Handbag Charms – Quick Crafts

A random craft today, I’ve been making handbag charms!

I really love the one I have from Amaranth Opulent on the right and I wanted some different ones to put on all of my bags!VioletLeBeauxP1060331_17242

When I do stuff like this I pretty much just grab everything together out of my craft area and move them around until I can find things that match. It’s very scientific 😉

VioletLeBeauxP1060334_17245

I made this one a while ago and then added a Bergamot charm to it recently too.

It looks pretty cute on the bag!

+10 awesome points if you can guess where the charm came from!

Melbourne Snapshots! Pretty And Delicious

I hereby name this snapshots post “Stuff I Ate and Generic Pretty Scenery”.

VioletLeBeauxP1060021_16845

James has been really going nuts trying to make healthy food lately. He’s on a health kick. I am not. Tensions are high in regards to dinners XD

He made little potato slices with parmesan and light sour cream. Not exactly healthy but we compromise!

Violet lebeaux crafts_722

I love food shots taken from above.

Violet lebeaux crafts_721

James got some new shoes that he totally hates but secretly totally loves. His old shoes finally bit the dust. He’s acting all cool like he doesn’t even care about shoes but I know that deep down he has a shoe love affair. He’s monogamous though, only one pair of shoes at a time. I’m more open in the shoe love area so I have several lovers at a time.

This is what happens when I don’t sleep.

VioletLeBeauxP1060026_16850

Here’s a delicious bagel.

VioletLeBeauxP1060024_16848

We have clearly gone to that delicious Korean place I filmed my Vlogs at one too many times because now they remember us XD

VioletLeBeauxP1060067_16891

I still love this grape drink too! It’s got actual whole grapes floating around in it 😀

VioletLeBeauxP1060070_16894

Yummy tea time!

VioletLeBeauxP1060073_16897

And bibimbap! I love stone pot anything but bibimbap is one of my particular favorites. So far as side dishes go, this place makes some kind of honey potatoes. Oh my god they are the best thing in the universe, kind of waxy almost but honey and asdfadfdroool. I’m hungry again.

VioletLeBeauxP1060071_16895

James is totally all about spicy food at the moment. He’s built up quite a tolerance to it now and he always orders spicy something or other. Then he goes on about how spicy it is and his whole face turns red!

VioletLeBeauxP1060076_16900

The last time we went there was a fire in the building next door and a whole bunch of firemen were hanging out.

VioletLeBeauxP1060079_16903

James ate a gigantic pizza.

VioletLeBeauxP1060090_16914

I ate a crepe. Silly Violet, that’s not the way to eat a crepe.

VioletLeBeauxP1060087_16911

We tried out Pink Cafe which is a place full of the most random foods.

VioletLeBeauxP1060388_17299

Hot dogs, waffles with peanut butter and condensed milk and cups of corn.

VioletLeBeauxP1060376_17287

Delicious corn!

VioletLeBeauxP1060399_17310

Now we move on to the beautifully generic scenery portion of this episode.

VioletLeBeauxP1060091_16915

Ah Docklands, everyone kind of hates you but you’re so full of pretty scenery!

VioletLeBeauxP1060104_16928

Sunset with people rowing!

VioletLeBeauxP1060100_16924

The lights at Southbank are beautiful too.

VioletLeBeauxP1060409_17315

As pretty as they are though, they just can’t compete with the city skyline.

VioletLeBeauxP1060373_17284VioletLeBeauxP1060375_17286

There’s just something about the city that brings me back every time.

VioletLeBeauxP1060385_17296

Ah Australia, you’re such an odd mix of scenery in the best way possible.

VioletLeBeauxP1060437_17343

Got to run now, I’ve got a skype interview to get ready. I’m being so productive doing that by camwhoring instead 😉

VioletLeBeauxP1060286_17225

How was your week?

Jimmy’s Healthy(ish) Oven Baked Donut Recipe

It’s time for another one of Jimmy’s guest posts!!! Neat! Oh, and we’re making baked donuts. OMGKJDNKJDCNKD!!!!!! YES!!! YESYESYES!!!!!!!

 

VioletLeBeauxP1080477_19555

VioletLeBeauxP1080474_19552

So every 6 months or so I go on a bit of a health kick. It’s usually brought on when I’m going through photos and I’m like, where am I in all these photos? I only see that guy who looks like he could be my twin from a planet inhabited entirely by edible couches that are both delicious and majorly comfortableOHMYGODTHATSME. This will not stand. So I go to the closet, pull the secret lever, go through the secret passage way, solve the skeletons riddle, past the pit of dispair and find my running shoes. Dust them off, freak out a little because a spider crawled out and nearly touched me, back through the pit, get stuck talking to the skeletons wife (who is a major chatterbox btw, but she brought me a pie so what can I do?) back up the secret passage and through the closet. Then I pop on the shoes, look out the window and chicken out because it looks a little like rain. But you know, I play some wii fit tennis and stuff. IT TOTALLY COUNTS! It has “fit” in the title of the game!!! Then the next day I look for rain, but it’s a beautiful day outside. Stupid sun. Not even a swarm of bees on the horizon. I manage to drag myself down to the street and the little green crossing man lights up with a hint of mockery, as if to say pfft, good luck…and that’s what gets me going. I’LL SHOW YOU CROSSY MAN! I burst into run, get about three steps and twist my ankle.Me: oowowowowoww, Violet, I hurted my self…

Violet: Did you remeber to stretch first?

Me: Stretch? What am I, a woman!?!

Violet: You get no sympathy. And you get to make me dinner.

I sometimes manage to actually run every now and then, and when I do I try my best to eat right, but I still love baking. So before I bake anything this conversation takes place:

Me: Are people actually going to eat these if I make them or am I going to end up eating all of them again?

Everybody else: Oh sure, we’ll eat them, sound delicious.

*Jimmy makes cupcakes*

Me: Cupcakes are ready!

*half a week later*

Me: Nobody is eating any cupcakes!!!!

Violet: Oh yeah, I’ll have one tomorrow

Me: Liar!

Cupcakes: Pssst, Jimmy, eat me and my buddies!

Me: You go to hell cupcakes!!! You go to hell and die in a fire!!

Cupcakes: But we’re delicious!

Me: Oh. Ok.

Violet: Who ate all the cupcakes!?!?!

Mrs. Skeleton: I can make a pie!

Everyone: NO THANK YOU!!!!

And now we come full circle. I needed something that I could bake, would taste delicious but would still be healthy-ish if/when I end up eating them all. These donuts only have something like 300KJ each and since the daily recommended kj intake is around 8500, you can eat 28 of these bad boys a day!!!

Ingredients:

  • 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk at room temperature (I can never find buttermilk so I use regular milk with a little bit of lemon juice, but mix them separately so the milk doesn’t curdle.)
  • 2 eggs at room temperature
  • 50g of room temp butter (if you are really eating healthy then you can sub this with 2 tbsp apple sauce or light margarine)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup blueberries
Ingredients! Assemble!

VioletLeBeaux-Donut-Recipe-53_18761

Combine all your dry ingredients in a sifter and…sift them?

VioletLeBeaux-Donut-Recipe-55_18763

Just make sure that they all mix together well.

VioletLeBeaux-Donut-Recipe-58_18766

add all the wet ingredients except for the lemon juice

VioletLeBeaux-Donut-Recipe-59_18767

Give everything a good stir, THEN stir in a few quick splashes of lemon juice

VioletLeBeaux-Donut-Recipe-60_18768

At this point I poured some of the mixture into a lightly greased donut pan because Violet likes plain donuts, but I like blueberries, so I made 6 plain and 6 blueberry. I have also made mixed berry and mixed berry with cream cheese which was really nice.

VioletLeBeaux-Donut-Recipe-61_18769

Finding a donut pan can be difficult, we luckily came across this one at K-Mart for $9, but if you can’t find one try looking for a mini Bundt Cake pan, they are a little more common since you don’t usually bake donuts.

VioletLeBeaux-Donut-Recipe-63_18771

Never having made donuts before, I had no idea how much batter to put in each little thingy. As it turns out filling it to the brim was too much and mine came out as some kind of donut-cupcake hybrid that I called cupnuts. Because that sounds hilarious.

VioletLeBeaux-Donut-Recipe-69_18777

On the other side they look normal-ish. Really it’s a brilliant system because since the middle has a divit but not a hole you can put a filling like custard or jam or something there!

VioletLeBeaux-Donut-Recipe-70_18778

Unfortunately I forgot to take any photos of the icing process, but here’s the recipe!

  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tbsp whole milk
  • A little cream cheese if you like, but again that’s going to add to the Kj count =(
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
It makes quite a bit of icing, so if you want to make less you can just keep adding a little milk to an icing sugar/vanilla extract mixture at a time and stir so that it’s liquidy but will still dry with a shell over the top when left out on the counter.

VioletLeBeaux-Donut-Recipe-73_18781

Dip the donuts into the mixture and rotate as you pull it out to get a smooth finish, then decorate with your favorite toppings!

VioletLeBeaux-Donut-Recipe-75_18783

These ones look a little…deflated. That’s because I forgot to add butter I think. I forgot to add something somewhere along the way and they came out really chewy.

VioletLeBeauxP1080475_19553

These are great for parties where you can set up a make-your-own donut bar!

VioletLeBeauxP1080478_19556

I’m so awesome at this being healthy thing. What do you guys think?

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Close