seafar

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!

A trip to warmer climes.

 

In February, Brent and I spent a few weeks in Queensland, on the Sunshine Coast. It was warm and lovely and hardly rained at all while we were there! We kissed seals, drank lots of beer, hung out at the Surf Life Saving Club, and read so many good books. 

Now that the weather in Hobart is freezing, gets dark at 4.00pm and seems to rain everyday, I thought I'd share some photos from our trip, to make us all long for warmer times.

~This seemed like the obvious song to put with this post, but I couldn't bring myself to be that obvious, so I've gone completely in the other direction and included something entirely unrelated ~

It's very ok.

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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.

Friday I'm in Love: This moment.

[I realise that this post is a day late, but just pretend it's on time.]

[image from 365 lucky days]

Right at this moment, my life is pretty nice. I'm almost on holidays from uni, and the weather finally realised that it's supposed to be Spring, and has shown us some sunny love. So here's a list of things that I'm loving right now, and things that I'm obsessed with:

• I love the feeling of hot sun on my shoulders
• I'm really looking forward to seeing Gotye in December. I can't wait!
• Pinterest helps me procrastinate when I should be studying
• I can't stop listening to this album
• Adding juice to wine that isn't very good and calling it punch
• This website makes me want to delete my facebook
• I really need to make this printed canvas
• This lady inspires me so much
• I would really like to try embroidery (see point above)

I hope you're having a good weekend! And I hope it's sunny where you are. 

A long time.

Brent and I have lived in our tiny apartment for over a year now, and we've only just got it looking nice.

It's taken a long time.

I finally put all my nice prints into frames, rather than having them blue-tacked onto the wall like some poor uni student (which, lets face it, I kinda am).

I've wanted a picture wall in the lounge room for a long time, and I finally took some initiative and did it. It only took me a couple of hours to buy the frames, clean them up, put the prints in, and hang them up.

I feel like a real adult now!

Friday I'm In Love: Before I die.

The other day at work, my friend asked me what bands I would most like to see before I died. 

I couldn't think of a single band. 

When people put me on the spot I get all flustered and I could only think of stupid bands (The Spice Girls), or ones that I've seen already (Tegan & Sara). And to make matters worse, her answers were all trendy (Radiohead, Daft Punk, Portishead) and so were everyone else's. 

But I couldn't stop thinking about it. What bands would I most like to see? Out of all the bands, ever, there must be someone that I would most like to see. Surely.

I didn't take my first steps on a dance floor as a baby just to have no answer to this question. 

But I thought long and hard about it, and I came up with a list, and I could probably tell you one memory related to each song: 

Bjork. 

I think my dad introduced me to Bjork. Or maybe when I was a kid I just really liked the umbrella dance routine in 'It's oh so quiet', either way, I now own all her albums and went through a stage when I wanted to listen to Hyperballad every day. 

The Cure.

I like their upbeat stuff more than their gothic stuff, but I just can pass up all that big hair. I liked 'Love Cats' long before I realised who The Cure actually were. And then in year 11 it was really cool to listen to them, and I jumped on that bandwagon for life. 

The Smiths.

I listened to The Smiths a lot in years 11 and 12. They remind me of my friends Leah and Susan, when we'd stay at each others' houses and drink cheap champagne. Those were the days... 

Arcade Fire.

I'm pretty sure that my aformentioned friend Susan introduced me to Arcade Fire. When Brent and I were in  Glasgow, we went to a pub that had this album playing on repeat. Now that's all I can think about when I listen to them. Ahhh... Scotland.

Tom Waits.

Mostly I like the way Tom Waits sounds like he's been drinking lots of whisky and smoking even more cigarettes for a really long time. But it's all beautiful. I think my dad also introduced me to Tom Waits. I remember him listening to it as a kid, and I had no idea why he wanted to listen to that weird guy with the deep, crackly voice.

What bands would you most like to see before you die?

Be right back...

Hello there! I haven't been around because I've got a lot of work to do, but I keep thinking about writing posts, because I miss my little blog, so I thought I'd stop by to say hello, and that I'm coming back with lots of recipes for foccaccia and jaffa cake. Soon! Very soon.

In the meantime, here's a (blurry) picture of me with my new glasses:



And here's a lovely song for you:

Hey! Bag lady!

I've seen these posts popping up in blogs all over the place, and honestly, I felt a bit silly doing one, but I really wanted to! And since I had to change bags today to go to the library, I thought now was a good a time as any.

My bag isn't that exciting, unfortunately. I mean, text books?! Boooooring! But it was good to clean out my bag, if anything. Usually the bottom of my bag is full of scrunched up bits of paper and pens that I've stolen from work (whoops!).

At the moment, it's got all the things I need: wallet (from Topshop), a scarf, pencil case, phone, ipod, sunglasses, lipgloss. Even though this isn't my favourite bag (my favourite one is a vintage navy blue one that I got at the op-shop for $3), it does hold all my stuff good and proper (this one is from Sportsgirl).

And since I was wearing my library outfit today, I thought I better share a photo of that, too (A vintage green button-up shirt with a bow at the front, and a pair of jeans).

belated birthday.

My blog birthday went slowly past, and I didn't even realise. I can't believe I've had apples & almonds running for a whole year! To be honest, when I started this blog I thought it would last for about two months before being left by the wayside.

But I've kept it going, and I've learnt so much, and I've even made a few bloggy friends! Over the year, I've done 98 posts, I've had 14,521 page views, been featured on Foodista and Tastespotting. I've slowly developed my food photography skills and I'm slowly developing my own writing style.

And since I've made it this far, I have no doubt that I can make it to next year.

So for a birthday round-up, here's a list of my favourite posts so far on apples & almonds. Here's to another year!

Anarchy cupcakes. (My very first post!)

Orange cake.

Cheeseburgers.

Red pesto.

Gingerbread biscuits.

Toffee apple cake.

Breakfast pies.

Sugar and spice biscuits.

Limoncello.

Rainbow cake.

Chocolate eclairs.

The dress that I made all by myself.

Olive savoury muffins.

Thank you for being here! Ursula x

follow.

I walk the same way to work every day.
Usually I just listen to music and don't pay attention to my surroundings.




But today I paid attention, and I noticed some things I'd never noticed before.
I hadn't noticed that the blossom is out, even though it's still winter.




I noticed that the bare, twisted trees look like something out of a Tim Burton movie.
I realised that I like walking to walk so early in the morning when there is nobody else around.
As if I'm alone in this city.




And unlike someone I know, I really like winter.
Not only does it give me a legitimate excuse for staying inside all day,
but I like the cold weather.
Especially when it's getting closer to the summertime.

If only.

I've been watching The Renovators, and it's really making me wish I had some spare time and lots of money to do up my house all nice.
Because Brent and I rent our (tiny) apartment, we can't do anything to it. A shame, really. I'd love to put up some nice, textured wallpaper in our bedroom...

Here are some pictures of my dream house. One day. If only.

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All of the lights, all of the lights.

The other night, I went to a light installation with my family. It was in the botanical gardens, which are really beautiful in the day. But at night, they got transformed into this crazy space of light and noise.
Some of the installations were really beautiful. Some were a bit creepy. But I took a couple of photos (on my phone) and wanted to share.








This song even kinda reminds me of the music that matched the lights.

Tumble down.

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.

http://alusru.tumblr.com/

Joyeux Noel.

Christmas is always a good day with my family. Lots of food and presents and fun times.
I hope you had a lovely Christmas this year, and I hope your New Years is just as fun!
Happy Holidays. x.