Instagram.

 Well, even though I may not be a hipster in age, shape or size, I have become (as one friend so eloquently puts it), 'A hipster douche bag, with Instagram'.  

Fairly recently (well, recently when you consider how long iPhones have been on the market),I got an iPhone 4s.  Within minutes my 16 GB of storage was practically bursting at the seams with apps and photos.  Why or why didn't I go for 64GB!!??  I have since calmed down a bit, deleting many of the silly kids games and keeping only a choice few to entertain my kids in an emergency.  Instagram, however, remains front and centre on my dashboard.

Light from a prism hitting our lovingly clasped hands.  

I like Instagram a lot.  It is a simple little app; you take a photo and can choose to 'trick it up' with a contrast button, a focal point, added borders and different filters.  Instantly I was hooked.  I took photos of all sorts of things (my kids, my house, the 'hood, food, etc) and was posting like a mad thing.  I have an open profile, so garnered a few followers - many of them live in the local area so our photos are alarmingly similar.  I keep looking at people in the street and wondering if they are my new 'instafriends'. It is also a good way to keep in touch with distant friends without having to email and send pics - especially if they are not on Facebook.

This is my view every morning.  Even when it is grey and raining.

Noticeably people on Instagram are only publishing photos that project their life in a certain way.  It is kind of like the 'London Phenomenon' of the social networking world.  Let me explain my 'London Phenomenon' theory.  Some people (and by no means all, note to my two followers who both lived in London this does not apply to you!) move to London and seem to set up a completely new life for themselves.  I suppose this is part of the reason for going. There is the opportunity to be exactly who you want to be, and who you want others to think you are - regardless of who you have been all your life.  You can cut out the bit where you were unpopular at school, didn't have a flash job, have never had a partner - you can be a big shot who shagged like it was an Olympic sport.  And if you don't actually 'make it' in London, you can always say that you did when you do come back to Australia.  For many I think it must be such a rude shock if they decide to come home, (how can they fit back in to their life with family, old friends, etc) some never do - come home, or fit in.  There is a great propensity to say 'In Luhn-den..' at the start of lots of stories, or almost every sentence.  Ace.  A great example of 'The London Phenomenon' is the main character in 'A Moody Christmas' a little series on the ABC at the moment.  You can catch it on iView at the moment, it is worth a look if you can appreciate a very Australian, low budget, comedic Christmas series.

Street art in the neighbourhood.

I am, I admit, completely guilty of the 'London Phenomenon' with my Instagram account.  I do not show messy parts of my house - unless it is for effect.  My children are always eating something healthy or interesting, they are dressed well.  We are looking at fabulous art, we are at cafes, bars, restaurants, everyone in my life is attractive and has good hair.  In reality my life is much more mundane.  That punnet of organic, locally grown blueberries I photographed my baby eating yesterday has turned into a blueberry nappy from hell this morning.  No photo of that though.  Instagram is a way of 'editing out' the bad bits and living an uber life for followers to be jealous of.  And as a mother of two, working from home while caring for the kids, I am completely okay with that.  The people who follow me, who I don't know, must think I am super mum!

Just another day visiting cafes.

Drinking fine wine.

Printstagram is a way to print your Instagram pics (which don't print well in a normal sense) in cool little books, on posters or as a calendar.  I am so excited by this, and will be ordering a range of products soon.  I am a complete sucker.

 Well, my faithful readers, go forth and photograph!

I have included a choice selection of my photos to show you my 'wonderful' and somewhat edited life!

 

The children are stimulated!

Having coffee and tea with friend...

We have so much spare time, to stop and feed ducks is an everyday thing.

We only drink Italian soft drink.

 

A nature trip you may well think.  Actually, weeds in the park!

 

 

It's all about me.

A lot has happened in my life in the past 5 years.  Two children have been born in my family.  There has been the juggling of work and being the 'at home parent'.  There has been the usual strains that having a young family can bring; worries about money, sex, 'raising the kids right', maintaining friendships and somewhere in there finding a minute for yourselves - both as a couple and individually. 

The birth of our second child did not go as smoothly as anticipated, if one thing in life is unpredictable it is childbirth, and how a new mother may feel afterward.  As as result things were tough, I mean really tough, around our place for the better part of a year.  I doubt that things will ever really be the same as they were before, now there is a new version of normal.  I am okay with the 'new normal'.  I find myself quite changed.  I am more content to stay in, to live simply and more quietly.  Before the birth of our son I was big on socialising, being a constant host, enjoying good wine.  I still enjoy these things, but on a much smaller scale.

One thing that having children has changed is 'me time'.  I haven't always needed lots of time to myself, I am happy to be surrounded by people.  My partner is the exact opposite.  She needs time to herself, and having two small children around, and me at home to greet her each day as she comes home from work, is not her ideal way of living.  I know that there isn't too mch that can be done about this until the kids are a bit older and more independent.  I wish she would take more time for herself; go for a coffee, take a book out to the studio and shut the door for an hour or two. I know that she finds the 'new normal' more difficult than I do.  I'm sure we will find the balance.

In the meantime I have a list of 'me time' things that I would like to sink my teeth into.  No, they are not meditation and taking up yoga.  They don't really even mean I need to leave the house.  I suppose they are more like little projects that I would like to commit to.

So, here they are, and I am going to try really hard to achieve them:

1.  This blog.  I am going to try really hard to produce a blog entry once a week, or at least once a fortnight.  I think it can be done!  They might be short, but I am sure I can manage it.

2.  Learn some songs on my ukelele.  Yes, I have recently bought a uke and can strum out a few chords.  I would really like to be better at it.  Practice makes perfect!

3.  Write!  I have written a trashy romance novel (that was rejected by Mills and Boon), and I have started another one.  My aim is to have the second one finished by June next year, and to have resubmitted my original novel to some other publishing houses.  

So, me time.  Best get to it

The Perfect Pancakes

Almost everyday when I ask my four year old what she would like for breakfast, I am greeted with a resounding cry for 'PANCAKES!'.

Before I met my partner I had never really made pancakes.  Very occassionally as a child my mum would make a batch to be served with lemon juice and sugar.  I recall them being rather rubbery, and altogether too lemony for my young tastebuds. 

Early in our relationship my partner made pancakes, and they were delicious!  Thin crepe style pancakes with a variety of toppings.  I couldn't believe how easy they were to make; 1 cup milk, one cup plain flour, 1 egg.  Mix.  Butter in hot pan, pour, flip, eat!

I have since taken over as chief pancake maker at our place.  This is probably due to the fact that I am the 'stay at home mum', (even though I run my own business from home, and work most days on that).  I also wrangle the children and think about food!

Early on, I would stick religiously to the recipe.  I am not flash at cakes (I am too much of a 'chuck it all in' kind of cook), and really didn't want to be transported back to those rubbery pancake days...  But, as my skill improved, I began experimenting a bit.  We had French friends who swore that a good slug of soda water (or beer), made the best pancakes.  Some recipes call for a pinch of salt.  The variations are endless.

Well, I have come up with a variation of my own that my kids (and my partner and I) think is pretty delicious.  My daughter calls them 'Pluffy Pancakes' and would eat them for every meal if permitted.

Pluffy Pancakes:

1 free range egg

1 cup of milk

1 1/2 cups self raising flour (wholemeal or white - white will produce a fluffier result)

3/4 cup of ricotta cheese

50 mls of soda water

Butter for cooking

I really cheat at put all the ingredients in my blender.  Some cooks swear that you shouldn't over mix the ingredients, but I have found it doesn't seem to make any difference.

Once it is all mixed up check the consistency of the batter.  It should be thickish, but easy to pour.  I will add more milk or flour until I have the right consistency.  *Note:  this batter will thicken over time, so you may need to continue to adjust the consistency as you cook.

 Heat a pan on the stove and add a small amount of butter.  

 
When butter is melted pour in some batter.  You can do one large pancake, or three or four small ones in a batch.  I suggest that you wait until small air bubbles form in the top of the mixture before flipping.  You will find that the pancakes do not stick and are ready to turn if you do this.

Serve warm with fresh fruit, maple syprup, lemon and sugar, or any topping that you like!

Fruit leather (apple and rhubarb to be exact).

So, I have become addicted to Instagram.  Yes, completely addicted.

I am constantly snapping pics of the local 'hood (ones that make me appear interested in arty, cool stuff only), and uploading them to my account.  I have a small following, attracting a few comments, and almost feel like I have 'made friends' with a couple of them.  Oh this weird, weird online world we live in.

Yesterday I was flicking through other people's recent photos when I stumbled across 'Oocha' making apple fruit leather in her dehydrator.  It looked DELICIOUS, and like something my children would eat.  Basically like a Roll-up but without all the rubbish in it.  One of her followers commented that she made hers in the oven.  I thought, I have an oven, I have fruit puree, I can do this!

Eight hours later I was rolling up my very own Apple and Rhubarb fruit leather, and chopping it into small rounds, perfect for kinder lunch boxes.  Here's how it goes:

FRUIT LEATHER

Cook and puree any fruit you like.  I used apple and rhubarb, but I read an interesting combo of cherry, pear and blueberry, yum!

Place baking paper on a flat tray

Spread fruit puree evenly over the baking paper to about 2 mm thick.  Do not spread too thinly or the leather becomes brittle and breaks

I sprinkled my puree with a tiny amount of Cinnamon and brown sugar (the rhubarb was pretty tart).  This step would be optional, or you might think of a different spice to use!

Place in an oven on the lowest setting you have.  In my oven this was about 60-70 degrees Celsius.

Leave overnight, or for about 8 hours.  I put mine in at 12pm, and was rolling it up at 8pm.

Peel the leather off the baking paper carefully so as not to tear it.  Roll up while still warm and cut into any sized piece you like.

DELICIOUS!

 P.S.  I know my fruit leather looks suspiciously like salami, but trust me, it is tasty!

 

Cooking for the Mothers' Day Cake Stall

                                           

Another half written post, finally finished off and put on the blog!

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I now have a child in kindergarten. One would think this means more time for me to do the things I need to do (work, clean, cook...and I don't know, scratch myself!).  Instead, I find myself on the seemlingly endless trek back and forth from kinder, the three hours sessions feel far too short, and it always seems that I have just got the baby off to sleep when I have to go and pick up the four year old, or drop her off.  Then there is the after kinder play in the park.  All the cool kids do it.  And all the cool mums go along.  There are also special events (like Mothers' day), pizza night, the fete, etc.  Kinder seems to be taking over my life.  And not in a good way.

Having said that, my four year old LOVES it.  She has made a million new friends in her group of about 21 kids.  15 of the kids are boys, and I think this is great.  They seem to just 'get on' and do stuff, rather than wishy-washing around.  The five other girls tend to be rather 'princessy' only children.  Not really our cup of tea.

Organic fermented cocoa beans from Tanzania

Dark roasted Blavatsky coffee beans.

Anyway, the most recent Kinder Event that required me to participate was Mothers' Day.  We had to attend a morning tea at the kinder, with scones baked by the group.  Our daughter was very excited to have us visit.  It was nice to see her having such a great time, although, an hour did seems a bit long!  This was followed up by the Mothers' Day cake stall.  We had to bake something, wrap it artily and deliver it to kinder for their stall just before Mothers' Day.  I am not the best cake maker (this in my partner's fortay), but I can do a mean biscuit!  A friend had recently posted some pics of her 'Coffee Snaps' on Facebook, along with the recipe, and I thought I'd give them a bash.  I decided to make double the quanitity and make half coffee and half chocolate.  They were both delicious...although the chocolate ones are all finished, and we are still getting through the coffee ones.  Read into that what you will!

So, how do you make a coffee/cocoa snap?  Read on!

 Coffee/Cocoa Snaps Ah La Anna (Makes 70)

125g butter, softened
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
3 teaspoons ground espresso coffee (I use 6)  or if making cocoa version 6 teaspoons good quality cocoa
3 teaspoons vanilla extract (I use homemade stuff given to me by a friend.  It is an organic vanilla pod which has been infusing into vodka...delish!)
1 egg
3/4 cup plain flour
3/4 cup self-raising flour
70 coffee beans or cocoa nibs

Preheat oven to 160C (fan-forced oven) - grease oven trays

Beat sugar, butter, coffee or cocoa & extract in small bowl with electric mixer until pale and fluffy (it isn't pale if you are making the cocoa version). Add egg; beat until just combined. Stir in sifted flours.

Roll rounded teaspoons of the mixture into balls. Place 3cm apart on trays. Top each with a coffee bean or cocoa nibs (my daughter has also made a  batch with M&Ms on tops). Bake, uncovered, about 10 mins or until browned. Stand 5 mins; transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Eat until you start to shake!

 

                                             

Television Be GONE!

Our television has been banished.  We are now, officially a television free household! 

It all happened rather suddenly.  My partner has always been keen to get rid of the television.  She doesn't really like much on the box, and would rather read a book or the paper.  It was also a bit concerning how much television our 4 year old was watching, which meant our 1 year old was watching too.  We had been quite diligent with our first child.  She didn't lay eyes on the television until she was 18 months old.  We had been overseas for three months and on our return home she was horrendously jet lagged and out of kilter.  For 90 days she did not sleep at night, and did not sleep during the day.  She was so tired that all she could do was sit on the couch and cry with tiredness.  We were beside ourselves too, and resorted to a DVD of 10 episodes of Hairy Maclary.  She loved it and watched it on repeat.  Finally the sleep thing came good (not bit by bit as everyone said it would, but just overnight..weird), but then it was too late.  She was in love with Charlie and Lola, Hairy Maclary and Playschool (which I think is actually very educational and well worth children watching on occasion).  When our second child arrived and we were all so very tired the TV became a kind of pseudo nanny.  Miss 3 year old was happy to be parked in front of it for an hour or so while the baby was being bathed, dressed, fed, etc.  She didn't need me to play with her, get toys out, help paint something, etc.  At the time it was a life saver, but when the baby was 6 months and picked up the remote, turned on the telly and sat in front of it transfixed I realised it was too much.

One night, after I had cooked a delicious meal and my partner and I sat on the couch with it and started to watch an episode of 'The Voice' (a stupendously terrible show) I realised that this was not how we should be living.  Meals should be eaten at the table.  We should talk about our days.  We should not vegetate in front of crappy TV shows until we fell asleep.  I suggested it was time to go TV free.  My partner was thrilled and that very night we took the TV and the cabinet to the shed.  We told the four year old it broke.

I started writing this post over three months ago, and still our home remains TV free.  I can't tell you how liberating it is to have missed the entire season of 'The Voice' and 'Masterchef', that latter of which I had previously been completely addicted to.  No longer is ABC2 the constant background noise to my day.  I love it.

If we want to watch something now we have to get out the laptop or the iPad and actually make an effort to get the iView going, or borrow a DVD.  No longer are we sitting on the couch as soon as the kids are asleep watching complete trash until we fell into bed ourselves.  

I freely admit that not having a television these days is not the same as not having a television 20, 10 or even 5 years ago.  We have the ability to access pretty much everything on the internet, and can easily look up and watch the shows that 'everyone is talking about'.  I remember as a child we had very limited television reception (we lived directly beneath the TV towers on Mount Dandenong and the signal passed right over the top of us), and anything that was on Chanel 10 was impossible to watch.   At the time I was pretty bummed to be missing such gems as 'Neighbours' and the brand new hit show 'The Simpsons'.  Looking back, I realise that my brother and I spent lots of time outside, building cubbies, going for bush walks, dressing up, digging holes.  Things that kids don't do so much these days. 

If you were considering going TV free, even for a while, I would highly recommend it.  Not only is the house more peaceful, but more aesthetically appealing!  Televisions are such ugly things.

iCraze

There is a fight going on in our house at the moment.  It is big.  It is mean.  It is serious.

Who's turn is it to use the Cosmonaut stylus on the iPad?  

 Yes, we have recently become a crazy house which could be used as an advertisement for Apple products.  Sad, I know.  We have had an iPod touch for a little over 12 months now.  It is terrific!  All of my music is stored on this tiny device, so slim that i hardly make a bulge in the pocket of even the skinniest, skinny jeans.  It is also loaded with kids (and a few grown up) games.  It was a total boon when travelling overseas.  If we needed a minute to regroup and the four year old was having none of it, we could Youtube an episode of 'Charlie and Lola' and hey presto, 10 minutes of silence.  I love it.  

We have however, been woefully behind when it comes to the iPhone.  Yep, we have been carting around two old Nokia numbers for the past few years, and I have had more than a little phone envy.  Anyway, recently my partner was issued an iPad for her work.  She is a teacher, and all the staff and half the students were GIVEN iPads for their school stuff.  It doesn't come with 3G internet, so I was given the task of working out how I could tether our mobile phone data allowance to the iPad.  It turns out this is really easy - if you have an iPhone, and marginally harder if you  have any other android phone....so, long story short, our contracts ended on the old phones and I sorted TWO brand new iPhone 4s.  Hot.

So, no we have 1 old iPod, 1 iPod Shuffle,1 iPod touch, 2 x iPhone 4s, 1 iPad.  Seriously, if we were robbed the burglars would probably think we were sales reps for Apple.

Of course, the iDevices must also be accompanied by gadgets, covers, styluses, etc.  I have thoroughly enjoyed doing my research on what kind of cover is best, where to buy them from, and which stylus is most impressive when writing on an iPad.  The covers are totally subjective and a bit boring...but the STYLUS is another matter altogether.

My partner was insistent on a skinny stylus that resembled a pen. She is going to be doing lots of marking on her iPad and wants to be able to write with ease on the essays that get sent to her.  My research showed that actually, it is not the skinny ballpointesque stylus' that are in fact the best.  It is the COSMONAUT from Studio Neat.  Yes, this fat capacitive stylus is easy to hold, totally tactile and fantastic to write with.  I have to admit, the guys at Studio Neat have done an amazing job of their marketing.  It appealed directly to me, and people like me.  There was a great little video showing how cool the Cosmonaut was, and then one with how they make them.  I loved it all.  I quickly ordered one for myself, and a Bamboo Stylus for my partner, who did not watch any of the videos, and did not participate in the researching.  Oh, how wrong she was.

 

My Cosmonaut arrived first, and has been a total hit ever since.  My partner was immediately jealous and regretted her doubts in my research ability.  She took it to school to show it off ot other staff and students.  'That's a cool capacitive sylus Miss', the boys all said.  At night, she is often seen hunched over the iPad playing 'Words with Friends' or Scramble, Cosmonaut tightly gripped in her hand.  Even the four year old wants it!  She thinks it makes playing her games easier and she likes to hold it.

I had to order two more, they arrived today.

The Bamboo stylus arrived at a alter date, and was just a major let down (especially as it was more expensive).  It is now the 'back up' stylus that my partner has in her pencil case at work.  'It's fine.  But it isn't a Cosmonaut.'

Enough said on this topic.  But serious, iLove all the new gadgets at our place.