link it // february Posted by Helena

• DIY acrylic frame
• 28 things everyone does but won't admit it (I AM ALL OF THEM)
• Printable postcards from studio DIY
• DIY gold foil sweater
• Why HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the best book ever (they didn't even mention Hermoine's TIME FREAKING TURNER)
• How to be happier
• The Future is Female tshirt creator
• The Next Rembrant
• The Great Animal Orchestra
• 21 posts that only feminists will find funny
• How we teach consent to young boys
• The Stigma of Singledom and the Digital Dating Era

link it // april Posted by Helena

Andy Warhol x Ai Weiwi @ NGV

• My friend Sam wrote 10 pro tips to take your Instagram to the next level
• 27 times Scrubs was the funniest show ever
• Moving house? This is how you do it right
• This adorable story about Rupert Grint and Alan Rickman
• How to say 'no'
• How to get the best night sleep ever
• This podcast is like crack for insomniacs
• Advice on skincare for your 20s
• 5 questions to ask a future employer to find the right cultural fit
• designsponge guide to Melbourne (it's super hipster - nearly everything is north!)
• Cheesy delicious goodness
• Financial stuff: how to do basically nothing and earn enough money to be set up for life
• The guy who follows his girlfriend around the world and how he does it

flowers across melbourne // extraordinary bunch Posted by Helena

Flowers are one of those gorgeous indulgent things that you don't always buy yourself. So when Flowers Across Australia got in touch to offer me a bunch of flowers and a chance to review their website and services, ummm yes! The website is incredibly easy to use and you can search by occasion, type of flower, style (bouquets, vase arrangements, etc) and price.

I ended up choosing the Extraordinary bunch and it got delivered to my work without any issues and was sitting on my desk by the time I got back from Friday lunch. Yay! It came with a little personalised message, instructions on how to keep them in tip top condition, and a sachet of flower food. It's been over a week since I received them and while the lilies have finally wilted, the celosia (the coral-esque flowers) are still going strong with the green ferns/fronds (you can tell I'm up with my flower lingo).

One of my colleagues was looking to send a bunch of flowers to her friend and we did some price comparisons and Flowers Across Australia had some of the prettiest bunches of flowers at reasonable prices (winning!).

Follow Flowers Across Australia (who will be available in Sydney too!) on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

link it // december Posted by Helena

It has been a very, very long time since my last link it post! I've had some links saved from as far back as when Zayn left One Direction. That was a looong time ago. Hope everyone had a fab Christmas! The photo above is my cake date at Chester Street Bakery with my bff in Brisbane.

• This dad couldn't find good Marvel toys for girls, so he made his own
• 19 condom mistakes you might be making (be safe kids!)
• asian-american writers you need to read
• Disney Pixar easter eggs
• Time's 30 most influential teens of 2015
• Stephen Hawking Perfectly Responded To A Question About Zayn
• Mindy Kaling’s Opinion On 22 Random Things
• 15 Times Lee Lin Chin Dominated Social Media
• 13 Times Aziz Ansari Showed Us How To Live Life To The Fullest

frosted not stirred // new baking blog! Posted by Helena

It's been forEVER! The last few months have been taken up by an overseas holiday, a slight role change at work, and a new blog! Introducing Frosted Not Stirred. Friends have told me for years to start a food blog and I finally worked out what to blog about... Cocktails in cupcakes! I made some mojito cupcakes for a work friend's birthday and they were such a hit, I thought I'd keep rolling with it. One of my friends used to be a fancy cocktail bartender so I've been hitting him up for cocktail recipes and fun facts about the cocktails to go with my posts. Check it out at Frosted Not Stirred.

link it // april Posted by Helena

The usual round up of cool links.

• One of my London housemates (Laura) made one of my other London housemates (Tom) his usual birthday cake
• Alexa Chung and Poppy Delevingne's roadtrip for Net-a-Porter
• Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift's roadtrip for Vogue 
• 21 times Harry Potter was the cleverest book series ever
• Lasting relationships rely on two traits according to this article
• RED PANDAS! PLAYING IN SNOW!
• Will Smith rapping Gettin' Jiggy Wit It
• Notebook hack
• Meryl Streep's daughters
• 10 female indie song covers that Buzzfeed claim are better than the originals
• Motorola's press conference is awesome
• The alphabet according to Karen Walker
• Secret Underground bar in London - probably not so secret since it's been on Buzzfeed

gold & grit // cremorne Posted by Helena

Part two of my photoshoot with Gold & Grit. (Profile photos for everything forever!)

mixtape // december Posted by Helena

Avicii - The Days

Nicki Minaj feat. Skylar Grey - Bed of Lies

Calvin Harris feat. John Legend - Blame

Ella Eyre - Comeback

Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk

Vance Joy - Riptide

One Direction - Where Do Broken Hearts Go?

Lorde - Flicker (Kanye West Rework)

Brooke Fraser - Kings and Queens

Cage the Elephant - Cigarette Daydreams

Olly Murs feat. Travie McCoy - Wrapped Up

Troye Sivan - Happy Little Pill

Neon Jungle - Louder

The 1975 - Medicine

Taylor Swift - New Romantics

Listen on Spotify (minus the Taylor Swift song because she removed all her music.)

dining all'aperto at la svolta Posted by Helena

Everything at La Svolta was delicious. I ate it all! That’s enough of a review, right? Okay, probably not. Read the full one over at The Modern Con.

I can personally vouch for the beef and tuna tartares, prosciutto with deep fried pizza dough (just as yummy as you think it is), the seared tuna and the chickpea and capsicum salad (how can chickpeas be so yummy with so few ingredients?). A special mention must be made to the Nutella pizza. The base was some kind of combo of puff and chewy pastry and the Nutella was so thick it stuck to the roof of your mouth. Heaven. Seriously.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s the best Italian I’ve had since I visited Italy and was raving about it for days afterwards. I’ve already told my friends we’re adding it to our Must Eat At List. It had a really nice atmosphere and nursing a glass of bubbly, I ended up making friends with the other ladies at my table. In fact, we’re going to brunch next week!

My new friends are: Sandra and Stina from Klaus and Fritz (Stina is also gold and grit photography) and Olivia who's probably the most famous Instagrammer I know and her sister Steff

La Svolta, 3-5 Cecil Place, Prahran and 450 Hampton St, Hampton.

perfume making // mpavilion Posted by Helena

This year's MPavilion has been designed by Australian architect Sean Godsell. It's a meeting place and also a host to a free four-month program of all manner of talks, workshops, performances and installations from October to February.

MPavilion is an architecture commission for Melbourne and each year for the next four years an outstanding architect will be commissioned to design a temporary pavilion for the Queen Victoria Gardens, opposite the Southbank Arts Precinct.

I went to the perfume make meet with Briony Wright from Odelab. She talked to us about the history of perfume and then we got to play with some of her scents to make our own perfume! Mine is aptly titled The Helaylay and is a mix of patchouli and citrus.

mixtape // september Posted by Helena

I'm listening to so much girl pop at the moment and it's the most fun to rock out to in my car while on the highway. If you ever see someone singing overly enthusiastically while eating a piece of toast and sipping tea, that could very well be me.

I've also included two of Many Things' songs because they're great and Mikey's amazing and Hayley from The Jezabels sang vocals on Chains and it's heartbreaking beautiful. I'm also listening to One Direction's new free song Fireproof on repeat (not available on Spotify though). I've read a lot of people saying it's like The Beach Boys and John Mayer, but all I hear is Fleetwood Mac!

listen on spotify: fourzerofive - 2014 september

Allday - You Always Know the DJ
Angus & Julia Stone - Heart Beats Slow
Charli XCX - Boom Clap
Ella Henderson - Ghost
G.R.L. - Ugly Heart
Iggy Azaela feat. Charli XCX - Fancy
Katy Perry - This Is How We Do
Many Things - Chains
Many Things - Dear One
Neon Jungle - Louder
Nicky Night Time - Everybody Together
NONONO - Pumpin Blood (Belarbi Remix)
Northeast Party House - The Haunted
One Direction - Fireproof
Rizzle Kicks - Tell Her
RÜFÜS - Sundream
Savoir Adore - Dreamers
Taylor Swift - Shake It Off

two door cinema club in new york Posted by Helena

Dream gig! Two Door Cinema Club performing in Central Park. I've seen them live in my three favourite cities - Melbourne, London and New York, and I got to see them with two of my best friends. Special memories!

ballin' good time at smithballs Posted by Helena

Photograph by ALP Photography.

I was lucky enough to attend the launch of Smithballs for The Modern Con. Check out my write up here.

mixtape // april Posted by Helena

I've definitely not been giving my little corner of the internet as much love as I should, so I'm going to start a monthly playlist. Given that my musical taste doesn't really change much from month to month, this is going to be a challenge! It will also make me look for new music because I won't let myself share the same songs from the month before. Listen on Spotify here.

There's quite a lot of artists who have been around for a while, but I've only just discovered them recently. I am completely obsessed with Ed Sheeran's new song though. Play SING from the rooftops!!

link it // links Posted by Helena

Well I just discovered this post buried in my drafts. Here's a whole bunch of links from ages ago that I thought were cool...

• Jess has a (not so new now) website - truthbetold 
• 90s theme songs a capella
• Rookie's Ask A Grown Man with Ezra and Chris from Vampire Weekend
• The Pixar Theory 
• Chorus from Macklemore's Same Love is a whole song
• Emma Block has designed some gorgeous greeting cards for Madison Park
• 318 corgis on a beach
• 27 gifs that perfectly capture the 90s
• Melbourne vs Sydney fashion feat Jas from Friend in Fashion 
• 21 WTF moments from 1D's Best Song Ever
• Sad music is good for you
• 15 TED talks
• Super cute dog Goldberg machine
• What kind of social sharer are you? Unsurprisingly I'm a Hipster Sharer.

friends on instagram // ulrich Posted by Helena

If you've followed my blog for a while, you know I like to gush about my friends and how ridiculously talented they are. So I decided to start featuring some of my friends' Instagram accounts. To kick it off, here's Ulrich's account. Every time he posts a photo I seem to like it, so I figured it was a good place to start! Follow him here: @ulzzz.

music // laneway festival 2014 Posted by Helena

Laaanewaaay! Well, it was a darn tootin' boiling hot in Melbourne. We arrived just after lunch to make sure we didn't have to stand around in the heat for too long, but it was still a case of sweating-while-standing-still unless you were in the shade. Thank goodness that Melbourne heat goes away when the sun sets. As I predicted, I bumped into so many people I knew and got to see friends perform - yay!

My housemate missed out on a ticket before it sold out, so we were on a hunt to find her one. At the eleventh hour (almost literally since it was about 10pm the night before), I put one last post on Facebook to see if anyone was selling one, and got a message from a friend in London who happened to be touring with Savages and they had a spare guestlist spot! Needless to say I made her pay for my food and drinks alllllll day!

So we saw Savages, Cloud Control, Chvrches (well I saw a couple of songs before going to Cloudies' signing to catchup because I couldn't get in touch since everyone's phones didn't have reception), Haim, Lorde and The Jezabels. I was so stoked that none of the artists I wanted to see clashed. I would have liked to see Vance Joy as well, but I wasn't that committed.

My friends also did an hour DJ set at the official after party, and the super nice Laneway driver guy picked us up, then said we were going to be doing a swapsie - we'd be getting out and Haim would be getting in. My eyes nearly bugged out of my head and I had to restrain myself from asking for a photo. So I got out of the car to have Baby Haim smiling at me. Mini swoon.

sausage making class // hudson meats Posted by Helena

Last month I went to a sausage making lesson for The Modern Con. Have I even mentioned that I write occasional pieces it? Oh well, here goes! It was originally published here.

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Going to a sausage masterclass there’s quite a lot of obvious jokes to be made, but let’s just ignore them all okay? (PENIS! Okay, sorry, that’s out of the way now.)

Hudson Meats opened in Surrey Hills in 2007 and it has finally made its way to Melbourne! Located in Tok H Centre on Toorak Rd, you can buy anything from dry aged beef, pork from Byron Bay, Barossa chickens and Spanish jamón, to pickles from Brooklyn and my favourite carême pastry.



Micah Hewitt, Manager and Butcher, was our fearless leader for our sausage masterclass and he showed us how to make a traditional pork and fennel sausage before we attempted to make our own.

Hewitt opened with “fat is flavour!” True that. For sausages, it’s good to use meat that’s 20% fat to 80% meat. Pork is great to use because its fat melts at a higher temperature than beef for example, so it doesn’t all drip out of the sausage when it’s cooking.

Step 1. Take 1.5 kg of pork and add salt.



Step 2. Add whatever you like! We had (left to right) pepper, garlic, fennel, parsley and chilli flakes.



Step 3. Start mixing together with your hands until the mixture starts to stick together. You can feel the texture change and it starts sticking to your fingers.





Step 4. Feed the pig’s intestine (I know, it was a bit gross and felt really slimy but at least it’s a la naturale!) onto the nozzle of the sausage maker.





Step 5. Get a friend to put pressure on the mince going in the top and start to crank the handle slowly and gently guide the sausage as it comes out. (Really trying to refrain from making some truly bad puns.) The casing should be full of mince, but still have enough room so you can twist them into smaller sausages later without the casing bursting.





Step 6. Tie off the casing and TA DAH! Sausage. These is actually the ones I made. The guys offered me a job until I found out how early I’d have to wake up in the morning.



I had a lot of dinners with sausages and they tasted darn good. So much more flavour than a regular store bought sausage. I’ve already visited Hudson Meats before and highly recommend them for any kind of delicious food stuffs. The guys are all really friendly and if you wander in without knowing what you want for dinner like I did, they’ll definitely be able to help you out.

Visit Hudson Meats at Tok H Centre, 459 Toorak Road, Toorak, 3142.