New Ikea Cookbook with amazing food styling

Wow!!! I just found out about this FREE Cookbook that Ikea has published. It is called Homemade is Best and is a collection of baking recipes. I have a zillion cookbooks on my bookshelf but none of them have such amazing photographs by Carl Kleiner as this does. So unique and drool worthy. The styling is by Evelina Bratell. Makes me want to go straight to the kitchen and pre prepare my ingredients in a whole new way. Sadly the only place one can get this book is in the kitchen section of Ikea...in Sweden. So the best I can do for you is share these amazing images.

Enjoy!!!!









All Images are taken by Carl Kleiner

It's time to get on our bikes

Tomorrow sees the start of the UCI cycling here in the host city Geelong. The city will be closed off until next Sunday so we all need to get out there and cheer our Aussies on. I will be heading to the waterfront and of course to check out the Market at Johnstone Park.
I love bikes, especially cool groovy vintage ones, you can see previous posts here and here
So in celebration of all things cycling here are some cool finds to drool over.

Bicycle
1.Velorbis Wicker Basket 2. Bicycle Rubber Stamp 3. I love my bike bell 4. Gold Cycle Pendant 5. Vintage Arte Poster 6. Red Vintage Bike 7. Green Schwinn Bike 8. Wooden Crate 9.Green Bicycle Basket

New Retail Therapy in Geelong West

I was strolling down Pakington Street on Friday and spied a lovely new shop called Sass + Salter. A lovely light filled shop that is very welcoming and filled with lots of beautiful things. A great place to find a treat for yourself or to find a gift. I love vessels and there were so many on offer, an array of lovely jars, vases etc. I adored the divine girlie floral teacups in the front window.

Sassica runs the shop and says its a labor of love and it shows. Pop down and say hi and check out Pako's newest resident.







You can find Sass + Salter @ 224 Pakington Street, Geelong West
phone 5242 8101

Behind the Lens

Due to bad weather, crazy schedules, selling my house etc I have not done a lot of photography the past 2 months. Yesterday I got back behind the lens and here are some favorites. I do have some pretty cute subjects and some great backdrops. These were taken at Eastern Beach here in Geelong.





Hoping for many more over the holidays.

Design Your Own Bag

Elemental Threads is an online retail site that specializes in custom-made handbags. You can design your own handbag and there are oodles of choices then pick your fabric, lining and even your zip and handles and then it’s handmade by a team of eThreads seamsters™.  There are thousands of different designs you can come up with. I had a little play around and it was a lot of fun.They do ship to Australia at a flat rate of $20.

They offer lots of other ready-to-wear handbags, t-shirt pouches, jewelry, hair clips, at their Blog shop which you can find here.

and if you have something that you love but don't use anymore like tshirts, baby clothes etc you can send it to them and they will repurpose it.

I love this type of creative endeavor and its all very eco friendly giving it an extra special tick.

California Bungalow

It's time for another house. This is just the sweetest bungalow located in California. The use of all that bold color is awesome and really brave. I am not sure I could pull it off so well. I love this look for a holiday house. This is the home of designer Krista Ewart and her home was in House Beautiful.
How gorgeous is that Liberty Bicycle out the front?






the pink fridge makes me smile

You can see more pictures from Krista's home here

Fabric Magic

There is a nothing quite like seeing a stack of beautiful fabric become a gorgeous item and in this case a quilt for one of my cousins new born twins. I went and saw them again on Friday, so amazingly adorable and so small. Hard to believe my girls were ever that tiny. I think it is really feminine and my signature is fast becoming using chenille in my quilts. I love the touchy feelie qualities of it. I have made it so it can be used as a pram blanket or thrown on the floor for them to lie on. It is lined with fleece and the backing is also fleece so its super soft and snuggly.


I will be starting the 2nd one this week, it will be similar but definitely not the same, a few little differences. The lovely sewing elements on the collages are from the fabulous Danielle at kitschy digitals.

Bakerella Cake Pops

If you have not heard of Bakerella you need to go to her site, like right now. She is the ants pants in the States, even Martha has had her on her show. I have been counting down the months, weeks and now days until I can get my hands on the much awaited book.

I tried these red velvet cake balls a while back and they were amazing, just warning you that its virtually impossible to stop at one.

and seriously how cute are these?

My first attempt at Cake Pops was about a year ago with one of my besties Peggy and this is how they turned out.





Yum! Yum! Yum!
My kids have watched me do this posting and are demanding we make these again soon so stay tuned for some more updates on pops.

Who remembers swap cards?

My son Jonah is in Prep and this semester they have been looking at old toys. A few weeks back one of the boys grandmother brought in a stack of old swap cards and bam the memories of collecting them came rushing back. I especially loved my Holly Hobbie cards. I feel really sad that like so many things my swap cards were something that I got rid of. Then tonight whilst surfing I came across these and my heart skipped a beat. Thanks to Allison from Lark they are back. Yeh!!!! My girls can collect them also. Daisy Lane has plans on bringing out 144 this year. They are being sold by Lark so whilst you are there check out the rest of the online store and if you are in Daylesford pop in and see them. Of course there is also a blog to read.





I do love a stroll down memory lane.Did any of my peeps collect swap cards? have you still got them?

EmersonMade

I came across EmersonMade last year and have just rediscovered them. They are a gorgeous husband and wife team that make the most beautiful clothing, home decor and incredibly divine wedding items. Makes me want to get married all over again. So hard to choose photos so I am letting you peek at a whole bunch. Let me know your favorite.

would REALLY love to get this flower and pull it off this well



This ring flower/pillow is just too cute for words



Don't you just love these floral necklaces?





teensy tiny flag garlands



flower garlands...love!!



Flower confetti



and even the boys have not been forgotten



and nor has your table



all i can say is STUNNING



What did you think? Any stand out faves?
If you like what you see they also have a lovely blog