Another Red Ted Art entry - a pink butterfly cake!

This month's Red Ted Art theme is Nature. So I have created this beautiful pink butterfly cake to take part in Nature month. This also reflects the butterflies that have been in my tummy for a week or so now.
I'm pretty proud of this! Isn't she pretty! Hope everyone at work enjoys all the sugar and food colouring tomorrow at work.
Tania xxx

Oh so much excitment!

So many excited butterflies flying around my tummy over the last few days! Moving to a new brand new office this weekend and tonight is the Ball! And I have a new 'cheryl cole-esque' dark red very trendy heavy fringed hair cut. This weekend I'm planning on making something creative based on the theme of nature for the Red Ted Art monthly challenge - not sure quite what it will be, but I will put a pic online.

Better start beautifying for the Ball!
Tania xxx

Winter is making its way to Sydney

I think I feel like most people in Sydney at the moment - slightly flat, a little bit sad that summer and beach weather has finally gone for a couple of months and just a bit blah. Everyone seems grumpy. Suddenly Winter has hit us. Yesterday it was wet, wild and dark - really, a typical London day for most of the year. But such a shock to the system here - we have had the most amazing Autumn, and a sudden cold wet day was a bit yucky. All I wanted was a bath! And although I have a beautiful flat, I don't have a bath. Luckily the sun shone today so it wasn't so bad. It really made me wonder how I ever lived for so long in a country with such depressing weather.

So I've pulled out my winter stockings ready to face the next few months of moderately-cold weather. I don't think I'll ever feel cold through my bones here in Sydney like I did in Europe. One thing I have noticed is that not so many people wear black here in Sydney. My whole wardrobe is basically black (even though I have recently done a colour course on what colours are best for me to wear - Keeping Up Appearances, Alison is great, I really recommend the course). In London I never really noticed that I was always in black, but here it's different. Sydney women dress using more colour and more unusual patterns. They don't rely on black as their whole colour scheme. Same goes for the men.

One thing to cheer me up, I'm off to a ball on Friday night! An Air Force Officer's Ball, no less. And can't wait! I'm wearing the beautiful black (yes, black) dress I wore to do my 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now' dance. Also off to see my long-term mega crush Tim Freedman from The Whitlams in Newtown on Saturday night. All exciting stuff, and all worthy of a new hair do.

Keep warm and positive Sydney, xxx

Stephanie's Hazelnut Meringue Layer Cake with Hazelnut Chocolate Cream

Today has been a great day! Last night I made a fabulous cake - best cake ever in fact. I made meringues for the first time and made Stephanie Alexander's Hazelnut Meringue Layer Cake and put her Hazelnut Chocolate Cream through the middle layers and on the top. My friend at work told me it was her fav. cake, so I hunted it down and made it! Not as hard as it looks, and my hands lovingly peeled the skin off the hazelnuts I roasted myself, and lovingly crushed them. Absolutely my favourite cake yet - and looks so impressive (the photo didn't turn out wonderfully, but I might try to put it up anyway - thank you to Percy for taking the pic for me, it was the cake and my inelegant Tupperware box that made it look messy, not your photography skills).

I also heard some more special news today from a friend of mine - so many babies are due this year (as per the last few years), and I absolutely love the idea of new life and new babies for Aunty Tania to cuddle and watch grown and buy lots of lovely books and toys for. So I headed down to Dymocks in the city to buy her a little book - one of my favs - Dear Zoo.

Dymocks on George St has the best children's book section I have ever known - and today a very helpful young man helped me go through a big box of toys looking for Upsy Daisy (one of my latest obsessions - In The Night Garden - mesmerising, I love it, and I absolutely adore Upsy Daisy). Sadly she was all sold out, but I picked up some very cute Ninky Nonks. The Ninky Nonk is a funny kind of train, made up of a number of differently sized and shaped carriages. The Tombliboos, the Pontipines, Upsy Daisy and Igglepiggle all have their own carriages, although they often travel in each other's.

And I gave up my beloved The Mentalist and Patrick Jane for a lovely evening of coffee/hot chocolate......

I think my absolutely wonderful mood has something to do with Kylie and her catchy, positive, romantic new song which has been in my head all day. To Robin, I'm looking forward to seeing the routine you create for it!!! Can't wait to see it - get dancing and post the video!!

Award winning romance - Love is a Four-Legged Word!

Congratulations to my very talented Godmother Kandy Shepherd for winning the Australian Romance Readers Association award for favourite contemporary romance.

Her next book - Home is Where the Bark Is - goes on sale 6 July.

Further information & extracts from both books can be found on her website - www.kandyshepherd.com

Recovering rather than discovering....

This weekend I've taken some time out from discovering Sydney to recover from a big Friday night and to take some time to reflect. As much as I have enjoyed manically planning my time over the last 4 months, this week I realised that I have hit a spot of complete contentment and I don't necessarily need to find every cool little spot in Sydney by the end of the year. The tricky stage of my life has finally now passed, and I lived through it and have come out the other side a far more balanced person, but still I think I'm the same girl. At one point I was worried that it had changed me, that I'd lost all my hope and innocence, but no - I'm still as hopeful and optimistic as I ever was, and absolutely still a believer in true love and romance. Life feels good! I also have a lot of people to thank for getting me here - and you all know who you are. Thank you. I'm a lucky girl. xxx

I've just picked up three new biscuit trays! After watching Nigella last night, I'm inspired to try macaroons sometime soon. But in the meantime I aim to cook a very special and challenging layer cake for a colleague of mine who is moving to a new team. I'll post some pics of course.

Enjoy the last hours of the weekend,
Tania xxx

PS - after 12 hours of Kylie's new single, I think it has beaten 3 Words for now.

Dance. It’s all I wanna do. So won’t you dance?

No blog of mine would be complete without a special post about Kylie! I heard a replay of an interview with Kylie on Australian radio this morning. I'm feeling extremely girly at the moment, and now really looking forward to the upcoming release of Kylie's new album and the countdown to a special weekend in Canberra for the Sex and the City 2 movie.

Both Kylie and Sex and the City are products which girls in their late 20s-mid 30s really identify with - we spent the years we formed most of our views on men and relationships listening to Kylie and Carrie Bradshaw. I honestly don't think teenage girls understand why we love SATC or Kylie so much.

So, Kylie's new single - All the Lovers. I absolutely love it already! But it doesn't quite beat my current love - Cheryl Cole's 3 Words (completely obsessed - I also heard Cheryl interviewed by Australian radio twice this week, complete girl-crush on her and Dannii!). Get on YouTube now and listen to both songs.

PS - final bit of news, X Factor is coming back to Australia later this year! One of the things I miss most about my time in the UK - Saturday nights with Dannii, Cheryl and Simon, I just can't wait!!