My Crazy World

Cupcake Mania!

elleslittleworld — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 21:26:48 +0000

Scoupon, Living social, Jump on it… Finally gave in and bought something from the those websites, ended up with a cupcake decorating class voucher and convinced my sister to come along with me…

Annual leave applied for and we’re ready to rock..

Wasn’t a bad class and we got to learn how to use the Ready to roll icing which was good for me, although now it just opens up a whole new world at the cake decorating store.. now I don’t just have to walk past the aisle with all the cutters YAY! We both got to make a lady bug, bee and a bear… our pictures below

We dub thee Red Devil Cupcakes!

elleslittleworld — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 22:33:23 +0000

A friend at work gave me a recipe from “The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook” A bit of quick research found that they are a Bakery from the UK that specialises in American favourites – Go figure..

Hummingbird Bakery

A quick flick through the book and I came across a recipe for “Red Velvet Cupcakes” ah ha! something new to try, a stop via Coles on the way home from work to pick up the different things needed… Have only just discovered there really is a thing called Buttermilk and it is different from normal milk…

The recipe.. (well part of it anyway)

Actual Cupcakes…

unsalted butter, at room temperature
caster sugar
egg
cocoa powder
red food colouring
vanilla extract
buttermilk
plain flour
salt
bicarbonate of soda
white wine vinegar

Cream Cheese Icing

Icing sugar, sifted
Unsalted butter, at room temperature
cream cheese, cold

This is how their cupcakes look....

I don’t actually think mine came out all that bad… Miekea tasted the first batch and after working out that the “red” colour was pretty strong… enough that both our tongues were red after having a cupcake the second attempt I reduced the amount of colouring and Miekea assisted with the icing

Cream Cheese icing always sounds pretty strange to me but apparently works pretty well..

My Attempt

Next recipe to attempt will be the marshmallow cupcakes…

Just Dance..

elleslittleworld — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 22:02:32 +0000

Samantha had asked over the Christmas holidays is she could do dancing… Late January rolled around so I got her enrolled in a dancing school… Starting out with only 1 class Jazz Funk (The beginners level into Hip Hop) in the first term, she enrolls herself in Tap and then tells me I need to see Miss Sue and pay for her classes & new shoes she needs..

The mid year concert is on this coming weekend and the Saturday just past was full dress rehearsals. She was so excited because it’s the first time she gets to wear make up (Yes yes I know little girls shouldn’t be wearing make up but this is twice a year thing and the concert is a complete production under stage lighting etc etc…) We had a minor hiccup with the red lipstick the first time around as she kept rubbing her lips together, she ended up with a giant ring around her mouth..

The first dance is her tap one to “Old Beach Song” and the Jazz dance is to “Baby”

Glebe Tram Depot..

elleslittleworld — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 12:03:30 +0000

The former Rozelle tram depot, located in Glebe, New South Wales, is the largest remaining tram depot in Sydney, and is one of five remaining tram depots in the state of New South Wales. It was the second largest tram depot to service the Sydney network, running at peak capacity of approximately 200 trams from 1918, until its closure in 1958. It was amongst the largest and most sophisticated public tramway systems in the world and was a major place of employment during its time of operation, employing up to 650 staff. The depot was one of few workplaces of significant size in the Glebe area during its period.

The site is currently under the ownership of the New South Wales Harness Racing Club. The depot contains six historic trams, some of which date back to the 1930s, as well as an old coach that has been heavily vandalised. The trams that were in near mint condition prior to 2000 have now been vandalised, stripped and painted with graffiti. Five of the trams belonging to the Sydney Tramway Society were originally acquired and stored in the shed as part of a now defunct plan by the City of Sydney council to introduce a new heritage tramway throughout the Rocks. One of the trams currently stored in the depot is tram: No. R1 1995, the last tram to operate on Sydney’s original tram network, entering Randwick workshops in February 1961 on the last day of operations.

A development proposal submitted in 2005 that included multi-storey apartments, underground car parking and commercial offices ran into opposition from residents. The site has been considered for a variety of uses, including a market, artists’ studios, performance spaces.

On 10 December 2010 it was announced the entire site had peen purchased by Mirvac to be redeveloped for medium density housing. The future of the sheds and trams is especially unclear.

Susan of Dravens Halo took me out to the tram depot to spend the afternoon messing around with my camera. It was pretty grubby and for an abannoned warehouse there were a number of people there and even a few guys doing some new stuff. Below are some of the photos.. The rest are in my gallery

A friend abroad…

elleslittleworld — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:32:15 +0000

I might be biased as he is a friend… He’s only been gone for 2 days but already his blog posts are assuming and he’s pretty handy with a camera so the photos should be pretty good… worth a check out….

LLewellyn Abroad

Llewellyn

Been a long time…….

elleslittleworld — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:24:23 +0000

Whoaaaa long time since I last actually blogged but due to some peer pressure I will start again!

Now for a recap of the last few months (It’s been a pretty busy time)

December: a) Samantha turned 5! we had a great party for her at an indoor playland near our place now she’s asking every weekend if she can go to the playland. b) Christmas – Always a fun time, and this year Sydney didn’t disappoint with a hot hot day spent with family and friends. c) New Years Eve last year we went to a house/apartment party in the city (a first for me) and had a birds eye view of of the harbour bridge and all the fireworks and being that we were in kings cross there wasn’t any disappointment with the weird and colourful people! Only down side was having to get up at 5:30am the next morning to do an airport run.

2011 so far: A pretty quiet time but also really busy at the same time. At the end of January Samantha started Primary school for her first year (kindergarden) I don’t think she could have been happier, January also bought Samantha her first her of dancing, so excited that she was dancing but wasn’t happy to find out that she needs to wait a while before she is able to do a “hip-hop” dance class, so she started out with Jazz Funk and has since picked up tap and now is asking to add classical ballet into the mix for term 3. Easter hat parades, shopping, dancing, gym classes, baking & work has really been the rest of the time since my last blog.

The easiest way show the last few months would be to do it in pictures so below are the photos from the last few months

Metallica!

elleslittleworld — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 01:07:53 +0000

Finally! The Metallica concert we’ve waited pretty much all year for happened last week in Sydney. After lining ourselves with some Macca’s headed down to Acer we did see a guy getting escorted from the venue before the support acts had even finished with a security guard joking that; that’s what happens if you drink too much J was a good laugh for us.

Went through the doors with Muffet only to find out they lead straight into the venue so tearing across the floor to an exit finally able to meet back up with Mel and Brentt – Bee lining for the bar J (Not being designated driver was good!) A few drinks in decided that it was time to head in and wait for Metallica to come on stage.. A bit of a wait and finally they were on. The concert its self was a little disappointing with them not playing some of the older stuff we all thought they would but still an awesome night out and they did play the BIG songs that everyone knows with some of the newer stuff as well. Roaming around the floor area with muffet we caught the set from different views ending up with Susan and her friends by the end (They had a pretty awesome view)

Finally the show ended; Susan and myself ended up with guitar picks; and all of us had ringing in the ears and a few bruises. Will definitely go and see them again if they come back

Naturally what’s a blog without some photos

For those who dont know who the band are some professional photos from the shows – taken by their photographer… Full album click here

Sydney, Acer Arena - November 11th

Let them eat cake!

elleslittleworld — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 21:09:58 +0000

Who could have thought that a day off work could be so productive!

A quick Google search on the weekend uncovered a baking supply store in Campbelltown! YAY! So after dropping Samantha off to school, a small shopping list written down, Sat Nav programmed shooted out to Woodbine to visit the store.. Happiness! the store was great, the staff helpful; a few phone calls later walked out with my wallet a little lighter but managed to get my hands on Pure Black icing/Fondant/Ready to Roll, and the standard white, new cup cake patties hot pink gel food colouring and a few other bits. Needless to say Samantha was excited to be picked up from school to commence a little baking.

On the original menu was suppose to be Cupcakes and Cookies, however I’m convinced that the oven isn’t straight cause the cupcakes didn’t rise evenly so they went in the bin and we decided to make 2 cakes one for her and one for me.. Naturally she’s almost 5 so her cake needed to be pink with white icing… and I’m 28 so mine had to be coffee flavored with black icing. Below are some pictures of the cakes we made… Maybe tonight we’ll get around to making the cookies… Is it too early for Christmas themed ones??

Cake Decorating Central

Unit 2, 5 Harbord Road

Woodbine, 2560

Website

Manly isn’t soooo bad after all

elleslittleworld — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 21:17:33 +0000

Considering the amount of heckling we do to all the people who live up on the north shore and Manly beach is actually pretty nice… apart from the whole no smoking rules on the side walks but I guess it’ll happen everywhere soon enough.

Met up with an old friend on Saturday morning for some breakfast and photo taking of the beach… We didn’t get all that many photos of the beach in the end too busy chatting and shopping at the markets (a lot of fun!) did a few happy laps of the streets between the wharf and the beach; then ended the day with Ben & Jerrys Ice Cream for lunch! – Was sooooo good but not sure i’d do the hour drive again just for ice cream…

We swapped lenses a few times through out the morning so the pictures are a little all over the place

Will have to find another location in Sydney to go out to sometime soon

Mum turns 50!

elleslittleworld — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 21:01:03 +0000

Beginning of this month was mums 50th birthday so as we are good little daughters we threw her a 50th birthday party. We all had a blast and the weather even behaved and we had a nice night. The only down side was the lights weren’t working outside so us smokers had to stand in the dark.

Instead of buying her cake we decided to make it; and after a lot of help from Miekea on the icing front got it finished the night before. Over 70 cupcakes were iced all in all our house smelt a lot like a bakery!

Some of the pictures from the night