delicious escape

I have spent the last half hour or so in wonderland. 'But Maude, you are an arty type', you say 'you are always in wonderland.' That may be so, but this time I was in a wonderland not of my making. I was in the wonderland that is delicious. magazine. I used to buy this mag as often as I could back in Oz, and salivate over the recipes. Often I'd be so inspired I would make something other than toast for tea. I haven't looked at a copy since before Christmas, so I was a bit excited when I spied the latest edition at the newsagents this afternoon. It has a picture of dripping, dreamy fondue on the cover and the insides are full of winter fare like roasted chestnuts, baked treats and slow cooked wonders. Considering I'm ovenless in KL most of the recipes are impractical, but a girl can dream can't she? Maybe I'll make some art about food...

Now this is a sneak peek at something I'm making for a little friend who is waiting to be born. In fact, there are two of these friends on the way (not twins but two friends having babies) so fear not little friend #2, I'll be making something for you too!



Back on the food theme, you know what else I really miss? Ready Steady Cook. Nothing like a bit of stitching while watching smart arse chefs on daytime telly.

Teksi!

image from here

Have you ever have fun in a taxi? I have. Tsk tsk, don't be rude please. I mean the sort of good time you have when you have a happily unexpected conversation with someone. Most taxi drivers begin by asking me where I'm from. Australia garners mostly 'OH, Australia.' This means they don't really know anything about Australia. Sometimes they ask you which part, sometimes they have family there, occasionally they say "oh, down under!" Usually they ask what season it is. 'Winter", I say, 'It's cold now!' Then we both chuckle because a.) It's possible the driver has never experienced winter and b.) I'm sweating like crazy all over his upholstery, and boy, do I wish it was winter here! Lately I've been having conversations about Malaysia and it's mixed cultures, and how everyone just tries to live in peace and have a good time. This is usually mixed in with some of mine and some of the driver's personal story, and are wonderful encounters.

Yesterday as I walked toward the taxi rank in Bangsar the driver started flashing his lights. I thought maybe it was a secret code or a joke he had going with another driver. Or maybe he'd seen his friend over the road. Anyway, I got in and told him where I was going. He was about 60 and Indian Malay.
"Oh sweetheart, no problem, I can take you there sure" he said. I ignored the embellishments and smiled.
"I was flashing my lights at you but you didn't signal!" he cheekily exclaimed.
I laughed "I wondered what you were doing!"
"Oh darling, you should have hailed me and I would have driven up to where you were!"
"Ha ha, sorry. I wasn't sure you were doing that for me!"
"Ohh yes, I ALWAYS flash my lights when I see a beautiful lady!" He glances in the rear vision mirror at me and smirks, but in a friendly way.
"HA! Do you always get a good response?"
"Oh yes, I always get the lady's heart!"
I make some more chuckling noises and look out the window. Now he thinks maybe he's gone to far and that I'm frightened.
"Ohh sweetheart, don't worry," he coos, "Where you from?"
"Australia."
"Oh yes. Which part? Sydney?"
"No, Melbourne, down the bottom."
"Ohh, I have family in Sydney. They like it very much. I've been there."
"Really? Do you like Australia?"
"No." He glances in the mirror again.
It's my turn to smirk, in a friendly way. "Why not?!"
"Too cold!" We laugh and he is pleased with his joke.
"Why you here, you got family here?"
"My husband is working here" OK, I'm not married. My partner is working here, but it's easier to explain if I say husband (instead of 'boyfriend', which sounds high-schoolish to me, or 'partner').
"Oh, I didn't know! You look so young. If I knew I wouldn't have tried to... Ah, I was going to put in an application to be your husband!" More smirks, laughing eyes in the mirror. Oh this guy! By now I'm laughing, laughing. OK, shall I try and turn the tables on him?
"What about you, you married?"
He quiets down a bit. "Oh yes, I'm married". Ah ha! I think. But he is far more practiced at this kind of conversation that me. He changes the subject.
"I tell you, in this city, watch your handbag!"
"Oh yes, I know I know!"
He's looking at me in the rear view mirror again, grinning playfully. "I never steal from ladies, no no. Never steal their handbags. I steal their hearts, then everything they have is mine!" Killer shot, Mr Taxi Driver! You win, you have my heart...

This is a post about art and craft.

Today was spent mostly being a consumer. Don't worry, it wasn't a worthless pursuit. I'll be starting a new art project about it soon. I'm thinking of calling it 'my life as a consumer'. It will be the companion piece to this body of work:



These are two more pieces from this series here. This project is a slowly developing thing, and is experimental at this stage. The two images here are called 'chair' and 'sofa'. Catchy titles huh? I never ever used the word 'sofa' until I worked at a sofa store a few years ago. I thought it was a terrible Americanism. Now I can't bring myself to say 'couch'...



Run misty, run! Guess I couldn't leave the horses to the blog banner. Here are the first in a new line of brooches. 'Horse Brooches'. Do you think I'm to literal with my titles? I haven't made any bird brooches for a while. Do you think the bird motif in craft has had it's day? I've heard cries of 'Enough with the birds designs!' around the traps, but ya gotta go with your instinct when you make stuff. If your crafty insides say 'bird', then make birds! My crafty insides say 'horse' right now, but I have been making a few of those bird softies lately.

Fruity Times

The other night Thistler and I were walking home from dinner at a local eatery when we heard a strange 'rustle' and 'thump'. A coconut dropped from a tree to the street in front of us! We thought that was pretty darn special, and lucky because one of us could easily have had a nasty coconut encounter. Fruity times, absolutely. I bet every single person who travels to south east Asia tells you about the AMAZING fruit they ate there. Well, they are right to tell you, because it really is a culinary highlight. And now I am going to tell you. I've already written about dragon fruit here. We had red flesh dragon fruit the other day which was pretty incredible. That's the thing about tropical fruit. It looks AMAZING. It knocks your socks off when you see a dragon fruit or a rambutan for the first time, in real life. Rambutans are a lot like lychees, but bigger, their skin is redder and they're sweet with a smack of coconut.



rambutans image from here


Starfruit is by far the cutest of the fruits I've tried. When it's sliced you have star shaped pieces. AMAZING! It's pretty mild tasting, a little tart and crisp and wholly refreshing.


image from here



water apple image from here

This is water apple. Darn, it looks nice and is refreshing to eat. It has a crisp, but sort of soft texture. That makes sense, doesn't is? We've eaten mangoes, oranges, apples, bananas and mandarins to our hearts content but you already know what they look like. Maybe you are eating one now. Me? Oh, I'm eating a pastry. From the 'French' bakery. In KL. I had mango for breakfast, OK?! Anyway, the fruit that really takes the cake, in terms of new sweet flavour full experiences is mangostein. Whew, it's so sweet and juicy! It isn't as impressive looking as some fruits, but these little dudes really pack a punch. My favourite, by far.


mangostein image from here

Of course, you can probably get most of this stuff in Australia but betcha can't get 3kg for RM10 (that's about AUD$3 if you're not familiar with the exchange rate...) What fruit are eating now? Pears? Oranges? I had orange sliced and drizzled with cinnamon syrup, pistachios and mint when we had brunch in the city a while ago. I recreated it at home by drizzling honey and scattering cinnamon, almonds and mint on my orange. It's blooming nice with yogurt and makes a super easy dessert! Go on, try it. You'll be AMAZED!

Baked not Fried

Finished brooches. I think I'll call them 'Potato Chip Series'. They are hand-cut (just like gourmet potato chips) from recycled and scrapped paper, layers hand-stitched and the whole chip is mod podged for protection. Don't eat them, just wear them. They are the result of my first couple of months in KL and I trashed a LOT of ideas to get to them. Why is it always the simple solutions that are hardest to come to?

I'm still giving this blog a bit of a makeover (inspired in part by meet me at mikes great posts about doing right by your blog) so some things are a bit woozy at the the moment - like the link list. Here's some news for you though - an hour ago an ATM ate my bankcard!
xx maude
p.s. If you're crafty or a craft lover, bloggie or a blog lover you have to get over to meet me at mikes right now and join their tea party. It's so much darned fun!

Winner!

I was going to post about our weekend and my fabric shopping woes but was just over at April May's blog and discovered I have won her Friday Giveaway! This makes me very excited!! I'll post something later. Maybe. For now I'm going to wash the dishes while I bask in the glory of having won something. Thanks Sam! xx maude

Make Over

In keeping with yesterday's post on new clothes, I thought I'd give this blog some new clothes also. Or rather, dress it properly. It's suffered from not having a handmade banner since the beginning, and I finally rectified the problem. With a little help from Thistler of course. Everything is a bit lo-fi here. Well obviously we're hardly an analogue household, but we just don't have access to all our computer files, a digital camera, scanner or printer, which I find limiting for this sort of thing. So the banner turned out a bit wonky. But then, everything I make is a bit wonky...

Colour Me Striped

There's nothing like a new outfit to make a lady feel nice. Yesterday was a Mega-Mall day, but it was ok, 'cause I came home with the booty. And it's been a while coming, because the pants situation in my wardrobe was getting dire. I finally found a pair of jeans that didn't have super pre-faded thighs, weird ruching at the knees or a skinny leg fit. That sort just don't work for me. I also purchased stripy tee with a bit of puffy sleeve action (my favourite sort of sleeve!). That brings my grand total of striped tops to eight, plus one pair of striped shoes. It's not intentional, I just gravitate toward the stripe. I don't have a pair of striped pants though...


New striped tee and newish striped shoes. The light stripe in the shoe is actually SILVER GLITTER. Yeah, they are special.

A while ago I let a shop lady dress me. Oh boy, what an experience. I was in the sort of shop you know you're not going to find anything in but you look anyway, with the vague hope of finding a 'fun' little t-shirt at a bargain price. Well, the shop assistant plied all kinds of long bat-winged, spangled and screen printed tops on me, paired them with a pair of aforementioned jeans and then, after assessing the assemblage, topped it off by removing her own belt and putting it around my hips. Mmm, white vinyl belt wrapped around a pair of generous hips. Nothing says STYLE more. I don't know why, but I let this charade carry on for 15 minutes. I wanted to see how I'd look if I dressed like someone completely different. So for a short while that afternoon I was a nasty, cigarette smoke smelling teenager. I wish I'd worn lots of eyeliner. I kept saying that I didn't like the bat wing experience, that I was really to short to get away with it. At these protests she would purse her lips a little and say 'But it's the style!". Oh right. How can you argue with that?
Just quickly, I am getting to grips with my new sewing machine. It's noisy, it sort of growls where others whir and the reverse action is a little clunky. I've made a couple of bird softies though, and think I'll be attempting some new purses today. And when I find the fabric, maybe another striped t-shirt...

I just bought it home. Can you guess what it is? I bet you can. It's pretty obvious. It's not as pretty as my other machines, but it goes. And it has buttonhole stitch! Although no buttonhole foot...I'd better go and give it a whirl.

A Beautiful Loaf Story

Is it really June 2ND? Cripes, how time flies. It's a drizzly day in KL, which is perfect for a day of pottering. A bit of housework, some crafty times, coffee and magazines.

We had our very first dinner guests last night! Thistler made his signature dish - Spaghetti Bolognaise. Oh boy, we haven't had that for a long while. It was home style cooking at it's best! Our guests surprised us with a 'beaut mango cheese cake for dessert. I wish I had taken a photograph of it before we tucked in. You know when you walk past a cake shop and they have achingly cute/sweet/funny cakes on display? This was one of those. When I opened the box I kinda squealed with delight. It was from a place called 'Loaf Story' (i.e Love Story) - this bakery is really popular in KL. It came in a great box and even had it's own knife! What is it about packaging that makes things extra special?

Half eaten cheese cake. I've just eaten another slice...

On Saturday we bought a sewing machine. Hurrah!! A second hand straight shooter. Straight stitch, zig zag, buttonhole. Very very affordable. I'll be picking it up later in the week. I can't wait to get that machine sewing!

p.s Despite the date at the top of this post, it really is June 2ND here. Promise.