Easter

Needless to say today is Easter Sunday AND the end of lent, which for me means I'm an omnivore again!  Yay for meat.   I got to enjoy some lovely beef bourguignon  (yum!).

I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Easter! 

To be honest I kind of wanted it to snow on Easter because it would be ironic if it snowed on Easter and not on Christmas.  Surprisingly the weather's not half bad.  I haven't felt one drop of rain (which is kind of a big deal for over here). Where's the snow when you need it?

This morning was great.  My parents still hide Easter baskets full of little treats for each one of us.  (Mine was hidden in the oven).

I was trying to be healthy this Easter.  That didn't work.  Is it possible that this one Cadbury egg is all that's left of my Easter stash?

I'm trying to save it for enjoying with tea but since taking this picture to add it to the post, I've opened it and ate a decent portion of it.  We'll see how long it lasts.

I loved getting to watch my little sisters get all excited about their dresses and baskets.  They are adorable.  Holidays are more fun with younger siblings.  It's fun thinking back to when I was their age.  Not even THAT long ago.

After all of that and plenty of chocolate I went to church and got to think about the real reason we celebrate.  Easter morning has in the past been my favourite time to go to church.  It's just so joyful and everyone seems to arrive with a smile on their face.  I think their is something a little contagious about that.  I always come home on Easter Sunday happier than before.

Anyway I hope you all of you can enjoy stuffing your faces with chocolate without feeling sick afterwards and that you get a chance to relax and enjoy the day. I'll say it again HAPPY EASTER!

NAILED IT

I don't know if you've seen those "nailed it" memes floating round the web but I have decided to dedicate this post to them.  Just in case you're not familiar, here's an example.

I thought you guys might like to know that today instead of making red velvet cupcakes, I went for a cookies and cream cupcake recipe from the Primrose Bakery.  I totally nailed it.

NAILED IT!

Deal was, I was in a rush to get them to the bake sale and I hadn't made the frosting because I needed two more egg whites and I didn't know we were low on eggs.  Dad whipped up some frosting (which went everywhere) and we slapped it on the cupcakes and threw Oreo chunks on.  All didn't go to plan.  They still tasted good though and the bake sale managed to clock up quite a bit of money for my youth group and I guess that is what matters. :)

Easter Dresses!

So yesterday I got the chance to go Easter shopping with my five year old sister because we were both Easter dress-less.

Jane (my sister) turned out to be a great shopping buddy.  She was quite excited to start  with about getting to roam around T. J. Maxx alone with her big sister, looking at dresses. 

We went first to all the dresses in her size and she looked at quite a few frilly ones that were deemed "too fancy" by her annoying big sister until she came to her dream dress.  I repeatedly asked her if she wanted to try any others on but she was determined she had found the one and refused to go for anything else. 

Next we headed to look for dresses in my size.  I asked Jane to tell me if she saw anything that she thought was cute.  Almost every dress was cute to Jane.  Me and Jane eventually narrowed it down to four dresses I liked and headed for the dressing rooms. 

Jane tried on her dress and it fit.  We were both happy.  I first tried on the little ivory dress I'd picked out.  When I asked Jane's opinion she told me not to try on anything else and said I should just buy it.  3 dresses later I agreed with her.

I kept trying to get Jane's opinion of what dress she liked second best out of the four dresses I had tried on.  When I asked her that question she said something along the lines of, "Madeline, if you didn't buy the white dress, I would buy it for you for Christmas." I gave in.

Jane loved the entire trip and when we left the store she smiled as she carried the bag with our dresses in it. 

I think we'll have plenty more shopping trips together in the future!

Cookbooks, Tea and Lentil Soup

Hola!  I am loving every moment of Spring break.  It makes for plenty of time to blog.  Anyway right I'm just lazing about sipping tea and eating a nice little hot cross bun (It is almost Easter!) while browsing through some old cookbooks.  

I love my parents little red teapot.  It's definitely well used.  I like my tea.  There's plenty of burnt marks on it due to a camping incident a couple summers back when it was accidentally burned. :)

I've decided to make my own last vegetarian meal for lent and of course serve it to the rest of the family.  

To be honest I don't think the rest of my siblings will be too thrilled because the majority of them aren't big veg fans.  I've always been the least picky out of the kids in my family, except when it comes to the matter of anything that once lived underwater.  I'm not a big seafood fan!  

I've settled on my main so far.  Lentil soup because it's seems easy enough to make.  I picked it out of one of my favourite cookbooks.  Apples for Jam.

Unfortunately the title is a little hard to make out in this pic.  It's written by Tessa Kiros.  A woman who is currently living in Tuscany and has multiple cookery books out.

 It's not only packed with great recipes but also has the odd childhood story or photograph thrown in.  I love looking through it.

The recipes in her book are simple tried and tested recipes that always produce a good result.  Personally I love making her oat cookies because they're great with a mug of tea yet aren't overly sugary.

Unfortunately I haven't settled on a side yet but I'm thinking about making a bread if I feel up to it. 

I'm also recipe hunting for something to make before Saturday morning.  I'm doing a bake sale with my youth group to pay for a bus to take the lot of us down to camp next summer (Which I'm way excited for!).  

Right now I'm thinking maybe red velvet cupcakes?  If I get the ingredients that is.  I'm still not sure on that one but I have quite a few baking books to look through before Saturday morning! 

 I'm a bit of a baking book collector.  Here is a snapshot of a few of mine I took a while back.

My two faves so far are Hummingbird Bakery 'Cake Days' and The Primrose Bakery's 'The Primrose Bakery Book'.  Both are bakeries in London with a semi-similar style in sweet treats.  I would LOVE to go to London on a "Bakery Tour" and just check out all the local Bakery spots.  

The Hummingbird Bakery book is the one with the recipe for killer red velvet cupcakes.  They focus on American inspired recipes, whereas The Primrose Bakery is heavily inspired by places all over the world.  Wow. I'm such a baking geek! (If that even exists?) 

I was thinking of making brownies but that's kind of my sister's specialities (along with Crepes) and mine usually aren't quite up to par with hers.  Hopefully I'll decide on some decent recipes before Saturday.

Time to say goodbye.  My tea is gone along with my hot cross bun (sigh) and I've got my work cut out for me leisurely looking through cookbooks and surfing the net while listening to the Civil Wars on grooveshark.  Aufwiedersehen!

Retro Glasses

Ok, I have a new interest.  Vintage glasses.  This is what happens when I have a lot off time of school.  The truth is I've been into retro glasses for a good while now but time of school means I can just sit on Etsy and look at pages of them. I especially like cat eye glasses, as worn here by Katy Perry.  Aren't they adorable on her?

Since I was born in the late 90s and was a culprit of watching Disney re-runs, when I think of cat eye glasses I always think of Ms. Muriel P. Finster the annoying grey haired lunch lady out of the hit cartoon Recess who was never shown with out her pair of classic cat eye specs.  As a kid I NEVER thought I'd share her taste in glasses.  

Now that I've spent a good while on etsy here is what I've found...

some simple yet fun and quirky legit 50s/60s plain black cat eye glasses with dainty little stars on the edge of each side of the rims.  Check them out here!

A fun pair of vintage clubmaster sun glasses (Because not everyone needs "real" glasses, or feels like faking it, me included)  Grab a pair here.

some more sunnies.  Cat eye Polaroid ones in cherry red.  Love the colour!  They are available again through Etsy, here.

Oh and check out these ones based on the Lolita glasses of the sixties.  Not the real deal I'm afraid yet just as quirky. Here is the link to them.  :)

Well, hope you enjoyed my retro finds.  Ta ta for now!

Skater Skirts

Spring is here already!  It doesn't quite feel like it due to the lack of sun and abundance of snow.  Anyway, this post is about one of my favourite trends for this Spring, skater skirts.  Love them.  They're great combo of style and comfort.  Always perfectly paired with a denim shirt or basic tee and are very versatile.  Dressed up or down they never disappoint.  It's most common that you'll find people sporting jersey skater skirts in block coulours such as navy, black. maroon, hunter green etc. or faux denim or leather ones but that isn't always the case.  Anyway here are some of my latest skater skirt finds.

First off, here is an adorable River Island Heart Printed Skater Skirt, available from ww.asos.com ...

...and another great one from www.thriftedandmodern.com.  It's right on trend too because pastels are going to be big this season and it's mint.

Last but not least here is a little black lace number.  Yay!  I'm a big fan of lace.  This is available on www.chicwish.com.  

Cheerio for now.  I hope you enjoyed my three slightly less "run of the mill" skater skirt finds.   

Dracula

Hey guys!  Guess who is playing a man in her school play?  Me.  My school is doing a comical version of Dracula.  I'm dancing too.  To thriller.  So if nothing else THAT will be funny.  Lets just say I'm not super coordinated and leave it at that.  Cringe.  Anyway, I'm actually getting kind of excited for it.  I just had my first practice and I have my costume fitting this week.  That's the part I'm most excited for.  Seeing my costume and how they do my make-up.  I play a Transylvanian villager and a dead dockworker.  I'm not a big vampire person to be honest but I can't wait to act dead.  I don't even know much about Dracula (just the dance moves to we are doing to thriller haha)  but when I hear the name I always think of the Count from Sesame Street.  Vampires and math... Sesame Street taught me one thing.  They're both evil.