Christmas Crafternooning

Do you know how enjoyable it is spreading coloured card all over the table, having metallic pens and glitter glue to decorate with and spending a whole afternoon wrapped up in stars and coloured pencils?

It's seriously fantasticawesome!

My mess!

Drink lots of caffeinated bevs, it is Xmas after all.

Merry Christmas Mum & Dad & sister blisters! x

Warsaw's Old Town.

A few Fridays ago Tomek and I went for a stroll through the old town. Everything is beautifully lit up with fairy lights ~ trees, fountains, statues etc. Its really magical. Unfortunately these photos don't do it justice but I guess they give you some idea of what it looks like at 4pm...

Porridge!

It’s interesting what stirs the nostalgia beast within one, don’t you think?

Since it started snowing here recently (I feel like I’m living inside a snow globe!) its gotten substantially colder. Which has resulted in me pulling out the oats and making porridge for breakfast. Nothing unusual in that you might say, but for me it opened the floodgates to so many childhood memories.

This morning I added leftover rice and sultanas which reminded me of my grandfather: Grumpy. When our grandparents lived with us Grumpy cooked porridge most mornings. It was sort of a gourmet version though because we had it with pouring cream and Lyle’s golden syrup and sometimes added extras like rice. He was a wonderful grandfather and a man of enormous integrity, I kind of let myself dwell on my memories of him even though it made me feel sad and miss him as well.

I usually make my porridge with soymilk, oats and honey though, and that is the recipe I grew up on. When I’m eating it I can almost hear my Dad caterwauling “Can someone please stir the porridge, I can’t do three things at once” and I’m transported back to those mornings of rushing around getting ready for school. Everyone timing how long you took in the bathroom or on the piano because there were so many of us.

Now lets be honest, most people probably don’t experience this sort of trip down memory lane over a bowl of grey gruel. Much less someone who complained about having to eat it every day of her childhood and sometimes tipped it in the compost when she got the chance. So I don’t think it's so much the taste that gets me but the fact that it reminds me of sitting round a table with my family, laughing a lot of the time, probably screaming and fighting quite a bit as well but overall loving the hell out of one another.

The Cinema

So the other night Ania & Sven took us to a pretty spec venue (the Kinoteka Cinema) to see a film, I mean we're talking quirky, magnificent and downright odd all rolled into one. As well as the phenomenal building itself there were life-size 'Oscar' statues stuck on the walls, giant Babushka dolls plonked in the corners of the candy bar, dusty framed pictures of Russian cosmonauts lining the stairwell and a miniature Russian specialty food stand in the corner of the foyer complete with old Russian lady manning it. 

Needless to say it beat Hoyts hands down - I will definitely be going back for more!

P.S. the movie we saw was called Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with Colin Firth and Gary Oldman. I was lost ten minutes in but I thought the acting was good and I'm going to watch it again to find out what happens. Has anyone else seen it? What did you think? 

P.P.S. - If you read my blog I would totally LOVE you to follow it! x 

From the outside...

The Foyer...

Disco ceiling!

Waiting area (LOVE that ceiling!!!)

Just a GIANT crystal chandelier...

Me and Babushka!

Miliewo

So you know it was Tomek's birthday a few weekends ago, and at the last minute he sprung it on me that his birthday wish was to go to Miliewo for the weekend (I use the word 'sprung'  because at this time of the year it is a bloody cold weekend you're looking at). 

Miliewo is T's brother's country house, its very picturesque and supremely peaceful and quiet. Behind the house there is a lake with a jetty stretching out onto it that you can sit and meditate on; there are often swans on the lake and local fishermen. Surrounding the house are woods which smell wonderfully 'woody' and have that kind of velvety muffled silence. They sort of remind me of the Narnian woods but perhaps not quite so lively. And this place is teeming with European wildlife like boars and deer and moles to boot! 

It was frigging cold but ultimately a really lovely weekend!

 

 

  

Room with a View

One of the perks about living in a flat 3 storeys up is you get to people watch all the time. This is the street below my bedroom window, its quite busy and I like staring from it. I also love the trees because they're so witchy,wintery and spidery and they make me think of fairy tales.

Sunday

The other day I met Tomek’s lovely friend Paulina when she was visiting Poland. She kindly spent her last Sunday in Warsaw walking us all over the city and showing us little nooks and crannies, bars and libraries that we’d never have stumbled upon by ourselves. 

Check out the fabulous jeweled bodices that we found in the back of a bar out the back of a vodka distillery... weird but wonderful!

 

*All photos dutifully pinched from Tomek's phone (as he takes much nicer pictures than me)
 

Dough Ray Mee...

modern chef... wears pink and refers to an Ipad

Recently Mr. T has been making sourdough bread on a regular basis. From scratch I might add - as in using his own culture, kneading and raising the dough and fussing over whether it hits the mark or not…

When we sit down to our first bite he usually critiques its taste, texture, height, crust-credentials etc. and sometimes I find it almost impossible to resist the urge to pick up the innocent loaf and whisk it out of the room until he has finished his rant.

Jesus thongs aren't mandatory in the kitchen but I get the impression that they aid the creative process (for T anyway)

In the humble opinion of someone who’s never made a sourdough, its pretty yumma-liscious. Its perfectly balanced (not too sweet or gluggy), suits every spread and is more-ish without sticking to the roof of your mouth…

Shucks, I must be in love!

Off To The Zoo!

So today me, Tomek, Tomek's uncle Marek, and Marek’s grandson Ziegmund went to the zoo. It was so incredibly fun and fascinating I can't recommend it highly enough! (If you haven’t been for a while go - with or without kids!!) 

We saw so many, many, many things…baboons play-fighting and waving their odd pink bums in the air, a muscly gorilla swaggering around and pounding his chest and bellowing, lions lounging, seals, penguins, meerkats, zebra, bison, giraffes, elephants, anacondas, turtles, lizards, flamingos and waaaay more. 

Crimson Rosellas and Magpies on display - weirded me out!

We saw a rhino, Tomek was prits stoked!

awkward...

sad simba

Tomek reckons they can eat cows...

stylish Ziggy posing in front of the hippo tank.

Afterwards we went to a pasta restaurant for lunch. Then to a café to eat chocolate eclairs, custard pastries and apple cake with espressos... pretty blisserific!!

 After our cake-out we went for a walk through Warsaw’s famous Lazienki Park which was full of autumn leaves, afternoon sunlight and squirrels. Perfectly fabulous day!

Uncle Tomek -great method of transport...

Designer Minor

Its funny…

When I began designing this blog I was using greys and blacks and creams. And then I suddenly thought: what the hell??!! I am so not clean lines, co ordination, subtlety and effortless chic… what was I thinking??!!

It turns out I am lobster font in bubblegum pink.

The maps? Well, I think its about time I figured out where I am in life and I also think my Dad will appreciate them because he’s forever complaining that I don’t speak map (but am making a concerted effort to learn)

p.s. its already freezing and I only have one woollen jumper – feck!

A few snaps from Krakow...

A teeny bit of Wawel Castle.

Zagala madness...

Polish amber - I want me some!!

Awesome lamp-lit markets

Cute tourist

Evidence of the ice cream mania sweeping Poland!!

Floor and statue both made out of salt!!

Polish Booty!

When we went to Krakow we stayed with Tomek’s cousin Beata and her husband Robert. They were wonderfully hospitable, and as well as cooking for us and taking us into their home they showed us around the city and took us to some famous sites. We walked around the old town, visited Wawel Castle (pronounced Var-Vell), the Wieliczka salt mines and The Oscar Schindler Museum. These are the cute little booties that Beata lent me to keep my feet warm after all the walking, I’ve seen similar ones being sold on the street and when I find the right ones I am going to get me a pair or two…

Booty-liscious!

Melbourne Gallery Days

Me, my Dad and my sister Ava treat ourselves to a 'gallery day' about once every three months. I love them. We have coffees, lunch, we chat, we walk all over the city together and we mosey into about 10 or 12 galleries.

Sometimes I see stuff I like and sometimes (pretty rarely) I see stuff that makes me tingle all over with excitement and inspiration and want to run home and get out my pencils immediately. 

These paintings were so exquisitely beautiful I can't forget them. The photos don't do the colours or the overall luminosity of this artist's work justice. I stood in front of these works and just drank in the colour with my eyes. 

The artist's name is Julia Ritson (www.juliaritson.com), she is represented by Scott Livesey Galleries in Melbourne, she also makes beautiful silk scarves.