When my beautiful young friend asked if she could come over to make flower crowns with my girls, two words immediately popped into my mind. Photo shoot. How could I let such an opportunity pass me by? Never! And as hubby and my two ninja black belt Taekwondo legend kids were off kicking butt in the UK World championships, I reasoned that this was the perfect time to bake and create.
cake
A sweet little vintage cake I made for a friend’s daughter. Chocolate cake with layers of strawberry swiss meringue buttercream and a simple teal cream cheese buttercream with sprinkles and cherries on top.
Nice.
Autumn inspired Dessert Table
Autumn is my favourite season. Actually, it’s a toss up between Autumn and winter. I Often walk past our lovely neighbour’s house and am always struck by the beauty of their deciduous trees which are one of the few signs of seasonal change here in our sub tropical climate. It just so happens that they also have a feisty horse called Mosey in a rustic paddock directly behind the trees. Each time I walk past I tell myself that one day I am going to set up a dessert table right in front of Mosey’s yard.
Spicy gingerbread cupcakes w/ maple buttercream recipe
With winter finally upon us I thought it was high time to do some of my favourite baking. I love all of the spices and flavours associated with the cooler months and keep dreaming up cupcake recipes that I will be trying over the coming weeks. I actually made these cupcakes as Mother’s Day gifts. I wanted to bless some special mothers in my life with home baked goodies on a recent trip away. I love the sweet ginger heart cookies on top of these moist and spicy cupcakes. They are super easy to make, adding a delightful touch to your gift box. Any gingerbread biscuit recipe will do, but I have included the recipe I used here. You can also change the shape of the cookie to suit any theme.
Melbourne through my eyes
My husband is usually the lucky parent who takes two of our children to interstate Taekwondo championships while I tend to the little ones at home. However, when I found out they had a tournament in Melbourne on my birthday, I quickly put my hand up to take them. Living up in the coastal sub tropics, I crave cold weather and culture. I would feel very much at home living in Melbourne, surrounded by galleries, museums, libraries, quirky cafes and eclectic vintage collectors.
Vintage Barefoot Wedding – Part 6 : The ceremony
This is it. At long last here is the beautiful vintage barefoot wedding of my son and his precious new bride. I hope you have enjoyed walking through each element of this journey with me. It has certainly been an adventure. I was honoured to be so intimately involved with the organisation of this wedding, not to mention revelling in my Happy Place as chief dessert stylist. ( You can see my previous wedding posts here: Sweets table, Dessert table, Drinks station, Finishing touches and Getting ready )
Vintage barefoot wedding – Part 5 : Getting ready
I guess every mother feels the same when her child gets married, but I confess as I sat looking through these photos to prepare this post, I was fighting back tears the whole time. So many different emotions were rising up from deep within me. Firstly, such an overwhelming love for my brand new Daughter – in – Love, Chloe. She is truly so beautiful and so dear to my heart. I am thankful to God for hand picking her to join our family, and so happy that my son has found so rich a treasure.
Vintage Barefoot Wedding – Part 4 : Finishing touches
Here we are in the final stages of preparation for our family wedding of the year! Everything is in it’s place, the finishing touches are being made and we are all set to go. I am getting excited about showing you the beautiful ceremony, which will be my next blog post. Hooray! For now, here is an overview of the marquee so you can see the bigger picture of how our reception area came together with all of the dessert, sweets and drinks stations.
Vintage Barefoot Wedding – Part 3: Drinks stations
Is there anything in the whole world prettier than a tea cup? Sigh.
Right from the outset I knew I wanted tea cups to be a significant feature of this wedding. My beautiful Daughter-in-love is a huge fan of tea and loves to drink from a tea cup, so I had the perfect excuse and justification to hunt and gather some fine English pretties. Score.
Vintage Barefoot Wedding – Part 2: The Dessert Table
The main dessert table for our son’s Vintage barefoot wedding was the centrepiece of the whole reception. I used three old doors as the backdrop, with doily bunting draped across them. I used my vintage yellow fabric to make panels for the glass door in the middle, which tied in with the Sweets table, bringing cohesion to the theme. I also used a gorgeous yellow chenille bedspread as the tablecloth. White wooden letters saying SWEET AS brought a touch of fun to the display.