Valentine's Day Choc Dipped Strawberries

So with much protest this week I finally agreed to let Mr Meko (aka Matt) take over the blog and give you an instructional video on how to chocolate dip and decorate strawberries for this Valentine's Day. Clearly someone was dying for their 5 mins in the spotlight (albeit it is actually 10 mins, not 5!). 
So I've handed over the reigns and let Matt take you through how to dip and decorate six different types of strawberries that would make anyone's heart melt this Valentine's Day. 

Enjoy x

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Valentine's Day Gift Guide

With Valentine's Day not that far away now I thought I jump in early and take the stress out of the gift buying (or should I say procrastinating!) and give you some affordable and very chic gift options that are all available on Etsy now. Don't leave your purchasing to the last minute and resort to the predictable last minute chocolates and flowers......BORING! All of the below gifts are only a mouse click away and will make that special person in your life just love you a little bit more! 

These are just a few of my favourites gifts for guys, girls, gifts for us, and some great finds to dress up your gifts this Valentine's Day, but check out Etsy for more great finds.

1. Romantic ceramic ring dish by Palomasnest, $28.00

2. Valentine heart gift tags by Scrap Cuts, $4.25

3. Organic coconut milk soap by Authenti Common Scents, $6.00

4. Love earrings in rose gold by Apple Latte, $14.00

5. Cowboy aromatherapy blend by Oak and Sail , $28.00

6. Personalised wedding vows by Chocolate Moose Home, $65.00

7. I love you ribbon by The Lonely Heart, $10.00

8. I Love You Valentine's day card by Yarisi and Co, $4.25

9. Personalised 3D Song by Suzy Shoppe, $75.00

10. Red heart wood earrings by Finn and Pear, $9.00

11. Like a Boss tie bar by Spiffing Jewelry, $18.00

12. Personalised states and love card by Deep Down Happy, $3.50

13. Tree of life bracelet by Handmade Jewelry 88, $6.75

14. His and Her coffee spoons by Milk and Honey Luxuries, $25.00

Cross breeding Aussie desserts!

With the Australia Day long weekend approaching in the next couple of weeks, my thoughts have turned to what Australia day delights we can come up with for our Australia Day celebrations. Over the last couple of days I have been scrawling through recipes and Pinterst for ideas and inspiration on Aussie inspired desserts and dessert ideas. What I have found however is a massive cross breeding program of Australian desserts! It is incredible some of the concoctions people come up with, crossing pavlova with tiramisu, lamingtons with triffle, and even tim tams with lamingtons! I am keen to think outside the square this year too and stray away from the traditional lamingtons and pav and try something different. I've created a pinterest board for my inspiration that you can view here, but I've also pictured below some of my favourite ideas that I've seen. With the scorching weather these last few weeks I'm loving the ice cream and icy pole ideas, especially in the red, white and blue colours. I  must admit though I am leaning towards something with Tim Tams (probably because Matt and I deprive ourselves of them so often!), but for the end result though you will need to subscribe to the Meko Monthly to share in the recipe. You can subscribe here.

Tim Tam Tarts 

Lamington Triffle

Tim Tam Cupcakes

Berry Icy Poles

Lamington Tiramisu

Violet Crumble Ice Cream

Drum roll please.......the Christmas table revealed!

Happy New Year and welcome to the first blog for 2013! 

I hope you all had a relaxing Christmas break with lots of food, drink and just general merriness! We had a lovely Christmas and enjoyed some very much deserved time out for a couple of weeks, although I was a little bit naughty blogging and facebooking a bit over the break (I just couldn't help myself!). In fact we were actually quite naughty most of the break, over indulging a little too much whilst entertaining lots of friends over the festive period. That's the problem with entertaining, it's so much fun preparing and planning all the food but there is always so much left over that one day of over indulgence usually turns into at least five!

Anyway we are back in to it today catching up and making plans for the new year. Mean while I thought I would share with you the Christmas table I put together for our family on Christmas Day. You may have viewed my Pinterest inspiration board in the lead up to Christmas, so I thought I would share with you all the end result (make sure you come over and follow my Pinterest page as I'm regularly doing lots of inspirational boards for each of the upcoming holidays). Over all I was pleased with the end result and ended up using quite a few ideas I picked up on Pinterest, although my colour scheme did change dramatically from soft pastels to navy and hot pink! The week before Christmas I couldn't help but chuckle at myself outside each day spray painting jars and ball balls and taring up strips of material, it was like a craft segment out of Better Homes and Gardens!

Anyway the photos say it all, so enjoy. x