A facinating piece on how colour does affect us. Which makes me wonder how people who never wear colour see themselves and others. Bring on the colour I say and watch out when I'm wearing red. How colour twists your mind - 26 August 2009 - New Scientist

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A delightful interlude from Sesame magazine & one of my fave creative peeps, Beci Orpin where you get to colour in this cute folky girl.

Some much needed blog inspiration from Pip at Meet Me At Mikes

Making : a big to do list for when i'm not working
Cooking : Lean Cuisines, Mr Blue-Eyes is on night shift so just me for dinner
Drinking : Bickfords Iced Tea cordial
Reading: Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson
Wanting: a new portable home phone
Looking: for a new job
Playing: solitaire on the train
Wasting: as little as possible
Sewing: a hole that tore in my top, that's what i get for spending $10...
Wishing: the next week would go really fast
Enjoying: the first hints of spring in the air
Waiting: for Mr Blue-Eyes to come home from work
Liking: the fruit toast with dates and poppy seeds from my local cafe
Wondering: where i am going
Loving: Mr Blue-Eyes and Bruno
Hoping: there is something for me around the corner
Marvelling: at sunrise yesterday morning
Needing: to wax my legs, now the weather is just that bit warmer...
Smelling: the jonquils
Wearing: my peter alexander camo pjs
Following: my heart
Noticing: that i'm starting to get muscles from my training sessions
Knowing: that sometimes i have to make the wrong choice to know the right one
Thinking: that i should do my tax soon
Feeling: better than i did a couple of weeks ago
Bookmarking: potential jobs
Opening: my latest issue of Frankie
Giggling: at 30Rock, yes finally i know
Feeling: dazed and confused

Things have been quiet around here on the blog front because I changed my work life and not for the best.
The details have been pretty stressful and I'm reassessing what i want to do, what i can do and what i'm willing to do.
To quote the cliche this experience has reinforced the idea of working to live not living to work as it has really felt like my life has been on hold for the last month and that is not how i want to live.
I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and am looking forward to having a life again.

I'll leave you with my winter/spring jonquils from the garden. The fragrance makes this season almost worthwhile.
In the meantime do check out my shared items above, i'm still managing to check the blogs and share my finds when i have a moment to breathe.

is your love santa stuck in the chimney?

Any movie that has a line about "a pathetic attempt to explain why our love Santa keeps getting caught in the chimney." terrifies me.



That and Meg Ryan's trout lips were frightening...

I always seem to miss the boat on memes about the blogs but when i saw the A to Z meme on Pip's Meet Me at Mikes i figured i could get on board with this one.
The idea being you work your way through the alphabet in your browsers address bar and list all the sites you've been to (and hope there isn't anything embarrassing). As i worked through thi s list i've noticed that sometimes it isn't if a site beings with that letter but which URL has the most incidences of a letter.

A - http://www.google.com/analytics/ this could have been for work and for checking to see if i'd had double-figure visitors on the blog. If you have a website of any sort you just have to have Google Analytics

B - http://brownowls.blogspot.com/ the sweetest craftiest bunch about

C - http://www.careerone.com.au/ yup i've been looking for a new job and accepted an offer last week. More of the same and a then some. Nervous and excited, i start mid July. I'll be back in Surry Hills which is nice to be around the sample sales again...

D - http://picasaweb.google.com/broadcasttech/FindersKeepers curiously this one popped up for D, Mr Blue-eyes pix from finders keepers.

E - http://www.google.com/reader how else to a keep an eye on over 150 different blogs....

F - http://www.fitnessfirst.com.au yep i joined a couple of months ago though refused to take the backpack. I'm trying to stick to at least twice a week and have even been seeing a trainer. Getting much harder in the mornings since it hit single figures in temp...

G - http://www.geekologie.com/2009/04/good_eats_a_whole_chicken_in_a.php ah i'd almost forgotton about this one, soooo disgustingly bad and like a car crash you can't look away. A whole chicken in a can...

H - http://www.hollychalmers.com/ delightful ladies fashion with a twist, spotted at finders keepers

I - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120679/ IMDB listing for Frida, i love her mexican folky blouses and wreathed hair

J - http://www.jetstar.com/au/en/index.aspx we've got a trip to Hong Kong in September pencilled in so was checking flights out...

K - http://kerrianne.com.au/ um it is for work i promise - i never watch daytime telly

M - http://meetmeatmikes.blogspot.com/

N - http://www.smh.com.au/national/ though i must say the SMH is really starting to bug me with ads that autoplay and ads running down the background

O - http://www.bom.gov.au/ i'm an utter weather geek and check the observations and radar everyday

P - http://pastureperfectpork.wordpress.com/ we bought a pork neck from them at the eveliegh growers markets and were looking for ideas on what to do with it. Ravioli and sausage won the day.

R - http://recipefinder.ninemsn.com.au/ felt like baking today and was looking for something to do with the passionfruits i got at the markets yesterday...

S - http://thestonesoup.com/blog one of my fave Sydney food bloggers, Jules has a great way of writing and showing us what she makes and i seem to want to eat all of it

T - http://www.threeoverone.com/ Mr Blue-eyes is always on the look out for sharp menswear that is classic but modern.

U - http://uootsie.wordpress.com/

V - http://www.webjet.com.au/airlines/virgin-atlantic/ more Hong Kong research, my fave airline so far

X - http://www.xbox360cheats.com/ i think 'someone' was getting frustrated with a game...

Y - http://yalla.com.au/ am drooling just remembering the Yalla dips and yogurts. The strawberry/pomegranate is thrilling.

I know things in Sydney don't really get cold as far as the northern hemmesphere goes but when it gets to single figures at night then it counts as cold for me.
Cold enough for me that these wool-blend arm warmers from Country Road seemed like a super idea, especially when on sale for $22 (was $50).
Perfect for keeping the hands warm when blogging...

So after mastering the art of making pizza dough and sausages Mr Blue-eyes has moved onto pasta. As much as we wanted to get the pasta attachments for our Kitchenaid we werent quite willing to spend almost the cost of the mixer for the attachments and a quick trip to Victoria's Basement scored us a basic pasta maker in a matching red enamel even.

A couple of trials ensued and it wasnt long before the right blend of pasta flour and semolina was discovered. Some digging in the utensil drawer unearthed a long lost ravioli wheel and the technique was perfected.

One of the more successful dinners was a Prawn, pinenut & fetta ravioli with a tomato and cream sauce with garden fresh basil.

The filling

The filling laid out on the pasta ready for the top layer

Once the an egg wash is brushed on the bottom layer, the top layer of pasta is laid on top and smoothed down around the filling.

The edges are then trimmed off using the wheel tool.

and then cut into individual pieces.

lots of flour is used to make sure they dont stick together as they're being prepared. Whilst they were in a pot of salted boiling water the sauce was created with cherry tomatoes, garlic, basil and a splash of cream.

We just managed to snap this shot because minutes later there was nothing left in that bowl - a real plate licker...

Inspired by The Crafty Librarian & AmityvilleBoronia I'm going to share what we're having for dinner tonight.
From The Silver Spoon which was a wedding pres from A'dair & Tash comes Pumpkin Tortelli.
Mr Blue-eyes has mastered the art of pasta making and is now on to trying new fillings and non tomato sauces.

Ingredients:
4 cups pumpkin, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
2/3 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, plus extra to serve
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2-2 cups bread crumbs
200gr Fresh Pasta Dough
1/4 cup butter
8 fresh sage leaves
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 220c. Put the pumpkin in a roasting pan, drizzle with the oil, cover with foil and bake for about 1 hour. Pass the pumpkin through a food mill into a bowl, add the Parmesan and eggs and season with salt and pepper. Stir in enough bread crumbs to make a fairly firm mixture. Roll out the pasta dough into a sheet and stamp out 7.5cm rounds with a cookie cutter. Spoon a little of the pumpkin filling into the center of each round, fold in half and crimp the edges. Cook the tortelli in a large pan of salted, boiling water for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a frypan, add the sage and cook for a few minutes. Drain the tortelli, place in a warm serving dish and sprinkle with the sage butter and extra Parmesan.

We ended up making ravioli shapes as we didn't have a nice round cutter and Mr Blue-eyes has the ravioli technique down pat. We also forgot to add the parmesan into the pumpkin mixture but it was still pretty damn yummy (if a bit naughty with the butter sauce).