Kimberley*bee

Bloom Organics

2010-03-28T04:58:00.003+11:00

I was lucky enough to be invited to the Bloom Organics launch on Friday. And I just had to gush about how gorgeous both the launch and the products were! It was a beautiful breakfast launch, with a huge turnout of beauty editors and Bloom devotees dressed to perfection.

The location was just divine. The Commons, tucked away behind Oxford St in Darlinghurst, is in a building that I believe is around 160 years old! Beautiful sandstone, rustic interior with communal long tables and cute little stools - it was so whimsical and romantic.

Image courtesy of http://bloomcosmetics.blogspot.com/

I got a guided tour from the manager who showed me the exhibition of work by Lyn Balzer & Tony Perkins growing in the gallery area downstairs. Yes, growing. Logs and piles of moss sprouting very mysterious and wonderful shiitakes and blooming pink oyster mushrooms. An interactive event, it looks at the relationship between decay and growth, resulting in the patrons being able to eat the artworks as a part of their meal over the next week.

After last night's proposal I have been thinking how much I would love to have our engagement party there. But curiously enough, in a totally psychic moment, I had actually asked the manager about whether they hold many events, to which he said this was a favour to Natalie and they don't usually do them... damn. I'm dying to go back just to soak up more of the atmosphere.

Anyway, here are some pictures I took around the launch. It was so beautifully set up, using recycled bottles from the new range, large spools of twine, native flowers and candles. The main highlight for me was a beautiful vintage bike, wrapped in woven wicker.

I got to meet Natalie Bloom too! That was really exciting. She's so natural and modest and her talk about the range came straight from the heart. I have a lot of admiration for her work. I haven't read her book yet, but I feel completely inspired to do so now!

Out of 19 products in the range, 16 have the ACO stamp of approval. To gain ACO approval, a product must contain at least 95% of organic ingredients with the balance being made up of naturally produced plant products and/or natural, non-toxic preservatives and additives. Its just amazing how much care and love has been poured into this range.

Because there was such a big turn out I unfortunately didn't get taste any of the wonderful looking food or get a goody bag to take home - although I did a lot of testing of the products lining the shelves! It was an amazing experience, Natalie Bloom is just gorgeous and so are her products. I can't wait to stock up on them when the Bloom Organics range is launched on TVSN on April 6th.

xK

Thai Style Chicken Meatballs

2010-03-06T20:43:00.004+11:00

500g chicken mince
1 bunch of corriander (Leaves, steams, everything)
1 chili
garlic (I put about 3.5 cloves)
soy sauce
oyster sauce
sesame oil
a few drops of umeboshi (plum vinegar. Which is Japanese, I know, but it adds that extra bit of salt you need, I think it seemed to make the chicken mince a bit juicer and is also apparently fantastic for liver function? I add a few drops of it to a lot of Asian style food to cut down on the amount of soy I use.)
1 tbsp wholemeal flour to bring the meatballs together (add a little more if you need to absorb some moisture)
2 tbsp olive oil

Combine all the ingredients, except the olive oil, and roll into little balls (the ones I made are around 3cm in diameter). Put the olive oil in a pan and heat. Drop in the meatballs and cook for about 30 secs before tossing in the pan and cooking all over.

Put meatballs on some kitchen towel to remove some of the oil.

Autumn Colour Palettes

2010-02-08T21:22:00.003+11:00

Autumn doesn't have to involve the use of dull, flat colours. Here are some colour palettes I created inspired by our Australian Autumn.

New Year's Resolutions

2010-02-07T17:06:00.004+11:00

This year my goal is to get back into doing some of my own graphic design and artistic work. At the beginning of the year some friends from TAFE I had my first chance to do this when we styled a shoot from a costume we made last year. It was from an Art Finishing course in which we had to create and kill a character, then breakdown the costume based how they died.

Our creation was an Ophelia type of character. Bertron took the photography and I have just started going through and doing a bit of retouching. It was such a fun day and its something I would absolutely love to do on a more regular basis.

So now the plan is to start doing more styling and costumes with my best friend Tanya. We caught up yesterday and started get ideas together. I'm feeling very inspired and excited. Stay tuned for more projects!

Fonts, fonts, fonts

2010-01-19T20:53:00.003+11:00

I've been looking for new fonts to use at work and a couple of days apart I get this beautiful email from M.A.C. using a similar font to one I was quite fond of. Memoriam is just the right amount of whimsical and legibility for me! Although not a great font for use on-air, it would be so beautiful for a catalogue, email or postcard to really make a statement - instead of a typical script font. I would just love to use this one.

I must say I was really delighted to walk past the M.A.C. store at Myers to see all the girls working there wearing beautiful pieces of lace applied to their faces and immediately knew it was because this international "Love Lace" branding. Just love the continuity!

Recipes : Calming foods

2009-12-02T22:34:00.001+11:00

I came home tonight so stressed an uptight. I'm thinking about a million things all at once between work, relationships and life in general. I had been watching "Good Chef, Bad Chef" religiously over the last few weeks on "Lifestyle Food" and I have found Janella Purcel's recipes so beautiful and delicious. But this has to one of my favourite. (Although, quick warning, is pretty garlic-y the way I make it, so be careful if you're having it for work lunches! I also got comments on how "ugly" it was, I think it looks beautiful and healthy! Haha!).

Spinach, Lentil and Lemon Soup

1 tbls olive oil
½ onion, sliced finely
2-3 medium cloves of garlic, crushed (Janella just says 1 but I love garlic!)
½ cup brown or green lentils
1 litre vegetable stock
½ bunch silver beet, white stalk removed
¼ bunch coriander leaves and stems, roughly chopped
1 lemon, juiced
4 tbls taklia – 4 cloves garlic, sliced, ½ cup olive oil, 4 tbls coriander powder, 1 tbls sea salt
Sea salt and white pepper
2 tbls pine nuts, toasted

Method

In a large pot saute your onion in the olive oil until translucent, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and continue cooking for another few seconds. Now add the lentils and stir to coat them in the oil. Add the stock and simmer until they are soft. This will take around 30 minutes.

Roughly chop your spinach then add them to the pan with the coriander, then the lemon juice. Stir well then cover the pot to let the spinach wilt. Puree. Add more water if the soup it too thick.
For the taklia, fry the garlic in the oil until it just changes colour, don’t let it brown. Put it in a mortar and pestle with the oil, coriander powder and salt. Pound it until it becomes a rough paste.
Divide the soup between 4 bowls and stir 1 tbls of taklia into each. Taste for seasoning. Top with the pine nuts and serve.

I made a loaf of spelt bread from wholemeal spelt, flour, yeast, water, salt and olive oil and then spread a thin layer of philly cheese (I can't go completely without cheese, I love it too much).

After a big bowl of soup, bread and philly cheese all my worries were forgotten and I'm ready for a bit of relaxation and then a good night's sleep.... zzzzzzz.

Image courtesy of www.discoverlebanon.com because I scoffed my food before I could photograph it...

Current Obsession : Terrariums

2009-12-01T20:21:00.002+11:00

Currently I am obsessed with little glass terrariums. Mostly made from glass dome Chemists Bells. But even vintage jars, lanterns and little glass baubles. Either housing little plants, mosses or flowers. Or being the home for little porcelain critters and other homely items.

What I like most is the fact that it can turn these little, normally insignificant, items into an artwork or feature. Especially when layered up with vases or a background of ornate antiqued picture frames.

My problem is we don't have any empty surfaces in our flat to place these things. And I'm on the hunt for the right dome! Anyway, here's my little homage to my favourite terrarium examples.

Images thanks to design*sponge and anthropologie and probably a couple of other places... sorry I'm working on keeping better references!

My Recipes : Sleeping Potion

2009-11-30T20:47:00.005+11:00

1 cup of Milk
1 tbsp of Cocoa Powder
1 teaspoon of Dried Lavender
2 tbsp of Manuka Honey

Heat in a saucepan on the stove. Be careful not to let the milk boil, just heat for a few minutes until comfortably warm and when the lavender infuses with the cocoa and milk. Pour into a mug through a strainer and drink right before bed with a good book

Berry-licious!

2009-11-29T20:56:00.000+11:00

I just spent the most beautiful weekend in Berry! Simon and I haven't had a weekend away since our trip to Europe over 18 months ago! So we were well overdue for a romantic getaway. The drive down was great, I've only had my new car for 2 months so it was so nice to be able to take it on a long drive. (It has a lot of grunt for such a little car!).

After a quick stop off in Kiama for lunch we headed in to Berry. We stayed at the Berry Drawing Rooms and it was so beautiful. About 7kms from Berry township it was close enough to everything but far enough away that you felt like you were the only people there...

Kerry and her husband were the perfect hosts and we had home cooked breakfasts on Saturday and Sunday. Plus loads of smiles and local knowledge.

Thursday night we unpacked our stuff and headed down to Berry main street. I oggled through the closed shop windows and then we had dinner at a local pub and Simon had great porkbelly, I ordered Tempura Fish and Chips but got what appeared to be "Fish Nuggets"... they sort of looked like the chicken nuggets you get from MacDonalds.... a little disappointing but still a lovely night.

After a quick stop at the drive through we headed home and rather tragically enjoyed Beauty and the Geek and a double Amazing Race. I felt a little pang of guilt watching TV in such a beautiful place, but in a town where everything closes at 4pm, what else do you do. Besides! We were on holidays and we thoroughly enjoyed the relaxation.

On Friday we did a lot of driving around, went to 7 mile beach. It was so secluded and beautiful. I felt seriously under prepared and a little disappointed that we didn't bring a picnic blanket, food and wine. I did get sunburnt in about 5 minutes thought... so, note to self, must buy big gorgeous 1950's style sun hat...

Friday afternoon we just bought a whole bunch of olives from a little place in Kangaroo Valley. The two of us are olive-fanatics... so we limited ourselves to three items. Olives in Chilli and Garlic, Olives in Olive Oil and Corriander and a Balsamic Raspberry Vinegar. We then went down to the main street and had lunch at Friendly Inn, Kangaroo Valley. I had a beautiful deconstructed bean and lentil nachos and a cider.

It was so hot... but we later realised you could order your food and drink and sit out the back on benches under the trees and look out over the country-side. If you go there, I would definitely recommend it.

Then I bought myself a beautiful little teacup from a The Nostalgia Factory. I remained very restrained in Kangaroo Valley Collections.... they even sold coffee which I also resisted..

And then went to the local IGA in Berry to buy some cold meats, beautiful bread, and cheese. Then we took it all back to the Drawing Rooms and sat out in the setting sun, reading and then had our nibblies with a glass of cold white wine.

Argh! Total heaven...

Saturday was a visit to Kiama Produce Markets which was really fun. Had a beautiful coffee as we walked along the water's edge. We wandered right along to the natural pool at the North end of the beach.

I watched a really elderly gentlemen, who had zoomed along on a motorised scooter then undressed so slowly you almost couldn't see him move. Then he hobbled over the ramp and slowly moved into the water and proceeded to swim laps. I was terrified he was going the drown. He wasn't there with anyone, no one would know if he just slipped under the water... I watched him intensely for ages... I was so scared, but he obviously wasn't. And that is beautiful.

We wandered up the high street and the clothes were so polyester and so expensive... so don't bother. We had a few Corona's in a lovely sunny beer garden. And then headed back through the markets, bought some farm fresh strawberries, some BBQ flavoured corn kernels and dried mango. Visited the blow-hole, but the wind and tide weren't arguing so no action.

Back to Berry and back to air-conditioned goodness. I sat and read my book and drank ginger-lemon tea for 2 hours. Bliss. I'm reading Shantaram and, if you have time to read a book that is thick enough to kill someone with one blow to the head, I totally recommend it. It's heartbreaking but wonderful at the same time.

We had dinner at the Hungry Duck in Berry main street. To quote Rachel Zoe... totally O.O.C. It was such a fantastic meal. I wish I had taken photos but I felt a bit self conscious. We started with Kingfish sushimi, Homemade steamed pork buns with white soy and chilli, Crispy local snapper with kaffir lime salt, tomato salt and wasabi mayonnaise, red curry duck with rice and Chinese five spiced doughnuts with butterscotch sauce and sour cream.

It was light and gorgeous and oh so yummy.

So our last day, today, involved a journey to the Crooked River Winery and bought some of their famous Chocolate Port for some friends and ended up buying a bottle for ourselves as well.

Had a really wonderful lunch at Collangatta Winery. I had a tasting plate with allocated wines. That was really tasty, and I even tried the oysters (which I hate). Verdict: I still HATE oysters. I just can't eat them even though they seem so sophisticated...

We drove home via the NSW Great Ocean Road and the Ocean Bridge was a much longer way than the freeway but I think it was worth it. You literally drive over the ocean, along the cliff edges, and its the most exhilarating drive just outside of Sydney. (And I saw loads of antique shops along the way in little towns that we didn't have time to stop for!)

Anyway, back in Sydney, I've realised how much I miss journeying around and now I'm going to watch Joanna Lumley searching for the Northern Aurora Lights... and read more of Shantaram and by the time my head hits the pillow I'll absolutely yearning for my next holiday.

Thank goodness I have tomorrow off. I need some time to process.

It is the beginning...

2009-11-17T20:54:00.001+11:00

So, I completely enjoy, and probably spend far too much time scrolling through beautiful sites, collecting things that inspire me. I wanted to create a blog where I can post and write about these things that I love.

This weekend some friends and I are going to explore antique auctions and stores which I am really looking forward to. Hopefully I'll get some fantastic photos and pick up some beautiful items as well.

I'm trawling through all my images trying to get a clear picture of things I want to buy! Otherwise I just know I'll buy a whole bunch of random bits and bobs that will sit in my sewing room! So that's how I might start this, by clarifying the look I want for my flat.

A little side note; I'm about to turn 27 next year and I have always loved beautiful things but, because of study, work and other obstacles, really haven't developed my own sense of style. So my house and my clothes are completely ordinary and this has left me feeling like I'm missing something, a part of me. All sounds quite dramatic I know, but now is the time to focus on finding myself within the mess.

And that's very exciting.