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 // 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.

day trip // werribee mansion Posted by Helena

My housemate's parents came down to visit and we did a little day trip to the other side of town to take them to Werribee Mansion. I've since realised that this is where The Genie From Down Under was filmed - only my favourite ABC show ever (Rhys Muldoon was cute)! It's really quite beautiful and we were getting a definitely Downton Abbey kinda vibe from the upstairs/downstairs exhibits. We wandered through the gardens where I fell in love with the greenhouses and then popped to lunch at The Park Hotel, purveyor of craft beers.

tavi gevinson // #ladyhero Posted by Helena

Sooo Tavi Gevinson. Ladyhero. Nevermind the fact that she's like a decade younger than me, she's still a ladyhero. Tavi was a keynote speaker at the Melbourne Writer's Festival (among others like London's mayor Boris Johnson, bless him). She spoke for about half an hour and then did a Q&A session.

Let me just say that Tavi essentially spoke about what she loves and about how her life is kind of like being a professional fangirl and being creative. Everything she said I've thought, but she says it so much more eloquently than I could ever do. When you have some spare time, check out her speech, because it's really truly great and I relate a lot. Any teenage girl, or anyone who's been a teenager really, would relate! Also, Benjamin Law chats to her in the above video, so that's #awesome!

Yes, Tavi referenced One Direction. And Bieber. Daria. Taylor Swift. The Virgin Suicides. Fleetwood Mac. Rashida Jones. All sorts of amazeball stuff. She makes me rethink my internet bio of "pop culture nerd".

links // link it Posted by Helena

This installment of link it comes with a photo of the full moon from earlier in the week. Hai moon!

• Laura's Sofia Coppola inspired June playlist
• Very very cool technology. Your tweet got a robot to launch a tennis ball at Jo-Wilfred Tsonga
• Get your travel and symmetrical fix with some gorgeous balconies
• 90s90s90s - brings back so many memories from growing up!
• Negotiating by Steve Jobs
• Emma Block's gorgeous illustrations in Darling magazine
• Cat font. You're welcome.
• 7 Reasons Child Stars Go Crazy by Mara Wilson (aka the girl who played Matilda)
• Imagine waiting at a bus stop and then seeing yourself being Photoshopped before your eyes. BOOM. #creativeday
• Jony Ive Redesigns Things in the style of the new Mac OS
• Ruby Psudeo's latest blog post - inspirational lady!
• Google Project Loon - internet powered by balloons
• Eddie Redmayne playing tennis - *insert heart eye emoji here*
• Interviews with Sofia Coppola at NY Times and Rookie
• Ask A Grown Man... The Lonely Island
• Happy 26th Birthday GIFs! They're as old as me
• The Friends apartment made entirely of paper

harry potter // studio tour Posted by Helena

oh boy, this was only one of the best days ever! i'm catching up on some rather old blog posts since this happened... erm... last july. whoopsies! anyway, unless you really really love harry potter and/or movie sets, don't worry about clicking through because there's a lot of photos under the cut!

we spent about 5 hours there all up and thoroughly enjoyed poking around the set. there's two huge buildings, chock full of HP movie goodness. the first room is just massive and we spent the most time in that one. it had the griffindor common room, the boys' dormitory, dumbledore's office, the burrow, snape's potions dungeon, and that's barely scratching the surface!

design // sony music office in london Posted by Helena

This is by far, one of the coolest design projects I've seen. It was commissioned for the Sony office in London (right near where my old housemate works) and it combines two things I really love: music and typography.

The Sony Music Timeline by Alex Fowkes celebrates 125 years of musical history covering almost 150 square meters of wall space in Sony’s Derry Street headquarters. Using just CNC cut vinyl as the sole medium, 54 columns measuring over 2 meters tall cover feature nearly 1000 of Sony Music's signed artists from 1887 to the present day.

 I can't even really say much more about it without doing some serious gushing, but watch the videos and look at the photos. I wish I could see it in real life! Maybe I'll be able to wrangle a peek when I visit  London next...

blog // pugly pixel Posted by Helena

I've had a longtime girl-blog-crush on Katrina over at Pugly Pixel and her tutorials and freebies have given me and my Photoshop great joy over the last couple of years. We've vaguely chatted a bit before and I've just seen that she's included my travel blog, universal traveller, in her latest Links Loved. Thanks so much Katrina!


I spoke to my parents a few days ago, and my dad had a go at me because I haven't uploaded any of my photos from Spain yet. "I checked Facebook, I checked fourzerofive, but I couldn't see any, anywhere!" They're coming Dad. I promise!

travel // copenhagen pt 2 Posted by Helena

More photos from Copenhagen over here...

travel // copenhagen Posted by Helena

I'm going a bit post crazy today! Or as Kanye would say... cray. I've finally gotten around to posting about my long weekend in Copenhagen from the start of the month and it's over on my travel blog here.

shopping // present and correct Posted by Helena

Present & Correct is one of my favourite online stores and blogs. They have amazing vintage and no-so-vintage stationery and gifts and style every product brilliantly. Their blog is full of stationery and design related gems from old prints to cards to furniture. In other words, just go and check it out! I've bought washi tape and maps of NYC from them before.

blogs // the beauty department Posted by Helena

The Beauty Department

Admittedly I was never much a fan of The Hills, but I am a big big fan of Lauren Conrad's beauty blog that she runs with celebrity make up artist Amy Nadine and celebrity colourist Kristin Ess. Just about every time they post something new, I pin it on Pinterest, but I've just discovered they have their own Pinterest so now I can repin to my heart's content!

design blogs // september industry Posted by Helena

The September Industry is a gorgeous blog that showcases some of the best international graphic and branding design I've seen. Everything's always photographed and styled beautifully and I always take the time to look at their posts properly! Here's a few photos from a recent post that Construct have done for Mulberry. I wish I could do design stuff like this!

design museum // terence conran Posted by Helena

Terence Conran is now 80 years old and he's achieved so much in his lifetime! He's an English designer, restauranteur, retailer and writer and makes you feel like you haven't done much with your life yet. The Design Museum London has dedicated an entire floor to Conran's work and it's as diverse as it is incredible. It's running until 12th April and if you can get there I recommend popping in to have a squizz! We were actually there for the Designs of the Year 2012 exhibition, which I recommend even more highly!