Curiouser at home... Simona, Georgia, U.S.A.

Our second Curiouser at home feature comes from my friend Simona in the United States. Simona is a graphic designer who moved to Georgia from Hamburg, Germany, shortly after getting married. She lives there with her husband Philip. Simona and Sylvia (from the first Curiouser at Home feature) are two sisters on two continents who together run Artsy Ants, a fabulous blog and etsy store. Go check it out, it's lovely!

Here Simona has one of my 5"x7" everydayArt canvases on display. She tells us:
"It used to be on the fire place mantle by itself. but the other day i put your picture into a shadow box with the playmobil grill master. sylvia and jeff gave that doll to philip as "thank you" for grilling at their wedding.

The other items on the photo are a card sylvia made, a dice philip made, and a russian doll that belongs to sylvia and me. "

I love the quirky combinations! A gorgeous little scene :)

Onwards and upwards... but first, a recap

Well I'm back from my blogging hiatus and family holiday (to see family in South Australia) and have kind of missed the end of year. Never mind, my first post of 2011 will be a collection of highlights and favourites from the year past. This week I will also be posting a recent wedding, kids shots, holiday adventures, a recipe and my new favourite coffee... back to 2010.

Favourite place:
Denmark was stunning and fascinating, I loved the woods and the sea in the wilds of Winter, Copenhagen in the midday sun... Roxby Downs was incredible, with the wide skies and red dirt. Adelaide is always fun and I do love being at home (sometimes). But my favourite place to visit was undoubtedly my dear friend's home in Hamburg. A year ago, Cedar and I were cosied up with Sylvia, Jeff and Spencer and having the most wonderful time just being there.

Favourite purchase:
Hmm the new car is pretty cool, and I am *quite* attached to this laptop, but of course I can't go past the new camera I got last year :)

Favourite new person:
My nephew Levi was born in April... awww....


A favourite layout:

Biggest change:
Launching Curiouser (after a couple of years break from photography as a business). I launched in May, and did 21 shoots over the year, including sessions in Adelaide and Roxby Downs and four weddings. I designed a handful of logos and print media, a couple of websites and I'm about to add blog design to my services.

Other things I will remember from 2010 include:

• Ash's 4 year old kinder and year of early intervention
• Ash's official diagnosis with Autism
• Cedar stayed in hospital in Adelaide for 2 weeks with pneumonia
• Ben decided to change jobs
• We got a new car
• I visited Outback Australia for the first time in my life (Roxby Downs, for photo sessions)
• My brother-in-law Toby got engaged to his girlfriend Sonja (xmas day)
• I started selling at markets - wall art, cards, prints etc
• We visited Christchurch, New Zealand, as a family
• I contributed to Maeve, an online women's magazine, the first time I've had an article published outside of a Scrapbooking magazine (not that it isn't awesome to write about scrapping)

And, finally, a few of my favourite photos from the year that was:

Shiny

I'm picking up something new this afternoon... and then we're going to give the diesel engine a warm-up by driving to South Australia on Monday :)

p.s. it's a Hyundai i30 wagon, manual, diesel 1.6, 2011 model. yay!

Inspiration o'clock

Papier Mache new issue out,
and on the same day...

a new issue of Small magazine!

This week is a mish mash of play dates, markets and deliveries. A new car, a trampoline, and I could really do with some new socks. I have some framed prints for this evening's twilight market and will make some more magnets today. And maybe a hot coffee quite soon, as it is CHILLY. But the sky is blue, happy day.

Chicken and Native Thyme Lasagna

500gm free range chicken mince
600 ml passatta
1 onion, or a handle of eschalots
3 cloves garlic
1 zucchini
1 tablespoon chopped native thyme
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
extra virgin olive oil
6 lasagne sheets
1/2 cup grated cheese (tasty, colby or mozzarella)
1/4 cup shaved or freshly grated parmesan

Preheat oven to 190 degrees.
Heat olive oil in heavy-bottomed frying pan over medium-high heat. Saute onions / eschalots and garlic for 5 minutes. Add diced zucchini, saute until soft and onion clear. Remove from pan and set aside.
Gently brown chicken mince. When cooked, return onion mixture to pan with passatta and native thyme. Season with salt and pepper to taste and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
Layer lasagna sheets with meat mixture, finishing with a layer of meat sauce. Top with grated cheeses and bake in centre of oven for approximately 30 minutes.