Polka Dotty

Other than sewing, guest blogging, and preparing for my upcoming group show, I got a Diana F in the mail the other day, and I've been working on it, making it cute and dotty, for something I'm really excited about. For now, I think I can't tell you much, so some sneak peeks first! 10 other artists are involved in this too. Super excited about the line up of names!

Roast Apricot and Cinnamon Chicken

Today over on The Design Files, I'm sharing a recipe for a yummy cinnamon chicken roast! I'm not usually a cinnamon person, so the fact that this recipe actually works surprises me. Go check it out! Now off to make myself a cup of honey and mint drink. Darren told me last night after I made some mint lemonade, that honey and mint makes a good drink to soothe the nerves. So I shall go try making myself a cup and see if that's true.

Mint Lemonade

Was randomly blog surfing and guess what I found? This amazing mint lemonade recipe! I've been in bed feeling crappy and woozy almost 3/4 of today. And this recipe just makes me want to spring out of bed and make myself a cup! So, just thought I'd share! Oh and speaking of recipe sharing, don't forget to check out today's Soup recipe over on The Design Files! And thanks everyone for all the lovely comments on my new website. 

Design Files Guest Post + New Website!

  






Hi everyone! Who here loves cooking, or even eating for that matter? I know I do! And to share my love for cooking with you all, I will be guest posting over on The Design Files the whole of this week! Yes! 5 recipes, one each day, with drawings and a little write up on each food, all over on the very talented Miss Lucy's blog! Lucy is such a lovely lady! She did a little interview with me last year. Not sure if you've read it before, but here it is in case you missed it! Ah, a whole week of fun foodie recipe sharing! Now that's what I call ace! It's always good to share right? Especially when it comes to cooking and good food I reckon!

You know, I used to be a total horrible kitchen nightmare. I burnt spaghetti. Or rather set it on fire by accident. My paper towel caught fire and burnt bits flew into my vegetable stir fry, my tiramisu was served all wobbly at a dinner party, claypot rice totally tasteless, and the list goes on. But you know, one can learn from mistakes and after cooking everyday for the past three years, watching too much masterchef and cook shows, I've kind of become much better in the kitchen. Well, that's according to Darren! No more fancy funky accidents or fire incidents. Hah. So don't worry, those recipes that I'm sharing, are all tried and tested. No disgusting charred burnt bits, so go have fun and pop on over to The Design Files!

Oh apart from the wonderful guest blogging opportunity, my little artist website is finally up and running! Here it is! It is best viewed on Safari, so hopefully nothing weird happens if you view it on another browser. Thank you Darren for helping me with all the interesting 'computery technical bits'. Without you, I probably would still have no clue how to set everything up!

Spring's here!

It's been awfully cold the past couple of days but it's finally warm and sunny today. So out and about Darren and I went! First on the list, a trip to a tiny little cafe for breakfast. It's kind of near our home, in the south. But we've just never been there before so we thought why not give it a go. They had the cutest spoons and sugar pots.

After breakfast, we took a walk about in Albert Park, looking at pretty houses with cute front porches, did a bit of market shopping and off to a footie grand final barbeque we went. I can't believe it ended in a draw. How anti-climatic. It's like the election all over again! It'll keep appearing in the papers and news until everyone gets so sick of it. Haha. Just so you know, I'm not really a hard-core footie follower. But in case you're wondering, I've been a Saints supporter for the past three years now.

Anyway, footie aside, we went home, and made a nice sicilian seafood stew dinner. So yummy and what a nice way to wind down. What did you do today? Anything fun?

Out take

Just when you think I've posted enough photos from the shoot, here are some more that I like. These out takes were interesting but not as strong as the final images I chose. But still, I kind of liked how they turned out.

Oh and I am glad to announce that I will be launching my website on Monday 27th September. It's a pretty simple, fuss-free website, but with lots of other projects and school, it took me forever to get everything together. So yes, I'm happy I'm finally done with it and it'll be up on Monday. I'm a total dummy at building a website so it's a pretty neat and simple one, the way I like it.

Other than my website launch, I've got another piece of exciting news which I've been trying to keep a secret for. I'll tell you on Monday too! See you here on Monday!

Illustrated recipe

I've been cooking, drawing, and painting. For something exciting, that's happening in a couple of day's time. I will blog about it soon! I really want to let you guys know, but you know, surprises are fun sometimes. Heh!
x

Homemade Minestrone Soup!

Crappy phone photo but look what I made for lunch! You know, I really do not like minestrone soup at all. Simply because all the ones I've had so far, come mostly from the can. And those taste yuck! I never ever liked it at all, and don't ever crave for it. But last Friday, I watched Jaimie Oliver cook up some really yummy looking minestrone soup. So just thought I'd give it a try since Darren likes it. I find it funny because I always associate Minestrone Soup with my dad for some reason. I think he likes it.

Anyway, the thing is, I didn't write down Jaimie's recipe, and I couldn't remember what or how he did it. So I decided to just come up with my own version. Just thought I'd share the recipe, in case any of you Minestrone soup haters out there, need a change in mindsets about the disgusting soup. Enjoy!

Homemade Minestrone Soup:
6 Cloves garlic smashed
2 Red onions
4 Carrots
4 Stalks Celery
2 Cups Frozen peas
2 Chunks Gravy Beef ( or any amount you want, really )
1 Parsnip
4 Tomatoes
2 Potatoes
1 zucchini
1 Packet Bacon
1 Packet small shell pasta
1l Chicken stock
1.5l water
1 bunch Basil
1 jar Red Wine and Basil tomato pasta sauce
Few sprigs Thyme, or 4 tbs Thyme from the jar
*Dice up/chop every ingredient/vegetable. 


In a big pot, heat good amount of olive oil till hot, add red onions, garlic, fats off the beef, beef, and bacon. When onions turn somewhat transparent, add carrots and parsnip. Fry for approx 3 minutes, add celery, potatoes, peas, zucchini, tomatoes, thyme. Turning and adding a bit more oil if vegetables start sticking to the pot. 


Fry for 5 minutes, add chicken stock, water, pasta sauce, pasta and basil. Cover and simmer till cooked. Add salt and pepper to taste, and simmer for an extra 5 minutes. Before serving, drizle over soup, a bit of extra virgin olive oil, and some shaved parmesan or pecorino if you like cheese. If not, just he soup's fine too!

Enjoy and let me know, if you make it! : )
x

Behind the scenes

It's Friday! Finally the weekend's here. It's been such a long dreary week! So just thought I'd inject a bit of humour by showing you some random photos from the shoot. As you can tell from the images, lots of toppling and wriggling was involved. Haha. Oh and have you seen the film photos of the shoot, over at Jacinta's blog? They made me smile first thing this morning! You should go check them out. She's such a clever lady!

Have a great weekend everyone!
x

Keeping busy

Last weekend, Darren and I went cycling around the South, near the beach. We passed some tracks and got a basket full of wild flowers. Now my home smells nice and my dining table looks pretty. I've been sitting in my dining room, next to these plants for the past few days, just working and drawing early in the morning till late afternoon. All while sitting somewhat in the sun, watching lots of Oprah and Ellen on the tv. Nice! Somehow talk shows makes me concentrate better. Strange, no?

Oh and thank you so much for all the lovely comments and emails about my previous post! So nice hearing what others think about my work! I promised you guys more photos so I will be posting more up tomorrow! Sorry blogging has been a bit on the slow side this week. I've been pretty busy with illustrating lots of nice yummy recipes and drawing some niceness for a magazine I love! More on that soon I promise!

PS: Those lovely cups are from Sarah. Thanks Sarah! Apparently they're made in Germany. I think they go really well with some yellow flowers sitting in them.

Homebodies

Shot on a Nikon D90, by Jacinta Moore
I met the wonderful Jacinta on Saturday and we spent a whole afternoon shooting these pictures. I had in mind a really relaxed, no-fuss, no prior planning, sort of photoshoot. With my sculptures feeling all cosy at home. As if they've become humans! So yes, these photos came out of that idea. And Jacinta shot them all, while I wore most of the costumes and Darren helped with all the fitting and he 'acted' as the Muesli bar too! I was way too short for that 2.2m bar. I have so so much more photos to show you guys, but just thought I should do it post by post and not explode into a big picture frenzy here. I'll be showing more pictures bit by bit!

But yes, thank you so much Jacinta, without you, this shoot wouldn't even be possible at all! Thanks for offering your beautiful home, and of course, your awesome talent! Because of all the plants, I've started growing lots of them myself! Thanks for having two sweet pups Frankie and Poppy too! You doggies were such fun! Oh and Darren, thanks so much for trying to squeeze a giant 2m muesli bar in our cosy 2 door car, along with 2 other huge sculptures, for holding it up while we asked you to swing it on the swing, and juggling every bit of it. And for driving around from South to North to West and everywhere else.

Oh what a weekend! Apart from the shoot, I did some baking, cooking and collected some awesome stuffing and crafty supplies from Sarah. Thank you Sarah for your generosity! I'm already using those stuffing bits! I went cycling too, and got a whole big bunch of wild flowers. Now my table smells nice.

I really didn't want to get out of bed at all this morning. Unfortunately I had to wake up extra early to move my sculptures from home back into my studio, which by the way is all filled and full to the brim. I'm getting a bit frustrated just working in there. Because of the scale of my super-sized sculptures, there really isn't any space left!

Alright, off to go find some space for me to work on my 3m long Ritz Cracker sculpture. Ah.

x

Nana's homemade scones

The weekend's here again, and I like baking and cooking during the weekends. So just thought I'd share a little recipe. I always use this recipe when I want some scones. It's easy, fast and pretty yummy! Just mix everything up ( except icing sugar, butter and jam ), spoon bits of it onto a baking tray ( lined with baking paper ) and bake it at about 150 degrees and for maybe 15 minutes? They cook pretty quick so you've got to watch them. I'd say check after 10 minutes. I like it warm, so you can just let it rest for about 5 mintues and then have it fresh with some nice cold cream and jam. Oh yum!

If you like cheese

You might like this! Not so sure what sort of cheese you like. But I'm a parmesan, mozerella cheese kind of girl. Actually that's about all the kinds of cheese I know, eat. I don't really know the difference and I just like cheese when it's nice, stringy and stretchy on my pizza or pasta. Oh I like pecorino cheese too. But I think that's about it. I can't take blue cheese at all. I think it has a really rich taste to it that my taste buds can't handle. Sadly, my taste buds love cheap cheese. Haha.

Thanks for all the re-blogging, re-tweeting and emails with regards to my 'Pillow donation'! So far, I've got 8 pillows, a quilt comforter and a couple of garbage bags worth of styrofoam pellets. Oh yay to recycling and more art making! I still need plenty of pillows so do keep spreading the word! Thanks!

Donate your pillows to me please!

Yes! You heard me. I am looking for old pillows or cushions that you no longer want. Instead of throwing them away, why not give it to me so I can make art out of it! See those food packaging artworks on the wall ( in the background ), I need to stuff them with plenty of pillows so they'll be nice and squishy! Bean bag stuffing is way too expensive for me to afford, especially when I need so much of it, and even those packaging pellets aren't cheap either! So I'm asking for donations and hoping someone, anyone, will be able to help me with it. I've worked out the costs and I really can't afford buying pillows. So I thought a 'pillow donation' would be the best thing to do! You see, by giving me your old pillows instead of throwing them away, you would be recycling! Wouldn't it be nice to know that through such a simple act, you would be helping an artist!

So if you'd like to help out in any way, email me at dawntanwenyi@gmail.com
Oh and please help spread the word, re-blog, re-tweet, facebook, etc!

Thank you so super much!! x

This week's trip to the market

Lots and lots of nice green vegetable and coriander. I love coriander. A lot. I know a lot of people find coriander gross but I think it's one of the nicest yummiest vegetables/garnish around. I put it in my soups, on fish, chicken and everything. Darren made chicken rice tonight and we had heaps of coriander with it. So yummy. I made peach shortbread for dessert. Peaches are not in season though, so we used canned peaches. Still good if you like peaches! I think both Darren and I spent over 3 hours in the kitchen cooking and baking. Nice way to end the weekend I reckon.

Oh and I made a tiny strawberry the other day. I think I might make more soon!

Sculpture Collection

My studio's getting way too crowded, with all my soft sculptures overtaking my studio space. In case you're wondering what the red one on the table is, it's going to become a Cheese Ritz box! I've been busy sewing like a frazzled artist, hiding behind my sewing machine from morning till evening. It's crazy and tiring! But I'm loving every minute of it. It's kind of fun, in a weird way I guess. It's addictive!

Anyway, a lot of you have been emailing me to ask what's up with all my sculptures and why I'm making them. Well, firstly, they are made large to represent their power over us, the product-buying, packaging-influenced consumers. I think it's amazing how over the decades, the concept of consumption and food has revolved into this whole giant GM, packaged industry. Have you ever walked around in a supermarket where it's almost 85% packaged food, as opposed to 'natural foods'? Wasn't food meant to be all natural and organic? But then again, who doesn't buy packaged food? I know I do. In fact, I buy packaged food all the time because I'm drawn to it's packaging. Now, anyone here identify with me? So yes, these sculptures serve as my personal commentary to the whole idea of consumption and it's my take on what food really is, in our world today.

Hope that bit there helped you to understand my work a bit better. It's late and I'm sleepy so it's bit 'all over the place'. So I hope you get the idea. Alright, this post was meant to be short but I got carried away. Oops! Have a great weekend everyone!
x

It's Spring!

Today marks the first day of Spring! I was expecting some nice sunshine but you know, it's Melbourne we're talking about. And so it rained almost the entire day today. Oh bugger! But well, there's always a nice side to rainy weather. At least I'll still be able to wear my nice mustard knit scarf and not feel too warm! Anyway, thank you so much for all the lovely comments about my room! For those of you who asked questions, I've done a rather long 'reply to all' comment in the same post!