Stephanie Simek

I've just ordered some amazing jewellery from Portland designer Stephanie Simek that has me very excited! Stephanie contacted me a few months ago and her beautiful, unusual pieces really caught my eye. Now I've finally got around to ordering them, I can't wait for them to hit Mr Sparrow's shelves. Stephanie reworks experimental or non-conventional materials to become wearable pieces, like this Gold-lined Quail Egg Necklace, which is made from a real Japanese quail egg, lined with 23k gold leaf and coated in plastic for strength. Or this sweet sleepy Single Eyelash Necklace, made from 100% human hair. Also coming soon to Mr Sparrow are her Powder Necklace and Pussy Willow Earrings. I love how Stephanie uses the inherent fragility and beauty of the objects to create beautiful, unusual pieces of wearable art. Look out for them in store in a few weeks!

Fair season

Tomorrow I'm off to Melbourne for the trade fairs. There are two on this weekend, Life In Style and Home & Giving, but I think I might skip Home & Giving and just head to Life In Style. It's a much smaller one than Home & Giving and describes itself as "the most exclusive showing of beautiful things". Basically it focuses on smaller companies or designers and sifts out all the horrible, generic, cheap and nasty stuff for you!

I went to both fairs last year and found both quite overwhelming and exhausting, but Home & Giving was particularly hard to handle. Held at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, it boasts hundreds upon hundreds of exhibitors and caters to the whole of the gift and homewares industry, which includes all your chain stores, department stores, the lot....so you can imagine there's a WHOLE lot of stuff that isn't relevant to my shop, and frankly just turns my stomach! Even at Life In Style there's some sifting to be done but there can be some real gems amongst it all. Last year I think I came away with 3 new suppliers, which is plenty for me.

I think I will always prefer to source my products other ways but the trade fairs are good to see what's out there, get some new ideas, and to meet up with existing suppliers - something I'm particularly looking forward to doing this year (last year I'd only just opened so didn't have too many existing suppliers!). Plus a trip to Melbourne is always welcome as a chance to catch up with our many friends that call it home. And I'm sure I'll find a new gem or two, as well, which I look forward to sharing with you upon my return!

Picture: Cuckoo Clock by BLiNK Designs

Colour me happy

I'm so excited - my Moleskine diaries for next year have just arrived! I've been hanging out for these (even though they won't come into their own for another five months!) because there are some fantastic new products in the range. The two I'm most excited about are the Desk Calendar (top pic) and the Colour a Month Daily Planner (bottom pic). The Desk Calendar sits upright and has detachable pages so that you have a fresh start to each day. There's a little bit of space on each day for you to make important notes as well. It also has an inner pocket for you to store any special days you'd like to remember. The Colour a Month Daily Planner is a thing of both beauty and practicality - each month has its own Volant daily planner in an individual colour. This means you can carry around just a light little book and be covered for the month (fantastic if you're someone like me who needs to have her diary on her at every moment). And when you put them together in their little gift box they make a beautiful, organised rainbow. Perfect.

Thanks to Moleskine for the photos.

Floating islands

Floating islands (also known as snow eggs) is probably my all-time favourite dessert. The combination of flavours and textures - the creamy custard, the spongy meringue and the crunchy toffee - is sooo good! We made these on Saturday night for another progressive dinner party - we were on dessert this time. I'd made floating islands once before and remembered them being difficult but actually they were very easy this time around...and so delicious that I thought I would share the recipe with you!

Serves 6-8

6 eggs, separated (at room temperature)
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
4 1/2 cups milk
1 vanilla bean, split
3/4 cup sugar, extra

1. In a clean, dry bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/2 cup caster sugar, beating well after each addition, until stiff and glossy. It's really important that you have a clean bowl and clean beaters for this, and that you don't give up beating until they're really nice and stiff!
2. Combine the milk, 1/2 cup caster sugar and the vanilla bean in a large frying pan and bring to a simmer. Using two dessert spoons, mould the meringue into egg shapes and lower in batches into the simmering milk. Poach each batch for around five minutes or until firm to touch, turning once. Be careful when turning them because they're very delicate. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Don't worry if they don't look perfect - they will improve a bit as they cool. When they are all done, strain the milk.
3. Whisk the egg yolks with the remaining caster sugar until thick and pale. Gradually pour the milk into the egg yolk mixture, whisking well to combine. Pour the custard mixture into a pan and stir over low heat until it thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Don't let it boil, and keep stirring all the time to avoid lumps. Pour the custard into shallow serving bowls and allow to cool.
4. When the custard is completely cold, arrange the poached meringues on top (we did two per person). Stir the extra sugar with 2 tablespoons water in a small pan over low heat until the sugar has dissolved completely (it will turn clear). If you find it's taking ages and becoming too dry you might need to add a bit more water (we did). When the sugar has dissolved, bring to the boil and simmer until the syrup turns golden brown. Once this happens, take it off the heat straight away or it will burn. Carefully drizzle the toffee over the meringues and custard. Yum!

Pom-tastic

I'm loving poms at the moment. They are basically puffy balls of tissue paper that can be hung from the ceiling as party decorations, made into a mobile, or used as decorations for just about anything! I first discovered them through PomLove on etsy but they seem to be popping up all over the place. I've just ordered some from Prost to the Host, another fantastic etsy seller, to use as decorations at Mr Sparrow's birthday party. Assuming all goes well, I can't see myself ever having another party without these! If you've got the time and energy I'd imagine it's pretty easy to make your own as well, and Martha Stewart has a how-to here, which doesn't look too complicated. If you're yet to embrace Martha (I admit, I had my reservations at first), do it - the woman is brilliant! And to see some poms in action, pop into Mr Sparrow's birthday party on August 16th. Photos are from PomLove (top), Party Poms (middle) and Prost to the Host (bottom).

A font by any other name

We're finally starting to feel the effect of our new small bar licence here in Perth, with a number of interesting little places opening up in recent months. One such place I've been meaning to check out for a while is Helvetica, a very cool little place in a laneway off St George's Terrace in the city. A few of us headed there after work last Friday and were disappointed to find it at capacity. This is the problem with the bar scene in Perth - these small bars have been so long coming (not their fault) that everyone is chomping at the bit to get into them, which works a bit against what they are supposed to be - nice, small, chilled-out places you can go for a relaxed drink or two. Hopefully as more and more open up this will improve a bit. Anyway, we stuck it out in the queue at Helvetica for about half an hour and were rewarded with a fantastic little place inside the doors. The fit-out was impressive without being over-the-top (my interior-design-guru friend Eko was having palpitations over the woven vinyl on the floors and walls), there were comfortable seats to be had (always welcome on a Friday night!), and the drinks were delicious and well-priced. In fact, I think I discovered my new favourite white wine. We also snacked on some corn chips and salsa, which was just about the best salsa I'd ever had (probably helped by the fact that I was hungry enough to eat my arm but it was still pretty damn good!). Whisky is what this place is all about but being somewhat workworn we all just wanted a drink fast and weren't really in the mood for experimenting...so maybe next time! What impressed me most about Helvetica was the service - despite it being a Friday night and a full bar, we were really well-looked-after and were even able to order drinks from our table, a service which is just about extinct these days. With this good experience under my belt, I'm now keener than ever to check out some of the other small bars popping up around town...especially the one in Leederville due to open in coming weeks, which might just become our new local!

DZ Bank

The DZ Bank in Parisier Platz (right next to the Brandenburg Gate) is one of the lesser-known sights in Berlin, but one that should be on everyone's must-see list. A bank might sound like a strange "sight" but this is no ordinary bank. It was designed by American architect Frank Gehry and contains an incredible morphing titanium and glass sculpture in the inner courtyard. Unfortunately the building keeps ordinary bank hours so I never managed to get there when we lived in Berlin but James went a couple of times and got me thoroughly excited about it. This time I was determined to make it there, even though we only had a few days and a lot to pack in! It was well worth the effort, though, to finally lay eyes on this impressive piece of design.

oh mossy, mossy world

I had quite a lot of lovely bright green moss left over after making my terrariums for the shop, so after leaving it sitting around for a couple of weeks, last night I decided to make it into a nice big terrarium for myself! It'll be nice having a bit of mossiness to come home to. I love the way when clustered together the tiny houses look like a little village on a soft green hill...it looks like such a nice little place to live!

In the window

This is my new window display at Mr Sparrow! I got the idea from one of my favourite shops in Berlin, Tausendschön, which had something similar hanging in their window when we visited in May (bottom photo). I got mum to bring me up some branches from a vine they have growing at their place in Dwellingup, which are just perfect for things like this (I don't know what this vine is but it's the same one florists use a lot in displays). Then I cut it into lengths and tied it together with some strong wire. The bottles I used are from a delicious pear juice you can get at the Re Store. Luckily James loves this, so we have a lot of these bottles lying around (I like to use them as vases), and I attached them to the vine with some fine wire twisted around their necks. Then I added a single lisianthus to each bottle and James helped me rig it up with some fishing wire so it hangs nicely in the window. I wanted something nice to balance it out at the top of the window, so I put up the three butterfly decals from Decorette. It's nice to have something fresh and pretty to look at each day, even if I do only get the rear view :)

Perth's answer to snow

I just this second witnessed the most incredible hailstorm outside (and inside!) my shop and had to share it. I've never seen anything quite like this before - the hail was coming down so thick and fast it completely carpeted the ground in white, like snow. It was also deafening! This is about as wintry and winter gets in this part of the world, so it was pretty exciting. Everyone in the shops around here stood outside and watched it coming down...and took photos! (Sorry these ones aren't great - I only had my phone on me!) The little hail peas flew into Mr Sparrow and rolled all the way up to the counter at the back. I just hope our cat Toshi's doing ok - she's skittish at the best of times and was totally freaking out during the storm last night, so it probably hiding under a bed somewhere!

Berlin Inside & Out...Part Four: Nature

Berlin is a very green city, with more than 2,500 public recreational and green spaces. This includes huge expanses of parkland or forest like the very central Tiergarten or - a bit further out - the Grunewald, both beautiful places for a wander. James and I made a few trips to the Grunewald when we lived in Berlin, at various times of the year, and discovered that there is something extremely spooky about a forest with no leaves, as it is in winter. Coming from the land of the evergreen eucalypt this was a new experience for us! Apart from these big spaces, Berlin also has a huge number of small parks and "Plätze" - squares (piazzas) which usually comprise some parkland, a playground and - more often than not - concrete ping pong tables. One of the first things we did when we arrived in Berlin the first time was invest in some ping pong bats (this time we actually brought them with us!) and we'd duck out for a game in sunshine, rain or even snow! Our favourite place to play was Helmholzplatz in Prenzlauerberg (second photo from the bottom), which has a playground popular with young families, of which there are a LOT in Prenzlauerberg, and four ping pong tables. Another lovely green spot in summer is the Mauerpark (bottom photo), also in Prenzlauerberg. Again, in winter this is a very spooky spot and an all-too-real reminder of what this space used to be - the dead zone between the two walls - but in summer it comes to life and you're lucky if you can find a patch of green without a happy Berliner perched on it. This is also where one of Berlin's excellent flea markets takes place. I had to include two other things in this post - the third photo is of Linden trees (sometimes called lime trees), something of a symbol of Berlin due to the very famous street "Unter den Linden", and the second photo is one of the pretty florist/garden shops that line many a Berlin street. I was a regular fixture at these when we lived there, either picking up a bunch of tulips or peonies for (incredibly!) a few Euros or adding another sweet little potted plant to my collection (much to James's frustration, as every time we moved the plants had to come with us!). They put so much care into their potted plants in Germany, and it's something I've tried to reflect in the plants I sell at Mr Sparrow. Oh, and the peonies? They were bought within about an hour of touching down in Berlin this time, despite us only being there for five days...but how could I resist?

Woodland wonderland

I've just created a new woodland-themed display on the main table at Mr Sparrow. I was inspired by my new moss terrariums and the general soft, damp, green loveliness of a winter garden. I also wanted something to complement a new window display I'm working on (more on that tomorrow). For my table display I used grass print paper placemats from Design Plus as a backdrop and moved in one of my birdcages (picked up off a Shenton Park verge about a year ago!), which holds some lovely vintage velvet ribbons and Sharon Muir's ceramic bird tealight holders. Then I have mostly displayed Mosey birds nests, wee wrens and envelope clutches (nobody does woodland like this girl!), plus the moss terrariums, a teacup plant, a fantastic oak candle holder from Raumgestalt, Queen B beeswax candles and a lovely bone china log vase, hanging swallow and set of acorns from Have You Met Miss Jones. Then I finished it off with some cute little pine cones. A miniature little woodland right in my shop!

Mr Sparrow's birthday party

Mr Sparrow is having a first birthday party! He actually turned 1 on 12th June but for a whole bunch of reasons I decided to postpone the party a bit so I'm having it on 16th August. One of the unfortunate things about having a pint-sized shop is that I can't hold events like this at the actual shop, which would be the obvious thing to do. Instead, I'm having the party at a community centre down the road (literally), which is a pretty good compromise. It's a nice, light room and I think once it's decked out with lots of Sparrow-stuff it will look the part. Anyway, here are the details because of course anyone who reads this blog is most welcome!

Where: Tom Dadour Community Centre, 363 Bagot Rd, Subiaco
When: Sunday, 16th August from 3pm till 6pm
What: A party with Mr Sparrow and friends! There'll be free food and drink, a silent auction, fantastic door prizes and limited edition Mr Sparrow t-shirts for sale. The first 20 people will also receive a free Mr Sparrow goodie bag!

I've also decided to open the shop that day (it's normally closed on Sundays) from 12-6pm so that there can be a nice flow of people between party and store if they're so inclined (the two are literally 500m apart).

That same day I will also launch my first ever sale at Mr Sparrow, with 20% off everything for one week only. I thought it would be a nice way to celebrate a year in business plus a good opportunity to make some room for some lovely new things! This is the time of year when lots of designers launch new products or collections and I'm going to a couple of trade fairs in Melbourne in about two weeks, where I imagine I'll find some nice new bits and pieces...so I'll need somewhere to put them all!

Anyway, if you are in the area make sure you stop into Mr Sparrow during that week (August 16-22) to make the most of the sale, and also be sure to drop by the party!

Hope to see you there!

Sunday lunch

A few weeks ago I had a lazy Sunday lunch with some friends at Sayers Cafe in Leederville (where we live) and the food was so delicious I thought I'd share it with you. They don't really have a lunch menu but their breakfasts are pretty lunch-like and served until something like 2pm on a Sunday, plus they have a range of quiches, pies and such on display. We all ordered from the breakfast menu, and I had what I always have at Sayers (I can't help it - it's just so good!), which is the potato rosti with poached eggs, bacon and spinach (top picture). Yum! Eko had the scrambled eggs with bacon and Hannah had the zucchini fritter with avocado and some sort of corn salsa, I think. From reports, all were delicious! The interior of Sayers is lovely as well - it's only a small place but it's been really well designed. As far as I know they only do breakfast and lunch - I know they were opening for dinner one night a week but I'm not sure that lasted. Anyway, I would definitely recommend dropping in some time if you're looking for something yummy for breakfast or lunch when you're around Leederville way - you'll probably have to fight for a table but it's worth it!

Dwellingup

I've just returned from a lovely two nights in Dwellingup (about 1 1/2 hours south-east of Perth), where my parents have a 45 acre property. I love it down there, especially in winter when (literally) freezing nights give way to thick morning fog and crunchy frost...and we're warm inside by the pot belly stove! James and I hightailed it down after work on Saturday and were planning on coming back late Sunday afternoon. The lure of the country life proved too much, though, so we decided to stay another night and leave first thing this morning. My favourite time at Dwellingup is around dusk, when the temperature plummets and the sun drops behind the trees on the hill and you can go for a walk in the fading light knowing that you'll soon be safe and warm inside with a delicious hot meal and a crackling fire. Although it was a bit of a struggle getting up to zero degrees and pitch darkness at 6am this morning, it was definitely worth it, and it was a bit of an adventure driving back in the early hours with all the crazy commuters and the cheery sounds of Stevie Wonder on the ipod.

Night train

James took these photos on the train trip from Basel to Berlin and I really like them. We caught the night train and while the rest of us slept, James wandered the dark corridors and took these shots through the windows using a long exposure. We'd chosen to go on the night train because it worked out to be both the cheapest and the most convenient option, plus we also thought it would be a fun experience. What I hadn't counted on was the very confined space in the rooms (especially once you add four enormous suitcases!) and the claustrophobia-induced panic attack that followed! Once I recovered from that, though, it was pretty fun, and the breakfast the next morning was certainly entertaining if not edible! (spreadable meat, anyone?) Ah, the joys of travelling!