Graduation 2.0

At my graduation ceremony for my Masters of Primary Teaching:

Laura's Wedding

This past weekend, I was a bridesmaid at my friend Laura's wedding.

The five of us spent the night before the wedding at a serviced apartment near the golf club on the beach where the wedding was to take place.

The theme was navy and white, with a nautical theme.

Laura wore a handmade strapless white gown with a beautiful sequinned and beaded bodice.
Elise and I (the bridesmaids) wore knee length navy chiffon dresses.

The ceremony was supposed to take place on the lawn of the golf club, right on the beach... but we woke up to rain on the day of the wedding. Despite all of our praying and hoping, the wedding got moved inside.

It was just as beautiful and elegant, and looked amazing once we arrived to walk down the aisle.

To see Laura and her fiance (now husband!) Elisha together at the end of the aisle was so awesome.

\












After the ceremony, we enjoyed some amazing food (I tried quail for the first time!) and danced the night away.

Instead of a traditional wedding cake, Laura and Elisha had a croquembouche-profiteroles with Bailey's Irish cream and honeycomb on top! Yum!

Snow Trip

Last weekend I spent the weekend at the snow with some friends from church. My friend Keisha & I drove down together on Friday night to Jindabyne, where we met the rest of our friends.

We spent Saturday and Sunday skiing! We started off at a smaller ski village called Smiggin Holes, before skiing over to Perisher Valley.


An early morning start to the day...

On Sunday, we got up early and headed to Perisher Valley. We spent the first part of the morning on a hill checking out the view.

Then we took turns sledding down the hill!

It was so much fun, and a great weekend away.

Plans for the Day

My plans for the day include going here:

with my best bud Elise, just for fun!

Tonight, I'm seeing this:



(a last minute spontaneous decision because my dance studio is going since we get cheap tickets for being dancers!)




Last week, I got to see this with a few people from dancing:



It was so much fun, and I can't wait to see Mary Poppins again tonight!
(I first saw it in New York in 2009; you can read about how much I loved it here)

Random Things

10 random facts about me, because it's been one of those random days where I stay in my tracksuit and do my tax and work on school stuff allllll day long.

Inspired by Angie's post about quirks and pet peeves... here are some funny but true things about me.


- I really hate coffee. Hate the smell, hate the taste.


- I can't just buy one item at the supermarket, I feel compelled to spend a little more money and stock up on at least three things.


- I have to spread my Vegemite all the way to the edges of the bread, so that it covers the butter I've put underneath the Vegemite.
(Also, the reason "foreigners" hate it so much is that they don't eat it properly- you have to eat it on bread or crackers with butter or margarine on it first, you can't just eat it alone.)


- I can't go to bed with the doors of my closet open.


- I always have the TV on when I'm baking or cooking. Preferably on a music channel like MTV.


- I love hotel beds. I love the crispness of the white sheets.


- I can't sleep on planes. I'm too anxious and uptight to relax enough to fall asleep. For one thing, there's almost always turbulence, even if it's only short lived, and then I just can't sleep because I'm waiting for the next bit of turbulence to come anyway.


- After I get out of the shower, I always dry my legs and feet with the towel first.


- There are only five fruits that I will eat- apples, bananas, oranges, mandarins and green grapes with no seeds.


- I hate common spelling and grammar mistakes, like people who use the wrong "your" and "you're", or "their", "there" and "they're". Mixing up "effect" and "affect" bugs me too.


I guess it's a good thing I'm a teacher! I am an absolute grammar Nazi!

Adventures in Baking

This past weekend I have been on a huge baking spree.




Saturday was a good day in my kitchen. I was a happy girl, getting to bake all day!




I made Nigella Lawson's chocolate brownies,




Donna Hay's shortcrust pastry (which I later filled with caramel custard to make a caramel pie)





and... Ina Garten's baked potato wedges,

(which I didn't manage to take a photo of because they were eaten so fast!)


In fact, yesterday I made the baked potato wedges again (they are just that good!)



I also made a Hershey's chocolate cake with choc raspberry frosting inspired by the one on this blog.







Such yumminess!

And now I really need to go for a run.

Ice Ice Baby!

I went iceskating on the beach last night!


Just like last year, my sister Chelsea & I went to Bondi Beach where they have constructed a huge icerink right on the sand!

I got really cheap tickets off the Team Spreets website (I subscribe to a ton of these deal websites now; you can get some really great stuff for cheap prices!), and Chelsea agreed to come with me again, even though we have been having freezing cold, ridiculously windy weather lately!





We had the best time! They had created a little alpine snow village right on the beach, and everyone was dressed up like they worked at a Swiss chalet!


After last year, where we rocked it on the ice, Chels & I thought we would be awesome iceskaters once again...

But we ended up spending most of our time on the rink like this:




For some reason, the icerink wasn't smooth and flat like usual. Instead, it had these little divets every couple of metres, which made it hard to skate!

Everytime we let go of each other's hands we seemed to stumble and almost fall - although neither of us actually fell.

I guess that's what you get for thinking you're a big-shot pro iceskater who had beginner's luck last year.

Training for next year's icescapades starts now!

:)