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?

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

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NATURAL DIP DYING & STYLING

 

Day one of the Slow Living workshop in Sydney and we got straight into natural dip dying with organic textiles by Rebekka Seale from Camellia Fiber Company. We used Eucalpytus and another plant (sorry I can't remember the name of it) to create a natural dye for our cotton tea towels. After which we enjoyed a long lunch sitting outside at a long table under a large shadey tree, where we feasted on some remarkable salads and gozlemes prepared by Hetty McKinnon. The rest of the afternoon was spent with Beth Kirby and Luisa Brimble where we watched and learned as Beth styled the food and Luisa gave a helping hand in getting our settings right as we took shots around the room. It was a fantastic feeling to be in a room full of people who are as enthusiastic as you are about taking photographs and styling.

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

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WINTER BREAKFAST

The last weeks of Winter have been slow and drawn out with grey and wet weather, but it's ok because the brighter days of Spring are only a few sleeps away. My favourite part about winter is that it makes having a hot breakfast totally appropriate. Last night I spied a wintry breakfast here and today's inspired breakfast was a hit. Usually, the only porridge eaters in my home are the girls but today the boys were asking for a bowl of porridge too.

WINTRY BREAKFAST BOWL

Porridge

Banana

Chia Seeds

Peanut Butter

Coconut flakes

Milk

Honey

Coconut Oil

1. Make yourself a pot of porridge

2. Heat a tablespoon of coconut oil in a small fry pan on a medium high heat

3. Cut banana in half and then half again, length ways

4. Place banana's, sliced side down into the hot fry pan and fry until caramalised and golden on one side

5. Place porridge into bowl, top with a spoonful of peanut butter and honey and place caramalised banana on top and sprinkle with chia seeds and coconut flakes

6. Gently pour some warmed milk over the porridge.

Enjoy with sips of coffee or tea.

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

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ROASTED TOMATO & CAPSICUM SOUP

What do you do when you have lots of tomatoes and a handful of capsicum?

A couple of days ago I sought the answer from one of my cookbooks. I settled on making a batch of Colm's Soup, from What Katie Ate. It was just the answer to warm up the recent succession of soggy days and the chilli added a nice slow heat to each spoonful. My five year old son enjoyed a whole bowl full and he was happy with the heat so long as he had a glass of water nearby. I topped each bowl with a couple of slices of grilled goats cheese spread ontop of some slices of rye bread.

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

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COLLABORATE & LISTEN

Last week I was lucky enough to spend some time with the founder of the super cool online kids fashion and lifestyle shop/blog, Sunday Kid. Sometimes you meet people and you are blown away by how awesome they are, today was one of those days. Turns out that we have lots of fun ideas and by the looks of things, we just might make them happen. After lots of excited brainstorming over chai lattes, coffee and croissants, the morning ran away from us very quickly and before we knew it, it was time for me to run off and do the school pick up.

To check out her kids clothes and homewares, click here and to check out some of the photographs that I got to take for the blog, click here.

P.S. Thank you to LikeMinds Avoca for lettings us shoot up a storm inside your cosy cafe.
Love you. xo

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

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LEEK & KALE QUITATTA

 

Yum cha was cancelled today and it was raining and Vinnie had finally fallen asleep, so I decided to bake a quiche, well my version of a quiche (maybe it's formerly known as a fritatta?). I usually make this in a bigger baking dish, but today we had no eggs in the fridge and Matty had collected only three eggs from our chickens this morning. I really love this meal and it's a regular one in my home. Sometimes I add mushrooms or fetta cheese and sometimes I use lebanese bread as a quick and easy faux pastry bottom. Today I just divided the mixture into two ramekins and greedily topped them with cheese. Waiting for them to bake, I finally got to sink my eyeballs into Oak The Nordic Journal which had arrived at perfect timing. If you like magazines and you get the chance to buy it or read it somewhere, I strongly suggest that you do. It's a wonderful insight into Nordic lifestyle and culture - the subject matter and writing is very fresh and interesting and coupled with the beautiful simplistic, natural photography and the layout and design, it makes for a very straight forward but enigmatic magazine. I say that because I keep going back to it and I have probably picked it up about another three times since I received it this afternoon. Back to my Quitatta, when my little babies were ready I slid them out of the oven and they were pretty horrendous looking - the result of too much cheese and because I love cheese, I can never be frugal with it, so this always happens with any meal containing cheese. It wasn't as yummy as a steamed pork bun, but it was perfect for this rainy afternoon at home.

 KALE & LEEK QUITATTA

(approx. 10 mins prep, 25 minutes baking. serves 2)

3 eggs

splash of water

splash of milk

splash of soy sauce

two stalks of thinly sliced kale

two bulbs of thinly sliced leek

thinly sliced garlic

a dash of coconut oil

a few drizzles of olive oil

freshly cracked pepper

grated cheese 
salt and pepper

Step 1: preheat oven to 200 degrees

Step 2: lightly beat first four ingredients in a bowl

Step 3: put pan on medium heat and melt coconut oil, add kale, leek and garlic and sautee gently on a medium-low heat, add a few drizzles of olive oil if it looks too dry

Step 4: tip out the sauteed kale, leek and garlic from the pan and into the egg mixture and gently stir

Step 5: divide mixture into two small dishes or ramekins

Step 6: place into oven and set timer for ten minutes

Step 7: take them out of the oven and top with grated cheese and place back into the oven for 10 - 15 minutes, or until the cheese is golden and the quiche is firm to touch with the back of a spoon

Step 8: Season to your liking with salt and pepper.

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

Please do not use my images without permission.