Allsorts Part 2!

D O U B L E . C H O C O L A T E . B A I L E Y S . B U N N Y . M U F F I N S

YOU WILL NEED:

275 g Plain Flour

25g Cocoa Powder

3 Teaspoon's Baking Powder

150g Sugar

75g Butter (Melted)

150ml Bailey's

3 eggs (Beaten)Vanilla Essence

200g White Chocolate (Chopped)

200g Milk or Dark Chocolate (I used Cadbury's Wholenut)

Optional: 5 Hobnob biscuits, Pinch of Cinnamon, 

[★] Preheat Oven to 200C. Sift the Flour, Cocoa Powder & Baking Powder together in a bowl. Add the Sugar and stir together.

[★]  Add the Melted Butter, beaten Eggs, Vanilla Essence, Bailey's and Optional: Ingredients and mix together. Stir in the Chopped White Chocolate.

[★]  Spoon into cake cases (I made 15 with this recipe!) and bake for 18-20 minutes until well risen. 

[★] Melt the Brown Chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water and drizzle over the cooled cakes.

[★]  I drizzled some leftover White Chocolate over the Brown for contrast and added Mini Eggs and little rabbits I'd made from Ready-to-Roll white icing ^.^

M E R M A I D S !

I had a Splat day last week with Sue being away and took a break to adorn my sketchbook with some funky colours! I quite like the one above, and gave her opaque fins and suckers down the front of her tail to contrast with her rainbow hair and black eyes. She's probably the most tropical one that's jumped out of my head so far ^.^

A Selkie! She's plainer, chunkier and much less colourful than the Mermaids but is more good-natured, practical and modest.

An Orca Mermaid! I had Killer Whales and polar icebergs on the brain when I started her.

 

This one got scarier as I started colouring her in. 

She's a Plague Mermaid - lives in the Dark and see's nothing but the Future and can't speak to tell it. 

When I eventually (Ha-haaa!) finish the Romance Story I've been working on for three years, I'd like to illustrate each new Chapter with a full-page plate before the Story resumes.

E L I S S A B A T

I treated myself to an Elissabat a few weeks ago and only got the chance to unbox her properly last night. She is bloody gorgeous! It's lovely that Monster High have released Dolls already in their ambitions rather than not quite getting there yet, plus I've been waiting a while for a Gothic-Lolita styled one ;) If they release a Monster High Wrestler Doll, I'll be over the Moon :D

Shelf is getting a bit full again...no? ;)

S E S S I O N S . I N . T H E . S U N

Put together Twylla's outdoor run this morning and had her out for a few hours in the Sun this afternoon whilst I drew for a few hours. Gonna take some tunes out next time and maybe have a spare Bunny-sitter so I don't need to pack up everytime I need the loo - haha!

She doesn't look impressed, Bless her!

Phew - That's all for now!

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Tentacles

Venus Flytrap has finally flowered  ♥ Flowering peduncle is now a whopping 16", 2nd biggest is 8.5" and three smaller ones 5"/6". Monster High's Venus McFlytrap for scale who is 11" in height.

No signs of new shoots as yet, and just as well because my Windowsill is going to be full of tentacles ;)

Stuff!

This Year...? THIS YEAR?? ;)

We're celebrating Christmas a little early this year, as Becky & I are (Hopefully - Work permitting!) heading down South to spend it with our Mam and her partner. Becky chose the tinsel on my first Christmas Tree of Singledom - I only bothered with one set of Fairy Lights on the wall last year with the Parent's splitting up after 33 years together, and was 'Saving' the Tree at their House so my Dad wouldn't be on his own - (I think she modeled the colours on her hair!) and it's glowing away quite cheerily of an evening, combined with a million tealight candles and a Disney movie ♥

I got a slight case of the pre-festive Single's Blues whilst nipping into town yesterday, so nicking Jennifer's wig and arseing about for a while... ("SLAM YA BODY DOWN AND WIND IT ALL AROUND! SLAM YA BODY DOWN AND ZIG-A-ZAY AHHH!") ...seemed like the best antidote ^.^

 

Watched "13 Wishes" very recently, and treated myself to a Ghoul's Night Out Lagoona to celebrate the release - She could do with a good party after becoming and then retracting from being a Freshwater creature to please Gil's Parents - Don't change for any Man, Ladies!

Me Girls ♥

Experimental Bailey's & Chocolate Cheesecake. Baking & giving it away is good for the Soul. Less Landslide-y next time, add Gelatin & maybe not-so-much Bailey's :D

Allie makes another appearance in the Scrapbook!

Don't ya wanna be a Monster too?

Wow!!

Has it really been *THAT* long since my last Monster High post??It's been nearly six months!
Needless to say, my Collection has grown since I first brought Frankie home, stood her on my Bookcase and marvelled at the way her bones lit up when her abdomen was pressed. Rochelle arrived not long afterwards to keep her company and Abbey soon joined the ten-inch space they lived in between my Jacqueline Wilson Collection and my Guru Guru Pon-Chan Manga.
It got a bit cramped until Venus McFlytrap arrived back from a camping holiday in Whitby & Twyla came home from the 13 Wishes feature movie on the anniversary of a personal heartbreak back in August that the girls suddenly needed their own shelf.

There's also nothing quite like picking up a new Doll to lift a Smile :)

I think a lot about abstract, daft things and I started thinking that whilst each character in the MH series has an endearing trait, they display an equally opposing force to compromise it at the same time. Traits present in both genders across the world, even though the series has a female majority. These are the ones I could think of off the top of my head:

FRANKIE STEIN: 'Electrifying' (Sexually appealing) yet she's unstable - regularly losing limbs and 'falling to pieces'. Frankie is probably my favourite character from the whole series. I've always dug Hetero-chromatic eyes and my Eng Lit GCSE coursework for creative writing (all 26 sides of it) featured at least one character with unusual eye colours. Being a Printer, I can fully appreciate the God Complex which is the balance of creating either a flaw or something beautiful, even though it is essentially the same thing, and Frankie was created from many parts from many bodies but is still quite attractive.

CLAWDEEN WOLF: Sexual Confidence & Attractiveness hindered by Menstruation - "That time of the month".

DRACULAURA: Compromisation of Traditional Heritage (Dressing modern, going out in the Sun covered in Sun cream, keeping daylight hours, becoming Vegan, Dating the enemy - a Werewolf) yet she still has no reflection and a few traditional

CLEO DE NILE: "Queen-Bee Syndrome" - The demand for (inherited) Respect, yet the absolute absence of Independence. Incapable of Autonomy.

LAGOONA BLUE: The In-Law Syndrome. Universally accepting and friends with all Monsters yet is judged by Gil's parents for being a Saltwater.

GHOULIA YELPS: Fast and gifted in the Mind, yet painfully slow in the Body.

SPECTRA VONDERGEIST: The need to be recognized even though she is invisible. Opposes Twyla, who is comfortable in her own skin and actually quite chilled out!

ABBEY BOMINABLE: Frosty. Headstrong. Sexually rejective and immune to charms yet craves traditional Courtship.

VENUS MCFLYTRAP: The responsibility to care for and nurture - in her case, the environment. Environmentally dependent - needs Sunlight & water and being out of the dark.

After watching the 13 Wishes movie, I'm quite over the moon that the company that produced Barbie also managed to create something that encourages individuality. I hope the school-aged Barbies have stopped exercising their superiority complex over any self-confessed Monster even ten years after leaving School.