Saturday, July 31, 2010

Day 344: good friends!


Dan had his campaign launch for the upcoming federal election today at The Oaks. As always it was good to catch up with my friends, but it was also really interesting to find out more about the Democrats' policies and what it is they really stand for and believe in. I was so proud of Dan when he was giving his speech, and I really love the passion he has for politics and the future of Australia and its people.




It really was a great day, and when all the formalities were over and we all got to catch up and have a good chat. It was one of those fun times that really makes you appreciate the people who make your life much better by just being part of it. Much love to everyone for the great afternoon, especially Damo, Dan, Robyn and Andy for being all kinds of awesome!

Ps, here are a couple of silly photos we took playing around with the panorama shot with D's camera








R & A ran around a corridor thing to get back into the other end of the panoramic shot hahaha

Friday, July 30, 2010

Day 343: iPhone 4



Represent!

I am in love with my new phone, it really is all kinds of awesome.

I haven't yet noticed the whole antennagate situation or calls dropping out but it's early days yet.

I lined up for a looooong time at the Apple store at Chatswood Chase to get it but it was kinda fun chatting to people. I don't really plan on doing that again though - my feet are killing me!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Day 342: Warringah Freeway




I went for a walk after work with A, in the rain, from North Sydney to the bottom part of Neutral Bay. This is the view from one of the pedestrian bridges. I was actually expecting traffic to be worse considering it was raining.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Day 341: Farmer Wants a Wife




Did anyone else watch the first ep of the new series of Farmer Wants a Wife on channel 9 last night??

I am a sucker for reality tv and think this show is great. My friends and I are a little divided over who is our favourite farmer, but mine is definitely Farmer Charlie. He's not the hottest but he's cheeky and adorable and I love him!

Can't wait to see how this series plays out, hopefully they all find the love of their life. Awwww.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Day 340: Another necklace


This is the necklace I'm wearing today.

LOVE!!

I'm really liking this style of necklace recently. I guess it's semi-bib-style or maybe it is just outright bib-style. Hmmm. Either way, I love it!

This necklace is part of Lovisa's Sorbet collection. If you haven't already done so, you should check out their stores and website - http://www.lovisa.com.au/ They have some really beautiful pieces available that will dress up your outfits!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Day 339: Dessert




The lovely A & F invited me to dinner at their place tonight so I volunteered to bring dessert. We had mini chocolate ganache tarts, chocolate & passionfruit macarons and chocolate coated strawberries.

Those macarons I made yesterday? They're all gone! They were devoured pretty quickly at work today. Must make another batch soon.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Day 338: Macarons




Today I made some honest food, straight from the heart and cried about it while blubbering about my food dream. Well, that's would have happened if I was a contestant on masterchef! The finale is on tonight, I don't mind who wins really.

So today I actually made macarons. These ones are passionfruit and chocolate and they are delicious. I'm really impressed with how they turned out but next time I'm going to print some circles so I have a guideline on sizing as some are substantially bigger than others. Not that that really matters when you're eating them! I'd also make them more yellow in colour, I thought they were going to be fluoro so I toned it down with some cocoa and now they look a bit yuck.

I've made these (and still have a couple more things to make!) for dinner with the girls tomorrow night. Hope they like the passionfruit & chocolate combo, I always forget that not everyone loves passionfruit as much as I do.


EDIT:
Here is the recipe I used as a base - http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=786450 I added a little passionfruit to the eggwhites and swapped pink rose colour for yellow (and a little cocoa to dull the colour down as I went a bit overboard). For the ganache I used a mix of dark and milk chocolate melted in the microwave and then mixed in passionfruit pulp. I didn't measure any of it as I've made ganache quite a bit and know the consistency I'm looking for. Sorry I couldn't be more specific!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Day 337: Daniel Pearce for North Sydney




Everyone, this is my gorgeous friend Daniel Pearce who is running for the Democrats in North Sydney in the upcoming election. And these are my other lovely friends, Damo and Sarah, posing with Dan's awesome posters.



We all met up with our friend Claire to have breakfast at Burnt Orange in Mosman. The views are gorgeous (I didn't take any photos, it was a miserable rainy day) but everything else is a little underwhelming. Not to worry, the fabulous company more than made up for it.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Day 336: Pink flower necklace


I have worn this necklace a lot since I bought it. I love that you can't miss it but the softness of it makes it subtle as well.

I've also realised that I have less than a month left of writing this blog.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Day 335: For Audrey


I love this polish colour by China Glaze. It is the perfect Tiffany blue (comes out a touch greener than this pic shows). I wish I had one of those Konad stampers so I could put a little white bow on my thumb nails. Cute!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Day 334: Please see attached


Ever sent an email where you had written "please see attached" only to send the email without the attachment? Well no more, thanks to Google!

I did this very thing tonight where I hit the send button without the attachment - thankfully google warned me before hand and I was able to attach the file, send it off, and not look like an idiot. Brilliant!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Day 333: Bow Cupcakes


Finished product!

They can totally be a bit neater & more consistent but generally I think they're alright!

They're super cute (says me!) but really fiddly to make too. Its not so bad when making 12, but making many more than that would be a challenge! After a while I got the hang of it though.

I got the Planet Cake book in the mail today, so expect more fondant iced cupcakes soon.



Monday, July 19, 2010

Day 332: Tagliatelle


I didn't get time to finish the cupcakes tonight so today's picture is of my dinner which is tagliatelle with pork and veal meatballs and a chunky tomato sauce. I had made the sauce and meatballs a couple days ago so it was an easy dinner. Perfect for a Monday.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Day 331: Watch this space!




Phase 1. I colored the icing myself and it was hard work so I didn't have the energy to finish off the decorating. The icing is really crap - very dry & doesn't taste nice so they're going to be thrown out. Disappointing. But fun to practice decorating anyway.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Day 330: Planet Cake




Today I went to an open day at Planet Cake which is a two hour session where you are given a tour of the facilities, history of the company, information on courses, a demonstration on how to ganache and cover a cake with fondant, and are shown how to decorate a cupcake which you get to take home with you.

The first pic is of me and Jess, who along with Betty and Jun, presented the content. I have to say, these were three of the nicest people you will meet! They are also very passionate about cake decorating and are very skilled at what they do.



These are some examples of the cakes that Planet Cake can produce. Amazing aren't they?



I fell in love with the 3 tiered square cake which has crystals as the centre of the flowers - I didn't take a closeup pic, but it really was stunning.

If you are wanting to make cake decorating a career or just develop your personal skills in the area, I highly recommend going to one of the open days to get a better idea about what Planet Cake does and the environment you will be taught in. I am planning on doing one of the courses in the near future!

Check out their website at - http://www.planetcake.com.au 

Friday, July 16, 2010

Day 329: The rest is still unwritten


Today I watched the final episode ever of The Hills.

I've been watching The Hills and its predecessor, Laguna Beach, since 2004 so it was kind of sad to see it end, despite the fact that it definitely lost its charm after Lauren left.

The ending was a huge surprise! It shows Kristin and Brody having an emotional farewell and then a stage screen is rolled away to show that they are actually on a studio lot. OMG!! it's been clear from early on that the show was 'scripted reality' so I thought the ending was perfect.




I'll miss The Hills, but thankfully I own all 6 seasons to play back when I need a fix ;-)

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Day 328: Jemima Puddleduck


Cute right? I bought this (plus a heap of cute little tops and jumpsuits) for my friends' 4 week old baby girl, Grace. My friends are a little more private than I am so I'm not going to post pics on here, but I can assure you that she is gorgeous!

A group of us caught up to meet little Grace and had dinner at Blue Plate Bar & Grill which is the sister restaurant of South in Neutral Bay. I love the new restaurant - the menu is more extensive and the decor is very dark & sophisticated. Will definitely be visiting it again soon.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Day 327: Trivia


My gorgeous friend Sarah organized for a group of us to go to trivia at Cabana Bar tonight. I accepted the invitation purely based on the fact that it was at Cabana! That's love right there.

Turns out, we weren't too bad and came in 3rd. I was pretty happy with that - it's high enough to not feel like a failure but also gives us the motivation to aim higher next time.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Day 326: Icecream Terrine FAIL




My friend J invited me and a couple of our other friends to dinner at her gorgeous apartment tonight. J made one of the best lasagne's I have ever tasted!

I decided to bring dessert and it was a major fail. I have 'made' ice cream terrine a stack of times (I say 'made' as I buy the ice cream & just add stuff to it) but it didn't occur to me that it might need more than an hour to re-set. Ooops!



I bought neopolitan ice cream and split it into its colours. I added banana chunks to the strawberry flavor, Oreos to the vanilla and mars bar chunks to the chocolate flavour. They were layered very neatly into a loaf tin, put back in the freezer for an hour. This is what we ended up with.... lol.


Monday, July 12, 2010

Day 325: Twilight


Until tonight I had never read any of the Twilight books or seen any of the movies. I didn't really feel like I was missing out on anything, it's just not my kind of thing.

I was having dinner at Robyn's place (yes, she puts up with me a lot haha) and as we have verrrry different tastes in movies, there wasn't a lot we could agree on to watch. We settled on Twilight because I thought I may as well see what all the hype is about.

Turns out I was right. It's definitely not my thing.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Day 324: Bloody Cronulla!


I met up with Robyn to go to yum cha for lunch and afterwards we went to Firehouse for a drink. We would have gone to Greenwood but there was a line to get in. Seriously!

Turns out we were the only people at Firehouse, talk about extreme opposites. Probably a good thing though as I spent the rest of the afternoon yelling at the Sharkies, who had another loss, this time to the Knights. It really hasn't been a good season for us.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Day 323: Nubar 2010


Is this not the coolest polish ever?

My friends, Tegan and Val, have been trying to get me on their glitter polish love train for a while now but I have been resisting, until now. The girls were so excited about the Nubar 2010 polish I thought I should try it. T bought it for me and when I got it I thought "meh, it's alright but nothing spesh".

But when I met up with Val for lunch during the week she was wearing it over a dark colour and it looked amazing!!

My nails now have 6 coats of polish - seche vite base coat, 2 coats of OPI Black Onyx, 2 coats of Nubar 2010 and a coat of seche vite dry fast top coat.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Day 322: Jewellery


This is my jewellery board for necklaces and bracelets. It is currently holding maybe 75% of the necklaces and bracelets I have. I think I need to buy a new ones as some of the hooks have 3 or 4 necklaces on them. No wonder it fell down the other day!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Day 321: Rainy & miserable



Today was Bree's last day in Sydney and unfortunately it was raining and miserable for most of it. We went for dinner at the Kirribilli Club which has an amazing view of Sydney Harbour, however it was completely lost due to the rain and the plastic covers being down. Boooo.

The Origin game was being replayed on the screen, which made the wait for dinner go very quickly. Go Queensland!

It has been great having Bree around, I love when friends come to visit! Miss you already B!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Day 320: Origin 3


BEST NIGHT EVER!!!!

Ohmygosh I cannot even begin to describe the excitement and elation I am feeling about Queensland taking a cleansweep of the series this year! We have now won 5 series in a row (yeeeewwwww!!!) but have not had a whitewash/maroonwash.




I headed out to the game with Bree (above), Anna and Fi and we had fantastic seats 3 rows from the front behind the goal posts, in the Queensland supporters section.




Queensland were leading at half time but the Blues come back and fought hard for the next 30 minutes or so. I cannot believe how much time the Queenslanders  spent defending their line. It was really hard to watch and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. When the Blues scored I thought we were done as we had barely had any time in the Blues' half. WRONG!!!

You can never write off the Maroons! With two amazing tries in the last 10 minutes the entire Maroons supporters section did not sit down, screaming and jumping around. It was a really memorable night and I don't think I have screamed and cheered that much in my life.




Here is King Wally presenting Billy Slater with his Player of the Series award. Well done Billy, you truly deserved it and were the standout star for Queensland this year. I could not believe it when he held up Anthony Watmough in what looked like it would be a definite try for the Blues.




QUEENSLANDER!!!! I was so excited (and filled with pride) to watch the boys hold up the trophy and do their lap of honour. They have truly been an amazing team, possibly the best in Origin history. The most exciting part is that I don't think the dynasty is over just yet.


I had to include this pic. Suck it Barrett!! (photo courtesy of www.dailytelegraph.com.au)

We then headed to a pub in the city to watch the replay on FoxSports and celebrate well into the night!

QUEENSLANDER!!

Actually, it was an awesome day all round! B and I slept in, googled random stuff, went to the city to meet Val for lunch & macarons and then we headed home to watch trashy tv before having dinner in North Sydney and heading to the game. Awesome!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Day 319: Cocktails




After work today I met up with Bree & Robyn for cocktails at Martin Place Bar which does 2 for 1 cocktails on Tuesday nights. I can highly recommend the Liquid Gold which is passionfruit, lychee & butterscotch.

After more than a few drinks, B and I headed to Blackbird for a late dinner. I hadn't been there in ages and they've done some refurbishments to make it look even funkier than it already was (even if ideas look very similar to some parts of Sydney's Ivy and Brisbane's Cloudland)

Monday, July 5, 2010

Day 318: Maps




With work being crazy busy at the moment due to EoFY, I wasn't able to take much time off to hang out with Bree so I made her some maps that I thought might be useful.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Day 317: Fug Shoes (by Mel & Bree)




The lovely Bree has come down from Brissie for a few days to cheer on the mighty Maroons in the 3rd State of Origin.

We spent the day in the city shopping (not that we bought much, all I got was a MAC eyeshadow) and ended up browsing shoes in Myer. These are the ones that we liked the least....












Saturday, July 3, 2010

Day 316: Sharks vs Bulldogs



I headed up to Gosford tonight to watch the Sharks vs Dogs game with some friends. It was a really crappy game with both teams putting on a really poor display and unfortunately the Sharkies lost. Boooo.

Another heartbreaking game against a team that we should have easily won against. High fives to Ben Pomeroy and Scott Porter for their efforts, they actually turned up to play unlike some of the others. Next week is a new game though, let's hope that goes a little better.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Day 315: More presents!



Totally unnecessary but my lovely friend Anna bought me these cute baking cups to say thanks for being awesome (or ummm maybe it was just for the work I've done for her team in the last few months - same same really)

Will have to get my bake on soon.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Day 314: I'm Chuck Bass



Ed Westwick, the hottie who plays Chuck Bass on Gossip Girl, is currently in Sydney and did an instore appearance for Virgin Mobile today.

Me, secretly being a 15 year old girl, just HAD to go see if I could get a glimpse of the GG star, and thankfully I did! Seriously, swoooooon.

Unfortunately I couldn't get a photo as the security were badass and wouldn't let people stop in front of the store. Rightly so, Pitt St is incredibly busy at the best of times, let alone adding hundreds of screaming girls (and a few boys).


I did get a signed photo of him looking super hot!

I promise tomorrow I will turn back into the 28 year old woman I am supposed to be!

XOXO