Category: <span>Experiments</span>

Published September 25, 2009 by

And so life morphs again

teach-australia-logoI haven’t been able to talk about this before and suddenly I am free to, in many ways it has happened very quickly and in others it has taken an age. Earlier this year Geoff (Husband) started seriously considering what it would take to drop I.T and  become a secondary school teacher. We had a look at some of the options: going back to do a postgrad and what that would involve, particularly as I’m just about to finish uni and find a real job. Then this program Teach for Australia came on the the radar. And why not? Geoff just came in under the 5 year limit for having left uni, so he applied. And within a week had an interview. And not long after that, the interview, which went well. And a week or so after that it became a reality. That’s the bit that happened quickly.

The biggest thing – besides a complete career change for Geoff is that Teach for Australia requires you to be ‘placed’. Many of the locations are rural as the program puts you in a ‘disadvantaged’ (in some way shape or form) school. As much as I don’t really care a dot where we move (I actually quite like moving now and then as I’m so used to it and to be honest I’m really sick of the current house we’re in), I would like to use my degree and get a job. The further you roam from the city, the less frequent graphic design jobs get. So we waited. Put preferences in: Northern Metro (still a decent move, but closest to family/friends/current community and getting to the city is still feasible), Western Metro (closer to the city but further from family/friends/current community), Shepparton (change of plans, we’re moving to the country, far far away, but we can save money because living in woop woop is cheap). And waited, and waited. And last night we got a phone call.

We’re moving North.

There are a number of other things that have/will make the whole processes easier in regards to living situation and some ties with people over there, but I might hold off to talk about that stuff. Geoff talked to his work today – rather than waiting until minimum time (because of various circumstances), and thankfully he has a job until he needs it. Which is primary reason I haven’t mentioned this earlier.

In November, Geoff wanders off and does 6x days a week for 3 weeks live on campus intensive training, comes back over Christmas for 2 weeks and then off again for another 3. I’m naturally quite pooed about the whole I practically not seeing him during this time, but it gets us where we need to go, so I’ll have to suck it up and use the time to pack the house.

I have every confidence Geoff will make an exceptional teacher, I think it suits him far more than IT does and he has plenty of support (coming from a family of teachers).

So. Lots of changes ahead. And I shall be blogging them, despite this place having been so poorly tended in the past six months.

Geoff is blogging his teachering antics at Son of a Teacher Man

Experiments Life

Published August 29, 2009 by

How to cover a cake in chocolate and then rescue the ensuing mess

I made this cake for my sister’s 21st party she is a patisserie chef in training, so it was a daunting task to begin with, she gave me tips for doing the cake covering, naturally things still went wrong, but the rescue attempt from my ever so vaguely artistic brain came into action and it came out not half bad. First time I’ve ever done something close to this (except make the tiramisu cake).

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1. Make a tiramisu cake from this recipe. Carefully transfer to a nice plate, I sat the underneath of the pan outside of the edges (mostly because I couldn’t find the proper base) but it made it easier to get out. Cut your greaseproof paper to size (a little higher than the edge of the cake, use string to measure diameter etc).

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2. Carefully remove the edge. Run a knife around the edge first, it should slide off quite eaisly. Squash any cake that goes astray back into it. The cake is made of squashed cake so it’s quite alright to be a bit ‘mud-pie’.

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3. Nice. Not bad, but this is why we’re covering it in chocolate. You can serve it this way if you like. Dump some cream on top (or left over tia-maria cream) and coat with shaved chocolate. Or…

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4. Find a metal or glass bowl and sit it over a saucepan of water, heat the water and stir the chocolate constantly. I used 1 pack of chocolate melts, there was plenty.

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6. Looking good, keep stirring.

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7. Spread the chocolate over the paper like a maniac, coat it, smooth it out and get the edge as straight as you can. In hindsight I should’ve spread the chocolate all the way to the edge to get it straight… why I didn’t I don’t know!.

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8. Leave the chocolate a little bit, I think this is where I went wrong (left it too late) apparently just as it’s losing it’s gloss. Wrap the cake KEEP IT SMOOTH (here’s also where I kind of screwed up).

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9. You can peel off the paper fairly quickly. Do it carefully. Cry if you break it.

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10. Hmmm. kind of crinkly – not much you can do about that. But the top edge, ergh! That’s not how it’s meant to look. Search the creative depths of your soul for a solution. Attempt to crack off some of the top to get it a little more even. Vaguely better, but not much. Try a hot spoon on the top, that kind of helps… hmmm

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11. Genius! After making funky middle strawberry. Brainwave hits to use cut pieces around the edge to hide the mess.

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12. This was the mess of leaving the chocolate a little too late. Nothing can be done! So stop worrying and put that edge to the back when you serve it.

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13. And it now doesn’t look half bad!

cake1

Cooking Experiments

cover a cake in chocolate rescue a cake

Published July 7, 2009 by

Etsy and making things

rabbitYou may recall the rabbit, with whom I am slightly in love and would love to hang on the wall instead of prop up on top of a bookshelf but am confounded by living in rental. He comes from Etsy seller MademoiselleG. And speaking of which – Australia dwellers – now is a good time to buy overseas Etsy things.

I have a few endeavors floating around in my head – that involve making things:

  • The first is to have a go at some more painting – something less abstract.
  • To dry felt (which I have not done, but have seen done and it looks simple enough) a moe onto a grey felt laptop case – which I will also make. I’m not a huge fan of most dry felting (in how it looks) but this idea works in my head.
  • To finally get hold of my dad’s electric sander so I can finish the pallet coffee table
  • Learn how to knit better i.e. quickly and nicely enough to make something worth keeping

I really rather enjoy trying new things, making things, growing things, changing things. Would love, love, love to do a short illustration course, but not sure where to find one that lines up with what I want to do. All the uni short-courses are about traditional line drawing people and portraits and I just want to do the err, cutesy stuff.

  • I also need to make becmatheson.com look more presentable and update the hell out of it
  • Write more (of calibre and not just blog entries)
  • A bookbinding course would also be fun, and useful!

Other exciting things happening to indulge myself are that Cat and I and who knows who else are starting a book club based on that plethora of Penguins. I am quite excited. Although not sure how I’ll go talking about books as my short term memory is appalling. Notes Rebecca. Notes.

Things I will probably never get into:

  • Quilting/Patchwork (sorry ladies, I’m just not a fan – except of the very very traditional ones and then only rare cases, most of them look naff)
  • Tapestry/Needlework
  • Making my own clothes – I could be convinced, but I’d doubt I’d have the patience
  • Cross-stitch – had my stint of this when I was younger, now it’s like pixelly pictures but WAY less cool.

Create Design Experiments Holidays

Published June 23, 2009 by

Pot of Herbs

herbs

Lets see if I can grow something… I used to like gardening when I was younger. So can’t be bothered putting in any effort while in a rental though.

Chives, Parsley, Basil, Mint.

Just the basics.

Experiments Holidays Life Sustainable

Published June 22, 2009 by

Painted

painting

Shock horror, I can paint. Yes I cheated and used a technique from a book called The Weekend Artist, but I needed something to kick me up the bum and suggest again to myself that I could.

I’ve never really done abstracty stuff before with paint, nor have I ever used gel medium. Infact for a while it looked like there was snot all over the top section of the painting until I bought a little more red paint to the rescue, dont’ think I’ve quite got the hang of using it properly. Gel medium can be used to make acryllics looks a bit more like oils and it took freaking forever to dry in this lovely cold Melbourne – I might as well have used oils. In this photo the varnish on the lower half is still drying.

It’s no masterpiece, but it sure was fun!

Design Experiments Holidays