Goodbye St. Andrews

So my bag is finally packed and I am ready to head off on my big trip tomorrow morning. I am feeling more nervous than excited at the moment, but am hoping that will all change when I hop on the plane. I'm rather sad to be leaving St. Andrews and so many of my beloveds - even if it is only for two months! I'm hoping that all of these lovely passionfruits, apricots and apples will be ready upon my return, and my dear old pup won't have forgotten who I am!











So goodbye St. Andrews, I will miss you!

xxx

to sassafras!

Yesterday was a little too hot for my liking, so we decided to head up into the Dandenongs for the day, where the air was lovely and cool. We bushwalked, picnicked and fed crimson rosellas!















Along the way we made a stop at Sassafras. We went to the hilarious Miss Marple's Tea House. I am a bit of an Agatha Christie fan from way back. I spent far too much of my late childhood reading Miss Marple novels, so I found the tea house particularly funny.







Sassafras is also home to Tea Leaves - a beautiful shop packed full of every kind of tea you can imagine, as well as lots of lovely teapots and teacups!







The Dandenongs are less than an hour's drive from Melbourne and are just the most lovely place to go for a day trip!

xxx

DIY iPod Pouch!

Not so long ago, I got myself a new iPod. I needed something to keep it in, so I made this little pouch from some old teal fabric. Of course this is a super easy little project, which took me less than half an hour to complete. I think that the white piping along the edges makes it a little more special than your average drawstring bag! Ha



Here’s what you need:

- fabric of your choice for the bag itself
- fabric of your choice for the piping
- scissors
- thread
- a zipper presser foot for your sewing machine
- a sewing machine
- ribbon
- twine – I used hay bale twine as it’s nice to put something to use that is only going to be thrown out. Any old string should be fine.

First of all, begin by making your piping! You will need approximately 75cm of string and a long strip of your piping fabric – around 75cm by 3cm should do the trick. Place the string in the middle of the fabric, length ways, and fold the fabric over.



Using your zipper presser foot, sew down the fabric, as close to the string as possible.



Now cut out the fabric for the actual pouch. You will need two rectangles approximately 16cm by 11cm. Round off the bottom corners of each piece.

Place the two pieces of fabric together, with the right sides facing each other. Take your piping and insert it between the two pieces of fabric, along the edges of the bottom and two sides. Pin all three together. Now, still using your zipper foot, sew along the edges, as close to the piping as possible. It might be a little fiddly around the rounded edges. Turn it the right way out to check that the piping is sitting smoothly.

Cut out a strip of fabric around 20cm by 5cm. Turn your bag back inside out. Pin the strip around the top of the bag, with the beginning and ending of the strip at the front of the pouch. Pin the excess fabric back the other way and sew around the top.




Turn your bag the right way out, then flip the strip on top over so it’s on the outside. Fold the very bottom of the strip under and then poke your piping under too. Sew all around the bottom. Thread your ribbon around the top, tie it in a bow, and you’re done!

Too cute.

Oh Arthur...

I recently finished off this lovely book about Arthur Rackham. I haven't read a biography in forever, so I really enjoyed reading this one, about one of my favourite illustrators.





I love how this book is packed with illustrations. I thought I might share a few of my favourites.

oh my gosh yum: vegan maple pecan cupcakes!

Last weekend at World Vegan Day I was lucky enough to eat a delicious Mister Nice Guy French Toast cupcake - maple syrup and walnuts! I’ve been trying to eat as much raw food as possible this week, but my craving for more maple-cupcakey goodness got the better of me. Today I decided to make my own maple pecan cupcakes. And boy am I glad I did. They are delish.

I got my original cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra and Terry Hope Romero forever ago. I pretty much know it off by heart (probably not a good thing!) and whenever I make cupcakes these days I just make a variation on that.



I usually make double this amount, but I didn’t have enough maple syrup, so I halved it. You could always use maple flavoured syrup, but I don’t think it would be nearly as nice.





Cupcakes
½ cup of soymilk
½ teaspoon of apple cider vinegar
1 1/3 cups of plain flour
2 tablespoons of cornflour
¾ teaspoons of baking powder
½ teaspoons of baking soda
1/3 cup of oil
2/3 cup of pure maple syrup
¼ cup of caster sugar
½ a cup of pecans


Whisk the soymilk and the apple cider vinegar together in a small bowl. Pop the mixture aside and sift the flour, cornflour, baking soda, baking powder and sugar into a large bowl. Mix the maple syrup and oil in with the milk and vinegar (it should be a little curdley), then stir all of the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients. Roughly chop the pecans, then stir them in too.

Fill your patty pans about 2/3 full, then put them in a moderate oven for around 20 minutes, or until they are a dark golden brown and cooked through.

Icing
1 tablespoon of vegan nuttelex
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
½ cup of icing sugar

Mix all ingredients together with an electric mixer. You may need to add a little more icing sugar to get the right consistency. Once you are happy with your icing, pop it on top of tour cooled cupcakes. Yummo!

It’s tea party time!

sweet lily

I recently made this little custom order dress. Brown is definitely not my colour - I don’t think I own a single brown item of clothing. By the time I finished this dress, however, I was having other ideas! I love the combination of the red and the brown. It has such a nice earthy, autumnal feel. I think I will begin the hunt for some similar fabric to make a dress of my own!

And the payment was even cuter than the actual dress! Blue wrens are my number one fave! So sweet.

if only...

I love being a vegan, and hope to be one forever. I love eating vegan and don’t really miss animal products at all. I often do, however, find myself gazing away at leather and wool goodies. I am currently wish wish wishing that these pretty shoes, this green satchel, some saltwater sandals and maybe these shoes too were all a little more animal-friendly, coz they certainly are awfully pretty!