Asha's Birthday

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Ours has been probably one of the busiest we’ve had in a long time with a garage sale on Saturday at Dad’s and our nephews’ christening yesterday. Today is our beloved dog Asha’s 4th birthday. She is a lovely natured dog and we are so glad she is part of our little family. Below is her as a puppy and also a more recent photo. I’m off to take Asha and Grace for a nice long walk and a play in the park to celebrate…

New Potato Salad

Image from here

We dragged out the barbecue for the first time in a while during the week so I tried a new potato salad. It made a nice change from the usual one I make. I've posted the recipe below. Hope you all have a lovely upcoming weekend. We are in for an extremely busy one...


Warm Potato, Bacon & Mushroom Salad

750g chat potatoes, halved
1 eschalot, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tbs white wine vinegar
2 ½ tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 bacon rashers, trimmed, roughly chopped
12 button mushrooms, halved
4 cups (120g) baby spinach leaves
1 tbs chopped chives


Cook the potatoes in a large saucepan of boiling salted water for 10-12 minutes until just tender. Drain. Meanwhile, whisk together the eschalot, garlic, vinegar and 1 tablespoon of oil in a large bowl. Add the warm potatoes, toss to coat, then set aside to absorb while you cook the bacon and mushrooms. Heat a non-stick frypan over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and dry-fry for 2 minutes or until crisp. Remove and add to the salad bowl. Add the remaining olive oil to the pan and cook the mushrooms, stirring, for 3-4 minutes until golden brown. Season well, then add to the salad bowl with the remaining ingredients. Toss to combine, then serve warm.

Helen Rawlinson Screen Printed Fabric

The fabric I ordered for Grace’s room has arrived so it looks like I’m in for some sewing this weekend. I really happy to stumble across Helen’s Etsy store – she has some great items for sale. All the fabric in her shop is hand screen-printed in her studio (a converted Chocolate Factory in East London) using solvent free water based inks. Check out her store or her blog to see more. Below are some examples of her lovely fabric…

All images from here

Malteser Biscuits

Hope you have all had a fabulous weekend. We spent Saturday tidying up our patio as our new paving is now complete (will post ‘after’ photos once I get my new pot plants) and yesterday I made a batch of Malteser Biscuits (recipe below). The flowers on my desk Double Delight roses which are blooming beautifully in our garden at the moment. It is so nice to be able to pick fresh flowers every few days to brighten up our house and these ones have the most beautiful fragrance too. Hope everyone enjoys their start to the week…


Malteser Biscuits

250g butter, softened
⅓ cup white sugar
⅓ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
½ cup condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
165g packet Maltesers, roughly chopped
2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
½ cup plain flour, sifted

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line baking trays with baking paper. Beat butter and sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale. Add condensed milk and vanilla and beat for a further 1 minute. Add Maltesers and flours. Stir with a large metal spoon until well-combined. Roll mixture into small walnut-sized balls. Place onto prepared baking trays, allowing room for biscuits to spread. Gently press biscuits with a fork to flatten slightly. Bake 2 trays at a time, for 12 to 15 minutes, swapping trays halfway through. Stand for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Little Miss Cupcake

Little Miss Cupcake is a gourmet cupcake business which used to have a stall at the Kalamunda Markets. Every time I went I would make a beeline for that ever-popular stall, join the huge queue and head home with a tray of beautifully decorated cupcakes for afternoon tea. These days, Little Miss Cupcake has its own cute store where it also sells cupcake-related gifts and homewares. I just had to share some photos of this pretty shop with you all. See more lovely pictures on their website here.

Both images from here