Internet Awesomeness

So, still sorting out rental issues (grumble, grumble) and probably will be for a while, so I have a sneaking suspicion I won't be baking or creating anything new any time soon :/

So... More random pics from the internet!!!

Doctor Who meets Optimus Prime, anyone?

This picture is possibly one of the strangest I have ever found:

And I love it.

Hunger Games and Harry Potter?!

Yes please.

 How about a little Discworld?

And a Harry Potter alphabet?

Ok all you Harry Potter fans out there, can you figure out who each letter is? :P

Renters Beware!

Hello all,

I'm afraid everything's going to be a bit quiet on the Blogger front for a little while due to some unforeseen rental issues...

See, my husband and I recently (and by recently I mean less than a week ago) moved into a new rental. On the surface it looked perfect. Nice flat, good location, close to work - it was even furnished.

And then we moved in...

LOOOOONG story short I'm going to be tied up for a bit sorting stuff out, so until I get time to post again, here's some  awesome Doctor Who pics:

This just reminds me that I need to get a cat. And call him MacGuffin. Or Arty-Morty.

This very nearly made me cry. Oh Captain America! Stop making me all weepy. 

Spider-Man: On the Weekends

A good friend of mine recently did me a favour, so I paid him back with a cartoon of his favourite super hero, Spider-Man:

(Apologies for the potato quality)

I've always been kind of intrigued by the idea of super heroes doing mundane domestic stuff. I mean, who washes super hero outfits? Do the heroes have some sort of dry cleaning service or do they do it themselves? You'd assume the latter - what with them having to maintain a secret identity and all. And how do they spend their down-time? Who cleans their house? (Ok, with Batman we all know the very obvious answer to that one. But not every super hero has an Alfred, do they?) 

How do you even wash the Bat-Suit? Now I'm on a Batman tangent I'm seriously wondering. Off the top of my head I'd say soap and water, but it must get pretty musty in there.

Anyway, so my friend loves Spider-Man and I drew him this silly little picture.

Cat, cats and more cats...

As per the promise I made to myself in my last post, I'm sticking to random cat pics and other interweb awesomeness for awhile :)

So to get the ball rolling, here's some of the coolest and geekiest cat related pics I've found recently. They're all made of awesome.

Ok, this is just brilliant.

And actually, so is this. I mean, a soft TARDIS bed for your cat? What could be more awesome??

A giant TARDIS for your cat to play in. That's what. 

KITTY AVENGERS!!! LOVE.

And that's just about enough cat related geekiness to last me til my next post :)

Kids Birthday Party Theme: Western - The Details

So, now you know how to make your own western invitations and party food - it's time to top everything off with decorations, games and of course, party favours :)

Decorations

Here are a few simple yet affective ideas to turn your house into the Old West:

Cut an old cardboard box into saloon doors and masking-tape to your door frame

Draw badges, cowboy hats, boots and cactuses on paper, colour in, cut out and blu-tack onto walls

Here's some to print if drawing's not your thing :)

Dust off any old rope you might have in the shed and arrange on your table with a bandanna or cowboy hat as a centrepiece, and use upside-down cowboy hats to serve food

Games

Mess with the Classics:

Transform classic party games by giving them a western spin. Instead of 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey' have 'Pin the Tail on the Horse'. Change 'Musical Bobs' into 'Bootscooting Bobs. You get the idea :P

Tin Can shoot:

Place some old soft drink cans up on a ledge or table, line up the children, arm them with water pistols, and have them try to shoot the cans.

Pan for Gold:

Hide gold coin lollies in the sandpit and have the children pan for them using old sieves. 

Party Favours

Every party needs a take home lolly bag, so here's 2 ideas:

Make simple brown paper bags (you can use my feed bags as a guide) and draw big dollar signs in black pen. Fill with gold coin lollies and tie with string

OR, if you're going with a western theme because the birthday boy or girl is a Toy Story fanatic, why not try something like this:

"There's a snake in my boot!"

:)

Make cowboy boot paper bags...

Use this pic as a guide:

(Measures just under 14x18cm)

Simply draw 2 boots touching like so; cut and glue/staple edges together

 ... and fill with lolly snakes for a very Woody party favour :)

And I think that just about covers everything!

Phew. I'm tired. I think I might stick to posting random photos of cats and such for a while :P

Kids Birthday Party Theme: Western - the food edition

The other day I posted part 1 of my Western Birthday Party Theme. Today I'll be covering the food. The glorious, glorious food. 

If throwing a western themed birthday party for a little cowboy or cowgirl, awesome western food is an absolute must. For my theme I made a cactus birthday cake with matching desert sand cupcakes and sheriff badge cookies:

And they're all actually super-duper easy to do. 

So here's what you'll need:

12 patty-pans

Greased 10x23cm rectangular cake tin (well... Any rectangular cake tin, really)

Basic Cake Recipe

3 - 4 cups icing sugar

2 heaped Tbsp's butter (say NO to palm oil!)

Milk (extra)

Food colouring: yellow and blue

5 tsp's shredded coconut

Bol's Rainbow Laces ($2 from K-Mart)

Basic Cookie recipe

Star shaped cookie cutter

Raw sugar (to decorate)

The cactus cake and cupcakes were made using one batch of cake mix (just to make life a little easier and keep the kitchen a little tidier). I made them using my basic cake recipe, filling 12 patty-pans just over a third of the way full and pouring the rest of the batter (plus a few drops of mixed yellow and blue food colouring to make the cactus cake green) into a greased 10x23 rectangular cake tin. 

Bake the cupcakes and cake at 180ºc (around 15 minutes for the cupcakes and around 30 - 45 minutes for the cake). 

Leave to cool entirely and whip up some buttercream: 3 - 4 cups of icing sugar, 2 heaped tablespoons of softened butter and milk (extra) should do the trick. Mix everything together and keep adding (small amounts of) milk until the buttercream is nice and soft and spreadable (and delicious). Colour the icing yellow and spread a thin layer on top of your cupcakes. 

Put 5 teaspoons of coconut into a cup and add a few drops of yellow food colouring. Mix until the coconut is yellow and sprinkle on top of cupcakes for the 'desert sand'. 

Cut a small length off your rectangular cake (about 1/3). Cut that piece again like so:

To make the cactus arms.

Place the pieces together. Add blue food colouring to the remaining buttercream to make it green, and spread liberally onto the cake, covering all sides.

To finish off the cactus cake, cut a few green and blue rainbow laces to size (these are lollies btw, in case you're not familiar) with scissors and arrange on top. 

To finish off your western themed party food make the cookie dough, roll out thin on a floured work surface and cut out star shapes for sheriff badges. Place on a greased/baking paper covered tray and then, to turn your star shaped cookies into sheriff badge ones, roll out left over dough into tiny balls and press flat onto each star point (you may want to wet the points slightly to help stick). Finally, sprinkle a little raw sugar onto each sheriff badge and cook at 180ºc for around 10 - 15 minutes. This dough makes HEAPS of cookies (up to 30 depending on how thin you make them) so excess dough can be stored in the fridge for later use). 

So that's how you make western themed party food!

If you want to keep with the theme for all your food, why not throw a BBQ? (With all the fixins, of course!) and serve popcorn and corn chips in upside down cowboy hats? 

My next post will go through the final bits and pieces to create a proper western birthday party - the decorations, games and of course, party favours :) 

Kids Birthday Party Theme: Western

Yee-haw! 

It's been ages since I posted my Cheeky Monkey Party Theme, and I had so much fun with it that I thought I'd start posting more kids birthday party theme ideas :)

Our next contender is the Western Theme, made super popular at kids parties right now thanks to Woody from the ever amazing Toy Story movies. So if your child is a bit of a Toy Story fanatic (like a certain 26-year-old blogger I won't name) then this party theme is definitely one you need to try. 

Because I want to go into my western theme in detail, I'm going to post it in sections. So, first thing's first: the invitations.

You can of course buy western themed or even Toy Story themed invites from card shops and the like, but if you're itching to get creative and make them yourself - or even better, make them with your child - here's an idea to get you started:

You can make these lasso invitations yourself by saving this template:

(Measures just under 21cm x 14cm - so fits 2 to an A4 page)

And adding your own text in Publisher or Photoshop - I used Algerian font for 'Yee-haw!' and Playbill font for the rest of the text. Then all you need to do is print and colour! The colouring part makes for a fun activity to do with the birthday boy or girl.

For an added western touch to the invitations, use a candle to (carefully!) burn the edges, OR, if making them with small children, tear around the edges and colour with brown pen. 

To really top off the theme, you can use diluted instant coffee and tissues to 'paint' your envelopes and give them an authentic rustic look. 

Provided you're using your own printer and paper, the entire cost for making these western themed invites and envelopes can be as cheap as $3.26 (for a pack of 50 standard sized envelopes). 

Not bad, huh?

In my next post I'm covering party food - so stay tuned for some yummy looking photos!

Awww heck, here's a preview:

Sheriff badge cookies, desert sand cupcakes and cactus cake! How-To Guide in my next post :)

Well, I'll be.

On our last trip to Melbourne Zoo my husband and I actually read the plaque in front of the Lion enclosure for once, and what we read really made us think.

Apparently there is a very small number of endangered lions indigenous to India.

I looked at Rob and said, 'So The Phantom isn't wrong after all - you really can get lions and tigers together.' And he just looked at me and said, 'that is exactly what I was just thinking.'

And this is why we're married. Because we both automatically think of super hero connections when reading animal facts.

The Asiatic Lion:

Proof that comic books are educational.

The Mousetrap

Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap is now in its 60th year, and to celebrate the Queen of Crime's classic mystery has been put on tour for its Diamond Anniversary. The all-Australian production is 1 of 60 professional productions celebrating 60 years of 'whodunnit' worldwide. This production also marks the first time ever that The Mousetrap has toured Australia.

So, pretty awesome stuff. A must-see for not just any Christie fan, but theatre lovers everywhere. And today my husband and I were fortunate enough to see The Mousetrap at The Comedy Theatre in Melbourne.

And as it happens, I'm extra fortunate: I also went to see the show last year in London while on Student Exchange. Both shows were amazing, and very different in lots of little ways. I feel so privileged to have seen the play both at its home in St Martin's Theatre (where it plays every day of the year) and at my home in Melbourne for its 60th year.

I only had my rather busted up mobile phone with me, but I managed to take a few pictures to remember the day:

 A very blurry set. 

Don't worry, I wasn't snapping away during the production - this was taken during intermission :)

The Mousetrap is a classic 'whodunnit' that will have you suspecting everyone - but watch out for those red herrings! It's funny, oh-so-very-English, and just a little bit silly. And it's the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

But the best bit for me is the ending. Not the revelation of the murderer; but after the show has ended and the actors have taken their bows, and the character of the detective informs you, the audience, that you are now partners in crime, and asks you so very nicely to keep the secret of The Mousetrap locked safe in your hearts.

And the funny thing is - I will :)