Alice - Art Director's blog

Coming up on the 10th of September, florist Laura McGuire and photographer Lenore Farrelly, combine their talents with Look & Look Again, an auction evening of floral art and photography, to raise money for The Champion Centre in Christchurch. The large scale photographic prints by these two talented ladies are stunning art works and will make a beautiful addition to any home.

Tickets are $20 from Harakeke or Dusk in Christchurch, and include drinks, nibbles and a goodie bag; not to mention the opportunity to bid for one of their works on the night. 

Click here for more.

Selaks is bringing back the Roast, with this Sunday August 1st being announced as National Roast Day.
Writer Edna Ferber once said: “Roast Beef, medium, is not only a food. It is a philosophy.”*
It’s a viewpoint Selaks entirely agrees with. As winter takes a hunger-inducing hold on the nation, New Zealand’s leading wine company feels it’s time to celebrate our gastronomy by dedicating a day in its honour.
There are reports that the roast is disappearing from our menus, and a recent survey by researchers at Chatham House shows that steep rises in food prices are likely to consign the traditional Sunday roast to a rare household event within two decades.
With a proud 76 year history of bringing family and friends together over good food and wine, Selaks is determined not to see this culinary stalwart become just a page in our country’s rich epicurean history. Click here for recipes and roasting tips from Kiwi Chef Paul Joblin and Selaks.

*Ferber’s complete quote: “Roast Beef, medium, is not only a food. It is a philosophy. Seated at Life's Dining Table, with the menu of Morals before you, your eye wanders a bit over the entrees, the hors d'oeuvres, and the things a la though you know that Roast Beef, medium, is safe and sane, and sure.”

In the spirit of National Roast Day we thought we would share a recipe for our favourite, roast lamb. Featured in our April/May issue with a mint and walnut salsa from Chef Dean Hyde for our Sunday Family Lunch story.

The Perfect Roast Lamb

1.5 kg leg of lamb
½ cup olive oil
2 tbsp flaky sea salt
1 tbsp ground fresh pepper
3 large peeled garlic cloves
2 sprigs rosemary
500 ml water

Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Before roasting allow the meat to come to room temperature. In a small bowl combine olive oil, salt, and ground pepper. Massage this mixture over the lamb. With a sharp paring knife stab 12 holes in the meat to a depth of 3 inches. Cut garlic and place in holes with a sprig of rosemary.
Place lamb in roasting dish, and pour in water to help keep the meat moist while cooking. Place in oven and cook for 1 1/2 hours.
After this time the water should have evaporated. Turn the oven up to 180 degrees Celsius and roast for a further 20 - 30 minutes. During this cooking period start basting the meat around every 5 minutes with the juices from the roast. This will make a tasty meat glaze over the meat.
Once you are satisfied the meat is cooked to your liking, removed from the oven and cover with tin foil, while still in the roasting pan. Leave the meat to stand like this for about 25 - 30 minutes; it will help the meat to become tender and succulent.
Transfer to a meat plate suitable for carving and serve.

Mint and Walnut Salsa

2 cups mint
2 cups parsley
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
½ cup roasted walnuts
1 tsp sugar
¼ cup white wine vinegar
½ cup olive oil
Salt & pepper

Place all ingredients in food processor and blend until mixture has made a chunky sauce. This will only be a few seconds. This salsa will keep in the fridge for up to a month in an airtight jar.
 

Photography Lisa Gane     Styling Alice Lines


 

After a trip from Nelson to Christchurch through the beech forrest in the Lewis Pass, we thought we would have a go at making terrariums. They were surprisingly easy to make, and with zero maintenance, a great alternative to fresh flowers in winter.

With the response we've had to our recent project in Issue 36, it seems we are not the only ones interested in these minature landscapes for your mantelpiece. For those of you who missed the magazine, we thought we would share the instructions for you to have a go at making your own.

You Will Need:
• Glass vessels with lids
• Small pebbles or sand
• Potting mix
• Moss
• Ferns, lichen and small seedlings

Choose a glass container that is large enough to house your selected plants, small enough to put indoors, and has a tight fitting lid. We found ours at a secondhand store, but large Mason Jars can also be bought at kitchen supply shops.

The ideal plants are found in swampy or wooded areas, such as moss and ferns. A weekend walk in the bush is the perfect excuse to forage for your collection. As there is a small space to work with, choose plants that won’t grow over 30cms.

To begin assembly, place a layer of pebbles or sand in the base for drainage. Now place a layer of soil over the pebbles; keep this layer thin to help inhibit the growth of your plants allowing them to conform to their miniature surroundings. Top with a layer of moss.
 

Dig holes down through the moss for your plants and arrange according to shape, size, colour. Start with smallest plants first; gently press the moss in and around each root system. Once all plants are in their final positions, prune to discard any dead areas.
 

Initially water only enough to moisten the soil, it is better to underwater; should your terrarium wilt at all simply add a little water. Generally it can be left to it's own devises. Place the finished terrarium in good light, but never in direct sunlight as its little eco-system will overheat!

Once closed your terrarium needs very little maintenance. If the sides of the glass fog up, lift the lid until the condensation disappears then close the lid again.

Email us photos of your handi work if you give this go, we would love to see your take on the miniature garden.
 

The talented folk at Home Base Collections are at it again with a wintery range of sheepskin cushions backed with their fabulous printed fabrics. Not only that, but they have also created a sheepskin rug 'inspired by the classic peggy square, from 50 pieces of New Zealand grown short clipped wool'. Snuggling up with these beauties on a cold and rainy weekend would be divine!

Click here to contact Home Base Collections for more information.

photography Home Base Collections

Lock Saturday the 24th of July into your calendar for the inaugural Auckland Art & Craft Fair as this is an event not to be missed! 
Organiser Jessica Whiting takes time out of her busy schedule to give us the ins and outs of whats involved, and how it all came about.

What made you decide to launch The Auckland Art & Craft Fair? With running the Auckland Craft Collective it was a natural progression, the Collective is all about raising awareness of handmade to the public, assisting sellers with practical support and increasing the value of handmade products as opposed to mass produced. We wanted to do something in Auckland, as there wasn't anything on this scale here — one of those "why don't we have something like this here? Lets just do it ourselves!" moments.

Is this project along the lines of things you have done before? Absolutely not, haha, it's been a steep learning curve that's for sure! Because I already have experience in the craft industry and have been making my own work for nearly 2 years, it's definitely something that I felt I knew enough about to try my hand at it and so far I haven't been proven wrong...

Was it a bigger undertaking than you thought? It has been quite a mammoth project! Because it's not a straight market, it's more like the craft/handmade equivalent to NZ Fashion Week I would say, we have a VIP guest list, goodie bags for our guests, a limited edition artist catalogue I have designed and printed and of course the venue (Auckland Art Gallery, Art Lounge) is one of the best in Auckland — it really shows the caliber of the event and it's quite special. The event has required a lot of attention to detail and with having two people organising it, it has worked to have specific tasks with each of us and means there is a strong voice and continuity across the Fair.

The Fair will be on in the Art Lounge of the Auckland Art Gallery

What binds all those involved together? Each of our vendors make everything that they have at their space themselves, they all create work of the highest quality and we feel that what they create is unique, clever and just generally really awesome!

Will this be an ongoing event? Absolutely, we are planning on having two a year, one in Summer and one in Winter. We tentatively have the Summer one penciled in for the beginning of December.

Tell us about the market money, where did the idea come from? I can't imagine many people wanting to part with it! It really is beautiful, it's going to be hard to hand it over! Similar concepts have been done at other events. Due to the 'plastic' age that we live in not everyone has cash so by providing 'market money' it enables people to get 'cash out' that they can spend with our artists. The idea to have it specially designed was one of the first things I came up with! I think we even had Illustrator, Sarah McNeil on board before the venue was confirmed! Each Fair we will be commissioning a new artist to design our money — the Fair is all about showcasing amazing talent, why stop at the tables when we can showcase it everywhere!

Sneak peak of the market money designed by Sarah McNeil

Frankie Magazine is a great sponsor! How did you get involved with them? I contacted Frankie co-founder, Lara Burke as she had recently featured my own work on the Frankie blog, I told her about the event and she was really keen for Frankie to be involved — we are really lucky to have such great sponsors on board with the likes of the Auckland Art Gallery, Base FM and of course the Auckland Craft Collective — they really identify with our event, it's a match made in heaven!

You have a great line up of vendors? Did you have to turn anyway? I know, right? They are an amazing group of individuals and we are so proud to have each of them as part of the first event. Narrowing down the list was by far the hardest part, we had to turn away so many people it was heart breaking. Still, we're hoping that with the summer one, we will be able to have more space and can say yes to more people.

Will you have a stand? Because of the size of the venue and the limited space we had available, we thought that taking up a table each would have been a little mean! There will be so much happening on the day, I don't think we will have time for selling — I am planning to however, have a few of my own things for sale off to the side and of course some information about Foxes, my new store launching the day after the Fair.

 
We wish you the best of luck and can't wait to hear how it goes! 

It's the end of the week and you've decided you're looking forward to a home cooked meal... and then you remember that the weekly shop ran out two nights ago! But don't despair because premium meat cuts, expert recipes and advice are now available at Neat Meat! Their user friendly online store offers overnight, chilled delivery - same day in Auckland if you order early! Follow their 6-star rating system to butchery bliss. homestyle’s pick? Try the gamey goodness of Razorback Wild Boar with kumara mash, creamed silverbeet and a gutsy red to wash it down Click here to visit the butchery.

Typically I don't get excited about playhouses, but the modernist design of the MoMA Modern Play House is enough to inspired the inner child, miniaturist or aspiring architect in all of us! The kit-set includes walls, flooring, furniture, a pool and even wall decals, all housed in a modular nesting box. If only building a home was this easy. Available now from paper room.

The talented ladies at Seed Gallery have done it again! Never ones to operate within the square they are taking it right out of the box with their upcoming exhibition. 'House Of Cards' which opens next Thursday (8th July) sees a deck of playing cards split between 27 painters, printmakers, sculptors and photographers who have each interpreted their current work onto two card designs. The result is 54 unique art works which will be adapted into 200 boxed, limited edition decks of cards. You can own the original 5 of Spades or take home the whole deck; both will be available for sale during the show.

We've been fans of Katydid's Gocco Print cards for a while now, and have featured them a couple of times in the magazine. But now there is even more to browse over on her site, as she has opened an online Emporium of paper goods! Katydid stocks a handpicked selection of new and vintage goodies, both locally made and from overseas. We noticed a few of our favourites that have been popping up in design blogs around the place recently, including cards from Darling Clementine and paper straws. Click here to pop in and have a look around.

Finally! Japanese washi tape is now available in New Zealand. This patterned masking tape has been a hot favourite on design, craft and stationery blogs around the world and now it is available locally from Kozo. Available in a wide range of colours and patterns it can be used for everything from packaging and labeling to journalling and diy projects. After receiving our order, (packaged beautifully in tape of course) we whipped up some miniture bunting.

You can order single rolls, as well as multi packs. Click here to check out the range, it's perfect stashed away in the 'present box' for last minute gift wrapping!