Family is amazing, right?
I've got some amazing family, who are all very lovely and creative and inspiring.
I've got one sister who is particularly special. She is super lovely and super creative and she inspires me always.
She's just opened her own online shop selling her beautiful handmade collages! She cuts the images out of vintage magazines (and only makes a little bit of mess), and she puts them all together to make these wonderful images.
They're mostly all based on the sea, because she loves marine life (she's even got her scuba diving licence!). And did I mention she's only 17! Wowee.
You can see more of her prints at her Society 6 page. Go check them out!
I think I must be the last person to own both these books, but I'm so glad that I waited so long to get them.
They're the first cookbooks published by two of my favourite bloggers; Joy The Baker and Orangette.
They're basically the blogs in book form, sometimes witty, always divine, they're the perfect addition to my ever growing cookbook collection.
Now excuse me while I go and make a peanut butter and jam milkshake...
~ A friend from my old job introduced me to Wolf Parade when I complained about needing new music to listen too. They're almost like a mix between Modest Mouse and Arcade Fire. I like it. ~
Just a little reminder for myself and for everyone else who needs encouragement. It's ok to be brave! It's very ok.
Don't be scared. Try wearing a bright lipstick, or your fancy high heels that you're saving for a special day. Talk to someone you wouldn't normally talk to. Make something special for dinner, even if it looks tricky. Put yourself out there! Life takes courage, just keep just keep reminding yourself.
When I'm waiting for the kettle to boil in the morning, when I'm walking home from work, when I'm doing the shopping, when I'm making coffee for customers, before I fall asleep... I can't stop thinking.
Sometimes I think about what I'm going to write in my assignment, or what to have for dinner, or what I should get my step mum for her birthday. But sometimes I think about what I'm going to write about here. I plan it out in my head, try to come up with something funny to say (which doesn't usually happen), and think of things other than uni to talk about.
But even if I've come up with a great story to write about, I haven't cooked anything to go with it. This is where the problems start. Because I can't stop thinking, the stories that I come up with get pushed out of my brain by new, more exciting stories to write about. And then these ones get pushed out of the line by some other, even more interesting story to tell.
And then, all of a sudden, I've forgotten all my stories. I end up with nothing to say. This usually happens just as I've cooked something nice. Something so nice and new and delicious that I've got to share it. But the worst thing is, that I really want to write something. Anything.
For the last week, I've been thinking about what I could write about. But then all the stories got pushed out of my brain by the end of semester, because I had to fill it up with boring references about lesson plans.
But the good thing is, I haven't even cooked anything that I haven't cooked before, so I've got no food ideas to share with you. What I do have, though, is some pictures of Brent and I at the snow on the weekend, and a really nice song by a band called The Chemist.
For the simple things. The long days. The excitement of home-time. Playing kiss and catch in the playground. All the adventures that my Barbie dolls would have. Playing dress-ups. Getting home from school in time to watch all my favourite shows. Those were the days. Everything was simple. When you're little, you can't wait to grow up. You think it'll be the best thing in the world to be able to do whatever you want, whenever you want and not having parents tell you that you what to do.
Don't get me wrong, being an adult has it's perks. I can stay up as late as I want. Eat whatever I want. Watch whatever I want. But nothing is simple as an adult. People still tell you what to do. And you have to pay all your bills and stress about your assignments and you have to work all the time. I just want everything to be simple again.
Just for one day, I want my mum to tuck me in to bed and read to me. Just like when I was little. I want to feel like I don't have a care in the world and all I have to worry about is what game I'm going to play at lunch time. I want to spend all day reading and playing and colouring outside of the lines.
Eating these rice snacks makes me feel a bit like a kid. They're like the adult version of a childhood favourite. When I get home from work, I can eat one with my afternoon cup of tea and not have to think about anything. I probably won't watch cartoons, but I can do all the things that my adult-self likes to do: Go on twitter and read a whole lot of blogs. And I can put off all the things I need to do for just that little bit longer.
Rice snacks.
Adapted from Vanilla & Lace 1/4-1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups organic puffed rice (or other rice cereal)
Heat honey and peanut butter over medium heat until it thickens slightly, about 2 minutes. (You could probably do this in the microwave, if you wanted)
Add vanilla.
Pour the honey mix over the puffed rice in a large bowl. It looks as if there isn't enough honey mixture to coat all the rice, but just keep mixing until it's all coated evenly. Press into oiled 20cm square dish.
Refrigerate for 1 hour, then turn out and cut into squares. Keep refrigerated.
I'm sorry blog, I've been neglecting you. It's not you, honest, but I've found someone else - or rather, something else - and it's taking away all my spare time!
I didn't mean too, I promise, but this new thing has something that I really like to do: look at nice pictures of things.
They call it, tumblr, and it seems like everyone is doing it these days.
But I promise, when I get back from holidays this week, I'll cook lots of nice things for you and post lots of nice pictures and I'll be super talkative.
But until then, if you like to look at nice pictures of pretty things, you can head over to my tumblr, where I've been hanging out a lot lately.
Sometimes, things don't plan out the way you expected. Even the little things. Sometimes I'm not the perfect housewife I imagine myself to be (and I'm not even married, things must be all kinds of messed up around here).
You get up in the morning with a plan for the day: Meet a friend at 10 for coffee, finish doing the housework (i.e. finish watching "True Blood"), and eventually make something delicious for dinner.
But things don't always go as planned. Your Dad calls in the morning and tells you that your sister and her friend want to go see a movie and you should go too ("The Social Network" was pretty interesting, in case you were wondering), you don't end up meeting your friend till late, and then you have to pick up some new litter for the cat because he's so fussy all the time and doesn't like the stuff that he has at the moment. When you finally come home, you've forgotten to get anything for dinner and there's only 'other stuff' in the house (i.e. pasta and rice but nothing to go with it). Your lovely boyfriend is tired from work and doesn't know what he wants to eat, so you have to go to the grocer and there isn't much to choose from, so you end up getting fancy rissoles and some lettuce. Your lovely boyfriend fires up the barbecue, and starts to cook them. The patties are so big that they never really get cooked in the middle, but they're very crisp on the outside, so you decide to put the in the oven for a bit. But then you both forget about them (the news can be really interesting sometimes), and by the time you remember to pull them out, they're ridiculously crisp and burnt, so you end up throwing them out and having eggs on toast instead. And then your cat gets his paw stuck down behind the heater and can't get out (good one, Rooney).
But these things happen. And this isn't even bad! If burnt rissoles are the biggest problem I've got, I guess my life is pretty good. People burn things, life goes on, the clock keeps ticking on by. I just have to remind myself this sometimes.
But tomorrow, I'll be ready. You better watch out, Friday, here I come...
