All Steamed Up

I cannot tell you how excited I am about the latest Roocci venture - fabrics. I just ordered a steamer, and it looks like a rocket ship. You need a steamer for colour fixing the fabric. Why fabric you may ask? Because I am now branching out into fabrics - like, yeay, and by July should be able to print Roocci designs onto fabrics like cotton and silk. As you know I try to source all my products from Australia and where possible make sure they are also Australian made. Trouble with fabrics is that everything is outsourced overseas. And steamers? Well they are big in the US - silk painting is still huge over there and so you can basically source them without hassle from a specialist art shop. Not so here. It took me a month on google to find a steamer in Aus and I was so damn lucky to stumble over the one I finally bought.

Anyway, basically when i figure out how to use it next week, I will be able to print on silk first, then in July when the cotton printer comes i can print onto cotton. Woo hoo!!!! So...look out for Roocci Cushions, Roocci Cotton Quilt Covers and a lot more this year. Will post a picture of the steamer too - it is an awesome sight to behold.

I am also so excited because i have been in the past tempted to go overseas with the fabric thing and my philosophy has and always will be Aussie Made where possible so it really aligns with my home grown business ideas. I am also an artist and the just thought that I can just design and print my own fabric totally blows me away. Imagine ordering fabric by the meter to compliment your wall art to cover a chair? Wow!!! I also like the thought of having a sewing helper who is not exploited for their impressive artistic skills.

So...yes the new products will be tested next week when the steamer arrives for colour fastness in the wash etc - I am looking forward to sharing them with you. Bye for now. :)

Bad Cake

Considering that I am a perfectionist within my own creative arena, it bamboozles me that I can't bake a good looking cake. It may taste yummy but man its UGGGGLLLY! It's more like a landscape than a cake or a melting polar icecap.

That is why I ordered some AWESOME cupcakes for last weekends baby shower from our Italian Mama up the road, oh my GOD they are amazing. The secret ingredient I will not divulge but if you are ever in this part of town go to the Italian deli in the middle of Annangrove Rd Kenthurst. Mama may tell you what it is. So light, so fluffy, so freaking perfect, and the way I think you know good food is if you don't get full too quickly even if you eat lots.

Here's another awesome recipe from Mama: (anyone, even me can get this right)
For a simple, delicious summer pasta, get some penne on the boil. Then fry a couple of cloves of garlic in proper olive oil and add lots of fresh chopped parsley. To this add a bunch of chopped up celery and grate a few carrots. Cook for about 10-15 minutes (depending on how many veges you have) and toss once and a while so it all cooks through. We eat this at home with crumbled fetta cheese, extra olive oil drizzled on the top & grated pepper but feel free to add salt or parmesan. The delicious sweet flavours will blow you away. YUM!!

Don't forget to eat the roses

I once received a lovely card from a friend that read - "Everything I learned in life I learned from my cat". It also read "Don't forget to stop and smell the roses." At the time I was looking after my brother's cat who's mantra could have been 'Don't forget to eat the roses'. She was very rounded and had enjoyed a 'cup-runeth over' type of lifestyle. Apart for roses, she had also acquired a liking for blueberry muffins - and kebabs. I learned a lot from my cats, and from Puss, I learned that you should take the shortest route possible to the food bowl, get lots of sleep, stretches, belly-rubs and don't be afraid to let people know 'get out of my space'. Cats are so intelligent!

But over the past few years it has been different. I have dogs. Two dogs. Two dogs that are a little behind the eight-ball sometimes which is why I love them so much. However this seems to be rubbing off on me. The day before Valentines Day I even forgot it was Valentines Day. And what makes it worse is that I had planned things for the actual day but in the haste of a Friday afternoon's work I just plain forgot.

Gareth did not forget. I saw him ducking behind the house in the pouring rain and just assumed he was running around the house in the rain, nothing more. Not even when he stopped short at the window as if to say "got me" with something clearly in his hand (which I thought was a newspaper) did i associate 'running around madly behind the house with something in the hand' with 'Valentines Day'. So when he came inside with a resigned look and a long stemmed rose I was clearly taken by surprise and the whole thing made instant sense. "Damn it" says Gareth , laughing "I sooo thought you saw me - here - happy V Day babe".

But it was the red against the green grass out of the corner of my eye while I has hugging Gareth for the one long stemmed rose that made me curious. "Is that what I think it is?" is all I had time to utter was before we both flew out the door, trying to shoo Charlie away from a huge bunch of roses that he was hoeing into. Our new dog Moo who had scored one of the roses too and was running around with it in his mouth like a canine Romeo.

I never thought that dogs liked actually eating roses too. I think the smell must be so good that they think it's worth a munch. A great metaphor for life from our furry friends then: if life is a rose, don't just smell it, hoe into it!

Bushfire Appeal - Wildlife Victoria

The bushfires in Victoria have caused untold death and destruction to what is likely to run into the millions of native animals. For wildlife, the occasional bushfire is a part of life however with the conditions so bad last weekend, they would not have had a chance to get ahead of it.

Unfortunately euthanasia will be the only end to of those injured too badly to recover. It is truly a disaster of horrific proportions for both animals and humans alike.

Wildlife Victoria has launched an appeal to "help pay for bandages, treatment, medicines and food for injured wildlife" Please click on this link to donate to this most worthy appeal.

An awful weekend

We are so shocked and saddened by the fires on the weekend that razed parts of Victoria. Our hearts join those who are grieving at this time. I feel extremely helpless as we watched the early morning news coming in on Sunday morning. While we had a fairly hot and lazy weekend, other people burned to death in their homes and cars. Terrible just terrible. I can't concentrate today on anything much except the horrible statistics and the stories from people on the tv who were waiting, some, terribly in vain for news of their loved ones. We grieve with you and we send our thoughts and support in whatever way we can.