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.

The young and extraordinarily talented artist, Dawn Okoro. Need I say more. Check out her website, she also has a very active myspace you can link to from her website, worth a look see.

I found Dawn’s link on Afropolitans, merci à vous.

Beverly from Afropolitans also keeps me regularly updated with the Kenyan crisis. This is what we have learnt and gathered thus far:

So, if you haven’t already done so, please sign the petition. A few days ago it started at 5, it is now up to over 8000 signatures. We need more signatures to show that the international community is fully aware of the crisis and will not sit back and let this happen – not in Kenya, and not ANYWHERE in the world. The fighting is already quelling, so let’s keep the pressure on so that it stops altogether, and a realistic and peaceful resolution can be achieved swiftly.

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.

pilfered from Uncle Beefy

Who doesn’t love a quote? Pia obsession confession #1: Quotes. If someone gives me a book of quotes that’s it, anything I was doing goes out the window and I am stuck in that book until I get to the last quote. I am truly obsessed by them – I mean, they are tiny little pieces of art are they not? They make you think, question, ponder, wonder, and instantly fly you someplace else. And what’s more, if you have one of those freakish abilities with memory you can pull them out of your head to really bring home your story at your next dinner party. Instead, my story finishes with something like this, “and yeah you know, it is just like that guy said, you know, that guy, his name starts with an S, you know, everyone knows him! Anyway, he said something like, ‘fish with a man and you eat with…’ no no hang on, it’s ‘be a fish and eat for a day’ I mean no, sorry, it’s…). By then everyone’s eyes have rolled so far into the backs of their heads that I am surrounded by a table of zombies grappling to fill up their wine glasses to dull the pain.

Actually I’m wondering now whether the eye rolling just starts the moment I start a story, not necessarily when I end it. Hmm. Food for thought.

Anyhoo, I stumbled upon Uncle Beefy’s cool blog who then lead me to Compendium, a Seattle based company who’s mission is this: “To inspire, educate, motivate and celebrate the world we love and live in. We will strive to set an example of hope, passion, and creativity in everything we do—from the products and programs we create, to the ways we can make a difference for our clients, customers and community.”

Right on! Love finding companies with these goals. From what I understand, they are the guys who make all those journals and books, and postcards with cool quotes. You will have noticed already that I love to throw in a quote or two in my stories (like in Handy Hints numbero uno), and I have already a list of some great French ones I’ve learnt that I will be sharing with you so you can show them off at your next dinner party (I will try to give some pronunciation tips too, so you don’t look like a complete fool to the guest who’s secretly fluent in French). But for now, I will leave you to ponder this oldy-but-a-goody, you may even be able to find a slot for it at tonight’s soirée…