Favourite Finds

Many years ago when I was a full-time interior blogger I had a series of posts called Favourite Finds. When you’re constantly searching and sourcing beautiful products it’s hard to not want to buy one of everything for yourself! So I started a private Pinterest “wish list” board where I save all the beautiful things I’m coveting, not just furniture and homeware, but favourite fashion pieces, makeup, jewellery, books, appliances even. Anytime I want to treat myself I go straight to this board. We’ve decided to bring back this blog series so we can share with you a few of the favourite things we’ve found.

V I C ’ S P I C K S : : the first piece I want to share with you is a gorgeous ottoman we had custom made using one of my favourite fabrics. I love furniture pieces that are multi-purpose and this ottoman is a perfect example. Place it in front of your sofa so you can put your feet up, and it also works beautifully as a coffee table. Add a tray and/or a large coffee table book and layer with some favourite decor pieces. Alternatively pop it at the end of your bed to ‘anchor’ the bed. Handy for putting your shoes on and off, and to throw your clothes at the end of the day.

Pattern and colour are two things that make me happy, so this fabric by Catherine Martin for Mokum is my pick. But we can have these ottomans made up in a wide range of fabrics that will look stunning with the matt black powder coated metal legs. Measuring 1300mm wide x 650mm deep x 360mm high, the cost is $1890, which we think is a great price for such a special, custom piece of furniture. Get in touch if you’d like to buy this baby, or talk to us about getting one custom made in another fabric.

I’m wearing my second favourite find in the pic above. The Mazzy ankle boot from La Tribe has been on regular rotation in my wardrobe the last few months. In our job we can go from a client meeting, to moving furniture, to an on-site visit at a construction site, all in a matter of hours. We like to look good, but also need to be comfortable and practical, and these boots tick all the boxes. Bonus - they look great with jeans as well as skirts and dresses, I love the caramel suede and the cute Western cowgirl vibe.

You know you’re getting old when you get excited by a piece of cleaning equipment - sheesh! But my last pick, the Karcher Window Vac, has been a game changer for us. Cleaning windows is one of those jobs that no one likes, but boy does it make a difference to have sparkling clean glass to look out. The Karcher Window Vac is so awesome because it vacuums up the excess window as you clean, which I love. No more old towels along the bottom of the sills to catch the dirty drips. It almost makes cleaning windows fun - almost.

But what we’ve found this product really handy for is to clean our tiles at the end of every shower. When you spend a small fortune on gorgeous Italian tiles for your new ensuite, you really want to look after them. It only takes a couple of minutes to suck up all the water left on the tiles after a shower leaving them looking sparkling new. Come on now, you know you want one too ;)

Now moving onto Dael’s favourite finds…

D A E L ’ S P I C K S : : In my downtime I love to read (among other things), and “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” is a recent fave. I love this charming, quirky and enduring book. Eleanor has the ability to make you feel protective of her plus enjoy her company, even with her totally inappropriate social skills. Recommended by Reece Witherspoon as part of her book club, if it’s good enough for Reese… :)

As Vic said above, we need to look good in our job, but there are days when we might be climbing on ladders to hang art, or moving sofas around a room, and on those days a dress just isn’t going to cut it. These trackie pants are super comfy while still looking smart. The only problem is - I have to be stern and force myself to stop wearing them everyday!

I’ve recently finished renovating our kitchen and dining area and my last item is now top of my wish list. In fact, these chairs have been on the top of my wish list for far too long. I can't wait to have these stunning and comfortable chairs around my dining room table. If you share my love of green velvet these chairs can be yours too for $695 each. Drop us a line and we’ll make that happen.

As a part time member of our team, our friend Sally has contributed her three favourite finds as well. Let’s check out her choices…

S A L L Y ’ S P I C K S : : At no. 1 is The Beauty Chef Glow Inner Beauty Powder. It supports gut health and skin rejuvenation. An award winning delicious powder that contains more than 20 organic bio-fermented and probiotic superfoods to enhance your skin luminosity, clarity, hydration and texture. Mix it into filtered water, pop it in your smoothie, or sprinkle over your breakfast. Who doesn’t want luminous skin and inner health?

Next up, I love these Elho plant pots. Made from recycled plastic, they’re manufactured using 100% wind energy - how cool is that?! They come in a range of sizes and are great to pop a store-bought plant straight into. A great way to bring life and texture into your home.

Last but certainly not least, I’m definitely coveting this super pretty Society of Wanderers Euro Pillowslip Set in the Winifred Floral print. I love this beautiful print on 100% French flax linen, it’s perfect for adding a bit of colour to a plain linen bed setup. Now, with three daughters I just have to decide which bed they’ll go on, or maybe I’ll keep them for myself.

Well there you go folks, a bit of a medley, I hope we’ve inspired you with our favourite finds. If you have any questions about any of them, leave us a comment below or get in touch with us through our website, and look out for more of our faves coming to you soon.

My Food Bag

As a wife and a mother, I (like many others, I'm sure) have come to dread those age-old words "what's for dinner?". If I'm perfectly honest there are about a million things I'd rather be doing than cooking a meal night after night, but the health of my family deems it necessary ;) Now, if someone told me what to cook each night and delivered all the food to my door, that would be half the battle. My Food Bag to the rescue... the concept is brilliant - a nutritious weekly menu with all the ingredients and step-by-step recipes for four to five meals, delivered to your door at the start of each week.


Head chef and dietitian, Nadia Lim, works with a talented team to design delicious, easy-to-follow recipes each week. There are five different food bags to choose from:

My Classic Food Bag: 5 recipes to feed 2 adults and 2-3 teens, or 4 adults. 
My Family Food Bag: 5 recipes to feed 2 adults and 2-3 younger children. 
My Gourmet Food Bag: 4 recipes to feed 2 adults. 
My Veggie Food Bag: 4 vegetarian recipes to feed 2 adults.
My Own Food Bag: 4 recipes for 5 meals to feed 1 adult (1 recipe feeds 2 adults).



Once you've chosen the Food Bag that suits you can choose to have it delivered every week or every fortnight, and either on Sunday or Monday. A few days before the bag arrives you'll be emailed your menu and notified of any staple ingredients you'll need eg: flour, olive oil (things you generally have in your pantry already). This gives you time to pick anything up you don't have. Your Food Bag is then delivered to your door with the freshest ingredients, and all seasonal produce (free-range and sustainably farmed products are used whenever possible).

My Family Food Bag

My Classic Food Bag

Hawke's Bay is one of the latest areas to receive My Food Bag deliveries, so Dael and I were super excited to try it out. Dael chose My Classic Food Bag, and I decided to try My Family Food Bag so that we could compare the two. We were emailed our menu for the week ahead and on Sunday afternoon everything was delivered to our door.




There was a large chillbox holding all the meat and deli items, and two paper bags filled with everything else - delicious, fresh veges, eggs, spice mixes, bread crumbs, rice etc. You also get a free recipe folder with the week's recipes. The recipe cards are fantastic and really easy to follow, including the prep and cook time, and nutritional information.




It was lovely to feel so organised and know exactly what was for dinner each night. I really enjoyed the cooking experience and trying new ideas, and there was much excitement, as well as critiques from my family when they sat around the table in the evening.





Dael's family loved their meals too. Her husband, Lee, had taken the week off work to look after their two girls during the school holidays, so for them the delivery of My Food Bag was perfect timing. With everything he needed on hand and instructions, meal time was a breeze, and it was lovely for Dael to come home to. One night when they had friends over for dinner they gave the kids something simple and served their guests 'Char Siu Pork with Sticky Sesame Pea Rice and Veges'. Needless to say the guest were most impressed!




After trialling My Food Bag for a week, Dael and I both highly recommend it to anyone who wants to take the stress out of meal times. With the busy lifestyles most of us live, it's a fantastic way to make sure your family is getting a beautiful, healthy and delicious meal. You don't have to be a Master Chef either, if I can do it, you definitely can. Why don't you give it a go.

NutriBullet Goodness

There was much excitement in our household this weekend as we tried out our amazing NutriBullet for the first time. I have heard a lot about how fantastic this machine is, and with the amount of processed/convenient food available these days, I love the idea of getting extra nutrition into my family's diet.


The NutriBullet is a powerful superfood nutrition extractor that completely blitzes and blends any ingredients, including fibre, pulp, seeds and skin of whole fruits and vegetables. This means you extract the highest degree of nutrition from your food, and the silky smooth texture makes it easy to digest. No more partially blended spinach leaves or berry pips. There are so many ingredients you can use, and we've had a lot of fun making up recipes to please the whole family.


We started with a couple of handfuls of baby spinach leaves, a green apple, a pear, and chopped pineapple topped up with coconut water. It's amazing how quickly it blends into a smooth and super healthy drink.


The NutriBullet comes complete with a tall cup, two shorter cups (one with a handle), two resealable lids, the extractor blade, and a milling blade which turns dry ingredients into powders (perfect for milling oats, nuts and seeds). So next time you're running late and don't have time for a sit-down breakfast, you could simply throw your favourite fresh ingredients into the NutriBullet, pop a lid on and take it with you. Now that's what I call "fast food"!


I whipped up a ginger and citrus flu-fighter recipe from two whole oranges (skin removed), the juice from half a lemon, a teaspoon of fresh ginger, and a couple of teaspoons of maple syrup to sweeten. You can tweak these recipes to suit your taste - less ginger, more maple syrup... it just takes a bit of experimenting.


The kids wanted a berry smoothie so we went quite traditional with a banana, lots of frozen mixed berries, yoghurt and milk. I added a dash of vanilla and organic carob powder. Needless to say, they loved it. It really is a fabulous way to get fussy eaters to get their fruit intake. My eldest doesn't like bananas, her favourite recipe so far includes mango, pineapple, coconut flakes, almonds, almond milk and yoghurt - delish!


The last drink I made was a mix of some of my favourites, and was just like a healthy dessert. I used almond milk, a shot of cold coffee, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and two tablespoons of organic rolled oats. Once blitzed I added two tablespoons of chia seeds and let it sit for ten minutes, stirring regularly. Topped with coconut flakes, slivered almonds, and chocolate chips, it was a delicious guilt-free treat.


I would highly recommend a NutriBullet to anyone wanting a quick and fun way to create exceptionally healthy drinks and meals. Check out the website to see where you can buy yours, and lots of great recipes.