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Nook of the Day

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As soon as Christmas was over, I sprung into action and got everything straightened out to welcome the new year. I threw out a lot of junk and added some new bits and bobs to my work nook and bookcase. Here are some of my January rituals that I like to always complete:

  • Donate old clothes, accessories, etc. – anything that hasn’t been worn for more than 12 months should go. I let a lot of old costumes go that I had been saving for future dress up events but I decided that I’m better off with a whole empty drawer than one filled with things that I may or may not wear once in a blue moon.
  • Delete duplicates of photographs – as I create 100% of the visual content on this blog, I have a LOT of pictures in my hard drive. Whilst I like to keep a few hilarious candids, I have so many pictures that are basically the same that I like to delete as much as possible to free up future storage space.
  • Unsubcribe to email lists that I don’t even open. This is a serious chore but just something you have to do. Put on a lighthearted sitcom in the background or some YouTube vlogs and get rid of all that spam.
  • Get a new calendar! Kind of an obvious one but there are so many free printables on Pinterest that look gorgeous on a clipboard 😉
  • Swap out your photo frames – I always have quotes in my frames so I like to change my mantras every year depending on what life goal I am aiming towards. This year mine is ‘good things come to those who hustle’.

I’m so glad I started early too because would you know it, I caught a cold on NYE ( almost didn’t make it to midnight!) and spent the next few days finishing off the last season of Friends. It was frustrating not being able to catch the new year bug and be all motivated, creative and fit. I’m on my last few sniffles and have been snapping photos, writing emails, editing and writing up drafts all day in preparation for my cruise. As you read this, I will be sailing away from all my responsibilities on the Pacific Eden for just over a week! I am very lucky to be working with P&O to bring you guys some very fun content so look out for that soon. If you have any queries as to where certain decor pieces are from, just ask in the comments but the answer will probably be Kmart or Ikea 🙂 If you are looking for some throwback SS, check out my desk decorating post from last year or my last shelfie
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‘January’ calligraphy thanks to cable car couture

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Black for the Summer

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Happy New Year! I have had a two week break from Style Smorgasbord because I wanted to recharge, reflect and redirect my energy towards the holiday season. Whilst we should aim to improve upon ourselves daily, the first day of the year is always a great ritual of self assessment that demands personal honestly and reinforces humility. Instead of coming up with new year resolutions for 2016, I decided to create a list of 101 things I want to achieve in 1001 days. You can see my list here

I would say I am a very excitable person. Thusly, I rarely wear black especially head to toe black. However, I love a good oxymoron and black in the summer is refreshingly that. I received this boater for Christmas and plan to wear it forever. The brim is wonderfully wide and perfectly practical and adding it to any outfit just makes me feel like I am on vacation somewhere tropical.

Hat / Top / Skirt / Scarf

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/ Photography Credits – Matthew /signoff2

Speckled Easter Cake

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Here’s an indulgent (both in terms of time and calories) type of cake that you can spend your easter long weekend making and eating. Its a four layered densely packed whopper that should be able to hold you over for at least four days!

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Banana Cake

  • 3 ripe bananas
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Prepare two round pans and set aside. Mash ripe bananas in a mixing bowl with a potato masher or fork and set aside. Sift together the dry ingredients and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter with a paddle attachment until smooth. Add in the sugar, and mix until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add in the vanilla and eggs – one at a time. Stop the mixer.  Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. With the mixer on low, add in half of the dry ingredients. Mix in the yogurt or sour cream. Add in the remaining dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in the mashed bananas until combined. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake until golden – about 22-25 minutes for the recommended size. Cool on a wire rack. Invert the cakes out of the pans once they are cool enough to handle. Cool completely before slicing each cake in half horizontally to create four layers of cake.

Dark Chocolate Buttercream

  • 3 egg whites
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 block of dark chocolate

Place egg whites and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Whisk until combined. Fill a medium saucepan with a few inches of water and place over medium heat. Place the mixing bowl on top of the saucepan to cream a double-boiler. Heat, whisking occasionally, until the egg mixture is hot to the touch. Once hot, remove from heat and place bowl on mixer. Whisk on high until the bowl of the mixer becomes room temperature. With the mixer on medium-low, add in the vanilla, butter, and melted dark chocolate. Once added, mix on medium-high until smooth. Place buttercream between each layer of cake before frosting.

Green Frosting

  • 1 cup of unsalted butter, softened
  • 4 cups of icing sugar
  • A dash of salt
  • Green food colouring

To make frosting, in large bowl, beat softened butter and powdered sugar with electric mixer on low speed until incorporated; beat on high speed 3 minutes. Add vanilla and salt; beat 1 minute longer. Add green food color 1 drop at a time, beating until a light green colour is achieved.

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Speckles

  • 1 tablespoon of baking cocoa
  • 4 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

To make speckles, stir the 2 ingredients together to create a paste, load it onto a dense paintbrush and flick at your cake.

Decorations

  • Instant Noodles
  • Mini Eggs

Break instant noodles into large chunks and assemble like a nest. Fill circle with mini eggs!

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My Day on a Plate // January

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Smorgasbord can mean a wide range of something but it is more popularly known as a range of open sandwiches and delicacies served as hors d’oeuvres. In simplest terms; I like food. My blog is a representation of me. Food will now be a feature of StyleSmorgasbord. Capeesh? I’m going to try my best to do these every month and make them a reflection of the season I am in. So today’s four recipes are perfect for a hot summer day. These recipes will have a common denominator: they will be fresh, easy, healthy, tasty and very Instagrammable.

I also wanted to mention one of my favourite cookbooks that I’ve been pouring over lately. Clean Living by Luke & Scott is a paleo cookbook that has the most amazing dishes. I think the idea of paleo is so very interesting and although I don’t think I will ever go pure paleo I really like the message the boys talk about concerning how clean eating is sometimes seen as restrictive:

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A Breakfast Beverage of Cucumber & Pear Green Juice // Serves ONE // This is a great post workout juice for those who need a quick hit before a hot long day ahead. I usually like to make my juices before I work out, pop them into the freezer for an hour and cool off after my workout with the chilled juice // Remove the skin of a pear, chop it into chunks and then throw it into a blender along with a handful of green leaves (any will do), a few slices of cucumber, several ice cubes and a tiny bit of water so your blender doesn’t break! //

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A Light Lunch with Sweet Potato Fritters, Salmon & Avocado // Serves TWO to THREE // I originally saw this in a Paleo Diet Cookbook but it had way too many ingredients so this is my four ingredient adaptation that is a breeze to make with an arm workout thrown in for fun (from intense grating haha!) // Combine a 600g grated sweet potato with one egg yolk together and then shape the sweet potato mixture into a loose round and press into a large frying pan with oil. Cook for three minutes on each side until crispy. Serve fritters with smoked salmon and generous amounts of avocado! //

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Beachside Dinner with a taste of Nha Trang // Rolled up food is right up my alleyway. I love sushi and tortillas and sausage rolls but most of all I love rice paper rolls. Served cold, they are the perfect kind of dinner to take on a picnic. // There are so many variations that instead of giving you a recipe, I’m just going to link you to some of my favourites (most of which are East meets West): Garlic Chicken / Chicken & Mango / Summer Fruit / Grilled Asparagus & Chilli Orange Quinoa / Shrimp & Avocado //

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Decadent Dessert of Strawberry Greek Pie that isn’t that indulgent // I love baking but at the same time I hate it too so frozen treats like this are the perfect remedy! Although they’ll take a bit more work than a cold scoop of ice cream, your body will thank you later. // Crush a sleeve of digestive biscuits and add a little bit of milk to ‘wet’ the crumble. Then press the crust into a pan. Puree a punnet of strawberries and stir it into 600g of greek yoghurt and then pour it on top of your crust. Add some sliced strawberries on top and freeze for at least 5 hours. Take it out to sit for 20 minutes before serving //

That’s all for my day on a plate! Let me know if you try any recipes and if this is a series that can be picked up in the future!

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Inspired Workplace

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I was talking to a friend yesterday about how I was excited about 2015. Then she re-enlightened me to re-consider my own thoughts because I re-alised that I wasn’t actually excited about the new year but the concept of the new year.

In theory, we could wake up one epiphanic  day and decide today is the day: to quit sugar for good / start saving our moolah / keep in touch with friends  / give ourselves more me time / learn a new language. But in reality we procrastinate these things until New Year’s Eve where we decide that tomorrow will mark the first step to a better life.

I wish you the best of luck in keeping your 2015 resolutions …. but let’s be real, I’ll probably break half of mine by the second of January! Nonetheless, there’s something quite magical and fragile about a new year and like the prepared person I like to think I  am, I’m starting 2015 off with a short series that will hopefully inspire myself my readers to have a kick butt twenty fifteen! Today’s post is all about inspiration, next week’s will be preparation and the one in a fortnight will be reflection so get excited kids.

* {whoops I was going to try to be more selfless this year}

I think one of the best ways to start a work day or study day is to have a clean desk. I think one of the best ways to start a new work or school year is to have a desk makeover. That’s why I’ve been really inspired by WeWork: a platform for creators that  provides the space, community and services every blogger needs for their creative endeavours. They know the importance of finding a place you join as an individual, ‘me’, but where you become part of a greater ‘we’. I wanted to reciprocate their co-working values through my desk area because for me its a place where I can express myself on my blog whilst being part of the blogging community.

To really see what you’ve got to work with, remove everything from your desk so you can have a blank space baby to add your new supplies. Wipe down your desk, test out all those dried gel pens from 6th grade on some paper and then proceed to throw them away.

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Personally I am a big fan of mood boards, they make any bland space grand and this is the first year I’ve done one right onto the magnetised wall on my desk. Go ahead and gather all your favourite pictures and power fuelling quotes from magazines. Or if you can’t bare the heart wrenching pain of stabbing your magazines with scissors, try free papered items that you pick up at your shopping centre (This is the time to use them! Stop hoarding them in your house!). My favourites include Lorna Jane, Kikki K and Broadsheet.

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After papering your walls, you can start adding the little knick knacks and random things that make you happy. Oh and the practical stuff that you know, you need to write things with.

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Here’s a neat little idea for a potential 2015 project. I started a quote journal back in 2014 – its a notebook filled to the brim with uplifting quotes that I’ve collected along the way. It might seem a bit tedious and pointless at first but trust me, whenever you’re feeling down, hopeless or like a quitter, pulling out something like this will get you back on your feet fast!

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Below are some examples of how I decorated my space very inexpensively! Starting from the left: an empty Champagne bottle from Christmas with a single fake rose, an ikea vase filled with unattractive markers and a framed paper bag from Kikki K’s Live Bright collection that clearly bounces off my desk with all that lilac and pink.

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