Friday, September 30, 2011

What a Stunning Wedding!






























It's official, I am in love with this wedding, particularly the gorgeous couple, lets be honest, they're going to have stunning children! I am adoring the gorgeous shade of the brides lips, could you pick a more perfect colour! And that dress...just beautiful! I also love how she's gone non-conventional with black nail polish, she still somehow manages to look amazingly classic and modern at the same time! Im not normally a huge fan of yellow as a wedding colour, but here, I just think its works so perfectly! And I love that they included such a thoughtful homage to their friend (read on). I also love the realness of this wedding, these two are just so crazy in love, how lovely! Here's what the bride had to say...

Brent and I have been friends since 7th grade, where we met somewhere between AOL instant messaging and middle school dances. In high school we continued to stay friends as my best friends (the “Sprague girls”) would always hang out with his best friends (the “South boys”) on the weekends, seeing how neither of us were content with hanging out with any members of the opposite sexes at our own schools. Between multiple dances, dates and relationships within various people in our crowds, the “Brent-Liz love story” never happened… until nine years into our friendship. Every summer, winter break, and spring break into the college years called for the usual hangouts at our friends Ben’s house, also Brent’s best friend. Throughout high school and college we all grew accustomed to hanging out in Ben’s kitchen whenever we were all home. That July [2009] was no exception. Ben was home for a short period of time from California; Liz’s BFF Abby was home for the weekend from Seattle; and “the South-Sprague gang” got together to hang out in Ben’s kitchen. Just like the good old times. The evening progressed and Brent and I struck up a friendly, heartfelt and humorous conversation at the kitchen table. And from there history was made! After two weeks of wooing on Brent’s part (the planner in Liz wasn’t sure if it would work out, and dating a good friend could ruin the whole nine-year friendship AND the “South-Sprague” dynamics if something turned for the worst), Liz was pretty much head over heels. Fast forward to February 2010… Brent told me he loved me (First girl Brent loved. First boy I loved… and last for both of us). Then came December 2010 and we were engaged and planning away!
The people. We are blessed with amazing friends and family, and without those lovely little faces there, the wedding wouldn’t have been as perfect and memorable. Along with that, the thought and care that went into planning the Sara-table meant a lot to me. Sara is one of my best friends, roommates and bridesmaids that passed away two months before the wedding due to cancer. That led to my favorite, yet sincere, “I don’t care” phrase. It’s hard to care about silly linen colors or arrangements of flowers when you are just trying to focus on being happy. And I was okay with not caring because Brent took over. He truly is the best guy in the world. Back to the Sara-table, it was one of the ways I wanted to honor Sara since she was watching from above, but not physically at our wedding. We used an old green chest from the apartment that Sara and I had lived together in, and dedicated the table to her. It was filled with pictures of her, pictures of Sara and I, and pictures of Sara, Brent and I. Along with that, there were several pictures she had painted for me while kicking chemos butt. And to save the best for last, we had a jar full of Oreos there, as they were Sara’s favorite cookie and her post-chemo diet. Her family was at the wedding and were able to take her bouquet home, which meant a lot to me as well.
One of my favorite DIY projects were the memory chalkboards. Brent and I chose food that was perfect and “Brent and Liz-esque” in every way. We chose “food with a memory.” To help our guests understand a sense of what the food meant to us, we made mini chalkboards and placed them next to particular foods. For example, next to the tea sandwiches we had a board that explained my connection to tea parties, because my grandmother, mom and I would go to a tea parlor growing up and I was allowed tea with only one lump of sugar, but as many cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches as I wanted. One of Brent’s chalkboards was at the gelato food cart. It told about his second lover: coffee. We had the selection of coffee gelato because of his extreme love for quality coffee (a love that I sadly do not share, which makes this relationship with coffee even that much more important). It was food that represented us, and food that we had made memories with.

All Pictures from Style Me Pretty


Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Summer Rooftops




Oh my dear friends, it is almost that time of amazing year when the nights are long and hot, and the parties run well into the night because lets face it, who the hell can get to sleep when its so hot! Calling all people with amazing rooftops, please please please use them for amazing summer parties, and also, please invite me, much appreciated.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Coral

Lemon Meringue Tartlets




I made these gorgeous tartlets last week! super cute and super yummy! I used this recipe from Masterchef. However I did cheat, i used pre-made cases, but they were still super yummy!
I have a blowtorch, but its out of the liquid stuff, so i popped them in the oven, but left it for a bit too long, so it ended up being basically lemon tarts with meringue on top! but they were still super yum!


Ingredients

Sweet dough

90g unsalted butter

50g caster sugar

1 pinch salt

1 vanilla bean, seeds
scrapped and bean discarded

1 egg

20g almond meal

160g plain flour



Lemon curd filling

30g pouring cream

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

2 egg yolks

30g caster sugar

30g butter, diced


Meringue

2 egg whites

140g caster sugar



Method
Sweet Dough
1. Cream the butter, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add vanilla bean seeds and beat until fluffy. Add egg and mix to combine. Add almond meal and flour and mix until mixture forms a dough.
2. Place between two sheets of cling wrap, flatten and refrigerate for 2 hours to rest.


3. Flour bench, lay pastry on top and dust again with flour. Roll to a desired thickness and prick well with a fork. Cut rounds with a 12cm cookie cutter and lay into 10cm diameter tartlet cases. Gently press into tins to fit and roll over tartlets with a rolling pin to trim edges. Refrigerate for 1 hour.


4. Bake at 160°C for approximately 20-25 minutes or until golden.




Baked Lemon Meringue Tart

1. Preheat oven to 90C.

2. Pour cream, lemon juice and zest into a small saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat.


3. Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a bowl, add half the cream and juice mixture and whisk to combine. Pour back into the saucepan with remaining cream and cook, whisking until mixture comes to the boil and thickens.


4. Pass through a fine sieve and whisk in butter until thick and glossy. Allow to chill for 30 minutes. Spoon into a piping bag and pipe into baked tart shells.


5. For meringue, beat egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually add caster sugar, beating well between each addition until dissolved.


6. Pipe meringue onto the filled tartlet cases and brown with a blow torch.


7. Garnish with candied lemon and orange zest and dried and crystallised lemon peel.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Chevron Love

1. Zig Zag Pillowcases - Urban Outfitters
2. Cole Haan Jitney Chevron Print Tote - Zappos
3. Ziggy Chair - Urban Outfitters
4. Hazelnut Zig Zag Romper - Shak-Shuka
5. Ted Baker Lianna Quilted Patent Laptop Sleeve - Nordstorm
6. Chevron Print Lumbar Pillow
7. Zig Zag Maillot - Svpply
8. Zig Zag Mugs - Mikasa
9. Zig Zag Printed Rug - Urban Outfitters


Dont you hate it when something you love becomes something that everyone else loves! I loved Chevron a while ago, and now it seems to be EVERYWHERE! it was even featured in The Age on the weekend, so now its bound to be everywhere even more! noooo!
On another note, Loving the pillows and doona cover form Urban Outfitters, i love the idea of scatter pillows in Chevron too, im thinking baby blue, light pink and grey..mmmmm!
and how gorgeous is the little Romper! highly considering buying one, just to save for later! And the Ted Baker laptop case, going into my online cart as we speak! Stunning! little bit of a cheat i know, but you cant blame me, its gorgeous!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Kerrie Hess' Apartment in Paris





Kerrie Hess is an Australian Illustrator living in Paris, and this is her amazingly gorgeous apartment! I love it so crazy much! I love the amount of white mixed with metallics, black, grey and little pops of gorgeous colour! It just works perfectly! And to live where she lives, in a gorgeous block in the West of Paris, just amazing! my ultimate dream! hopefully ill get there again soon! 
Find this entire article in this months Madison.

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