- Pursuit of Felicity -: April 2012

My life lately.

Friday, 27 April 2012

Hey guys,

I just thought I'd take a mid prac break to share some photos of what I've been up to lately. These are the last of the photos taken on my old HTC Wildfire before I received my brand spanking new Samsung Galaxy S2 in the mail last Friday. Since then I've finally joined instagram (my username is felicitynielsen if you would like to follow me) and hope to share most of my upcoming photos in instagram style.

Anywho, I hope you are all doing well and enjoy the following photos. :)

My sexy new smart phone! :D

Dressed up for a dinner party with old friends.

Waking up next to Joey. :)

Gorgeous Gold Coast view.

Me, my Dad and my soon-to-be step sister Abby.

Me, Dad and Ben (yes, he's a giant!).

An Easter present from Dad and his partner Judi.

Pursuit of Felicity turns 1 today!

Tuesday, 24 April 2012

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Technically I'm still on prac for another week and a half, but I just couldn't let my first blogiversary go by without celebrating with the readers who made this all possible! So thank you! :D

Before You Knew Me

Friday, 20 April 2012

A few weeks ago I was inspired by someone, who was inspired by someone, who was inspired by someone else (haha!) to go back through my blogger archives and share a few of my newbie posts from my early days of blogging. :) For me, "early days" refers to April through to November of 2011 when I still had no idea of what blogging actually meant. :P

I started off with this post back on the 24th of April which, as lame as it was, eventually turned into a regular feature/theme on this here little blog. Some other early posts of mine included a Uni related bragging session titled "Semester One results" and a ridiculously stupid (and failed) diet post titled "Time for a change".

During the first 7 months of my blogging journey I also tried out a few weekly link up feature/theme posts, most of which I really enjoyed but eventually decided to give up. One of these features/themes was titled "Snap Happy Sunday" and was basically the same as my current "My life lately" posts only it was restricted to photos that I had taken on a Sunday. Some other features/themes that I linked up with regularly were "Fill in the blank Friday" and "Oh, how Pinteresting Wednesdays".

By the time November of 2011 rolled around I finally felt like I was ready to take this blogging thing seriously and wrote this post to celebrate it. Five months on and I couldn't be any happier with my decision to keep this blog alive and kicking! :D

Short Hiatus.

Sunday, 15 April 2012

Yep, that's right! As of tomorrow I will be starting yet another three week teaching practicum. This will be my sixth teaching prac to date, but even so I am still really nervous. I haven't met my class yet as I only found out which school I would be going to on the last day before the Easter holidays (sigh!) but I have been informed that I will be teaching Grade 4. :) I am so grateful not to be teaching a younger grade this time. Little kids, as adorable as they are, are just too much for me to handle.. at least that's the impression I have been given from my mentor teachers in the past. So far I have taught a Prep class (the grade before grade 1) and grades 1, 4, 5 and 7. Whilst I enjoyed all of those experiences, grades 5 and 7 were definitely my favourites, so hopefully this experience will be equally as enjoyable. :)

Going by my previous prac experiences I have unfortunately had very little time to blog in between teaching, assignments, preparing my next lessons, sleeping etc. which is why I feel the need to go on a short blogging hiatus. I have a couple of posts scheduled during the time that I will be away, and I promise that when I return from my break I will be ready and raring to blog my little heart out! :)

Have a lovely next few weeks and wish me luck! xx

Chocolate Malteser Cake.

Saturday, 14 April 2012

What you will need:

Cake

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 cup boiling water

90g butter, softened

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup self-raising flour

1/2 cup plain flour

1/8 teaspoon bicarb soda

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing/Decorations

250g icing sugar

1 teaspoon cocoa

45g ovaltine powder

125g soft unsalted butter

2 tablespoons boiling water

maltesers

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C for a fan forced oven).

2. Grease one 20cm springform cake tin with butter, line the base with baking paper, regrease base and lightly dust with self-raising flour.

3. Using a separate mug, mix cocoa powder and 1/4 cup of boiling water together and set aside to cool for a few minutes.

4. Beat butter and caster sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until fully combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. Sift flours and bicarb soda and stir into the mixture. Add milk and the vanilla extract and mix well.

5. Gradually stir in the pre-made cocoa paste.

6. Pour batter into prepared cake tin and bake for 35-40 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

7. Allow cake to stand for five minutes before transferring onto a wire rack to cool (cake may be cooled on a wire rack in the fridge if you're in a hurry to get to the icing).

8. For the icing, sift the icing sugar, cocoa and ovaltine into a bowl to remove any lumps. Add the butter and whisk together. Carefully and gradually add the boiling water until you have a smooth butter cream.

9. Spread icing over the cooled cake and decorate with maltesers.

10. Enjoy or refrigerate immediately!

My life lately.

Friday, 13 April 2012

Easter themed treats.

Way too much chocolate.

Baking whoopie pies.

Need I say more?

Found out that I have scleral thinning due to wearing contact lenses.

DIY: Birthday Banner.

Wednesday, 11 April 2012

Thankful Tuesdays.

Tuesday, 10 April 2012

My life lately.

Friday, 6 April 2012

Visited one of my high school friends and her gorgeous little man!

Isn't he just so adorable? :D

Poor little Joey got desexed. He also got a haircut, lol.

My best friend found this miniature pineapple growing in her garden. :P

Decided to start looking into breeders for my next Miniature Dachshund pup!

I am on such a high right now!

Wednesday, 4 April 2012

Hey everyone!

I am pretty darn excited this morning and just have to share why. You see my birthday's coming up at the end of next month (I'll be 23, yikes!) so for the last few weeks I've been dropping hints to my partner as to what I might like as a birthday gift, even though I haven't been 100% sold on the items I've been hinting at.

Then I woke up this morning and saw the latest Pretty Pennies Popup Sale by Fawn & Flora advertised on facebook and was like YAYAYAYAY! The sale was for free shipping on all orders over $40! So I kindly asked my partner if I could do some online birthday shopping on his behalf if I promised to stick to around the $40 mark and he told me to go for it! :D

I've pretty much spent the last hour trying to get the most for his money (which wasn't hard at all once you take shipping out of the equation) and these were the purchases I ended up making:

Needless to say I am utterly delighted with my purchase choices and cannot wait to get my hands on them! As Ben is usually the one who checks the mail I made him promise to pick the packages up from the post office without me knowing and hide them from me until my actual birthday.. kinda wishing I didn't do that now! :P My favourite item would have to be the drawing mannequin as it reminds me of the mannequins that used to be on the tv show 'PlaySchool' when I was a little girl. :)

If you guys ever get the opportunity to do something like this for your birthday then I highly recommend it. I am seriously on such a high right now, and why wouldn't I be? I just went on an online shopping spree! :D