It’s that time of year again. It's Christmas! The irresistible smell of gingerbread cookies, decorating the Christmas tree, shopping for presents, gift wrapping and all things Christmassy. The streets in London are brightly lit with Christmas lights, German style outdoor markets have sprung up around the city, and Scandi themed pop-up restaurants are all the rage. Freezing days that chill you to the bone par well with sitting by the fireplace, sipping an spiced mulled wine or hot chocolate. I love wrapping up in my winter clothes and after 3 years of living in London, I feel like I have acclimatised to the cold weather. Normally at this time of the year, I would be complaining about the cold (a lot) and how much I hate the cold. But not this year. I’m embracing the cold. Although give me a choice and I would still choose a hot climate over cold climate any day.

You would have seen a couple of months ago here and here that I attended a photography workshop in Ireland. Through this adventure I had the opportunity to make a lot of new friends from near and far. One of those new friends is the ever so talented and beautiful Skye McAlpine of From My Dining Table. We didn’t get the chance to talk very much at the workshop because we were so busy with our heads down learning and practising. But since then we have exchanged many emails with the intention of catching up, as we both live in London. We finally locked in a date recently and I had the most wonderful day spent with Skye and her adorable pet Coco chatting, baking (Skye did all the baking), food styling, photographing and eating. I felt like we were recreating the Ireland workshop all over again but on an intimate scale and in her beautiful home.

I recently had the opportunity to write, style and photograph a collaborative article on the Italian dessert affogato for Sydney based online publication tête-à-tête & PLATE. When I was approached asked to collaborate with them, I was more than thrilled to be a part of their creative journey. Being a Sydney sider myself, it would be wonderful to see this exciting new publication succeed and I’m doing my bit to contribute. Admittedly, I was genuinely surprised at how they came to discover my blog but I'm learning that's the beauty of the internet and social media.