The Marine Parade Eatery ~ Paraparaumu Beach, NZ

Apple Crumble French Toast guys!

For my birthday (yes I know that was April I'm slack) my family and I headed out for lunch at The Marine Parade Eatery in Paraparaumu Beach and let's just say the food was excellent! Coming from someone who goes to pretty much the same cafes all the time for brunch it was really nice to try somewhere new. My parents had been here previously a couple of times but it was my brother and I's first time.

Food Around the World (but mainly Auckland, US, and UK)

Churros // Beignets

I saw a similar post over on MarvelSteph’s blog and after making me incredibly hungry I thought I would share some of the food around the world that basically I crave on a daily basis (or whenever I see them on my feeds). I have had a few of these before but most I’ve never had, either way, I want to shove them in my gob. While Steph's was a mixture of sweet and savoury mine is all sweet, because if I could live off cakes and desserts without dying from certain vitamin deficiency or losing all my teeth, I would.

CHURROS FROM DISNEYLAND

I have never had churros better than the one I had in Disneyland back when I was 13. For some reason, I never managed to get one until the second to last day of our trip and I fell in love and then had to eat my fair share in those last two days. Whenever I see churros on the menu I order them and then get sufficiently disappointed that they’re never the right texture, or the chocolate sauce has chilli in it and ruins the churros-y flavour, or they’re just rock hard (I’m looking at you Hells Pizza). Basically, I need at least another one of these perfect churros in my life if I’m to die happy. Have I mentioned they’re really long too?

BEIGNETS

I swear this isn't all Disney foods but the reason I know about these is from The Princess and the Frog and then seeing all the Disney Instagrammers eating them. Basically, deep-fried pastry coated in icing sugar sounds amazing. I'm pretty sure you can get some of these somewhere in Wellington but I just haven't looked for them, especially as I kind of want to try the Disney ones first.

ANYTHING FROM MIANN

Ever since all the Auckland bloggers started sharing photos of their desserts at Milse and then Miann I knew I had to go. I’m not 100% if Wellington has a dessert restaurant, but if they do I haven’t found it and being a dessert fiend I’m sure I would know about it. Looking at the menu I feel some of the flavours are definitely a bit out there for me, but that doesn’t stop me wanting to at least go there and try, especially with how lovely the desserts look!  

Egg Waffles // Giapo

EGG WAFFLES

I haven’t really seen this from one particular shop, although the above photo is from Pufflets in Melbourne. I swear you can get them anywhere but the ones that look the best are in New York as far as I’m aware, but I'll settle for Melbourne. Just the amount of these egg waffles that come up on my Instagram and Pinterest and Facebook makes me want one. I’m a big fan of waffles, especially those that don’t come with the usual bacon and maple syrup, so these are right up my street. Sugar sugar and more sugar, you’ll start to see a pattern the more you read of this post!

ANYTHING FROM GIAPO

Aucklanders seriously get all the good dessert places. While this is probably just good ice cream, as good as Wellington’s own Kaffee Eis, it’s the toppings that make these ice creams look fab and very ‘insta-worthy’. Just look at the one in the photo above, besides adding gold leaf how much extra can an ice cream get? Some of them have chocolate lips on them for God’s sake.

Unfortunately, while in Auckland a few weeks ago for the weekend I was so busy I was unable to visit either Miann or Giapo, it was rather disappointing knowing I was only a 15-minute walk away most the time.

DESSERT BUFFET AT OXBO

I saw this once, on someone’s Instagram story (I can’t remember who) and basically decided that I will be going when I’m next in the UK. I’m a big fan of buffets and any buffet that is full of dessert just calls my name, why wouldn’t you want all you can eat dessert? It’s part of a four-course buffet thing but I swear if I went I would barely have anything for a starter and main and just stuff myself with the 'waffle station' because um yes waffles?? and their dessert buffet. Their mini lemon meringue pies looked mouthwatering.

I think I just need to go to America and stuff my face, and then come back to Auckland and continue stuffing, after a quick pit stop in London. I really apologise if you’re reading this before your lunch break and are now drooling a bit, I know I am.

What food do you crave from abroad?

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Artist Attraction #8 | Emilie De Griottes

Pantone 1797 C

It's been a while since I posted about an artist or a cool piece of art that I liked so I after rediscovering Emilie De Griottes' Pantone tarts I just had to share them! I think pantone colours are pretty well known about the internet now but if I'm wrong for you non designery people they're simply paint charts. Have a look here. There's so many of these floating around the internet but I'm pretty sure Emilie was the first. Created for the magazine food Fricote as a special feature, Emilie made little tarts that resembled specific pantone colour swatches. Bananas made pantone 7507 C, cucumber made 7492 C, and cherry tomatoes made the perfect 485 C colour. Check out all these other pretty colours made by food!

Images courtesy of Griottes.fr - Emilie's blog.

I'm not sure about eating the carrot tart but that berry one just makes my mouth water every time I look at it oh and think about it too. Not only is she a pretty amazing food designer but Emilie also blogs about it all, you can see some of her creations like her moon cake up on Griottes.fr, you will have to translate it from French but I'm sure with all the techiness of Google translate you can do that at the click of a button. She also has a very lovely designed foodie book full of great recipes, although if you want the pantone tart recipe you'll have to dig around for issue number six of Fricote which I'm pretty sure is in french.

What do you think of these creations, which would you like to try? I think if I created one I'd like to create Pantone 116 C with passionfruit pulp, yum!

5 things to remember with group projects.

I've been involved in a lot of group projects at the moment at university and sometimes there's a moment or two that just makes me want to scream, cry, or just eat lots of chocolate. Don't get me wrong, working as a team can produce amazing projects it's just those few moments throughout that were either low in sleep, sugar, or just general food, when things get a bit iffy. These past two weeks I've been on holiday but our university calls it a break from university, not a break from work, I've been in uni almost 3/4 of the time working with groups. From this I've learned these five points that may help you in any upcoming group tasks:

Get to know each other's habits. 

If you make a team meeting at 9am when most of your team are late sleepers, then you're going to get less work done than if you make your meeting start at like 1pm, as they're still half asleep. From the very beginning one of my teammates mentioned that she works really late night shifts so sleeps in until midday when she can, this allowed us to; half agree that we'd love to sleep until midday too, and all agree to meet in the afternoons to achieve the most work.

Contact is key.

You may not want to constantly be meeting up with a group of people outside uni hours but believe me you'll get so much more work done from just getting together and getting on the same page for an hour or two or six. Contact doesn't just mean meeting up several times a week either, it also means keeping in contact while you're alone too. Come up with a way that you can share ideas and sketches from home, either a Facebook group or a Google Drive. Also for heaven's sake tell people if you get sick and can't work!

Provide snacks.

Now the one point during this entire group assignment that impressed me the most was when one of my teammates turned up to one meeting with a heap of lollies and other snacks. Each of the meetings after that she brought more along (I brought some too to help us along) but she mentioned one meeting that she was vegan and actually couldn't eat most of the snacks she brought and they were solely for the other teammates to enjoy. They did go down well though, everyone loves food! So I recommend snacks, just maybe ones you enjoy too!

Let others express themselves, help them, and commend them for it. 

Sometimes a member of your group may not be the greatest at something but they really want to give it a go, let them. You might know that you could do a much better job but it's university it's time to try new things, maybe there's something you want to do that you're not too good at either. If it's a major part of the project then help them out, guide them along, tell them your tips and tricks. Don't wait to see them fall flat on their face so you can stand up and 'save the day', that's not how group work works!

Above all, Compromise. 

You're never going to get anywhere if the five or so of you have different thoughts and won't budge an inch, you have to compromise. Sometimes the best ideas come from merging several, write down everyone's ideas and see if you can incorporate any.  Decide on a voting system from the beginning and a way that everyone can voice their opinions on other peoples ideas without seeming rude or demeaning. This way if someone's idea isn't used they'll be able to see that it wasn't that their idea was bad it's just that another one was more suitable or was easier to achieve.

These are what I feel at the moment are a great way to work in order to have a happy team and therefore a good result! They're mainly aimed at school/university projects but most are important in work life too, just maybe not the meeting at the 11am point when you have proper work hours...

What do you think, am I missing any tips?

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Hello, is it me you're looking for?

I'm sorry I've been a bit MIA recently there's just so much going on. Pretty boring stuff like uni projects getting so much more intense and getting ready to move house. But yes I thought the #BlogGreatness theme for this week was a perfect time to try get back into the swing of things and update you a little bit too!

Now the theme this week is Square which I've used in the respect of good old Instagram! Since I've created a new Instagram account to use for this blog I've gotten back into instagramming so I thought I'd share some latest posts and update you on what's been happening.

While at home I used the time away from people I knew to try out something I've wanted to do for ages. I dip dyed the ends of my hair turquoise! It came out a gorgeous bright bluey green and I loved it. Unfortunately I didn't think about how it would fade and it turned rather green, however now it's a nice pale green that's hardly noticeable. It just wasn't that nice having to return to uni with green hair haha!

The last weekend of the six week holiday was Brads Brass Band Competition in Rotorua. Due to it being close to home this year my parents came along and we enjoyed the weekend listening to music and bonding with Brads family even more. This included a great brunch of the waffles above, gosh they were nice! Brad and his band managed to win the A Class competition which makes them to top brass band in Australasia, and Brad himself won the best soloist in the test piece which is a big thing too! There was heaps of snow on the way home too so we of course stopped for a snowball fight!

Since then it's pretty much been constant work for uni. Being only a few months until my fourth and final year starts my assignments at the moment are basically mini versions of the fourth year projects to get us ready and eager. Unfortunately this means I have so much work to do for all of my classes and it's proving hard to leave time to blog. I'll hopefully get used to it and get back into a nice system seen as my usual system of blogging on a thursday night has kind of been ruined now I have class 9-4 and just crash as soon as I get home (and then do more work for fridays class). Fingers crossed I get back into the swing of things as this blog has really taken a back seat over a couple of months so I really need to pull it forward and get back into it.

But yes how have you been?

Mango, Apricot, and Berries... Oh My!

Okay so I'm definitely late to jump on the bandwagon with this one but being a poor student I can't afford berries and other fruit to shove in a smoothie everyday let alone a smoothie maker. But since being home at my parents for some of the holidays I've taken to experimenting a bit with what's in the cupboard and freezer. Some of these haven't gone that well, still drinkable but ya know had a little dodgy aftertaste. This one went great though! 
Warning: you need to be able to deal with bits, I know some people hate bits.  

Here's what you need! 1 handful of ice, two handfuls of frozen mango, 2-3 dried apricots chopped, 1 handful of blueberries, and a couple of spoonfuls of greek yoghurt. Shove them all in a blender in that order and blend to desired consistency which may involve adding some milk (regular or soy). My mum has the Nutri Ninja which blends to about two thirds of a regular glass but if you have a larger blender feel free to double the recipe. 
I like being able to have so much fruit in my diet as I normally have just a banana or some grapes in my regular diet. I think I should probably go surfing around Pinterest for some other recipes, what's your favourite ingredient to add to smoothies? 

21 years ooer

I know this is a quickie short post but as it was my 21st yesterday I felt that pfft its my birthday I can do what I wanna! I had a few birthday celebrations in the lead up to the actual day with my family, Brad's family, and friends. The actual day unfortunately started with a 9am class but I got to catch up with friends I hadn't properly seen for a while. The rest was spent with Brad who lovingly took the day off from his Air Force duties on the lead up to ANZAC day, we did dinner and went out to see a band in a local bar with friends. But yes excuse the iPhone photos I was too excited and I wasn't planning on blogging about the day but I got a few photos so I thought I should! Aren't we attractive?  

March Catch Up

I had a little break over Easter on the blog and it felt good! Not that I don't love blogging but ya know when you do something constantly and you get a few days off and don't think about it and you can think about other things? Yeah that! Anyways I'm back and I thought I'd bring it back with a little catch up with what happened in March, seen as it's well into April now! 

Uni, Uni, Uni! I returned to University towards the end of February and I hand in my final project tomorrow. To catch you up I study Graphic Design and being in my third year now things are pretty intense. I had three projects this half semester; one being an app design with a partner based on an emergency, the other a book design on an architecture company, and the last being an analysis on Post Humanism. I was really excited for the app class but things didn't really go to plan and I didn't really get on all that well with my partner but hey it's over now. I've finished!! It's holiday time now!! 
Apart from focusing on uni I've been out with Brad and friends a few times just to let go a little bit. This included going to see Insurgent (pretty good) and a glorious plum shortcake. But oh my god we got Netflix I repeat New Zealand got netflix! Of course I'm loving that, more on it in another post though. 

My Nail Polish Collection
What it says on the tin, I share with you my collection of nail polish. You can check it out here.
The Disney Tag
Cue some cheesy old photos of 13 year old me and a lot of questions about my Disney love. View it here. 
How To Write Essays Like A Boss
Avoiding my own essay I let you in on some tips on how to write essays for university. Have a look here. 

The Bloody British Tag

I found this on Elish's blog and as she tagged everyone I thought it was perfect for myself to fill out as I'm always questioned about some of these things. Having moved to New Zealand from the UK just over 7 years ago I still retain a lot of my 'britishness' so on with the tag!

How many cups of tea do you have a day? How many sugars?

I drink tea a lot but it all depends on the day, sometimes I can't be bothered waiting for water to boil and tea to steep but sometimes I can have around 5 cups! Milk and one sugar please! 

Favourite part of the roast?

Definitely the yorkshire puddings! When at home my dad makes a roast every sunday and I crave them yorkshire puddings so much he gives me extra. 

Favourite dunking biscuit?
I actually can't remember what my favourite dunking biscuit was back in England as I didn't drink too much tea when I was younger. My favourite biscuit however is an orange club biscuit. (I do love a chocolate finger to dunk now a days in NZ so probably that would be the same in UK) 

Favourite quintessentially British past-time?
I would probably have to say reading, that's classed as 'british' isn't it?

Favourite British word?
Bloody.

Cockney rhyming slang?

I don't have one, never used them at all. 

Favourite British sweet?

Oh god I have so many! Um probably Maoams though they're the best 

What would your pub be called?

The Drum and Monkey - we had one near where I used to live and it used to make me laugh as a kid whenever we went because of the name. 

No. 1 British person?
Ed Sheeran ♥♥♥

Favourite shop/ restaurant?
Nothing can beat Thorntons sorry - maybe Woolworths with their pick and mix selection before they shut down. Although I did really like WHSmiths and their stationary selection. 

What's the first British song that pops into your head?

I'm not sure.. maybe an Ed Sheeran song? or a Lily Allen song.

Marmite- love or hate?

Hate hate hate hate! 

I spent way too long thinking about sweets for this post and drooling instead of actually writing but I tag any of my readers with any British blood in you to have a go! Let me know if you do and I'll check it out :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas tag.

So with Christmas songs blasting and just having finished packing for the holiday I shall be on when you read this I checked out a few of my favourite blogs and came across the Christmas Tag on Megan's blog Moonbeamwishes (check it out here) and I thought I'd have a go.

1. What is your favorite Christmas movie?

I am quite the ironic Christmas movie person with some of my favourites being Elf and The Grinch however I do really like Rise Of The Guardians which although isn't hugely Christmas related it has got Santa in it and came out before Christmas so I class it as one. Although I take this as I can watch it all year round... unlike other Christmas movies which are strictly December movies only. 

2. Do you open your presents on Christmas eve or Christmas morning?

Definitely Christmas morning, apologies to all who do but I find it a really weird concept to open them on Christmas eve... Santa hasn't even been then? When I was a kid we always used to go to either one of my grandparents house on Christmas day and do presents and dinner and then the other grandparents house on Boxing day and do presents and dinner so I used to kind of have two Christmas days a year! 

3. Do you have a favorite Christmas memory?

I don't really have a favourite Christmas memory I just have a lot of nice ones with my family and friends throughout the years. But I do like how my boyfriend asked me out on Christmas eve last year that was cute. 

4. Favorite festive food?

Probably the huge amount of chocolate that goes on sale, of course Chocolate Oranges. 

5. Favorite Christmas gift?

When I was 2 I got one of those giant toy kitchens that were so massive compared to a 2 year old that it was just the most magical thing in the world. I was probably shorter than the washing basket in the photo below it was just that great. I've gotten loads of more flash and expensive presents since but this was always the one present I remember clearly. 

6. Favorite Christmas scent?

Cinnamon or baking scents. 

7. Do you have any Christmas eve traditions?

My family and I always go to the movies on Christmas Eve to watch the latest Christmas movie that came out and that would always be in the Christmas movie box next December. 

8. What tops your tree?

An angel on our family one and a light up star on my personal one. 

9. As a kid what was the one (crazy, wild, extravagant) gift you always asked for but never received?

We always asked for a puppy and every time my mum said no.  

10. What's the best part about Christmas for you?

I love all the cheesiness and festivities, even though it's hardly festive in New Zealand at Christmas, my family and I all are Christmas fanatics so have a great time together. 

Portofin-e dining

This weekend Brad and I met up with his Mum and Gram for dinner along the waterfront. As it was around the 5th there were meant to be fireworks on the waterfront at around 9 that night so a lot of the restaurants were fully booked. We aimed to go to this Italian restaurant Portofino along the waterfront that wouldn't let anyone book so we just turned up and although it was a wee bit chilly we managed to get a lovely table outside on the waterfront. As soon as we got the alcohol and warm food in us it was nice and warm. Now I'm a really picky eater so it was a bloody miracle that I had a hard time deciding what to have for dinner, usually I don't have a choice. I ended up going with the Pollo Camembert which was obviously lovely grilled chicken covered with melted camembert, apricot and a bloody marvelous creamy sauce with potatoes and vegetables. I'm not a very foodie person when it comes to savoury meals but I could eat this again and again my god it was amazing. After stuffing ourselves with dinner and sides of cheesy pizza bread we decided to dive in for pudding as well. But not before we sat at our table and watched the beautiful firework display from the water, I actually didn't take any photos I'm afraid as I just spent the time taking it all in - but you know what fireworks look like, just imagine huge really well composed fireworks. Then came the desert, a glorious caramel cheesecake that unfortunately I couldn't get all the way through. We then pretty much rolled all the way to his family's hotel where we had to get a taxi as we were so stuffed we couldn't manage walking all the way home! 

Instaluvin

So that thing I mentioned about posting lots due to the fact that I've finished uni is a lie. I still currently have two projects to finish even though classes have finished and one is a quick finish and the other is around 2 weeks away. However that's not the main reason, the fact that I'm moving house on Saturday is. I've mentioned this before so I wont go into it but I'm really excited and all the packing, sorting and getting rid of my room in my present apartment is taking up so much time. On with the post!I've recently gotten back into the habit of using Instagram for more than just posting photos and craving likes and follows. I'm actually following more and more people and enjoying all their posts at least like 10 times a day, it's getting a bit of an addiction. [in order from left to right, top to bottom.]

jasminedowling: Jasmine was one of the first blogs I started to follow after my return to Instagram. I really love her style and designs, especially her work with the gold foil lettering gimme all that! Her other lifestyle type photos are composed really well and pretty. 

dinotomic: I've been following him for quite a while and can I just say go there right now and look at his flippin' amazing drawings, thats just promarkers and pencil crayons right there look! (and then come back here after following him please).

alittleopulent: Being an online magazine A Little Opulent posts photos of their latest articles and reviews and although I don't read the magazine I follow a few of their illustrators and writers as well. They post a nice mix of things from decor and design to make up and fashion. 

emmabone3: Now Emma actually goes to my uni and I found through Facebook page surfing. Her lettering style is amazing and I want it so much - I've even had planned an artist review blog post on her because I love her work so much. 

talesatsea: Sarah's Instagram I also found through her type but she posts so much more than just type; she posts lots of everyday lifestyle posts including photos of her newly gorgeous pink hair. 

nectarandstone: Yay baking and food! Caroline makes the best desserts and chocolate you could only dream about - unless you live in Australia you lucky buggers! She does everything from chocolate pyramids and macarons to cookies and cake. I actually almost forgot to include this after not being able to decide what photo to put on as they're all so amazing. 

abbysy: I only came across Abby's Instagram a few days ago but after scrolling through her page for hours I concluded it was now one of my favourite accounts. All of her photos are beautifully presented and she features a lot of her watercolour work which I pray that I can get as good as her some day.

nikkimcwilliams: Holy crap I have an Instagram that's not type? Wow! Nikki's Instagram is full of her fabulous creations - biscuit themed home accessories, mainly pillows which I want one of each please Santa. She also recently got a new little cat Frankie who is just adorable and I crave a kitten every time I see him. 

fromrosesxo: The editor of A Little Opulent, Rebecca, has a gorgeous Instagram. Mainly filled with lifestyle sort of photos filled with design, fashion, food and her gorgeous pup Bella. If I can get my instagram to this level I would be so flipping happy!