Have your cake and eat it too

The cake is just one of the many highlights of a wedding. Especially when it tastes as good as this one did!

Cake | Janine Kasik, Flowers | LushKa, Crocheted tablecloth | The Blushing Teacup,
Tree stump cake stand | The Blushing Teacup, Photography | Jill Andrews Photography

One of Marks second mothers, Janine, made the carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Swoon. Janine is the most amazing cake decorator and her creations are stunning.

The flowers that graced the cake were done by the amazingly incredible Kim McMillan of LushKa. These beauties speak for themselves.

The tree stump is part of a fallen Totara tree off my farm. When I told Dad about the idea I had for the cake stand, he instantly knew where to get it from. It is very rustic with the mossy bits growing up the sides, there is a bit of charred wood from a fire and the rich colour of the timber is just beautiful. These are available for hire (3 available). They are 40cm (15inches) in diameter and about 20cm tall.

The Totara stumps can be used for anything. We displayed our vintage
drink dispensers filled with tasty cocktails on them (Urban Charm).
Photo by Jill Andrews Photography

The cream vintage tablecloth is also available for hire. It's square (145x145cm) with a doiley-style crochet pattern. It has a simple 2cm trim around the edge. This will make any table look gorgeous. We covered up our old camping table and used this to sign the register as well as to present the cake.

If you are interested in any of these items to compliment your big day, please get in touch.

Original wedding gift

This weekend we got back our first framed wedding portrait. And it looks fantastic.

Our lovely friends Ana and Greg gave us a voucher for our wedding from On Stone. We uploaded one of our favourite photos taken by Jill Andrews Photography to the website. From here they printed the image on stone, put a wooden frame around it and voilà, an amazing, unique way to present a moment from our Big Day. It looks so good sitting on our mantlepiece.

LOVE xx

Tamara + Mike

I have just returned from New Zealand after two weeks of weddings. Amazing. Best excuse to go home for a holiday if I ever heard one. One was my beautiful best friend Tamara and her now-husband Mike's big day.

I had the honour of being Tamara's matron of honour as well as designing their wedding stationery. Tamara is a curator at Sanderson Contemporary Art Gallery in Auckland and art is a big part of her life. Amazing works cover the walls of her and Mike's home and she wanted to include this in their invites. Since high school she has been obsessed with the Renaissance, so it was fitting to have two paintings from the era as the main feature. The design of the invites continued through with the rest of the stationery.

The day was a true tribute to the happy couple. Tamara who is mad on fashion had not only one fabulous dress, but two!!! And Mike who is a musician had ensured the day was filled with music which included 4 different bands playing throughout the day. The favours were these cute ceramic ornaments (see top right in the photo above) which Tamara had been collecting over the last 12 months. Mine was a little lamb. Love it.

I wish Tamara + Mike all the happiness in the world and look forward to the next chapter of their life together.

If you are after a designer for your wedding stationery, or any other events, please get in touch.

LOVE xx

Gorgeous branding in Colyton

I may be a dairyfarmers daughter, but I am not the hugest fan of milk. I know ... it's weird. But I could not help myself buying two bottles of milk from a new business that's opened in my home village, Colyton, New Zealand. 

Arran farms sells A2 milk pretty much straight from the cow. You cannot get any fresher than that. 

The branding is brilliant. I love it. I am a sucker for fabulous packaging and these little gems are awesome! You buy the bottles from a vending machine and then you fill them yourself with fresh creamy A2 milk. Imagine that on you weetbix in the morning. 

Maybe I should just man up and get on board the milk train. If you are ever in the best part of NZ (Taonui Road, Colyton) I highly recommend you drop in. 

xx

Tea towels as art

I have ticked off another post-wedding to-do. Framed our tea towel. And it looks FAB!!

I was at the Supergraph art fair a couple of weeks ago and spied at the Frankie exhibit some tea towels that had been framed in a really unique way. So enquired about them and was introduced to WILMA framing.

Got in touch and voilà our beautiful tea towel is now a piece of art.

If you need any framing done, I couldn't recommend WILMA enough. The frame is made of Tasmanian Oak with a two-tone finish. So it looks white when looking straight at it, but you see the natural timber from the side. Gorgeous.

xx

Our Big Day

We got married!!!!!

It was the best day and so nice to share it with all our wonderful family and lovely friends. The ceremony was at home in the garden where I grew up overlooking our dairy farm. Then followed by the reception at the local Colyton Hall. Here I played at pre-school, acted in drama productions, learnt knots at Keas and Cubs and partied at my 21st.  So it made sense to celebrate the best day of our lives in this fabulous old country hall. AMAZING!

 Here is a short video from Our Big Day.
ENJOY xx

Sarah + Patrick

I have recently finished working on this gorgeous invite for a lovely couple, Sarah and Patrick. They live in Sydney, Australia and getting hitched at Sarah's parents home in Havelock North, New Zealand.

 

They came to me wanting a rustic and nature inspired invite to reflect their wedding day. The minty green with a touch of coral looks fabulous on the brown card, and the twine that ties all the bits together just finishes off the look.

I really enjoyed working with these two as they had so many ideas of what they were after, and it was so nice to see it all come together.

If you are after a designer to help you with your wedding stationery, please get in touch.

xx

Our Big Day tea towels

Our Big Day is approaching very quickly. 6 weeks to go!!!!! Eeeeeeeeeeeeee (excited/nervous squeal). I have been having a lot of fun working on the details of the wedding. We are having the ceremony in the garden of my child hood home, overlooking the family dairy farm with the reception just round the corner in the local hall.

Being a graphic designer, one of my favourite things has been designing the invites and all the stationery to go with it.

Thought I would share some pics of our wedding tea towel. Yeap, you heard right, a tea towel.

Going with the 1920's theme I went with an elegant Art Deco style design. The monogram at the top has filtered through to the rest of our stationery. I used a few different type faces following the style of the 1920's and added a few little quirks.

We chose orange for the print, as this went with our Sun burst theme or coral, orange yellow and a hint of minty green. They were folded up, then tied with white paper string and a yellow swing tag with the name of the invited hand-written on it. Then they went into a cellophane bag with pink and white washi tape to secure it shut.

We have had a lot of lovely feedback from our guests. A few comments included, 'Can we use it?' 'We won't forget the date' and 'It arrived just in time for spag bol tonight.'

Designing invites for my clients big day is my favourite thing to do. So if you are after a designer for yours, please get in touch.

Will be posting more wedding details after the Big Day, so look out for them.

xx

Playing tea parties with my fav lil person

For Christmas I gave my little niece Lucy some T2 Strawberries and Cream tea. It comes packaged in this cute wee pink box and perfect for a child's tea party. We finally got a chance to make a pot when I was home at Easter.

Lucy has the sweetest tea sets and just loves playing 'tea time' with anybody who is willing to have a cuppa with her. How could anyone resist that pretty face.

Easy peasy slicey goodness

The last crafternoon tea I had with the girls I tried out a recipe from my mother-in-law to be! Yes I am engaged!! Will blog more on this soon.

Its the most easiest recipe and tastes amazing!! Its a Annabel Langbein creation called Choconut Slice. I followed the recipe below, but you can pretty much use anything you have in the cupboards.

Ingredients:

150g melted butter
270g plain biscuits, crushed to fine crumbs
2 tbsp cocoa
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup chocolate chunks or chips
1 cup dried cranberries or raisins
1 cup slivered almonds
395g can sweetened condensed milk

Method:

Preheat oven to 160°C and line a 30cm x 24cm slice tin with baking paper.To make the base, mix melted butter with biscuit crumbs and cocoa. Using a wet spatula or wet hands, spread over base of slice tin and press down firmly.Sprinkle coconut, chocolate, cranberries or raisins, and almonds evenly over the base. Drizzle with sweetened condensed milk.

Bake until lightly golden (about 20-25 minutes). Cool and chill before slicing into squares or fingers. Choconut Slice will keep in an airtight container in a cool place for several weeks.

Source: Annabel Lanbein website  

ENJOY xx

My favourite tea time biscuit

It's that time of year again!! The NZ Girl Guides are raising money by selling their amazing Girl Guide Biscuits. They are just the best for dunkin' into a good brew.

I have just returned from a quick Eater break in the motherland and my lovely lil sister surprised me with my most favourite bikkie. So I have just had an afternoon tea with Thom dunk dunk dunkin' these delicious treats in a pot of Twinings Australian Afternoon Tea. Delightful.  

Summer is here!!

It is hot, hot, hot here in Melbourne and I have treated myself to a T2 The Jug. I made my first brew today as we are having some friends around for dinner.

It's T2 Fruitalicious which was recommended when I brought the jug. An explosion of fruit flavours including cranberries, blueberries, dragon fruit and goji berries makes this a perfect hot summer thirst quencher. I added some peach slices and a few mint leaves to add a bit of colour and voila, a delicious refreshing summer drink.

I can't wait to do a bit of experimenting with some more tea flavours. Stay tuned. xx

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Birthday love

I have been a very lucky girl this birthday. A new vintage bike complete with a bell and basket, cupcakes, cocktails with the girls, amazing Mexican with friends and lots of gorgeous flowers.

Sunday arvo catchup

I have just returned from quaint Kensington after a lovely catch up with my friend Lynley. We met at Luncheonette and enjoyed coffee and honeycomb crackle, followed by Licorice and Lavender tea by Storm in a Teacup. Delish!

 

We then had a wander around the boutiques and I returned home with some fresh poppies to brighten up our living room.

Great way to spend a sunday arvo.

Colour inspiration #3

Left to right:

• Bright yellow bike with gorgeous hydrangeas – perfect for a bike ride in the spring
• Yellow whistle tea pot – to brighten up your morning
• Yellow birds plate – some amazing Anthropologie goodness
• Yellow teacup with birds and flowers – afternoon tea anyone?
• Yellow English Babour jacket – that's well English
• Circles Plate, Canary Yellow – so pretty
• Yellow chair on white wall – fantastic pop of colour in a very minimal space
• Enameled geo bangle – add a bit of gold and yellow to your outfit
• A bright and sunshiney day – I NEED this couch 
• The Great Gatsby – gorgeous graphic design
• Yellow Gingham Cupcake Liners – these would go beautifully with my Peaches and cream cupcakes
• Chunky Vintage Lemon Yellow Oval Glass Jewel Surgical Steel Post Earrings – bold and bright
• Fabulous tea set – picnic in the sun!

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Crafternoon

Recently, we had our second crafternoon at Amy's lovely South Melbourne home. It was a grey miserable day, so we all snuggled up and happily crocheted, gossiped and giggled the afternoon away.

Now that we all have the chain and treble stitch down to a T, we have started experimenting with different stitches, changing colours, and creating shapes other than the traditional granny square.

Tania has been crocheting like mad and has an actual blanket
| One of my granny squares with Amys bright and bold teacups |
Jo's cool and colourful creations 

Amy's cat joined us for the afternoon. Meet Pixie, the British Blue. She has a gorgeous thick coat which is the colour of a thundery sky, and these massive intense gold eyes, that just stare at you as if to say 'and what?' She is the coolest cat I have ever met.

Pixie the teapot

A special thank you to Amy for having us, and I am looking forward to our next Happy Hookers convention.

Green with envy

I have just entered a competition to win a $1000 prize with Life Instyle. They have created a Pinterest contest and it's all about taking inspiration from their tagline Green With Envy. Aim of the game is to create a pinboard that embraces the colour green and reflects your sense of style. And it just so happens, minty green is one of my favourite colours!

Most exciting part is one of the judges is Lucy Feagins from my fav blog The Design Files.

Check out my Life Instyle Green with Envy board and my other pins on Pinterest.

Get on board and get pinning and maybe it could be you that takes the prize. See here for more info.

 Source: centsationalgirl.com via Stacey on Pinterest

Our new home

Last weekend we moved into our new home in St Kilda East. It is just beautiful with gorgeous dark wooden floors, fresh white walls and brand new ikea kitchen and bathroom. I just love it! The best part though is finding new homes for all my favourite things I have collected over the years.

East Ivanhoe Village Food & Music Fest

Lately I have been spending my evenings drinking tea and designing marketing collateral for the East Ivanhoe Village Food & Music Fest which starts on the 5th of July.

The festival includes a series of culturally-inspired dining events and celebrates the tastes and sounds of the Mediterranean including Little Italy, The Riviera, Spain and Greece. Sounds like my kind of festival!

Check out the East Ivanhoe Village website or visit their Facebook page for more info.

Blog lovin'

My good friend Mel Whelan recently interviewed me and posted it on her blog!! I am truly a blushing teacup now.

Check out the interview here.

Thank you so very much Mrs Whelan. Can't wait to hear how she goes in making my favourite dessert. Pop on over to her blog Bread and Sniff it and follow her journey to becoming the best home-cook known to man.