Up, up and away!

Ages ago we were invited to breakfast by Colin's cousin. What made this breakfast a little different was that we got there by plane! Just the four of us in a tiny little plane off to Brits for a quick breakfast and then back over the Hartbeespoort dam to Lanseria. Seeing the dam from the air once again reminded me why I didn't swim in it when we were there for Christmas a few years ago!

Colin even got to fly the plane a bit, which he absolutely loved but the bumpiness of his unskilled flying just made me motion sick and I had to sit very quietly at the back and hope we land soon. Luckily flying back I got to sit in the front seat so didn't feel sick again.

It was a fantastic morning and something just a little different that not everyone gets to experience.

Make your own lace cupcake cases

I recently made cupcakes for a friend for her birthday and I wanted to make them special. I had been wanting to try lace cases for ages so I decided this was the perfect time. They turned out really great and I loved the fact that they make the cupcakes super easy to transport because the icing can't smoosh up against each other in the box.

They are also really simple to make. All you need is a packet of doilies, about 15cm diameter ones. I chose ones that had 'petals' because I thought they would lend themselves to folding but I'm sure any type could work.

I initially tried to just press each doiley into the muffin pan but they weren't holding the shape so then I thought about moulding them around a glass first.

Just find a tall round glass that can stand in you muffin pan, turn it around, place the doiley in the middle and firmly squeeze down on all the sides. I tried to make the fold on the edge as sharp as possible as they kept their shape better with a stronger fold.

When you put the empty cups into the pan they might pop out a bit, but as soon as you put your cupcake mix in the weight will hold them down.

A big tip here: DON'T GET ANY BATTER ON THE EDGES. It will burn black and make your lace look ugly. Also I made these after this occasion again, but with red velvet and the batter did run out of some of the holes a bit - because my red velvet batter is very runny. So if you are making a runny batter I would recommend doiley's with less holes, or a bigger solid centre.

This is another one of those situations where I forgot/ran out of time or light to take pictures so I can't show you the finished cupcakes but they looked pretty good. Try them and see for yourself.

The year of camping

This year Colin and I decided that we would like to do some more camping holidays. Last year we kinda accidentally ended up camping one weekend and actually quite enjoyed it so we are going to try it more often. Don't get me wrong...camping is a small dose activity. The first December holiday Colin and I spent together we were in Mozambique for 2 weeks, camping, in the middle of summer. It wasn't pleasant. Eventually I just ignored the fact that I was constantly hot, sticky and sweaty and that the sea was basically a sticky luke-warm bath. It was a fun holiday in the end, but for now I'm good with 1, 2 or maybe 3 day trips.

This weekend we went to Bronkhorstspruit dam with some friends for a boating/camping weekend. It was great, until our neighbour campers came over and yelled at us for being noisy - that wasn't so great, but we all had a good weekend in the end and once again, I really enjoyed the short camping experience.

 It rained in the night but it wasn't heavy rain so it was actually quite nice in the morning, we didn't wake up at dawn's crack to an instant hot sweaty day. Our tent did have a small leak though which will have to be addressed.

I did find a couple of things I need to put on our to-buy-for-camping-weekends list, like mugs - drinking coffee out of plastic champagne glasses is not ideal, but it does work, and new camping mattresses is also going on that list, 20-year old hand-me-down ones aren't that comfortable anymore.

I'm thankful for...Monday?

I missed Fridays' I'm thankful for post, and most of last week. Sorry about that. My internet at home is down again...how annoying, but I just decided to take the week/weekend off and rest and no go on my computer at all, and it was rather nice.

We had a little pool party on Saturday and it was so glorious just relaxing in the pool and under the trees with friends. The trees were going to be my thankful post but I'm even more thankful for them now after this weekend. It's been so hot this last week and sitting in the shade under the trees was just so nice. It felt like we were on holiday, which was really great cuz I'm desperately in need of a holiday!

Anyway...here are a whole bunch of things that happened since last monday.

These are the beautiful trees outside and around our house. They are huge and make the outside patio so nice and cool and enjoyable on these hot summer days.

Our pool has this weird super shallow corner, it's great though cuz you can sit in the pool in the corner like a jacuzzi. The ground around our house is very rocky so I think when they built the pool they kinda just put it where they could dig deeper than 30cm.

I made cupcakes on Thursday for a friend as a present for her boyfriend, they came out quite nice so I hope he liked them.

We put the dogs in the pool to cool down on Saturday afternoon cuz they were just so hot. Tayla immediately rolled in every patch of dirt she could find. Troy, again, wasn't phased.

Weekend away

We went down to Witbank Dam this weekend for the bachelorettes and bachelors that I was practicing with these biscuits for. It was a fun weekend, Colin took the boat with and we camped at the dam in our little tent and did some skiing and boating on Sunday with the family of the bride and groom.

I was so tired when I made these, cuz it was after my massive cake and cupcake order last week so I didn't get as into them as I did with the practice round. I only did three different types but they still looked good and everyone at the bachelorettes was super impressed. So that's kindof all that counts I suppose.

My white icing was too runny, that's why it went almost see-through here.

On a completely different note, I found this in my bed the other night. She casually peeked her head out a bit more to see what was going on after I started taking photos, looked at me and then just went back to sleep. As if this is exactly where she belongs. Needless to say, she got chased out and into her bed very soon after theses pics.

So cute and so naughty, but we still love her. She was very sad that she had been left with dog-sitters for the weekend, Troy of course wasn't phased in the least, typical boy.