sunday nights starting 27 march..

i'm so excited about boardwalk empire. sunday nights i used to watch miss marple. she has since finished and all i can say is bring on HBO's latest masterpiece. 

book club

So a group of friends and I have started a book club and we are hopefully meeting for the first time this weekend. We are going to get an idea of the type of books that we want to read and the also the type of meetings that we want to have.

I'm not really a traditional kinda girl so i think we are all going to run riot with whacky ideas for adventures of the 20 something book club. 

We are trying to decide what to start with, I was thinking it may be nice to do the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society or Kathryn Stockett's The Help. 

I love books and movies that are set in the south of America. I love reading about the history and the food, the clothes and also the landscape. I read a great article in this months Vanity Fair (which is an amazing issue by the way) about 'Atlanta's Literary Sorority'. 

I was delighted to discover that "The Help" is being made into a movie by Dreamworks, called 'Kitty'. According to the article Kathryn Stockett, on the far right, is one of many young southern writers that is returning home to her roots to write about her heritage. In this article the author mentions a book written by his wife, Susan Rebecca White, called Bound South of similar subject matter. Not only does this book seem up my street, but I like the idea that all these women are writting about what the know and love, thier home and history. 

I'm not sure yet if they all have Stockett's candor about the issues that plagued the south for a long time, but if her beautiful book is anything to go by, I think that we will have a lot to keep us occupied.  

scout

its that time of the season when you start to think about what you  need to buy for the next. as the stores start to fill with all the new winter looks i have started thinking about my inspiration for this season. obviously i'm loving the gorgeous femininity in karen walker's collection but i'm also being inspired by my summer reads and viewing. i have always loved to kill a mockingbird and i watched the movie again just recently, so i thought that i would add it to my book pile and also take some inspiration from scout. i love the tomboy look, all i need to find now is a pair of overalls. oh and go climb a tree

karen walker love

so my favourite season is around the corner, autumn and here come the new collections. i have fallen in love with this karen walker look and i'm on the hunt for it.  

thank you mum.

unfortunately i have been unwell, i seem to have picked up a wretched virus in my travels. what makes this even worse is that its rather hot at the moment. i have a fever and when its nearly 40 degrees outside and inside your body its easy to start acting crazy. fortunately i no longer have an office to work in, otherwise i would be desperately trying to get better, spurred on by the terror of my rising in tray. it has actually been nice to slow down and my wonderful mum has been so good to me. she has taken care of me and made sure that all my favourite drinks and weird food requests were met. i knew there was a reason that i hadn't left home just let. i guess this little entry is just to say thank you mum, i love you because you always make me feel better.

taking sydney and oprah

My dear friend Odette was one of the lucky ones that won tickets to Oprah's Show when she was here in December for her Ultimate Adventure. I was her very lucky plus one! 

We flew out to Sydney from Perth on the Sunday night and arrived in Sydney the following morning, very early. We took a cab to the city and arrived at our hotel, we stayed in the Rocks so we could walk to the Opera House on the day. 

From the hotel we went straight to our ticket collection! 

After getting our mysterious Green and White bands we embarked on our adventure for the day, starting with exploring the CBD and doing some light shopping. That night we had a booking at Aria. 

Dinner was delicious. The company even better, thank you Odette. 

As we made our way back to the hotel from the restaurant it was clear to see that things were gearing up for Oprah. 

The next morning was Oprah morning. We rose early and joined the hundreds, thousands of people that were making there way to the Oprah House as they affectionately were referring to it.

The line gently ambled towards the Oprah House as everyone around shared their stories about where they were from, who won the tickets and I wonder, who will be the guests on our show. Of course everyone speculated as to what gift, if any Oprah would be giving out. 

I was quietly confident that we would be getting a Kailis Pearl. My Nana had seen it on the news on Sunday night and had rung my dad immediately to tell him to let me know. 

As we waited in line Oprah drive by and the whole line started screaming, imagine 2500 screaming women and men. It was rather intense, she leaned out the window and told us all how much she loved Australia and was looking forward to the show. That is when it all got exciting. 

Odette and I worked our way through the security and to our very amazing seats, three rows from the front, behind the Rabitohs. We were both so surprised and thrilled. 

Oprah was great, I realised why I use to love her so much. I really went off her for a while because she didn't change her formula. Then the way that she engaged the audience in the ad breaks and spoke about her life and when asked where Steadman was, replied 'we don't travel together for work, we don't really talk about work, we kept our work and life separate'. It was so nice how candidly she spoke with us and laughed with us, she was so engaging, thank you Oprah. 

When the show finished we all got up eager to get out of the sun that was now high in the sky. We all left together and chatted about our beautiful new necklaces and what else we were doing in Sydney. 

The guys that we were sitting next to left in a super hurry, running off to catch planes for work. One of them had to be in Melbourne for a meeting at 2.30. It was 12.30 at this point, I hope he made it?

Odette and I headed off for lunch as we walked out we saw the afternoon line and all the press interviewing them, as they did us that morning. We met one journalist who had flown down from upper NSW and had been lucky enough to get a last minute ticket. She stood in the line from 2am that morning and waited with all the strangers. Wow I was tucked up nicely in my hotel bed, dreaming about the day ahead!

We also met a group of teenagers that had done the same, they were in starbucks getting some caffeine and using the amenities, they were standing room only and hadn't slept, eaten or drunk properly for nearly 36 hours, I call that dedication.


What was apparent from this whole experience was the fun that comes from something like this. It was also so nice to see strangers all together, chatting and excited about the adventure ahead. Nobody knew anyone, but we will forever have one thing in common... Oprah.  

All in all we had a ball. Thank you Oprah and your wonderful team!

Guess where I have been?

sunday lunch

On sunday we took a trip down to Mandurah to have lunch with a family friend. Ivan is the Executive Chef at M on the Point, the outpost for the Subiaco Hotel in Mandurah. We were so lucky to be treated to one of Ivan's lunches, it was incredible.

We started with sardines on toast, and chatter. Followed by a truly decadent crab mousse with lobster bisque for the entree.

We then had duck a l' orange with creamy  dauphinoise   potatoes and a gorgeous fresh rocket salad. 

What was so nice, was that we sat around for hours chatting about Ivan's amazing european adventures and food  that we love. There was no reason to hurry. I think that we spend so much  time being 'busy' and 'hurried' that we forget to enjoy the simple pleasures  of life, like food and good friends.

Then before we could even think about what we wanted next, Ivan brought out dessert, the most decadent lemon posset with a crisp shortbread and strawberries on the side. Finished off with coffee it was the most perfect end to a beautiful lunch. 

It was a lovely afternoon and a perfect way to spend a Sunday.  Thank you Ivan for your hospitality and all the time and effort that you put into creating such a gastronomic delight. Cant wait for the next time!

the absentee blogger

 it has been a while since i have posted anything on my blog. Today i have been looking back over my favourite blogs and what they have been up to. There have been some amazing christmas posts and some really gorgeous NY ones.

I posted back in early December about how excited i was about the thanksgiving that we were hosting that night and have been MIA ever since. Well to fill you in we had 16 people for thanksgiving.   Dad set the table beautifully and mum and i prepared the food. 

We had a great night drank some beautiful champagne and wine. Enjoyed stories about the year, so far and chatted about what we had planned for the festive season. 


I think back to having thanksgiving in Minnesota in 2008. My room mate kindly invited me home to celebrate with her family, I had a great time. We got up early and prepared the turkey with her mum. I set the table for her family, which was so much fun. Then our friend Adam joined us as he was in Minnesota working on the vote counting for the election that had just happened. 


Although we are not American and I understand the roots of thanksgiving. I think that it is such a perfect opportunity to get together with people that you love and show them that you are thankful for their support, kind words, love and friendship. Plus everyone loves to eat and its such a wonderful thing to cook for others.

happy thanksgiving

We are doing thanksgiving tomorrow night, i know that thanksgiving was over a week ago, but we were all working and we wanted to be able to get into it and be relaxed. 

I'm very excited to post my photos from the night. Here a few from around the www that have inspired me.

 

I love these blue plates by Iittala, they are so whimsical and so perfect for a decadent party. They stock these in Table Culture in Subiaco. I think that I may have to check these out for my next dinner adventure.

Have a great weekend. xx

images courtesy of luster (top) and cup of jo.