pages turning, lights are burning, see what you could not see;

I am very much in love with Australian singer, Sarah Blasko at the moment.
 She has such an incredible voice and her songs make me super happy on my daily bus trips to work. If you haven't heard any of her music yet, here's my current favourite song, it's a peach! -

Sincerely, Alexa ♥ 

P.S  Oh, and a pinch and a punch for the first of the month. Happy March!

oh, what can you do, with a sentimental heart;

I don't know about you, but I even if I get a day or two off work I never seem to be able to get

 done everything I have listed in my head. I definitely need to be more efficient with my time. I've been super busy of late,  making sure I have my 30 Day Drawing Challenge up to date (I promise you this drawing a day thing is a lot harder than it sounds) taking driving classes, job hunting, working and planning entries for both here and for Ma Bicyclette.  Pretty much the only things that are keeping me grounded right now are my daily heart to hearts with Brionny and dreaming about future plans with Nicola. 

One thing that makes me pretty upset about being so busy is that I haven't had time to go thrifting for a few weeks now, so that's definitely how my weekend is goingto be spent - I am home alone Saturday and Sunday so I am pretty stoked for some me time. York is  amazing for thrift stores, I have a chest full of beautiful things which cost next to nothing saved up for when I finally move out (which is going to be the subject of my next post on Friday). I literally cannot help myself when it comes to pretty home furnishings, especially for my future kitchen. Do you love to thrift too?What's been your best purchase?

As promised here are my almost  up to date drawings for the 30 day challenge - I'm saving

the most recent ones for next time:

Day Four - Draw Your Favourite Place

(This is a kitchen in a house in the Lake District me and my friends and family have visited,

most amazing place ever.)

Day Five - Draw Your Best Friend(s)

Day Six - Draw Your Favourite Book Character 

  

Day Seven - Draw Your Favourite Word 

Day Eight - Draw Your Favourite Animated Character 

Day Nine - Draw Your Favourite Television Show

(Sorry, this is just awful)

Please remember to check out Ma Bicyclette for lovely posts from me and  my beautiful friends, and for my latest post later today "Cocktails and Cream Tea".  And if you're a new reader, follow my blog and my twitter and when I get to FIFTY followers I'll be doing a pretty generous give away (including some goodies from Fox Bunting). 

Sincerely, Alexa  ♥ 

with my pencil crayons i can draw it, on a piece of paper i can show it to you;

Recently my friend Nicola discovered this lovely idea over at Allison Lehman's blog.

So a few of us girls over at Ma Bicyclette have decided to take on the challenge.

 We will be writing a post up about it this week, so keep your eyes peeled for our attempts - please be kind and promise not to laugh, we're new at this. So here are my attempts for days one through three - 

Day One - Draw Yourself
 I managed cut off my heart tattoo - fail ):

 Day Two - Draw Your Favourite Animal(s)

Day Three - Draw Your Favourite Food

What do you think so far? Tomorrow's challenge is to draw my favourite place, it's 
going to be a toughy. I definitely recommend doing this challenge, it's probably one of the most effective ways i've found for creative motivation. 
Be sure to share your pictures with me.


Sincerely, Alexa ♥




P.S I keep having dreams (about four or five now) about rescuing Whales, if anyone has 
any idea about what this means let me know.

j'aime ma bicyclette;

The exciting plans and notions and ideas I mentioned  around a week or so ago is my reason behind the lack of posts of late - expect something new over the weekend to make up for it. 

Ma Bicyclette is a sparkling new blog (eventually to become a magazine)  that I have recently become a part of with a group of other sweet girls. It's all very exciting and it's early days, but we have high hopes for it.  Please take a peek here and remember to follow us on the blog and on twitter too. 

It was my turn to post yesterday and I just about managed to get my post in on time, despite the ridiculous amount of things that went wrong in the process. 

Let me know what you think!

Sincerely, Alexa  ♥ 

p.s please remember to follow my blog (in the side bar on the right right) and tell your friends to do the same, I have my eye on something pretty sweet for my very first give away.

like a glittering prize upon a clear day;

I've decided that when I reach fifty followers I will be doing a lovely little giveaway and again

 when I hit a hundred, I promise to find something sweet as a prize!

So let your friends know about five a.m picnics and make sure if you're already a reader that you're a 

follow the blog at the bottom of the side bar. 

Happy Sunday! I'm going to go see a 70's exhibition, if we can finally get the car started - silly snow!

Sincerely, Alexa ♥ 

oh darling, let's be adventurers;

I have decided that I very much need this in my life, isn't it a peach? 

I am also in need many more adventures in my life with beautiful friends, and I'm pretty sure there are lots to come which I am super excited about. 

Sincerely, Alexa  ♥ 

i'll make you a mixtape that's a blueprint of my soul;

I thought I'd share the mixed tape I was listening to while I was busy baking Cake Pops earlier.

I hope you love all these "bake day" songs as much as I do. Click on the song titles for a link to each song. 

Side A

1. Boy and Bear - Rabbit Song

2. We Were Promised Jetpacks - Conductor

3. Grizzly Bear - Alligator

4. BEDlights for blueEYEs - Jumper (Third Eye Blind Cover) 

5. Band of Horses - The Funeral

6. Sufjan Stevens - Concerning the UFO sighting near Highland, Illinois 

7. The Dodo's - Fables

8. Sarah Blasko - We Won't Run

9. White Denim - At the Farm

10. First Aid Kit - Our own pretty Ways 

11. Birdy - Young Blood 

12. Admiral Fallow - Squealing Pigs 

Side B

1. She & Him - Why do you let me stay here?

2. Efterklang - Caravan 

3. Portugal. The Man - Bellies Are Full

4. My Gold Mask - Violet Eyes

5. Screamin' Jay Hawkins - I put a spell on you

6. Dusty Springfield - I only want to be with you

7. The Beatles - From me to you

8. Frightened Rabbit - Swim until you can't see Land

9. Beach House - D.A.R.L.I.N.G

10. Kate Miller-Heidke - Caught in the Crowd

11. Bobby Darin - Little Bitty Pretty One

12. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run

hey good lookin' what you got cooking;

Today I decided that it was high time that I got back into baking, the fact that 

a builder, and electrician and a plumber (is it me or is this story starting to sound like a bad joke...) were 

banging about the house from 8:30 am meaning me having to be up at that time on my day off had nothingggg to do with it. 

For Christmas, my lovely best friend Sheri gave me this beautiful book by Bakerella about how to bake cake pops;

Now i'll be honest, this is not my first attempt at cake pops, and the first time I tried was less than successful, but I'd definitely recommend giving it a go.

Ingredients:

3 Eggs (medium - large)

Weigh the three eggs and use the same weight in each of the following ingredients - 

Self Raising Flour 

Caster Sugar 

Butter (I used Stork)

3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder

2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract

1/2 A large bar of white chocolate - melted

2 Tablespoons of Red Food Colouring

2/3 Of a Tub a Betty Crocker Frosting

1 Bag (250 grams)  of  Candy Melts (Available on ebay/online)

Sprinkles/Edible Glitter/Cake Decorations

Lollypop Sticks (Available on ebay/online)

Method:

1. Cream together the butter and sugar until combined.

2. Then add in the flour and eggs and stir well, 

until it looks like this!

                      3. Add in two teaspoons of vanilla extract, three teaspoons of red food colouring,

and 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder and your melted chocolate and mix well.

4. Add the mixture into a greased and floured baking tin, put in the oven at 160 degrees and wait for 20 - 25 minutes.

Allow to cool. Here are some Red Velvet cupcakes with white chocolate frosting I whipped up from the spare mixture. They were super yummy! 

5. Once the cake is cooled, turn the entire thing into crumbs, pick out any bits that will not crumb, 

and mix in 2/3's of a tub of frosting. 

When the two are combined, roll the mixture into balls and put onto a plate.

 Put into the fridge for a couple of hours or the freezer for 15 minutes so that they

 become slightly more solid, but NOT frozen.

6. Once they have hardened, melt the candy melts, dip the end of the lolly stick

 into the melted candy and push firmly into the cake ball.

 Once the candy on the stick has set  in the cake ball, 

then coat the rest of ball in the melted candy mix.

7. The book said to use something like a polystyrene block to stick the cake pops in

 til they have dried, but as I had none of this, I improvised and

 used a small colander instead. And here are the finished products -

I hope this tutorial helps. I was super pleased with the result, let me know how yours work out.

Sincerely, Alexa  ♥ 

plans and notions and ideas;

This evening has been spent making the most wonderful plans with some super girls. 

I cannot say much more right now, it's all plans and notions and ideas, but I am super excited and 

I will update you as soon as we have some solid plans.

Sincerely, Alexa  ♥