New York - ICFF

Back from New York with a few blisters, but had a great time despite my shredded feet. Still have some images on my lap top, and won't be able to grab them until my computer is fixed, so for now here are some sights at the ICFF in New York.  This is a fair size list!

Tom Dixon had a "Flash Factory" (debuted in Milan) where "factory workers" assembled Etch, a brass and stainless steel light and candle holder.

I didn't get back to get a shot of their booth but this company, Snow Peak, was one of my favourites at the show. It's been around for decades. Since I love camping, I might just invest in some of the pieces.

Timorous Beasties is a company out of Scotland. You have to check them out.  I love the lamp shades and wallpaper.

I've always loved Deborah Bowness, so it was great to meet her. She was shy, so I didn't force her to be in the pic! Love this wallpaper.

I know, you've seen them a million times, but I will always love Eames chairs. They were showing the new colours. They make me happy. We saw Eames Demetrios, Charles and Ray Eames' grandson, speak at ABC Carpet and Home. Cool guy, but more on him later!

Fun collection of candle holders, lamps, vases and mirrors. The Parrot Party Collection is by Lladro Atelier.

Hand blown glass light fixtures by Caleb Siemon. Beautiful colours.

Kerf Design creates custom cabinets and furniture that can be installed or you can do it yourself. Love the colours they use. They had a cute kitchen set up that had a vintage look. Sorry, don't have a pic of that, but do check out their site.

Hanna Tonek Bonnett is adorable, and so is her work. Her 'saga' vases and tea cups are especially lovely. The vases are textured on the outside, printed on the inside. Click here for more info.

Metropolis is a fabulous publication and so was their "booth". An Airstream. It was a happy site.

I can't find my pics of the Molo booth, so I think they might be on my laptop. Oh well. Their booth was chosen "best booth" at the show. It was incredible. They're a Vancouver based group - yeah! Image from here.

I love Florence Broadhurst. She was a wallpaper designer from Australia and her designs are now in rug form. They are sold through Cadrys an Australian company. If you don't know about Florence, click here. Quite an incredible story.

That's it for now! I'm going to post some more NY pics on Friday. Have a good night!

Baked on Monday

Well, maybe. I know I didn't actually bake it. I'm still in NYC, my 2.5 year old MacBook Pro died and the recipe for my cake was on it. So I thought I'd post this pretzel until next Monday. It was pretty tasty, and I'm trying to look on the bright side as well as take my mind off the fact that my computer died at such a young age.  Grr. Apple, I'm mad at you.


Other than that little blip, it's been heaps of fun here in NY. Will post some pics of the ICFF on Wednesday. There was some pretty great stuff there. Until then, have a lovely day!

New York City

I was hoping to get so much more accomplished this week, but it's kind of flying by. I did manage to re-open my etsy shop, but still have many more images to add to it. I guess there's always next week.
I'm going to NYC tomorrow for the ICFF, so I plan to do a post while there. Looking forward to getting out of dodge for a bit.

Hope you all have a great rest of the week!

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!

Mom

This has been a crazy week, and now I feel like I've been shot out of a cannon. Ahh, the weekend is here though.

My mom, Edna (we call her Fast Eddie), is currently on a cruise somewhere around the Hawaiian islands, so she won't be here on Mother's Day. She's all by herself so I hope she meets a dashing, sexy, older gentleman! This post is dedicated to her.

Mom as a teen. A teen. I so did not take after her.

Mom has 7 of us, and had to raise us on her own when the youngest was only 1 year old. 5 girls, two boys. Yikes. I thought I had my hands full with a dog. She bravely took the entire lot of us camping every summer, and always helped out with school events. I can't imagine how many field trips she went on. One really only needs to "pan for gold" once, tops. One of my many childhood highlights was a "sex" talk using a book about how cats have their kittens. My poor mom! I'm still clueless.

Now mom works at one of our restaurants, Habit, and makes all the bloody delicious desserts. I think the job can be tough for her, but I know she loves all the staff and loves to be busy.

Mom, if you're reading this on board, Happy Mother's Day! We'll see you next week. Hope you like the caterpillar. Like all the pink glitter? What about those pipe cleaners? I made it today, just for you.  Remember those days when you loved our egg carton caterpillars? By the way, I have a 'real' present for you ;)

This picture is for all the moms out there. Happy Mother's Day!!

See you Monday for a new Baked On Monday. Have a good weekend everyone!

Baked on Monday

Did you all have a nice weekend? What did you get up to? Hope it was stress free and relaxing!

For this edition of Baked On Monday, I thought I'd introduce you to Orange Chocolate Chip cookies. The orange/chocolate combo is pretty hard to beat. Cannot leave them alone. You'll see for yourself.

Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies
(makes about 32)

2 cups of flour (self raising/all purpose)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup (or 4 oz) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 ricotta, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 large egg at room temperature
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together, in a medium bowl, until well blended.
With a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat the butter and ricotta on medium high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar, orange zest, and vanilla and beat until well blended, about 3 minutes. Scrape down sides of the bowl. On medium speed, add the egg and beat until blended. Pour in the chocolate chips and mix until just incorporated. Cover bowl and refrigerate until a little firmer, about 30 minutes.
Heat the oven to 350F/180C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or non-stick baking liner. Drop rounded tablespoons of batter on the baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake until a light golden colour, about 15 minutes. Let cookies cool on sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Enjoy!

These cookies never last long, but while they're around they hang out in this cute vintage Planters peanuts jar.

Not sure what next week's Baked on Monday will be. Maybe I'll try out a bar of some sort. Hmm.
Have a nice Monday!

Sweet May

Happy 1st day of May! I picked up the phrase above from my mom-in-law, Norma. Thought I should funktify (new word) it with some Japanese paper.

The start of May here in Vancouver, is sunny. Isn't that supposed to mean summer is right around the corner? Hope so.

Hope you all have a lovely and lazy weekend!

See you Monday for a new recipe. Hint: it contains a mix of chocolate and orange. Mmmm.