Oh, those Catholic School Girls!

I got in! My new home for the next three years :)

buttercups and shoes

This morning shortly after I awoke, my mother excitedly asked if I wanted to go thrift shopping (or op-shopping)! Which was a nice idea because it has been a million and a half years since I've properly been so we got ready and off we went! It never ceases to amaze me that in Australia, if you drive for around 10-15 minutes out of the city area you arrive in a country area!

Our drive was made even better as one of the radio stations was having a 60s special so lots of Beatles singing was had :) I must say though, I think we did murder the song Gloria just a little...Anyway we ended up going to three shops. The first of which was slightly questionable, it was a bit run-down and the people in charge looked more like people from the Deliverance than shop people but there you go.

I ended up with a great haul of stuff, one of which was those tan shoes in the picture above which I absolutely adore. I've wanted shoes like that for ages and I was in Sydney a few weeks back and could've bought a pair then but it was around the $100 mark and I was trying to be good! But these lovely ladies were only $5! Well one shoe said 5 and the other 5.50 so there must've been a disagreement with the shop ladies! :P

Last night I was itching to try out these new icing pipe bags I bought so I made some butter cupcakes! I'm quite proud of myself as I made the recipe up myself because I couldn't find my 101 cake recipe book anywhere :( But they tasted even better than the ones in the book so that is definately a keeper and I;ll be sure to put it on little sparrow bakery!

I'm worrying about my cupcake ways, I seem to be making quite a lot. And the other day I made cookies for afternoon tea and I don't know about others but when I bake I like to be comfortable so I throw on ill-fitting clothes. Anyway, I was bringing the plate of cookies down when I looked at my shirt there was a great big picture of The Cookie Monster with even bigger letters declaring "ME LOVE COOKIES" Needless to say I was horrified, I don't think it was doing any favours for my image but such is life.

Ikea Wonderland

Like many other thousands, I have fallen under the spell of the godly Ikea store. I love it, I spend hours there when I can (basically, when my parents will drive me) and I feel like a child all over again. I literally want everything there. So anyway, on my last adventure with my parents and sister I bought a Regolit Lamp. I orginally wanted this one but seeing as my room isn't a football field long I had to settle for the other one but I glad I did, I've fallen inlove with it.

Anyway browsing through the geniusness that is Ikea Hacker, I was struck by some genius myself! For days I've been trying to sort through old photos and come up with different ways to hang them up in my room and a thought came into my head. There was a wooden bowl of clips conviniently sitting on my mothers office desk so I stole them and with some string hung them off my lamp! The lamplight casts a really lovely light on the photos and it's just a really cool way of displaying photos other than the clothesline idea on the wall.

I'm having to use my parents prehistoric computer at the moment so photoshop, flickr etc is taking 4 times as long as it should. I can't wait to get my laptop for University!

Sunday is Baking Day

Well, not really but I've been so inspired by all the baking sites I've been on so I decided a trip to the supermarket was in order. Plus, it was my parents wedding anniversary, so the valentines day chocolate cupcakes I made were a perfect gift (discarding the fact it's not actually valentines day...)

My mother informed me however that she gave away my cupcake trays so that put a little halt to my cupcake making! But a quick trip to Woolworths and $42 later, I was ready to bake. I haven't baked in so long so it felt really lovely to be doing it again and all the ingredients were so fresh and light.

Anyway, the cupcakes turned out so amazingly soft and melt-in-your-mouth good that my parents and sister ate three each! It was a lovely afternoon tea and well worth the mission to make them!

I'm planning on putting the recipe up on my cooking blog at Little Sparrow Bakery which is still in working progress :)

little sparrow the first

I've been following blogs, flickrs etc for ages now and I thought it's high time I get my act together and sort one out for myself! I guess for my benefit more than anything, I tend to lose track of websites I need to go back for instructions so I've finally set one up for myself.

What seemed like a good idea this morning to do so, has now turned into a marathon of work! I've had livejournals and things before but working new websites out is never fun or easy. But here it is, so I guess I can't complain!