Our married life together: April 2010

I suck at baking - Part 2 (Easiest cake...ever)

YUM! Prepare yourselves for the easiest cake to make. It's so shiny after the icing melts.

LOL "It's MIIINE" Wayne adores this cake, all for him.

Ok, what is going on? I just can't stop baking. This is my new hobbie ever since the TV was packed away.

Now, I LOVE food safari, it's an aussie cooking show and my chicken tandoori recipe is from them as well. Last week I remembered one particular recipe and I was inspired to make it. It's the EASIEST cake recipe, an Orange and Almond Flourless cake, yum yum.

I wasn't really planning on blogging about it, but I thought it's handy if there is anyone else out there new to baking like me.

It's a very moist and dense and is perfect with a nice cup of tea.

You can watch the video on how it's made here

Recipe:

2 oranges (I used Navel oranges)
6 eggs
250g caster sugar
250g almond meal
1tsp baking powder
Extra caster sugar for dusting before baking
Icing sugar for dusting after baking
Margarine for greasing the pan (I used baking sheets)

Wash oranges and place unpeeled, in a pot of boiling water for 2 hours. Drain the water and allow the oranges to cool. This can be done ahead of time.

Preheat oven to 190°C.

Break 6 eggs into a mixing bowl or blender. Add caster sugar and beat or blend together.
Place the two oranges into the egg mix. Break up the oranges and then blend together to a smooth consistency. Add the almond meal and baking powder and blend.

Grease or add baking sheets to a 20 cm spring form baking pan and dust with caster sugar.

Pour batter into the pan and sprinkle caster sugar on top and bake for 1 hour to an hour and a half or until the top is golden brown.

Dust with icing sugar to serve. Wayne likes it cold, so we put it in the fridge for a while.

Happy Baking xx

Farrah

Cupcakes & Dresses

Over the weekend, Wayne and I thought we deserved a night out so we decided to go out for dessert. This got me excited because I wanted to wear my new dress, which has *drum rolls please*............... shoulder pads! haven't decided if they suit me or not. I don't remember the shop name but I got the dress from Brunswick street, the day I visited Rose St Market. Currently I'm loving the combinations of red and blue. It's the colours we learnt to avoid when I studied web design back in high school, but in the fashion world these colours are gorgeous together.

Wayne made me pose. It's true. "Farrah put your hands on your hips".

It's great without heels too, fun in the park before going out.

Wayne still has this hat on....I think I may need to buy a new one for him

Being silly is our nature.

Okaaay, we are a bit mushy. We were enjoying a cup of
tea and a slice of cheesecake! yum

Speaking of Red and Blue, I had to sneak this picture in. First (yes first ever) batch of cupcakes I baked. They're 'red' velvet cupcakes in 'blue' polkadotted cupcake papers!

This weekend was all about red and blue. I had a blast making them with Nicole, even though it was a messy experience with the red food colouring. Practically the whole kitchen was red, I think Wayne would have freaked out if he saw what the kitchen looked like. To his surprise I cleaned up everything straight away lol. You see Wayne has threatened once that he would sneak in a picture in our blog if I leave the kitchen messy ever again. Whatever, I'm proud of my messy baking skills.

plenty of smiles and cuddles,
Farrah

Rose Street Artist Market

I finally had the opportunity to visit the Rose St artist Market on the weekend! Wayne had a guitar jam with a friend so I had a free date.
My lovely friend Yael has had a stall there for a while now and I've been meaning to visit her to see her knitting goodies.

It's a gorgeous market filled with hand made crafts from local Melbournians. I always like to encourage and support local artists and it was mind blowing to see how talented they were. It was like an etsy store, but in physical form...heaven! There's 70 stalls, a cute cafe, and the best part is that it's open every Saturday and Sunday 11am till 5pm.

I highly recommend you visit the Market if you're after unique items, accessories, clothes, designer pieces, homeware and limited edition artworks. I already got my eyes on a few items for our house.

Of course I'm going to plug Yael, I love her work and she's just the nicest person ever. She's situated in the back corner of the market and she is most certainly the knitting queen. She makes gorgeous wraps and scarfs perfect for the winter season in all sorts of colours.

I ended up chatting to a few other stall owners, feeling inspired. I want to sew, or make something. My Nana was a tailor all her life, and my Mum is also fabulous at sewing. Surely they can teach me? if they are patient enough lol.

Along with many other perks of Rose St Market, Brunswick Street is just around the corner. It only happens to be my favourite street, ever. Lots of other shops to visit (vintage goodness) and plenty of food to eat! I took my friend to eat pizza's at 'Bimbos Deluxe' a quirky pub and a semi lounge/club by night that makes delicious affordable gourmet pizzas.

This top is something my grandma would wear, but I love it - by Friends of Couture & I'm looking tired.

Here we are at Bimbos! looking at their menu.

Agnello: Tomato, mozzarella, spiced lamb, rocket, pinenuts, sultanas

Melanzana : Eggplant, fresh tomato, mozzarella, mascarpone

Both Pizza's AMAZING.

I had so much fun, it was a great day. Nothing like a bit of shopping and good food accompanied by lovely people. Write it on your calender 'Must visit Rose st artist Market' because Farrah said so =P

xx

I suck at baking - but this recipe is easy.

Hideous picture, I know. Can't we just eat the whole thing uncooked? yum.

I love taking pictures of people when they're not ready. Haha sorry Kate.
mario tshirt = awesome. Nerd alert.

Kate is a natural model. hehehe I love you.

Wayne had a men's bbq thing on Saturday and I invited my lovely friend Kate over so we can have a baking extravaganza.

I'm not that bad, honestly sometimes I'm just un-coordinated, is that even a word? Flour and sugar all over the bench is not a good sign of good baking skills now is it? or maybe it's a sign of my passion for cooking...let's go crazy and throw flour everywhere! woo.

We ended up baking muffins, they were nom nom and so easy that even someone like me actually ended up doing okay...thanks to Kate's supervision.

Kate: "Farrah, what are you doing?"
Farrah: "I'm sifting the flour"
Kate: "In the bowl Farrah, not on the bench"
Farrah: "Oops, I knew that, I just thought the bowl was there, er, aaah"

So if you're not much of a baker, try this recipe but make sure you sift the flour where the bowl is, not where the bench top is...................................................yeah only I can do that haha.

Chocolate Fudge Muffins

300gm self-raising flour
50gm cocoa powder
220gm caster sugar
1 egg (lightly beaten)
90gm butter (melted)
180ml milk
120gm sour cream
100gm milk choc chips
100gm white choc chips

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line 12 muffin pans with paper muffin cases.
2. Sift all dry ingredients into large bowl.
3. Stir in remaining ingredients and mix well.
4. Spoon mixture evenly into muffin pans
5. Bake 15-20 mins. Until cooked.

We're living temporarily in this unit, and the oven looks like it needs replacing so it took us longer than 2o mins to cook but see how you go.

I'm seriously turning into a 50s house wife.

First night without TV & taking up hobbies

This blog is a rambling one - and with no picture, sorry.

I have to admit it was hard coming back home from work and not automatically switching the TV on for a bit of background sound while I cooked dinner.
I felt so lonely, and when I'm alone the TV makes me feel I'm connected to the rest of the world. Does that make sense? or am I the only one? it was weird hearing the clock ticking, but ever so slowly I was eventually used to the silence in the house.
It gave me time to reflect, time to think about life, count my blessings etc. It was nice, different.

When Wayne came back home, I was so over-joyed it was quite funny. I appreciated his company to a greater level, after an hour on my own feeling disconnected from the rest of the world it was like WOW I have someone to talk to now.

We normally sit on the couch and watch TV when we eat dinner but this time we sat on the table like most normal people would do (obviously we're not normal) and talked for ages.

We talk a lot already, but it was nice to share a meal and have a chat rather than watch TV/DVDs. I thought this was truly quality time, watching a movie 'together' is not really quality time. You don't talk when you watch a movie, this is why I never understood why couples on a first date went to the movies? how do you get to know one another?

This TV-ban has been a blessing in my opinion and it will be interesting to see what will happen after 1 month. Are we desparately going to put the plug back in and start watching the rest of our Stargate dvd's? or are we going to have a much stronger appreciation to the time we've saved not watching movies, dvds, or tv shows?
I hope we do get this sense of appreciation. There's just such an obsession in this world with entertaintment, I don't want to be stuck in that bubble.

So now that we have a bit of free time I thought it would be good to take up a few hobbies:

- Sewing (Hi Mum and Nana) pretty much most of my Mum's side know how to sew and I want to learn. I actually know a bit, I just need to practice. So off I go to the op shops! and helllo spotlight! (to my overseas readers, spotlight is a fabric store)

- Wayne has an idea for a business - it's sort of a personal project and he's spending a bit of time researching on it.

- Baking - I haven't had the chance to do much baking, only when I was young to help Mum out.

- Story-writing - Wayne has a fabulous imagination and it's one of his other personal projects which I'd like to encourage him to continue working on.

- Photography - I love photography, pretty much what I'd like to do full time.

What would you take up if you had a bit of free time?

House Update: Moroccan themed outdoor area

I hope you enjoy our house updates. We get excited by just one simple update.

They're going to be putting the doors and windows for lockup stage on Wednesday. But you never know with building, we'll stay optimistic about it.

They also finished adding our small deck which we're hoping to extend next year to make it bigger, I'd really like our deck to have a moroccan theme with patterned cushions, lanterns and rugs.

Here's my inspiration board I put together:

When friends come over for tea I'd love to use this silver tea set. How fabulous is the tea pot? it's too pretty to use.

Have these comfy star ottomans scattered around for a nice cosy evening.

And these gorgeous ceramic pieces, sigh.

I know it seems impossible to achieve all this in such a small space, but with this picture I've been inspired that anything is possible in small space. How good does it look? I love the vibrant bright colours.

I can't wait to star decorating the outdoor deck now, it's pretty exciting. Do you like? or do you think it's too much?

Pictures: Metroscope and Kasbah imports

Do you think it can be done?

Wayne and I have realised how much TV uses up our time. It's just so easy to forget about our chores, and once you sit on that couch, oh no. It takes every bit of energy to stand up again and do other things.

So we've decided to set ourselves a small challenge, we're starting small because we have no idea how bad it will be, if we can achieve it we might extend it.

So the challenge is to not watch TV for a whole week. Starting from this Wednesday.
It's quite a challenge because every other night we watch at least 2 episodes of Stargate, so no more stargate. Shock Horror!

I think this will be good, it'll give us a chance to spend more quality time not just together but with others as well and most importantly more bible study. We can make extra time for our friends and family, just one hour will be great to catch up with a mate for a coffee. We can even have a few friends over to play board games instead of watching DVD's, at least this will encourage coversation.

Do you think it's a bit of a weak challenge? or do you think personally you'd find it hard? If you think it's weak maybe you should challenge us to extend it =P

We need your support!!!! and of course we'll let you know how we go.

UPDATE:

We don't actually watch TV channels, we use the TV to watch DVD's so that is our main killer. We've read your comments about it being a weak target and we've changed it for a whole month. How about that? The TV will be back on the 14th May (the day before my birthday) yaay.

Happy blog about happy people and happy things

Best title ever right?

It's kinda cool when you know there are people out there reading your blog and then on top of that you get an award for it!

Out of boredom we made a video, it's much crazy like this one we made a few weeks ago. I find Wayne in the bathroom and tried to tell him about our award. He pulled a prank on me, yay. The video isn't the best quality made with an iPhone.

Thanks to the lovely Miss Kitty-Cat who kindly gave us the 101 happy award.
Towards the end of the video, Wayne does a TROLOLOL dance/song (all for you miss kitty) the trololo song has become a bit of an internet craze over youtube - this is the original trololol video here.

In the meantime enjoy this:

So apparently we are supposed to list the top 10 blogs we enjoy reading and also the top 10 things we love.

Here it goes!

Polkadot Bride - This beautiful blog inspired me daily with wedding thoughts and ideas and of course it is this blog that gave me the opportunity to win bridesmaids dresses by Henry Roth. Miss Polkadot is so down to earth...all you brides and non-brides who love weddings check out this blog!

Bianca Stella - This lovely chicky who I've met a few times has quite the fabulous taste, her blog brings inspiration to me like no other. She blogs about everything from fashion to design to typography to photography...everything which I am facinated about.

365 Days in the Life of Donna Clarisse I love taking a sneak peak at Donna's day to day adventures. She's planning her wedding which no doubt will be amazing.

Peonies and Polaroids Another blog which inspires me. Words cannot describe the beautful images that are used.

Miss Kitty-Cat goes to town The beautiful Miss Kitty-Cat, she just has knowledge about anything and everything and I'm forever grateful for the advice she gives. Her blog ranges from fashion to make-up to food to basically all the things I like.

Young House Love Best blog for DIY home stuff and I've loved the ideas I've been getting for the house we are building. Check it out!

Mel's 365 Day Photo Journey The lovely Mel was one of the first to give me the idea to start a blog. Her Photo blog journey is facinating especially when it involves sharing her collection of head bands. Jealous factor!

Katialo's photostream @ Flickr This isn't a blog as such but it is a flickr account of our photographer and he updates it regularly. We love his work!

Rachel and John - I've just discovered this blog, Rachel and John are also newly weds and it's nice to see their experiences and their life out in Calgary.

Darling Dee Dee - My dear friend who was part of my bridal party has recently started this cute fashion blog.

Now for the top 10 things that we love and that make us smile/happy - in no particular order.

1. Pita bread and Hummous - Wayne can live on this.
2. Eachother of course
3. Stargate
4. Our Family & Friends
5. Farrah likes Popcorn (microwaved at 2mins and 10 seconds to be exact) but Wayne is more of a chocolate person.
6. Trololol Guy - endless laughter.
7. Music - definitely up there.
8. Going out to restaurants - we just love eating out & trying different foods.
9. Being Random & super silly.
10. CUDDLES!

Easter time!

We had a great time at Easter, celebrating that Christ is risen. Wayne and I went to church early morning and got to catch up with our church friends. We then got ourselves prepared for a lovely luncheon feast in my family home.

My little cousin was there, and Wayne was so persistent on doing a scavenger hunt for her with easter eggs. So that's exactly what we did! and she loved it. When she found all the eggs she came up to me and said 'QUICK we need to find more eggs' and I said 'I think we found all of them already' and she replied back with a sad face 'but we didn't find the pink egg'. So cute! she loves pink and silly us forgot to hide a pink egg for her.

I love family time, I can't wait to share memories like this with my cousin when she grows up.

We stuffed our faces with chocolate like we've never seen chocolate before. I'm sure most of you did the same. I hope you did? that way I don't have to feel so guilty about it.

Easter was the last straw for us to go absolutely nuts with food. We ate and ate and ate and then we simply just couldn't eat anymore and when we went back to work on Tuesday, it was impossible to think about food and not feel sick.

Right now we are being healthy! no more junk food for a long time. Until Wayne and I both get back to a healthy range weight. We kinda went loose after the wedding but now it's important to focus on being healthy. We need support! so please, as much as we'd like to go out and have dinner with you at KFC or Pizza Hut...it's going to have to be a no.

However we're cool with salad dates!

Hello! & happpppy eastterrrr

Look! I found an easter egg!

Spot the cadbury egg

Hey Farrah, look at all the eggs I found :)

Muuuuum look at all the eggs I got

Wayne, we need to go find some more. There aren't any pink ones!

Changes to our blog

Well...it's not a major big deal but we've just removed the '365 days tag' from our blog. We just didn't want to limit our blog to just 1 year, and also at this rate writing everyday is just not possible. We are busy to the max! but we'll try to keep it consistent simply because we know how much you want to see what we're up to (I'm thinking of Mum).

Also, at some stage we are going to change the name of the URL but we have to figure out how to do that and keep all the comments.

By the way, http://www.wayneandfarrah.com still exists! and it directly takes you to this blog.

Much love,

Wayne and Farrah

Only fools can bowl

I'm surprised they had bowling shoes to fit Wayne's feet

Robyn's birthday happens to fall on April Fool's Day and we were invited to play bowling. The last few times Wayne and I did bowling I was particularly lucky to win, it's all about luck because I seriously suck at bowling. So he decided it would be a good idea to tell the whole world, 'FARRAH WILL WIN'....and completely jinxed me so I didn't win this time at all. In fact I came last.

Nevertheless, we still had a fabulous night and Wayne was on a major hyper mood. He was pulling a few stunts here and there. For example, he would dance whilst bowling? only Wayne can pull off such a thing.

After we played 2 games, we decided to go out for a drink at the Coffee Club. Wayne and I always get the same thing when we go to the coffee club, it's not actually coffee because neither of us drink it but it's Iced Chocolate :) no wonder why we've been gaining weight hah!

Happy Birthday to Robyn xx