Weekend in Pictures

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Kara

©Kara Rosenlund

Ah, the weekend feels like it was forever ago now, however this is what we got up to… Saturday morning clocked around and I made boiled eggs for Timothy O and I ~~using our new egg cosies, pure joy…~~ our girls aren’t laying right now as they are still molting – you can’t lay and regrow feathers at the same time they tell me… ~~cheeky free loaders….~~

I had the ‘Trixie’ cosy….

After breakfast we couldn’t find the chickens anywhere in the yard…. sheer panic….. as I was hightailing it out the front to see if they had escaped onto to the street through the garden I heard a little ‘cluck’ from the sofa…. they had snuck upstairs, down the hallway and were all bundled in the living room together…. never trust a chicken…. they are sneaky… ha…

I filled up this new piece of furniture which I recently picked up on my travels down rural Victoria…. it doesn’t fit inside, oops. so it is happily on the back deck….

… I found some amazing blue and natural nautical rope…

… and then I worked late into the evening on a project I hope to share with you soon…

Sunday was a bit random actually. There is a house two doors up which is being demolished. An elderly lady who I used to wave hello to passed away about two years ago. She lived alone and would seldom receive any visits from family or friends, except the ‘meals on wheels’ people who would deliver her meals through a tiny hole in the wall. Her large family house has been vacant for some time, so when I saw the demolisher people on Sunday I asked if I could have a last look inside….

… an old bar which I’m sure saw some laughs and good times back in the day…

… the family room upstairs…

… bedroom…

… must admit I felt a bit sad after I left the house…. I just wanted to piece the story together in my head… people’s spirit and joy really are the most important elements when it comes to a home… if you don’t have that the home will always feel empty…

… so I came home and backed a cake…. a Madeira cake…. I love how the top splits right down the middle… recipe tomorrow.

… then packed a few days worth of bits into my bag and I hit the road again… I shall be back for this weekend’s market at the Powerhouse.

K x

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

Frankie does Sydney R O A D T R I P

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Kara

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©Kara Rosenlund

Frankie Does Sydney….That’s right! I’m hitting the road with Frankie the caravan, packing up all of our wares and embarking on an old school road trip down the east coast of Australia! Yup, windows down, music up and golden sunshine on the horizon.

First stop will be Megan Morton’s The School for a two day market on the 13th and 14th of April….. if you are in Sydney keep that weekend free…. Frankie, Timothy O and I would love to meet you! Not sure on times yet, though The School’s address is 85 Dunning Ave, Rosebery…..

Spread the word… Pass it on…

K x

Passion Fruit Cake

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Kara

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You may of noticed it’s been a little quiet around here on the blog over the last couple of days and there was no ‘Weekend in Pictures’ this week… I did shoot it, however I didn’t feel like uploading it…. one of our little chickens Cecelia passed away unexpectedly and it was all too sad and too much.

In light of this I have been spending a lot of time in the garden watching the girls and appreciating the pure joy nature brings…. which leads me to passion fruit. We have a lot of passion fruit at the moment thanks to our glossy green passion fruit vines Timothy O planted, so I made a passion fruit cake inspired by our backyard. It is a dense cake with the zing of passion fruit juice and lemon. I strained the pulp from the seeds, as I’m not always such a fan of the crunch of the seeds. It is better suited to a ring type cake tin, I used an old decorative bundt tin.

K x

** Passionfruit seems to be spelt both as Passion Fruit and Passionfruit.

10 passionfruit, halved
185g unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind
1 cup caster sugar
4 eggs
2/3 cup pouring cream
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour

Icing

1 1/2 cups pure icing sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon butter, softened
A dash of water if you need it

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease your bundt or fluted ring tin.

Halve, strain and push the passion fruit pulp through a strainer over a jug. Place butter, lemon rind, sugar, eggs, passionfruit juice, cream and flour in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat on low speed until combined. Increase speed to high. Beat for 2 to 3 minutes or until pale.

Spread mixture into prepared tin. Bake for 40 – 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Stand in pan for 10 minutes, then cool on cooling rack.

Make glace icing: Combine icing sugar, lemon juice and butter in a small bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon until a spreadable consistency. Dot over the rim of the cake so the icing gently cascades down the side.

Weekend in Pictures

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Kara

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©Kara Rosenlund

It was a wet weekend here in Brisbane…. the light was darker and the air was a touch cooler….We had hoped to do some exterior painting of the house though the weather took care of those plans…. instead Timothy O and I headed off early Saturday morning to an old little town we hadn’t visited together in a long time…

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… we came home with an array of wonderful old thick glass bottles and vessels…

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… old and heavy worn wooden rolling pins and buckets….

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…. even a french postal ‘sac’ found it’s way home with us…

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This set of butchers hooks was a recent rusty find; come Saturday afternoon Timothy O gave them a sand and I gave them a coat of ‘stove oven black’ … I had been after a small set of these for such a long time… they are bound for the kitchen ceiling…..tonight.

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Sunday morning brunch was simple hot cross buns on the go…

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We received a belated wedding gift from a close friend who had returned from the UK. This basket was filled with the most sentimental treasures one could imagine…the sort of treasures to wish you well into married life….

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Had a chat to the pumpkins to make sure everything is on track….

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Timothy O quickly mowed in between the rainy patches….

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I think it’s time to start thinking about a new laundry….

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Everything just got wet… including the girls….

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I spent a lot of time in here on Sunday….I noticed I like to have a lot of things around me in the kitchen… it just feels really warm and safe to have all the different textures at arms length to use and admire… in other rooms of the house it’s not like this at all, you would swear I’m a minimalist ~~ok, not really, who am I kidding, though you know what I mean…~~

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Come the afternoon Timothy O and I had an early dinner of grilled sardines and ciabatta…

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… and then we wasted no time getting into this large golden ‘Creme Caramel’…. when I was little my mother used to occasionally buy pre-made creme caramels from the supermarket in plastic little pots…..I used to love them, especially the sweet caramel syrup…. This homemade one was completely out of this world and delicious… I will be making it again. Recipe to come…

Hope you all had a great weekend…

K x

Country Style Magazine

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Kara

We are in this months Country Style Magazine.… huge news! So increblibly blown away, so much so that I don’t think it has really sunk in yet. You should go and pick yourself up a copy.

Back in November the very talented photographer Sharyn Cairns ~~who I have admired for such a long time~~ and I hit the road for a couple of days to find some great locations to shoot the story. Who would of thought that the old rusty bomb of a caravan I brought home 18 months ago would be gracing Country Style’s cover.

The past 18 months have been a great journey and I’m just so proud and appreciative of everyone’s support!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Weekend in Pictures come Monday on the blog.

Frankie and I have to get packing for the market tomorrow.

K x

Weekend in Pictures – Summer Caravanning

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Kara

Last Saturday Timothy O and I decided to escape the city in Frankie (the caravan) and head for the beach for a few days to a little island not too far away, where life is slow and the breeze always blows…

We arrived at the caravan park and got to work setting up Frankie ~~(when you caravan there is always work to do… mostly it is fun work, however putting the annex/awning thing up is not so much fun)~~

Timothy O lassoing the annex… (clearly the overalls from Christmas are still going down well)

Ta Dah… all set up and ready to hit the beach…

Some new feathers I found on our many walks to the beach… I like to tape found things to the inside of Frankie when we are away… like a muriel of memories… feathers, seeds pods, whatever I come across that inspires me in some way…

I read a book called Caravan, which I thought was going to be about caravans, though to my surprise it was about Afghanistan in 1946, I couldn’t put it down… I’m reading it again…

A couple of new bangles…

Australian caravan parks are very ‘salt of the earth’ sorts of places… filled with kids on bmx’s eating watermelon, folks sitting on Esky’s having yarns to strangers and lots of John Williamson playing on the radio…

While we were their Timothy O and I walked around the sleepy streets looking at the houses…

Then before we knew it our holiday came to a close and it was time to pack it up and hit the road….

K xx

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 – Christmas Eve

Posted on December 25, 2012 by Kara

Merry Christmas … actually it’s barely Christmas at all…. 5.45am….~~last minute wrapping to do~~ … thought I would quickly share a few images of what has been happening around here…

I shot a little ‘countdown’ on instagram around the house leading up to Christmas…

Christmas Eve was spent eating and cooking in the kitchen…

… Timothy O picked up a couple of new vinyls including this one… what’s Christmas without Serge….

…While out shopping for vinyls ~~and secret Christmas gifts I assume~~ Timothy O picked up some beautiful flowers for Christmas Day from our lovely florist Hacienda….

…. We then started celebrating a little too early…

… Picked out the prettiest plates for the table…

… Then decorated the table….

… More to come later. Hope everyone has a wonderful day filled with love and happiness.

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