We have moved!

Hooray! Life, love & macarons has now become a .com! We can now be found at lifeloveandmacarons.com

I’ve also started a new Instagram purely for all things ‘Life, love and macarons’, but you can still find me at @aemdavies if you want to.

To top it off, LL&M will have having a monthly giveaway called ‘My Paper Parcel’ which will contain a whole variety of different types of paper, card and adhesives for anyone who loves paper, craft and scrapbooking as much as I do. Due to all of the upgrades, January’s parcel will be available to win starting Monday. All you have to do is make sure you’re following @lifeloveandmacarons on Instagram and comment why you would love to receive My Paper Parcel.

The sad news is, all this means that lifeloveandmacarons.wordpress.com will shortly be gone. You can easily follow the blog at it’s new location or through bloglovin’. I can also be contacted via email at hello@lifeloveandmacarons.com

Thank you all for coming along on this wonderful adventure!

xx

Our Singaporean Adventure

Singapore was quite incredible in so many ways and just so different to life in Australia. Everything was so clean. It was rare to see any rubbish lying on the ground and I certainly didn’t even see one piece of bubblegum on the footpath. The locals are incredibly polite and offer help when they can if they can see you’re looking a bit lost. Tropical flowers are everywhere which really makes it a very beautiful city.

Singapore feels like being in a city in the middle of the jungle.

I’ve never been to a zoo anything like the Singapore Zoo before. It is the only zoo that doesn’t actually feel like a zoo (if you get what I mean). The fences are low and made of natural materials, the animals are surrounded by a moats or small man made cliffs to stop the animals wandering from their enclosures. It’s surrounded by amazing bushy tropical plants and is just so inviting, wild animals (that aren’t really meant to be there) come to live there. It’s not uncommon to spot a rare bird, iguana’s and squirrels just roaming around the zoo. It’s an incredible experience and I highly recommend the Singapore Zoo, River Safari, Night Safari and the Jurong Bird Park. 

Sentosa Island is the perfect place to get away for relaxation and fun! It’s home to Universal Studios, Singapore’s famous Merlion, stunning beaches, the luge, Segway tours of the Island and there so much more to see and do. 

Chinatown is also quite spectacular, it’s like a smaller city within a city as you can see with the skyscrapers towering down on the more traditional buildings.

An incredible view of Marina Bay.

Singapore was never on my list of places to travel to before, and I can only put that down to having such little knowledge of the place. Now, I’d recommend Singapore to anyone as a country that needs to be experienced.

Until next time xx

Singapore

It may not be France, but in its own way Singapore is beautiful. It’s like being in a city within a jungle. At first I imagined it to be just a sea of grey buildings, but I was certainly wrong. Streets are lined with bougainvilleas, jacarandas, tropical plants and the most beautiful flowers I’ve ever seen. I will post more photos when I return home.

  
For now, you can follow along via Instagram @aemdavies.

Xx

Happy New Year!

  

Reasons why I won’t be making any resolutions this year.

 
I’ve been one to make New Years resolutions for as long as I can remember, but this year I’m not. 

I often build things up in my head to be something they’re not and often get left feeling disappointed. It’s exactly the same with resolutions. I get this idea that the year will be amazing because I’ll lose weight or I’ll remember to blog a certain number of times a week or I’ll craft more. Then I build up anxiety over  whether or not I’ll be able to keep it up and it turns into a nightmare.

I’m too focused on the dream of “a perfect year” and don’t even take into consideration that sometimes, life just gets in the way. Things happen, and you might not get the time or the opportunity and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Good things can happen to distract you from those goals too. Things that are more important. 

I’m going into 2016 with one goal only. I’m going to do what makes me happy. If sometimes I fail at something, that’s ok because I tried, I’ve learned and things can only get better. 

2015 certainly wasn’t an easy year for me, so I’m starting 2016 pressure free and open minded for the journey that it will be.

Happy New Year xx

Spring Hill Peony Farm

This is the 3rd year that my friend Caity and I have gone on our annual peony picking adventure. Every year it’s different, but it keeps getting better and better. This year unfortunately we were right at the end of the season however, we still manages to find some lovely blooms.

To do: Pick peonies, take photos and have a picnic. (Our adventures always start with coffee)

They always have a cute set up for food and drinks, but this year we brought our own picnic.

The cute signs are adorable.

Normally the field would be full of peonies (and people).

After the harvest.

All of this was then followed by a cute picnic in the shade, while listening to live folk music.

This is definitely one of my favourite places on earth.

xo

Home.

  

So this is home. I grew up in a town much bigger than this, with parents who loved gardening but the climate was way too dry. It would go from freezing cold, to boiling hot with nothing in between. Beautiful plants struggled to survive and as a family, so did we.

My parents moved here at the last of last year, and they turned into completely different people. It was as if a huge burden was lifted from their shoulders. 

It wasn’t long before I followed. Moving and leaving the place I grew up actually changed my life. It’s like our own little slice of England in the Australian countryside. Maybe there’s just something magical about living near a mountain.. But everything is just better here. This is where I belong.

Until next time xx

Free Giveaway!!

For your chance to win this amazing Blacklist 2016 planner, all you need to do is post this picture on Instagram with the hashtag #lifeloveandmacarons and make sure you’re following. 

 
The winner will be announced on November 14th on the blog.

If you’re not on Instagram, you can automatically enter the draw to win if you follow the blog between October 27th and November 13th.

*will only ship within Australia.

25.

  
So yesterday I turned 25! I’m still having mixed feelings about it all but I’ll be honest, it wasn’t the happiest of birthdays. It did open my eyes to a number of things though, so I’ll focus on that. 

I’m not going to give you the usual “25 things I’ve learnt before I turned 25” post, but I’ll give you 10 that I think are the most important, and ring true for me on a daily basis. 

1. Traveling overseas is one of the greatest things you can do in your life. To experience a new culture, a new way of life and to see and learn amazing things is priceless.
2. Never be afraid to let a friend go. Sometimes you need to stand back and look at the friendship and decide if it’s worth the fight. We have a lifetime to make new friends.

3. One of the hardest but most valuable things you can do is befriend someone significantly older than you. I’m talking a good 40 years older. The stories they have to share and the words of wisdom they can give you, will enhance your life and make you understand things like you never knew you could. The hard part is that, these people may not be part of your life for very long.

4. Learn to accept your family. Once I stopped comparing my mother to the mother I wished I had and started accepting her for who she is and understanding why she is that way, I felt lighter. I stopped focusing on her faults, blaming her, and focused on trying to understand.

5. It doesn’t matter how much luck someone else seems to have. If you work hard, you can achieve anything you want.

6. Pause. Take it all in. Time goes by way too fast.

7. Surround yourself with beautiful things. Whether it’s fresh flowers, or spoiling yourself with new jewelry; even the smallest things can inspire you. 

8. If you’re not happy with a part of your life, or yourself, and you can change it; do it. Life’s too short to stay unhappy. 

9. Don’t set expectations, just roll with it. There’s no need to feel disappointed about something that didn’t happen, that was never going to anyway.

10. You’re never too old to make new friends, or try something new.

That’s all for now xx

Cinnamon Cupcakes

 

 Makes 12

Oven Temperature: 220°C

Cooking Time: 12 – 15
Ingredients:

120 grams of butter

1/2 cup of caster sugar

2 eggs, beaten

6 tablespoons of milk

1 1/2 cups of s.r flour

1 tablespoon of cinnamon 
Method:

1. Collect ingredients

2. Cream butter and sugar then add the eggs. Mix well.

3. Sift 1 tablespoon of cinnamon with flour.

4. Add flour and milk alternately. Mix gently and thoroughly.

5. Place mixture in pans, half filling each one then bake. 

6. Cool for 2 minutes then add icing. 
For this recipe I just used a basic icing:

1 tablespoon of butter

1 cup of icing sugar

1 tablespoon of hot water

Add water and icing sugar as required for a treacle like consistency. 

Then sprinkle lightly with cinnamon on top. 

Enjoy! Xx