Like most young Australians who listen or have listened to Triple J, I have always known who Ben Lee was but I didn’t really know him till last night. Before Awake is the New Sleep was released and he scooped the Arias, he was just the young Sydney guy, out in the background doing his own thing, who released his first solo album when he was what 16/17?, went out with Claire Danes for ages, got his start with the likes of Sonic Youth and the Beastie Boys. Sure his 1999 album Breathing Tornados was a huge success and Cigarettes Will Kill You is one song we can all sing/hum, but Awake is the New Sleep changed all that, all of a sudden he was everywhere and on all the radio stations and even though I didn’t real know his songs, I was so proud of him and his band for surprising us all. So like any new discovery/re-discovery, I headed back to the beginnings and started listening to the early stuff and wondered why I had not started earlier, I have known who is was since what 1998 but it took me to 2005 to actually start getting into him. I don’t know. Perhaps it is the swing I am noticing in my tastes to music for which the focus is the vocals not how loud or fast the lead guitarist can play.
But back to the actual point of the story, so last night two of my bestest buds (Andrea and Same) who previously didn’t know each other but are chumming it up now and I met at The Arena to see Ben Lee, Sparkadia and a solo artist who I can’t recall the name of. Both the support acts were fantastic and then came Ben and the band :), for what was to be one night of a big sing-a-long, Patience from The Grates popping in for a song, lots of happiness and pure fun, chatting about songs, playing songs from all the records and lots of flowers 
( I thought they were fake but when I got one at the end I noticed how real my daisy is, which is currently in a flower press because that my friend will be one hell of a scrapbook page).
As a final little act, I can solemnly say that I have never acted like a boy crazy adolescent girl in my life before but it is safe to say last night that changed, I swear he is getting cuter and cuter as he gets older and it has to be noted, we do share the same birthday albeit seven years apart
15 hours later, I can assure you that we still have big grins plastered on our faces
Photos are Here
As some of you may know I have recently had no real interest in scrapbooking but yesterday I printed off some photos and then this evening I sat down to have a little play and popped out this one. As long as I don’t spend too much time chatting to people on Messenger I am a relatively quick scrapper, as an image will pop into my head fairly quickly after selecting photos and cardstock and finish most pages in about 30 minutes.
AS part of my anti-boredness campaign, I rented a few DVD’s out the other day, I picked up Kinsey(which was so not what I expected), Crazy/Beautiful (oh the Romeo and Juliet story line set in teen angst, really liked this movie, seemed so real, the turmoil that Carlos had between his family and Nicole, etc etc good stuff and well Jay Hernandez the actor playing Carlos is pretty nice looking), Beyond Borders (really liked how this movie spanned the three events over the period of ten years and well the scene in the beginning where Clive Owens comes barging in just sets the whole scene) and finally Napoleon Dynamite(I got this out after hearing so many people rave on about it but I have to say I didn’t really think it was much of a decent thing, sure it was different to most films but still so not what I felt it was cracked up to be).
The Patchwork Tree had a sale today so I popped on down to add to my stash, I picked up some Amy Butler Charm fabrics as well as some more Japanese imports, oh I wish I could find that company’s website as I would be in heaven.
Christmas is coming and that means full steam ahead on all creations, the bummer is that most/all of the people I am making gifts for read this thing, so I can’t exactly post photos of them till they get them which isn’t for ages yet 
However I can say that my back is sore from the amount of free motion machine quilting I have done in the last day or so, the person who gets this present is very lucky because if it wasn’t Christmas I would be keeping it myself! Full of blood, sweat and tears I tell you well actually full of 3 bobbins of thread! Thanks for Mum for showing me how to do free motion quilting.
Yesterday I also posted Jökull’s quilt so as long as the ship sails smoothly, he should see it in three to four months. I even wrote Jökull the Glacier Boy on the shipping label
Exams finished 1 week ago and I am already going stir crazy! Only 3 and a bit months left of summer holidays. ugg. I am already lined up to make Matthew three new pairs of pyjamas and to clean the kitchen and living room (paid work) so maybe it won’t be too bad. On Sunday I am going to see Ben Lee at the Zoo with Sam and Andrea so that will be good, happy days.
Since I am now on holidays the biscuit making falls more regularly on me, this is the recipe I made yesterday.
Coconut and Hazelnut Biscuits
4 oz cooking margarine (softened)
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup coconut
1/4 or so hazelnut meal
a bit of milk
Cream the margarine and sugar, add the egg. All in together this fine weather mix in the rest of the ingredients. The amount of milk needed changes each time; you just need enough to make the mixture more workable. Roll into small balls and place on greased trays, cook in a moderate oven (180°C). Eat
The great thing about a basic biscuit recipe is that you can change it to suit what you have in the cupboard, for example the original recipe does not call for the hazelnut meal but I added that in and just added some more milk, other ideas would be dried chopped apricots or silvered almonds etc.
After I finished all my exams on Wednesday, I popped into Borders on the way home to check out the magazines, I walked out with the November issue of ABC Delicious which came with a July back issue as well as the Donna Hay Spring issue that they still had on the shelves and the current Donna Hay Celebrate issue (which has the most gorgeous Christmas ideas in for example a biscuit wreath and a succulent leaf star).
After working Wednesday and doing some scrapbooking (The Story Bridge and Breadsticks Recipe It wasn’t till Thursday that I could sit down with some sticky notes and mark my way through the magazine. It was also my turn to cook tea last night so I dished up the recipe that had grabbed me the most.
Sesame Somen Noodle Salad with Smoked Salmon.
400g Somen noodles
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 or 3 shallots
1/4 cup chives (which I forgot)
1 or 2 small cucumbers (though I used zucchini, since Mum refuses to eat cucumber)
200g smoked salmon, roughly chopped
1 cup mint leaves
Cook the noodles and drain. Combine the soy sauce, brown sugar and sesame seeds in a large bowl. Add the other ingredients and noodles, lightly toss to combine. Serves 4
My notes.
As I am not a fan or raw shallots or zucchini, I gave them a quick cook in the pan (1 or 2 minutes on a high heat). 1 cup of mint leaves is total overkill, it turned out really as Mint Noodle Salad, next time go more for 1/4 cup or less. Maybe add some sesame oil to the dressing to add a bit more flavour. Recipe says it serves 4, but really would serve 5 with comfort and some left for lunch.
For those of you are papercrafters, you have probably heard of a very funky company called Fontwerks and if you haven’t where have you been? Hop on over to the website and check it out
As part of FW hooking up with some an Australian distributor which means it will be a whole lot more easier to find their products here in Aus and NZ, Kah-Mei, asked Fiona Carter and myself to be the Friends of Fontwerks for November. Yeah!
If you get the Fontwerks newsletter you would already know this of course but for those who don’t, you can view the latest issue here and subscribe to future issues on the front page of the website.
You can see both mine and Fiona’s work here - November FOF Gallery
Yay Fontwerks!
First’s things first, I was getting a bit tired of the scene round here so I made a new banner, changed the colours and modded some of the code. Random banners will probably appear again soon, as I make more. So tell me what you think of the new theme
The other day, the freezer was defrosted and as stuff was been put back in the freezer, Mum told me, I needed to use up the polenta I had in there. I kept the thought in my mind and the very next morning as I was going through the new headlines in my Feed Reader, I noticed that Baking Sheet had posted a Garlicy Polenta Breadstick recipe. Score!
The recipe and result is quite similar to that of Scones and I think that I can quite easily change the recipe to be Savoury Polenta Scones instead.
Polenta Breasticks
(adapted a LCBO recipe via a Baking Sheet recipe)
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup polenta
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried dill or rosemary
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper, to taste
4 tbsp butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/2 cup milk
2 egg whites
Preheat oven to 220°C. Grease a baking tray or line with baking paper.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, garlic powder, dill/rosemary, salt and pepper. Add butter and rub in with your fingertips or use a dough blender until mixture resembles sand and no large chunks of butter remain.
Combine milk and egg whites in a small bowl, then add to flour mixture, stirring until it forms a dough. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface until it is approximately 1/4-1/2 inch thick (about 1 cm). Use a floured knife to cut into even strips, roughly 2cm wide.
Transfer strips to baking trayss, leaving room between them.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown.
Allow to cool before serving. Leftovers can be wrapped and re-crisped in the oven.
After my sticks had been in the oven for a little while, I gave them a spray of garlic olive oil and returned them to the oven, mine also took a lot longer than 12 minutes to cook. Of course you can change the herbs to suit your tastes, or perhaps sprinkle with some cheese before placing them in the oven.
They are great as a quick snack, just grab a stick and walk out the door
