My brother-in-law gave us a slow cooker, and I used it for the first time.

Slow-cooked lamb with thyme and rosemary

2 lamb shanks (or more), marinated in salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne pepper
Chopped carrots
Chopped celery
Chopped onions
Chopped tomatoes
3 cups of beef stock
Sprigs of thyme and rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste

Optional: I didn’t add this but you can also throw in potatoes. If you want it tomatoey in flavour, just add some tomato paste.

6 hours later…

We ate our lamb with Kutjera Sauce on the side. It’s a lovely blend of bush sauce made from desert raisins. You can check out the whole range of native bush food, made and grown by the Aboriginal communities here. I’d totally recommend this sauce!

Some photos from our winery adventures. We had so much fun!

We went up to Swan Valley, got a map from the tourist centre and drove through the wine trails stopping at the local wineyards. We stopped at some pottery shops and the chocolate factory, bought chocolate (obviously) and some fresh local produce. We even found a Little Mo pond for me to sketch!

The wine tasting was wonderful on that summer afternoon…I don’t think I remembered much after that…other then we found this lovely spot to sit…and unwind from all that wine drinking!

Oh I got a bit lucky, I had a surprise present from Big Mo. I could get used to this!

WOW! How fast has time flown by? Today we are celebrating our first wedding anniversary and we are so excited!

After celebrating our share of birthdays and secret special days for the past 8 years, today feels somewhat different and significant. Quite a wondrous feeling actually. Big mo, I’ve LOVED every minute of being married to you!

We are off to the winery this afternoon, will blog with pictures when we get back:)

Here’s another horoscope illustration I worked on this weekend. This is Pisces Mo. I coloured her with salmon-pink hair!

A bit about Pisces Mo:

She is gentle and compassionate in spirit, and is known for her imaginative and active mind. Other than daydreaming (which is quite often!), she likes helping those around her.

Here’s a custom portrait that I was working on over the New Years, while fireworks were popping outside my window.

Tina requested a beach setting for her beach loving family so I decided to use a pastel palette. I used mostly light blue and green hues with sandy beige tones. These are the colours that come to my mind, when I think of the beaches in Australia.

If you’d like to buy a gift certificate of a custom portrait, they are available in my shop in a single portrait or a family portrait. Tina got hers as a Christmas present from her sister, and I know how happy she was with her gift!

Check out my Facebook album to see the rest of my custom portrait collection.

Today I sat down and drew some ideas that were swimming in my head for some time. I’ve been wanting to draw a series of horoscope illustrations.

I started with Aquarius Mo.

She is bit of a rebel, she doesn’t like to follow the conventional route. She has her own original ideas and is intelligent and inventive.

While colouring Aquarius Mo, I pondered about colouring her hair black like I normally do….or trying a different colour. I decided to go with the latter because I wanted to explore a new style for my horoscope series. What do you think? And more importantly how do you feel about Aquarius Mo’s midnight blue hair?

I am hoping to start the year with a busy and creative schedule. And amongst other things like:

Love
Laugh
Eat healthily
Cook organically
Live green
Be kind to others
Read more books
Grow more plants

What about you?

I think 2010 has been one of the best years of my life!

I married my best friend
I became an aunt to my most adorable nephew
We won the WAMi
We saw Yo La Tengo live
Little Mo and Friends turned 2
I expanded my Little Mo and Friends collection
I met new friends from etsy and my blog
I cooked crab for the first time

So all in all, it was a pretty good year for me, and I can’t wait to see what 2011 will bring! Happy New Year everyone! Here’s wishing you a wonderful new year filled with creativeness, love and joy! xoxoxo

I was trying to clear up some room to store all the presents we got from friends and families during Christmas. So I sat down, opened up boxes of forgotten shoes and tried on every single pair to see which ones I would keep or throw out.

In the end, I couldn’t bear to part with any..since I had already thrown some out a few months ago. I feel like each pair belongs to an outfit and like lovers, cannot be separated!

And this is my husband’s collection. I kid you not. If we threw these out, he would have no shoes at all.

Rich asked, “Can you make crabs? I’d like to eat crabs for Christmas this year”
“What kind?” I asked him.
“Chili crabs would be nice”

And so tonight I made him sweet chili crabs, baked fish in lime and turmeric, served with nasi kuning (yellow rice).

While eating this meal, I remembered some of my favourite crab eating moments.

Like when my dad took us to eat crabs in Melaka. We ordered black pepper crabs and downed Tiger beer in the balmy night. We talked, ate and drank. It was a good night. Then earlier this year, we had crabs served at our wedding and we took a platter home. Later our friends came over our place and we sat around the dining table, cracking claws with the hammer and tucking into the soft flesh. It was such a fun and messy affair even though the smell lingered on for days!

What is it about eating crabs that makes it such a merry and sociable event? Maybe it’s the part where we’re all sharing the hammer and going crazy with it. Or maybe it’s the act of eating with our hands with such gusto.

Well I hope your Christmas dinner was as merry as mine:) Have a good one! xoxo