Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Terrific Tassie: DAY 6 - HERITAGE HIGHWAY/ HOMEWARD BOUND

Good morning everyone! So today marks the very last day of our little Tasmanian holiday guide. I hope you've enjoyed reading so far. I know the posts have been ultra-lengthy. But there was just so much to share! Too tough to squeeze into a short paragraph. Anyway here goes, our very last day in Terrific Tasmania! Tassie HolidayNo surprises, we started off a little sad (SO not ready to leave!) and cheered ourselves up with yet another delicious breakfast at Jackman & Mcross. Haha. Told ya we loved that bakery! Needless to say, food was excellent once again. I'm starting to wonder if they even have mediocre stuff there. Before we left, we bought extra tarts and cookies for our long drive home. Our plan for the day was to spend our morning in Hobart, have an early lunch and slowly begin our drive up to Devonport where we would board the 7.30pm ferry and head home to Melbourne.
Tassie HolidayTassie HolidayAfter breakfast, we decided to walk around Hobart city one very last time. We popped by The CWA Gift Shop and bought a carrot cake, along with a cute crochet hot water bottle pouch. The old ladies running the shop were so cute and wrap everything up super nicely. I asked if I could take some photos and one couldn't hear me. I had to repeat several times and when she finally heard me, we both had a little laugh. Cute old lady! Tassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayWhile in the area, we found an amazing Map shop. Darren and I, we've always wanted a giant map. So walking into the shop was pretty much an experience for us. Maps everywhere! Large maps, small maps,old school, new, laminated, framed, everything! If you're after a giant map, you now know where to find one. We spoke to the shop lady before we left and I vaguely remember her mentioning that they can ship interstate. Apart from cute CWA ladies and the amazing Map shop, we also found ourselves in a knife shop (how interesting!) and a funky gift shop where everything in there kind of cracked me up. Darren bought himself a 'Where's Wally' cup. Funny enough, he was totally decked out in his 'Where's Wally outfit' that day. It was totally coincidental. And yup, Darren loves Wheres Wally. I think he looks a little bit like Wally himself! Especially when he's wearing his glasses. Tall, skinny stripy!
Tassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayFor lunch, we drove back to the wharf for ...Fish and Chips! Yup! Our 6th or was it our 7th one throughout our trip. You see, by that time, we were pretty fished out from fish and chips. But then we told ourselves, it was a case of 'Now or never!', at least not until we returned to Hobart again. Hobart's seafood was tooo good, we just had to have it one last time. We bought ourselves a pack filled with scallops and prawns. Darren bought fresh oysters (he loves his oysters) and we pigged out in the car. Because we were so sick of battered seafood, we ended up stripping away all the batter, throwing out fries and just ate all the seafood. We wished they would sell grilled ones instead of heavily battered fish! Tassie HolidayTassie HolidayAfter our seafood binge, let me just say, I've truly well hit my quota for fish and chips and oysters for at least a year I think. We've been back in Melbourne about 4 weeks since, and I'v yet to touch Fish and Chips or oysters. Not for me, not now at least. Give me another month or so. Heh! Driving off Hobart, we said our sad goodbyes to the cute little town. Fun times, fun memories. We promised to be back! We headed towards Richmond, which wasn't too far away so we arrived shortly after. There were some bits and pieces interesting about Richmond. We chose to visit the Old Hobart Town Model Village Museum. It was pretty small, and I wished it was ten times bigger. But I must say, it must be quite an amount of work that went into building those tiny little figurines. Lots of dedication and patience involved! Tassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayWhile we were at Richmond, we came across lots of other interesting gift shops filled full with bowls and boxes made from Tasmania's famous Huon Pine. There was also the lollie shop where we bought and shared an ice cream. Oh and I also discovered an Old time portrait shop, of which Darren had to drag me away from. It was a shop where you could put on vintage costumes and have your photo taken, vintage style! I know, it sounds so cheesy but I can't help it! Love these sort of wacky stuff. Haha. I almost talked Darren into taking a portrait but due to time constraints, we had to rush off, and head towards Devonport. Sigh! No funny portraits of us then. Maybe next time!Tassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayBack on the highway, we munched on our treats from Jackman and Mcross. It was a bad idea as it made us miss the bakery immediately! But well, we distracted ourselves by spotting Silhouette sculptures, interesting topiaries and several op shops. I really wanted us to stop over for photos but we just didn't have time. The sun was setting pretty quickly and we were just too worried we couldn't reach Devonport in time! On hindsight, we should have left Hobart in the morning just so we would have more time to explore Richmond and surrounds. Tassie HolidayAnyway, one very last stop before we were back on the ferry in Devonport. We made it a point to drop by Callington Mill, which was featured on Masterchef weeks ago. It was just about to close for the day so we quickly bought some flour and off we went. I can't remember which flour we bought now. We got two different varieties. But man, they were so good and so fine. I've been baking breads with them and the breads just come out so nicely, unlike the ones where I've used just regular supermarket flour. If you live in Tassie and have access to their flours, please do try some! Sadly, I don't think Callington Mill Flours are stocked anywhere else outside of Tassie. So too bad for those of us, outside of Tassie.Tassie HolidayTassie HolidaySo yup, nothing much really happened on the last Day. Unlike our previous days at Cradle Mountain and MONA. It was mostly driving on the road, rushing up to Devonport. Before I end my final Terrific Tassie post, here's a few pictures onboard The Spirit Of Tasmania. Could not, not post these! The ferry trip was after all part of our adventure. Even though I got quite seasick!
Tassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayOnce again, thank you so super much for reading, emailing me and leaving useful comments and tips. Indeed, Tasmania has so much to offer and I loved every bit of it! Our 6 days were all jam-packed and filled to the brim with activities. There were lots of fun and laughter involved, a perfect getaway right smack in the middle of busy-ness. Darren and I are already looking forward to returning some day soon. We'd love to head to the West side this time round! We've never been there before but we're pretty sure it'll be as beautiful as what we've come across thus far. Thanks for reading once again and I hope you've enjoyed every single Tassie post! See you back here soon with all my art-making adventures.

THANK YOU TASMANIA FOR BEING SO AWESOME! XO!

DIY Pastel Jean Pains

Em here, so a super huge thanks to Marquette for taking over this weekend while I had STREP! Boo, it always seems we alternate between being sick or out of town, we must stop this so more epic Pinterest testing can happen! Anyways, Meredith sent us this pin worth testing, and I thought it was genius, and well she did the work of figuring out why certain things just don't work, everyone say "Thank You Meredith". Here is tonight's Pinstrosity!

The Original

Super cute right! Well, I am not much of a pink person, however I love the idea of a non-traditional jean color, the tutorial on the sight is fairly simple, and yet if you try to improvise on this one it WILL come back and bite you in the butt, here is what Meredith got...

The Pinstrosity

The Break Down:
The tutorial says to use bleach in a large Rubbermaid bin, and has specific measurements  for the bleach (3 cups for 3-4 gallons of water, but I suggest if you are going to do this project go to the original tutorial and read the directions). Meredith didn't have a Rubbermaid bin, so she used her bath tub, but that wasn't working so she switched to a large metal bin, trouble proceeds. Then the cap on her bleach wasn't coming off, so she chopped it off and used WAY too much, more trouble proceeds. Next the metal bin caused rust stains (Are we surprised? Using metal for things like this will almost always result in rust :( sad day.) and so she washed the jeans to try to get the rust stains out. You guessed it, more trouble. The bleach combined with the washer completely thrashed the jeans. The blog says to use quality jeans because the bleach will totally trash lower quality jeans to threads (that results in what we see above!).

How to fix it:
1. Use a Rubbermaid bin, preferably a large one that you might use for storage.
*The original blogger said that the jeans need room to move freely*
2. Follow the measurements of water/bleach ratio.
3.Use quality jeans.
*If you are following the directions from the original blog, you will bleach them three times, not all jeans can handle this process, hence the reason to use good jeans*
4.Follow the directions of the blog, the writer also mentions to soak them in warm water before you begin the process, then she later uses Rit Dye to make them pink, read her directions and then follow them for this one to work out best. her directions were easy, and she seems like she has had trial and error for this one, so she (and Meredith) have done the work for you!!

We would love to hear from you guys, have you done this project? How did it turn out, more trouble? Or did you end up with some totally-awesome-super-trendy-DIY pastel jeans?! Let us know!
Happy Tuesday!

                                        -Emilee

#Ramadan Arabian Nights #2012 : Hagar, Sahar and Egrama-12

Here is our 414th night of our Arabian night , the 12th part of our tale , the tale of Hagar , Sahar and Egrama.







Now King Seksek Hamdan is officially regarded as crazy addicted man who no one can stand except the hypocrites. The messenger of King Kaood , Masood could not present Sahar as a gift the previous night when Seksek was officially high so he waited till next day when the man was awake.
Of course as addicted to cannabis madly , the king ordered his men to bring him cannabis as soon as possible but there was bad news waiting for him. The man he sent to bring cannabis was killed by northern tribes , in return the king orders his troops to bring hell on those tribes
After 3 days Masood, the envoy of King Kaood meets Seksek Hamdan and presents to him the gift “Sahar” and the letter from his king. The envoy asked him about his alliance with The Nile knight. 
Now Seksek Hamdan may be high most of the time but he is wicked , he explained that his alliance was the Nile Knight was to prevent him from any future alliance with the tribes if they revolt against them , the kings.
Poor Sahar presented to the Seksek who refused to listen to her pleas to let her free as she is not a slave. Instead he sent her to one of the palace.
That’s it for tonight.
You can refresh your memory and remember what happened last night here.

#Olympics2012 : The First Egyptian and the First African to reach for the Finals Fencing foil "Updated "

Ok this is historical , for the first time an African/Arab/Egyptian reaches to the finals of the fencing foil competing on the gold medal in the Olympics, this African/Arab/Egyptian is Alaa El Din Abu El Kassem.


Now Abu El Kassem , thank God secured for us a medal whether the gold or the silver   thank God.
We are so existed , this is the first time Egyptians glued in front of TV channels watching 9 minutes of fencing clueless waiting for the red color in Abu El Kassem’s helmet to beam. Of course we know the rules of the game later.
Here is Abu El Kassem’s twitter account by the way.
The final of fencing foil will be on air after few minutes
Updated : 
And Abu El Kassem got the silver medal after fantastic game and performance, he lost 13-15 in front of the Chinese opponent who found himself in front of  a fearless Egyptian fighter. Abu El Kassem played wonderful game despite his injury to the level that he impressed the British presenters as well the audience. This is the first silver medal for Egypt and Africa in fencing , in Olympics. Our rank in the Olympics is 24 after this medal which hopefully will not be the last. 
It is joyful day for the Arabs as Qatar got Bronze medal

We should not be worried that their children are ready

Do you remember that ad that our media consider it insulting our new elected president ?? Yes that ad which says that the Israeli or rather the Jewish children are ready to build the temple !? Well according to Israeli ministry of foreign affairs it was not aired in Israel at all.
According to an official statement sent to the Egyptian ministry of foreign affairs by its Israeli counter that ad was produced by NGO for the internet only and that’s why it is in English and not in Hebrew !! The Egyptian ministry of foreign objected already about this ad and its insult to our head of state.
Anyhow the first son of Egypt unleashed a huge attack on Israel and Jews defending his father as well Islam following this ad on Facebook last week. Dr. Ahmed Mohamed Morsi , the eldest son of our president who works as a physician in one of the hospitals in Saudi Arabia wrote a status on his Facebook account
To those behind the Israeli Zionist insulting ad to Dr. Mohamed Morsi , we the Free Egyptians will support the resistance powers in Palestine through praying , donation and boycotting.
And
And the age of dependency is over , we do not have nothing to you except the shoe
And it goes on like this.
After few hours we found his FB account was closed then it was opened with no trace to that angry status. Now Dr. Ahmed is claiming that Facebook administration has suspended his account because of his status which it removed.
Of course as a first son , I think he should be careful now on every word he writes and how to choose your words carefully.
Nevertheless Yair Netanyahu , Bibi’s son also used to post anti-Islamic and anti-Arab post in his FB profile.
Now I do not know what Dr. Ahmed will say when he sees that his father sent a complimentary letter to Shimon Perez , the Israeli president who sent earlier Ramadan complimentary letter .


Zoom in to read the letter
Freedom and Justice Party is claiming that that this is a fake letter where as Barak Ravid , the diplomatic reporter in Haartez showed the cover letter of the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv that came with the presidential letter. The presidential letter was actually a Fax sent to our embassy in Tel Aviv.
Well regardless of what you think these are protocols procedures and as long as you have official relations with Israel you should stick. Protocols and corresponding letters got rules as old as God knows what , you can not ignore them.
Zoom in to read cover letter
Of course the nationalists will not like it , the Islamists will be shocked and the liberals who consider this letter as example for the double standards of MB that have been using the Palestinian cause “in their point of view in order to win the public”
Update : 
The Egyptian presidency official spokesperson Yasser Ali denies that President Morsi sent anything !! Unfortunately the letter of Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv is officially stamped !!

Amish Friendship Bits

When I was first married I was given my first bag of Amish Friendship Bread. For about 5 months I was a bread making fiend. We ate this stuff for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and then wondered why we gained weight). I hadn't thought about this bread for quite a while until Becci sent us this Pinstrosity. 

The Original Pin
http://www.chef-in-training.com/2012/01/amish-friendship-bread-with-printable-version/
Seriously, this stuff is so dang good. If you've never been given a starter bag the link above has directions (at the bottom of the post) to get your own batch started. I know this seems like a lot of work for bread, but it really isn't all that hard and it is SOOOOO yummy. You need to try this stuff. Becci tried it out and had a little trouble. 

The Pinstrosity

She told us, "It would NOT come out of the pan!!! The recipe says to coat the pan in spray then dust with sugar and cinnamon mixture. It turned into cement in the pan! It did taste delicious, though I couldn't wrap it up and give it to the neighbors. :)"

This was a problem I had early on when I first started making this bread. I figured out a few tricks though that helped. 
  • Instead of using baking spray to grease the pans, I would use shortening or butter. Take a paper towel (or your fingers...I just used my fingers) and coat your pan. You don't want a really thick layer but you want to make sure your pan is thoroughly coated. 
  • I started increasing the amount of the sugar/cinnamon mixture by half so that I would have extra. This allowed me to get an even thicker coat of the sugar mixture lining the pan. Not only did this help keep the bread from sticking to the pan, but it made it extra yummy!
  • I let the bread cool for about 10-15 minutes (depending on how warm of a day it was). When the bread is a little more cool it will come out of the pan easier. 
  • Sometimes I would take the bread out of the oven and put them up-side-down on a cooling rack and let them cool that way. As they cooled gravity did its work and helped the bread to pull away from the pan. 
                        

Forgotten TV Shows



This follows the format of other medical shows of the time--and of all times. Brilliant doctor, grateful patients who seem a bit too close to the doc. I loved it at the time.
Chad Everett, who died last week, was a hunk. He was a fixture on TV for many years. He got his start in Detroit at Wayne State University. Not much more to say about Medical Center. Ben Casey, Marcus Welby and Medical Center were all popular at the time.

white swan // black swan



Dress: Roksanda Ilincic thanks to The Outnet; Shoes: Valentino (similar style here); Sunglasses: Karen Walker; Clutch: Vintage

Terrific Tassie: DAY 5 - MONA/HOBART

Hello everyone, welcome to Day 5 of my Terrific Tasmania Trip! I can't believe it, Day 5, second last day of our trip. How fast did it go by? 6 Days was just way too short! Tasmania is way too terrific to cover in just 6 days. Anyway, let's focus on the marvellous Museum of Old and New Art - MONA for today. Well before I actually bring you on a 'digital tour' to MONA, let me talk about breakfast first. Haha. I'm a morning person and breakfast ALWAYS comes first!
Tassie HolidayTassie Holiday
To begin our day, Darren and I headed STRAIGHT to Jackman and Mcross Bakery (again), and this time, we had a proper sit-down sort of breakfast. I can't even remember what we ordered now. Some salmon wrapped scrambled eggs on danish and poached eggs on spinach with onion relish I think! Whatever they're both called, I just know they were rockin' good! So good that Darren practically gobbled his up and didn't share. Thanks Darren! No wonder everyone says the bakery's a must-go. It truly is. We went there three times, on all three days while we were in Hobart! And all three times, food was perfect.Tassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayAfter our lip-smackingly good breakfast, we walked around and took photos of cute houses in Battery Point. We talked about what sort of houses we liked, what colour doors and roofs we liked most. We looked at other people's gardens and window sills. Some had interesting 'artefacts' on them. It was pretty fun. If you have the time, do take a walk around the area too. You might find it enjoyable. Tassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayMoving on, we made our way down to Salamanca Place in Sullivans Cove, which was just next to the Wharf. We pre-bought Ferry tickets to MONA and were still about 45 Mins early. So we explored the area again, this time, discovering funny shop names and a fun kids shop. The kid in me ended up leaving with a peanut eraser and a very big pencil. I wanted a giant slinky, octopus tentacles and a super big eraser too. But I didn't think everything would fit in my bag! Also, it was time for us to board the ferry so we had to leave. Too bad, no big erasers for me.
Tassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayNow hands up who's been to MONA! Those of you who have would probably agree with me that it's a fantastic place. For starters, here's an important fact about me. I do not really like going to art museums and galleries. Yes. Shocking! Especially since I'm an artist myself and I'm going to become an art teacher in a school hopefully next year (If I get hired!) Simply because sometimes I find everything too 'arty' and formal. I love it when i get to see artworks out on streets, in shops, in buildings, places that's not usually the norm. So yes, this is why most galleries bore me quite a bit. Not saying that there aren't good ones I go to! I love the National Gallery of Victoria and it's amazing Leonard French stained glass ceiling. And remember a few years back, when NGV had a Ron Mueck exhibition? I loved that so much I wanted to go thrice!
Tassie HolidayTassie Holiday
Anyway, back to MONA. Opened by gambler, entrepreneur and philanthropist–and millionaire–David Walsh in January 2011, MONA is the largest private museum complex in Australia. Think Adult-disneyland. Oh yeah! Seriously, you have GOT TO get yourself to MONA. If I enjoyed Mona, I'm pretty sure you will too! In my opinion, MONA's this crazy, over-the-top, ridiculously good and extravagant museum. It's like no other museums I've ever been to. To begin, there are a few ways one could get to MONA. By a car, bus, bike, taxi, seaplane (oh yes!), helicopter (told you it was extravagant!) or the ferry. Darren and I chose to visit via the Ferry, as recommended by friends.
Tassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayUpon arrival, we were presented with iPods as our little museum walking guide. Throughout the gallery, there were no artwork descriptions on walls. Everything was all in our nifty little walking device. Artwork info, sound clips and interviews automatically loaded onto each iPod when standing in front of the work itself. Oh and if iPods aren't fancy enough for you. They came with Sennheiser headphones! So with headphones worn and iPods synced, we started off on our mega art tour. Starting from the bottom level, where the cinema was (Yup! There's indeed a cinema in the museum), we were greeted with live jazz and waiters serving cocktails, more oysters, classy pizzas, cheeseboards. We weren't hungry so we went on to look at art.
Tassie HolidayTassie Holiday  Tassie HolidayTassie HolidayHighlights for me included seeing Erwin Wurm's funky Fat Car, Julius Popp's Bit.Drop, Sidney Nolan's Snake. To be honest, there were lots of other artworks I enjoyed, such as Kathryn Del Barton and Damien Hirst's pieces. Then there was also that extra white room, The Bowl with Fish and Sharp Knife, spooky Death gallery, dead horse, tunnel, beautiful room filled with rugs, and blah blah blah... The list goes on! But if I had to just be super selective and pick my top 3 favourite, I'd pick the the first 3 mentioned. AH-MAZING! I'm not going to say any much more about MONA, except the fact that it's truly worth going. So I shall let my (mostly crappy iPhone) pictures do the talking! Tassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayNow, my photos are perhaps just 0.9% of what's at MONA. There's really lots to see and we spent an entire day there. We had a nice lunch in between walking through levels of art. And finished our trip by celebrating over beer and oysters. Yum! Tassie HolidayTassie HolidayOne thing I really loved about MONA, was the fact that you could snap as many pictures as you wanted and you're actually allowed to and encouraged to! That's kind of a first as most galleries would have a strict no photos rule. It's nice to be able to take photos and share them with friends and family. Also, while reading descriptions about each artwork, you could choose to 'LOVE' or 'HATE' it. Just like Facebook! Except you get to see how many others hate the work as well. Pretty funny I say! And the descriptions are all so easy to read and comprehend. Nothing arty farty philosophically fancy pants. Oh and one other thing I loved, there were lots of funny mickey mouse chairs outdoors. Totally made for this adult Disneyland. Darren and I wanted one but nah, they don't sell it. Would be cute though! Tassie HolidayTassie HolidayAnyway, that's all from me, for MONA. There's plenty of good write ups out there so go have a read before you visit. Just in case you aren't sure where to look, here's one by my amazing friend and blogging rockstar, Lucy Feagins! Tassie HolidayPost-MONA, Darren and I headed back to the city via the ferry (we bought return tickets) and had dinner at the super cool seafood restaurant by the wharf. We had walked past the previous day but were too full for a second dinner so we made it a point to have our very last Tassie dinner there. Drunken Admiral's such a cute little cosy place. The entire restaurant was decked out in a massive ammount of nautical memorabilia and old wares. The entire maritime theme made you feel like a sailor of sorts! Darren and I were lucky, someone cancelled their reservation and we scored ourselves a cosy, romantic dining 'booth'. There's booth seating everywhere in the restaurant. But we were in this special stand-alone booth. I can't remember the name/number of it now. But I'm pretty sure if you rang and asked, they would know! It's sort of like a little cabin on it's own. Tassie HolidayTassie HolidayWe ordered a whole bunch of different stuff but our favourite was the seafood chowder. Very creamy and delicious. Hands down, best chowder we've tasted while in Tassie. The service was fantastic too. All in all, a good experience. Would highly recommend it to everyone! Tassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidayTassie HolidaySo, that's it. Day 5 in Tassie. Lots of art, great food. What more can one ask for. See you back here tomorrow for the very last Tassie post. Sigh! Wished our holiday lasted longer than 6 days. But well, that's what happens when you're on a budget! Okie dokies, see you back here tomorrow! Ta! Tassie Holiday