The Wedding

I watched it all. And I loved it. Well, some of the ceremony was boring, but I loved when the now Duke and Duchess of Cambridge shared glances and smiles together. I think those bits would be the favourite bits of my wedding, if and when it comes.

Loved the dress. Very Grace Kelly was my first reaction, and the reaction of my friends. I liked that the train was small. I wanted more flowers and a tiara more like Diana's wedding tiara, but that's okay. Very demure and graceful.

Her sister Pippa looked absolutely stunning! Hot hot hot! Gorgeous. Nearly upstaged Catherine. Nearly.

Loved gossiping about some of the guests outfits, hats, shoes, coats. The amount of people wearing black or white amazed me! I know black is kind of okay for weddings now, but I would have stayed well away from it had I been invited to a royal wedding. Same with white. You just don't go there, ever.

And, of course, what the hell was going on with Beatrice of York's hat/headdress/antlers? All I could see was Lady Gaga's lobsters. It was terrible.

Same same, but different?

My favourite moment of the whole thing? This.

Beautiful!

Images mostly from various articles on the UK's The Daily Mail. Link here.

Cider Festival

Every year, Kellybrook Winery has a Cider Festival. I've only been once before, and my! How it has grown!

Driving on my P's I didn't get to taste test the champagne cider or yummy yummy pear cider, but I grabbed a six pack for later.

It was absolutely beautiful out there today, surrounded by the yellow hills. Wonderful food (especially the toffee apples!) and the fun Morris dancing. I loved it :)

(Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs poison apple style) toffee apple. Delicious!

Band for the morris dancers. Loved their hats!

If you want to go along, check out their website here for more information.

Royally excited!

Image source: WeHeartIt

I've been sucked into watching those delightfully crummy morning shows about the Royal Wedding. I was intrigued by the wedding before this, curious to how a modern royal wedding would unfold today. But wonderful Kerri-Anne Kennerley has just informed me that it seems the wedding will take on a more whimsical style. Now I'm much more excited! A royal wedding with a fairytale style wedding?? Could it get much better? Hahaha!

I do wonder how Kate and William feel about some of the sacrifices they've no doubt had to make in order to keep with tradition, and the media. I hope it is still a wonderfully intimate and love filled affair that becomes a beautiful and happy day in their lives together.

For those interested, you can get the official programme online here.

Edit: I also came across a short 6minutes video about the history of royal wedding dresses. I found it really interesting the symbolism used in wedding dresses past. To watch the video, click on this link.

Rosey.

The other day I visited one of my favourite antique shops; Ratty and Moles Riverbank Antiques.

This is the cutest baby teacup. Normally I love teapots, but this little teacup was just too adorable. You can't really tell how tiny it is in the pictures unfortunately.

And this gorgeous mini rose spoon? It was just love. Apparently people collect spoons like this? It just seemed like something that'd belong on the Titanic.

And see, the detail continues on the back. I love it.

It's all so rosey!

Easter leftovers

Did you know you can get Kinder Mini Eggs?

"Milk chocolate mini eggs with a milky and crushed hazelnuts filling" says the packet. Delicious says me.

And did you know you can get big boxes of Creme Eggs?

Yep. $14 too. Too damn good.

If any other Melbourne people are interested, you can find these boxes down at Box Hill, in a shop called 'Sweet As'. This is how the Creme Egg ice cream was possible.

Now I'm off to go grab myself a big Kinder Surprise egg! Yum yum yum!

Easter

I've previously mentioned my love for Easter. And so my love continues.

Easter this year was not marked by a huge Easter egg hunt and family gatherings, as it had been in the past. Instead, this year we relaxed with family, had a puppy play date and rolled about in delicious chocolate.

I concocted Easter bunny poo for my boyfriend (roasted almonds coated in dark chocolate - his obsession of late).

While he created Creme Egg Ice Cream. Have I ever mentioned before my boyfriend is a genius? The boy makes the most delicious ice cream! This one was chocolate ice cream with pockets of the creme-y bit from inside Creme Eggs throughout and hunks of the chocolate shells. Perfect!

Hope you all enjoyed your long weekends and all the sweet chocolatey goodness! :)

Lest we forget.

When researching wars of the past, it is always the letters home that capture me. The individual journeys through battle, fear and love. Their stories are unbelievable. Heartbreaking too. You read them desperately hoping they made it out alive; that they could return to the warm arms of their homes. Not all do.

For the full letter, click here.

This is a love letter written to an unknown ANZAC soldier by a Frenchwoman, Marthe Gylbert, on 25 August 1918.

My Darling Little Sweetheart, Just few lines hoping that my letter find you in the best of Health. I am very well myself at present and my family the same.

Well Lovey, you see I am faithfully thinking of you not too one else only to you. You know I love you very well my Little Husband. I am never love any body else. if you [illegible, probably 'get'] killed I stay every time with my little Baby. if you give me one. I hope to see you very soon. Darling I Dream about you last night I see you married with one else. I don’t thing you [illegible - looks like 'daw date'.]

So will close now with the best Remembrance from all my family and me. Best Love and Kisses XXX from your ever Loving Little Sweetheart. Wife to be very soon.

Martha Gylbert

We don't know what happened to this soldier.

He was loved though. I think that's important to remember. That every soldier was and is still loved by at least someone. They are human, like us.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

Lest we forget.

The Tudors Love

Why I love The Tudors:

1. Kings, Queens, Mistresses. Love triangles, life and death, and all that juicy drama. I love it.

2. History. Henry VIII lead an extraordinary life, you cannot deny that.

3. Inaccuracies. I really love the inaccuracies. Some are just ridiculous and funny (for example, Margaret). Others are more sneaky. Why do I love them though? They make you hunt for the truth. You learn in the truth hunting - plus a whole lot more!

4. Costumes. The sets. The computer graphic castles, not so much. Everything else looks awesome. I want some royal bling baby!

5. Natalie Dormer. Henry Cavill. Sarah Bolger. Beautiful people, wonderful actors. Or, more accurately, this:

Coffee.

I lost my coffee virginity the other day. Now I just need a cute teacup like the one above...

And some pink coffee.

Winter warmer

Oh Savers, how I love thee. Four woolen jumpers, all around $4.99 - $6.99 each. Beautiful!

Now, time to do some hand washing. It seems so many people hate hand washing, but you know, I really like it! Pretty lucky since most of my stuff requires a gentle hand wash haha

Bouncing Bunny

I successfully transformed bunny into a bouncing bunny brooch! He had his first outing the other day. Too darn cute! :D

He'll be bouncing around on my bosom (such a fantastic word!) much more this winter :)

Maxi.

Amanda Brohman

I'm loving the maxi skirt in winter trend. I gave it a go today, wearing a black cotton maxi skirt, my blush pink knitted jumper with a collar, black tights and heeled Mary Poppin shoes.

I can't wait to play with my other maxi skirts and knits. Some inspiration:

Diary of a Fashion Addict

Twitch Vintage

The Style Voyager

Miss Pouty

Style Pantry

Atlantic Pacific

Time to play dress ups! :D

Cosy.

I think it may just be time to start building one of these babies.

The weather has turned wintery cold these past few days and I'm all stuffy headed with a cold. I'd love to snuggle up in a warm cubby with lots of pillows and blankets and books.

I particularly like this one from the film The Holiday (above). I love that movie :)

If you need more inspiration, check out the impressive work of Troy and Abed in the tv show Community (fantastic show, by the way):

Brooches

I always admire people who can wear brooches, and wear them well. I'm going to give it a go this winter. They seem like the perfect thing to wear on a big warm jacket or on a scarf. I've been particularly inspired by All This Happiness, who is very much in love with her Mr. Seahorse and Mr. Fox brooches.

This is my current collection. The top two are from the market while the bottom two were op shop finds.

This glamourpuss I found today, at the op shop I volunteer at. I've had my eye out for something with some super sparkle and flower formed, mostly as a gift idea for a friend. But I may have accidently fallen in love with this one. It may also be a bit too ostentatious for the friend in mind. At least that's what I tell myself!

Meet Helga. I picked this one up when I first started volunteering at the local op shop. What fascinates me most about this brooch is that on the back the wonderful golden frame is continued and stamped with "Western Germany". I couldn't help myself. My sister has the sister brooch, which features a different face. I also have the matching necklace, which feels horribly plastic but that's also why I like it. It has a bit of kitsch charm about it.

I wish I could share a close up of Poison Girl brooch, but I'm having some internet difficulties. Let me assure you though, she is gorgeous :)

And this guy? This cute isn't a brooch. Yet. I have plans to transform him sometime soon. I picked him up at the Flower and Garden show. I believe he will look very cute resting on my woolen jumpers.

Choc hazelnut cookies

So, once again, I have another assignment due. You can always tell when the posts about food increase. Quite tragic, I know.

I've been craving these cookies (above) that my boyfriend baked for me a while ago now. Delicious fat chocolate and hazelnut cookies with chocolate icing. They were delicious. Sooooooo delicious. I love fat cookies.

I came to crave them even more so after Oriental Hotel's recent post about the yummies she made.

It became apparent that it was time for me to bake. Especially with an assignment to do.

I don't have the recipe my boyfriend used, and I wasn't super fond of the weird measurements of ingredients on Oriental Hotel's blog so I tried searching the internet. It wasn't feeling helpful, so instead I reached for the cookbooks/magazine tear outs.

I finally ended up transforming this:

Into this:

They taste like Nutella and I have eaten far too many of them. Even though they are flat cookies and I'm not always a fan of flat cookies.

If anyone wants the recipe I'm more than happy to post it up :)

In the meantime...

On nom nom!