Butter Cookies & Outfits Saturday

Welcome to Saturday! Its almost Chinese New Year (14th of Feb is the 1st day) and I haven't started on my cookie making yet.

I didn't want to make my dad's choc chip cookies or pineapple tarts this year as they are just too much work + starting work at 7.30 (why doesn't WA get daylight savings?!??!) is taking a toll on me, so I searched and found this perfect butter cookie recipe by Sonia. 

Thankyou soooo much for posting it, its so easy and the results are fab! 

I made a trial batch last night (all eaten by hbs) and today I made 2 more batches - 1 with an extra tsp of cocoa for chocolate butter cookies, and another batch I stirred in a small box of Coles sultanas+apricots. Yumyum! Now I must pack and hide it for CNY gift giving before hb eats them all up....

 

 

We went to IKEA this morning for their super satisfying cheap brekkie, no pics, but sausage, tomato, hash brown, bacon AND baked beans for... $3.50! Can't get any better than that. After that we went op-shopping and I spotted these berries growing at the side of the road- does anyone have any idea what sort of berries are they?

 

And finally my weekend shopping outfit! Perfect temperature today, so comfortable with a cool breeze-(25-28 degrees) . Cool enough to bake without turning on a single fan or air cond and warm enough to wear shorts! Yay! Almost fall :)

Cardigan: De Cjuba

Printed cami with metal and velvet trim: JeansWest

Belt: Sportsgirl

Shorts: Cotton On

Shoes: Vincci

 

  

 

updates.......

from this week! More knits to come VERY soon.... I'm just sooo lazy at finishing the end bits of a garment that... makes it a garment! Seaming, weaving ends... even picking up the edges and ribbing! That;s probably why hb's sweater still looks as per below after almost two months! I assure you the knitting does NOT take two months.. probably just 5 days in total.... the seaming, ribbing,weaving the ends however are still in progress!

 

oh! plus all the birthdays and cny cookie making sessions are taking up wayyy too much time...

 

  

Thrifted ($3!!!) skirt, Valleygirl flutter sleeve top and Vincci pearl and ribbon trim heels

 

  

And for work today (TGIF!!) Sportsgirl white coat, Just Jeans pink top, Valley girl plaid ruffle skirt and pink vincci flat (yes flats today!)

It was STefan's bday yesterday... we had a wonderful dinner @ Galileo but the food took so long I was almost asleep by the time it came! Luckily the food was fantastic!

Mark's Bday

We celebrated Mark’s birthday on the foreshore ytd! It was slightly chilly towards the end of the day (weird as the day started so hot) but we all had a great time. It was also a good catch up with some of our Tafe mandarin-class friends.

Stefan warned me that it was going to be cold so I wore a lil shrug with my Billabong dress. Really comfortable and it has too roomy pockets so I could fit my mobile and compact camera!

I actually bought the dress on the day itself, Simon was buying a Oliver-Twist-like cap from City Beach and when were queuing up to pay there was a sudden announcement throughout the store that they were taking $10 off discounted summer dresses. I had been eyeing the dress whilst S was trying out a number of things and it was already marked down from $69 to $39. How could I resist at $29? I just grabbed it, got it marked down and made it just in time as S was literally entering his pin at the cashier! 

 

  

 

chictopia

I guess you've noticed that I've been posting more outfits lately. I've always loved clothes (shoe addiction!) and knitting/sewing/embroidering has been a big part of that. Middle of last year though, I discovered chictopia - its like a huge lookbook diary for everyone!I've not been very active till late last year (too busy ogling at everyone else's great outfits!) and its been a huge inspiration to my knitting life, so you'll be seeing more "chictopia" outfit posts from now on :) Possibly spurned me to knit faster!

Find me on chictopia here and my other great love ravelry (user id: alescna)

This was my outfit for today- casual dress Friday@ work on a 38 degree day! Its super cold in the northern hemisphere and freakin hot in Australia!

 

  

 

First FO of 2010 - Plum Cowl

Its a simple cowl and done in less than 3 hours! I've never made a cowl before and am simply amazed at how quick it knitted up. Its done in a textured seed stitch and very cozy. Its over 35++ degrees here and its been difficult to knit when the temps have been above 35 almost everyday for the last 2 weeks - luckily we have air conditioning!

The Australian Open is on now and watching it everyday has certainly sped up my knitting- go Federer!

This pattern is Autumn Orange Cowl by Melynda Bernardi, a free pattern on ravelr. I used 2 skeins of Moda Vera Shiver ( only $1 per skein on sale!) on 10 mm needles.

Mods: CO 45 sts and knitted until I got 10 inches in length.

Chictopia details:

Cowl: Knitted by me

Satin Top: Target

Shorts: MNG

Pearl & Satin kitten heels: Vincci

Sunday Lunch

Hb insists on lunch to be prepped as soon as he gets home from work today (yup, pharms work Sundays) so when I completed my last post, I chugged along to the kitchen intent on prepping it before it gets too hot.

I made our favourite soba- recipe here - cold this time, chilling the broth till hbs gets home and searched the internet for a great cabbage salad recipe.

I didn't find any that I liked (mostly cole slaw and salads with fish sauce) so I just jumbled up a few ingredients from the fridge and pantry and voila! It tastes pretty good (to us anyway!)

Summer Cabbage Salad

Ingredients:

About 1 cup of finely shredded cabbage

Handful of washed blueberries (only $1.99 from Cannington Veg Mkt ytd!)

Finely sliced small beetroot

Chopped 1/4 of a red onion

2 boiled eggs, sliced

2 tablespoonful of cubed marinated feta (pinched from my sis!)

1 peice of boccocini, sliced finely

Dressing:

5 tablespoon of balsamic dressing

1 tblspoon Jarrah Honey

Toss all ingredients together in a salad bowl. Mix balsamic with honey and stir well until well blended. Toss dressing into salad and rest in the fridge for about 1/2 hour. Eat!

These are the ingredients I used:

 

 

 

Fabulous Sugar Doll Award Blogger!

Thanks to Eliana who gave me this fabulous award! Thankyou so much! You are such a sweetie and you create some incredibly beautiful and inspiring knits! Not only that, your sense of style is impeccable!

Now, to the 10 things I have to tell you about myself :)

1. I'm a Vogue magazine junkie - absolutely devour it every month, fashion, Jeffrey Steingarten's food review, even the ads!
   
2. I only read happy books - historical romances and Agatha Christie (never a bad ending- mystery AND romance!)
   
3. I love anything crafty and arty- paper, knit, sew, paint, cook
   
4. I hate exercising! I am now trying, but I still hate it!
5. I collect anything pretty - clothes, stamps (yes!), pictures,
6. I love my family and wish we all lived closer to one another, especially my mum, dad & bro (my sis lives with me)
7. I am a wedding-addict, just looking at beautiful dresses, flowers, table settings, invites... bliss!
8. I secretly feel like my career is going nowhere and would love to work within the crafty/fashiony industry sometime in the near future
9.  I wished I have a piano so I can play to my heart's content.
10. I want to travel a whole lot more!
    

Now, I pass the award to you sweeties below:

Alesia

Daphne

Petrina

Anna

Lupie