Today was Mother’s day, but the Queen really isn’t too keen on the holiday so I just spent the night at her place and we had yummy thai food and watched movies. It was nice and relaxing, and in the morning I got to explore her garden and the passionfruit jungle that has grown there!

In the afternoon, Sab and I went galivanting in the hills where I grew up. We visited beautiful Stirk Park that was in full autumn colour and took a few photos. You can see the rest of the ones I took here, I love the autumn leaves and want to head back soon for a picnic. Afterwards we went for a nice twilight walk in the forest, up to the lookout where you can see the entire valley and back. I felt quite refreshed afterwards, the cool, eucalypt scented air is delicious. They have also opened a cupcake store recently in my home town, it was closed today but I am determined to go back and try some!

One of the things I love best about winter is cooking. In summer I don’t cook or bake very much because having the oven on during hot weather can make the house unbearable and I enjoy eating a lot of raw fruit and vegetables anyway. However now its a little colder, I’m having fun baking and cooking a hot dinner every night!

Today I roasted some chestnuts that Claire brought me (thank you!) they were delicious and warming, a great comfort food. They taste a little bit like sweet potato but with a nuttier, meat like taste aswell. Quite filling! Here is a quick guide to roasting chestnuts at home.

Choose chestnuts that are firm and not too dark, soft ones are likely to be rotten. If the nut flesh is a pale grey colour when you shell it, then its too old. It should be a warm yellow colour inside.

Wash the Chestnuts and use a sharp knife to score an ‘X’ in one side. Preheat your oven to 220C or 425F and roast the nuts for about 15 minutes.

When they are cool enough to touch, peel back from the little ‘X’ and take off both the firm outer shell and the furry inner shell. I find using a butter knife makes this process easier. Inside you will find the flesh of the nut, you might like to season it with a bit of salt. Enjoy!

I also bought a Recipe Journal today, to start recording my recipes in. I couldn’t resist the cute little cupcakes and birds on this one! Every page is pink and has lines for ingredients, method and notes. I hope to share more of my recipes over the coming months, although I don’t make sweets and desserts all the time, I do cook a lot of japanese dishes and other healthy meals. Would you be interested in recipes and photos of some of those?

This is the story of Cinderella, retold in one of the most unique ways I have seen so far. I think if you are a strong, willful Princess who likes to take control of her life and isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty you will really enjoy this story! Myself, I couldn’t identify with Ella quite as well as in some other adaptions of the tale, but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless.

Just Ella, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, finds our heroine at the Palace after the legendary slipper scene. She is trying to adjust to Palace life and the traditions and protocol that accompany it, but can’t seem to fit in. Being told off for lighting her own fireplace is just the start. She struggles with her tutors and ladies in waiting, but manages to make a couple of real friends. Meanwhile a rumour is being spread about pumpkins and fairy godmothers, while the royal family tries to cover up her past by claiming she is a foreign Princess. Ella reveals to us the true tale of how she made it to the ball, without any magic but a bit of luck and her own determination. The story takes an interesting turn when Prince Charming, and the Ball itself turn out to be.. not quite what they seem.

Its a light little read for lovers of fairytales retold, and the hardcover edition is beautiful with elegant designs at the top of each page. Just Ella is about making your own ‘happy ever afters’ and how sometimes they turn out a little different than we expected.

Autumn weather here is so unpredictable, I went down to the market to buy some fruit and it was clear and sunny but on the way back I had to walk quickly to outrun the rain! Big fat heavy drops in the humid air.

Today was rather lazy and relaxing for me, its nice to slow down once in a while after a busy period. I watched some japanese dramas I had downloaded the night before and baked a yummy carrot cake which is perfect with with tea and a thin layer of melted butter. I promised I would take a photo of my adorable new socks, so here they are! Its cold enough now to wear socks and slippers around the house and these have become my favourite pair. The little rabbits and sakura blossoms are so sweet.

How are you going with your Princess Challenge for the month? I’ve made a document on my computer with a line for each day, and I have been filling it in with something beautiful I saw that day, before I go to bed. Most of them so far are about nature, so I think I need to focus more on people now. Even if you don’t manage to find something for everyday, try and record those that you do notice, it makes a lovely little list to read on your less-than-perfect days.

So what did I get up to this International Princess Day? Well it got off to a bit of a slow start. I slept in a little because we were up late last night after the party, talking and dancing and enjoying ourselves. Some of the girls slept over in the living room which was still lit up by fairy lights and in the morning we just lazed about on the mattresses and talked for a while, in our little bower of balloons and streamers.

After everyone had left, I got ready to head out for my Princess Day! I wore my white chiffon OP and left my hair out. The weather has been so beautiful all weekend, sunny and a little cool and just perfect. As I caught the bus to Highgate I watched the little streamers of cloud, like angel hair, that streaked across the blue sky. When I reached Beaufort street, one of my favourite shopping districts I spent a little while browsing my usual stores. The Lady in ‘Heart & Home’ was kind enough to let me take a photo to share with you, which you can see here! Its the most feminine little gift store, and they sell the sweetest things. I also visited Ware, which is a quirky little shop and bought some Tabi socks! They are so cute, I will have to take photos tomorrow. I spent a while in the store next to it aswell, which imports French beauty products. I love smelling all the little bottles.

For afternoon tea, I stopped by The Leaf where I had a yummy Chai Latte and an adorable little vanilla cupcake with a pink icing swirl on top. The Leaf always has a delicious range of treats and they make some amazing teas too. After relaxing and reading my book for a while, I headed on towards Planet Books. Bookstores are like candy shops to me, and I pored over some of the new releases by Phillip Reeve and Dianna Wynne Jones before heading on to my next destination, the Day Spa.

I had a four o’clock appointment for a facial at Keturah, a Spa that I have not visited before but really enjoyed! I love the chairs in their reception area, they’re high backed and painted gold, like little thrones. The treatment was incredibly relaxing. It went for about and hour, and included a facial steam, exfoliation, mask and shoulder/head massage. It was so nice I very nearly fell asleep, and when it was over my skin was practically glowing! It feels so soft too. If you’ve never had a facial, I can definitely reccomend it. Its a pleasant experience and makes you feel quite the pampered Princess.

After leaving Keturah, I browsed the many flower stores that line the street and then walked up the road to Hanami, one of my favourite japanese restaurants. I ordered Udon and Vegetable Tempura which was delicious, and so filling! It was a nice way to end the day, listening to all the conversations around me as I ate. When I left the restaurant it was dark, not too cold but very clear and I could see the stars above me.

Its been a wonderful Princess Day, with the Party included I don’t think I’ve had such a fun weekend in a long time! What did you do for Princess day?

Last night we had a Party at the palace to celebrate International Princess Day! I spent the whole weekend preparing, baking cookies and cupcakes with Clara, making strings of paper pennants to decorate the house and with the aid of Jill, Emily and Lee blowing up 60 pink and white balloons! It was a lot of fun putting up the decorations, but I never would have had time without my helpers, thank you!

The other Princesses started arriving in the late afternoon and we made a sea of cushions on the floor in front of the television so we could watch ‘The Princess Bride.’ It’s one of my favourite movies and it was a fun way to start the party. While everyone was thus engaged, I finished off making some snacks ( onigiri, cucumber sandwiches) with help from Lee and Claire. By the time the movie was over, everyone had arrived and it was time to start the games! I had far too much fun making up these games, which were based on old favourites with a Princess ‘twist.’

The first game was our Sleeping Beauty challenge. We had Clara seated at one end of the courtyard, blindfolded and in front of her was her ‘treasure’ (candy and chocolate gold coins) Everyone else had to walk from the opposite end of the courtyard towards her, trying to sneak up and steal the treasure. If Clara heard anyone moving she could point at them and they would have to start again. It was harder than it sounds!

The next game we played involved sitting in a circle and taking turns to roll a dice, whenever someone rolled a six they had to jump up, put on a tiara, feather boa and pair of opera gloves then they could start eating a block of chocolate, using a knife and fork to cut one piece at a time. As soon as the next person got a six we all yelled ’six ‘ and they had to pass the items on. It was hilarious when we had a good run of sixes and one had only just finished putting on the gloves before the next person took over.

Following this, I asked everyone to practise walking with a book on their heads and once they’d gained the knack of it we played musical chairs! It was the slowest, most careful game of musical chairs I’ve ever seen because people had to make sure the books didn’t fall off or they would be out!

Our last game was probably the most fun of the night. The girls seperated in to teams and chose one member of their team to be the ‘model’ while the others were ‘designers.’ They had to use nothing but toilet paper to create Princess outfits for their models in a time limit of 15 minutes. At the end we had a little fashion show and Sanyu and I judged the winners. We had a traditional Princess gown with puff sleeves, a Samurai Princess and a very creative entry that involved bows and a dress with a petticoat!

We ended the night by watching ‘A Little Princess’ a movie that I’ve seen a dozen times but still makes me cry! I think we were all a bit teary by the end of it.

Thank you to all the girls that came! It was a magical night and I hope you had as much fun as I did.

It’s no secret that I like to read, some of my favourite places in the world are bookstores and libraries, the smell of paper and ink is enchanting. Indeed books hold a magical fascination to me, the ability to pass on knowledge from years or centuries past, to transport us to other worlds, other lives. I’m usually reading more than one book at a time, which is a bad habit. I read on the bus, on the train, before bed, in waiting rooms and even in the bath! (another bad habit.) Here are a few of my favourite links for bibliophiles.

Good Reads
I just found out about this site today and I am in love with the idea! Good Reads allows you to create a virtual bookshelf of everything you read, including reviews and a personal rating. They have a huge database that allows you to look up your favourite authors and series and you can add books to different ’shelves’ based on their genre. I’ve just started adding books to mine, but I’m definitely going to keep up with it from now on, because I often forget what I’ve read and when. You can see my profile here, please add me as a friend!

Project Gutenberg
Probably one of the largest and better organized online libraries. Here you will find a huge collection of texts and books that have been uploaded for public use (and enjoyment!) Its especially great for finding older texts that are no longer under copyright and rare and hard to find books. Sometimes I enjoy just browsing through to see what I discover!

The Invisible Library
I really wanted to link you to this site, which I remember enjoying a few years ago. Unfortunately by some strange irony, the ‘Invisible Library’ is now completely invisible, it seems to have dissapeared altogether! However, lucky for us, a few clever people have made their own records of the library, the first is the link above and the second can be found here. The Invisible Library is a collection of books which do not exist, they are books that are mentioned in other books. Makes for fascinating browsing, if only we could open the pages of some of these books for real!

What should I read next?
This is a fun little tool that helps you find new books you might like. Just type in the title and author of your favourite book and generate a list of those other’s would reccomend to you! I found my reccomendations quite interesting too. I believe by creating an account you can get more specialised reccomendations, but its fun to play with aswell.

What are you reading right now?

April is at an end and so is our first Princess Challenge! I’ve recieved some lovely stories from you, and you can find a collection of these on the new Princess Challenge page. If you also completed the challenge and would like your story posted here, please email it to me!

I really enjoyed this task, though my story came out a little different than I had planned. I find that when I write stories, I’m not very good at coming up with a plot and filling it in, but rather I see a few disjointed scenes and the emotions within and then try to tie them together. So when I sit down to write I have no idea where it is going to end, which is exciting and a bit tricky at the same time! I’m working on a drawing to accompany the Lion of Astolat and I hope to upload it soon.

May 2008 Princess Challenge
(if this is your first challenge, please read the original post here)

Your task this month is to find a little bit of beauty in every day. You can write about it, take photos, draw or record these beautiful things in a blog or journal. They can be anything from a little flower growing through the pavement to an act of great kindness that you witnessed. Each day, for a whole month, find something beautiful in the world around you.

I look forward to seeing what you discover!

Today, when the sun rose, we had the clearest, bluest sky I have seen in a long time. I went outside, in my slippers and pajamas, teacup in one hand just to marvel at it. I didn’t have long to enjoy though, because it was a busy day for me! I had a nice long to-do list, the first of which was to pick up some parcels that had arrived in the mail.

The first of these parcels was a lovely gift from Betsy, a friend of mine in the United States. It included two books by George MacDonald, full of delicious fairy tales by this talented author. The one you can see here, Behind the North Wind is a beautiful hard cover edition with delightful coloured illustrations. I also recieved some mix CDs and a sweet letter, I feel truly spoiled by these generous gifts and can’t wait to start reading the books! (I’ve been listening to the CD’s all day.) Thank you so much! The other package, was very much anticipated. It contained a dress I purchased recently which has arrived just in time for the Princess Party this weekend! I want to keep it as a bit of a surprise, but you can see a small part of it in this photo.

Speaking of the Party! In the afternoon I went to pick up some much needed supplies for this Sunday. Including some items that will be used for games and decorating the Palace. I’m really excited about Princess Day, only three more sleeps!

The new Princess Challenge and results from the last one will be up very soon!

Depending on where you are on the planet, the end of April is a day or less away! How are you going with your stories? I’m nearly finished mine, though I’m still editing it and reworking some parts. I have also recieved some wonderful stories from other Princesses who have already finished their challenge and I am so impressed by the level some of you have gone to this month!

On the first day of May I will be uploading a new page to Princess Portal to host all of our stories, if you would like to have your’s displayed there aswell, please email it to me at skye @ princessportal.com I’m looking forward to reading more beautiful fairy tales!

Another reminder, International Princess Day is only a few days away on May 5th. I’m having a party at the Palace the night before and spending the day itself doing all sorts of fun and indulgent things. Have you decided what you’re doing yet? If you’re new to the concept, here’s some ideas! Lets make this first shared Princess Day something to remember!