Friday in the country

I headed out to the country today to hang out with my friend Heather, of Missing Goat. It was her official opening! After months of hard work, she opened the door to her "shack" filled with fabulous, jams, chutneys and garlic. Yum. Naturally, Lily, Heather's daughter, was in her blueberry glory. Speaking of blueberries, they won't be ready for another couple of weeks. If you're in the Metro Vancouver area, I highly recommend a trip to Missing Goat!

By the way, congratulations to all the winners of the big giveaway at Flourish Design + Style! The winner of one of my prints is Shannon of whatsupwhimsy.com - she chose "Pink" (below).

I think I need to have a g + t and give myself a bit of a pedicure. My feet are definitely not summer ready.

Enjoy your weekend! See you Monday.

Baked on Monday

Hope all you had a great weekend!

I'm off to a late start today, as I have a surprise guest - my 11 year old nephew Jake! He's going to hang out with me today, so I thought he should help me bake.  Then I will get him to clean the toilets ;)

Apple Cupcakes - makes about 24
(I think this is a Donna Hay recipe)

250g butter, melted
1 1/4 cups superfine (called berry sugar in Canada) sugar
4 eggs
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon for dusting

for caramelised apples:
40g butter
1/3 cup superfine sugar
3 granny smith apples peeled, cored and thinly sliced

whipped cinnamon icing:
500g butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

To make the caramelised apples, place the butter and sugar in a large pan over low-medium heat and stir until dissolved. Add the apples and cook for 10 minutes or until caramelised. Remove apples from pan and cool completely.

Preheat oven to 320F/160C. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and creamy. Gradually add the eggs and beat well. Sift over the flour and baking powder and beat until combined. Don't over do it. Fold in the milk and spoon mixture into two 12-hole cupcake tins lined with paper cups. Top with apples and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a bamboo skewer comes out clean. Cool on wire racks.

To make the whipped cinnamon icing, place the butter in the bowl of a mixer and beat for 5 minutes. Add the sugar and cinnamon and beat for another 10 minutes or until light and creamy. Ice cupcakes with a palette knife and dust with cinnamon. Now eat immediately!!!

Try to wait until they cool, even just a bit, to avoid injury....it's hard to do.

I know, I shouldn't have let him have two, but I'm the Auntie. We can do that.
Have to start thinking about the next Baked On Monday....what to bake? Hmm.

Check out Poppytalk for a fun "day in the country" story I shot with Heather at Missing Goat and Jan of poppytalk. Lots of fun!

Have a lovely day!

Deck the Halls

I can't believe how fast this past week has gone. Where did it go? Since my last post, I've worked with my friend Heather on web images for Missing Goat, shot a bathroom with Nancy Riesco for House and Home. (yes, I have a glamorous life), and finally wrapped up my new promo piece (merci, Rob).

As we head into the weekend, I thought I'd get you all into the "deck the halls" spirit. This lovely home is featured in the current Canadian House and Home magazine. I shot this story last Christmas.  How time flies. Homeowner, Darci, is co-owner of the Cross , a beautiful home store here in Vancouver. They have recently launched their new website and online shop.

By the way, thanks so much to all of you lovely bloggers for your helpful hints regarding my "upholstery fairy" post. It's all underway, so I'll be posting the makeovers soon.  Looking forward to catching up with all of your blogs, over the weekend!

Not Much of a Gardener

Just got home from a long day of shooting product. Back hurts from my improper photography stance. To make myself feel better, I'm eating some Missing Goat cardamom peach jam all by itself, right out of the jar. Wow. It's quite incredible.  

I've mentioned that I'm not much of a gardener, and either is my husband. When the Mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson, decided that city hall needed a community garden, I thought we should have one too.  I discovered it is not an easy project (for us anyway!). 

We have a tiny back yard, so the vegetable patch is really tiny. When I planted two scrawny, and almost dead, tomato plants I had no idea they would grow so tall.  They are as tall as me, when I pick up a branch (is that the correct terminology?) from the ground.  I didn't provide any support for these poor tomato plants, but they still seem to be doing ok as there are heaps of pear tomatoes all over it.  It's a tangled mess though.  Beets and carrots look like they might eventually become edible too.  Fingers crossed. 

I took a couple of quick shots of the city hall garden, and a few from our garden.  Any helpful gardening tips would be welcomed! 

A beet, isn't it?

A tangled mess of pear tomatoes

Vancouver City Hall community garden

Renee, tending her garden at City Hall