New Love

Hey everyone! Hope you are all enjoying your week, I know I actually am for once. I presented an assignment today and it is a wonderful feeling having that weight lifted off your shoulders. One week left of uni after this week is over, plus an exam in a few weeks and I couldn't be more excited to get this semester done and dusted!

Lately, my boyfriend Kieran and I have been going out and doing something I never really though I would enjoy- fishing!

We have been fishing the last two Sunday nights now and we actually want to make it a regular thing.

I'm not very good at it and I get sad if I can't catch a fish (who wouldn't) and even though it's always freezing cold at night, we have fun.

Last Sunday when we went fishing, Kieran caught a decent sized fish that we actually took home. He prepared the fish from scratch and cooked me dinner with fish, chips and rolls and I was so happy because it was such a thoughtful thing for him to do. It's easy to buy food, but this time he caught our dinner and made it from scratch and it was so cute I was so happy (lol).

Kieran's flathead he caught 

Flathead I caught last week

There's something fun and exciting about going fishing as well. I think maybe because it is so different from anything else I used to think I would enjoy. The fact that (with Kieran's help) I can also catch fish probably makes it a bit more fun and exciting as well.

I enjoy sitting back and not doing much and to me that's the escape I feel these adventures are. We get to spend time together and just relax before we start the week. We get to travel around to different places 'near' us. We go local or we travel up or down the coast. It's a good mini-adventure for a Sunday afternoon/evening and I'm really glad we started doing it.

Thanks for reading my little post about my newfound love for fishing.
Kristelle xxx

Meatball Recipe

Hey everyone! So for anyone who follows my tumblr, knows me in person or watches my snapchat stories, you will have noticed that I enjoy cooking quite a lot. 

The small backstory is that every week I meal prep for my boyfriend (cooking a total of 25 meals- not 25 different meals lol) but it has given me a chance to explore my cooking skills and create new recipes as I go when he requests a meal (e.g. I want lasagne- I make up my own recipe to suit that). So with this I thought I would share recipes I create just in case anyone else out there wants to try!

Meatball Recipe

Ingredients:

- 500g lean mince

- 2 cloves garlic: crushed

- 2 eggs

- 1 medium sized onion finely diced

- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

- 1/2 teaspoon crushed chilli (or one small red chilli chopped finely)

- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs

- 1 jar pasta sauce (I use the brand 'Raguletto' flavoured red wine with garlic)

The ingredients for meatballs (minus the mince because I already used it and forgot to include it in the photo!)

Method:

1. Preheat fan forced oven to 180 degrees Celsius and lightly oil a baking dish

2. Place all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl

3. Mix all ingredients together. This works the best if you use your hands because you can mix everything in together easier and break down the mince. If you don't want to use your hands I would recommend using a large wooden spoon. But my advice- hands work best!

4. Once all the ingredients are well combined, use hands to roll meatballs and place in baking dish. You want to try and roll the meatballs to roughly the size of a golf ball, squashing the mince together so it has less of a chance of falling apart (the egg is the best ingredient that will keep the mince 'sticky' so it will stick together easier).

Meatballs at step 4 after being rolled and placed in the tray

5. Cover the meatballs completely with the sauce of your choosing 

6. Cook in oven for about 40-50 minutes

To serve I like to use mashed potatoes and sprinkle fresh parsley and a tad of parmesan cheese on top. However they also go well with penne pasta.

Final product! They smell really good and will serve about 4 

There is my recipe! I really like making these posts so I will continue to share them along with my regular posts.

Thanks for reading,

Stelle xx

Minion Cupcakes

So today I spent a few hours baking. Fun fact about me- I love to bake and cook! I find it relaxes me and well you do end up with some pretty good tasting food at the end!

I thought I would share my minion cupcake recipe with you all in case any of you wanted to try it out! *I made this recipe myself, I usually would throw a bunch of ingredients together until I got something that worked, and this is what I have figured out works*

Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup milk

4 eggs

2 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1 teaspoon vanilla essence 

1 cup caster sugar

200g butter (soft)

chocolate chips

Decoration:

white mini marshmallows

500g box white fondant

yellow food colouring

chocolate chips

sugar/water paste (2 parts sugar, 1 part hot water)

black icing pen

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to about 180 degrees Celsius & line a tray with muffin papers

2. Combine butter, vanilla essence & sugar in a bowl. Mix with electric mixer until combined

3. Add eggs one at a time and then continue to mix

4. Add half the flour and half the milk and continue mixing. Then add the rest of the flour and milk and mix until a smooth consistency and all ingredients are combined. (The mixture should be thick, not runny). I add the chocolate chips here once it is all mixed together

Mixture combined (before adding chocolate chips)

 5. Bake for about 20 minutes or until cooked through (I usually check with a skewer in the middle cupcake on the tray to see if they are cooked the whole way through aka. the skewer comes out clean with no mixture on it. If it comes out with mixture, they cook for another 5 mins and then they should be ready)

Cooked cupcakes (if the surface is too uneven, cut the top off to flatten it)

6. Let the cupcakes cool down completely before decorating

7. Once cool, you will need to knead the fondant until it is smooth. You then add a few drops of yellow food colouring (to however dark/light you would like the yellow to be) and knead the colour through the fondant

8. Then you will roll out the fondant with a rolling pin and cut the appropriate size circle out to cover the top of the cupcakes (I used a glass that was roughly the same size as the cupcakes to cut my circles out)

9. Cover each cupcake with a thin layer of yellow fondant. I like to try and use the back of a spoon to smooth it over and get rid of finger bumps if I can

Fondant covered cupcakes (before being smoothed over with a spoon)

10. Make the sugar/water paste by mixing 2 parts sugar and 1 part hot water. This will act as your glue for the marshmallows and chic chips. 

11. "Glue" marshmallows for eyes, chocolate chips for eyeballs and then draw on a black line for the minion goggles and a mouth. 

12. You now have mini minion cupcakes!

My final product! They were a bit rushed so not perfect, but they taste amazing

There's my recipe and tips everyone! If I were to make these again I probably would have used regular sized marshmallows simply because I like bigger eyes. The cupcake recipe itself tastes amazing and the decoration is just for something fun. I made these for my boyfriends birthday (which  is tomorrow and he is 19 lol) so I hope he likes them!

Thanks for reading, 

Stelle xx

Being an adult is exhausting

I think my title is pretty self-explanatory, being an adult is exhausting. But today for some reason, after I've woken up from a nap on my couch due to the background noise from watching Man vs Wild (before I fell asleep) I think I am going expand on the phrase "being an adult is exhausting".

My mum and sister have left me for a large chunk of Summer to enjoy the usual holiday by the beach. I, of course, was invited but alas the duties of being an adult stood in my way of having a holiday for more than 5 days (where as they get to enjoy 3 full weeks of it). I have been left to carry out all the mundane adult activities that everyone experiences when they grow up and move out of home. I'll give you a little description of everything I find utterly boring to do, yet for some reason seems to take the life out of me each day.

1. Working- probably the most important thing on this list. Because clearly how can one survive without money? Which essentially we all have to work for in some way or another. Working every single day, switching it up between two jobs (and sometimes both jobs in one day) has left me completely exhausted when I get home from the day of working. It sucks, but everyone does it (sort of) so I'll leave this one here...
2.  Grocery Shopping- I used to enjoy grocery shopping for the family. But I've now come to realise that was only because my mum gave me her credit card, told me to buy whatever was necessary and just try not to spend too much money doing so. Now it's a different story. Feeding myself for over two weeks is a lot harder than it sounds. I have a tight budget and can't enjoy all the luxury foods I love so much (mum you give me an easy life when it comes to food and for that I thank you and I am sorry for every time I have ever complained you cooked something for dinner that I didn't like- which brings me to my next point)
3. Cooking- I enjoy cooking. On occasion. When I have energy. I don't know how my mum comes home from work and sometimes the gym most days and cooks dinner. I have discovered this is literally the last thing I want to do when I come home because I am just so tired. And even worse than this is actually thinking of meals that I can cook myself. Some nights I have had to previously meal prep because I had to work the nigh shift and needed to take dinner with me. This ties in largely with the grocery shopping on a budget and not being able to enjoy the steaks and wonderful stir-frys I otherwise love (because umm hello, vegetables and meat are so expensive????) I have taken mum's advice and eaten everything left in the cupboards and freezer first (yes again mum you were right, there is always food in the house)
4. Doing the washing- ugh. So time consuming, it rains every time I need to wash and I always forget I need clean work shirts until an hour before I want to go to bed the night before (and no I don't have a dryer so it makes life so much harder to get my clothes dry). Folding the washing is more irritating than doing it and I have a mountain to still get through (remains of washed clothes from my holidays I still haven't touched)
5. Doing the dishes- Can. not. stand. I have tried to put literally everything I can in he dishwasher and I will wash up the pots and pans when it is absolutely necessary. Which also means I have been using the bare minimum when it comes to cooking because I just don't want to clean up my mess. 
6. Cleaning the house- why oh why do things have to get so dirty? And who has time for housework? Why do I need to vacuum the floor and dust things and clean the bathrooms? Why can't everything just remain clean without any effort. This is the part of being an adult that I despise the most
7. Not wasting money on everything I want because there are actually necessities- But I wanted to go out for dinner and go bowling, but oops I can't because I have to work or I have to save my money for stuff I would rather not pay for (phone bill anyone??)
8. Lonely- This was something I never expected. It doesn't really tie into the list but I think I needed to mention it. Right now it has been really hard for me and I have bee feeling quite lonely. My go to friends are on holidays (my best friend is even out of the country for 3 weeks) and my boyfriend works in the days like me and when I work both days and nights sometimes I don't speak to anyone (that I want to talk to). I drove to my family's holiday destination last night because I genuinely missed talking to my mum and sister. That surprised me above everything. 

I have come to the conclusion that if I were to live by myself full time I would probably spend all my evenings at home so my mum can cook me food (I am so lazy) and then go hang out with either them or my friends because I need people to speak to. Living with my boyfriend with help me with being lonely but not much else (sorry babe you only take the rubbish out without me asking and unpack the dishwasher when I nag). I am a pretty shitty adult but hey, I am still soldering on. Definitely have a new found respect for how much my mother actually does (okay I already new this, but I am appreciating it more and more everyday.)

Thanks for reading,
Stelle xx

Living Together: Work and Study = Exhaustion

Hey everyone!

Sorry I didn't really keep up with posting every other day about this little experience of living with my boyfriend. When I left off it was Monday morning (last thing I wrote about was the weekend) and ever since then I have been so busy and life has just gotten so full on. Not that many interesting things have happened over this week of living together, but let me just fill you in on what I/we have been up to since Monday.

Monday
My first day back at University. Early starts for both me and my boyfriend this day. I had work to do already when I got home, basically just getting myself organised for the classes next week. Mondays consist of Market Research lectures and tutorials and Consumer Behaviour lectures and tutorials. Thank goodness I didn't have tutorials this week because it would have just been too full on for me. Kieran worked really late so I had dinner at home with my family and then I went over his house when he got home (I think it was about 9pm). We watched TV for a bit together and then fell asleep.

Tuesday
Second day back at uni, but I didn't have to be there until about 2pm because I only had a lecture that day because none of my tutorials run the first week. Tuesday's at uni for me are dedicated to Accounting For Decision Making, aka the Accounting class that is required for all Commerce students to take but for all of us who don't care/don't want to be an accountant.

I got up early in the morning anyway though to help Kieran get ready for work, I packed his lunch and then said bye to him. When he left, I went back to sleep for an hour or so. I then did the washing up, cleaned up my make up in the bathroom after a shower and made the bed. I don't mind cleaning up after both of us, because I know he has hard and long days at work. I drove to uni today because I didn't have to be there for long and I went to my own house afterwards. Kieran didn't finish too late tonight, so we went grocery shopping together and he cooked dinner and I cleaned up. As he said "we are the perfect team". We then watched Fired Up! but like usual he fell asleep about 30 minutes into the movie.

Wednesday
Last day of Uni for the week for me. Had a 12pm lecture, but I was catching public transport today so I had to get up and ready the same time Kieran was leaving for work, otherwise I wouldn't get out of bed at all. Wednesday's at uni are dedicated to Microeconomics (sigh) but at least I have lots of friends in my classes (about time). After class, my friend Jess and I went to El Jannah on our way home (the greatest food ever) but the trains stuffed us around and we got home really late. I went to my house and got ready for work because I decided to pick up and extra shift. Work was boring and afterwards I went to Kieran's house and just went straight to bed. It was about 12:30am when I got home and he had been asleep since about 9pm but that's alright.

Thursday
I seriously thought it was the end of the week by now. I can feel how tired I'm gonna be after 3 days in a row at uni. Last semester I went Monday, Thursday and Friday so it was the end of the week when I finished. Now it feels like the week should be over by Wednesday. I had a job interview today for a second job at Wet n Wild Sydney (feels like a pretty cool job to me) and other than that I took some time to myself to do some things I hadn't really had time to do lately (watch some TV and take a nap). I woke up really not feeling well and by the end of the day I had a horrid migraine and sore throat. Kieran came to my house for dinner because my mum was cooking and then we went back to his house.

Friday 
Ahh, finally the end of the week. It's just after 1pm and I'm writing this post as I wait for this load of washing to finish before I can hang it out. I got an email today regarding the job interview I went for yesterday and I got the job! so that's pretty cool! So far today I have done some washing, caught up on the latest Teen Mom 2 episode and cleaned up (again) around Kieran's house before coming home (my house has wifi and his doesn't- which is the main reason I got out of bed to come here). My plan for the rest of the day is to finish off the washing, do my accounting homework and then tonight I have work. Not too sure if I'll go back to Kieran's, but I probably will.

Thanks for reading everyone, even though my life is thoroughly uninteresting right now, I thought I'd post because I said I would. And even though I have literally no plans for the weekend (other than selling a textbook and playing netball) I couldn't be more thankful that it's Saturday tomorrow.
Until next time!
♡ Stelle

Living Together and Sharing?

Hey everyone,

So I've lived through day two and day three (today) of 'living with my boyfriend'. Still not really able to spend an excessive amount of time with my boyfriend because he works full time. But I think that's a good thing. He works in the day and I do my own thing (whether it be see friends or soon to be university again etc.) then we hang out at night together and on the weekends (apart from when I have to work). We do everything together which is something I love.

Day 2
I did my own thing all day while Kieran was working, I didn't really accomplish much during the day except for showering (which is pretty impressive I must say) and then giving myself half a spray tan. Half way through my spray tan I realised I can't spray tan the back of my body. Shocking discovery made by myself, only after I'd done my legs and stomach (oh well I can't see my back).

It was one of my bestfriend's birthday today (she turned 19 so shoutout to you hehe) and she was having a bunch of friends together at the local leagues club for drinks in the night around 8pm. Kieran and I both knew I didn't feel like cooking and he clearly wasn't going to cook so we made a plan to go to the leagues club earlier together and have dinner and then meet my friends for drinks. Of course this plan didn't happen. Kieran had to work late (he normally finished just after 4pm and he ended up working until about 8:15pm) so I just went and met up with my friends and then he came and met up with us later. 

We all had a really good night, talking and laughing and drinking (obviously). Birthday girl kept trying to buy a round of drinks but c'mon, everyone knows you aren't meant to shout drinks on your birthday. As it was a Thursday night, it was open mic night at the leagues club but unfortunately no one could be tricked into getting up and singing this time. One of the girls did however organise for a special happy birthday (sung Marilyn Monroe style) to be sung with a shoutout to our birthday girl. It was pretty impressive even though he sung extremely sexually we got a good laugh out of it trying to embarrass the birthday girl a bit. 

Birthday drinks for Renee's 19th! (Amy left, me middle and Renee right)

We all had a really good night, enjoyed several rounds of cocktails because we were living on the fancier side of life (cosmopolitans and long island ice teas anyone?) and my poor boyfriend drank coke because he was designated driver this time. 

After all this was over, Kieran took my drunken butt home. Now the concept I want to touch on for this night together (at home) is sharing. I know in my mind that sharing is the proper thing to do (and I do share) but for some weird reason, I REALLY HATE SHARING! I feel like this is the first child problem (Kieran and I are both the older siblings) and even though we share everything, I can honestly say neither of us are overly thrilled at the thought of sharing with each other all the time. Some very good examples of this are:

• He doesn't want to share his bed (his space) with me- I sleep there (probably in the most annoying way) anyway
• Neither of us are too keen on sharing our food- we eat off each other's plates and steal each other's food (and I always drink his drink when we go out to lunch/dinner oops)
• I hate "sharing" my personal space- he will basically sit on top of me on the couch anyway

Those are some of the top things I know we hate about sharing. But I suppose they really do mean that sharing is caring? I've even had to borrow his toothbrush because I forgot mine and he didn't have a spare (I think that's pretty gross, but hey I had to brush my teeth somehow and it was funny hearing him say it was 'so yuck').

Day 3
We had to wake up early (6:30am) because it is only Friday and my lovely boyfriend had to go to work. Now let me just say, I am not a morning person. Waking up is the worst thing to happen to me everyday (so I suppose I'm pretty lucky that's the worst I go through on a daily basis). We got up and got ready for the day (me dressing in last nights clothes because my handbag was left in my car back at the leagues club that I was clearly very incapable of driving home the previous night) and him showering and getting ready for work. 

Another thing I noticed I actually find incredibly annoying about living with him. Well two things actually. The first is that he doesn't close the door when he goes to the toilet. So freaking annoying I can not stress this enough. I don't know why it bothers me so much, but like is it that complicated to close the door? The second thing is that if I'm in the bathroom (whether I'm using the toilet, showering, brushing my teeth or just any bathroom activity) he will walk right in and do what he needs to do. If I'm in the shower, please don't come in and use the toilet. Bathroom time is my alone time and he ruins it (it's funny writing this down but it is just so so true).

After we got ready for the morning, we went to get a lovely Maccas breakfast (second day in a row for me oops) and then quickly ate together before I returned to my car and he headed off to work. I came home and actually got ready for my day then eventually made my way to the shops to buy a bunch of stuff. Finally got around to getting my 'back to uni' supplies, more spray tan (no I will not give it up now, I'm finally tanning again), presents for previously mentioned birthday girl and food for dinner. 

I watched Teen Mom 2 and Pretty Little Liars when I got home and now I'm chilling writing this post waiting for my boyfriend to finish work. It's about 6pm and of course he is working late again. The plan tonight is for me to cook us steak, bacon and egg sandwiches when he gets home and have a movie night in bed. I know he will be tired (which means he won't watch more than 40 minutes of the movie anyway). 

So that was the last two days on living with my boyfriend and when I come to write these posts I actually realise we might actually be pretty boring (to other people) because we don't do overly much. Anyway we have fun so who cares?

Thanks for reading!
♡ Stelle

Living with my Boyfriend

Hey everyone!

So for those of you who don't know, I'm 18 years old and have been in a serious relationship for nearly four years (well as serious as it could have been for two 15 year olds anyway). His name is Kieran and it took me nearly 2 years to notice that we have the same initials (KM). My boyfriend and I are the same age and he works full time, I am a full time student and work part time. We both live at home with our parents and we hope that in the near future we will be able to get a place of our own (not for a few years though). 

So now you know a little more about us, the point of this 'series' of posts is to document my experience living with my boyfriend while his family are on an overseas holidays- he got left behind (not really he just couldn't get time off work to go). I'm living with him for 10 days, starting today and I'm genuinely curious if we are going to come out of this alive, because even though we spend a lot of our time together we drive each other crazy and I'm pretty sure there are times I wouldn't mind stabbing myself in the eyeball because he is that annoying and I know the feelings can be quite mutual. 

Living together is a very serious and 'grown up' step in a relationship, especially because you have to do everything for yourself. The closest we have ever come to that, is going away for a long weekend. Doing the dishes and cooking every meal is annoying enough, I'm curious whether we could survive it any longer. I'll post each day (hopefully I will be able to) and I hope you all have a good read (and probably a good laugh). 

Day 1

• Had to wake up at 6:30am to follow Kieran to the mechanic to get his car fixed (not clear on the details exactly because honestly I don't know a thing about cars, that's his area of expertise) 
• Took Kieran to work from the mechanics
• Realised it was only 8am and I had nothing to do and was hungry so I went and got McDonalds breakfast ($3 bacon and egg mcmuffin with a hash brown anyone??)
• Got home (to my house) and went back to bed for a couple of hours. I went to my house because honestly his house is so boring with nobody home. HE DOESN'T HAVE WIFI and being alone all day honestly what the hell was I going to do???
• I cleaned my own bedroom and started writing blog posts (none of which I have published because they are all half written), played that stupid Kim Kardashian game (why am I still playing it? I made the A list and isn't that the point of the game?)
• Basically wasted the day away doing nothing
• Got to 4:20pm, went to the post office to pick up my package (yay for swimwear) and then drove to pick Kieran up from work
• More driving around, again to the mechanic so he could pick up his car
• Then I had to go grocery shopping to get a few ingredients for dinner
• Cooked chicken, potato bake and made a salad for our dinner
• My turn to go to work now (at 7pm) while my boyfriend gets to stay home and watch TV and play games on his phone.
• He texted me that he was bored so I suggested that he come and visit me at work, he said nah he couldn't be bothered
• Asked him if he cleaned up anything from dinner, the answer was no
• Now I'm home from work (writing this post) but I didn't even stay over at his to sleep because I'd just have to wake up early like today to get him ready for work, like he is a child incapable of anything. He is capable he is just so used to everyone doing stuff for him. I do things for him because it frustrates me watching him 'struggle' to do simple tasks like butter bread. I think he does this on purpose though, because he knows I'll just do it for him. 

First day and no, I'm not sick of him, but I also didn't sleepover and I worked, so we didn't have much time together. I won't see him until tomorrow after he finishes work, but I will write about tomorrow, well tomorrow after it happens. 

Today was standard, apart from me driving him around for work and his car, as well as cooking him dinner (well I do that sometimes) and me asking if he cleaned anything. 

Until tomorrow, 
Thanks for reading
♡ Stelle