Are you a music lover? Then read on, oh melodical goddess! You may just find some treasure our music aficionado, Joshua Withers, has uncovered for all on our latest issue. 

If you dreamt last night that Owl City composed the soundtrack for Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou then you’ve probably already heard a few of the tracks off the second release from Swimming With Dolphins, Water Colours.

Formed in chilly Minnesota, Swimming With Dolphins is the only band in Wikipedia that gets confused with a therapy technique which is ironic considering that Minnesota’s cold weather generally builds a platform for a melancholy performance but Water Colours is a surprisingly bright and warm EP.

Swimming With Dolphins originally consisted of current lead man Austin Tofte and Owl City’s Adam Young, since their first release Adam focused on his solo project Owl City which is touring Australia this year and Austin focused his efforts away from Owl City and onto Swimming With Dolphins.

Water Colours is a smiling and friendly album that is the result of the two years of hard work from Austin. “I feel like the story of this record is ‘challenge,’ right down to the lyrics and content, up to the actual release. We’re pushing every button we can,” says Tofte “It’s been an awesome ride, but I’m so ready to have it out and be able to look back and say, ‘Man, that was a heck of an effort.’”

See You Soon’s Sarah Beintker brings her beautiful voice to Holiday and Sleep to Dream, New York’s Sunsun also mixes up the chromosomes on the airy Happiness and Minnesota solo project Modsun joins Austin on the vocals track for the joyful final track on the EP Good Times.

Austin spent two years around Minnesota searching his soul and finding himself and Water Colours is the result of this reflection, Austin reflects “It was just a long process, and quite honestly, probably longer than it should have been. You start second-guessing things you have too much time to work on”.

After years of touring with Owl City plus two years of writing  Austin is ready to leave his Father’s farm “I’m ready to be on the road. I’ve spent a lot of time writing and in the studio, and I’ve got a band now, and we’re all excited about it. It’s awesome, I feel like we’re going to have fun on this record, for a while, and it’s been a long time coming. It feels like a new chapter.”

Editor-in-chief, Kasey Mac penned these words as her editors note for our latest Spring 2011 issue. They need to be shared with all! Selah on this pretty girl…

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HAVE FAITH IN GRACE

My friend Lyn makes the best scones on the planet. This is not open for debate, but is indeed a scientific fact! She makes a couple dozen for our midweek Bible study, most of which I consume prior to everyone arriving! (Don’t tell!) So when she told me the tragic news that her brain tumours had grown back and she would require a second surgery, my first selfish thought was that she wouldn’t be able to make me scones for a while… so uncompassionate am I! In fact when she told me the surgery was set for a Wednesday morning, I laughingly suggested that would work as of course she would hop up and make my scones to bring that night! 

As heartless as this sounds, what you need to understand here is that this amazing woman is an absolute trophy of God’s grace! I had watched her walk this journey with such incredible peace, strength, confidence… that even the way she delivered the news to me was with such matter-of-factness that it made it feel almost trivial. It went something like this… Lyn: “So I thought I would make carrot cake for this Wednesday as well as the scones, oh and by the way, my tumours have grown back and I have to have more surgery…” Hang on! It’s brain surgery! You don’t ‘by the way’ brain surgery!’ Or do you?

You see Lyn had such a grasp on His grace, that not only did she have that peace that the Bible talks about that is beyond our understanding, but her incredible faith in this grace actually helped her family and friends to access His grace and peace for this as well! As I sat in the waiting room a month ago on the day of the surgery with Lyn’s daughter, Jess, for five hours waiting for her to be wheeled back after the surgery, there was a profound peace, and even a sense of joy surrounding us as we awaited our Lyn’s triumphal return. We actually spent a good portion of it laughing as every time we heard the sound of wheels coming down the corridor, we sprang to our feet only to find it was the food delivery or the laundry trolley! When they finally did wheel her through, we called out her name so loudly that the nurse told us firmly to sit down and wait whilst they got her settled and Lyn just gave us a nonchalant Queen-esque wave from her bed! 

It wasn’t until they let me in to see her that I actually saw the 50-something staples holding Lyn’s shaved head together and looked into her purple bruised eyes that were so swollen that she could barely see through them (but still had that unmistakable sparkle!) that the seriousness of the situation actually hit me! I turned to her husband Michael and said, “She has made this seem less serious than it actually is! She has been OUR strength by her unwavering faith in grace!” Our ‘moment’ was interrupted however by Lyn herself tugging on my arm and asking me to apologise to the lady she had organised to make the scones that night for not responding to her text today! “Lyn I’m pretty sure she will understand that you have had several other things running through your mind today… Literally!” 

The following Wednesday just one week after her surgery, I walked in to church for Bible study and was completely blown away when Michael dragged me into the kitchen telling me he had a surprise for me and there was my Lyn! Back on deck… And armed with scones!

Its almost like she was unstoppable! She didn’t miss a beat, didn’t stop serving, in fact I had to keep sending her home or she would pack up everything on her own! And she is in the clear and back with more vigour and determination than ever! Inspirational! You see Lyn had some pretty horrible things spoken over her but she chose to put her faith in His grace and not in her circumstances! So often we will have bad news delivered to us and we immediately tend to start believing in that bad thing, putting our faith in the circumstance and switching to our default setting of stress and trying to fix it ourselves instead of putting our faith in His grace!

Ephesians 2:8 says “For it is by grace, you have been saved, through faith.” Grace is the name the Bible gives for the New Covenant. All that salvation provides is activated into our life as we place all of our faith in grace. As the new covenant was established in and through Jesus, Jesus is grace! Therefore you could easily interpret Ephesians 2:8 to say, ‘For it is by Jesus you have been saved through faith.’ Instead HAVE FAITH IN GRACE, and rest in His arms, let Him carry you through whatever circumstance you are facing with peace and confidence.

Love you my girl.

x

Kasey Mac

Editor-in-chief

Having trouble entertaining you lil munchkins these school holidays? Check out this yummy kid’s cookie recipe from our resident foodie, Lucinda Cancelleri from Table Manners. 

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In the battle of the bulge, I generally aim to avoid baking sweet and buttery items. I like sweet things just a little too much and have no self control when it comes to a fresh batch of cookies. But what better excuse to indulge than when my gorgeous nieces, Meg and Elisha, came to my house for a sleep-over? After all, cooking together is a bonding experience, so really it was my duty as an aunt to lead such an endeavor. After all, no girly sleep-over is complete without some sweet treats and I was dying to try out my new alphabet cookie cutters. 

We used a basic sugar cookie recipe, which we decorated with coloured sugar. There seems to be some debate over whether the coloured sugar should be added before or after baking. Add it before and it sticks nicely to the dough shapes, but the colours are paler after being baked. Sprinkle the sugar on after, and you need something like corn syrup or egg white to help the sugar stick. We decided to go for the latter and were quite happy with the results.

Ingredients

1 cup self raising flour 

1 cup plain flour

Pinch salt

125g butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg 

1/2 tpsn of vanilla essence

milk (if too dry)

1 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup corn syrup

food colouring

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC (approx 360ºF).

2. Mix butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

3. Add egg, flour and salt, mix well. If mixture is too dry then add some milk.

4. Knead lightly and roll out on a floured board to about 5mm.

5. Cut out in desired shapes and place on a greased cookie tray.

6. Bake for 15 mins, or until lightly browned. Allow to cool completely before decorating.

7. While the cookies are baking and cooling, make the coloured sugar: Place 1/4 cup caster sugar into four separate, small ziplock bags (or small bowls). If you are only using one colour, you will only need one bag/bowl.

8. Add a few drops of food colouring, seal the bag and shake until the colour is evenly distributed through the sugar. Add more colouring until you reach the desired depth of colour. Repeat for each colour. Try blending colours to make new colours (e.g. red and blue to make purple).

9. When cool, mix the corn syrup with a teaspoon of water. Apply a very small amount to each cookie with a pastry brush. Sprinkle with coloured sugar. Shake off excess.

To check out more of Lucinda’s culinary creations check out her blog at http://www.mytablemanners.blogspot.com/