spring cleaning

Hello again!
I had a break from blogging for a couple of months, due to travelling to New York and recently Ukraine, and also a winter hibernation mood I will not apologise for...The dark European winter can make you like that, force you to recharge your skittish batteries and seek some time out.
 However I can't pretend the spring is not here any longer. With it comes a wish for a blast, for a clean, sweeping change, readjustment, discarding and shedding a outworn skin. Or, at the very least, for some clean white paint.
So last weekend I looked at some very outdated items from last fall and decided to give them a fresh linen look. And, as I have a thing for painting old books, I added a couple of them to the mix.
So here is my spring meditation in starch white and gilded gold:

All photos by Galeria Rocco

on my window this week

Using cake baking forms for something I'm much better at - mood boards of the passing moment...

I'm seriously hoping for pink, white and blue.

    photo copyright Galeria Rocco

December apple pie

My version of Charlotte cake for the month of December looks like this:

      photo copyright Galeria Rocco


         Have a great weekend!


         

dinner set pot plants

I own an old and very fragmented dinner set - no bowls, few cracked dinner plates, and some soup and sauce dishes without lids. One of those things you don't want to throw out, but don't quite know what to do with…until I got an idea. First there was one:

then another one:

Then the third:

and, since they seemed happy enough, I started playing around:

Anyway, it's just an idea.  To go and ride your grandma's sideboards, buffets and credenzas...






All photos copyright Galeria Rocco

for a bleak day

For a gloomy day outside, this simple leek on my window is such a sport! It really cheers me up.

                        photo copyright Galeria Rocco

still life with pumpkin

Pumkin, such a strange creature...

                                                     All photos copyright Galeria Rocco

little objects of desire

These objects are not connected in any way...except, that I like them very much. Especially the bear.

                                                   photos via lady.inspirasjonsblogg.jotun.no

I just found...

Lex Pott True Colors vases

I love the oxidized metal colors, the true colors metals come in nature. Dutch designer Lex Pott has been experimenting with the copper, iron, brass and aluminium, applying various chemical processes to create these beautiful objects of desire.

                                                                                 photos via Lex-Pott-True-Colours

autumn moodboard

 

All photos copyright Galeria Rocco

Alice in Wonderland Cookbook

Being an Alice in Wonderland fun I couldn't go past this vintage find - an out of print Alice in Wonderland Cookbook. With the Lewis Carrol quotations and Sir John Tenniel's delighful illustrations, it is quite priceless. Drink Me Soup or Queen of Hearts Jam Tarts anyone?

                                                                         Amazon Books

                                                               courtesy of  Brain Pickings

     

Take the recipe for Looking Glass Cake:

1 pound flour | ½ pound butter | 4 ounces currants | 4 ounces mixed peel | 3 ounces raisins | ½ pound castor sugar | 2 teaspoons baking powder | 3 eggs | 1 teaspoon mixed spice | milk

1. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
2. Beat eggs and whisk gradually into the creamed mixture.
3. Sift flour and baking powder and fold into the mixture by degrees.
4. Finally mix in fruit and spice.
5. The mixture should now be of such a consistency that it will drop easily from the spoon. Add milk only if necessary.
6. Turn into a cake tin approximately 7 ½ inches in diameter lined with greaseproof paper.
7. Bake for 2-3 hours in a slow oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, Gas Mark 2.
8. Test with a skewer to see if cooked. Insert it in the centre. If it comes out clean, the cake is ready to be placed on a wire rack to cool.
9. Cut it first and hand round afterwards.

                                                        Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

"The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,

All on a summer day:

The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts

And took them quite away."

happy dreams

This beautiful and fragile ceramic candle burner made it safely home  from Santorini in my suitcase...From 1260 Ceramic Studio, the husband and wife team, simply amazing!
At night it reminds me to chill out, let go and float. Wishing you a good night!

                     From 1260 Ceramic Studio, Megalochori - Santorini, Greece.
                     1260ceramicstudio.com/en/

  photo copyright Galeria Rocco

Santorini found objects

A little post-Santorini mood board from mediterranean plants and artifacts to offset the rainy day at home. Try lavendula, rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage and yellow flowering santolina - they  smell divinely of windswept Aegean hills each time you run your hand against them. 

Try to mix coarse salt for your grinder with mediterranean herbs to put an extra kick on baked potatoes, salads, marinades, grilled meat or soup.
Ah, and Argyros wine is just divine!

mylelia-sea-salt-aromatic-herbs-and-peppercorn
Santorini wine from estate-argyros.com

All photos copyright Galeria Rocco