Caturday XXXIII

It's Caturday!  The day I dedicate to The Kitten and her cuteness, and invite you to do the same with your kitties!

Today, the cat's in the bag!!  Hahaha.  I think I've already mentioned that one of The Kitten's favourite pasttimes is hiding in bags.  Here she is, up to some shenanigans.

Got a kitty related post?  Just pop the deets in Mr Linky below.



Have a great Caturday!

7700 people can't be wrong

Look what I made!

In hindsight I should have taken some photos with the cowl unfolded, but c'est la vie right?  I made this for Lil Sis, after she bought some yarn to try to knit and gave up because she found it too boring.  I took it off her hands and whipped this up for her.  Just in time for Summer!  ha!

I asked her to model it for me.  She is much cooler than me, look at her awesome tattoo!

Pattern:  Honey Cowl.  I wasn't convinced about this pattern until the very end.  It comes out nice and squishy, but not too stiff.  I made a few errors, like accidentally doing two rows of knit, and messing up the sl st/purl sequence, but I don't think they are noticeable at all.
Needles: 5.00mm circulars. 
Yarn: Moda Vera Pure Wool 8ply.  Softened up quite nicely on washing.
Ravelled here

-Linking with-
Tami's Amis FO Fridays | Fiber Arts Fridays at Wisdom Begins in Wonder | Natural Suburbia for Creative Fridays | I've Made Friday at SusanD1408 Crochet Addict | I ♥ Fridays at Petals to Picots

Pfft Halloween

As an Aussie, I am entirely justified in saying pfft Halloween.

As a child, Halloween was only that thing we saw when watching American TV shows, and was always dismissed as being American.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but the States were just, not us, you know?

Fast forward twenty years and stores are pushing Halloween paraphernalia out the wazoo.  What the hell dudes?  Kids are starting to trick-or-treat.  This offends me. 

To be honest, I don't even know what Halloween is.  It's apparently to celebrate the end of Summer?  Well, hello Australia, we're in Spring now.  SPRING DAMMIT!.  So, what relevance does Halloween have to us?  I just see it as a way for greedy kids to try to con free lollies out of me.  I have news for you greedy kids:  it ain't gonna happen.  If you knock on my door tonight, you'll be getting a blank stare.  I refuse to play along.  Actually, I really don't care what you do greedy kids, but I'm still not giving you free lollies. 

Anyway, all this pfft Halloween gobbledegook was really a segway for me to show off some stuff I own.  If I know one thing about Halloween, it's that Halloween = pumpkins!  Right?  Right?  I mean, if there's one thing my blog reading list is telling me is that pumpkins are so hot right now.  If I see another pumpkin crochet pattern... I'll probably do nothing, but seriously, how many do you need? 

You probably don't remember, but I am collecting vegetable shaped soup tureens.  My first acquisitions were a sweet cauliflower and aubergine design.

Progress in building my collection has been slow, but recently I got this totally gorgeous piece!  IT'S A PUMPKIN and therefore topically relevant at the moment! 

Isn't it beautiful??  I've also acquired smaller receptacles, which I am calling 'mini tureens' which I'm sure is incorrect.  Look at the watermelon, isn't it rad??  I need to have me a partay so I can make guacamole and serve it in the avo. 

 And the whole tureen family so far!  I am totally in love with them, can you tell?

Happy Halloween, I suppose.

The hunt for the ultimate Melbourne CBD eggs benedict: Degani Bakery Cafe

We thought we'd give the Paris end a break last week and get back down to the other end of town.  Was it a mistake?

Dining Date: 24 Oct

Location: Degani Bakery Cafe
Goldsbrough Lane
Melbourne

This might be the first chain cafe we've tried.  I'd be interested to try other locations of this cafe in the CBD, if only to check consistency, and to determine if they are all just as bad!!

Individual ratings:

Tanya:  1/10
Base: English muffins, though they soaked up the sauce, and in this case, that was a very bad thing.
Eggs:  Distinct flavour of vinegar.  Cooked fine, but the vinegar flavour was far too strong.
Sauce:  Absolutely horrid.  Never had one like it.  It tasted like vinegar.  This is the first time in our hunt that I've had to scrape the sauce off as I just could not eat it. 
Ham:  Perhaps the only redeeming feature.  Ham is ham. 
Price: $10
Coffee:  Ok, but nothing special.
Service: You order at the register and food is brought to you.  Staff were friendly enough, but didn't go out of their way.  I didn't get any water!!
Overall comment:  Bleh bleh and double bleh.  Ok, I ate the whole thing, but you must realise that I am 1) not one to waste food; and 2) I was hungry.  Even so, it was a struggle because the whole dish tasted like vinegar.  Potently so.  Hence my low low score.  (In hindsight we really should have said something, perhaps it was a mistake?  We'll never know!)

Lil sis:  1.5/10
I was so hungry that I actually ate through the vinegar infested breakfast that we ordered last week. So many points lost because of the god forsaken hollandaise sauce, everything else on the plate was satisfactory, the English muffins, the runny eggs and the tasty ham. Too bad they have no idea how to make a delicious hollandaise, won’t be returning to this café EVER!

And how does that look on the Benedict-o-meter?  A futile 1.5 (rounded up) Benedicts!!

Check out my map to see the other eggs benny locations Lil Sis and I have checked out.

Caturday XXXII

It's Caturday!  The day I dedicate to The Kitten and her cuteness, and invite you to do the same with your kitties!

Another cute shot (I mean, they're all cute, but another one nonetheless) of The Kitten sitting contemplatively.  I really need to start taking some action shots, but it's just easier when she's sitting still!!

If you'd like to join in on Caturday (come on ... you know you want to!) fill in the Mr Linky below! 



Have a great Caturday y'all!

clickety click

Look what I made!
It's a camera-strap cover.  Following the theme of crocheted gadget accessories, I actually made this before the phone case, but hadn't had the opportunity to get me some action shots!!  Many thanks to Lil Sis for indulging me by taking these photos. 

Pattern: A Perrrrfectly Wonderful Tapestry Crochet Kitty Bag.  Obviously I didn't make a bag, I just used the chart.  I did two repeats of the kitty, and it came out the perfect size for my camera strap.  I also did a round of sl st at either end so that it wouldn't stretch at the ends too much.  This was my first tapestry crochet piece, and I think it came out super cute.  Many imperfections, sure, but i'm still very happy.

Yarn: Moda Vera Cupcake. 
Hook: 4.5mm

Ravelled here

-Linking with-
Tami's Amis FO Fridays | Fiber Arts Fridays at Wisdom Begins in Wonder | Natural Suburbia for Creative Fridays | I've Made Friday at SusanD1408 Crochet Addict | I ♥ Fridays at Petals to Picots

[Bonus Edition] The hunt for the ultimate eggs benedict: CV's Cafe & Bar

***Bonus Edition***  As in, in addition to our weekly Eggs Benny hunt during the working week...Lil Sis, A and I met up on a Sunday for breakky.  The perfect opportunity to sample the Eggs Benny offered in the wilds known as Carlton. 

Dining Date: 21 Oct

Location: CV's Cafe & Bar
323 Lygon Street
Carlton, VIC 3053
Ph: 03 9347 6813

So we are actually the worst at finding nice places to do a bit of weekend dining.  I'm sure there are places in the Brunswick/Carlton area that are renowned for their breakfast fare, however we just couldn't find any!  So after we drove around a bit we were getting too hungry and determined to just pick the first cafe with a free table we could find!

Individual ratings:

Tanya:  4/10
Base: Some sort of supermarket bought multigrain bread.  Disappointing.
Eggs:  Cooked perfectly, I'll give 'em that.
Sauce:  Not terrible, but not nice either.  You can see from the pics above that it was quite thin and watery, and not enough in any case.  It had a mustardy flavour.
Ham:  Not ham, bacon.  Although I thought it wasn't very nice, just not cooked very well.
Price: $15.50
Coffee:  Drinkable, but not great.
Service: Staff were friendly.
Other:  Also served with single stalk of asparagus wrapped in bacon.  Ok, but weird?
Overall comment:  Travelling off the beaten track (ie the CBD) in this case did not produce promising results.  While edible, CV's eggs benny left a lot to be desired.  It was very ho hum.

Lil sis:  3.5/10
Not at all satisfied with the bonus edition of eggs Benny, given it was on Lygon street may have been a mistake as it is renowned for its Italian restaurants. Breakfast needs lots of work! It was on crappola bread and the sauce was runny and there was not enough of it to compliment the dish. Coffee was ok and eggs were cooked well. I’ve had worse!
And how does that look on the benedict-o-meter? Rounded up to 4/10 Benedicts!

Check out my map to see the other eggs benny locations lil sis and I have checked out.