Do you have a uniform?

In the past year, I've gone from uni student to being a little pregnant, heavily pregnant, newly a mama and now basically back to where I was beforehand. Well that's not entirely true - I am now a size up from where I was before but given it's my beautiful childbearing hips that have changed shape, and my lovely baby-feeding breasts that have also gotten in on the party, I'm not complaining!

So on the weekend I went to a clothes swap, where a lot of my size 10 tops and dresses went to a good home and my size 7.5 shoes to the same home, while I picked up a couple of tops, two dresses, some light pants, a singlet or two and some flat shoes. I got rid of two pairs of court shoes for a few other things, and a scarf or two I think. I feel that I got as good as I gave, which is important as it's all in my head - there's no measuring or transacting going on with this, just people contributing then taking.

Anyway, what I did notice in the clothes that I chose, is that I have a uniform. Something like, during Winter:

• jeans and a fitted top and a vest
• jeans and a dress
• skirt, knee high socks, Mary Jane shoes and a top, with or without a vest
• pants and v-neck sweater
• skivvy and vest and long swishy skirt

Very preppy I guess, if I had to describe it. It makes shopping easy as I found the other day - I bought a vest to replace my outgrew from ones, and suddenly I had an entirely NEW wardrobe for winter. If I need a new pair of shoes, it's a pair of Mary Janes or sneakers. A new top - of a few colours (bright jewel colours), perhaps black or white at a pinch. It makes me life easy and I think I look good.

So what's your uniform?

More about me

I asked for some questions from the audience just the other day!

so you already blog about studying midwifery... but i'd like to know how it came about... how did you choose midwifery?

and what's your favourite vegetable? :)

Katrine from My Feet Move Forwards asked the above. Um. I barely remember really :). That sound - is the gears in my brain grinding!

I wanted to be a midwife back in 1996 when I finished school, but back then it was a huge trek to finish - nursing, then 3 years experience, then another degree I seem to remember. So not something a 16 year old could commit to! So instead I did forensic and analytical chemistry, became a public servant, moved to Canberra, then Sydney, became a tax consultant, met to-be-TheHusband, got to a point in my career where I had to go back to do law to go any further, so moved back to Adelaide and changed careers into worker's compensation, hated that and quit/go fired, and suddenly had no plan B, so got a job in retail (which I love) and went back to school.

What drew me then was an interest in the most amazing process evah encapsulated in childbirth, a fascination with bodies and health, an assessment by a career counsellor that I'd be great in health care but not with sick people, and an interest in working with women and for women, who are not in a position of priviledge.

Favourite vegetable - that's a hard one. I would have to say pumpkin. I love pumpkin. In fact my afternoon involves a butternut pumpkin from last week's FoodConnect box. I love it roasted, and boiled, and sauteed, and in soups, curries and pasta dishes, with salt and pepper and butter or with cheese or with feta in filo or with vegetables in a soup, or so many other ways!

My favourite way at the moment is to cook pumpkin in a curry and it mushes down and thickens it a lot and gives it a great orange glow to it. Try it next time you make one! Pumpkin is so well suited to the flavours of curry - the nutmeg and cinnamon and chilli and garam masala and so on - and suits meat well as well.

My house smells like muffins

In my younger days, when the internet was brand new and the world was a less stressed place, there was a thing called IRC and I spent a lot of time on there instead of studying. My nicknames was muffin cause I loved making them. Sweet and savoury - REALLY cheap eats for a student and filling.

I have perfected my recipe for a sweet muffin which is not too sweet, not cakey, and easily adapted to any fruit you've got around. I made some for us today as a breakfast treat because we have a weekend off together for the first time in ages. I thought I'd share my recipe. Please note that this is not a sweet or cakey muffin. They freeze well if wrapped up when still a little warmer than room temperature.

Melted butter for greasing the muffin tins, or a spray on oil, or muffin cases
2t garam masala or cinnamon or all spice
3/4C brown sugar
2C (300g) plain flour
1T baking powder
2 medium apples, cored and chopped (and peeled if you don't like the peel)
3/4C sultanas or nuts or seeds (optional)
125g salted butter, melted in a microwave-safe jug
2 eggs
3/4C milk or half milk half yoghurt or sour cream

Put the brown sugar and spice into a bowl. Sift the plain flour and baking powder together on top. I add a pinch extra to ensure that the muffins aren't too cakey and dense. Use a fork to mix the sugar and flour and spice together. Toss the apple into the flour and mix in well. Once the butter is cooled, add the milk and then the eggs to the same jug - less chance of them cooking that way! Whisk well. Pour into a well in the flour. Using a wooden spoon, mix together imperfectly - make sure you can't see any flour, and can't see any puddles of liquid.

Spoon into a pre-prepared muffin tin. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes. With lots of apple you'll get 16 or so regular-sized muffins. Eat hot or cold, with butter or lemon curd.

Savoury muffins - to make them, the recipe as written is fine as long as you have 1.5C or so of fairly dry filling that is ready to eat and remove the spice obviously. If it's less, or if it's wet, then you need to reduce the milk by a little or bake a little longer. Some filling suggestions:

- any fruit, and appropriate spices
- ham
- feta
- mozzerella
- sundried tomatoes
- salmon and dill
- cooked vegetables

Respect is not demanded but it is commanded

The title actually has nothing to do with anything. Have some pictures to cheer yourself up.

The Rules:
1) Answer each of the questions below and search for the answer using the Flickr Search engine.
2) Choose a photo from the first three pages for each question.
3) Copy the URL of your favorite photo into this site (you'll want to set it up to have four columns and three rows to get a result like mine).
4) Printscreen, crop, save mosaic to some form of photo hosting thing and share with the world!

1. First Name (Emma)
2. Favorite Food (mint)
3. Hometown (Adelaide)
4. Favorite Color (orange)
5. Celebrity Crush (David Tenant)
6. Favorite Drink (creamy cocktail)
7. Dream Vacation (Paris)
8. Favorite Dessert (berry pie)
9. What I Want To Be When I Grow Up (midwife and mother)
10. What I Love Most In The World (love)
11. One Word That Describes Me (creative)
12. My LiveJournal Name

1. Emma Watson, 2. chocolate mint cupcake, 3. A Day Out, 4. orange for orange day!, 5. Thoroughly Good People, 6. Creamy chocolate cocktail, 7. Last day in Paris, 8. 3 Berry Pie, 9. It's a GIRL!!!, 10. he loves me/he loves me not., 11. "Creative Hands" - Mindy, 12. for badylugz (which hasn't shown up but click the link to see!)

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Before: , During: , After:

More photos are on Flickr oddly enough. It's a response to stress in part (exams, uni being horrible, work, injury, Centrelink... how much more can a girl handle?) but is also because I love love love having short hair. It's not that long ago that I had short hair that was also kind of blonde (it was more Tweety Bird than the lemon it is now though):


That was my 25th birthday, 3.5 years ago. I just threw the watch away as I'd worn the silver coating off it and it now left green marks on my arm. The necklace I still own and love to pieces. And the dress for that matter!

More about me

I'm a late-20 something year old women from Adelaide. I live in a rented home (half a house and my neighbours annoy me) with my manfriend and a kitty. I have a bright yellow car and (currently) a scooter. I do a lot of crafty things. I am working towards being a midwife, which is truly my calling. I love dancing, the colour red, peppermint, coffee and lamb more than chicken.

In 2007, I had an accident that has left me dealing with lots of fun things like insurance companies, left shoulders, lawyers, university, surgery, the future, rehabilitation and everything else, so there may be some things about that on here.

At some point soon I will get married. We're not getting weddinged though so no bridal pr0n or bridezilla moments on here though! We're having a destination wedding to New Zealand but y'all not invited - it's more polite for me to say "we're eloping" but I still get to talk about things here, right?