Wantings

I should feel bad for wanting so many things in my life, but i just don't care.
I want to be here

Listening to

Eating this

Drinking this

...
But im not. I just finished a terrible shift at work. The idea that i'll be chilling out in melbourne soon is driving me forward but also driving me crazy. 2 weeks to go now.

Back

I haven't made a blog post in a long time. Just because Uni was getting really busy and honestly, I didn't really have much to write about. Except Uni, which was boring. I the last year I Got accepted into honours at SCA. I started doing that, then left. It really just wasn't what I wanted. I was getting tired of the academic mindset. So for the last 7 months or so, I've been working pretty much full-time at a cafe in the blue mountains. It's been a great time, but I knew that I was never going to stay at this job for a long time. A couple of months ago, for my birthday actually, I went down to melbourne. For the most part, I went there to visit my friend who moved from the mountains. I knew I'd really like Melbourne but I didn't know it would get into my head as much as it did. Everything about it was so beautiful. I also went there to look into courses for next year. I was looking into study interior design/architecture. And now... now my application has been sent off to CATC design school in Melbourne and I'm working like crazy to try and save some money. Everything is coming along for my departure date of October 2.

Pickled ginger and shitake mushroom Ongiri

I lived in Japan for 6 months as a High School exchange student. It was amazing. These are called 'Onigiri'. Its very similar is taste and texture to sushi, probably because its made with sushi rice and nori (seaweed paper). Its a really nice entree or snack. My host Mothers made this as a lunchbox staple.

step 1.
Cook the SUSHI rice and get the nori and pickled ginger ready.







step 2.
If you can get them fresh, use the mushrooms as is. But i could only get dried, so let them soak in some warm water until nice and soft.



step 3.
Once the rice is cooked, let it cool by spreading it out.



step 4.
Mix the pickled ginger with the mushrooms. You can put whatever you want, but simple clean flavours work well with onigiri. If you want to make this with meat, sashimi would work, or finely diced poached chicken. I added some essential Japanese flavours such as mirin and sushi vinegar. Again, its all completely up to you as to what you want to put in it.



step 5.
Shape the rice into a triangle shape with a small well in it to put the mixture.





step 6.
Now you have a neat little ball of YUM!



step 7.
Some last little touches to add. Wrap the rice triangle ball in a small strip of nori paper around one of the edges. You could wrap it completely in the nori if you liked. Lastly, dip the top in some toasted sesame seeds and serve with whatever kind of dipping sauce you want. I used Ponzu, which is made from a dash of soy sauce, a little bit of lemon juice, rice vinegar and some dashi(a staple japanese base for broths/soups/stocks.) You could, like i did, substitute the dashi for the water the mushrooms were soaking in, it has a similar subtle flavour.

thinking thoughts.

I went to the city today. Which was the first time going down after coming back from the farm. It was a really really unenjoyable trip. I hated spending money on petrol, hated being in traffic and hated the monotonous way everyone moves around on auto-pilot.

(this song is to calm me down)


Alright, So I've been thinking that I'll try and apply for honours for next year. But i don't know if its just my mood right now, but I'm wanting to really shake things up. I want to go on a big trip (my friend is planning a trip to Japan which I will aim to go on as well). But then what? More study? Maybe I'll try really hard to save and do some other traveling for a bit next year. Whatever happens, i know it'll be creative. These 3 years at Art school have cemented my passion for all things art.

(this song is to wake me up and do something)

land lust.

I want to build my own house.

I want to buy some land.

And build my dream house on it. A totally self susstainable house with as little impact to the land a possible. I want a fruit and vegetable forest which i can roam and pick food. I want to go back into my warm house which i built and cook food which i've grown. I want to live off solar and wind power.

I want this so bad.

here's a pretty song.

wild.

I'm normally one to dislike people that say 'I'm a winter person' or 'I can't stand winter, i LOVE summer!'. It seems silly to be angry with half of the year, for the rest of your life. Enjoy it all, embrace it all!

It's a grey, cold, rainy kind of day. And I just finished watching 'Black swan'. Insanely amazing film that had so many amazing parts. Too many to talk about here, but needless to say, I loved it. Even the weird bits, they added to it's amazingness. Aronofsky is a true genius.

I went to see a band called 'the crooked fiddle band' last night after getting a lil' bit stir crazy at home (I hadn't been given any shifts at work this weekend).
But anyways, I had a wild crazy time dancing like a maniac and not caring one bit what i looked like.

With the Katoomba mist billowing outside and the drinks flowing inside, it was indeed a joyous night.

This is them


I have been in love with the band 'city and colour' for quite a few years now and with their soon to be released album, I've been finding some amazing songs of theirs. This is just one which sums up the type of wintry mood I'm in.


Oh, and this song is also amazingly suited to this time of year.


I saw this very very eerily beautiful film called 'Van Diemen's land' about a year ago now. The image above is from the film and sums up beautifully the wilderness of winter.

Enjoy the last 2 days of autumn, because winter is well and truly upon us.

sunshine.

Wow. Haven't blogged in ages. Just been really super busy. Essays and presentations are piling up for uni, and my 'I'll do it later' mentality is starting to get out of hand. So... I'm getting back into a nice rhythm.

I've had a heap of small little adventures over the last few weeks. I had a performance art work that went incredibly successful last week and it's really ignited my passion for creating art works that are a experience rather than just putting something out there and letting it be.

I visited this store in glebe the other day and had a super time browsing the amazing invention's people have come up with in order to reduce, reuse and recycle.

I've also had a crazy boost of happiness. The weather has been beautiful and like the simple person i am, am incredibly influenced by the weather.

I've got some holidays coming up and I'm quite content in being relaxed and just spending some down time in the mountains. I'm planning on fixing up the backyard and making a small little veg garden. This has mainly stemmed from watching a great show called 'Costa's garden Odyssey'. The show focuses on converting dull spaces into great sustainable gardens. Over the summer i started enjoying being in the garden and made myself a shabby little area out the back of my door which i filled with some seeds and some other plants. It's going well but I'm wanting to make something more substantial. I really enjoyed the jamie oliver show 'Jamie at home' and the book that followed. It's one of my go-to books when I'm not sure what to cook and want some inspiration.



I found these really neat lil' things which am really interested in. The seedbom is a 'bomb' full of seeds which you just through and let the seeds breakdown into the soil and then..hey! a tree! Very cool stuff.

It's my birthday tomorrow and have been invited by a friend's parents to go to a wine tasting at the MCA followed by dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Will keep you posted!
Also, for my birthday next weekend me and some friends are going out to my Aunt's property to spend some relaxing down time by the fireplace. Theres a heap of bushland to explore and the glowing red cliffs capertee valley are a sight to behold come sunset. Will put photos and stories of the weekend when i get back. But this is a pic from the last trip there.



Anyways, best stop the procrastination and get back to actually doing some work.

Here's some songs

happy music is so much better.

I don't get why people like angry music. Calm music, chilled music i get. But angry music. Who wants to be angry? Happy music is so much better.

debatable.

im confused.

i love winter


but miss summer


what am i to do?!

desire #1

So i've been chatting with some friends. They want to go to Japan at the end of the year. I lived in Japan for 6 months as a teenager and love it. I think to go back now would be a very very good thing to do. I just wish i could save! But if i keep watching movies like lost in translation (im in love the soundtrack which i aquired today)


and the idea that i'll be somewhere like this



then i think i could make it.

heres hoping.

i used to want to be a zoo keeper.

Up until i was 17 i wanted to be a zoo keeper. I even enrolled in a course to do it. But then i stopped. I'm not sure why, but it stopped being my passion. Art became my passion and is now my life. But i still love animals. They just look pretty now.















oh yeah... i love the jezabels

chilledroasted

It's been so beautiful lately. I love this time of the year. Every one's happy because of the Easter holidays, there are the bright blue big open skies of late april and the continual smell of roasted vegetables in the evening. There is a subtle nip of winter during the day and I've had to grab the extra blanket to sleep with at night. We've even had the fire crackling a couple of nights which is always a sign that happy nights by the fire are fast approaching.

I've spent the last couple of days in the city and I've been really loving it. Sydney has such a vibrant and happy feel sometimes. I still love coming home to the mountains and sitting outside looking at the bush sway while i have my breakfast, but I've really loved wandering around the city, just browsing through shops, having good food and being around nice people.

I had a conversation with my teacher at uni who has really helped push my work to the next level. She said that she thinks i should do honours and that I'd do well at it. Which was a really big confidence boost. Just ANOTHER choice for me to pick from as i near the end of my degree.

I went on a spending splurge yesterday and got some new jeans, they are so pretty and make me happy. I also got some magazines and one of my new favorite Cd's, The Middle East's 'I Want That You Are Always Happy'. This song in particular is so damn chilled. Brings everything down to earth and settles all worries. I went for a walk this morning and one of the houses down the road has some horses and i was listening to this and went up and patted and talked with them. If horses liked music, they'd like this song.
Hope you enjoy.




(oh yeah, i also am seriously in love with the artist Tomas Saraceno)

perfection

The Mountain by Terje Sorgjerd (view it in HD full screen)

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

Ginger+honey marinated tofu with capsicum, asparagus and pomegranate served with Quinoa.

I was bored so i made this dish for lunch. I've been trying to eat what's in season lately so I've put the pomegranate to good use in this quick lunch/dinner. I made this all up in my head and i enjoyed it. Feel free to tweak to your desires/seasonal produce. Hope you enjoy.

1. Brown onion.

2. At the same time boil the Quinoa. This is a grain which tastes like a cross of brown rice and cous cous. Bring the Quinoa to the boil and let simmer for 15 mins.

3. Cook the asparagus but make sure they still have a bit of bite to them

4. Cut the Pomegranate.

5. De-seed the pomegranate. Be careful, it stains.

6. Add chopped capsicum.

7. Add tofu. You could use any type of tofu but this stuff is amazing and has such intense flavours. You could also substitute the tofu for chicken or beef if you desire.


9. Add the pomegranate seeds.

10. Serve on top of the Quinoa with fresh lime and coriander/parsley/thai basil.

sway

Some more art works i've fallen in love with.
I love the way that each of the works has a level of fludity. The plant works move throughout the gallery space and throughout time. And the later Tomas Saraceno works float by as if oblivious to the audience. Beautiful works which i can feel inspiring me and my work.

Henrik Hakansson





tomas saraceno

botanics.

I've just come back from a walk through my backyard bush. I've been going down there every couple of weeks for the past 10 years, and today was the furthest I've gone.



Throughout the week, I had been checking out the website of a new development in the city's downtown. It's called 'central park'. You can check the website out here. There were some really interesting features about the place, but the one which interested me the most is the hanging/vertical gardens which is a collaboration between Jean Nouvel and French artist and botanist Patrick Blanc.

This is what the proposed gardens will look like






and here are some other beautiful vertical gardens I've found on the net






This stuff is really getting me into landscape and architectural design.