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.