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Easter show and sticky food

Sellers walk around with mountains of helium balloons hovering above them, I love the look of them

Me at the show and a whole lotta rib behind me

SNH and I went to the Royal Easter Show on Monday which was the first time for both of us in over 12 years. Not surprisingly our interests have changed from childhood obsessions with spending our pocket money on Show Bags full of cheap plastic toys and treats containing enough sugar that the resulting energy spurt could power a small country. Nor were we drawn to try clamoring onto spinning rides that would cause said sugary treats to pay a return visit, by way of spewing down the side of the rock’n'roll dodge ‘em cars pavilion. No, this year we indulged in our current obsession: dogs.

Timing our day well, we arrived at the Purina Sydney Royal Dog Show as they were judging the American Staffordshire Terriers. Our little blue dog Dutch is part AmStaff we have no idea what he is crossed with, as he is a rescue, but compared to the specimens on display he is an absolute pipsqueak!

After the judging we wonderer through the dog exhibitors hall then over to the craft and food hall. Unfortunately for SNH I issued him a ‘food on a stick’ challenge, as I wanted to photograph that trophy of all mixed-meat-surprise foods – the Dagwood Dog. And for those who don’t know, a ‘food on a stick’ challenge cannot be denied.

SNH looks thrilled with his mix-meat on a stick delight

Over at the Craft and Food hall we goggled at the sponge cakes, giggled at the needlepoint and marveled at the knitted foods. The sugar craft display was the most popular but I was quietly disappointed with the entries, they were all a little “meh”.

Mmmm pink marble cake

Highly detailed quilt on display

Knitted cakes were more interesting than the sugar craft versions

Most of our day was spent watching the dog agility and flyball demonstrations, cheering on people we knew from online dog forums and planning our dog’s futures as flyball masters.

Dog agility on the weave poles

But we did continue the “food on stick” challenge for the rest of the day…

Mmm corn on a stick

Cheese on a stick, it made my chest hurt

More photos of the day are here: On my flickr page

Hot cross buns, one a penny…

Happy Easter!

My childhood egg cup, still in my collection of things. I love the spotty legs and Mary Janes

I love Easter: the time of year, the over indulgence of chocolate eggs, four day weekends and above all Hot Cross Buns. So I decided weeks ago that I was going to make my own HXBs come hell or high water.
With perfect timing SNH presented me with a gift of a new lens for our Canon EOS 40D, a Canon nifty 50 lens. I am forever trying to get more light in my images and a shallower depth of field and this lens is exactly what I needed. Just in time to document my first ever attempt at baking any type of bread product!

The recipe I used was found on the Gourmet Traveller’s Website

Measure and sift

I strayed from the recipe here, as I don't like rind in my HXBs so I used orange zest instead

Using the dough hook on the KitchenAid for the first time

SNH helps out and kneads the dough

Dough ready to be put aside and left to rise

Dough balls in tray, looking a little messy - dough possibly too dry?

Ta da! The final product, served with tea and a choccie egg

So they worked! They’re not lead balls, just a little ugly.
They could do with a little more taste as well, in parts they are plain (without the glaze) that’s possibly due to me removing the orange peel, but I refuse to believe that orange peel provides that much flavour.

And the good part? I would do it again!

Colourful crafty

I started crocheting Granny squares at the end of January. Picking up the hook sporadically when I was bored watching telly or sick on the couch I was very happy with my little pile of squares. But being the fickle crafter that I am I knew that I would soon bore of this lark and would be destined to own a pile of squares until the day came, very far in the future, that I would pick up the crochet hook again… or simply push the pile to the side with all my other unfinished craft projects – come on I know you all have them.
So my goal was, finish as many squares you can with a certain amount of yarn. And that is what I did today. I have 30 squares, they look awesome and make a tiny blanket. Possibly a future gift for someone’s newborn? (Don’t look at me mother-in-law)

I took over the dining table to arrange my pattern, and start to prepare for the next faze – joining. Luckily Pip at Meet Me at Mikes posted a helpful link in her crochet tutorial for a great way to finish of my blanket, here it is Carina’s Craft blog.

So this is what my currently blanket looks like

Laying out the pattern for my blanket

Hopefully in the next week or so it will be finished and my knees will be warm!

I am building up my craft cupboard and have 2 suitcases filled with yarn, material, bias binding, buttons and much more. Which I brought home from my Grandma’s house last weekend. She was an avid crafter and I know she would have wanted me to have what she left behind. Including fabulous pink yarn!

But this little number I nicked from my mum. It’s an ace knitting bag and lined with plastic, this is what I store my current projects in. I picked up the very helpful knitting needle box at an op shop.

My favourite piece of knitting ephemera, my mum's old knitting bag

Along with enough bias binding to last me a life time, there were a few other gems unearthed as we were cleaning out Grandma’s house. My sister discovered this Atomic Coffee maker in a plastic bag under the sink. It still had all the parts and the instruction manual and sales booklet with it. What a find! I have to confess I may have performed a rather embarrassingly spazzy dance upon this awesome discovery.

My pretty Atomic Coffee Machine, too afraid to use it so it becomes decoration

And while I am on an image roll, I thought I may as well post a few photos of the mantle. I am reorganising the house at the moment and I particularly happy with the way the mantle has turned out.

A few of my favourite things

I love my quirky little things. Like the ruler from my Grandpa's shed, primary school Tasmania stencil, vintage books from our wedding decorations and the awesome Fowler 'Beehive' ashtray

My posie of knitting needles, Barsony lamp and a photo of the registry signing at our wedding

lime and pie

I really enjoy baking. But I am well aware of my competitive yet incredibly short attention span.
It is very rare that I will make the same thing twice, as once I have created my masterpiece and received the correct amount of praise for it I grow bored and move on. Luckily for my Shiny New Husband (who from now on will be referred to as SNH so as to save those few exhausting keystrokes as well as making a custom abbreviation which creates familiarity and an ‘in-joke’ with you dear reader) and a few happy friends I have not completely abandoned my beloved vanilla cupcake recipe and on the odd occasion it will rear its cream cheese decorated head to rapturous applause (this this the correct amount of praise I demand).

This weekend I am experimenting with a southern American dessert that according to the internet is a topic of much debate. Hell if Dexter had to search high and low for the perfect specimen of it’s kind before he could off his friend, then I can understand the pickle these online recipe debate teams find themselves in.
The dessert is Key Lime Pie.

Enticed by a glowing review of this recipe on Happy Lady Eats I decided the dog birthday/BBQ we are attending tomorrow was perfect time to try this new experiment.

Lime zesting in progress, such a divine smell

SNH and I had a disagreement, as the original recipe called for the pie to be frozen (including the whipped cream topping) overnight, relying on the lime acid to cook the egg yolks. He was concerned transporting the pie to the BBQ would cause the cream to melt and ruin the masterpiece of citric-custard-goodness. So after more research I decided to bake the pie and administer whipped cream at individual consumers discretion.

The finished product - topped with fresh lime pieces

It turned out very well, even if I do say so myself.
And I have to admit, this flaky recipe junky is seriously considering repeating this dessert, to the letter this time, in a few weeks when we have friends over for our ‘Wedding and Honeymoon Slide Night’.

As usual I could not have completed this baking project, without the unwavering support of two helpers:
Knuckles and Dutch.

"Please can I lick the spoons?"

Some of my favourite food websites:
Chockylit Cupcake Blog
Happy Lady Eats
Martha Stewart
Bake and Destroy

We’re having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave?

Summer in a global warming Sydney is a funny thing. One minute it’s a mild 27ºc (80ºf), then the mercury jumps to a scorching 38ºc (100ºf) for days on end, which then scares itself into dipping the other way and becoming 24ºc (75ºf) and overcast. I prescribe some valium and a good lie down for Sydney’s confused weather.

When we moved out to the suburbs I didn’t even contemplate the fact we would be missing out of north-westerly winds that would cool us down and protect us from the full force of the day’s heat, as it did in our last location in the heart of Sydney’s inner-west. So we suffer, not as horridly as people further out, but I suffer in the knowledge that even two suburbs over it is cooler.

Having been promised a day when I got to pick the activity (thanks to my generous nature in allowing my shiny new husband consecutive days of fishing, on top of his approaching annual fishing trip to Perth) and last being Sunday one of those afore mentioned scorchers, I chose the beach. So did the rest of Sydney.

I am not a fan of sand or waves. The first always ends up in uncomfortable places and the second more often than not acts like a school bully, dunking you in the wash again and agin. So our beach of choice is Clovelly, which is more like a large ocean pool, with long and narrow enclosure that is set between two rocky ridges. You must navigate your way down slippery metal stairs and across the submerged rocks in order to gain access to the water, but once you have bravely lurched into the ocean you can be rewarded with a calming body of water with small gentle non-breaking waves. On this such day, I thought to bring my Hawaiian-purchased inflatable doughnut and I spent my time sitting in it being serenely rocked by the waves and chauffeured by a non-doughnut equipped Bob. It was blissful.

Exiting the water is harder than entering, as you need to scramble back over the submerged rocks, grasp on to metal rails and ungracefully remove yourself. On Sunday, as I did this, I scrapped my toe on what I assumed was an annoyingly sharp rock and thought nothing more of it until we were drying ourselves and preparing to leave. The big toe on my right foot began to sting mightily and when I inspected it I found 6 black spikes peppered in my flesh.

Complaining of the pain for the journey home, like the sook that I am, Bob and I operated on my poor toe, extracting 4 of the 6 spikes. But not without a large amount of carving and generally making a mess of my toe. The spikes were hard and black with a purple-ish tinge and we surmised that they came from sea urchin. When I could take no more pain from our surgery, I was left with 2 spikes deeply embedded and a plan to use drawing ointment to remove them.

A terrible iPhone photo of my toe 1 day after the 4 spikes were removed

As the days went on, my body being the traitor that it is, caused me to suffer a full spasm of my neck and shoulder muscles and was in a substantial amount of pain through that. So I decided I could take no more self inflicted pain, and as the drawing ointment had only brought the last two pieces of debris only slightly closer to the surface to then be walked back inwards by me, it was time to seek professional help.

After very stingy local anaesthetic and a whole lot of blissfully numbed cutting (by a professional Doctor) the extraction was complete and the last two pieces were removed. Hallelujah. But I wasn’t done – oh no – I was required to get a Tetanus shot for my troubles.

Tetanus is my most feared injection as my only memory of it is rolling on the ground as a child of 10, holding my arm and bemoaning the agony.

And here I am 20 years later, contemplating the same indignity. The pain in my arm has blossomed in the past 2 days, feeling like a dangerous bruise that aches my muscles and leaves me unable to sleep on that side of my body. But the most irritating aspect is that there is no visible bruise, I have no war wound in which to garner sympathy. I am quite disappointed, I will have to make do with the band-aid on my toe.

Drive by wavings

I drive to work, it’s around 1 hour each way, sometimes more. To counter the environmental impact and to combat boredom I carpool with an awesome girl from work. She lives further from work than I do, we’ve both tried catching public transport but alas it adds 40mins each way and $30 to our weekly expenditure, it is cheaper and faster to drive.

A few weeks ago I found myself driving home without my carpool buddy – can’t remember the reason, but we occasionally drive to work separately. Two quarters of the way home, on a three lane road, coming slowly to a stop in traffic a silver 4×4 comes up on my left side and the male driver starts to wave at me.

This is was not a frantic ‘Hey your rear tail lights are out and there’s a man with a hook for a hand on your roof!’ It was more of a ‘Hey single lady, how you doin’?’.
I ignored him and as his lane move forward a little, I used the chance to spy on him using his side-view mirror to see if my over-inflated ego was just fooling me into thinking this man was macking on me and was instead someone I knew. However I was caught out as he too was using his side-view mirror to spy on me and waved! From the quick look I got at him, I didn’t recognise him. Traffic moved and I lost sight of the car. Phew!

Three quarters of the way home as the traffic ebbed and flowed, the silver 4×4 once again appeared at my left side, and the driver resumed his waving. I feinted intense concentration in changing to the far right lane, and he followed my change – all the while trying to catch my eye.
I was pretty worried by now, thinking if there was in fact a man with a hook-hand on my car, or some other auto-related emergency other motorists would have by now tried to warn me as well. Why on earth was this man so intent on gaining my attention!? If it was someone I knew, they would pick up their phone and tell me to stop ignoring them. I had 1km more of this waving would be Casanova, until thankfully he turned off the road to continue his journey in a different direction.

When I relayed the experience to my shiny new husband that evening, he said “Why didn’t you wind down the window and ask him what he wanted?” I was gobsmacked, and replied with “Because I was a young woman alone in my car.”
“Babe, you’ve got a *japanese toy car* I think you’re safe from being car jacked” said he.

The point that my dear husband didn’t get is that there are worse things than being car jacked. Even if the waving man’s intentions were purely friendly, growing up in the inner-city I’ve learnt if you’re a woman alone you’re a target.

It still perplexes me, who was that man? Did I know him? Why haven’t I seen him and his car en route from work again? My carpool buddy’s theory is that she (and her dog-tummy-rubbing impression) have scared the him off. This is perfectly fine, I would much prefer her company and the many impressions she bestows on me during our 2 hour round trip, than that of a strangely persistent, oldish waving man.

Happy new year!

Old married couple

Bob and I, after the ceremony at Rose Seilder House

We were married 17 October 2009. The weather was amazing, the ceremony was hilarious, the reception relaxing and very fun. Every vehicle involved in the wedding party had some kind of break down throughout the day, but none of that affected us.

Detailed post to come… followed by the honeymoon in Hawaii

Showering the bride

This past weekend started the 2 month count down to the wedding with a bang: my Bridal Shower.

I was incredibly proud of myself, as I am a notorious control freak, I handed the reigns over completely to my three bridesmaids: Tanya, Pia and Ursula; as well as my Mum, who all worked like a well oiled machine in hand-making the invites, rounding up the guests and RSVPs, helping me scrub my house from top to bottom, organising games and catering the entire event.

Tanya's hand made Bridal Shower invite

I was asked to prepare a guest list, and thinking an average of 40% of invitees would actually be able to attend, the list numbered more then 30. To my surprise more than 80% RSVP’ed yes, so the venue was decided: my house was the only one large enough to contain that many people.
My mum and Bob were amazing, helping me clean and sort the house the week before and the morning of. The house will probably never look this clean again, so I took extra photos for posterity!

Honeycomb tissue ball decorations

The beautiful jar is filled to the brim with pages of Golden Books folded in origami cranes, present from Tanya. Beautiful!

Teacups at the ready

The Shower was an afternoon tea and people were instructed to bring their own tea cups, but everything else would be provided. And was it ever! There were so many delicious treats to try, that dainty nibbles gave way to glorious scoffing. My favourite by far was my specially requested Mars Bar Slice (made by Ursula).

Cakes and yummy things

Pia cooked up a whirlwind with caramel slice, savory pastries and other yummy bits. While Tanya looked after the beverage: champagne and champagne cocktails. Oh, and tea as well.

And Ursula, put together two cork board photo-retrospectives of my life. It was slightly embarrassing! So many goth photos!

Pia was the games mistress and my favourite was by far the ‘Trash-bag Wedding Dress’ game. We broke off into teams and had to create a dress with white trash bags. It was hilarious.

The creation of my fabulous trash-bag dress. Think: November Rain

The other trashy brides

Gifts were an added bonus and people gave the most thoughtful items, I was totally blown away.

Ursula and Pia (left) share a joke with Sue and Margie

The Bridal Shower in full swing

I had the most amazing day and I am so glad everyone who made it could come and share this experience with me. I will only ever be a bride once and I need the fun to balance out the stress!

Me with cupcake and my lettuce-leaf tea cup, filled with champagne

The worst client in the world…

Is me! Well, specifically I am my own worst client.
I am trying to design our wedding invites, Bob (an industrial designer) has worked out the format and folding and general concept, but now it’s up to me to illustrate and put it all together.
Our save the date cards were awesome and I am psyching myself out, thinking I won’t be able match the coolness.

Our Save the Dates:

Astred and Bob save the date cards

I screen printed these with my Gocco and plan to do something similar with the invites but in the meantime, I am procrastinating by trying to find the perfect envelope — which I can only find on American sites that don’t ship to Australia.

Once the invites are done, I then have to design the accompanying website — this is never ending! It’s only one bloody day and it’s taking so long to organise, who would have thought?
I read all these bride blogs thinking: “that’s not going to be me, I can do it in a month.” Na-ah! Think again. There is so much to do and plan and then because I am so bossy (I call it having a vision ;p) I’ve had to book dates to go outfit shopping with my Mum and suit shopping with my Dad.

At least I got to relax and think about invite designs during yoga last night, I know you’re meant to clear your mind but it was great. Focus on breathing and push everything else away and then let the ideas come – lovely!