Birthdays are the best!!

xx

Surprise!! on you

So tomorrow is my birthday...

Now I love a party but for some reason I find birthday parties a little... self indulgent, I just like the whole decorating, cake making etc etc. So I decided last week that I would have a pizza party while my parents were away, which just so happened to be the weekend before my birthday.

After browsing for hours at the beautiful home made party treats on eatdrinkchic.com and pininterest I decided I would have a surprise party... for my guests. It would include all the fun and decorations that are involved with a birthday but without all the birthday-ness. Only I decided this on Thursday and my pizza night was on Saturday - Yay for DIY!!

So inspired by pretty things I got a little crafty... I made party flags, meringues, a cake and hung up lanterns all in 4 hours before the guests were meant to arrive... and I think it turned out quite well!

These meringues are my favourite recipe!

They are from Stephanie Alexander and can be found here.
They are deliciously caramelly brown sugar meringues which always go down a treat and are super easy to make! They also gave me an excuse to finally use the beautiful cookie jar mum got for Christmas!... isn't it cute.

Next to the meringues are my cake...I didn't enjoy this so much but I have a weird thing about texture. The cake was pineapple and coconut and seemed to go down a treat with the party (but you can never really tell when someone is trying to be polite...), also in defence of the recipe I didn't have "crushed pineapple" so I attempted to crush pineapple rings - maybe not the best idea....

Anyway it was a practise run for the cake I am making tomorrow, however I have decided instead to make a coconut cake with pineapple syrup - thus eliminating the whole texture thing as well as my hideous weakness of buttercream icing (which I always, ALWAYS curdle... I don't even know how!?)

Then my pride and joy of the evening was my little party flags... no one really got the quote but I liked it... These were so surprisingly easy! I just grabbed a bunch of brown paper bags and cut them out into triangles, I found it easiest to cut them in groups of 4 to save time and having to rule out heaps of triangles, with the bottom of the bag acting as a sought of hinge.

Next I painted on the desired lettering before glueing them on to a nice piece of ribbon. If you want to try making them be sure to leave about 2cm between the 'hinge' and the glue so you can slide the letters across or take them off etc.

The finished product was pretty cute!

Over all I think I enjoyed my surprise the most! It made an ordinary occasion seem fancy and beautiful! and when I came down stairs this morning to clean up, I was inspired to leave the decorations up for a champagne high tea with my gals... next week perhaps! xx

Frugal Fun Days!

As you may have gathered, since reaching full health capacity I have suffered from a severe case of underemployment.

I have attempted to take this spare time by the horns because who knows it may be the last time I have any marginally guilt free time on my hands but it's a little hard when your strapped down by an empty purse.

So in my attempt to live large, save, and be frugal all at the same time I have decided to experiment. Let me first make an admission. I am undoubtedly unashamedly well kept. I don't like pimples, dry skin, chipped nails, yellowing teeth, unsightly hairs... all of which cost money to mend... or do they?

Da danananananaaaaa Little Lauren investigates, like batman, but less rich.

So yesterday I began my new frugal beauty regime with home made sugar scrub! It was a success! My skin is tinglingly clean and superbly moisturised with the simple combination of 1 part sugar and 1/2 part olive oil. AND I SMELL LIKE ROASTING POTATOES!

You too could enjoy this amazing sensation sans the smell with just a few drops of essential oils, however frugal essential oils from the $2 store all smell pretty awful, so I opted for the au natural roasted potatoes scent.

And to make my beautiful recycled jar seem more store bought I decorated it with scraps of ribbon and cooking thread... nice touch!

On to my next frugal venture! xx

Small treat!

Happy belated Easter!

Yum!

Lazy long weekend

Sleep tight!

My gorgeous friend Rachel irradicating the smell of boy from my room for the night! So sweet! Mmmm gardenia...

Yay! Finished physio!!!

Awkwardly enough I had no idea I had two blogs... So this is yesterday's blog but was posted on the wrong page...

Changing the Sheets

My life these last few weeks is much like my new mattress... Sunny, exciting, beautiful, and a little lumpy.

With everything wrapping up quietly and uneventfully this horrific chapter of my life is nearly over. The only hints to the nightmare that was recovery are my thousands of new (and beautiful AND GRACIOUSLY ACCEPTED) pyjamas and that small jar of bio-oil keen eyes may spy in the background...

Tomorrow is my last physio rehab session and I've already seen the last of my surgeon... the surreal reality is about to begin.

Unfortunately, due to a number of circumstances my post-surgery life is not as I planned it to be. No longer will I be jetting off to Japan as a celebratory escape from recovery, no longer will I have full-time work. So I have to plan once more on how to keep busy (at least it will soon only be for 4 days a week instead of the full seven).

Crafting is my new thing. And it feel wonderful to finish things - a type of satisfaction I rarely felt before. So because I cannot live the life I planned, I am planning on making this life my new life!

The perfect opportunity to start getting up early, finishing everything, accomplishing small things, staying on task, living dreams and reading books. At the risk of sounding entirely wanky, it's given me an opportunity to re-examine my life before I truly begin one. It reminds me of Robert Frost's poem the road not taken... (always one of my least favourite poems due to the Board of Studies insistance of making us study it every year at school, but very poignant) and considering my extreme bable... I feel it's more fitting to leave you with his beautiful words

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost