35 Ways with Speckled Eggs

It's the season of hot cross buns, cream filled chocolate eggs and shameless chocolate overdoses. But sweetheart, you can even keep your decadent Lindt bunnies - just spoil me with a bag of Speckled Eggs to go with my cup of tea! After all, it's no secret that happiness is really egg shaped with a chocolate-candy coating and jelly centre.

After stumbling across a couple of innovative ideas with speckled eggs on another blog, I took the matter a step further and compiled this list of over 30 ways to make the most of these pastel munchies. So I'll essentially be stuffing my face with speckled eggs every day for the entire month of April - which is a lie, but wouldn't that just be living the dream?

NOTE: You can find all the recipes and step-by-step DIYs on my Pinterest board HERE.

#1. Birdie egg cupcakes // #2. Egg carrot cake cupcakes // #3. Egg nest vanilla cupcakes

#4. Meringue nests // #5. Coconut marshmallow nests // #6. Speckled egg & chocolate shards

#7. Speckled egg brownies // #8. Chocolate coated pretzel nests // #9. Speckled egg spoons

#10. Mini chocolate egg mousse // #11. Cup puddings decorated with speckled eggs // #12. Pancakes & eggs

#13. Speckled egg cake // #14. Speckled egg decorated cake roll // #15. Egg & Kit Kat Cake 

#16. Speckled egg muffins // #17. Biscuits decorated with speckled eggs // #18. Eggs inside a biscuit // #19. Robin's egg biscuits

#20. Eggs in melted white chocolate // #21. Rice Crispy squares // #22. Speckled egg popcorn 

#23. Rice Crispy eggs with (you guessed it) eggs inside! // #24. Speckled eggs and peanut butter // #25. Mini eggs on hot cross buns

#26. Wreath // #27. Tree // #28. Surprise doorknob nests // I have no idea how these would work, but I want it.

#29. Speckled egg nails // #30. Mini egg-shaped cookies // #31. Tea & speckled eggs - BEST!

#32. Pretzels topped with icing and eggs // #33. Eggy milkshakes // #34. Speckled egg ice cream

And last but not least, the best way to enjoy these nibbles?

#35. By the jar!

Happy Easter, blokes and bunnies ♥

Split-Second Christmas Table

This post is hideously delayed, I know, so for the next 3 minutes I'd like you to pretend that today is in fact the day after Christmas and be super impressed by how rapidly I got this post up. Reset brain, and GO ---> 

As you might remember from this post, I had a bit of a dilemma yesterday (on Christmas day ;-) when I realised that I had (stupidly) volunteered to decorate the Christmas table. 'Freak out' is an understatement. So with no time to ransack the shops, I had to make do with what we had lying around the house and garden, which is how this white + yellow + lime recycled table came into being. 

1. Newspaper table cloth, mainly because I ALWAYS mess.
2. Glass jars as juice tumblers with double straws, & halved lemons/limes as place card holders.
3. A pretty gardenia ("katjiepiering") under each glass.

1. Freshly picked garden flowers in recycled glass bottles + wooden crate.
2. Yellow/lime A4 paper as place mats.
3. Cutlery, straws, jars and glasses decorated with tan raffia string.

Apologies for the bad pictures and colour. Quite frankly, I blame the camera. What's that, camera? Oh, he says, "yes - I screwed up".

Say it with Scrabble tiles

Hi my name is @teaTippler, I'm a copywriter and I suck at Scrabble.

Does that mean I don't want to tile my bathroom floor with Scrabble chips and have them embedded in my grave stone? Of course not! I'm not mad. About a year ago I scavenged around my gran's games cupboard and came across a Scrabble set that was, most conveniently, missing a couple of tiles. And like any keen 80-something Scrabbler will tell you, "Scrabble isn't Scrabble without those missing tiles, so Charn can go ahead and create some awesomeness. Seriously, bro, it's cool."

So far I've managed to whip together...

Scrabble brooches

Scrabble fridge magnets - FUN!

A Scrabble ring - stolen, sadly.
Some might say I lost it, but I beg to differ.

And lady Claire Lofthouse brought me this little lovely all the way from London! So spoiled, am I.

Yet it's still not enough! *Manic grin. Here's what's still on the Scrabble list (is this list written in Scrabble tiles? Let's say yes.)

Giant Scrabble tiles

Patio Scrabble!

I can't spell it out any clearer. L-O-V-E.

It's the season to panic and freak out

No, no, Tea Tippler, dear - it's already here! *face palm.

This morning I finally had to make peace with the fact that it's no longer October and that I have some serious catching up to do in terms of holiday spirit. I have not bought a single gift, haven't given a single thought to what my "special dish" for the family dinner will be and apparently, from what I've been told, I volunteered to do the table decor. In fact, I'm so unprepared this year that I'm literally waiting for the Ghost of Christmas Past to jump out from behind a lamp post and shout, "Doom on you! Doom on you!"

So, today's post is really more for my benefit than yours - selfish, I know. Seeing as every single shop is a battlefield this time of year (angry shoppers demanding more minced pies, shop assistants crying in the fresh produce section, screaming toddlers slinging milk bottles against the baking shelf because there's no more Ultra Mel), I've decided to rely on my freaking awesome DIY skills (subtext: Pinterest, help!) Nobody sprained any brain muscles there, is what you're probably thinking. But hopefully all of you who find yourself in the same predicament as me will be able to draw a little inspiration from this mixing bowl of prettiness! Happy Holidays!

 

 

 For picture references, check out my Pinterest boards here.

Project Home Office - Complete!

I recently did a blogpost for a client on interesting and creative home office ideas, and I must say - browsing through the pretty, magical and inspiring pictures on Pinterest was simply... depressing. Sitting on my stupid chair at my stupid desk with my stupid bookshelf and stupid pencil case, all I really wanted at that moment was a Pinterest office. And that's when a light bulb materialised above my head (for real). There and then I made the decision to put some effort into my own little home office and really make it a space that makes me WANT to put bum on seat and work, work, work. 

Like everything in my life, this is and will always remain a work in progress - after all, isn't there always something prettier out there? But here's where my little work nook is at right now...

 

 

• Rose pink backdrop: Woolies gift wrap on a polystyrene pin board.
• Wooden & and m cut-outs: Typo
• Table: Second-hand store
• Bookshelf and brown ottoman: Gumtree (for super cheap!)
• Tea cup: Gran's kitchen cupboard
• Metal case: Make-up case from Clicks
• Room divider: Secondhand frame covered with Mr Price table runners
• White frame, Black box frame and Mirror: Found in the garage - broken and chipped - fixed up and painted by myself. 
• Little brown suitcase: Present from my mom for my 5th birthday.

PS. Chuck your chair and buy a nice fat ottoman! Great for posture and deliciously comfy, trust me. Cheerio for now!

Caroline saves the day

Ah! Remember that one time I said I'll be doing DIYs this weekend? And remember that one time I joked about probably not having any DIY pics to post on Monday, which is today? Haha funny story, but more on that later. OK no, I'm lying. I'm taking that bitter little story with me to the grave, I tells ya.

Thankfully an honourary member of the bloggerati (that's not a word, I just made it up to make you curious and sound very very VIPish) took me up on my challenge and did a little DIYing of her own this past weekend, recreating the nifty little book mark I posted here. Which means even though my most successful DIY project of the weekend was turning a frozen chicken into dinner, I actually have pics to post! Courtesy of A Girl Called Caroline - hugs, darling dear! You rock like... like...like... I want to say mayonnaise...? I don't know why. It's Monday though, so let's all join hands and cut my mushy brain some slack, okay?

Anyhoo! Here are her step-by-step snapshots which I couldn't have done better myself:

On a completely unrelated note, are you just crying at the sight of your own handwriting right now? If my hand could write like this girl's, I would never put my fingers on a keyboard again. In fact, I'd probably even stop texting and buy myself a carrier pigeon. I'm sorry, Caroline. I'm hating you just a little right now.

Cute, ey? Thanks, crafty Caroline! You're a gentlemanlady and a scholar. Hopefully we'll meet face to face one day for a nice cuppa tea and quality chatter (of more than 140 characters per thought).

Be sure to check out Caroline's blog. She kind of reminds me of myself when I was that age. No. No, no, no, you did not just use that line. No. No, no, no. "That age"? Seriously? Ack!

Back from Outer Space

If you thought a cloud had been frozen solid by this bitterly cold and dropped from the sky to crush me like an overripe banana, you would be wrong. If you were convinced magpies had invaded my flat and locked me in the dresser, you would in fact also be wrong (not to mention insulting the entire race of magpies who really are quite kind-hearted). If however you assumed I had abandoned you to go on a trip to magical Florence and sip tea at a street corner deli, you would sadly still be missing the mark *sigh. In actual fact I've just been swamped with work - exciting, I know - but as a freelancer I'm certainly not complaining. So my humblest apologies for the silent treatment, tea lovers!

As a treat (well, for those of you who are crafty creatures at least - for the rest, I'll post something pretty for you later, promise!) - some mind-canoodling DIYs I'll be trying this weekend, which I'm already planning even though it's only Tuesday. Hopefully you'll give these a shot too, 'cause if I fail, I'm going to need you to hand over those pretty pics of yours to post on this blog here, Lady, Dude and Mister Mgoo. Subtext: Try the DIYs and for heavens sake, please do a good job. For me. Because I'm Queen of the Creative Cluts-Clan and I need you to help me save face.

Is anyone else thinking tea and tequila party?

That there is the corner of an envelope - sweet!

Too lovely for words!

Pinwheels!

Scrabble coasters for a tea cup, of course.

Hopefully these should keep your fingers warm. Chills!

All images via Pinterest