A few days in Brisbane then home again

I've just had a 2 day get away to Queensland and while the reason was very sad, it was a nice short break for me.  The weather was perfect and how good does the water look in the photo below.

On Monday morning I flew to Brisbane for one of my gorgeous friend's, Jodie dad's funeral. It was actually quite hard to go to a funeral so soon after my mother's but I really wanted to be there for Jodie as she and her family were in a lot of shock from losing their beautiful dad so suddenly.  He, like my mum, died within 3 weeks of being diagnosed with an illness. I stayed with another mutual friend Jen (actually I'd met both girls together back packing in the States, then we all lived in London for a few years and have all since returned home to Australia and we've remained very close friends since).  It was good to be able to have a night and another half day with Jenny in Brisbane after the funeral.

On the way home from the funeral, Jen and I stopped into Sandy from Paint Me White's beautiful booth at the Wolloongabba Antique Centre.  Sandy wasn't able to get up to Brisbane to see me (she's currently painting 35 pieces of furniture for one customer! She's amazing) but it was nice to see her latest pieces. Check out her blog for beautiful stuff if you don't already follow her.

Then while my friend, Jen was getting dinner for her girls I went for a stroll around her lovely suburb admiring all the beautiful houses and huge back yards.  I love Queenslanders (the name of these weatherboard raised houses) to look at but think I'd prefer to live in a brick house. I always wonder how noisy weatherboard houses are especially between rooms when you have noisy kids.  If you have one, let me know what you think in the comments below.

Jen and I then had dinner, drank a bottle of champagne and chatted until midnight.  We don't see each other nearly often enough so it was great to have time with her.  The next morning as we were dropping her 3 girls to school one of them asked what we were doing for the day.  I said "Mummy and I are gallivanting for the day!"  and gallivant we did...

First stop was to drop in for morning tea with A-M in her shed to hear all about her wonderful trip to the Hamptons and NYC Blogher conference. She's got severe post travel blues!  so it was good to be able to cheer her up with a coffee and muffin.

A-M had warned me that her shed was very unglamorous but I am fine with that. My first job out of uni was an engineering officer in the Royal Australian Air Force and my office was in an aircraft hanger and when the aircraft did their engine warm ups I had to wear black zone ear muffs while doing work at my desk.  

A-M's shed is at least filled with very pretty things. (behind all those boxes) If you want beautiful homewares and lights for a very good price and to do business with a lovely lady then check out A-M's blog and website.

We then went and dropped in to my good friend Cath who has recently moved to Brisbane. She's a teacher so we spent her 20 minute recess catching up. After that lovely but all too brief visit we headed over to Paddington to Hamptons Home Living for lunch and a browse. If you are in Brisbane and like home wares (and good food), this shop is a must see.  It's perched on top of a ridge and from the balcony where you can eat your lunch there are wonderful views.  The front of the shop has lovely homewares, then the cafe in the back and a small providore section.

I love this hanging bottle look and have been saving my tomato passata bottles to create some little hanging bottles for flowers.  Once I have a few days at home and get some of my already in progress projects finished I might attempt something like this.

Blue and white was the theme this month and it all looked gorgeous.

And some beautiful artwork from Kerri Shipp at Driftwood Interiors blog.  I love Kerri's ming vase series in watercolour.  Her print prices are very reasonable and you can buy directly from her blog if you wish.

Lunch was delicious and enormous! I ordered the avocado and Persian fetta with bacon and a poached egg on sourdough, and a latte of course. Sitting in the sunshine, chatting to my beautiful friend and eating yummy food I felt myself relax for the first time in weeks. Even while we were in Bali I didn't properly relax because of mum being so sick and I've had so much trouble sleeping since she's died. One of Phil's friends has recently lost his dad and he said he didn't sleep for about 6 weeks after the funeral so I'm hoping I can start sleeping properly again soon.

Across the road from Hamptons Home Living is a shop with a riot of colour - The Happiness Place.  So much colour in this place and I think an easy place to find a present for someone.  I loved this Pantone colour chair.  Not sure what the sort of room it would look good in but it's pretty cool.

and speaking of cool, how groovy is this peace sign. the 20 year old daughter of the owner made it from fake flowers.  I love it.  The photo is bad because the sun was streaming in but you get the idea.

then it was back home again. It's always good to fly back into beautiful Sydney.  The Qantas magazine had a feature on Sydney and the first paragraph read "If you're not living in Sydney you're camping out", declared former Prime Minister Paul Keating. Arrogant? Maybe but on a warm summer's day when the light dances on the harbour and everything looks newly washed, it's easy to see what he meant. Hedonistic and outward -looking, Sydney is all about the view - and the views are generally about the water..."

I then went to pick up my kids (who had been cared for and fed  dinner by another lovely friend Maxine) - actually who poured me a glass of red wine as soon as I arrived - I love friends like that!  Once i got home, put the kids to bed, sorted out dinner for me and Phil, I stayed sewing until midnight for the kids school book parade. Trust me to leave it till the last minute. I am quite proud of my efforts though. Sasha went as red riding hood and needed a cape. Luckily Jonty wanted to be Zac Power and just needed earphones and a back pack.

Back to normal now. Can no one else die for a little while please! 

Fiona xx

For the love of old buildings...

I was chatting to a friend recently about architecture and what our preferences  were and why we liked what we liked. I realised that my love for old buildings, their aged patina from years of use, the history and the lives they have housed, comes from where I went to school.  I boarded for seven years at Kambala Girls School in Sydney's beautiful eastern suburbs (from the start of year 6 in Primary through to the end of Year 12).  

This grand old dame below is the boarding house of the school. What is now the boarding house Tivoli, was originally the spacious home of Captain William Dumaresq built in 1841. Kambala, as a school was founded in 1887 and moved to the Tivoli property in 1913.  

Kambala has incredible sweeping views of Sydney right down the harbour to the bridge. It was such a privilege to sit on your bed and look out of the dormitory windows at the amazing views. A lot of the dorms had balconies over looking the harbour and we would spend much of our weekends either on the balconies or sweeping front lawn chatting (probably about boys most of the time!)

The boarding house was very interesting as it wasn't built as a boarding house but as a private mansion with lots of formal rooms, bedrooms, servants quarters and hidden stairwells etc. The building is very beautiful with French doors leading on to the verandah and marble hallways and lots of beautiful sash and casement windows. Even while I was there I totally loved the building and felt privileged to live in such an amazing space - despite the bright green carpet in the dorms, creaky old bunk beds and crappy showers that we were not allowed to linger in.

The main enclosed verandah along the first middle floor in the photo below was my dormitory in Year 8. It was freezing in winter as the windows were all very old and rattling and even when they were shut and locked the wind blew in. I remember being so cold in bed at night that year.  We had one mistress who would waltz in every morning at 6:30 am to get us up for prep (study) by saying "rise and shine, it's a real nice morning" even if it was freezing outside and raining. Although saying that she'd been a mistress previously at one of Sydney's private boys schools and she used to waltz into them in the early morning saying "wakey wakey, hands off snakey" hilarious...so I think we probably shouldn't have complained, it could have been worse.

In the photo above the little dormer window third from the right on the roof line was where my bed and desk were in Year 12. I could sit at my desk and look out across the harbour to the Harbour Bridge the Opera house and city lights. As a boarder we didn't have many opportunities to go out, school was very strict, but if you are stuck at school, it was a pretty good place to be stuck.

What an amazing view to grow up with. The boarding house has a sandstone verandah sweeping around it and the boarders used to sit on the flagstones and eat our lunch.  I'm sure the food has since improved but it was pretty dire back in my day and I really hated it. Luckily the day girls would often take pity on us boarders and bring us nice treats or swap lunches with us! 

Once a year (or possibly once a term) my dad used to  send us a big box full of yummy treats for our tuck. It sounds so old fashioned now and like something from an Enid Blighton novel, but we were allowed to have treats but they were taken from you and locked up in a bit wooden locker and every afternoon at 3:30pm the tuck locker was opened and you were allowed a small treat. We used to try and smuggle food up to our dorms for a midnight feast but usually you would be sprung by the mistresses who would confiscate the food, give you a detention and then later you'd walk by the office and there were the mistresses all sitting up eating your tuck!  We also would go and raid the kitchen in the middle of the night but there was never anything left unlocked except jelly crystals so we'd eat them by the cupful. I can remember an unsuccessful attempt once of making a whole bucketful of jelly, it was a big sticky mess.

I was very lucky to have such a classical education and I really appreciate the sacrifices my parents made to send me there. As well as all the normal classes (maths, physics, chemistry, geography, history, english, art, music etc) I studied French and Latin, I played the flute in the orchestra and woodwind ensemble, sang in the choir, I debated, I played tennis and softball, loved the hurdles and throwing the discus. I did 6 years of ballroom dancing, went to the ballet, opera and symphony regularly at Sydney's Opera house as well as singing there in an amazing 2000 strong combined schools choir which was such an incredible event.  

It was a pretty amazing school for a thoroughly rounded education and while it all may seem quite privileged, my parents sacrificed a lot to send us there. Mum had taught English and Latin at Kambala when she and Dad were first married so when my sister asked to go to boarding school (a desire borne from reading English novels), Mum sent us to the school she knew best. I have no idea of what it's like now though and won't be sending my daughter there across the city from Lilyfield.  I want her closer to home and closer to me.  I am really not sure how my mum (and Dad) managed to send us girls so far away to school.

Photos via 

so there you go, a little more about me.  beautiful buildings, no?

What's your favourite sort of architecture?  Why do you like it?

Fiona xx

PS Dad, thanks for my wonderful education and all the money you spent. I really appreciate it and value it! Thanks also for reading my blog! Love you very much.

Simple Caramel Cupcake Recipe

If you need a good fail-safe and super easy all-in-one-go cupcake recipe, this is our family favourite.  I have been making these simple caramel cupcakes for 8 years now.  My recipe is a well worn printout of an email I wrote to my sister way back in 2004.

----- Original Message -----

From: Fiona

To: Sally

Sent: Monday, August 09, 2004 9:41 PM

Subject: cake??

Sal, I am struggling to find a good cake recipe for Sasha's (1st) party - any ideas?  I was going to make little cup cakes as they are easier to hand around than a big cake and cuter for a baby party.  I have a recipe for some raspberry and cream cheese ones with pale pink icing - do you think this is a good idea or should I do the caramel cupcakes you made for her christening  as they were a huge hit??

any ideas?

love Fi - my baby's turning 1!! can you believe it!!! I am still only getting used to thinking of myself as a mummy.

And my sister replied with this recipe (and some advice on not stressing for the party! big sisters are good like that. LOL) and so a cupcake tradition was born at our house.  

Simple Caramel Cupcakes

1.5 cups self raising flour

1/3 cup caster sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

125 g softened butter chopped

3 eggs

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract*

1. Preheat your oven 180C
2. Use paper cases
3. Place all ingredients in a bowl and beat with electric mixer 4 minutes until smooth.
4. Bake 20-25 mins

*I always use extract but vanilla essence is also an option if you need to use cheaper ingredients.

Four simple steps - how easy can that be!  

* see my cake baking tips here

We have made so many batches of these simple caramel cupcakes over the last 8 years...for birthdays, afternoon teas, lunch boxes and cake stalls.  They work perfectly every single time.  When Jonty was a baby, Phil stayed home as the "Mummy" to look after our two kids while I took on a 9 month project contract in the city.  He made these cupcakes regularly although he put his own spin on them. He left them un-iced but instead added sultanas to the mixture. The kids love them like that and it makes them even easier to whip up.

The caramel flavour from the brown sugar is very subtle and they are not overly sweet as some caramel cakes can be.  Give them a try and let me know what you think.  I mainly like this recipe for how light the cakes are and what a good shape they turn out to be.  I have used an easy buttercream pink icing and piped little roses with a Wilton Tip 107 and ruffles with Wilton Tip 104. Actually for piping roses I usually use Wilton Icing Tip 106 but I've mislaid it at the moment (I'm never putting things back where they belong and it drives me absolutely nuts!)

Let me know if you like these caramel cupcakes and how you get on with the recipe.

happy baking!

Fiona xx

Happy Saturday - Fun with Flowers - Hyacinths

I've decided that I'm having so much fun photographing flowers that I'm going to start sharing more of my photos under the title Fun with Flowers. Let me know what you think and if you are interested in seeing more.

Photographing flowers is just wonderful.  I don't know if it's just that I am so excited by the approaching spring and warmer weather or what. Probably because they are pretty, you can move them easily into good light for photographing and they stay in one place! Yay for still life! Not at all like photographing your fidgety kids or puppy.  

These hyacinths make me want to get out my watercolours again. It's been a while.  I think I need to go back to those Wednesday watercolour classes.

The corbels that I have used in the background were ones I was given about a year ago and I whitewashed them when I first got them as I wasn't digging the raw pine look. I now use them as book ends. They made a lovely backdrop to these pretty blossoms.  I love the imperfections and little wormholes.  I gave them the lightest whitewash so you could still see the wood and wood grain.  I will blog a tutorial on white washing soon.

Have a great weekend, my friends!

Fiona xx

A chalk portrait painting in progress

I thought I would be further along with this little project but have not had time for it in the last few days. So instead of the finished product I thought I would show you my progress.

Years and years ago I fell in love with this beautiful vintage photograph by Lillian Bassman. I always thought I'd like to try and replicate it in watercolour but never got around to it.  

A few months ago I found at auction a massive vintage frame for a great price.  I knew I needed to quickly change over the painting inside....see for yourself and try not to laugh...

My husband was like "what were you thinking?!!!" but I knew that with some white paint, a new piece of thin MDF and some black chalk board paint I could make one of these....

I used my orbital sander to make it very smooth and I had used a paint brush to paint it on and I think really for best results for blackboards one should use spray paint. Anyway with a bit of love from my Ryobi ROS it was smooth as silk.  The frame has quite an interesting texture and lots of imperfections and cracks. I think it's quite gorgeous in it's aged beauty.

So the other night, while I was also cooking dinner and getting the kids ready for bed, I started sketching up the glamorous woman by the window.  I had possibly the worst piece of chalk in the history of mankind. Serves me right for shopping at the $2 shop.  The chalk was so hard to sketch and fill in with. In about 10 minutes I'd managed to do this rough outline of the portrait but I've got a long way to go.

I did go to our local art shop and the guy suggested I try using white pastel instead of chalk so I bought some and will give it a go.  It honestly has to be better than the crappy chalk stick I was using.  Once I've finished it all I'll share it with you. The good thing is if that it doesn't turn out I can just wipe it off! 

....and then I'll just use the board for our shopping list!

Click here for the finished piece

cheers 

Fiona

A Pink and Aqua Themed Birthday Party

A pink themed birthday afternoon tea with a touch of aqua. Simple little touches can really transform a table.

This year I didn't feel I could manage with hosting a big birthday party for my girl so we decided to just have an afternoon tea with some of her school friends on the day of her actual birthday. So I spent a couple of hours baking and making our dining room pretty. I decided on a pink and aqua theme, actually the whole theme was based around some cupcake wrappers I'd bought!

Aren't these cupcake wrappers beautiful, they look like vintage fabric. I love these tall cupcake wrappers, so much easier to use then the normal style of patty cake wrappers. Slightly expensive but so worth it for a special event.

I sacrificed the bunch of hyacinths that my aunt gave me last week. The good blossoms I used for the take home lolly boxes and the wilting blossoms I strew across the white tablecloth. I found some lovely little white cardboard boxes that I filled with lollies for the girls to take home. I wrapped them with beautiful grosgrain ribbon - some pink and white stripped ribbon and some aqua ribbon. So simple but so pretty.

I also served ham sandwiches - all in the pink theme! And great for hungry kids after school.

I know you will have seen these little bottles and the retro waxed straws around before but I found them at our local party shop when I was buying ribbons and I could not resist them. I just filled the bottles with plain soda water which is my kids' favourite (we don't give them processed juice, cordial or soft drinks). I think these little bottles will look beautiful with flowers in them also. Stay tuned! I think I'm hooked on taking photos of flowers!

I served the cupcakes in this beautiful etched glass domed cake stand that my sister gave me a few years ago. I love the stand and this vintage romantic themed afternoon tea was the perfect setting to use it.

Raspberry jelly (jello) went down very well. These little glasses were el cheapo ones I bought at IKEA last year. I love how plain they are and being little they are great for desserts or kids water glasses.

It was all very pink! My daughter isn't actually a "pink" girl but she did think it all very pretty and loved all the little touches. Her favourite colours are purple, blue and green. Mine too!

I set the table with my mother's vintage cake teaspoon and cake fork set. Mum and Dad were given this beautiful set 50 years for their engagement present by mum's parents. I really love this set and it was so sweet seeing Sasha and her friends eating their cake, jelly and other treats with them.

Initially I was goings to use white linen napkins but they looked too white (is that actually possible??) so at the last minute I raided my material stash and found some pretty white material with shabby pink roses on it. I actually made a quilt for Sasha out of this material when she was a newborn baby (she slept a lot, about 20 hours a day...sorry don't hate me). To make the napkins I just cut squares using my pinking shears. I then stapled some aqua grosgrain ribbon into little rings. È voilà!

I will be blogging the cupcake recipe later this week. It is a rippa of a recipe. It never fails. They are caramel cupcakes (brown sugar based) and I've been using this recipe for family gatherings since Sasha's christening.

The kids all had a great time, lots of laughing, eating, dancing and jumping on the trampoline. At one stage there were 6 kids and a soccer ball on the tramp all at once ...and the dog could have been on it all there also, but I was pretending to not notice that. Luckily we've got a Springfree tramp so no possibility of falling off and no broken arms. Phew!

Here is the birthday girl. I can't quite believe she is 9! She brings us so much joy and we are so proud of her. My beautiful girl.

After all that, we went to dinner at our favourite Italian restaurant in Haberfield with the kids and Phil's sisters, as Sasha shares her birthday with Phil's elder sister. On the way home the kids started a discussion on what themes their next parties are going to be!!

I put an end to that conversation quick smart....LOL...

All over for another year...phew!

Cheers

Fiona xx

A little glimpse of the birthday celebrations

I thought I'd share a couple of photos from the birthday party afternoon tea. The full post of the pink and aqua extravaganza will be on the blog tomorrow morning.

Thanks for your birthday wishes to my gorgeous girl. She had a great day.

Fiona xx