DIY Paint Dipped Wicker Planter Basket

My current obsession with indoor plants and succulents have lead to an immediate need for planters and pots. When I spotted this $10 Kmart basket on Lucy Violet's Insta feed I knew I had to buy a couple to house my spare Fiddle Figs. 

This simple DIY gives the effect of a dipped base without needing bucket loads of paint and best of all it is a great way to conceal a basic plastic pot!. 

You will need: Basket, Paint, Tape and Brush 

Simply tape around your pot, paint the base and leave to dry - simple!. See images below :).

Oh, if you do choose to use a weaved planter make sure your pot base is very dry before placing back in the basket after each watering to avoid water damage.

Lemon Butter & Coconut Meringue Kisses

Here is a nice twist on the classic Lemon Meringue Pie and a great way to use the entire egg white and yolk in one simple recipe. If you want to add a crumble biscuit base here simply crush ready made biscuits and set the meringues on a bed of crumbs topped with Lemon Butter and a dollop of clotted cream.

For the meringue
I chose to make an Italian Meringue which basically involves adding hot sugar to the whites using the following method:
Separate 4 whites from the yolks (making sure the eggs were at room temperature). Then in a separate saucepan on medium heat gently bring 1.5 cups sugar and 1/4-1/2 cup water to hard ball stage (approx 121 deg. celcius). Just prior to this point start mixing the egg whites to thick soft peaks adding 1/2 teaspoon of vinegar and a pinch of salt at the beginning (this helps to stabilize the mix). Set your stand mixer to high and carefully pour the sugar syrup into the whites and beat till they cool (approx 15 mins). This is a basic Italian Meringue mix...  I then piped out the kissed and baked on 110 deg celcius for 30 mins. This makes a softer mallow like baked meringue. You can also make French Meringues for this recipe by gradually adding spoonfulls of confectioners sugar to soft peaked whites (with a pinch of salt and small splash of vinegar) until the mixture is lush and thick then pipe onto a baking sheet and bake at 110 deg celcius. Store bought meringues will also work.

For the Lemon Curd I halved this Martha Steward Recipe - here. I did add a little more sugar so feel free to add to your taste.

Then gently toast off some desiccated coconut in a pan till fragrant and lightly golden. Once this is done place in a bowl and roll your baked meringues in the coconut mix. You can brush the kisses with a little bit of water to help the coconut to stick if need be.

Mysterious Mid Century Style Pottery Horse

I adore mid century Italian horse figurines, especially the large Bitossi beauties you see every now and then and I look forward to the day I snap one up online or at auction. For the time being, while I wait for the real thing, I've happily settle on this cute hand made reproduction I picked up a few weeks ago. He stands at 35cm tall and I adore his rich marigold hue.

I have spotted a few smaller styles on Etsy like this one here but I can't seem to find the exact shape, size and design to verify where it was made, so for now, he will remain an international horse of mystery!.

xx

Easter Crafting - Martha's Pom Pom Bunnies

Now that we are in the count down to the big day, I though it would be great to start with some festive Easter crafting!. This is a super simple and fun little project I spotted on Martha Stewarts craft site - here. All you need is two pom poms, some felt for the ears, a little ball of cotton wool or felt for the tail, some little black dots for the eyes and craft glue.

you can find the super cute how to here 

xx

Flower Loving!

Hands up if you love fresh cut flowers in your home??... No matter the variety colour or size there is something magical about the way foliage and greenery lifts an interior. So today I'm enjoying this cheery visual and thinking about Easter crafting. 

 Steel Milk Jug - This Design and Living

xx

Moroccan Boucherouite Recycled Rag Rug

I have been in love with Boucherouite Rugs for the last year or so. My first real life example of these gorgeous Moroccan works of art was at a friends townhouse and it looked fabulous. At that time I had no idea of price points and where to get one until I started my online search and soon enough realised it wasn't going to happen. So I set my sights on Ikea's old faithful and called it a day.

I remember reading a post on Design Sponge, where Grace Bonney dreamed of finding a Boucherouite listed for a steal on Etsy or eBay and I thought while that would be lovely it was never going to happen... Well, two weeks ago I won this 4'x6' beauty for the price of the Ikea alternative, at a local auction house, tucked under a teak coffee table and a set of Tolix chairs - YAY!. Now all I need is a pair of Moroccan leather ottomans and I'll be set!.

 I bought these glasses at cute little boutique in Monte Marte not far from the steps to Sacré-Coeur .

xx 

Have a great weekend!

Caring For My Fiddle Leaf Fig With The Parrot Flower Power

A few weeks ago I talked about finally acquiring the super hard to find (in Melbourne) Fiddle Leaf Fig. When I say hard to find, there were plenty of $150+ varieties to be found but as usual I wanted a value for money find, that was at least 60cm tall and did I mention multi stemmed!!. After about a hundred and ninety calls around town and an outbound trip on the freeway I was in Fiddle Ficus heaven with enough stems to share with my sisters while still having a couple of plants to place around my home.

There seems to be a fine line between pleasure and pain when growing and caring for this glorious plant... I'm no green thumb, fortunately my hubby is skilled in the plant growing department, but I still wanted to do my homework to make sure we weren't going to lose our lil figgy. My googling proved to be disheartening "houseplant equivalent of a newborn" was one headline and there were a number of very sad looking brown fig leaves in designer pots happening in the blog world... how was I going to do this.

As fate would have it my inbox seemed to have had the answer in the form of the Parrot Flower Power. It's an App with a twiggy stick thing (yep, I'm so tech savvy right now!!) you download the app place the stick in your pot and within about 24 hours it starts to tell you what your plant needs in all its magical blue tooth glory!.

So far its been in for 48 hours... this is what it had to say. A huge thanks and shout out to my lovely brother in law for screen shooting the app for me!. Loving the detail and the to do notifications.

Next I'm hoping to try it on my new Aspidistra and then my sisters veggie patch as you can monitor multiple plants in the one garden bed too!. I'm thinking this would be great for holiday makers too. My parents have just arrived home from a trip to Vietnam and were less then impressed with the state of their garden - let's just say we didn't water the plants enough, or at all... to be honest we just plain forgot ;-)!.

Copper taped pot inspired by the amazing ASF