ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Time to stop and stretch those legs of ours. We could have had big gigantic prawns, you know those ones that are like the size of your palm. Instead we opted for the smaller school prawns. When you are in a fishing town like this, the school prawns are always the saltiest and the tastiest. They were a mission to peel but the taste sensation was worth it.

Can you guess where we stopped? I can give a hint if you ask nicely.

 Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Images taken using Canon 5D Markiii//50mm 1.4

Please do not use my images without permission.

BIRTHDAY WISHES & KISSES

 

 

Hip-hip-hooray, happy birthday to my darling friend. Last week we celebrated her birthday, we all met at her place with a home made dish in hand. Seema was in full swing making her Grandmother's special curry and a delicious fish curry when I entered her busy kitchen, the smells coming from the stovetop were dreamy. By dusk we were all working together to fill our plates, passing dishes and bowls at the makeshift buffet table of home made dishes, the theme of the night was curries; bean and lentil curries, fish curries, buttered chicken, rogan josh, tandoori chicken, yoghurts, mango chutney, rice, naans.....I had two full platefuls of food and my tummy was greedily bursting by the time she blew the candles on her little cakes. There was not much room for dessert, but somehow I managed to fit in a sweet slice of everything. Lemon meringue pie, brown butter and salted honey pie, NYC cheesecake and a raw cheesecake.....I was pigging. The best way to celebrate is with your friends and with food, and to have both of them together is a treat for all, thank you for a delicious evening. Happy Birthday beautiful lady, I hope that your wishes come true. xo

p.s. (How amazing is her loungeroom, big envy over her style. I drool!)

 Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Images taken using Canon 5D Markiii//50mm 1.4

Please do not use my images without permission.

#ITTC COLOUR PALETTE CHALLENGE

I am a huge fan of Instagram and I have so many favourite accounts, it would be hard to pinpoint even just a handful! I absolutely love wasting time perving on their beautiful galleries and sometimes my feed is just so full of beautiful imagery it is often a quick pick me up as I usually feel inspired or just darn happy after looking at the beautiful photographs.

What I am starting is a personal challenge but you are most welcome to join me, what I want to work on is using colour palettes to pretty up my instagram account with a flowing block of different colours and also as a way of practicing and challening my styling and photography practice. Using particular colour palettes seems to be a pattern which is prevalent with the accounts that I personally enjoy looking at and I would like to work on using different colour themes. I have often steered clear of doing it because I love colour and I really couldn't play favourites to just one particular colour palette, but with this challenge I can play around with different palettes each month.

First rule of the colour palette challenge is that you must have at least six consecutive photographs which express at least four of the colours from the colour palette challenge. Yeah, and that's it.
So my plan is to release a colour palette every month and my aim is to have at least six consecutive photographs using a minimum of four of the colours from the months colour palette challenge. Some months I may follow the palette exclusively with my styling and photography, and other months I may just do my six consecutive photographs, I guess it just depends on what I feel like doing or how much I am loving the colour palette.

Ooops, I lied. Second rule of the colour palette challenge is that with each photograph posted (blog or instagram or facebook or ello) you must hashtag #ITTCCOLOURPALETTECHALLENGE that way we have a reference as to our progress (wow, i'm a bit bossy). You must hashtag #ITTCCOLOURPALETTECHALLENGE (just incase the first bolded, uppercase shouty style hashtag demand missed the point). At the end of each month I will decide on my favourite photograph and give myself a pat on the shoulder.....unless you decide to join in, then I will share a pat on the shoulder with you too and we can emoticon high five each other and say, 'We did it!'. 

As of tomorrow, let the challenge begin.

Cowabunga!

 Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Images taken using Canon 5D Markiii//50mm 1.4

Please do not use my images without permission.

INSPIRATION AT THE MARKETS

 

Today was market day and we almost didn't make it there. I was flying solo with the kids as Matty was in Melbourne watching the demise of the Swannies at the grand final. After a relaxing morning pottering about at home, cleaning up my newest roadside fine (oh my glob, an amazing six piece retro/retractable dining table!!) driving around looking for a carpark for about thirty minutes was pretty annoying, I told Paddy that we were going to have to make this our last round drive and then we were going to drive home (a good idea for the markets would be to have a shuttle bus system running in from terrigal carpark). Circling around for the final time, we ended up scoring the best carpark in all of the land. Right out the front of the entrance to the markets.

We always head straight over to the gozleme stand and today we had a slight variation, instead of two cheese and spinach, we had one chicken, cheese and spinach for him and the usual for me. We plonked ourselves down in front of a wonderful blues band, I closed my eyes and I could have been in Byron. So at the table setting I spied a few pieces of table scape inspo, I was loving the different textures of the hangings, some crochet and some woven together. I love this idea of storing the pineapple, as there is never enough room in the fridge and the fruit basket is always too full. I want to do a weaving class, one of my darling friends pointed me in the direction of Kosklea and their workshops, one of which I spied is a weaving class - which I would to do one day.

What types of workshops are you interested in or have you attended?

 Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Images taken using Canon 5D Markiii//50mm 1.4

Please do not use my images without permission.

AT HOME WITH XANTHE & ACE: SUNDAY KID OUTTAKES

 

 

 

 

Just a couple of outtakes from a shoot which I was so excited to do in collaboration with Sunday Kid, the first of one of many of their super cool "At Home" interviews for their blog, which you can read here. This family is as cute as pie; Xanthe is an uber talented stylist and her husband runs a family owned restaurant/takeaway shop in Woy Woy on the Central Coast and Ace is just an amazing handsome little dude. Their place is filled with retro awesomeness and it sits right on the water with the shop downstairs and their home upstairs. Walking up and into their abode reminded me of my childhood summer holidays spent on houseboats and yachts on the Hawkesbury River. Once upstairs, you are greeted with the most spectacular view and a feeling of freedom swept over me as I looked out across the water and over into the mangroves. Just the slightest breeze over the water and up into their balcony and I could swear I could feel the motion of the house bobbing gently with the water.

  
Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Images taken using Canon 5D Markiii//50mm 1.4

Please do not use my images without permission.

PINK OR BLUE AT THE LAKEHOUSE

 

The weekend hosted the perfect weather to be sitting by the large bay windows at The Lakehouse with a room bursting with beautiful ladies and an assortment of delicious bite sized treats and hot pots of tea. We were here to celebrate the welcoming of baby number three for a very dear friend of mine. She has two handsome and healthy young boys and we were all there to share the excitement of finding out the gender of baby number three. 

The table was spread with towering tiers of assorted macarons, mini slices of orange and chocolate cake, cute little cups of chocolate and orange mousse, scones, freshly whipped cream and shallow dishes of blackberry jam. Long sandwich plates were delicately topped with sandwiches and mini quiches, exactly the type of food you hope to fill up on at an afternoon tea. The tea menu itself boasted an impressive assortment of deluxe tea leaves which would satisfy even the most pickiest of tea drinkers and perhaps even lure in the most die-hard coffee fans with the availability of the such distinct and diverse flavours.

The real jewel of the crown was the cute and unassuming little cake which sailed high above the tiers of sweets and plates of sandwiches. We were all so eager to see whether the cake was bestowing a pink or blue filling. You can only imagine the excitement and disbelief at seeing a pink sponge cake hiding underneath the white buttercream frosting. It looks like they used a different recipe this time around and I am just so beyond happy for my darling friend and her beautiful family. This pink little sponge cake is the first of lots and lots of all things sweet and pink. By far, this is the best way to welcome in new life is with an abundance of sweet treats, friendship and love.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Images taken using Canon 5D Markiii//50mm 1.4

Please do not use my images without permission.

WEEKEND ARRANGEMENTS

My weekend started with a sleep in (thank you Matty), a coffee and a kiss-kiss on each cheek from my family before I bounced out of the door to meet a gorgeous friend (and her micro-babe) for a long lunch and a shop before we embarked on a floral workshop at the Octopuss Garden.

The Octopuss Garden is inside an A-frame building. Need I say more. There was so much inspiration and beauty to choose from once inside. We were welcomed in by the amazing girls who shared some of their home made Sangria with all of us while encouraging us to enjoy the delicious cheese and dip spread. This is a slippery slope, once I start with food, particularly cheese....it can be tricky for me to move away, let alone concentrate on something else.

 

After choosing our stems we moved right into the stripping, snipping and spiral holding our stems into beautiful posies and bouquets. Working with flowers is therapeutic and there is great pleasure in working directly with beauty. Whilst we all wanted to work on more organic and flowing bouquets and posies, there was one who made a gorgeous structured posie with some cute little buds sticking out.

 (The above one is my little posie)

 (The token Kinfolky shot. Nailed it.)

My style is similar to my hair...kind of everywhere and loose, a bit bushy with a stick poking out. I made my bouquet with a good friend in mind - she was having her baby reveal the following day and I was hoping to style a bouquet that would flow with either a blue or pink sponge cake upon the gender reveal at the cutting of the cake. Lately I have really been noticing the colours purple and green in my life (they also happen to be my favourite colours) and they seem to be appearing everywhere. I couldn't resist using flowers with the captivating purple colour and I am just almost obsessed with the velvety looking gums. My large bouquet is pictured below and modelled by the lovely Laura.

My friend's wonderfully abundant bouquet below!! Gorgeous. It was interesting seeing how differently we all styled out bouquets and posies.

The day ended with two smiling mama's, a pram full of shopped items, freshly baked bread (thank you Kath!!!), bunches of fresh flowers and a sleeping baby. Is this not the best way to end the day?

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Images taken using Canon 5D Markiii//50mm 1.4

Please do not use my images without permission.