navy and white stripes

people are often surprised when i mention that i follow the football.

perhaps it’s my awkward gait or unhealthy pallor that confuses them, but nevertheless whilst i myself am far from sporty and show little interest in any other sport, i do think there is something inherently charming (and exciting) about (australian) football.

the first time my scottish boyfriend saw a game he said that it was the roughest and campest thing he had ever seen, which is a (hilariously) accurate description. i mean, this is a full-contact sport where concussions and bloody cuts are par for the course, yet the players wear the tiniest of shorts and socks pulled up to their knees, while the umpires run around backwards throwing the ball over their shoulders and wave flags like rhythmic gymnasts whenever a goal is scored.

but it is precisely this idiosyncratic old-school-ness that i find appealing. you can go to a game and see old-timers with their hand knitted scarves and thermoses standing next to families supporting the opposing team, and – for the most part – the atmosphere is inclusive and good-natured. and to be honest, whilst the game itself is (arguably) faintly ridiculous, there is something old-fashioned about it, and it’s nice to feel part of a community.

so, tomorrow is the grand final and my team is playing. melbourne pretty much shuts down on grand final day, with BBQs and parties starting early in the morning and continuing late in to the night. and i’m looking forward to doing the exact same (albeit at the pub given the awful weather forecast).

have a good weekend, and go cats!

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spring loveliness from TSE. l o v e the first dress especially. truly, madly, deeply love it.

l.o.v.e.

 

tim walker = genius.

bright lights, big city

great prints – as always – at dries van noten

new magazines

new magazines are always nice.

this one is smith journal, which i bought for my boyfriend knowing that i’d read it myself.

it’s actually quite good, in a not-at-all-like-nuts-or-zoo-magazine kind of way. in fact, i’m not sure it contains any remotely sleazy pictures at all (that must be the frankie influence: the perfect magazine for girls to give to guys, i guess).

plus the heavy matte paper gets me every time.

plants

excited about my plants; re-potted all the indoor and outdoor pots on the weekend, now just waiting for the weather to warm up just a little bit more to do the vegie garden…

image here

new arrivals

 

quite love all these new arrivals at mina perhonen, the rabbit skirt especially

 

 

clear days

some nice pics from burstoid to inspire me (and you) to get out and enjoy the sunshine this weekend

1. faber franco 2. aela labbe 3. paul phung 4. & 5. lukas messner 6. rj shaughnessy 7. teresa queiros 8. charlie engman

museums

i’m f i n a l l y going to this exhibition today.

i haven’t been the best museum-goer of late; life has got in the way, as always. but every time i go i feel invigorated and wonder why i don’t go more often.

maybe that can be my spring resolve (yeah, i made that up. but it sounds good).

mh

i think the genius of margaret howell is that you can imagine wearing her clothes everyday because they go with everything that you (well, i) already own.

in fact, i think the navy and white outfit that i’ve got on today could almost slot right in to this collection, albeit minus the pilling and wrinkles and coffee stains.

her clothes are also the kind that i always look for when opshopping ie. good quality basics to wear forever, but these are just so much nicer.

and i want those sandals. the black ones. really, really, really want.

collecting

i am a collector by nature – though perhaps not quite to this level – and often wonder if people think ‘wow, what a load of junk‘ when they visit (especially the backyard studio which hasn’t been cleaned for about two years…).

when i look at all the things in these pictures i imagine that each of them tell a story, or are of sentimental value to their owners.

that’s why i have trouble throwing things out. not rubbish and junk like that, but things. overly sentimental, you could say.

if something was a gift, or handmade or a recommendation or could be used again or reminds me of someone / someplace / sometime: forget it. it’s mine for life.

i am getting better though, especially with regards to new purchases which seem fewer and farther between.

but i would kill for some of the things from this house…

*

not sure how i missed this selby visit from a couple of weeks ago, but glad to have discovered it now.

mini bread rolls

i made these mini bread rolls yesterday.

so much fun. i love baking cakes and biscuits and everything else, but there’s something particularly enjoyable about making bread, especially yeasty bread like this.

i got the recipe from this (wonderful) book. the bread mix was nothing fancy, just flour, yeast, salt and water. i used plain flour because that’s all i had, though a mix of half plain, half wholemeal / spelt / etc. would be nice too. because i wanted to make both sweet and savoury rolls, i didn’t add any spices or anything, though you could.

i made about 40 of these rolls, varying from about 4cm – 6cm in size when cooked, and about 3cm – 5cm before.

but the fun part was the toppings.

the savoury toppings were: olives, the seasoned olive oil from the olive jar, crushed garlic, finely chopped shallots, rosemary and rock salt, dill goats cheese (yum), plus various combinations of these ingredients mixed together.

the sweet toppings included: strawberry jam, raisins (that i had soaked in water until plump), flaked almonds and brown sugar, frozen raspberries, poppy seeds with brown sugar, and – my absolute favourite – lavender with honey and poppy seeds.

they took less than 10 minutes to bake in a 220c oven (though i had to do them in about 5 different batches), and they can be partially cooked for 4 minutes or so then stored in the fridge for a day or so before another 5 minutes in the oven before serving.

i would definitely make these again; i think the savoury ones in particular would be good to have with beer on a picnic. and the sweet ones with cottage cheese made a nice breakfast this morning. though next time i’ll make them even smaller, and try to stuff the filling inside the dough a bit more. but, overall, i was pretty happy with these.

now; i’m off to put the rest of them in the freezer so that they don’t all get eaten in one go…

 

 

prints

so, continuing with this week’s theme of cat-related things that i (surprisingly) like, i bring you these dresses by – of all people – victoria beckham.