The Easter craft challenge #2 - hidden messages

Last year I saw this post about hiding messages, fortune-cookie-style, inside eggs on B for Bel and couldn't wait to try it for myself. As with many things in life, I didn't get around to it in time, but this year I persevered and managed to make three little Easter eggs for my friends. It was a bit time consuming, but definitely worth it, and not too tricky. 1. To remove the egg from the shell, make a tiny hole in both the top and bottom of the egg. I used a sewing needle and gently tapped it with a pen until it broke through the shell. Continue working on the hole at the bottom to make it a bit bigger. From the bottom hole, push the needle right up inside the egg to break up the yolk. Then hold the egg over a bowl and blow through the top hole to make the egg filling come out the bottom. This takes a little while but once you get the hang of it it's not too bad.

2. Rinse the eggs to clean out the last of the yolk and white. I later learned that submerging them in salt water was the best for this job, whereas I just rinsed them with water from the tap (sorry dear recipients if there are eggy remnants in your presents. Gross!).

3. Paint your eggs in any colour you like. I painted mine a pale yellow colour, because I wanted a nice contrast to the black stencils I planned to use later. I found the best way to paint them was to use toothpicks inside the holes so that I didn't have to have my fingers all over them. I stood the toothpicks in lumps of BluTac to hold the eggs upright while they dried between coats of paint (I used three coats and they actually could have done with more if I'd had the time).

4. To decorate the eggs, I used stencils, or "rub-ons," that I found at Kaisercraft at Uni Hill factory outlets. I am so happy with the results! Just cut out the portion of the image you want to transfer, and hold it firmly in place over the egg. Using the back of a pen or pencil (or anything else hard), gently rub over the image. Because the egg is round, you'll need to gently hold the transfer piece by piece over the areas you want to rub, because if you try to wrap it around the egg, the stencil will break apart and you won't get a clean transfer.

5. Write your special message on a tiny piece of paper. Remember: the paper should be shorter than the egg so it can fit inside. Don't make it too long, either, because you will have to roll it up to make it fit inside the hole, and too long a note will make the roll too fat. I used tiny strips of brown paper. I found that rolling the message so that it wasn't exactly straight (making it 'taller' than otherwise) helped to thin it out to fit in the hole.

6. I created a cone of paper and poured some gold glitter into the hole, so it would feel like a bit of a carnival for my friends when they broke the egg open. Once done, I covered the hole with clear sticky-tape to stop the glitter from escaping back out.

7. As a final touch, I positioned the egg in an adorable little decorative birds' nest that I also found at Kaisercraft.

What do you think? Let me know if you try this craft too!

* Coming up next week: plantable papier mâché Easter eggs with wildflower seeds * Last week: Easter snail mail using collage, stencils and wooden decorations

Sponsored by the good folks at Uni Hill Factory Outlets.

Weekend in the mountains

Honestly it was a relief to get out of bed, even at 4am, because bed was so hot that sleep said "Ha ha, surely you jest!" while the fan droned ineffectually on through the long, dark hours and all I could think was, "When is it time to get up?" (Actually I thought one or two other things, mostly about Melbourne weather and weeks on end of heat and humidity, but those thoughts are not suitable to be shared in polite conversation). On the flip side, there never was a better time to escape to the cool mountain air.

It was a four-day visit with Madeleine's grandparents and, even though they were wonderfully well-prepared for us with a cot, a car seat, multitudinous toys and even a supply of nappies, packing Madeleine's bags still felt like stocking up for the apocalypse. She took the early rise in her stride, laughing with glee as she crawled, commando-style, around the floors of the Qantas lounge at 5am; and entertaining fellow passengers with a very charming rendition of "bouncing not crying" once the plane took off.

Once in the mountains, Madeleine had more Nan and Pa kisses than she will ever be able to count, even if she grows up to become a mathematical genius (which admittedly is not particularly likely, given her genetic heritage). She had at least two baths a day because, unlike us, Nan and Pa actually have a big bath in their home. For Madeleine this was a splashy paradise. Baths were also popular with us because Madeleine has become quite a fan of custard... in her mouth, in her hair, over her hands, feet, arms, legs and anywhere else you can think of to dribble, flick, toss or smear a sticky, eggy substance.

The weekend was mild and verdant, full of apple pies and old-fashioned roses and a giant pumpkin from Mum's garden. There were gentle walks up winding country roads; mountain ranges still and silent and old, just over there; picnics; a fairy garden; country cafes; an old dog wearing a Cone of Shame; and dear friends visiting for food and gossip and wine and table tennis and croquet and laughter.

My dad dug out some old papers that he had never read himself, and we discovered records of our family going back to the 1650s, all in one tiny village in England. So then we Google Street-viewed the village and it is adorable - farms and thatched cottages and Iron Age archaeological sites and all - and I got itchy feet.

Madeleine has discovered how to make a kissing sound, and the only thing she loves more than making the sound is having it reciprocated (same goes for the also-popular eating sound, raspberry sound and tom-tom drumming action). Yesterday morning Mr B reached over to kiss me and suddenly a big baby-head appeared millimetres from ours, making a "kiss, kiss, kiss" sound, accompanied by a massive grin.

My baby was so full of joy and love the whole weekend. It was so wonderful to watch her begin to form a real relationship with her Nan and Pa. She liked them so much that Mr B and I were able to go out for coffee each morning, just us, which is something we hadn't done since she was born. It felt strange and free and lonely and lovely.

This parenting gig is so extreme, and working around a baby's need for sleep and food - as well as the same baby's desperate need to be close to her parents every. single. second - can feel incredibly limiting when it comes to doing anything for us. Not to mention it is colossally exhausting. But I don't think I have known a happier time in my life than the days and weeks and months since Madeleine was born.

Spoiled for choice

A long time ago I heard a talk by a woman who worked with young girls in Afghanistan. In human rights terms, she said, one of the most important 'rights' was the right of choice. To choose to learn or not, to earn or not, to marry or not... to live or not. Choice was something that we in Australia took entirely for granted. Being 'spoiled for choice' is definitely a first-world problem. In the scheme of things, does it really matter whether we paint our bedroom walls Bit of Blue or Barely Blue? Yet if you were a fly on the wall of many a home renovation (or, let's face it, just watched half an episode of The Block), you'd witness full-on domestic wars arise over just this issue.

Artist Shawn Huckins has explored the concept of choice in his clever and darkly humorous Paint Chip Series. He says, "In today’s abundant American culture, any material thing we could possibly ever want or need is at our fingertips. The Paint Chip Series explores color choice and its meaning in our daily lives."

Each work exactly replicates the proportions, font, layout and hues of the miniature paint cards you find in hardware stores. These are the "bands of color we may choose for our most intimate spaces—bedrooms, kitchens, family rooms," and Huckins says they represent the ideal stage to examine everyday people and objects.

All images used here with the kind permission of the artist.

ps. Take a look at Huckins' tweets from the American Revolution series. Underneath the cheeky tweets in all those teen abbreviations that I can never quite get (thank goodness he 'translates' in the title of each work), these are all hand-painted portraits.

Favourite things - family time

Assuming I figure how to schedule this post properly, by the time you read this I'll be touching down at Sydney airport, ready to spend a long weekend with my parents at their home in the Blue Mountains. It is amazing how much you have to pack for just three nights away when you have a little baby. Especially when the little baby is just learning to eat. I could fill an entire suitcase with just the flannels and wipes needed to keep Madeleine from painting the walls, the carpet, herself and anyone else within a 10-metre radius with whatever she is eating, in one meal.

But it's worth it. I love living in Melbourne, and feel really happy and settled here. But I do feel isolated from time to time (ok often) without my family here. Especially now that I have little Madeleine in my life, and I want her to grow up knowing them. So today is dedicated to family. I hope you get to enjoy something of yours this weekend, too.

1. Family photo shoots

Family photo shoots instead of family portraits: this seems to be happening more and more. It's certainly something I'd prefer when it comes to recording our time with Madeleine. Loved this one on Happiness Is.

2. Unknown, unmet family friends

I've been reading Katie's blog Pencil Box for a while now, and I just get lost in the her lovely, dreamy photography and little moments from her family life. She doesn't know I exist, but I still feel a kind of sisterly connection with her. She has a new little baby girl about the same age as Madeleine, and an older son who lives with them part time, as Em does with us. The love in their little, blended family is beautiful, and inspiring.

3. A wooden block family

So so cute, right? There's a tutorial on the Etsy blog, here.

4. Fortune cupcakes

Take a look at this little video tutorial from Oh Joy! on how to hide fortune-cookie-esque messages inside cupcakes. If I didn't have to leave the house at 5am, I would bake these and bring them as gifts to my family. One day when they next come to visit me, I think I'll do it for them. Imagine how lovely they would be at family get-togethers, like birthdays or anniversaries.

5. The Crawley family

How could I not mention them? Like the rest of the world, I am in love with this family and their humour and their melodrama and their incredible stately home and their fabulous fashions. I'm so annoyed because I tried to avoid the spoilers but of course I know what is to happen on this Sunday's episode, and of course I know what happens in the Christmas special and let me just say: Not. Happy. Jan. But not unhappy enough to stop watching, of course. Not while Maggie Smith remains to rule the clan.

Fun run?

This is a photo of us coming dead last on a fun run last weekend. Look carefully. There is not one. single. person. behind us. There are just so many elements in this photograph that explain why we are coming dead last - from the camera to the clothing to the carrying of the baby to the existence of the handbag, to the lack of actual running or even walking for a start - that it makes me laugh every time I look at it.

My family is the most un-sporty family in Melbourne. We were so slow that the run leaders lapped us three times, and we had to take a sneaky short-cut to get to the finish in time for me to take photos for Mr B's work before everyone packed up and went home!

But we sure made the most of the fresh morning air before the heat settled into the day, the beautiful parklands, the laughing baby, and the free coffee and muffins at the finish. And you'd better believe we wore our 'completion medals' with pride, sneaky shortcut or not.

The wanderers

"...and all the time I was thinking of Dean and how he got back on the train and rode over three thousand miles over that awful land and never knew why he had come anyway, except to see me. "So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars'll be out, and don't you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what's going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty."

* Lyric, bittersweet, stream-of-consciousness words by Jack Kerouac, from his novel On the Road * Poetry-on-film by young mum and gifted photographer Nirrimi Firebrace, from her blog The Road is Home (used with her kind permission)

I think you either love or you hate the non-conformist, loose and spontaneous creativity of the Beat Writers. I'm definitely in camp former. What do you think of them?

The Easter craft challenge #1 - snail mail

There is something so very tactile and satisfying about receiving old-fashioned snail mail in the box, don't you think? There is a wonderful theatre to opening it, not knowing what's inside. And a special feeling, knowing that the sender has taken time to write to me by hand, to pack a parcel, to wrap and post and send it. The fact that mail takes such a long time to arrive (as opposed to the instant gratification of email, phone calls and messaging), and has been through so many hands to get to its final destination, only adds to the romance of the post.

When you receive a parcel from me in your mailbox, it has been on a journey. It has seen places you may never see, and has travelled across mountains and highways and oceans to reach you. The stamps and marks and scuffs that you can see when it arrives are evidence of its adventurous passage toward you across the globe.

Often, I like to draw or paint pictures to embellish the addresses on the mail I send, like these. I also use string and wax and ink stamps to add to a parcel's beauty. (This is for the benefit of both the recipient and all the postal workers who handle it: the woman at my local Post Office loves it when I come in with a new parcel, turning it over in her hands and saying "Oh, lovely," before affixing the stamps.)

But lately I've been exploring other ways to make the mail I send something lovely to look at. And after a recent trip to Kaisercraft at the fabulous Uni Hill factory outlet precinct for inspiration, I came up with some new ideas using collage, stencils and wooden embellishments.

They were super easy to make, and I'm really happy with the results. If you want to have a try, just wrap your parcel in plain paper, then have a play. I used PVA glue to attach the wooden and paper collage pieces, although double-sided tape would probably do as well. For pieces that absolutely couldn't fall off (like those containing the addresses!) I reinforced the corners with pretty printed tape. The wooden eggs were plain when I bought them, so I painted them before gluing them on.

Some mail tips for embellishing mail (so that they won't get mad at you at the Post Office):

* Make sure you leave space on the top-right of the parcel for the stamps * If your parcel is going overseas, leave space for the airmail sticker to go on the top-middle or left * If you need to make a customs declaration (most Australian post going overseas requires this), leave a good area on the back to stick the form so it doesn't destroy your lovely artwork on the front * It's a lot easier to send 'fancy' mail if you are sending something with a flat surface, like a book. If your mail is bumpy or squishy, consider putting it in a small box before wrapping it in the brown paper, so you can more easily decorate it * Since you're using paper in place of an envelope, take a few extra steps to be sure it is strong enough to survive the journey. I make sure there are a few layers of paper around my parcel. I also reinforce all the fold-lines of the paper with sticky-tape, leaving nowhere that it could catch or tear. Finally, I put a piece of sticky tape on every corner to protect it from tearing if it bumps around with all the other mail.

I found all the supplies I needed to decorate my mail from the the amazing new Kaisercraft University Hill store. This included PVA glue, printed sticky tape and a craft knife, as well as the following 'features' for each box:

1: Packet of mini playing cards 2: Packet of Rub Ons - easy-to-use stencils in various designs 3: Packet of "Timeless Tags" - more than 50 pieces of die cut shapes 4: Two packets of three wooden Easter eggs

Coming up next week: Easter eggs with hidden messages inside.

Sponsored by the good folks at Uni Hill factory outlets. 

Interview - where the truck at?

Maybe you know, or maybe you don't, that I've been following food trucks and vans around the streets of Melbourne for the past few months to sample their delicious wares. It's probably one of the best assignments I've ever set myself. These are the trucks I've visited so far (loads more to come!). A few people have asked me how I know where the trucks are at any given time, since there are a LOT of food trucks in Melbourne and even if you followed them all on Twitter or Facebook, the odds of finding the one near you in your social media stream at right time aren't great. So today I'm going to reveal my secret: wherethetruck.at.

Created by three Melbourne blokes (Jack, Tom and Xavier) who love meals on wheels, wherethetruck.at is a website that tracks food trucks' whereabouts in real time on a map, so you just select your city of choice and voila! Trucks R Us! Recently Tom was good enough to spill the goss on how this website came to be and what the trio is planning next.

ME: Food trucks: what do you love about them? What should WE love about them?

TOM: I love that it's all about quality food, done quickly and cheaply, all the while embracing our beautiful Australian landscape as the dining room. What should you love? That it's happening! It's so grass roots, no pretentious maître d', no bill shock, no need to dress up. It's all about fun, food and friends.

ME: What inspired you to start wherethetruck.at? How did you come up with the idea?

TOM: It was actually Xavier's idea, he saw something similar being done in the States, was pretty keen on the food trucks here, and so thought that we could put something together that was the best location service for food trucks and food truck enthusiasts.

ME: How long did it take for you go from idea to launch? Talk me through the process.

TOM: From inception to our public launch (March, Food Trucks United for Melbourne Food & Wine Festival) it took about a week. A LOT of coding, a LOT of late nights, a LOT of help from good girlfriends and from there it's been a very interesting ride. We basically screen printed our own t-shirts, got some stickers made up and then walked around for two days at Food Trucks Unite talking to people, giving them stickers, telling them about the site - from there we haven't looked back. Since March we've had over 100,000 people use our website to find themselves lunch or dinner from one of Australia's gourmet food trucks, and that's totally awesome.

ME: How do you guys know each other?

TOM: Xavier and I worked together at a market research company many moons ago (two-ish years ago?), we've been talking about ideas and things we could get going as a cool project for ages and this is the one that we made stick. Jack came on board as our Code Monkey on the day we launched V1 of the site and has been pushing the limits of Wordpress ever since. I met him at my place, he's a friend of my housemate, it was very serendipitous... He was around having a drink with my housemate and we were all shooting the shit, he came on board the next day - after a quick little dev task we gave him.

ME: How do you work together on this project? Who does what and how do you all keep in touch?

TOM: Email, Skype, face to face, SMS, phone...it's probably fair to say that around all of our day jobs, Jack's and my girlfriends and then Xavier's wife... it can be difficult to do exactly that. Keeping lines of communication open between the three of us is certainly our biggest challenge. We somehow mash the thing together though, things always work out in the end.

ME: What's next for this project?

TOM: Well first up it's our app*, we NEED to get this going SOON and so any support you and your readers can throw our way would be so greatly appreciated. From here, once we've got Australia's scene sorted out we'll be taking it to the States as the food trucking scene over there is just enormous. Bit of work to do here first though...

* At the time of this interview, the guys were crowd-sourcing funding to develop a smartphone app for wherethetruck.at. They reached their target, so look out for this app soon!

ME: If you could pick a cuisine that's not yet supplied on wheels here in Melbourne, what would it be?

TOM: Vietnamese!!!!! We need a Banh Mi van like nothing else, imagine tucking in to a beautiful French baguette stuffed full of Vietnamese grilled pork, coriander, pâté etc on a warm summer's evening... YUM!!!!

ME: Tell me a funny food-truck-related experience.

TOM: The FUN(iest) experience to date has been trying to get people who don't quite understand the concept of a "gourmet food truck" to understand that you won't get food poisoning from a dirty kebab here!!! Australians have been so conditioned to expecting that anything served out the side of a truck is bad news: dirty kebabs, soggy burgers...yuk. So taking friends and family along to a gourmet food truck for the first time is always a lot of fun, they're skeptical until the first mouthful, then their faces light up, and most of them are hooked from then on.

ME: Anything else you want to say?

TOM: We do this for the love of it, it can be tough sometimes as we don't make any money from the site however there is an expectation of quality from both a user's and the trucks' perspective. We love that people love our site, what makes it all worthwhile is when somebody has something nice to say about us and what we're doing. That's the fun bit for us, when we get feedback from our users saying that they love using our service.

If you live in Australia, go to wherethetruck.at and select your city to find your nearest food truck. For photos and a bit of a story about the trucks, click on my Meals on Wheels tag at any time as I eat my way through the streets of Melbourne.

ps. Last chance to win some beautiful handmade gifts by Sparkling Flora

Sparkling Flora - a gift for you from my penpal

Just after Christmas, a little package arrived for me in our post office box. It was about the size of a letter, but satisfyingly plumper (plumper? more plump?). There were little drawings on the outside, my address was written in a friendly, swirly script, and washi tape held the corners together. The stamp was from Germany. Drawing on my masterful powers of deduction, I surmised that this was a letter from my penpal Astrid. Also, she wrote her name on the back. I was very excited. Astrid is wonderfully generous and creative, and writes me fabulous letters about her life and family in Germany, and her regular travels in Italy and elsewhere. She fills her letters with lovely anecdotes, as well as little gifts of beautiful stationery, pictures, mementos and ephemera, much of it handmade. You can see some of Astrid's amazing mail packages to me here and here.

Astrid is a much better penpal than I am. I take a lot longer between letters than she does and, no matter how much I wrack my brain, I never come up with anything as clever or imaginative or lovely to send in my letters to Astrid as she does to me.

Case in point, the letter I excitedly tore open just after Christmas. Attached inside a card by a piece of pink tape was a beautiful little pendant. It was a silver cloud and, when you looked closely, one side was covered with pretty little raindrops while the other was clear like a fluffy, white cloud sailing by on a sunny day. Then I read the card, and discovered that Astrid had actually made this! Isn't she clever?

A little while ago, Astrid opened a shop on Etsy called Sparkling Flora, where she sells some of her lovely creations. And today I have a very special chance for you to win one of two prizes from my generous penpal: a rain-cloud pendant just like mine, and a set of three handmade mini-journals. What's more, Astrid will send you your prize ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.

To enter:

1. Go to Sparkling Flora and Tweet about the page, like it on Facebook or Favourite it (you only need to do one of these but I'll award one entry in the draw for each action, the buttons to help you do this are on the bottom-left of the page)

2. Leave a comment here to let me know what you've done

For an extra chance, let me know in the comments what you like best in Astrid's shop.

I'll draw two winners using a random selector on Thursday 28 February, 2013. Draw 1 will be for the necklace, Draw 2 will be for the mini-journals. Good luck!!

ps. I made the prizes look all Polariod-esque using polaroin.com

UPDATE: This competition is now closed. Congratulations Lisa and Noor.

Favourite things - sweet tooth treats

Dig out your recipe scrapbook friends, you're going to want to print these out and stick them in. I'm hanging on to all five to try when I'm in need of a sugar fix. 1. Heart-shaped doughnuts

Cupcakes are so last year. These days, it's all about doughnuts, in pretty shapes and oh-so-delicious flavours. Like this sweet, heart-shaped take on the classic from Sugar and Cloth. Yum!

2. Pomegranate & blood-orange pancakes

These pancakes from The Best Remedy are topped with blood-orange and honey syrup, and I'd add a small dollop of cream. I am most definitely bookmarking this recipe for when pomegranates come back into season.

3. Butterscotch pudding with roasted banana-whipped cream

Imagine a winter's night: the dark comes down early and the wind is tearing around outside and you are indoors with good food and good wine and good friends, and now it's time for dessert. This butterscotch pudding from Not Without Salt looks rich, sweet and oh-so-satisfying.

4. Coconut hot chocolate

My mouth is literally watering. Read this recipe, then come visit me when the weather gets cold because I WILL be making this amazing hot chocolate from Cup of Jo.

5. Salted caramel lava cake

I left the most indulgent-looking sweet treat until last. Can you just imagine spooning into this chocolate lava cake from Eatsy ('food as craft' on the Etsy blog) and watching the salted caramel come oozing out? Lord have mercy!