Picture Treasures from some past Melbourne weekends

Australia Day Picnic: I have the most beautiful friends

The Australia Day picnic was just a meant to be a few of us girls to begin with, but, hey we were counting down the Hottest 100 and with all that good music and the amazing weather we sent the call out and our beautiful friends came and had a picnic drink with us. It was ultra relaxing and beautiful in the Fitzroy Gardens (that's one of my favourite things about Melbourne, when you're sitting in a park the city doesn't exist, they are a beautiful sanctuary 5mins from the CBD). It was a perfect picnic, too much good food, just enough wine, a ball to kick around, sunshine, bikes, a pinata(!) and the most beautiful friends you could ever imagine.

 xx jess.

My Husband Makes the Best Pesto.

No joke. It's his beautiful garden I'm always photographing and it's his beautiful produce I get to eat every night. Last year he started making basil pesto and while there was a *slight* mishap with the wooden spoon and the blender, his pesto was amazing. Fresh, chunky and aromatic. We ate it with pasta, on sourdough with eggs, in sandwiches, on chicken and roasted veggies. He made it again this year and this year he picked all the little leaves off the stalks all by himself (that was my painful job last year!). He didn't make as much this year which means every time I eat it I feel a bit greedy and special. To make up for the limited run of precious pesto he also made a Thai curry and mango paste from our Thai curry leaves. This little beauty is going to be a White House staple, it has a very unexpected flavour with chilli, lime, curry leaves and mango.

I've decided that we're only going to give these away to the lovelies who come and visit us up here in the country; it can be a rural treat. And maybe our mums. Maybe...

I would give you the recipe but, to be honest, he just makes it up as he goes along all the while tasting and adding.

xx jess.

Pinata Picinic Preparations

I organised a little picnic in the park to celebrate Australia Day a few weekends and I set about making an invite and, even though not on "Aussie" theme, I just couldn't go past Love Vs Designs cute little fiesta free invites with the adorable little pinata horse on it. Then I thought, hey, why not make a pinata? So I checked out Oh Happy Day! for some inspiration and decided that every picnic needed one. But what so smash? I couldn't convince myself to make an animal not least because I was sure that whatever I tried to draw would end up looking like a mangled mess of green and gold. So a capital A it was. You know, for Australia!

xx jess.