Normally I like to spruik blogs that might not be on the radar of a lot of people, but I think they should be.  But today I’m spruiking my love for a blog that lots of people adore, and with good reason.  Meet Me At Mike’s is run by the wonderfully talented and giving Pip Lincolne.

I am in constant awe of how Pip manages her time.  Not only does she run one of the hippest blogs on the internet, she’s a mother to three, a wife to one, a frequent contributor to Frankie Magazine (as well as many other publications), founder of Brown Owls, writes how-to books, creates like a mad woman, runs a successful shop and is an ambassador for blogging.  I get tired just typing all that out, so the mind boggles at how she manages to find the time to do it all.

Image source: Meet Me At Mike’s

If it wasn’t for Pip I would never have learnt how to make a granny square.  I would never have meet the wonderful woman of the Canberra Brown Owls, nor would I have found some of the amazing blogs, artists and crafters out there in Australia.

Image source: Meet Me At Mike’s

So while we’re in Melbourne I’m going to make the pilgrimage and go check out The Envelope Project at Meet Me At Mike’s.  I’m also going to be lucky enough to hear Pip speak at the Problogger Event in August.    I just hope she doesn’t think I’m stalking her…

Image source: Meet Me At Mike’s

A few weeks ago on the drive home I happened to see a fox running along side the road diving in and out of bushes. And ever since then I’ve been obsessed with all things fox.

Unfortunately in Australia foxes are an introduced pest.  However, today’s selection of wonderful from Etsy are not pests and can be safely introduced into your home environment without worry about destroying anything other than your bank balance!

A.  Sleeping Foxes Gocco Print.  B.  Little Red Fox in Silver and Concrete Necklace.  C.  Tiny Fox and Forrest Stud.  D.  Little Fox with Leather Cord. E.  Fox Field Bag.  F.  Rose Print.  G.  Nikoart Arctic Fox Necklace.  H.  Girl in Blue Cardi with Fox Print.

I love it when a little bit of web surfing yields something amazing.  To announce the birth of his son Ty Mattson of Mattson Creative designed the most amazing birth announcement. In his own words:

When I found out that we were going to have a boy, I started to think about my own childhood and all of the things I loved when I was a kid. So I wanted to design an announcement that celebrated those things and captured that particular idea of boyhood wonder and adventure. I created this illustration and worked with the incredible team at Studio on Fire to have it letterpressed on 220lb. Lettra paper. They did a fantastic job on the printing. It really turned out great. I think it’s safe to say that this is my favorite project of all time. And definitely my favorite client.

Here is just a sample of the birth announcement, if you want to see more (and you do) check out the Mattson Creative Blog.

Image source: Mattson Creative

Another of my Etsy Treasury favourites.

I was told a few years ago at a leadership conference that leaders should be like ducks.  Serene and calm on the surface, but underneath paddling like mad to keep things moving.  The same can be said about blogging and participating in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog (31DBBB) Challenge.

I’ve been keeping up with the daily challenges over the past few days, but as they’ve been about behind the scene work it’s been hard to articulate into a blog post. It’s all been valuable work that’s helping me to understand this medium that I like to play in and how to get more out of it for myself and those that would share in what I put out there into the interverse¹.

While I’m not able to share some of the work I’ve been doing behind the scenes I can share with you another task from the Problogger playbook.  I thought it might also be good for those of you thinking about purchasing and completing 31DBBB to see the kind of things that you’ll be doing, and how much fun, information and direction you can get from participating.

It’s the 7 Link Challenge.  The idea is to post links that relate to seven blogging topics.  Topics that highlight your own blog and highlight those that you read and aspire to be like.  Without further ado here’s my response to the 7 Link Challenge:

Your first post:

My first post was definitely not a Pulitzer Prize winning entry.  In fact it was fairly bland in the scheme of things. Not so much a cannon fire of an announcement, more a spitball against a blackboard.  However it served it’s purpose; it got me started!

A post you enjoyed writing the most:

It’s hard to go back through the archives and search for posts because I tend to feel like they all happened yesterday.  The posts that I usually enjoy writing the most are my review posts.  I have an opinion and I love to give it.  One of my favourite review posts has to be the one I wrote for Star Trek.  I left the cinema and headed straight home and it just flowed.  Even now reading back over it I’m really happy with the end result.

A post which had a great discussion:

A month ago Australia got it’s first ever female Prime Minister and I wrote a post about it. While the post received a handful of comments I had a really great time talking to friends, family and tweeters about the event which in turned help inspire me to write the post.  I also found people that read the post off twitter commented back to me through twitter about the post and we were able to talk about it.  I really got a buzz out of that interaction.

A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written:

Damn, talk about a hard question.  I’m torn between being purely egotistical and going for a post that went viral and shot someone to blogging fame.  Or maybe a post that tugs at the heart strings and makes you see the good in humanity.  Even going with a post that makes you laugh.  I guess for me I haven’t ever looked at someone else’s posts and wished I had written them.  I think for me it boils down to the fact that we’re all individuals and we’ve all got amazing things to share.  It’s about getting out there and interacting with the internet and finding those pieces of amazing.

Your most helpful post:

From a purely, how to perspective, it would have to be the only how to I’ve done.  How to make a heat bag.   Although I’d like to think that my Friday Fancies help people come up with gift ideas if they need them.  My Blog Love and Music Monday posts should point people in the direction of new and interesting blogs to check out as well as some interesting play lists.

A post with a title that you are proud of:

This going to sound naff, but I’m quite fond of the title for this post.  I’m starting to think more about my blog and it’s content and that’s all because of this Challenge.  I’m really enjoying the challenge and it’s given me a real push when it comes to getting the blog in shape and getting out and about in Blogland.  I didn’t realize just how much I needed that.

A post that you wish more people had read:

Gosh… can I say all of them.  *laugh*  Difficult question.  I’ve even been through some of the archives looking for something and I can’t really find anything that jumps out and says “People need to know this!”.  I guess there’s posts that I’m proud of the way they reflect who I am and therefore I think if people want to get to know me a bit better then these posts should be read more… two that I can think of are Self Portrait and Cupcake of Doom.

That was a lot harder and took a lot longer than I thought it would.  Damn that Problogger for his insight and thought provoking questions!

¹ I just made that word up, it’s a cross between internet and universe and I’m totally going to play that in my next game of scrabble.

During the week I was cruising my Twitter feed when I came across a tweet from Jessica Hische about Fileteado.  Being the curious gnome I am I turned to wiki and this is what I found:

Fileteado is a type of artistic drawing, with stylised lines and flowered, climbing plants typically used in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is used to adorn all kind of beloved objects, signs, taxis, lorries and even the old Colectivos, Buenos Aires’ buses.

Filetes (the lines in Fileteado style) are usually full of colored ornaments and symmetries completed with poetic phrases, sayings and aphorisms, both humorous or roguish, emotional or philosophical. They have been part of the culture of the Porteños (inhabitants of Buenos Aires) since the beginnings of the 20th century.

So I decided to use this as my inspiration for today’s Flickr Faves.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

1. Yo no vivo del arte, 2. flower firulete, 3. buenos aires, 4. Coca-Cola Porteña

Wanna see more Flickr Faves, or even submit your own, head on over to ArtMind!

I’d like to claim that I’m brilliant and that’s how I came up with my blog tagline, but the sad truth of the matter is that I lifted it from a Split Enz song.  Ironically it’s not my favourite Split Enz song, but the line has always stuck with me.  I have been known on occasion to just break out in song and sing it every now and then when my mind wanders.

I happened to stumble upon this amazing version of the song done with Tim Finn and Eddie Vedder.  It’s quickly worked it’s way up my play rotation so I thought I would share it with you all today.  I hope you enjoy it, I know I do…

This image has captured Mount Isa beautifully, and I’m not just saying that because it was taken by my Dad.  I love night time photography.  It just seems to add a certain sense of magic to scenes.

I think there’s also a level of beauty that night time affords man made objects.  I personally think that the Mount Isa Mines site looks a lot nicer, dare I even say prettier, at night when it’s lit up.

I’m having a proud daughter moment and I can’t wait to see what other images he produces.  He’s certainly in a stunningly beautiful part of the Australian countryside so he should have no end of landscapes waiting to be captured.

The mind truly boggles with this one.  I think he may be too drunk to drive…

Image source: Excelsius

After weeks of slicing, dicing and julienne(ing) the Masterchef Australia contestants the final is airing on Sunday 25 July. The success of this season is epitomized by the fact that the Australian Federal Election Debate was moved from it’s original scheduled time so as not to clash with the finale.  Seems even the politicians don’t want to compete with the wanna be chefs.

I didn’t watch season one, nor do I watch or follow anything to do with the contestants from season one.  For some reason I just didn’t get into it in the first season.  I wasn’t so fortunate to miss the bug this time around.

For the past few weeks I have been captivated by Masterchef Australia and the Masterchef Twitter Feed.  Seems I haven’t been the only one to notice that the popularity of this season is being, in part, fueled by those on Twitter.  Natalie Hambly wrote about the phenomena on 23 July 2010 in the Sydney Morning Herald.  

Some of my favourite moments from the season have come not from the show but from Twitter.  It’s provided an outlet for my snark and outrage at some of the decisions made in relation to the contestants and their performance.  I’m still smarting over the elimination of Marion, and thanks to Twitter I know I’m not alone.

Twitter also provided Chef Neil Perry (Twitter ID: rockpoolgroup) with an outlet to express his feelings about being misquoted by Jonathon Moran in The Sunday Telegraph on 18 July 2010.  The article attributed the following quotes to Perry:

“If you leave MasterChef and think that you are now one of the great chefs of Australia, I think you are probably up for a pretty rough ride,” Perry told The Sunday Telegraph.

“These people are just nobodies with very little experience, and [aided by the show] are able to be exposed and have opportunities. That’s why people go on the show.

“Most of them don’t go on the show thinking they will be opening a restaurant … most go on there to get enough media fame to be able to go on and do more media things.”

“You’ve got to have a really good palate and you’ve got to understand the process if you want to put your own spin on it rather than just put your name on it,” he said.

“And writing a cookbook is a really difficult thing to do.”

In fact, I received this direct message (DM) from rockpoolgroup after posting a tweet about Perry doing a backflip on his comments:

People seemed to be shocked by the comments as they came from a chef that had been a contributor to a number of episodes this season.  Unfortunately people also took it as an opportunity to sink the boot into Perry.  Which is a shame as Perry has done a lot of positive work for the food industry both nationally and internationally, regardless of his personal opinion about a reality television show.

One of my favourite television blogs, Reality Ravings, also posted about Perry’s comments and the majority of the readers seemed to be  in agreement with Perry’s comments.  In fact the comments on the original article seemed to support him in the main as well.  However it didn’t stop him from emailing Matt Preston, Masterchef Host, to clarify his position.  Matt Preston then took to Facebook and posted the email.

Regardless of whether he said it or not, I happen to agree with the comments.  Masterchef Australia is not a trade qualification; it’s a game show.  None of the contestants, even those that win the show, can call themselves Chefs.  They’re just glorified cooks.

The fact that they leave the show and start their own sauce ranges, restaurants or cookbooks is more about putting a celebrity face on a product then being qualified to do something.

The performance of the final two contestants, Adam and Callum, who will battle out on Sunday 25 July, merely supports this position.

Adam has been a consistent performer.  He’s produced quality dishes and always been in the top of the contestants.  However at crucial times his pallet and tendency to overstretch himself have caused him to stumble.

Callum on the other hand has stunned Australia by making it to the final two.  Admittedly, as a 33 year old that did some time in a professional kitchen I would struggle to produce some of the dishes he has delivered, it still doesn’t detract from the fact that he has consistently ignored expert advice, failed to plate dishes for judging and stumbled over simple recipes such as custard.

Let none of us forget the Country Women’s Association challenge where they all failed miserably to make traditional recipes such as lamingtons, fruit cake and jam.  Something that should have been fairly straight forward and basic caused major pitfalls for all the contestants, least of all Adam and Callum.  Interestingly, it was this challenge that pitted Adam and Callum against each other to make lamingtons.  Adam was triumphant in the end plating some of the best food on the day.  However Callum failed to even make a consistently sized product.

It will be interesting to see whether history repeats on the finale.  If I was a betting lass, and history and my bank balance has shown that I am, my money would be on Adam to win.  He has the maturity, calm nature and eye for detail that Callum is missing.

Regardless of the outcome, I’ve had a blast with this show and the interaction on Twitter.  I know my week nights won’t be the same without it, and I’m not alone there.  In fact, Jane over at Life @ Number 8 has posted about this exact problem.  She’s gone so far as to suggest alternative ways to fill the void that will be left by Masterchef Australia. For me, I’ll be replacing one reality television addiction with another and tuning in to Masterchef USA.  Bring on the Ramsey!