A Good Start to the Year

2013 got off to a good start. We spent New Years Eve in London on the Victoria Embankment, dancing in the street and watching the amazing fireworks.

Then we came home to Bosnia to 10 days of snowboarding. I had intended to just sit and watch the others as I was terrified of the idea of snowboarding, but somehow I got convinced to join in and after a day and a half I managed to snowboard on my own without holding onto anyone! I can only do it on a gentle slope, the idea of going to the top of a ski lift also terrifies me, but it's more than I ever thought I'd do and I've got the rest of the winter to improve as we have a ski centar just 30 mins drive from our front door.

And just to prove that I did it...

Christmas Tree Muffins

Two and half weeks til Christmas and it's time for some festive baking! These Christmas Tree Muffins are really tasty with a lovely spongy texture. Just what you need to brighten up your table at a Christmas party.

Ingredients:

Bottom part - Tree trunk

125g flour

15g cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

88g sugar

90ml milk

1 egg

50ml sunflower oil

1 tsp vanilla essence

Top part - Branches

125g flour

1 tsp baking powder

88g sugar

90ml milk

1 egg

50ml sunflower oil

1 tsp vanilla essence

green food colouring

Instructions:

1.Heat the oven to 170C

2.Prepare the muffin tin with paper cases.

3.Bottom part:

a. Beat the egg and leave it to one side.

b. Mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa and baking powder.

c. Add in everything else, including the egg, mix well and leave to one side.

4. Top part:

a. Beat the egg and leave it to one side.

b. Mix together the flour, sugar and baking powder.

c. Add in the milk, egg, oil and vanilla essence. Mix well.

d. Add in the green food colouring and mix well. Amount of colouring depends on what kind of colouring you are using. Make it as green as you can!

5. Pour one big spoonful of the 'bottom part' mixture into each paper case. 

6. Pour one big spoonful of the 'top part' mixture over the top of the 'bottom part' mixture in each paper case.

7. Bake for approximately 20 mins.

8. Leave to cool.

9. Enjoy :) - they taste even better when they've stood for 24 hours, if you can be patient and wait that long!

Colours of Seattle

Chillies in Pike Place Market

Last month we spent two weeks in Seattle. We loved it. There is so much to see, so many different parts of the city with different characters. Seattle is famous for being a rainy city, but we got lucky and almost every day was sunny! The sun made all the colours of Seattle even more beautiful.

Flowers - Pike Place Market

Glass Ceiling - Chihuly Garden and Glass - Seattle Center

I totally loved this exhibition. All the colours were so powerful and the combination of colours and shapes was just amazing. The inside exhibits were made even more stunning by being lit up in rooms where everything else was black. It took my breath away when I walked into this first room.

Chihuly Garden and Glass - Seattle Center

 Chihuly Garden and Glass - Seattle Center

Chihuly Garden and Glass - Seattle Center

Chihuly Garden and Glass - Seattle Center

I loved the garden as well. The way that the brightly coloured pieces of glass looked like they belonged with the natural plants. Visiting this place made me want to learn glass blowing! 

Chihuly Garden and Glass - Seattle Center

Chihuly Garden and Glass - Seattle Center

Pike Place Market

The famous Pike Place Market is so full of colour and variety and is worth visiting at different times of day to see it in different lights.

Pike Place Market

Introducing my Book Fairy

So much has happened since I last blogged. I've been in 8 countries in 3 continents for a start! Once life gets back to normal I will post more photos and blog a bit more about what we did and saw, but for now here's a picture of my lovely book fairy which I bought at the opening of the Plush You! show at Schmancy Toys in Seattle. This amazing doll caught my eye when Kristen posted a picture of her on instagram when it arrived at the shop for the show, and then when I saw it in real life I knew she had to be mine! She is made by Pheleon Creations. I have lots of photos from the opening of the show and will blog about it in a few days time.

Nerdy Nora

This is Nerdy Nora. If you want to meet her in real life then make sure you're at the Plush You! opening night at Schmancy Toys, 1932 2nd Avenue, Seattle on 12th October at 17:00. Click here to go to the facebook event page for more info.

The last few weeks

 Here's a few pictures of where I've been these last few weeks. The month started off nice and sunny but this week there has been loads of rain.

 Paddling in the sea at Brighton beach.

 West beach at Littlehampton

 A Mandeville statue in Covent Garden - part of the Olympic celebrations.

The Team GB lion at the start of the Athlete's parade.

A Parcel from a Squirrel

It's always exciting to be part of a Plush Team swap! You just know you're going to get something fab, and this time was no exception. I got home one evening a couple of weeks ago and my Mother in Law said to me, 'you've got a parcel, it weighs nothing and it's from a squirrel!'

 I immediately ran upstairs to open the parcel knowing that this must be my Plush Team anniversary swap and that it was from none other than Squirrel Momma

And this is what I found inside! Lucky me :) Thank you so much Squirrel Momma :)