All posts tagged: birthday

Bunny Eats Design turns 5!

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5 years ago, I started this blog. It sounds like a long time. But then when I remember that I’ve living in the same house for 6 years, at the same job for 10 years, with The Koala for 13 years, living Auckland for 22 years…5 years doesn’t sound so long. The journey 5 years ago, I had just started to enjoy experimenting in the kitchen and was taking terrible photos of my food. If you dig around, you’ll find my first blog posts. I can laugh about it. My curiosity to try new things and persistence kept this blog going. Since last year, I upgraded my DSLR, I joined brunchclub, I met lots of lovely bloggers, I’ve eaten with lots of food bloggers, I made a media kit (to get more serious and focused), I created a photography portfolio, I started using Instagram, I attended food photography workshops, I took on photography jobs. I started getting invited to food events as media (OMG whut!?), I ate out, I ate out a lot, I’m still here. Courage to …

Two Year Giveaway

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It’s been 2 years since I started this blog and in that time I’ve made a number of wonderful friends through this blog both in New Zealand and overseas. There’s nothing like shared interests to cement a friendship and I thank everyone who has commented on this blog in the past 2 years. This blog has given me the excuse to be more adventurous and try new things. I love sharing a little slice of my New Zealand kitchen with the world. Sometime in the coming month, this blog will hit 100,000 visits and I’m celebrating with a new logo and giveaway. Some of you may remember my last giveaways when this blog reached 1,000 hits in October 2010 and then 10,000 hits in April 2011. One lucky winner will receive three of my favourite New Zealand products and three sets of my designs. In true NZ style, the producers all came to the party and have generously donated the following: Al Brown has donated a 1 litre cask of his Extra Virgin Olive Oil from The …

Birthday Ham

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Party in the backyard I took the day off work for my birthday and The Koala came home a little early to help set up for my party. Our new outdoor table is getting plenty of use and the $20 I paid for it was a true bargain. I cleaned up a junk corner of our house last weekend and uncovered some parasols that we used for our wedding over 2 years ago. They’re so pretty that we had to do something with them. The Koala decorated a tree with them and I am stoked with how they turned out. Ham Ham on the bone is one of my favourite porky products and I look forward to Christmas ham every year. But ham once a year isn’t enough! For my birthday, my sister gifted me a Hellers Free Farmed half ham on the bone. From the Hellers website: Hellers Free Farmed products are sourced from selected New Zealand farms. The Sows are outdoors and once weaned, the piglets are raised in barns with no crates or …

Eleven Eleven Eleven. Stolen Hakanoa

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Everyone should invent a cocktail on their birthday. What a way to start the day right? Yesterday morning, the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the eleventh year of the century, I celebrated my birthday with a cocktail at 11 minutes past 11. For my birthday, The Koala bought me a bottle of Stolen Rum in gold. I first had this rum at Taste at the Cloud in a cocktail called Stolen Summer. It was delicious. Stolen Summer is STOLEN white rum infused with Manuka wood smoked Apricot, Peach and Nectarine, fresh lime and ginger beer. I’m still experimenting with Hakanoa Ginger Syrup at the moment so I thought why not pair them together? Stolen Eleven Eleven 1 shot Stolen Rum (or any smooth golden rum) 1/2 shot Hakanoa Ginger Syrup A squeeze of lemon A lemon wedge A sprig of mint Ice Add the rum, ginger syrup into a glass of your choice. Top with a squeeze of lemon juice and ice, a sprig of mint and lemon wedge. Sip in the sun.

Ponyo wants ham!

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Years ago, we had an art exhibition at Rising Sun on K Road on my birthday. My family got me a glazed ham for my birthday (at my request) and we brought it to the exhibition to share with friends and art appreciating strangers. It was grand. A few years later, at a different bar, I met a guy that said he met me once at an exhibition where there was ham. Ah, to be forever associated as the art and ham girl. Awesome. Fast forward another 5 or 6 years, it’s my birthday today and what better way to celebrate than to have another glazed ham with my nearest and dearest. I adore ham and when I saw the Studio Ghibli movie Ponyo, I could relate. Watch this clip if you don’t know what I mean. As for the ham, I’m inspired by Pepsi, mango and brown or palm sugar. I think a cup of each should do the trick and a squeeze of lime juice for an extra South East Asian inspired pop.