Rainbow Cake, Bitches!

As a 26 year old adult you'd think I'd be mature, responsible, and sensible. You know, all those things we associate with actual adults.

Well, I'm not really. I mean, I can be, and I'm sure if you ask my family and friends, they'll tell you I'm one of the most mature people my age. But really, I like fat rhinos (you may call them unicorns), sleeping in half the morning, and glitter.

So this past Friday night, we had a few people over to celebrate my boyfriend Justins birthday, and I was tasked with making the cake. Now, I love baking, but when it comes to deciding what to bake, I'm a mess! I always opt for cookies, because they're pretty much my signature baked good. Either that or cupcakes.

Even though I was stuck at work until nearly half 5, and was running behind, I thought that for once, I would go out of my comfort zone and try something different.

Rainbow cake.

Yup, a cake, made from rainbows. Might I add, rainbows are elusive creatures, and can be very hard to catch. Here is my final result! 

Getting this beautiful, arty cake of perfection was no easy feat, so I felt it necessary to share my pain triumph with all of you. 

Enjoy.

There was so much cake mix, it nearly overflowed my mixing bowl! I hadn't realised that cooking two cakes at the same time, would make so much batter! I mean I probably should have, but I didn't. So shoot me.

Once I had batter ready, I portioned it out into 5 bowls, to colour the 5 colours of my rainbow. Note to self, wear gloves when handling food dye. Even double glove it, you can never be too careful.

Now came the sorting of the rainbow candy. I bought family sized share bags of M&M's and Smarties, and got to work. Being a little, shall we call it, pedantic, I thought it best to separate all of the colours, not just the ones I needed. 

This is my 'Why the hell did I do this?' face.

But never mind, I'm not one to give up. Even though I wanted to. My arms were cramping, my legs ached from standing in the same spot, I was seeing coloured dots everywhere I looked. But I made it through, I separated all of those damn coloured chocolate pieces of hell.

Now that is a vision of beauty. Say otherwise, I dare you.

Anyway, while I had been dying sorting, I had the cakes in the oven baking away nicely. The recipe stated I needed to have two tins the same size. Do you think I have 2 of any of my baking things the same size? No. Oh well, odd sized tins it was! 

Pretty impressive huh!

So while they were cooling, I thought it best to start on the butter cream icing. I've decided to rename butter cream icing, to sugary death icing. Seriously, to cover my cakes, I needed 500gm of butter, and 6 cups of icing sugar. 6 CUPS. Are you kidding me?  

I could not believe how much 6 cups was. I mean, of course I knew but I didn't really know. If you know what I mean. I spent the next half an hour adding the sugar to the butter and making sure it had all mixed through, while I cleaned the kitchen and prepped for the guests. 

Come 8:30pm, everyone but Justin had arrived and we were all mingling and enjoying ourselves. Until I realised I still hadn't wrapped Justins present or iced the cake. 

A quick dash to the spare room to grab some wrapping paper, and I had his presents wrapped in record time. Not as neat as usual, but I was on a time limit, Justin was going to be home any minute!

Just as I had hidden his gift, in he walked, happy as Larry, and none the wiser. Except now he would see his super-awesome-ultra-fantastic-I'm-the-best-girlfriend-ever cake before it was iced. I couldn't have that happen, so I hid around the corner of the kitchen and fixed it up as quick as I could. 

Then, ta da!

But I couldn't sigh a sigh of relief just let, had to make sure the inside cake rainbow-ness had worked! After lighting some candles and signing the usual happy birthday, it was cake cutting time!

Well would you look at that, it worked.

*looks dreamily at delicious and perfect rainbow cake*

And yes, I know there are more than 5 colours in the rainbow, but you try making this and tell me how easy it is with 12 colours. 

I was pretty impressed with my cake, hence sharing it here with all of you.

Much love & rainbow cake crumbs,

J xx

Catch Up

Hey folks, 

Just a quick post to give you guys an update!

My Real Estate Agent emailed me today, some exciting news, we're getting our new dishwasher on the weekend! Apparently the owner has it ready, and just needs to come over and have it installed. I'm almost tempted to make lots of dirty dishes, just so we can use the dishwasher. Almost.

We've also been given a quote for new carpet for our master bedroom, which will hopefully be installed in the next couple of weeks, which means we can actually move into the room! At the moment, we're camped out in the sunroom, surrounded by boxes of things we haven't been able to put away yet. 

It'll be 3 years that Justin and I have been together, middle of next month. I've been trying to subtely hint to Justin that I would love to go and see the Rocky Horror stage show, not sure if he's picked up what I'm putting down.
I'd also love to go away for the weekend, and just relax, but we'll see if that goes ahead! 

I'm pretty excited, I spoke to my brother the other day, and we've organised to go to the Belgrave Lantern Parade this year! More crafting, and I get to spend time with my amazing neice and nephew! Talk about excited haha.

I think I've mentioned it before, but I'm now doing Level 1-Beginners Pole Dancing every Wednesday night. We're three classes in so far, our 4th class is tomorrow night. We've learnt some basic moves, and we're going to start working on a basic routine, to perform during the last class. It's hard work, but I love it. I must say though, I'm a little disappointed that I haven't suffered any bruises yet, everyone else seems to have! Maybe I'm just super tough!

So anyway, that's about all for now. I'll try and write up a couple more posts for you soon. I'm working on Welcome To Melbourne - Ghost Tour and a couple of fashion ones too. Fingers crossed I have time to get everything done!

Love,

J xx

A Perfect Saturday Night

I used to worry that I was getting old, and wouldn't be hip, cool or fun anymore. But, as I've grown older, I've also gained some wisdom along the way. I no longer really care about going out on a weekend and getting drunk. I don't worry about how other people perceive me. I'm just making sure I'm happy. Because in the grand scheme, isn't that the most important thing?

Sometimes I struggle with the joys of growing older. Making my budget stretch so I can pay all of my bills, and still have enough left over for food and petrol. They seem like mundane things now, and as a kid, all I wanted was to be a grown up. Be able to buy the candy and chocolate I want. Have my own car and be able to go where I want. Stay out late and cause trouble. But now that I'm almost here (I am after all only 25 years old), I do and don't understand the appeal. Don't get me wrong, I'm in a really happy place right now. I have an amazing boyfriend who is the love of my life, I can't see my life without him. I have an awesome house, which is now ours (renting though). I have my own car, which I chose and I love it. I love my job, and have many exciting opportunities ahead of me. 

Though, I still want to see everyone, and spend my time doing fun things. It's just now my fun things, are different kinds of fun things. Take tonight for example; I prepped and cooked delicious lasagna for dinner, while Justin did the dishes. We were listening to Dire Straights on vinyl, and bantering with each other. Then, when dinner was cooked, we sat down together, snuggled under a quilt, and watched tv. I couldn't ask for anything more.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't live for other people. Live for you, and do things you enjoy. Don't worry about what other people think, or how they're going to react. I stopped doing that a while ago, and I've never looked back.

Love,

Jayde xx

Open For Inspection

Yesterday was one of the most stressful days of my life! The man who owns our house, David, and his wife, came to visit yesterday morning, to report on some items I had mentioned needed to be fixed. When I told my real estate agent, I didn't expect such a speedy response. I mean, it took them 7 years to finish a fence.... Anyway, I sent the email on a Friday, and had my reply by the following Wednesday. So we didn't really have much time to get everything organised.

Because dad has only been out of the house for a week, we hadn't begun to move his things to the garage, and clean up. So Justin and I spent every night scrubbing the walls (Mostly Justin) and making sure everything was spic and span for the owner. 

I actually remembered to take some before and after photo's, aren't ya'll impressed! 

Justin hard at work sugar scrubbing the walls in the sunroom

We didn't think we'd fit everything in the tiny skip

I mean c'mon, all of this crap, it that tiny skip?

Justin an I were up bright and early on Saturday morning, the skip was delivered at about 8am, and from then we were on cleaning fire! Never mind that we were up till like 3am Friday night cleaning the deck! Talk about tired. Good grief!

Anyway, we had fantastic helpers on the day, my family in law, best friend Katrina, and my dad (his was mostly his mess after all!). So with all of us, working our butts off, we managed to get EVERYTHING done! How exciting! The skip is now full, sitting on the side of the road, the lawns are all mowed, the floors have all been swept, mopped & vacuumed. The only time I have ever seen my house so clean, is when my dad first moved in, way back in 2001. 

Justin and I cannot even begin to express how grateful we are for all the help. We know some pretty amazing people.

The deck looking a little more organised

Look, you can actually see the deck and the brick walls! No more weathered table!

I was so nervous waiting for the landlord to arrive, but once I got into the swing of things, chatting to them about the problems with the house, everything went really well. They've agreed to rip up the carpet in (what will be) our bedroom. They're also going to replace the gutters on the side of the house, which is brilliant, because the current gutters are rusted through and have fallen off the house. Then they're going to install a light/fan combo in the en suite, have a look at the deck and try to get that fixed, as well as the deck roof. Our dishwasher hasn't worked for the past 3 or 4 years, and they might even replace it for us! Our taps have been leaking for a little while now, so David will come over and replace the seals on those, which means no more dripping!

He was cleaning the windows...

My fabulous mother in law cleaning the floors - action shot!

I don't even know what dad was doing, but I'm sure it was helpful...

Over all I'm damn happy with the results. I would never have even dreamt we would have gotten everything done in time, but as they say, many hands make light work! 

Now to start prepping the walls for painting. Oh, I did say we're allowed to paint right? Yep, we have permission to paint!

Until next time my wonderful readers! 

Love,
Jayde xx

Starting Fresh - The Times Are A Changin'

Hey folks!

If you've been reading my blog, you'll know that there are a few things going on over at my house. 
I used to live with my dad and my boyfriend, but as of 6am this morning, my dad moved out.

Saying goodnight last night was almost bitter sweet. I was happy for the freedom, but sad to be losing my dad. He's not moving to another country or anything, he's heading up to Thomastown to help out my aunt.
But even though I'll still talk to him all the time, it's going to be strange not seeing him in the morning when I'm getting ready for work, or on the weekends when we have dinner together (like a real family).

At the same time, I'm so excited for this amazing new chapter in my life. Justin and I are starting a new phase in our relationship. We've been living together for the past couple of years, but it's always been 'Justin lives with dad and I'. Now, it's Justin and I live together. Justin and I, live together. It looks strange to write it down, but I love how it flows from the tongue.

We'll be moving down to the other end of the house, and setting it up like a real home. New curtains, fresh paint, new furniture. We have so much work to do, I'm just glad he's there so we can make this house our home, together.

I'll (hopefully) remember to take some photos of our journey, so you can follow along with us. From furniture shopping, to choosing the new paint scheme, to cleaning and redecorating. I'm full to the brim with ideas for our house, and can't wait to share them with you all! Mind you, Justin still thinks teal, aqua and turquoise are all classed as 'blue', so I don't think he's going to be much help with colours. 

Much love, 

Jayde xx

Parmageddon

As a meat eater, I love all kinds of meat meals, steak and chips, bacon and eggs, chicken parmigiana.

To be honest, I don’t know anyone (except vegetarians) who doesn't like a good parma! How can you not like it, juicy freshly crumbed chicken, home made Napoli sauce, good quality thinly cut smoked ham, golden melted cheese… Oh god, I’m so hungry now!

Anyway, on Wednesday night, we (Katrina, Justin and I) went in search for a top quality chicken parma. We decided the hills was the best bet, to a fantastic restaurant called Kelly's. 

Kelly's is a pub that is all about the locals. Local produce, local beer, local music. You get the idea. Originally named after Kate Kelly. Kate was mother, outlaw, horsewoman and sister to Australia's most infamous bushranger Edward 'Ned' Kelly, born on 12th July, 1863 in Beveridge, Victoria, just north of Melbourne. Whilst the Kelly brothers were on the fun from Victoria's law enforcement they relied on Kate to run guns, ammo and basic supplies to them in one of their many bush hideaways, ensuring she too lived with the Kelly name's infamy. The original building - now the tavern - was a log cutters cabin built in 1891 for the local timber industry workers. Over the years it has been home to many including the gypsy fortune teller Miss Portelli with her tea room, and is now one of the oldest licensed venues in the state. Because of the buildings history, the original tavern is now heritage listed. 

Walking up to Kelly's, you get this feeling of 'home'. It's just such a relaxing and chill vibe. You always get great service, and amazing quality food. Which is why we love going there. 

So anyway, sorry for digressing, I was telling you about Parmageddon! 

You are given a choice of four different types of parma, all with amazing names like Zombie Apocalypse and Doomsday. Which are exactly the ones we ate. Doomsday is very much like a standard parma, but it is topped with 3 different types of golden melted cheese, and the Zombie has BBQ sauce, caramelised onions, chorizo and cheese. 

I didn't get any photos of these amazing creations, mainly because people would look at me strange if they saw me taking photos of my food. But trust me, if you love parmas, head up to Kellys for a great night out.

Jayde xx