Little brothers graduation

Today was my brothers graduation from high school. It was a long ceremony, many performances, and speeches, and 180 odd boys to send out into the wider world. I must say the performances were lovely, especially one in particular. An incredibly talented year 12 boy played a piano piece that he presumably transcribed himself from a number of pop songs. It was really wonderful. 

Not the greatest photos of the graduation, sadly my camera was being extremely uncooperative. But he still looks lovely.

I just adore this dress, i feel so sexy and comfortable in it. I eyed it and eyed it on etsy, and kept resisting it, and when i finally decided to buy it i realized it had sold. I was so sad, i moaned to Ellen about it a number of times, i regretted not snapping it up immediately. And then guess what? I looked into my cupboard one day, and there it was, in the blue dress section. And i smiled, a big grin, realizing that Ellen had sneakily bought it for me as a treat.

I finally wore it for the first time today, it was a perfect graduation dress, everyone loved it. :) Thanks Elle!!!

Petunia
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A splash of colour

This weekend was absolutely delightful. Such amazing sunny, warm weather, 26 degree heat, clear skies, and a beautiful city to enjoy. I had lunch with my friend Sophie at Icebergs, the North Bondi swimming club. The view was stunning, wish i had taken my camera with, and the food was tasty. This is my super cute new dress which i've been unable to wear due to it's length. I finally hemmed it, and figured what a perfect dress to celebrate the new warm weather.

Dress: Dear Golden Vintage

Necklace: Vinnies

Shoes: Some strange shop in Hong Kong

Cat: my sweet 3 legged kitty Catastrophe

Petunia x

Pretty in pink

It seems our lovely little gardenia bush decided to bloom early this year. I think it got confused by the sudden spurt of hot weather we had a week or so ago. Anyway, i decided to take advantage of such a lovely backdrop.

Dress: Abercrombie and Fitch, bought on ebay

I really love this dress. I wore it to uni last week when it was really warm, and i got so many lovely compliments. 

Petunia

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3 days of birthday!

Here's that birthday post i promised. I was spoiled absolutely rotten all weekend, it was a really lovely birthday. 

On Thursday i had a nice family dinner at Kam Fook. It's a birthday tradition in our family to pick a restaurant or a meal, and i was dying for Peking duck. It was a lovely dinner, plenty of silliness and giggling, especially over the fortunes in our fortune cookies. Ellen has a trick, you just add 'in bed' to the end of your fortune, and suddenly they become hilariously pornographic and strange. 

That's my gran, mom and dad, i guess that might be obvious. Can you see the family resemblance?

On the Friday night Ellen spoiled me entirely rotten. She took me to Opera Bar for dinner, we had a lovely share platter. They really know how to cook, the food was delicious, and surprisingly filling for a share platter. Then she took me to the opera to see La Boheme. Oh my goodness, what an amazing opera, especially for my first live opera experience. After the opera Ellie took me to possibly my favorite restaurant, Pony, for desert. I had an apple tart with vanilla ice-cream and caramel sauce. It was amazing. Ellen had a tasty chocolatey fondant type desert, also amazing. 

Last of the birthday spoils was a lovely lunch with my friends. Have to say Bondi Social may be painful to book with, but their food is really wonderful. They have a share plate menu, and really you just pick a bunch and tuck in, and everyone gets a taste of everything. 

The lovely Mel and Bianca.

Me and my bestie Ali.

The pretty Alex, Ellen and Elyse.

So there you have it, 3 days of celebration, 3 days of food, fun and friends and well presents, but they don't start with f.

Petunia
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Mmm birthday cake

It was my birthday on the 25th of August and so i celebrated with my lovely family. We had Peking Duck which i absolutely adore, and a birthday cake made by yours truly. Yes it is a little unorthodox to bake your own birthday cake, but i am the baker in the family, and happened to have a free day. Besides i can hardly think of anything better than making myself a birthday cake everyone, including myself, will enjoy. 

Below is the recipe, which i really do suggest you try. It makes such a fantastically moist sponge cake, really delicious. Don't be alarmed by the batters watery consistency. It is significantly thinner than most cake batters, and i think it is this quality that makes it such a moist cake. You will need:

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup butter (salted is fine)
2 cups all-purpose flour (i used gluten free flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Beat the eggs until they thicken and turn a creamy yellow. Add sugar and vanilla and beat.

In a bowl sift together dry ingredients, add egg mixture. 

Heat milk and butter in a saucepan or microwave, and add to the batter. Beat until combined. 

Pour into a greased cake tin, and bake. I cannot give an exact baking time as i didn't manage to time the cooking. It takes at least 40 minutes, but perhaps test the center with a skewer, and remove from oven when it comes out clean.

In separate saucepan add 1/2 cup water, 1 cup caster sugar, and a box of frozen (or fresh if available) raspberries. You can use a number of fruits for this section, apples, blackberries, strawberries ect. Simmer on low until the raspberries soften and form a syrupy sauce. 

Once the cake has cooled slice in half and the fill with whipped cream and the cooled raspberry syrup. No need to strain the syrup unless you really feel the need.

Place cake halves together, sprinkle with icing sugar and serve.

Petunia

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Cemetery Sunday

My apologies for such a long break. I get distracted so easily, and find so little time to post my entries. But here i am, and here is a post about a lovely exploration of Bronte cemetery with Ellen.

Yes, i am pretending to be a weeping angel from Dr. Who. I couldn't help myself, that episode is just so fantastically creepy.

Ellen and i had such a lovely Sunday. We bought fish and chips and a deep fried mars bar down at Bondi Beach, and drove up to the cemetery to enjoy them. Naughty but tasty. 

Petunia

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Elyse's 21st

I do believe i forgot to post this entry about a month ago. Can you tell i've been stressed? Oops. Well here it is, a post on the second 21st i attended last month, one of my other best friends, Elyse.

This is the birthday girl and her very cute cake (made by the same talented lady that made my 21st cake- aka her mom). The cake has cyanide and happiness comics. 

Yes we are strange creatures.

Two of my besties being silly and dancing the night away.

Isn't my wife pretty? (ok so not actually my wife, just my bestest best friend in the whole world). 

I love this dress, from Max and co. Can you tell i have a thing for blue lately? I can't help myself, i just find blue so enticing, and so calming to wear.

And of course the lovely Elle in a gorgeous vintage dress.

Just a photo showing silliness and fun.

It was a really fun night, a beautiful location down at the Italian Village at the rocks. The food was tasty, the cake was SO yummy. And i had a lovely time catching up with friends i hadn't seen in ages. 

*Petunia*

Mmmm scones

Many many apologies, i know it's been a month since my last post, but it has been a crazy busy month filled with assignments. But i am back, and with a delectable recipe for those who love scones. This recipe is not a traditional scone recipe, but i found that it resulted in fluffy, morish scones. Enjoy!

4 cups of self-raising flour
1 or 2 tbls caster sugar
1 cup thickened cream
1 cup milk
2 tsps vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees, line baking tray with baking paper.

Sift dry ingredients into a bowl.

Mix wet ingredients in a pouring jug, stir and combine with dry ingredients. When the mixture forms a doughy texture, pour onto a cold surface and kneed gently until smooth.

Roll the dough out and use a round cookie cutter to make 12 even scones. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the scones have a golden brown tinge.

Serve them steaming hot with whipped cream and really tasty jam (my preference is raspberry), honey or syrup. Absolutely delicious!

Hope you enjoy, i certainly did!!!

*Petunia*

Under the sea...

I couldn't resist titling this post with a line from one of my favorite Disney songs, as corny as that may be. And besides, this post is indeed about the sea, a 21st with a sea theme in fact.

The party was absolutely delightful, people were so brilliantly dressed up, and the venue was really lovely. Originally i thought my best friend had lost the plot when she settled on an ocean theme in the middle of Autumn. But the venue was sufficiently heated, and delightfully decorated with blow up pineapples, beach balls, and fishing nets.

Below is the cake, which was made by the wonderful mother and step father of the birthday girl, and is one of the many cakes in the birthday cake edition of Woman's Weekly. It was DELICIOUS, a vanilla sponge with a meringue and boysenberry filling. Moist and creamy and mmmm.

I was very happy with my outfit choice for this party, i think i chose quite well. I stuck to the theme but managed a sexy/elegant look (hopefully). The dress was a teal 70's maxi dress from Tractordog Vintage, and the shoes are Tsubi (i paid a grand total of $40 at the Bondi Beach markets). I went as the ocean, with strips of green satin cut into seaweed shapes pinned into my hair, a shell around my neck and pearls on my fingers. It was fun.

The gorgeous blond lass on the right is my best friend Alice, and the birthday girl, dressed as a very sexy mermaid in a 70's skirt and a bikini top hand made by her gran.

Petunia

x

Stanly St Station

I have to give this restaurant two thumbs up for food, atmosphere and drinks. The exterior is simple enough, the interior relaxed and homely, neither really do justice to the delicious wholesome goodness of the food. I've eaten there twice now and i have every intention of going back again. And i know Elle agrees with me, and she's eaten there far more.

We started off with some very strong cocktails. A classic mohito for me and a chin chin for Ellie. Tasty to say the least.

Onto the mains which were both superb. I had the sirloin steak with creamy mash, crisp green veges and a peppercorn juis. Elle had the chicken Kiev with crispy kipfler potatoes, wilted baby spinach and mushroom and brie stuffed chicken. Really and truly they were two delicious dishes.

We finally finished with dessert, of course. A panacota with raspberry compote and vanilla bean ice-cream for myself, and homemade mango ice-cream with raspberry compote for Elle. The panacota was smooth and creamy and perfectly balanced by the tart raspberries. Ellie's mango ice-cream was rich and fruity, you could taste real mango rather than mango flavoring.

I'll leave you with something really very funny. It's the sign outside the restaurant. Just brilliantly dry. And of course our smiling faces after a brilliant meal.

Petunia
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