Holy Mackerel!

Aquarium Cake.

via DesignMom

Chalkboard Paint

I mean, how awesome is chalkboard paint?!

This guy right here painted it on his fridge. It turned his fridge into a creative space!

Design Mom's painted her son's wardrobe with this stuff.

General chalkboard paint ideas.

And it's Martha Stewart approved.

Off to the mall ...

to get some Play Doh for an assessment!

Epilogue!

Holy Moly! Have you seen the epilogue pics on Mugglenet? They're fabulous!! Albus Severus is so cute, and Lily Luna looks just like Ginny from the Philosopher's Stone!

Do you think they've aged Harry a bit more than his 36 years?

Yay, can't wait for Deathly Hallows! XD

Interactive

Did you play pacman on the Google logo today??

And one more interactive advertisement that I spotted today:

Free music via your bluetooth?! On a bus stop?! I couldn't try it out because I was taking the picture, then I was talking with my bestie, then the bus came and I hadn't packed my camera, and I panicked. Lol. I caught the bus though, so that's good. 

May is the music month in New Zealand. I love the interactivity of the ad. I really want to try it out! Best for those cold, grey days when you're waiting for your bus to arrive ...

This is the same bus stop that hosted the ad for The Pacific that I posted about here.

Ummm.

I'm a little busy lately, so please forgive me if I don't post this weekend ...

But have you seen this awesome/crazy/long list of misconceptions? It's quite interesting. There, that should keep you going for the weekend. :)

Grey.

It is such a grey and rainy day today. I wrote my essay and procrastinated [as you do]. The time felt wrong all day - 2pm was too dark for 2pm, and 5pm feels like it came far too quick. Hmm.

How was the day where you're at? What did you do today? Was your day productive?

p.s.: I discovered that YouTube does karaoke! And that's how I've been procrastinating this week! Singing along to the Sound of Music! It's been fun hehehe ...

Yes, that's an old photo from last year.

Ladelle

Today's my gran's birthday, and I gave her this apron [same colour] from Ladelle:

And she loves it! And I love that she loves it! I really enjoy giving thoughtful gifts [as you might've guessed, my gran loves cooking and baking]. I take so long to decide what to give someone; I look in ten shops, compare the prices, the quality! Maybe it's just because I'm a Libra. So indecisive. XD

Anyway, we just had some Movenpick ice cream [swiss chocolate] and now I'm settling down to finish my photography essay that's due this Friday!

Did I tell you guys, that the Apple and Rose Ice Cream we made was oh-so-delicious? And did I tell you guys that the Rainbow Cake wasn't as successful? [And hence, no photos ...] Mind you, it was delicious all right, just wasn't as grand looking as I expected it to be. I think I'm sort of sick of cakes at the moment, to be honest ... ha ha ha ...

Orange gets creative

Hah, this sounds like a lot of fun! I want to do it in my class now! [I'm in Blue; we're sorted by colour groups at our university. Pretty cool, huh?]

Photo A Day

Kunal and I are thinking of starting up our photo blog again ... not sure at this time if I'll be posting every day, as I have assessments from two courses to take care of ...

We're not pro's, just students who like taking pictures, and if you want to have a look, the link's right here! :)

Oh, and I still need to talk to Kunal about this, but I don't mind if there's anyone out there who'd like to join our blog. You can just comment and let us know. :)

Culinary Flags

Italy...

Vietnam...

Lebanon...

Culinary Flags! Made out of food from that specified country! Yummeh! I want some pasta and bubble tea now!

Made By Julene

This little etsy shop is pretty inspirational ... and a little intense! But I love it! The delicate paper work reminds me of one of my most favourite graphic designers; Marian Bantjes!

Stunning art

No, no, not painted! Embroidered!

These remind me of this, this, and this. Art that is perceived as been done in a totally different medium than what it really is. {Ehh. Brain freeze. Don't ask what I just said, but it makes sense to me.}

via here. And I found this via here.

PoppyTalk

Bedroom installations that I've wanted to post since, well, forever! [Esp. for Rachael aka Datzrein since she does Visual Art]

I love this one the best. So floaty and it puts me in a nice mood:

Image, etc via PoppyTalk

Eep!

Pantone bikes!

DesignMom's new baby!

Sailor's Knot Doorstop! [and it's a giveaway]

FailBook

Do you guys read FailBook?

Whoa.

Whoa is all I said as I gawked at these:

From Tabu4U.

Apple and Rose Petal Ice Cream

Heya ... today I come with another recipe from Vogue 1996. The other one is right here.

Apple and Rose Petal Ice Cream [900ml]

You will need:

4 pink scented Rose heads/

425ml thick cream/

450g eating apples [we used two Royal Gala and two New Zealand Beauty] peeled, cored, sliced/

2tbsp water/

juice of half a lemon/

150g caster sugar.

The preparation:

- Make sure that the roses weren't sprayed with chemicals.

- Remove the petals from the rose heads.

- Put them in a saucepan with the cream, bring slowly to boil, then remove from heat, cover, and allow to infuse for one hour.

- Strain the cream, pressing the petals firmly to extract all flavour.

- Cook the apples in a covered saucepan over medium heat with the water and lemon juice until soft.

- Blend the apples to a smooth puree, add the sugar and allow to cool.

- Mix the apple puree with the scented cream and place in the freezer for one hour.

- Remove from the freezer and beat for a few seconds with a hand beater until the mixture is slushy.

- Return to the freezer and repeat the process twice more each hour.

- Freeze for a further hour when the ice cream is ready to serve.

- Serve with crystallised rose petals.

Notes:

- The roses I got were a beautiful bright pink colour, but lacked the scent. So I had to put some rose essence in it, and it worked fabulously. You can add about four drops.

- Also, I decided to leave the rose petals in the ice cream. The petals look good in the cream-coloured ice cream, and mm they have a rose petaley flavour that I like.

- And yes I served it with crystallised petals.

Crystallised Petals:

This is a good recipe for crystallised [gah! Blogger won't stop underlining 'crystallised' in red; apparently I'm spelling it wrong!] petals, pretty close to what I did. I used one egg white to cover about 3 rose heads.

I liked this ice cream. It's different to what I've ever had before, and made our kitchen smell of lemons and roses ... mmm, so refreshing! There's still some left in the fridge, and you are welcome to come over and help yourself to some! :)

Post Punk Cinema Club

Post Punk Cinema Club.

For all you movie [especially Bollywood] lovers out there! I ❤ this movie review blog! Been reading this since the start of 2008 ^.^ I've requested for a review on the 3 Idiots, I think they're going to write it up soon! Such prompt replies to emails, too ...

Winter blooms and birds

I can't wait to get some lovely pastel shades of crepe paper and make these fabulous flowers! They would totally brighten up my room! 

Edit: Wouldn't these make a fun bouquet for your mum?!

And these sweet bird cages!

There are a lot of other DIYs on The Bride's Cafe [which is where these tutorials are], and I really like the moss initials!

Saturday

Rainbow cake's in the oven as I type this ... the purple and blue layers are done, and green's a-baking ... I had to use generous drops of liquid food colouring as I couldn't find the gel type [which is said to give far more bright colours]. I'm going to do the remaining layers later, and ice them - frost them? - tomorrow. I'll put some pics up too. Yay!

And now I must scoot and do some assessments.

Edit: If anyone missed it, the recipe for rainbow cake is here. And I used Betty Crocker's Super Moist Vanilla Cake mix for the base.

The Graphics Fairy

Holy moly! You need to check this out.

The Graphics Fairy has free vintage images. For your craft projects. Assessments. Art. Whatever! [wish I knew about this last year, when I was doing my Zeitgeist for the Victorian Era! AUT students will know what I'm on about :D ]

And there's more. Of course.

The Graphics Fairy also posts tutorials. Yep, this blog is as good as it can get. I especially love the custom made tape.

Conversations

I had a small conversation with a lovely old chap on the free bus today, wherein we talked about Jung's personality types. Which type are you? I'm an ISFJ, but it changes slightly sometimes. 

He also talked about the 9 personality types on the Enneagram. I'm both a helper and a peacemaker [which I think is quite true - I hate conflicts!].

To take Jung's test, click here. Then head over here to read more about your type! To take the Enneagram personality test, click here. It takes a while to answer them, but the answers are quite precise! 

Ooh, and special thanks to Suzanne for introducing me to Jung's personality types and the Enneagram :)

Blogger in draft

I'm trying out Blogger in draft - which gives me more options like scheduling posts, etc. So I can write posts in advance and schedule them if I'm going to be busy that day! Nice, right?

This is just a test scheduled post.

Heart Cake

Aha! I'd said earlier that I wanted to share another beautiful cake recipe - and here it is! 

The Secret Heart Cake recipe! From I Am Baker.

Clear Gazpacho

So, Wikipedia told me that Gazpacho is basically just a cold tomato soup. Spanish origin. I've got this straight from Vogue 1996. Well, let's get on with the recipe. 

Clear Gazpacho [serves 4]

You will need:

8 beefsteak tomatoes/

1 tbsp salt/

1 firm avocado peeled and diced/

24 yellow teardrop tomatoes, halved/

1/2 cucumber peeled, seeded, and diced/

4 tsp olive oil/

1 tbsp lemon juice/

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste/

chives, cut diagonal.

The preparation:

- Blend the beefsteak tomatoes and salt together in the food processor.

- Tie the contents in a muslin and allow the tomato water to drip through overnight. Chill in the refrigerator [not you, the tomato water!].

- Toss the avocado, teardrop tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini and plum tomatoes [but the ingredients didn't even mention these?] with olive oil, lemon juice, and add salt and pepper to taste.

- Add the vegetables to the tomato water [which I guess you collect from the overnight dripping] and stir in with chives.

- Serve chilled.

Sounds like a classy but easy entree! I'm still unsure if I'll actually make this for my dad's - and gran's - birthday, but I like the fact that it's now on my blog, and I can access it anytime I want.

And thank you, Sarah, for following me! :)

mathisdead

Kyle [Graphic Design, AUT] and his friend's blog:

mathisdead

Ooo, they talk about the new M.A.C. collection, which is inspired by paper! Brown paper! Pretty smart, really.

Edit: Yay, I was featured on Design Sandbox, our Graphic Design degree's blog! Check it out for more cool links and inspiration! I shall check back in later to share two recipes that I found in Vogue 1996!

Playing with Photoshop

I have to admit, I'm not much of a Photoshop person [InDesign's my favourite], but I've been playing around with Photoshop thanks to some super cool tutorials from around the web.

Today was the draw-the-shaded-blobs day. It's all about playing with your brush strokes and opacities. I strive to achieve this... soon.

[The text bit was done in InDesign]

Let's get bakey!

Tee hee ... it's my dad's and my gran's birthdays coming up real soon, and I'm thinking of baking a little something! I've never exactly baked before, just a little blueberry pie [recipe here] for an assignment, so let's see how this goes!

I'm thinking of baking ... drumroll, please ... the Rainbow cake! Except ... I'm not sure if I'll make it rainbow, maybe in colours they like best? Anyway, I thought the idea was brilliant, and I like how it looks white from outside, then you cut it open, and voila - burst of colour. I'd bookmarked another beautiful cake recipe, but alas, I can't find it at the moment - I'll definitely put it up if and when I find the link, though!

Some more bakey links:

- Cupcakes that make me drool.

- Even more cupcakes that make me drool [minus the Twilight ones].

- Smart and beautiful cupcakes.

- Glitter cupcakes!

- How to make some cupcake art.

- Here's where my mum got me cupcakes. They were totally yummeh, if a little expensive.

Fun fun! I'm doing this next Sunday, and I shall post pics up if all goes well!

Edit:

p.s.: Brrr, it's getting colder here. I must get my soft and cuddly Singapore Airlines socks out! I hope you're warm and cosy, wherever you are!

White

I especially love the peaceful white Dove,

the majestic white Tiger,

and last and my most favourite, the magnificent white Peacock.

We know that doves, tigers, and peacocks are found in their coloured-in versions too, but don't these look absolutely stunning and ethereal?! And speaking of colours ...

How would you like it if your chocolate was teal in colour? Would you still eat it? I asked a couple of my friends, and they said they wouldn't. Isn't it interesting that if colours were moved around, we probably wouldn't approach something in the same way. For example, a teal chocolate [or that green mint ice cream that no one I know likes]!

p.s.: Errr ... no. We weren't given teal chocolate for Easter. The photo's just been tampered with, in Photoshop ;)

p.p.s.: I absolutely love mint ice cream. It's pretty mint! Ok, enough with the bad puns!

Dove, Tiger, and Peacock photos from Google Images.