Back in the world of the blogging ...

Ok, I apologise ...

it's been a wee while since I last posted.

So what has happened since I last posted? Well here goes ...

I read two books.

Which, when I think about it, isn't too far off from my New Year's resolution of one a month. Two books out of three is a pretty good feat, considering that I may or may not have read both books in the last 4 days. Anyhow, the books I managed to finish were LA Candy and Sweet Little Lies both by Lauren Conrad. I didn't mind the books so-to-speak, but I have to say, Sweet Little Lies is definitely the better of the two. LA Candy was a little, um, "green" in my opinion. Definitely 'chick-lit' and nothing to really write home about, sorry. Ok, they were ok if you want to read fluff, but definitely not earth-shattering reads.

Now I do plan on getting my book reading back on track over the next 4 weeks. I need to read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert for a book club I have just joined (if anything is going to force me to read more, it's a book club!), while the second book is a book I came across in Big W the other day called A Big Little Life; A memoir of a joyful dog by Dean Koontz (yes, I know, I am a sucker for dog related stories).

I cooked a lot.

I haven't really posted here about my cooking adventures all that much. It's something I plan on posting about more; watch this space!

Because it was Easter this week, I decided to do some celebratory cooking. I baked hot cross buns and I also cooked some pattycakes (or cupcakes) with an Easter theme to give out to family and friends.

I have never cooked buns before. I used this Gourmet Traveller recipe as my base recipe and made some slight alterations. A few friends of mine were also experimenting with hot cross bun recipes, and mentioned that their recipes didn't have enough "spice", so when baking my buns, I made sure that I added more all-spice until the dough tasted and had the aroma that I thought was "right" (I probably doubled the amount of all-spice). I also substituted half of the sultanas the recipe called for with currants; I felt that just putting sultanas in was a bit boring - I like my fruit buns to have different types of fruit! I also didn't have any candied peel on hand at home, and because it was Good Friday, I had to make my own. The recipe calls for orange candied peel but I didn't have enough oranges at home to do a whole batch of orange candied peel, so I made a batch from lemon and orange peel, which in my opinion probably added some more flavour to the buns!

All-in-all the buns turned out pretty well, and I will definitely make these next year. Pity that I didn't start baking these earlier. They were surprisingly easy to make and I love hot cross buns.

I booked a holiday (with Luna's expertise help on the subject!)

So, D & I have booked a 4 week trip to the USA, Canada and Mexico. We leave on the 12th of September and we will be going to New York for 5 nights, Houston for 4 nights (D has family in Houston), Las Vegas for 4 nights, Vancouver for 4 nights (again to see more of D's family), 4 nights in San Cabo Lucas then we are heading to LA for 5 nights.

I am very excited about the trip; New York and Cabo are two places I can't wait to visit. I did want to go to Hawaii again (we went there for our Honeymoon in October last year), but for some reason flights out of LA to Honolulu are all full, six months out ... and to be honest I didn't particularly want to fly from Honolulu to Australia via Air Pacific airlines again. There's nothing wrong with the airline or its service, but they do make you stay the night in Fiji or have a four hour stop over in the Fiji airport, which is probably one of the worse airports in the world. So yes, didn't feel like doing that again and having to spend money in Fiji for just one evening. So the substitute for Hawaii is the lovely Cabo San Lucas, and I can't wait! We will be in Cabo for our first wedding anniversary.

Valentine's Day.

D & I don't usually go overboard on Valentine's Day; and this year was no exception, especially seeing as we got married late last year. Between our wedding, honeymoon and upcoming holiday in September, our budget is a little limited. The funny thing is though, when you agree to not spend money on events such as these, you get creative instead - well at least D got creative!

On Valentine's Day he presented me with a large card and upon opening it there was a print out of the above photo inside; I portrait of D with our dog, Luna and cat, Gizmo. So sweet! Just had to share that one with you all! Hehe.

Gizmo drove me insane.

There's really nothing to write here. The photos are the evidence. Take from these photos what you wish!

Luna's Second Birthday.

And finally, Luna turned two on the 24th of January. My little puppy is growing up! Can't believe she's two, already! Time flies when you're having heaps of fun with your little mate!

I celebrated by cooking patty cakes which I shared with her. Yes, they were chocolate, but they only had cocoa powder in them. And she only had a small one, without icing. It was her birthday; she was spoilt!

This buttercream is to die for ...

So this morning I went into Poppy Cakes at The Emporium in Fortitude Valley and bought myself two cupcakes for sampling ...

I got myself a Chocolate with Chocolate Butter-cream and a Red Velvet with Vanilla Butter-cream, and the butter-cream on both (especially the chocolate) is to die for!

How did they get their butter-cream so soft? It's so creamy and dreamy - when it gets to room temperature it almost gets to the point of melting. Delicious! I must get myself a good butter-cream recipe (if anyone knows one, please direct me!).

The cupcakes themselves are quite nice - the cake is more "homely" than most commercial cupcakes I have tasted - but I have to say, I am a firm believer that a Red Velvet cake should have cream-cheese icing instead of butter-cream. There's something about cream-cheese icing that sets off a Red Velvet cake perfectly! However, in regards to the Red Velvet cupcake from Poppy Cakes, the butter-cream is that good I can forgive it for not being cream-cheese this time around.

Future dates at Poppy Cakes will be saved for the Chocolate with Chocolate Butter-cream cakes ... oh my goodness, heaven in a paper tray! They also have Chocolate with Passionfruit Butter-cream ... and I must get back there and try one! Hmmm, I wonder if they will let me buy some butter-cream on its own???

www.poppycakes.com.au

Photos courtesy of: www.poppycakes.com.au

Someone needs to eat a stick of butter wrapped in a waffle ...

And unfortunately that someone is LC.

Now I am not one to usually pick on what "celebrities" look like - I leave that to our friends at GoFugYourself - and I definitely don't usually talk about their weight (seeing as I too have have had problems in the past with being overly skinny), however I came across a picture of Lauren Conrad on HillsFreak blog this morning, and Lauren is not looking like her usual chipper and bright self.

She looks like she needs a good holiday and sleep and I believe she also should probably come to The Emporium with me and pig out on French custard-filled-and-sugar-coated donuts and fancy cupcakes, and have a big glass of milk (or eat a stick of butter wrapped in a waffle - I'd help her with that too).

As I've said before, I love The Hills, and I love Lauren Conrad, so I really hope that Lauren gets to enjoy some cupcakes and get a nice, long sleep soon.

Images courtesy of tlfan & HillsFreak

I think my cat is channelling Tila Tequila.

He sleeps in sinks for Pete's sake!

Let me introduce to you, my 6 month old Bengal x Himalayan kitten, Gizmo. He's the most insanely crazy, bizzare and weirdo cat I have ever known!

Now, for those that know me, they will already be aware of the fact that I have a love/hate relationship with Gizmo. In fact, my nickname for him is Spawn-of-Satan.

Yeah, yeah. I know what you're thinking; "He's so cute!". Don't let his little amber eyes fool you into anything. He's been sent from the depths of Hades to unleash evilness upon my house. Someone upstairs, or below, is laughing at me.

So, "what does he do to be so evil?" I hear you ask. How about a list:

1. He destroyed my Christmas Tree! I had a beautiful masterpiece standing in my lounge room after hours of intensive labor, then just merely hours after that Gizmo had undone the beauty, made the Christmas Tree his new sleeping quarters, and destroyed lots of ornaments.
2. He pee'd in the car and flicked it all over me! I had to take him to the vet for his vaccinations and on the 2 minute car trip he pee'd in his cat cage and proceeded to flick pee everywhere all over our good car, my brand new leather jacket and himself, while simultaneously screaming at me. I went from being in a really chipper mood to being as dark as the Hades where he came from in the matter of seconds. Pure evil.
3. He jumps on your face when you sleep. And thinks it's hilarious.
4. He screams (miaows) non-stop. And not in that "cute" kitten way.
5. He has destroyed the underneath of our sofa. Thank goodness it's the underneath side ... thankfully he has left the couch well enough alone. I shall go and give him a kiss for this later.
6. He jumps on the kitchen benches, even though he's NOT allowed to. So naughty.
7. He climbs into the toilet. He has a fixation with anything water, due to his Bengal nature (Bengals apparently love water). Because he loves water he regularly sleeps in the bath, and now as I have discovered, he loves to sleep in sinks. The bathroom sink seems to be his favourite followed by the laundry. He has tried the kitchen sink a few times, but that gets welcomed by a lot of yelling on my part. Bathroom and laundry are not ideal, but I can overlook it - kitchen is a definite no-no! Toilet is an even bigger no-no. I have to keep all toilet lids down at all times. I fear what he'll do if he is left alone all day at home with an open toilet. Oh god. Help me now!
   
8. There's probably more, but to be honest, my brain just locks it all away cos if I remembered it all, I'd go insane.

However, regardless of his evilness, he still has a good side, and that's the fact that he and my lovely Luna are best friends.

We got Gizmo after our first cat, Ginny, died suddenly (poor Ginnykins, but that's another story). Luna and Ginny had grown up as kitten and puppy together, so Luna missed Ginny a lot, and it became apparent very quickly, that Luna was not the type of dog that could be on her own after losing her friend. Luna and Gizmo bonded very quickly, and they love each other and play together and keep each other happy. I'd go as far to say that Gizmo's relationship with Luna is probably more friendly than it was with Ginny. Gizmo sleeps with Luna and everything.

It's funny because when I think about it Luna is my Angel, and Gizmo is my Devil. I think I was meant to have both. They balance each other out perfectly, and I wouldn't have it any other way (but you may want to ask me that next time you hear me screaming at the cat). And I do have to admit, Gizmo is a very gorgeous cat - and he's funny. Even though I do yell at him quite a bit, he also makes me laugh (case in point - discovering him asleep in the sink yesterday).

Cute but evil. There's a combination that you probably never thought you'd hear. Enjoy the photos:

My Christmas Tree before (looking all beautiful):
And after Gizmo destroyed it:

Kitty in my sock draw, and I wanna touch it:
My babies:

OMG. I have a problem.

Chuck Bass is in my head, and he won't leave!

Not that I think this is necessarily a bad thing! He is extremely sexy ... in his lude and crude way.

However, after watching the rest of Season 2 of Gossip Girl last night, I have well and truly fallen in love with Mister Bass. Who would have thought that the guy who isn't the pin-up boy could get me so hot under the collar? I believe Nate was supposed to be the character that the viewers (ok, girls) were supposed to fall in love with, and Dan was supposed to be Seth Cohen 2.0, but it seems that Chuck is the one that has every girl drooling into her pillow.

And I love it. I do not, however, love having to wait for Season 3 to come out. Ed Westwick should be made to work all year round so I have enough Chuck-ness to keep me happy forever.

Photo courtsey of: Not sure where this photo of Ed Westwick originates from, but whoever took it, thank you!

Guess what?!

I have more canned chicken!

Don't be afraid, or repulsed! This needs to be viewed as an adventure!

This time, I have purchased two cans: Springwater & Sea Salt and Natural Smoke. I believe that these two flavours will confirm whether or not canned chicken actually tastes good. Yes, my can of Tomato & Onion was rather appetising, however this time around I must assess the taste of the chicken itself!

I had to laugh when I was going through the checkout at Woolworths yesterday. The checkout boy stopped when he got to the canned chicken and asked me if it was any good. Like everyone else (including me), he thought the concept was rather revolting. I pointed out that the concept of canned fish and seafood is probably more revolting than chicken, to which he agreed. I think now, because of me he's going to try some (although he may wait until next week to hear my feedback at my next shopping trip).

I haven't tasted either flavour yet, I need to wait until I am hungry. I have enjoyed eating French sugar-sprinkled-chocolate-custard-filled donuts, hot chocolate and expensive cupcakes at The Emporium this morning, so I am not in the mood for chicken at the moment.

When I do gather the strength and hunger to try it, I will let you all know!

My neighbours are ferals ...

... Ferals that just make me want to scream and act like a bogan on my driveway.

But I won't. I refuse to allow myself to stoop to the level of bogans (I am NOT a bogan) and run out onto the driveway and yell at them to "SHUT THE EFF UP!". I probably would have received a round of applause from my fellow neighbours in pain, but I just can't turn on the bogan switch - I can think it, but I just can't act it out!

Seriously though, they are grating on my nerves, A LOT. Here's a list of things they do:

1. Constantly talk loudly. From what I can tell there are four guys living in one unit together. They are always talking to each other (which is bizarre in itself, cos never in my life have I come across men that can talk so much, let alone to other men), but when I say talk, they actually YELL. They yell at each other and they're standing beside eachother. They do this constantly for HOURS on end (yesterday it was for 12 hours straight), and to all hours of the morning - on weekends and weeknights.
   
2. Cough up phlegm / spew LOUDLY. You know how old people who just don't care about anyone do this - well my neighbours do this, extremely loudly. One of them was doing this this morning for 5 minutes. I was enjoying my $4 Emporium cupcake when this happened. Needless to say that cupcake ended up tasting like cardboard. Disgusting (the phlegm, not the cupcake).
3. Look into my house. I HATE this. Seriously, get your OWN house.
   
4. STARE at me. So creepy, so gross. I am married, and I will NOT be talking to you at all. I swear I have heard them say "the girl next door". Ewww, no!

Yes, they are grating on my nerves like you wouldn't believe. They aren't neighbours in my block of townhouses; but in the block of flats next door. When they finally shut up last night and there was blissful silence, I couldn't enjoy it due to the ringing in my ears. Yes, they had been yelling for so long, I think I was experiencing the buzzing in the ears that you get from standing next to speakers at a concert.

Someone needs to teach these boys some manners! Stat! They're that bad even Luna barks at them ... she's just started barking right this minute and scared the bejeebus out of me. I guess she's had enough too!