Red Turned White

I'm on a roll. Not in the way that a tumble weed might roll but more the kind of roll the toilet paper gets on when you pull a little too hard and suddenly it's all over the floor and oh shit now you have to go down to the shop and spend your last $6 on some more before the housemates stink up a shit because you used the last toilet paper roll. On a wee. Or maybe even the kind of roll Einstein was on when he discovered that yes, E really does equal MC squared. Okay, I know, I'm not no genius or anything (double negative, anyone?) but, he was German and I'm half German and Hitler was Austrian. So let's just let that double negative sit there.

This much spoken about roll and the successes of the weekend can't be published in a Cheat's Guide to the Owl and the Grapes kind of post because we all know I'm not very good at summarising (you should hear me explain my dreams. They. Just. Don't. Stop.) So make yourself a cup of tea as it's going to be a long one - if you call a few paragraphs long. By my standards, it is. Despite taking a very intense speed reading class when I was in high school, I'm still a slow reader. It's taken me six months to get half way through Lolita.

The long awaited - mostly by me - Part Two of our Vintage and Retro Fashion pop-up store proved more successful than a full-bellied polar bear's nap in the winter time. The extraordinary numbers that came through our door on Saturday was absolutely overwhelming. Thankfully Sunday was a little quieter as, with a hangover the size of Turkey, using the mathematical skill it takes to calculate someone's change proved relatively difficult.


I must give my wholehearted thank you to the lovely and talented folk at Two Thousand for featuring us. I have little doubt the majority of people found us through them. If you live in Sydney and are not a regular reader, get to it and subscribe because reading their newsletter is one of the online highlights of my week. It was an ironically lovely coincidence that the one week I failed to read it, a very kindly customer should inform me that our little pop-up store was featured. Awesome.

Also keep an eye out at XSSAT for photos of Bobby, Elle and I on our roof. I was photographed by two Sydney Street Style blogs during the weekend, it's just unfortunate that I only have a card from one, and my memory isn't all that good in my old age. Yes, I'm only twenty but I wear grandma boots and often find gigs too loud. What do you expect? You can see more photos of us and our store over here. Do join our lovely little group while you're at it, and we'll let you know when we have our next event.

The ice on my finger bun roll was receiving an email from Suzanne of Weardrobe asking if I would feature on their front page (I realise that they have a number of girls featured on there each week, but it's still nice to feel loved - in a strictly business kind of way). I'll post the feature in full when it's published but in the meantime keep an eye out for me on their site.

While we're on the subject of the snazzy and sweet site, I did these photos for one of their weekly contests a little over a week ago. Due to this jumbled brain of mine however, I failed to realise until much later that the competition called for Sequin and Sheer, not Lace and Sheer as I had thought. Not one to let something go to waste though, I thought I'd post the photos up here. Behold, Sequin and Sheer lost in translation (lost meaning jumbled and translation meaning my silly little head).

Dress (worn back to front): A beautiful lace dress from Bobby that I received for Christmas.
Sheer cream top (worn underneath): Another Christmas present from Bobby.
Beret: Darn, I'm all Christmassed out. Indeed, this one was another lovely Christmas present from my Mother
Vest: From a Charity Store in Rozelle, Sydney some time in 2007.
Belt: Anglicare
Bag: $3 also at Anglicare

Update: The charming and kind Xiaohan Shen of XSSAT has posted the photos I mentioned she took of the three of us on our roof. Check them out over here.

The owls go

Baking and overcast days go hand in hand like love-struck schoolkids.

Is there any better way to spend a gloomy day? The not-quite-halloween-themed-cookies didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped (and the recipe had to be slightly adjusted) but the once-full cookie tin seems to be suitably diminishing.


Ingredients:

200 g brown sugar (the recipe calls for white sugar but I so prefer brown, if you use white you may need less flour)
170 g butter
1 egg
5 ml vanilla extract
380 g plain flour
9 g baking powder
3 g salt
25 g unsweetened cocoa powder
170 g semisweet chocolate chips
100 g cashew halves

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add baking powder and salt. Beat well. Add flour and mix until blended. Depending on consistency of the dough, more flour may be needed. Remove 3/4 of dough. Roll or pat dough out to form two 10 x 4 inch rectangles. Add cocoa (amount depending on personal colour preference) to remaining 1/4 of dough. Mix until blended. Shape chocolate dough into two 10 inch long rolls. Place on rectangle and roll plain dough to cover chocolate dough completely, not including ends. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill at least 2 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
3. Cut dough into 1 centimetre slices with a sharp knife. Place two slices side by side on a cookie sheet to resemble an owl's face. Blend them together just a tad to make sure they stay together when baked. Pinch upper "corners" to resemble ears. Put chocolate chips in each dark circle for eyes and two cashew halves in the centre for the beak.
4. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned

The original recipe can be found here. As each owl has it's own personality, I also recommend naming them (which might also discourage you to eat them, which is good, because they last forever).

Very simply, it was a hoot (pun fully intended).