Insta-Fest // August

A little slice of my life in August through my iPhone!! I love this app so much. It's so handy and it makes all my pictures look great! 

Wearing my yellow scarf for the Phoenix soccer game, The view in the yellow fever section at the soccer, sunset through the cabbage trees in Invercargill, A bright, pretty new skirt, a naughty puppy on the leather lounge suite, a gorgeous vintage lace and silk playsuit for $2.50, a cupcake ring I purchased off Etsy, an old school desk I wanted to buy at the Habitat Store in Invercargill, The Habitat Restore I found in Invercargill = love, my awesome vintage patterned glass coffee mug for my office, the most amazing vintage macaroon bag I found at Recycle Boutique for $8, Hershey sleeping on my feet in the sunshine.

Do you use Instagram too? Tell me your username in the comments so I can check out your pics and we can follow each other! My name is Sparkleylining. 

  

Cake Decorating // Angry Birds Party

I had to post these photos of the cake I made last night - I'm so proud of it! A friend contacted me through Facebook to see if I would make her an Angry Birds cake for her boyfriends birthday. Of course I said yes!!

For anyone who doesn't know, Angry Birds is a game app you can download on your iPhone. Most of my friends that have iPhones love this game!

I had so much fun making all the birds and the pigs. While I was making them I had to explain how the Angry Birds game worked to my parents! Ah parents. My favourite is the little white dopey bird with the yellow cheeks, he's so cute!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I spent mine in the sunshine with my puppy, making cakes and relaxing!

Recipe Post // Fruity Friands

I can honestly say I had never tasted a friand until I was asked to bake them at the cafe I used to work at - it was love at first bite! I was so proud of my friands as I watched them like a hawk until they were the perfect amount of golden brown before removing them from the oven. It got to the point where my assistant would prepare the muffins 2 days a week but she always left the friands to me!

The other bonus of these friand were they were gluten free. We used rice flour instead of ordinary flour and along with the other ingredients including egg whites, icing sugar and ground almonds you ended up with a tasty, moist little cake topped with whatever fruit was readily available.

I made these ones the other day at home for the bf to take to his work shout. (aren't I a good girlfriend?!) I just used ordinary flour as that was what I had available, but if you wanted to keep them gluten free stick with the rice flour!

Fruity Friands

4 Egg whites

3/4 C Almond meal

2/3 C Flour (or rice flour)

3/4  C icing sugar

90g melted butter 

Fruit to garnish

Set oven to 190C, on bake.

Spray a friand tin (oval shape, or you could use a muffin tin) with an oil spray or grease with a little melted butter.

Separate egg whites into a medium size glass bowl, make sure to avoid getting any yolk in your egg whites or they won't whisk! (**tip: If you struggle to separate eggs, crack egg onto a saucer, place a small glass upside down over the yolk to trap it and carefully hold saucer and glass in place while tipping egg white into the bowl - repeat for each egg) 

Measure almond meal, flour/rice flour and icing  sugar into another bowl and fold gently to combine. 
 Melt butter in the microwave in a microwave-safe dish.

Using a hand-held whisk or electric beater, whisk the egg whites until you have soft peaks. (this means when you lift the whisk out, the egg white will rise up in little peaks and fold over at the top)

Carefully pour the melted butter in to the egg whites, then add the combined dry ingredients. 

Fold all together until they are just combined - be very gentle as you want to keep the air bubbles in the egg whites so the friands will rise!

Spoon into friand tins until they are approx 3/4 full. (this recipe should make 6)

Place in oven and bake approx 5 mins, until the tops are firm-ish and starting to colour. 

Take out of the oven and place one piece of fruit on top of each, pushing it down slightly so it sticks. (the middle should still be liquid!)

Place back in the oven for another 5 - 10 mins until the tops are golden brown and the inside is cooked. 

Rest in tins for a couple of mins then place on a cooling rack. 

Makes 6. 

Hope you try them out at some point! They certainly are tasty, and actually make a nice little dessert with a scoop of ice cream or some custard...

Dreamy Interiors // Dream Kitchen

So this is the second installment in my "Dreamy Interiors" series! Of course to a cake-mad-baking-nutter like me, the kitchen is a very important part of any house I live in! My first main concern is a well-functioning oven, I really hope the one in whichever house we buy works well! Otherwise I'll be finding an Electrician to take a look at it, can't have burnt cakes!

Again I'm going with the glass/white/silver/gold/purple theme here. I think they are colours I would like to continue throughout the house, perhaps with a touch of brown too, as I found a beautiful vintage glass coffee mug the other day which was brown and I've also seen some cosy chairs that I absolutely love!

I couldn't find a rectangle white table that I liked, so this will have to do. I would love to find an old one and sand it up and paint it, if I have the time! Otherwise a nice timber one would look just as good I think.

Some pretty vintage cake plates, preserving jars (which I already use to store my baking ingredients) nice cutlery, and a few gold vases would do the trick I think!

Do you have any suggestions for my dream kitchen? Luckily I already have all the appliances, I just need to make it pretty!! 

 

Outfit Post // A Drop of Blue Rain

 Blue Cardigan - Shop in Mebourne, Lace T-shirt - Mosgiel Salvation Army,  

Floral Skirt - Trademe, Blue Belt - Glassons, Cream Lace Tights - Glassons,  

Black Boots - The Warehouse

As soon as I got this skirt in the mail, I wanted to do an outfit post with it! Unfortunatley the weather wasn't playing nice, so I set my camera up indoors and ventured out with my umbrella. So now I have snow photos and rain photos!! Maybe soon I'll get some sunshine...

I found my collection of belts when I was packing stuff to take to Invercargill, this one amoung them. I matched it with my blue cardy which I hadn't worn in awhile and some pretty lacy cream tights I had forgotten about!

After a disasterous week on the technology front (I blew up my work comp, my brand new printer had a fault and needs fixed and I only just got working internet and a phone going for work today!) This bright outfit brought a little sunshine to a murky day and crappy week!

Another bright point was taking a quick look around a couple of Invercargill op shops. I visited the Salavation Army Store on Tay St, where I picked up a vintage white lace and satin playsuit for $2.50, 3 belts including a pretty dove-grey one and a couple of other goodies! I also checked out the huge Habitat for Humanity Store in Glengarry Cresent which had an awesome supply of glass and crockery and some great furniture!! I almost bought and old school desk and a set of bright purple glass tea cups and saucers, but managed to stop myself before I got too carried away!

I'm back up in Dunedin this weekend to catch up with some friends and make a cake or 2 which should be fun :)

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Dreamy Interiors // Dream Office

 I went to see a house in the weekend and although I've been trying to tell myself to not get attached until I know for sure there is nothing wrong with it, I think I have a crush...

First on my mind of course is my home office. I've already started collecting a few bits and pieces, including some glass jars for pens and pencils and some little vintage shelves I'm gonna paint white. 

Above are some of the things I would love to include in my office - a squishy chair to relax on morning tea breaks with a coffee or milo in a pretty patterned mug, some textured cushions in velvet and gold sequins for a little bit of sparkle, a white dresser for storage and filing, storage boxes in black, white and purple, a pretty vintage lamp on my desk, a little bit of a Moroccan influence with cushions and lanterns and a pretty pair of sparkley shoes to look at or wear when I'm having a rough day...

I hope everything is ok when the bf and I go look at the property report at the council tomorrow! I'm trying not to think about it too much (although it doesn't seem to be working!!) so I hope it's all good!!

What colour scheme would you use in an office or study? Would you keep it neutral or go all out in brights? Or soft pastels? 

Outfit Post // Crimson in the Snow

 Red Jersey - Uknown (Trademe), Black Skirt - Recycle Boutique, Black Tights - Won from Razzamatazz, Black Boots - The Warehouse, Grey Scarf - Postie Plus

While Dunedin and Christchurch have plenty of snow lying around, down here in Invercargill we're a bit lacking in that department! Plenty of snow flurries, but not really enough to settle...yet. Lucky little me is getting a 4 day weekend while I wait for the guy to come hook up my interent for work so I'd quite like some white stuff to frolick in while I have nothing else to do!

I managed to take these photos in the middle of a snow flurry this morning. I'm wearing my newly purchased vintage bright red jersey I got off trademe last week. I wore it to work the day after I got it, when I also had an appointment to get some blood tests. I managed to pass out which was lots of fun and when I woke up all the nurses were saying how nice my jersey was as they propped me up on the bed! Whoops, that made for an exciting afternoon....

I hope everyone is keeping warm, I love winter so much but I usually only love snow when its enough to be fun as you get a day off work, not when its only a sprinkle which is inconveinient!!

Does anyone have any good winter food ideas I could try out? Especially lunches I could make at home for the bf when he comes home for lunch!

Outfit Post // Lovely Lavender

 

Lavender Cardigan - Shop on Taieri, Lace T-shirt - Mosgiel Salvation Army,  
Grey Scarf - Postie Plus, Grey Cotton Pants - The Warehouse,  
Black Bow Ballet Flats - Kmart

 I actually wore this outfit on Tuesday and had planned to take outfit photos during my lunch break but I got distracted by the Salvation Army Store....

So here we are, I took these on Thursday! Unfortunately it was raining so you guys get these lovely inside shots. I prefer outside, it's so much brighter and the backgrounds are more interesting! The cute little Cocker Spaniel is my family dog Jesse, she said hello and then trotted off to the pantry door to wait for a biscuit! (I'm staying at my parents before I move to Invercargill)

I've actually worn this outfit quite a few times since I got these pants a month or so ago. It's my "I'm feeling lazy and I want to be comfortable and warm while I sit at my desk, working" outfit. I can't wait till summer when I can use this pretty lavender cardy as a throw-over on cool summer nights. I'm thinking I need a new little white dress...?

What does you favourite cosy winter work outfit involve? Mine is either this or a maxi t-shirt dress, long cardy, tights and boots!