me, my camera and my life.


Archive for the 'blog stuff' Category

day 18

A blog a day in November, what on earth was I thinking?

Today I got up had a shower/breakfast and rushed out the door to work, then it was home for a bite to eat and then over to Group for another night out with the SES. We spent the night travelling to various homes that placed calls since Sunday night to see if a) they still needed assistance or b) what assistance they would need. It’s raining a lot more tonight than it was last night. I have now been home long enough to grab a shower and start this post and all along all I can think is that man oh man I just want to go bed but I’m not about to pike on making a post a day when I have managed to stay on track for the last 17 days.

Today though apart from been work, rain and SES also marks the day in two weeks time that Karl will be walking off a plane at the Airport to spend Christmas with us. Excited? Very! Then the following day Toti and his crew arrive! Two weeks! and I will have my brother home (well one of them)

Coming up

I am so far behind in blog posts it is not funny! I have been quite busy with work and just living that this little space on the wide internet has been neglected.

The posts coming up which I hope to have done in the next week include;
The RAAF Base Amberley Air Show. sigh what a great day.
A trip to Gatton and beyond with Mum and Grandad
Supergrass and Cloud Control at the Tivoli
The Valley Fiesta
The QLD Multicultural Festival
and a few other posts that I want to get out.

I leave you with a picture of the glorious F-111 doing a dump and burn at the air show and I get back to typing, typing, typing and listening to ABC TV FORA.

F-111

about that

Well I think I have ironed out all the bugs of this new theme, what do you think?
I am still trying to decide what I want to put in the header so at the moment it is just a pretty simple graphic using a brush from Jason Gaylor’s Worn Hi-Res Brushes III.

I cracked down and bought a new camera bag yesterday, I got a Crumpler Seven Million Dollar Home in Blue. Buying a camera bag is one of the hardest things to do. I have been after a bag for a long time which would take some uni books, some other stuff and some camera gear, after playing with numerous different combos at the camera store and at the Crumpler store, I have had to decide that the product I want is just not on the market yet.

Mum is progressing along nicely, the other day she moved up from a 7/8 plaster cast to a fancy knee brace, which looks like the one on this page.

We have watched some more movies

  • I Heart Huckabees (This was cool)
  • Before Sunset (This was an amazing film, very different to what I am used to as it basically only has two characters and the movie consists of them walking round Paris talking)
  • Bride & Prejudice (This was super rad, I could watch it over and over, loved the musical parts and all the colour)
  • Ladder 49 (Parts of this make me teary :()
  • The Princess Diaries (A simple little movie to curl up on the couch watching on a Friday night)

Tonight however, I will not be watching a movie but will be sitting on the edge of the couch full of anticipation as Australia goes head to head against Italy to play for a quarter-final spot in the World Cup! Go the ‘roos!

Some of you may know Karyn but for those who don’t, she was the first non-Australian person from 2peas that I gotten to know, she is in the USA Navy and is married to an Icelander (which is how we connected), well after some time spent training in SC she is now smack bang in the biggest sandpit she has ever known in other words she is now in Iraq (or in her words Irock the Casbah). She has posted some photos that are well worth checking out and she is always up for well wishes.
That is about it.

slightly big, possibly exciting

www.helenthura.com is a year old today and to me at least that is big and exciting :) I mean the response when some asks for your email address and you say helenAThelenthuraDOTcom is classic.
Strictly speaking the birth date is March 21 but it didn’t resolve till March 24. Sort of like a three day labour you could say. As a handful of you know my blog is actually slightly older than the domain as I started over at Typepad on March 8 with the title Randomness in Brisvegas, which was also the name of this blog for a while before I changed it me, my camera and my life.

Typepad was nice and fills a demand in the market but I was not in that market, I wanted control! To have as much control as they will give you at Typepad it would be US$15 a month versus the US$5 or so this costs me each month and I have total control over everything :) I played with a few different blog applications before I settled on Wordpress and in the early days had numerous times of frustration as I learnt how PHP and CSS worked, sure I still have them now but no where near as often. :)

I thought it would be nice to have a year in review of the blogs that I feel best show to you and to me part of the journey I have taken in the last year. I want to thank you all for taking part in the ride that is the first year, whether you have been around since the early days or have only recently started reading me, you are all special :)

March 29, 2005 - Helen leaves the banana yellow walls and pink ceiling behind and to embrace the serenity of white.

April 1, 2005 - My first recipe post :) The wonderful Skonsur, nothing in the world like ham and cheese on warm Skonsur.

April 18, 2005 - The reason why I do something that I hate 4 times a year (giving blood).

April 19, 2005 - My sweet thing arrived, my Canon 350D that is!

April 30, 2005 - The plans of the eternal traveler and the dreams I have of the world.

May 19, 2005 - Brisbane gets hit with a freak Hailstorm.

June 1, 2005 - The book arrived, that was a great project to work on.

June 16, 2005 - Time to feature my Mum with her divine chocolate cake recipe.

June 20, 2005 - Is scrapbooking all that it cracked up to be? One of the most important posts I think I have made not only to me in realigning myself creatively but also giving others some food for thought.

June 28, 2005 - The utter happiness of arriving back in Iceland.

July 22, 2005 - My account of what it was like to be in a town when a mini-terrorist attack happens.

August 3, 2005 - Helen gets magic worked on her hair.

August 18, 2005 - I revert back to a life of singledom.

September 11, 2005 - I rock out at the Moun tain Goats, turn 20 and then almost die by eating too much chocolate mousse.

September 26, 2005 - Mum and I spend a gorgeous weekend exploring northern NSW

October 10, 2005 - The music that people have shared with me and how it has influenced me.

October 26, 2005 - Helen gets a real fake tooth denture and is now well on her way to getting blue rinses in her hair and lining up at the bank to collect her pension.

November 7, 2005 - How fruity are your friends? Ali (& Liam) and I have a blast at the Whitlams.

November 28, 2005 - Bring on the Ben Lee! Two of my best friends, a cute guy and sweet music.

December 14, 2005 - I get the coolest shower cap, in turn making me the coolest kid on the block.

Decmeber 25, 2005 - Last night was Christmas and what a sweet night it was

December 29, 2005 - After 3 days on the road and high seas Mum and I arrive in Tasmania.

January 14, 2006 - Some of the sweet goodies I picked up on the road trip that Mum and I took to Tasmania.

January 29, 2006 - Tracy releases her Helen digital scrapbooking kit.

Febuary 2, 2006 - There is only two colours in the world - Pink and not pink.

Febuary 13, 2006 - Happy shoes, shoes that I can wear all day long with no pain.

Febuary 19, 2006 - Helen’s best ever biscuits, which I need to make again very soon.

Well that was the last year, what will this year bring? For starters more crafty and creative goodness, more concerts, more cooking, more fun at uni, the joy of trying to find a gradute job in a limited market place, adventures with family and friends and all round fun and goodness. I hope you continue to enjoy the driver’s seat view of the life of Helen Thura Palsson, a 20 year old uni student from Brisbane, Australia.

I leave you with many thanks for your comments and support over the last year.

Australia Day Catch-Up

Well, today is Australia Day, which means I am cooking Lamb Chops for tea and we have rushed outside at the sound of the F1-11 flying over (Is there ever an event in Brisbane where we don’t have at least one F1-11 do either a fly-over or a dump and burn? The benefits I guess of having a RAAF base just down the road).

Also for the fact that it is Australia Day, I have given my site a new change of clothes and adopted a Green and Gold theme, the cool tag template for the header image comes from Tracy Ann’s Cool Bits Kit at Scrapbook-Bytes. :)
I have spent the morning filing away bookmarks and updating my RSS feed subscriptions and clearing off my desk, so I can hopefully get some scrapbooking done this evening inbetween watching my favourite Australian TV show at the moment - RAN (Remote Area Nurse).

The other day I picked up this gorgeous little Ethos Poppy & Friends serving plate set from Robins Kitchen.

Poppy plates

Earlier this week on Monday, Pabbi and I, like many other Brisbanites went to the LifeLine Bookfest (a 6 day pre-loved book sale held twice yearly, which is the largest in the world, yep’s that right Brisbane can claim to fame the world’s largest pre-loved book sale and we have had it for the last 16 years). I spent $6.50 and came away with a fistful of crochet, sewing and knitting leaflets/books. Here are a sample of them, click on the thumbnails to see them full size.

anchor flowersanchor pattern This is a leaflet from an iron-on embroidery pattern from Anchor, the iron-on transfer is long gone but cool are the flowers?
learn to One of four little crochet booklets I picked up, just love the front photo on this one, reminds me of a polaroid portrait.

playtime pets Loving the elephants :)
swiss straw Who could go past some Rayon-Raffia accessories, which are still chic today and were used to make a hat in the recent Interweave Knits Crochet edition.


oven mittsspoonsgiant flowers These three are from a Australian Women’s Weekly embroidery leaflet for the contemporary needlewoman. Which it promises are all quick to work in simple stem and chain stitch. The balloon oven mitts are billed as perfect for children to do for presents as they are easy and inexpensive to make.

Polenta Breadsticks

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 :)

polenta breadsticks

refined designed

Unless you are reading this by RSS, you will notice the new design. I like my pages to load quickly, to be light on the graphics and be clean and simple. Well I took a dive further into the theme design pool and after much wrangling, came up with this deisgn.  This new design makes it super easy for me to change the header image, and super quick to load :)

Happy, Clean, Simple. 

silly helen

when I start writing this it is 4:34am, I should have been in bed 4 hrs ago, but what I have been doing - fixing and re-designing the code for this site. I loaded the site up this evening and the side bar was off, played around and played around and could not find the errror, so I loaded my back-up whilst I did this one. I quite like it, still have to add some code back into the sidebar, but I like it, looking good and different. The fab photo in the header was taken by my Mum, who is going to chide me when she reads this post and probably call me a silly girl :D