Weekend in Pictures

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Kara

©Kara Rosenlund

It was so lovely to be back at home after a few weeks away…. I spent most of Saturday unpacking ute loads full of bits… including this ‘new/old’ mirror’….

… plus this beautiful old oil painting which I found at Hen’s Teeth Trading in Tocumwal…. a great shop I can’t wait to return to again….. ~~just realised the mannequin with my hats on it looks a bit like that scene from E.T… ha~~

Lots of beautiful old glazed stoneware bottles which made their way here to Australia on clipper ships in the 1800′s…..

It was actually a cold and drizzly day and when you live in humid hot Queensland you don’t want to miss any opportunity to light the fire and put a cardigan on…. so we did just that….

A very good friend of mine surprised me with a very generous gift of Koto Bolofo’s ‘La Maison’; a volume of 11 beautiful books. Koto Bolofo is the first and only photographer to have been granted unlimited access to the secret workshops of the luxury goods house Hermes. Hours were poured reading these detailed books….

Our floral forager friend Phil dropped in and hung out with us at home… I made a lunchtime feast of trout and vegetables… while Timothy O and Phil dug holes in the backyard for a garden project…. ~~thanks Phil. I got out of that muddy job~~ ….then the afternoon turned into the evening….

… then Sunday arrived and of course it was Mother’s Day… so much love for our girls….

I received this amazing set of crocheted egg cosies from ~~Timothy O~~ the girls…. specially made by Vanessa Ion…. I came across her just recently while in Sydney…. my friend MM took Timothy O and I to another friend Nadine’s amazing bakery / cafe Flour and Stone and insisted we have the ‘Boiled Eggs and Soldiers’…. which came out with little crochet egg cosies… Terence the Fox was keeping my eggs warm…. I lost the plot with pure excitement! Thank you Trixie, Gigi, Bettina, Coco and Nigella….. how thoughtful of you.

Bettina looking at her crocheted self…..

…think she was a bit disappointed to find an egg under there….. ha….

… Mum and Dad came over to celebrate Mother’s Day and we made a casual long lunch together….

I then made a Pecan, Chocolate and Bourbon tart….. the perfect dessert for a drizzly, chilly weekend. Recipe tomorrow. It is so easy.

K xx

Inside Out Magazine

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Kara

©Kara Rosenlund

Have you see in yet?… Have you seen our little cottage on the front cover of this month’s Inside Out Magazine? I can’t believe…. I really can’t….. there is even a really beautiful story on the inside on page 70 about our journey with our house and our general lifestyle…. the talented Megan Morton wrote the story and I photographed it only recently…. you should check it out… even if I do say so myself…. it has been such a long journey renovating…. we feel ever so proud…..

House, I love you, you did well and you shone…. Timothy O, Mum and Dad, what an amazing ~~exhausting~~ journey we have all been on together…

When I get back from the Melbourne road trip I will share some of the ‘back catologue’ ‘before’ shots with you all…. you will shudder… I promise! She wasn’t always beautiful….

K xxxx

Resolutions for 2013

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Kara

©Kara Rosenlund

Happy New Year All… I’m not one for resolutions, however after cleaning the fridge out yesterday I become quite shocked at the amount of beautiful produce Timothy O and I wasted over the festive break. Each year at about this time I make batches of pea and ham soup, I bake quiches for friends and family ~~(secretly shipping the ham off to other people’s fridges so it doesn’t go to waste).~~ So this year I am making even more of an effort to down size what we eat and spend more time in the garden producing it. Timothy O already has one up one me with these heirloom pumpkins he cut off yesterday…. Looks like we will be having pumpkin with ham tonight.

K x

Christmas Day in Pictures

Posted on December 29, 2012 by Kara

Ah Christmas Day… you always go so fast… here is what we got up to…

Timothy O and I opened presents in the morning while listening to vinyls…

We made crowns for ourselves and family for the Christmas table from leather hides…

I threw a few more decorations about the house…

Timothy O and I made a rosemary chandelier for above the Christmas table… I love a fragrant table… **note new clean overalls!

Made sure there were hundreds of cloves scattered all throughout the table… I love the heady fragrance of cloves and rosemary….

This cheeky chicken Gigi decided to come upstairs to see what was happening….

And then Coco did too… ~~(she doesn’t like to miss out…)~~

Our table on the deck with Timothy O working hard in the background preparing the ham… ~~he loves doing the ham~~

Olive branches, walnuts, webbing, linen and feathers….

The wood fire oven roaring awaiting Timothy O’s ham…

Ta dah….Timothy O’s burnt honey, orange and clove glazed ham resting…

Proud as Punch….

Roast chicken and puy lentils… (we make this dish often and is a firm household favourite…) We had all free range meats for Christmas and they all came from farmers at the Jan Powers Farmer Market (our market) ….. this free range chicken was from Lynsay at Viande at .. we buy it every market…

… And the ham was from Tillari Trotters … again certified free range.

Christmas lunch on the deck…

Then the sun slowly went down and we listened to golden classics from the 60′s and 70′s… while making eggnog and eating pavlova…

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

K x

Weekend in Pictures

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Kara

Weekend in Pictures… better a couple of days late than never…. I am somewhat freaking out a little by how fast Christmas is approaching…. coming on like a freight train….

Timothy O and I frocked up , ~~well I frocked up, not Timothy O~~ for Timothy O’s family Christmas on Saturday….

Timothy O’s mother decided upon an ‘Australian Christmas’ theme with lots of Australian native flowers and delicious food all day long…. it was a great Saturday…

Timothy O and I rose rather late Sunday morning and I made scrambled eggs from our girls….

I rearranged some furniture to include this great find of six Spindle back chairs which I found last week….

I made this ‘Blackberry Bun’; a recipe from Kinfolk Magazine… I had never made it before, though I thought it may be a contender for Christmas… I don’t think we will have it on the day… delicious though.

….and then I sorted and washed household linens getting things ready for Christmas….

Are you ready for Christmas?

K x

Country Style

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Kara

Back in September Country Style asked if I would like to come up with some Christmas decorating concepts and style a Christmas story featuring our house. They asked for lots of decorating ideas for the home and tabletop….as you can imagine the request just made my heart sing…. I have never met a table I didn’t want to decorate…

I worked with my florist and friend Anneliese Gomez of Hacienda Flowers on the wreaths and floral displays…. I asked Frank Creates to make a beautiful Christmas banner….

My wonderful friend and assistant for the shoot Sally O executed lots of craft and decorating concepts…. Christmas really did come early for Sally O and I…. Pattypan garland, music sheet crackers, monkey fist rope decorations…

I asked Lachlan of Flour & Chocolate to make this beautiful cake…. he really is a genius …

…He also made this one too…. which Sally O and I modified to include a snowflake…

These are natural beeswax name cones which I filled with muscatels … I have made them for years…. they too will be on our Christmas table this year… you should make them … they look super impressive… yet are so so super easy…

The ‘How To Make’ guide…. I share all my tips and tricks on how to make the little DIY personal touches for Christmas decorating… that is what makes Christmas special for me.. all the little considered special touches…

It is such a beautiful issue, you should put your skates on and buy a copy…. Many thanks to Jared Fowler who shot the beautiful feature and the team at Country Style… plus all the suppliers who loaned gorgeous pieces for the shoot….

K x

P.S… and look where I popped up… on the contributors page… Christmas sure did come early…

Christmas Vibe

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Kara

©Kara Rosenlund

Are you feeling the Christmas vibe? I can’t believe Christmas is so close… This week it feels particularly close as we are having an early Christmas with Timothy O’s family over the weekend.

I’m getting into the Christmas vibe… random Christmas bits scattered about… sort of…

I even made gingerbread this year… they may not look that pretty though they taste rather good…. I’m no ‘Pipe Piper’ when it comes to royal icing…

I had a special delivery arrive yesterday… two new ornaments from Anthropolgie… I allow myself the tradition of a couple of new ornaments each year, do you?

I am such a sucker for animals ornaments…. I am truly in love with the glass Baleen…

he even has a glitter blow hole…

… and how sweet is the Odette Swan… Gosh, I love the name Odette.

Talk soon.

K x

P.S Chicken Update…. we almost have names for the new little girls, however the introduction has not gone well… no, no, no…(channel Amy Winehouse’s song Rehab for the no, no, no’s…) The older girls are not at all impressed or happy about the new girls (especially Gigi, she is the Queen Bee and is the one in charge; she totally lost her cool last night and I thought she was going to die (seriously), that is how worked up she got) …. no, no, no…it’s not going well. x

Click here to listen to Amy Winehouse

Hydrangeas

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Kara

It’s no secret I love hydrangeas… it’s also no secret that they are fickle old things…. Around this time each year I always decide to ‘have another go’ at blossoming our relationship together… I always think ‘This time will be different, it’s simple, just keep the roots moist and keep them in the shade…. no, always the same.. fried and frizzled in this Queensland weather…. anyway this is going somewhere….

Hydrangeas are known as ‘old lady flowers’ aren’t they, well my old lady neighbour Dot has a medium size shrub out the front which I lust after….. Dot lives alone and never married or had children, we say hello to each other all the time and I give her eggs from the girls. I asked her the other day if I could have a couple of stems and ofcourse she said yes. Dot has a failing memory and it seems with each month that passes so does her ability to recall things.

I thanked her for the hydrangeas when I saw her yesterday … she looked at me so confused…she had no idea what I was talking about…. poor Dot… old age can be a curse. Make time to smell the roses now…. or rather hydrangeas.

K x

Weekend in Pictures

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Kara

How was your weekend? Ours was very damp….. Arrived at New Farm Park at 3.30am to wait until the gates were opened for the stall holders.

I set up our little stall under our pergola, I don’t usually use the pergola, I much prefer open air, however today was so wet I had to set it up underneath the cover.

Fresh produce at our neighbour’s stall.

I bought some natives at the market, which I stashed in my gumboots while we were unloading at home.

Our friend photographer Toby Scott popped round to say hello.

I gave him some eggs to take home from the girls…. then the afternoon rolled into the evening.

Up early to a home cooked hot breakfast.

A very old orphanage in the area was open to the public on Sunday, which is quite rare. Timothy O and I popped by to check out the architecture.

Amazing floors.

We did some minor repairs to Frankie the caravan in my parents shed. Thanks for the tea Mum.

Some random bangles and bracelets I’m wearing at the moment,

Finally applied plate hooks to my pewter plates.

The start of the pewter plate wall… more to come soon I hope.

I am out of town this week… Timothy O may be doing a post or two. Have a great week!

Wisteria I love You

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Kara

Happy Tuesday! Thought I would share with you the one thing that is making me most happy right now…. my Wisteria.

Oh, how I love you! It has never given me so much love than lately. The love it gives me reminds me of having a pure crush on a boy who never gives you a second glance… the agony, the agony.. it’s painful… then one day he starts flashing those smiles your way and giving you high fives! Oh yeh, me and the Wisteria are going steady! The thrill of it all!

I bought this wisteria as a 40cm stick two and a half years ago after I had built a trellis out the front ~~I am a chicken before the egg kinda girl.~~ The lady at the nursery reassurged me that it would fully bloom within three years, ~~three years, shit, that’s a long time, I can’t plan what I’m doing next week, let alone in three years!…will I still be living at the same house?~~ really, that’s a long time! When I asked her if I needed another one to plant on the other side of my trellis to speed things up a bit she said no, this will do the trick. You just have to wait.

So after many a month of looking at my stick, the stick grew wood to make it a larger stick. Over the next two years the larger stick then slowly twisted itself around the trellis in it’s bare woody fashion…. unpatiently I waited… secretly hoping that I had picked up a ‘fast growing Wisteria’.. alas, no.

So, after all this time here we are. In love with the heady fragrant Wisteria… and still thinking I should of bought that second one to go on the other side! Imagine the beauty!

K x