CAMO MEETS COUTURE IS ONE

When it comes to remembering dates and anniversaries, I am the absolute worst. Naturally when {camo meets couture} one year mark rolled by it completely slipped my mind. And just like that this little blog is now one years old.

I first started {camo meets couture} on a whim but never in my wildest imagination thought I'd still be here blogging today. What could I possibly have to write about week after week, and who in their right mind would even want to read it? What began as a way out of my creative void has now very much become a way of life. I am so ever thankful for the wonderful opportunities and friends this blog has brought forth.

This past weekend the family and I found ourselves in a most remarkable location. A yellow sea of rapeseed flowers as far as the eyes could see converging on the horizon with the most brilliant shade of blue. The very essence of Spring. It served as the perfect opportunity to put together a special little photoshoot to commemorate {camo meets couture} very first birthday.

Thank you all so much for the continued support, it means the world.

{ wearing : target blouse available instore only // asos skirt sold out but similar here and here // karen walker sunglasses // michael kors pumps // celine bag // michael kors watch // kookai belt }

Friday's Fancies

The weather has been so glum lately that the husband and I went ahead and purchased tickets to sunnier shores. We'll have to brave through the rest of this winter season first but it's great to have something to look forward to. I don't know about you, but I often find the lead up to a vacation just as exciting as the vacation itself. The last time I was in SoCal was almost three years ago (yikes), so if you have any tips on where to go and what to eat, send them through!

In my previous outfit post, a few of you asked about the leather wrap bracelet that I wore. Today I'm really excited to share a 10% discount for all {camo meets couture} readers at House of Gemmes. Simply enter the code CAMO10 at checkout and you'll be on your way to new additions to your arm party.

A teeny tiny vintage Speedy that now permanently belongs to the kids. My little ones love carrying it around on the crook of their arm almost as much as they love licking the little brass lock.

It's no secret that most fashion bloggers sit around in their PJ's and sweats while posting sartorial content online. While I can't say I don't do the same, I also see blogging as an excuse to crack open a bottle of red and enjoy some much needed alone time.

A new gold tray from Pier One that works great for housing my sunglasses collection. Up until now my sunglasses have lived inside their respective cases thrown into the deep abyss of my drawer. I love that this tray lends a little glamour to picking accessories. 

Since the playground has been out of the question this week, the girls and I went on a little adventure ride through some hilly streets instead. I'm not going to lie, I probably had as much fun as they did. 

Some pretty watercolours of iconic Melbourne landmarks that I brought back with me from a recent trip back home. Now to find a suitable location to house them. 

Friday's Fancies

Happy friday folks! And just like that February is almost over and what a crazy month it's been! New York Fashion Week, London Fashion Week, monster storm on the East coast, the launch of Vine App by Twitter, Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day and how can we forget Taco Bell's viva young commercial during the Superbowl. All of this in the shortest month of the year. I'm still reveling from my birthday celebrations and quite certain that I've already met my cake quota for the year.

So tell me readers, how did you spend your February?

Absolutely ecstatic when I received this little ray of sunshine in the mail from my mum and sister. Doesn't this butter yellow colour just conjur up images of cupcakes and lemon meringue? I can't help but envision trays and trays of pretty pastel cupcakes scattered across my kitchen floor while I'm standing by my new mixer with a spatula in one hand and the tail of my Marchesa in the other. Is it obvious how much of a Tim Walker fan I am? 

As if splurging on a little birthday treat wasn't enough. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened my mail to find the sweetest little thank you note from the wonderful staff at Nordies. That just goes to show, true style stems from the heart.

Throwing my first brunch of the year with ample sweet treats and sushi. None of which are very brunchy but together makes up the perfect feast, a healthy main followed by decadent dessert. Oh and let's not forget the most important component of brunch- champagne! 

I don't know why people frown upon child labour. Little hands are wonderful for peeling garlic! These little pungent balls of fun have been wonderful at keeping my kids entertained for no end. All of a sudden my little energizer bunnies are transformed into focused little workers.

By now every blogger I know has now some form of Prabal Gurung for Target in their closet. When you look at it you understand why it was such a popular collection. Punchy graphics in wearable styles at an affordable price, this may just be the best designer collab Target has put together. For me, the best part was the shoes. Every style was a nod to it's designer doppleganger making it affordable to achieve runway looks for the every girl.  I only wish they didn't sell out so fast. 

Valentine's Greeting

Happy Valentine's Day readers! Thank you for all the love you've shown this little blog throughout the past year. I just love sharing with you my inspirations, ideas and general musings. I don't say it often enough, but thank you so much for visiting and I hope you've enjoyed your stay. Here's a little something from my home to yours. xo

Just in case you were interested in putting together your own little photo shoot, I've included some pics of the backdrop setup below. Everything you see here cost me a total of $6 and 20 minutes to make. The hardest part (as any mother of tots) can attest to is making your kids stand still and cooperating. After a lengthy two hour teeth grinding ordeal, I gave up and settled on these pics. Sure, I couldn't get a decent pic of the two of them together, sure most of the pics turned out blurry and sure their eyes were closed in half of the shots. But little imperfections add character right? Or so I tell myself.

Friday's Fancies

Signing off early this week in preparation for Chinese New Year. I'm anticipating a day filled with frenzied cleaning and non-stop cooking in time for the traditional New Year's Eve feast on saturday. To anyone else out there celebrating, I hope your weekend is full of good food, good company and lots of red pockets (in the sense that you'll be receiving and not giving, ha!). Here's a few photos to sum up the week. Happy friday!

A new read my wonderful cousin sent over for my birthday, accompanied by the sweetest note. After a quick flip through and I am already mesmerized by Coco's photos and Karl Largerfeld's original drawings. 

Welcome to music city, Nashville. This is one of my favourite views of the city seen from the interstate. It's amazing what a glorious sunset does for the city and the soul. 

Absolutely in love with opaque white mani's lately. They not only match with absolutely everything, but is also flattering on all skin types and provides the perfect contrast to your outfit. The perfect non-colour, no? The colour here is Blanc by Essie. 

Highlight of this week was taking the kids to watch their dad parachute out of a c17. This was the first time they've gone to watch where they were actually aware of their surroundings. Needless to say, the rest of the day was filled with excited chatter about planes and parachutes and dad. 

I recently came across giant-sized Pocky at my local asian supermarket and let me tell you, my world has completely changed! 

Friday's Fancies

Happy friday friends! It's been a week of races (horse racing that is) here in this city. You may not know this, but it's kind of a big deal around here. Picture the Kentucky Derby with an Australian accent and it's very own public holiday! You heard me, apparently Australians take sporting so seriously that we've even created public holidays around them. Over here we call it the Melbourne Cup. I never did get around to placing a wager, but that was probably a good thing. Turns out the horse I was going to bet on ran slower this year because he put on a bit of weight. Ha, who knew horses could also commit gluttony. Aside from not attending Melbourne Cup, here's a few snaps from life this week.

An elegant and understated wedding invitation consisting of black ink on kraft paper with coloured twine and succulents. Just the look of this invite alone gets me excited. I love my friend's sense of style and can't wait to see all the details she's planned for her big day.  

My kids get in trouble big time when I catch them vandalising walls at home. I guess taking them around admiring street art probably doesn't help my cause. Maybe if their doodles resembled something like this then I wouldn't mind so much. 

Nothing says 'Australia' like pairing flip-flops (or thongs as we would call them) with everything. I think this photo pretty much sums up our approach to life i.e. relax and take it easy.

Would you prefer 1. green-tea cake with white chocolate ganache or 2. vanilla cake with elderflower icing and fresh strawberries or 3. lemon cake with layers of lemon curd and raspberries? These were just a few cakes my sister recently made for a cake tasting. Since I like to share so much, I'm going to steal her recipes to post on my blog. So tell me, which should I make?

My googly eyed, button nosed baby girl has officially graduated into a toddler. This week she stopped limping around like a zombie on stilts and now walks just like you and I. 

Friday's Fancies

Happy Friday! Hope everyone's been having a wonderful week. Mine has been eventful to say the least. This week I discovered that if your iPhone accidentally ends up in the washing machine it may not necessarily be the end of your world. Mine went through an hour of soak, wash and spin and amazingly came out alive. That's right, you heard me! After a day of charging, my iPhone miraculously came back to life, even my sim card was still operational. Talk about value for money! Here's a look at some of the other less eventful things that went on this week. 

Forget Pinterest, there's so much beauty in the mundane, one just has to open their eyes to see it. I cannot begin to describe how happy I get whenever I come across beautiful little details hidden amongst the everyday. It's little surprises like that, that lifts the human spirit. 

I bought my very first pair of Karen Walker sunnies back in 2004 and ever since then I've had a soft spot for her line. Enter 2012, the latest addition to my KW collection these quirky black, white and fluro yellow cat eye sunnies. When my mum first saw these she thought I was wearing a pair of movie theatre 3D glasses. I guess they're not for everyone. What do you think? 

Isn't everything so much better when it comes in little wooden crates? I came across this adorable vegetable stand at a local farmers market. And even though I wasn't in need of any root vegetables, the allure of the wooden crate was enough to draw me in and empty my pockets.  

This was how we spent last sunday. I think the girls were on that hammock for a good hour. Talk about low maintenance. 

Imagine biting into a delicious fresh baked pain au chocolat, except instead of chocolate you bite into a melted slab of toblerone! My sister introduced me to these delicious little pastries this week and I am hooked! Best part is, they are readily available for purchase at any supermarket. Well, that is unless they're sold out which happens more times than none. 

A Very Glittery First Birthday

It's monday and I have the post-party blues. This past weekend my baby girl had her very first birthday party. There was an abundance of pink, glitter, and red balloons. It was everything that a first birthday should be.

When it comes to throwing parties for the girls, I try to play super-mum and make everything myself. After all, hand-made is always better than store-bought, no? Everything that you see in the following pictures were either made by myself or my sister. I must also mention my mum who cooked two tables full of main dishes that I forgot to photograph (oops).

Seeing my two girls eyes light up that morning when they were greeted with hundreds of balloons and all the pretty food and decorations just made my day. It may have been my daughter's birthday but their giant grins were the best present I could ever receive. For anyone keen on planning their own party, full details at the bottom of the page.

 

 

DECORATIONS

- The gold fish scale feature wall was made from circles cut out of tissue paper then layered onto foam board. It may look impressive but it really took no more than three hours to make. 

- Tissue paper pom poms are my go-to party decor. They're inexpensive, easy to make and looks great. Here's a great tutorial.

- The glitter bunting was made with scrapbook paper and ribbons. I lined each flag with doubled sided tape and then applied glitter. The tape ensures a neat and uniform edge.

- For the Happy Birthday garland, I first printed the words on the computer then traced and cut them out of thick stock paper. The rest is pretty straight forward, glue, glitter and string up.

FOOD

- My wonderful sister (baker extraordinaire) kindly offered to bake the birthday cake. The bottom tier is a classic chiffon and cream cake. The chiffon was baked in three layers of different shades creating an ombre effect. The top tier was intended to be a smash cake for the birthday girl. The ruffles along with the cake toppers were all made from fondant. 

- My sister also made the gorgeous macaron cupcakes. Funny story, we actually started off with 150 macarons but after consuming almost the entire batch we had to use the remaining 15 as cupcake toppers. 

- One of my favourite ways to serve strawberries is with a little drizzle of balsamic reduction. You can find the recipe here in a previous blog post. 

- These donut brownies were inspired by a similar milk and cookies display I saw on Pinterest. I used mini donut pans to bake my brownies in but you could easily use a bit of foil for the same effect. 

- Luckily for me, pavlovas are readily available at the supermarket in all shapes and sizes here in Australia. All I needed to do was add a spoonful of double cream and a drizzle of passionfruit syrup. But if you're interested in making your own pav, I have a great recipe here. 

- No-bake cheesecakes are a fast and easy alternative to your regular baked cheesecake. Plus with this method you can go crazy with presentation. The white chocolate shards on the cheesecake have edible glitter and crushed macarons set in them. 

- Store bought shortbread is a lot less fragile than homemade which makes them much better as party food. Here I paired it with David Lebovitz chocolate fudge sauce. See here for a homemade version.

- The quintessential party food, fairy bread. No further explanation necessary.