Peachy Keen - some Monday eye candy

I had a bit of spare time this afternoon to catch up with a few of my favourite inspiration blog sites & this delish colour palette just seemed to be calling out my name everywhere I looked.

1. Hair Candy by Get Smitten. I love this product shot, the Beautigloss yarn is just divine but I ended up using the shots with the vintage dress patterns on the site for continuity
2. Birdcage print by Lovely Pieces as seen on The Bright Side Project. This gorgeous print is part of their daily give-away; pop over to the site, answer the question "do you believe in love at first sight?" & hope that you'll be picked as the lucky winner!
3. Floral display by Saipua as seen on Design*Sponge. I totally LOVE everything that the peeps from Saipua do with flowers
4. Sweet Nothings diy project by Halligan Norris for Design*Sponge. Love the cute styling on this shot

Chocolate Hot Pots - with a spicy Valentine's twist!

In my dreams I gorge on chocolates, I roll in chocolates, and their texture is not brittle but soft as flesh, like a thousand mouths on my body, devouring me in fluttering small bites. To die beneath their tender gluttony seems the culmination of every temptation I have ever known.

JOANNE HARRIS, Chocolat

hmmmmm chocolate; considered throughout history as an aphrodisiac, an indulgence and a delightful gift for the one you love (although take note chaps.. a box of mass produced choccies from the petrol station on your way home does not a sensual Valentine's gift make!)
If you've ever read Joanne Harris's wonderful novel, Chocolat (or indeed seen the movie of the same name - hello Johnny Depp!) you may have wondered, as I did, what that combination of chilli & chocolate is really like? I experimented with this recently when we had an impromptu dinner party & I needed to whip up something delish for dessert. My best 'last minute but looks like you're a kitchen goddess' dessert recipe is form the Domestic Goddess herself - Nigella Lawson
Her chocolate hot pots ( I think she calls them Choco Hoto Pots) are so easy to make, without any tricky ingredients & really do have the wow factor - sometimes I garnish them with raspberries, or mint leaves & I once served them up with orange slices that had been soaked in Amaretto. On this particular occasion I added a cheeky teaspoon or two of chilli powder - and this is how I'll be serving them up for Valentine's Day tomorrow
Here is the run down of the recipe, taken from the video clip below - pouting & sensual licking of the spoon is optional!

• 3/4 cup / 100g  of dark chocolate (70% or above) broken into chunks
• 1 stick / 4oz / 115g softened unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup / 5oz / 150g of sugar
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• 2 tsp chilli powder (with this much you can taste it but it's not too hot!)

Set oven at 200 degrees C. Melt the choc chunks with the butter in a bain marie, add the chilli (vary according to taste) & set aside to cool a bit. Whisk the eggs & sugar together & add in the flour.  Fold in the cooled choc mixture. Pour into four greased ramekins & put them onto a tray in the the oven for about 20 mins



And here is the lovely Nigella at her sensual best... enjoy!
Think I'll get my sugar fix this evening by watching the movie, have a great weekend xx

Wear the Colours of Your Country

February 12th sees the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, which I'm strangely excited about for some reason?! I'll confess that I'm not your greatest sports fan and, unless it's on the Wii (I'm a legend at the Ski Jump!), I'm not that good at playing them either. Although I'm happy to cheer my Nation on in sports events - {flashback to yelling myself hoarse on the Sydney Opera House steps watching the Rugby World Cup Finals in 2004} - you'll certainly NEVER catch me wearing any of those hideous team shirts or painting my face red, white & blue. So when I saw these cute ballerina flats by Pretty Ballerinas on Daily Candy this morning, it made me smile. This is how I would be wearing the colours of my country - with style! Love the nod to the punk movement with the addition of the safety pin detail. Go Team GB Go! The pumps come in a number of other Nationalities too.

Valentine's Wish List (hint hint!)

It's Wednesday afternoon & Valentine's Day is this coming Sunday, so I've left it a tad late I know! But, for what its worth, here is my little wish list...

 

Paris: Made by Hand by Pia Jane Bejkerk

First is this book of hand selected places in Paris to find wonderful hand-made lovliness. It is by the amazingly talented Pia Jane Bijkerk - a stylist working between Sydney, Amsterdam & Paris and is basically an all singing, all dancing, full colour version of her stylist's little black book (we all have one you know!) Her blog is both beautiful & inspirational, you have to check it out! Jez & I are seriously overdue a trip to Paris & I ain't going without this baby tucked into my weekend bag!

 

Flea Markets of France by Sandy Price & Emily Laxer

Second is another little book, again on the Paris trip theme but this time covering all the best flea markets & Brocantes to find vintage treasures. I stumbled across it while searching for Pia's book & well, while you're at the bookstore you may as well get both! This covers the whole of France so it will be invaluable in hunting down wonderful new bits & pieces throughout the year as we travel around on photo shoots

Third is the box set of Flight of the Conchords - Series 1 & 2. These guys make me laugh so much, I never tire of watching them. I would love to catch a live performance & had actually watched all of their live clips on YouTube before I had seen a single episode of the series. Pure genius



So many clips to choose from, but here is a live version of "It's Business Time"

Finally, and most unlikely (as they have all already sold out), is one of the totally incredible, limited edition Rob Ryan Valentine lasercuts. Swoon. Image from the Rob Ryan blog. Oh if only I had seen it earlier!

To be honest, we rarely exchange gifts on Valentine's day - for us it's more about sharing a day together & usually revolves around food! (I'll be posting my fave Valentine's dessert recipe later.) This year we plan to take the cable car up to the Aiguille du Midi (it's right behind our house) and catch the adjoining Helbronner cable car over into Italy for a high altitude coffee & ice-cream. Hope it's a sunny day - the views will be breathtaking!

Love is all you need

So as February is here (already!), it is the perfect excuse to revamp the front page of the Get Smitten online boutique with some new prettiness. I put together this graphic as the new opening page image - I'm totally loving grey & yellow at the moment

The "Love is all you need" graphic is one of 3 new FREE e-card designs, the flower necklace is "Sweet, Sweet Rose" and the final image is a detail of my thoroughly gorgeous "Boudoir Butterflies" textile artwork. All available online here!
There is a dedicated *Valentine's Gift Ideas" section to help you find the perfect hand made gift for your loved one & some flirty, vintage cards too. Enjoy xx