cookies for katie

i recently had a baby boy. when two of my friends found out i was pregnant they turned up on my door step with bags of clothes for my bulging belly. to say thank you to one of these gorgeous ladies, i decided to bake her some yummy treats.

it would be remiss of me not to share the recipe so here goes...

chunky, chewy choc-chip cookies

1 cup brown sugar
½ cup caster sugar
1 ½ cups self-raising flour
½ cup plain flour
1 cup coarsely chopped roasted macadamias
185g butter, melted
1 egg, beaten lightly
1 egg yolk, beaten lightly
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
200g dark eating chocolate, chopped coarsely

preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. grease oven trays, line with baking paper.

combine sugars, sifted flours and nuts in large bowl. add combined butter, egg, egg yolk and extract, mix to soft dough. stir in chocolate.

place 2 level tablespoons of biscuit dough on trays about 6cm apart.

baking time really depends on your oven. you want the cookies to brown lightly but if you overcook them they aren't chewy. they take around 8 minutes in my oven but they can take up to 16 minutes in some ovens.

to wrap the cookies i used a coles oven bag, a kikki.k goodie bag and some brown string.

i tied a little handmade gift tag to the goodie bag (i will do a post on gift tags another day). i decorated the tag by stamping a key on it. i bought the key stamp from BlossomStamps' store on etsy.

thanks for the clothes katie! hope the cookies were tasty.

stationery for sarah

my lovely friend sarah is heading back to uni this year. what would be the perfect birthday present for this soon-to-be student? stationery of course...

i found some gorgeous things on notemaker for the birthday girl.

a cavallini & co eraser, a mmmg bag, an o-check pencil & sharpener set, an o-check exercise book and a delfonics pocket calendar.

when giving someone a stash of little presents, i like to wrap them individually. everyone loves unwrapping presents...so the more unwrapping the better!

to wrap the presents i used brown paper, brown string and blue and white bakers twine. i made a little card out of left over white card. the front features a metalic blue bird which i stamped on to the card. the bird stamp i bought on etsy, the rest of the items i collected along the way.

happy birthday sarah!

welcome

stamps, paper, cards, wrapping, string, ribbon, sticky tape...you will find clever ways to use all these lovely things and more here at blueprint standstill. 

new to the blogosphere, we hope to share our love of stationery with anyone who is interested.

stay tuned...