Up to date!

Ladies and Gentlemen!

How are y’all? Im pretty alright! I just got all up to date with all the blogging i have been wanting to get out there, so I’m feeling pretty accomplished! I am also feeling a little sick, throat hurting? Hopefully it will go away. I am takign some vitamins and ate an orange, the last thing I want is to get sick! Especially since this is a big week for me!

Steph and I are heading out to the wilderness to a place called Gulgong, for a ceramic conference called Clay Energy. We get to spend 5 days in the forest/desert/bush/wild camping. Im not sure if I’m excited or not. I will be sure to update everyone upon my return!

While we are gone Danielle will arrive and be here to visit! OH MAN I’M EXCITED! haha! yay! Danielle is one of my closest friends and I’m so happy that at least one person took us up on the offer to host anyone who bothered to come all the way down here to see us! I have been missing my friends a lot lately and I am pretty happy I will get to see her!

Yesterday was ANZAC Day (Australian and New Zeland Army Corps) so it is kind of like Rememberance day. We celebrated by going to Lucas’ friend Kiri’s house (within which there is an amazing kitchen!) where she cooked us a wonderful roast of (traditional ANZAC) rosemary lamb! Yum yum! It was so nice and wonderful and we were all so grateful to be invited to such a wonderful meal! I had prepared mini lemon custard tarts with made from scratch almond meal pastry with the mini meringues from Saturday on top! (i will post the recipe later!) They were super cute and really yummy! I was impressed by me!

Tah tah for now,

Claire

TARTS!!!! they was bite sized!

Fuck you bitches, I bet you can't make tarts like me!

A pretty horrible photo of "the group" im sorry.

Stephanie Evan and Socrates (silly puppy!)

STEPHANIE LOVES ANZAC DINNER!

Trip to Melbourne DAY SIX (finally…)

I know I know Im sorry!!

I had this post all written and ready to go i just wanted to do some final tweaking before loading it and I completely forgot all about DAY SIX of the Melbourne trip!! SORRY! I know you are all itching to know about it! (haha). Anyway, I’m sorry, here it is!

Day six, April 9th 2010.

We started the day off by packing up our things and getting out of the hotel. We figured out that we could leave our bags in the hotel’s downtown location which was great because it did not mean that we had to carry them around all day! After checking in our bags we set out for a final day of exploring the city before our plane later that night.

We wandered down Degraves street and picked up mochas to go from a small cafe, then we continued down through the beautiful Block Arcade and made our way over to Little Bourke Street. Little Bourke had lots of little shops and places so we had fun poking our noses in and out of many artsy stores and design places. We also enjoyed ourselves checking out all the really amazing and creative street art that the alleyways off of Little Bourke had to offer! We stoped for coffee at  Brother Baba Budan! This is a cafe that had been recommended to me by the wonderful ARthur Wynne (a former Australian turned Vancouverite and a world renowned barrista). I had a really great macchiato made from the cafe’s house blend of espresso and I have to say it was the best espresso I have had since landing in Australia (although, Canberra has pretty slim pickings).  I think we all had macchiatos actually. We continued on our adventuring through the city to the big Victoria Library. On the way there we stopped and had an impromptu photoshoot in an alley way that we found an amazing couch in!  The library was spectacular. like the libraries in Harry Potter. well, sorta, just a huge library with huge ceilings and lots of books! From there we made our way out to the Seven Seeds roasters and had some more coffee! Seven Seeds was beautiful. i loved the building and the space, it was great! Steph and Lucas enjoyed coffees from the Clover press where I had a really nice latte. I loved the “cupping room” that they had, I got all excited! It was pretty wicked. And yeah, from there we found our way back to the hotel and picked up our bags and took a tram to the southern cross train station where we caught a bus to the airport and took a plane back to Canberra! hooray! Lucas’ wonderful friend Jack picked us up from the airport and brought us home! (Thanks Jack).

So all and all, Melbourne is phenomenal. I would go back in a heartbeat. I loved it and wish i had had more time to check it out. Getting back I checked my messages from home and I had one from a friend working at Fratello Coffee in Calgary letting me know that St. Ali coffee in Melbourne is looking for a Barrista and saying i should look into it. It was heartbreaking to have to say no. Maybe next time. Would be pretty amazing. ~daydreaming~

All my love,

Claire

Little bourke street outside Brother Buba Budan

Alternative bike rack

BIKE IN A TREE!

Stephanie waiting to enjoy her espresso!

C’est la vie

A lace cut out street art design

Another alley way off little bourke st.

Some wicked street art in an alley off little bourke street.

How to Tamp your espresso!

More street art!

Close up of the paper lace cut out street art

SO YUMMY!

we made art, from the art! The couch was just sitting in the alley waiting to be used in a photo shoot!

A coffee crisp mini cupcake!

Beautiful cupcakes at a shop by the Library

Seven Seeds Espresso

Places in Melbourne have amazing bike storage!

A look at the Synesso in Seven Seeds coffee shop

This room is for cupings! So exciting!

I want to work here. it is great.

And so ends the Melbourne Saga (for now…?)

Visiting Artist Avner Singer

We had a visiting artist in the studio on Friday. His name is Avner Singer and he is a ceramic artist from Israel. He did a big long presentation with slides of his work and works from other Israeli ceramic artists and then he did a demo for us on the pots that he makes.

He threw a cylinder and then before he formed it into a pot he put dry Ball Clay on it. Then when he formed the pot, being careful not to get his hands on the now powdered surface of the outside of the pot, the pot stretched out while the part that had the ball clay was less plastic and then did not stretch as much, so it created this really interesting cracked surface. He then did the same thing on a new pot by placing deflocculant on the outside of the pot.  deflocculant is used to disperse the clay molecules when they are in water so that they suspend which equates to more movement/mobility in the clay with less water. It did the same kind of cracking on the surface of his pot. He had placed decals on the pot before stretching it so that they stretched with the cracking surface. It’s hard to explain. It was very intresting though. I have some photos!

Love,

Claire

Forming the pot!

Forming the body of the pot.

All done!

A detail of the finished pot. you can see how the ball clay dried the surface and caused the clay to crack open.

As I said I made crepes on Saturday, well the cooking mood was contagious and Stephanie wanted to make Meringues! So we did! We decided to ignore all the the warnings against making meringues on a rainy day, or while other things are cooking (crepes), and made them anyway! It was super fun! Stephanie did all the whisking, by hand! (oh how I miss the Cuisinart!) We used a icing bag to make the all pretty!

Stephanie whipped those eggs into shape!!

Sticky delicious gooey yum yum!

like little poops made from clouds!

Cooking away!!

As they were cooking I decided to test out what happens when you put the egg white and sugar mixture into a hot pan a cook it! So I did! It was like making grilled marshmallows! AMAZING! And well, the next was pretty much expected! MARSHMALLOW CREPE WITH STRAWBERRIES!

Cooking the egg mixture to see what happens....

This is what happens when you make meringues on the same day you make crepes!

COOKING IS AMAZING! WOW! I LOVE COOKING!!

More love hugs and kisses!

Claire!

KILN CARNAGE!

8 shelves broken.

Broken shelves and puddles of low fire clay

The KILN POST WAS SPLIT!!!

So much mess! oh man...

OH MY GOD!!!

So this is what happens when a kiln that is only suppose to fire to 600 degrees C fires to 1400 degrees C. Kilns normally only ever go to 1200 deg. and even then, that is STUPID hot.

The kiln shelves are all broken or warped. Kiln posts are split and broken. The puddles that look like marshmellow is  a low fire clay that became so hot that it could no longer hold its shape and melted into a bubbly glass like material. The electric elements in the bottom of the kiln are destroyed. The temperature gauge at the back of the kiln is also broken.

As far as we can tell it was a kiln malfunction and no one is to blame. thank god.

As Stephanie said, even though it is a huge mess and a huge cost to the studio, we should all feel very privileged to have seen it because (hopefully) we will never see anything like that again.

Love and hugs,

Claire

CREPES!! HOORAY!

I decided to make crepes for the second time! The first time was good, but not as successful as I had hoped! So, on Saturday morning I used my Dad’s recipe and I whipped up some wonderful crepes! Oh man! I win! they were really fantastic! I plan to make more in a couple weeks, I think I’m going to become a crepe connoisseur! Anyway, here are some photos!

I let it sit for a hour and everything!

The batter first hits the pan

perfectly flipped crepe!

look how yummy! so wonderful and yummy!

cheese and Vegimite, on a crepe!

Lucas likes to be fed!

Tah tah everyone! more to come later!

(im food blogging allday long!)

- Claire

More than worth a post-Blow My Own Mind Breakfast

PART1: I was told once that a traditionally prestigious and delicate serving of Ethiopian coffee was brewed with cardamom and served with butter stirred into the cup. I have thoroughly enjoyed every Ethiopian coffee I have come across and am a great fan of North African coffees in general. They tend to have medium to bold bodies and lovely fruity flavour notes, predominantly variations of citrus and often berry.  I purchased a whole bean Ethiopian coffee from a market a little while ago and brewed it the other day in a press with some cardamom. I didn’t opt for the butter but the drink was beautiful, unexpectedly refreshing and lovely with unsalted almonds.

PART2:  We have oranges that need to be eaten in our fridge and I want to drink all the coffee before it goes stale.  Also in need of creative outlet and procrastinating from un-back-combing my hair and/or studying. I spent some of the morning googling recipes that use oranges in them and came across a few ideas. I also live with someone who is a food network lover (Claire!) and therefore there has been lots of food talking/thinking and a bit of food show watching.  Okay so time to make something delicious and use some creative thinking brain.

PART3: This is when the amazing happens.  I peeled an orange and cut it into slices, put them in a pan with butter, cardamom, sprinkled with lemon juice, cinnamon and ginger and sliced up some of the rind, too. I left it in the pan until both sides of the orange slices were lightly caramelized and then put them on a plate to cool off a bit while I chopped up some almonds and brewed my Ethiopian Coffee with cardamom (always in a press).  Once they were cooled off I put the orange slices on top of vanilla yogurt, along with the rind slices which had slightly caramalized also.  In this situation I did prefer the rind to be sliced, as opposed to grated. This allowed the zesty flavours to appear more boldly which made for a nice noticeable mix of bitter zestiness with the sweeter ingredients of the dish.  I then sprinkled the chopped almonds on top of the oranges and added a few more drops of lemon juice, then drizzled with honey.  And of course I enjoyed this with my coffee, sipped out of my little hand built cup from Canada. Well done.

Glorious and Gorgeous Good Morning

The only thing that would have made this better would have been Greek yogurt.  Very Yum.  And maybe a sunny, breezy veranda that overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. Next time.

(love)

-Steph

A little bit random-Let’s catch up-Impressions of Melbourne

Carrots have become a staple in our diet. Well, mine at least, i don’t really keep track of what Claire and Lucas eat. But they taste garden grown and are inexpensive. After a year of not having a camera and living through a plethora of experiences where I normally would have had one, but didn’t; I became accustomed to not photoing. Besides, these things usually happened around other people who did take photos and my sketchbook is always with me (habit courtesy Dave Casey) to take down anything I find interesting.  So a big thanks to these cool kid Canadians I travel with for taking photos x10.

After this recent trip to Melbourne, though I’ve been finding myself collecting up mass produced visual culture, pamphlets, showcards, et al. A rather early modernism habit. Something about Melbourne was like spinning and dancing, catching your breath and wanting more. A long series of over intriguing stimuli, visually, intellectually and musically and just after a great visiting artist in the studio, too. –“‘I think we’ve struck a wave,’ she said as the wind ripped through her hair”-. And in a fairytale of cities, Galway grows up into Melbourne. Something about this world seems more beautiful than it did before and I’m a month into the next documented year of my life, and one month separated from that crazy year of being 20 that found my head turning faster than the rest of me could keep up with and it was all I could do to keep it from falling off my shoulders.

A couple of Australian bands have been brought to my attention, You am I and the Cat Empire.  You Am I came up when I was youtubing the Cats.  Claire’s father’s friend’s son’s friend is in the Cat Empire (which i’m sure there is a blog about, here somewhere). “Yeah, that guy who started the band on that street we were walking up and down forever-Saint Kilda-but yea he met one of the guys in a jazz place–that city is known for jazzy scene stuff. Yea, he plays keys, he used to play for James Brown and just got back from a gig in Thailand the day before and anyways, we were out for drinks with him in the bar below his apartment building and he told us about his visits to Canada, Montreal mostly, we talked about poutine. He and Lucas compared sketchbooks and we reassured him that his was the equivalent of a musician’s visual diary and no sketchbook needs a ton of sketches to be useful. We went back up to his flat which is super small and cute and so anyways there were the three of us sitting in this space that is both his living room and his kitchen and andrew’s there too, and olly is playing stuff on the piano that takes up almost the whole wall and Andrew plays some stuff too and we talk about Rick Mercer a bit. He gave us vodka and soho. There was a train ticket sitting around from march third. I put it in Claire’s pocket as my dress had none. Andrew drove us back down the street to our hotel sometime around one thirty. It was a good night.”

Walk off the street and into the lanes and allies of Melbourne and you will find the most interesting of things, hidden shops, restaurants, cafes, bars. And more street art than your grown-up-in-Calgary artist brain can handle. And it was good to be excited about coffee again.

Well done Melbourne- “you blow my mind.”

The arts there thrive. Go.

(lovex100)

-Steph

Test post

This is a test post to see if I can upload posts from my iPod. how neat would that be?! We are going to bed now, enjoy Thursday canada, it’s a good day!
Love, Claire!

Trip To Melbourne DAY FIVE!

Day Five, Thursday April 8th, 2010

OOOKKAAAY!

So Thursday. We had chosen this day to head to the Queen Victoria Market as the market was only open on certain days, and we were not going to be around on the weekend.

We took a free tourist bus across the city to the north park of Melbourne to get to the market. I was sleepy from having been out late the night before so I was nodding in and out while on the bus but it took us up around the city and had a voice playing telling about the stops and the places outside. Pretty good idea on the city of Melbourne’s part. QVM is a really wicked open-air market. It was super busy and thriving and the whole place was pulsating with life. The market was super huge but not overwhelming and had a strange Old World Charm about it. It was really cool to go to such a big market in the middle of a huge metropolitan city. There was TONNES of fresh fruits and veggies as well as products like leather goods and clothing, scarves sunglasses and other things you find at markets!

We spent the whole morning at the market and also grabbed lunch there. It was yummy!

After the market we walked over into Melbourne’s “little italy” to wander around amongst the cafes and yummy italian food smells! Here we split up and Stephanie went off to the Meat Market Art house and Lucas and I made our way to the Old Melbourne Gaol.

The Gaol was pretty cool! An old prison and watch house converted to a museum the gaol is famous for  having housed and hung Ned Kelly as well as may other australian criminals! It was kinda creepy but really cool! They had the gallows on display as well as the frames on which they use to put people for whippings! You could even go in to the old jail cells!

After all the spookyness we met up with Stephanie and took a tram over to The Docklands area of Melbourne. Really high end apartments lined the docks on the citys west end. There was lots of shopping as well! (we were there a little late in the day so things were closing but alot was still open). I even found a couple pairs of new shoes! which i love! so much love for the shoes!! We also walked past this strange amphitheater in the Docklands that had statues of famous australians. So, naturally, I sat under Dame Edna’s dress! haha! Im not sure what they were doing there, but it was pretty awesome!

We went back downtown and found a neat bar to sit and have a drink and some snacks at. The walls of the bar had the craziest wall paper and pretend animal heads! Then we went back to the hotel (taking the tram, so much faster then walking!) and we had another good nights sleep. Leaving Melbourne tomorrow, we are all a little sad and not really wanting to go!

Lucas at the market! see the new bag?! wicked!

At the market!

the most yummy of all bratwurst! Marketbratwurst!

RAAAAAAWWWWRRRR I am NED KELLY!

NOOO!!! IM NED KELLY!!!!

Can you imagine being a prisoner here?!

After some shopping, sight seeing

A view off the Docklands Pier towards the unknown!

when i grow up and get rich, I’m going to live here

YES! this can now be checked off my list of things to do before i die!

I am a classy broad!

Ummmm…

Long hard day shopping in Melbourne!