Well the way too short mid-semester break is over and to show for it I have written two essays, caught up on my readings and prepared for an exam this week. As well as a little bit of playing.
Yesterday I made these two headbands and cut out all the pieces for my 21st birthday quilt – Mum paid for the fabric and I am making it. It uses fabric from the Flowershow and Palazzo collections from Benartex.
Between cutting out all the blocks I also made two headbands 🙂
Now that I have played with two different patterns I plan on merging them a bit for the next one as I like the ties on the Heather Bailey pattern but prefer the tapered cut from Katie Sue as I prefer how it sits on my head.
Now whilst I was having fun at home, Mum went out to a little class and made this most adorable little pouch.
The little stone affair in the middle is one of those glass pebbles that people put in vases covered with a scrap of chiffon. How cool does it look!
I spent the better half of yesterday tramping round Brisbane with a tripod on my back and a camera bag on my side with nine other like minded people who I met through Photography on the Net, which is a Canon-centric message board. It was such a delightful day spent chatting, sharing tips and of course taking photos that I was sad to leave after lunch when the others were heading over to the Roma St Parklands but I had books to read, notes to make and granola muesli to cook.
We had arranged to meet at 5:30am at Kangaroo Point to take photographs of the cityscape in early morning light and we were all wishing for clearish skies and sun. We were not that lucky but at least we didn’t have rain like we had been having for the last couple of days.
Once we had had our fill of the view from that area we boarded a cross-river ferry and headed to the Eagle St Pier/Riverside area to play along the boardwalk and between the buildings in the morning light.
The Jogger
Every morning she pounds the footpath,
Every morning she takes the same route.
She sees the same thing day in, day out,
Perhaps she notices the changes that appear,
Or maybe she doesn’t.
By now it was close to 8ish and we hopped on a CityCat to take us up to New Farm Park and the Powerhouse where we explored the industrial elements of the Powerhouse before sitting down for a warm beverage and hoping for the clouds to part again and give us some sun.
The Magnificent Seven walking through the park with the Rose Garden in their sights. Three of us were not in the shot.
In the Rose Garden I spent my time searching for fairies but yet again they let me down, I did find evidence of their life though in the following photos.
First we have some Fairy Tables.
Since the rains have finally started to come to Brisbane, the fairies have been praising the clouds as they bring mushrooms with the rain; growing in little clusters they are just perfect for a Fairy cocktail party.
Second is a newly opened Fairy Fabric Store. Have you ever seen a flower where a petal might be missing or a branch with a few missing leaves? This is prime evidence of Fairy life. Petals and leaves are excellent sources of high quality fairy cloth. This Rose store I believe might be a special occasion fabric store as the petals were all intact. Perhaps they are waiting for more mushrooms to pop up and then they will have a Fairy Ball.
After more chatting and photographing we hopped back on the CityCat and cruised the Brisbane River up to Bretts Wharf, pointing out good spots for photos along the way and then exploring the river bank at Bretts Wharf.
Then it was back on the CityCat to head back into the city for lunch and the Roma St Parklands. However, myself and three others started on the trip home after lunch instead of going to the parklands :(. As we walked through the city streets back to the ferry stop to take us back across the river to our cars I snapped this last one of the Brisbane buildingscape.
I had a 20% off borders voucher last week so I spent some time looking at the shelves to decide what I wanted and after comparing many Moroccan cookbooks I eventually decided on Claudia Roden’s Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon (I have linked to amazon.co.uk as it is the version I have, look at that pretty cover, it is not released in the USA until October, 11mths after it was released everywhere else round the world). This book is gorgeous, I have only really had a good look at the Moroccan section but I have already planned future meals.
M’Hencha
A Moroccan pastry filled with almond paste and coiled into a snake shape which is what gives it it’s name (m’hencha is snake, I have also seen this called M’hanncha so I guess it is just variations of the word).
Since this recipe can be scaled very easily and depending on what you are making it for you may only want a small snake or perhaps you will want a large snake that could feed a hoard. The recipe in the book called for 1.5kg ground almonds to serve 30-40.
Filling
1.5 parts ground almonds/almond meal
1 part sugar (caster is recommended but I just used plain)
1 tsp or so ground cinnamon
2 tblsp rose water (orange blossom is called for but I only have rosewater at home)
few drops almond essence (optional)
I only used 1 tblsp rosewater and then used some water and a bit of butter to form it into a paste.
Pastry
filo sheets
1 egg beaten
melted butter
Preheat oven to 170°C and line a baking tray with al-foil.
Mix together the dry filling ingredients and gradually mix in the rosewater to form a paste. If it is dry, mix in a little bit of butter and water.
Lay down a filo sheet with the long side facing you and brush with melted butter. Pick up a small lump of the paste and in your hands roll into a snake that is about 2cm in diameter. Place this down on the filo sheet about 2cm in from the bottom and the edge, continue doing this till you have filled the length of the filo sheet, butting together each snake so you have no gaps and leaving about 2cm at the other end as well.
Roll the filo sheet and place on the baking tray. Carefully and gently curve the roll into a coil. The filo needs to be curved gently so not to tear.
Continue with more sheets until the paste has been used up, each time butting the ends of the rolls together to continue the coil. Brush the top of the snake with the egg and bake for 20-30 minutes or until the top is crispy and golden.
You could sprinkle the top with some flaked almonds before putting it in the oven.
Serve cold cut into wedges like a cake or break off bits of the coil.
I made a new top yesterday 🙂 Well I started it on Sunday and finished it on Monday evening. The pattern is Burda 8517 made with some mighty fine Liberty Tana Lawn in a print called Paul that I picked up the fabric in the remnants section at Gardams for a sure fire price of $43.50 (original price for 1.1m was $55). Of course the big question was then what pattern to use and after flipping though all the pattern books they had there we decided on the Burda pattern.
Since this was no cheap fabric we played it safe and made a muslin first and decided to lengthen the sleeves by about 1″ and to skip the elastic casing below the bust. The end result is a top that I am super happy with, feels comfy and looks great. 🙂
After about 8 or 9mths of umming and ahhing I finally bit the bullet and ordered a Sigma 12-24mm. In the end I picked it over the other ultra-wide angle zoom lenses because it is designed for full frame cameras whereas all the other ultra-wides are designed for cropped sensor DSLRs. This means that the 12-24 also works on my film camera as well the three series of DSLRs that Canon has (1x, 1.3x, 1.6x).
After I had a little play with the lens on 350d, I put it on the Eos 300(the film SLR I inherited from Karl) oh my I loved it even more. It really makes me want a full frame DSLR, 12mm is pure ultra wide goodness! When I get the film developed I will have to scan them in as the perspective is insane!
Of course one of the best things about having an ultra-wide is it just “enhances” the funny faces that Pabbi makes even more 😀
… I proceed to take over the world under the tutelage of my Grandfather and today marked one more step towards that goal.
I’m famous. Well not quite. Well really not at all. I can still think I am pretty cool though and so can you, well if you are my family I guess because that is just a family rule.
What am I going on about and why is that photo displayed above? A couple of weeks ago I received an email from the Picture Australia people at the National Library of Australia asking me if they were able to use the image above in a press release for Australia’s Maritime World regarding the addition of new images to Picture Australia as well as the collaboration between Picture Australia and Flickr. Out of all the photos in the database, they picked one of mine 🙂 I can’t tell you how big of a smile that put on my face 🙂
