Dandi Blog

We’re very excited to show you some adorable photos of our very gorgeous Mindi and her soon to be hubby Adam. These amazing engagement photos were taken by the very talented Leisa from White Fluffy Cloud photography.

Mindi styled the shoot true to her characteristic vintage style with some of her favourite tea cups, fresh flowers, Mud ceramics and delicious treats all displayed so beautifully on a Dandi Lilly Pilly tablecloth. We can’t wait for the big day in October – we’re all so excited!

Photography by White Fluffy Cloud and be sure to check out the great post from our friends at Polka Dot Bride.

Paris, City of Light, City of Love and City of AMAZING FOOD! To cap off her Europe experience Mindi travelled home via Paris - a short few days to soak in this awe inspiring place.
Of course no trip to Paris is complete without a smoochy photo in front of the Eiffel Tower - you might remember this photo from Caroline's trip last year!



Left: The gorgeous Notre Dame and its gothic glory provided an overwhelming and humbling experience on a quiet morning in Paris. The stained glass rose windows were spectacular. Right: Soaking in many famous renaissance paintings and sculptures of the Louvre was a tiring but rewarding experience.



You can't go to Paris and not enjoy the amazing patisserie offerings. This was one deadly chocolate tart with oozing caramel sauce and gold leaf decoration. Scoffed down in the cobbled lane ways of the Student/ Latin Quarter. 

We recently decided to have a DIY challenge amongst the four Dandi ladies, and wanted the challenge to be one that was environmentally friendly, fun and useful!After throwing around a couple of ideas it was decided that each of us would go home and find a pair of old shoes that we no longer wear (everyone has some of those right?), and do them up to make them super cute and irresistible! Today we'll show you the before and afters created by Manny and Mindi.



Manny Started with a pair of very worn but comfortable red leather peep toe wedges.By adding wide stripey ribbon to the front and small ribbon to the heel the shoes have a new nautical lease on life! Manny also put new red lining on the interior and gave these a good polish. Ahoy there, these be treasure!



Mindi started with a pair of black round toe suede pumps. To these she added some felt and beaded flowers and tweed leaves. The pop of purple makes these otherwise boring shoes into a statement piece with a bit of vintage appeal. Mindi can't wait to take these out dancing!
 

What do you do when you are halfway through spring cleaning and it all becomes too much? You put down the mop, forget about the dust, ignore the cobwebs and bake cookies...



These are going to be gingerbread cookies, courtesy of The Women's Weekly Macaroons and Biscuits book. They look labour intensive enough to stall the cleaning, don't you think?



All the ingredients are on hand, phew! A trip to the supermarket seems too exhausting right now. Also - we get to use our awesome heart shaped measuring cups! This really was a good idea. 



We need to make the dough using our pretty and old mixer... its a bit noisy so we muffle the sound with some potholders underneath!



While they are baking we have a cup of tea, and admire the fact that our mug matches our tea towels, thats nifty!



The finished result, not as pretty as the picture... but lets call them cute and tasty, ok?! Unfortunately now we have the baking mess to clean up too!  

Yesterday the Dandi ladies sat down to a beautiful lunch together. For what reason? Because a girl's gotta eat! Mindi made a scrummy quiche (pastry and all) and we used vintage fine bone china tea cups afterwards.

It was very pish posh, very girly and very fun. It's so nice to step away from the usual work day routine and treat yourselves to a play date, and thats what we did. We were ladies who lunch, we loved it.

Mindi's Tuna and Pea Quiche

- 1 Qty Shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
- 100 gms peas (frozen is fine)
- 200 gms tinned tuna in springwater (or whatever you have)
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
- 4 eggs
- Handful of chopped mint (or basil or dill etc)
- 1 tbsp mustard (wholegrain or dijon)

Preheat your oven to 180ºC. Roll out your pastry to 0.5cm thick and place into a 22cm loose bottomed tart tin. Trim excess, and prick base with a fork. Line pastry case with greaseproof paper and baking weights (use rice or dried beans if you don't have baking weights) and pop in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove baking weights and paper and bake blind for another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile prep your filling. Whisk eggs and milk gently to combine, then add all the other ingredients and stir. Add salt an pepper if you feel fancy. Fill baked pastry case with mixture and bake for 30 - 40 minutes until set.

Serve with a simple salad on the side.

Shortcrust Pastry

150 gms butter
2 cups plain flour
Iced water

Chop butter into cubes and place with sifted flour into an electric mixing bowl. Mix on low until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Slow add iced water, a tablespoon at a time and increase speed to medium. When the mixture forms a ball pull out, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 1/2 an hour. 

(Note: you can use your hands to mix the pastry dough but we are lazy!)

For Mother's Day lunch Mindi baked this Pecan Pie with a recipe adapted from the SBS cooking show, Food Safari. Unfortunately is got gobbled up so quickly that she could only photograph it halfway through it being devoured, crumbs and all! The Bamboo chopping board made an excellent serving and cutting platter.

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day too!

Mindi was the lucky recipient of a very special housewarming present from the rest of the Dandi ladies when they came over for some dumplings a few weekends ago.

These gorgeous butter knives are still in their original silk lined case and what is even more special is that the card from the gift giver is still attached!

The card reads: "To Muriel, with love and all good wishes, from Mabel - 25/12/1925

Pretty special huh?!

Yesterday the Dandi ladies all celebrated Mindi's Birthday! We sampled two different types of cake, Chocolate Mud and Orange and Almond flourless, as well as delicious cupcakes from My Little Cupcake(courtesy of a friend in Cairns - how cute!).

We also sat down to the traditional Dandi birthday lunch of yummy sushi and present unwrapping....

Two pressies! + a gorgeous handmade card by resident dandi Artist,Manny

Pressie number 1: The very cool new book by Sydney chick Kelly Doust: The Crafty Minx

Some projects from the book: Top: Beach Bag - a summer essential! Bottom: Elegant clutch? Yes please!

Pressie 2: Speaking of elegant clutches... how gorgeous is this Organic 

Cotton clutch from aussie company Apple & Bee. Now Mindi just needs to go shoe shopping for some killer heels to match!

Very often in life, a change is as good as a holiday, and with this in mind Caroline and Mindi decided to spice up their living spaces with some yummy new cushions from Pad.

We first spotted Pad over a year ago and have been loving their gear ever since. The current collection features an awesome range of colours including fresh green, sapphire and ash grey and the quality of fabric is the very best - durable and snuggly at the same time.

Its fair to say we went a little crazy and our living rooms could now double as Pad showrooms, but the end result breathes new life and inspiration into our worlds and that is what is most important, right?

You can find Pad cushions at the following stores in Sydney:
Magnolia Home and Gift, Shop 6-9/ 19 Bungan St Mona Vale NSW 2103
Essentials or Home, 112 Cronulla St, Cronulla NSW 2230
or at Oz Design Stores nationally