Graphics play afternoon...

Starting with these three individual items available from The Graphics Fairy (thanks to Karen).

I loved the antique look of the elegant hand-written poetry.  The frame, bird and blossoms have evolved into a Victorian brooch.  A couple of my old-gold foil covered chocolates left for someone to enjoy; maybe you?  Enjoy.

Paper Candles revisited

Thanks Laure Ferlita Painted Thoughts blog for your comment on my previous post with the (originally) hand-cut paper-doilies, that then turned into a fun graphics mode project.

Laure wrote: "These would be gorgeous for a garden party or a wedding or a Christmas party....wonder if there's a way to connect two and put them around some of the little white holiday lights?!! Fun idea, Carole!"

This comment made me think back to these 'paper candles' on a blog post, way back in December 2009.

Kind of in the same space Laure, and I'm sure many variations to the theme.

My how-to-guide on this very project at Helium is here 

Thanks again Laure!

Graphics fun play today

Way back, this paper-cut post,  Ring of Pineapples came about.

Converted now to some pretty lanterns (if you can imagine like me :))

Just something to 'colour my day' .... and yours.



Mysterious Paper Sculptures

Have you heard of Central Station?  Well yes, only last week I wrote about my travelling by train for two hours to Central Station ..but that was in Sydney. 

It's about this post on website Central Station; a story in photos taken by Chris Scott (Chrisdonia),  in Edinburgh, Scotland.  I hope you'll go visit these links, but please, straight after I've whetted your appetite with a sprinkling of my favourite images, depicting something quite wonderful. 

What could it be?  Much of the world has already been buzzing with the news of the anonymity that has captured such intruige since March this year. 
Some-one is managing to leave in various public places (libraries etc.), these very creative sculptures, with lovely handwritten messages.  When you visit Central Station all is revealed; well that being.. what each sculpture to date, entails.  The mystery-sculptor-dropper hasn't yet been revealed. 

All I can say is that I think this person is VERY special.  I hope they'll come to the party and 'fess up' some time/soon.  Then they can be granted the huge applause they deserve.  When you see the amount of creativity offered each time, goodness, it's simply amazing.








Isn't this the kind of news we'd be rather be hearing most days?

Note: My attention was drawn to this story in the first instance via Ann Martin's (All Things Paper) blog post "Edinburgh's Mysterious Book Sculptures"

Further captivating photography from Chris Scott can be seen on his website here.  Thank you Chris for your approval and assistance this post.  May you have the opportunity to go back to the library some time soon with a mission to capture yet another wonderful gift.  I might imagine all eyes are on the alert now and it might not be so easy for the mystery paper-sculptor to continue leaving surprise packages without being captured.  Oh my; just imagine....

Kookaburra on duty

...coming to a clothesline near you. 

Just moments ago saw kooka' fly past the back door onto the clothesline.  Glad I had my camera nearby, so stepped out and took these shots to share here. 

These guys come rat-a-tat-tatting on the windows around 5pm some afternoons and boy what a noise they make.  If it's quiet indoors at the time, it can give you quite a surprise/fright.  When you haven't heard them in a while and their strong beak starts attacking the glass, you think there's some big bouncer at your front door! 

and finally, this rather quizzical glance...

Later addition to this post:



Madame Lotte Lehmann, a video from 1938 when she was introduced to the kookaburra; it’s really worth watching.  Enjoy!

Recipe: Basic (no bake) Cheesecake

This is a long-time family favourite and I'm sure the original recipe came from the Nestle' (sweetened) Condensed Milk tin itself.  I was making this up on the weekend so decided to make a blog-post with it as I went. 

The recipe will be written on it's own at the end; in the meantime ...a little pictorial along the way. 

180 grams (6 oz) sweet biscuits; crumbed

Add mixed spice and

90 grams (3 oz.) melted butter; mix well.

Line a 23 cm (9 inch) pie plate with foil

and press the mixture into plate firmly, to form the base.

Refrigerate to chill whilst preparing the filling.

Beat 250 grams of Cream Cheese, until soft.

Gradually add can of (sweetened) Condensed Milk

then.........

this must've been the biggest lemon I've seen; wished I'd weighed it at the time.  It was given to me last week at exercise class someone had excess fruit on their tree.  I think it was one of the old-fashioned lemons, maybe Eureka.

So yes; add 1/3 cup of lemon juice and mix well.

Pour into chilled shell and back into the 'fridge, until ready to serve. 

Is best made 24 hours before serving. 

So let me make you hungry now; go get a coffee or cup of tea to go with it because .... here's yours  :)

180 grams (6 oz.) sweet biscuits, crumbed

Add mixed spice

90 grams (3 oz.) Melted butter and mix well.

Press firmly into a 23 cm (9") foil-lined pie plate to form base.  Refrigerate.

250 grams Cream Cheese; beaten until soft

Add can of (sweetened) Condensed Milk

Add 1/3 cup lemon juice and mix well.

Pour into chilled shell and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Best made 24 hours before serving.

...more from The Rocks, harbourside.

Part of the heritage and history of The Rocks on this site reads that "the Indigenous Cadigal people inhabited the rocky headland and surrounding shoreline for thousands of years.

Then in 1788, Australia's first European settlers-British convicts and their overseers-claimed the land and built their camp atop the sandstone cliffs."

Didgeridoo music, quite unique, both the technique and sound, could be heard as we walked from the Quay to the Rocks area. Stopped and listened to this busker. 

 If you'd like to see and hear a sample of didgeridoo sounds, here is a u-tube moment with Larry 'Winiwini' Gurruwiwi.

The time; just as we were leaving an oudoor cafe in The Rocks, which also had this rather interesting quote on the wall

Now we've ventured into Natural Selection Sourvenirs; like what we saw?

hanging on a large branch with heavy chains each end and suspended from the ceiling.

Brass owls.  I'm photographing through glass cabinet.

and fairy-wrens

Aboriginal pottery/ceramics painted with traditional designs which always tell a story; and painted emu eggs (from $AU85).

Loved these open-weave and damask candles from the candle shop

The Crystal Gallery had the most beautiful polished stones and finished jewellery pieces, also this in the window....

and this wonderful piece of amethys with I guess something else/white in there also.  Imagine slicing open something like this and finding what's inside; what a treat!

Lunch was at Pancakes on The Rocks and a quick exit to get back to Central station for a mid-afternoon train back up the coast. 

Around and about, Sydney Harbour

Arrived at Central station after almost two hours on the train from Lake Macquarie this morning. Then quite a walk to get to another platform for train on the City Circle; our destination, Circular Quay. A perfect sunny day outing shared with two daughters.

Here's a sprinkling of the old, and the new, architecture around Sydney Harbour.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge, reported to be the heaviest and biggest steel arched bridge in the world, was opened in 1932.  Further history can be found on the National Film and Sound Archive site here.

Can you believe there are actually guided bridge-climb opportunities on this bridge?  It's all here and is a very popular business venture. 

The end of this street in the historic Rocks area, is tall sandstone cliff-face.  And just further along, on the corner, was this plaque.

(click for larger version)

Next post with some more pics to share.



Violets are from my childhood days; I can smell their sweet scent still. Was taken with this image, compliments The Graphics Fairy.  It is the complete picture this time, of the violets I'd used in a recent post also. 

Also, this beautiful picture of a little girl with butterfly.



The two seemed right for each other ... blissful innocence.



I'm thinking .... gum-blossoms

Springtime we think colour, and flowers. These aren't especially flowers from the garden environment though. Sharing instead, some photos of the magnificent blooms from the Aussie gum-tree.

the ants were loving these blossoms!

and lastly, a little bit of graphics fun...



....another afternoon spent easily, playing with graphics.  For me it's an enjoyable challenge, and perhaps no different to sitting with a new knitting pattern, a daily crossword or sudoko even.

With gracious thanks to Karen for sourcing such interesting Victorian pictures, and uploading them to her blog to share with all who visit The Graphics Fairy.

I'd downloaded the following four images, each beautiful in its own right.

and two mugs of coffee later?

(click for the larger image)