Guest Post: DIY Scrapbook Cover

There are so many reasons why I love Twitter, but the main reason is the fact that I am able to talk with a number of interesting, talented and creative people. I was fortunate to begin talking to the creators of Geeky Chiquitas, three very talented young women. And they have provided you all with this wonderful tutorial for a Scrapbook Cover.

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Lots of people keep scrapbooks so that they can keep their precious memories in one place. Some of them have a hard time deciding what their cover should look like and when they do decide on one, they have a hard time making it. We have created a pretty but easy to make cover for any scrapbook you'd like. 

The materials we used for this DIY are fairly easy to acquire, so anyone can make it! 

Materials:

- Scrapbook

- Assorted Pens

- Colored markers

- Colored Papers

- Washi Tapes

- Sissal Mat

Kimi, Beryl and Audrey over at Geeky Chiquitas are a beautiful group of bloggers - their posts are entertaining, interesting and definitely well written. I urge you all to go over to their blog and check them out, and also add them to your Twitter at @Geekychiquitas.

The Best Coconut Slice

Once again, I must apologise for my absence. I have been incredibly busy: getting other posts ready for other blogs, submitting an application to potentially work at an online magazine as a contributor (cross your fingers for me!), and some other writing-related activities. On Saturday I volunteered at my local Red Cross Retail Store, and then I went to watch some fireworks with my best friends before going out for the night. Then on Sunday, Australia Day, I went fishing with my family (photographs coming soon!) This means that I had no time to do Smoothie Sunday as I was out the door by eight o'clock.

So, to make it up to you guys, I am sharing my absolute favourite recipe of all time.

This, without a doubt, is the best coconut slice recipe that you will ever try. Once upon a time, when I was an overweight high school student, I would make this slice because it was the only delicious thing that I knew how to make. Now, I only have this slice every now and then, and in moderation I might add! But I promise you that you will not be disappointed with this slice.

I hope that you guys enjoy this recipe. It is simple and easy. Also, don't forget to contact me once you have tried it, and send me a picture with the end result! (You can find out how to email me by going to my 'Contact' page.)

Ingredients for the Base

125g of Butter
1/2 Cup of Brown Sugar, firmly packed
1 Cup of Coconut (desiccated is better, however, all I had was shredded and that still worked nicely)
1/2 Cup of Plain Flour
1/3 Cup of Self-Raising Flour
1tbsp of Cocoa
1 Egg

Ingredients for the Icing:

1 Cup of Icing Sugar
1tbsp of Cocoa
1tbsp of Milk

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

2. Melt butter over light heat or in a microwave.

3. Stir in sugar, coconut, sifted flours and cocoa, then egg.

4. Spread mixture over base of a 28cm x 18cm tin (I couldn't find one this size, but made do with this one. If your tray is bigger, don't worry, it doesn't have to touch the sides of the tin as it doesn't spread whilst cooking).

5. Bake for 20 minutes.

6. Whilst the slice is baking, prepare the icing by sifting the icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl, then slowly stir in the milk to make a thick paste.

7. Once the slice is cooked, take it out of the oven and immediately spread with the icing.

8. Sprinkle the slice with extra coconut.

9. Place into the fridge until cool, and cut into bars. (It is best to store the slice in the fridge.)

I hope you guys enjoy this wonderful, tasty slice recipe; trust me when I say that your friends and family will absolutely love you for making this.

Lastly, watch out for this week because you guys are in store for a wonderful surprise on Thursday!

Chocolate Chip and Raspberry Muffins

After making a large batch of White Chocolate and Raspberry Muffins last week, my family were determined that I made more. However, this time, I wanted to change the recipe a little bit and make some chocolate muffins instead. So, introducing….

Chocolate Chip and Raspberry Muffins!

This recipe is extremely similar to the previous one. All you are doing is adding 2 tablespoons of cocoa and using 200g of dark chocolate chips instead of white chocolate ones.

Ingredients:

3 Cups of Self-Raising Flour (sifted)
1 Cup of Caster Sugar
200g of Dark Chocolate Chips
125g of Melted Butter
1 Egg
1 Cup of Milk
1/2 Cup of Cream
1tsp of Vanilla
2tbsp of Cocoa
200g of Frozen Raspberries

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Mix dry ingredients together, then add the remaining ingredients (except the raspberries) and mix well.
3. Fold in frozen raspberries.
4. Spoon into patty cake pans and cook for 20-25 minutes.

If you want pictures of the process, check out the White Chocolate and Raspberry Recipe.

Smoothie Sunday: Blueberry Summer Smoothie

During this past week and half in Tasmania, we have been experiencing one of our hottest weeks of the summer, ever. Now, as I am Tasmanian, and this boiling hot weather is pretty hard to come by, I have been struggling considerably. So I had to come up with a solution, and here it is. This wonderful, cold smoothie has been a delicious life saver.

This Blueberry Summer Smoothie is not only a perfect, healthy edition to your array of breakfasts and lunches, but is also a wonderful choice for when the weather is boiling hot. It tastes delicious, cools you down and is full of antioxidants, potassium and protein. 

Ingredients:

1 Cup of Almond Milk

1/2 Cup of Greek Yoghurt

1 Cup of Frozen Blueberries

1 Banana

4 Ice Cubes

1tsp of Chia Seeds

1. Blend together the almond milk, greek yoghurt, blueberries, banana and ice cubes.

2. Pour smoothie into a glass and sprinkle chia seeds on top. Easy!

The Invaders Web Series: Angie's Logs

When I was contacted by Mark Cabaroy, the writer and direct of The Invaders: Angie's Logs, to promote this wonderful web series, I jumped at the chance. This is an incredible, comedic and cute web series that I am so glad to help promote on this blog.

The Story

Eight year old Angie Martinez is recording another episode of her You Tube show "The Angie Show" when she witnesses the beginning of an alien invasion of an unsuspecting planet Earth. For a while things are looking bad for the world but when Angie gets involved things start looking worse for the Invaders.

The Invaders web-series "Angie's Logs" is a live action comedy sci fi web-series in the vein of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which chronicles the adventures of eight year old Angie Martinez and her teenage babysitter Beth Adleman as they attempt repel an alien invasion of Earth from all powerful, unseen, other worldly beings. With the help of her teddy bear, Mr. Snuggles, a cardboard space ship Angie has made out of a discarded refrigerator appliance box and her home made laser gun ( a phased plasma pulse weapon in the 40 watt range) she will wage war against impossible odds with the fate of the world in the balance. Put on your Captain Blasto space helmet, and fasten you seat belts it's going to be a bumpy ride!

Director’s statement:

I wanted to do a web series that was fun to watch. Something easy to look at even if it was hard to make. I’ve always loved film series like: Back to the Future and Men in Black, with their pseudo-science and wacky over the top characters. It was in the spirit of these films that I decided to make The Invaders Web Series: Angie’s Logs. 

When I first started developing the project I had an ensemble of characters broken into two groups, whom each witness and subsequently react to the arrival of the Invaders in different ways. As they went about trying to warn people of the coming invasion, they were also doing their best not to get killed or captured.

When my producer, Marti Davis, and I started developing the show we realized what a huge undertaking it would be to produce a reoccurring episodic show on that scale with little or no money. So we decided to take one of the characters and tell her origin story, similar to Batman Begins, in order to build an audience. 

This became Angie’s Logs, it would tell the story of The Invaders from the perspective of an eight year, old mixed descent (Hispanic and African American) girl, Angie Martinez, as she witnesses the arrival of an alien invasion that starts literally in her own backyard. The idea is to show Angie vlogging (video blogging) on her YouTube channel, “The Angie Show”, with her stuffed bear cohost, Mr. Snuggles. 

Since YouTube, along with other social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Flicker have become such an integral part of our digital lives, I thought why not parody their use as well as use them as a distribution platform. This would also allow us to have Angie break the fourth wall and talk, when necessary, directly to the audience, similar to Matthew Broderick in the movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. 

Check out the first, second and third episode. Visit the website, as well as subscribe to the Youtube Channel, Facebook Page and Twitter.

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Have a website, blog, web series, etsy store, music video or vlog you want promoted? Or want to write a guest post? Contact me here.

Trinkets: Music Finds

In-between writing articles for Sci-Fi Bloggers, planning future articles for other blogs, baking muffins and making smoothie recipes, I have been mindlessly perusing through youtube in procrastination mode (that, and watching Chicago PD a million times). Because of this I have found various new artists to add to my iPod (so that's a plus!) and I wanted to share with you all my favourite finds:

Gosti - Victorian:

Nova & the Experience - Dragonflies and Waterfalls:

White Chocolate and Raspberry Muffins

I've sadly neglected this blog for about a week, instead favouriting google searches such as George Clooney with stubble, and Jesse Spencer and Taylor Kinney in bow ties. I also had the biggest fangirl moment when David Eigenberg retweeted and answered me on Twitter!

Anyway, I would like to share with you all this amazing muffin recipe!

This absolutely delicious white chocolate and raspberry muffin recipe is the best muffin recipe that you will ever try. They are so just so soft and yummy. I have also used this recipe to make chocolate chip muffins, which were just as delicious!

Ingredients:

3 Cups of Self-Raising Flour (sifted)

1 Cup of Caster Sugar

200g of White Chocolate

125g of Melted Butter

1 Egg

1 Cup of Milk

1/2 Cup of Cream

1tsp of Vanilla

200g of Frozen Raspberries

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

2. Mix dry ingredients together, then add the remaining ingredients (except the raspberries) and mix well.

3. Fold in frozen raspberries.

4. Spoon into patty cake pans and cook for 20-25 minutes.

I hope you guys enjoy these muffins, as they are the most delicious muffins I have ever tasted. Next week, I will be sharing with you guys a healthier alternative muffin recipe!