the fountainside.

A couple of times each year, our family spend a week at a family beach house on the central coast. This summer, we’re here for five weeks. The place is starting to feel like a home away from home.

I admit, I’m terribly unadventurous when it comes to holidays. Although I enjoy exploring new places now and then, I absolutely love going to the same place year after year, revisiting old haunts and creating memories for our family in years to come.

How do you like to holiday? Some place familiar or new?

Today is my last regular post for the Fountainside until mid-January next year. We’ve finally moved out of Newtown and will enjoy a nomadic existence for a while – getting plenty of rest until we find a more permanent place to live next year.

I’ll still be checking in now and then with posts, links and the odd holiday snap or two, so if you haven’t added me to your RSS feed, what are you waiting for? And send me a link to your part of the world. I’ll need lots of good browsing fodder in between the knitting, swimming and reading.

I’m looking forward to writing here again in 2012 (and already bursting with ideas on how to make this blog better!). But until then, much rest is needed.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone.
xoxo

Image by peggyhr

Being someone who loved art at school, I’ve always looked forward to enjoying creative pursuits with my children – whether it be painting,  story-telling, craft or just imaginary play.

So when the little man was about a year old, I eagerly went out and bought crayons, sponge rollers, paint and an apron. Oh the glorious afternoons we would spend, I thought. Drawing pictures! Getting messy with paint! Being Creative! In reality, I spent 10 minutes setting up the newspapers and paint; he took 50 seconds to rip the paper, sit in the paint and lose interest in the whole thing. Even today, the little man would much rather run around in the dirt or sit in a paddling pool than do craft. And I’m fine with that. It takes half an hour to set up craft activities and clean up the mess afterwards, compared to 10 seconds to strip him down to his nappy and send him outside.

But when the little man gets a little older, I’m looking forward to exploring this magazine with him (pictured left).

Big Kids Magazine is a 60-page, biannual contemporary arts publication for children. With kids on the editorial team (the senior editor is eight years old) and artists invited to contribute, it consists of various projects where children and artists collaborate together to create amazing things. The aim is to provide a platform for both children and their parents to engage with art together (and hopefully inspire homemade creations). Creator Lilly Blue shares her vision on Girl With A Satchel:

“We love the idea that parents and children share the BIG pages and that they might provoke conversations and side-by-side creativity. It is interactive at heart and we love that kids draw directly on the pages to immediately personalise it and make their unique mark.”

“Hopefully these collaborative projects inspire similar projects to be created between siblings or parents and kids on kitchen tables or bedroom floors.”

I love this idea. I’m also looking forward to taking the little man to the Museum of Contemporary Art to do the Art Safari workshops. I helped out on this program years ago, while doing an internship at the MCA, and had so much fun.

What kind of creative activities did you enjoy growing up? How do you encourage your kids to be creative?

Image by Ernst Vikne

Canned tuna is one food item that divides the population. In my experience, people tend to fall into two categories: those who love the stuff, and those who hate it. I belong to the former group. For years, my work lunch staple was a can of tuna mixed with cucumber, couscous, tomatoes and – if I was feeling a bit fancy – Greek yoghurt. Cheap, healthy and oh so tasty.

Some tuna brands are better than others. We generally err towards budget friendly options when grocery shopping, but when it comes to tuna it’s worth splurging for the best. Bad tuna is nasty stuff. My favourite brand was Sirena, until I found they were the least environmentally sustainable. We now use John West or Safcol. You can find out more about which brands are good for the environment on the Greenpeace Australia website.

We’ve been on the move this week and eating a lot of canned tuna – in sandwiches, fried with a bit of rice and soy sauce, with pasta. A while ago I compiled some tuna recipes that are a notch above the old casserole, which I thought I’d share.

 1. Creamy tuna, sundried tomato and caper spaghetti, from Taste.com. This is a regular staple in our house – the tomato and capers makes it a bit special.

2. Kedgeree, from BBC Good Food. I know most recipes use fresh fish when using kedgeree, but I’ve always made mine using tinned tuna. Thhe BBC recipe is the closest to my own. It makes a great lunch in summer.

3. Fancy tuna dip, from Not Quite Nigella. I haven’t tried it, but it sounds fantastic).

Each Wednesday, I write a post about what I cooked the day before. What went down in your kitchen? Got any good tuna recipes to share?

Following up on my post about Disney Princesses last Friday, I thought I’d share the trailers for two movies that have a slightly different take on the classic fairytale ingenue.

The first is Disney Pixar’s latest animation blockbuster, Brave. The main character looks a bit like a female Braveheart, with wild red hair and killer archery skills.

The second is the latest fairytale to undergo a more adult reconstruction. Kristen Stewart (Bella from the Twilight movies) plays Snow White in Snow White and The Huntsman. With body armour, fighting skills and numerous action scenes, she’s somewhat different from the classic image of Snow White. Doesn’t Charlize Theron look perfect in her role as the evil Queen?

I’m looking forward to watching both these movies for different reasons. Pixar do a great job of making movies that both adults and children can enjoy (Up, Wall.E and Ratatouille spring to mind). And I’m thoroughly enjoying the recent spate of Tim Burton-esque fairytales with their sumptuous cinematography and epic vision.

Watching a princess with weapons is an added bonus.

What do you think of these films? Would you watch them? Would you take your kids to see Brave?

Growing up, I loved Disney princesses. I had a Princess Jasmine doll and a Beauty And The Beast sticker book. I watched Sleeping Beauty obsessively. I knew all the songs from The Little Mermaid off by heart.

My parents never thought my obsession with princesses was a problem. Had they raised me in 2011, they may have felt differently. The tide is turning against Cinderella and her tribe, with books like Cinderella Ate My Daughter and media commentators claiming they’re unhelpful role models for girls. The argument has some legs. While Dora goes exploring and Bob the Builder has a co-worker named Wendy, Disney princesses teach young girls to sing, simper and run away when the going gets tough. Oh, and wait for Prince Charming to come along. Because he always does.

I do wonder if critics have been fair to Disney. For starters, not all the princesses are passive. Ariel is ambitious in her determination to live in the outside world. Jasmine refuses to be married off to the first available suitor. Belle is intelligent and bookish. Need I go into Mulan? It’s also clear our culture favours certain personality traits over others. Nearly all the princesses are kind, compassionate and patient when it comes to suffering. But rather than being a strength, these traits are seen as weaknesses; inferior qualities compared to sassy, ‘gutsy’ or financially independent modern-day heroines.

I do have some niggling concerns about the Disney princess phenomenon.

1. They’re heavily marketed to young girls. While some argue they’re just fairytales and parents should just stop renting the DVDs if they’re concerned, Disney’s rampant marketing means it’s just not that easy. Princess pencil cases, Princess pyjamas, even Princess tubs of yoghurt can be found in most supermarkets and department stores. Is it just harmless fluff, or are there implicit messages being sold to our children? (P.S. read Mark Hadley’s piece for a great article on raising kids in an age of mass marketing and consumerism, found here.)

2. Beauty – more specifically long hair, heels and a tiny waist – is celebrated as what makes these women special. While there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with a girl wanting to be beautiful, it can be hard to help daughters look beyond physical appearance when they’re fed a steady diet of dainty figures and golden hair.

3. The central role of Prince Charming. I’ll admit, there are some positive aspects to the tall, dark and handsome man who inevitably sweeps a Disney princess off her feet. He’s chivalrous. He’s loyal. He protects his beloved as a precious object, rather than treating her like a one-night stand. But I wonder if Prince Charming is a precursor to the rom com’s Mr Right – an object to be idolised, waited upon and hoped for. I wouldn’t want any girl to grow up thinking she needs a wedding and Prince Charming in order to have a happy ending.

Unless you’re Amish or live in a yurt, I’d wager it’s impossible to steer your daughter away from all things Disney. Nor would you necessarily want to. Girls do grow up, eventually. I did. Although I loved watching Disney princesses as a child, I also read widely and had other ‘heroines’ (Anne of Green Gables, Lucy from the Narnia Chronicles and Gee from Captain Planet spring to mind). I went to a school which encouraged young girls to pursue different interests. And I certainly didn’t spend my teenage years waiting for Prince Charming. While there may be aspects of Disney’s princess culture to be wary of, perhaps the answer lies closer to helping daughters navigate through life, rather than boycotting products.

But really, I’d love to know what you think. Is the Disney Princess harmless fun, or a dangerous role model for girls?

…watching my son play with his precious matchbox cars.

Glasshouse candles (I have this one).

The Christian song The Saving One by Starfield.

Tell me, what are you loving at the moment?

Not burnt toast, thankfully.

Have you ever had one of those nights when a ruined dinner is the catalyst for an impromptu pity party?  Last night was one of those nights. I spent most of the day chasing interview subjects for an article I’m writing, so by the time the evening came, I was feeling frazzled and tired. The next few hours then consisted of one angry toddler, one empty fridge, one emergency dash to the shops for dinner supplies with angry toddler in tow, two pees on the floor and about a million ants invading the bathtub when I went upstairs to wash the angry toddler.

Then, while frantically making pumpkin risotto (it was already well past the little man’s dinner time), I managed to tip the entire contents of the salt grinder into the pot. All of it. Straight into my risotto.

Cue the pity party (though unlike last time, I managed to hold back on the yelling and tears).

It’s not the first time I’ve unwittingly dumped the entire contents of a grinder into my food, as I have a bad habit on not screwing lids on properly. Dinner went in the bin, but there were some upsides. The little man was delighted with his tub of yoghurt and fell asleep immediately at 7pm – a rarity in the past few weeks. And when the husband got home, he went out and fetched me this:

It’s a felafel pita pocket and hot chips from an Israeli cafe called Sababba’s, one of my favourite takeaway places on King St, Sabbaba’s. Soooo gooood. You can read a review here. For some reason, takeaway food always tastes better when consumed at the end of a stressful day.

Every Wednesday, I write a post about what I cooked the night before. What about you? What’s your favourite takeaway remedy?

Browsing bookstores is one of my favourite past-times. I love lingering along the shelves, pulling out titles that take my fancy or skim reading books that I’ve seen reviewed in the papers. There’s something about the tactile nature of paper that makes my heart sing. A Kindle just isn’t the same.

So Deborah Cameron (ABC Radio) piqued my interest last week, when she interviewed the owner of a Mosman bookstore. Apparently booksellers are campaigning for the government to remove the GST on books, claiming the tax makes it impossible for Australian bookstores to compete with online services and the UK (where books have no GST) and online services.

The conversation quickly turned to all the things you can get from independent bookstores that you can’t get from mega-stores (i.e. the now defunct Borders) and online: workshops, interviews with authors and book readings, someone you can talk to for recommendations and the latest books on the market.

But there is one issue. Price. Paying $30 for a book is pretty steep when you can easily get the same title for half that price online. I’m in the habit of browsing a bookstore, making a mental list of all the books I want to buy and slowly acquiring them through Book Depository or as birthday presents. I’ve also been making good use of second-hand book shops and our local library since moving to Newtown. Is it just me, or does borrowing books seem like something no-one does anymore?

A part of me feels disloyal for choosing price over supporting independent book stores when it comes to buying books (I get the same, icky feeling when I choose cage eggs over free range ones at the supermarket).

What about you? Where do you buy your books? In stores? Online? Kindle? Second hand? Do you just borrow books from your friends?

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