Hey Lovelies,
How has your week been?
I had a bit of a hit and miss with recipe development this week, but moved onto plan B and it couldn’t have worked out better. I also confess I am completely crushing over these oh so delightfully vintage photos. They all started with a pair of socks and I can’t wait to tell you about it.
I was scrolling through Facebook one day (as you do) when the prettiest pair of pink daisy socks popped up on my feed. Instantly drawn to the gorgeous colour and one of my favourite flowers, I read further to discover that proceeds of the sale of these socks support survivors of domestic violence. That was it, I just had to have a pair. And I’m not even a sock kinda gal. When they arrived, even cuter in real life, I was immediately inspired to do a spontaneous daisy cupcake photo shoot.
I had made meringue daisies for the rainbow kiddie cupcakes on my market stall, and thought they would look adorable on cupcakes for my shoot. I was also planning on bringing you a delicious mango and white chocolate cupcake recipe this week, so what better way to do both.
The plan was to whip up a batch of delicious mango cupcakes using freeze dried mango, filled with mango & lime jam and topped with mango ganache. Well, the cupcake part went well, but the mango ganache recipe I was using didn’t turn out to be as fabulous as it sounded. After wasting quite a bit of time, including refrigerating it overnight (which should have caused me to question the recipe), it totally failed. Not too discouraged, I tried another recipe, which also failed. Ugh.
It was about then my pink daisy socks arrived in the mail. Of course I knew what I needed to do next, find a fabulous pink shirt, bribe one of my daughters to model for me and scrap the darned mango ganache.
I found a shirt in one of our local op shops, but it wasn’t that exciting. I wanted something that had a definite ‘wow’ factor, but unfortunately the choices aren’t that great in our town. Walking back to the car with two of my daughters, would you believe it, we stumbled upon a new vintage clothing shop that just opened. ( Bunny Hole Vintage) It was incredible! Not one to hide my feelings, the owner quickly knew how much I loved her shop as I raved over every divine piece of vintage gorgeousness my hands touched.
First is was the gloves. Aren’t they the most amazing things you have ever seen?! They jumped straight into my hands as I knew how perfect they would be for my shoot. Imagine living in a time and place where it was normal to wear something as fabulous as these? Oh how far we have fallen since the 60’s.
Rummaging through the beautiful clothes, I spotted this incredible pink blouse. Here was the drama I was looking for. You should see the sleeves! Soft and billowy, completely impractical and utterly adorable. I just love it.
Most of my six daughters do not like pink. I know. I shake my head in disbelief, and cannot comprehend where I have gone wrong. Anyway, as it happens, my daughter Daisy (no, I’m not joking), was willing to model for me, albeit under sufferance, and the shirt fit her perfectly. Gradually my vision came to life right before my eyes and I couldn’t have been happier. It was exactly as I had imagined.
Sometimes, especially as mothers, I think we tend to feel guilty doing things for ourselves, or taking time to get lost in a creative idea or dream. It can be a challenge to set aside uninterrupted time to do something that may make us feel selfish or over indulgent. When I did this shoot I was so in the moment, lost in my happy place and refusing to feel any guilt. I guess I can look at like I was investing in the memory bank for my daughter, but I am gradually starting to learn that creating for my own sake is just as important.
What started out as an idea, grew into a vision and actually became a reality (not so with my mango ganache!) Nothing about it is life changing, but gee, I am really stoked I got to do this. A break in the monotony and my little contribution of beauty to the world.
Thanks for sharing it with me and have a wonderful weekend.
Until next week,
Love Anna xx
