more headband-ly goodness!

little bee for little Lola!

floral head band with buttons! 

You can find these lovelies and more at this weekend's Young Designer's Market on Sunday - Little Stanley Street, South bank 10-4pm. I'll also have a little sale going on, so come by and check it out!  yay!

Here's to great weather in Brisbane!

introducing.... hair bands for little ones!

Isn't she cute? But to divert your attention for a moment, the hair band is one of 3 that I sent down to my little niece, Lola, in Sydney. She had her nappy bag stolen while on holiday in the UK recently, which had all her cute little hair accessories.. I was quick on the case to whip up some more for her, but I forgot to take pics of the other 2! Oops! I also made a little bear with blanket stitch detail and a bumble bee :)

northey st organic market

Just checked them out and I bought some great things - coconut flakes, nut butter, fresh veges, bananas and I enjoyed a raw food brownie! There is also take-away Di Bella coffee for sale, organic meats, breads, jams, honey and tea! Plus there is a dog park nearby so they get some exercise too. It's right around the corner from me in Windsor (yay!), near the netball courts and is a lovely way to spend a sunday morning. These markets are on every sunday 6 - 10:30am

See more info here

Jessiedex: Best of - worldly delights!

Want to know a great place to eat in the suburbs of Brisbane? Here are my favourites according to food genre :D

Best Thai: 

• My Thai Restaurant, Auchenflower. Amazing Tom Kha Gai and Duck pad prik king!
• Mons Ban Sabai Thai restaurant, Camp Hill. The Mussaman beef is gorgeous, as is the Red curry with chicken

My Thai - photo source

Best Indian: 

• Punjabi Palace - fantastic naan (try Punjabi delight! spinach and cheese) and delicious chicken mahkini in the Chef's specialties

Best Mexican: 

• Tuckeria for great fresh mexican. The burritos are huge and flavourful and the tacos are full, fresh and super tasty!

Favourite Greek:

• Ouzeri, West End. This Place is always full and once you've tried the food, you know why! The skordalia dip with warm turkish bread as a starter is sooo good and followed by the meat and potatoes oven baked in a bag, you're sure to eat well! It has been a while since I have eaten here, so I hope they still serve the same great food. I must re-visit!

Best Burger:

• Burger Urge, New Farm. With the recent menu change and renovations now complete, Burger Urge is a fun casual spot for a bit to eat. I love the Cheese Louise with bacon and the sweet potato fries with lime aioli! The Zorba the Greek burger is also pretty amazing.
• Grill'd also gets a mention for consistently providing great burgers and chips. I love the rosemary seasoning on the fries :D I'm never disappointed when I leave here.

Best Sushi:

• Sushi Train at Indooroopilly is a tasty suburban find. The chicken and avocado nigiri is awesome, as is the gyoza. I am also a  hug fan of the fresh salmon and avocado sashimi. For a dinner that provides all the well loved Japanese(/Westen!) favourites, Sushi train hits the spot! Be prepared to wait, though, as it is very popular.

Best Chinese:

• I always love Super Bowl, Chinatown, the Valley. See my blog post here

Best Vietnamese: 

photo source

• Trang's, West End. I love the rice paper rolls! Very basic decor, but cheap and tasty food! win/win!

Best Turkish: 

• Caravanserai, West End. The Ottoman meze was a great starter - so much delicious fresh food - dips, meat skewers, turkish bread, haloumi.. and more!

source

Best Bistro style:

• Continental Cafe, New Farm. I finally found a delicious French Onion Soup here! The Spring lamb with root vegetables as a main was perfect.

Best German food:

• The German club (Zum Kaiser), Woolloogabba. The pork belly is fantastic and the atmosphere is always fun and friendly. They also do Pork Knuckle! Yes! I love the beer hall too!

New places I'm keen to try: 

Portabella in Eaton's Hill. Apparently the pork belly is amazing!

Sake, Eagle street pier, City

Moo Moo Restaurant, City

Crosstown Eatery, Woolloongabba

Organic Char, Eagle street Pier, City

Hmmmm... the city seems to have a few places that I want to try! 

I'd love to hear where your favourite restaurants are :D

The Whitest boy alive!

I'm seeing them tomorrow at The Tivoli! I cannot wait :D The video above is one of my favourites - "Burning".

the whitest boy alive started as an electronic dance music project in 2003. it has slowly developed into a band without any programmed elements.

members:

• erlend øye – guitar and vocals
• marcin oz – bass
• sebastian maschat – drums
• daniel nentwig – rhodes and crumar

Source of above info

• They are from Norway
• Erlend Oye is also a member of Kings of Convenience - another favourite band of mine!
• The band is based in Berlin. I'd love to visit Berlin.

Getting ma geek on!

I'm a fan of geekery.... more-so because of Sam, as he is really into computers and gaming. Below I have found some great images I discovered on Pinterest - my new obsession!

Found on Pinterest here

Sam is a huge "Portal" fan! (:P I love nerds) Image found here

Awesome! 

I only found out what a "Tardis"was recently, thanks to an episode of Grey's Anatomy. In the episode, a building fell down where a comic book/gaming convention was being held. The victims were taken to Seattle Grace hospital. One guy arrived in Emergency clutching a Tardis - and his ear had been torn off! Others were dressed as zombies and mistaken for being hurt with all the blood and guts from their costumes! haha Good times...

Source

I love Xmen... and Christian Bale! Optical illusions are pretty cool too.. Remember Magic eye? It was the BEST!

too cute! love

Good deed for the day: wrote a feel-good text to a friend in need.

Good for: my friend and me!

Jessiedex favourite

I thought this was a good opportunity to introduce some of the Jessiedex favourites in Woolloogabba!

I went vintage shopping on Saturday! yes! I love vintage shopping! So many cool items to discover - especially at the Woolloongabba Antique Store, 22 Wellington street. It is HUGE!! The floor area is filled with hundreds of small, individually stocked "micro shops". You really could spend hours here, uncovering all the nooks and crannies! This store also has a cute little cafe inside (at the front), serving wraps, sandwiches and a selection of sweet things. I really love their eclectic mix of teapots for serving and the salt and pepper shakers on the tables.

cutest S and P shakers EVER!

One of the micro shops - this one was very organised :D I love love love the bunting!

I also stopped in at Brown Dog cafe for a take away coffee. It was very busy, not a free table in sight, so very popular with the locals. The coffee was nice and the service is friendly :) Definitely worth a trip back to try the food!

this picture sourced from beanhunter

Happy Sunday!

Jessiedex: "Super Bowl", Fortitude Valley

In the Jessiedex, for good Chinese, I recommend "Super Bowl" 185 Wickham street, Chinatown. It is also well know for its mouthwatering Peking Duck (2 courses)!

We arrived at about 7pm and these tables weren't filled yet, so I thought we were in for a quiet night! By about 7:30, the place was packed with rowdy conversation and the eager anticipation for good food.

 It is a rather "no frills" place to eat - minimal decor inside and out and the floor is lined with a maze of tables and chairs. However, where Super Bowl lacks in design, it more then makes up for with a substantial menu filled with chef's specialities, Chinese and Malaysian dishes. I'd also suggest you make a booking as I've never see this place empty! Although, I did see a few walk-ins were accommodated quickly, if you are game to try your luck!

Our first course arrived of Peking duck - thin pancakes with hoisin sauce and filled with cucumber, shallots and of course, the crispy duck skin! Super Bowl often leaves some meat with the skin, so you get a nice, juicy bite of duck. There was 6 of us at dinner, and with 8 pancakes, 2 of us were lucky enough to get an extra serve!

The second course of the Peking duck is San Choi Bow, which uses the meat part of the duck in a stir-fry with vegetables and puffed noodles. This is then served in a iceberg lettuce leaf. You roll it all up and enjoy! It is sooo delicious with the tender duck meat, and the crunch of the lettuce provides a great texture. 

I LOVE chinese greens! Here they are steamed and served with oyster sauce - simple and very satisfying.

The crackling BBQ pork is another dish I always order! It has the salty, crunchy skin which melts in your mouth, the juicy fatty layer and then the moist meat layer - all in a bite size piece! Amazing! I could just eat a plate of this and nothing else! :P

Something new that we tried was the crispy skin Shandong chicken with bones. It was very tender, but the bones proved to be a bit of a pain. I love sharing everything that we order, so I get to try it all! haha!

Super Bowl is the ideal place to bring friends and enjoy some fairly cheap, tasty dishes in a casual environment. It definitely has a vibrant atmosphere with all the loud chatter of the customers enjoying themselves. Another tip, If you visit on your birthday, the staff dim the lights in the whole restaurant and sing "Happy Birthday" to you while your cake arrives!

On the walk back to the car, my friends and I dropped in to Shlix on Brunswick street.

They have a huge variety of gelatos including Mars Bars, Peanut Butter and Chubby watermelon! I also spied some sorbets, which will have to wait until next time to try! ;P A great way to end a fun night with friends :D

I hoped you enjoyed the first Jessiedex post! There will be plenty more in the future :)

Feeling a wee bit French today

These lovely pics are from Jordan Ferney's blog Oh Happy Day. I especially love the bicycle one!

Makes me want to get back into speaking French again. It has been too long!

I'd love to do a french theme brooch and hair clip range!

I'm also very happy to say that my prints from Canada finally arrived! I ordered them in October!!

Good deed for the day: took my 2 dogs to the park

Good for: my doggies and I. It's nice to get some fresh air! It has been so hot in Brisbane!

ahoy hoy!

This website is pretty funny. It also has Zooey Deschanel as a frequent contributer, who I LOVE! She's so stylish and a little bit quirky. The spelling of her name has always bugged me though.. haha!

Today I worked on some designs for headbands! Elastic ones for baby girls and sourcing satin bands for the adult version :D Yay! I think I'll start with a Summer flower range and then branch into my current themes..... fancy a gingerbread man to wear in your hair?! The head bands will be a mix of "pretty" and "unconventional". My niece (Lola) will be the first to try them out for me as she lost all her cute baby things :(. She was traveling in the UK with her Mum and Dad, when their nappy bag was stolen as they were getting out of a cab! Who does that?! I want to make her some custom designs too - she's know as lollipop and lolly bean! hehe cute!

Good deed for the day: No cooking tonight! Sam and I ordered Tom kha gai for dinner from my favourite Thai restaurant - My Thai.

This deed is good for: Sam and I, so we feel better after the delicious soup.

I'm sure you've seen this...

but just in case you haven't..
"Death star Canteen" with the comedic hilarity of Eddie Izzard (who I saw in November last year - Brilliant!) and staring stop animation lego figures! It is awesome - over 15,000,000 views! I am often quoting from this video :D

I have been confirmed with contracting the flu! oh dearrrrr errrgghhh, I feel like deattthhhh... the cartoon below is Sam and I right now (but the child in the background wanting to play are my 2 dogs)

Good deed for the day: Drove with Sam to his work so he could drop off the work van. I was so vague on the road... oops

This deed is good for: Sam, so he could come home and rest rather than suffer at work.

feeling a bit under the weather..

I've come down with a cold this afternoon.. I'm all stuffed up in the sinuses and feel a bit achy. I know I got it from Sam who got it from someone on plane home from KL. That's one bad thing about airplane travel - being crammed in a small area with people who might be carrying yucky germs to spoil your holiday! boo! It's a small risk compared to the joy of travel, though, so I won't complain too much!

I thought I'd share a Berries and Cream Chia pudding dish I want to try soon. I love chia! I have it in my breakfast smoothie every morning. The pudding version has a nice texture.

see the recipe here at Healthful Pursuit

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Now some pics from the trip to Malaysia!

orchids at Changi airport, Singapore en route to KL. I used to be a florist and I still get excited when I see beautiful flowers!

Our first day in KL. We walked to Petronas Towers and then had a look in the KLCC mall below them.

Sam and I outside the Petronas Towers

Domo!! 

found in a store called S & J -our initials! Sam and Jess... and also our travel buddies Susan and Jordan!

A massive Christmas display - So pretty! and a bit unusual I thought, given that Malaysia is majority the Islamic religion. There were so many Christmasy decorations everywhere!! Now that Xmas is over, they have a huge dragon hanging down to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

The United Buddy Bears on display outside KLCC

Dinner on the first night - a hawker stall near Petaling Street (Chinatown). You pick the skewers and they BBQ them for you! It went down well with a 1L Tiger beer (Sam) and fresh coconut water (me)!

More tomorrow! I'm off to cook coconut chicken curry for dinner :D yum!

Good deed for the day: I let a man go in front of me in the queue at the bank. He looked like he was having a rough day!

This is good for: the unknown man (as he got his tasks done quicker) and myself as it a feel good moment to do a nice thing for someone else!