Our romantic trip to the Barossa

Sam and I live just over an hours drive from the Barossa, probably SA's largest wine region. For our two years and what was generally just an overdue getaway, we thought we'd go stay for a few days.

Oh the joys of booking accommodation online without looking it up on tripadvisor. Our bad. We stayed at the Lyndoch Hill Retreat... which was far from a retreat

This was our deluxe room...

and this was the view from our balcony of the 'beautiful' rose gardens

What I couldn't understand is why, if they couldn't find a matching lightglobe... they didn't just replace all of them?

The accommodation was so bad, it was actually funny. My poor boyfriend was devastated though.... especially because he thought it was a luxurious retreat.. and had paid the price for a luxurious retreat.

But don't let the photos put you off! Apart from the dodgy accommodation, the rest of our stay was wonderful.

I had a lunch booked at Barossa Valley Estate and this was the road there as well as to Seppeltsfield winery. So pretty!

The Seppeltsfield Masoleum... pretty place to be dead.

View from the Masoleum, enjoyed it once we got our breath back

My lovely boyfriend and I

Seppeltsfield winery - if you're ever in the Barossa make sure you go to the Seppeltsfield winery for one of their $15 tours, including wine tasting. The grounds are beautiful, the history is really interesting and it was overall one of my favourite bits of our whole trip.

We bought port that was as old as both of us and this was where it is stored! I don't usually like port but this stuff is nice.

Lunch at Barossa Valley Estate. yummmm

I replaced my bottle of water with a bottle of wine as the days progressed.... I was living it up.

Maggie Beer's farm

Maggie Beer's peacock. I think it's the only type of bird on the farm that they don't eat.

Spritzers!

Maggie Beer's dukkah picnic basket, tasty!

We went to this place for dinner, 1918. It's real cute, little bit expensive but very nice!

Lastly, whilst the accommodation was lacking, the sunset was beautiful. 

Cake Classes!

Update time! I'm super excited, I start cake classes next week. Yayy!
They run at the local community centre, 6 buckaroonis a class which is very lucky for me because I couldn't afford much more. I start them next wednesday so I'll let you know how they go.

I haven't made any cakes lately, I'm making one next weekend for a friend from work's 50th. She loves blue and butterflies, so I ordered 56 rice paper butterflies online. Little did I know how fiddly they are to cut out, it took so long! Many butterflies cut out over many coffees. It will be my first time using them so will have to see how they turn out. It will also be my first time making a two-tiered cake and I'm a bit unsure as to whether I need to use a hard base underneath the top cake. I think I'm not going to use one, simply because I don't have a base the right size... living life on the edge hey. I've also ordered these things called 'cake jacks' on ebay. I was reading about how you're supposed to cut dowel to support the tiers, seemed like a pain in the butt so I ordered these things which are supposedly adjustable and reusable. Such a time for firsts.... fingers crossed it goes well!

I also have my sister's 15th birthday coming up... maybe thinking of a cool lolly themed cake. She hasn't asked for one but any excuse to make a cake is a good one....



In other news, I went shopping down the infamous Rundle St today. Oh, so many kitchy shops. My friend introduced me to T2 (whatevs, I'm not cool, I didn't know about it already) -  I in turn introduced him to Chai lattes. It was a day of being mutually introduced to what will be painfully persistent addictions. Along with the trips to the cute little kitchy shops, T2, Cocolat and Dangerfield (everything is so pretttyyy) we finished the day off with an Ikea marathon... or what felt like one anyway. The result? A slightly dejected me at the realisation that I want so many pretty things but my financial situation is far from pretty.

Result?

I will become awesome at cake making, then people will pay me to do it!

Haha.

Good joke.


Also, I ordered vintage (real vintage, not fintage - fake+vintage) dresses on ebay and ended up paying no more than $30 for each one, this is a photo of one of the dresses. So purdddyyy.