The latest edition (August 2014) of Adelaide Matters has a small article about me. It certainly feels odd being in print, but it was very nice of them to feature me. Here is the article:
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Tuesday, 19 August 2014
Adelaide Matters
Shanghai Lil & The Scarlet Fez in the Spotlight
The latest edition (August 2014) of Adelaide Matters has a small article about me. It certainly feels odd being in print, but it was very nice of them to feature me. Here is the article:
The latest edition (August 2014) of Adelaide Matters has a small article about me. It certainly feels odd being in print, but it was very nice of them to feature me. Here is the article:
Monday, 27 January 2014
1940s Interiors
A photo survey
There are so many wonderful image collections out there, on flickr, pintrest and the like, but it is surprisingly difficult to come across images of interiors from the 1940s.
My interest in 1940s interiors is a personal one, that is, I'm looking for inspiration for our home, so I have put together a short(ish) collection of scanned images from some of our books and magazines, which I think is worth sharing here. This selection follows on from an earlier post on 1940s fabrics.
The images are mostly of fairly modest homes, a reasonable starting point since we're not likely to be in a position to furnish our home with Andre Arbus anytime soon (which reminds me, I need to speak to those lotto people about this on-going issue...) and I have selected them because each one has a particular feature or finish that interests me.
And why the 1940s? Well, it's hard to pinpoint, but I'm very fond of art deco, streamline moderne and post-war modernism and the 1940s is the in-between point of these styles. It's a place where there is a way to blend the otherwise very distinctive and opposing styles spanning either side of the second world war, and that's great for me and my partner and our eclectic tastes. So, here we are:
1. Textiles: Stroheim & Romann. Ceramics: Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Co. Ltd. From 'Furnishing the Small Home' - Margaret Merivale (1945).
2. Fireplace treatment. Designer: W. Curtis Green R.A. ibid
3. Room detail. Joseph Aronson. ibid.
4. Studio room by Helen Park. ibid.
5. Room detail. Oliver Hill. ibid.
6. Dining room, Bowman's Ltd, London. From 'Design in Every Day Things' - Australian Broadcasting Commission (1941).
7. Hand woven woollen materials by Catherine Hardess of Melbourne. ibid.
8. Living room of Miss Patricia Detring, Bel Air. Designer: Paul T. Frankl Associates. From 'The Studio Year Book. Decorative Art 1943-1948' - ed. Rathbone Holme & Kathleen M. Frost.
9. Scale model of living room. Designer: Edward D. Stone. ibid.
10. Japanese pavilion, World's Fair, Paris 1937. Designer: Junzo Sakakura. From 'Furniture & Interiors of the 1940s' - Anne Bony (2002).
11. Shangri-La Hotel 1939-1940. Photographer: Julius Schulman. ibid.
There are so many wonderful image collections out there, on flickr, pintrest and the like, but it is surprisingly difficult to come across images of interiors from the 1940s.
My interest in 1940s interiors is a personal one, that is, I'm looking for inspiration for our home, so I have put together a short(ish) collection of scanned images from some of our books and magazines, which I think is worth sharing here. This selection follows on from an earlier post on 1940s fabrics.
The images are mostly of fairly modest homes, a reasonable starting point since we're not likely to be in a position to furnish our home with Andre Arbus anytime soon (which reminds me, I need to speak to those lotto people about this on-going issue...) and I have selected them because each one has a particular feature or finish that interests me.
And why the 1940s? Well, it's hard to pinpoint, but I'm very fond of art deco, streamline moderne and post-war modernism and the 1940s is the in-between point of these styles. It's a place where there is a way to blend the otherwise very distinctive and opposing styles spanning either side of the second world war, and that's great for me and my partner and our eclectic tastes. So, here we are:
1. Textiles: Stroheim & Romann. Ceramics: Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Co. Ltd. From 'Furnishing the Small Home' - Margaret Merivale (1945).
2. Fireplace treatment. Designer: W. Curtis Green R.A. ibid
3. Room detail. Joseph Aronson. ibid.
4. Studio room by Helen Park. ibid.
5. Room detail. Oliver Hill. ibid.
6. Dining room, Bowman's Ltd, London. From 'Design in Every Day Things' - Australian Broadcasting Commission (1941).
7. Hand woven woollen materials by Catherine Hardess of Melbourne. ibid.
8. Living room of Miss Patricia Detring, Bel Air. Designer: Paul T. Frankl Associates. From 'The Studio Year Book. Decorative Art 1943-1948' - ed. Rathbone Holme & Kathleen M. Frost.
9. Scale model of living room. Designer: Edward D. Stone. ibid.
10. Japanese pavilion, World's Fair, Paris 1937. Designer: Junzo Sakakura. From 'Furniture & Interiors of the 1940s' - Anne Bony (2002).
11. Shangri-La Hotel 1939-1940. Photographer: Julius Schulman. ibid.
Saturday, 18 January 2014
1960s Toy Stencils
Colour Inspiration
Some time ago, I came across a bunch of old toys and stuff from my childhood including these wonderfully coloured plastic stencils. I love that translucent soft plastic and the 1960s Eurasian designs. I think my favourite was the seal, though the lion and squirrel come pretty close.
Some time ago, I came across a bunch of old toys and stuff from my childhood including these wonderfully coloured plastic stencils. I love that translucent soft plastic and the 1960s Eurasian designs. I think my favourite was the seal, though the lion and squirrel come pretty close.
Thursday, 17 October 2013
Chim Chim Cher-ee Chincheree
What do you get when you mix Mary Poppins with an African lily?
Chincheree! Beautiful and long lasting, chincherees are the perfect cut flower!
Chincheree! Beautiful and long lasting, chincherees are the perfect cut flower!
Monday, 7 October 2013
A Glorious Day
Guess what I'm doing?
Well, I'm doing a few things, but this is one of them:
Well, I'm doing a few things, but this is one of them:
Otherwise, on this wonderfully sunny and springy public holiday, I'm making a new soap, a new perfume and listening to bossa nova while catching up with some reading. Perfect, yes?! I hope your day is as relaxing!
Sunday, 29 September 2013
Postage
Buying online
I do quite a bit of my shopping online now (and yes, I'm sure saying "online" makes me sound old) and part of that is the joy of receiving a parcel. I guess it taps into the childhood pleasures of Christmas and birthday events. Embrace the inner child, I say. It's the anticipation of a treat coming your way. This lady understands, she's been putting on her best straw cone-hat and waiting by the chinoiserie letterbox every day since 1961!
The only downside, of course, is that you have to pay postage and packaging to get your treats to your letterbox. Here at the Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez shop, I have kept the postage costs down to a minimum. Here they are:
1 to 3 bars - $7.00 flat rate; and
4 bars and above - $11.00 flat rate.
Now, following on with the '60s theme, here is a song I'm obsessed with at the moment - very sweeping and dramatic (the sort of song someone who would use Madame X... might like...):
Photo: detail from found photo dated October 1961. Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez collection.
I do quite a bit of my shopping online now (and yes, I'm sure saying "online" makes me sound old) and part of that is the joy of receiving a parcel. I guess it taps into the childhood pleasures of Christmas and birthday events. Embrace the inner child, I say. It's the anticipation of a treat coming your way. This lady understands, she's been putting on her best straw cone-hat and waiting by the chinoiserie letterbox every day since 1961!
The only downside, of course, is that you have to pay postage and packaging to get your treats to your letterbox. Here at the Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez shop, I have kept the postage costs down to a minimum. Here they are:
1 to 3 bars - $7.00 flat rate; and
4 bars and above - $11.00 flat rate.
Now, following on with the '60s theme, here is a song I'm obsessed with at the moment - very sweeping and dramatic (the sort of song someone who would use Madame X... might like...):
Photo: detail from found photo dated October 1961. Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez collection.
Sunday, 1 September 2013
Sunday, 28 July 2013
Vegan Chai Tea
A Spicy Treat for Daydreamers
I think I have purchased every available brand of chai tea on the market. Our tea cupboard is packed with boxes of chai tea - and you can tell which ones we like; the empty ones. So I decided to make my own. I initially had visions of me at my day job spending hours in the kitchen slowly preparing spices and heating them up on my own portable cooking element, but they're on to me already. So, home preparation is the go.
I purchased some heat sealable teabags. Most of these I will use to infuse oils with herbs for the soaps I make, but here is another use. Of course, a mesh tea-ball will do, I just chose the bag because some of the spices will be powdered and I didn't want too much sediment in the final brew (you can always let it settle and just avoid serving the last bit, if you are strong-willed).
My partner and I went to Gaganis Bros on the weekend (if you don't know what this is, it's a magnificent, no, glorious, food wholesaler in Hindmarsh, Adelaide) and we bought up big on spices.
So, I don't really have a recipe, I just judged from my own preference for spices how much I would like in a brew for two (say that in a Toorak accent), so I can suggest this:
1 half teaspoon of ginger powder (fresh is better, no doubt, but I chose this because I thought about making up bags to use at other times, so dry ingredients would obviously be better)
4 cloves
2 whole star anise pods
1 half teaspoon of cardamon seeds
1 half teaspoon of cracked black pepper
5 whole pimento (all spice)
3 quarters of a teaspoon of cinnamon powder (I could only find sticks in kilogram bags, so powder had to do)
4 teaspoons of black tea (the stronger the better)
Put the spices in a mortar and give them a few grinds with a pestle. If you don't have a mortar and pestle, pounding the spices in a plastic bag with something hard might work!
Tip the contents and the black tea into the teabag. At this point, I also added a piece of orange peel. Iron the open side of the bag to seal it shut. And there you have your chai teabag.
In a small saucepan, I heated a mug's worth of water and a mug's worth of soy milk. To this, I added the teabag, two teaspoons of homemade vanilla essence (thanks to a lovely Christmas gift) and a couple of tablespoons of vegan cream. The vegan cream comes from a simple recipe my friend Karena (Magic Jelly) has graciously shared on her site and consists of cashews, soy milk and canola oil. It is super easy to make and is very versatile, as the recipes on Karena's site explain. The addition of vegan cream takes the chai to another level, but it really is optional.
Illustrated above, the spices, the cream, the vanilla essence and the tea bag.
I was fortunate enough to be presented today with a dozen vegan coffee cakes, again, courtesy of Karena. She has the recipe on her site and this is a modified version from a recipe for East Coast Coffee Cake found in Vegan Brunch. Delicious.
Making the chai teabag took about 10 minutes including clean-up, so it's an easy and worthwhile treat for lazy Sundays.
I think I have purchased every available brand of chai tea on the market. Our tea cupboard is packed with boxes of chai tea - and you can tell which ones we like; the empty ones. So I decided to make my own. I initially had visions of me at my day job spending hours in the kitchen slowly preparing spices and heating them up on my own portable cooking element, but they're on to me already. So, home preparation is the go.
I purchased some heat sealable teabags. Most of these I will use to infuse oils with herbs for the soaps I make, but here is another use. Of course, a mesh tea-ball will do, I just chose the bag because some of the spices will be powdered and I didn't want too much sediment in the final brew (you can always let it settle and just avoid serving the last bit, if you are strong-willed).
My partner and I went to Gaganis Bros on the weekend (if you don't know what this is, it's a magnificent, no, glorious, food wholesaler in Hindmarsh, Adelaide) and we bought up big on spices.
So, I don't really have a recipe, I just judged from my own preference for spices how much I would like in a brew for two (say that in a Toorak accent), so I can suggest this:
1 half teaspoon of ginger powder (fresh is better, no doubt, but I chose this because I thought about making up bags to use at other times, so dry ingredients would obviously be better)
4 cloves
2 whole star anise pods
1 half teaspoon of cardamon seeds
1 half teaspoon of cracked black pepper
5 whole pimento (all spice)
3 quarters of a teaspoon of cinnamon powder (I could only find sticks in kilogram bags, so powder had to do)
4 teaspoons of black tea (the stronger the better)
Put the spices in a mortar and give them a few grinds with a pestle. If you don't have a mortar and pestle, pounding the spices in a plastic bag with something hard might work!
Tip the contents and the black tea into the teabag. At this point, I also added a piece of orange peel. Iron the open side of the bag to seal it shut. And there you have your chai teabag.
In a small saucepan, I heated a mug's worth of water and a mug's worth of soy milk. To this, I added the teabag, two teaspoons of homemade vanilla essence (thanks to a lovely Christmas gift) and a couple of tablespoons of vegan cream. The vegan cream comes from a simple recipe my friend Karena (Magic Jelly) has graciously shared on her site and consists of cashews, soy milk and canola oil. It is super easy to make and is very versatile, as the recipes on Karena's site explain. The addition of vegan cream takes the chai to another level, but it really is optional.
I was fortunate enough to be presented today with a dozen vegan coffee cakes, again, courtesy of Karena. She has the recipe on her site and this is a modified version from a recipe for East Coast Coffee Cake found in Vegan Brunch. Delicious.
Making the chai teabag took about 10 minutes including clean-up, so it's an easy and worthwhile treat for lazy Sundays.
Wednesday, 17 July 2013
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