Jikana Damaru

: scavenger hunt :

It was so much fun taking shots for this weeks hunt & it kept my mind busy with ideas. Here they are & make sure you head over to Ashley's blog to check out all the other amazing entries too - or join in!

: door :

a door I open every day. the home of my clothes & hand bags & shoes & jewels. it always needs tidying up

: eyelashes :

my trusty eye lash curler

: paint :

paint is every where in this busy lane way of Melbourne

: leaf veins :

i love strawberries

: face less portrait :

Handmade Hunt

Have you seen the massive giveaway happening over at Shop Contemporary Handmade?

There are 3 separate competitions

One for us!

One for Little Miss!

One for Little Mr!

Enter just one or enter them all ....

Pop Bakery by Clare O'Connell

This month I'm reviewing Pop Bakery by Clare O'Connell, from illustrated lifestyle publishers Ryland Peters & Small and CICO Books. Clare O'Connell, along with her daughter, Judith, is the owner of Pop Bakery in West Hampstead, London.

I chose to review this book as I love cake pops. Hailed as the new cupcake, cake pops are small moist cakes coated in candy on lollipop sticks. Claire, too, loves cake pops and wanted to create her own versions. For Claire cake pops were the ideal medium for her to share her creative flair and love of baking. After work experience in a combined bakery and confectioners for a year Claire started her business, Pop Bakery, from her family home in West Hampstead. She supplies Harvey Nichols and boutique hotels across London and was recently commissioned by Top Shop to make cake pops for their Launch Party in Bath, England.

The front cover of this hardback book says "25 recipes for delicious little cakes on sticks". I would argue that it contains one recipe of a chocolate cake pop with 25 different ways of decorating them.

Each beautifully photographed decorated cake pop has clear step by step instructions on how to create the cake pops, from moulding the cake to hand painting them. It contains some great advice on ingredients, tools, equipment and stockists. The book covers a variety of styles, from the funky on-trend leopard print ones to the cute panda & frog heads with varying levels of difficulty. Each gorgeous looking cake pop is beautifully photographed by Nicole Rees.

The only downside to this book is that it only provides one recipe for the cake pops.
At a recommended price of £9.99, I think this hardback book is a good introduction to cake pops and how to decorate them.

Some of my favourite cake pops:

Cute Panda heads

Whimsical toadstools for woodland themed parties!

Fun bright frogs

The stylish leopard print cake pops inspired by nail artists

To summarize, Cake pops is a good decorating book for cake pops with great tips and advice.

Please note that my opinions are my own and I am not paid for these reviews (apart from receiving a free book, of course!).

Have a sweet day!

joy pockets

Joining Monica for 'joy pockets' today.

♥

pannacotta ice-cream in winter

our daughter's first carousel ride

this image by Elle Moss and her work

hubby in his apron cooking bolognese

an extra box of leaf tea in the cupboard

...and ditto Monicas blogs without word verification (it does make life easy)

♥

Birthday Girl Photoshoot

As mentioned in my last post I had the opportunity to take a friends daughters' first birthday photos!

Baby T was a little camera shy...

that is, until she was given a cupcake to devour!

and then it was all smiles :)

Isn't she just so cute?!

Happy First Birthday Taylor!

This week I'm grateful for... photography

I've had an ear infection. Yes, I feel like a two year old. An excruciatingly-in-pain two year old. I will never again be intolerant with an ear infected child... that mo fo hurts like... well, fo!

We have Mr Timothy Coulson coming around super-early tomorrow morning (Saturday) to take our pictures. How cool is that? Only it's not cool now because I've been laid up with the ear-thingy for a few days and haven't 'done' the house. So Tim - who likes to take 'real life' images of family living - is quite possibly going to get more 'real life' than he bargained for.

But I'm not even worried about the house...

I'm having my picture taken. I don't really like having my picture taken. I'm about as photogenic as Brynne and I don't have the distractaboobs. Eeeek... Plus Maxi-Taxi is being a real pain in the ear whinging about having his own picture taken, so Tim's bound to appreciate the 127 images he captures of the back of my first-born's head. But not to worry... check out the gorgeous photo shoot he did with Beth's fam and the one he did with Emily's fam. See how lovely my house and family are going to look? Oh, wait, that's just Emily and Beth...

ANYWAY... this week I'm grateful for...

142. Photos - I might not like being photographed, but I'm so glad that over the years I've just leaped in front of that lens regardless. We are a very lucky generation to have our lives on film. Our up-and-coming generation (who are pretty much living out their lives for the camera) may beg to differ?

143. Light - a photographer's light, that is. I'm thinking that the ability to capture light is crucial in this image-making business. I'm hoping that Tim's mastery is going to make all those cobwebs and all the chocolate stains and all that can-never-be-removed Weetbix-glue look amaaaaazing...

144. Penicillin - thank you, thank you Mr Fleming. Without you the shoot would be shot.

So, what's making you smile today? Add your I'm Grateful For post to the list below (and please, we love you, but it really does matter that your post is a Grateful one and not just a random), add the button (grab the code from my sidebar and paste it into your post) and pretty-please add a link back to me. Then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little sunshine.

[Image is snaps from Emily's shoot with Tim Coulson. Gorgeousness.]

Food Gawker - Macarons

I recently discovered foodgawker via the ever so popular, beautiful blog Made by Girl. Boy am I in love!

From the website:
'foodgawker is a photo gallery that allows you to visually search and discover new recipes, techniques and ingredients to inspire your culinary adventures. We publish food photography submitted by food bloggers from around the world. Our editors review hundreds of submissions daily and choose the highest quality, most appealing images to showcase.'

The photographs are beautiful and link to some brilliant bakery and foodie blogs. What's not to love? A new passion that will keep me occupied for hours - I have warned you!

They also have three sister sites, each full of beautiful photos. From great craft projects on craftgawker, inspiring interior pics on dwellinggawker and fabulous wedding ideas on weddinggawker.

Have a sweet day!