Wednesday, December 21, 2011

December 22nd

we still are without the internet!! crummy i know so here is a quick little update on our Christmas 25 I don't think we will finish it before Christmas but I will give it a damn good try!! and I think that is the important thing so without further ado here are so more lines through my list...

1. Make eggnog
2. Make a gingerbread house
3. Make and send Christmas cards
4. Make Christmas presents
5. Decorate Tree
6. Sew a tree ruffle
7. Joel make Emma amazing creative dinner on BBQ (his idea) - no pics :(
8. Spend a day in Sydney - to Ikea!!
9. Watch a Christmas movie
10. Brew amazing coffee (well we drank some)
11. Brew/make amazing hot chocolate
12. Go to the farmer's markets
13. Go to the beach (this should be easy once we move YAY)
14. Do the Bather's Walk
15. Visit the Hunter Valley region
16. Eat seafood
17. Have a Christmas party - if 5 people count as a party
18. Have a waterfight - if walking back from the train station in torrential rain counts
19. Play a sport in the park
20. Fly kites
21. Watch the carols
22. Be selfless!!
23. Play a board game
24. Make stockings
25. Slow dance to 'Dreaming of a White Christmas' on Christmas Eve





Thursday, December 15, 2011

Day 16

So Christmas is a little over a week away... WHY DOES IT HAVE TO COME UP SO QUICK?? can you tell I am freaking out about my lack of organization etc so thought I would do a quick check of my Christmas 25 list as my Mother-in-law says there is nothing better than ticking items off a list.... 

1. Make eggnog
2. Make a gingerbread house
3. Make and send Christmas cards
4. Make Christmas presents
5. Decorate Tree
6. Sew a tree ruffle
7. Joel make Emma amazing creative dinner on BBQ (his idea)
8. Spend a day in Sydney
9. Watch a Christmas movie
10. Brew amazing coffee
11. Brew/make amazing hot chocolate
12. Go to the farmer's markets
13. Go to the beach (this should be easy once we move YAY)
14. Do the Bather's Walk
15. Visit the Hunter Valley region
16. Eat seafood
17. Have a Christmas party
18. Have a waterfight
19. Play a sport in the park
20. Fly kites
21. Watch the carols
22. Be selfless!!
23. Play a board game
24. Make stockings
25. Slow dance to 'Dreaming of a White Christmas' on Christmas Eve

so it doesn't really look like much does it.... well it probably isn't but I feel I need to flesh out a few things on here.... you see I don't want it to be an excuse more I just don't want to tick it off until I am COMPLETELY done.


You see we have technically been to the beach, a few times actually but I didn't take any pictures so I don't want to cross it off yet. Also I have half-made several presents including the envelope clutch below....


I am not 100% happy with it... I used a heavy upholstery fabric I had laying around and thought it would maintain the stiffness but alas it is... floppy and short of undoing it all and inserting plastic or card into it there is not much I can do.. it also still needs a button or clasp of some kind. And I also have been spending way too much time on making my tree ruffle. By god it better be worth it when it's done because it is driving a severe wedge between me and my sewing machine. I have also sewn 6 out of 8 of the stockings so getting there...luckily there is an amazing fish and chip shop down the road serving not gourmet but definitely delicious seafood thank-you number 16!
 

We are going to the carols tonight and perhaps in the morning I can convince Joel to take a walk along the Bather's Way with me (thank-you number 14 and 21) 

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

jackie v marilyn

I have been hesitating completing this post as it it my 100th and I feel as if I should do something special... I just don't know what.

However lately I have been consumed with the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis v Marilyn Monroe subject. There are many articles on the subject and I first became fixated on the comparison after the episode of Mad Men in which they are tasked with coming up with a new campaign for Playtex read a little about it here. Joan of course is in her own class.

source: Rebecca Horgan and Everything PR

Vanity Fair have shared a quiz taken from Pamela Keogh's book 'Are you a Jackie or a Marilyn', I didn't take the quiz but have always identified myself as the Marilyn type of girl. I am blonde, curvaceous and growing up it was her style that I would seek to mimic, I think all my sisters are 'Marilyn's', two in particular are overtly sexual whether they acknowledge it or not. The second oldest however maybe be a little more Jackie.

Source: Pretty Stuff by Patterson Maker
source: Gabsy:Gabsy
 I know a lot of women do not like to be 'labelled' but I feel there is a distinct societal division between these two types of women and the more movies/TV etc I watch the more this belief is intensified. Take for example two of my favourite 'girly' TV shows Gossip Girl and The OC the two strong female leads in these programs can distinctively be categorised as either a 'Marilyn' or a 'Jackie'.

source: Entertainment Blog and Fly and Mighty

Marissa Cooper instantly attracts all kinds of male (and female) attention in the show and in true 'Marilyn' style manages to self-destruct several times before her death at the hands of ex-boyfriend Volchuk, Summer the sweet little brunette starts out as a bit of a b*tch but by the end of the series her efforts to save animals great and small land her squarely in the 'Jackie' corner. In similar style Gossip Girl's Serena with a wave of her beautiful long blonde locks sends men in a craze all the while drinking herself silly and forever searching for her absent father (did the writer's base her character off Marilyn??) but her best friend Blair has visions of becoming a powerful ruler (by royalty or politics) and is always perfectly dressed ready to step in as First Lady (or Princess), sound familiar?

And then I realised it didn't just begin there... remember Dawson's Creek? Michelle Williams (Jen) and Katie Holmes (Joey) started practicing for their respective roles as Marilyn and Jackie on the teen drama  

source: Listal

  the list could go on forever but what is it about blonde trainwrecks and brunette homemakers that is so attractive in popular culture? any ideas let me know... back to Christmas stuff next time

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

eggnog and chocolately goodness

so it's been a few days, we still are yet to have a phone line in our apartment, let alone the internet connected so I have been taking the short walk to the University City Campus to get my internet fix. Still applying for jobs and catching up on my social networking and blogs. But I have actually been productive of sorts....though we have not been doing a Christmas activity every day, however it looks like most of them will be able to be accomplished jointly.

This week I made some bread...



yep still addicted to my Instagram app...the bread was tasty as but I think it either took too long or too short a time to rise as it was a little yeasty (according to the recipe rising time has some part in this). Joel also made some coconut rough 'blobs'


they are tasty especially with the eggnog we made (number one on the list) to share with our lovely friends Yas and Scott


this morning Joel and I then shared in a decadent hot chocolate made with milk and an entire block of 70% dark chocolate... Joel said it was too sweet and seems to have decided to go on a health kick - not the easiest time of year to do so... but that ticks off number 11.


i am still trying to figure out what to do for my 'be selfless' activity but Jessica from The Wedding Designer shared this little gem, now it's just a matter of waiting for something close by to pop up :)

we are still not yet fully moved in with no lounge and no bed as yet but i hope everything will be clean, tidy, organised etc by Monday.... fingers crossed

Friday, December 2, 2011

running a little behind....

so it is the 3rd of December and we are already running a little behind on our Christmas 25!!!
due to complications involving Christmas decorations (and I guess the fact that we have been moving!) number 5. Decorate the Tree has been completed!


as you might have noticed I have been going a little crazy with the Instagram app on my iPhone (smashed screen and all it still works great!) I also don't know where I stashed the actual camera in the move.... 

these awesome stars are made from the left over pages of my copy of Wuthering Heights which I took apart for the wedding, the tutorial came from this page here, and despite the instructions being in another language I think we did pretty well - though if you are looking for a simple project this is probably not for you. by the way if any family members happen to be reading and are wondering what to get me for Christmas see below :)

source: Papergrain
We did also have intentions of doing lots of other decorations but so far have had no luck and the stars ended up so huge that you probably don't want too much more on the tree anyway.... but we have been attempting these string balls.....
 I guess we didn't 'lube' the balls up enough (c'mon guys be more mature) because when we popped the balloons the balls just kinda collapsed but no matter we are going to give it another try tonight then hopefully they will look like these...

source: Wednesday via Ruffled
and tonight we will just have to tackle two things off the list instead of one! given our current proximity to the beach number 13. should be pretty easy and I plan on sewing the tree ruffle to finish off the tree so that will knock off number 6.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

still moving...

my home count has now bumped up to 12. But we are now living amongst the cool kids. Near the beach, and we are decidedly not yet cool enough to be there but give us time.

Maybe if we bake all our neighbours yummy Devil's Food Cake like this one here we will be slightly cooler... though I think our use of cake mix over organic/free-range etc ingredients might bring us down


I did make the icing though and Joel is proving to be pretty handy at icing cakes and taking photos. There might still be some cool left in us.

Monday, November 28, 2011

1st December

Unlike all the stores around who believe that Christmas begins immediately after the tax-time sales (which occur directly after Easter, which occurs directly after New Year's, apparently) I believe it begins on the 1st of December. Obviously we all freak out about the money pit that it creates, the family induced stress etc but mainly it's a whole lot of fun and the one time of year that you get to throw party after party and eat delicious food without considering the consequences.

So without further ado I present our 2011 Christmas Tree!

.........but wait there is no tree....because we are moving
but we did put a tree up it just isn't very pretty at the moment so maybe this afternoon I will take a pic. The tree is apart of our Christmas 25.

You see while I was over on Design Sponge a few weeks back I noticed a link to the Anthology Magazine 2011 Winter Gift Guide, if you turn to page 22 you will find a lovely little article from Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day who if you read my blog regularly you might notice I LOVE! well she has a nice little idea to replace traditional chocolates/gifts found in an Advent calender with activities.

One which I intend to steal. So 25 days of Christmas activities in no particular order.

1. Make eggnog
2. Make a gingerbread house
3. Make and send Christmas cards
4. Make Christmas presents
5. Decorate Tree
6. Sew a tree ruffle
7. Joel make Emma amazing creative dinner on BBQ (his idea)
8. Spend a day in Sydney
9. Watch a Christmas movie
10. Brew amazing coffee
11. Brew/make amazing hot chocolate
12. Go to the farmer's markets
13. Go to the beach (this should be easy once we move YAY)
14. Do the Bather's Walk
15. Visit the Hunter Valley region
16. Eat seafood
17. Have a Christmas party
18. Have a waterfight
19. Play a sport in the park
20. Fly kites
21. Watch the carols
22. Be selfless!!
23. Play a board game
24. Make stockings
25. Slow dance to 'Dreaming of a White Christmas' on Christmas Eve














Sunday, November 27, 2011

colour palette of my dreams

To some my tastes are pedestrian, boring etc etc and there are those who will not appreciate this colour palette for that reason. But I LOVE neutrals. That is not to say that I don't like a bright colour every now and then but I think colours become easily dated. Neutrals will always look finished, clean and classy.

And so here it is the colour palette of my dreams.

image from Trine Thorson via The Style Files

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Mexican Fiesta

Along with the epic-ness that is going to be Christmas it is also going to be Joel's brother's 21st birthday. Now I would imagine it would suck to be a young bloke and to have your birthday fall every year on THE biggest holiday of the year. You might want to hang out with friends have a beer etc but you just can't.... so we will be throwing him a 'Mexican Fiesta' style birthday bash. Where did this idea come from? Well we had originally planned just having a dinner in his honor on Christmas Day and I remembered how he always went on about burritos so a fiesta seemed perfect. Now the dinner has escalated to a party and will be held on Christmas Eve

We intend on setting up the tents for Christmas Day early so they will be up and ready to go, we just need a few decorations....

source: Marianne Wilson Photography via Green Wedding Shoes
source: Oh Happy Day
source: Martha Stewart and Aaron Delesie via Style Me Pretty via Always Andri Wedding Design
Source: Joielala Photography by Couture Events on Green Wedding Shoes
Source: Victor C Sizemore Photography by Details, Details via Style Me Pretty
Source: Sutherland Kovach Studio via Style Me Pretty
I think a Mexican theme is great fun, basically just throw in as much colour as you can! and even better you can easily get away with colourful paper plates and cutlery etc. We know someone who runs a Mexican takeaway shop so might look into getting that yummy Mexican food from him or otherwise find as many pre-prepared things as possible to heat etc before serving. Yum, hope he enjoys it!

Christmas Table

Yesterday I wrote a post about our Christmas menu today I will take it one step further and let you in on what my inspiration is for our table setting...

Now given my current financial state of not being employed and all it will of course be cheap and rely on things we already have. Luckily I got married in September so there is a huge amount of 'stuff' available (benefits of buy over hire kick in).

I wouldn't say I am a lover of traditional Christmas, use see it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me living in Australia where a white Christmas only occurs if you happen to live in far north Queensland or coastal Western Australia and the white you are seeing is not snow but sand. So as always with my 'boring' taste our Christmas will be simple and have a base colour scheme of white. Because others will surely disagree I have decided to add to that wonderful colour of white the following; gold, cream and green. I think it's a wonderfully fresh palette.

source: created by Stuart of What Wilson Wants

source: DIY Oversized Fabric Chandelier by Elsie on A Beautiful Mess and the Martha Stewart Christmas Workshop
source: Kate Harrison via Green Wedding Shoes

source: Scott Andrew Studio via Enjoy Events Co.


Source: Cakes by My Sweet and Saucy, Braedon Flynn via Grey Likes Weddings

source: Jennifer Eileen Photography via Forget Me Knot Weddings and Enjoy Events Co.

Yep so that's pretty much it... we plan on setting up two of our 3x3m tents in the backyard, using some of the Ikea Lill Curtains we purchased for the wedding, with two of the folding trestle tables purchased from Bunnings and the dining chairs that Joel and I recovered. From the top of each of the tents I will string the DIY Fabric Chandeliers (above) but instead of using an old baking tray and twinkle lights i might simplify it, using the lights we created for the wedding. I wish with all my heart I could have the dinner set I have been searching for but both money and local availability are working against me. I plan on using the gold crowns (with name inscribed in bottom corner) as place names and though i haven't got either pictured was thinking about painting a gold edge on some glasses we have and if i can find it 'gold-glittering' some deer (got to have something Christmasey).

Hopefully I can pull it together how I envisage it....

BBQ Christmas Menu

So it's less than a month till Christmas. Wow this year has certainly flown by super fast. We have moved 3 times, we got married, I learnt French, I lost weight, I put weight back on. Intense.

But back to the good stuff, Christmas Lunch, Joel and I were supposed to be hosting Christmas at our place this year but well I have to tell you now we got a new place. You like my choice of words there right? 'place' note not a house we are moving into 'town' into an apartment/flat/unit (apparently they are all the same thing) which is really like a studio apartment but anyway pictures later. The point is it's incredibly small and we can barely fit our lounge in there let alone dining table and 20 people so we will be hosting it but not at our house. This means that we are forced to use the unsanitary kitchen belonging to Joel's Grandfather. Unspeakable things have gone on in that kitchen so a simple clean would not satisfy even the grubbiest person thus we tried to come up with a menu that uses the kitchen as little as possible.




 
So we have all courtesy of the Taste website (I downloaded their Taste Summer App and that's how I found these goodies) Barbecued Butterflied Lamb, Honey Parsnips and Carrots and Barbequed Mushrooms and Asparagus. For good measure I will also add the Warm Potato and Chive Salad which we had at our wedding and I had also contemplated making this amazing Caprese Salad from What Katie Ate but decided that it wouldn't go too well with my no-fuss Christmas Lunch.

We will drink these Christmas Caipirinhas and for dessert we will have a simple fruit salad because I am sure there will be plenty of naughty stuff around to snack on.


The best thing about it all is it's also relatively non-fuss, especially if you get someone else to butterfly the lamb for you, the trickiest part will be peeling and chopping carrots and by using the BBQ you tend to get the males more involved in the process, leaving me more time to do things like laying the table. :)

Thursday, November 24, 2011

The Best Things in Life....

....contain sugar

as in dessert isn't it the best thing in the world? my ultimate personal favourite thing is a big warm croissant with melted chocolate jammed in the middle.

However at the wedding I don't know I guess this wasn't appropriate.... so instead we had icecream :)

That was the one big fun splurge we made at the wedding, hiring an ice-cream truck it was Joel's idea and we decided it would be the one thing we wouldn't tell everyone (i am horrible at keeping secrets). It was pretty awesome and a lot cheaper than you might think so I would highly recommend it. However they were pretty hard to find, after a lot of googling I emailed one guy who was booked out but gave me the contact details for other vans in the area, strangely enough though it was on this business for sale listing which I found our van.

Isabella from the Treats Kiosk was so very lovely and helpful and I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a van on the mid-north coast, when we had less people than anticipated they even contacted me after the wedding to give us a refund!

  All they needed was a power outlet and they were ready to go, though the kids enjoyed it, I think it was the oldies who really loved it. Joel's Uncle in particular saying how great it was reminding him of his childhood.

Of course we did have a few other things for dessert namely our wonderful wedding cake made by Joel's Aunt with a recipe given to me by my friend Jayde. It was a three tier cake of dark-choc mud, white-choc mud and caramel mud cake with Italian meringue buttercream icing, decorated with fresh flowers and perched on a tree round we found left over from the forestry. We had planned to have ganache between all the layers but instead arranged to have bowls of ganache ready to pour on for those who wanted an extra kick of chocolate. OMG it was amazing so rich, so much chocolate and of course it looked so pretty and simple.


The birds that we used as a cake topper Joel and I purchased from Bed, Bath and Table (pretty much our favourite homewares store) it was one of those cute relaxed shopping times before the wedding and they now sit on our dressing table in the bedroom (well not at the moment as we are still homeless). We also had a trifle of sorts made from profiteroles that had been originally intended for a tower but unfortunately didn't quite work out as planned.... though with a ton of cream and ganache they tasted pretty darn amazing. I must say a giant thank-you to Joel's Aunt who put in a mammoth effort for the wedding making my bouquet, the wedding cake, and also numerous other things. She was just one of the many people who helped out immensely in order to make our day what it was :)

source: Moikka Paper via Oh So Beautiful Paper


Tuesday, November 22, 2011

social media

Stepford is getting up with the times!

this is just a short post to say I have created a small Facebook page in the name of Stepford you can find it here

in the meantime enjoy this lovely little gem from the mouth of Betty Draper (now Francis) of Mad Men and I will get back to studying for my tax final (which is tomorrow eek!!) and then I will be able to finish my post from the other day about wait for it.... dessert YUM

source: i am not morrissey on tumblr

Friday, November 18, 2011

procrastination 101 - Wedding Catering

my last exam for the year 'Issues in Taxation' is on Wednesday, we handed the keys on Friday we are moved out! no excuses MUST study... but no instead I think I will write about the catering we did at the wedding....


I remember when we first decided (quite early on in the piece) that we would self-cater I trawled the internet (as you do) for all different types of recipes etc we could use, tips on catering, quantities, waitstaff etc etc. We went from finger food, to brunch, to afternoon tea (my ultimate fave but my mother insisted no more sweet stuff!) and then we thought well maybe a ploughman's lunch would be ideal.

According to the ever 'dependable' Wikipedia a Ploughman's Lunch is described as "a cold snack or meal originating in the United Kingdom...sometimes served in sandwich form, composed of cheese, cooked ham slices, pickle/relish, apples, pickled onion, salad leaves, bread and butter." which was essentially what we served at our garden wedding as afternoon tea.

If you came across this Polka Dot Bride post I apologise I am going to repeat the images which are courtesy of Mike and Amy Photographers because unfortunately I was a little busy smooching my new husband and missed out on seeing all the lovely food properly dished up.


We originally considered having the food bought out in two stages so we would not miss out on seeing it all laid out while we were having our bridal shots done. I am not quite sure how it ended up happening on the day but Joel's mother made sure we had a special basket to nibble from while our photos were being taken and then also when we reached the reception we had our own special tray of goodies. The original plan however was to begin with an assortment of fresh fruits - I can't tell you the exact quantity we bought because we were so worried about not having enough that whenever someone went into town we asked them to grab some more.

I can tell you we had at least two big boxes left over after the wedding (no strawberries left of course) so we must have started with quite a bit.

Also you might have noticed in the above picture the blueberries are in a Christmas cup we still have no idea how this came about. The remainder of the fruit was displayed in the lovely wicker baskets procured by my sister from various op-shops.


We purchased all the bread from an organic sourdough bakery in Bellingen called 'Hearthfire Bakery', we got about 20 baguettes, 10 ciabatta and 10 rustic white loaves (maybe more I lost my spreadsheet) but all for about $150. It was delicious and again we had too much left over.

The cheeses came from the Hunter Valley Growers Market in Charlestown, they were by far the most expensive aspect of the food and therefore probably warranted a bit more investigation in retrospect. Here is a breakdown of what we got:

- 2.4kg Jarlsberg
- 3.4kg Wyke Farms Village Oak
- 2kg King Island Seal Bay Triple Cream Brie
- 2kg Blumello 60%
- 2kg South Cape Camembert

We had some shenanigans with our order and the 'piece de resistance' black beer and goat's milk cheese did not make it to the store in time so we had to substitute what little they had with the ordinary goat's milk (Manchago). I was also worried that we wouldn't have enough and sent a wonderful helper to get some more Camembert and Brie from a local deli (meaning we had a total of 4kg each). Again not really needed many of our guests were sent home with a little cheese package and we only just finished off the Wyke Farms block of Vintage Cheddar (it was SO good)

 
My lovely mother ensured we had the yummiest butter to spread on our bread and lashed out buying a couple of blocks of Harmonie Organic Butter and in the months leading up to the wedding collected various chutney and relishes (both homemade and shop bought), Caramelised Onion Relish being our favourite I still have a few stray jars left to eat now.

For cold meat we had a selection of roast beef, roast turkey and ham (about 3kgs of each.... until I sent someone out for just a little bit more). The beef came from a cow raised on the property and roasted by Joel's Aunt the week before the wedding, while the turkey and ham came from both Woolworths and a local butcher. Joel and I took a whole lot of this left over meat on our honeymoon making for a pretty yummy table picnic.


Of course we did also have a selection of salads I estimated about 3-4 times for each recipe and had three in total. There were no pictures taken of these but these were the recipes I found - I believe they may have taken liberties with all three for simplicity 

Surburban Tomato - Garden Salad

Jo Cooks - Mediterranean Cous Cous Salad
Tastefood - Warm Potato and Chive Salad
From what I gather the Warm Potato and Chive Salad was a crowd pleaser and when I made it at home a couple of weeks later it was pretty tasty and by using small potatoes cooked in their skin it looks lovely too. The Cous Cous Salad however we had mountains left of so probably didn't need to make so much because it was a) filling and b) not the normal fare for the crowd 

Ultimately we had pretty good reports off everyone and though it could have been better in terms of organisation (i.e. we had planned to have all bowls etc labelled so our helpers would know what was intended for what but time was pretty tight towards the end) I think we did pretty well for amateur caterers.

I should also mention that we hired an additional two fridges making four in total and also hired 3 waiters from the local TAFE along with 2 friends of Joel's mother to handle things during the reception.

This post is super long and I have Joel in my ear telling me I should be studying so dessert will have to wait :)