Tap tap tap..

I can play guitar. A little. All the basic chords, and few of the more exotic ones. But all the practice in the world, and I still don't think I would ever sound like this guy. :p

Jeremy..

My friend wrote and sang the song..her 16yo son shot the vid..her nephew played the music. I love it.

Insanity..

I had a special occasion to go to, and needed something special to make, but super easy.

I had flour. Butter. All I needed was a can of condensed milk, and wa-la...caramel tarts. They are so freaking yummy...but it's insane to eat more than one. Maybe one and a half. But not two. Ask me how I know. :p


If you want to try these yourself, here ya go:


Caramel Tarts


1.5 c flour
1/2 c butter
a couple tablespoons water
generous pinch fine sea salt

1 can condensed milk


Take a medium pot, fill it to the top with water, and put it to boil. Remove the label off the condensed milk, lay it on it's side UNOPENED in the water, and bring it all to a boil. (DISCLAIMER: This is the way I do it. But it's been known to pop, so I've heard, so I do it when I am not planning on being in the kitchen while it cooks, and with a lid. I have no idea what is supposed to happen if it pops, cause I've never seen it happen, any of the times I've done it, or any of the times any of my friends have done it. Proceed at your own risk.)

Once it boils, turn it to a simmer, and let it simmer for a couple hours. Add more water as it boils down, to keep the can covered. Turn off, take out of the water, and let it cool. Or, do this all the night before, and just turn the burner off and let it call cool itself without having to ever touch it, like I like to do. When you open it, you will have thick, creamy caramel. This stuff is unreal to dip apple slices in.

Crust:

Rub the butter into the flour and salt, til all rubbed in and greasy. Sprinkle in a couple tablespoons water in, and just mix JUST enough to get it mixed, and the dough pulls together. Add a little smidge more if you need.

Preheat the oven to moderate (350* F or 180* C). Press a 1 inch ball of dough into the bottom of the cups of a muffin tin, and press it all on the bottom and up the sides by about a 1/2 inch. Or else use those little patty pans, and go all the way to the top. Bake approx 10 min or so, til lightly golden. Pull out and cool. Pop the little pastry shells out of the pans, scoop a dollop of caramel into each one, and restrain yourself from eating way too many cause they look like little harmless mouthfuls.

Sunset..

Sometimes, it is nice to stand in the middle of a travel poster...

Messy, messy housekeeping..

Ok..so, in my quest for the elusive 3-column template, I have managed to wipe..well, pretty much everything except the actual post content. So bear with me, folks...things are gonna be strange around here for a bit! :p

Oh, BTW, I managed to wipe my blogroll. Anyone want to remind me who is supposed to be on it?


Credit: Plan59

Superhero dreams..

My dh showed me this vid, and I couldn't stop thinking, this person is as good as Julian Beever! And then I looked it up...:p

Post-it love...

SO. CUTE. :p

Found via ..I love love.

Hot hot hot...

It's hot and steamy and just generally slightly uncomfortable here...







I think these breezy, light, cool clothes by PlumPrettySugar are just what I need.

Credits:
PlumPrettySugar

The Butterfly Circus..

Completely, totally worth the twenty minutes spent.

ETA If for some reason, it's not working for you, try click here: The Butterfly Circus

Blue and Green..

I was sitting there, staring up, and the tree above was practically glowing against the aqua sky, backlit by the sinking sun. It was MAGIC.


Unfortunately, my crapola camera couldn't quite capture it. That's it...I am going to make the trek to pick up my FIXED CAMERA tomorrow. I can't take any more of this!

Invisibility..

Alright...who is going to try out Schlieren photography (which you can actually do yourself at home!), and report back to me??? Just cool would it be, to photograph the invisible like this??? :D Apparently, it is completely able to be done by the average shmoe with a decent camera and a $50 piece of equipment off eBay. Come on! You know you want to know what your sneeze looks like! You know you do! :p

Credits:
1. Light Reading
2. USC
3. Gary Settles via NY Times
4. Ianorg
5. Clouds Hill Imaging

Color personality..

GREEN: Because of its association with nature and foliage, green in design can be used almost like a neutral colour: greens never clash with red or pink roses, yellow sunflowers, lilacs or bluebells.


RED: With its aggressive, stimulating and sexy nature, assertive attention and provoking action, the red is impossible to ignore.


ORANGE: Inheriting some of the drama of red, orange is tempered by the friendly humour of yellow. It’s the colour that stimulates the appetite and radiates with warmth and vitality.


PURPLE: It’s perhaps the most enigmatic and complex colour, with the range of meanings – from royal to elegant to spiritual to mysterious. Purple is often favoured by very creative and eccentric people who are not afraid of appearing daring.


BLACK: People see black as the most dramatic, heavy, powerful, classic colour with an up-scale look. Because of its extreme contrast to white, black and white is the quintessential combination of depth and clarity, power and innocence.

____________________________________________________________________

Okay...I wear those colors, especially green, red and black, almost exclusively. I am not sure who is laughing louder..me, or the people who know me. :p


Credits:

All color descriptions pulled from a very cool post on color over on InspirationBit.

Pics:
1. Kris' Color Stripes (very cool blog..recommend it)
2. Not sure..if yours, let me know. :)
3. Lisa Ann via Absolutely Beautiful Things
4. Ali Loves Curtis
5. Bill Henson

Originality..

Makes me feel a bit better about my complete inability to be truly original. :p


Credit: Sonia Luna

Coming home..

It's good to be home.

Still call Australia home..

Okay, not really. In fact, too die hard American to ever do that. But this is still one of my favorite ever ad campaigns to watch..just beautiful to watch. :p

Oh, yeah, the point...so I'm down here for a week or so, in Sydney. Anyone want to meet up? :D

This Woman's Work..

You have to watch the judging, too. I dare you not to cry.


EDIT: Well, sheesh. Boo on the spoilsports at Dick Clark whatever. They took the vid down. Going to have to find another version somewhere!

Be Ok..

In the country..

My sister came over for a fortnight with her kids, to visit us other two sisters+kiddos...right near the end, we took a trip out to the North Shore, aka, the country. Thanks to a crappy camera, and a migraine, I didn't get nearly the shots I should have, but here are a couple...

Snorkeling at Shark's Cove...Schools of rainbow fish, crystal blue water, a sea turtle, warm, warm water....


Some of the best shave ice on the island..I am extremely fond of the li hing mui powder option you can get here (a mix of sugar, salt, plum, and licorice..and here, a heck of a lot of red food coloring. :p ) Not everybody agrees with me on that one, though. The philistines.

A random cloud, found on the camera after I lent it to my sister...don't really know who took that one. :p One thing you will find about Hawaii, is there is no such thing as a cloudless sky. Some days, you might think you have seen one, but then you look low on the horizan, and there will be some tiny smudge of a cloud, a little tiny dot, still in the sky.

You can't really see it, but there are horses in that thar picture. :p It really is the country. Though, developers are moving in, which has spawned a campaign to Keep the Country Country. Money being a driving force behind everything, I am just hoping someone retains enough sense to not let it be completely wiped out, and turned into a glossy, fake version of Hawaii, like tourists see when they go to these places :p :

Little boats...

When I was very little, 4 or so, my family lived in a little shack on the side of the mountain on the Big Island of Hawaii. It was primitive (our water source/shower was a rain barrel on the side of the slope out front), but in the backyard, where my parents were digging a garden, they dug up a little square pond of some sort. One of my favorite memories is walking into the jungle out behind the garden and picking up banana flower petals off the jungle floor, and floating them in that pond like little boats.

These ones, all these years later, are growing in my backyard. I don't float the petals any more, but I still love to see them.

Pictures and Words...

Decided to play along over at Meet Me at Mike's, for the Words and Pictures theme-along, since green just happens to be my lodestone. :p

Palm trees are, predictably, a central part of Hawaii living. I was standing under this one, waiting to cross the street, randomly holding a camera in my hand, when I looked up. Loved the graphic lines against the sky, so snapped. :p

Hop on over to Meet Me at Mike's to see all the rest of the Green Party with Mr. Linky! :D

How'd I miss *this*???

How the heck did I miss hearing about this movie before?????????

Guilty treat..

I won't be recommending The Secret of Moonacre, the next time someone asks for a movie rec. I won't even be rushing to watch it again myself.


But, have to say...since I *did* end up watching it, at least once, my virtue was rewarded....the costumes, at least for Maria Merryweather, the heroine, were enough to catch my breath.


Even the undies looked really cool. :p


The rest of the characters, not as much. The male counterpart, sorry, looks like a cross between The Artful Dodger, and that guy in A Clockwork Orange. Except when he was wearing a stripe across his nose, for no discernible reason.



Some of the sets were pretty amazing, too..(You can click all these pics for a much larger version to see the details properly..I really recommend it)



And the gates, I loved the gates! How neat are they??

So, yeah...if you have an hour or two to kill, and want to see some pretty eye candy (better than my lousy screencaps here), you MIGHT wander over to the kiddie aisle at Blockbuster. Just don't say I didn't warn you. :p


Credits:

1. World Culture Pictorial
10. Allocine

Forever..

Moby isn't usually my thing. In fact, he usually bores the heck out of me. But this one I found over on Luyi's Some Required, I really, really like. Keep looping it, in fact.

Mustardseeds and Moonshine...

I'm not usually one for little flower shaped dishes. I find them a bit twee. But I won't argue too loudly if someone decides to gift me with a set from the fantastically named Mustardseeds and Moonshine, found over on Hidden In France. Really, I won't. Promise. :p

Credits:
All from Mustardseeds and Moonshine