Despite all evidence to the contrary...

I actually do want to blog. So here's a bunch of stuff I've been into lately.....

Johnny is currently in San Juan, Puerto Rico, filming The Rum Diary, a film based on the book of the same name by Hunter S Thompson. Here he is on set.

photo by Ramon Zayas. Thanks to Emma from johnnydepp-zone.com

Looking forward to that! Although before we get excited about Rum Diary, there's Public Enemies to be released in (I think) July. Which looks amazing and I can't wait. (Except that, obviously, I can.)

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A bit of crazy stress here lately with Noel losing his job about a month ago. All is well now, though - he got a job this morning and will be back terrorising the highways in no time (he is a very good truck driver, I promise!)

Also in home news, we're in the first couple of weeks of a preservative-free, low salicylate diet here. It's also dairy-free for Talitha, who seems to be affected in her emotions, behaviour and sleep patterns, by dairy and food chemicals. We're hoping it will help both girls with all those things. I was trying to stick to dairy-free also, in the hope that it would help Charlie (who's still breastfeeding) with his sleep, too... but... I kinda fail at avoiding dairy. It's just so good.

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I've been meaning to rave at you about Panic at the Disco. Because I love them. Here's their myspace where you can hear some of their songs, or you can watch a couple of performances here and here.

(Sorry, I'm really hopeless at finding good links. The really fabulous things are their video clips, which have recently been taken down from YouTube because of copyright claims. Ugh. GO AWAY evil corporations!)

Basically, they are four pretty young guys (22 ish now, and made their first album at 16/17) and their music is somehow a lot of crazy fun and very mature at the same time. For one tour they took circus dancers as part of the show. Their first album was a kinda caberet-esque punk-rock-pop type thing, their 2nd was very Beatles-ish. A lot of people seem to criticise them for being "self-indulgent", but that doesn't even bother me. It's music. It's art. To me, self-indulgence is almost one of the main reasons for art.

I'll be back with some lovely pics of the Panic boys when I can be bothered resizing some.

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Have been doing a bit of sewing lately. I made four little drawstring bags for my darling friend Lusi 's children. Sweet baby Z was born last week so they all NEEDED homemade pretties. I also made a little cloth doll for the bubba-girl. It was looking rather scary at first but turned out pretty well. I should have taken some photos but eh, sometimes life can just go on without photos, huh?

After I'd done four bags, I experimented with another, and refined the best way to get it done. I was quite impressed with the last couple and it got me thinking... might be a bit of a plan in there, involving crafty goodness AND handy income, all in one great idea. We'll see.

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Ah, okay, that's enough of a rambly winding blog post for one day!

I feel bad now.

Sorry, Patrick Warburton, for picking on you. You are a very talented man with a unique voice. It's not your fault that all my girls' favourite films are the ones you're in.

Talitha and Beryl love skipping, too....

I used to love Patrick Warburton's voice...

Anyone who has small kids, or a dorky husband, or just loves animated films, will understand my pain when I say I am so very sick of the voice of Patrick Warburton. Jeez, that guy is in EVERYTHING these days.

I just want to be able to get on with the housework, or surf the net, without hearing constant KRONK in the background. Go away, Kronk, stop invading every other animated world.....

He's actually quite good in live action, I think. What's that TV show he's in?

So!

So, I promised a few people I would start posting again properly. I've been itching to write about movies and acting and music. I've turned into a bit of a band fangirl lately, with several crushes on several lead singers, and lots of lyrics floating through my head. I've lost track a bit of the film-industry-world but I can always talk about the movies I've been watching. I've always got opinions, oh yes I do!

And, you know what I've decided? I don't care whether or not people are impressed with my writing. Sure, I'd love more readers, but I've tried sounding like an impressive wordsmith before. I probably just sounded like a goose, and it didn't get me any more readers!

To be honest, I've been having a bit of a flail at myself. Remember way back when I started this blog? The plan was to document my foray into an acting career. Auditions, classes, small parts, small films, bigger things.... and, ta-da! A career! Almost three years later, what have I achieved? A few small student things. One casting call for paid work. Zero actual paid work.

I'm not forgetting that I have three beautiful children, for whom I would give up the world, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed at the lack of entries on my acting CV. I guess it is a little more impossible than I thought to get into this industry while mothering little ones.

Anyway, life goes on. It really does! :-)

Mini Cakes

I probably really don't need to blog these as they're just simple vanilla butter cupcakes with plain icing. However, I was really pleased with them, and I love the photo I took of them, so anyway...

Talitha was really pleased with these cakes, too. 48 mini-cupcakes, to take to school on her birthday. Plus, the teacher was thrilled that I made enough for both kindy classes, plus teachers. 10 points for me!

Chocolate and Orange and Racing Cars

For the big girl's family birthday celebration, I made this recipe from the good ole Australian's Women's Weekly "Cakes and Slices" book. It's called Orange Yoghurt Cake and it's great because it's a little bit interesting, but the flavour isn't too complicated so as to be too much for young kids. It also turns out firm and moist, and stays that way for a couple of days.

Oh, before you start, note that this takes 2 hours to bake,and needs a fair bit of preparation. I'd forgotten that, when I headed into the kitchen at 9pm the night before the birthday. Oh yes, it was a late night. The things we do.

Orange Yoghurt Cake
125g butter
1 tbs grated orange rind
1 cup castor sugar
3 eggs, separated
1/2 cup mixed peel (I left this out and just added a little bit extra orange rind)
2 cups self-raising flour
1/4 cup orange juice
1 cup plain yoghurt

Grease a pan. The book says a loaf pan but, meh, use whatever pan takes your fancy. I made a double batch which was plenty of a loaf pan and a ring pan. Preheat oven to 150 degrees C.

Cream butter, rind and sugar in a small bowl with electric mixer until light & fluffy; beat in egg yolks one at a time. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in peel. Stir in half the sifted flour & half the combined juice & yoghurt, then remaining flour & yoghurt mixture.
Beat egg whites in small bowl until soft peaks form, fold lightly into mixture in 2 lots. Pour into pan. Bake in slow oven for about 2 hours. Stand 5 minutes before cooling on wire rack.

Now, just so you know, the mixture should not look like this. This is what it looked like when I put it in the pans & into the oven the first time.
Then I turned around and saw the egg whites still in the bowl on the bench. Oops! Quick!

Out of the pans, back in the bowl, in with the whites.... and this is how the mixture should look:

The recipe calls for orange icing, amde simply with butter, icing sugar and orange juice. However, I opted to use some luxurious Scarborough Fair (fair trade) orange chocolate and make up a choc-orange ganache type frosting.

I kinda made it up as I went, but basically.... put the chopped chocolate with some cream in a heatproof bowl above simmering water. Stir until all chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth and shiny. Still over the heat, add some icing sugar and keep stirring just till it gets a bit thicker. Take off the heat. If you're anythging like me you'll now spend ages adding a bit more cream, a bit more sugar, until it looks just right.

This frosting goes quite crusty as it cools down so get that cake covered, and enjoy the dollops left in the bowl (not too much though, especially if you've used rich dark chocolate like I did)!

The finished cake:

Racetrack and cars entirely optional, of course. :)

My amazing daughter

My beautiful, firstborn, precious baby girl, Talitha, is 6 years old today.

She doesn't like it all that much when I call her "baby girl", but tough luck. She is and always will be. :) She is my sweet sunflower, craving attention and always, always, reaching for the brightest spot in the sunshine of life.

Here she is with her birthday present, a Tonka truck. She was thrilled to bits about it and was quick to ensure it got a good workout.

Happy Birthday, beautiful girl.

Lookit, lookit!

My Beryl (3 years old) was shopping with me a while ago and picked out this pink fabric, requesting that I make her a skirt. I took it home with the best of intentions, but just didn't get around to doing it.

So, while both girls were away at Nan's last week I thought I'd make the time to get it done. In the interests of peaceful sibling co-existence, I thought I'd better make one for Talitha, too, so I called and ask what colour she'd like. "Rainbow, mum." But of course! The spotty fabric was the closest thing to rainbow I could find.

These skirts are super-easy and quick to make (hooray!). I used the free pattern from Oliver + S, which I discovered a few weeks back when Amanda Soule, whose crafty/family blog is the best thing ever, made a whole bunch of them for her little girl. Thanks so much Oliver + S, and Amanda Soule, for the great inspiration and help!

The two skirts took me a couple of hours, with interruptions from the two males of the house. The most fabulous thing is the way the hem is done with a length of ribbon, so it turns out very neat and a little bit special-looking. I think my waistbands are a tad dodgy, but overall they look pretty nice to me. My girlies were very pleased with them, so that's good enough.

It really pleases me to dress my children in clothes I've made them myself. It's one of those things that really makes me feel like a proper mum. Which is a nice way to feel. :)

Caramel Banana Cake

Clearly, I am insane. After complaining about the heat on Friday (it got to 32C in the house before I cranked up the air con), I turned on the oven, and the girls and I did some baking. Yes, insane - but I had a few bananas that were really going to be beyond useable if I left them any longer, so banana cake just had to be the order of the day.

This recipe's from a 1987 "Cakes and Slices Cookbook".... which I just realised is also an Australian Women's Weekly one - what would my kitchen be without the Australian Women's Weekly?

Here's the recipe - I used yoghurt because I didn't have any sour cream, and it turned out a successful, moist cake, but the cream would make it much better I think.

Caramel Banana Cake
125g butter
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs
1 cup mashed banana (about 3 bananas)
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp bi-carb soda
3/4 cup sour cream
1 tbs milk

Grease a loaf pan. Heat oven to 180C.
Cream butter and sugar in small bowl, then beat in eggs one at a time.
Transfer to large bowl. Stir in banana. Stir in sifted dry ingredients with half the combined cream and milk, then stir in remaining halves. Stir until smooth.
Pour into prepared pan. Bake for about 1 hour, stand 5 minutes, then turn onto wire rack.

Caramel Icing
60g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbs sour cream
1 1/2 cups icing sugar

Melt butter and sugar in saucepan. Stir constantly over heat without boiling for 2 minutes. Add sour cream, bring to the boil. Remove from heat and stir in icing sugar.

NB: You need to work quickly with the icing and get the cake covered before it cools too much because it goes sticky and clumpy when it cools. Also, it is disgustingly sweet, and even I, with my very sweet tooth and ability to guzzle sugary treats with joyous abandon, can't eat as much of this icing as I normally would.

(Sorry about this crappy photo. The light in my kitchen is dodgy and my dining table was covered in piles of laundry. Talitha (5) took the first two photos; evidently she's the photographer today!)

Ah dear.

I know I haven't posted for aaages again, sorry. It's because, you see, I had this post all planned out for the Friday before last, which was International Talk Like a Pirate Day, involving lots of Captain Jack Sparrow... and then I didn't get a chance to watch Pirates of the Caribbean to help me write the post and so I didn't have it ready and so... it didn't happen. And then everytime I thought of catching up on here I remembered that post and remembered how it wasn't done and I felt bad about it and really still wanted to post it anyway but then it just got far too late to bother and....

... and now you have a little glimpse into how my whacko brain operates sometimes!

I still will get around to that Pirates/ Captain Jack post, and one just detailing the reasons I love Johnny himself, sometime soon. Just thought I'd let you know I'm still around, meanwhile.

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I made some great choc-chip cookies a couple of days ago, and my goodness they were good. But gosh, they totally messed with my head because I used Nestle choc-chips. Nestle (the company) makes me want to throw up because it's such a revolting selfish greedy exploitative company and I NEVER buy their products (Noel had bought these choc-chips). I buy organic fair trade chocolate like Scarborough Fair or Cocolo or Green & Blacks' Maya Gold. But anyway these Nestle ones were in the cupboard so I used them, and man I'm so annoyed about how good they tasted! I was stuffing myself with these scrummy bites of chocolate that people literally SLAVED away to produce. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Speaking of which, I just remembered about a good place to buy fair trade chocolate products for baking or just general eating purposes (no choc-chips but there is cocoa powder and raw cacao): Cacao Power

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I took the kids to a free showing of Horton Hears a Who today at the library. What a good fun film. Gotta love Dr Suess.

A person's a person, no matter how small!

Treats for dinner again

Who needs real dinner, when you can have pancakes instead?



I had all the pancake-making fun to myself this time...

because the girlies were busy with their own mess...

Ah yes, the house was in need of a good clean up that night. Just the way a home should be.

*sulk*

My husband, with a whole bunch of my friends, is currently sitting in the State Theatre being fabulously and, no doubt, hysterically, entertained by the brilliant Bill Bailey. I am at home trying desperately to get a crazy bubba boy to sleep so that I can get some work done so that I can pay some flippin' bills next month....

*sulk*

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I've been asked by an old college friend to help out on her short film in a couple of weeks' time but I'm going to have to say no. Because bubba boy is still just a bubba!

All the saying no and being home and not doing anything about a career is kinda getting me down lately. I need another one of those reminders that they're only small for such a short time, and I'm only young, and there's plenty of time for careers later...

And now he's staring up at me from his favourite cuddly spot, and you know what? I wouldn't give this up for all the careers in the world.

Another delicious meal inspired by Chrissy...

I've linked you to the crazy culinary creator Chrissy before, I know. But seriously. Go to her blog and try some of that food. Oh my goodness, you will not be disappointed.

I had a night to myself last night (which means Noel was away; I still had three kids to feed but they are so much less fussy than him!) - and it was shopping day, so I took the opportunity to buy myself some nice ingredients and have a bit of a feast!

To begin, Creamy Smoked Salmon Pasta. Noel wouldn't go near smoked salmon if you paid him... and as it turns out neither will the girls... but oh well, all the more for me me me! I just followed Chrissy's recipe there and added some boring button mushrooms (sorry love, the budget just doesn't stretch to fancy mushies when it's already stretching to smoked salmon!).

It really doesn't look all that pretty in the photo, does it? Trust me, it's good stuff.

For dessert, pudding! Self-Saucing Sticky Date Pud, to be precise.

Unfortunately mine didn't turn out as big and saucy as Chrissy's, perhaps because my dish was very shallow and wide. (I need to get me some better casserole/pudding/baking... ah, all sorts of dishes!) Nevertheless, this pudding was as delicious as big is big (to quote a children's book I've been reading lately). And the girls, who were "too full" to eat any smoked salmon with their pasta, wolfed it down in about 3 seconds flat.

Oh yes, it was good.

A Spot of Afternoon Tea

I had a troop of (well, three) kindy kids coming round for an after-school visit, plus their mums and younger siblings*, so needed something good-looking enough for the kids and impressive enough for the mums!

I reckon these banana cupcakes did just fine. I had three bananas becoming blacker and blacker on my kitchen bench and finally got around to using them. Mmmmm, sticky-sweet, gooey, brownish banana-mush...

Any old banana cake recipe does the trick, and I just used plain butter icing (though lemon is always nice too). And my B chose the sprinkles to help make them look boo-ti-ful:



*I do not recommend this. Especially on a Friday afternoon. If you must invite more than one friend around, make sure you know the kids and mums, so that you know they're not likely to throw rocks, break doors, and generally act like crazymen let out of prison...

A Most Australia Ven!

At our house at the moment, thanks to the Olympics, it's all about the national anthem (aka Australia Flag Song!). Here's B's version (with a little help from Miss T):

Australians all in arly choice,
For we are young and free,
With golden soil we sing to choice,
Our land is good by sea...
Our land is all in arly choice
For we are young and free...
In histy page in arly stage,
A most Australia Ven!
In joy for 'stralia let us sing,
A most Australia Ven!

More light play

Noel took the girls to work with him on Saturday, giving me some time alone with the small boy. I got some work done in the morning (I have a job working from home! More about that later.), then took advantage of the mild sunny day to get some exercise and fresh air. Ah, the simple pleasures in life...


Charlie fell asleep in the pram... well no, he didn't fall asleep in the pram, pigs might fly, but I fed him to sleep and he stayed asleep when I put him down which is the good bit... so I grabbed my chance to whip out the camera and play around.

This was a beautiful stark winter tree. Shots of the whole tree turned out boringly ordinary, but I liked a few of my close-ups.

I love how this tap turned out blue-ish. It didn't look blue at all in real life...


I mentioned in the comments of my previous photography post how much I like over-exposed images in photography. This next one definitely falls into that category and I love it. I think it looks like either a painting, or a really old film photograph.

I couldn't quite get the lighting right in this one because, well, there was a tree in the way! So, just imagine that the lower seed pod is a little brighter and the higher one is a little darker...

This one is also boringly ordinary... but i just wanted to show off the beautiful blossom trees I see everywhere 'round here...

Milky goodness

This blog is about creative stuff, right? Well, what could be more creative than making, storing, and supplying all the food my bubba needs to thrive? Creative, in the purest sense of the word. Quite brilliant, I reckon. Almost as brilliant as creating the bubs in the first place!

Talitha feeding bunny while I feed Beryl.

It's World Breastfeeding Week, as I was just reminded in this post by the very talented Kate at Picklebums. I actually have a badge that says "I make milk - what's your super power?". I really should find it and wear it this week.

Beryl getting the very best party food!

Charlie's another booby-loving bubba.

So there you go. Now you know that I will definitely never be one of those movie stars desired for her cleavage more than her talent - so let's hope I have enough talent! :-)

Back into photography

Way back, years ago, when I studied photography (fairly briefly, at commuity college and school), it was still all about film. I still love film but we don't have a film camera at the moment, so I'm learning how to use our digital SLR. Some things are the same, some are very different, and some things I just plain forget how to do. And spending the copious amount of time it takes to reaquaint oneself with the art is nigh impossible with my three small people. So, it's a slow process...
... which all might sound like I'm trying to justify my crappy results but really, I'm just rambling away as usual...

The sun is shining again today (after a beautiful, very impressive storm last night!) so I popped out into the backyard to play in the lovely warm light. I just fiddled about with the camera settings and the light on a few plants.
It was quite dim in this corner of the garden and I loved the way the pinks kept changing as I increased the exposure time. Nothing special but I liked the colours.

Then, I was distracted by far more important subject matter...

Pink and Green and Chocolate all over...

So, it was Friday night. Noel was away for work, I was in a lazy don't-want-to-cook kinda mood, and the girls and I just wanted to hang out. The obvious choice: let's make chocolate cake for dinner!
Oh yes, I am the coolest mum ever; you better believe it.
Setting aside all thoughts of late-night sugar-induced madness, I rounded up the overly enthusiastic troops and got started.



I make chocolate cake just using a basic butter cake recipe. When adding the flour to the creamed butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs I just whack in however-much-looks-good of cocoa powder (I like to use lots so it tastes properly chocolatey!), and then add a little more milk to make up for the extra dry ingredient. Even better is to add some real melted chocolate too but I didn't have any around last night.
It's always an anxious moment handing over the ingredients to the small people; you never know what's going to end up all over the floor! But it's fun, and I find if you just expect them to do well, they appreciate the trust so they tend to rise to the occasion and live up to your expectations (um... mostly... more on that soon...).


See - lots of cocoa... mmmm....

So the cake was done, all baked and cooling down. Time for the icing...

Ooops! "Mummy the bowl was moving by itself!" Yes darling, of course it was. I took the photo because otherwise I was going to lose my temper! Grabbing the camera gave me a second to breathe, put on my happy Mary Poppins voice and say "oh well, accidents happen!"

Now, can you tell that we had conflict over which colour the icing should be?
And... dinner! Yum. :)

Oh and yes, the girls did go a little mental at bedtime, but a few giggles and bed-swaps later, they were asleep for the night by 9.30. Success!

Well she might do better than some world leaders I know of....

My 5-yr-old has been pretty demanding today.

Sumara: *is frustrated* Talitha! You don't get to run the world!
Talitha: *is matter-of-fact* Yes I do. It's mine.

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In other news. The girls and I watched August Rush last night. It is glorious! I will be back later to ramble about it and the gorgeous Freddie Highmore...