tadaaa!
The honeycomb was really sweet and I think I added a bit too much baking soda because it had a bit of a funny taste. I think next time I would add less soda, and make the honeycomb thinner and cover it with more chocolate :) deffinately worth a try though.

Last week Mikey and I went on a short getaway, photos to come soon! It was lovely to get away, even if it was only for a couple of days.

Hope you are enjoying the Christmas season, its deffinately my favourite time of year :)

Music For The Soul

2010-11-26T21:18:00.001+10:30

A couple of days ago my computer got a really bad virus :( which has taken over my computer, not even letting me access the internet.We haven't figured out a way to get rid of it yet, if worst comes to worst I will have to get a new computer, but for the time being I am using my parents computer when I need to.

So until my computer is fixed I wont be able to blog as normal.

I will leave you with a couple of songs I have been listening to over and over recently...

Does anyone else like Norah Jones' music? I really find her music relaxing. Can you recommend any similar music that you enjoy?

Hope you are all well and having fun preparing for christmas :)

Giveaway Winner!

2010-11-17T22:36:00.000+10:30

Its time to announce the winner of my most recent Giveaway!

Thankyou to all those who entered, and welcome to those who are new followers of Roses r Red. From your comments it seems that the most wanted christmas pressie is anything and everything to do with the kitchen!

All of your names went into my straw hat...

And the winner issss....

Peach Nia

Congratulations, you are the winner of this sweet cupcake cookbook :)

If you could please email me your postage details and I will send it across the world to you!

Banana French Toast & Risotto

2010-11-14T13:49:00.001+10:30

This post is a few days late, I have had a stomach bug and have been feeling constantly nauseous and living on dry toast the last 3 days. Hopefully it will soon be gone :(

Anyyyway...

A few days ago for lunch I made banana french toast with fresh berries, maple syrup and cinnamon mmmmm. This recipe is almost too good to share!

Recently Carla made this recipe (well close enough to) and it looked amazing, Im so gald I decided to try it out. It is super easy to make, perfect for breakfast, lunch or brunch...or dessert!

Banana French Toast

2 very ripe bananas

1 1/2 cups of rice milk

2 tablespoons of cornstarch

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

5 pieces of thick crusty bread

berries of your choice

maple syrup

cinnamon

- Blend bananas, milk, cornstarch and vanilla in a blender or food processor until smooth.

- Pour mixture into a bowl and soak bread, two pices at a time for about 10 minutes.

- Preheat a large, non stick skillet (cast iron preferred) over medium heat. Spray with cooking spray or melt some margarine and cook a couple of pieces of the soaked bread for 5 to 7 minutes on one side and about 3 minutes on the other.

- When ready, the toast should be golden to medium brown and flecked with darker spots. Keep warm on a plate covered with tinfoil while you cook the second batch.

- Sprinkle berries over the toast, followed by syrup and then cinnamon.

On my last off days, Mikey and I decided we wanted to try and make a risotto for dinner. We went to the markets for lunch and for the ingredients. I purchased a great risotto book and we ended up twisting a couple of the recipies into this...

Butternut, Pea & Asparagus Risotto

1/2 butternut pumpkin, peeled, and diced into bite sized pieces

4 Tbsp olive oil

Fresh Sage, washed and chopped finely

1.2 L vegetable stock

15g margarine

1 1/2 onions, finely chopped

1 C peas, we used frozen

1 bunch fresh asparagus, washed, woody ends removed and each stem cut into 1 inch pieces

450g risotto rice, we used aborio

200ml dry white wine

Salt & pepper

- Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Mix the butternut with 1-2 Tablespoons olive oil and then spread on a roasting tray. Roast for 20-30 minutes, or unti tender.

- Bring the stock to he boil in a saucepan, then reduce the heat and keep simmering gently over a low heat while you are cooking the risotto.

- Heat the margarine and ramaining oil in a large heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onions and fry, stirring occasionally, for about 8 minutes or until soft and golden. Add the rice and cook for 2 minutes, stirring to coat the grains in the oil mixture. Add the wine and cook, stirring constantly until it has reduced.

- Add the sage, salt and peppr, then gradually add the hot stock, a ladleful at a time. Stir constantly and add more liquid as the rice absorbs each addition. Cook for 15 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is creamy but still firm to the bite.

- Add the peas and asparagus when there is about 5 minutes cooking time left. Add the pumpkin just before serving to heat through.

Here is the recipe book...all about risotto.

This pretty bunch of gerberas Mikey picked from his garden for me :) I love the pinky orange colours.

Today is the last day to enter my Giveaway for this cupcake cookbook.

You can enter HERE.

Cannoli Making, Halloween & Mikeys Birthday

2010-11-04T22:38:00.000+10:30

Just a warning that this is a super long post!

A couple of weeks ago Mikey and I decided to take the plunge and make our own cannoli.

Cannoli are a Sicilian pastry desert traditionally made from fried dough and filled with a creamy filling, usually ricotta.

Because we didnt have any cannoli forms I searched for a recipe which required the dough to not be fried in oil, but baked in the oven. This of course is a variation to the traditional cannoli, and I dare say slightly better for you. I also wanted to make a filling of custard, unlike the traditional ricotta filling.

Vegan Cannoli Shells

adapted from here

4 tablespoons margarine

1/3 cup sugar

3 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer mixed with 4 tablespoons warm water (this is equal to 2-3 eggs)

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon zested orange

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Oil spray

- Preheat oven to 375

- Mix your egg replacer and set aside. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper, spray with oil. Look for something that is about 1" in diameter that is round to wrap the shell around once they are removed from the oven. I used a thick highlighter wrapped in foil, as you can see in the photo below.

- Now, using something that is a 4"-5" circle (I used a soup mug as in the photo below) and with a pencil draw two circles on your paper on each cookie sheet. Now turn the parchment paper over.

- Meanwhile, mix the butter with the sugar until it is fluffy. Next, add the egg replacer and mix until fully incorporated. Then add zest, extracts and flour. Mix well until dough is smooth.

- Take a tablespoon of the mixture and place in the center of the circles on ONE cookie tray at a time! Spread the dough out to nearly meet the edge of the outline of the circle you've drawn (as in the photo below).

- Bake two at a time for 8 minutes--not too long or you will not be able to shape these. Look for when the shells just begin browning (as in the photo below). Remove from oven.

- Now, this part is a little tricky, and you will need to work quickly, it helps to have an extra pair of hands. Just a warning, they are quite hot so be careful :) Using the 1" round object, place it in the centre of one of the rounds and wrap the edges up so they just overlap and hold for a few seconds or until the shell holds its shape (as in the photo below). Quickly move onto the second shell. We used two trays and cooked one lot whilst shaping the over, other wise we would have been baking all day.

- Allow them to cool and then they are ready to be filled. Or if you want the ends chocolate coated like I did, simply melt some chocolate in the microwave and dip the ends in and set in the fridge.

- Please note that cannoli shells should be filled the same day they are eaten or else they will go soggy. This wasnt a problem, I just kept the bowl of custard in the fridge and the shells in a airtight container out of the fridge and piped into the shells just before eating.

Next time I make these shells I will be using 2/3 of the amount of sugar, I thought they were a little sweet.

(Above: Clockwise from top left- Cannoli shell dough; drawing circles onto the baking paper; spreading the mixture into circles; after baking)

(Above: shaping the cannoli after removing from the oven)

(Above: Unfilled cannoli shells dipped in chocolate)

To fill my cannoli shells I used vanilla custard. I followed the recipe on the side of the custard box using rice milk, vanilla essence and the custard powder except I had to add extra custard powder to make it thick enough to pipe. The custard will also thicken as it cools.

Mikey decided to make a seperate batch of dough and add some cocoa powder. He filled his cannoli with a ricotta filling (pictured below). He used the filling recipe from here.

So thats how you make cannoli, easy pesy ha? Let me know if you plan to make these and have any questions :)

Last weekend was my brothers 21st birthday. He had a halloween party and all his friends dressed up. We got some pretty awesome decorations, thought I would share just a couple.

This skeleton candle which we thought was just a plain ol candle, while it was burning we couldnt believe when red wax started seeping through the eyes!

My brother and his girlfriend carved out 5 pumpkin heads, below is just one, and some of the spiders web in the background. Oh and they had eyeball lollies which you can see on the table.

And we had a couple of these skulls with flashing eyeballs.

We had more trick or treaters this year than ever before! I wonder if Australia will ever celebrate halloween the was the US does, that would be so great!

On Monday was Mikeys birthday.

Here is a terrible photo of the cake I made him. It was the same recipe that he made for my birthday earlier this year. I topped it with chocolate ganache which was made with melted chocolate and rice milk. It was a chocolate overload so the strawberries on top were perfect!

We decided to head up to the Adelaide Hills for the day. First we went to part of the Heysen Trail called the Pioneer Women's Trail. Apparently as early as 1838 women would walk the track carrying fresh produce from their village to the city, a huge 35km! Each woman would carry two bricks (along with other goods) on their return to contrubute to building a church in their town.
After just 1 1/2 hours of walking the track and I was pooped. But it was really beautiful, there was a stream running along some of the track and the wild flowers are out at the moment too.

This particular track starts in Bridgewater just next to this lovely old mill.

The weather was perfect for walking!

And alot of the track was flat.

We went through a couple of these tunnels which went under the highway.

And then we got to this BIG hill! And Mikey wanted to walk up it, I didnt, but you see it was his birthday so I did. It doesnt look big in this photo...but it was! It wound up through the left of the photo.

The view from the top...

Afterwards we had lunch at Hahndorf and then headed home before going out for a nice dinner.

Just a reminder...

If you havent already entered my Cupcake Cookbook Giveaway

You can click over to THIS post to enter:)

Hope youve had a lovely week :)

Cupcake Cookbook GIVEAWAY !

2010-10-28T23:40:00.002+10:30

Its time for another giveaway!

Today I was birthday shopping for Mikey when I just happened across this lovely book...

...and I thought it would be perfect to giveaway to one of my lovely readers. Because I mean who doesnt like to cook cupcakes!?

A peek inside...

To enter:

* You must be a follower (new followers are welcome)
* This giveaway is open to international followers too, you can enter no matter which country you are in
* Leave a comment on this post telling me something thats on your christmas wishlist :)
* For a second entry, blog about this giveaway (please leave a second comment with your link attached for this entry to count)
* Make sure I have a way to contact you if you win
* You must have a blog written in english to enter
* This giveaway will finish on 14th November

Goodluck!

And thankyou so much for reading my lil blog, I love hearing from you :)

My New Bike & Other Pretties

2010-10-23T00:24:00.000+10:30

A couple of weeks ago I invested in a new bike!

I thought it would be nice to get out of the house at the same time as getting some exercise and having some fun wondering around the neighbourhood.

I found the perfect bike at one of the local department stores, I think I liked it because of the basket and wide bike seat, plus the handle bar shape means I can sit up straighter without getting a sore back! Anyhow it is super comfortable, or should I say as comfortable as a bike can be :)

Im hoping for a sunny day tomorrow so that I can go for a ride before work.

Onto some things I have collected recently...

I had been searching for a skirt like this for sooo long, and finally found something even nicer than I had imagined. Im in love with that big bow on the front!

Im not quite sure what this belt will go with, but the pattern is so lovely I had to have it.

Another pretty belt, lace and sparkels, how can you go wrong?

And some new earrings for work.

I have real trouble finding sunnies that suit me, I think these might...?

And I was so excited when I found this scalloped vintage inspired dinnerware...

Perfect for afternoon tea.

Thats it for now. Hoping to bring you another giveaway soon!

I will leave you with this photo of an orchard which my dad recieved while he was in hospital. I just love the colour.

What are you up to this weekend?

As for me I am working, Ive had the last couple of days off which have been perfect, and such beautiful spring weather.

Amazing Calzone & A New Veggie Patch

2010-10-14T15:39:00.001+10:30

A few weeks ago Mikey and I made the most amazing calzone for dinner. This is hands down my favourite recipe at the moment!

I thought that the calzone was just as easy to make as pizza, not suprisingly considering its so similar to pizza.

The four main steps to the recipe are making the dough, letting it rise, making the filling and then putting it all together...

The recipe for the dough is one which Mikey found. The filling is our own concoction :)

Calzone

Ingredients

For Dough:

1 1/2 Tbsp dry yeast

1 1/2 C warm water

3 pinches baking soda

3 C flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp sugar

For Filling:

Pizza sauce

Grated cheese (I used Edem Cheezly)

Pumpkin

Onion

Red capsicum (pepper)

Zucchini

Baby Spinach

Black olives

Parsley (to serve)

* To make dough

- Mix yeast & warm water and let sit to combine.

- Measure flour, salt, sugar, olive oil and baking soda & place in a large bowl.

- Add yeast & water mix. Stir to combine all.

- Knead dough vigorously with hands until firm and elastic - a couple of minutes.

- Place in bowl, sprinkle a few drops of water over bowl, and cover with cling film.

- Place bowl in a warm place for approximately two hours.

- We made two calzones out of this amount of dough and they turned out HUGE, two meals worth, so I would reccomend making 3 or 4 calzones out of this amount.

- Use a rolling pin to roll dough into rounds, about 1/2-1 cm thickness.

* To make filling

- Chop pumpkin, capsicum, onion and zucchini and mix to coat with a small amount of oil. Roast in a 220 degree C oven until just tender.

- Add roast vegatables with spinach and olives and mix well.

* Put it together

- Spread pizza sauce over the baze of the calzone (as pictured above).

- Next spread out the filling over only half of the base. Next sprinkle a layer of cheese (I used Edem Cheezly) over the filling.

- Take the empty half of the dough and fold it over the filling. Fold or press the edge of the calzone together.

- Cook in a 220 degree C until calzone is slightly browned. This should only take 10-15 minutes.
- Remove from oven, brush lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley.

Yummmmmmmmmm :)

Last week I bought some vegetable seedlings to plant in our veggie patch. In the past we havent had luck with growing veggies because our soil is really sandy, so we added compost and a more healthy soil to the patch.

I bought butter beans, roma tomatos, zucchini, asparagus and peas.

Tiger watched on as we worked on planting the seedlings...

Below is the finished patch. It doesnt look much at the moment, but hopefully within the next couple of months we will get at least a few veggies. At the bottom left of the photo is broccoli which we planted about a month ago, its coming along quite well and tiny broccoli are already starting to form.

Does anyone have any tips for growing these type of vegetables, or know the best thing to keep bugs and slugs away - they have already attached the broccoli, zucchini and beans.

While weeding the patch we found this little guy...

It was so amazing how he turned his head to look at us.

We also have quite a few herbs at the moment. Basil, sage, spring onions, thyme and oregano.

We werent suprised to find our naughty Tiger sitting in the bear patch of the herb barrell.

Wishing you a lovely week!

Celebrating 8 Years Amoungst the Magnolias

2010-10-04T21:17:00.000+10:30

Firstly thankyou so much for your lovely comments on my last post. Im pleased to report that dad came home from hospital on the weekend and is getting better each day.

On Friday Mikey and I celebrated 8 years together.

We headed to Mt Lofty for a relaxing day. We had a lovely picnic in Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens, lazed in the sunshine, and then went for a walk through the magnolia garden.

From a distance I thought they were blossoms, but as we got closer saw these pretty flowers....

I think I want a magnolia tree when Mikey and I get our own place.

I was reminded why spring is my favourite season! Blue skies, warm weather and pretty flowers all around.

The bulbs in the gardens were out too, daffodils and bluebells everywhere.

Afterwards we headed up to the Mt Lofty lookout which has one of the best views of Adelaide from the hills to the city to the sea.

The lookout is apparently 730 metres above sea level. Thats pretty high right!?

It was pretty glarey up there, dont mind the squinting ;)

Around the middle of the photo below is the area where I live.

That evening Mikey took me to Regattas Bistro for dinner, which is situated alongside the main river that runs through the city. I had warmed olives and breadsticks and a wild mushroom risotto mmmm. Mikey also loved his meal.

So sad that all of the photos of us turned out blurry :( darn camera.

Overall I had a lovely day with Mikey :)

Tomorrow I will be returning to work after the two weeks I had off since dads heart attack. Im still really emotional and stressed out from all we went through, so hopefully I can hold it together at work.

- A Heart Almost Lost -

2010-09-30T21:19:00.000+09:30

You may have noticed that I havent been commenting as usual or done a post in a little while...

A couple of weeks ago, my dad had a heart attack

He died and was brought back by the parametics

Was in intensive care unit for 5 days

In a coma for 2 1/2 of those days

And has been in the cardiology ward for a week now

This has probably been the hardest thing my family has been through

Recieving that phonecall while I was at work, driving to the hospital, not knowing if he was alive or gone

Watching him while he was sedated, not knowing if he would wake up

And if he did, whether or not he would have brain damage

We felt so helpless watching, waiting

But...

Dad's heart is now recoving well

With the help of a cardiac stent

His body has overcome setbacks along the way

His brain is still working things out, but he seems almost back to his usual self

He needs a walking frame and gets puffed out really quickly, rehabilitation and time will help to heal

We were lucky, not even luck...just fate

I have never had anyone I know this sick, so this has been an overwhealming experince

There has been so many great people at the hospital, and I think that it will change the way I nurse at work for the better

These last couple of weeks have seemed like a blur, but finally Im starting to get my mind and emotions back

I hope to get around to normal posting and commenting over the next week

Hoping you are all well

New Clothing & Accessories

2010-09-18T21:33:00.001+09:30

Finally spring has arrived.

The blossoms are out in full bloom.

And finally after what has to be our longest winter ever, its ever so slowly starting to become warmer.

So its about time to show you the new things Ive bought recently, with a very summery theme :)

This has to be my new favourite dress...

Pink with ruffles and a bow at the front. Im in love.

For quite some time Ive wanted a hat like this, finally I found the perfect one.

I can never pass up a pretty top. Especially one with lace and frills :)

Pretty hair accessories to add to my collection...

This dress is such a lovely silky material, I think it will be perfect worn with with tights. The flower pattern is made up of pretty pastel colours.

I would also like to thank the adorable Zoe From Dream Come True for passing onto me the 'Versitile Blogger Award'. Zoe is one of the sweetest bloggers around and has a wonderful Etsy shop with some beautiful necklaces and adorable wreaths. With this award I am asked to tell you 7 things about myself, so here goes...

* My favourite time of the year is Spring

* My favourite movies are chick flicks and comedy, I dont like war, action or animal movies

* I would rather spend a day exploring a forest or picnicing in a garden than spend a night out partying (although thats fun occasionally too)

* I use to play the flute, but havent picked one up in years

* I haven't eaten meat in for about 17 years, and you couldn't pay me too :)

* I shop too much ;) and my favourite clothing is dresses

* I live about 15 mins walk from the beach

Thats it from me, Im planning for my next post to be a delicious recipe, one of my favourites. I hope you are having a warm weekend :)

Royal Show & Giveaway Prize

2010-09-15T20:14:00.002+09:30

Last week was one of my favourite events of the year, the Royal Adelaide Show. The show is held annually and runs for 9 days. When I was a kid we use to visit 2 or 3 times a year, now days we go once which is quite enough.

One of my favourite parts of the show is the cooking section, in particular the cake decorating. Heres my favourites from this year...

An ET cake!

Alice in wonderland still seems to be a popular subject for anything at the moment.

A miniture cake, this one was only about as tall as my hand, quite amazing.
I thought this was a really unique cake and I love the blossoms.
And my favourite...
A scene from Alice in wonderland, I cant imagine how many hours this would have taken. Although this didnt look like a cake, more of a scene made out of icing.
In the same hall as the cakes was a collection of wearable blooms, some were on models, others were part of a fashion parade.
This collection was not what I would consider 'wearable', more likely costume attire. Such as the following nastershum dress and head piece. We came across this sandcarstle, a mermaid laying on a dragon, pretty awesome right?

I like walking through the sideshows and rides, but we dont usually take part, just watch :)

Mikeys favourite part of the show is the animals. We thought the alpacas were really cute, and so soft, but they do spit randomly as passers by :)

That was just some of our day at the show, we had lots of fun, even though we didnt stay for the fireworks because we were both cold and tired after 5 or so hours.

Recently I was lucky enough to win a giveaway over at Melissa's blog, Oh, My Darling.

This little package arrived in the mail from Coffee and Cream...

And inside was...

{via}

A pair of red rose earrings and a cute umbrella necklace!
Thankyou Melissa and Christina :)

I hope your September is off to a good start, only 4 month until christmas, I can hardly believe it!

French Toast Cupcakes

2010-09-05T23:26:00.002+09:30

A couple of weeks ago I had a craving to make cupcakes.
There are quite a few different flavours that ive been wanting to make, this time I decided to go with French Toast Cupcakes.

Boy did these turn out well! These were quite possibly the nicest cupcakes Ive ever made, perfect fluffiness, sweetness, moistness and overall goodness.

I wouldn't say they actually taste like french toast, but more of the flavours that remind you of french toast, maple syrup and cinnamon. The maple syrup gave them the darker colour. Most of these photos came out quite dark, the second to last pic shows the true colours.

I found this great recipe from here.

French Toast Cupcakes

1 cup soy milk (I used rice milk)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 & 1/4 cups flour
2 Tbs cornstarch
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 & 1/4 tsp maple extract (I used 1/4 C maple syrup)
1 tsp vanilla extract

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line pans with paper liners.
- Whisk soy milk and vinegar together in a large bowl and set aside to curdle.
- In a smaller bowl, sift together the flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Add oil, sugar and extracts to the soy milk mixture and beat until mixed.
- Add dry mixture to soy milk mixture and beat until no large lumps remain.
- Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 20-22 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched.
- Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely.

Frosting
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup vegan cream cheese, softened
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

- Cream together margarine and cream cheese.
- Add sugar in 1/2 cup batches to avoid a mess. Mix until smooth and creamy.
- Add vanilla and beat until smooth.

I roughly used the above recipe for the frosting. I topped my cupcakes some with maple syrup and others with cinnamon sugar.

I decided to try and put a filling in the centre of the cupcakes. As in this recipe, I mixed (approximately) 1/4 C margarine, 1 Tblespn cinnamon, 2 tsp brown sugar and 2 Tblespn maple syrup. And dropped about 1 teaspoon into each cupcake before baking. This is what happened...

A hole :( and not much of a filling, if any. Perhaps I didnt put enough in, im not sure. Anyhow, it didnt take away from the taste...It just meant a holey cupcakes. Looking at this photo im craving french toast cupcakes again :)

Do you have a favourite cupcake flavour? French Toast is now top of my list :)
Ive youve done a post on your favourite cupcake, I would love you to leave the link.

Giveaway Winner!!

2010-09-04T13:04:00.000+09:30

Thankyou to everyone who entered my most recent giveaway. I really enjoyed reading about things you had enjoyed doing and some interesting facts about yourselves, so thankyou for sharing those with me :)

Today i drew the winner from my new hat...yes I am anticipating the warmer spring weather.

The winner is....

Melissa

of Oh, My Darling

Congrats Melissa, please email me (chocolatesoap@hotmail.com) your mailing details and I will have this jewellery off to you real soon.

Yesterday I went on a shopping trip for a bit of retail therapy. I bought some lovely new things which I will show you in a future post, one being my new hat above.

I hope you are having a lovely weekend, as for me Im off to work soon. Working on the weekends has to be the biggest downfall of a 7 day shift work roster.

A Lovely New Book

2010-09-01T14:28:00.001+09:30

My favourite cookbooks are those with pretty pictures, teacups, cupcakes and tiny high tea treats.

I was lucky enough to come across the Women's Weekly Afternoon Tea cookbook recently and just had to buy it!

Just take a look at some of the treats you can make yourself...

Carrot Cakes

Black Forest Gateaux

Cherry Bakewell Tarts

Neenish & Pineapple Tarts

Passionfruit Cream Biscuits

Today is the first day of spring for us aussies! I cant tell you how glad I am, it has been a long cold miserable winter and I cant wait for the sunny days to start appearing :)

In my next post I will annonce the winner of my giveaway!

Blueberry Muffins & Sweet Potato & Broccoli Gnocchi

2010-08-27T17:26:00.000+09:30

A few weeks ago I had a real craving for blueberries and thought blueberry muffins sounded like a perfect idea!

I choose a recipe from one of the books I recieved for my birthday, and it was the perfect choice. The muffins were moist and delicious, perfect with a cup of tea or coffee.

Recipe from here.
These also freeze well!

If youve been reading for a while, you would know I LOVE gnocchi. Well I have discovered a great premade mini gnocchi from Golden Pasta which I used in this recipe. Have you ever tried roast broccoli? I tried it for the first time only a few months ago and it completely changes the taste of the broccoli, it is my new favourite roast vegetable. I wanted to incoroprate roast broccoli with gnocchi, and thats how I came up with this recipe :)

Roasted Broccoli & Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Broccoli, washed and chopped into small florets
1 sweet potato, peeled and diced
Cherry tomatos, halved
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
Olive oil
Canola oil
Fresh sage, washed and chopped
Fresh parsley, washed and chopped
Salt & pepper

- Mix broccoli, sweet potato and cherry tomatos with enough canola oil to coat them and spread over a greased oven tray. In a 220 degree C preheated oven cook until soft. I like to cover the broccoli with foil so it doesnt burn.
- Meanwhile, in a frypan fry onion, garlic, salt and pepper, parsley and sage with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Fry until onion has softened.
- Boil the gnocchi, as instructed on the packaging.
- Rinse and drain the gnocchi.
- Add together all of the ingredients and the gnocchi into the fry pan and heat through. Add more olive oil to coat ingredients if needed.

If you would profer to make your own gnocchi from scratch, you could follow the recipe I often use from here.

I would like to thank the lovely Imogen of Tia Cherie for the Inspiring Blog award she recently passed onto me. Thanks again Imogen :)

If you haven't already entered my giveaway you can click here to enter!

Spotted Trees & Yarn Bombs

2010-08-24T17:36:00.001+09:30

This month our state is having and event called the SALA Festival (South Australia Living Arts). The SALA Festival showcases over 3000 artists work throughout cafes and wineries in South Australia.

Recently I went to Jetty Road, the main shopping street in Glenelg, close to where I live, and was pleasantly suprised by what I found as part of the festival.

SPOTTED TREES!
Are dotted down Jetty Road...

And Yarn Bombs covered about 10 poles along the street and on benches and a couple of trees!

You can kinda see all the poles covered in yarn in the photo below.

You can read more about yarn bombs here and here.

My favourite Cafe, Eggless Desert Cafe is even showcasing artwork by a local artist for the festival. A patient I cared for was also opening her home to display work by her and her friends. What a fun festival dont you think?

Did you see my No Croutons Required entry a couple of posts ago?

If not, you can have a look here. I would love for you to vote for me if you like the look of my soup, you can do so by leaving a comment over at Tinned Tomatoes on this post.

Have you entered my giveaway yet? If not you can click HERE to enter!

Off to Market & New Stuff

2010-08-21T23:18:00.001+09:30

Yesterday Mikey and I headed to the Adelaide Central Markets for lunch and some food shopping.

For lunch we headed to Bliss Organic Cafe, which is on a small side street near the market, we shared a delicious veggie burger and tofu scramble as well as organic creaming soda and cola. This is deffinately one of my favourite cafes, they also sell clothing, books, food products and have indoors and outdoor areas, so if your in Adelaide, I would reccomend a visit :)

The book corner...

{via}

...and the outdoor courtyard...

{via}

We came home with lots of lovely fresh foods including broccoli, sweet potato, lemon, brussel sprouts, squash, mushrooms, avocados. Also some flavoured bread rolls from Skalas Bakery which I always make sure I buy whenever I got to the market. Olives and marinated artichokes, as well as a thyme plant and some lebanese wraps.

We will be using some of these for dinner tonight. Theres nothing better than knowing your vegetables are fresh from the markets, rather than months old from the supermarket.

Recently I have been after some pandan essence to make some sweets and was able to track some down from an asian supermarket. And did you know you can buy a make your own marshmallow kit!? Its from Angel Foods, I cant wait to try them out.

I was thinking you might like to see my most recent purchases?

These shoes I wore out today and I was pleasantly suprised at how comfortable they are. I also bought these cute little lace socks which I thought go quite well with the shoes, not sure if I would be able to pull them off with a dress or shorts in the warmer weather?

Its still winter here in Australia, rainy and cold but the summer clothes are already coming out in the stores. I couldnt resist this lacey pink dress from Target, the light fabric will be perfect for the hot summer. Im really craving warm sunny weather at the moment, ive had enough of this dreery winter.

You know I cant resist anything prink and frilly, thats why I bought this next top....also for summer ;) I saw this top in two shops and one was more than double the price of the other, exactly the same...score!

Theres still time to enter my giveaway, just head on over here.

Hope you have a lovely weekend :)

Soup for No Croutons Required Event

2010-08-19T18:13:00.003+09:30

Have you heard of No Croutons Required? If not, its a monthly food event where bloggers from around the world can submit a recipe within the monthly theme to appear in a roundup of recipes within that theme. This month the roundup is hosted by Jacqueline over at Tinned Tomatoes.

This month's theme was salads and soups made with carrots!

Straight away I knew which recipe I wanted to share. A few years ago Mikey's uncle and aunt were married, and at their reception we were served an amazing carrot and corriander soup. Soon afterwards I recreated a recipe, which turned out suprisingly similar, and have been making it ever since. Who would have ever thought that a carrott soup could taste so good!

If you have not used corriander before, you can read about it here.

Carrot & Corriander Soup

5 Medium Carrots
1 can lite coconut milk
5 C water
2 teaspoons vegetable stock
1/2 to 1 teaspoons dried corriander (be careful as the taste is quite strong)
Salt & pepper

- Peel and chop the carrots into reasonably small pieces.
- In a saucepan add water, stock, carrots, corriander, salt and pepper.
- Bring to the boil and then simmer until carrots are quite soft, this takes approximately 30 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and puree with a stab blender until smooth.
- Add in coconut milk and blend until well combined. At this point you may add more water if you profer a thinner soup.
- Serve and top with fresh corriander and/or croutons. Although of course, croutons are not required ;)

The round up should be posted within the next week and readers may vote for their favourite recipe by commenting or sending an email on Tinned Tomatoes. I would love for you to vote for me :)

Have you entered my giveway yet? If not you can click here to go to the giveaway post :)

GIVEAWAY time!!!

2010-08-14T11:34:00.001+09:30

As promised in my last post, I have a giveaway for you!

So I guess you are wondering what you can win....

A set of 3 gold tone bangles and a pearl twist necklace.

Both of these are brand new, still with tags, so you can keep them for yourself or give them as gifts :)

Quite honestly, I bought the necklace for myself, but then realised my necklace collection is growing at a crazy rate, so what better thing to do than give it to one of you guys.

Anyone with a blog, anywhere in the world can enter.

So what do you have to do to enter?

- You must be a follower (new followers welcome).

- Just leave a comment telling me something you have enjoyed doing this week, or anything interesting about you.

- For a second entry, blog about and link to my giveaway (you must leave a second comment or this entry to count).

- You must have a blog of your own (written in English).

The giveaway will stay open until 30th August, and I will draw a winner shortly afterwards.

This giveaway I also submitted to Giveaway Scout, a great site where you can add your giveaway and browse through hundreds of other giveaways :)

Part 2 of Our Melbourne Holiday

2010-08-08T22:46:00.001+09:30

Im glad that you enjoyed part 1 of Our Melbourne Trip, and thankyou for your lovely comments. Now for part 2...

After we went on the puffing billy we drove through the lovely Dandenong Rangers, continuing to brave the cold to visit the Rhododendron Garden.

The Rhododendron Garden is like a botanic gardens, 40 hectares of lovely trees and gardens, of course lots of rhododendrons, we were lucky that some were just starting to flower.

The fog made the gardens look even more beautiful.
Here is one of my favourite rhododendrons, pink of course :)

Umbrellas in hand we walked around about half of the gardens, it was just too cold to walk right to the bottom, which was a shame, apparently there were some lyrebirds down there.

This bright red telephone box was a bit out of place...

We even spotted a kookaburra!
The gardens were really lovely, I deffinately would recommend a visit if you are ever in or around Melbourne.

Back to Melbourne city...

On one of the days we made a trip to the Queen Victoria Markets. We always visit these markets when we go to Melbourne, we dont have anything quite like it in Adelaide. Half of the market is vendors selling jewellery, clothing, plants, toys and the other half is fresh fruit and veg and then there is a hall selling gourmet produce like olives and pasta. Below is part of the fruit and veg market.

We bought a few things at the markets, my mum collects bears so for her this little teddy and teddy tales tea towels.

Ive been wanting a black beret, and I was lucky to find not just a black beret, but a fluffy back beret :) so warm!

Mikey bought some HUGE handmade ravioli for dinner.

And I bought a slice of berry cheesecake from Invita Cafe. The cafe sold lots of delicious looking veggie food.

For lunch we had Borek. These are so delicious, weve only ever seen them at QVM, Mikey had lamb and mint, I had potato and spicy vegetable.

Some of the other yummy things I ate in Mebourne...

A veggie burger from Grill'd.

Ohk so I know this doesnt look nice, and is so bad for you, but it was so so delicious. Chips with gravy and Cheezly from Lord of The Fries and a mini burger. Im so sad that they dont have Lord of The Fries in Adelaide, those of you in Melbourne will know what I mean :)

We also went to The Organic Food & Wine Deli (TOFWD) for lunch one of the days which is down a laneway in the city. Here we had nice fresh veggie burgers and tropical carrot cake (which wasnt so nice).

Well, thats it for our Melbourne Trip, hope you enjoyed the post!

Tomorrow I will be starting work in a new ward, Im a little nervous about it. I only just felt I was finally settling into the last ward and getting to know the staff after 6 months, and now I have to pick up and start over again. Oh well, thats life, it might be a change for the better for all I know :)

Stay tuned for a giveaway, coming soon.

Making My Day Brighter

2010-08-01T19:27:00.000+09:30

Roses are Red

Violets are Blue

Would you like to share my

posy of violets too?

This sweet little posy of violets was picked for me by my mum yesterday.

I think they look so sweet in my tiny crystal vase.

This little bunch brightened my day, is there anything that has brightened your day today? I would love to hear about it :)

Wishing you a wonderful start to a new week!

Stay tuned for part 2 of Our Melbourne Holiday...coming soon.