escama studio

A friend gave this to me yesterday; a gift for my birthday. She knows me well! Its 100% fabbo! Pull tabs from soft drink (soda) cans have been crocheted together to make a shoulder bag with some great attention to style! It reminds me of fish scales, a modern eco-twist on the Glo-mesh. I love it.

No.1 kitchen implement

This is it. This is why I wanted, needed to go to the royal show this year. Its the only place I know to get them. I bought my first one about 10 years ago from one of those stalls with the big bloke who's all miked up and peeling hundreds of vegetables in like five seconds, even tomatoes (who even peels tomatoes?) and who you just know never cooks at home but he's there flogging these magical things, the eighth wonder of the modern world. (digress) But it dissappearred one day,i think it got chucked by accident, into the compost or the landfill bucket or maybe someone nicked it coz theyre sooo good. But I never found it and had to wait five long months until the show rolled into town. Its a tungsten blade multi-purpose mainly pumpkin peeler. If you need to remove pumpkin skin, its magic, totally stress free, ergonomic peeling magic. But it really comes into its own for these...parsnip chips, oiled up and baked, my favoured way to eat parsnip. One parsnip stripped into shreds in under a minute. So delicious that once again I didnt take a pic of the crispy end product.
Favoured kitchen implements. Discuss.

oops, now its felt!

This was my all time favourite jumper; a Debbie Bliss silk and cashmere aran blend in Pistachio. Luxurious. Comfortable. Warm. Home made. The Bloke washed it. In the washing machine. With a full load. Mega spin. Yes, I was rather unhappy. I had hoped I had left these kind of Bloke mishaps behind along with my last relationship. Aparently not. I reckon thats topped up the bill to nigh on a couple of thousand bucks worth of clothing that Blokes in my life time have single handedly significantly 'altered' or rendered completely unwearable. This easy wear jumper is now about three sizes too small and a sports a stiff felt-like texture. All you crafty types out there, your ideas are needed. I cant bear to part with it but in its current state its completely un un-doable as its just to 'felty', but I have no good ideas what to do with such an expensive piece of...uselessness. Actually, i have a few of these felted pieces quite similar to this that I have stashed away over the years, remnants of relationships gone... waiting for inspiration. Ideas welcomed.

oh my

isnt the internet interesting? Can someone please explain how one gets from a post on a yoga massage in a Bali to being referenced on this site?

these are a few of my favourite things...

Im not really that into stuff, i dont have collections of things really, except books, and things get pretty dusty around here so i dont like to add to it, but here are a few of my favourite things that i enjoy, besides people and place.

These Martin Boyd ramekin dishes from my childhood. I dont remember using them very often as a kid but when we did it was always for the same dish; baked eggs with breadcrumb. B2 uses these to make wholemeal chocolate puddings; her signature dish to date! i love sitting down with one of these and a tiny spoon.

A Buddhist amulet from a Thai boyfriend 20 years ago. He gave it to me with a declaration that if i didnt return to marry him, he would become a monk. He is now living on London with his dentist wife! I wear it often.

Years old birkenstocks that will most likely not last another summer. I live in these when the weather is good. Can they manage a fourth resole?

A teapot that i bought in Nimbin with some of my first ever pay as a working person. I just loved how weird and organic it was, i still do. The trip to Nimbin was weird too, me and a colleague who had just had breast reduction surgery...lots of rocky unsealed roads the poor girl. It came with a set of four odd cups which are still intct but Im no so enamoured with them as I am pretty picky about a tea cups...i like a fine lip! who woulda thought?



Another bit of kitchenware from my childhood; a Marianne Westmann salt pot for rock salt or salt flakes. I love using it coz you can dig your whole hand in.



A set of reclaimed Huon pine salad hands - technically not mine as a I gave them to the Bloke a a gift...before these we had both lived without any salad utensils for ever. Great ergonomics, like prosthetics!



A set of Avery scales which weigh our favourite things.; rice for risotto, flour for pasta. Its a pleasure to use and is so sturdy.

A sugar caster! I love this as its just so useless, well for me anyway. It was a wedding gift from my ex-mother in law, along with a few other really useless sterling gifts which aren't my favourite, like a silver muffin dish with warmer!


A handmade pair of Chez Guevera earings that I bought from a great little shop on Brunswick St in Melbourne. They're my no.1


There's quite a few food related items in this list. Must do another someday without the food focus. I couldnt help it, really. Actually in reflection its all pretty utilitarian stuff. None of these things I would run into a burning ouse to save, but they make my daily life somewhat special.

an indulgent bit of naughty- cloche de beurre

I blame Julie from Towards Sustainability and Em from Dance of Small Things for this indulgence. I had never heard of such a thing before they both posted about them. A butter bell, or french butter dish, designed to keep butter in an air tight, oxygen free environment by hanging it in a water bath thereby eliminating rancidity but still maintaining room temperature as it needs no refridgeration. Wikipedia says

This 19th century French-designed pottery crock has two parts: a base with a hollow cylinder attached to it, and a cup that also serves as a lid. The cup holds the packed in butter, and the base holds water. The water creates an airtight seal that keeps oxygen away from the butter so that refrigeration is not needed, and the butter can be used in its soft form. This method will keep butter for around a month provided it is kept at temperatures below 80F (27C).

The online literature says its traditionally French but my francophile husband reckons he never saw one in all his years in France! An American company has trademarked the name butter bell and seem to have a sales and production monopoly, so that got up my nose and i searched around, high and low for a producer/retailer in Oz. Zip.
Looks like this little invention has slipped by our national consciousness. So instead of waiting for the next local market to chat with the resident potter, i purchased this lovely hand made crock from Jim online...in Oregon. oops.But its lovely and looks just right in the kitchen. No more stilton style butter for me.

putting my money where my mouth is...

So i had narrowed the field down. One, a supermarket shelf type but purchaser driven, web compliant and somewhat individually tailored e-commerce web and logo development company. They're based in another state and run carbon neutral and support lots of female web developers. The other, a boutique 'green' business consultancy located about 100m from home with an amazing approach, fully customised 'we build your whole web business from the gound up' based web developer with an integrated waste system, green powered, carbon neutral, 100% recycled everything except the macs and telephones, practice. Its not hard to guess which one i really wanted to work with.

When push came to shove however, the difference in price of over $7000 kinda made my mind up for me. Yes, their designs are exemplary, exquisite in fact. Sigh, but thats a whole lotta bags!

the wooden bowl

Besides my all consuming bag passion, I have a new and present love. One i have been meaning to indulge for a while but never found what i was looking for, at a price i was willing to pay, nor with wood i was willing to purchase. Since experiencing the pleasures of eating from wooden plates and dishes at my sister in laws house in the epi-centre of hippieville in Marin county, i have harboured my own secret desire to emulate this luscious and rather medieval experience, in the comfort of my own home. Something about curling up with a wooden bowl filled with organic fare really appeals to the earthy, primitive me. I like to couple my wooden bowl experience with a wooden handled fork...as we dont eat slabs of meat we rarely use knives, so a fork and bowl does fine for curry, pasta and rice. I didnt buy much in Bali, but i did come home with 10 of these coconut wood bowls filling my suitcase. Beautiful, organic, sustainable, emminently ethicurean. Its the small things that make me happy.

redefining rubbish

I have taken to radicalising 'the rubbish'*, Im no longer content to define it as that. Its way too a benign term for something so pugnacious dont you think?
I now refer to it as Landfill, "no its not recyclable, its landfill". It kinda lends a longer term and moral perspective to that casual toss, without sounding too prescriptive or judgemental. It just IS. Landfill that is. Makes ya think.

*the trash

cloth produce bags

I have to admit to having a love affair with these and if only I had a dollar for how many times I have been asked where i got them when Im out shopping. I really hate admitting I that "i got them in California" . I feel a bit sheepish, a bit of a toseer and extremely unhelpful. I have spent countless hours and nights searching online for a wholesaler in India or China who makes such bags with fair trade labour from bamboo, hemp or organic cotton. I do that coz i cant find them anywhere for sale here in Oz.


These fine gauze bags meet all my requirements; they feel wonderful and soft to use, theyre washable and are the perfect answer to plastic single use fruit and veg bags that all the shops still offer, despite the big plastic bag ban. As they are made from fine fabric they store easily in the fridge without needing to remove the fruit or vege and also absorb excess moisture, keeping food fresher for longer. Additionally, they are multipurpose and can be used for grains and flours; parachute (chico) style bags and mesh bags just dont let you do all of this with one small bag.

They feel right, they fall right, they look right.
Today I finally found a manufacturer in India which looks like they make the right bags with the right fabric and they print them up as well. My queries to all of you are, firstly,
a) if you saw these in a shop or at a stall, would you be interested in buying some? and
b) how much would you be prepared to pay for these? US retail price of these bags are 3.75 each, so say an Aussie equivalent of around $3.50-4.00 each.

The average, unorganised shopper for a family of 4 would need about 15-20 of these to do the shopping with no headache. What say you?

damn, its beautiful

Im off to the Barossa Valley this morning for work and damn, the weather is beautiful. Clear blue skies and sun, looking forward to seeing all the grape vines in their autumn glory and consuming some fabulous Barossa produce. Last week in country Victoria it nearly killed me walking past the op-shops knowing i had no time to stop and browse, thinking of all the treasures that are really only findable and affordable in rural second hand shops AND I WAS WALKING BY! So my lovely colleague has actually factored in some op shop time this trip! What a treasure! Thats my kinda work trip and my kinda colleague!

giveaway madness, like reefer madness but better (would taurus rising readers please stand up)

With the horrific events of the last few days Ive been a little down, depressed even. Im a little surprised at just how the tragic losses have affected me. So in the spirit of celebrating life and the unbelievable generosity of the Australian public; 10 31 millions bucks in just 23 days (and the number rising by the hour) from a country with a population of just 21 million, I want to give something too, beyond the fires, so Im having my first ever give away. Of what?...well of that Im not sure, i thought id leave it up to you! you have a choice of...

1) 2 lovingly knitted organic washcloths, made just for you!

2) A bottle of homemade, Gold medal winning, organic quince or plum wine; or verjus (Aussies only i think, but if you have your heart set on it i can investigate further for you the legalities of sending unknown proof alcohol O/S).

3) A pre loved book from my top 10 collection - probably Four Fires by Bryce Courtney (a truly magnificent Aussie epic, his only book I've ever liked)

4) Peter Bennets 'Organic Gardening' book for Australia and New Zealand or Barbara Kingsolver "Animal, Vegetable. Miracle'.

5) Artwork by Moi- potluck, but i guarantee it should be interesting and let me know 2 of your favourite things.

6) A collection of heirloom seeds, all still very viable (<12 mths old); cucumber, lettuce mix, tomato mix (about 6 varietals), zucchini, beans, peas, carrots, beetroots, rocket, corn, coriander, rainbow chard, parsnip, cabbage, kale and probably a few more.

7) An AU$30 donation to a charity of your choice made out in your name, receipt provided.

8) Loca vore lunch made by me at my place (or at your place if Im passing)

All you have to do is just tell me which one you're interested in and WHY! and YES, this is also a really transparent way to get to know the lurkers amongst you. I want to know who you are and those i know, i want to say thanks for reading! So, get spirited, get brave, post me, tell me what you want and i will draw one, maybe two, winners at random (im a statistician so trust me). I will let you know the winner in 7 days time. Thats it. Post away lovely blog readers.