The Silver LiningA scone, a scone, my kingdom for a scone! (How-to Wednesday #1)
Posted on November 7, 2012
So the question of the century (or at least of the minute?)…How do you make sure your scones rise and prevent them from coming out of the oven like hot little tooth-breaking lumps? Some people swear by lemonade or even just sheer willpower/prayers/meditation/spells, but my secret is buttermilk!
Ingredients (to make 16 fist-sized or 24 bite-sized scones):
- 3 ½ cups self-raising flour
- 2 tbs caster sugar
- 60g butter (I like to use regular butter rather than unsalted to give the scones that slightly moreish savoury flavour)
- 1 and a half cups buttermilk
- Jam and cream (preferably double cream) to serve!
Method:
- Preheat oven 200° Celsius
- Prepare a regular loaf tin (23 x 13 x 7cm or 9 x 5 x 3 inches if you’re imperially inclined)
- Mix flour and sugar in a large bowl
- Add butter (at room temperature) and rub into the flour with your fingers until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
- Make a well in the centre of the flour and add buttermilk. Stir with a spatula until the dough almost comes together (see pictures below)
- Place on a lightly floured surface and knead gently until the dough comes together
- Press out to roughly 3cm thickness with a rolling pin
- Using a cookie cutter (I actually just use an upturned glass or other round-topped container) cut into 5cm rounds for biggish scones, 3cm for bite-sized
- Place scones, just touching, into your tin
- Bake for 15-18 minutes or until lightly golden on top and hollow when tapped
Et voila!
Share this:
Bitten by the Brooklyn Flea
Posted on November 6, 2012
Obsession#2 – vintage cameras!
One Saturday during our holiday, we decided to see what the fuss was about flea markets. After initially setting off in the wrong direction, then trying to find a nonexistent subway station, and then of course having a minor domestic quarrel, we found the Brooklyn Flea – a flea market of pretty legendary proportion. All bickering and foul moods were forgotten as we wandered through the rows of clothes, records, knick knacks, and even stalls from local designers with clothes and accessories selling items with a vintage/organic feel. Not to mention some pretty delicious locally made food and drink as well! Mmmm, horchata…
Can anyone spot the Catherine Holm?
After catching flea market fever, we decided to check out another along the Brooklyn waterfront the next day. More amazing trinkets were to be found, and to top it off there was a wonderful view of Manhattan in the background.
Check out the skyline!
If you ever do get the chance to go to New York, you MUST leave the bright shiny stores of Soho and 5th Avenue (I know that’s difficult!) and get yourselves elbow deep in the vintage clothing, animal skulls, old coins, organic (probably homegrown) hemp products, and local designer fare that can only be found at flea markets. I highly recommend the ones found in Brooklyn and Williamsburg – the “Brooklyn Flea” and “Artists and Fleas”. You’ll find yourself surrounded by families with young children, people searching for a bargain, and of course a bevy of hipster cool kids (the number of top knots, Ray Bans and bow ties does noticeably rise as you near the market!).
Oh and I did mention we were obsessed with vintage cameras! Well here’s our haul from the fleas…
Can you pick which one’s actually a pencil sharpener? Comment below if you can!
***What I’m wearing – mustard cable knit sweater by Co via Urban Outfitters (similar), chambray shirt by Anthropologie, sunglasses from past season by Marc by Marc Jacobs (similar), rose necklace by Anthropologie
***What he’s wearing – day 1 – burgundy crew neck sweater by Hawkings McGill via Urban Outfitters, light green backpack by Herschel – day 2 – dark blue and white checked shirt from past season by Industrie (similar)
Share this:
A bunting we will go…
Posted on November 5, 2012
We recently hosted a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Rani. My OTHER sister-in-law, Rachel, made this sweet bunting. So gorgeous! So talented!
Here’s the lovely lady herself.
She’s promised (read “been coerced”) to do a “how-to” guest post about her bunting in the near future – so keep your eyes peeled!
I thought I’d share a few more snaps from that sunny day! Yummy food, happy ladies, and of course – cucumber sandwiches, without which no high tea would be complete. See if you can spot the beautiful Rani dressed in red below. Baby Gabrielle has since been born, both mum and bub are doing well – and yes, photos are forthcoming :).
Hope you all had a lovely and re-energising weekend!
***What I’m wearing – Navy blue playsuit by Gorman, embroidered tan belt also by Gorman
***What Rachel’s wearing – floral apron by Cath Kidston, Liberty floral playsuit by Sessun via Asos
Share this:
Hiccups
Posted on November 2, 2012
Oh and another quick note! Sorry to those who visited my “About” page yesterday and found just a template – it has since been updated!
Share this:
Happy weekend! + the perfect dress
Posted on November 2, 2012
I guess I’m destined to tell you all about our holiday in a non-chronological order 🙂
After a rather cold stint in New York where it had generally always been sweater + jacket + scarf kind of weather, the high 20s-low 30s weather of Los Angeles was quite a welcome change. Except that I had nothing to wear…Thankfully, after two weeks in New York I had successfully acquired roughly 20kg of new clothing, and I found this sweet dress amongst it! (If my husband asks, it was just 10kg, maybe only 5…and definitely no shoes…or makeup…)
It’s what I call the “perfect” dress. Stripes – check! Pockets – check! Super comfy – check! Flattering – don’t mind if I say so! So I wore it everywhere, along the Hollywood Walk of Fame and then the next day also to Santa Monica Pier. For those of you from Western Australia, Santa Monica was possibly the closest-to-home experience I had in America. There was a large pier reminiscent of Busselton Jetty (but multiplied by about 100 and add two strange buskers – a black singing Willy Wonka???), a sandy beach (like Cottesloe except strangely manicured to be flat and duneless), and of course we had fish and chips for lunch! Good thing that dress is stretchy…
We played this “game” where the aim was to try and get as close to a seagull as possible without making it fly away. Here is a shot of my winning attempt!
Pretty good ‘ey? That’s me, part-time doctor, part-time gull-whisperer…
Anyhoo, have a good weekend everyone! There will be more about holiday shenanigans anon…
***What I’m wearing – Jersey stripe dress by pure + good via Anthropologie (current season but I can’t find it online! – similar), sunglasses by Madewell, shoes by Miss Albright from past season (similar)
***What he’s wearing – I don’t know! (similar)
Share this:
Here we go round the prickly pear…
Posted on November 1, 2012
A strange fact about myself and my husband – we’re kinda into gardening. He loves all forms of cacti and succulents, great and small, and I love I suppose what you would call the more romantic plants, roses, tulips, ranunculi etc etc etc. I always thought gardening (forgive me if I offend anyone) to be a hobby for more “elderly” people, but when we moved into our house with rambling back AND front yards – we got hooked.
Evidence of this relatively unusual fetish was when we went on a day trip to Washington DC during our recent holiday overseas. While the other tourists were frantically rushing around trying to get pictures of the White House, Capitol, that huge obelisk (Washington Monument…?), we went to the National Botanic Gardens (nerds!). We were sitting on the hop-on hop-off bus tour, and when the tour guide asked if anyone wanted to get off to see the gardens we turned to each other rather sheepishly and realised that we both really really wanted to go!
Yes, like I said, we’re nerds. 😛
There’ll be photos of our own garden at some point, it’s just in a bit of a state since we’ve been away for three weeks!
***What I’m wearing (for those who care!) – Chambray top by Anthropologie, necklace bought at Brooklyn Flea by wishbyfelicity from vintage lucite beads (similar)
***What he’s wearing – Shirt by Scotch & Soda from past season (similar), shoes by Pointer (via Kaeho)
Share this:
Hello world!
Posted on October 31, 2012
Sooo, here’s the story from A to Z, you wanna get wit’ me you gotta listen carefully…
Hmm, not so sure why that song’s stuck in my head, probably something about trying to start writing my own life story! It’s been a funny morning with that song coalescing around my head with the theme of Fresh Prince of Bel Air (…now THIS is the story all about how / my life got flipped, turned upside down…). Oooookay if you’re under the age of 25 I’ve probably comPLETEly lost you by now.
Now you know a few condemning things about my tastes in music, heh.
Anyhow, the reasons for starting this blog are manifold. It kind of crept up on me bit by bit. And it started off with two ladies I met, both named Joy. Whilst on a recent trip to New York with my husband, we had the chance to meet the gorgeous and inspiring blogger-extraordinaire, Joy Deangdeelert Cho of Oh Joy!, at her book launch to promote Blog Inc, a book about blogging (duh…!). The event was attended by a throng of hopeful bloggers wanting to glean precious pearls of wisdom from the lovely (and very successful) lady…I attended because I wanted to get her autograph and tell her how much of a fan I was! All together now – *face palm*
BUT, after listening to Joy speak for a while about the highs and lows of blogging, she ultimately made it sound like a rewarding and ultimately possible task to accomplish! (We shall see…)
The second Joy I met was Joy Adaeve whilst shopping at Kate Spade. What started out as the usual polite sales assistant vs customer spiel turned into an excited frenzy consisting mainly of “ooh that’s so pretty, let’s try that, and that, and this hot pink thing with that, omg” which then turned into a fun chat about life (she was originally in college doing Pre-Med and turned to her biggest love – fashion, I’m training to be a paediatrician and have always had this gnawing desire to explore the areas of music and fashion), and then ultimately turned into a chat about blogging. See Joy’s blog here. She’s a fashionista, blogger, stylist and image consultant! She’s made it into Italian Vogue a few times! So awesome…
And lastly, I suppose the last one to two years of my life have been filled with study study study work work work then more study. (Sound familiar anyone?) Particularly the last year, which left me grey and exhausted, and a little uninspired. I swear I found new white hairs (don’t tell anyone I’ve got white hairs). So I guess I feel it’s time to recharge, rejuvenate, repair, revitalise my interests in the things I love, add colour back into my life, and this is going to be my avenue and to share it with you. 🙂
The Silver Lining 