Once upon a time, back in my Indigo days (for new readers this term can be explained here, here, and here), I had employees. One of them was a young girl named Jo. Not only was she one of the best darn employees I could have ever wished for, but she has since become a fabulous and dear friend. The other day while looking through old photos and knick knacks I happened upon this postcard that I remembered she had left me one afternoon at the shop. From memory it was attached to a little gift, and I remember thinking how serene the image was, and then bursting out laughing when I turned the card. I just had to share it with you…

The gift of her card made my day, and the gift of stumbling upon it still makes my day. Dear Jo, you are a treasure.

xx

There is something about me and pastry chefs.

For some reason in my career, I find myself drawn to recipe writers who are ex-pastry chefs, their food and culinary vision making me jump up and down, giddy and light headed, as I lick my lips and salivate at the thought of how fabulous their latest creation will look with various stylish accoutrements I have in my props cupboard.

Right now, in the (blog)house kitchen I have exactly someone who fits the above description – whose creations make my mouth-water just to read the title of her latest materpiece, let alone her photographs and stories about how she came up with the recipe. And who secretly, I hope to work with one day to publish a book of her sweet work.

Please welcome to the (blog)house, recipe writer extraordinaire and author of the scrumptious blog called Cannelle Et Vanille, Aran Goyoaga…

To get you familiar with Aran’s recipes, here is one of my favourites, her champagne and pink grapefruit sorbet…

with lemon emulsion, lemon streusel and red currant jelly…

Here in the (blog)house kitchen, Aran has shared four of her favourite recipes with us, so get on in there now to take a look, but be prepared as you will want to grab your spatulas and bowls the moment you lay eyes on her photographs.

Thank you Aran, I am so pleased you are here, I do hope you enjoy your stay in the kitchen, and please don’t worry about cleaning up – Alfred will be happy to tidy any mess (because I know he likes to lick the bowls!).

Enjoy.

xx

When I finished my degree some ten years ago, I made a pact to myself that I would produce one artwork per year, no matter what else I had going on in my life. I kept this up and although it was a struggle when I had my stores and styling work, it was very satisfying. This canvas above is one of them, and i completed it about 5 years ago. It stands approx. 2 metres by 1 metre and it is mixed media, with mostly acrylic, charcoal, and pastel as well as rose petals. It’s called ‘two to tango’ and I’m not sure what you might see, but it is two seahorses intertwined, back to back – one seahorse is in the wing of the other. Inside the two seahorse bodies is a woman’s figure bending backwards, with her hair cascading down to her feet. The writing on the bottom left says, “So I have a story to tell. It starts with love, that is, accepting suffering with your heart”. This is a reference to the Chinese character I have in the centre of the image which means ‘love’. But in Chinese, there are two loves I was taught – one without the heart symbol in the middle, and one with. True love, or ‘accepting suffering with your heart’ is with the heart (‘xin’) symbol which I included here. This symbol which I was taught about by a Chinese calligrapher many years ago, was an inspiration for many artworks over the years.

Seeing this artwork again the other day brought back lovely memories. My parents have kept it in a room above the bed I used to sleep in. Water reflections from the pool dance on the ceiling and instantly reminded me of my own dancing water reflections on the ceiling of le petit bateau in Amsterdam. It’s funny how the symbol of water seems to run so prominently through my life.

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Up next: Food glorious food! A new guest is about to arrive in the kitchen, so copy down Rach’s recipes while they are still up, and get ready for some more delicious recipes to come! You are gonna love this talented lass too, I just know it.

“It is my belief that whereas the twentieth century has been a century of war and untold suffering, the twenty-first century should be one of peace and dialogue. As the continued advances in information technology make our world a truly global village, I believe there will come a time when war and armed conflict will be considered an outdated and obsolete method of settling differences among nations and communities.”

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

thanks bob, this quote just might be my favourite thus far.

Believe it or not, this is a Winter’s afternoon in ol’ Sydney, in my parent’s backyard. I took these photos at around 4pm, astounded myself, at how penetrating our light is down here. Back in The ‘Dam when I’m on shoots I talk alot about the light in Australia. Especially when I’m on food shoots as Australian food photography is the talk of the industry, and our Aussie food photographers are (amongst) the best in the world (hmm, can you tell I’m a bit proud?). Anyway, I tell everyone about the light and I describe it as “being so strong it even penetrates the walls”. French Boy laughs in disbelief, and thinks I am exaggerating but here is the proof in the puddin’, blossoms, check it out for yourself…

Need I say more…

Back in Amsterdam, I had a few Sydney-based blogs that I would love to peruse to get my Sydney-life fix. And it’s perfect timing for me to share them with you, since you are all here with me for the next few weeks and you can get more of a feel for this fabulous city with the help of these awesome dudes…

First of all, the above pic doesn’t look like Sydney, does it? Well, it’s not, I must confess, but I love that photo and it comes from the website of one of my all-time favourite bunch of architects whose organisation is called Bricks + Cartwheels. As architects they “seek to act as facilitators to empower and engage communities not normally served by good design.” They believe in the potential for young designers to play a critical role in the improvement of peoples’ lives and they work in various impoverished areas around the world to implement the design and construction of schools and community buildings. Right now they are working with the community of Katolo in Kenya building a secondary school for girls.

But beside them being a fabulous bunch of architects, they have a wonderful blog with lots of cool design stuff that is a must to have in your blogroll! And they tell you a bit about what they get up to – like discovering new restaurants in Sydney (and in turn convincing me I must go while here!). Please go and say hello, you will love it I just know it.

And just to prove how in the know the Bricks + Cartwheels team is, it was they who led my straight to the incredible work of this young Sydney lass…

I’m talking of jewellery and textile design student, Felicity Gleeson. Not only is she very talented, she has an impeccable eye for style and cool things, and lucky for us she blogs about all of them! If you go now, you can check out the post about her talented sis too.

Next up is something that many of us already know about, but I just can’t help but add to the applause for this Sydney-based magazine…

Dumbo Feather, pass it on rocks. A copy of Issue 14 appeared in my little cubby hole at the House of Orange a few months back, with a note from Kate the editor. She had read that I was an Aussie ex-pat and thought I might like a little slice of home. Boy, was she right. I devoured that copy from front to back, back to front, and I’m sure I even read it sideways a couple of times. It’s awesome. Dumbo Feather ‘s blog is also a must for your blogroll as they tell you what’s coming in their next issues, and they even sell cool design items. Read about it here, or view a sample issue here, or better still, just subscribe.

Well, that’s only a few of my favourites. No doubt I will share more with you soon, also don’t miss out on Anne’s Regional Round Up of Sydney on Design*Sponge coming next week!

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Oh and one more thing, my pal and favourite blogger Joslyn at Simply Lovely posted a list of my 10 favourite things/things I can’t live without last week. Thanks for including me Jos! Although I can’t help but notice my list looks a little different to the rest, perhaps I got a bit carried away?! Hmm, it’s not the first time the pipelette in me strikes, oops.

xx