Mexico Part Three: Oaxaca!

It was a million years ago now, but I thought I might continue with my Mexico posts!

After Mexico city, Jack and I hopped on a bus and made our way on down to Oaxaca. Oaxaca City was one of my favourite towns in Mexico. It's so quiet and pretty and full of beautiful old colonial architecture.

On our first full day, we visited the Monte Alban Ruins, about ten Ks from the main town. I was excited for my first Mexican ruins, and was definitely not disappointed!



It was such a beautiful landscape - particularly the dry yellow grass contrasted against the bright blue sky.





On our second day in Oaxaca, we went on a tour with Fundacion En Via - a charity organisation who provide interest free micro-financing loans to women in the Oaxaca region. If you're anywhere near Oaxaca, I would definitely recommend going on one of their tours. All money raised from the tours goes directly towards providing more loans, and it is such a great experience. It really was a wonderful opportunity to see some of the villages surrounding Oaxaca City, as well as hear the local languages and understand a little bit more about local handcrafts.



On day three, we hopped up bright and early to take the bus to Llano Grande - a teeny village in the mountains, a few hours from Oaxaca city. We stayed in a sweet little log cabin and spent two days hiking, sitting by our smokey fire and sipping on bowls full of Oaxaca hot chocolate in the village's only restaurant (which happened to be in a family's lounge room).







We made our way back down the mountain to Oaxaca City that night, tired and sore from all of our hiking, and ready for tomorrow's beachy adventures!

DIY Pillowcase Bicycle Basket Liner!

I bought this pretty old sheet and pillowcase set a while ago on etsy. It’s so bright and happy. Practically made of sunshine. And it always reminded me of my bike. They’re both blue and yellow and a little old and faded. I'm planning on using the sheet to make a pretty summer dress!



Jack bought this lovely basket for me last year. While I love the sweet pink material, it’s getting a bit faded. I decided it was time for an upgrade! Perfect use for my pretty pillowcase!



Here’s what you need:

One pillowcase
A bicycle basket
A sewing machine
An overlocker if you have one
Scissors
Thread
Ruler
Iron

Begin by ripping your pillowcase apart, into one big piece of fabric. Place your basket on top of the fabric and trace around it onto the material. Of course, you could be a pro and use proper paper, but I’m a bit lazy. Cut your shape out. You won’t need to leave any extra fabric for seam allowance, as you traced around the outside of the basket, which is obviously a bit bigger than the inside. Next you will have to measure the sides of your basket. Begin by measuring around the top rim of your basket, from one side to the other. Mine was 55cm. Then measure the height of your basket. Mine was 25cm. Next, measure the bottom of your basket, from one side to the other. Mine was around 44cm. Add around 10cm to the height of your basket (mine becomes 35cm) and draw up the shape using your ruler. Leaving a few centimeters for seam allowance, cut out two of your side shapes.

You should have three shapes that look a bit like this:



You will then have to snip a wedge out of each the top hand corners of the side pieces. This is to allow room for your handles! Simply draw a straight line down, around 3cm from the top corner of your piece.



If you have an overlocker, serge down each side of your side pieces. Then, with the right sides facing each other, sew down the two edges. Do not sew the top parts where you snipped off the triangle.

Now you will have to pin your bottom piece to the bottom edges of your side pieces. Once they have been pinned in place, sew all along the edges. I went round with my overlocker as well.


Next, you should fold out the edges of the liner, in the top triangles where your basket handles will go. Press them down using your iron.

Now move on to the top of your liner. Fold the raw edge over once, leaving a very small amount of fabric. Then fold it over once more, leaving more room – approximately 2cm. Sew along the edge. This is where you will pop your drawstring!

You could use a pretty ribbon for the drawstring, but I chose to use the same fabric as the rest of the liner. Cut two pieces of fabric approximately 6cm by 80cm. Fold the right fabric in half, with the right sides facing each other. Sew down the edge, then turn the long strip out the right way. This is a little bit tricky and you will need a paintbrush or pencil to push it through.

Using a big safety pin, thread both of your strips through the tops of your liner. Pop the liner in your basket, tie it up at the sides, and you’re good to go!

YAY!!







xoxox

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everybody! I'm spending today eating vegan treats. And watching everyone else eat non-vegan treats. And wishing I could eat non-vegan treats too. Not to worry. HAPPY EASTER!

ohmygosh yum: vegan easter cupcakes!

Easter can be a little dull for vegan atheists like myself. I'm not a huge fan of vegan chocolate. It tends to be a little disappointing. Whenever I've been to the supermarket recently, I've found my self lingering a little while walking through the Easter egg aisle. While vegan chocolate may be a little disappointing, vegan baking definitely is not! So I decided to bake myself some easter-themed cupcakes. They are deeelish. Sure to cure any chocolate cravings Easter Sunday may bring on!



Cupcake Ingredients
2 cups of soy milk
2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar
1 and a half cups of sugar
2/3 cups of canola oil
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 cups of plain flour
1 cup of cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

Chocolate Eggs
1 egg mould - I bought mine from Let's Cook & on Little Bourke Street
125 grams of dairy free chocolate - I used Whittaker's

Icing Ingredients
110 grams Toffutti Better Than Cream Cheese
3-4 cups of icing Sugar

Chocolate Eggs Method
Break all of your chocolate into small pieces. Place a pot of boiling water on the stove top. Put your chocolate into a bowl and sit it on top of the saucepan. The bowl will heat up and the chocolate will melt. Keep stirring the mixture until all chocolate has dissolved. Then spoon the chocolate into the moulds. Put the mould into your fridge until the chocolate has set - this should take an hour or two.

Cupcake Method
Begin by whisking the soy milk and vinegar together in a bowl. Set the mixture aside for a few moments while it goes all curdley. Sift all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Gradually mix the soy milk mixture and the oil into the dry ingredients. Spoon the mixture into patty pans, filling them approximately 3/4 full. Pop them into a moderate oven for around 20 minutes.

Icing Method
Put your cream cheese into a medium bowl and add about 2 cups of icing sugar. Beat them together with an electric mixer. Gradually add more sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Continue to beat it until the sugar has dissolved completely.

Put the icing on top of the cupcakes in any way you desire and decorate with your chocolate eggs.



YUM! Happy Easter!

busy busy!

I am so busy busy at the moment! I'm constantly wishing I had a little more time on my hands. If I did have a little more time, I would love to attempt to recreate some of these pretties! This Wheels and Doll Baby dress is perfection and i just adore these sweet little bow ties!

smile

A friend posted this on facebook a few days ago. While I'm pretty sure Nelson Mandela wasn't referring to the crazy amounts of homework I have to do at the moment, it's definitely making me smile.



This super pretty print is available over here!

ohmygosh yum: Vegan Passionfruit Melting Moments!

We have a big, beautiful passionfruit vine that has been absolutely covered in fruit for a good few months now. I eat a few every day and just can't get enough delicious passionfruity goodness. On Sunday afternoon, however, I decided to mix it up a little and make some melting moments. I haven't had a melting moment in many a year, but these are just as good as I remember them to be! All buttery and crumbly and melty and delicious. As usual when I make a new recipe, I looked around at a bunch of recipes, both vegan (such as this'un) and non-vegan (like this one!). The recipe seems to be fairly universal - here is what I went with:

Biscuit Ingredients
250 grams of vegan margarine (eep not so healthy)
a few drops of vanilla extract
half a cup of icing sugar
one cup of custard powder - most supermarket varieties are vegan, but make sure you check the ingredients!
one cup of plain flour
three passionfruits

Icing Ingredients
two cups of icing sugar
a few teaspoons of margarine
around three passionfruits



Make your Cookies!
Begin by lining two trays with baking powder.
Cream the margarine, sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl. Remove the seeds from your passionfruits and add them to the mixture. I did this by spooning the pulp into a sieve and then stirring it around and around above the bowl. The pulpy bits all came through and the seeds were left in the sieve. Gradually stir in the dry ingredients until your mixture forms a soft dough. Roll teaspoon-sized amounts of dough into balls and place them on your trays around 3cm apart. Gently press them down with a fork and bake them in a 150 degree oven for around 15 minutes. Allow them to cool on a wire rack before icing.



Make your Icing!
The icing is very simple! Pop the margarine and icing sugar in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, gradually add the passionfruit pulp, little bits at a time. You probably will probably only need about two. When the icing is light and fluffy, sandwich about a teaspoon-full between two cookies.











My Mama and I sat down to a little earl-grey and melting moment tea party. They are just the most perfect combination!

xxx