A Perfect Mess

What beautiful weather we've had. How was your weekend? I went to the markets to get my knives sharpened, buy some flowers, a bunch of rhubarb and some breakfast and the Finders Keepers were on...I did a quick lap and my faves were Emma Leonard (above) & The Story Book Rabbit.

More Apples

My favourite food in the whole wide world ever, is apples. When I moved to London I quickly discovered that fruit in London is nothing like it is here. Take for example, mangoes. In Australia, mangoes are bright orange and smell like heaven and sunshine and their juices drip down your chin and between your fingers. In London they're dull and dry. But apples, apples in London are crisp and cold and crunchy and there are so many varieties. It was there that I discovered Braeburns. Still my favourite followed by Pink Lady, Fuji, Royal Gala then Delicious. I grew up on Red Delicious and I loved them then. I'd have one every night after dinner for as long as I can remember. Now I have one everyday at 4pm, I crave one. In our household (no matter who I'm living with) when it comes to chatting about what to add to the shopping list, I always remember with surprise " Do you know what we need?"

"What?"

"More apples".

Obsessed w/ The Marche

Finders Keepers market / Toby's Estate coffee & Bird Cow Fish banana bread star cake

Doily topped stool / Bespoke Press (I bought some gorgeous letterpress tags)

Ever Dazzling, blog, etsy / Cool photos

Market flowers / TMod

I wish I spotted this bracelet when I was there. I did however manage to pick up one of Nikki's adorable prints. I was so scattered today...3 outfit changes before I left the house, sans camera (much to my chagrin), queues out the door at Campos and the new and unbelievably popular Luxe Espresso, no sign of an ATM for miles and after sitting in Centennial Park with my bestie for hours in the glorious May sun, I check the time only to find Mr's plane lands in 10 mins. No time for new nails and clean clothes, sweaty betty hotfoots it to the airport. So all up a bit frantic as a result of my absentmindedness (ok, stupidity) but I ended up with gifts for tomorrows christening and mothers day and flowers, lots and lots of flowers.

photos taken on my iPhone.

Vintage-By-The-Sea

I feel like I've been hiding away like a hermit over the last few weeks, but I did emerge to go to the Vintage By The Sea markets in Cronulla (3rd Sunday of every month), where I bought this tiny tea cup for $12 and these pink lidded spice jars for $1 each. Adorable.

Finders Keepers

The Finders Keepers market was a few weeks ago now but I can't get Gretchen Hillhouse's porcelain jewellery out of my head. She was wearing amazing chunky necklaces and informing people of the surprising strength of the material, oh to have an arm full of those grey wash bangles. Other faves were Victoria Mason's pencil shaving necklace, the tiny birds on the inside of Ruby & Scarlett stationary and the art of mother & daughter duo Mulberry Muse (French vintage paper products) and Tabitha Emma (handcrafted textiles and art prints). It was on in conjunction with the Farmers' Markets so lovely coffee and nutmeg & zucchini bread and a the new Vogue Entertaining made a fine start to the day. The ladies pictured here were wearing my two favourite outfits of the day.

Images by me except row 3: jewellery from Gretchen's website.

Finders Keepers

Join me this weekend in checking out this cool little market featuring emerging designers and artists from Sydney and around Australia. See you there.x

Bazaar & Bizarre

Bazaar: The beautiful new weekly farmers' markets are housed on one side of the tracks of a heritage listed ex-railway workshop. On the other side is Carriageworks - an industrial, peely-paint warehouse space containing an art gallery, cafe and performance space. Pop over to my food blog for more details and images.

Bizarre: When I looked through the window into the Carriageworks building there was a bizarre giant deflated fluorescent pink bear and black & red balloons hanging from the rafters. Not one for being unfamilar with the wrong side of the tracks I ventured in - I promise to post these pics soon - I was amazed. To top off the bizarreness of the weekend, on a leisurely Sunday morning stroll along the esplanade at Cronulla Beach, there I was, minding my own business and what passes me but a family on penny farthings - I kid you not - dressed in all their olden day finery - even the little boy was on a mini penny farthing in a matching tie and waistcoat to his dad and all peddalling along wearing dead straight faces. Bizarre.

a little girl on her dad's shoulders : 'sold' hydrangeas
roses : the market's back wall

breakfast: banana streusel muffin & Toby's Estate coffee on the pages of Gourmet Traveller : a Sonoma baguette is taken from the basket

All images by concrete & honey - more images posted at Urban Nectar.