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My ‘never fail to impress’ summer recipes revealed…

Are you still on holidays? Or are you like me and trying to re-create that holiday vibe as soon as Friday afternoon rolls around? Today I wanted to share with you a couple of recipes, perfect for these glorious summer days; Whether its a relaxing Saturday arvo at home with no plans or a rowdy Friday night get together with friends, these recipes are a great addition to the repertoire!

The Bowerhouse holiday drink of choice… Spiked & Iced Tea using ‘The Seventh Duchess’ Flor De Jamaica Hibiscus & Vanilla tea

Spiked iced tea is a gorgeous refreshing drink for summer - when entertaining friends, I make a big jug of tea in the morning and by afternoon it just needs to be popped onto the bar cart ready for when guests arrive!

Ingredients - makes a large (2L) jug

4 tablespoons of loose leaf tea - most fruity or ‘flowery’ teas work well, as does mint, ginger & lemongrass.
3-4 tablespoons of raw sugar, coconut sugar or agave syrup as a sweetener
Citrus slices or wedges - lemon, lime or orange work well
Vodka (You can easily cater for non-drinkers by omitting the vodka.)
Ice

Method

Place your tea into a large size infuser and sit this into a large teapot or jug (I invested in the T2 Tea Jug $38.00 which has a built in infuser)
Pour in the boiling water
Add sweetener & stir well
Leave for a couple of hours to infuse & cool. At which point I like to taste the tea to decide if the infuser can come out, or if I want it stronger I leave in and place jug in the fridge for a few hours to chill.
When ready to serve fill glasses with ice and add vodka.
Pour over the tea and add fruit slices to garnish.
Then have fun creating silly names for your cocktail creations like we did…. Anyone for a ‘Herbal Fantasy’ or ‘Jamaican Dream’?

Favourite holiday meal… Middle Eastern Spiced Lamb Pizza (recipe adapted from taste.com)

This is an easy, tasty and impressive meal idea for a party of 2 or 20…..

Ingredients - (Ive left quantity off as with pizza you can ‘freestyle’ and mix up the topping quantity depending on your taste, how big the bases are & how many you are making)

Red Onion
Lamb Mince
1 tspn Cumin
1 tspn Ground Coriander
Flat leaf parsley
Butternut Pumpkin
Tomato Paste
Fetta
Grated Mozzarella Cheese (dont use too much as it will ‘take over’ from all the other textures & flavours)
Pinenuts
Fresh Pomegranate seeds
Pizza base (I usually cheat & use store bought gluten free pizza bases or lebanese bread)

Method

Pre-heat oven, pizza oven or BBQ depending on your cooking method, put a saucepan of water on the boil.
Cook red onion in a frypan for a few mins until soft, add cumin & coriander and cook for a further minute, add lamb mince and brown, season with salt & pepper.
While mince is browning, steam thinly sliced pumpkin (I used bamboo steamer over saucepan of boiling water - only takes about 4 mins)
Spread tomato paste on the base and then add cooked mince mix, pumpkin, pinenuts, fetta, mozzarella and parsley.
Cook your pizza either in conventional oven/grill or pizza oven (we used the pizza stone our Weber-Q) Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and more parsley to serve.

PS. Images are from my Instagram feed, you can find Bowerhouse on Instagram here.

Natalie x

Happy New Year + a peek at my holiday inspirations…

Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed a very merry festive season and managed to take some time to reflect, re-group and get inspired for a fabulous year ahead. I thought I might kick the year off by sharing some holiday inspirations from my Bowerhouse world…

A Bowerhouse kind of Christmas… we hosted our first Christmas day and the first Christmas in the new house - I went for a fun, colourful tropical vibe for the decorations with brightly coloured paper chains & garlands, colourful kantha stitch table runners and rattan bowls full of fresh Pineapples, pomegranates & limes! Remove the baubles & bon-bons and you have a table setting perfect for any summer occasion.

I spent some precious down time ‘fluffing my feathers’ & ‘playing’ with the house, I shared my inspirations with you during the design & build stages of the new house so thought you might like a peek at some of the finished spaces…

1. Kitchen - New favourite flower (Chrysanthemum - Disbud) a fresh pop of yellow in the new kitchen, the black wall is painted with chalkboard paint.
2. Our Terrance bar cart ready for festivities (Rachel Castle tea towel hanging above as artwork)
3. Living Room - Bowerhouse Drum stool & Barrel side table making friends.
4. Master bedroom - Simple, calming & grounding, Bowerhouse Barrel side table, Quercus & Co wallpaper as artwork, wall Colour is Dulux-Western Myall.
5 & 6. Guest bedrooms - Having heaps of fun playing around with different kantha quilt, cushion & side table combinations. If you want any extra info on colours, finishes or pieces in any of the above pics just let me know!

If you are friends with me in Instagram land you may be familiar with some of these pics, if not, do come join us!

Natalie x

Meghan Plowman’s nordic inspired DIY Christmas centrepiece…

Last week Bowerhouse had its 1st birthday! It flew past without me noticing while I was busy packing orders for lovely customers, what better birthday present than to know so many gorgeous people will be hosting their festive season gatherings with a ‘Roy’, ‘Terrance’ or ‘Harvey’ bar cart!

I am signing off for 2013 and you won’t hear from me while you spend the next few weeks relaxing and enjoying time with family & friends, I will be back on the 9th of January ready for another fabulous year of shared ideas & inspiration.

For now, do scroll down to the final gorgeous instalment of ‘A Very Stylish Christmas’ - the very clever Meghan Plowman has created a stunning scandinavian inspired centrepiece using mostly collected pieces & items from around the home - Meghan & I would love to think it has inspired you to create your own gorgeous version for the table on Christmas day!

Click HERE for the geometric paper decorations template

Meghan Plowman is a freelance stylist and photographer based in Perth. She specialises in still life, interiors, props and product styling.

Meghan has over 15,000 followers on Instagram and if you head over and check out her stunning images you will understand why!

Follow Meghan’s work over at her blog and Instagram.

Stacey Clark’s foraged wreath; a DIY adventure…

I will keep my intro short today and let you enjoy this wonderful instalment of ‘A Very Stylish Christmas’ created by the fabulously talented stylist Stacey Clark - I am blown away by these gorgeous images styled by Stacey & shot by Lauren (Still Love Wedding Photography) and I hope they inspire you too!

Stacey Clark is a freelance stylist located in Perth. She specialises in styling intimate gatherings, workshops, editorials and products. Stacey is the rep for Kinfolk Magazine in Perth, hosting workshops and gatherings throughout the year. She blogs over at www.staceyclarkstylist.com and her portfolio is available at www.staceyclarkstylist.com

Pop-up Shop reminder…

Just another reminder our holiday pop-up shop opens today (10 - 5pm) and runs for one week - if you are in Perth do pop in & say hi, I would love to meet you!

Bowerhouse & The Seventh Duchess present

‘The Holiday Pop-Up Shop’
12th - 19th Dec
SHOP 3/ 219 SOUTH TCE, SOUTH FREMANTLE

Natalie x

Wow your guests with this show-stopping DIY centerpiece…

This week we are continuing our ‘Very Stylish Christmas’ series with a beautiful DIY from stylist Emma Grace Hawtrey. Although I’m yet to meet Emma, I have gushed over her gorgeous styling via Instagram for quite some time so I was thrilled when she agreed to create something special to share with you!

I absolutely love the idea of thinking beyond the traditional red, green and gold winter christmas theme and embracing the colour & spirit of summer when decorating for the festive season. In this DIY Em will show you a beautiful way to do this by creating a gorgeous & memorable Australian native floral centerpiece.

I dont know about you but the idea of an afternoon of escape from the pre-christmas chaos to put together something as beautiful as this sounds like heaven to me! The great thing about this DIY is you can use it to create a small & simple garland to hang on your door or a 2m long table runner! I hope you enjoy and feel inspired to give this one a go! (im heading off to buy a pair of secateurs right now!)

Emma Grace Hawtree is a freelance creative, interior stylist and textile designer, living and working in Perth. Check out her links below to see more of her gorgeous work! www.facebook.com/emmagracehawtrey
www.instagram.com/emmagracehawtrey
www.facebook.com/emmagracehawtrey

P.S If you are in Perth next week…

...I have some exciting news to share!

If you have not already seen via Instagram or Facebook - Bowerhouse is teaming up with luxury loose leaf tea brand The Seventh Duchess for a Holiday pop-up store! Finally a chance for customers to see, touch & taste our range in the flesh!

If you are in Perth I would love to see you there and please do share the news with friends who might love to check us out too!

It runs for one week only from Thursday the 12th of Dec, join our facebook event for more details.

Pele Findson’s ‘cheat’ DIY Giant xmas bunting

Well its another week closer to christmas and with all the craziness it can be easy to lose sight of the true spirit of christmas, when we were younger my siblings and I had to do a good deed for someone each day to be able to ‘earn’ our advent calendar treat; a simple deed of sharing or giving, reaching out to someone sad or alone, or letting them know how special they are, a special christmas tradition that I thought I would share.

This week we have guest stylist Pele Findson sharing her beautiful DIY giant christmas bunting, I especially love how it need not be packed away after christmas, it can be enjoyed all year round!

A few words from Pele…

I love Christmas. Hands down, it’s my favourite time of the year. It’s also the busiest time of the year, so I tend to steer towards the sort of DIY that makes a big statement with not much effort.

I got the idea for this over-sized bunting from Sydney-based super stylist Megan Morton’s latest book, I Love My Room. In the book, adorning her youngest child’s nursery, is a giant red, yellow and white bunting that was left over from a magazine shoot. Her tailor had made it too large by accident - a happy mistake!

Wanting to make something similar - but not wanting to dig my sewing machine out from the shed - I harnessed the power of Heat n Bond adhesive tape…

Pele Findson is a Perth based interior stylist & writer, follow her creative adventures over on her Blog, Facebook and Pinterest.

My fun & easy DIY colourful xmas baubles…

One of my favourite things about christmas is of course the festive decorating! This week I am kicking off a series all about inspiring your own festive flair around the home; I have invited some very clever stylists to share their inspiration for ‘A Very Stylish Christmas’ each week they will share an idea or DIY to help you bring the joy and festive spirit to your home!

Over the weekend my 3yr old niece & I had heaps of fun creating our own christmas baubles which turned out beautifully and were so easy to make. The materials are readily available and there are no tricky or time consuming steps to follow which makes it great for the kiddies (or the non-crafters out there!). I bought all the materials from Spotlight for under $30.00, if you have a craft box at home you could raid this and let your imagination run wild as you can really use anything you love to decorate & personalise the baubles.

My niece made up some especially to gift her mum, dad & nana etc. I am going to have a play and attempt some kind of bauble chandelier like this one, I think it would be pretty hanging above the dining table, I’m also picturing a bauble garland draped along the centre of the dinner table or over a shelf or mantle piece, check out the guide below and do let me know if you have a go at these yourself, I would love to see your own versions!

Natalie x

4 Simple Rules for Mixing Prints with Effortless Chic…

I Hope you are having a beautiful week! In case you missed it, the wonderful Maya (who you may remember from this previous guest post) did an interview with me to share the ‘behind the scenes’ of Bowerhouse on her very popular blog House Nerd - well worth checking her blog out to see gorgeous houses each week and interviews with all sorts of people in the interiors world.

This week is all about print, pattern & how to mix them. Trying to mix different prints & patterns in the home can be a scary thing but if you can master this art, then beautiful things can happen! Below you will find some simple rules & inspiring images to introduce you to the world of print mixing…

1. Stick to a colour theme… If you are going crazy in the pattern world then you will want to make the colour pallet consistent to keep the look harmonious. See pics 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8.
2. Mix the scale of your patterns… a really simple rule to follow is always keep the scale of your prints varied - so big scale pattern next to big scale pattern generally won’t work, likewise if you have lots of small scale patterns in the space it will lack the punch and contrast that a large scale print brings - sit a large scale print next to small scale and the magic starts to happen! See pics 2, 3, 5, 6, 7.
3. Anchor the space with some solid colour… Weather its through solid colour walls, a sofa or a quilt cover on a bed, it will allow each print to stand out without making you cross-eyed! See pics 4 & 5.
4. Try to stick to 3-5 different patterns maximum for a room… This one is self explanatory, although its fun to go crazy with pattern, if its a space you are living in every day you still want it to look & feel harmonious, limit the number of prints to keep the balance. See all pics.

Above image credits; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

PRINT MIX WITH BOWERHOUSE…

Above:
‘Legacy’ framed artworks ‘Vivid Floral’ & ‘Little Bird’
‘Button Up’ cushions in Geo Black, Geo Saffron & Painted Black
‘Tanushri’ vintage kantha quilt
‘Drum’ stool in Wenge/Geo Saffron cushion
65 x 65cm cushion in Painted Black

Natalie x

9 Beautifully Styled Coffee Tables

Today first up I couldn’t resist sharing our gorgeous customer’s home as featured in the latest Australian House & Garden mag (shot & styled by my beloved Style & Focus girls) so lovely to see her Bowerhouse vintage kantha quilts & Nomadic floor cushion sitting beautifully in this dream home - this mag is a cracker by the way, lots of lovely chrissy decorating inspiration!

I have a ‘new house resolution’ to be more adventurous & creative when it comes to styling my coffee tables, in the past I have gone with the obligatory stack of coffee table books or magazines and perhaps a scented candle, without much thought put into the styling and I am always in awe of a gorgeously styled coffee table because there really seems to be an art to it.

Ive added a ‘surface styling’ board to Pinterest to share some inspiration and ideas to try, see below some of my fave images that I hope inspire you to go on an adventure with your coffee table!

PS… If littlies at your place would have an absolute field day with precious heirlooms and breakables on your coffee table, similar ideas could be used for a higher height console table, sideboard/buffet or shelf.

Image Credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

My Home Build Series: The Master Bedroom

Firstly a huge thanks to the great response I have had so far to the new catalogue and collection! I have spent most of the past couple of weeks packing orders, its so great to know you are loving the new pieces!

There are only a couple of spaces so far in our new house that I have not shared with you so will be doing so over the next few weeks and hope to share some of the finished results once we are all moved in. If you missed the previous installations in the ‘home build’ series, I have been sharing my design process and inspirations for each space in the hope that it inspires some ideas for your next build, renovation or update. The master bedroom should be a place that induces relaxation at night and an inspiring space to wake up to and feel excited to start the day, here are my ideas to create a perfect bedroom sanctuary in your home…

MOODBOARD…

Above Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

The design process starts with a moodboard, a collection of images that display the look & feel that you want to achieve. When searching for inspiration I loved the calm, muted & relaxed bedroom spaces, but was also drawn to bedrooms with some colour and texture introduced. Inspired by these images - I want to create a calm, sophisticated space with a mainly neutral pallet, lots of white, with the contrast of dark and some colour, texture & interest in artwork, feature cushions & throws. Hopefully you can see how the inspiration above has translated into the colour pallet, finishes & decor choices below - If you keep coming back to your moodboard when making selections it will keep your vision strong and consistent.

PALLET…

1. Carpet - Hycraft ‘Carramar’ in Buckwheat - We went for this lovely loop pile carpet in 100% New Zealand wool, being a natural fibre, it has great insulating properties and is lovely and soft under foot. It is an ‘oatmealish’ colour with a slight greyish undertone so will work with cool or warm coloured decorating tones.
2. Bed - We bought our bed about 5 years ago, its a sleek modern yet classic design and is in a lovely ‘zebrano’ wood.
3. Painted wall in Dulux ‘Western Myall’ - we chose this gorgeous dark charcoal for the wall at the head of the bed - creates lovely contrast in the room and gives it a moody, sophisticated edge. I highly recommend this colour if you want a true charcoal - some greys can be blue/purple or greenish once you paint them - this is a lovely balanced charcoal grey.
4. All other walls painted in Dulux ‘Natural White’

WISHLIST…

To keep the space un-cluttered and calm, we will have minimal furniture and decorative items, however the feature pieces we do introduce will bring all important beauty, colour and texture to the space;

1. Bowerhouse ‘Basket’ pendant bedside light
2. Bowerhouse ‘Legacy’ art a feature for above the bed
3. Bowerhouse ‘Barrel’ side table as bedside tables
4. Bowerhouse ‘Button-Up Painted Stripe’ cushion
5. The 7th Duchess ‘Flor De Jamaica’ scented candle
6. Bowerhouse vintage kantha quilt
7. Freedom ‘Box floor mirror’
8. Grundig App driven alarm clock
9. Kindle ‘Fire’ e-reader - for the ritual night-time read
10. Sheridan ‘Leon’ Quilt cover set in white & ‘Reilly’ vintage wash chambray sheet set in fog - currently on sale (not shown) Natalie x