Rikki B Rules

The delightful Rikki Burns asked for my address a little while ago, and told me that she had a little surprise for me. I completely forgot about it! Today I got home and found a promising parcel in my letter box amongst the bills. Contained within was this beautiful necklace. Rikki knew how much I missed Monty, and made it for me. It is so sweet and very, very thoughtful. She made me cry, but in a good way xxx

Mixed Berry + Banana Oat Muffins

1 1/2 cups of self raising flour
1/4 cup of wholemeal oats
pinch of salt
1 egg lightly beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup milk (I used skim because that's all I have)
1/2 can of mixed berries, drained
1 mashed banana

Preheat the oven to 180°C

Mix all the dry ingredients together and then gently fold in everything else. Don't overwork the mixture, as you want the muffins to be light and fluffy.

Divide the recipe between greased or muffin case lined tin. Sprinkle a little bit of oats on top if you like. Shredded coconut is great too!

Cook for 20-30 mins or until they get nice and golden brown on top. You'll then have 12 tasty muffins to share with your friends!

*This is a bit of a mix of a few recipes I've tried. A lot of muffin recipes call for sugar. I sometimes don't bother adding it, like in this case as the berries and banana usually add enough natural sweetness. After tasting these ones, I reckon they could be a little sweeter - so maybe try with 1/4 cup of caster sugar :)

Chickpea Patties + Tasty Salad

For the patties..
400g can of chickpeas
1/4 red onion
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 chopped cloves of garlic
2 tbs self raising flour
1 tsp lemon rind
Squeeze of lemon juice
1 tbs olive oil
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp all spice
Sea salt/Pepper to taste

Throw all the ingredients in a blender, and let it run until you have a smooth paste. Form into dessert spoon sized patties. It's a bit of a sticky mixture, so if you're preparing ahead of time a tray lined with baking paper will do the trick.

There's two options for cooking. You could either shallow fry them, and then drain on paper towels or you can do what I did and just grill them with a tiny bit of olive oil. I have one of those electric grills, but I'd use a BBQ if I had one! I didn't time how long they took to cook, but it was just till they were crispy on the outside. You'll get about 8 patties out of the mixture.

For the salad..
Half a lebanese cucumber
1/4 red capsicum
1 carrot
1/4 red onion
Handful of rocket/baby spinach
1/4 tsp olive oil
Squeeze of lemon
Sea salt to taste

Grate the carrot into a bowl then get along with chopping the capsicum, cucumber and onion into similar sized strips. Add to the carrot mix, along with the oil, lemon juice and sea salt. Mix well and place on top of the rocket and baby spinach you've artfully placed on your plate!

Garnish with some lemon wedges and a generous spoonful of hommous. EAT!

Design Weekend

I've been busy going back to Sydney most weekends so far this year and not been spending too much time in front of my own computer doing design work that I want to do. This weekend is dedicated to the little projects I want to get done this weekend.

Here's a flyer for Strelitzia that I came up with on Thursday evening, and finished up last night. Hoping I can make it back to Sydney for this performance, if anyone would like to join me I've got a few spare tickets to take people :)


Next up, a baby shower invite design for Rachieed! I'm excited about doing this tonight. I'm going to hunt down some nice subtle textures for this.

In addition to some arting, there will be music listening and some cooking too. Something with chickpeas I think. I love those things.

It seems like one of those days where you feel like your in a movie or music video. Example; I just timed my walk back to the kitchen just as the kettle boiled. Kasabian was the tune for that scene.

Picture via Creampuff

All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.
T.E. Lawrence

Cool Story Hansel

Sorry I have been absent. I won't rehash the past month, but the holiday part of it was extremely fun. I've also got to design a few cool things at work, which is always great!

So, about an hour ago I stepped on a skateboard properly for the first time in about 8 years. By "properly" I mean more than just a 5 second push. I bought a new one when I moved to Goulburn, brimming with confidence and thinking I'd ride it to work or join a skate gang and end up being best friends with Ryan Sheckler, making regular appearances on his reality TV show. I would play the role of older friend who offers solid relationship advice. Neither of those things happened and it has sat idle for a year and a half. I was afraid when I put my foot on it tonight that it would push away from me. I was happy to learn that it's one of those things that just comes back to you. Kind of like riding a bike, except this time I wasn't going after cheesecake. I was only mucking around in the garage, but it was a wonderful feeling. I tic tacced till my calves started to burn, which was about after 10 minutes haha. To round it off I scared myself to death by landing an ollie. Not quite sure if I'm ready to do the risky ankle breaking stuff yet.

Is all this skateboarding talk some kind of metaphor for taking chances and improving confidence levels? I'd say so. I'm going to try to do it a helluva lot more and I think it'll rub off on other aspects of my life.

14 year old Amy says it's a great idea. This time though, sports bras are required.


What things did you used to do that you're too chicken to do now?