More picture frames

How cool is this idea... its so simple, and you can change the pictures pretty frequently... love it!!

Here are some other bunched together picture frames that hvave caught my eye... In the picture above, they actually made the day-bed from wooden tile pallets, it seems pretty straightforward as well -from the Design*Sponge blog

This is a bit like my old room at my parents place- it was a huge loft, but I still managed to fill it up and have piles of books and pictures everywhere.. I think i prefer things to be cosy....

Matupit Volcanic Eruptions in Rabaul 1994

So since I'm going back to PNG in about 10 days time, I thought I'd share a story about when I lived there between 1994-1996.  So when I was 9 my parents moved me and my 3 sisters to a little town in new Ireland Province called Namatanai.  It was an amazing place to grow up and I would recommend it to anyone... we used to run wild in the jungle making proper cubby houses cos we had bush knives (like a machete or a pirate's sword I guess...I google image searched but it came up with a million pictures of george bush and swiss army knives grrr...) and could hack away at bamboo and make awesome hideouts... this is when we weren't swimming in water holes or playing soccer or volleyball with kids that lived near us...

Anyway, so New Ireland Province is next to East New Britain Province, and Rabaul was like the "big smoke" with huge markets and proper shops and actual busy roads etc... and we went for a family holiday on the September Independence weekend (when Australia decolonised PNG in 1975) and just happened to be there when the Volcanoes decided to erupt!!

So here is a totally styling picture of my family before we rowed across to climb the volcano hahahaha. I'm the ratbag in the green t-shirt.  That hat i'm wearing blew off my head down into the pit of the volcano, I was really upset my mum wouldn't let me climb down this chain thing to get it, but she wouldn't let  me because I was wearing thongs... in hindsight probably lucky we didn't go down or we could have burned our feet off or got blown away!!!

So we climed the volcano, and i remember being seriously underwhelmed, there was a little bit of stinky sulfur but other than that not very exciting at all!! Our claim to fame is that we were the last people to climb it before it erupted- how do i know this for a fact? Because we paddled across on the Sunday 18th morning from Matapit village and on the way back over the harbour, you could actually feel earthquakes in the water, and the boys who rowed the out-rigger canoes for us said they were cancelling the afternoon ones as they were worried about climibing the volcanoes when there were regular tremours.  I was really scared about the earthquakes, as they got worse all afternoon, but people who live in Rabaul are so used to them happening they just joked about it being like San Fransisco or something... Anyway there was a really really big earthquake around 1am or something on the 19th, and then around 5am in the morning, we heard all these planes fly out from Rabaul airport (EMPTY PLANES BTW), and then the volcano actually erupted around 7am in the morning.

This is a typical photo of Simpson's harbour in Rabaul, it really was a beautiful town before the eruption.

Pretty freaky huh.

 I will never ever forget the mushroom cloud that rose up above the volcano.  Anyway so we were staying with this Aussie vet and we all piled into his car and drove to some people's place that he knew I guess an hour or so out of Rabaul (can't really remember).  It was so weird though, because most people in PNG don't own cars, adn there isn't exactly public transport systems in place, so on the road out of town, there were people walking along the side of the rpad, carrying everything they could save and just walking in this long straight line.  It was a weird feeling thinking that these people might get covered in volcano ash or die there, but my parents convinced us that everyone would be ok, and i guess we believed them a bit.  Enough to not freak out anyway.  So then it rained volcanic ask for a couple of days and there were 17 of us staying in these people's house.  My Dad is a doctor, and he got called out to help people, and amazingly no one was killed from the volcano, but this old guy had a heart attack, and my dad had to pronounce him dead 3 times lol.  So here are some pictures stolen from the internet, because, of course we'd used up all our film the day we went out to climb the volcano, because we thought we were going home the next day!!!


This is a village house. notice how the ground is just ash.  Immediately after the eruption the palmtrees looked like upsidedown umbrellas because the ash was so heavy the fronds couldn't go the right way :(

Just another day in Paradise!

I didn't take this photo, this one and a couple of the others are from
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/tavurvur/interesting/

I have a heap of photos that look a lot like this, but they were all taken on film, when I went back in January 2002.  I used black and white photography and colour prints for the basis of my Year 12 major work for art.  I am still sllightly obsessed with volcanoes, and i don't think that's ever going to change!

Beetroot and avocado salad recipe

 Yummy yummy salad... I've adapted a recipe I found this on my new favourite vego cooking site, recipes are published by Yotam Ottolenghi who is a famous vego chef in London.... Alternatives would be using more green vegies, such as asparagus and snow peas, and change the dressing to a simple balsamic reduction, which would make a sweeter, less 'zinging' salad...

4 medium raw beetroots (around 350g in total)
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
Juice of 1 lime
4 tbsp olive oil, plus a little extra to finish
½ tsp caster sugar
1-3 tsp savoury chilli sauce or paste (eg Tabasco)
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 medium avocados, peeled and thinly sliced
10g coriander leaves
10g mint leaves
1 bag Rocket/Baby spinach mix
150g broad beans, blanched, refreshed and skinned (or frozen soya beans, quickly blanched and refreshed)
1/2 Cup Roasted hazelnuts
Chunks of creamy goat's cheese / Danish feta

Peel the beetroots and slice them very thinly, around 2-3mm thick – if you have one, use a mandolin. (If your beets are large, halve them after peeling, then cut into slices.) Put the beetroot in a pot with plenty of boiling water and simmer for three to five minutes, until semi-cooked; it should still be crunchy. Drain and put in a large bowl.

Add the red onion, vinegar, oil, sugar, chilli sauce, salt and pepper to the beetroot bowl and toss everything together gently – your hands are the best tool for this. Leave to one side for 10-15 minutes, then taste and see if you want to add more sugar, salt or vinegar – it needs to be sharp and sweetish.

When you're ready to serve, spread half the beetroot mixture on a large platter or in a shallow bowl. Top with half the avocado, coriander, mint, pea shoots and broad beans. Add the rest of the beetroot and arrange the remaining ingredients on top. Drizzle with a little oil and to serve just scatter a few roasted hazelnuts and/or chunks of creamy goat's cheese over the top. Serves four to six.

No sleep til.... get your tickets!

I am sooooo excited about seeing the Dropkick Murphys... ever since watching the Departed I have been obsessed (yeah i know late in the game, but better late than never...) with them, so the fact they are playing at an awesome festival on the first day of my holidays is just the best start to summer!!  

I am also excited about Megadeth, I missed them last time they came out, in all their oldschool glammed up metal early 80s glory....  Also super excited about seeing Parkway Drive, I have always managed to miss them, (they are playing in newy in like 2 weeks when I am overseas- booo) so finally, it's time!!!

Also, you can't beat Frenzal Rhomb for ridiculous shit-talk onstage.... although I think the Doctor should think about giving up his Triple J gig after this year, I think we've reached saturation point with him.... especially considering he hasn't got Robbie Buck to make him seem half decent.....

My friend Ozzo also reckons that Katatonia is not to be missed, so fingers crossed they don't all clash on the day!!!!

New tattoo?

I really like the idea of a sailing ship tattoo... maybe like this one?

Love & Want

These necklaces are great...
I like how they suit every mood you have... sometimes all in one day right?

They are made by Ninaribena who lives in Canberra, Australia, and are available from her Etsy store.








Also check out her cool blog http://ninaribenamakes.blogspot.com

Kokoda

I know that this is a bit strange, but rather than thinking about the actual walking of Kokoda, I'm a bit more worried about what to wear....! I know you aren't supposed to care about that, but seriously, I'm not in the army, I don't want to wear khaki for 10 days straight!! What a dilema :(
Only 20 days until we fly out to port Moresby!! I can't wait, but I am a bit scared... still so unfit... arrr

 

Photos stolen from www.kokoda.red-idesign.com.au (mine will be better hahaha)

This reminds me of my friend Peta who is scared of birds...

Paper Castles aren't much good in the rain...

I love this picture.  Stolen from my new favourite blog, owl in the dark: crowns & castles http://owlinthedark.blogspot.com/

Picture Frames

 I went antiquing/op-shopping with my lovely friend Ebz on saturday, and we ended up in the back streets of Islington (amazingly she knew where to go haha- kidding ebz) in these awesome second hand furniture shops.

Anyway, my lover and I are pimping out "our" apartment and I decided to get a whole heap of frames, because I think when bunched together, mismatched but in the same colour they would look awesome.... Ebz and I found so many beautiful frames, that happened to be framing some rather unfortunate pictures/craft that will be binned as soon as I get around to it!  Ebz got to buy the most beautiful golden frame because she's a proper artist, unlike me who clicks my camera and hopes for the best!!!
(Check out her website http://www.birdwoodillustrations.com.au/
My favourite painting isn't on her site, but it is beautiful in its utter moroseness, and reminded me of Mordor...and then I found out it was based on the actual NZ mountain they filmed it at, so how good am I!? )

Anyway we had the yummiest breakfast at this place, Coliseum Antiques, http://www.coliseumantiques.com.au/Home.aspx   and generally had a really really fun morning.... the shop we had breakfast in (best poached eggs mmm) had this antique carved table for $12,900.00 sooooooo beautiful but so freaking expensive!!!

 

Photos borrowed indefinately (ok its larceny I admit it) from various house-lovely blogs, which are listed on the side.  I mean, if you're going to put something on the net, expect it to get borrwed right? The last one is from Design * Sponge 

http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/08/sneak-peek-jo-of-these-are-things.html

My new shoes!

I wore them on Friday night and they made me as tall as a normal person. Quite exciting really!