Guest post: Lost in Wishful Thinking

* Today I have a stunning guest post to share with you all. Hannah is a fellow Aussie blogger who lives just up the road from me (not really, Brisbane is surprisingly far away) and takes the most gorgeous photos. Be sure to head on over to her blog and have a look around...

Hi, I'm Hannah from "lost in wishful thinking" a little blog I started to post my own photography. Today I'm doing a guest post here for Gaby, but with a different twist from my own usual posts.

I am a frequent op-shopper, and op-shops always seem to have an abundance of doilies. I like to use them as simple decoration around my room, placing them underneath a vase, lamp or my jewellery box. After being inspired by similar creations, I have recently given some new life to doilies as bunting, and as a pillow decoration; with all items being bought from local op-shops.

For the bunting, I bought several doilies in different shapes/sizes, as well as some bias binding -the length of the bunting is entirely up to how long you would like it. First, I cut them in half, and arranged them along the binding (leaving some room either end to tie the bunting up). When I was happy with the arrangement, I pinned them in place between the fold of the binding, and then sewed a straight stitch along the binding to secure. This can be hung along a wall, window, or bed!

For the pillow, it was pretty simple; What I did was pin the doily where I wanted it, and sewed a few stitches in place over the doily to hold it in place. You can decorate it further with other doilies, ribbon or buttons.

I hope these simple ideas might inspire you to look at the humble doily in a different way, and get creative!

Thanks Gaby for having me! :)

My creative space: Just Married Duvet Cover

Yesterday I showed some shots of my cozy bed, and today I thought I'd tell you a bit more about that blanket...

One of my hands down favourite craft books is The Crafty Minx by Kelly Doust. It's chock-a-block full of lovely projects that are all super simple. One of those projects is the Just Married Duvet Cover, otherwise known as the largest thing I have ever sewn (and the wonkiest, consequently). I adapted the pattern a bit by using bigger squares, and I used Anna Maria Horner's Folksy Flannels. Me oh my have you seen this fabric a lot around here! See here, here, here, and here. I should also mention that Kelly Doust is one of the sweetest ladies around. I went to a craft sessions/book signing with her last year and it was such a pleasure to meet her. Her other books are all fantastic as well and definitely worth checking out (I love her book A Life in Frocks!).

how it looks normally

Rainy days

my handmade duvet cover, more on this tomorrow...

It's rainy and grey today, perfect weather for staying in and cuddling up under my duvet. It's also perfect weather for drinking copious amounts of lady grey tea with lashings of milk and honey, and of course, for eating leftover Easter chocolate.

Dear rain, stay a while. I don't mind in the slightest. xx

* I'm away this week but I hope you enjoyed this pre-scheduled post.

Featured on The Merry Way

I'm really excited to be featured on Miss Stephanie's sweet blog, The Merry Way, today. Come check me out here!

Anniversary celebrations

All frocked up and ready to go to the races. I'm wearing an old Allison Wonderland dress, and one of my fascinators (not the one that's in the shop though, I made this one to keep). These 3 photos were taken by husband.

these last 8 photos were all taken on my iphone with the hipstamatic app

This year our anniversary fell on Easter Sunday so we decided to celebrate a day early, which meant that we could actually go out. We spent the day doing one of husband's favourite things: going to the races. I don't love the races, but I do enjoy getting dressed up for the event. It's such an old fashioned activity - men wear suits and ties, and women wear dresses, high heels and the obligatory fascinator/hat. And then you all stand around and judge each other :) It's like a fashion show!

After all of that excitement, husband surprised me by taking me to a beautiful restaurant where we had had a very special date a few years ago. We enjoyed a beautiful meal overlooking the opera house and the harbour bridge, and toasted our two years of marriage with champagne and wine. Anniversaries are the best.

Giveaway winner!

Yesterday afternoon I drew the winner for my giveaway, and since I'm kind of a luddite I decided to kick it old school and draw names from a hat. Husband took photos, and as you can see the winner is....

Tara from Beautiful Blendings

I'm so pleased that Tara won, she totally deserves it! Thanks so much for all of your sweet comments about my new shop. I've enjoyed doing this little giveaway and I think I'll do another one soon, so stay tuned...

p.s. Happy Anzac day to everyone

Two years

It's hard to believe, but here we are, two years on from our wedding day. I'm really proud of us for everything we've accomplished in these two years, and look forward to celebrating many more anniversaries together. I love you husband. xx

Last chance for my giveaway

I just wanted to remind everyone that my giveaway closes tonight at midnight! If you want a chance to win something from my new etsy shop, go here.

Also, this weekend is Easter, Anzac Day and my wedding anniversary. We have a 5 day weekend which is pretty cool, and then I'm on a retreat for the rest of the week. So posting might be a bit light next week. But I'll try my best! Hope you all have a happy easter! xx

Sydney love: internal thermostats

I snapped these two pictures with my iphone this week, and they pretty much sum up the point that I'm about to make. Notice that these two women are wearing long jeans, jackets, and one is wearing boots. On the days that these photos were taken it was about 25 degrees celsius (77 degrees fahrenheit), maybe a bit hotter. These days it is cooler at night and in the morning but we can still get up to 27 degrees during the day, and yet people have pulled out their boots. This is something that I love/think is hilarious about Sydneysiders; once "autumn" hits, they start dressing like they live in Antarctica. Seriously. I see people wearing woolen scarves, down jackets, beanies etc. I suppose it's the opposite of the Vancouver phenomenon, whereby on the first sunny day of spring, even if it's 5 degrees celsius, you will see people wearing shorts and sandals. This Canadian girl, however, is still wearing shorts or summer dresses most days and complaining about how hot I am. I am so not meant for life on this continent.

Indie Foxx Garland

I'm back! I found this tutorial for an Indie 'Foxx' Garland through Elise's beautiful blog, Pennyweight. I loved it and thought it'd be a cute and quick way to decorate my shelf (which I kind of treat as a mantelpiece) for summer. I ended up being wrong about the 'quick' part; all up, it took me hours. I did make it more difficult for myself by printing out decorative paper, and then gluing that to cardstock. But just cutting out all of the little foxes took time, time I'm glad I spent since I happen to think this garland is pretty darn cute. If you want to give it a go, the instructions for the garland are here.

p.s. Don't forget to enter my giveaway here!

How to make a green smoothie

I discovered green smoothies last year, and I've been a big fan ever since. I don't know about you, but I am way more likely to consume 2-3 cups of spinach if I'm drinking it and it's sweet, then if it's heaped in a bowl with some olive oil on top. I guess my brain just needs to be tricked. So, if you'd like to know how to make your own green smoothie, keep reading...

How to make a green smoothie

You will need:

- baby spinach (you can also use kale but spinach is an easier flavour to mask)

- a banana (if it's frozen, even better)

- fruit!

- water

As you can see, it's not really a recipe. Basically, I just throw a bunch (seriously, use a lot) of baby spinach into my blender with about a cup of cold water and I blend the hell out of it. Then I add a banana (I usually freeze bananas for this purpose) and any other fruit I have on hand. Certain things work better than others though. For example, apple - not so good. But oranges, melons, pears, kiwis etc. are great. Just use whatever is in season, and play around until you find a combination you like. You can add honey if you like it sweeter, or you can use almond milk or normal milk as the base instead of water if you prefer. And if you'd like to serve a not-so-green smoothie to someone, throw in some berries and it'll turn purple. And voila, you've tricked someone into drinking a whole bunch of spinach!

p.s. Don't forget to enter my first giveaway! (sorry to keep reminding you guys...)

Robots need love too

Just a little something to brighten up your Monday morning... This is my friend Dan Mangan. We used to work together in Vancouver, but he's gone on to bigger and brighter things since then. He's a brilliant musician, and if you ever get the chance to see him live, do it! You won't regret it. You can see his current touring schedule here. I'm posting the music video for my favourite song of his, Robots. Makes me miss home...

p.s. Don't forget to enter my giveaway here

My etsy shop and a GIVEAWAY

In honour of the fact that I have finally started listing items in my etsy shop, I've decided to hold my first ever giveaway! So here's the deal...

TO ENTER:

1. Visit my etsy shop and leave a comment below telling me what your favourite item is. If you win, it'll be yours!

2. For an extra entry, follow this blog and leave me a comment to tell me.

3. For an extra entry, blog about this giveaway and leave me a comment to tell me.

4. For an extra entry, tweet about this giveaway and leave me a comment to tell me.

I'll close the draw Friday April 22nd. Good luck!

Chocolate chunk cookie recipe

I love cookies (or bikkies as they're called here in Australia). I really, really do. And I'm always trying new recipes in my search for the perfect cookie recipe. Well folks, I'm getting closer and I thought I'd share my not-quite-perfect-but-we're-getting-closer cookie recipe today. I also thought I'd post many photos of the process, rather than just a shot of the finished product. Also, I'm going to try to speak both North American and Aussie here so it makes sense to everyone. Here goes...

What you'll need

- 21/4 cups all purpose flour

- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

- 1 teaspoon baking soda (bi-carb soda)

- pinch salt

- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened (which is about 225 grams)

- 1 cup packed brown sugar

- 1/2 cup white sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla

- 2 eggs

- 200 grams coarsely chopped chocolate of your choice, milk or dark (7 ounces)

**TIP - it's best if you can bring all of your ingredients (i.e. butter and eggs) to room temperature before you start baking. It'll make your cookies even better, but don't sweat it if you forget or don't have the time.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (350 degrees fahrenheit). Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Cream the butter and the sugars together.

Add the eggs in and the vanilla and beat together until combined.

In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and a pinch of salt.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

Throw in your roughly chopped chocolate. I used 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of dark chocolate and 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of milk chocolate and it was yummy!

Spoon your cookies onto the cookies sheets. Use an ice cream scoop if you have it, otherwise just a spoon will do.

Set your timer (preferably a pink pig) for 10 minutes. Here's where it gets tricky. Everyone's oven is different, and everyone likes their cookies slightly different. I like my cookies to be chewy, pretty much half baked. I also have a weird oven that doesn't distribute heat very well. So I put my cookies in for 5 minutes, then take the tray out and rotate it. I then leave them for another 5 minutes. You may want to leave your cookies for 12-15 minutes, depending on how you like them. Experiment, and tell me how you go!

Finally, once you pull your cookies out of the oven, leave them to cool on a wire rack.

Then pile them on a plate and start eating!