Mamma Mia

While on taxi duty the other day, I had a little wander down to Hindmarsh Disposals and picked me up a cute little Calabrian Mamma China Doll.  She cost me a 2 dolla and she even looks like me on a good day! Ha.

My heritage is Italian. Even my baby brothers name is Calabrese (Caleb Reece, say it real fast in an Italian accent!). My Nonna loved this when I showed her. I named my doll “Grazia” (or Grace in english) after my Nonna and my middle name, which is also Grace.

Grazia is the inspiration for my Basil and Fetta Meatballs. I wont tell her I used Danish fetta and Fresh Basil from a Greek fruiterer!

“Grazia” now resides at the foot of the front door, chastising and nagging every person who enters the house, just like a true Italian Mamma!

Another Brick in the Wall

Two weeks ago, I went on a bush trek through the Echunga gold fields with my husband and his (my) family.

Lucky for me (read with intense sarcasm), dearest other half failed to mention to me it was  supposed to be a “bush trek”.

So out I venture dressed in boots, stockings and flowy mini dress…

These little cutie flowers were everywhere!

My favourite picture from the day…plain and simple, but oh so not boring. This wall could be any wall- a wall where behind lies a secret garden, entrance to an elven dungeon, or it could have been the wall where a dashing fortune hunter lay claim to a beautiful kitchen maid…okay enough from my imagination for now!

This day was challenging photo wise for me. It was 40degrees, extremely sunny and no form of fancy expensive lens hoods etc… I had to rely purely on my perfectly placed hand for sun shielding and relentless fumbling/manipulating of settings. Fun!

King Tide Sunsets

Saturday was 40degrees hot…yes, that’s right. It was hot and stinking. To top it all off we had a wedding to attend to- hello swelchy makeup and extremely short dresses (donned by the many other attendees, not moi!).

Afterward, darling hubby was the loveliest of men and drove his wife to the beach. The king tide was in, I could not believe it! I’ve never seen a king tide, so I was like a little kid in a candy store just gushing at how amazingly high the tide was! The sunset was bright, the clouds dark, and the sky was the most beautiful dusky peach colour.

 

 

As I’ve been getting the hang more and more of this camera, I’ve been playing around a lot more with aperture and shutter speed together…I used to be a real noob (still am!!) with setting both the aperture and shutter speed at the same time, but I’m slowly getting there and understand how to manipulate light and space to create different types of photographs! I’m looking to join a Photography School somewhere here in Adelaide as to get better and better- I need that accountability, otherwise I’ll just give up trying to learn and stay at the same level for the next year!

 

Bridge over infested waters

On my recent walk through Lakeside Reserve, Adelaide.

The cafe that is located on the edge of this man made lake, makes the most delicious pizzas and chips!

Contrast this

SO I had my knee operation two days ago! The recovery was going okay until last night. Stupid me thought that because I could walk on my knee (I still had drugs and anesthetic running through my veins), I’d go out and walk around with hubby- buying heels, enjoying coffee. Stupid, stupid girl. Now my knee hurts more, it’s more swollen and I’m spending the whole day with my leg elevated, blogging and watching The Godfather.

Anyway, yesterday whilst we were out driving, I got to playing with my camera phone. I’m loving it. I got a bit obsessed with one particular setting, but considering I love high contrast photos, it’s just normal I guess. My phone camera is a 3 Mega Pixel, no flash and the dodgiest focus point…but I’m still loving these drive by shots I took yesterday. (and by “drive by” I mean, we drive by and pressed “shoot”) ha!

And because Black and White is my all time favourite- I had to take another of my husband. Man can one man can any spunkier? Sheesh! Oh and a pic of my heels, what can I say other than they are high, hot and only $10 on sale!

There’s a few more photos snapped that I’ve uploaded here, to my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/spacemaiden/sets/72157629263630737/

On a winters day

No! It was not a winters day, but rather a summers day. Somehow in the middle of summer, we had thunderstorms, pouring rain, street flooding and freezing winds!

Whilst ploughing through our “Dukan Diet” adventure, we had a stumbling day. I was craving pasta- creamy mushroom and chicken tortellini. The kitchen was a mess, and only enough room for one pot on the stove. I’m not painting the best picture here, but seriously, I was headed for knee surgery and 2 days earlier the “food fall”, hubby felt the need to severely sprain his ankle, thanks babe!

This is one of my favourite pasta dishes to make, and oh so easy.

Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Pasta sauce

Serves 2

250mls light cream

1/2 quality chicken breast, sliced

handful of mushrooms, sliced

salt and pepper to taste

fresh basil

 

All I do is seriously throw the mushrooms and chicken in a hot pan with hot olive oil and cook through till chicken and mushies are golden and smelling delicious. Once they’re cooked, tip in the tub of cream and simmer for a few minutes and then turn off the heat. The creamy sauce will thicken as it cools. After it’s thickened I then season with salt and pepper, (depending how I’m feeling on the day) add some fresh basil leaves and voila! tastiness minus the effort…

I know it doesn’t look or seem like a real gourmet pasta dish, but I’m an Italian and to be honest, simplicity is how Italians cook!

 

Now it’s back to carb free, protein filled, dukan diet deliciousness…

Paddy’s Lantern

Yesterday was the day I was supposed to find out what is wrong with my knee…instead I have to wait again for another week. ARGH!

On a brighter note, we popped into Paddy’s Lantern yesterday before heading to the specialist. I love this place, it’s got such a cool atmosphere and so close to home. The coffee is good, sometimes a bit frothy (for a dbl flatwhite), but generally pretty consistent. They use Five Senses Coffee and Tweedvale Milk- the best milk you can get I reckon!

You walk into Paddy’s Lantern and feel like you’ve walked into an old warehouse with a flash coffee machine, bike racks and one awesome roof. Their food fridge has always got something like “Ham and Gruyere Toasties” or “Goats Curd with sauteed Mushrooms” or “Flatbreads topped with Tomato and Basil”. Doesn’t get any better right? Especially not for an Italian who wishes she could live off of bready foods…but instead she is trying the Dukan Diet. Boo.

I’ve been using a Pentax-M 1:2 50mm prime lens lately. I love the clarity you get from prime lenses. Less glass= finer photo. Sure, it’s not ideal in some circumstances- you can’t zoom in or out, but that’s where the teaching myself to turn anything into a photo nice comes in handy.  It was a bit of a challenge using a prime lens whilst also not being able to move off the chair, but well worth the fun!

There was this one lady who ordered a dbl espresso (I notice weird things like that…comes with having worked in the industry) who had just the cutest brown leather handbag. I loved it so much I snapped her and her bag…shhh.

So here’s the view from my chair, and nothing but my chair.

You can check out the rest of the photos here at my flickr:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/spacemaiden/sets/72157629107852291/

Blue Eyed Boy

Still on crutches! Life is so frustrating at the moment. Hubby is home from 10am-4pm, in which time he sleeps for the first 4 hours. (that’s shift work for ya)

I have hardly any friends left (don’t know how that happened) and can’t drive to see my folks. I am stuck on the couch, computer or in my bed. It makes for quite an agonizing, lonely day.

I’m in the process of building a proper website. My own URL, tweaked to perfection theme, and a name. No more ‘Shabby Abi‘. Yeah it’s fun and funky, but soon in a few months, I want to branch out into the blogging world, so it all starts with a simple step. It’s very vulnerable starting up a blog, let alone a full on name and copyright…so here goes! I’ll keep all posted.

I was in desperate need to play with my camera today, he’s only 4 weeks old and one of those weeks he’s been lying dormant-ish. So this afternoon I hobbled outside on my crutches to take some photos after I was inspired by my back fence. We have this gorgeous, natural coloured corrugated fence that has rust and vines all over it. In front of the fence sits a 1940s swing set frame…man it’s gorgeous but it’s too far for me to hobble on crutches! So instead it was the side fence (which isn’t as nice) and the brick wall!

This last photo is my hubby. I love his eyes, they really are this vivid! He’s my Blue eyed boy

A year ago… 26 days ago

Exactly 13 months ago I spent my first New Years Eve with my future husband. We drove out to Second Valley and found a secluded bit of beach a few kmsaway from all the party goers. We stayed there until midnight and then boyfriend at the time drove me 2 hours all the way home. What a man.

I remember pestering my little brother for his point and shoot that night,  and reluctantly (I had a habit of not returning things) he handed it over. All I wanted were some pictures with my new boyfriend, was that too much to ask!?

My how young we were. (a whole year younger to be exact!), and how skinny we were! Oh boy how waistlines have changed!

On our second New Years Eve, also our first as a married couple, we did practically nothing! It was so lovely and relaxed. Darling hubby treated me to a romantic Hungry Jacks dinner and soon after we set off for a ‘short’ walk distancing from Henley Beach to Glenelg Bay…which ended up being a 14.7 Kilometre walk! The kicker is, we walked the distance wearing Havaiana Thongs. Blisters Galore.

We are not cut out for the whole New Years Eve party scene. Once we had made it to Glenelg Bay, (where all the New Years Eve partying happens) the music was too loud and the people mass TOO GREAT! So we quickly grabbed a thirst quencher and got out of there…give us the quiet beach night or couch surf anyday!

Definitely looking forward to our next New Years Eve together, who knows where we will be living- bring on some more adventures!

Invalid or Invalid? Depends on your emphasis

So Saturday night I did something bad to my knee. It has been too swollen to get an MRI just yet and also we haven;t been able to get in to see a doctor about it until this coming Monday!

I am trying to stay positive, however sometimes a bit of realism is needed, no matter how pessimistic it may seem. Do I really want to get 100% better to play elite softball again, or would I rather be an attentive housewife, have kiddies, school them and then teach them how to play ball…hmmm what a dilemma.

So the last 2 days I have been hobbling around on crutches. I can’t weight bear at all on my left leg so I truly am dependant on hubby. It’s killing me! Sitting around all day watching Downton Abbey (life could be worse, love this show) and playing on my computer. At least this time away from everything is giving me great opportunity to lean more about my camera and decent photo taking. See, a positive!

Whilst on the way home from a  drive with hubby late this evening, I snapped these few shots from the car window! It was too hard and painful to get out and I was getting bored taking photos of street signs, baha!

We were driving through Glenelg and took a little detour to the beach front (from the window!)

 

 

I’ve been playing with lights, colour etc and just love this photo. I just like the distorted wavey 60KMS speed sign to tell the truth. So trippy!