These guys are my favourite Perth band.
I’ve been listening to their new album and it’s pretty good. Their first album is really quite awesome too.
They always put on a cracking live show, and I’ve had many a Sugar Army induced neck injury or lost voice.
This is one band who should be bigger than they currently are.
~~~
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I was bored on Saturday morning and there was nothing on tv. I was bored enough to check out Coles recipe on demand on Foxtel. And it was this recipe. (This is a true story, Coles are not paying me to plug this recipe, as flimsy as this back story may be I really am this bored sometimes).
It is a good recipe. It’s beef ragu with rigatoni. Or in my case tortiglioni.
Really easy recipe, just perfect for those afternoons when the weather is doing its best to convince you it’s winter (even if it should be spring).
This is the way I made it.
the ingredients
Chuck steak 500gm
1 Onion
2 cloves Garlic
1/4 cup Balsamic vinegar
1 cup Beef stock
2 400gm Tinned tomatoes
1 stick Celery
1 Carrot
1 potato
the recipe
Coat the chuck steak in flour.
Fry it in a frying pan. (If you have a casserole dish that is stove proof use that.)
In your casserole dish add all the non-meat ingredients.
Once the meat is brown, put that in the casserole dish.
Put that in the oven for 3 hours, or until it’s stew like.
When it’s ready to serve, cook up some pasta.
Add Parmesan cheese and Bob’s your Aunty.
Such a quick but hearty dish.
Although it was a bit lacking I felt.
I would add some red wine (whilst browning the meat), and probably brown the onion in the red wine.
More wine in general.
And my Bloke wanted more vegies. Some peas maybe, or some cauliflower.
This really is a good base to add things too.
But definitely try it with more wine*.
*if you’re thinking about ‘I am Giselle, I am a french bitch’ you win a red balloon. If you have no idea what I’m talking about you need to watch Coupling. Steven Moffat wrote it. That speaks for itself.
~~~
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I really only want to know embroidery so I can write/stitch really cool quotes and phrases. And then I can hang them on the wall or put them on cushions.
But I have a lot of practicing to do first.
Also on the weekend, we cleaned out the spare room. We now have room to swing a cat, or do a full 360 revolution when I’m at my sewing machine.
I started a whole stack of really cool blogging related projects.
I caved and my blog now has a Facebook page. Go look on your right – there’s a fancy Facebook thingamajig. Currently it’s linked to this blog (obviously), my Instagram, and there’s a spotify playlist for all my passion pop Wednesday (song of the week) picks.
If you’re a Facebook person, go and check it out.
(If you’re a twitter person you can find me at beks_sparkles
I also knitted a whole lot for a blog tutorial. And I’m planning a giveaway!
It’s exciting times.
There’s also exciting news on the family front. There’s going to be a wedding!
Not mine, but my Bloke’s sister (who is one of the coolest people I know).
So I did the dutiful thing and introduced her to pintrest! (YOU’RE WELCOME!)
So it was a pretty awesome weekend. I’m really excited about the future.
(What’s a weekend post without a photo of Max.)
~~~
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Wow. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these.
But I reckon this is a good enough reason.
This is my cardigan! I am still super chuffed that I finished a big knitted project.
And this is my bookcase. The biggest reason that I haven’t done many outfit posts is that our apartment is so tiny, it gets no natural light, and there is no neutral place to use as a back drop.
So in lieu of a neutral place, I thought I’d show a part of my apartment that I’m proud of.
The first place that springs to mind is my cd collection. But that’s right next to the only window in the place and is really awkward to stand in front of.
So the next place is my bookshelf. I love to read. And I love to watch tv. To the left you can see my tea cup collection. And on the top shelf you can see my Dalek (and other assorted Doctor Who merchandise).
It’s forever changing, and being shuffled around, but I’m thinking of doing more outfit posts here. I’d love to know what people think of the location. Too cluttered? Too distracting? Or is it me? Will you all judge me on what you see in my bookcase?
Actually, if you haven’t already figured out who I am, my bookcase will certainly confuse or enlighten you.
So enough chat, here is me, pretending to model, wearing my own knitted creation.
(My jeans are cotton on, my shoes are from rubi, and my tank is from temt)
~~~
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I was always taught pride comes before a fall. Mostly through Enid Blyton novels, and Sunday School.
After feeling so chuffed with myself, for thinking I may have been able to make a pair of socks in a week, I failed.
Not just made a tiny correctable mistake, I failed.
I didn’t follow the pattern correctly and had too few stitches in the toe.
To compensate I increased randomly in the foot of the sock. In hindsight this is where I should have started the gusset.
So I started the gusset massively late.
When I tried it on to start the heel I started early (again to compensate). Stuffed up my maths with turning the heel which meant I had one really lopsided heel.
And when I tried it on it was about an inch too big.
So the project got flung across the room and a few expletives hurled at it.
I frogged it back to the toe and started again from there.
6 rounds in I realised that it still looked wrong and I gave up.
The next day I started again from scratch.
Just when I thought I was getting the hang of this and getting cocky I realise the value of slowing down and reading instructions.
When I was in primary school (and occasionally in high school) there was a test. It consisted of a page or 2 of instructions. The first instruction was to read through all the instructions and then follow the instructions.
Usually the instructions were things like ‘stand on your chair’, ‘say or sing something out loud’, ‘turn around 3 times’, but the last instruction always read ‘now that you’ve read all the instructions, sit down quietly and don’t so anything’.
It was meant to be an exercise in following instructions. It inevitably turned into people sitting smugly, watching other people making fools of themselves.
By the 2nd time a well meaning teacher instituted this test, my first action was to skip to the end and read the last instruction.
Obviously I was a smart arse and should have paid attention to the actual lesson.
It may have resulted in a finished sock instead of a frogged* sock.
*for those non-knitters who are utterly confused, ‘to frog’ is to unravel a piece of knitting, or rip-it (ribbit) back.
~~~
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Every so often I have a conversation with someone who reminds me that I spend a lot of my life on the internet.
A joke about drinking out of mason jars and pintrest weddings fell absolutely flat. Explaining pintrest weddings also fell on confused ears.
The phrase “that would make a great tumblr”, also crashed and burnt.
And because I’ve been excited about my etsy store (which is still coming, but soon), I’ve been talking to people and I’ve been genuinely surprised at the people who just say “huh?”.
And it’s in those moment where I show people my handbag, show them my bracelets, and my necklace, basically show them my etsy purchases which I carry with me all the time.
This delightful brooch is a product of the oh-so-talented Amanda Whitelaw.
Who I followed on instagram (search hungrydesigns), which led to me buying a tote for my friend last Christmas, and then this brooch for myself.
Her designs are whimsical, edgy, sometimes dark, but always witty. And they’re one of a kind.
Her etsy shop has all kinds of delightful illustrations which are made into brooches, postcards, pocket mirrors, and I think I heard a whisper about tea cups.
The tea cups have me particularly excited.
I particularly love this kitchen aid brooch. How cute would this look on an apron!
But this is the brooch that adorns my bag. Since I bought my new camera I’ve been taking it around with me as much as possible, so I’ve turned into a bag person.
I love it! It turns an ordinary Rubi bag into something unique.
I love the whimsy of the baloons. It often distracts me thinking about the places she can go, or has been. All the things she has seen whilst drifting around on baloons.
I wish we could travel by baloon more.
~~~
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I always feel lazy choosing the first song from an album as my song of the week, or for my favourite song.
I feel like I haven’t done my due diligence, like people will judge me because I haven’t really listened to the whole album.
Of course this is absolutely silly.
Sometimes the albums first song is actually the strongest, the best, the one that I like the most, the one that sticks out, whatever subjective measurement I feel like using.
I have, of course, listened to the whole of this album. I think it’s a cracker.
And this is the first track.
On our weekends adventures we may have just stumbled across our new favourite breakfast spot in Guildford.
Guildford is one of those old suburbs in Perth. It’s main strip has all kinds of vintage and antique stores, which we explore from time to time. It’s a place that’s full of character and is frequently a stopping point when we have errands to run in the Eastern suburbs.
We have tried The Lounge Room before. And although it had the pancakes I was looking for, the Bloke’s meal was cold and uninspiring, which he hasn’t forgotten about quite yet.
So we’ve been eating at the Guildford Milk Bar which I think is very uninspiring.
My favourite breakfast is eggs Benedict so if a breakfast spot doesn’t make them, it’s an automatic fail in my book.
In the spirit of compromise we tried, The Guildford Tea Room.
I had my eggs Benedict (although with smoked salmon instead of ham, and bread instead of a muffin, and with cream cheese instead of hollandaise; so not really a Benedict if you look closely) and my Bloke had his ‘big brekky’.
And we were both happy.
My eggs were gooey and the smoked salmon almost melted on my tongue. The bread was what I think was a rye sourdough. It was my sort of dish. My only complaint was the spinach was a little stringy almost like it was been overwilted.
The bloke had fried eggs, on plain white toast, with crispy bacon and a hash brown. And he was quite chuffed. While I’m always looking to try something new, he likes his breakfast on the traditional side with none of this “gluten free, organic, low fat, wanky tosh that’s infecting breakfasts everywhere”. (It’s a direct quote)
So without even knowing, they managed to please two very different breakfast eaters.
My tea was hot, his coffee was lukewarm. We were both happy.
It’s not going to set the world alight, but for a Sunday brunch it ticked both our boxes.
We also had to wait before being seated (not too long though), so other people must like it too.
We look forward to seeing you again.
The weekends are just flying by.
I’m now turning the heel of my socks which I started on Thursday (wow I know!), I did think I would try something new with the heel.
But I didn’t start researching the ‘after thought heel’ until I had finished the gusset increases.
Apparently the two aren’t compatible.
Oh well, maybe next socks.
I had a lot of time for sock knitting as we went for a drive to pick up some company for Max. For those of you who don’t remember, Max is our blue yabby.
We bought 4 Pygmy Perch to add a bit more interest to the tank. We also picked up some more plants.
We’ve quickly got into the routine where we wake up Max every morning (the light on the tank changes from night time blue to day time white), and we greet him every afternoon when we get home from work.
Max is a pretty good listener.
We’re both pretty bad at coming up with names, so we’re going to think about it for a week before naming the 4 newcomers.
I also finished up the design for my etsy shop! All it needs now is some product.
I have three cowls completed. Although one of them isn’t as long as the others and can only wrap around my neck once.
I now don’t know whether or not to put it up any way (after all, just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean that’s not someone elses preference).
But they still need photographs. Is needing a good space to take outfit and product photos a good enough reason to buy a new house?
(I think our angry neighbours and need for more space are probably better reasons.)
So overall a pretty good weekend.
What did everyone else get up to?
~~~
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I’ve been a cranky person all week. Really massively cranky.
Cranky panda, temper tantrum, hissy fits, grrrrr!!!!!
So I cast on socks. (Once my headaches subsided).
It’s horrible, squeaky acrylic which I bought because I liked the colour. Fortunately I do still like the colour because the acrylic is annoying me.
It’s sport weight and surprisingly not stretchy at all. So I’ve had to increase it a bit after trying them on.
But the colours are pretty. Like icecream. Not that I’ve ever seen grey icecream. I think it’s just the pink.
I’m planning on doing the heel and cuff ribbing in the same grey as the toe. The toe which I did too much of.
Cranky I tell you.
But the weekend is just around the corner, and I have rounds of stockinette to keep me sane.
(Frogging is also good for the crankies)
~~~
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polka-dots & sparkles 