I know, I know, it's been quite a while... but there's been a bit goin' on.
Going back a bit, first of all, DESSERT! Yup, I had a lovely time at Benny's Again with some awesome friends, eating some yummy desserts on the night of my birthday. A special thank you has to go to Heidi, Glen, Ashlee and Mitchell for coming down from Christchurch to attend. Just awesome! It's been a long time since I made a fuss on my birthday... I generally treat it as 'just another day', but I have to say that I really enjoyed my dessert-night-out. I was spoilt rotten with all things pink and cupcakey (surprise, surprise huh?), and had a respectable turnout of 17 peeps (including myself). Wahoo! Who'd have thought so many would come celebrate with me? There were some SCRUMMY desserts, so I had to take the obligatory photos...
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| Sticky Date Pud with Toffee Sauce |
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| Caramello Cheesecake |
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| Caramello Cheesecake-eating Monster (aka Jake!), and yes, he DID eat it all! |
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| Boysenberry Parfait |
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| The Dessert Crew - Dom, Nic, Heather, Me, Glen, Ange, Daz, Ashlee, Mitchell, Heidi, Jacob, Carol, Mum and Kath |
And for some strange unexplainable reason, I let them peer pressure me into 'planking'... Hmmm, not one of my best moves, I must say. What the *;^% was I thinking?!!!
And, not to be outdone, J wanted the obligatory photo with Marilyn. There has been many a photo taken of our menfolk with Marilyn over the years.... Kelv was the last inductee, hence J's need to 'be one of the guys' :)
So that was my birthday in a nutshell. I had a lovely day, although no sleep-in, as there was a doozy of an aftershock at 5.39am (Magnitude 5.1), which woke us all up, and there was NO SLEEPING after that :(
The following Monday was my first day in my new job. The last 'first day' I had was 15 years before. Talk about nervous! But now, just over 3 weeks into it, and there's no looking back. Best thing I could have done, and something that I should have done long ago, to be honest. Sure, I'm still learning new stuff all the time, and sure, there's times when I have NO IDEA what I'm doing, but you know what? It's great! Jen B, you were SO right.
And now the countdown is on for two more big events... Tania's Embellish It Raincliff Winter Camp is only two weeks away (wahoo!), and the week after (actually the day after) I have signed up as a volunteer baker for SPCA Cupcake Day. Click the link here for more info. I baked up a storm a couple weeks ago and took some 'samples' in to work. You see, how could I expect them to buy cupcakes from me when they have no idea if I can bake or not? So I made 4 different kinds... Vanilla and Passionfruit with Lemon Buttercream, Orange with Kahlua Frosting, Chocolate with Ganache Frosting and Banana with Cream Cheese Frosting. Let's just say that they went down a treat! Of course! Not a bad way to make myself known in a new workplace either! Teeheehee. So, the weekend of camp will be finished off putting frosting on the gazillion-and-one cupcakes that I plan to bake and freeze between now and then. I am aiming at the 10 dozen mark, maybe more. So this time, I don't think I'll be pulling a 3am-er on Saturday night. I don't have the time! Any of you local gals that want to get in on the cupcake action, email/text me and let me know. I'm going to make all except the banana ones again, and am selling them for $3 each. All sale proceeds go direct to the local SPCA. Pretty awesome cause. Hey, Nic and Lucy, maybe I could courier some up to you?! Ha ha ha ha ha!
Righto, that's enough for tonight, I have sleepin to be doin. Here's hoping we get enough snow tonight so that I am forced to stay at home in front of the fire tomorrow... (Except for Christchurch, you've had enough crap up your way lately. Someone needs to give you guys a break, seriously). So here I go, off to bed, doing a little 'snow dance' on the way, wishing for a lie in :)
Toodles,
