This week

Holly and I have been practicing cake decorating on these cup cakes in readiness for an 18th birthday party in September. Holly wanted to make her friends cake as a special gift. Lots of work still to do on that but also lots of creative fun. These ones went to school so I wasn't tempted. I think we will try a white chocolate mud cake today. The weather is miserable...drizzling rain & quite cold, so perfect for baking.

You may wonder about the eclectic assortment today....these little guys are bandicoots courtesy of the Melbourne museum. I took the photo to compare what I have found digging up my garden. Little holes everywhere. I've never seen the holes before so whether it is due to recent floods or the cold snap I don't know but some shown above are endangered, some at risk. I suspect it is either the top middle or right long nosed species. They are so quick and elusive, and only spotted at night of course that I may never know.

Silence -2003 by Adrian Mauriks, at Dockside Melbourne.

And my little Tiger. He's almost 2yrs old...how time flies.

Take care

Deb

Sore feet

I absolutely love Melbourne, the life style, fashion and innovative designers. But my poor feet!

A little colour magic....gorgeous mosaic
A window display( cute bird).....love the vintage lino......
and Kylie's bum......found at Dockside, along with a few other well knowns like Dame Edna Everage, Dame Nellie Melba and Graham Kennedy.

Mum, my sister and I had the best time away. I loved showing them some of the places I love to visit and that they had heard me yabber on about...quite a lot. We ate, laughed, walked, got lost a little, did I mention walked? We learn't which were the best routes down hill.

Mum & sis heading towards the Exhibition Building on route to Melbourne Museum.

A favourite shop is L'uccello - a vintage haberdashery store that I always make a point of visiting (mentioned this before..I Know!! ). This time was no exception and I arrived home with the most beautiful collection of wool felt. The colours are magnificent and I can't wait to use them. Oh, and a couple of the sweetest little cotton reels filled with linen and silk thread.

A cute gelato shop at Dockside.

We really enjoyed seeing the King Tut exhibition....well worth a visit. Each of us bought a silver scarab beetle pendant as a momento.

What I'm working on now? A new angel using some of the wool felt for applique. Bright and colourful with a little twist!

Just awaiting Cherry Pip patterns from Helen and she will be added to the shop.

Take care

Deb

Ideas!!

Why not!
Cherry Pip has been keeping me company for a while and is now finished. I love working with wool felt and it felt nice and warm under my fingers during our cold snap. Still working on the pattern but will be ready soon.

Melbourne trip coming up quickly. It seems like yesterday it was 3 months away, but now next Friday is the day. Really looking forward to it. My sister and I are taking mum to see the King Tut Exhibition and then madly shopping.......more felt, yeah! Visiting the Press Club again also as I loved the experience during the school trip and would like to share it with them.

Talk soon

Deb

On the go in July

Early July and our much awaited cooking class at the Spirit House, Yandina had arrived. The surroundings are lush and tropical. The perfect setting for a wonderful Asian (Thai in part) cooking experience. It was a fully hands on lesson and then lots of eating...yum!!

Forgot to take a photo before but this is an after...that didn't last long either. We cooked a delicious lamb cutlet marinated in fermented red bean curd and other ingredients and it was served with a beautiful pineapple salad/relish. If you like the sweet/sour and salty combo of Thai food you will know what I mean....so moorish. Malaysian Rendang curry, Thai fried rice with sticky pork and some extremely yummy spicy chicken pastries that were served with a cucumber salad/relish. Yes, it was a very nice day and I have cooked all of the dishes a few times at home since then along with a few new ones.

Something else that kept me busy was preparation for a Textile Workshop at school. It was a very big day but the students had lots of fun.

T.shirts were purchased for each student and they got to embellish using various mediums such as freezer paper stencils, fabric paint/spray, applique, suffolk puffs ( we had a little factory churning out suffolk puffs at one stage as some of the girls really enjoyed this exercise), and lastly simple embroidery stitches.

After they had used all the spray dye it was down to sponges and fabric paint.

Anyway, the girls were really proud of their results and it was a Friday....so all was good.

Last but certainly not least my baby had her school formal on Saturday...the last one, so a little sad. She had a wonderful time and we were very proud of her.

For now, take care.

Deb

My b day

Wonderful family and friends made yesterday very special. Another birthday bites the dust but good memories are added to a very blessed life.
Holly made a cute chocolate cake as she is on holidays...the kitchen was also a surprise when I got home, but can't be annoyed at that after the effort. The cake below was one she was practising for her Home Economics exam. It was delicious also. She didn't end up topping with the extra berries but it was crowned with toffee shards, a strawberry and mint leaf. We don't watch MasterChef for nothing LOL.

The sponge cake and custard were made from scratch and after quite a few attempts ( we didn't mind tasting the rejects) EUREKA!! she got it! Those food stacking rings are great tools.


This gorgeous bird was a very special gift. Made all by hand with paper mache, painted and decorated with gorgeous patterned papers and completed with hand fashioned wire legs. The craftsmanship ( or should I say craftswomanship) is absolutely exquisite. If you are like me and love crafted birds especially these I can point you in the direction of the artist. I will have photos of her other birds soon to show & going to aquire some for sale myself so I'll post more info later on this. Too lovely not to share.

I am lucky enough to have wonderful friends at work and made to feel special with lovely gifts & greetings.
The most gorgeous scissors ...heading straight to the studio. Arty earrings wich I love, beautiful flowers, crafty magnets, chocs and birthday greetings....yep, very special.



Yellow roses are probably my fav & these certainly brightened up my day as well as work space.

Take Care and hope your day is special also,

Deb

June happenings.

June is always a busy month for us. Two family birthdays, school holidays looming again and this year, preparations for Holly's school formal. This final senior year is flying along and it will be over all too soon. It is a very exciting one though as pathways for study and the future are mapped out. Better just worry about formal dress and shoes for now. That's drama enough!


The Textile Show was on last weekend and was a really interesting day out. I took a quick snap of this clever wearable art example...not sure about photography in there so It was very quick.

So much to see and do. I brought home some great new products for dyeing fabric, decolourants, wool & silk strands for embellishments and generally way too many things. Oh, I forgot the books...I love books and found two that were perfect additions to my resources. One was on interesting Shibori methods and the other on natural dyeing. I know I read too much and do too little at times but one day.........

The next exciting happening was the Surrealist exhibition at GoMA. Interesting and worth seeing if you are in town.

Rene Magritte, The red model

Back to Melbourne..... and down a little alley opposite Federation Square is Movida. Would like to eat at this Spanish restaurant one day. Heading down in August for the Tutankhamun exhibition so hopefully get a chance then. There is lots of graffiti and skateboarders too so plenty of atmosphere and colour.

Just had to show you these magnificent doors ( and daughter). I took this last April when we visited Nicola Cerrini's studio at the Abbotsford convent artist's community . The studio is actually to the left of pic and up a sharp flight of beautifully worn very old steps but I loved these doors too.

I've been playing around with Nuno felting scarves ( it's been extremely cold lately, well cold for Brisbane) and scarves have been on my mind. Dyeing, then embellishing. Hope I end up with something worth showing.

Take care for now,

Deb

ps. Thank you Stephanie & Bev for your kind thoughts, always appreciated.

Happy to be back

The last few months have been very difficult and I have tried very hard to get back into the swing of writing but the words never came. My dad passed away in March after a month in hospital. Watching him fade and waiting for the day he would no longer be with us was all consuming for our family. Mum has made us proud by the way she has handled it all and by her strength. This Anzac Day we scattered his ashes in a spot he loved and where we spend time as a family. It was a special day and the fly over by the Hornet jet in honour of the Anzacs was a tribute we took as a special little moment for dad as well.

In the midst of this life must go on and my job was to plan a school Home Economics trip to Melbourne again this April. The excitement seemed incidental and I didn't really want to go...but I'm glad now that I did. So many lovely other things to think about and keep me busy. Melbourne is such an exciting and inspiring place to visit. The weather for the trip was pleasant, cool enough to allow some winter dressing and keep comfortable while running from here to there. One of the first visits I had arranged was to RMIT. The Brunswick campus is home to the school of fashion and textiles. WOW!! I wished I was 30 years younger so I could sign up. I loved the screen printing area. So much room to play around in and so many gorgeous pieces of equipment. There is something about screen printing that is so addictive.
Below are some images I took on the tour -



A group of final year students working on fashion garments. The room had beautiful big windows and the light was streaming in. What a studio.

This was a weaving studio. I loved the way the large spools of colour were arranged on the shelves.
Well used screens stacked up.

Holly and I at St. Kilda. Had to walk off the yummy cakes we were instructed to buy from the delectable Acland St cake shops.. Mandatory I was told by Head of Dept.

Me again with some interesting grafitti behind. We had a very pleasant and informative foodies walking tour of Melbourne with Alan Campion. He is a well respected food author and critic and we really enjoyed learning more about the history of the Melbourne food scene as well as picking up some insight on out of the way places to enjoy next time.

I love this...think it was at the top of Rose St. Collaged image of a young girl with cards...they have fallen and are pooling on the pavement.

Have to talk about the food...we did a lot of eating! This is chicken with beetroot and yoghurt a main course -sharing plate at The Press Club ( George Calombaris's restaurant). Absolutely delicious, would go there again in a heartbeat.

This was the other main - wild Barramundi on spinach. Notice the black cypriot salt. This fish was also delicious.

For something a little fancy we finished the trip with a meal at The Flower Drum. You don't go there if your hungry you go for the experience. And it certainly was that. This entree was amazing...barra noodles, shitake mushrooms and bamboo shoots. I wanted MORE!!

Lastly a few of the pastries bought at St. Kilda to share. This one was apparently advertised as the best vanilla slice in the state. I think they were right without tasting the rest.

This one looked so pretty...tasted good too.

And lastly, our cup cake aficionado was quite pleased with taste, texture and aesthetics of this one, I think that's what she said...hard to enunciate with a mouthful of cake.

Talk soon, lots of inspiration for us crafters in Melbourne.

Deb