I had a weird experience this week that I thought I'd share with hml readers. Firstly this is is where I work - half of hml comes out of this room ( Beck my hml other half down in clarke street, is in the throws of setting up her uber studio in the new digs). It was photographed this week for a magazine. Let me tellyou this is one of the weirdest and most invasive experiences I've endured.
Firstly - it never looks this nice and inviting. Usually the table also has nappies to be folded, tea cups to be washed and crumby toast plates. Secondly I don't normally have all my work up on the wall - its the dining room after all but I think it's meant to look like some swisho studio. In the professional shots I'm sitting in there like a pork chop. Thirdly I dont use brown paper to protect the table - I use a plastic drop cloth which is damn ugly let me tell you. I dont know how many people are going to see the article ultimately but I did want to share this peek into my weird world with you dear readers of hml..back to our regular schedule...
The last couple of days were spent on polishing my course paper on childs' nutrition. It was interesting, of course, but did take a lot of time and was mentally and emotionally challenging since I had to compress a massive knowledge base into a given 1500 word limit. It also gave me an inspiration for this post, which, I hope, you will also like. Today we are talking children in vogue... And yes, I did include a photo of pregnant Natalia Vodianova. Enjoy! 
Those of you who know me will also know that I am to baking what Ramona is to sewing, so it's more than a little ironic that last week both of us very successfully had a crack at doing what the other does best. Mine was Max's first birthday party for my very large extended family... and our family does like a cake, or thirteen. While I didn't get the Women's Weekly Birthday Cake book out for a cowboy fort or cricket bat cake I did manage the following... Chocolate and Raspberry Cream cupcakes, Nigella's Lemon Syrup cake, Chocolate Banana cupcakes (for the birthday boy), and a Karen Martini last minute straight out of the weekend papers coconut butter cake with passion-fruit frosting for the big birthday cake. And they all worked !!! Just to be sure that the family didn't all go into diabetic coma's I also whipped up some spinach and cheese triangles and my crafting compadres tried and tested "cheese twists" (...which were a massive hit). I must confess I wasn't the only contributing baker on the day with my auntie Sue adding the traditional ginger fluff sponge to the mix (not a patch on yours miss penpen) and Ramona backing me up with a tray full of delicious carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting that were ultimately the hit of the day. Of course there was too much food even for my starving hordes, so everyone got a take away pack for morning tea at work on Monday.
Oh and Max, well he loves and audience any time, so to be able to be the centre of attention for a whole afternoon, have 25 or so people sing for you, a garden full of balloons and as many cheese twists and banana cakes to eat as possible was pretty much heaven. Happy birthday little guy.
