Almond and orange florentines

Now these, are my kind of gluten free.  So good!

I've never attempted florentines before because I always imagined they'd be really difficult.  Not so.  Not even a little bit so.  They're not as pretty as they could be, but in my first run at anything I try to concentrate on not screwing up the taste and baking side of things over making them look pretty.  Pretty is for next time.  And because it didn't occur to me to press them into an 8cm dessert ring, which would probably have been even easier again, than coaxing them flat and into shape.  Duh, but oh well!  Live and learn.  The important thing to remember is that I have bicky awesomeness to go with my cuppa later.   

And on that note, I'm going to dash and have dinner (Briam that the husband made. Thank heaven he's home) so I can have dessert.

On the coffee table: Built for Caffeine by Ben Crawford

It's been a much longer break than I had hoped (we blame the husband - notice how it's exactly as long as he's been away?  Ergo, totally his fault), but what better way to come back and say Hi! (and grovel apologetically) than with a review of a very cool book.

Obviously, I want you to have this book, because you’ll love it.* 

And so ...

A cafe is my favourite space and as Ben travels New Zealand, taking us through the doors and into the heart of each of the 20 cafes that make up the careful selection of spaces in Built for Caffeine, he introduces us not only to that place you didn’t know about but also the people behind the concept, and through each page you get the feeling that you’re getting to know some very cool, very inspired Kiwis.

Ben captures the essence of each of the spaces beautifully, telling and showing us why, so often, our most loved cafes feel like an extension of home.  With each cafe, you see and read of possibility and how a little imagination goes a very long way to making something stand out as special.  Ben lends you his imagination too and his excitement is infectious, encouraging you to take it one step further and think beyond your design safe place.  It becomes an easy thing to envisage how you can bring the essence of these spaces into your own.

He also has, it turns out, a bit of a naughty sense of humour that sneaks onto the pages every now and again, just to check you’ve had as much caffeine as he has, and you’re still awake.

It’s an excellent feeling to pick up a book you’ve been looking forward to, and finding it even better than you’d hoped.  One of my favourite things about Built for Caffeine is how you feel like you’ve been introduced to each cafe, drawn into each space, by a good mate in the know.  It’s as though you’re there, sharing a coffee with Ben, and he’s right at your shoulder pointing here and there at the details, convincing you that the thing your hallway needs is a giant painting of a cartoon man in a bunny mask riding a banana (it really does.  Really).

It’s a book that will live on my coffee table for a long while because I love to pick it up, especially over a coffee, and go through its pages, or see what variations of an idea it’s sparked, are scattered amongst its pages.  And I do have ideas.  Far too many ideas, and a list of favourite spaces that I need to see in the flesh.  

 

*  You can buy it lots of places, but I went with direct from Beatnik Publishing, roughly the instant it was released. (Mighty Ape are always awesome too, and I posted this review to both Mighty Ape and Beatnik).

These were fun: Almond Fingers

Except, I made squares, not fingers.  I got it in my head that fingers would be far too ladylike and dainty and small when I was cutting them (I know, dainty and small are pretty much the same thing), and I wasn't having any of that, so I cut them into big ol' squares.  It wasn't until afterwards that I remembered about big ol' plumber sausage fingers.  Sausage finger almond fingers would be perfectly acceptable, so next time for that.  I think, having a meringue topping, fingers might be a bit less messy-crumbly than squares to eat, but really, having crumbs to hunt down on a plate isn't exactly a tragedy.  It's just a bit sad if you have guests that would judge you for licking the plate.  My advice?  Don't invite those sorts of people over.

I overbaked these horribly, but we still managed to eat them all, so even horribly overbaking didn't make them horrible as it turns out.  Yay!  The recipe said to bake 20 to 25 minutes, but actually, they were ready in 10.  I was completely disbelieving that my oven and the recipe could be so far out, so I spent 10 minutes dancing around the oven humming and haaring and second guessing myself (while they overbaked, dammit all), until I smelled that horrible smell of slice that's been just that little bit too long in the oven and bad words were said.  Still, as I said, we still ate them.  We're committed like that.

They were fun, and a different thing to make.  You roll out the short base, and pour/spread the meringue over top, sprinkle with almonds, then cut them up and put them onto the baking sheet pre-baking.  Getting them between the sheet I rolled them out on and the sheet I was going to bake them on took a bit of a delicate touch, but I managed to do the entire batch without disaster (until the aforementioned overbaking.  Sigh!).

I'm definitely making these again.  They were either from Ladies, A Plate by Alexa Johnston, or A Second Helping by the same author.  If I were less lazy, I'd walk across the room to the bookshelf to confirm which.  I think it was Ladies, A Plate.

Anyway.  Soooo .... yuuuum!  And magic with a cup of coffee.  Boom.

A few (more) of my favourite things

I'm fairly sure I did a favourite things post forever ago, so on that basis let's say I definitely did, and I've titled this post accordingly.  And of course, it doesn't really matter at all, other than me showing you some of my favourite stuff, so I'll just get on with that then.

Square black houses.  I couldn't tell you why they hold such a huge part of my heart, but they do.  It doesn't matter how horrible a house looks, if I imagine it being black and square, it's awesome.  Except for the new house that's been built on the waterfront around the corner.  That one is beyond redemption.  I need to take a picture and show you. 

I particularly love this square black house, because it's home.  (You're welcome to think I was trying to take the picture on an arty angle.  I was, a bit, and to show off the squareness, but mostly I was just trying to keep all the kid fingerprints and dog-shakeoff all over the lower windows out of the shot)

My Chan Luu bracelet.  This is one of those things that I shouldn't have bought, but I adored on sight and so I did.  Since I was a kid I've loved polished stones and other than my engagement and wedding rings, I don't wear jewellery, so this is the perfect piece for me.  Each of the faceted stones has been drilled and is strung into a channel setting, bound onto two strings of leather.  The colours are fabulous.  And it's clever and different and not at all fussy.  So much to love!

 

While I'm here, my Lucky Brand jeans and Standard Issue knitwear, also awesome.  I adore Standard Issue, and their stuff lasts forever.

Kohl & Cochineal Obsidian handbag.  I love design, and this piece is definitely a design to admire.  I've had it a few years and I swear I love it more now than I did the day I bought it.  It's a spectacular size so a wee bit prone to bashing people accidentally, but I forgive it everything always.

Successful expirments in the kitchen.  These are afghans.  Minus the chocolate icing and walnuts.  With dark brown sugar instead of the usual soft brown sugar.  And only a small amount of cocoa, but a whole lot of grated dark cacao.  I love the colours in them.

Smudgey fingerprints on an almost empty bicky jar.  That means the kids are happy.  In turn, that makes me happy.

Finding good quality, natural skincare that won't burn my face off or cost me an absolute fortune is a whole lot harder than you'd think.  For the last few years, I've been bringing in Kora Organics from Australia.  I adore Kora, but the shipping fee alone was AUD$30.  I couldn't justify the cost, other than that it was an awesome product and awesome products are hard to come by.  Tricky.  Then one day I was reading a blog that praised The Herb Farm products, so thought, what's there to lose?  So I tried them, and fell head over happy, happy heels.

A super hasty shot of our last ever Chairman Mao pizza from our favourite pizza place that closed down during the week (hoisin sauce, pork belly prepared for 14 days, capsicum, baby corn, water cress, Lebanese bread ... nom).  I was trying to hold off the husband so there wasn't much time.  I have the saddest face ever that I'll never have this pizza again.

And there you have it.  A few of my favourite things, while I wait for a raspberry chocolate mudcake to do its thing in the oven.  Assuming success, pictures will follow.  Oh yes, they will follow.  They may be pictures of a half decimated cake, judging by the smell in the kitchen at the moment, but you know, a picture is a picture.

A day with Petite Kitchen

I'm trying to be really determined and keep up the initial burst of enthusiasm I had over simple, healthy eating (which is actually a euphemism for everything-free).   I know that it's better for my endometriosis because the daily symptoms I have of the disease either reduce significantly or I have days free of some or all of them altogether.  Still, even with that motivation, it's going about as well as you'd expect. 

The butter and the sugar calls to me.  And I possibly holler back ... C'mon over!  Have a coffee!  Put your feet up!  You'll love it here, really you will!  Stay as long as you want!!

I did though, spend a day making Petite Kitchen recipes as I do honestly work on healthier eating habits, and making some changes (like not being a piglet.  I think that's a good, achievable place to start.  Most of the time.).  And learning to cook actual food. 

And then I made a cake full of cream and sugar.  Heh.

So, my day with Petite Kitchen went a little something like this.  Actually, a lot this this.  Pretty much exactly like this.

'White chocolate' and raspberry almond muffins.  Breakfast, because I figured ground almonds, eggs, coconut oil, honey and raspberries, why on earth not?  I tried giving one to the husband.  He was horrified, and went off and made a banana cake for himself.

Dinner.  I know a roast chook is a roast chook, but these veges are ridiculously pretty so you get a photo of them.

 

My triumph!

 

 

Dessert. Creamy coconut chia seed breakfast pudding.  This is so much more noms than you'd imagine.  Especially looking at that photo.  The picture in her book looks much more lovely and creamy, and actually creamy in colour, but I added cinnamon into mine.  Hence the beige.  Plus I think I went a bit heavy on the chia seeds.  Both the husband and I are fans of this one though.

Raw chia seed jam (blackberry).  Horrible photo, sorry.  It was getting a bit late and the light was crap.

Chewy oat and jam slice, which, incidentally, became breakfast the next day and it was yum!  Nut butter, chia seed jam, coconut and rolled oats ... I'm fast becoming a big time fan of baking I can have for breakfast.  And that also solves the problem I had with this baking in that it doesn't necessarily last as well in the tins as traditional butter-and-sugar baking and you seem to eat less so there was an unhappy level of waste. 

aaaand lemon cream cake (Hungry and Frozen).  No breakfast here.

Building love

I have a fascination with coloured glass panels in residential buildings.  Something about them reminds me of libraries and old abandoned industrial buildings with the windows painted in, though I couldn't tell you if that's the beginning or the end of my fascination.  Or even a great part of it at all.  I do love them though.  Maybe it's an echo of possibility in these buildings more than in others that strikes me .

More so than anything else, I always wonder what people were thinking when they put panels like these into a building.  Not in a 'Are you mad?' way, obviously.  But it's quite a specific choice, in my mind.  Brick, block, board and batten, weatherboard, corrugated iron, concrete, even expanses of clear glass ... any of them, and any combinations of them often, can be used to amazing and admirable effect but for whatever reason they just don't provoke the same immediate reaction in me.  

Did someone just want coloured panels?  Do they have a vision for the future of the building? What is it?  Are they making a statement about the environment in which it will sit for many years to come? Is it pure fun?  Did someone have too many beers and no one looked at the design again before it went to the next stage?  I can't imagine it's a cheap materials option, so it really seems like there needs to be a why.  On this scale, anyway. 

Don't even get me started on how you'd choose your colours without spontaneously combusting.

I think too, for me (you might be quite different or not give a toss altogether) one of my favourite aspects, particularly in relation to the house below, is that unlike many other houses that give you some level of indication of what may be inside, even down to furnishings, you are left totally guessing.  There are a few things that are unlikely (country chic), but still not an impossibility.

So, I definitely love it, but find it drives me just a little nuts.  Thankfully my happy place has plenty of room for that.

Exorcising my soup demons

The time when the husband will be away and I'll have to feed myself is bearing down on me somewhat, and since the pizza place doesn't deliver and I probably couldn't eat pizza for two months solid if it did anyway (or could I?  That could be a thing, you know.  Seeing if I could ... no.  Probably best not.  Although ... no.  Nooooooo ....) so I had to get back on the soup horse.

Chickpea and chorizo.

Swedish yellow pea (pea and ham soup, by any other name).

 

Feeling bookish

This is one of those times when I wonder if I should join Pinterest, but I equally suspect that that's one vortex I should definitely not go near.  Besides, this is fun. 

I've been feeling a bit bookish lately so I've been doing bookish window shopping.

Is it still window shopping if it's via PC screen?  It's a window of a sort ... a window to the internet ... I think I much prefer that to online shopping which suggests actual shopping.  Which it's not (yet).  It's a quandary, no?  The husband hears window shopping and he's only a little bit concerned.  The husband hears online shopping and he goes all pale and stuff. 

I've also just applied to graduate with a second Arts Diploma (in English), and I've been thinking about studying again (long term plan.  Long.  I need to learn how to read a book again, and be able to finish a sentence.  Looooong).  Everyone knows that the key to successful study is awesome stationary, so I needed to give this aspect some serious consideration over at Father Rabbit.  Tra la!

And obviously, excellent stationary requires an excellent bag, does it not?  (Also, if you think not, that's a rhetorical question and shush).  I've long loved this Makr ruck sack at Douglas + Bec but the tan Saben satchel ..... I don't really even care that it's a man bag.  Listen carefully and you'll hear it begging for some pink pens and a floral notebook ....

Also on the bookish front, sort of, I've been playing with perfecting my workspace for the last couple of months, and it's almost there.  I'll post pics when I'm happy with it.  And I've vacuumed.  And tidied.  And the random pile of pill containers which has appeared on the windowsill (thank you husband, for cleaning out the medicine cabinet?) has been removed, so it looks a little less like I should perhaps go to rehab. 

Where was I?

Right.  The Desk.  The plan when we first moved in and while the kids are little and need watching for mischief (and all manner of other things including intervention, should they be attempting to maim each other ... which happens fairly frequently as it turns out) was that we'd dump my desk where it is now temporarily, squeezed into a corner of the open plan kitchen/dining/lounge, until the kids were old enough that I could move my office out into the actual office that's built off the side of the garage.  Except, I love my little space, so I've claimed it permanently and have just been working on making it less bleh in the middle of our living area (and less of a pain.  Squeezing past a slighty-too-big desk constantly was annoying).  Plus, my chair is right by the bi-folds, which open out onto the deck.  Hello.  Who'd want a poxy old room in the garage when you can instead work very, very hard (fall asleep) in the lovely sun?

This is my list which you have to see because it's awesome.  It gets updated, replaced, scrawled over and generally ignored on a very regular basis.  This is the generally ignored variety because it has my housework list on it.  The books-and-shiz-to-buy list was far more successful.  Go figure.  I'm ever grateful to Blackbird for this one.  Lists are how I survive my life, so cool lists make me happy.


 

 

Also, that white tube?  My Diploma (the first one.  In History). Prooooobably should get that on a wall. The kids keep running off with it to bash each other over the head.  Not ideal.

And these are a few of my other current wants because walls by desks need to be awesome too.  The art is going to take a little (quite a bit) bit more time but I love me these though, I surely do.  The Move Ur Art piece on the left is a major want - even though they spell it 'Ur'.  I have no idea how much it costs, which means probably a lot.  I should find out, but the last time I went to check on the price of something I ended up owning it (my camera and I don't regret it for a second) so ... yes. 

The card is by Rifle Paper Co. (Douglas + Bec also stock some of their stuff).  The gumboot wearing dog would look great next to my icecream parrot (you'll see eventually).  Also, he might provide some encouragement to the actual dog.  I'd have far less housework if the actual dog was inclined towards gumboots.  You never know (though you could probably safely assume).

And last, but not least, I'm still working on convincing the husband that I need dots.  He's so far resisting being convinced, with quite some determination.  Very boring of him.  I really do like the dots.

All this and I haven't even started on the Great Diary Decision for 2014 (I'm assuming that the husband can't be convinced that I really need a Hermes agenda).

Pistachio shortbreads

It's been a quiet week.  I was diseased, and then the not-ginger was poxed.  It's been fun (and by fun, I mean the total opposite of fun).

Back into it now though, more or less.  Now that I can eat again, I needed cookies. 

(Oh!  Definitely worth mentioning that somehow, while in the grips of disease, I managed in my fevered state to come up with an argument in favour of the Missioni towels (I posted a pic a couple of weeks ago) that the husband agreed to.  Ha!  Of course said agreement may have been part of the delirium, but we'll cross that bridge after I have new towels.)

Said cookies ended up being Pistachio shortbreads from Ottolenghi, The Cookbook (and are seriously amazing, FYI).

I really love biscuits with a noticeable amount of spice, so I always have to try recipes if I see them.  Often and disappointingly though they're loaded with sugar so that they still appeal to mass taste for sweet biscuits.  To me, that almost totally takes away from the spice ... which I guess is actually the idea.  Something a bit different without being different.  A bit like Belgian biscuits.  I love the idea of them and depending on the recipe, I can usually do one, but ug.  Usually they're so sweet it hurts.

Anywway, these babies have a good amount of cardamom in them which is a reasonably newly appreciated taste for me (clumsy sentence, but you get the idea) and very little sugar (25g of icing sugar).  Rice flour picks up in this one I think where many recipes have cornflour to give them that softness and texture.  They're brilliant.  The recipe calls for them to be sprinkled with vanilla sugar but I didn't have any and didn't have the ability to make any (no vanilla pods - I use paste and that wouldn't be any good mixed with sugar for sprinkling, obviously) so I used coconut sugar instead.  I'd be interested to see how that changes the flavour from vanilla sugar at some stage when I have some, but in the meantime, I'm happy as a happy thing with how they turned out.  Coconut sugar has quite a caramel taste.  It's uber lovely.

The shortbreads don't have pistachios in the dough.  The nuts are chopped pretty finely and rolled into the outer edge.

I made two thicknesses - the recipe said to cut them 5mm - 1cm thick.  I did one tray at 1cm, and one tray at 5mm.  I prefer the thicker shortbread, though they maybe look a little bit weird, because they are very small (4cm across roughly).  I thought they'd spread, but of course, there's nothing in them to make them do so.

Doorstop cuteness

When we first moved into the beach house, the bathroom door squeeeeeeeeeeeaked something dreadful.  You even had to try to not make eye contact while walking past just. in. case.  A breeze was madness-inducing, and the squeaking was always extra loud early in the morning when the little peeps were still asleep.  There was no sneaking into the bathroom, and if you have ever resided in a house with a small person, you know just how much you want to be able to sneak into a bathroom sometimes.  Bad squeaky door.

Of course, it's also been like that for an entire year because the only thing we actually did about it was say we really should do something about it.  It's just our way.

Then out of the blue a couple of weeks ago, the husband actually did do something about it.  He totally made it not squeak!  Which was very exciting until we realised that you must be careful what you wish for.  It turns out, the squeaky hinges were what was holding the door open day in and day out.  Dammit.  Or dammit at least until I realised that I could legitimately add something new to my shopping list.  Wooo!  And I'm not even making up the necessity to justify object adoration.  No sir (maybe a little bit).  Whoever designed the lighting in our house did a truly abysmal job of it (a despressing thing that the husband and I will eventually have to have redesigned and upgraded).  Probably the black carpet doesn't help either, in a house prone to being a bit dark anyway.  But, we do need the light that comes from the bathroom window, so the door needs to stay open. 

Doorstop shopping happiness!

I really wanted some design, so off to Father Rabbit went I and voila!  Cutest doorstop in the world.  I love looking at its beautifully turned self holding open my lounge door (I know.  I was shopping for the bathroom but I loved the newbie so much I had to put it in the lounge, so my poor old Dishy seashell doorstop was banished to the bathroom.  I felt a bit bad about that because it's served me well till now, but bathrooms are more seashelly anyway ... right?  Of course they are) and it amuses me that the oak doorstop has an acorn sitting on it.  It possibly also amuses me that it took several days to make that connection.

(Acorns and oak trees is also a bit of a long standing joke in our house.  One of those jokes that no one else gets, that isn't really a joke at all, but it's funny because it's really annoying.  One day, years ago, the husband is sitting at the table and says "If an apple comes from an apple tree, a pear comes from a pear tree, a peach comes from a peach tree and a lemon comes from a lemon tree and so on ... why does an oak tree grow an acorn?"  See, not funny.  But it pops up every now and again and drives me nuts, and therefore, the acorn on the oak doorstop is funny.  Seriously.  What was even funnier was the other day, out of the blue, the little ginger asked the husband the same question and was much less inclined to just scratch his head and accept the break in pattern.  That was funny.  Or at least, it was because he was demanding answers of the husband and not me.  Any similar type questions that make no sense are dubbed 'the new acorn'.  It really is a thing here.)

Lovely lemon

Lemon is truly one of my favourite flavours. Lemon cake, lemon muffins, lemon biscuits, lemon tarts, lemon meringue piiiiiie ... lemon beats out most things.  And it turns out, it's one flavour that can convince me to break my golden rule of not messing with a proven recipe.  I don't mean faffing with it myself, hell no.  That's just asking for it.  No, I mean, not to go looking for another recipe to replace one that is perfectly good (or roolly, roolly awesome) just for the sake of it.  I'm lazy like that.  If I'm going to do that, I try something completely different altogether.

You'd think I'd be more experimental, but I'm really not (roolly*). Or maybe I am getting to be that way between new recipe books and the Global Baker Project, and that's why it happened.  I put aside my tried and true, never-ever failed, everyone loves them (or pretends they do) melting moment recipe in favour of a new one.  Just to try. Convinced, because it had lemon in it.  Mmmm ... lemon. 

And you know, I over-baked them (tricky things, melting moments. A minute in either direction and perfection is lost forever) and the icing needs tweaking (too soft, and the flavour was just a wee bit off.  Too much lemon juice I think, especially for the way I like my final product.  I couldn't roll it to make it pretty, which annoyed me because melting monents need to be pretty, and it didn't set hard) but it's a most awesome recipe in the making.  This recipe had vanilla (I use vanilla paste.  I discovered it recently-ish and haven't touched essence since.  In love with the vanilla paste) and a greater quantity of flour than my other recipe - not by much, but just enough to make the difference I think.  And the lemon.  It just wasn't so sweet.  Which is possibly a bit dangerous.

Meh.

I'm really (just really this time, no roolly) glad I took the photo when I did, straight after I made them and before I, after a long day, bunged the smallest peep's night bottle in the microwave to heat up ... somehow placing it onto the plate of setting melting moments without even noticing them (I put them in there to keep them safe from little hands, and the dog).  They looked mighty crap(per) after a good burst in the microwave.

Yoghurt cake with lemon syrup.  Just because.  I had a theme to play out.

*  I have absolutely no idea where the roolly comes from, but it amuses me right now, so hey!

Here's looking at you: Not just a bunch of seagulls

It turns out that when you start trying to not be complete arse with a camera, you start to feel that there's a way of looking at things, and a way of looking at things. 

I really enjoyed these gulls.  I am also really glad none of them crapped on my head while I was standing underneath them.

Also, I lose my dog at the beach a lot.  I'm sure he thinks it's funny and I really suspect that he turns his head deliberately so I can't see his blaze.  Bad dog.

Wanna see my shopping list?

You know you do. 

First though, you know what made me a silly amount of happy this morning?  Last night, I was rummaging through the freezer while carefully considering what nourishing, amazing meal to prepare for dinner tonight (Bah hahahaha!  Did you buy that?  I was trying to stuff a new container of ice cream in the door) and I found frozen hot cross buns.  Woooo!  I'd forgotten I'd put some in the freezer to see how they'd cope with being frozen (awesomely, by the way) and so I had toasted, buttery hot cross buns with a cup of tea for breakfast.  Yum.

And now, because both kids have been sick (chicken pox for one, and a horribly coughy vomity coldy-flu for the other.  Deep joy) and the husband has been away and I've been working, I'm just going to post my shopping/wish list (sans Missoni towels.  Bummer).  This will also be a handy reminder of what stuff I actually wanted.

This, I'm buying.  Hungry & Frozen by Laura of  Hungry and Frozen comes out this week.  It's going to be my reward for ... something. 

 



A rhubarb plant.  I have plans for the fence I look out at from my desk.  Firstly, I'm going to re-purpose some old pots screwed to another fence on the property that are unused and no one sees, and I'm going to fill them with herbs.  Yay!  The BBQ that I'm currently looking at is going to be relocated to somewhere not where it is now, and I'm going to plant rhubarb in some form of planter, yet to be determined (I really love the tanksalot ones, but my budget doesn't.  The husband suggested planting it in the BBQ, which was completely weird.  I'll probably run with a half wine barrel.  The planter of champions).  I love rhubarb.  I miss having a rhubarb plant. 

Falcon enamelware.  I need two baking dishes that I can fit side by side in the (small) oven, and the pie dish ... I just want.  You can get them lots of places, but I love Father Rabbit.

This is pricey, so I'm saving this one for when the husband totally owes me.  That, thankfully, will be soon.  He's going on a course.  He'll be away for ages.  He. Will. Owe. Me.  (I'm not sure how he can owe me for looking after my own children, so we're going to leave it at that and quickly move on).

No-brainer.  Everyone has been talking about this for ages.  I have no idea why I don't have it already.

An Ekim Burger.  (Also, this picture is from their Facebook page.  I'm hoping they don't mind me sharing it about.  I'll get my own soon I hope)  Mmmmm .... burgers.

We need a new jug and this one will look uber cheerful on the bench.  I'm not sure it's my favourite colour from the range, but it's my favourite of the ones available to purchase as merchanise with Westpac Hotpoints AND I have enough hotpoints for both a jug and toaster.  Happy!  The husband wants to see in person though, before I start throwing all my hotpoints at it.  He's the sensible one.

  

 

Also on the list, but what I can't find an image for is Built for Caffeine by Ben Crawford (I'm pretty sure that's what it's called).  Due out in November, it's a design inspiration book featuring 20 New Zealand cafes (I think), so pretty much mooshes together two of my favourite things - design and cafes.  Definitely wanting that.