Favourite Things Project

As if I don't have enough to do, I've decided to participate in the Favourite Things Project being run by Tazim (from the Being Tazim blog).

I may not participate in all 52 weeks, but I'll do as many as I can. For the first week, Tazim has asked participants to talk about iconic things they love about their country or city. So, I'll talk about two things I love about Brisbane.

Firstly, the Brisbane River. I'm not sure why, but I really enjoy walking over the river across a bridge, or taking the bus and looking out the window. I'm super excited that I'm taking a CityCat out to lunch tomorrow to celebrate my birthday early with John's parents. Since I've lived in Brisbane, three new bridges have been built in the city over the river (one of them even opens this weekend!). As I don't yet drive, I'll show you the my favourite pedestrian bridge - Kurilpa Bridge, which I walk over twice a day because it ends up right outside my work.

Images: The Architectural Review

The other thing I love about Brisbane is the growing trend towards to handmade, particularly all the fantastic markets. We now even even host the Finders Keepers Markets twice a year, which used to only be presented in Sydney and Melbourne. These markets are held in the Old Museum, which is a beautiful building to visit.

Images: Mark Lobo for Finders Keepers

Image: Ralf Regeer for Our Brisbane

The trend towards crafting does not end with markets. The start of winter also meant the launch of the I Knit Brisbane, which saw knitted and crocheted creations pop up all over the city. Here are some creations from Rogue Cosie and friends, at the end of the Goodwill Bridge (another pedestrian bridge).

Image: Rogue Cosie

If you'd like to participate in the Favourite Things Project, sign up at Being Tazim! To find out more about cool stuff in Brisbane, check out my Brisbane city guide on the Design*Sponge website.

Happy (belated) blogging birthday

Five days ago marked one year since I started my blogging adventures. How silly of me to overlook this anniversary! My first post stated that 'This blog will chronicle my continuing adventure of decorating the 1970s two-bedroom apartment owned by myself and fiance John'. Aside from the fact that John is now my husband, I think that opening statement is still largely accurate. In addition to my decorating exploits, in recent months I have also branched out to also include other topics of interest to me, including craft, cooking and ethical shopping.

Let's celebrate my belated blogging birthday with the lime and pistachio cake I made for John's birthday back in February...

Hello bunny friend

Regular readers of Flying Ducks know that I have quite a few (John might say too many!) bird objects around my home. What isn't quite as obvious is that I also love bunny rabbits, previously only evidenced by my Lightly mirror in the bedroom.

Clearly, I needed to rectify this rabbit drought. I picked up this little guy at Aladdin's Fair, held a couple of weeks ago at Downey Park in Windsor, Brisbane. I don't know anything about him as he doesn't have a stamp, but I suspect he was the 'hear no evil' third of a set of garden ornaments.

Our new bunny lives next to the sliding door onto the balcony in the living room. Unfortunately due to the recent overcast weather I've been unable to get a good shot of him in his home, but this is what he looks like.

Blacklist studio prints are here!

You might recall my excitement at finding the Roxette-inspired prints from Blacklist Studio recently.

I actually got them quite a few weeks ago now, but I haven't had time to properly photograph and blog about them. In the meantime, here are a couple of snaps of the prints in their current home next to the TV (complete with Ikea Ribba frames - the result of a record 15-minute dash into the Logan store one busy Saturday morning!).

I quite like them in their current location, but I think my husband might have other ideas. We'll just have to wait and see!

The Finders Keepers Markets

I ended up going to The Finders Keepers Markets in Brisbane not once, but twice. John came with me the first day, and then when my friend said she was going back for a second round on Sunday, I decided to tag along too. I didn't make any major purchases, but I did get things that I really needed (ok, wanted): some new brooches, hair accessories and a long necklace.

Here is a run-down on everything I bought (photographed on a bone china 'bamboo' tray from Have You Met Miss Jones?). First up, the brooches, starting with this cute little mirrored squirrel from A Skulk of Foxes. I really really wanted to buy their kissing bunnies necklace, but I'll save that for a future online purchase.

My next brooch purchase was from Brooke Johnson Design, who makes these lovely little fabric things. Too cute!

Next, this postage stamp brooch featuring some kind of gazelle-like creature. This one was an absolute bargain at $4 from Corky St Clair.

And the last brooch is this patterned blue bunny from Brisbane-based Tree Party Design.

I also got this very adorable wooden necklace on a long chain from Tree Party Design.

Finally, the hair accessories. These lovely clips are from Black and Bird.

And these little fabric-covered pins are courtesy of another Brisbane designer, Chi Designs. I also would have loved a Chi clutch, but perhaps that can be yet another future internet purchase.

There were many other items I could have blown some cash on - the clothes were incredible, as were many of the original art works and ceramic pieces. I think that for a total of less than $80, I did pretty well this weekend. I'd better start saving for the next one in November...

Giveaway: movie tickets

Thanks to Madman films and Palace Cinemas, I have three double passes to give away for a special preview screening of The Hedgehog in Brisbane - a moving story about love, life and the beauty of unexpected friendships. For more information about the film, visit the Madman website. 

The double passes are only valid for Palace Centro, James Street, on Monday 5 July. If you can't make it to this session, please don't enter.

To win a pass, just leave a comment on this post by 5.00pm this Friday 25 June. If you don't have a blog where I can contact you, please leave an email address as well. I'll contact the winners and post out the tickets the following week.

Move over Margaret Fulton!

This morning I decided to bake scones after my driving lesson. The reason? Well, last week I was given a gift of citrus marmalade from Stanthorpe. Lovely! But, those who know me well would be aware that I do not mix sweet and savoury - for me, this means no sweet spread (i.e. marmalade) on savoury bases (i.e. bread or English muffins). I don't even do fruit toast, because I hate dried fruit. Do you see my dilemma?! So, in order to enjoy this tasty gift, I needed to make scones or pikelets. I've never made scones before, so I figured I'd give it a try. Margaret Fulton helped a little...

Margaret only said to use a 4cm cutter. This sounded very small to me, but I complied with her wishes. The resulting scones did rise considerably, but I still consider them to be little. Mini scones, if you will. Maybe I kneaded the dough too much? Or maybe back when Margaret wrote her scone recipe they weren't intended to be super-sized like most food is now. In any case, I'm pleased with them.

Margaret kindly suggested that I wrap them in a tea towel when hot to make nice, soft scones. I obliged. Then I decided to sample a warm one with citrus marmalade. Delicious. Maybe if I get really adventurous (and decadent) I'll whip up some cream for afternoon tea.