The Carrot

Not that I needed one dangled at the end of a stick yesterday to get me to go to the art museum. I don't usually do with art shows. It's when the boyfriend wants to go see one of those prehistoric beasts or old planes/trains/automobile exhibits that I need the promise of a visit to the museum shop at the end of the day.

I've always loved the store at the Museum of Contemporary Art. It's not a big one but it has a good mix of books and cutesy things. I was hoping to find miniatures of some of Olarfur Eliasson's installations - no luck. If I were him, I would make some. They'll fly out of the doors.

I left with the Charles Saatchi Q&A book and a bunny.

People's opinions of Saatchi and his art collection are very polarised. I don't know the man but I've long admired the work that he's done at his agency since my media school-days. And the art that he buys are the sort that I would buy if I have his kind of money.

Anyway, the book is a good easy read if you're Saatchi-curious. It was hard to put down - I stayed up way past my bedtime last night reading it.

I like that we can send questions to him, for his next book perhaps? I might ask for one of his paintings.

The bunny - We've named her Marshmallow.

Thanks to my bloggy-pal Chou, really. She recently sent me a link (she sends me the most thoughtful ones!) to artist Kristiana Parn's site where there are loads of adorable critters frolicking under and on her Marshmallow Trees. Go have a look. You'll fall in love too.

Marshmallow now lives under the shade of the gingko flowers of our coffeetable. On the grassy green rug.

You don't know how happy I was when we finally found the rug in the right shade of green at Ikea in late 2008! I was ready to buy some Astroturf to see my silly plan to fruition - to have our own little forest of cute woodland creatures and gnomes and pixies on our living room floor.

It's a work-in-progress - the boyfriend is still not convinced that I need one of these (after quite a few years of me demanding like a spoilt brat) but we might be getting Marshmallow a gay hot pink pal soon, if the gallery we saw him at opens. We've been there twice during opening hours and the door was locked both times.

Feeding Our Brains

No little epicurious trips for us this weekend. We went to the Olafur Eliasson exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art today instead.

Finally got to see this...

Image from MCA's website

...his amazing One-Way Colour Tunnel and many other large-scale installations and intimate smaller pieces.

The boyfriend and I were like children in a huge educational toyshop, trying to figure how everything was put together and how they work. I like art that works my mind!

Taking about minds, Eliasson, a wizard at the manipulation of light and shapes, either has a super analytical and mathematical one (he has to to think up and construct these mind-bloggling structures of extreme complexity) or he's got access to some serious mind-warping potions.

Take the boyfriend's favourite piece Multiple Grotto, for example. It is a gigantic walk-in kaleidoscope made up of many mirrored spiky cones which made me feel like I was looking out from inside a diamond. I think it takes a genius to figure out how to make those metallic cones of different sizes and angles all fit perfectly together to form something that works and makes sense.

My favourite is another kaleidoscopic number, the Sunset Kaleidoscope. It certainly made me see the iconic Opera House and its surrounds in a whole new light! I wanted to take a photo of the prettiness through the kaleidoscope but I wasn't allowed.

However, I did get one from the outside. Haha. I learnt from the museum volunteer whom we chatted with about the piece that the kaleidoscope is also a periscope! Mindfuck city again!

See that white box protruding from the window? That's one end of it, the "image-capturing" end. The viewing end, the bit that we peer into, is one floor up. I wouldn't have known if I didn't ask the volunteer how Eliasson managed to work so many mirrors and depth in with such a tiny box.

The exhibition ends 11 April and I highly recommend you go see and feel it. Even if you're not into art. It's very accessible stuff - pieces that you don't have to understand (and read waffly artist's blurbs about) in order to enjoy and have fun with.

Oh, there's a whole bench of white LEGO bricks (three tonnes of them!) for visitors to use to create and develop their own Eliasson-like structures. Models will evolve as subsequent visitors make modifications and changes to them. See, told you it'll be fun.

The Museum of Contemporary Art
Circular Quay West
Sydney
Open 7 days from 10.00am to 5.00pm
Website: www.mca.com.au

And some pretty things that we spotted on the way home...

Five happy pink balloons "floating" on a lamp post.

And Forgotten Songs, an installation of hanging empty bird cages in Angel Place.

We were pleasantly surprised to hear "tweeting" as we got closer! Some sensor thing I think because a few more people came into the alley after we did and the "birdsong" got louder.

Reminded me very much of the old men and their prized birds in expensive cages at bird-singing competitions back in Singapore.

I've Beaten Uncle Karl To It Again!

First, it was the clogs. Now this...

Image from here

...the "Grenade Cape" shown this week at the Chanel Haute Couture show.

A cape fashioned out of the "gems" that I use to make The Empress Dowager's New Jewels!

I don't know if I should be happy, you know, the great-minds-think-alike thing. Plus I was there before him.

Or be upset because the market might soon be flooded with cheap made-in-China pieces manufactured using my chosen medium of fabric "gems". Mass-produced and sold at lower-than-low prices that I cannot match because I am a one-girl cottage industry.

And you know what? I'm in the process of making a prototype for a capelet. Have had the idea since I started making The Empress Dowager's New Jewels last year but have not had the time to trial it (this Chanel piece took 700 hours to make) - pals can vouch for me. Now people are going to think that I stole Uncle Karl's idea. Bah-some.

Oooooh! A Face!

Peasant Blouse - recently-thrifted, Cut-offs - from secondhand jeans, Stretchy Jute Belt - secondhand, Clogs - Swedish Hasbeens

This was meant to be a post about the newly-thrifted peasant blouse but the hair looked pretty good (settled nicely a week after the last cut) this morning so I thought I should show it off.

Pals who are wondering about the current state of my "shattered" pudding bowl haircut, this is how it's looking now. If I allow my hairdresser to keep going shorter on the "Mary Quant/Spock" side, I think I'll end up with one of those spikey-on-one-side 80s hairstyle!

Oh, and the funny pose is to show the long flappy sleeves off. Not expose what the boyfriend has named "Doughnut" - my round happy belly.

Alright, back to the peasant blouse...

Another find on our last op-shopping trip to suburbs that we've never been before. This was found in the St. Vinnies in West Ryde. Or was it North Ryde? I can't remember now (we went to both and more) but it was quite a big one next to a church. Very well-organised racks and the air-con was on full-blast (a welcome respite from that steamy day!).

Isn't the embroidery pretty? It's done by machines not by hand but it's alright. Old hand-embroidered things are hard to come by nowadays or are in ratty condition. Pretty lucky to have found this with most of the stitches still intact and not yellow with age to add to my collection of white embroidered things. Yay!

Bubblegum Clogs!

The new candy-coloured Braided Sky Highs from the Spring/Summer collection by Swedish Hasbeens, home of my favourite footwear.

If they didn't have such high heels (4.1 inches!), I'd love a pair in this baby-blue-Mint.

Might even make myself wear cotton-candy Pink.

The Whites are good too. New pasl for my other white shoes.

Oh, and the disco mirror-ball Silver! Want!

I hope they will make some Braided Lows (a very comfortable 2-inch heel) in these new colours soon!

My four-month-old ones need some new pals. I've been wearing them nearly everyday this Summer. So often that they've turned a beautiful deep tan and have also given me clog tan lines on my feet. Haha. But the clogs show very little sign of wear-and-tear.

I know I go on about them quite a bit here but they are seriously the best shoes ever! If you intend to jump on the clogs bandwagon, get some Hasbeens. I bet you they'll be a million times more comfortable to wear than those designer pairs, purely because Hasbeens has been making them for yonks - it's all about how the contours of the wood mould to your feet.

Out Comes The Steamer Basket Again

The seldom-used bamboo basket was very happy to be out to play again. Twice in a week! Woo!

His playmates this time were some frozen man tou that we brought home from Ho's Dim Sim Kitchen.

These fluffy white pillows are like bread to the Chinese. Great for mopping up sauces and gravies left on plates after we've devoured the solids, usually something soy-braised. Also very good with the thick red sauce of Singapore's famous Chilli Crabs. Phwoar.

Like planning an outfit around a new pair of shoes or handbag, I made a very weather-inappropriate dish just so we could eat them on Tuesday (it was a muggy 31°C day) - a traditional soy-braised chicken which I made untraditional with the addition of cider (cooking with alcohol! Yay!).

It was good (the meat was falling off the bone without much persuasion) despite all the sticky sweat at the dinner table.

Australia On A Plate*

Today is Australia Day. It marks the "anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet of 11 convict ships from Great Britain, and the raising of the Union Jack at Sydney Cove by its commander Captain Arthur Phillip, in 1788".

I'm not Australian but I feel pretty fortunate to be able to live here. You would too if you love to eat as much as I do.

Good produce, the core of a great meal, is in abundance all year round whether you choose to cook them at home or have them prepared for you in the many top-notch restaurants. Just take a look at what we had for brunch today...

The cherry jam I made with fruits from Koala Country Orchards in Yarck, Victoria and port by Penfolds Wines in Magill, South Australia. The cream is from King Island Dairy in Tasmania. The figs are grown locally in Sydney by a man called Joe Oliveri who supplies them to Harris Farm Markets where we shop. The crumpets were made here too from local ingredients.

This will be our seventh year living in Sydney and the novelty of having a meal made from all local produce has not worn off. If you've lived most of your life in land-scarce Singapore, where almost everything has to be flown in, you'd understand.

*I borrowed the post title from a food company called Australia On A Plate. They stock a lot of made-in-Australia goodness.

New Furwy Fwiend

(Do not carry on reading if dead animals freak you out!)

Thanks to the Thrifting Goddess again for sprinkling sparkly lucky confetti over me!

On Saturday when we were out exploring new suburbs and their op shops and secondhand stores, I found a new furry friend (left) for myself and for the stoat stole (right) that I bought at a flea market in Canberra last year.

I haven't been allowed to buy anymore furry things (this is my seventh piece since I bought my very first) but again, the boyfriend lifted the ban because it was so cute. So was my pwease-pwease-can-I-take-it-home-pwease face.

It's old (vintage, if you like) fur like my older one on the left. However, it's made from two larger animals joined together instead of eight smaller ones.

I thought I got myself more stoats but I think I was wrong - their bodies are too long and they don't have the distinctive black tip at the end of their tails. But it doesn't matter, really, as long as they are cute and shnuggly. Wearing them is maybe about the only one thing that's making me look forward to the arrival of the colder months.

I wonder if people will be less judgmental (see here) this year now that my wish - for fur-wearing to be "the norm like back in the glamourous good ol' days where no one bats an eyelid when you wear a dead fox around your neck" - has sort of come true, with nearly every girl and her best-friend-forever (perhaps even some who were "anti-fur" before?) piling them on this Winter in the Northern Hemisphere. It sucks sometimes being too early an adopter-of-things.

The Thrifting Goddess Loves Me!

You know how some days when you feel you're going to score big shopping or thrifting even before you leave home? I had that feeling over the weekend.

We found this chocolate 70s Hanimex Lamp at a secondhand furniture shop yesterday. And we paid only 30% of the already-low price because the shop was closing down!

We've driven by the shop nearly every weekend for months but we've never stopped because parking is a pain. When I saw the "closing down" sign yesterday, I said to boyfriend that we have to go, even if it meant parking far away and walking back. Glad we did.

And you know what, I was just admiring the pair of orange ones they have at Doctor Pong on Friday! When we popped in for a drink before dinner.

It's not the banker's lamp that I've been looking out for but it'll do. Now, we'll have go find a light tube that fits and see if it works. Woo!

Exciting New Discovery: Achacha

That's one of the many reasons why we love shopping for fruit-and-veg at Harris Farm! There are always new delicious things to discover.

The Achacha, a fruit native to the Amazon Basin of Bolivia, is now being grown in North Queensland. I've not seen or heard about it until yesterday when the lady behind the promo cart offered us some.

How does it taste? Very much like the tropical mangosteen which I love!

You can learn all about the Achacha and the various ways to eat it on the grower's site. It's a very interesting and informative read!

Weekend Binge

The Likkle Girl's Dim Sum Kitchen
Steaming the Dai Baos ("BIG buns") and lotus leaf-wrapped glutinous rice for dinner.

We bought them this afternoon, right after lunch, at Ho's Dim Sim Kitchen. We haven't been in a while so quite a few other things got thrown into the bag too.

Ho's is take-away dim sum heaven! Frozen or ready-to-go.

I'm not a big fan of frozen food but Ho's, if heated right, taste like they've just been made.

Their spelling is not so good, though. Tee hee hee.

Chat Thai
Where we had lunch before the big shop at Ho's up the road.

This is my new favourite thing-to-eat there. The Sukho Thai - thin rice noodles in a really delicious spicy and sour chicken stock. I've eaten it at least once a fortnight for the last two months and can eat it everyday!

The boyfriend's new favourite. The Tohm Liead Moo - an offal-lover's wet dream.

Piggy insides such as the heart, intestines, sweetbread (yucky glands!), liver and coagulated blood (that brown cube there). Disgusting!

The Likkle Girl's Pizza Kitchen
Dinner last night. Had to purge the fridge and freezer of bits and pieces before bringing home new fruit and vegetables today.

This one's got olives, artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes. On mozzarella and the last of our frozen pizza bases.

Had to do a cheese box clean-out too so made two smaller super-cheesy ones with leftover pitta bread as bases.

Topped with mozzarella, cheddar (Mersey Valley) and a blue (St. Agur).

BURP!!!!

Eating At Alice's

Still a little miffed that yesterday wasn't the perfect gloriously sunny day that I thought it'd be - the air was hot but was not accompanied by constant sunshine, only pockets of it. You can tell the from this photo...

...cloudy despite the sweltering heat. Bah.

Makan @ Alice's ("makan" is "eat" in Malay) in the suburb of Thornleigh across the bridge was our lunch destination yesterday.

Probably not a good idea to be eating greasy and spicy Malaysian food on such a sweaty day but hey, we do it everyday back in Singapore so why not, we thought. Adds authenticity. Haha. Besides, we've been told so much about Alice's by many for so long and we haven't been.

An icy cold Chendol to start. The best that I've had in Sydney! The palm sugar syrup makes this drink/dessert and they were very generous with it.

The boyfriend's order of Hainanese Chicken Rice. They didn't do too well with this - the chilli sauce is the most important element here and it wasn't right.

My Char Kway Teow.

We got there too late for the blackboard special - Har Mee (prawn noodle soup). Was deciding between the Laksa (a must-have, according to those who have raved about Alice's) and the Char Kway Teow. The latter won because of the heat.

The fried rice noodles were alright. Didn't rock my world. I like them done a different style - slightly wetter (but not soggy), sweeter and darker.

Pals from Singapore will understand what I mean when I say this is a breakfast-style Char Kway Teow (dry like the Char Bee Hoon), not the lunch or dinner version.

Will we be going back to Alice's? Only if the lovely lady from the vintage furniture store nearby calls us if/when she finds us our dream armchairs. Maybe it's not fair to pass judgement based only on the two things that we've tried but it's a long drive out for food that might not be good again the next time. Apologies to people who highly recommended it. We really wanted to like it.

Makan @ Alice's
262/264 Pennant Hills Rd
Thornleigh
NSW 2120
Phone: (02) 9484 8288

At 4.30PM Today

That put an end to the 39°C (at one point, it hit 41°C! Woo!) day I was looking so much forward to.

Fortunately, we were done with our little exploring (eating and thrift store-hopping) trip to a few suburbs across the Harbour Bridge before the gusty wind brought dust and the rain clouds in.

It pissed down the moment we got home and the heat-hating boyfriend is now happy because of the 20-odd°C drastic drop in temperature. Bah.

A Shameless Self-Congratulatory Post

In which you get to see a close-up of the stack of necklaces that I wore in the last post.

Took the photo yesterday for a Q&A article featuring The Empress Dowager's New Jewels on the Finders Keepers blog. And then decided that I should wear them out in the evening with a different dress.

The article, meant to be posted next week, went "live" this afternoon! A few hours after I sent it across. Woo!

I'm on cloud nine now. It may not sound very ambitious on my part but when I first started making the New Jewels, one of my aims was to show at the Finders Keepers Markets one day, being a huge fan of what they do and all. I've done that.

Last week, the lovely Sarah, one of the organisers, wrote to ask if I'd like the New Jewels featured on their blog. The blog that I read and dream of having my work on one day if/when they're good enough! Would I? Hell, yeah! What an honour! And a big big pleasant surprise.

The article is here, if you would like to read it.

I'm off to continue my floating around the flat in a dream-like state now and abashedly pat myself on my back at regular intervals. xx

A "Twins" Moment

Dress - The Nancy Rose by Phoebe's Aunt, Necklaces (piled 'em on) - The Empress Dowager's New Jewels, Sandals - Gorman

We went to see Camera Obscura play last evening in the forecourt of the beautiful sandstone-clad Hyde Park Barracks. Part of the Sydney Festival programme.

It was good to get to see the band play again after the first time four or five years ago. They can do no wrong! The crowd was a little weird, though. Quite a mixed bag of people - some, like us, really wanted to be there while quite a number, we thought, were there because they worked for one of the Festival sponsors and got free tickets. To see a band that they don't know anything about. Lucky.

Anyway, the hilarious "twins" moment. We were standing near the Barracks' gate, having a drink and a last puff of our cancer-sticks before the show started when I saw Phoebe, the lovely girl I bought the dress from, walking through. Can't miss her and her head of flaming red hair!

She was wearing the exact same Nancy Rose dress as I was! She owns both the white and black versions but she chose to wear the white one last night. And we were both wearing fabric necklaces that we've made ourselves - me with my New Jewels and Phoebe with one of these. I think it's my first ever unplanned sartorial "twins" moment and I'm knocking myself now for not getting a photo!

Bought a Camera Obscura Peacock Tote(have given up on finding band t-shirts that fit me properly). This, I'm sure, I'll be seeing a lot of. Will definitely take a picture if I meet a bag "twin"!

Seriously Whoopeedoo!

I ♥♥♥♥ it when it hits anything higher than 30°C in Sydney!

I just squealed in delight down the phone to the boyfriend when I saw the weather forecast for tomorrow and Saturday. Happy days! Woo!

We are forecast addicts. We check the site everyday without fail. I like to know so I can dress appropriately, if I'm going out. Even if I'm staying home, it's good to know.

Hot days make me happy! Only if they don't cause havoc out in the bush.

Shnacksh

A colourful start to the day - Hundreds-and-thousands sprinkled on natural yoghurt in a cone.

My nose is dripping like a faulty tap again! My dad says I get these sneeze-y attacks because I don't eat breakfast regularly. Most important meal of the day...blah...blah..blah...

If I have to force-feed myself first thing in the morning, I might as well make it something pretty and fun-to-eat.

A leaky nose does make me hungrier than usual...

...the sandwich I made myself two hours after I slurped that yoghurty cone down.

Creamy and crumbly Mersey Valley Cheddar (the best "supermarket" cheese ever!) with a big dollop of tarty Branston Pickle. Nyum!

Now, what shall I have for lunch?