Lazy sunday post

I will be back in action to tell you all about my delightful travels soon 

In the meantime enjoy spring (or if you're in Durban, the rain)

 

Something more awful than running out of milk and overly pessimistic people

 

I hate flying. Hate. I've always been plagued by air-sickness so flying for me means that I will potentially be throwing up sometime in the next few hours. To try and fix my air-sickness I have been given packs and packs of mentos to chew, wet-wipes to wipe my face and feel "refreshed" and numerous tiny glasses of aeroplane coke. And as a result I hate mentos, wet wipes and aeroplane coke. Listening to Sherlock Holmes for 2 hours while pretending to sleep so I can avoid the food when it comes around seems to be pretty effective in getting me through a flight. 

Ugh *thinks about the destination. thinks about the destination*

Daydreaming about Europe and life drama

This week I feel slightly insane or maybe "all over the place" is a better way to describe it. We had a busy weekend, I had very little time to work and now I'm running behind trying to catch up which is so not ideal considering my week ahead. I guess it doesn't help that I've spent forever looking at pictures that remind me of Paris- but it does mean that you get to see these pictures (tell me i'm not crazy, tell me they want to make you go to Paris RIGHT NOW).

 

This weekend I baked the entire weekend. We had friends over on Saturday for tea (and then happily they stayed for lunch) so I baked (being the wonderful domestic goddess that I am) Cinnabons (a recipe from my best friend) which were sensational and everyone was super impressed (because no one really thought that Cinnabons could be made) and I also made brownies which turned out to be pretty crud. This is my brownie problem, everything is fine until I put them in the oven for the "required amount of time" then after this time, when I take them out, the top is black and the brownie underneath is still sloshing around in the pan. So how on earth do I cook the mixture through without burning the top (and in the "required time")? I made Cinnabons again on Sunday so now I'm all Cinnaboned out- and my kitchen smells like cinnamon which is never a bad thing.

   

I promised a biscuit recipe a while ago and so here it is: 

[recipe for the most amazing vanilla biscuits ever] 

Ingredients 

200g butter, softened 

1 cup (200g) castor sugar 

1 egg, lightly beaten 

3 cups (420g) flour 

1 tsp (5ml) vanilla essence 

-Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Grease a baking tray 

-In a bowl with an electric mixer cream the butter and castor sugar. Add the egg flour and vanilla essence. Mix until combined. 

-Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for an hour before using. 

-Dust the work surface with flour and roll out the cookie dough to the preferred thickness. 

-Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown. 

-Decorate with royal icing 

Royal icing 

Ingredients 

2 egg whites 

21/2 cups (350g) icing sugar sifted 

juice of 1/2 a lemon 

-In a bowl with an electric mixer beat the egg whites, icing sugar and lemon juice together 

-Start on low speed and increase the speed as the mixture gets smoother 

-If the mixture is too dry add more egg white 

I hope it brings you much eating happiness

   

I knew this week would feel bitty and odd- Graham left for a conference yesterday and I'm leaving for Cape Town tomorrow to apply for my French Visa (party time) and then we're racing back to Durban to be here for a show on Friday night. On top of this my delightful lecturers have saved all the enormous tests for next week and the following week (I have a test the day before we leave for Europe- apparently I won't be studying for that one). Argh it's all a bit overwhelming at the moment.

   

In other happier news- it's Spring! Spring sounds like it should be a really nice season but in reality it's pretty crud. In Cape Town Spring isn't very different from winter and in Durban Spring seems to be the ONLY time in the year that the wind blows like mad (In case anyone is wondering- Autumn definitely wins for the best season of the year) I'm tired of this "cold" Durban weather and impatiently wait for Summer every single day (will take this statement back when I'm dying in the summer heat wave).

 

Did I mention it's 2 and a bit weeks to Paris and Amsterdam?

10 Things I like about her

For my wonderful best friend of many years, maid of honor, sister in Christ on her birthday.

   

1. Her obscene love of chocolate (and the way she tries to convince me that she eats 3 slabs of chocolate a day and still looks like a super model).

2. The way she always smells like caramel and sweetness.

3. Her humility (she is SO beautiful and SO smart but doesn't seem to notice). 

4. The crazy sense of humor that comes out late at night after lots of sugar. 

5. How pretty she looks in Turquoise. 

6. The way she can fit everything into her handbag (and has everything you'd ever need in her handbag).

7. Her never ending optimism and encouragement about anything that I do (whether it's my writing, or my baking cupcakes that she KNOWS taste better when she bakes them). 

8. That I can not see her for months and months but when I see her again it feels like the months apart never happened.

9. The way that she writes, so descriptive and beautiful [you can check it out here: http://danicasmuts.tumblr.com/]. 

10. That she is one of the only people who, when I'm upset, gets as upset as I am and when I'm happy is as happy for me as I am.

Because she's lovely. Obviously. 

The perfect clothing

Gosh I never ever post about anything remotely concerning fashion BUT when I saw this collection I knew that I just had to share it with the world (my very small world of blog-followers). So here it is, the new Free People lookbook collection called 'Like a rolling stone'

It's beautiful and colorful and makes me want to buy all the clothes and then go live in a wood cabin and be a gypsy (or at least look like one). It also- weirdly enough- makes me want a llama. 

 

You can check out the Free People site here to see more of their amazing stuff:  http://www.freepeople.com/

Things my husband says part 1

This is Graham. He is quite funny, QUITE. But he thinks he's definitely the funniest person he's ever met. Most of the things that make him giggle/laugh/cry with laughter have to do with me- I have a suspicion that he married me because I provide him with comical relief or at least endless amounts of humorous material. He's been saying forever that he'd love to write down the things that he says about/to me to be able to show the world his genius. So here are some touching things he's said in the past while-so that you can decide for yourselves.

   

*Lynsay, after being incredibly aware of the weight she's put on comes to Graham to show him that she can't fit into her jeans anymore and when she bends over they rip. Graham thinks this is very funny. Later when they're out for lunch and the bill arrives the waiter puts the bill in front of Lynsay* 

Lynsay: "See, even the waiter knows that in our family I'm the one wearing the pants." Graham: "yes, the ripped pants" *Graham dies of laughter* 

Lynsay: "Love I'm not going to be here for the afternoon is that okay?" Graham: "of course it is. I'll have time to spend with some of my old girl-friends."

*Around easter time, driving to Petermaritzberg* 

Lynsay: "I think we need to get out of this lane, it says that anything over 3 tones can't drive here." Graham: "I don't think we need to worry about weighing that much unless... *looks at Lynsay's stomach* how many marshmallow easter eggs have you eaten?" 

*Also around easter time* 

Lynsay: "do you want a marshmallow egg? No? Well I'm going to have one" *Graham puffs out cheeks, makes his body as big as possible and follows Lynsay around making loud stomping/eating noises* 

[And this is Graham's favorite] *Graham is standing around a braai with his friends telling them how excited he is for the start of the Premiership season when Lynsay comes into the conversation* 

Lynsay: "Why don't you get this excited about seeing me?" Graham: "Because you don't go away for three months at at time."

   

Yes, this is my life. It's enough for me to want to go on an all-cupcake diet

A teensy little monday post because I got no sleep

Happy Monday! Here is a puppy for your effort

.  

4 more weeks to Paris! I keep wearing my country Road jumper (shocker, its cold in Durban) with French words on it to remind myself of this glorious fact. The days are moving speedily along; I finished Lolita and have given myself over to Charles Dickens 'The Haunted House' which I find way too creepy to read in bed at night time (even with Graham next to me- although for the past few days due to his sickness it's felt more like i've been sleeping next to a railway station. One that I have to wake up every hour and ask to roll over so that I can get some sleep... so if you see me and wonder why my face is like it is the best thing would probably be not to tell me that I look tired). 

I'm daydreaming of pasta.