Santa is getting diabetes...

So, these last few days, I have been baking all night and into the early morning. That is, the time I go to sleep is where the silly birds don't stop their incessant chirping. I mean for God's sake, do they really have to chirp that loudly at 4 bloody AM?

Anyways, since Christmas is fast approaching, my lovely mother decided to pull out the "let's bake macarons for my friends instead of buying them presents". At first I was all for the idea but then I realised how much work it would be and cringed every night before I turned on the oven and the mixer at 1 in the morning. Yeah, I was baking at one in the morning, hoping that everything worked out fine. They were non-existant dreams. At least my mum offered to stay up with me, claiming that I would be lonely by myself. She actually fell asleep on the couch while I was slaving away.

By Thursday night*, I had finished my five batches of macarons- baking that is. The piping part didn't come until Friday afternoon because I slept in till 5 in the afternoon. I woke up, wondered around the house for bit, ate then collapsed and stayed on Wattpad for three hours. Then my lovely mother as always encouraged** me to start piping and wrapping everything up for her friends.

Friday night came and I was still wrapping at 3 in the morning, it was hard work, plus I was playing games on the Ipad while my mum slept. I just couldn't be bothered. By now you're wondering wow she must have wrapped a lot of macarons. In fact I wrapped a total of 18 little baglets. Then I went to bed and wondered on wattpad for a little longer before sleep caught up to me. The stupid birds didn't help either.

Anyways, the little scrumptious pieces of hell I created are on the bottom. The flavours from the the bottom up are: Coffee, Pandan, Salted Caramel, Strawberry and lastly Chocolate. Except the middle one which has one more flavour of Mango Passion fruit.

And I still have so many left it is ridiculous, I had to clear all of the ice-cream into one container and pull of the frozen stuff out of the freezer and into for the fridge for these macarons. The sacrifices I make. ~ sigh ~
On the other hand, I guess Santa has something new to the menu this year instead of cookies and milk. Sugary homemade macarons are the way to go. He going to have a tad bit of trouble going up the chimneys this year...

To the rest of you, have a Merry Christmas and keep cool. Literally.
(Melbourne's reaching like 36 degrees tomorrow)

NOTE:
*When I say night it means 8pm-4am.
**When I say encouraged it was more of "I will confiscate your phone if you do not start wrapping this instant!"
***This was done all on my coffee table in the living room because the floor would be too unhygienic 


Love you all,
Ellen.

Macaron or Macaroon?

Okay, this may seem random and out of place but read on and it shall lead up to something spectacular. If you're in Melbourne that is.

So time to confuse you guys. Look at the title, there may seem like there is no difference but there is. Shocked? Well, within  the culinary world, these little things matter. So let me explain, one is French and is made up of almond meal(macaron) and other one is made up of coconut and is American(macaroon). Although, either way, both of them are lovely.

Continuing on, a new store macaron store is opening up in Melbourne, Highpoint if you know exactly where that is. And it sells Mouth-watering Macarons, Cute Cupcakes and if you go to the original store in Sunshine, you can even order Custom Cakes. For what I find reasonable prices too!

And if you're dying to know the name, it's Decorative Sweets. The opening date for it's new store is below, come and check it out and share it your friends. Even go to the original store if you have to. (:

Decorative Sweets

Highpoint, Maribrynong, 3032

(Eco Mall right next to Breadtop and in front of Pie Face)

This Saturday (15/12/2012)

9am-9pm

Website:www.decorativesweets.com.au

Facebook: www.facebook.com/events/567280313288129/

So come check it out, see whether you like it or not. And maybe I'll even see you there!

Macaroning out,

Ellen.

fivehundredandeightysix word update

Alright so I haven't blogged in a while and I feel terrible. Though, here's the thing, since my last blog (about cheese crackers)  so much has happened , involving more cheese crackers and school. So let me explain, blab, chatter and babble about below.

So, during this absolutely long period of time, I got a job. That kinda took away half of my life as well, due to fact that I was standing at a counter, greeting people and scanning their food, not to mention remembering all the fruit codes. It's ridiculous because I have to keep my phone in my locker, which is cold. You know what the cold does to your battery? Well it eats it up like a Great White shark around a juicy piece of meat - it's gone in seconds! So by the time I finish, in hopes of checking my very interesting Facebook, I realise that I can't even turn on my screen. Life's fantastic isn't it? I'm a checkout chick by the wya. Not exactly the best career but I get complimented for being "sweet" and get to be called "darling" by old people. Heh.
Second job is coming soon, where I work at a macaron(not macaroon, you don't understand but there's a difference-thus the 'o' is highlighted) store in Highpoint for Christmas, which is pretty cool too. I'll see how that works out.

Secondly is art. That word sums it all up. I'm not kidding this year has been my year of art and there has been so much of it. 3D art, 2D art, painting, drawing, matchstick sculptures and photos. I swear my living room is an art exhibition and it's only going to grow in the next two years. $2 entry if you want to come. Friends, you get a discount, $1 for entry. I mean might as well make profit. *insert wink* But here is some of the art stuff I've done this year. Keep in mind I still haven't had some things back yet, they're either in art exhibitions, in competition, being framed or the teacher just hasn't given it back yet.

Coloured Wire Dragonfly
(has a missing eye, it fell off in an art exhibition)

My own hand study
(my hands are weird)

Squid scraperboard
(this was hard)

Seascape with birds Painting

Now that I'm finished the year. Last week being transition classes, I'm officially in year 11. It's hard work. I have HOMEWORK for the holidays. Doesn't help that I have two art subjects in which I have to do folio work over the holidays but also physics which is understanding some fancy formulas about energy and joules (not the ones you eat). You can say that I'm excited and that I'm looking forward to next year, not the work load though. But the time will come when I will be prepared. *cough* Never. I still don't believe I'm alive after  Methods Units 1 and 2 this year and that was just a taster.

And so I finished the school year with a movie on the next day with my friends. We watched Pitch Perfect and I recommend you to watch it. If you don't like the music, you will love the humour. If you don't like humour or music than you'll love the guys. And if you're still unhappy, just watch it for the pickup lines and the rejection lines. Rebel Wilson (Fat Amy in the the movie) is actually very funny. She's Australian by the way.

Anyways, babbling over, I need my beauty sleep. I shall see this lovely page in a while. Speaking of while, I haven't baked in a while. I guess I found something to do over the holidays.

P.S Caramel muffins are the best. Thanks to Safeway, I discovered my new love for them.

Love you all,
Ellen.

A must have

Seeing as this is kinda meant to be a food blog. Let me tell you this quick recipe.

SAKATA Crackers and cream cheese

Ingredients:
Philadelphia cream cheese
SAKATA cheddar cheese crackers

Method:
1. Spread desired amount of cream cheese on cracker.
2. Wait for an hour until slightly chewy to eat OR eat straight away.

Yes, simple recipe but you don't understand how addictive it is. Plus it's sayisfying and quick. Tell me what you think. (:

Ellen

Birthdays.

So it's my birthday today and I'm meant to be out and about celebrating with friends family, party, family get together thingies; but I'm not. I just woke up, no seriously, I slept in until 2:30pm. Yeah, in the afternoon! It was the most luxurious thing I could ever get for a birthday present. Though, I deserved it because I had to wake up at flipping 8:30 am yesterday to get ready for my all you can eat thing with my friends. And thus, I tell you about my day, today first, partly because nothing other than me sleeping has happened. Yesterday was much more eventful.

8th Sep 2012
Okay, I woke up early and really considered why I did an all you can eat thing because I seriously wondered why I had to wake up early for THEM on MY birthday. Well I did and so the day began.
I came late. I know I should have been early and all but hey, birthday girl gets to come fashionably late. *inserts fashionably hair flicking* I got my hugs, I was complimented on my boots and then I herded them off to food. We were seated and ate and talked and left. But in that period of eating and leaving, quite a lot of things happened.
1. The spiking of Lily's water with chicken salt and table salt.
2. The mocking of certain people's "swag" walk outside the glass windows.
3. The playing with all the food.
4. Wasting all the clean plates and cutlery.
5. Throwing the lime jelly around the table because it bounced. (It bounced really high)
6. The forcing of people to eat constantly.
7. The killing of my birthday cake with a butter knife.
8. The receiving of my butcher knife and jug to cut my cake.
9. Singing.
10. Dumping all the cake on Michelle's plate.
11. The opening of my presents.
12. And the mocking of Mariya's inner carrot.

I'm sure there was more, I just can't remember them all. Then came the choosing of what movie to watch and we couldn't and didn't want to watch one. There goes my plan. Instead we went window shopping and I hid from everyone in the lingerie section in Big W. What?! I figured no one would look there. Eventually Michelle, acting as a distraught older sister (I'm older than her) made them call for me over an announcement while I was in the toilets. We left, I got hungry, found food in Safeway and then went across the street to where Francisca worked. Then came Petstock and I ditched everyone again with Lucy to find hot chocolate. I ran with heels in the rain across the car park. Lucy lost her shoe. Then everyone left, I went home and watched Percy Jackson while Natasha cried for her lost of not watching it over the phone for being at one of her RFPs. (Random Filo Party).
Note for you all:
Cindy: I still continue to laugh at your book, I am going to annotate Mariya's face soon. It's tempting.
Mary & Natasha: I started reading the book you gave me. I also turned on your fairy lights, well my brother did, they were rather pretty. I'm considered dressing up in them and yelling "I'm a fairy".
Michelle: I crave making something but I'm honestly too lazy. I will just stare at the picture instead.
Tracy: I have yet to spend your gift card. It says you can spend it at Masters, the one in Sunshine has a McDonalds in it, I wonder does it pay for that?
Lucy: I'm still eating your sugar crystals. They're tasty.

9th Sep 2012
I stayed up till 3am eating chips and avoiding dinner. I know! How terrible of me but I was watching movies and living life while trying to not get tired. Then I went to sleep. I slept. And slept. And slept. Until 2:30pm. And woke up with the craving of my Mocha cake sitting the fridge. I think that is going to be my lunch now. Yeah, it's going to be my lunch, even though Mary doesn't not approve. Well, off to cake.

PS. My facebook is dying and wilting with the overflowing amounts of Happy Birthdays. Just wanted you all to know. And it's really kinda distracting when you're trying to study for a Maths test tomorrow. I know, way to spend your birthday. Studying. Doing a 50 questions chapter review in fact.

Toodles.
Ellen.

I WANT!

Okay, daggy title. It sounds like a One Direction song title and no, I don't want them. Just wanted to mention it for those One direction fans out there who read this blog. Just so you can fangirl for a bit. I know, I'm so nice. (Not that I expect there would be much readers...) Anyways to the point.

I'm throwing a tantrum! I have all day. You want to know why. Ask Mary. Won't bloody tell me anything. By her means, she thinks that hosting some surprise thingy for my birthday will make me sudden like birthdays. She's wrong. I hate it. No, I LOATHE it. Just for the very reason I don't get to know what's going on. I beg her (Fact. I never beg.) and try asking Natasha too but no one tells me. I mean I swore to her I could act surprised, I'm great at acting surprised. I just don't understand Mary. Then she justifies how she will promise 3 years of unpicking clothes for my mum if she doesn't tell me anything. I'm shaking my head here. Silly child. Mary, if you're reading this, you will never succeed! I will find out! Somehow. I'm am resourceful!

Another I want. I want to make macarons. I know this blog should be about my food adventures but they seriously aren't happening right now. I want to make macarons to give to my friends as a birthday gift, cause I just love them that much. I tried Donna Hay's mix thingy, it didn't work. I think partly because it's nearing it expiry date and I left it in the oven after cooking too long. So in result, it went rock hard. I don't know. I'll just make a fresh batch soon, and I am hoping it turns out like it does in my profile picture.

But besides that, I thinks that's about all my wants. I'm guessing you guys might want stuff too. I know. We're all selfish people. But I can provide you with a picture of this pretty blouse I made in Textiles for school. It looks really pretty but I can still pick out flaws, being the perfectionist I am. I'll post it up and hopefully, it doesn't come out upside down again. I mean last night's picture came out upside down. It was stupid. Blogspot should get a "turn it upright" button for photos. Lighting is terrible because I took it on my lounge room floor. Hem is not done yet.

Anyways, really, thanks for reading guys. I might have just wasted about 3 minutes of your time. Love you all.

PS. I read the saddest most depressing book today. It's called "A child called It" by Dave Pelzer. It talks about the troubles this little 8 year old has to go through. It's not long and I suggest you all read it.

Ellen.

I'm Lazy

I have had a long day and I don't want to finish my art assignment. I'm meant to do this tonal drawing but I give up. It's taking too forever. Seriously. I never want to pick anything this remotely challenging again.

Anyways, I better go finish it off. I might put up a completed one soon. If it loads upside down, it's not my fault, blogspot just doesn't have a turn it the right way up button. So to see it, you will all just have to twist your head, flip your computer screen, stand on your head or do whatever floats your boat.

Ellen.

A day at Melb Uni

Hello fellow readers, I would go how awesome your day is but I just can't resist the urge to brag about mine. I mean how often can you say to people I shook a dead preserved hand. Yeah, I know. Cool isn't it. I mean my friends were squeamish and I thought it was a bit weird but hey, it's an opportunity. Plus I held a dead preserved foot. Oh yeah, I saw the insides of it and got to hold it. It was insanely awesome. Anatomy museum at Melbourne Uni is the best. It was all real. Legit. I enjoyed myself so much, heh, I'm laughing and enjoying it now, hours after going there.

Anyways, on something better and less gruesome, I had a Iced mocha krusher today from KFC. It was the best. I mean who doesn't love an iced cold mocha with crunchy bits and random chocolate dispersed through. The best part? The end. Where you get to the bottom and there's this huge clumped up chocolate crunchy piece. It was cool.

And Masterchef tonight. To those who watched, well, I was cheering for Callum to win (not that I don't like Chris but i think Callum deserves an opportunity and shows others than young people CAN achieve lots of things) and he did. It kinda made my day. He was rather nice, and I felt sorry for his father but I'm happy with the results.

Other than that, my day has been alright. Just a whole lot of walking, sight seeing, getting lost and complaining about how tired and sore my feet are.

Ellen.

First Post

Wow, this is more confusing than I thought it would be. I mean, I tried Tumblr for a blog and that stuff was confusing. I mean, who has a loveheart for liking something. Lovehearts stand for love. And there is a definite line between like and love. For me that is.
Anyways, I guess I'll be posting on both now. Or just copy and paste form one another because I'm just THAT lazy. Not that I have that much time to type my life's experiences out for the world to read. That's just a tad bit creepy. Now I'm hoping this can become me secret diary that no one will read and I can rant about things as much as I want.

Anyways, if you came from my tumblr and read about my Donna Hay macarons. They kinda half worked and half failed. Some have wrinkly tops and it kinda looks like turtle skin. Rough. The rest, actually the 5 that did work look rather pretty. I wouldn't eat them though. I'll give them to my friends and they can determine if they're edible or not. I am not in any way responsible for any casualties.

Ellen.