Friday 30 September 2011

Things I love

Old books, lace, birds, and gorgeous frames are just a few vintage things I love! These are just some bits from around my home...

 A vintage christening gown, a piece of lace material and some long pieces of old lace

 A greeting card with gorgeous birds, a few old books which sit on my rimu office draws and the flower book is new, it is beautiful!

The frame/photo is from about the 1910-1920's, I brought two of them from an antique shop, some more lace and a vintage perfume bottles



Thursday 29 September 2011

Home made short pastry Quiche

I love making my own pastry, it's so easy and great to make food from scratch! First blend 2 cups of flour, 125g of cold butter and a pinch of salt in the food processor. Then add a few drops of cold water until it foams small balls. Put onto lightly floured surface and knead lightly. Wrap in glad wrap and chill for 15 minutes.

This amount of pastry in enough for two quiches, so roll it out and place into two quiches dishes. Blind bake 200 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes.

My little helper

Add what ever you have in the fridge, I used two leeks, quarter of a pumpkin (grated) and some ham. Fry all ingredients in butter until just cooked. 

Add four tablespoons of flour and stir, then gradually add two cups of milk and stir until thick, then four eggs (lightly whisked), then a half a cup of grated tasty cheese, salt, pepper and 1tsp of curry powder.

Pour the veggie/egg mixture in the two quiche dished, sprinkle with some more cheese, fan bake on 200 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.


 I served it with a avocado,tomato salad and some fresh bread, yum!



Let my garden grow!

Yay, it's spring! Loving the extra hour of light, spending more time outside with the family and getting into the garden! I'm in the mood to get my garden looking pretty, I am starting with just a few things, some strawberries, coriander, lettuce, parsley, some gorgeous sweet pea's and a New Zealand native flower creeper. I going to make a raised veggie garden but until then here's what I've done...

Plants fresh from the shop

The creeper & sweet peas (I can't wait for the flowers, sweet peas have to be one of my favourites!)

Strawberries, herbs and lettuce, yum! I made a chicken netting cover to keep the birds & the toddlers out!

And just the few flowers that are out so far, can't wait for my gorgeous white roses to bloom!

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Dress Me up in Vintage Lace & Chiffon

I'm going to a friends wedding next weekend so I made this dress to wear, I made the pattern up myself by measuring my bust, waist etc. The lace is very old, I got it from a garage sale in a bulk lot for $2 and the chiffon was given to me, so all up it cost about 50cents (NZ)to make!





I"m so happy with end result, it fits really well and flows beautifully! So I'll wear it with a little vintage cardigan, black stockings and some brown vintage inspired shoes, can't wait!!

Monday 26 September 2011

Ingrid Starnes

Ingrid Starnes is one of my favourite designers, she is an Auckland-based designer who launched her first collection for Winter 2010. Her style has been described as having a vintage-feel with modern shapes. Ingrid brings a love of quality fabric, construction and craft and is committed to New Zealand production...











Vintage Wallpaper

This is gorgeous vintage fairy wallpaper, I have used an old mirror frame off a dressing table as a frame. I just cut a piece of thin wood to fit in the back then glued the wallpaper down. Gave the frame a touch up with some dark stain and here it is!...











Sunday 25 September 2011

Yummy vanilla cake!

This is a beautiful cake one of my friends made, I love the little 'happy birthday' flag detail, very cute! It is a delicious vanilla cake with butter icing. It has beautiful flower blooms from a fruit tree in the middle and of course the adorable little flag!



Pink Ruffle Icing Cake

This is my first attempt at doing a ruffle icing cake, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be! I used a butter icing (100g of butter, 2 cups of icing sugar, few drops of vanilla essence) Cream butter until fluffy, then add vanilla, add icing sugar slowly. I cut the cake in half and filled with icing then did a crumb icing (I tripled the recipe) let this set. For the ruffle I tripled the icing recipe again. I know it's a lot of icing but finished effect is worth it!















Friday 23 September 2011

The Bunnies Tea Party

This is a gorgeous vintage children's book, I have photo copied some of the pages and put them into vintage frames that I got from second hand shops, the book .20 cents from a garage sale and the frames $1 each, so all up $3.20 (New Zealand), very cheap project! And they look so cute!




I love doing things like this, I don't see the point of spending lots of money on things when I can make them myself and it's great to know that I have one offs!

Wrap me in Chiffon & Lace

This present is for my best friends baby shower, so I thought I'd make it extra special! It is chiffon material, the roses were easy, I just cut long strips of material about 5cm wide, folded it long ways then wrap round & round and hand stitched as I went...


















Wednesday 21 September 2011

Why Who shoes

Why Who shoes are absolutely gorgeous! The designers are two very talented sisters from Gisborne, New Zealand. Check out there website! 
(Photo's are from the website)