Life Lately // A Concert, Cupcakes & a Vege Shed

I had great fun up in Cromwell for the Winery Tour concert! It rained on us the whole way as we travelled up there, then as we arrived the sun came out and the temperature zoomed up a few degrees! I had a great night eating some AMAZING pizza being sold at the venue plus gluten free cupcakes I made & took with me, drinking a couple of glasses of Olssens Winery Pinot Gris and dancing on my picnic blanket to Gin Wigmore. Man she is amazing live!

On the way home today we stopped in Arrowtown for a pie from the Bakery (they make awesome gourmet pies!) and I dragged my friend to the Remarkables Sweet Shop so I could get some fudge (I convinced her to buy some too!!) Can you see all my trips end up revolving around food?

We also stopped at the Vege Shed in the Athol Valley. The woman running the place was so lovely! I found a super cute cupcake-related necklace which her daughter had made and I had to buy it. She then came and sat outside with me and my friends and we had a great chat about cupcakes, blueberries and her business. She was really supportive of my little cake business and gave me some great tips! It’s so nice meeting people who get all excited about my business idea and offer up tips from their own experience. After we left my brain was going a hundred miles an hour thinking of what my next step could be!

**Photos all from the Vege Shed because I was having too much fun to remember to take photos at other points of the trip...

Today is also February 22^nd here in New Zealand – a year ago today at 12:51pm there was a devastating earthquake in Christchurch, a city 5 hours away from my hometown of Dunedin. 185 people died and the city is still receiving aftershocks and dealing with the cleanup. Although my friends and I missed 12:51pm by 10 minutes – we had our own little 1 minute of silence at 1pm in the car between Arrowtown & Queenstown to remember those who were lost. Kia Kaha Christchurch – Stand strong. 

Outfit Post // Rock 'n' Roll & Concert Ready

Black Cut-out Dress - Jay Jays, Hat - Kmart, Leather Mocs - Windsor Secondhand Store

I’ve been itching to get out of the house at lunch times lately; I’ve been suffering a bit of cabin fever! I’ve been visiting my favourite op shops in Invercargill and picking up some pretty sweet bargains.

Black Cut-out Dress - Jay Jays, Purple Check Scarf - Golden Centre Mall, 

 Leather Mocs - Windsor Secondhand Store

My first find was the jacket below – I managed to time it right as the shop assistant told me it had just been put on the rack that morning. I thought I got a pretty good deal with it only being $18 and in great condition.

My next find was these leather moccasins – I found them in a little shop in Windsor, sitting in the corner of a window display. $6 – and great condition, plus they’re Pulp shoes (carried by Hannahs) so they’re fairly good quality!

Jacket - Savemart, Black cut-out Dress - Jay Jays, Leopard Print Tights - Kmart, Leather Mocs - Windsor Secondhand Store

So this post involves a few slightly different outfits – these are the items I’m packing to take to Cromwell with me tomorrow (when I go to the winery concert) When I pack for a weekend away, I always have a few neutral items which I can mix & match, plus a few coloured pieces. My neutrals are always grey & black, that’s what I have lots of and that’s what I feel comfortable wearing. I usually pick one other colour – usually blue, purple or red. This time I’m going with purple with the scarf & a purple cardigan (which I forgot to photograph!) Whenever I go away I always have a “travelling” outfit, it usually always involves tights, a long t-shirt and floaty cardigan that doubles as a blanket, plus a triangle scarf if it’s cold!

Grey Cardigan - Supre, Black T-shirt - Postie +, Leopard Print Tights - Kmart, Leather Mocs - Windsor Secondhand Store

What I wear to the concert will depend on the weather (the forecast is rain at the moment!) but I’d love to wear the dress and hat and add the tights, scarf & jacket if it gets colder later on. Otherwise it will most likely be tights, cardigan and a rain jacket! (Hopefully not!)

 Here is me being pigeon-toed - I actually stand  like this sometimes, I don't even realise I'm doing it!

I’m looking forward to a little mid-week holiday, listening to some good music and possibly enjoying some sunshine!

Do you have any exciting plans this week? What concerts have you been to lately? 

Recipe Post // Cupcakes in a Jar

Next Tuesday evening I’m going to the Winery Tour concert being held in Cromwell – my favourite place in Central Otago. I’m so excited! Gin Wigmore is performing, I’ve liked her music for quite a while so I’m keen to see what she’s like live.

You aren’t able to take alcohol or drinks (except sealed water bottles I think) into the grounds, but you can take food. So I thought it would be a cool idea to take along a picnic! I’ve been wanting to try out the “cupcake in a jar” thing for a while and this is the perfect excuse.

I had an order of cupcakes due today for a customer (my business is Sequin Corner – come visit my Facebook page!) and I had some leftover, so I made a trial run. My favourite flavour is coffee and I just so happened to have a bottle of Kahlua lying around in the cupboard so I thought I’d make a yummy sauce to go with my cupcakes.

You will need;

A cupcake sized jar

Frosting of your choice

Baked cupcakes of your choice

Sauce of your choice

Coffee Frosting

115g Butter, softened

500g Icing Sugar

1 t Vanilla

60ml Instant Coffee (1/2 t coffee mixed with a dash of hot water, then made up to 60ml with cold water)

2 t Ground Coffee

Using an electric mixer – combine the butter, vanilla, coffee & half the icing sugar until creamy. Add the remaining icing sugar & beat until combined. Use a spatula to transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a piping nozzle.

**I found this recipe somewhere on the internet, but I can’t remember where sorry!

Kahula Sauce

125g Butter

1 C Castor Sugar

1 Egg

1/2 C Kahlua

1 t Cream

Melt the butter in a saucepan on low heat. Add the sugar & egg & whisk to combine. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is smooth & creamy and all the sugar is melted. Add in the Kahlua & cream & whisk to combine. Pour into a jug or bowl until ready for serving.

**Recipe from Simply Recipes – I altered the amount of Kahlua. 

1.    Take cupcake paper off, trim to fit in jar, & chop in 1/2. Place the cupcake 1/2 in the jar & pipe a layer of frosting over.

2.    Drizzle over a layer of the sauce. Repeat from the start – cake, frosting, sauce.

3.    I added 1 more cupcake half (my jar is tall) a layer of frosting & a final drizzle of sauce.

4.    The finished “Cupcake in a Jar”

These are so yummy! (and quite sweet!) Next time I might try layering one with custard and fruit, possibly to take to the concert. You could easily swap out the frosting and sauce I used and replace them with something else – ganache & caramel sauce, custard & pureed apples with cinnamon, raspberry puree & cream...the opportunities are endless! 

I made mine pretty by covering the tops with a paper doily tied on with string & threading a cake fork through the bit where you open the jar (I love my little fork with the piggy on it above!) you could just as easily attach a little plastic spoon or fork with some string or ribbon.  

Have you tried making cupcakes in a jar before? Or pies? I think it's a great picnic idea! Hope you all have a great weekend. 

Outfit Post - Cornflower Blue, Golden Grass

I finally had a spare 5 minutes to rush off into the windy vineyard to take some outfit pics before I had to come home from my holiday in Cromwell. As I haven’t really been up that early over the summer holidays I had to wait until late afternoon when the sun was a bit lower to take some pictures. Unfortunately in Cromwell the wind ALWAYS picks up at this time so I ended up with some movement shots! I had fun spinning around and walking in front of the camera though. I just need to work on keeping me in focus...

Blue Dress - Dotti, Nude Chunky Heels - Kmart, Watch - The Warehouse,  
Rope Bracelets - Cotton On

This outfit is a great example of what I’ve been living in this summer. I’ve been keeping it easy and simple with a pretty dress and depending on the occasion wedges or strappy sandals. The ones I am wearing here are my new favourites – and they’re from Kmart of all places! I needed some nude shoes for the wedding I’m a bridesmaid for so I went shoe shopping with another of the bridesmaids. She found these awesome shoes and they are perfect – I was looking at wedges or chunky heels, these are so comfortable and sturdy and aren’t going to fly off my feet! Plus they’re surprisingly easy to walk in. Winning!!

What have you guys been up to over the holidays? Have you had a holiday? I’ve been back at work for a couple of days and Thursday I’m off to Christchurch for the wedding. It’s so exciting!! I’m just hoping the shaky ground stays quiet for the few days that I’m there. (might be wishful thinking!) Hopefully I’ll have some photos to show you guys next week!

Life Lately // Summer Dreaming

I took these photos while taking Hershey for a walk around the vineyard that backs on to the holiday house I stayed at for the last couple of weeks. I love Cromwell so much!

I spent my holiday playing fetch the stick with the dog at the lake, stuffing my face with the best cream donuts around from the local bakery and cooling down with (at least 3) Real fruit ice creams from the orchard down the road.

I went on a day trip to Queenstown for some retail therapy and scoped out the cupcake shop Cup & Cake which took a bit to find (hidden down a sneaky alley) but was worth it when I got there! I drove back to Alexandra and wandered around the shops. I found a cute little gift shop in Bannockburn with vintage glassware and gorgeous new serving plates and platters (I somehow stopped myself spending money there!) and found another in Clyde with so many cupcake and baking gifts I was in heaven!

Dinner was a BBQ every night, usually at around 9pm once the boys were home from golf. I love Summer evenings down south where it’s light until 10pm and the sunsets are so pretty and drawn out.

Now it’s back to reality! I have to make the cake topper for my friend’s wedding cake, work for 3 days and then I’m off to Dunedin on Wednesday night. On Thursday I’ll be road-tripping to Christchurch with my Mum, my friend Laura and her Mum for my friend’s wedding! Both of our Mums are going up just to see the ceremony and I suppose to see their daughters walk down the aisle as bridesmaids!

I'll try have some photos up from New Years soon. The hens night was so fun! Keep an eye on my instagram feed (my username is sparkleylining) and I’ll try and post some photos of the trip and wedding! I’ll be taking my camera too so hopefully I’ll be able to do a wedding post sometime next week. I hope you’ve all enjoyed your Summer or Christmas break!!