Sophie

Due to popular demand,

H is for Home

Soph was leaning against the caeser stone bench in her new pristine kitchen, holding a red spotty tea cup that was only filled with air; she was laughing, and telling me that I make her do ridiculous things.

“But, this is how they do it in Real Living!”

Her husband Justin was making fun of us and cackling in the hilarity of the moment that I had staged to get a good shot of her ‘acting natural’, so that I could do a blog post on their beautiful home that will house their young family and many kooky memories; like the one we just made.

“Soph, remember that time I made you hold an empty teacup in the kitchen and pretend that you were making coffees, for the sake of my blog?”

Yes. Yes I do.

Silliness aside, my sister and her husband have been living in their brand new home for a few short weeks, and it’s just lovely.

They bought their first block of land, designed their home and 12 weeks later, Voila! It was done.

Filled with occasional chairs, copious amounts of glass jars that house spices, patty cake papers, jewellery and flour, there are white frames stacked against each other housing candid shots of their wedding day, and cane baskets lining their walk in robe.

Antique hutches filled with tea cups, pots and linen tea towels stand against their un-marked walls, and timber bi-fold doors line the entire space peaking out onto the deck.

The timber boards wrap around the white house, with a rustic table, day bed, pillows and Adirondack chairs facing the mountains, next to stools covered in books, making a perfect nook for a Sunday morning coffee.

Vases with flowers are resting on hutches, tables and chairs placed sporadically around their home, and as soon as you walk inside you feel welcomed by their beautiful furnishings and open doors that show their three dogs sprawled out on the lawn.

I might just head over there this arve, for a rest on their wooden stools, as I lean over the island bench and chat to my sister as I drink a coffee that she has made me, in the red spotty tea cup… this time, not staged.

*I didn’t include the ‘staged’ photograph; it was way too funny.

Brisbane breakfasts are the new black!

While Bird and I were away for our little weekend escape to the Finders Keepers Markets, we had the pleasure of dining out in kooky little cafes, for none other than my favourite meal of the day – breakfast.

Brisbane had some beautiful little spots for early morning meals, and the places we visited were all that and a bag of bananas.

On our first morning in the big smoke, we flew in early and once we landed our feet, unpacked our bags and puckered on some fresh lip-gloss, we were walking through the bustling streets to one of our favourite places, Spoon. While there I had a hot pot of tea, with muesli and a side of yoghurt with honey. Bird enjoyed bacon and eggs (not poached; which left her a little upset) while we people watched, chatted about our weekend ahead, and looked in awe at all the beautiful oil paintings and pastel drawings from local artists on the walls.

The next morning we woke up early and headed over to West End where we visited the highly talked about Gunshop Cafe. We lined up outside and were served by a cute-as-a-button waitress with frosted pink lipstick, who seated us in rustic leather seats that looked out onto the footpath. Bird had a poached egg settle to score, so she ordered some eggs with a side of bacon and tomato, while I got to try beautiful roasted tomatoes still attached to their vine, with sourdough splashed in oil, with fetta and ricotta.

The coffee was beautiful, and the cafe was so trendy, with wooden floors, fresh flowers on the tables and retro music blaring from the roof. We sipped our hot drinks, and headed over to the Finders Keepers for our day of antique shopping and browsing crafty stalls.

On our last day, we wandered on down the road from our motel and stopped into The Villager, where we were the only ones dining at 7am, with salmon, rocket, eggs and sourdough. It was a perfect morning before we flew home after a marvellous weekend in the bright lights, big city.

Thank you, Brisbane for your beautiful early morning stop-ins, where Bird and I woke ourselves up with freshly grinded beans, crunchy sourdough, crème eggs and the colourful conversations about our exciting adventures ahead for the day.

Finders Keepers: Take Two

Last weekend my best friend, Bird and I jetsetted away for our annual winter Finders Keepers holiday; what a fabulous affair it was.

I’m not going to lie – we booked this holiday 6 months ago, and for the months leading up to the Markets, we were refreshing our Finders Keepers webpage’s, stalking their Twitter feeds, and emailing daily – correct that – hourly, to discuss beautiful letterpress prints, cupcakes on the lawn and filling our totes with all that crafty loot.

We arrived at the markets early schmearly and parked up on the lawn on a bale of hay. There were kooky girls with red hair pixie cuts sashaying around us, and cute-as-a-button café workers preparing chocolate slices, carrot cake and bags of popcorn underneath an eclectic mix of vintage glass domes with doilies.

As soon as the doors opened we sauntered in, and headed straight to the Frankie store, where I purchased some vintage pillowcases with excitement, and smelt the fresh flowers they had surrounding their stall of magazines, posters, retro clothing and a good ol’ fashioned lolly stand.

We wandered from stall to stall, purchasing jute love-heart bunting, porcelain jewellery, letterpress prints and hand-crafted ceramic owls.

Bespoke Press, again, was my favourite for the day, as I picked up a beautiful limited edition print, and some tangerine twine. I was blown away by the beautiful designs of jewellery at Erin Lightfoot’s stall, and may have left with a beautiful bangle, or two. Attia was also another favourite with their wooden rolling pins, spoons and ceramic beakers. Crayon Chick was a new edition, and certainly didn’t disappoint with her hand-crafted jute string bunting and pocket mirrors. I also loved Able and Game, where I stocked up on their quick witted cards – featuring very cool cats of course!

I loved every stall, and could sit here for hours writing about each one, but to save my hands from typer’s cramp, I’m going to draw the line in telling you all that the markets were in no doubt more fabulous than last year’s. They had new designers, and a bigger space to house all their wares. A new photo-booth was set up with random dress-ups of moustaches, hats, glasses and animal masks; while the food stalls on the lawn were bigger and better with hand-made bunting strung from the buildings to the trees, vintage fringed umbrellas popped up all over the lawn, and copious amounts of coffee stalls, cake shops and hot soups on offer for all those curled up on rugs listening to the live music.

I had a wonderful day yet again with Bird at the markets; and also with fellow ring-in Popcorn who was enjoying the day with her friend as they met us on the lawn for an afternoon cupcake.

Finders Keepers, thank you for a lovely day out with beautiful friends, I bought so many crafty delights that I will have to start saving for next year’s adventure… yesterday.

Martha Goes Green

I’d like to think that I’ve been so called, “Green” for a while now, and that I’m conscious about what I put back into our environment.

I ride my bike most places.
I don’t use plastic bags.
I grow my own herbs.
I turn the tap off while I brush my teeth.
I hand make presents for my friends.
I don’t use sticky tape.

These little things that I try to do, I feel make a contribution, but one thing that I never really put much thought into was, what I was putting back into myself.

Being a vegetarian, my intake of vegetables, fruit and salad is already large, but lately, I’ve started to really appreciate home-grown products and living frugally, if you’d like to put it in those terms.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has really gotten me into this. Watching his River Cottage program has truly made me appreciate the joys of cooking and eating home-grown and fresh produce. The joy he gets from picking a fresh stem of broccoli or cauliflower and turning it into a dipping sauce for ripe artichokes makes me realise that beautiful meals can in fact be made from fresh products, without adding artificial sugars and flavours.

Sourcing food locally and seasonally, and learning to cook from recipe books that thrive on these products, has really inspired me to eat and cook “green”.

I’ve started to purchase a few new books to help me on my way, and quicker than a push bike on a downwards slope, I’ve taken to this style of cooking, with the help from Hugh, Jamie, Arabella, Ruth and Rosie*.

I personally think every little contribution to living eco, helps.

While I ride my bike to my sister’s to pick some fresh vegetables and turn them into a hearty soup, I feel like I’m only taking what I need from the environment, yet turning it into something fabulously delightful and nourishing for myself.

So snaps for that... and, go put a big stock pot on the stove for a soup to simmer away, while you sew up a storm and wrap all of your presents in brown paper packages tied up with string.

*I have found the most perfect, Carrot, Celery and Lentil soup from the cookbook, “Martha Goes Green”, by Rosie Percival and Ruth Friedlander – I’m in love, and so are all of my friends who have been given oodles, and oodles of soup.

Fishing on a Saturday

Yesterday Jake, Shane and I packed up the car and went fishing for the day; and it was really lovely.
I packed my bag with a few things – banana, sunglasses, camera and a few magazines, just in case I felt like lazing around and reading; this was not the case.
As we drove out to the “fishing spot” we actually ended up going four-wheel driving; I was juggling two coffees in my hand as Jake was lighting up a smoke and tearing through the mud. It was so much fun.
We carted all our gear down to the weir and set up camp for a few hours, while we cast a line and soaked up the sun. The boys then decided that they wanted to go for a wander down to a “better spot”, which meant traipsing through the bush, carrying rods, buckets and all that jazz; while managing not to fall over into the water.
I managed to get myself fairly stuck in the mud, and while Jake was trying to help me out, I sunk in past my knees... luckily; Bear Grylls has taught me how to wriggle my way out of sticky situations. My situation, definitely kept us entertained for the rest of the afternoon.
We then decided to head to another spot, and it was beautiful. We waded through the water, set up camp on some rocks, and I caught a fish!!
A few hours later and we headed home, for a BBQ after such a nice day.
Jake and Shane cooked me up some Salmon, eggplant and asparagus on the grill, and we sat around the fire listening to some good ol’ Creedence, Fleetwood Mac, Counting Crows and Powderfinger.

**I may or may not have drunk three bottles of red, fell off my chair and ended up dancing with those two crazies.

It was a fabulous day spent with my lover and his best friend.