Banana muffins

I hate wasting food, so this weekend when I noticed that all of my bananas were quickly going bad thanks to the heat (when will I learn that this isn't Canada and I can't leave fruit outside in 40 degree weather?) I knew it was time to make some muffins. I've tried a lot of different recipes for banana muffins, some healthier than others. The recipe that I'm sharing here is one of the semi-healthy ones. It's adapted from Katie Lee Joel's The Comfort Table, a cookbook that I turn to pretty often. So, want to know what to do with your overripe bananas?

Banana muffins

2 cups whole wheat flour (or white flour)

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup rapadura (or white sugar)

1/2 cup coconut oil (or canola oil)

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup buttermilk

3 medium bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (350 degrees fahrenheit). Grease a muffin tin; this recipe made 12 regular size muffins and 4 mini muffins. Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl, beat together the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla until well combined. Alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk in three additions. Gently stir in the bananas.

Pour the batter into the muffin tin and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy your muffins with a cup of tea!

Some Meet me at Mike's Bags

Two of my cute-as-a-button vintage clutches. The one on the left was made from an old tea towel and a pillowcase, and the one on the right was made from some Anna Maria Horner scraps.

My super-cute tote, made from Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks line.

When I first started sewing about a year and a half ago, the first craft book that I bought was Meet me at Mike's by Pip Lincoln. And boy oh boy has that book served me well! At this point I've made at least half of the projects in the book, and I've loved each and every one. After I tried my hand at the simple coasters, I turned my attention to some of the gorgeous bag patterns. At first I tried the Cute-as-a-button vintage clutch, and after sewing the entire top shut and unpicking more stitches than I care to recall, I finally had something that resembled a clutch. And that's the pink bird clutch you see in the top photo. Since then I've made so many of these, both to keep and to give away. They're simple to make (now that I'm not such a novice ), don't require much fabric and look pretty darn cute hanging off your wrist. Once I had that mastered, I moved on to the Super-cute tote. Again, I had some problems that were mostly to do with being a brand new beginner. But I did end up with a bag, and a huge sense of accomplishment at having figured out another pattern. So if you're new to sewing but you want to make cute things, I can't recommend this book enough. Happy sewing!

In the garden

After making it through this last week, I think I can safely say that I'm a "real" Sydneysider now. For those of you who don't live in Sydney, let me bring you up to speed... For the last 7 days it has been over 30 degrees (86 degrees Fahrenheit) each and every day. Saturday night at midnight it was still 33 degrees (91.4 degrees Fahrenheit). At MIDNIGHT! You can read more about this record-breaking heat wave here. Husband and I have a few coping mechanisms to get through heat like this, but the one that we rely on the most is heading off to his mum and step-dad's place. They live in a great house that happens to have the best garden and a pool. Heaven. I went there every day this week for a swim to cool down. One of those days, I also took some photos of their beautiful garden. Want to look around?

It's official

some of my yoga "textbooks"

It's official, come March I will be starting yoga teacher training at the studio where I have been practicing since I moved to Sydney. Becoming a yoga teacher has long been a secret dream of mine, but I always convinced myself that I wasn't good enough, I wasn't ready etc. etc. And then over the last couple of weeks all of the pieces have fallen into place to give me this amazing opportunity. Yesterday I went to the studio to pick up my books, and I felt this surge of giddiness like this is real, and it's actually happening. As always, I am so grateful for my husband without whom I probably would not be able to do this. He makes my crackpot schemes possible and I love him for it. This year feels really big for me; I'm making lots of changes and while it's scary, it's also super exciting. Any words of wisdom for me as I get ready to begin this journey? I'd especially love to hear from any yoga teachers!

Sydney love: the Sydney Festival

photo found here

photo found here

One of my favourite things about summertime in Sydney is the Sydney Festival. For most of the month of January, the city is host to amazing concerts, performances, plays, talks etc. I'm kind of sounding like an ad, but it's true. This year I was lucky enough to see Mike Berbiglia's show, My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, and Sufjan Stevens' concert last weekend. The Sufjan Stevens concert was especially magical. The show had so much going on: choreographed dance routines, visual art, fluorescent clothing, a ten piece band and on and on. It left my friend and I in total awe. If any of you ever get the chance to see him live, I highly recommend it! Tell me, did any of you catch any shows at the Sydney Festival this year?

I leave you with two crap iphone photos, sorry about that.

His creative space

this was supposed to be a close up shot of the shoe rack, but instead it's more of a close up shot of my shoes. oops.

I thought I would switch it up a bit and brag on my husband by sharing his creative space. For the last few days he's been working on something that I've wanted for a while: a shoe rack. He came up with the design himself and made it completely from scratch. I'm so proud of him, and happy that our shoes now have a nice place to sit. You can see more creative spaces here at Kootoyoo.

And while I'm on the topic of my husband, I feel that I should mention that for many reasons he will remain anonymous on this blog. I will never post a photo of his face or use his real name. I hate to be mysterious and/or annoying, but that's just the way it's got to be. For the last few weeks I've been referring to him as "husband" here, but it's kind of driving me nuts. Does anyone have any suggestions for an alias? Or does anyone else blog while keeping their partners anonymous? I'd love to hear your thoughts and/or suggestions.

Raspberry and yoghurt popsicles

We are in the middle of a very hot week here. Like 35 degrees Celsius hot (98 degrees Fahrenheit) with humidity. And let me tell you, I do not do well in heat like this, which is why it's so funny that I've ended up living in Australia. Last night it got so bad that husband and I dragged our mattress to the middle of the living room floor and slept below the air conditioning unit. So anyway, I decided that popsicles (or icy poles for my Australian readers) were what I needed. But this required going on a mission to find popsicle moulds since no one in my neighbourhood seems to sell them. A couple of hours and a shopping trip later, I came home triumphant and set to making my popsicles/icy poles. Want to know the recipe (if you could even call it that)?

You will need:

- 1.5 cups yoghurt (I used full fat because that's what I always have)

- 1/4 cup honey

- 3/4 cup raspberries (but any type of berries or even cherries would be good)

- a popsicle mould

Mix the yoghurt and honey together first, and add more honey if it's not sweet enough for your liking. Then stir in the raspberries.

Pour the mixture into your popsicle moulds. This quantity filled six moulds. Oh, and if you don't have popsicle moulds you can use paper cups with popsicle sticks. Stick your moulds into the freezer for at least 4 hours to freeze completely.

Enjoy your yummy and fairly healthy popsicles! And maybe consider eating them while sitting in a cold pool, that'd be even better.

My warbler mini quilt

p.s. I made this skirt too, but we can talk about that later.

Photos by my husband

Saturday was a lazy day at our house. We sat around, read our books, watched DVD's, and then worked on our respective projects: him, a shoe rack and me, a quilt. Just as my afternoon was drawing to a close and it was time to get ready to go to a concert, I finally finished and had husband snap a few photos before I ran out. I used the Warbler Quilt pattern in the book Whip Up Mini Quilts. It's a great book, with so many gorgeous projects in its pages. And I love the fact that most of the quilts use tiny scraps. Isn't it great when you can just dig through your scraps and end up with something new? I love that feeling. And I love this mini quilt, although judging by what husband had to say about my last quilt, you can imagine what he thinks of this one... Apparently for husband, "decoration" isn't a sufficient reason to make something, and yet I'm unfazed.