The Canberra home where everything is for sale

For a limited time you can buy my ball cushions from the Bijoux Home open home or online shop. You can find some limited edition boiled wool ball cushions in wine and charcoal along with many other irresistible designer pieces including a wall of art that I just wanted to take home!

Read more on HerCanberra.

Photo by Anne Stroud Photography.

Ball cushions

I have launched a lovely range of ball cushions in a myriad of colours in my shop. They are room-changing cushions and once you go round it is hard to go back.

So much more sculptural than your average flat square cushion!

These modern ball cushion references luxe French minimalism in such a playful way.

You'll be amazed how much better a spherical cushion looks and the interest it brings to your room.

Can be used as a decorative piece or as a comfortable cushion. Shop now.

A MODERN DINOSAUR BIRTHDAY PARTY

I post my cake toppers and craft supplies all over the world. Every once in a while I get a big surprise to see where they end up!

Check out this gorgeous modern dinosaur themed birthday party created by Jacquelyn of Beijos Events for her son Court.

I loved seeing the beautiful photos on her blog and in particular how wonderful my big green brontosaurus and navy blue number 2 cake toppers looked on the cake on that beautiful sunny day.

Jacquelyn has let me share some photos here on my blog from the day. Her styling is second-to-none and you can see more details from the party on her blog.

Cake toppers available to purchase here.

All photos by Kelsey Albright.

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THE COLLECTOR PUMPKIN FESTIVAL 2016

I love autumn, pumpkins and country towns. Put those things together and you get the Collector Pumpkin Festival. This was my second year attending and it is just such a lovely day out.

I have to eat the pumpkin scones and I have to eat the pumpkin soup. This year we lined up for the soup a little late in the day and only got one cup, but it was the last one. Lucky, lucky last!

There is lots to do at the festival apart from eating including craft and food stalls, music, races and for the kids cool activities like building a scarecrow and the hay bale maze. Good old fashioned fresh air and fun.

We came home with a bag of pumpkin scones, clothes covered in hay, tomato saucy faces and hair blown sideways. 

Chunky Choc Chip Anzac biscuits recipe

I recently created a recipe for Jones Lang Lasalle's clients to use across their websites.

The addition of choice chips from your leftover Easter stash makes them a cross between a coconut rough and a classic ANZAC biscuit.

You can check out the recipe via Enex100's Facebook page or Wagga Marketplace's website.

DAD'S 70TH BIRTHDAY PARTY

We recently held a 70th birthday dinner for my Dad and 70 of his friends. The venue was the beautiful Pialligo Estate Winery with its beautiful gardens and food. We enjoyed dinner as the sun set and the kids explored the vast grounds. 

I think I was living overseas for his 60th birthday and my sister was knee deep in nappies, so this was a special milestone that we could not let pass without a celebration.  He said it was 5 hours of bliss so the goal was achieved, to make him know he is appreciated. 

He has always loved liquorice all sorts so this was the theme of his cake (by Cakes of Your Dreams) with a blue and green colour theme for the decorations (all from Spartys). My sister made the beautiful name place cards.

RECIPE: BEST EVER POTATO SALAD

There are some foods I will never give up and one of them is potatoes. This potato salad recipe has evolved over a few years and it is always a hit.

You will need:

• 2kg waxy washed potatoes skin on
• 6 eggs
• small bunch of chives finely chopped
• whole egg mayonnaise
• 1 tsp seeded mustard
• juice of half a lemon
• greek yoghurt
• salt and pepper
• cornichons
• green apple
• a few salad leaves (optional for colour)
• bacon (optional to add saltiness)

1. Cut the the potatoes into large 2inch pieces and boil them until cooked.
2. Hard boil and peel the eggs. If you run them under cold water until they are cooled they are much easier to peel. Cut them into quarters length-wise.
3. Dice two green apples and about 12 cornichons into little pieces.
4. Mix up the greek yoghurt, mayonnaise, wholegrain mustard, lemon juice, salt, pepper, chives to make the dressing.
5. Put the potatoes, apple, and cornichons in a bowl add half the dressing. Carefully combine to coat the salad.
6. Put the egg slices on top and drizzle with remaining dressing. It looks so nice to add a couple of chive flowers for colour.
7. You can add fried bacon pieces or crunchy grilled pancetta over the top too for salty crunch. 
8. Pulling through a few green and purple leaves adds really nice colour.

RECIPE: SWEET POTATO CHIPS

The weather has been a bit up and down in Canberra lately and sometimes I notice whispers of autumn. A yellow leaf, a cooler morning, the midday sun starting to slice through the north windows.

I have been loosely following the blood type eating plan by Peter D'Adamo with great results but I'm struggling to get back on track after Christmas. It is so easy to reach for a ham sandwich when I should be eating vegetables. 

We really felt like chips for lunch today and the girls love sweet potato so I made this chunky sweet potato chips. As sweet potato contains a lot of water, the trick is not to get them too sweaty and soft, try and get them crispy. Here's how.

Really easy recipe for sweet potato chips:
Sweet potatoes scrubbed but not peeled
Rice bran oil
Garlic powder
Dry polenta
Salt*
1. Preheat the oven to about 230C with a heavy based non-stick backing tray in it.
2. Cut up the sweet potato into relatively same size chunky chips. Leave the skin on but scrub it clean. That is where all the vitamins are and they help make the chips more crunchy.
3. Cover them chips in oil, garlic powder and polenta.
4. Take the hot tray out of the oven and spread the chips out nicely. Put them in the oven and after about 10-15 minutes turn them over. Cook another 10-15 minutes. They'll just look and smell ready.
5. Salt them and eat.
*Salt them at the end not the beginning otherwise the salt draws the moisture out during the cooking process which can make them more soggy.

DECOR SALE - 50% OFF

I'm clearing out all my decor items because as my kids get bigger my house feels smaller.

I'm taking half price off shields, pineapple mirrors, frames and mobiles.

Check out the decor sale here. Make sure you enter the promo code MIDSUMMER during checkout to get 50% off!!

There will still be lots of fun and new things coming out from me this year. More blog posts but also more craft and party supply.

DAN'S BIRTHBAE

We recently had a party at home to celebrate my husband's birthday. It was a beautiful afternoon with lots of old friends, oldies, and offspring.

We started with some Hungarian mini-langos and corn on the cob. After the BBQ and salads we ate a huge cake I made inspired by his favourite dessert from Eighty Six Restaurant, the caramel popcorn sundae.

Langos is really easy to make, but not particularly healthy (no big deal!). It is essentially fried bread dough that you then rub with garlic and top with sour cream and cheese. I'm a purist and I just like to rub with garlic and sprinkle with salt.

It is a really popular snack in Hungary that you can easily buy from food vendors. There are many variations, but I used this recipe as it seemed the simplest and was really happy with how they turned out. My grandmother would have fainted over their irregular shapes but they tasted great.

The birthday cake was a chocolate cake with caramel meringue buttercream and caramel popcorn. I used this recipe and it was delicious. I especially loved the caramel swiss meringue buttercream and the addition of coffee to the chocolate batter made it a perfect pick me up.

Because some words are so apt that you don't need to finish saying them for people to know what you mean.

I have been observing with enjoyment the use of the terms 'bae' (meaning babe) and 'hun' (honey) in social settings. I thought it would be fun to created some monochrome cake toppers with these words. Because some words are so apt that you don't need to finish saying them for people to know what you mean. And sometimes people don't want a number on their cake, especially if they are a total babe - age doesn't matter!

They are really cool little cake toppers and elicit lots of smiles. Birthday boy seemed pretty happy with them too.

You can check them out and purchase them in my shop.

BARKLY SQUARE: KIDS' CROWN SCHOOL HOLIDAY CRAFT ACTIVITY

If you are looking for school holiday craft activities for the kids, head over to the Barkly Square blog where you will find a fun tutorial for making these double sided crowns. The threading, shape cutting and gluing activities are great for developing fine motor skills. Better still, these crowns are made using easy to find household items such as folder dividers and yarn.

MID CENTURY GINGERBREAD HOUSE AND HOW TO MAKE ICICLES

When I was about 15 I started making gingerbread house every Christmas. I became more and more ambitious every year culminating in a Martha Stewart Victorian house facade with candy windows and internal lighting from this book (similar instructions here). It was a particularly hot and humid Australian summer that year and those poor old windows slowly dissolved into puddles of liquid sugar and wiring - a great excuse to eat it early and a lesson for me in candy making.

This year I made a mid-century house and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I was inspired by this house by Melbourne-based Craft Schmaft and this house by Nick Milkovich Architects.

It was a little bit easier than a traditional house as there was less focus on intricate white icing. I made a template first from cardboard. I used this dough recipe which has been the best to work with, tasted the best and looked the best. I will be reusing it every year. See below for my icing recipe.

1. The icing has to be just the right consistency. I always use the Women's Weekly recipe:


Beat 1 egg white just until it can hold a peak. Gradually add 2 cups sifted icing sugar whist mixing on low speed. 

I also add half a teaspoon of lemon juice. I find this gives me a good consistency that holds the pieces together but also makes great icicles at the very end of the process.

2. Build. Wait. And then decorate. If you can let the walls and roof mortar dry completely before decorating you will avoid the common problem of the roof sliding off the house because the icing is not dry. Lots of lollies on the roof can contribute to this.

3. Practice piping icing patterns on a piece of cardboard. I almost always use a zip-lock bag with the corner cut off to pipe the icing. The more I cut off the corner the larger the line of icing. I spoon the mixture into a corner of the bag and seal it carefully. If you need to stop you can just put that bag into another icing bag and to stop if drying whilst you tend to something else.

If you are not confident with swirls and hearts, practice dots and lines. They can go a long way. It is much easier to do patterns after the zip-lock piping bag has warmed in your hands.

4. Lollies. The key is to use simple classic lollies. The other secret is never to use the same lolly twice on the same house. So if you use jelly beans on the roof, don't use them anywhere else on the house. I can't do without mint leaves and candy canes.

5. Don't worry about the myriad of imperfections you create along the way. Hide them by making snow dribbles and icicles. In a previous year, the chimney I made was really bad so I made a big dribble of icing around the top that hid the gaping cracks.

6. Icicles! These are the key to getting that special look. They are so much fun to make and add miniature scale magic to your house. You do them at the very end when the icing in the zip lock bag is warm from your hand. Check out my mini-movie below to see how to drop icicles off your gingerbread house.

Finally, if you still need something extra, a sifting of icing sugar is the vaseline on the lens and looks like snow over your little domestic creation.