Following Instructions (:

Butter Cake (:

-150 g softend butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
-3/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups plain flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 cup milk

Cream butter, vanilla and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour and baking powder together. Fold into creamed mixture. Add sufficient milk to give a soft dropping consistency. Spoon mixture into a greased and lined deep 20cm round cake tin. Bake at 108 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Leave in tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

I chose these instructions because they were in the first recipe book I found. I read them through and they were very easy to understand.

                                                               The Finished Product (:


Overall, I found this recipe really easy to understand, it was quick aswell. The cake turned out better than I thought it would, thanks to Maria and I, amazing decorating skills.

Creative Writing (:

Lucy and I walk in through the school gates. We see girls squealing and running into each others arms and guys walking up to each other and doing that special handshake thing that every guy seems to know... it's the first day of school for the year and I have to say that im not as excited as everyone else seems to be, to be back at this boaring place.
"Oh I forgot to mention my name, it's Ellie by the way. I'm 16, I go to Blue Ridge High School and I have a best friend called Lucy, we have known eachother scince year 3 when I accidently spilt blue paint all over her, when the teacher asked me to get it down from the top cupboard in the art room, my mum had to pay for a new uniform and lets say... a new hairstyle, dont ask me why but we have stuck to each other and have been best friends ever scince."
So as Lucy and I continue walking through the school we see more squealing and more handshakes. I suddenly stop and notice a boy about our age sitting on a seat alone playing on his phone, away from everyone else, he is wearing cream coloured skinny jeans, black vans and a black hoddie. I decide to walk over to him to cheek if he is alright, Lucy beside me looking at me with a confused look on her face.
I say, "Hey are you alright? you look a bit lonley." He turns around, smiles and replys "Yeah im fine." "Whats your name?" I ask, "Kevin, whats yours?" "Ellie and this is my friend Lucy." I reply "Nice to meet you" he says with that same smile on his face. "Have I met you before? You look familiar." I say. "Ah no I dont think you have? I only moved to this part of the country before summer started."
The bell rings and we all make our way to our first class. I couldnt concentrate through maths, all I could think about was Kevin and how familiar his face looked, I was thinking about all the people I had met friends of friends cousins of cousins and I couldnt make out where I had seen him before. The rest of the day went pretty fast, and before I knew it, it was time to go home. Mum picked me up in the school carpark and I went straight home to do my homework. What kind of teacher gives out homework on the first day, I thought to myself.
I turn on my laptop to start my homework, but decide I should probably check my twitter. I sign in and there are all these tweets about a member from my favourite band 'Status Single' going missing. My mind suddenly stops and realises where I knew Kevin from. He wasn't Kevin at all, he was Kyle from Status Single. I try as hard as I can to complete my homework, but I am still trying to wrap my head around how I met this world famous band member at school today and why he would have even left Status Single in the first place.
I had trouble sleeping last night all I could think about was Kyle, I decided I was going to confront him at school today about the Status Single Situation and convince him to go back.
"hey" I say "hey" he replys "I knew I recognised you from somewhere?" "What do you meen?" "I'm one of your biggest fans, how could I not know who you are?" "Oh, I guess you wanting to why I did it?" "Well yeah ! I think alot of people want to know.." "Well, I don't really think Im as good as the other boys at singing and I am definitly not as good looking as them.." "KYLE ! you are amazing.. let me show you how much your fans love you."
I take out my phone and show Kyle all of his mentions on twitter, they say thinks like: "@kyle I love you, you are amazing, will you marry me?" "@kyle you have the voice of an angle" "@kyle I wish I was as cute as you."
"See Kyle you are amazing, your fans love you dont give up on yourself like this, your band mates and fans need you." He scrolls through a few more of his mentions and realises he shouldnt give up on his fans. He looks at me smiles and says, "Thankyou Ellie for helping me realise, where I should be."

My Holiday ! (:

My holiday was pretty good. I spent Christmas with my family, like always and I went away a few times. On boxing day my family and I went on our annual camping holiday to Ohope Beach where we go every year. My sister and I were really looking forward to getting away from the cold rain for two weeks... but it seemed that everywhere we went we couldn't get away from it. So we spent most of our holiday all packed inside our caravan. Although it was raining it didn't stop us from getting out of our nice warm beds, to go huddle under a gazebo with 20 other people and have a very crazy, New Years party.
Luckily after a couple of days stuck inside our caravan, the rain started to clear up. Ohope was finally what my sister and I remember it as: hot sun, very slight cool breeze, sparkling clear BLUE sea water that felt so refreshing on your face when you dive through a wave after hours of tanning on the beach. Even with all this relaxing I managed to finish my book.

The 10 days my family and I spent at Ohope went pretty quick, once the rain cleared up we headed back up to Auckland and I spent the rest of the holidays hanging out with friends, swimming in my pool and cheerleading training. I enjoyed my holiday and hanging out with my family and friends, even though it rained for most of it, we still found fun things to do.




Maria, Louise and I reading on the beach.




My sister, ME ! and cousins waiting for the rain to stop.