Not quite the real thing... but one step on a journey of a thousand miles

In 2005 my Dad took me on a family pilgrimage back to Europe. Whilst in Poland my great Aunt introduced me to her biscuit of choice, the simple but delectable 'rose filled rogaliki'. Now I've never been particularly fond of rose flavoured foods (I suspect caused by an overdose of lack lustre turkish delight) but these little tidbits really wove their magic on me. In fact I can pretty much blame my travelling 'excess baggage' on the number of these I scoffed on my very short Polish stay.

As can be expected - being long back on the other side of the world, I've been craving their delicately floral shortbreadishness ever since. Now initially I was not too despondent, because living in an area of melbourne with a surfeit of European cake shops, I assumed tracking them down wouldn't be too hard - or at least something to scratch the itch. Alas after much searching (and sampling) none to my knowledge make these particular style treats. Not being able to speak or write Polish made googling a recipe for some morsel I did not even know the name of at that stage, actually started to give rise to a sense of panic - as you know, a spoilt palate is forever tainted... until accidentally and unintentionally I stumbled upon this photo while archiving some files - and TA DA! The name of my secret culinary desire was revealled.

There followed a scramble to translate the recipes the internet did finally proffer. Unfortunately the Polish translation engines I found only produced indecipherable hieroglyphics (largely due to the colloquial nature of a cook's instructions I later discovered). Anyone I knew and met with a slightly wog name was grilled about whether they or anyone they knew spoke or wrote Polish or happened to imbibe vast amounts of Polish vodka thereby having the requisite translation skills needed to bring me closer to my goal. I was about to insist my younger brother prostrate himself to his abusive (but suspected Polish - bless them) elderly neighbours - when by chance the friend of a friend dropped by and OMG not only spoke and read Polish but had her mother immediately on the on the phone to give sage advice and cooking directions! Bless you Al.

I was saved.

And pictured above is the fruits of this near 2 year quest. Whilst not quite on the money (in a moment of weakness I decided to have a go sans rose paste substituting plum, apricot and boysenberry) it is my first attempt at shortbread. Fears of overworking the dough and burning the jam filling were unjustified. Simple yet tasty, they are my metaphoric base camp, from which I hope to ascend to a delicately floral shortbreadish summit. Onward and upward chaps!

Family Tree WIP

This is an idea I had for a cushion cover some time back and am just getting around to. Continuing with my obsession with birds (can you blame me? its such a simple and elegant silhouette) I had an idea where I had a perfect excuse to use their motif but actually put the little buggers to work...

I fashioned my own tree design which was transfered to fused fabric and machine stitched to a linen backing. And now for the birds - one for each member of the family (obviously there's room for more babies!). The cushion is for Bronald, Ferg and Imi, with whom I'll be visiting in Syd soon. My last visit there was a flurry of activity and new house decorating - in which I introduced B to the joys of "acid yellow" (border colour anyone?).

Truly an addictive palette - it is fresh, has the wow factor and excitement of canary yellow - but is ever so slightly in the 'cool' spectrum, thus is charmingly soothing and relaxing. A welcome addition to any home. Part gift, part "I promise this colour will be OK..." And as a thankyou to F for putting up with our decorating maelstrom - I've used the beautiful italian cotton from one of his old shirts for the birds.

Cate discovers hot links..

I also discovered the wonderous site called smitten kitchen, which so inspired me, that despite the heat (and that he'd just come back from the land of toblerone) I made a welcome home chocolate stout cake in his honour. OMG. Yum.

pOWerfuL

Both jms and I have a serious addiction to toys and childrens books.

The discovery of a Powerful Owl feather in the (very suburban) park across the road from our house got us all excited some months back. Having moved back to the big smoke after a stint in the bush, we very much missed our native neighbours. In the context of the current fashion for stylised owls on craft, t-shirts etc I decided to celebrate this discovery with my own little homage to the ultra cool children's artists of my youth such as Dick Bruna and Attilio Cassinelli.

Its some months old now - but it is an important reminder to me of the ability of nature to continue to do what it does best in spite of our suburban sprawl. We may not have a resident kangaroo in our front yard any more - but its nice to know the local park can support a large native bird of prey.

I still miss my eagles tho' : (

Only 24 hours from Tulsa

Yay! Jms called about an hour ago - and as I type his plane will be taxiing out - the first step in a near 24 hour journey home. Quick I better go do something so it doesn't just look like I've been sitting around pinning all this time! The dali cats and hotdog will be so happy

(Actually) midnight patchworking

Only 4 rows of eight completed - realisically I could have pieced it all together but I figured if I had any hope of returning to normal sleep patterns I ought to pretend to go to bed (I still read till after 3am...)

As it is, I'm glad because when I did surface this morn/noon/ish - I realised that just because I was awake, didn't mean I was actually competent... so there was a bit of unpicking to be done. How is it that I can sew a set-in sleeve without too much fuss and line a jacket with a minimum of pain - but getting basic squares to line up? Aaarrgghh. Give me kilometers of 2mm edgestitching to do any day.

Anyways - pox photo - the bedroom colour scheme aint really that lurid (the fill in flash made everything stark and ugly - so I went for blurry and oversaturated). Think burnt orange and sky blue against a bone background (not nuclear Murakami flowers coming to kill you in your sleep) And the quilt itself is predominantly soothing olive tones with turquoise and red highlights. Yes this is part of ongoing obsession with all things turquoise. A certain italian lamp from my friend Suey is to blame. I tried to add a photo of that too - but I'm getting the feeling this will not be one of those blogs with sumptuous pics of my latest projects. Just me prattling on about latest projects. Bugger.

WIP - Midnight quilting