Dumbledore's Army

 You may now all bow in the presence of my greatness, because yes the rumours are true, I had a Harry Potter themed Birthday shindig. And yes it was for my 22nd Birthday, no shame.

So on Saturday night my house was transformed (with the help of the brother and the fella) into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry complete with Wizards Chess, Cauldron Cakes, Butterbeer and Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans. 

To make things more interesting and to ensure there weren't thirty Harry Potters running about, I Professor Umbridge style enforced the rule that your costume could not be a witch or wizard but must be an object/animal/creature/thing from the world of Harry Potter. A rule embraced by diehard PotterHeads, but caused the muggles of the group to issue a sigh of distain. But even those who were not intimately acquainted with our scar headed friend came up with the most amazing costumes. I might have to hold a Potter party every year!

The Golden Snitch

Hedwig

Nimbus 2000

Mandrake

The Queen from Wizards Chess

The Hogwarts Express

Arthur Weasley's Flying Ford Anglia 

Norbert the Dragon

Pigwidgeon

Broomstick

Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans

The Weasley Family Clock

The Whomping Willow

A Mandrake Root and A Chinese Fireball Dragon

Poor Mark had no knowledge of anything Harry Potter, so ended up as Scruffy 

the janitor from Futurama. At least he started in the right place with a broom (a wet mop).

After trying the delicious nectar that is Butterbeer last year in Harry Potter World Florida, I knew I would have to hold a Potter theme party just to make my own cauldron full of the mouthwatering elixir. With a little imagination and magic (the internet) I think we were able to replicate the same amazing taste, maybe even better (the alcoholic butterscotch may have had something to do with that) You can find zillions of recipes online for Butterbeer, this is where I got mine from,  I used the first in the list and substituted the syrup for butterscotch schnapps.

A lot of this then went on after a few mugs of Butterbeer

In my excitement to show off my amazing cauldron cakes, I was not able to snap many photos of my little creations before everyone violently devoured them. This instagram photo is the only one I have of them, but you can find the recipe for these adorable little cakes on the magical world wide web.

Casey and Danielle clearly enjoying their cauldron cakes

After giving me a look of utter disgust when I told him I wanted a Harry Potter themed 22nd Birthday, the fella rather enjoyed creating his Hogwarts Express costume (some would say too much) and decorating the house in a magical fashion. I particularly enjoyed the signs that invited people to a game of Wizards Chess or asked if they fancied "anything off the trolley dears?" above a selection of lollies and snacks. I also amused myself by sticking a picture of Moaning Myrtle on the back of the bathroom door, PotterHeads get it.

Thanks to all my peeps for coming along and celebrating in a magical fashion,

twas a night full of whimsy, joy and epic lols.

Special thanks to my home girl Casey who made a replica of the cake that
Hagrid gave to Harry on his Birthday in the first movie. It was amazing, even though I did ask for it......

Euphoria.

This song is stuck in my head.
Now it's stuck in yours.

You're welcome.

Well played Sweden.

I love Eurovision.

General Knowledge

Quiz night fun and frivolity!

My very talented friend Casey Ellis, is in her final year of acting studies at Flinders Drama Centre and this quiz night was held to help them on their way to showcasing themselves interstate to industry professionals, how exciting! It was a rollicking good time with epic lols left right and centre, more than once I laughed so hard I cried. My personal favourite part of the night was the donut eating competition  which provided some of the most hilarious photos I think I will ever see in my life, and Lauren will probably hate me forever for (totally worth it).

If you want to see more photos and hear more tales from the night, head along to Casey's kickass blog and have a gander, theres even a soundtrack to go along with it! How can you say no!? And by the look of Casey in the photo below you probably shouldn't...

All Photos by Me

In The Arms of The Ocean

wow.

that florence and her machine sure know how to put on a good show.

Even though I mostly reserve Florence's epic songs for car singing, belting it out at the lights and receiving impressed (read: scared) looks from fellow drivers, She made it impossible to sit still and just watch. I was up on my feet jumping up and down and singing away. Even Mum had a little mosh, Florence has that affect on people. I just wanted to put her in my pocket and take her home, and she would fit, she's a tiny slip of a thing! And boy does she love a good twirl about the stage. So adorable.
The set was amazing, 40's art deco inspired and had some beautiful patterns and colours projected onto it throughout the gig. We had seated tickets and even though our seats were on the side rather than front on, we still had a pretty excellent view. That is until the most unlikely fan ever took up residence right infront of me. She had spent the previous song yelling "play seven devils! play seven devils!", and when they did she went off her nut. I managed to snap a couple of photos of her hilarious dancing before security returned her to her seat. It was such a good show, Florence's voice is even more amazing in real life, I felt like I was being wrapped up in the arms of the ocean, as if her voice was giving each one of us a great big hug!

The Glass Menagerie

THE GLASS MENAGERIE

Tennessee Williams

State Theatre Company of South Australia

Saturday 12th May 2012

It's exciting to see a play you have studied in great detail brought to life on the stage. To see the complexities of the text and the playwright's intention alive right infront of you is very inspiring. But it gives me and equal rush to see a text I know nothing about on the stage where everything is fresh and unexpected. The Glass Menagerie was one such play. I was familiar with the work of Tennessee Williams through A Streetcar Named Desire but knew very little about his other plays so I was excited to see The State Theatre Company's production of The Glass Menagerie to experience something new.

This was also the first time the boyfriend had been to the theatre, don't ask me why it took me so long to get him there! He was familiar with the text from high school english studies and it was weird that he knew more about a play than me! But it was interesting to see the different experiences we had with our different knowledge of the text.

The Glas Menagerie is a 'memory play', the memory of Tom Wingfield, (Andrew Gooley) our narrator, of the family's experiences in 1937. As he enters the space the set appears almost magically from the floor and ceiling as if he is remembering each tiny detail of the apartment as it appears. Victoria Lamb's set design created the perfect intimate setting to contain this trapped and suffocating family.

The play is achingly sad and powerful. Seeing Tom and his sister Laura (Kate Cheel) under the suffocating embrace of their mother Amanda (Deidre Rubenstein) and their inability to escape is almost painful to watch. Amanda is a classic Williams character, the fading southern belle wrapped up in the past dreaming of her former beauty and elegant life. Rubenstien is perfect as the overbearing Amanda, her fierce desire for Laura to receive a gentleman caller is maddening to watch but also intensely heartbreaking.

Though a powerfully sad play it also has moments of humour. Tom's sarcasm and Amanda's quick wit  make for a fantastically funny interchange between the two near the end of the first act. As Tom, Andrew Gooley's sarcastic quips perfectly capture his exasperation and inner struggle with his responsibility to the family. It is the juxtaposition between his humour and struggle that make the sad moments so agonizingly beautiful.  

In the second act we meet Laura's gentleman caller Jim O'Connor (Nic English). The candlelit scene between the two is incredibly moving. The gentle strength of their performances created a world in which only they existed, we forgot about Tom and Amanda, we finally were able to see Laura without her overbaring mother. Cheel's Laura was wonderfully fragile and it was beautiful to see her noticeably gain courage and hope from her gentleman caller. 

Though painfully sad to watch in parts, Williams himself said that The Glass Menagerie was the saddest play he had ever written, The Glass Menagerie also combines humour and wit to create a play that is beautifully poignant and moving. The State Theatre Company has done a fantastic job of telling this powerful American classic.

"for nowadays the world is lit by lightning"

bitches love rocket ship cakes.

It was the fella's 21st birthday a couple of weeks ago, and because im basically the best girlfriend/person ever, not only did I get him the most amazing gift ever in the form of a genuine personalised NASA flight suit (yeah he's a space nerd), I also volunteered to make the cake. 

A rocket ship cake.

Seriously, that boy is going to spend eternity trying to top my awesome birthday gift giving skillz.

The final result
Complete with cupcakes as the planets and stars

I thought I might give a little baking demonstration today, 

because honestly who wouldn't want to make this bad boy for themselves!

I must give some of the credit for this creation to my Mum, whose cooking knowledge and common sense saved me from making a horrible mess of this! Even though she winged a bit that I had roped her into an impossible task, I know she secretly was loving it.

We used two lots of chocolate cake baked in loaf tins and stood them on end and joined them with plain icing and toothpicks to prevent it from falling over while we worked. The nose of the rocket is a large cupcake baked in a ramekin pot and then a smaller cupcake was placed on top of that. 

Then the carving began. Using a knife we delicately scraped off the sides of the chocolate loaf to round the edges slightly so that it looked more rocket like and less brick like. 

You might notice the trusty Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book in the above photo. I'm pretty sure i've had almost every cake in the book over the years, and it served as inspiration throughout this cooking experiment.

The wings are make from a smaller thinner loaf tin and then cut in half on an angle.

At this point I couldn't believe it actually looked somewhat like a rocket! The next issue was how to put the icing on without getting all the crumbs from the shaven cake all mixed up in it. The good old internet pulled through and we did whats called a crumb coat where you mix some of the icing with a little water and spread that thinly over the cake, leave it to set a little and then put on a thicker coat of icing.

It's the finer details that really count.

Ta-dah! Shuttle!

 For all you non space enthusiasts "STS- 21" referes to the Space Shuttle program. 

STS stands for 'Space Transportation System' and the number alludes to the mission number. 

I thought it was amusing to have this shuttle STS-21, get it? He's turning 21, so mission 21? 

Anyway I laughed for ages when I thought of it, but he didn't get it and I had to explain it. 

Honestly, sometimes I think I know more about the manned space program than he does!

I was particularly pleased with my Saturn

 I then reveled in decorating the little planet and star cupcakes.

The planets are gobstoppers and the little stars are a marzipan type cut outs. They are all decorated with silver and gold edible glitter!!
The icing was supposed to be black but after using the entire bottle of food colouring it stayed grey, which is probably better as people might be put of by black icing. 

I got the glitter, stars and the food colouring (which is a gel colour that produces a more vibrant colour) from Complete Cake Decorating Supplies in Panorama, South Australia. It's an awesome little shop that stocks all kinds of cake decorating supplies that you thought you didn't need but once you see them you must have!

So there you have it, a horrible instruction on how to actually make a rocket cake (really I just wanted to show off). But perhaps you were inspired to take your next birthday cake to the next level and make it out of this world! The sky's the limit!

*space based puns intended.

The pleased as punch birthday boy in his flight suit,
which he wore all night.

Mission Completion.