Gallery Tattoo
Tattoo
Gallery Tattoo
Tattoo

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Hachiko's Movie Reviews - An Inspirational Story About Loyalty and Unconditional Love

The movie "Hachiko : A Dog's Story" is based on a 1987 Japanese movie, which in turn is based on a true story that took place in first half of the 20th century in Japan, behind a bronze statue of an Akita dog just outside of Shibuya Train Station in Tokyo, Japan. This is a simple but heart warming tale about Love and Loyalty.

Hachiko : A Dog's Story, released in August 2009, is an American movie starred by actor Richard Gere, directed by Lasse Hallström. The movie was filmed in Rhode Island, and also featured Joan Allen and Jason Alexander.

Hachiko : A Dog's Story movie reviews :
The movie starts with a young boy telling the story of a dog which belongs to his grandfather, a professor who commutes to work by train everyday. The dog will walk with him to the train station everyday and return to wait for him to return home everyday.

One day, the professor (starred by Richard Gere) had a heart attack and never return home. Hachi is given to the professor's daughter but he escape to return to the train station to wait for his late master to return. His where abouts in the day time is unknown, but everyday at 5:00pm he will wait at the station hoping that his master will appear. This continues for 10 years till he pass away.


The simple act of waiting touches many. In the original version of events, the Professor's former student returned frequently to visit the dog and over the years published several articles about Hachikō's remarkable loyalty. In 1932 one of these articles, published in Tokyo's largest newspaper, threw the dog into the national spotlight. Hachikō's faithfulness to his master's memory impressed the people of Japan. Teachers and parents used Hachikō's vigil as an example for children to follow. A well-known Japanese artist rendered a sculpture of the dog. Eventually, Hachikō's legendary faithfulness became a national symbol of loyalty.

A moving movie for the whole family. A great starting point to talk to children about pets, death and loyalty.


asian inspiration . . .

deliciously layered & embellished works
inspired by asian design
from

Friday, April 23, 2010

Giveaway weekend!!

This giveaway is now closed.

Thanks to everyone who became followers! It was so fun to see that we not only reached 100 followers but now have 102! Now you all just need to work on commenting a bit so we don't feel like we're just talking to ourselves. ;-)

I'm excited about this giveaway and hope you will be, too! Before I tell you what it is, here are the rules.

1. You must be a follower of this blog to enter.
2. Leave a comment on this post, telling us which recipe of ours you've tried and loved and/or which recipe you want to try next. Also, make sure you include your email address so that we can contact you if you win!
3. For an additional entry, add our button to your blog, then come back and post another comment on this thread telling us you added the button (make sure to include a link to your blog so we can check it out!).

Ready to see what you could win?

You can win one of these fabulous Mary Kay lipglosses, courtesy of yours truly! I became a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant a couple of years ago and thought it would be super fun to enter some of the items in giveaways now and then. Plus, my husband says I need to cut down on my stash anyway. ;-)

The giveaway will be open through Tuesday, April 26th at 8pm. Winners will be chosen through random.org and the winner will be announced on Wednesday, April 27th. Good luck!! :-)

dandelion key . . .

such a stunning set of
designs
inspired by keys & nature
"dandelion key"
by

Thursday, April 22, 2010

far away...

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Cardi, Top, Sunglasses:H&M. Boots:Pimkie. Jeans:Zara. Nailpolish: P2

Den Cardi habe ich als Super-5-Euro-Schnäppchen
im H&M-Sale ergattert (wer zahlt denn den Normalpreis von 30 € ??)..
Nunja, viel zu erzählen habe ich eigentlich auch gar nicht.
Ich bin sehr froh, wenn die nächste Woche überstanden ist,
dann habe ich auch für euch wieder mehr Zeit!
Aber nicht unterkriegen lassen, schließlich steht das anscheinend sehr
sonnige Wochenende vor der Tür :)
Und Präsentationen kann man ja auch an der Alster üben, oder nicht?
In diesem Sinne, au revoir!
•••

tabriz tiles . . .

i love the colours & patterns
used on these tiles
inspired by
the middle eastern artists of tabriz
from

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

coco coco II

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Coco Rocha.
•••

Hot Corn Dip

WE REACHED 100 FOLLOWERS!!! Woohoo! Be on the lookout for the giveaway on Friday!

I was bored the other night and started surfing cooking blogs. I came across a new one that I am so excited about. It's called Full Bellies, Happy Kids. There isn't a single recipe that I don't want to try! In fact, that very night I tried this recipe. It was so good!!! My husband and kids were literally fighting over the bowl, so we had to dish up separate bowls for everyone. Deeeeeeeeelish.

I didn't have Mexicorn on hand, so I just used regular frozen corn that I thawed in a bowl of water. It still tasted great. If I don't have Mexicorn next time, I'm going to saute a little red bell pepper to put in. Also, a word about the chilies. I came across a jar of chilies at the store a few weeks ago. It's by the salsa, and it's the same thing as those little cans of diced green chilies. Only it's MUCH cheaper.

The recipe says it serves 12. But it's so good that it might only serve 1. ;-)

Ingredients:
2 11 ounce cans Mexicorn
2 4.5 ounce cans chopped green chilies
2 cups Monterrey Jack cheese, grated
3/4 cup Parmesan, grated
1 cup mayonnaise
tortilla chips for dipping

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease a casserole dish and set aside. Mix corn, mayonnaise, cheeses, and chilies until combined. Pour into the casserole dish and bake, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes, or until bubbly.


I know what I'm having for lunch!! :-)

sculptured birds . . .

soft sculptured birds
by
(one of the loveliest sounds to me
is hearing the dawn chorus)

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

ebb & flow lamp . .

ebb & flow star lamp
from
on the isle of skye
(we had a wonderful visit
to this pottery last year)

Monday, April 19, 2010

Inspiration - Shelter Island Beach House

While we have been having a beautiful Indian Summer here in Wellington, it's hard to see all the Spring and Summer influences coming through in northern hemisphere magazines and blogs. I am definitely jealous!
Here's a Shelter Island beach house from House Beautiful that I saw via My Scandinavian Retreat and just had to check it out further. It looks just so damn comfortable and chilled out.
Photographs by Ditte Isager.

Dun Laoghaire Sketch

Cropped sketch!

The Absolute BEST Sandwich Bread

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and are expriencing some great weather this time of year! As for us, I finally caved and turned on the a/c for the first time this year. In April. We're doomed! ;-)

We only need 5 more followers until we can start the giveaway!!! I see that we have 97 Facebook followers and only 95 blog followers, so those of you following us on Facebook need to make sure you follow the blog, too! :)

A year ago, I found a recipe for white bread. And that's the recipe I used for the last year. Until I got my new cookbook, that is. I was extremely excited to see a recipe for sandwich bread in my cookbook! Don't get me wrong, the old white bread recipe is still good, but it's just not good for slicing thinly for sandwiches because it's pretty crumbly. This sandwich bread recipe is AMAZING. And it has a million variations. You can do buttermilk instead of the whole milk. You can make cinnamon raisin bread. You can use whole wheat flour instead of white. You could turn it into all kinds of snazzy types of bread by adding cheese, herbs, etc. I've got several variations I'm going to try, so I'll make sure to post recipes!

This recipe only makes 1 loaf, so I always double it. If you do double it, make sure the bowl you let it rise in has enough room to accommodate a double batch once it's risen. You may want to divide the dough in half and put each half into a separate bowl to rise.

And if you're new here and/or new to bread-making, here are my tips for working with yeast. Making bread can be tricky at first. But I promise you that it gets easier! You just have to keep at it. My loaves when I first started turned out pretty goofy sometimes, but now I have no problem making fantastic bread.

Ingredients:
1 cup whole milk, warm
1/3 cup water, warm
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 tablespoons honey
3 3/4 cups bread flour, plus extra for kneading
2 1/4 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
2 teaspoons salt

Whisk the milk, water, 3 tablespoons of the butter and honey together in a large measuring cup. Mix 3 1/2 cups of the flour, yeast and salt together in a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook. With the mixer on low speed, add the milk mixture and mix until the dough comes together, about 1 minute.

Increase the speed to medium-low and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. If after 5 minutes more flour is needed, add the remaining 1/4 cup of flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough clears the side of the bowl but sticks to the bottom.

Turn the dough onto a clean counter and knead by hand to form a smooth, round ball, about 1 minute.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured counter and gently press it into a 9 inch square. Roll the dough into a tight cylinder and pinch the seam closed. Place the loaf seam-side down in a 9 inch loaf pan. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until it has nearly doubled in size and springs back slowly when indented with a finger, about 1 to 1/2 hours.

Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Bring a kettle of water to a boil. Brush the loaf with the remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Set the loaf pan on the oven rack and place an empty metal loaf pan next to it. Fill the empty loaf pan half full with boiling water. Bake until golden and the center of the bread registers 200 degrees, about 40 to 50 minutes. Flip the bread out onto a wire rack and let cool to room temperature before slicing, about 2 hours.


Perfect texture!!!

And just look at how thinly I was able to slice it!
It's not crumbly at all! Perfect, perfect sandwich bread!

How often do you make your own bread?

a shirt and some jewelry

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Image and video hosting by TinyPic
Der bunte Schmuck ist von Primark, die Herzkette von Les Jumelles
und das Shirt von T-Post. Besagtes Shirt ist "die erste tragbare Zeitschrift".
Verschiedene Künstler gestalten hierbei Shirts nach bestimmten Themen,
die dann auf der Innenseite des Shirts stehen.
Alle sechs Wochen gibt es eine neue "Ausgabe", die man dann bestellen kann :)
Coole Idee, Daumen hoch! Hier noch ein tolles Video dazu!
•••

292 - Interior

New interior framing - the hallway with the new bedroom at the end.
New interior doors - Linen cupboards to the right with bedrooms ahead and to the left.
In the bathroom - that's where the shower is going.
Almost finished priming the new weatherboards.

We have a busy week at 292 this week. The plumber and electrician are coming to do their magic before the insulation is installed next week.
You can see that builder Euan has been busy inside - new framing (pink timber) for the new rooms as well as straightening the existing. Some internal doors are up and we have a good sense of the space now.
We did some more prepping the weekend gone - I was on priming the weatherboards and putty hundreds of nail holes. Dad worked on the windows -  which at times is getting the best of him. Old timber windows that have been neglected is hard work!
Photographs by Charlotte Minty.

wind shelf . .

beautiful simple curves on this

Sunday, April 18, 2010

angel wings . . .

angel wing beads
from