my creative space

I'm late again!  How slack!

By OZinOH via flickr

Anyway, my creative this week seems to be at Spotlight.  I think I have visited twice this week and I still need to go back for more things.  I am working on (as usual) too many things at once.  I'm not sure that I will ever learn to control that.  But I am working at a nice and easy pace - not rushing, which is good.  I am almost finished a dress that I hope will fit because I love the fabric I used.  I have one more thing to do and I want to make sure I get it just right.  I have started making a baby quilt for a friend, and I am about to start making a superhero costume for my sister's 21st birthday.  Oh, and crocheting a blanket too.  Sheesh! 

My laptop is broken so I am also lacking decent pictures, and am obviously behind with the blogging thing.

I'm sure you will find some much more organised creative spaces over here   

quest for the best japanese - week 3

Izakaya Hachibeh
143-145 Bourke Street
Melbourne


I'm not going to say too much about this place because I was very underwhelmed.  I'm not sure if it was just poor choices on our part, but the food was very bland.  It was a cool day here in Melbourne so we went for the Udon soup options - I had Fried bean curd and Todd went for the Tempura option.

All I have to say about my meal is BLAH.  And we can add another Okinomiyaki fail to the list too. 

My glass of Plum Wine was nice.  The service was pretty good and quick so we might try this one again sometime and choose from the "Japanese Tapas" selection instead.


Rating: 3 out of 10        

holly throsby is good

Hope this brightens up your Monday!


Holly Throsby - "Here Is My Co-Pilot" from PEDESTRIAN.TV on Vimeo.

my (late) creative space

By Mrs. Jenny Ryan

I am in love with pretty floral fabric right now.  I am trying to make a dress out of some wannabe-Liberty fabric (one day I will be good enough at sewing clothing that I can use ACTUAL Liberty fabric!) and am having some issues.  Yet again with the boobage and some darts that sit somewhere around my belly button.  I need to unpick and try to fix.

I am so loving the floral that I might pick up some new season Liberty fabric anyway and make some pretty non-clothing things.  Like maybe some pretty scarves for my very best friend who is about to take part in Shave for Cure.  I think she is being very brave and is certainly deserving of some prettiness, don't you think?  P.S  You can donate to her cause here if you are feeling nice and generous

Check out some other creative spaces over here

quest for the best japanese - weeks 1 and 2

I only just realised that i should probably be blogging this journey - mostly so I won't forget where we've been, but also because someone might be interested.  You never know.  I'll rate them out of 10 as well, just to make things a bit easier.

Week 1 


Teppansan Japanese Cafe
179 Russell St, Melbourne

So far this is the best Okinomiyaki that we have had outside of Japan.  It was still far from the wondrous thing we had in Hiroshima, but it was still tasty.  This place is small and doesn't look incredibly appealing from the outside, but we very much enjoyed our meal here.  It has a real Japanese vibe to it.  Having said that, I can't remember what else we ate!  The food obviously wasn't very memorable.

Rating = 4.5 out of 10


Week 2


Ito Japanese Noodle Cafe
122 Bourke St, Melbourne



The service at this place was pretty dreadful.  I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt though as it was Valentine's Day and they seemed to be pumping out the takeaway orders (go figure!).  We waited a long time for our drinks and the Sushi chef was so busy we had to have our sashimi at the end of our meal.  I really didn't like that at all.  Sashimi for dessert = not so good.  But....we did have a delicious yaki soba and katsu curry, and very much enjoyed the Sapporo on tap.

Rating = 5.5 out of 10



Now that I'm doing this I promise I'll pay more attention next week!  I'll also try to remember to take some pictures (please excuse the blurry iphone shot)

i like grannies

By knittinandnoodlin


This weekend I reunited with my crochet hook.

It's been a while.

I have reignited my love of the granny square and am making a red and white granny blanket (no pics yet, sorry!).  It should be done before AFL season starts so it can keep my legs warm during a Sydney Swans match or two.  Last year we froze on more than one occasion and I promised I would fix the problem - in the team colours of course - for this season.  I love watching the little old grannies (the people this time, not the squares!) at the football all decked out in their hand knitted or crocheted team colours.  They always have granny blankets keeping them warm.  They always have tea and cakes too.  I think it's lovely!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend.

Happy Valentine's Day for those that celebrate it too!  

konnichiwa!

Last night I attended my very first Japanese class and had a whole lot of fun.  It was on my list of things to do for this year (and not just talk about) so yay me!  I am very much a beginner but can still remember bits and pieces from high school, and of course from our trip to Japan last year.  I'm looking forward to learning a new skill and am getting excited about the prospect of going back to Japan one day armed with some language skills.




Afterwards my husband and I had some Japanese for dinner at a place we'd never been to before - (Teppansan for those Melbournites who might be interested).  It was quite good.  Definitely the best Okonomiyaki (Japanese style pizza) we've had outside of Japan, but still not quite right :/  It's turned into a bit of a quest for us - trying to find Japanese quality Okonomiyaki in Australia.  So we've decided to turn Monday nights into a search for the best Japanese restaurant in Melbourne.  I'll keep you posted!

  

my creative space

Look what I made!



It is a clutch purse and was a birthday present for my very lovely and wonderful best friend.  It is a Cath Kidston pattern from her Stitch! book and it was lots of fun to make. Plus my friend really loves it, so that's great!



Next, I'm tackling something else from the book, getting started on a couple of quilts and maybe making a dress.  It's probably more than I can handle yet again but that seems to be the way I roll!