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.

gold & grit // cremorne Posted by Helena

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

talk to the animals // werribee open range zoo Posted by Helena

A few weeks ago some friends came to visit and we decided to go to the Werribee Open Range Zoo to see the animals! So here's just some cute pics of some darned cute animals.