Lil' Cupcakes Diary for RSPCA

Will you just have a look at these gorgeous little things! They're cupcakes made by a very VERY talented young lady, a qualified pastry chef and a budding entrepreneur. I went to uni with her sister, Michelle and in those days we hung out together quite a lot.




Angeline, her baby sister (who of course is not quite THE baby anymore), has started a business from home making cupcakes, and also taking orders for wedding cakes and wedding favours. It's called Lil' Cupcakes Diary. Check out her site on facebook for the prettiest cupcakes ever seen! These photos are some of my favourites.



On Monday, the 17th of August 2009, Angeline will be doing a bake off. She is raising money for RSPCA Cup Cake Day. 100% of the profit will be donated to RSPCA, a non-government community based animal welfare charity. So, she's baking up a storm and selling her scrumdiliumptious cupcakes to public.



Please support Angeline in her efforts to raise funds for charity. For more information, do contact Angeline directly at lilcupcakesdiary@gmail.com. Cupcakes are priced at $2 each or 3 for $5. Or drop me a note if you're in the eastern side of Melbourne. I will make a bulk order.

And if you're looking at having cupcakes for a special occasion, be it a birthday, an anniversary or a wedding, I am sure Angeline will be happy to take orders! Do email her for a quote.

Photos by Lil' Cupcakes Diary. Good Luck Angeline!

Frogdancer's Book Drive

Today, I'd like to point you over to Dancing With Frogs.

Frogdancer is a mother of 4 boys, a school teacher, a person with a very very big heart. She lives in Melbourne, Australia.

She is running a book drive for Jarryd, a son of her friend Judy in Traralgon, whose home has been burnt down to the ground, leaving behind only the dishwasher full of unwashed dishes. Read about it here.

Jarryd is an avid reader who hopes to be a writer one day, his library now in ashes. So she's come up with a list of books on her blog, in hope that her readers would be able to help rebuild Jarryd's book collection.

Here are some of the books from the list:

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
1916
James Joyce

Wuthering Heights
1847
Emily Bronte

The Tin Drum
1959
Gunter Grass

Molloy; Malone Dies; The Unnamable
1951-53
Samuel Beckett

Pride and Prejudice
1813
Jane Austen

The Scarlet Letter
1850
Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fathers and Sons
1862
Ivan Turgenev

Nostromo
1904
Joseph Conrad

Beloved
1987
Toni Morrison

An American Tragedy
1925
Theodore Dreiser

Lolita
1955
Vladimir Nabokov

The Golden Notebook
1962
Doris Lessing

Clarissa
1747-48
Samuel Richardson

Hop over to see the whole list. CLICK HERE.

If you're able to help, just drop her a comment and she'll send you Jarryd's mailing address.

God bless you Frogdancer!

Of Bushfires, Generosity and Hope

There is an eerie feeling. The moon is red, as if reflecting the fire still burning uncontrolled in some areas in Victoria.

So far, the bushfires have burned through 413 000 hectares of land and destroyed at least 1834 homes since Saturday. The death toll hangs at 181. But there're hundreds more still missing.

Today, thick smog hangs in the air. Even with all our windows and doors shut, the smell lingers in our house just like burning incense. It is just chilling to know that fires are still burning uncontrollably at Kinglake, Yea-Murrindindi, Maroondah-Yarra, Bunyip, Churchill and Beechworth-Murmungee.

There are also a few blazes reported in Ferntree Gully, not far from where we live. I get the shivers every time I hear sirens, and it seems ever so often today.

Just mind-numbing. I could not NOT imagine the terror when tragedy strikes, when the flames engulf your home and there's no where to run.

There has been a fundraising frenzy in Victoria. Last night, there was a fundraising telethon on Nine Network. People all over the world have opened their hearts and given generously. Donations and pledges to the Red Cross Bushfires Appeal amount to almost $80 million so far. The rebuilding has begun.

There's one other thing you can do. Wear a yellow ribbon as a symbol of your support for the bushfire victims.

Photo taken using hubby's Nikon D3, 70-200mm with teleconverter. (Whatever that means!)