Fun with fabric

I am a pattern freak - I love gorgeous patterns and loads of colour. However, you would not know that by walking into my home because my husband does not share my passion for colour, and because he does share my house, I have had to tone down my 'personal flare'.

Having said that, there is only so much colour and pattern repression I can take! Our living room cushions are looking shabby so my time has come to replace the white and blue boring cushions with something with a little more pizzazz.

I've looking for hand-printed fabrics and am seeing some beautiful stuff.

These fabrics from Kelani would look fabulous together. I want a skirt made from that green ikat!

These from Modern Retro are fantastic!

I have some serious thinking to do. And hubby had better get ready for a wave of colour.

Designer lust and white out

If I could own one designer dress this summer it would have to be this work of art for Collette Dinnigan. It's so beautiful and flowy it just looks like a summer party on your body. In fact Ms Dinnigan's entire Resort 2013 collection is a dream. Must start saving, stat!

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I am currently on the hunt for the perfect white shirt to go with the brand new 7 for all Mankind jeans that arrived on my doorstep yesterday. They are really just what I wanted - funky pattern without being too over the top. So, all that pattern down below needs a simple top and I have a cream/white shirt in mind. My top three so far are:

Artist blouse from American Eagle. I've ordered from AE once before and the package arrived within the week! And postage was less than $10. Why can't all US retailers ship to Australia like that?

Of course, Gap has a great white shirt on offer. Classic.

ASOS top with a pleat detail.

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On the home front - we spent the weekend in the Hunter Valley with six other couples on our annual Christmas in July weekend. It was freezing and very windy so we spent a lot of time inside basically cooking and eating 24/7. Well, we did take some breaks to visit a few wineries and drink the finds.

I made caramelised onion tarts for lunch on Saturday and they were really good. Here's the recipe if you want to try it yourself (it's a Bill Granger recipe so you can't go wrong). Enjoy :)

Caramelised Onion Tarts with Goat Cheese (or Feta)

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 lb 4 oz (1 kg) onions, sliced finely
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• sea salt and pepper, to taste
• 13 oz (375 gr.) puff pastry
• ½ cup (25 gr.) parmesan, grated
• 1 cup (150 gr.) goat cheese, crumbled (original recipe: feta)
• 2 tbsp rosemary (original recipe: oregano)

Instructions

1. Place olive oil and onions in a heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Add the sugar, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Cook for another 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft and caramelized. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
3. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 F (220°C.
4. Roll out pastry to a 8 x 16 inch (20 x 40 cm) rectangle on a lightly floured surface. (Or make individual servings, like I did). Trim edges with a knife and place on a lined baking sheet.
5. Score a 0.5 inch (1 cm) border around the edge of the pastry, taking care not to cut all the way through to the bottom. Prick pastry with a fork and sprinkle parmesan within scored edges.
6. Place tonion on top of pastry base. Bake in the oven for 15-25 minutes, or until pastry is puffed and golden brown. (Note: begin checking after 10 minutes, depending on your oven)
7. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with goat cheese (or feta) and rosemary (or oregano).

Am I over the fashion hill?

Is it true? Are fashion bloggers (or clothes wearers for that matter!) past their prime when they turn 35 as the folks at Lucky Style seem to believe? Read this and weep anyone who is soooo old that their sense of style no longer counts - http://heartifb.com/2012/07/10/personal-style-bloggers-expire-at-age-35/

I'm right behind Jennine Jacob when she says her style now is better than it was in her 20s. I wish someone had tapped the 20-something me on my shoulder and told me the Princess Di look did NOT work for me.

But there is more too this than just whether or not someone can be in style in their "advanced years'' its about us still being worth seeing and hearing from.

I don't care if you like how I dress! Couldn't care two hoots! But I do care if you think I'm a person who shouldn't be seen at all.

I sometimes spend too much time thinking about whether or not I am dressing my age .. but then I think - Eff it! There is no stop watch that says you should limit yourself, let alone your wardrobe, at any age. So I boldly go forth and wear leopard print skinny jeans even though I am ... em hem ... past the age of 35.

My choices are mine and why should I have to make them based on the ideas of other people who think women past a certain age have no style.

So I have these 7 for all Mankind beauties flying to me as I type courtesy of the obliging people at Piper Lime... even thought they probably didn't have a Mum in her 40s in mind when they designed them. I think they will look great with a white shirt and will suit my work-from-home lifestyle to a T. I am not one to work in my pjs just because I am at home!

I don't think I'll be wearing floral jeans though.

Happy birthday Gina

Gina Lollobrigida is 85 years old today! As I love the effortless look of the 50s and 60s I am using that as an excuse to post some old photos of her looking European and elegant.

That face! So beautiful.

That waist! No wonder everyone is ogling her.

That hat! Sooo gorgeous in Venice.

That cleavage! She's making signing autographs look elegant.

(*All photos of Gina are from Getty Images)

Back to basics

Sometimes I get so caught up in my love for colour and patterns that I forget I also need basics in my wardrobe, you know, to balance out all of that stuff going on elsewhere. If I could I would wear patterns and colour head to toe, but I might be hauled off the streets and locked up ... so I don't.

Basics aren't very exciting though, are they? So I tend to not spend update those I already have. But even I have to admit that my white long sleeved t-shirt and it's black counterpart are looking shabby.

But salvation is near! Hubby is heading to the US next week , that land of cheap but quality basics. So I've been hitting the WWW (World Wide Wardrobe) and filling up a couple of baskets with purchases that have proved to me basic doesn't have to be boring.... so long as you can buy it from the comfort of your computer.

These delightful items will be returning to Australia in Hubby's luggage ... I just hope my other t-shirts can wait two weeks befor they decide to fall apart.

These are all from Loft - a great place to shop for well priced, good quality clothes. Sadly they don't ship to Australia (maybe soon, Loft people??) but they do cut their clothes very generously so I am an XS in their sizes. Woo hoo! And, um, is a purple dress a basic? Prehaps not but it is fun :)

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This afternoon I have some friends and their kids over (thanks to the NSW teachers strike no-one is at school) so I have made this DELICIOUS blueberry muffin bread. It's really, really good - you must try it. And don't skip the streusel bit because that is the best part - all cinnamon crunchy yummy-ness.

Oh yeah! We will be enjoying our afternoon tea today. This stuff is my new drug of choice ... replacing my previous coconut cake addiction.

Blueberry Muffin Bread

makes one 9×5 loaf

2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, tossed in a spoonful of cornstarch

streusel
1/2 cup loosely packed brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a loaf pan liberally with non-stick spray or grease with butter. In a bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and baking powder, then set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk egg and sugar together until smooth. Whisk in vanilla extract, then add in milk and mix until combined. Add in dry ingredients slowing, mixing with a spoon until batter comes together. Add in melted butter and mix until incorporated, then stir in blueberries.

Mix together the streusel ingredients, bring it all together with your hands. Sprinkle over the bread evenly. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until bread is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm with butter!

Back from Bathurst

We all celebrated the freezing cold long weekend by heading west to the beautiful city of Bathurst. So cold, so windy yet the girls had to be wrestled into socks. Why don't children feel the cold?! Is it some sort of weird evolutionary thing in case their parents leave them out in the woods? But while Hubby and I were piling on scarves and coats my three crazy girls were running around in shorts!

I was doing a lot of this ...

.... drinking tea, siting in cafes with friends, and eating pizza while drinking wine. That's about it. Oh, and shouting at the kids to put on jumpers and socks.

Also we ventured outside to admire the beautiful countryside and a t-rex fossil.

We had a great time but it is nice to be home where I can run out to the car without having to put on several layers of clothing first.

Which segues me to my current warm wooly jumper dilemma. I cannot seem to find a good looking, stylish jumper that isn't shaped like a flapping square. I do understand the boxy jumper look, and I have a couple of them myself, but I also want a nice slim jumper that flatters and is interesting instead of one that just sort of hangs there.

Smelly but sweet

We have a nice little veggie and herb garden going at the side of our house - it is truly surprising how much stuff you can grow in a relatively little space.

Hubby loves to grow tomatoes, but hates the fight with the fruit flies that has to happen every year. I also love to reap the benefits of lots of lovely tomatoes, but the thing I love to grow the most is a very humble and often overlooked vegetable - the spring onion.

For real, you cannot kill a spring onion plant. It will grow and grow and give you a free spring onion whenever you need it.l You don't have to love them or care for them much at all - it's all giving and no taking with the spring onion.

I also love the way they look in a cool pot - like some sort of smelly, but architectural, grass.

They are so sweet straight out of the pot that my girls pick them and eat them sometimes when they are outside. I know this because I smell the tell-tale odour of onions on their breath!

They don't love to graze on them as much as they love to graze on the parsley or the strawberries, but they do have a pretty healthy appetite for them when really all they are is just baby onions.

I currently have about six pots of lovely spring onions so I am finding many creative ways to use them - I haven't yet managed to weave them into a pair of wedges but there's still time!

I use them instead of leeks or normal onions in most recipes, and often make these Green Onion Pancakes from Delicious Days. Try them, you won't be sorry.

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I do love a nice big flower sprucing up my chest. I have looked all over etsy for just the right flower pin but so far nothing has seemed quite right. So I thought I'd try my hand at making one myself with a piece of felt from the girl's craft box.

 

 

 

It's probably not the colour I would have choosen if I had a choice of all colours, but I think it will look pretty punchy with a grey jumper or jacket. I'm not going to show you the back because I need to figure out a way to make it look nice back there, but I'll keep that hidden.

 

 

 

 

 

German VJ Anastasia Zampounidis adds some interest to her dress with this huge pink flower. I like this look - it's something unexpected.

 

 

Actress Carolina Crescentini wears are rather fetching floral arrangement with this beautiful dress.

 

 

 ... and if it's good enough for the Queen and Lily Allen it's alright by me.