Sparrow cookies!

Delivered fresh to Mr Sparrow's doorstep this morning! Maybe you remember I mentioned getting some samples from Joy of Cookie Couture late last year? Well, they were not only very cute but also delicious, so now they are sitting on Mr Sparrow's shelves, just waiting for you to give them a try! That's if I don't eat them all first...

Monkey magic

Aren't these a great idea? They are postcards that turn into 3D models and come courtesy of Monkey Design. The front features the 2D image with instructions & the back is for writing. They come in a huge range of animal, vehicle and building designs as well.

I've always had a soft spot for this sort of thing - my friend Eko once received a wedding invitation that turned into a 3D tree, which I thought was brilliant, and you might remember I bought this giraffe card at the Design Museum in London last June.

These ones are quite complex but the results are pretty impressive! You can see all the designs (and watch a video on how to put one together) here, and see a selection Mr Sparrow when they arrive next week!

What's old is new

I was lucky enough to pick up some fantastic vintage items on the weekend, including this beautiful set of milk jugs, this sweet floral teacup, and this 11-piece Poole teaset (in perfect condition!) from the 1950s. I also recently bought the collection of face powders, hair pins and other lovely things you can see in the bottom two photos from a local lady, so I'm fully stocked in the vintage department! Sorry, the milk jugs are mine (after lusting after them for ages, I was so excited to finally make them my own, I couldn't sell them!) but everything else is on Mr Sparrow's shelves, just waiting to find a happy new home!

Making jam

I've made apricot jam the last two weekends with apricots from my parents' orchard in Dwellingup. The problem with growing your own fruit and vegetables (but especially fruit) is that it all ripens at once, so you go from having no apricots, plums or tomatoes one week to having crate- after crate-full the next! Mum hands them out to family and friends, eats as many as she can handle herself, and then usually makes something with what's left. This has resulted in delicious moonblushed tomatoes, tomato sugo, and plum jam. Jam seemed to be the obvious choice for apricots, too, so this time I volunteered to make it. I adapted a recipe from Reader's Digest (found here), which went a little something like this:


Apricot jam
Makes about 6 cups

1.5kg apricots, washed, halved and stoned (half the stones reserved)
strained juice of 1 large lemon
3 3/4 cups (1.5kg) sugar
15g unsalted butter

Put the sugar (in a baking dish) into a 100ºC oven, along with the open jars you're using to store the jam. This will warm the sugar and sterilise the jars (you can also sterlise the jars by putting through the dishwasher).

Using a nutcracker or hammer, crack open the reserved apricot stones. Remove the kernels and blanch them in boiling water for 1 minute, then drain and slip off the skins (it's as easy as it sounds).

Put the apricot halves and kernels, the lemon juice and 1 cup of water in a large pot and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the fruit is soft and the water has been reduced in volume.

Remove the pan from the heat, add the warmed sugar and stir until it has dissolved completely. Return the pan to the heat, add the butter and stir until melted.

Bring the jam to a rapid boil and boil for 15 minutes. During this time, place a saucer in the freezer. Once the 15 minutes is up, place a drop of jam onto the saucer, then return it to the freezer for 1 minute. If after this time the jam wrinkles when you poke it, it has reached setting point. If not, boil the jam for a further 5 minutes, then test again.

Pour the jam into clean, warm jars and cover immediately with lids or wax paper.

A couple of things to note:

• It takes about 1 1/2 - 2 hours to make the jam, from go to whoa, and then refrigeration time before you can eat it!
• The apricots will still be in large pieces at the end, but if you want it a bit less chunky, you can give it a bit of a mash with a fork or potato masher before putting it into the jars (I did and it worked well).
• Don't leave out the bit about the kernels because it's what helps the jam to set!
• The finished jam will still contain the blanched kernels, which isn't a problem as long as you don't eat them.
  
• I was worried my jam hadn't set the first time, as it still seemed quite runny (although it was thick and passed the "set test"), but it set well once it was bottled up.

So, it's a bit trickier than picking up a jar at the supermarket but so, so much nicer and really not that hard. Hope you give it a go!

Making a wish

Introducing the Mr Sparrow Wish List! Inspired by regular customers asking me for ideas for their partners, and also my friends wanting to set up a sort of registry for their recent wedding, I have introduced a registry or "wish list" service. It's not just for weddings, but for birthdays, Christmas, engagement parties...anything! Rather than just sending your loved ones blindly into Mr Sparrow, you can now send them confident in the knowledge they'll be handed a list of all your favourite things at Mr Sparrow! They'll be relieved because all the hard work is done for them (but they still have some options), and you can rest easy that you'll be getting a gift you'll love!

Sound like something you might like? Here's how it works:

Creating a wish list with Mr Sparrow is easy – just pop into the shop some time and we will show you how to record the items you would like registered.

Choosing gifts isn’t always as easy as you might think, so we are happy to help you out with ideas and assist you with creating your wish list.

You don’t have to complete your wish list in one go – you’re welcome to come back as many times as you like to add to your list or to make changes, provided the item has not already been purchased.

Once your service has been set up, we’ll provide you with lovely printed cards to include with your invitations. Your guests can then pop into Mr Sparrow to receive a list of your chosen gifts. Once they have made their selection, we will record their purchase so that after the occasion you will have a complete list of which guest purchased each item. Your guests are also welcome to call us and make purchases over the phone.

Soon it will also be possible to create and manage your wish list online, and for your guests to make purchases through our website.

Each gift will be beautifully presented using our complimentary stylish gift wrapping.

We can also arrange to deliver your gifts straight to your door for a nominal fee.

PLUS, as our special gift, you'll also receive a Mr Sparrow gift voucher valued at 10% of the total amount purchased on your wish list!

If you're interested, just ask me (or Elli) next time you're in the store...

The Small Object

You might well have seen these guys around or heard about The Small Object in your online travels - Sarah Neuburger's oh-so-cute rubber stamps, paper goods and housewares have been popping up in quite a few places lately. And you can see why, can't you? I mean, how could you resist these guys? Which is why I'm about to order some for Mr Sparrow! I'm particularly excited about The Mighty Colouring Pad, the Fill-in-the-Blanks Cookbook Log, and of course, the Little Helmet Pal Stamp. If, like me, you just can't get enough of this stuff, you can keep up-to-date with all Sarah's "pearls of wisdom and rick-rackery" on her blog. And check out Mr Sparrow in coming weeks to see these guys in all their glory!

Glowbowls

I was given these glowbowls for Christmas by my mother-in-law (lucky me!) and just hung them up on the weekend. Aren't they beautiful? They are handmade by Diana Fayt who has a store on etsy, and I had been lusting after them for a while! The little bowls are made of clay and are strung together with fine wire, so they almost appear to be floating. With a tealight candle in each one, they look magical!

Weekend flavours

I was lucky enough to score a three-day weekend last week and the result was a bit of sewing, a bit of cleaning, a bit of gardening (yes, in 43 degrees!)...and a lot of eating! Actually, it was sort of a produce-based weekend, as a lot of what we ate came from our garden, or the gardens of friends or family, plus we also made apricot jam with apricots from my parents' orchard in Dwellingup, and passionfruit curd with passionfruits from our vine (thanks for the idea, Laura!).

I have recently developed an obsession with white anchovies, which is very strange for me because I don't like regular anchovies at all, but I had white anchovies as tapas a couple of times and found them delicious. So for lunch on Saturday we made baguettes with rocket, white anchovies, moonblush tomatoes (something my mum makes with her cherry tomatoes, which is like a milder semi-sundried tomato) and mayonnaise. It was basically a replica of a baguette we bought once from our new favourite cafe, West End Deli, and was very tasty! I definitely recommend giving white anchovies a go if you haven't already.

On Sunday we made bruschetta using cherry tomatoes and basil from our garden, and also some cherry tomatoes from our friends Jo and Tarquin - thanks, guys! The flavour of homegrown tomatoes is just incomparable to those you buy in the shop.

Then last night we had my parents over for dinner and for dessert I served up a trio of tasty things made from the passionfruit curd we made on Sunday. There was passionfruit curd ice-cream, mini sponge cakes with passionfruit curd and cream, and mini passionfruit curd tarts. My favourite was the ice cream (maybe because I knew how hard it was to make!) but I think everyone else liked the sponges best! We also discovered a fantastic way to roast a chicken in summer - on the barbeque! We used Ainsley Harriott's method of turning on the burners on either end of the barbie and leaving the ones in the middle off, then placing the chicken in the middle with the lid down. The result was just like a normal roast chicken, except possibly more crispy and delicious! We had this with a pea and spinach salad and salsa verde potatoes - yum!

I hope your weekend was as delicious as mine! Stay tuned for the apricot jam recipe later this week :)

New plants at the Sparrow

All fresh and ready to go! This is one of the things I did on the weekend...I'll show you some photos of the other (delicious) things later today!

First taste of the online store

My friend Briony just sent me the first of the photos from last weekend's shoot, so I thought I'd give you a sneek peek of Mr Sparrow's online store!

These are the category photos to go on the product page, which will be divided into rooms: the living room, the kitchen, the bedroom, the office, the nursery and - as pictured here - the garden. You will then be able to click on these photos and be taken into that room to see all the products in that category.

Briony took these photos in our garden last Sunday, which was insanely windy, but we still had so much fun with it, and I think she did an excellent job. It is something of a dream of mine to be a stylist for this sort of thing (probably why I enjoy rearranging Mr Sparrow's shelves so much!) so I loved setting up all the shots and I'm looking forward to having some fun with the individual product ones, too!

Now that the madness of Christmas is over, I should be able to make some decent progress on the website so stay tuned for more news in that department...

Eko and Rick's wedding part two!

The most exciting thing to happen during my summer break was the wedding reception of my friends Eko and Rick. They got married back in October down in Denmark, but as that was such an intimate affair they also had a big party for all their friends and family on January 2nd. It was such a fun night and - even for those of us who had been at the actual wedding - very emotional! I burst into tears the second the newlyweds walked into the room!

The party was at the WA Rowing Club, which is right on the river in the city, and Eko had decked the place out with brightly coloured paper poms, coloured paper dot garlands, coloured paper lanterns and the two childhood photos of her and Rick that were also at their actual wedding. It's hard to tell from these photos, but it all looked so beautiful. Eko and Rick made the poms following Martha's instructions, and she and I made the paper dot garlands (I fell in love with these and just want them everywhere now!). Eko and I spent the day having our hair and make-up done, then feasted on marron that the boys caught in Dwellingup over New Year's and champagne sent by friends in London. Once the party kicked off, there were speeches (including one by me - eek!), cake-cutting, and lots of dancing! Eko and Rick did a really sweet little dance together to "Best of my Love" by The Emotions. The highlight of the night for me, though, was when Rick played (and sang) the song that he had written for Eko - I get goosebumps just thinking about it now! It was so beautiful, and when I turned around and saw my dad with tears streaming down his cheeks that was it for me!

Congratulations, my friends, on a beautiful night and what is sure to be a beautiful marriage!

On their way...

I've been busy the last couple of days ordering lots of new goodies for Mr Sparrow's (new!) shelves. These are just a few of the lovely things already on their way!

Top two photos are from Decorette, middle two are from Kia Hing Fay and bottom two are from Have You Met Miss Jones.

A bit of the past and a bit of the future

I hope you don't mind the flashback to Christmas, but I just wanted to sneak in some photos of my Christmas table. It wasn't quite the alpine wonderland I had envisaged but the little deer certainly looked mighty fine and my homemade snowdome worked a treat.

It was back to work yesterday, as Mr Sparrow re-opened after the Christmas break, and it was a big day of re-stocking. I had all the shelves replaced over the break, plus I had taken about 80 products home for a photoshoot with my friend Briony for the new Mr Sparrow online store (not far away now!), so there was a lot to sort out. It's all looking bright and shiny now, though...and I think some fantastic photos will come of the shoot. As soon as Briony sends some my way I'll give you a sneak peek!

Passionfruit season

One of my favourite things about summer is the passionfruit ripening on our vine. Every day we collect a handful from around the garden and out in the laneway, and eat them on ice cream or - my latest favourite - mixed with mineral water to make a delicious drink!

Lately we've been collecting more than we can get through, though, so today I pulped a few to keep in a jar in the fridge. It's amazing - some of them are tiny and all wrinkled-up, but they still contain a huge amount of fruit! We'll be enjoying these for a while to come...yum!

Time out

Hello! I know, it's been a while, but as you can see from these photos, I've been in holiday mode! Actually, the last almost two weeks hasn't exactly been relaxing, but it has been fun! Of course, there was Christmas, and then James and I went to Rottnest for a couple of days with his sister and her husband (who are over from London), before heading down to my parents' new house(s) in Dwellingup with a bunch of friends for New Year's Eve - where these photos were taken. It was so beautiful down there! The weather was absolutely perfect, the pool was complete heaven, and James was cranking out the pizzas in the woodfired oven like the true (half) Italian he is! Hosting around 25 people over 48 hours was pretty exhausting, though, and I think James is still recovering from the clean-up! I had to leave most of it to him because I had to rush back to Perth to help with the set-up for Eko and Rick's wedding party on the 2nd. I'll share some photos of that in the next few days, but it was a fantastic night. This week should be a bit more chilled-out, although I am working away at a few Sparrow-related things before reopening on the 11th. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed your break (or, if you're like me, are still enjoying it!) and managed to squeeze in some good times like these!