Have a lovely weekend everybody!

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• The most amazing umbrella ever.

• Doe Deere shares 11 ways to go green & save money. Some ideas I have wholeheartedly embrace already. Others sound a bit too much for me. Showering only every three days? I think I’ll stick to my four minute shower timer!

• I am in love with this photo shoot & I don’t know why. Is it the colours? Is it the adorable model? Could it be the wacky glasses? Who cares! It rocks my socks!

• Ayomeday shares some really wonderful journalling ideas. I like the bit about writing letters - I’ve definitely been inspired!

• For a bout of nostalgic national pride I recommend You Know You’re Australian If…

• Dark Roasted Blend share some kooky sheet music. Is it just me, or would some of these make awesome T-shirt designs?

• Like an online identikit but way more fun. Face Builder lets you construct fictional (or perhaps real) faces & upload them to the rogues gallery. Why not invent a few imaginary friends?

• Ikea hacks have always been inspiring. I love it when people show how they do it too! These tables are pretty neat don’t you think?

• Matte nail polish. Why didn’t someone think of this sooner? I want I want!

• How to make miniature ice cream. Instructibles is a wonderful site. If you haven’t had a chance to go exploring it yet I recommend you do so now!

• Sarah Von always says it perfectly. How to be wild at heart.

• & so does Seth Godin.

• Scanwiches. Cross-scans of sandwiches. For some odd reason I love it when people document food but I sure hope that scanner bed is clean! Holy corned beef batman!

• Writing for Gizmodo John Herman composes an appropriate eulogy for the Space Bat. Beautiful!

For the last time, he felt the primal joy of flight; for the first, the indescribable feeling of ascending toward his dream—a place far away from piercing screeches and crowded caves, stretching forever into fathomless blackness.

• The New York Times expresses perfectly what it is like to live with cables. My father & brothers are big on computers & computer hardware. We are surrounded by multicoloured spaghetti!

• If you live in the UK you can get a free box of stuff!

• I used to think that Vagina Pagina was for women who were super-comfortable discussing their lady bits. You know, happy (but afflicted) “I heart my vagina” types. Apparently I was wrong. We’re all a little uncomfortable or even resentful of our functions sometimes & the comments are hilarious!

• & while on the subject, behold the scariest tampon advertisement ever. I mean it!

• These artful bras sure are creative. Not necessarily wearable though. I do like support your favourite boob however!

• Bulletins backstage at runway shows.

You feel great. You’ve just had the shag of your life. You’re cute as hell. You know it!!!

• Fight Club is really a retelling of the Calvin & Hobbs comics. Who knew!

• Three quirky cooking videos:

• Pst! La Carmina of the above is having a competition! Check out her blog for details!

This is the recipe for the cute little tartlets that I made & featured last week. I had these mini tart cases in the pantry for a good while now & was thinking of something fun to do with them. At first I thought that they would end up as miniature quiches but then my sweet tooth took hold & I altered an old recipe to fit. Because the recipe is so small I’ve measured everything out in grams. I used a handy electronic kitchen scale & the tare/zero function to measure everything out perfectly. I don’t have mad food-photography skills like Luxirare (mostly because my hands were covered on sugar) so without photos I hope my instructions are clear!

Coconut + Vanilla Tartlets with Lime

• 35 miniture pre-baked tartlets cases
• 30 grams dessicated coconut
• 30 grams softened butter
• 40 grams vanilla yoghurt
• 90 grams caster sugar
• 1 egg (at room temperature)
• 2 teaspoons lime juice
• 1 teaspoon lime zest
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Beat the butter & sugar together & then beat in the egg. Add the juice, zest, vanilla yoghurt & vanilla essence & mix well. Gently fold in the dessicated coconut & use a teaspoon to scoop into pre-baked miniature tartlet cases. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for fifteen minutes (or until puffed, golden & delicious). They will deflate a little when removed from the oven. Serve sprinkled with vanilla sugar. I think these are best eaten while warm from the oven but they will keep pretty well for a couple of days, provided you can resist them for that long!

I found a bunch of these on the footpath while walking home. They’re flyers for a flyer distribution service. Apparently Aivis & Mandy will deliver your flyers into people’s homes for just $40. They’ll also leave a few lying around on the footpath, you know, just in case. Bonus points for littering! I had a quiet chuckle & then put them all in the nearest bin.

So Miss Constantine of Cupcakes & Mace has tagged me. Here are the questions & my answers!

What is your current obsession?

Packing things. I’m a little bit obsessed with getting all my possessions sorted out.

What are you wearing now?

Floaty floral print dress. This dress is falling apart because I really do wear it too much.

Do you nap a lot?

Not really. But I do take “day-dream breaks” so I can just sit & imagine things for ten or so minutes without being disturbed.

Why is today special?

Tonight is Nerd Night! This always makes me super excited!

What would you like to learn to do?

Forgive indiscriminately.

Image by Jeff Bauche

What’s for dinner?

Probably chilli with corn chips!

What was the last thing you bought?

A lemon & four limes. Hey, you asked!

What are you listening to right now?

My intuition.

What is your favourite weather?

I like cold rainy days & windy days & warm sunny days & thunderstorm days.

What is on your bedside table?

I don’t have a bedside table.

What’s your style?

I’m still in the process of figuring this out. I don’t think it’s anything static though. My tastes are very fluid & unfixed.

What is your most challenging goal right now? If you could have a superpower what would it be?

To make people smile the moment I meet them.

If you could take an all expenses paid trip to one place where would it be?

The Czech Republic. Again.

Name the things you cannot live without.

Daydreams, warm beverages in general, cheese, colour, public transport.

What would you like to have in your hands right now?

My destiny!

Image by checoo

What would you like to get rid of?

Bad vibes, nasty thoughts, junk & stuff in general.

What was the last book you read?

Pyramids by Terry Pratchet. I read a new Discworld novel each week - it’s a guilty pleasure.

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?

Scotland.

What languages can you speak?

English, LOLcat & smatterings of Czech, German & Latin.

What language(s) do you want to be able to speak?

As many as possible!

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I don’t ever want to grow up thank you very much.

What is the worst job you’ve had?

I worked in a food court & it was mostly physical labour & my boss had a habit of standing too close.

Name something that makes you deliriously happy.

Getting hugs via a text message. It’s almost as good as the real thing except that you never expect them.

(from yesterday…)

• White cotton stripe bouse
• Black satin sash
• Black cotton slip dress
• Black knee-high socks
• White Doc Martens
• Silver bangle
• Silver & amber ring
• faux croc bag

Schoolgirl chic. For some reason I decided to wear bright red lipstick. I think it was these photos of Emma Watson that made me do it! Anyhow, this is what I pranced around in while running errands. It was a really hot & humid day so I returned home looking a bit dishevelled. Despite all the cotton I was still too hot! I think this outfit would look better with some red high heels a la Agent Lover & a bow tie instead of a sash.

Image by mrlerone

1. Listen to sad & downbeat music. Music has a profound affect on mood. So if you’re looking for a sure-fire way to feel grumpy put on some sorrowful or angry tunes.

2. Drink a glass of wine. Or a bottle of vodka. Most drugs & alcohol are mood amplifiers & will enhance whatever your feeling at the time. Drinking heavily or taking drugs when you’re feeling down will only make things worse. Bonus points for drinking alone.

3. Pick a fight with someone you care about. Be a completely selfish diva & yell & call them names. Not only will you feel really guilty, but you will also have no one to talk to either.

4. Drink soft drink or eat lots of sugar. Sugar provides a temporary high. But after your body has processed all that glucose you’ll be left will sugar withdrawal & feeling lethargic & depressed.

5. Think nasty thoughts about everyone. The people on the bus, the chick at the checkout & that guy who’s walking in front of you taking up all the room on the footpath. Selfish bastard. Spread your negative vibes!

6. Watch the news. The nightly news is full of conflict, violence & horror & it’s all real. If you want to feel bad in no time then immerse yourself in stories about people at their worst.

7. Stay at home. Don’t go out & don’t talk to anyone. Even the most hardcore introverts will eventually become lonely if left by themselves for too long. Follow their example. Black out your windows.

8. Frown lots. Also, don’t forget to be rude & inconsiderate. Like attracts like, so you’re bound to bump into other grumpy people this way.

9. Read depressing stories & poetry. Shakespeare’s tragedies are a good place to start (Othello, Hamlet etc) East of Eden & The Bell Jar are two other contenders.

10. Likewise, watch gloomy films. A Scanner Darkly, The Grave of the Fireflies or just about any film about the Second World War are three that come to mind. Watch them alone.

11. Eat unhealthy food. You’ll feel really sluggish & guilty for treating your body like crap.

12. Remember every horrible thing ever said to you. All the insults & hurtful things that people have said to you over the years. Believe each one. Give those other people power over you.

13. Bottle it up. Refuse to cry & instead bury all your emotions. Then you will be resentful & even passive aggressive to those around you.

14. Wear lots of black. Don it with a sombre significance as if you are in mourning.

15. Quit smoking & drinking caffeine cold turkey & without any help or support. Watch as you grow more anxious & moody. If you do thins right you’ll go back to smoking or drinking coffee pretty quickly & then hate yourself for it.

Image by danske

Alternatively, you could realise that happiness is decision that you have to make on your own. Life is a matter of perspective & you can make the choice to be happy. Read 15 ways to lift your mood & feel awesome! & congratulate yourself on a job well done. Because you’re awesome & you know it!

<3

Product Details

Kara is travelling to Japan for the first time. She wants to eat lots of sushi & buy all the Kawaii trinkets she can get her hands on. During the flight over she gives herself a manicure with delicious pink nail polish & listens to Blondie on her ipod. She’ll make little videos of her travels in Japan & put them up on youtube for her family & friends. Kara packed her lime green Doc Martens, copies of Fruits magazine, a rhinestone tiara & bottles of her favourite bubble bath.

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Product Information

During her gap year Tory will travel to Argentina before returning to Sydney to complete her degree in Entomology. She will develop a fondness for locro & yerba tea that will last a lifetime. Tory plans to climb the Andes & visit the Ibera Wetlands, making friends along the way. In her duffel bag she packs Hemingway novels & four pairs of jeans. While preparing for the flight home in Buenos Aires she looses her camera. Luckily, all the photos were on Flickr anyway.

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On her way to Vienna to see her grandmother, Olivia daydreams about taking possible shopping trips to London & Paris afterwards. While in Vienna Olivia & her Oma will shop for sweet pastries, go to the Volkstheater Wein, gossip about relatives & catch the tram just about everywhere. She will return home with her suitcase full of German magazines, old photos & a pair of Louboutin’s she managed to pick up from Paris, of course.

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Isabella decided to take the train to Krakow because she thought it would be more romantic. She’s travelling there to begin studying at art school & hopes that the two years of Polish language classes will have been useful. On the weekends she’ll sketch pictures of the Jewish Quarter in charcoals & sell them to tourists. Besides all the vintage hats & gloves in her suitcase, she has packed her folio, conte crayons, a broken medium format camera & peppermint sticks. Unfortunately, Isabella forgot to pack anything warm to wear.

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Product Details

Lauren is going to Ibiza to meet up with old friends. They will stay out all night dancing to gabba & singing at the top of their lungs. During the day Lauren plans to sunbake by the side of hostel pool reading magazines & flirting with cute boys, though most of the time she takes a nap instead. She packs her neon yellow dancing boots, purple sandals, pots of glitter face paint, fishnet stockings as well as plenty of sarongs & berocca.

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Product Details

Morgan is traveling from New York to Edinburgh for a business trip. She’ll stop by Holyrood while there just to see what all the fuss is about. She carefully packed all the business documents in her suitcase, alongside her tailored suits & black patent pumps. Underneath everything she hid a leather riding crop & her teddy bear Mustafa. During the stopover in LAX she taps away nervously on her Vaio & updates her facebook status compulsively. “STILL waiting at the airport”

Afternoon tea is one of my favourite indulgences. It’s one of those rituals that can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Do you like your tea in a mug & with a choc-chip cookie or with silver service & hand cut sandwiches? After water, tea is also the most widely consumed beverage on the planet. Here’s my guide to making the perfect cuppa. I’ve been making tea & coffee in cafes for five years now & it still gets confusing & freaks me out sometimes. Hopefully these tips will help.

The Tea Leaves

One of the first things to take into consideration is the tea itself. Tea is harvested from the Camellia plant & cured & oxidised to yield black tea, oxidised for green tea & left alone for white tea. Red tea (or Rooibos) is derived from an entirely different plant altogether. The quality of tea will also effect the taste of your end product. Good quality loose leaf tea free of artificial flavourings is best. If you drink decaffeinated tea make sure you buy a leaf that has been decaffeinated using CO2 rather than methylene chloride (or an acetate, both of which taste a bit off). If they don’t state which method used on the label then methylene chloride has most likely been used, so ditch it quick!

Tea bags are a convenient way to brew tea but not many people know that the tea contained in them is the tea-dust from the bottom of the shipping bins. The flavour & quality of loose leaf tea is superior & when combined with a tea-infuser or tea-egg is just a little more environmentally friendly; it cuts out all that excess packaging. When brewing tea in a pot the general rule of thumb is one teaspoon of tea per person plus an extra teaspoon of tea ‘for the pot’. From experience this works out nicely :)

Milk & Sugar?

White, green & herbal teas aren’t generally served with milk while black & red teas are. The tea I chose to make today is a beautiful loose leaf Earl Grey (those blue flecks are bits of dried cornflower, yum!); a black tea flavoured with Bergamot essential oil. Bergamot is a species of citrus & so it doesn’t make sense to serve a tea like this with milk. Traditionally Earl Grey is served with a thin slice of lemon.

If you like your beverages nice & sweet then by all means use sugar or honey. Sugar cubes are a really cute way of serving & displaying sugar with your tea set. Otherwise Demerara sugar is best for sweetening up your cup! I will add though, that the flavour of unsweetened tea is subtle & delicious & those of you with a constant sweet tooth should definitely try it out sometime!

Service

Traditionally all tea services were made out of porcelain. However these days you can buy tea pots, cups & saucers, milk jugs & sugar bowls in glass, ceramic, earthenware, wood, stainless steel & precious metals like silver & gold. I say variety is the spice of life - so go for whatever piques your interest.

Brewing Times

Each type of tea will require a different brewing time & if you’re really professional, different water temperatures.

• Black tea can be brewed for up to four minutes (at 100 degrees Celsius),
• Green tea for up to three minutes (at 70 degrees Celsius),
• White tea for up to six minutes (at 80 degrees Celsius)
• Red tea for up to five minutes (at 100 degrees Celsius).

How to Brew a Pot of Tea

1. Boil enough fresh, cold, filtered water for one pot of tea.
2. While you’re waiting for the water to boil, fill the tea pot with hot water form the tap & let sit. This keeps the tea pot nice & warm. Pour this out once your water has boiled.
3. Fill a tea-infuser or tea-egg & place in the pot. If you don’t mind tea-leaves in your cup then just spoon the loose leaves right on into the tea pot. This is great for tea leaf reading!
4. Pour the boiled water into the pot leaving about 2cm of room at the top. (The tea leaves will expand making an already full pot will overflow!)
5. Let the tea sit & brew. Relax. Eat a sandwich, have another tart or sing a song while you wait.
6. Pour into cups & enjoy!

We found this at the corner on Water & Brunswick streets on Saturday. It was just too cute not to share. I wondered if this was in actual fact a coded message between smugglers or drug dealers or runaways. However the optimist in me says that Zoe & Andrew are real people. Besides, if there are any secret messages here, I can’t find them!

It’s definitely much more creative than resorting to the missed connections section of Craigslist. Here’s hoping Zoe & Andrew get in touch!

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