Abendbrot auf dem Balkon, originally uploaded by Christian Watzke.

Balcony from Milan, originally uploaded by Bioray.

The garden in balcony of my apartment., originally uploaded by Ossan.

Paris

I am going to Paris in December with my Mister and we are staying in a plush hotel where we will mainly eat baguette with butter and drink vino destructo because we've blown our family fortune on said hotel. Yay!

When I googled "Paris Craft" however, to do some preparatory investigations into where and what to visit, I landed on the http://www.pariscreativity.com/ website, which unfortunately is the "Paris Hilton Creativity Collection". Apparently Paris likes to "personalise" her "clothes, cellphone, and memories". I do often spend time personalizing memories too! What a coincidence.

Paris finishes with a bedazzling "Creativity is hot".

I am afraid.

Opped

Yay!

Look What I Found!

can not believe i found this finel mushroom enamel bowl at my favourite haunt. i have been staring at it for days now. i'm in love! the orange jug was an innocent bystander that i impulse-purchased, on a finel enamel bowl high.

and this. it says it's a made in brazil tile, it looks very old. the girl and the cat and the cuckoo clock are all paper cuts and coloured in. the paper is crinkling. do people maybe have these in their houses in brazil? i wonder if this came in someone's bags all the way from there.

the house is starting to look like a home, more and more each day. this is a happy-making factor in the crafty immigrant's life.

thirty onesy

What do you get when you turn 31? A onesy that your brother sourced from a onesy-sewing person in Ballarat. And cocoa cupcakes your lovely girlfriend made for you. And a night out with too much beer. And a bit of a hangover the next day. And the sobering thought that going out till 3am is for kids under 31 only. And an ice pack on the hip joints. And a nice night on the couch. Happy Birthday lovely boyfriend - I am sorry for stealing the onesy from you. But you don't understand - the onesy is even better than the snuggie! The onesy IS my Ashram.

Crochet Success

Check out my cushion what I crocheted. I am getting skilled and fast and addicted. I can't stop crocheting!

Banana Bread Making

Last night I made some banana bread and it is to this minute totally rocking my world. I've been playing around with recipes forever to get the right kind of dense, smooth texture. I like to use almond meal in baking because I like that slightly marzipanish-almondy flavour. So last night I substituted flour with almond meal and oat meal and voila - I think last night I achieved the most bestest nicest banana bread! Congratulations, me.

Banana Bread

1 cup almond meal
1 cup oatmeal
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup of sugar (I use brown suggah)
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
1/2 cup plain or Vanilla-flavoured yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Mix butter and sugar until smooth. Add almond and oat meal, baking soda, salt and vanilla extract. Mix in the eggs. Whisk until you have a smooth texture. Add the bananas and yoghurt. Again whisk until smooth. Pour into a buttered or oiled square tin and bake for about 1 hour at 180 degrees. They say use overripe bananas but I like to use them when they're just speckled brown type thing. I reckon the overripe ones get you that sickly, fake-banana flavour and I don't like it. Enjoy!

chocolate! souffle! awesome.

I have made souffle and in the words of Michael Jackson it rocked my world. It truly did. So here's how to make it. It is very simple. There are just two crucial things to get right - firstly, you need to make sure you beat the egg yolk for long enough. Secondly, you need to make sure you beat the egg whites long enough. Oh and also do not use crappy baking chocolate. If you can't get your hands on those fantastic Lindt cooking chocolate buttons - they're not really buttons, they're quite chunky hexagons (but chocolate hexagons sounds a bit too Harry Potter to me) you can use the regular Lindt Excellence dark 70% cocoa chocolate.



What you need is:
About 1 tablespoon butter for dish
1/3 cup caster sugar, plus an extra tablespoon
3 eggs, separated
60 grams of good 70% cocoa chocolate, melted over boiling water
Pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (or 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder as a substitute).



Here's how to make it:
1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Butter two soufflé dishes. They say you can use spray oil to coat them and you can, just don't use too much. Sprinkle each with sugar, invert it and tap to remove excess sugar.
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar until very light and very thick - this will take about five minutes. The texture has to be light and very creamy and a bit sticky.
3. Wash beaters well, then beat egg whites with salt and cream of tartar until whites hold soft peaks; continue to beat, gradually adding a tablespoon of caster sugar, until they are stiff. Stir a good spoonful of whites thoroughly into egg yolk mixture - you can do this stirring properly, you don't need to be careful. Then fold in remaining whites carefully, using a rubber spatula. Transfer to prepared soufflé dishes; if you want to bake souffle at a later stage you can cover and refrigerate until you are ready to bake.
4. Bake for about 20 minutes until the souffle has risen properly and the centre is still gooey. Serve immediately.

Morris Brown, Mud Factory, Healesville Harvest, Kitchen & Butcher

Yes you can hire and buy these awesome bicycles from www.mudfactory.com.au and go for a cycle around Healesville!

Morris Brown, 264 Maroondah Highway, Healesville

Purveyors of fine cards, bags, shawls, jewellery, kids' stuff and all things beautiful

Healesville Harvest, right next door to Kitchen and Butcher, where you can buy excellent foodthings. 258 Maroondah Highway, Healesville

Bye bye leaves.

happy things a la maison

Leaf Scarf

I've wanted to make a scarf consisting of little knitted leaves for ages. I've hunted around the net for various patterns and combined a couple and constructed my own, which lets you knit the leaves in varying degrees of size, so that you end up with a scarf made of smaller, medium and large leaves. You can also add different colours and textures, if you like! Yay!

Here are some pictures from the work in progress. The pattern is below!

Pattern for Little Leaf Scarf

I used acrylic and bamboo mohair and size 6 needles, but really - use anything! I don't believe in needle sizes - what's closest to the couch is usually the best size. At least in my book.

Abbreviations:

P= Purl

K= Knit

YO = Yarn Over

P2SSO= check here for a tutorial on how to do a P2SS0

Cast on 3 Stitches.

*P3

K1, YO, K1, YO, K1

P5

K2, YO, K1, YO, K2

P7

K3, YO, K1, YO, K3

P9

K9 - this row begins the top part of the leaf.

P9

K3, S2, K1, P2SSO, K3

P7

K2, S2, K1, P2SSO, K2

P5

K1, S2, K1, P2SSO, K1

P3

K3

repeat from *

If you wish to make larger leaves, instead of beginning to decrease where the pattern says 'this row begins the top part of the leaf', you just continue to increase according to pattern. So you keep knitting the stitches at the beginning and end of each row, and increase by 2 in each row by doing two Yarn Overs as the pattern prescribes. Then, when you're at the desired width, you start decreasing according to pattern. So, for example, if you increased to K10, YO, K1, YO, K10, you will decrease by doing K10, S2, K1, P2SSO, K10.

Leafy!

Melbourne Etsy Vintage

Vintage Buckles from Ecovintage @ Etsy


Gocco Printed Card from Starashan @ Etsy


Vintage Mary Janes from Starashan@Etsy


Vintage Buttons from Breddles @ Etsy


Vintage Australian Traintickets, from ImagineArt7 @ Etsy

op shoppy finds

My beautiful Oak mirror. Found it in the Salvos. 

She's tarty, but she was 5 dollars from the Salvos so I took her in.

Thermos from the Salvos

My teaset! A 20 dollar bargain from the Sacred Heart Mission on Chapel Street. I think it's marvellous. 

By the way - the Salvos on the corner of Inkerman Street and Brighton Road in St Kilda are having a Designer Sale on the last weekend of May!!!

More Bauhaus.

Thought I'd share some photos of the Bauhaus Dessau building, by Walter Gropius. I took these a few years ago for my dissertation. It's one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever been into. It's so modern, bright and light - considering it was built in 1925, mind-boggling. The building was restored in the 70s, I think, and the interior design and paintwork is exactly how it was originally. It still houses a working design school today. Fancy going there, eh.