This ad campaign from ralph lauren to sell kids clothes is rather cute.

I love the way that the little kiddies are surrounded by a hand drawn environment. It brings me back to when I was little and for some reason, always wanted to live in a 2D world, kind of like this.



The way you can look inside the specific kid's wardrobe is also wonderful. They all have three looks, and they are soo cute! I especially think Willow and Zoe are adorable! :)

This is my nightmare.

Mashed sweet potatoes and scrambled eggs meal = just been to dentist and has sore gums

Because of my sinful behavour in my early 20s and genetic DNA and other various factors, my gums aren't my best friends the last few years. I have been seeing a periodontist to fix me. I dread my visits to her (even tho she is the nicest dentist/periodontist I have ever met)and today I had to have one of those 'deep cleans' which means lots of little local anasthetic around my gums.

Its been 5 hours since the local has been put in and I am just starting to feel normal again (ie not like I have a big fat lip and feel like I look like a duck.)  Phil hasn't got the best set of gums either and so we both visit the same periodontist, tho Phil is usually the hero and Im the chicken.  Makes me think, if we have kids, the poor child will be dragged religiously to the dentist, no ifs or buts about it. I guess my teeth were completely fine (and they still are - no fillings at all at 29.5 years old) but I slacked off on worrying about teeth and gums when I was in my partying days. Oh I sure am paying now.

So, I guess the lesson is, go see your dentist regularly, if you don't want chaos to reign in your mouth later on.

(There are those who are very lucky and completely abuse their teeth and gums but still don't suffer any repercussions. They are truly blessed. Jealous.)

image from http://www.legaljuice.com/dentist_patient_nightmare-thumb.jpg

While reading Lainiesips.com (a lovely blog about tea), I came across an ingenious teapot that I first saw in Dali, Yunnan Province in China. We were on our honeymoon around Yunnan, where we were taken to a famous artist's house. It was a spectacularly designed house with modern and old china mixed together to create a very zen feel. It was there, relaxing in their courtyard garden that I first saw this teapot. It takes tea making to the next (easier) level. Yay, no more accidentaly spilling the tea leaves back in my cup. No more floaties. I only hope the mesh is fine enough to keep all my little fine rooibos leaves in the strainer!

I've ordered it and will be back to report if it IS as good as I remembered it. Very exciting! (well for tea aficionados anyway)

View of the artist's house in Dali, Yunnan province, China

View from the suspended 'balcony'

Me hanging out on the balcony

On top of one part of the house is a mirrored wall, ready for tai chi, yoga, kung fu practice

View across Erhai Lake from the artist's house

Sewing adventures ...

While I was blog surfing a month or so ago, I came across Freckled Nest's 'Home Ec' Class.

It was just the thing I was looking for. Tutorials stay up online for a whole year! And if you run into trouble you can always ask the teachers via chat or comments section. There is even a 'student's lounge' on flickr where we can show each other what we made and talk about all things sewing :)
I have tried to learn sewing a couple of times. Each time, I enrolled into some 1 week class at Spotlight or Lincraft, only to have them tell me to pick a simple pattern and some material and sit at a machine and off we go. I found it really hard without knowing much about the sewing machine I was using, not much useful help, and trying to read a pattern straight away.

This is what's different with these tutorials from Freckled Nest. They start off with the most basic of projects and in each project you learn a different skill. It makes much more sense to learn that way. Plus you don't even learn how to read a pattern till towards the end of the course. I have only finished one project so far. It went okay I think, I did get better as I went along, but the ric rac edging was a bit of a challenge. Trying to sew straight, was much harder than I thought!

Anyway, here is a pic of my first project.

spotty and stripey napkins :)

The next project is going to have some odd looking fabric. (I am just using old scraps etc) But I have no idea how it's going to go so don't want to buy any fabulous fabrics just yet :)

Cake in the shape of New Zealand

I am still in the search for the right cake to make for Phil's bday party. (Not even any invites have gone out, but I have set myself to the task.) This is the second cake in 3 days. OMG.

On Sunday I attempted a simple butter cake recipe from the Food Ideas Magazine which I love. However I found their cake to be too dry. My cousin, Lorraine suggested I try a chiffon cake. So off I went on the internets to try and find a good chiffon cake recipe. I came across this one from asweetpeachef.com

It looked divine, but of course, I deviated slightly from the recipe. First of all, I didn't use 2 nine inch spring form tins. And 2, I didn't use canola oil, I used olive oil (which seemed completely fine afterwards).

Phil suggested I make a cake the shape of the land of the long white clouds. Ah, what a genius idea, (I did think of it myself a week or so previously, but put the thought out of my head as I couldn't find any cake tins of the shape of NZ, nor could I find any pics of a NZ shaped cake on the web. With Phil's encouragement, I went full steam ahead.

NZ shaped cake meant, I went for a square tin and a loaf tin. I didn't have bigger tins than these, so it would have to do. The cake wasn't huge, but would probably suffice if I made a batch in a normal shape.
I also had one of those days, where I was a complete klutz. I poured the egg white instead of the olive oil into the dry ingredients and had to start over again. I knocked over a few things. But a cake did end up taking shape, and I manage to ice it with the 7 minute frosting. It did take well over 4 hours though, with the toasting of the coconut, f***up with the ingredients, cooling of the cake, cutting of the cake into NZ shaped and icing it. All happened just in time for me to go to art class at night! So here's some pics of my chiffon cake adventures...(and it does taste great, but Im not 100% sure Im going to make this cake or this shape for the day.. its a lot of work.)

coconut shreds just about to be toasted

cakes just out of the oven, this is when I really should turn them upside down straight away!

Finished NZ shaped cake

A pic of the overall country :) (just ignore the side parts - offcuts of the cake and sorry stewart island just couldn't stand up properly so it was eaten.)

Here are some pics from my exhibition opening at Eggless. My bridesman, Ben took the photos :) Thanks ben!

love the lanterns

Dan (with one of the twins), Dr Mike and Phil :)

Inside the funky dessert cafe, Eggless

Jamie, myself and Loana (my bridesman's brother and mum) :) So sweet for coming to support me!

Tom, Ryan and Mark

speeches...!

Tony and Humna (hasn't she got a gorgeous smile on!?)

The wall with my paintings on it. The otherside was taken up entirely by a cute mural :)

Miriam, Becky and Abi (so colourful!)

turkish delight icecream - this is divine, unfortunately this made it on the menu after I had done all the paintings, otherwise I would have loved to interpret this and paint it!

green tea tiramisu (front) pear and honeycomb cheesecake (back)

So Im thinking of making a cake for Phil's birthday... then I came across this:

The cakes that Maggie from Magpie's Cake creates are just divine, sophisticated and so understated. I wish I had even 1/4 of this level of skill in making cakes. Perhaps phil will just have to settle for some cupcakes and some coloured icing :) Need to start practising asap!

This just brightens up my day (uh actually night). What a wonderfully bright and colourful idea to bring attention to this area in Rio de Janeiro! Going home would be such a delight!
image from http://www.favelapainting.com/santa-marta

 My weekend has been a bit colourful too! My friend Humna Mustafa collaborated with a couple of other artists, Nick Graalman and Erin Lykos - to create a magical exhibition opening called "Elements".

L-R Humna Mustafa, Erin Lykos and Nick Graalman

It was amazing, and there was a lot of thought put into it. The most beautiful part I think, was when after the speech, the three artists lighted up little oil lamps and then everyone lighted their own little oil lamps, one by one. Spreading the light. Suddenly the whole backyard was brighter, lit up by many little oil lamps. It was very special!

Crowd getting settled in, ready for the speeches...

everyone lights each others'oil lamps

 

 

 

... and voila, the whole garden is lighted up!

shop space.. where you can purchase Erin and Humna's awesome work and Nick's timelapse DVD!

Holly, myself and Sarah, yep we're the little elves in this shop. :)

images by anT photography (the talented Tanty!)

The Dessert First exhibition last night was a blast! I felt so loved and supported by family and friends that came out to the opening!

The choc yogo cake and banana bread made by Eelin at Eggless was divine, and everything went smoothly. I even managed to sneak a little joke in my mini speech (and lucky enough, people actually laughed! I did ask one particular friend to laugh loudly if no one else did :))

It was a shorter opening than usual and there was no wine involved... what no wine? At an exhibition opening? Unheard of! But yes.. it was more difficult this time as it was held at a dessert cafe with no liquour license. I did manage to sell 6 pieces, so Im totally stoked! Its not about selling but its nice when your work is appreciated by people so much, they want to buy it :)

Pics of the opening will posted later when I get it from my mate Ben (who was nice enuf to photograph for me last night!)

Tonight is actually his opening, he is having a group exhibition called 'Skrambled Eggs' I can't wait to catch up with the crew again tonight to see Ben's work!!! Wine is involved this time too :P yay!

On the other hand, Phil gave his notice of resignation today. He is going to be a full time App man! Im very proud of him for taking the plunge into the world of 'working for himself' instead of 'the man'. We tried coming up with some interesting names for his new business, there are a few that made the final cut, even if they are slightly weird. Tho for the next 6 months we will have to cut back a bit while he works to build the business. Maybe back to the land of part time/casual work for the both of us. It's all very exciting!

Images from http://dbites.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/eggless-goodwood/ and
 http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2008/11/021782.htm

It is absoloutely freezing here in Adelaide at the moment, so hot and hearty soup was on my mind.

Phil was actually feeling like a hearty meat soup, but as I don't love to cook meat much, I just bought him a scotch fillet for him to cook himself and proceded to cook the soup for both of us.

Yes steak, soup and crusty bread for husband. Soup and crusty bread for wife. (spoil him much?)

Anyway, its the first time I've tried this recipe and its awesome! It's dairy free to but still has that creamy taste. (thanks sebago potatoes!)

Roasted capsicum soup

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large brown onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
500g sebago potatoes, peeled, chopped
270g jar chargrilled capsicum, drained and chopped
4 medium tomatoes, chopped
3 cups of vegetable stock
1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves


Method:

1) Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook, stirring for 3 minutes or until onion has softened. Add tomato, capsicum and potato. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.

2) Add stock. Season with pepper. Cover. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until potato is tender. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly.

3) Add coriander. Blend, in batches, until smooth. Serve.

(Note, I didn't blend in batches, I just used a stick blender and wizzed it in the big pot. I also didn't chop up the capsicum.. since we were going to wizz it all later on anyway.)

Oh and it is so delish! (This post should really be on my food blog.. which I have also been very tardy with!)

I didn't think of posting this soup recipe on here till I was half way through my bowl, so you'll have to excuse the messy bowl and half eaten bread...) :)

EXHIBITION OPENING THIS THURSDAY!

It's part of the South Australian Living Artist Festival where thousands of exhibitions are holding place around this creative state for 3 weeks.

The details are on the flyer (left) should you like to join us for the opening, or pop by one evening to Eggless Dessert Cafe.

This series of paintings are matched to the desserts of the month at Eggless Dessert Cafe, a collaborative effort between the talented dessert chef, Eelin, and myself.

You should really try Eggless' desserts if you haven't before. They are delicious, experimental, ever changing and decently priced. They are only open at night from 8pm, on Weds - Sun and always packed. The cafe has a great atmosphere and fantastic service. I am a big fan :)

Its a very busy few weeks as I hop along to all my friends' exhibition openings and also try and see the work on offer out there all over the state. The festival has gotten bigger and bigger over the last decade, and is now 3 weeks instead of 2!

So, I am the most irregular blogger you have ever met. In fact, Im not even sure I should be called a blogger.

Anyway, I stumbled across this cute little blog the other day and decided to join up in the 'Secret Pal's program. Its like kris kindle in australia, without the christmas festivites attached to it. I think its really sweet idea. Makes me feel like a little kid again.

http://www.justinandjustine.com/2010/07/secret-pals.html

Im looking forward to surprising my secret pal soon! :)



image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/barbian7/310047424/

The SALA exhibition went quite well in early August, lots of people turned up to the opening that took place alongside 17 other exhibition openings. Met many artists and people interested in the arts. Really great to get out there and talk to people. People have such different tastes in art works, even within my own range of paintings! Even managed to sell a few pieces so that's always good news. Another group exhibition with the theme 'Carnivale' came right after the SALA one. Such a relief to be part of a group exhibition that I didn't have to organise myself. But I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy organising the opening etc. Lots of anticipation and butterflies followed by wine and finally getting my pieces out there for all to love or criticize. But the support I got was fantastic. Thanks for to all those who made it.

There is a whole bunch of group exhibitions that are coming up in October and November that I have registered for, so will be busy getting ready for them. I do like the new style I am using at the moment however I'm not sure what other people think of it, as my older pieces are still selling. Should I stick to the old or go for the new style. I have tried to merge the two as best I can but I can't always paint the same stuff..?

Most of my new work are on http://www.flickr.com/photos/michelle_lee so have a look and let me know what you think.

Im still working at Michel's patisserie, getting that cash money and doing graphic design on the side.

Phil and I really have to figure out exactly when we are going to NZ for Christmas and his dad's birthday, as the tickets are getting really expensive/or booked out. We want to take 3 weeks and travel around from kiataia, down to auckland, and then to rotorua and wellington. We really want to go to south island, hopefully visit christchurch and seem some of the south island's natural landscapes. Don't know how we go yet.. as we want to do renovations to the house as well.
So many things to do, so little time...

It has been ages, (once again) since I have blogged. Since the last time I blogged, Phil worked a LOT of overtime, I did a LOT of research on our destinations, had an exhibition in late Feb / March, I turned 27, then went on our big European journey. (Hongkong, Macau and Shenzhen included!)

Phil has pretty much documented the whole trip on his blog, so I'll just put down some things I remember, apart from that I learnt so much about people, culture and history.

The journey was fascinating, seen so many castles, palaces, famous artist's work, ancient monuments and objects. Been in the middle of a rain storm in Barcelona and where we were there wasn't very good drainage!!! (Barri Gotic).

Got sunburnt while picnicing by the river under the massive Roman aqueduct in South of France. Drank freshly squeezed lemonade and ate lemon peel dipped in sugar on a hike of the Cinque Terre in Italy. Ate the freshest seafood, and some bad food.

Vomited in Versailles, and ate horse meat in Venice. Lied on the pebbly beach in Nice and was in awe at how rich people can be in Monaco. Pondered what life was under communism in Prague and Berlin. Drank so SO much wine!

Felt warmth from a Roman store owner in the pasta/pizza takeaway shop who offered us a whole plate of flava beans and pecorino cheese and showed us how to eat it! (It was one of our cheapest meal the whole time and he gave us freebies still!) Ate incredible amounts of gelati in every flavour imaginable! Saw how much the french and italians LURVED their dogs! They take them everywhere, trains, buses, shops... Hated the stink of (dog) piss in paris metro stations.

Loved the giant beers in Munich and a very drunken but beautiful night stumbling around a square, sitting by a canal and practising my balance on a bridge in Venice. Watched Iron Man in Rome with 3 intervals!!!! Devoured massive pork knuckles and sampled banana, coffee, sour cherry, nettle beers in prague. Walked where the Berlin Wall was, touched Stonehenges blue stones, walked inside an ancient brothel in Pompeii... been charged an excessive amount of 15 minutes of internet at a cafe. Seen snakes for the first time in my life in Italy. And pondered at the Greek civilisation in Paestum...(getting there was a bit random.. buses breaking down, all too nice strangers "helping you out", bus drivers looking like models with Gucci glasses driving you to some random southern italian town...)

Good, interesting memories. Now that we are back home, there are a million photos to sort through, phil is doing a good job of that. We will be putting most of it on the net either in flickr or picasa albums... but at the moment, I have a few selected ones on Facebook.

So we are back to reality and back to trying to make some more money. We are planning to renovate the townhouse in the near future. Have been planning this for a long time but the trip took first priority before. Another trip to NZ is planned at the end of the month - off to celebrate Phil's grandpa's 90th Birthday! Will be great to go there again and see all of Phils rellies and mates. Also we will get to meet Olivia-phil's niece for the first time! Can't wait!

It's been ages since I last managed to get on here! Since then I've had another exhibition as part of the SA living artists festival- that went really well and I managed to sell quite a few more pieces! All good news. Having to stay in the gallery everyday was a little bit of a bore but I managed to kill the time with reading travel books- I read an entire Rick Steve's travel book on Italy!!

We've managed to figure out where we want to go and map out an itinery from there. Took a while researching and all, but we got there, and now finally we have our tickets!!!

SO, we're leaving adelaide on 21st march next year (one day after my birthday- I just miss out on all the 26y.o and under travel deals in europe!! :( oh well) and we go to Hong Kong for 10 days. Hopefully- for phil's sake - we are able to get tickets for the rugby 7's cos we've actually planned to stay just until the end of the competition. At the moment, the website for the HK rugby 7's is completely crap and I got an email back from them that they don't even know when the tickets are on sale!

After that we fly to London and make our way around France, touching Spain by visiting Barcelona - (hoping my friend is still there and she hasn't moved to Lisbon yet) and then going to Italy. It should be good because we are going all the way down to the Amalfi coast! Then back up and into Vienna, Prague and Berlin. Then flying out again and stopping over in hongkong again just to pick up all the shopping we did before we flew to europe- and Im sure I'll probably have to get another suitcase! I won't be looking forward to coming back , as the day that I get back, I have to go see a client that afternoon! And then I have to rush to do the job in a week. Talk about rushing back into work!

Apart from that, life is cruising smoothly, am trying to get some more painting done for various group exhibitions. Will have a bigger one in next march just before we go away - as part of the Fringe, so that should be fun!

Phil had the Lantern (Mid Autumn Festival)- Im not quite sure what he's trying to achieve with his hands :)

Can't believe the launch was nearly a week ago. You spend all this time thinking and planning for it and its all over in a sec! It was lots of fun though and went really well. Lots more people came than I thought would turn up. Mum and kevin helped me prepare lots of food and I got sponsored sushi platters and danish platters! Thats what you get when your mum owns a sushi shop and your uncle owns a patisserie shop. :) Kevin did a great job with the bartender job, funny to know that a police commander is serving everyone alcohol! :D

I really had thought that we would be eating the left overs for a few days, but there was hardly anything left. (We had prepared a LOT of food!) And I had eaten nothing the whole time. Spent most of the evening just running around chatting to people with an empty, plastic cup in my hand cos I had no time to refill it!

Its all good news though, cos I've sold nearly half my paintings that were displayed! I had really good feedback and really appreciated everyone who made it!

Ben was a legend and took on the job of social photographer at the launch, so I can post some pics on here!

Jess the girl that helped me organise the exhibition was super, cos she was so helpful during the whole time!

So here are some pics:

Dr. Mike got dragged into the photo with Phil, Andy, lil Mylana and Ira.

Ben and Bianca (whose holding the camera ben?) :)

Lauren and her mum and dad and moi!

Jes, kiersten and lucy!

phil and kevin with corny clinking glass photo :D

Jason, phil & cutey Olivia, me and Brooke and Sarah-Jane (some of the SALife crew)

Jindou and Phil (luv this photo!) :D

Mister cheezys!!

There are more photos but its taking too long to upload them all so I'll try and link them on flickr.

It's a week and a half away from the exhibition opening night! Frantically trying to get things in order.. finally finished my last painting, (I wanted to fit another one in between now and hanging day- a week away. But I don't think time permits). Sent and handed out most of the invites. Going to hit the art schools today... but thats about it. I'll attach a small version of the invites for those of you who are overseas and can't come :( But know that you are very welcome to come, if you can fly over! :) All the paintings have hooks on them and now just trying to figure out what order Im going to put the paintings on the wall.


Apart from that I have been baking again, this time apple strudel muffins. They have a crumbly top of brown sugar and cinnamon.. YUM, Phil is devouring them quite quick.

Did I say in my last blog entry that I have been having allergies to things on my lips and finally after some skin tests, I found out I'm allergic to chicken? We tested in twice and the result was still the same. Can't believe it. Also Im a wee bit allergic to garlic and soy!!! Soy of all things. What am Im going to do being a Chinese and all? Apparently, Soy sauce, like red wine has a lot of histimine in it so its not uncommon for people to be allergic to it. Although the effect may be mild, so one wouldn't really notice it. Hope I grow out of this soon. I'm such a foodie! Sometimes I wish I never found out!

I found a great recipe for cupcakes on the net and decided I was going to make it. Bit of work for someone who has never made any cakes before. (Although I've made some other desserts and friands). I learnt not to substitute baking powder for the internet recipe for making your own baking powder (baking soda and cream of tartar), as it turned out a disaster. BUT, encouraged by Phil, and this time with his help, we made another batch.

The cupcakes I made was "Peruvian Caramel Filled Lemon Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream and Coconut". It is one sweet cupcake! If anyone ends up making this, I suggest you make mini ones, as the sweetness is "an assult on the tastebuds" (quoting phil). I also learnt by simmering a can of condensed milk for two hours, you end up with a very delicious caramel!

So here's a snap of my end product.. the raspberry buttercream on top is divine! I was eating it out of the bowl...

Okay, they look a bit home-made, but still very yummy. The cake was a bit dense, but you don't notice it after you add all the filling. So if you're interested, here's the recipe: http://cupcakeblog.com/index.php/category/themes/peruvian-inspired/

A visit from Phil's mum recently, meant a trip to the Barossa Valley on a cold and wet day. Still it was fun, although I didn't do any wine tasting, as I have an allergy (and not sure if it's to do with alcohol yet.) Went to the whispering wall, not a whole lot of whispering going on as it was raining so much, but still interesting. And of course, visits to a number of wineries! (hrmm I don't look impressed there, perhaps its because its the third freaking pic Phil was trying to take of me since I got out of the car when we arrived at Penfolds!)

Went to the wildlife park "Warrawong Sanctuary", there we patiently waited for ages to see a platypus, but it never surfaced! At least we got to see a koala climb the whole length of a tree and make some scary noises, and some lazy ass kangaroos :)

Am pretty nervous about the upcoming exhibition, only two a bit a weeks to go! Still painting and trying to get everything in order. Think I'm going to chicken out in speech (me + speech= speechless) and get the girl who's helping me organise it to do it for me!