Morning Tea at Chapels

Chapels on Whatley was a random cafe that my best friend and I randomly stumbled upon whilst on a mission to dine at Mrs S. Unfortunately Mrs S, and many other shops on Whatley Crescent appeared to be closed on Monday. Fortunately, however Chapels on Whatley was a cafe experience we will never forget! It seemed to deliver surprise after surprise! Chapels is not only a cafe but a eastern themed shop featuring many antique furniture, art, artifacts, homewares and an incredible variety of fine tea. The menu consists of an infusion of Western & Eastern influences which gives it a unique experience. I had the San Choy Bao which was absolutely delicious!

One of the many things I love about Chapels is the fine china we got to use, Royal Albert!!! I was afraid of breaking such an expensive collection! The cafe was also scattered with weird but interesting paintings by an artist called Jin Chuan. They were rather amusing, had the same smiley face plastered on every painting. I love the attention to detail, outside there were red parasols and lanterns to match the Eastern atmosphere.




San Choy Bao





Mismatched Royal Albert Collection



Fine China & I



Jin Chuan Art



More Jin Chuan Art



From this (above)



TO THIS!! An aquarium in my teapot!

We ended our experience at Chapels with the best tea in the world!!! It starts off as a ball of tea leaves and when you chuck it in hot water it slowly grows and sprouts up like a real flower!!! If the teapot was a little taller, it would've turned out alot nicer but it was seriously amazing!! Highly recommended to those that are as easily amused as I am!

Drinks at the Aviary

On Sunday, my Uni friends and I decided to catch up at the brand new rooftop bar that everyone seems to be talking about which located in the Perth CBD. The Aviary certainly creates an amazing impression with its cute wallpapers, grass carpet and live plants & trees whilst overlooking the skyscapers of the city. I think one of the best things about this new bar is the opening hours, it's open every day. Monday - Saturday from 11am till midnight & Sunday from 11am till 10pm.

We were quite happy with the service that we got, I've heard that they weren't that up to scratch when they first opened but we had no troubles at all. The food was quite tasty and I highly recommend those battered prawns with the caramel coating.



Love the attention to detail - bird cages hanging off the ceiling & bird wallpaper


Astroturf carpet, cute bar with live plants and adorable lighting





Great view of the city



Food! Very delicious



Asahi battered prawns, soy & lime caramel



Ginger & nori fried squid



Herb chicken on ciabatta bread, smoked bacon, onion jam, goats curd & fries



Grilled Turkish bread, smokey baba ganoush & chilli chickpea



Aviary Black Angus sandwich, cheddar, beetroot chutney, fries, onion ring





Bed Sofas were the perfect furniture for a Lazy Sunday afternoon

Carbon Footprints & Yelo Cafe

This pretty little image was posted by Ian Somerhalder (Dead guy from LOST now undead on The Vampire Diaries) who is not only a really attractive actor but a global Ambassador for the Alliance for Global Conservation and and founder of ISF which is a not-for-profit organisation that has many projects that aim to help the environment. ANYWAYS, I have decided to reduce my carbon footprint by bringing a mug to work instead of using those disposable foam cups at work. Also, Today I caught up with a friend at Yelo Cafe on West Coast Drive for a cup of Fiori coffee and some carrot cake. It's a nice little cafe, with chill out music and a nice view overlooking the pristine waters of the beach. What I noticed at this lovely cafe/surf shop was the BioPak Coffee takeaway cups and wooden cutlery! All the coffee cups and packaging is biodegradable and compostable! It's always nice to see local businesses that are eco-friendly.

Hat Winners.

I am proud to announce I won the female category of the hat competition held at work!
I am now $50 richer.
Hurray!

Spring Shopping

Gone are the days of long sleeved woolly jumpers, socks and boots. Say hello to my new camel coloured sandals and beige shoulder bag from Novo. (Although it's meant to be raining from Wednesday onwards - pfft - details)

Fascinating! How to make an 'x-ray' themed fascinator

A hat competition is being held on Melbourne Cup day at work which I plan to participate in. The prize is a $50 voucher and initially I was going to buy this extravagant fascinator for $40 but decided to make my own instead...out of x-ray film! A much cheaper alternative and so much more fun! So I went to my old work place to gather some free film and went to spotlight and spent $12 on materials (50% off millinery materials - yay).


Materials bought: Headband, hat base, 1 metre of veil, a variety of feathers & rhinestones

Construction:
I gathered the veil and folded it until I was happy with the formation and sewed it underneath the base and then sewed the base to the headband itself.
Arrange the feathers and stuck it on to the hat base with craft glue.
Cut out flower shapes from the x-ray film and curled each petal with fingers. Using a paper fastener, joined each different sized flower shapes together. Glue flower onto base.
Glued a rhinestone in the middle of the flower.
Cut out feather shapes from x-ray film and attach to wires. Attach to base.

In Construction:



X-ray Film Flower Cut outs.



Combined Flower cut outs and Rhinestones.

Tea Party for Three

I had leftover cheese from my cheese platter so invited a couple of friends over for a mini tea party at mine. We decided to tape my Diana Mini coloured filters on top of our Fujifilm Instax Mini 7s flashes to create crazy coloured outcomes!



After googling colour filters I came across this article on the lomography site that has another colour filter idea for the Instax Mini 7s. I will have to try that one day!

Cheesy Friday

Today was the last day for the students working at Shents so they made some Brownies and we decided earlier that some of us would bring in some food as well so we could have a little tea party at work. Two girls brought in two different types of brownies and I decided to bring in a cheese platter. Got a little bit carried away and went Thursday night shopping and bought some beautiful Maxwell & Williams dinnerware and cutlery for cheese platters. Plated up three different types of cheese with crackers and mini toasts and garnished it with a fanned homegrown strawberry. Pictures below!



Finished product.



My fanned homegrown strawberry, oops should've snipped off the stalk.



Brie, Apricot & Almond Cream Cheese and Cheddar



Crackers & Mini toasts.

Got the Green Thumb

A trip to Bunnings.

Strawberry, Basil and Grape Tomatoes.

wish me luck...

M.I.A - Snow trips

I have been MIA for a few months, oops! I blame my long hiatus on my 'recent' employment at a public hospital! I am happily working and earning some moolah, very exciting stuff! I shall write a catching up blog entry on the snow trips I've been on in the last month. One weekend (26th of August) we decided to fly to Melbourne for a snow trip. Rob & I flew on a Friday night and came back on a Monday morning, and had work that Monday afternoon! It was hectic but oh so fun! We went up to Mount Buller and snowboarded til our legs couldn't hold us up no more and explored Melbourne City and met up with a friend that lives there.

One week later we flew to New Zealand for another snow trip! We spent 10 days in NZ driving from Christchurch to Kaikoura to Wanaka, then Queenstown, to Methven and back to Christchurch. This time we went snowboarding at Mt Hutt and Cadrona! It wasn't that snowy this time of the year but it was still ten times better than Mt Buller and also much much cheaper. Got to catch up with my amazing NZ friends again which was awesome. We went to Hanmer, initially to go to the hot springs but ended up quad biking in the mud. NZ never ceases to amaze me with its amazing scenary! I've forgotten how beautiful the place was.

If you ever go to Queenstown, I highly recommend the Onsen Hot Pools which is an indoor/outdoor spa. By that I mean, it's indoors but it has A RETRACTABLE ROOF!! With the push of a button *POOF* you're suddenly outdoors looking at beautiful mountain views or if it is at night, star gazing into the magnificent night sky! Also, if you choose the candlelit pamper pack like we did, the spa room is filled with many a candles. The only negative comment I can offer was that the candles weren't real candles unfortunately (poo). Otherwise it gave a relaxing and amazing atmosphere.

Not us - picture from Onsen website

I have caught the travelling bug again and the minute I got back to work, filled in my leave form for my next trip! Next stop: Singapore in November! Can't wait!

I love food!

As I mentioned earlier I have been eating a lot and I wanted to share some of the places I've been to this month. First of all, gorgeous Fel took me to The Secret Garden Cafe for Brunch one morning. It is a beautiful little cafe with a magnificent garden with water features, a wishing well and miniature bridges and the atmosphere is just so warm and relaxing.

I ordered Stuffed mushrooms with toast, a poached egg and salad on the side. Let me tell you it was one of the best meals I have ever had in awhile and I dream about the stuffed mushrooms all the time! I must admit, I do love my mushrooms though. I loved it so much that I tried to recreate a similar dish at home (not succeeding, but that's not the point). I will definitely have to go back and have those mushrooms again!
Fel & Pavlova

If you are looking for a new cafe to try, I highly recommend this place! And try the stuffed mushrooms!

The Secret Garden Cafe

64 Angelo Street

South Perth WA 6151

(08 ) 9367 5597

Another eatery I went to was the Burger Bistro located at Leederville. I had lunch there with Robbie because we've walked past a couple of times and it looks quite groovy with its light globe decorations and Banksy art hanging around the walls of the place.


I ordered the Hey pesto Burger which consist of hand made CAAB Angus beef patty with fresh basil leaf, shaved parmesan, basil pesto and tomato relish on a bed of salads.


I really liked their tomato relish in the burger as well as a dip for the chips however the burger itself did not blow my mind away. It was a decent burger but I did not crave for it. Otherwise, real nice atmosphere and lovely presentation.

The Burger Bistro

147 Oxford Street

Leederville WA

(08 ) 9443 5881

And that's the way the cookie crumbles

I have not been blogging recently because my current life consists of watching TV series and eating lots of food. Also, I am extremely lazy. I finally found a job which starts in June so I am relaxing before reality kicks in.

After discovering the cookie gun on Kanela and Lemon's blog along with a Butter Cookie Recipe on Sunday, I went searching for a cookie gun to atempt her lovely creation.
Photo from Kanela and Lemon

However, I didn't end up purchasing a cookie gun because the only one I found was in Myer and it was above the price range I wanted to spend so I decided to use my cookie cutters that I already had at home.



Little did I know, the recipe was made specifically for cookie guns so the dough was too soft to be cut. Instead, I used an icing pipe so my resulting cookies did not turn out as nice as I would' have liked.

In the meantime, I've found some lovely cookie guns on ebay that catches my fancy.