stress doodling

It seems that I have swapped stress baking for stress doodling. Around late June, I decided that I needed to start doodling- something creative to get my mind working and my hands used to doing something again without the stress of drawing 'real' stuff. There's no real stress in making patterns but there is a challenge in making them look cool. So I started doodling a little bit in a book/notepad I'd been given as a promo thing from a picture library but I wasn't really doing that much. And then suddenly, it seems to have just taken off. I hadn't even really realised it was 'stress doodling'- I just do it in front of the TV (till very very late...) but the other night, as I sat down with pen and paper, Sean looked at me and said, "Aynia, are you stress doodling?" I looked down at my pad, said "No?", looked up at him, looked down at my pad, which was full of a pretty darn intricate and OCDesque pattern and said, "Oh no. Yes?" I've heard there are studies about how you can do psych analysis-typed stuff on what people doodle and I can well believe it. My doodles vary depending on my mood, both in nature (colour or black&white) and also content (whether they're more picturey or more pattern-based with lots of intricate and repetitive details). Here are some samples-

Some I think are quite crap:

Some are just plain weird:

And others I'm quite happy with:

Avast!

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day to ya my filthy bilge rats!

So I had to take a personality test to see what type of pirate I am and this is my result:

You are The Quartermaster
You, me hearty, are a man or woman of action! And what action it is! Gruesome, awful, delightful action. You mete out punishment to friend and foe alike – well, mostly to foe, because your burning inner rage isn’t likely to draw you a whole lot of the former. Still, though you may be what today is called “high maintenance” and in the past was called “bat-shit crazy,” the crew likes to have you around because in a pinch your maniacal combat prowess may be the only thing that saves them from Jack Ketch. When not in a pinch, the rest of the crew will goad you into berserker mode because it’s just kind of fun to watch. So you provide a double service – doling out discipline AND entertainment.
What's Yer Inner Pirate? brought to you by The Official Talk Like A Pirate Web Site. Arrrrr!

I must say, it's a bit accurate really. I know for a fact that many of my friends enjoy winding me up just to see me get on a rant. Hmmm....


And although I know I've bogged this before, here it is again. My Pirate Name

My pirate name is:

Captain Anne Rackham

Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

So get out there and shiver some timbers me hearties!

stress baking

My flatmates were telling me last night about a woman at their work who had recently had a miscarriage and has taken some time off work and has taken up baking. Apparently this is a woman who previously had never even bought a bag of flour because she never baked but she has now worked her way through a whole Delia Smith cookbook. Sarah thought maybe the lady was nesting and was pregnant again but I just shook my head and said, "She's stress baking."

Stress baking is something I have only recently encountered- or more accurately only recently labeled. I've always baked, I love baking. I bake when I have to, when I'm bored, when I want to, any time really. But when I've got a lot on my mind and am feeling a bit stressed out, that's when things really get going. When I suggested that this aforementioned lady might be stress baking and that I do it too, Sean looked at me and said, "Oh my God! You DO!" I still laugh at the memory of them coming in one night and Sean taking one look at a kitchen table filled with biscuits and me standing over the oven and he just said, "Put down the gloves down and step away from the oven!"

I'm not sure exactly what it is about baking that calms me down but my stress baking differs from I'm-bored or I-wanted-to baking in one vital aspect: volume. There is a rhythm to baking for stress. Stress baking for me almost invariably means cookie or muffins- something relatively quick to make and bake because it means as one item is in the oven, you can be preparing the next one and the cycle can just go on until someone pulls you away or you run out of ingredients- I've had to stop before because I ran out of flour. I think baking soothes me for several reasons:
1- I'm doing something which keeps my brain otherwise occupied
2- the smell
3- I'm creating something which always makes me feel good
4- better yet, I'm creating something that will make other people happy because it tastes good so they will like me because I'm cool and make yummy stuff*

And I am not alone. My sister, pre-taking-off-on-adventures has apparently filled up my parents' freezer with baked delights as well as having items farmed out to family and friends. I thought maybe it was genetic but some poking around on the web has proved me wrong. This blog entry and its comments show I am not alone, as does this.

So for those who will live with me in the future know this- I will bake when bored and I will bake because I like to so don't be worried to enter the house to the smell of freshly baked deliciousness. But if you walk in and see a lot of it? Well make sure you try some first and tell me how wonderful it tastes and how amazing I am and then ask what's wrong. ;-)

*anyone notice the list?

Eeeek, it's been a week

Once again I've been collecting links and hadn't noticed a whole week slipping by. It hasn't been the best week really. Not that anything's gone disastrously (or even moderately) wrong but ever since my tendinitis came back, I've been feeling slightly off form. I don't know if I've been fighting off a cold or what but I've been lacking in energy and motivation for a while now. Then on Wed night I had my Thai massage (I'm a case study for a girl at work who is doing a course) and tree-hugging as it may sound, I think it really cleared out my energy lines because going home from it, I felt much more tension-free and yesterday I went to the gym at lunchtime for the first time this week (and usually I'm an every lunchtime girl) and came away feeling heaps better.

Despite this, I still tried to cancel climbing as I was sure Friday was going to be a sick day and I was intending to scoff copious amounts of popcorn and watch Pride and Prejudice* one more time before I finally ship it away to Oz but my climbing buddy Steve guilted me in to going and thank God because it was one of the best nights I've had in ages. I pushed myself really hard, the shoulder felt almost back to old form and the boys were, as usual, hilarious. I came away with that buzzing feeling of endorphins combined with feeling physically shattered that I thrive on but haven't had in ages. I sincerely hope I can find a similar bunch of nuts to climb with in Brissie. I mean these guys are Australian so clearly their type exists, I just have to hope they haven't all buggered off overseas.

But as for those links I've been filing away:

I'm not the only bigsmall fiend out there!


You all need to check out these amazing doodles. I can't put in a pic as it's a flash page but they're colourful and fun.

I have a fascination with the miniature. I don't know exactly why but I think it's amazing when people make small things, I love macro photography (which is making the small look huge), maybe it the attention to detail.


Crazy metal sculptures


I know this may walk the fine line of garden kitsch for some people but I have a deep love for fantasy and if nothing else, there sculptures are amazing works of art and imagination.


And this one just appealed to my quirky sense of humour.


Another cool add, another cool doodle.



*the BBC mini-series version. There is only one Mr. Darcy and that is Colin Firth. Don't get me started.

random Friday thoughts

signs of the times
I missed out on the Cookie Monster becoming politically correct, or more to the point, health conscious. I see how and why he was made to change- role model for children, etc etc but I think it's taking it a bit far. This is a hilarious 'interview' between Cookie and Stephen Colbert.

makes me want to vom
Potted meat, pickled pork rind, fermented soy beans, fungus-infected corn kernels, EEEEEW! I can't believe that people eat this stuff, let alone that one man is crazy enough to try it all. I'm sure as hell not putting up any pics.

skeletal art

Ever wonder what bugs bunny's skeleton would look like? Or other cartoon characters for that matter? Well here is your answer.

link-tastic Tuesday

I've been collecting a veritable smorgasbord of links over the past week or so as I've been stumbling and now that the list has reached almost epic proportions, I've decided it's time to just cut to the chase and blog 'em. Clicking on the images should take you through to the websites.

discworld geek it up

I love geeks, just lovelovelove them.


How amazingly cool are these wooden toys? They're Japanese. I want one. Hell, I want them all.



lego imitates art



I'm very into my doodling at the moment. I'm finding it a great way to switch off my brain when I need a break, it gets the hands moving again and stretches my creative muscles. I like these doodles. Also, for those who haven't noticed that I've updated my links and recommended blogs, check out doodlage. It's fly.

This made me smile:


As did this:


As did these:




And there's plenty more where that came from...

the picture says it all

list-a-mundo

I know I have things in common with my friends, hell I wouldn't be friends with them if we had nothing in common but sometimes the points of commonality surprise me. Like a fondness for lists. I'm all about the list. Over the past year or so I have been fighting it a bit- given my OCD tendencies, I figured some living-life-on-the-edge and sans-list would be good for my spontaneity and on the whole I've lived relatively list-free but now my days in the UK are numbered and I have a lot of things to do so it's all about the list now.

Having returned to 90% full list-ability, I am becoming more aware of fellow list writers around me. Take my boss for instance. If I thought I was all about the list, I have nothing on her. In full-blown times of lots-to-do, this woman has sub-lists. And geek that I am, I don't mock, oh no, I'm in awe.

My sister, her friend, and I will be spending a week traveling around Venice and Rome later this year and I found out totally by accident that Amy-san is also (in retrospect I shouldn't be surprised) all about the list. As is my sister. It's glorious. We may just go list-tastic in Italy.

I have also spent some time this morning catching up on blogs I haven't read in ages and upon skimming Hong Kong Ham I found a tonne of them. You could call it bullet-pointing but the spirit of the list is still there. And as Hamish wrote Um, what do I usually do in these situations? Write a list of favourite things, of course.. Again, there should be no surprise here, I worked with the guy for a year.

I have no real idea why this commonality of pro-list-ness makes me feel comforted but it does. Maybe it's because:
1- I like having something in common with ppl.
2- If other ppl write lists, maybe my list writing isn't OCD*
3- Being organised is good

*I'm starting to think that I mention my OCD tendencies a bit too much on this blog. Some people might think I have a fo' real problem. I don't. I'm normal. Really. Plus I figure if I can fight it, then it isn't a real problem.

the stuff Fridays are made of

I checked my Dad's blog this morning and the entry, Young man stabbed in 'potato peeler game' was all that I could possibly have asked for for a Friday morning. I was laughing out loud (I have a rather warped sense of humour). He's got the full thing on his blog, check it out.

cupcakes on the brain

some people have waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands.....

This guy has geekishly embellished lots of Mr. PotatoHeads in various sci-fi/comic/fantasy themes. I'm not gonna bother to ask why but if you want to check out a slide show of them all, just click here.

made for me?
At the moment it seems like I don't even have to search for cupcake-related items, they just find me. Click on the images for links to the Etsy pages.


I know these aren't cupcakes but they're just so gosh-darn cute.


also cool...

This skirt is cute. And she has several variations on these theme, all charming. I may appropriate this idea....

procrastination

I'm not entirely sure why it's taking me so long to get my portfolio together. It's about half-way done and the bit that isn't done is the one that involves actually having to narrow down choices of layouts from my time at DIVE (as well as dredging up various marketing bits and pieces that I've done) and maybe that's the bit that's putting me off. So to avoid this but to still feel like I'm doing something, I've pretty much nailed my packing. I've sorted stuff into ship it/keep it/chuck it and this morning I called up the shipping company, put down a deposit and ordered boxes. So one major headache is practically finished. Now I just need to deal with the portfolio. Oh, I remember now- it's not just as simple as making a PDF of my portfolio, ideally I need to update my website HEADACHE and make a hard-copy version as well. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! I imagine I'll be in at work on my bank holiday Monday doing it. I keep bribing myself with the prospect of how much better I'll feel once it's out of the way.

Olympic Fever

How on earth does anyone get any work done with the Olympic on? HOW?!

I have the day off work today. My plan was to sort out stuff in my room to give me an idea of volume and what I need to ship, what I'm keeping until I stay and what goes to friends or charity. Well I did some in the morning, went out and got some groceries, came back and doodled for quite a while (but I consider this productive as it's creative) and then made the mistake of turning on the tele. I was going to watch one of my rental DVDs that had arrived but I saw that the Olympics was on. I haven't caught any of it prior to this. Partially, I was staying away because I remember my tendency to get hooked on it and boy oh boy was I right. I came in at the end of the women's whatever-horrible-distance-run and was actually crying when the lady won. Since then I have spent the last almost 2 hours watching weight lifting, diving prelims, gymnastic and now table tennis. I can't seem to stop myself taking part- I yell at the weight lifters (they're totally listening to me and not their coaches), I hold my breath with the divers and gymnasts- I'm there.

So, unfortunately, is my room. I woudl like to feel by the end of today that I know roughly how much of what I will be keeping/taking/chucking. I may just have to turn off the tele and walk away....

Fort Du Guesclin

So I guess you guys would like to see some pictures from my weekend on an island fort huh? It looked an awful lot like NZ to me and made me a bit I'm-missing-home-ish. But here are the pics:

mocha cupcakes

And this one I did make.


INGREDIENTS
2tbsp instant coffee powder
85g butter
85g cater sugar
1tbsp clear honey
200ml water
225g plain flour
2tbsp cocoa powder
1tsp baking soda
3tbsp milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten

• preheat oven to 180˚C (I put them on 160˚C for my gas oven). Put 20 small paper baking cases in 2 bun trays.

• put coffee powder, butter, sugar, honey and water in a saucepan and heat gently, stirring until sugar has dissloved. Bring to boil, then reduce hear and simmer for 5 mins. Pour into a large heatproof dish and leave to cool.

• when mixture has cooled, sift in flour and cocoa powder. Dossolve the baking soda in the milk, then add to teh mixture with teh egg and beat together until smooth. Spoon mixture into paper cases.

• bake the cupcakes in the preheated oven for 15-20 mins (I only needed 10 mins in my fan oven!) until well risen and firm to touch. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

To top these, they recommend whipped cream but I used a chocolate icing from a different recipe:

ICING:
85g butter, softened
175g icing sugar
25g dark choccie, melted

Put butter in a bowl and beat until fluffy. Sift in the icing sugar and beat together until smooth. Add melted chocolate and beat together until well mixed. (I had to add a little bit of water as well to get it to a consistency that was good to drop onto the cupcakes but I did that right at the end.) I then grated some white chocolate and sprinkled that on top.

obsession

*
Those who know me well enough will be well aware of my slight propensity for OCD. Those who know me well enough will also be polite enough to stop laughing at that potentially mild understatement. Well right now my obsessive gaze has turned to that which I had previously scorned- the cupcake.

I can't seem to help myself, I mean they're amazing- it's a mini cake and there is SO much potential for art and beauty and you don't have to commit to the size of a whole cake and can have so many variations in one batch. I'm hooked. So in my spare time, instead of updating my portfolio (must crack on with that, I have started, really I have), I'm scouting the web for cupcake images to get inspiration. The contents of the cupcake are pretty much 2nd priority for me, my obsession is the decoration. And it seems I am not the only one out there. For that matter I'm not the biggest cupcake freak by any stretch of the imagination. There are some total and utter cupcake fruitloops out there. I was looking into the difference between cupcakes and muffins and came across this blog. There is a full blown debate in the comments here about what makes a cupcake or a muffin. I was nearly crying from laughter at one point. Among the more impassioned comments were:

Fuck you. If you put frosting on a muffin it becomes a cupcake. Why is that so fucking difficult. No matter what a frosted muffin is a cupcake. But an unfrosted cupcake, becomes cake.

HILARIOUS! I did however find the answer to please me and put my mind at rest:

Muffins are regularly frosted in Australia, and can be either sweet or savoury, however, they are still muffins.

Generally muffins are larger than cupcakes and will always have a more bread like texture.

The difference is in the making process.

As muffins are not beaten, but rather, ingredients are gently 'folded' during the making, the gluten strand of the flour does not break down and they have a more bread like texture.

Cupcakes are made with a cake mix, beaten until smooth and the gluten strand is ripped to pieces, so you get a smoother crumblier texture.

Either can be dry or moist, frosted or not, big or small.

But generally cupcakes are sweeter, frosted and a great quick bite size treat, making them very popular with children.

And if you want to see a tonne of cupcake pics, check this out.

And on a non-cupcake note, just as I seem to have a knack for finding random pictures of things and weird websites, my father seems to have a knack for weird news stories. His latest post is a mine field of things from interesting to downright surreal. Check it out.

*Again, not cupcakes made by moi.

food art

I'm off to Brittany tomorrow so won't be blogging for a few days but I'll leave you guys with this.

You can find more here or if you want something more science geeky, there are also some earthy ones. Awesome.

bar raising

DISCLAIMER: I DID NOT MAKE THIS CUPCAKE.


Well not yet anyway. But superübermega cool an idea is this. I am going to have to try it, or at least something very similar. I'm wondering if I can utilise this idea to make other types of flowers. Like maybe cutting out pink ice cream wafers and using pink icing to make something like a gerbera or a daisy. And how about just using giant Pebbles/Smarties with black icing to make larger ladybugs? Sooooooooooo many possibilities. I'm away this weekend but I think my Banker (Aug 23-25) may be spent in the kitchen getting creative. I can't wait!

smorgasbord

I have all these drafts kicking around so have decided to tidy up and shove them all together in one entry so it's a bit of a mixed bag for this entry folks. Or, to make it seem more intentional, a little something for everyone.

beaker sings ode to joy
I always had a soft spot for Beaker, I'm not exactly sure why. I think maybe it's the whole speechless and easily frazzled thing. He's so cute when he panics!


This t-shirt design is just cool. Aaah good old subversive-ism.


Geek bling!

So awesome. I'm all about celebrating the inner geek and this stuff even looks pretty.

Ever since coming to the UK and being exposed to a record number of tea drinkers, (many who want a cup at the same time and all have slightly different preferences), I have maintained that they should specify their tea colour in a Pantone manner to ensure accuracy. (I work in publishing, Pantone geek jokes are acceptable.) So when I came across this blog entry, I was pleased to see that I wasn't the only OCD ideas man out there.

This is one of the coolest (I'm using that word a lot this entry.... Hmmmm.....) websites I've come across in a while. Each section has a unique way of merging into the next and it's incredibly well thought out as well as being funny and creative. Can you find all five secrets? I have but can't activate one. Pooey.

And this? Well this I stumbled across and thought it was both sad and cool.


And last but not least, a pic of moi. My friend had a birthday at the Rollerdisco at the weekend. About 10 of us headed along together and everyone embraced the kitsch-arama 70's/80's dress-up spirit. It was enormous fun and being back on rollerskates (I was quite the rollerskater in my youth)was enormous fun. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the dress-up as well. I haven't used that much hairspray in, well, forever. Apart from maybe dance recitals, those were all about the hairspray.

WARNING: this may be offensive to the religious people out there

My friends over here are great ones for forwarded emails of the fluffy variety that are potentially chain letter-esque. I haven't yet gathered up the heart to tell them that I HATE this kind of crap. 10 things that make a great friend, 25 ways to bring warmth and light to someone's day. Blah blah woof woof hatehatehatehatehate. Especially as most of these supposedly altruistic emails usually end in something like, "Forward this to your 10 closest friends, including the person who sent this to you so they will know they are loved and appreciated." Or some such bullshit. It really grates on my nerves. Can you tell?

I also have some friends who are whatever degree of 'religious'. Now this is not an issue amongst us although I highly suspect they might have some issue with existentialism and I don't abuse them when one of these forwarded spam pieces of crap has religious overtones or ends in 'God Bless'. I understand the spirit in which it was sent so that's fine. But this morning I got one which nearly made me go on a rant:

CELL PHONE vs. BIBLE

I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phone?
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we flipped through it several times a day?
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we gave it to Kids as gifts?
What if we used it when we travelled?
What if we used it in case of emergency?
This is something to make you go..hmm. Where is my Bible?
Oh, and one more thing. Unlike our cell phone, we don't have to worry about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill.
Makes you stop and think "where are my priorities?"
NO REJECTED calls!
NO FLAT BATTERY!!!!
NO "pls call me's" coz He will call on you ALL THE TIME!!!!
P.S. DO WHAT YOU THINK GOD WOULD WANT YOU TO DO WITH THIS E-MAIL.

I'm sorry but WTF?!? Let's ignore my standard grammatical Nazi issues with liberal usage of block caps and exclamation marks. My instant reaction? I'll tell you exactly what God can do with this email.... But it's not God's fault that someone wrote this unbelievably stupid (and is it just me or potentially Evangelically toned message? I mean "we don't have to worry about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill" WTF? Is anyone else laughing?) message and that someone else forwarded it on under the mistaken impression that I might appreciate it.

And if perchance the person who sent this message to me reads this (and the likelihood is VERY LOW) well I'm very sorry for not having the spine to say all this to your face. But I'm sure God will forgive me.