Just a minute, in July

Here I am jumping into another meme in an attempt to force myself to blog when I think I have nothing to blog about. Well I guess we'll see about that.

Here's the jist of it:
Pretty easy really - pick any day of the month to post (maybe when you can't think of a thing to blog about!) and give us a handful of highlights beginning with an action, like: reading... or eating...
Give it a title, 'Just a minute... in (insert month)' so others can find them easily in your post list.

And here we go:

Climbing ladders to enter my flat through my balcony after locking myself out while trying to be a good Samaritan! My next door neighbor left the side door of his van open and being the kind-hearted person that I am I decided to go over and tell him so his belongings/van wasn't stolen.

Mourning the deaths of my Pop and my Granny, my two remaining grandparents, one from each side of our family. My Granny's death came as a shock to all of us, we really expected another ten years or so before we'd lose her. I really wanted her to be around for when I got married at least, but sadly it wasn't part of the bigger plan.

Learning how to use a new phone after dropping my mobile in my cup of hot milo last night. Not such a clever thing to do it would seem, phones do not seem to like milo as much as I do.

Baking a delicious lemon meringue slice for a Tupperware party I attended on the weekend. That's right, I've pretty much hit the pinnacle of domesticity, all by the age of 21.

Discovering all kinds of crazy things about my genealogy. For example, some of my ancestors were the pioneers of Tasmania, I even know the name of the ship they arrived on. Also, my great great great grandparents were Scottish and Irish and my Mum's maiden name was changed twice during this time. I love finding out these things, I've always been told that our family was just plain English all the way back and I found this so boring. Roots.web is great for looking up the names of grandparents and great grandparents to find this kind of stuff.

Listening to Pete Murray's new album which I bought today, I love this song, so I'll leave you with it today.

This is.. what makes me cry

Every time I see the reuniting of soldiers and loved ones on the news it makes me absolutely bawl. I don't know what it is, but wow, it gets me every time.

1. Reunion, 2. A Hero's Welcome, 3. National Guard Homecoming (9), 4. troops welcome, 5. National Guard Homecoming (18), 6. Homecoming, 7. A long kiss goodbye., 8. volk field (29), 9. volk field (190)

Homemade Granola

Finally, the homemade granola recipe! I know I've been a terrible blogger lately but all kinds of things have been going crazy and the last thing I feel like doing is actually using my brain to string words together.

Now before I start talking about the recipe I have a vocabulary problem, what is the difference between granola and muesli? I tend to call this granola because it's what the original recipe is called, but I'm wondering if it's just a American vs Australian dialect thing, like sweater and jumper etc. Anyway for the moment I'm going to call this granola, but feel free to correct me or call it something else.

I've been wanting to make my own granola for awhile now, I've never really liked breakfast cereal or toast, and I find the muesli/granola that you can buy from the supermarket has a ridiculous amount of sugar and other yucky things in it. I will admit now that I think making this on a permanent basis would be quite expensive unless you can buy everything in super-bulk. I only make half the recipe each time as my bowls aren't big enough to hold the 5 cups of oats plus everything else without making a huge mess! I find that half of this recipe is enough granola for about a weeks worth of breakfast, and I have quite a small serving. Consider yourself warned. However, in saying all of that it is delicious, especially with warm soymilk and a sprinkle of cinnamon. It's also great as a snack with fruit at work or school.
I got my recipe from Cafe Fernando who had made a few adjustments to the recipe by Orangette. I've also tweaked a few things mainly out of convenience. So here are a few notes before you read the recipe:
-Because I didn't read the recipe properly I used pepitas instead of sunflower seeds. They're the same size and taste just as great, so use either or both, up to you.
-Like Cafe Fernando, I found it easier to use organic baby food in place of the apple sauce/peach puree. One little bottle is approximately half a cup so it works well. I used two bottle of the apple one as I couldn't find any other flavours. Feel free to use whatever you feel like.
-Adjust the cinnamon and ground ginger to your taste, I used the amount specified by Orangette as I thought that Cafe Fernando went a little overboard with the cinnamon.
-I couldn't find grape molasses so I used pomegranate molasses because the deli guy told me it was "the best". I couldn't argue with that.
-To add a little more sweetness I stirred through about half a cup of dried cranberries after the mixture came out of the oven, I also added some Goji berries the second time I made it and they were good too.
Homemade Granola
Dry ingredients

• 5 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups raw almonds (with skins on)
• 1 cup hulled raw sunflower seeds (or pepitas)
  
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp salt

Wet ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/2 cup unsweetened peach puree
• 1/3 cup grape molasses
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 150 degrees celsius.
2. Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. Stir to mix well.
4. In a small bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients. Stir to mix well.
5. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ones, and mix until completely blended.
6. Spread the mixture evenly on two rimmed baking sheets.
7. Place the baking sheets on lower and upper thirds of your oven.
8. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, rotating pans and stirring the mixture every 10 minutes.
9. Remove the pans from the oven, give it a good stir and set aside to cool.
10. Transfer to an airtight container and store in your refrigerator.

Drama-queen

Yesterday I climbed up a ladder and hopped a rail to get into my own apartment.


Today I was taken from work to hospital in an ambulance.


Fun two days, both quite entertaining stories actually.


But you'll just have to wait until tomorrow to hear about them ;)



p.s The granola recipe is coming. I've been busy.. as mentioned

p.p.s Before you ask I'm perfectly fine now and the ambulance ride did not involve blood or broken bones or anything fun like that.

One word, sometimes it's all you need

From Pip

1. Where is your mobile phone? bag
2. Your significant other? imaginary
3. Your hair? straight
4. Your daughter? hypothetical
5. Your son? theoretical
6. Your favorite thing? hugs
7. Your dream last night? confusing
8. Your favorite drink? tea
9. Your goal? peace
10. The room you’re in? bedroom
11. Your church? books
12. Your fear? magpies
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? happy
14. Where were you last night? couch
15. What you’re not? consistent
16. Muffins? blueberry
17. One of your wish list items? boyfriend ;)
18. Where you grew up? country
19. The last thing you did? makeup
20. What are you wearing? jeans
21. Your TV? off
22. Your pets? make-believe
23. Your computer? noisy
24. Your life? rut
25. Your mood? impatient
26. Missing someone? anyone
27. Your car? noisy
28. Something you’re not wearing? scarf
29. Favorite store? Ikea!
30. Your summer? heartbreaking
31. Like someone? crush
32. Your favorite color? green
33. Last time you laughed? morning
34. Last time you cried? funeral
35. Who will repost this? you!

It's funny what comes out when you only have one word to express your feelings. Thanks for the nice comments about my last post, the happy list definitely made my day feel a bit cheerier. I have more posts to come, including homemade granola/muesli and a certain book I got I got in the mail. But they will have to wait until tomorrow, I have a date in the city (not the fun kind).

This is.. what makes me happy

Big apologies for being late again this week, although this time I have a decent excuse. Sadly my Pop passed away on Friday night so I've been spending everyday since helping out my Mum and my Aunt with the funeral preparations and there has been lots of hand-holding and hugs for Mum going on. In the end the funeral was beautiful and respectful for a really great guy who did so much in his life and did so much for other people, he was to be 91 this year and he hadn't yet wasted a year of his life. Funerals are bitter-sweet in our family as it's really the only time that that side of the family come together and we get to see all our other cousins and aunts/uncles other than just my Mum's sister's family who we have always been closest to.

Anyway to bring my mood back up I decided I'd throw myself into this week's theme and remember all the things that make me happy! So here they are, in whatever order they pop into my head:

A good tight warm hug
Singing 'sexyback' very loudly while vacuuming
Perfectly brewed tea
Wedding dresses
The enthusiasm of a one-year-old
Postcards for no particular reason
A stranger wearing a perfume that reminds you of a loved one
Nice graffiti
Playing cards on the train
A good soy latte
Cute cops
Colourful bouquets of flowers
Family gatherings at Christmas
Kodak moments
Tupperware parties
Seeing life through the eyes of a Polaroid
Petals on the ground after a wedding
Sock monkeys
Unexpected eye contact with a cute stranger
A good ballad
Warm jumpers after a long cold day
New stationary
Still knowing every word to Spice Girls songs 10 years later
Hot watter bottles
Unposed photos of people laughing
Any occasion that calls for Champagne
Fluffy puppies and tiny kittens
The buzz after a good gym workout
Watching foreign sbs movies and having no idea what is going on
Love, of any kind, as long as it doesn't hurt.

That is what make me happy.

She gives me goosebumps too

Last night I saw the beautiful Clare Bowditch perform an acoustic-ish show at The Corner Hotel, I was about half a meter away from her for the whole show and it was just amazing.


She also has quite the sense of humour; singing songs about her Casio keyboard, donning sunglasses and dancing in front of a strobe light and even playing the teapot.

Her supporting acts were Guy Blackman (yawn) and Hot Little Hands who were so great we bought their album (the drummer is also quite easy on the eye, and has a pretty voice!). For the second last song Clare had a bunch of her cousins, the girl from the Feeding Set and Hot Little Hands join her to sing 'From little things big things grow", it was very sweet!

Sorry about the blurry photos, it's hard to take a steady photo at a concert, I seriously need to get myself a proper camera. Then maybe someone could pay me to go to concerts and take photos.. yeah I wouldn't mind that at all actually..

This is.. what gives me goosebumps

In case you haven't noticed already, I have a thing for pretty boys
with pretty voices

and (that's right, I used to positively obsessed with NSync, especially JT)

or pretty dance moves.

So it's pretty safe to say that is what gives me goosebumps. It's a weakness I am happy to live with.

I am..

Well what do you know, according to this personality test, me and smosch have the same personality. Aren't I the lucky one?

Your personality type:

Quietly forceful, original and sensitive. Tend to stick to things until they are done. Extremely intuitive about people and concerned for their feelings. Well-developed value systems which they strictly adhere to. Well-respected for their perserverence in doing the right thing. Likely to be individualistic, rather than leading or following.

Careers that could fit you includes:

Counselors, clergy, missionaries, teachers, medical doctors, dentists, chiropractors, psychologists, psychiatrists, writers, musicians, artists, psychics, photographers, child care workers, education consultants, librarians, marketeers, scientists, social workers.

As someone who has been studying psychology for three years and especially psychological measurement for the last semester, I can point out how annoying and useless these mini-tests are. Basically they tell you what you already know. Then again in saying that, there are some really good career and aptitude tests out there that are do-it-yourself and relatively short, I just need to figure out where to find them..
I still love doing these tests though. Bit of an ego-trip really.

This was.. an unscheduled blogging break

I appear to be suffering from holiday-brain which has left me completely unable to get up before 10am, go to gym, leave the house before 1pm, remember to take photos, think of something to blog about, and of course, remember to do the "This is". So, whoops, sorry for letting the team down two weeks in a row everyone. Although to redeem myself, I actually went into an opshop yesterday, shocking I know. Sadly I left empty handed as I was with two friends who aren't exactly the crafty-vintage-loving-op-shop-type. Their lose really. Or mine I guess, considering I had exactly thrity seconds to look around the whole shop.

Anyway getting back to the latest "This is" which is: This is my most treasured childhood possession. After thinking about it for awhile I realised that it's pretty hard to narrow down what would actually be my Number 1 most prized possession. Possible candidates include: My huge collection of Barbies, whole bookshelves of Noddy and The Babysitter's Club (also a notable selection of other Enid Blyton books), My Little Ponies, any of my gajillion stuffed animals (Simba and Nala from the Lion King being favourites), or any of the plastic/porcelain/sewn dolls which I loved to "beautify" by applying makeup to.

I think that the things that I treasure most NOW from my childhood are the things that my Mum made for me, she was quite the sewer back then and I think that's why I can feel it in my blood despite still having never really given it a go. My Mum made me clothes, dolls, ill-fated teddy bears (his head fell off..), and a giant patchwork quilt which still sits on my bed back home. By a strange coincidence when I was home last week I took photos of two of my favourite dresses from when I was a little twirly-dressy-show-off which I've kept in my cupboard back home. But what I discovered annoyingly yesterday was that I had uploaded the photos onto my parents computer and then deleted the photos from my camera by mistake. Thus I no longer have them here. BUT, don't despair, I happen to have two photos on my laptop where you can see the dress my Mum made for me, and a teensy bit of the other dress that I wore to death.



Oh and Mum made that hat too, isn't she great? Hopefully I can follow in her footsteps because I'd love to see my little girl(s?) in handmade clothes and funky straw hats with bows, I mean seriously who wouldn't? When I get those photos back I can show you a dress with some serious smocking that looks amazing. I wonder if she ever learned to crochet? Because I tell you what, Pip is seriously influential sometimes and I'm thinking that the lack-of-needing-a-sewing-machine appeal of crocheting might just force me into it. As if I don't need another throw rug in this flat anyway, four is clearly not enough for two couches.

Paypal go bye-bye

Is anyone else having absolutely no luck accessing their paypal account? I'm trying to pay for two beautiful purchases and the login page just won't load! It's driving me batty and it was doing the same thing last night, I don't like leaving anything unpaid for any amount of time and I don't want to lose my purchases!

Help?

Oh and I've done the whole cookie thing, no deal.

Edit. Well after about an hour paypal finally decided it wanted to load for me, directly after I had sent convo's to the sellers asking if I could pay by a different method etc. Typical.

Readings is a dangerous store

Today I almost bought this for a friend's upcoming birthday (and perhaps one for myself as well)

And this one, thanks Frankie for finding me to perfectly pretty beginner quilting book!

Oh and this one. I know I don't have kids nor plan to have them anytime soon, but this book is just amazingly beautiful, it was so hard to walk away from it.

"How restrained of you" I here you say! Well I did buy one book, it's called "No Time to Lose" and it's written by Pema Chödrön who is an American Buddhist. I know it's not exactly meant to be a beginner's text but I'm finding it very interesting to read. After all I'm used to reading philosophy essays and psychological papers that I completely do not understand so this surely can't be that hard to get through.

I felt like this book was a bit more practical for me to be buying right now, whereas I don't have a sewing machine yet so a quilting book would lay unused for months, I don't have children so the Home book seems a bit unnecessary right now and the birthday isn't for another month so I have plenty of time to buy that one. Don't get me wrong I'll probably be back there in a week searching for all three books I put back and praying they haven't yet sold out! But for now I will pat myself on the back for walking out with only one book instead of four (although to be honest I did also buy myself a bookmark and a notebook).

Also have you downloaded this yet? I especially love the second last page, I laughed out loud, I love to-do lists, especially silly ones.

I believe I've been tagged

Now I have to admit that this meme is potentially very embarrassing for me, primarily because I looked at my "Top 25 most played" list on my itunes yesterday sitting at the top was the entire soundtrack to Across The Universe. Shameful I know, but I've been playing it on repeat for the last two weeks. There are other songs in this list though luckily, so to avoid boring you by going on about ATU (again) I'll focus on those songs instead.

Instructions, should you wish to participate:
"List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your summer/winter. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to."

1259 Lullaby- Bedouin Soundclash
Call it off- Tegan and Sara
Make a plan to love me- Bright Eyes
River- Angus Stone
Between the tea and the toast- Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set
Tangerine- Led Zeppelin
Fill you in- Josh Pyke

I don't think I even know 7 people well enough to tag them for this so I'm going to trawl my comments and pick a few people and see if they're feeling neighborly: Tara, Liss, Lara, Jacinta, Beth, aaand I'm going to leave it at that because I'm feeling lazy. If you want to play consider yourself tagged!

p.s. you may have noticed my lack of "This is" yesterday, that's because *gasp* I don't actually do a great deal of op-shopping, not so much because I'm not interested in it but because I am so damn lazy that I rarely leave Glenferrie Road other than to go to Vic Gardens (where work is) and Chadstone (no op shops there!) *hangs head in shame*