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Its almost Easter! That means holiday, family and CHOCOLATE.

You could win all the Easter Eggs in the bell jar at Madame Fancy Pants + a $50 voucher.

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Hello there! Welcome to another weekly Madame Fancy Pants blog post!

First of all, an invitation. We would love to see you here next Thursday evening for a little tipple and a look through High Noon Tea’s collection, plus enjoy 30% off all purchases of High Noon Tea on the night! This is all to celebrate High Noon Tea’s debut at Wellington Fashion Week as part of the SS’14 Group Showcase next Friday; purchase your tickets here for an evening of exciting fashion.

Easter is coming up this weekend and with that comes chocolate, family time, craft and chocolate. Yeah, I said chocolate twice.. I’m seriously looking forward to guiltlessly eating my way through an entire Easter egg trail! Maybe I’ll have a lazy Sunday walk afterwards, maybe. With that in mind here are some cool ideas for crafts and chocolate.

First up are these seriously cool classic blown egg decorations (Eggs with moustaches. So. Cool.)! You’ll know how to create these lovelies from your childhood, if you can’t remember you can learn how to here. Then just decorate them how you please, these have been stenciled, but try dying, dipping or painting. An easy craft idea that you can make with kids. 

Mmmm.. chocolate! These cute Easter themed chocolate bars are easy to make, just melt some chocolate and stud with your favourite toppings. All thanks to one of our favourite blogs, A Beautiful Mess.

Another DIY chocolate idea: if you want to learn how to make your own Easter chocolates this weekend, check out Agnes Almeida’s awesome video all about easy chocolate making and you’ll be making your own chocolates in no time. Check it out here.  

Oh, I didn’t forget about all you vegans out there, and non-dairy kids can enjoy this trio of recipes too! Thanks to Laura at Hungry and Frozen, my favourite Wellington food blog, here are some delicious vegan friendly chocolate recipes (just sub out honey for agave nectar if need be):  No-bake Vegan Cookie Dough Truffles, Water Chocolate Mousse and Cocoa Sorbet. 

With all the delicious chocolate out there, it pays to make an informed choice in regards to your Easter goodies. Palm oil is in a lot of chocolate treats, and as it’s important to protect our environment and the habitat of some pretty special wildlife, it’s best that we avoid purchasing products that use palm oil. Auckland Zoo has come out with this handy guide to choosing palm oil free goodies, so check it out  before you go buy your treats!

The newest issue of Extra Curricular has just arrived here at MFP. This issue is all about new beginnings, very fitting for Easter! There are tons of interviews with crafty people, pretty pictures and some delicious recipes to try out. For a full run down check out their blog. Isn’t the cover amazing? A lovely read and a lovely gift for the crafty gal/guy in your life who doesn’t like chocolate. (I can’t actually imagine a creative type who doesn’t love chocolate, but there will be a few out there I’m sure!)

Hope you all have a lovely weekend spent with family, friends and chocolate!

Thanks for reading,

Anneke xox

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Yep.  Its Easter, the time of year when you can indulge in bread and chocolate without guilt.  hmm well kinda.  Heck why not!  The only guilt I will have is by not looking at the ingredients of my chocolate more carefully.  

Why you ask....chocolate is chocolate?!  Yes but there are ingredients in the chocolate that while they may not be bad for us are ruining others lives and our environment.  Palm oil.  Palm oil comes from Oil Palms which mainly grow in Malaysia and Indonesia, these trees happen naturally which is fine but developers are knocking down existing essential rain-forest and replacing it with oil palms. 

Oil palm plantations ain't good for wildlife and endangered species like the orangutan, the Sumatran rhino, the pygmy elephant of Borneo, and the Sumatran tiger are all threatened by development for oil palm.

There are LOTS of foods that contain Palm Oil.  If you fancy knowing more check out these links thanks to the good folk at Auckland Zoo.

Palm Oil free Easter egg guide.

Palm Oil free shopping guide.

So do your bit, it don't take much but a little awareness.

Happy Easter Y'all!

xox

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