Clare Grill

Beautiful oil paintings from artist Clare Grill.

Inspired by the traditional craft form of samplers.

You can see more of Clare's beautiful work here.

via an ambitious project collapsing

the secret life of insects

I made paella for dinner tonight, and when I sliced through the 

middle of the capsicum and looked inside, there was a little green 

caterpillar (and about a thousand little green caterpillar eggs). 

It just managed to miss the knife somehow. Phew!

It was like a scene from this cute little french animation series....

Ari and I have been watching these together after school lately. 

I think the caterpillar's my favourite of the Minuscule creatures.

Ari calls it 'The Secret Life of Insects'.  Hehe.... so cute! More here.

Paella!

(vegetarian paella)

3 cups (750ml) vegetable stock

2 cups (500ml) water

pinch saffron threads

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 medium tomatoes (300g), seeded, 

chopped finely

1 medium red capsicum (200g), chopped finely

1 medium red onion (170g), chopped finely

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

1¾ cups (350g) arborio rice

1 cup (120g) frozen peas

1 medium zucchini (120g), chopped finely 

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Combine stock and the water in medium saucepan; bring to the boil. 

Remove from heat; stir in saffron.

Heat oil in large frying pan; cook tomato, capsicum, onion, 

garlic and paprika, stirring, until onion softens. 

Stir in rice then stock mixture; bring to the boil. 

Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, without stirring, 20 minutes.

Sprinkle peas and zucchini evenly over surface of rice; 

simmer, covered, about 10 minutes or until rice is tender. 

Remove from heat; stand, covered, 5 minutes before serving. 

Serve paella sprinkled with parsley.

image and recipe courtesy The Australian Women's Weekly

Lisa Larson

I love looking at pictures of artists at work- in their studios,

workrooms, ateliers, gardens. These are some of my favourite

creations and photographs of Swedish designer Lisa Larson. 

Many of Lisa's designs are still in production. 

You can visit the website and shop here and view more 

of my favourite artists at work, and their ateliers here.

I hope you're enjoying a lovely start to the week! 

We've decided to shift our field journal posts to Wednesdays

and will be posting entry four in our little project then, if you'd

like to play along with us. Happy Monday Everyone! xoxox

image credits: one, two, three, four, five, six 

These are a few of my...

favourite things. 

 

Things that make me happy.

Things that I love.

Things that I'd love to own.

Things that I do own.

Things that I enjoy.

Things that I enjoy doing.

Things that resonate with my sense of aesthetics.

Beautiful kimonos circa 1930s-1950s via.

If you'd like to create a post about your favourite things,

feel free to link to it in the comments.  I'd love to know 

what lovely things inspire and motivate you to create... xo

field journal

Entry Three:  Flowers in our garden

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Ari collected these beautiful flowers from around the 

garden earlier today and arranged them to photograph.

There is such a wonderful parade of colourful blooms

outside his window, just now.  It's truly a lovely sight. 

You can view other journal entries here and, as always,

feel free to create your own and link it in the comments.

xoxox

These are a few of my...

favourite things. 

Things that make me happy.

Things that I love.

Things that I'd love to own.

Things that I do own.

Things that I enjoy.

Things that I enjoy doing.

Things that resonate with my sense of aesthetics.

Friends are like flowers, beautiful flowers

Friends are like flowers in the garden of life.

Are you a Daisy? Are you a Rose? Are you a Dandelion?

You can be what you are and I willl be what I am

We can be friends in the garden of life.


I have vivid memories of gleefully belting out this 
little number on my guitar in the church choir when I was 
a child... the hippy undertones resonating in my soul.

If I were a flower, I think I'd want to be one of the strange 
and beautiful creations above. I can quite imagine the 
Dr Seuss-like gardenscape they'd call home.


plaques by herman marie, pillows by colette bream

cute spooks

There is a colourised version... but I love the old B +W classic!

We saw some rather cute spooks out Trick or Treating last night. 

 I love that Halloween is finally starting to gain momentum,  here 

in OZ. The kids had so much fun terrorising the neighbourhood!

little ghost

The little ghost and I

Ari's school puts on the best Halloween Disco

for the kids.  Friday night was an absolute blast!

Last week, I was at the school working on the end of year 

school play, again, and we were discussing costumes...

Ari's teacher  "Wow Ari!  You're so lucky to have a Mum who's 

a costume maker.  So, what are you going to come as on Friday?"

Ari  "A ghost.  We can make my costume out of paper! 

Or maybe I'll just wear a sheet!!!"

Me and Ari's teacher  "Really?!"

Ari  "Yep!  Ghosts are great!!!"

Me, later on  "Or, what about Edward Scissorhands? 

I saw a great costume online!" (I showed him this great costume)

Ari  "Edward Scissorhands isn't very Halloween, Anna. 

Nope.  I'm wearing a sheet.  Ghosts are great.  They can't die"

The little ghost and I plan to go trick or treating

with some of our favourite little spooks tonight.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

We hope you all have a wonderfully ghoulish night...

 *instuctions for Edward Scissorhands costume here

field journal

Entry Two:  Edibles in our garden

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Ari and I have started keeping a weekly field journal.

A photographic record of all the wonderful natural things we 

find in our garden and on trips around the countryside, into

town, to the seaside, the woodlands, the mountains and so on.

Feel free to create your own and link to it in the comments. 

You can view all our entries here.

today

Looking for something wonderful to do this Saturday?

Fun and festivities in celebration of the ongoing regeneration

 of the Merri Creek and 30 years of CERES. The festival celebrates 

the return of the Sacred Kingfisher to the banks of creek.

For more informaton visit the CERES website here

These are a few of my...

favourite things.

Luna Park entrance St. Kilda Esplanade, St. Kilda Beach here

Make Me Iconic, wooden toy tram here

Skipping Girl Vinegar sign, Victoria Street, Richmond here 

(print available here )

Things that make me happy.

Things that I love.

Things that I'd love to own.

Things that I do own.

Things that I enjoy.

Things that I enjoy doing.

Things that resonate with my sense of aesthetics. 

A post inspired by Melbourne icons.

I think it's about time for a favourite things post.  I might
try to get back into posting these every Friday. Some of

my favourites are already listed to the left of my blog and
many them are also listed on the pages under my header as
...shops, places to go, books,  mags, recipes and resources.

Most probably, they will all find a place in these posts and 

I hope that you'll enjoy sharing these lovely things with me.

Feel free to play along on your own blog if you'd like,

I'd love to know what your favourite things are too! xo

one for the boys

check out the wingtips and button-down braces... swoon!

SO DAPPER!

Bira Biro Kids... natural fabrics, sustainable designs, 

and they make threads for girls and women too!

nom nom nom

There was not much in the pantry last night and we 

didn't have time to do a shop after Ari's drama class.

But I had sweet potatoes.  And apples.  And lentils. 

And this recipe tastes as delicious as it sounds...

Sweet Potato, Apple and Lentil Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 large leeks, white and light green parts chopped

2 tart apples, peeled cored and chopped

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

¾ cup brown lentils

4 cups Massel vegetable stock 

3 cups water

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ teaspoon salt, or to taste

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large pot. 

Add the leeks, ginger and garlic, and sauté for 5 minutes. 

Add the apples, sweet potatoes and spices and cook for 2 minutes, 

stirring constantly. Add the lentils, vegetable stock and water. 

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes, 

partially covered. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Puree in a blender (or use an immersion blender). 

 Serve with topped with plain yogurt or sour cream.

Image and recipe via what would cathy eat

field journal

Entry One:  Springtime in our garden

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Ari and I have decided to start keeping a field journal.

A photographic record of all the wonderful natural things we 

find in our garden and on trips around the countryside, into

town, to the seaside, the woodlands, the mountains and so on.

We'll try to make this a weekly feature.... please join us.

We'd love to see glimpses of nature from around the globe,

flora and natural objects that you (and perhaps your little ones)

might find in your garden or when you're out walking. 

No rules, just be as creative as you like. Each time we

post one of our field journal entries here, feel free to create 

your own and link to it in the comments section below. 

If you don't have a blog, you could set up a flickr account for 

this activity and link to that.  I'd be happy to tell you how. 

We look forward to sharing your discoveries!

xoxox