When I was about 10 or 11, the canteen at my school went on a bit of a health kick. Far from being boring, we had some really delicious treats – frozen orange slices and strawberries, fruit juice icypoles, tofutti (soy icecream) cups, and fruit balls. 

I have no idea what was in the fruit balls other than I remember they tasted a bit orangey and were highly addictive.

Somewhat inspired by Jay posting her vegan protein bar recipe the other day, I decided to try and track down the elusive fruit ball recipe. I think the closest to the mark was this from the WA health dept (which makes perfect sense really given it was a school canteen in WA). 

A cursory glance – Dried apricots hmmm nahhh. Coconut? Certainly not. It seemed I was going to have to take matters into my own hands if I wanted something I’d actually eat. Also, the recipe calls for a food processor. One of these days I’ll learn that a blender is not suitable! I ended up mooshing the fruit together in the blender then smashing everything up in the mortar and pestle so the nuts were small enough. 

Here’s what I ended up using:

1. ~ half a 250g bag of Trident dates, washed.
2. ~ half a bag of Freshlife cherry/blueberry/cranberry/pomegranate  dried fruit.
3. A handful of nuts. I had brazil nuts in the cupboard so I used those. Smash them.
4. Cinnamon sugar.
5. Drinking chocolate powder.
6. Airtight container or snaplock bags. 

Mix everything up in the food processor. If you don’t have one try blending the fruit in small quantities then smash together with the nuts in a mortar and pestle or something.

Roll into small balls about a tsp per ball. 

Dust with cinnamon sugar and chocolate powder/cocoa. Easiest if you throw them in a bag full of the powder and shake it.

Of course you could always roll in nuts or coconut or dip in carob or chocolate.

Refrigerate (in airtight bag/box) to keep them firm

I didn’t take a photo as they’re not all that pretty (my husband called them roo poo) but they do taste very nice! I’ll be making some more to get me through work on Saturday. 

I don’t think it’s much of a secret that summer and I aren’t terribly fond of each other. I rue being cooped up for days (weeks!) on end due to the heat or unable to photograph due to windy conditions. Who wants to be out in the bush during fire season? Not me! Sadly it means I often miss out on capturing some of the gorgeous natives that flower at this time of the year – various types of banksias , bottlebrush (callistemon) and pea flowers .

Luckily for you, my husband got me out of the house for a Sunday walk recently. This is what I managed to capture before I got told off for stopping every 2 metres and told to put the camera away (sadly, he’s not a photographer). The slideshow is a little fast so feel free to pause it!

Click to view slideshow.

I’ve done my best to identify the plants using the Florabase.

If you would like a print of any of these pictures, please contact me for options or see this page.  Thanks =)

While I have you, I’d like to show you some of the new items in my Etsy shop:

Banksia - glossy photo pendant with copper bail

Geraldton Wax - metallic photo pendant

New pendants, earrings, and brooches are being regularly added and you now have the option to add a pretty organza ribbon or satin cord to your order.

There is also a range of fine art photographs both in stock or printed to order. They make great gifts for friends overseas!

Matted prints in stock.

Please visit my Etsy shop or Facebook page for more photos of what’s in stock.

Here’s what I blogged about:

Icebergs and vivid dreams
My memories of 1992 (20 years ago! *sob*)
Yellow flowers – so sunny! 
What I’ve been reading… or rather, what I got out of the library and is on the floor next to my bed
My pretty bohemian garden makeover
Evacuating due to a bushfire
Wrapping up 2011 

I kicked off with my second lot of advertising on the very popular Epheriell Designs   blog (currently grumpy with myself for not signing up for February too). It was good to have my name up there every time someone visited Jess’ page. The winner of the December giveaway was drawn and my pretty Geraldton Wax earrings now have a new life with Cindy in America.

Geraldton Wax earrings

On the business side of things, January started slowly after the excitement of last minute Christmas shopping. This was just as well, because in the first few days of the month, one of my hard-drives failed. Cue a deep, dark funk before one of my fabulous Twitter friends, Anthony managed to rescue it. Many files were backed up on other discs and in the cloud (I use a service called Spideroak), but it’s awfully nice to have everything back where it should be.

Since then, I’ve been steadily chipping away at updating my Lighroom catalogues. For those who don’t use it, it’s  pro image library and editing software. I started off with ~17900 photo files about 2 weeks ago and am now down to 13,800. I was pretty brutal. If it wasn’t a favourite image or something I’d use for work, it went in the bin. It feels quite fantastic really! And I’ve now got a much better idea of what’s in my folio… the pitfalls of being able to fire off 200 photos per outing!

A new year brings with it new ideas and I’ve been making lots of enquiries and drawing up plans in my new business journal. If you don’t have one, I really recommend it. I have a  stunning Christopher Vine dragonfly notebook a friend gave me which is for all my notes, supplier contacts, ideas and sketches. I also bought a small blank paged notebook I’ve been using as a diary. They’re both hardcover and quite pretty so I want to use them. The diary notebook is fantastic – I use it to jot down what I’ve done for the business during the day along with the vibe of the day. I think it’ll be a good reminder for me, especially when comparing with shop and blog stats.

Craftcult.com is great for finding where you've been featured

Things started to pick up towards the end of the month. I joined a new Etsy team (Etsians of Facebook) and Australia Day last week meant that a lot of people were finding my work by searching the word Australia. Having on of my items featured in an official  Etsy email helped too! I don’t normally talk about stats but I am feeling pretty loved right now. 1740 Etsy views for January, 20+ new people dding me o Etsy circles, ~12 new Facebook likes, I pretty much doubled my WordPress subscribers (THANKS!!) and more people added me on Pinterest.

Thankyou so much, it means so much to me.

Hey, while I’m at it, I’d like to show you some new stuff I made this month:

Iceblock. From AU$145 plus postage.

Iceblocks are 3cm thick blocks of acrylic with an image facemounted to the back. They really need to be seen in person for best effect, but you can see a video on my shop page.

Lots of sparkling new metallic photo jewellery.

New 'continental' hook earrings. More styles coming soon.

Candy cane photo shirt.

Australia blue orchid shirt. Range of styles available for men & women.

Thanks for being part of my world in January, hope to chat to you again as the year progresses.

Kell =)

P.S. My friend Charlie got featured on the front page of WordPress a few days ago. So proud of him!

There was a bit of a convoluted journey to this blog post. I just seen the Muppets. Then I got pondering whether Jason Segal was this generation’s Jim Carrey*. So I got thinking about Jim Carrey (mmm) and started dwelling on the thought he’s 50ish now. Sheez… anyway, there’s a picture of Jim inside my electronic organiser that I got for my 14th birthday in 1995.

I went off to find my organiser and had a headful of blogging 1995 relics such as my Bonjovi video, cool stampy textas an other things that a 2012 version of a 14yo would probably laugh at it.

Well, I couldn’t find it straight away, but I did find 1992 stuff. That’s 20yrs ago, seems apt for a ‘vintage’ *sob* rewind, so let’s have a look eh?

From left to right (roughly):

Australian Airlines story/activity book
Australian Airlines  fight schedule. Dunno why I have this, we were only there for 1/2hr.
Two up game from The Bounty replica ship.
Slinky.
Puggle toy.
Rocks activity passport.
Plaster dinosaur painted at a high school open day.
Cross-stitch trains.
Red pop ball.
“Little Hugs” sticker box.
90210 stickers, cards & eraser.
Rottnest Island patch (actually think this was 93)
Australian banknote keyring.
Telecom phonecards.
Diary.

Style - I had none. Replica ship steering skills - Ditto.

One of the best nights out ever. My sister will probably kill me for this... assuming she ever reads my blog.

In 1992 I was 10 turning 11. That was year 6 back then, 2 years off starting high school. I was always creative but 1992 was when I really started sharing that with people. I started my own school magazine, the Kreative Kids Klub…. I know, I know… why nobody told us to change the name is beyond me. More about that here.

I was completely obsessed with boys, especially a tall exceptionally smart one (nothing’s changed there), I read an awful lot of Babysitter’s Club books, got really stuck into Home and Away (still a guilty pleasure),  started to be called Kell…

*cutaway* There were 2-3 Kellys in my class and I much preferred Kell to being Kelly S. So for all I know, it was my teachers that first decided I was Kell. Now I barely answer to Kelly at all!

Oh and the best bit – we went to Sydney for the very first time. It was so magical. The excitement of getting off the train at Circular Quay for the first time and seeing the Opera House. I’ll never forget that. So many memories (like seeing my first streetwalker and drag queens late at night on the streets of Kings Cross!) and the start of some new obsessions (not at all related to the streetwalkers). Our trip to Sydney started my pin collection which I treasure.

The other thing I’ll never forget is our trip to the Hard Rock Cafe. Dad had told us he’d asked the taxi driver to take us for a tour before dinner. We waited and waited watching all these taxis drive down Ward ave. Then this limo rocked up and it was for us! It was so awesome. I’ve never really been impressed by limos since then and didn’t even bother with one for my school dance coz really nothing will beat my first limo ride.

Anyway, back to the relics:

Two-Up souvenir game from The Bounty. One of the coins is a 1962 penny, other 1960.

The Bounty is a replica of a tall ship that came out with the first fleet in 1788. I first saw it in Fremantle for the 1988 bicentennial. We went for a sail on it on Sydney Harbour in 1992. My brother and sister managed to smash it into something whilst ‘parking’ it. I last saw it at Darling Harbour in Sydney in 2007.

For those that don’t know, two-up is a heads or tails gambling game. I think it’s illegal to play except in casinos and on Australia Day… but I might be wrong.

Australian Airlines activity book

We flew Australian to Sydney. They gave us cool little kids packs and a little flying wings pin that I still have. I don’t think I was quite as terrified of flying back then. Maybe I blocked it out.

Kangaroo Creek Gang savings account

I wasn’t very good at saving money. Might explain why most of this deposit slip book is intact.

Slinky and pop ball

Pop balls were popular with the boys at school. You turn them inside out, hide them, wait for them to turn back the right way. When they did that they’d emit a huge crack and scare the crap out of everyone. Good times.

90210 collectibles

Stickers and collector cards from 90210 tv show. Obviously Dylan (Luke Perry) was my favourite. I liked most of the characters except Donna, but Kelly was probably my favourite girl because we had the same name.

Phonecards

We didn’t have mobile phones in 1992, so you had to memorise phone numbers and if you were out you used payphones which took cash or these cards. We always used to check the phone booths at the train/bus interchange in Midland to see if we could find ones people forgot about.

Rocks passport

When we visited The Rocks in Sydney we were given these visitor passports to get stamped off. When you reached a certain amount you got an iron on badge and a sticker. I remember the hologram shop because they were pretty new and cool. There was also a puppet show somewhere of the 3 Billy Goats Gruff but the goat puppets were drills.

Aussie banknote keyring

Before we got our first plastic $5 note in 1992, we had paper money. This keyring depicts the banknotes.

Puggle from The Lost Forest

Very popular amongst my friends. The Lost Forest was a magical shop that sold mystical Australian animal stuffed toys. My Puggle (Edward Puggsley Puggle-Smith) cost me ~$30 and I had to save up for 7-8 weeks to get him. Puggles went through an adoption ceremony and slid down a slide where you caught them after vowing to look after them etc. You were supposed to remove the nappy after a month but I never did. I always wanted a pink or purple one but I think it was random selection. I don’t mind now, he’s still cute.

I tracked down the shop and contacted the owner. They still sell online, yay!

I hope you enjoyed my little trip down memory lane. I sure did! =)

* I’m dubious at this point. We need to see some more serious roles. Besides, it’s Jim Carrey. can there be another one?

It’s happened a couple of times now. I’ve dreamt I’m on a boat… which is odd as in real life I’m not too fond of boats. They make me sick, and I can’t swim. I’m sure I love the idea of boats, just not the reality.

Anyway, I’ve dreamt I’m on a boat. I think it’s supposed to be off the coast of Western Australia. We go really far, far out to sea. I think past an island and then we are in this glorious channel of islands.

Only the islands are all made of these stunning, twisting, colourful icebergs and natural ice sculptures. It’s quite extraordinary.

But the version of me in the dream can never find them again. Not in a map, not by sailing out to find them again. I found them quite by accident, and it would seem that finding them again and the feeling I had whilst being there, only comes to me in another  dream.

I experience deja vu often (it’s freaked me out sometimes, especially when I know I haven’t been somewhere in waking life), and I dream very vividly. I have no idea where the icebergs came from though. I must have seen part of  a documentary recently or something.

I know people have recurring scary dreams, but have you had recurring happy dreams of beautiful places? Have you tried to find them in real life?

A wonderful Twitter friend, Anthony, managed to rescue all 481GB of files on my external hard drive, making me eternally relieved and grateful.

Then I started on the mammoth task of creating extra backups and culling thousand of photos from my catalogue, some I was only just iscovering for the first ime. Very, very tedious job, but long overdue and there have been some benefits.

Like finding these beautiful spring photos :

Click to view slideshow.

If any of these photos would look good in your home, why not email me to discuss your options? Loose prints start around $20 and matte prints around $35. Then there’s iceblocks, acrylic, greeting cards….

Here’s what’s new in my Etsy shop this month:

www.blackcurrantshop.etsy.com

Prices valid at 4:40pm AWST on 19/1/2012 and are subject to change without notice.

Thanks for reading. I’ll try to blog again soon.

This post was written by Kell Rowe for publication on her sites www.blackcurrantphotography.com.au and http://blackcurrantphotography.wordpress.com
it hasn’t been authorised for other sites.  Yes Artgrantsfinder.com I’m talking to you. Quit it.

With this in mind, I vowed to read a book a month in 2012.

So far this month I’ve read “The Red Queen” by Philippa Gregory which is a historical fiction novel about the mother of Henry VI and I’m 3/4 through a book by Ellen DeGeneres which is laugh out loud funny. She’s so silly!

I’m fresh back from the library with a new stack of books. Really looking forward to the one on The Louvre. It weighs a ton though so won’t be good for reading in bed sadly.

What are you reading at the moment?

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All of these were taken in December 2011 and January 2012 except for the ones with the pink flowers. They were taken in September 2011.

More to come when the heat goes away.

P.S. The red bead curtain is brand new and so gorgeous when it catches the light. It has an iridescent coating so it sparkles like jewels.

I've been putting bead curtains around the patio as suncatchers.

Cute Christmas gift from Mum.

Mum & Bill bought me this for Christmas.

Frangipani flowers in my garden

Nika gave me some slightly imperfect crockery for the garden