Based on Mark and Sally Bailey’s farm property in the Herefordshire countryside of the UK, Recycled Home, pour moi, is love at first sight with a staircase and an old giant’s scissors hanging on a worn out wall on the front cover. Their intro exposes perfectly their decorating philosophy: “Use what you’ve got, be true to the structure of your house and the materials it is made from… think of your home as a delicious experiment.”

The book is filled with the most delectable photographs by South African Debi Treloar: One of my favourites being a tiny copper-sailed boat resting serenely on top of an old-fashioned door knob. And if you love wood, warm whites and textures you will love this book. Be warned though – you will end up wanting to buy everything at your next antique & flea market visit as this book guides you to seeing the beauty in things you would never have looked twice at.

I love the textile section where you will find an old otherwise boring chest of drawers with wrapped handles in different wild vintage fabrics, stairs covered with a patchwork of mini persian rugs, and the fabric of an old bathing tent made into stunning curtains. But as I flick through the pages, my added tip as a stylist to make this style work in your own home is organisation. Without organisation, this look can quickly design itself into a display of useless scraps.

WHAT I LOVE:

WHAT I’M ‘OVER’:

Mark and Sally have included a fabulous resource section from across Europe at the back of their book. And what more could you want? What about a website where you can buy their awesome finds and creations? Wouldn’t that be great? Yes it would and here it is!

Enhance The Everyday rating for Recycled Home by Mark and Sally Bailey: 4 outta 5

This is one of my favourite photographs from a shoot for Gourmet Traveller. All the props were sourced from secondhand stores (hmm, and my mother’s cupboards), and I think it compliments the petit gateau well. Rodney Dunn’s recipes are so delicious – he is very creative with his recipes, combining ingredients I would not think of and coming up with masterpieces. And his Baby Spice and Rhubarb Butter Cakes are one of them! I just LOVE this combination of spices – ginger, cinnamon and cloves – I love any recipe with these spices, my favourite being chai (indian tea).
Ben Dearnley is alot of fun to shoot with and I am always happy with the end results. So without further dilly-dallying, here is Rodney’s recipe! It serves 9 but I would say it serves 8 and one extra for you!

Cakes

225 gm soft unsalted butter
¾ cup golden syrup
3 eggs
225 gm (1½ cups) plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves

Rhubarb compote
2 stalks of rhubarb, thinly sliced
55 gm (¼ cup) caster sugar

1 For rhubarb compote, combine rhubarb, sugar and 1 tbsp water in a saucepan, and bring to the boil over high heat, reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 2 minutes or until softened, then cook, uncovered, for 8 minutes or until liquid has reduced and rhubarb is soft. Cool.

2 Using an electric mixer, cream butter and golden syrup until pale, then add eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition, until incorporated.

3 Sift over flour, baking powder and spices and stir to combine, then spoon into 9 lightly greased 2/3-cup-capacity mini loaf pans and spoon 2 tsp rhubarb down centre. Bake at 180C for 12-15 minutes or until just cooked. Allow to cool slightly, then turn out onto wire racks and cool. Cake will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

While I was cleaning up the guest quarters getting the space ready for my next guest, I found this little beauty accidentally left behind…

It is from the story of the converted church hall by Michelle Young and I. If you look closely, you can see the reflection of the original stain-glassed windows in the little black glass vase. I found the vase (well, ’70’s tumbler more like it) in an op shop in Sydney somewhere. This is actually my favourite shot from the series – I am a sucker for reflections, and anyone who works with me will no doubt have heard me say way too many times, ‘what if we try shooting it through this mirror?’. Again with the rolling eyes.

Before I kick my current guests out of the guest quarters (joking about the kicking, they have been the best of guests! although rather quiet, I am sad to bid them bon voyage), I wanted to leave you with a story of shots Michelle and I worked on together a little while ago. It is an old church hall in Sydney converted into a loft home and photographic studio. So much fun to play in I can tell you – the owners had many beautiful old treasures for me to work with. My favourites were the grammophone, the old dial up phone and the owners fabulous array of framed photographs.

I also wanted to dedicate this post to Jo at Desire to Inspire – Jo just so kindly gave up a number of her secret treasure troves in her home town for me as I needed the sources for an upcoming shoot. So these shots are for you Jo, hope you find some inspiration from them, and I have attached a little living treasure for you at the bottom!

It’s the weekend, so who feels like coming to the art gallery with me? This one is rather special as you do not have to wander too far from the (blog)house at all. Where am I taking you this time? Down and under to the National Portrait Gallery , and into the secreted rooms of their online exhibition, ‘Animated: Self Portraits Online’…

This is one very inspirational gallery – I have never experienced anything like it. The curators Michael Desmond and Gillian Raymond give a perfect introduction to the work, describing it as a virtual exhibition without being physically present in a gallery.

(Click here to read more…)