This year’s Wintersun held the first inaugural 1950′s Cake Bake Contest, and what a hit!  All the Ladies, and Gents, were invited to enter a cake of their own creation to be judged on looks, taste, presentation, as well as their own personal presentation. We had no idea what sort of reception such an event would receive, but it was such a hit it has already been made a part of next year’s calendar.

I was honored to be asked to judge this year’s heat and made sure I brought my best CWA judging criteria to the table.  Each cake was cut and prodded, tasted and tested, contestants grilled about secret recipes and outfits appraised with a critical eye.  But what a difficult job!  These contestants brought their ‘A’ game, and without a complicated points system I never would have been able to determine the winners.

It was a very windy day down by the seaside, so precautions had to be taken to ensure we arrived looking our best. Mistress Chrissy was there to whip the contestants into line and keep proceedings moving along.

All the contestants arrived to set up their creations and present them to an eagerly awaiting crowd.

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All the best dressed at the festival turned up to either participate or simply to watch and hope for a taste.

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This lovely lady had on the most gorgeous Eiffel Tower print vintage frock!

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We began with a little coffee to set the mood.

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But the competition was fierce! Play nice girls.

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The entries were all unbelievably good, with this stunning entrant even matching her cake’s colour to it’s flavour, to her outfit, to her car!!

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And so the judging began. Knowing I had to slip into a swimsuit in the next hour I kept my taste tests small, but what a job!

So, who won this test of sugar, eggs and will?

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3rd Place went to the delightful Mz Vicki and her rather ugly
(by her own admission), but unbelievably good Marshmallow Cake. Made to an original 1950′s ladies magazine recipe, this was one tasty delight!

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2nd Place went to Amanda and her “Flamin 57 Chev” which was a work of art inside and out. Layer upon layer of vanilla and red velvet on the inside, with each flame and a total car created entirely by her, by hand!

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But the 1st Place Winner?.

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Mimsy of Mimsy’s Trailer Trash Tattoos, created a replica of her trailer right down to the Flamingo’s on the lawn and the picket fence!

It looked amazing and tasted out of this world!

So Ms. Mimsy took home the winner’s silver cake server and added another title to her string of talents.

It was such a highlight of the weekend for me, as my childhood memories of the wonderful cake competitions that used to be seen at the Royal Melbourne Show, came flooding back.  The bar has been set so high by the contestants this year that I can hardly wait to see what next year has in store!

A big Thank You to Nicole Jenkins of Circa Vintage Clothing and Miss Kim of Vintage Charm by Kim, for providing these photos, as once again my hands were otherwise occupied.

It would look something like this.

Insert Self Here for Blissful Time.

Last Saturday in honor of the delightful Violet Le Beaux being in town, a group of like minded bloggers (and a pair of well trained partners) got together to enjoy and afternoon tea in true girly style. In a little known corner of Collingwood, Melbourne, is a lovely store that is bringing girly back. Christina Re is well known for her stunning DIY stationery collection that let’s you create customised pieces of correspondence magic on paper, vellum and quilted card to name but a few.  To make the experience of selection and creation much more enjoyable, they have recently launched a small in store cafe to supply tea and cakes to weary crafters.  After popping in for a much needed lemonade the other week, I was overwhelmed by the serenity and light of it all, promptly making a note to bring back a bunch of appreciative friends.  And so we did.

left to right: Aurora Hime, Violet Le Beaux, Jimmy America

left to right: Esme and the Laneway, Fables in Fashion, Petite Valse

Super Kawaii Mama and Esme and the Laneway, doing what bloggers do best. Photo by Jimmy America.

Also in attendence were Kitty’s Drawings and Circa Vintage to help us improve the vintage lover versus princess contingent.  I met the two styles in the middle by wearing a 1960′s pink square dancing dress and vintage blue petticoat!

It was as fun and fancy as it looked, there is no doubt we’ll be doing it again. In fact, I think I shall declare this weekend;

DIY Tea Party Weekend

So have a little tea and a cake or two with me.

What happens when you put Super Cute Princesses together and add a travel adventure?

Yep – It was THAT MUCH FUN!

It’s decorating time again!

I’ve been humming and hawing over the state of my kitchen for some time now. Do I take up the floor, do I paint the cabinets, do I just do nothing and wait to see if I ever get around to extending the house?  The biggest cause of inaction with this decorating project has been just how far it keeps sliding down the priorities on the To Do list.  But since I got my hands on a great vintage table setting last week, I’ve been spurred into action and moved it up the list.  So today I booked the painter and I have three days to decide on my colours. Nothing like a deadline!

Originally  I was planning to go with a lighter version of the blue on this blog for the walls, but after finding this table in blue, I’m now leaning towards yellow.  So I’ve been flicking through paint swatches to narrow down the choices and will start doing some brush outs tomorrow to see how they all look on the walls. Getting just the right shade will be critical to creating that retro feel; not too pale, not too orangey.  Visiting my favorite retro blogs and Flickr streams has been a great source of inspiration, for where else can you find colour coordinated, era appropriate resources all in one place?

Thank you to American Vintage Home for these images

1. 1956 Youngstown Metal Cabinets, 2. 1955 American Kitchen, 3. September 1949 – Armstrong Linoleum, 4. 1950s Kitchen Design with a Chambers Range, 5. 1941 Yellow & Green Armstrong Kitchen, 6. 1953 Armstrong Sunflower Yellow Kitchen

Vintage Sears Colour Co-Ordination Chart

The windows in my kitchen face North, so I’m hoping to catch as much sunlight as possible and bring it inside. Given that my floor is a dark slate and my cabinets are all a light-ish Tasmania Oak, I need to balance all this without it looking sickly.   Of course the safest way to check this is to do some big brush outs on the walls and check the colour in all the lights of the day. Which means that tomorrow I will be a mess of Butterfingers, Custard Puff and Lemon Blast!

If you have any recommendations, suggestions or horror stories about yellow kitchens to tell – now is the time to let me know!

Stunning Powder Room Seen in Californian Home Design Mag.

No I’m not planning the surgery already, I am just having my annual fit of decorating madness. I am very sensitive to my surroundings. The colour, light and flow of the environment; and of late I am feeling all laden down with badly placed furniture, lack of light and chaotic storage.  In fact there is even solid scientific evidence backing up my discontent. I know I am in trouble when instead of seeing a way to solve the problem I just start looking in the real estate pages! I’ve been agonizing over my house for a good few months, not knowing what it was that was causing this feeling of discontent, but I just may have found a solution.  Apply the experience I have learnt in other aesthetic areas of my life to this problem.

Just like a good wardrobe evaluation and clear out, I need to start looking at what I have and how I use it.   I find myself constantly crashing into the corner of my kitchen table and cursing it for being so big. I dislike the fact that the first room people enter at my house is the kitchen, (that is past the entry hall) always congregating around this large table.  So I have been trawling eBay in an attempt to find a smaller table, but it still doesn’t solve my problem of my kitchen being the centre of things.  In a huff, I’ve been sitting around making plans for moving to an inner city penthouse where things are all open plan and I have no garden to look after. But I know that still wouldn’t make me happy. (Boy I’m sounding really fussy and spoilt now).  And then last night it finally hit me, I really do need to tackle this in the same manner as a good wardrobe re-evaluation and look at how to re work and re purpose things.

There is no good reason that my kitchen table needs to be in that particular room, it was just the way things were designed when we moved in. Like figuring out which pieces of clothing I wear most often, I started figuring which rooms I use most often. It seems that the rooms I use most often though, are not my favorite rooms.  Many of them are darker than I’d like, don’t have the best view, or are just plain badly laid out.  Yet those rooms that I adore for their light and space are the ones that are left “hanging” in the closet for “good” use., to use the wardrobe analogy. When you look at it like this it makes no sense at all. So I’m beginning to create a plan of attack that involves re-purposing these favorites to turn them into the room I use the most and enjoy spending time in.

Here is where you all come in. While I’m revamping my studio to make it a better place in which to create scintillating posts for you all, I need you to send me your best recommendations.  Blogs, decorating sites, renovations recommendations; all the places that you love to go and fantasize over.  If the sites are Australian, all the better.  I often find things I love on UK sites only to discover that to obtain the object of my desire I’ll have to sell my first born to afford the shipping.  So leave me a comment, send me an email or Tweet me your favs.  And while you’re at it say a prayer for poor Mr. SKM and his sanity.

Places to increase your dissatisfaction with your home.

Bruce Willis is my Home Boy

Desire to Inspire

Retro Renovation

Girl Meets Glamour

The Mid Century Modernist