my place + yours ... kitchen love

I'm joining in the my place and yours fun this week, because the theme is kitchen love and I'm all about the kitchen love!

But first, let's start with a bit of background. When we bought this house a couple of years ago, the kitchen was the second worst room in the house (the bathroom was the worst - I still have nightmares!). The kitchen we inherited was a reno jobbie from the 80's with secondhand cabinets and bright blue accessories. The worst part was that there was 12cm difference between the height of the floor from one side of the room to the other, so everything rolled off the benches ... not nice! So last April, we did this ...

 ... it felt good - it all went - the kitchen, the dodgy plumbing, the appliances and the floor. And we replaced it with this ...

  

  

These are my two favourite spaces in the kitchen. The first is the open shelves that house all my odds and ends and a small selection of the cookbooks that I own ...

 

But this little corner of the kitchen is my standout favourite. I am lucky enough to have a fire engine red Kitchenaid mixer - my favourite appliance by far! The wooden bread board on the wall is french and antique. I bought it when we bought the house and it was my little incentive to make a kitchen that I would be proud to hang it in. The cannisters were Mr Yardage's grandmothers - we salvaged them from the old family farmhouse in NSW last year - they are very special and got their own little glass shelf to live on.

 

So that's my kitchen love, and one of the main reasons I like to make tea towels and other kitcheny stuff! To check out other great kitchen love or to play along too, visit Vic at Punky & Me (our lovely host) here. 

P.S. Our table was custom made from local recycled timbers by a guy in Richmond, and the chairs were a super splurge from Thonet - I love these too!

cleverness x 5

I am constantly amazed at how many clever people there are in blogland - writing, making and photographing wonderful things. I thought I might share a few of my favourite finds from the last week or so:

brilliant idea: fabric printing with cookie cutters
This idea blew me away when I saw it on Posie Patchwork during this weeks my creative space. This is the ultimate in reinventing a process - a sort of kitchenalia block printing. Outstanding results - check it out - very, very clever.


a great new blog to read: today on the train ...
This blog is a journal of the observations and thoughts of an American woman as she travels on the train - interesting, well written, and touching - I look forward to every new post. (I found this blog via the Blogging Your Way e-course)

best recipe: pink stuff

This recipe comes from a meme called "Retro Cooking Month - weird jello day". The recipe is from the USA, and is indeed weird, but strangely appealing if you like cottage cheese, cream, pineapple and jelly (what's not to love!) ... check it out here. (Found via Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom)

clever design: wall decoration

From here, via here ... so many good designs from this hsuband and wife team, but this one great - especially for those of us who love typography!





good for a giggle: what's your ikea name?
That is, what would your name be if you were a piece of furniture from Ikea? Mine would be Nikkall (with a little circle above the A) and I would be a table - nice! Find out what yours would be here. (Found via How about orange ...)

I hope you've enjoyed this little list of cleverness. Let me know some of your favourite finds from this week - that would be fun!

the word on the street ...

... enjoy your Sunday!

lemon drizzle cupcakes

This recipe is really easy, really yummy and chances are that you will always have these ingedients hanging around the kitchen, which makes them the perefct spur of the moment, zesty treat ...

 

lemon drizzle cupcakes

125g unsalted butter (at room temperature)

1/2 cup caster sugar

3 teaspoons of finely grated lemon rind (usually about one lemon worth)

2 eggs

1/2 cup plain flour

1/4 cup self raising flour

1/4 cup desiccated coconut

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Place some cupcake cases in a cuptake tin. 

Beat butter, sugar and lemon rind until pale and creamy.

Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition until just combined.

Stir in the flours, cocunut and lemon juice until just combined.

Spoon into the cupcake cases you prepared earlier, and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into a cake comes out clean. Once cooked, put them on a wire rack to cool.

lemon icing

1 cup icing sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Sift icing sugar into a bowl. Add lemon juice and stir until you get a nice smooth paste.

Drizzle icing over cooled cakes.

enjoy!

shop online in aussie dollars

Just a quick note - I now have an online shop selling in Australia dollars. I'll still have the etsy store, but lots of people let me know that they would prefer an Aussie option, so here it is! There's a link on my blog sidebar too, and it can also be accessed from my website (click on the SHOP tab).

I'll be adding more stock to both stores in the coming weeks - new designs and new colourways. Thanks so much for your support! Commercial over!

my creative space ... printing and sewing

This week, I finished printing the layers on my experimental tea towel ...

 

I think it looks OK if you stand about 2 metres away from it and squint your eyes! Basically, the flowers are not ideally positioned and are a bit out of proportion to each other, BUT it does give me an idea for printing some fabric by the metre ... scatttered multi-sized artichoke flowers? ... I might have a play on the computer this weekend.

Some of you might also remember the artichoke I embroidered using my sewing machine last year. Well, I finally did something with it - I made a little pin cushion for the studio ...

I hope your space is creative this week too. Have a look at some other spaces, or join in, by clicking here and saying hello to Kirsty at Kootoyoo!