Inspiration whilst doing the dishes

My twenties were were rich with time, bars (lots of bars!) and constantly changing ideas on what I was going to be when I eventually grew up. Some days a theatre producer, other nights I was running a performance production company doing nights full of burlesque, live mural painting, short films and music. Other days I was taking the food world on and loving it in Bondi. Some days I just wanted to be the object of someone's unrequited love - mainly as I felt it was my turn to be on that side of the fence. Then it was the natural healing days. These days required me to stop drinking. These were satisfying times but took a hedonist like me quite a bit of concentration. Maybe a bit more than I could maintain beyond twelve months at twenty five. Some years were an amalgam of all this plus more ... Travel, beaches and interesting choices of partners.

Everyone was invited to join me in this wild ride of fantasy and life building. It was worth coming along for as it was a fearless trip with very few boundaries. Life was intoxicating and wonderful. People and their choices amazed and exhilarated me. Things happened, some things that now I look back on and it could almost be someone else's life I tell the stories of. Was that person  with all that energy and belief really me?

The only thing that brought me to a halt was the paralysis of too much choice. Incredible bucolic freedom.

The road block now is often the feeling of no choice. No time. Limited ability.

What happens to our creative selves, our warrior fearless selves as we travel into adulthood? I could never be the person I was at 25 ever again. That was a person in a time capsule. I probably wouldn't want to be her anymore either. Mostly out of fear for my life.

As I am presented with more opportunity to flex some wonderful creative muscles, long in hiatus, I am pondering how you do this in between kids drop offs, mortgage payments and mopping the floor.

Words and pictures are just part of it. A wonderful part of a who I am has been rekindled but the person I am now doesn't quite know how to hold the flame. I'll work it out in some fashion but it has been an interesting exercise in actually looking at who I've become without really noticing. Or simply using good old denial to mask parts. Now its about making choices about what to make of the slight rebuild.

Is this something women do as they take to marriage and children? Is it something our mothers taught us was simply part of being someone's wife? All our work, home, house and study decisions are made  with the family unit in mind.

Well, this mother and wife is going to try and work out how to be a little bit more than that. She's going to try and find a bit more of herself. This time the creative lubricant needs to be gentler, go to bed sober and wake up in thier own home more often - but maybe this means it will be more effective for longer stints and instigate positive growth that stays. Maybe this time it will be enriching and nourishing. Is that what people mean by growing old with grace?

So as I watch, am allowed to witness, a world filled with people still doing things that blow my mind, some days I feel like a true participant but some parts of me are still twenty five trying to work out what I'll do when I grow up ...

South American oasis on Gertrude Street ...

I wish my back door looked this cool ....

Add caption

Gorgeous graphic ...

Changing the lp for our listening pleasure.

Maybe the best ever hot chocolate - chocolate direct from Columbia of course

Man Can Not Live By Bread Alone - Pop In ....

Are you in London today? Pop in - open until Dec 24th ...........

Man Can Not Live By Bread Alone

The fantastic Bettina Mcillwraith and friends doing a gorgeous London pop up shop .... all  clever, beautiful, sustainable, ethical and available for purchase. Perfect really!

Bread as the perfect gift

We had a 5 year old boys birthday in our home last weekend. This alone is enough to make us all smile but added to the joy of this event attended by 10 or so very loud happy young heros and princess's was catching up with an old friend.

Our lovely friend in the past always turned up to events with the most delicious ice cream on the planet. Today he arrived with loaves of bread wrapped in beautiful vintage tea towels.

Bread really is the perfect gift. Still a bit warm, wrapped in linen it is the kitchen signifier of sharing. Every kitchen has something to put on it, simply butter and salt a personal favourite, so no one goes hungry when there's a loaf in the house. It it the appropriate match with whatever your beverage, all age groups can eat it - the quintessential comfort food.

In the spirit of this gift Nigel has sent me the recipe so I'm going to share it with you.

If you cook nothing else this Christmas cook this. Loaves of warm home cooked bread on the family and friends table will ensure a contented Christmas for you all.

xo

1. rustic sourdough: the secret to making amazing bread at home [5 ingredients | simple baking]

2.  
   
   
   
   sourdough bread video
   
   
   rustic homemade yeasted bread
   makes 1 loaf
     This is a great way to see how wonderful homemade bread can be.
   

   425g (15oz) bread flour
   375g (14oz) water
   1 teaspoon find grained salt
   1/4 teaspoon dried yeast
   semolina, optional
   

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast, water and salt until just mixed together.
2. Cover with cling wrap and leave overnight for at least 8 but preferably 12 hours.
3. Form your loaf. Place a generous amount of flour on your kitchen counter. Scoop dough out onto the flour then sprinkle generously with more flour. Gently fold the edges from the outside in to form a round loaf.
4. Place more flour on a clean tea towel. Place loaf with the rough top side down. Sprinkle with semolina, if using, or more flour. Cover.
5. Place a large oven proof dish with a lid in the oven. Preheat oven and the pan to the highest setting for at least 1/2 hour.
6. Carefully remove the hot pan from the oven. Remove lid. Sprinkle a little semolina, if using in the base of the pan. Gently place loaf in the pan inverted so that the rougher surface is now on top. Don't worry about smoothing it out or having it centered – it will work itself out in the oven.
7. Pop the lid back on and bake for 30 minutes.
8. Remove the lid and turn the oven down to 200C (400F) bake for a further 15 minutes until the loaf is deep brown.
9. Cool on a wire rack uncovered for at least 30mintues if you can wait that long.

 
 

 

Cook My Way - Local (ish) site to share, compare and cook with

http://www.cookmyway.com.au/

Saw this on Remo's newsletter this morning. Lovely idea - great food ideas and discussions.. and ... it's her birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEE.

Here's the site in their words:

Cook My Way was born out of a love for preparing food and eating it.

CookMyWay's philosophy is that you don't need to be a celebrity chef to make love in the kitchen, we believe that cooking, gardening and brewing should be celebrated and practiced in modern lives

Log on and apron up!
I'm off to try and cook Argentinean 'Alfajores'

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 tsp. lemon rind, grated
• 1 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt

My Argentinian work exchange student brought these in and they are as delightful as she is

Ihearthetrain

Method

Cream butter; add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add egg
and egg yolks, one at a time, beating well. Beat in vanilla
and lemon rind. Sift together cornstarch, flour, baking powder
and salt. Add to mixture and mix well. Drop batter by small
spoonfuls onto well buttered baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove immediately. Sandwich the cookies together with (dulce de leche) sweet milk dessert. Makes 40 cookies.
For extra special fabulousness, roll themaround the outside in dessicated coconut

"An work of art is a work of love" Lewis

3 Stories Artspace - ART IS A VERB

3 Stories Artspace - Intrigue - Inspire - Involve

How could I not write about 3 stories when they offer such things as little boxes of inspiration for us all to purchase. 

So the inspiration here is 'tooling up' for a bit of inspirational activity with beautiful equipment. 

  

This is a space that honours the process as much as the end result. They actively demonstrate this by constantly offering a range of classes, workshops and community activities.

3 Stories Artspace is set high above the Maroondah dam so the views themselves are worth a visit. 

Pieces are set off by this natural back drop that invites you to contemplate and relax with whats on offer - not feel isolated and have a purely intellectual experience with the work on offer. The space invites gentle change and thought from both the artist and the viewer.

 

The gallery is owned and run by artist, curator, power house Ali Griffin and her partner Bill. They are both owners and absolute participants in what happens in the space. Their blurred boundaries between their life and the space is obvious with a positive result. They are welcoming and inclusive by nature.

 

This is a piece of Ali's work that came out of a workshop dealing with the use of layering wax on paper and mixing with other mediums if required. Ali has used maps in this piece. Available for sale at the gallery of course.

Delicate linen vessels - perfect for holding light and space

Choices of things all hand made, gathered, shared and sourced with inspiration, beauty and thought in mind. Perfect gift giving area. Maybe a gift for you, maybe for someone else .... we all need a little parcel once in a while. A very well chosen book collection sits behind and beside the 'objects'. These are books choosen to complement an eccelectic love of what artictic expression is and can be.

Type a quick zine. If you can't do that buy one of the many on offer here. We LOVE the modern Zine. Expression on paper from all angles.

Current exhibition is by Malcolm Peel ... extraordinary work. To much to say about in in this blog but ....he says "It's about people and place, about my sense of reality, about the realities of others, in time and place, about the nature of the universe we find ourselves living in. The place we occupy in this vast universe astounds and terrifies me. By the light of day I see the familiar. By night I see the vastness and the violence of the rest of time and space. I see our future." 

 

Take some time to see this work - you'll need time but you will be well rewarded for it.

A view from the space....

While you are here you can also enjoy a coffee (Yarra Valley sourced) and locally made biscuit. A cafe it is not but a wonderful place to sit and contemplate the world it is.

 

Alistair Whyte's ceramics always have a spot here at the gallery. Moulded into the likeness of takeaway paper cups all a little bit 'out of shape'. Just as a paper cup is in our hand. From Alistair "My skills come from years spent studying and working in Japan learning fine porcelain techniques, though I make a diverse range of ceramics in porcelain, stoneware, earthenware, raku and by pit firing"

3 Stories - Artspace

505 Maroondah Highway

Healesville,  3777

Open Thursday - Sunday 11ma - 4pm

Phone: 03 5962 5688

Email: art@threestories.com.au

Web: http://www.threestories.com.au/

Stacks of stuff



Wood stack at base of driveway ... taking some of the old to provide fuel at the new

Shelves becoming empty ....               





  

'Keating and the arts' from a Stephen Murray-Smith lecture 2010

An excerpt from The State of our Creative Nation, the 2010 Stephen Murray-Smith Memorial Lecture that Anne Summers delivered at the State Library of Victoria on Thursday 21 October:

“When it was over, the performers joined Keating on stage in an exuberant throng.  The newspapers the next morning showed a photograph of the Prime Minister, wearing a trademark light grey Zegna suit, standing close between two Bangarra dancers who were wearing not much more than a laplap and a bit of body paint.

It was an endearing – and revealing – image of contemporary Australia.

Paul Keating was a very different kind of Australian from the hard-drinking, womanizing, sports-loving Bob Hawke. (Although both excelled in their profane use of the Australian vernacular.)

Keatng’s nationalism – his Australianness – exhibited itself in spectacularly different ways.

In his kissing the ground at Kokoda, with his two most famous speeches – the Redfern speech and the one on the unknown soldier, and in his inventive and often inflammatory aphorisms.  He thrilled his admirers with such outbursts as: ‘If you’re not living in Sydney, you’re just camping out’, or, ‘A soufflé does not rise twice’, ‘All tip and no iceberg’ and, memorably from a few months before this Arts for Labor event, when John Hewson pestered him as to why he would not call an early election, he said: ‘The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly’.

At the same time, the leader of the country was urbane and elegant, a man whose tastes ran to Regency furniture, Georgian architecture and the late-Romantic Austrian composter Mahler. And, now, here he was that Sunday in Sydney, embracing the Indigenous descendants of one of the world’s most ancient cultures.

How great our arts will be, Keating had said in his speech, when we are as one with Indigenous Australians, ‘when we say sorry for the murders and the dispossession and mean it, not just write a cheque off the budget’.[1]

Stephen Murray-Smith Lecture 2010

See me.

"Please see me for who I want to be,

not as who you think I am"