Dum dum de dum, dum dum de dum! It’s wedding season!

 

How do I know this...? Well, I have three wedding invitations lined up in front of me as we speak. Well, two paper invites, and an email invite, really. Fortunately for my wallet, they’re from three couples who move in separate social circles, which means one brilliant thing - I only need one dress! (Dress dramas to be related in a separate blog post, there's just not enough room here!)

 

Amazingly, all three are having civil ceremonies, no church weddings here. I am a little sad about that though, as an atheist who absolutely adores the dogma and stained glass windows of organised religion. But I can appreciate that having a civil ceremony means you can do away with the Amen and Glory be to God mantras. (Keep the Hallelujah’s in though, I love them!) You also get to choose who marries you, and I am using marry as a verb here. I’ve always thought that having some wrinkly old priest or father, or worse, a celibate, droning never-married old priest or father officiating over your ceremony would be a little odd. I mean, they wouldn’t get hitched but they’re happy to tie others together? Hells no.

 

I would much prefer a cool, young, fashionable, witty type, throwing in a few asides, and perhaps taking the mickey out of my husband-to-be. (I’ll let you know when I find one. Obviously.)

 

So I present to you, a cool, young, fashionable, witty type who could never drone, and is quite good at taking the mickey out me. Meet Dene. The Young Celebrant. She’s uber-fun. She wears many hats. Amongst them, she is a popular radio host, RAW practitioner, Obama campaign volunteer, cute chick... and wedding celebrant.

         

If you’re planning on taking the plunge, and you’re the type of bride (or groom - do boys even read me?) to get inspiration from blogs rather than the classified ads in the back of the Southeast Advertiser, then Dene might just be the right celebrant for you. Her website is here.

I can't promise that she won't show up to her first meeting with you with a large hot chocolate, an infectious laugh, a big smile and a funky knitted hat though!

        

Check out this table...! As a child who was fascinated by reading my grandfather's Woodworking Magazines and watching him turn (hehe, get it, woodturning) delicious-smelling hunks of camphor laurel into delicious-smelling bowls and frames, this is amazing!



I keep finding awesome but distracting things in my hunt for decent small-space furniture for my new bedroom-to-be. Ooops!

        

        

Moving to a rented townhouse has some restrictions, namely 'no hooks'! Posters with a safe amount of blu-tack are fine though...

So many posters to choose from, so little wall space!

  

Fantastic typography poster from The Birds and the Beasts.

  

Brilliant thought from I Love Typography.

  

Super-cute bedtime poster from My Sweet Prints, and even better, they're Australian, and it's cheap!

        

I am moving in two weeks exactly... and I haven't started packing yet. Ugh. Is there anything more stressful than moving?

Now, I'm only moving into a sharehouse (well, a townhouse, to be precise) in Woolloongabba, so I won't be able to have beautiful spaces like these by Brian Park.

      
     

But I will have a reasonably-sized master bedroom, ensuite, walk-in robe (yay!) and a balcony off my bedroom. It could be worse.

I do need to plan a trip to Ikea once I've moved in, to get a few basics and the like. Any suggestions on decorating a rented bedroom to look like a million bucks?

I also need to pack - ugh.

        

I adore a sweet bite in the afternoon with my cup of tea, not that I indulge in these types of things every day, of course - wink wink! I found these delightful and tart mini-cakes in a magazine (can't remember which one now!) a few years ago and kept it in my recipe file - it's full of flour and butter splatters, as every recipe that has been loved and made multiple times should be!

These cakes are great for picnics and tea parties, and each bite bursts in your mouth with lemony tartness. The cream cheese makes for a rich and dense texture, but with such a smooth bitey-ness. And yes, bitey-ness is a word.

   

Lemon Tea cakes
Makes 28
Note: when I make my icing I like substituting the milk and the lemon extract for all real lemon juice and freshly grated lemon zest.

1-1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
250g cream cheese, softened
2-1/4 cups caster sugar
5 eggs
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons lemon extract
1-1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
2-1/2 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Glaze:
2-1/2 cups pure icing sugar (not icing mixture!)
1/3 cup milk
1-3/4 teaspoons lemon extract

Heat oven to 160 degrees C. Coat three 12-cup small muffin pans (not mini-muffin size, just patty cake is fine) with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

With mixer on medium speed, beat butter, cream cheese and sugar in bowl until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Mix in lemon juice, extract and lemon peel. On low speed, beat in flour, baking powder and salt. Fill each muffin cup with about 1/3 cup of batter for a total of 28. Bake at 160 degrees C for 23 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  
   
Cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans to wire rack and cool completely. 

  

Glaze: In medium-size bowl, blend icing sugar, milk and lemon extract until smooth. Dip top of each cake in glaze; place on baking paper or cake rack to dry. Enjoy!

       
  

        

Google Analytics is second only to Coco Pops in my list of the greatest inventions of mankind. Nothing brightens my day quite like logging in and having a look-see at the search phrases which have brought people in Katy Potaty's direction. And now, in a feature blatantly stolen from many many bloggers in the interweb-sphere, I shall endeavour to answer some of the burning questions of my visitors. Remember: I mock because I care.

Women’s Weekly profiterole recipe? Is god-awfully useless. Use Masterchef's instead.

Swine flu - should I take Nurofen? From now on, all my posts will be inspired by Google Trends - stay tuned for upcoming musings on Hot Football Scandal Sexcapades and Recessionista Financially-Savvy Chic Bargain Fashion.

Profiterole cupcakes. Holy crap, that’s an awesome idea! And a good solution to the problem of profiterole-transport (since they tend to melt and stick together).

¿Como hacer un porta cupcakes? ¿Necesito realmente publicar una receta del cupcake, no?

Competition Cupcakes? What the? How do you get competition-themed cupcakes? Ahhh. I see what you people are doing... you just want to win cupcakes. Makes sense really.

Well, although I have no cupcakes to give away presently (but there'll be some AWESOME coffee & caramel bars coming up, so keep you eyes peeled), I do have some 2 for 1 movie tickets to give away at some point in the next week. The movie release date is the 25th March, so between now and then, I'd better blog about the movie and give away the passes. Please someone, remind me!

I'm sure I'll remember on the 26th March.

        

I promise I didn't mean it. You can stop now. Enough!

When I wrote this last week, I sure didn't mean for the entire state of Queensland to be washed away in torrential downpours, the likes of which have not been seen for decades. I promise I didn't.

Now that all three of my work-suitable pairs of shoes are drenched, and the gutters are overflowing, and the possums are getting cabin fever in my roof, all cooped up and crazy, now that these things are driving me mental... I take it all back.

    

Since my words seem to have held so much power, I instead am wishing for dry shoes, dry towels, dry socks, dry toes, dry buses and maybe a trip to a warm dry holiday destination to really cap things off!

        

I thought this was so clever, I just had to post about it. The Phonofone II takes its design cues from the past. This speaker amps the volume of your favorite music with the shape of an old-fashioned gramophone using your iPod.

From designer Tristan Zimmermann of Science and Sons, this is one cool gadget, and would make such an awesome conversation piece!

        

I'd love to listen to some rag-time jazz or a fantastic old radio serial show on it! Maybe even dance the Charleston!