Isn't this a beautiful portrait?

As posted on the National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institution) blog. It is by Yolanda del Amo and called 'Sarah, David'. From this exhibition .

Supper at the wine shop.

New scarf and sesame seed treats

I am being lazy and am wrapped up in the moment today so you get airy fairy ephemeral obsessions.

Bought this fabulous scarf from Sportsgirl today, it is 'Minty meets Munt' and very pretty.



I also got some of these yummy sesame balls from breadtop, not sure exactly what they are but I think they are made mainly of sugar and oil and therefore are delicious.

I have also started de-cluttering the apartment, it is very cathartic. So far I have done some of the kitchen cupboards, cleared out all the old newspapers I had been keeping (this is probably a major cluttering sin), I had kept stuff from this time last year to read and never looked at it again! I also put away all my mending in the cupboard rather than dumped beside the couch. Not sure what I will tackle next....

Christmas

Had a lovely day yesterday, despite feeling stressed in the morning. Last year I remember being so stressed all day. But this year I just relaxed and discouraged my inner perfectionist. I often get anxious cooking with others as I like to do things MY WAY. But it doesn't really matter at the end of the day. Anyhoo I obviously took photos, mainly of food.

My wrapping, I honed my skills at David Jones c. 2000. I love wrapping presents. This year I also remembered to buy loads of ribbon (9metres) I usually only buy about 2m as, you know, that sounds like heaps but you often need 1m per present. My other tips are to fold the cut edge under, use double sided tape and use less rather than more paper. I also buy bags of offcuts of pretty paper from art shops (I got some from Melbourne Artist Supplies in Lt Latrobe St).



Time for champagne and present opening. I got some lovely gifts, many of them were food oriented. NOM. I also got books, love books. Will post about some of my summer reads in a few days.
Mum is laughing at that dog under the tree, it sing and flaps its ears. It is hilarious. You can also see the lovely tree, it is about 3 years old now and has been growing quickly. I pruned it last January as it was getting lopsided and it has grown into a lovely shape, so naturally I feel very pleased with myself.
Hamish wasn't allowed to come in to open presents so he slept in the sun (he got a nice lamb shank later though).
The bbq is fired up. For a house full of feminists it was all rather divided down tradition gender lines. Men at the barbie, ladies making salad in the kitchen.
Mum and Dad's fantastic 70s tablecloth in the dappled sunlight.

Hamish helping out.

Fish and sauasages.
Home made pumpkin bread from my uncle.

Pumpkin bread made by my uncle.

Prawns and scallops.

Snapper.

Fennel and white bean salad.

Strawberry, almond and spinach salad. So delicious, must get the recipe from my sister.

The spread.

'Hey guys do I get some ham?'

My amazing cheesecake, a recipe from my nanna and a Christmas classic.

Platter of fruit, apparently it is summer fruit but I could have sworn my brother said he was bringin 'sumo fruit' so I had a mental image of fat strawberries in nappies wrestling. Nevermind.

Christmas shoes!

I am off to the city now, perhaps unwisely but I heard a rumour that Kit has nail polish on sale.

Merry Christmas from me and my little dog.

Busy busy bumblebee

I have much to do today so I think a list is in order.

- Buy final presents, it wouldn't be my Christmas without some mad shopping in the city on Christmas Eve. *remember big stick.

- Buy something to festive up the apartment, something like the loverly Lady Melbourne has done would be perfect.

- Wrap above presents (that reminds me I need ribbon.)

- Make caramelised onions.
- Make biscotti.
- Make cheesecake.

- And some bloody footnotes and editing.

1940s swimwear

Got an email about a new library search for research from the uni library, so naturally I decided to search for old fashion photographs.

A lot of the fashion pics that pop up are pretty daggy, but these are great. These are from The Argus c. 1945-50. Hot stuff.

Pictures from my brother's birthday last night. Mum made the cake, it is coconut with coconut ice icing. Very delicious.

Me and my favourite person/dog, whatever..


Here he is demonstrating the focus and dedication he brings to a task such as trying to lick the fat off the ground from under the BBQ.

New nails

Christmas breakfast

Had a nice christmas breakfast today. I prepared by going for a long run. Now I am tired and watching iron chef so you just get pictures.

Christmassy things. You can see me reflected. Arty.

Retro coffee pot, love it.
The cow milk pot wore a profiterole on its head.

And ate chocolate.
Fruit!

The pot again.
Pretty bowl.
The fruit later on.
Banana skins and profiteroles. Secret taste sensation!

Pink champagne and pink plate.

I love Katie's bike. It is awesome. And so is Katie. I would really like to have a bike again but I am loathe to keep it outside as the last one got pinched, but I don't want more clutter inside. My dad has found some fold up ones but I worry they might be a gimmick and not actually comfy to ride. If I lived on my own I would buy one like Katie's and just put it in the middle of the room cos it is so pretty.


Went into uni yesterday, hopefully last time before Christmas, though it is delightfully quiet. Worked on proof reading other people's work when I should have been doing my own. Went to the market with mum and Mark's parents. they get very excited and buy loads of delicious things. Then I caught up with Katie and Elena for drinks at Journal, which was lovely, and ever so quiet compared to the rest of the city which seemed to be filled with baboons wearing suits.

Now I am off to Christmas breakfast at lizey's.

I really need to finish my Christmas shopping, planned to go today but chickened out due to the rain. Though i wasn't completely lazy, I did run to and from uni to go to pilates. Last class of the year, twas good. Stretched my inner thigh muscles so much I could probably put my legs behind my head now.

Watched all the graduating students wandering round. Saw some in bonnets and felt sad as I want my bonnet and I feel I will never get to the bonnet wearing stage. Also sad is the fact that all the soft toys with graduation gowns on wear mortar boards instead of bonnets. No PhD bears.

Also had a monaco bar. Got very wet on the way home and ended up with all my sunscreen running into my eyes. Now I am trying to track downa quote I FOOLISHLY used in my intro and did not properly reference. WHEN WILL I LEARN??

Check out the yummy dinner I had last night at Thaila Thai on Lygon St. SO delicious, even if I was sitting outside in 37 degree heat eating a spicy curry.

Nom nom

I love nectarines. I have been buying and eating a kilo a week from the market. In winter I have to pretend they don't exist or I would be too sad about not being able to eat them.

I also like the cow plate they are on, it has a matching mug.

I feel a bit brain dead today. Spent about 30 hours marking over the weekend and yesterday. I even got up at 6am yesterday and got to uni by 7am and promptly discovered that they don't unlock the outer doors until about 7:45. Doh! Luckily it was sunny so I sat on the steps with coffee and madly marked. Had marking meetings from 10:30 to 12. Then the other tutor and I made up the spreadsheet and entered all the marks for all 6 pieces of assessment for all 70 students. Tiresome, but there is no way around it. Plus you have to be so focused, don't want to write the wrong mark down for someone. Luckily we didn't have anyone insisting we use the world's worst learning software (LMS) and spend forever entering them in gradebook. The other tutor and I had estimated that it would take an hour per student to enter the marks and comments online because the interface is so clunky and it loads like you are using dial up c. 1998. We figured if they insisted we would simply inform them that was fine and were they fine paying for another 70 hours at casual rates? But in the end they didn't care.

We don't need to put our comments up, only respond if a student actually emails us. On the one hand this is quite nice for me as writing comments takes A LOT of time and can be mentally taxing as you try and find 30 different ways to say 'the introduction was too waffly' and avoid saying anything too negative, or accidentally putting an apostrophe in wrong place as you critique their use of grammar. BUT I feel it is a huge disservice to the students, especially the many who clearly didn't know how to write an essay, or even how to write a sentence! These are the students who really need the feedback but won't be the ones who contact us. I think (hope) if everyone gets back some comments that some of it does sink in.

Anyway, I always bring this stuff up but I end up feeling like everyone thinks I am a naive idealist. Or else they just tell me that ''This subject is about opening up their minds not worrying about the little stuff." Well you must have opened up their minds a lot as it is pretty clear from the standard of writing that a lot of their brains had fallen out. Or they tell me that 'this course isn't about teaching them to write they can learn that themselves.'

Well super dooper, but if unis don't teach them how to write who the hell will? How are they meant to teach themselves? Of course students have to work on it themselves, I had to do that, but it was greatly assisted by lecturers who took the time to spell out what was expected, show us common mistakes, remind us we didn't need to 'thesaurise' every second word, explain why and how we should use foonotes and really just let us know why we got the mark we did. Otherwise, especially for students who are not good at writing, the reasoning behind an essay mark can seem all a bit mysterious.

Anyway rant over. Marking is done in record time, which was my plan as I have a tendency to let it take over my life and brain for far too long. I am pretty pleased with myself. Now I just need to cross some other stuff of my not very long but super urgent to do list.

1. Finish my Kent article. I confess it is a few weeks late, and this is after asking for more time.

2. Send Chapters 4&5 to supervisor, I finished them literally months ago, why haven't I sent them? Probably some deep seated mental block to do with fear of criticism.

3. Re-draft Chapter 3 after having it rather demolished by supervisor a few months back. All valid criticism I am just SICK of the damn thing.

4. Write draft of Chapters 6 & 7.

5. Get back to compiling my image catalogue with my ye olde worlde photo editing software.

Weeel I haven't started a new blog as I realised the impetus came partly from the desire to procrastinate. I might start one post thesis, I could call it 'Dr Kat knows best' or something.
I have decided to write here a bit more often, though I have decided that a lot this year. We will see.

I can't write much today as I must get down to my article which is woefully overdue. It is giving my email phobia, I keep expecting to see angry emails in my inbox each morning.

I woke up nice and early today and went for a run to get the brain cells going, it was a really gorgeous morning too. Warm enough that my legs didn't seize up angrily after the first 100 metres, but not so warm that I spent the whole time wanting to crawl under a nice big tree and roll in the cool grass. I have ambitions for new fitness goals now that semester is over. My first is to run more and to stay interested by doing a different run on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Friday will be my usual quick 20-25 mins around the Fitzroy gardens, Saturday will be my long run to South Yarra and back, and Sunday, well I haven't decided but this week it might be a run to Eliza's new place in Fitzroy for breakfast.

I would also like to get back into swimming, maybe Mondays and Thursdays at uni, should be easier now it is warm.

xxx

I have been pondering whether to start a new blog, obviously I have my other blog but I want to keep that about just art/architecture/garden stuff. I would quite like to have another one where I write about more random stuff, and pretty fashiony stuff. I guess I could do that here but it feels funny tacking it onto the end of a long personal blog. But then I don't want to get rid of this one, hmmm dilemmas.

P.S. I really like this photo from The Guardian, apparently the model went mssing after the shoot *spooky music* link.