Do you do this too?

I'm a big fan of doing this! 

I do it quite often.

tara louise. 

PS. Sorry for the pixelated photo - the only version I could find.

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fridays faves

i haven't done this for a while, but thought i'd share some lovely blogs i've discovered lately + the most awesome thing to add to any bike - i seriously want one!

3 blogs

                 apartment 34                                my scandinavian home                              design love fest

 1 awesome link

I found this video while browsing nylon mag and my goodness, it's the coolest thing ever. i seriously want one! watch the video - it's fab!

have a great last day at work and a lovely weekend.

tara louise.

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FOOD: DIY Truffles

i don't always like to toot my own horn [insert giggle here], but i have to tell you, the truffles i made yesterday tasted a-MAZE-ing. they were that good. with easter upon us and little old me unable to eat delights such as cadbury creme eggs *sob* i came up with an alternative. a quick google search found these truffles by jamie oliver. they are awesomeness on a spoon (that's a word ok!). 

my version:

we had a pretty good dessert spread after our good friday bbq and we did enjoy the truffles.

 a lot.

i will definitely be making these again. it's a great easy recipe. 

i used 70% cocoa lindt chocolate (which has no milk products in it) and used lactose free cream.

these are crazy rich truffles, so if you can eat it with milk chocolate, i'd probably use one block of milk and 2 of dark chocolate. 

go and make these tomorrow or monday - there's still 2 days of easter left. 

or make them for a dinner party. they are a fun dessert. 

enjoy.

tara louise. 

PS. I'm back now and have a kinda working computer, so there will be a thousand and one posts on my trip to come. oh yay you say! 

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Fridays Faves

3 re-discovered blogs i'm enjoying...

link                                                        link                                                            link

and 3 posts i'm loving this week...

one  |   waking up full of awesome

two  | brightening someones day with these


three |  if you're easily distracted: go be productive (amazing but don't think i could do it!!)

hope you've had a good week!

tara louise. 

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july 2011 calendar

here's this months calendar (a few days early so you're super dooper organised):

simply save this picture to your computer. if you want to add your monthly agenda, open the photo into a photo program and add your text/daily doings. then save it and save as desktop background.

feel free to share this around, but please credit it back to my page.

thanks a bunch.
tara louise.

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blog post catch-up

i've thought of a few posts i wanted to write but didn't have the time to do, so i'm going to mash them all into one condensed blogathon. here goes...hope i can remember them all now!



POST 1: BEAUTIFUL WINTERY SUNRISES

I took these photos on my phone (hence the bad quality) a few weeks ago while i was out running (i was planning on doing the 10km marathon....turns out it clashes with the finders keepers market, so i've ditched the marathon to go up and check out this fab market!) in the morning. I love this time of year for sunrises and sunsets. I may be freezing my butt off but I have this at the end to marvel at.

POST 2: A FLOWER

my husband came in the door one day a few weeks back, just from taking out the rubbish or something, and handed me this flower. i know it was from next door, but the fact that he thought to do it is so much nicer to me than spending $50 on a bunch of massive flowers (that well usually make me sneeze). i thought it was very sweet.

POST 3: ROLLING DOWN THE HILL

for my aunts birthday back in may we went to the botanical gardens in brisbane for a picnic lunch. we sat by the pond and while my cousin was thinking about where he could plank (this was as the planking craze went nutso) the large hill down to the pond was calling my name. i hadn't rolled down a hill for way too many years (turns out its not as easy when you're older). so i had a crack at rolling down the hill. i tried to enlist some others to roll with me, but i was on my own. i started out ok and got progressively worse...my cousin stepped in to help me out towards the bottom of the hill (and i blame most of my troubles with the rods in my back......they do not make for easy rolling. i tended to get get stuck ad have to push myself back over to keep rolling), but hey i had fun and was still finding grass in my hair 2-3 washes later :)

now i thought there were some more posts i wanted to do but can't remember what they were now, so that's about it.

tara louise.

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a nice surprise...

i was looking at the online mag maeve the other day and realised my grandma was in it! ages ago they had asked for your fave photos of your mums/grandmas. this was one of my faves. it was lovely to see her in it. i'd forgotten all about it.

thats my grandma dulcie....the one that's circled.

and after that i was reading the article on barbies and saw my fave barbie i had:

i think she was the first barbie i ever had that i didn't have to share with my sister.

i may have even bought her myself.

just thought you'd like to know my fave barbie :)

did you have a favourite barbie?

if so please share!

tara louise.

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love affair: braids

i've been collecting photos of braided hair for a while now. i love the simplicity and ease of it. well they look easy anyway. i had a crack at it yesterday on a whim and i must say, it's my new fave hairstyle. i wore it to work and i didnt even get told i looked ridiculous (i work with my dad and husband so there was a high possibility i could have been told i looked ridiculous!).

    
both photos from pinterest

                                             

link: a cup of jo/pinterest

i'd read this tutorial a few weeks ago and this was the look i attempted....

as a first attempt and slightly shorter hair than needed i think it went alright.

i wore this look today too, but it works better with freshly washed hair i think.

it doesn't look so neat at the top, but meh. i'm not a perfectionist. 

this is just before i hopped on my bike to go to work.

i felt very european for some reason.

have a go at it.

it's fun and not boring.

way better than a pony tail or bun on top of your head.

(my two looks of choice for donkeys)

tara louise.



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stripes, hearts and fabric oh my!

my fave pins on pinterest this week....

1. yummy healthy iceblock

2. doily mirror diy

3. pretty little necklace ( i wish i could get away with wearing!)

4. A-frame tent (filed in the "when we have kiddies"file)

5. doily table runner

6. fabric covered books

7. diy heart tights (can i get away with wearing these at 26?? please let me!)

8. simple style

9. peter pan collar. stripes. tan belt (3 of my loves all together in a lovely dress)

END NOTE: THE DRESS IN NUMBER 9 IS TOPSHOP. I'M NOT SURPRISED AT ALL. THERE'S A 4TH LOVE RIGHT THERE!

I have a few more blog posts up my sleeve yet...

tara louise.

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love this to pieces

from new online mag dedicated to paper: paper runway

tara louise.

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this sums up my thoughts exactly about ice-cream. i am forever telling my husband: i'm so happy with an ice-cream in my hand. so happy  :)

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happiness is...

...iceream. i love ice-cream. since only being able to eat sorbet i have been researching great ice-cream recipes that i can make at home, becasue well, as much as i LOVE the chocolate sorbet with lime sorbet combo i always rely on, nothing beats yummy rich ice-cream.

i found one recipe by accident which was a custard based ice-cream. now it was delicious. however i am far too impatient to make custard, wait for it to cool, freeze, whisk, freeze, whisk etc. and far too poor to buy an ice cream machine.

since the first delicious time-consuming recipe i have made a tofu ice-cream: massive fail and a milk and cream based ice-cream: ate it but it wasn't great.

then by complete accident again i came across the best and easiest ice-cream recipe yet. i am well impressed with this find! it came disguised as a cream cup (and i can't find the recipe link anywhere!) while i was madly looking for a quick dessert to make during the week. The original recipe is to be frozen only for 8-10mins, however i froze the lot and let me tell you when it's melted a bit. my gosh it is yum.

Simply put 1/2 a tub of tofutti/cream cheese (i'm so impatient i only ever do half batches of ice-cream coz i really can't be bothered to wait for the lot to freeze...and i get bored of flavours quickly) into a bowl with half a cup of icing sugar and about 3/4 cup of cream (i used lactose free cream). Add some vanilla extract and whatever flavours you want. You may need to adjust the sugar/acidity/cream according to taste. Add a touch/small pinch of salt if it is too creamy and to bring out the flavour you've chosen. And that's it. Whisk it or pop it in the blender to get all the lumps of cream cheese out. Pour into individual cups or leave in the bowl and freeze. Last time i just left them and they were fine. This time i'm whisking and freezing and whisking and freezing everytime it starts to freeze   whenever i remember. Want to see what difference it makes.

Today I am making rum and raisin flavoured ice-cream because i've had the biggest craving for it. Might try coffee again next time. Try it. it really is simple.

tara louise.

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love affair: polka dots

i am loving polka dots (and stripes...but more on that another day) to bits at the moment.

polka dot nails inspired by gem fatale

i just can't get enough of them!

tara louise.

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my new love

and this is her. the diana mini en rose.

oh how i love her to bits!

she was a present from my husband who'd been in brasil.

ps. if you ever go to brasil, they have a great lomo shop in leblon!

there's so many things to love about it.

it's pink.

it has a cupcake on the winder.

and it takes 35mm film.

and you can fit something like 45 shots on a roll of film!

what's not to love!

i've put one roll through so far with my second roll of film in at the moment.

here are my fave shots from the first roll...

(i nearly fell off my bike trying to take this shot! oops)

 ah, i'm in love.

it has gone everywhere with me almost this long weekend.

it's such  a delight.

tara louise.

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for the love of confetti

a cute animation. first i've done in a long while.

i love confetti.

I've had 2 boxes sitting waiting for me to play with for awhile now.

here is what i really wanted the full animation to be like, but i couldn't put all the photos in...

tara louise.

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march calendar

it snuck up on me this month.
all of a sudden i realised tomorrow is march! far out. how'd that happen?

here's a lovely calendar for you to pop up onto your desktop and write your daily doings on.
it's as simple as right clicking the picture, saving it and adding text in a photo editing program. then just right click, press save as background and done! ta da.....

i've got to say, i'm pretty bloody happy with this one. i like it. a lot.
i think it's becasue i love the fabric....a table cloth from my fave op shop.
love it to bits.

 go ahead, make your desktop PRETTY.

tara louise.

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2 blogs.

here are 2 blogs that i have love all the time. they inspire me hugely upon every visit and well, they are just great.

1. a beautiful mess

elsie flanagan is a creative mastermind. i only realised a few months ago looking through an old scrapbooking magazine that she was the girl who did the awesome scrapbook pages quite a few years back.

so apparently i've been loving her work for years now!

she is individual, quirky and doing what i want to do before i even realise it.

2. my poppet

i found this blog after seeing cinti's felted macaroons in a frankie mag.

i also participate in her animation friday....most of the time!

this blog inspires me with it's great use of colour and simplistic vibe about it.

she has some very delightful things in her shop too.

thanks for reading.

tara louise.

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catch up..

the first post of 2011...exciting stuff!  and in true form i'll do my first post as a catch up from one i wanted to write about last yr..........

in this post i was saying how i'd written a list of blog posts i'd wanted to write then lost it. well the topic of todays post wasn't on that list but it should have been! haha.

i want to share with you a bit of my love for plastic cameras.

(frankie mag. issue 39)

how awesome are these cameras?

pretty, lomo's, crafty.

whats more to love??

there was an article in the latest frankie mag about the diana world tour. basically a world tour of prettied up diana cameras. in one word. awesome. i really want to go and see it!

but looking at this reminded me of a tutorial i saw ages ago in blog land by super talented elsie flanagan over at a beautiful mess.

she fancied up her holga with some paint to create a unique and less black plasticy looking lomo camera.

(found here)

i don't know if i'm game enough to do it to my holga. i do love it though and the possiblities are endless.

i'm constantly inspired by holga prints. even if none of mine have ever turned out!

there's something alluring about the fact that if you have too much tape/too little tape that your photos won't expose correctly.

and yep you have to use electrical tape to stop light leaking into the sides of the loveable holga.

even with the pot luck-ness of taking a photo with one of these cameras, the pictures are just dreamy.

(wheel by)

(mortal wombat)

(red fox)

(whisper my name)

(satriara)

(a flood of memories)

so many different styles from one simple plastic camera.

ideal.

tara louise.

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Saturday + Sunday

what a delightful weekend it has been.

have spent most fo it with my husband which has been the first weekend in ages!
yesterday was spent redecorating a set of drawers for my sewing room...photos to come of that soon.

and today, well i've just come straight from daydream lilly's launch for her collection with element. i was lucky enough to get an invite and took my lovely friend laura along with me. it was held at the most awesome space.....gov's espresso in mermaid. i've driven past it a thousand times and never new it was there. but now it will be my new favourite place to go! it's everything i love in a cafe. so so cool. it actually reminds me of earth mother in durban, SA. but anyway, back to the launch. it was lovely and relaxed. lovely food, lovely people and live music. we also got a free plant which was a really lovely touch i thought.

thanks for invite liss, i had a great time!

get instore and check out her wares. they are delightful!

tara louise.

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