To all...

(well, sorry this has little boxes around all the letters, which makes it look like crap! Or maybe your computer won't display the boxes, who knows, but the heart was in the message... So take it for it's sparkles, and never mind the boxes!!)

oops!!!

Hehehe! Don't you hate it when that happens! I uploaded pictures, and clicked the wrong button (the enter key) and it actually published my blog, with NOTHING on it but pics... so I'm editing it now (again) so stay tuned... and you can have a guess at what the first picture is in the meantime!
(this first picture I refered to above is now the last picture in this post)

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Anyway, I was going to chat about soap!!

Below is my Chai Tea soap from a few weeks ago (18 December), I made it in a small wooden box. They are about 6cm wide(~2 1/4 inch). Cute! I think this is my new favourite size to test batches.


I quite like this picture, even if it's out of focus (now, if someone has tips for photographing soap in focus... I have one: use your macro setting when you're close!! but also sometimes no matter what, and mostly with melt and pour soaps, the focus just won't take for some reason, must be the see-through quality of the soap? Anyone with tips better than mine?? I like how this shows the soap being somewhat translucent.


This one is my latest, made last night, using MangoLassi... this picture shows what happens to the soap as it saponifies. It reaches "gel" stage, and looks almost translucent. A bit later, after I took this picture, it was gelled all the way to the sides. It's quite nice to see, and to me, an indicator that something is going right! LOL! I wish I'd thought of poking the thermometer in there, to see what temperatures it reaches inside when it's like that! Maybe next time.



and a sliced view, and my terrible attempt at swirling (I know better now, I've been reading yet more!) ... My next batch will be a special project (tooth soap: don't knock it until you've tried it) and then after that I might give the swirl a whirl!

Ok, Julz... thanks for your comment! I just want ppl to know that you posted your comment before I was done updating this post!

It does look nice, doesn't it? like a nice guacamole before all the rest of the goodness is added... but nope, it does have a hint of avocado... it's the conditioner I made, yes, hair conditioner, with Tania guiding me towards a good recipe, and here it is:
and it is absolutely fantastic (even though I had to fudge the recipe a little as my kitchen scales, for a moment, for no reason, refused to measure small quantities of this and that, and I am sure I went over the required 4 grams despite it staying dead set at 0!!!) Oh well, live and learn. I've got a new way to measure such small quantities now!!! I will measure my container, and remove the 4 gr from there!!! Much better idea I think... this said, this conditioner seems to work quite well on us!!

For more soap candy have a look at my Flickr album, there's some soaps on there that aren't on here (and vice versa!) I am particularly fond of my new checker soaps!

Merry Christmas, and a Happy and Serene 2009

May 2009 be Just Perfectly Fine!!!
Merry Christmas from me and my lovely elves!

Source of the pic: http://www.elfyourself.com/ wish I could remember the blog on which I saw my first "elf yourself" image, so I could credit the man in question and link to his blog... he's somewhere out there, eihter a polymer clayer, a soaper... one of those fascinating crafts!! I'll find him again one day!

Olivia's Present

Need a present, not sure what to buy? Make one!
I was very excited about making this present for a party to which the girls were invited, it got me to use two of my new hobbies, 1) soap, bath and beauty products, and 2) felting.
I'd never really felted a piece before, but we (the girls and I) planned the design, got cutting and got felting, and I got soaping (while our two girls just played on their computers, they like seeing the end product of somethings but they do not always like to participate!)
So this is what our friend Olivia received:


A tote bag, a little card matching the bag, a watermelon lip balm, watermelon scented soap (with pink, white and green layers), and a watermelon body glittery perfume. I wanted to add a watermelon bath bomb, but didn't have time to make it, and a watermelon candle, but she's too young to play with matches!!

To add to the story, there was watermelon as food at the party, but... there almost wasn't, Olivia's mum was mad at Olivia's dad because of the "packing of the car" for the event, which resulted in the watermelon falling out of the boot of the car and cracking (and maybe even rolling a few feet as there was talk of "bashed and bruised" melon!!!), said melon was eventually cut and served and was quite delicious, but I told the mum that I hoped she wouldn't hate watermelon forever, and to think of me when her DD opened her present! LOL! She did, and she sent me a sms message saying the daughter loved the bag so much that she wanted to go to the beach right away so she could put her towel in the bag. That made our little felting-trio here, very happy!! It's always hit-and-miss with handmade presents, never sure if people will appreciate the thought and work that went into it, and I always feel a bit bad, as a mum of twins, if I don't spend exactly twice the amount I should, since when these people come to OUR party, they sort of are put in a position of having to get TWO presents!!! I am hoping in the end it evens out... I don't know if it does or not.

I'm not sure about you, but I don't know if I'll arrive at Christmas on time!! Too tired to do anything tonight (wrapping, I hope to start tomorrow night!), too tired to think what we'll eat on the day, but I did do some shopping today (my new favourite grocery store was open on Sunday, as was the liquor store!) which is good because now I have two and a half day to remember what I forgot, and that list is already getting long!!! Nothing special on the menu, my salmon mousse, some nutella dip with fruit, some veggies, chips and dips, and veggies and dips, probably some cheese and cold cuts, more fruit, more veggies (I'm optimistic!) and the dreaded plum pudding at the end of the day (usually in place of our dinner)... it's not that I don't like plum pudding, it's that it's heavy, and I do eat it anyway!! *grin* that's why I dread it I think! I didn't buy mince pies, and I will try not to! LOL! as I'm the only one who likes them in this house, so I end up eating ALL of them! YUM! I just LOVE mince pies (hmm, might have to buy some anyway!!! they would go every so well with the chai tea I'm sipping at the moment!)

Pressies for teachers

finally done.
green: lettuce FO, "lucky lettuce" was the name DD2 came up with
pink, white, green: watermelon
peach/light yellow: peach bellini (champagne and peach)

enjoy, that's all I have time for tonight!
I did make another batch of soap this weekend, but the photos were fuzzy, so eye candy of that one will have to wait, but it looks like caramel and smells like pineapple! YUM!!!

What in the Word???

no, this is not a typo, it's just my way of expressing how shocked I am at the news that some words are taken out of children's dictionary. Apparently the words below are not worth knowing.

MORE ON THIS HERE

Words taken out:
Carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe
Dwarf, elf, goblin
Abbey, aisle, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, vicar
Coronation, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, monarch, decade
adder, ass, beaver, boar, budgerigar, bullock, cheetah, colt, corgi, cygnet, doe, drake, ferret, gerbil, goldfish, guinea pig, hamster, heron, herring, kingfisher, lark, leopard, lobster, magpie, minnow, mussel, newt, otter, ox, oyster, panther, pelican, piglet, plaice, poodle, porcupine, porpoise, raven, spaniel, starling, stoat, stork, terrapin, thrush, weasel, wren.
Acorn, allotment, almond, apricot, ash, bacon, beech, beetroot, blackberry, blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, bramble, bran, bray, bridle, brook, buttercup, canary, canter, carnation, catkin, cauliflower, chestnut, clover, conker, county, cowslip, crocus, dandelion, diesel, fern, fungus, gooseberry, gorse, hazel, hazelnut, heather, holly, horse chestnut, ivy, lavender, leek, liquorice, manger, marzipan, melon, minnow, mint, nectar, nectarine, oats, pansy, parsnip, pasture, poppy, porridge, poultry, primrose, prune, radish, rhubarb, sheaf, spinach, sycamore, tulip, turnip, vine, violet, walnut, willow


While some of the words above are archaic, and not all words can be a condensed version of a dictionary, it's very sad. Not only that but they took away more words than they put back in. I quite like the comment left by PDFitzGerald-Morris who states:
"As George Orwell pointed out, the aim of NewSpeak was to continually destroy words so that heretical thought, so far as it was based on language, became impossible."

---

as every story, there are two sides, this is the other side. I still think there's a hidden (or not so hidden) agenda.

Bulle envole-toi! (or Bubbles Bubbles Everywhere!)

Bubble Bubble to wash your body, and face, and hands, and feet, and behind your ears! I love bubbles and I'm on the soap bandwagon! A friend, Tania B, tried to get me interested in soapmaking a couple of years ago, and I was interested, but the thought of lye scared me to death, and I just didn't have much time, but I did manage to rebatch some soap (thanks to Tania), and made these items for Krafty Lady with my soap, I also made a recipe with soap flakes (the white ones)... and made some shaving soap for DH...

Recently my friend Ann G told me that she was going to make some Melt and Pour projects, and other things, and I thought, heck, that sounds like fun, and got some MP stuff...

Well, you can see the results on my Krafty Lady DT page for "Miscellaneous Items", or on my Flickr.


Here's one of my Krafty Lady soaps, to give you an idea: And here is my Tiramisu (Olive) soap. I call it so as I find it sort of smells like that!

BUT, that's not all, I've also started making Cold Process soap, that's when you do it the "old fashioned" way, but I'm not using any animal fats (though if I lived on a farm it might be different, I'm not at that point yet in my soap experience)...
My first one was a very simple supermarket recipe from Lisa's site, I think this will yield a soft-ish soap, which will lather beautifully:

Then I had to try Tania's Salt Bars these are quite hard, and apparently yield a soap that's gentle enough to use on the face. When I first heard "salt bar" I thought "heel exfoliation" or something of the type, but apparently not. These will also be cured in 4 weeks, but are apparently much better a couple months later.

Now that went pretty well, though I won't know how well until at least 4 weeks from now, because soap has to do it's thing until you can use it... that is turn fats and caustic soda into soap... 4 weeks... it's a long wait!!

But then, like any soaper will tell you, you're looking for the NEXT recipe, well, for me, it had to be this one, Turkish Mocha from AussieSoapSupplies with a bit of added chocolateness. It is curing at the moment and smells just wonderful!!! Below you can see a few slices and the chocolate on top (and there's some cocoa in the soap too, and some ground coffee for a gentle exfoliation -- and as the AussieSoapSupplies site mentions, coffee in soap is great to remove smells, like onion or garlic, from hands.




and a single slice: Yum, it's really tempting, like a rich fudge!!


I'm currently planning my next recipe... it's hard work! LOL! What's hard is trying to find WHICH one to make....

Julie VO also makes soap (she's also one of the temptresses of my new found passion).

oh, I've also made a calming stick for a friend who loves Lavender, a headache stick for myself, some lip balm, and a new shaving soap for hubby!!

Hope you enjoyed your trip here today!

Oh Heck, I'm going to do a giveaway... why not, seems to be the thing to do these days, only problem is you'll have to wait a month to get your prize, but on the UP side, this will give more people time to enter, and me time to get organised. This is open to any country where I can send soap! :) I'm going to give away a 100 gram (that's roughly 3 1/4 oz) Turkish Mocha Soap Bar... To be fair I will find a fair way of deciding the winner... It's either going to be a Random Generated number picker that's online, or I'm going to put all the names in a hat and get a third party to pick one, blindfolded, with their left hand, or maybe their right, haven't decided yet :) If you really hate coffee (some people do, believe it or not) we can negotiate a different bar. I also reserve the right to change my mind on which soap I find (but I'll let you know before I mail it, in case this mocha bar goes all wrong in the next 4 weeks!) - Cool, my first giveaway! :) I'll draw the winner in the first week of January. Ciao!

this giveaway is closed - winner announced 30 January 2009

Save the Net

Sorry for not showing eye candy for a while but THIS is IMPORTANT, IMO!
===========================================================

Did you know the Government is proposing an internet censorship scheme that goes further than any other democracy in the world?

I've just signed a petition to prevent the scheme that will make the internet up to 87% slower, more expensive, accidentally block up to one in 12 legitimate sites, will miss the vast majority of inappropriate content and is very easily sidestepped. The government of the day may add any ‘unwanted’ site to a secret blacklist under the scheme.

Our Government should be doing all in its power to take Australia into the 21st century economy, and to protect our children. This proposed internet censorship does neither. Can you join me and take action on the net today to save the net?

Click here to read more about this.

thanks.

A friend is having a blog candy giveaway

No, I haven't been busy crafting (I wish I had)... but lucky Myléne has.
Myléne is on the Krafty Lady DT with me and has a blog, and she's doing a giveaway

ALL you have to do to enter is click on the image below to get to her blog, and leave a comment:



Good luck!!!

France

Hubby found a recipe site!

My darling hubby sent me this site: Ward Street Bistro
And when I saw the recipe for the Angel Food Cake
, and the pictures, I knew it would be a site I like, so I am sharing here (and also so I can find it easily myself in the future!). I used to always request Angel Food Cake from one of my relatives for my birthday (my step-grandmother, if there's such a thing... my grand dad's second wife, as the first one passed away a year before I was born). Anyway, I haven't had this cake in ... many many years!!
Not sure I'm going to have it anytime soon either, not until we have a different oven (and mixer!)... this is too difficult a cake to make!

I feel clever :)

Because
1- I finally figured out, all on my own, what page Chris McL was talking about, and it's THIS ONE and yes, my cup cakes are/were on there!!! I saw them! hehehe!!!
2- Because I added pictures to yesterday's post
3- Because I had my first solo outing today and it feels great to drive oneself to the grocery shop (even if I still don't like doing groceries all that much)... I am starting to feel like my old, younger, self!!! And it's great! (well, only because I've driven from the time I was 16 until I moved here... other than that bones are still feeling old, and feet, and brain!!!)

I tried a new recipe from Allrecipes.com.au (which they borrowed from the American site). Strawberry cake(which IMO is more of a loaf)... And this is what I managed to achieve...


muffins for lunchboxes, and a loaf with the rest because I got lazy.

Recipes

Ok, so I don't think if you go to my profile on Allrecipes.com.au you get to see what I'm up to, so here's the recipes I uploaded there:
ANZAC Slice
Salmon Mousse
Quick Cinnamon Fudge
Chocolate Fudge
yeah, so, I like fiddling with fudge recipes :)
and
Banana Bread:


clicking on the image above will bring you to the recipe.

Anyway, if you try any of them (and some people who have tried them did like them) do post a review, and some stars (well, 5 is nice, but be honest, even if you like me!)...
And of course the other two I mention in my previous post...

And now, here's the recipe for this quick I-don't-feel-like-cooking-but-my-family-has-to-eat recipe:
DUTCH BABY

For each egg:
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup flour
1 Tbsp sugar (US or Australian Tbsp, doesn't really matter - I use raw sugar, I've used Xylitol in smaller quantity, I've used white sugar, and brown sugar... and you may like to put more, or less)
you can add some vanilla too if you like, maybe 1/4 tsp for each egg.

I normally make this with 8 eggs for the 4 of us, and it's our dinner.

What you do: well, as you may know, from a previous post, I use my blender for this one :) Chuck the eggs, sugar and milk in the blender, blend a bit (WITH THE LID ON!) and then add the flour, blend, and then stop the blender, remove the lid, scrape the sides PUT LID BACK ON, and blend a wee bit more. If there's a few lumps it doesn't really matter. You can do this by hand with a whisk, or with egg beaters, whatever, doesn't really matter.

I use a 8x13 inch glass (Pyrex) pan (er, that's 20 x 30 cm I think), I put about 1 Tbsp butter in it, and make it melt by placing the pan in the oven while it heats up. I "paint" the butter on the sides and bottom of the pan, pour the mixture in there, and bake at 160-ish°C for about 20-30 minutes, until the sides rise (now that I put a picture you can really see what I mean). The sides will deflate when you take it out of the oven though, don't worry, it does that.

I serve it with fruit, sometimes apple sauce, or yoghurt.
It's a "sweet" dinner, but still nutritious.
You could make it for brunch by sprinkling it with icing sugar (confectionner's sugar) and maybe serving with chantilly cream or whipped cream... haven't done that yet :)

This is what it should look like:


This is a strange one which rised in the middle, we called it a ski hill:


So there you go!!

have a great weekend!
This post was edited on 19 October to add pictures, and a title to the Dutch Baby Recipe. Now as to why they call it a Dutch Baby, I dunno! If you do, leave me a comment!

What am I doing??

Well... Chris's comment here started something (nice to hear from you again Chris (and Pauline too!)...

No, I hadn't seen my picture on the front page of Allrecipes Australia... and I still don't think it was :) I have seen it on the front page of Allrecipes Canada, and in the competition on Allrecipes.com for the picture of the day that day, up against another 89-or-so pictures!!!

But Chris gave me an idea. I had just joined AllrecipesAU and I thought "why not upload my photo", mostly just for the fun of it, and because I was a wee bit proud of our cupcakes!

Well, lo and behold, I get an email from someone at AllrecipesAU asking if I could "translate into Australian" the two recipes I used from Allrecipes.com to make the cupcakes and I quote (without permission but I hope no one will mind - and a couple typos corrected too - and hyperlinked for ease of enjoyment! tee!hee!) "We wanted to compliment you on your beautiful photo of the cupcakes you made for your daughters's 10th birthday!
We see that you have referenced a cake and icing recipe that you used from allrecipes.com
If you have the time and inclination, we would love you to upload your version of the recipe to go with the photo. [...] but we thought it was such a great photo that it deserves a recipe!"
Well, wasn't I chuffed (and thankful for Chris's mention of having seen my pic, even though Chris, I'm still wondering where it was as it was not uploaded before I did upload it, but it doesn't matter, does it as it's there now!!!)

So I sent them my version of the recipe, but it was too similar to the original on the US site so I wasn't allowed to upload it, but Allrecipes.AU were, but it's funny, they uploaded all my comments and suggestions too, so you can compare for yourself.
Cake original: Fudge Cake
Cake on Australian site: Chocolate cup cakes (a few corrections were made by the editors, like vanilla essence instead of extract and plain flour instead of all purpose and icing instead of frosting but the text is mine!!! Yay me. I guess?! Oh, and not to mention that in my International Melting Pot of a kitchen I measure butter in cups and spoons, and measure flour in cups too... I don't have a good kitchen scale! So yes, a lot of editing, I guess, on Allrecipes.Au's site but still, a bit of me behind there.....)
Same with the icing
Frosting: Decorator Frosting
Icing: Cheerful Butter Icing (my version edited by them a wee bit.)

I've since uploaded a few more recipes which I consider mine as they have had a few alterations from the original... I think you can see those if you go here, I'll have to try it when I'm not logged in, I hope you can see all of a person's recipes and reviews, as that's one feature I quite like from Allrecipes.com.

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Cadbury Schweppes got back to me about my bag of mixed choc chips (see previous post) and I got a gift card... Might save it for Easter :) though, any day is a good day for chocolate!!!

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Since I've last posted, and if you read this post you'll be pleased to know that I now have a Western Australia Driver's Licence and that I'm no longer afraid of Roundabouts and almost no longer afraid of "Give Way" signs (though my instructor kept telling me I don't need to completely stop at them!!! *sigh* that's what you get from being a polite nice Canadian!)... and BONUS, no log book, no P plates, even though my Canadian permit (I had my last one, my Ontario one) expired in 2000!!! I was so clever to bring it with me, and my marriage certificate (to explain the change of last name!) etc... it all went very smoothly!!! Yay... but still no car to drive, the computer chip blew up in ours, thus its demise last Saturday...

Yesterday I had the evening from H-E-double-hockey-sticks.....
I'm in a rush to make dinner as my two took too long with showers after school and well, I was still detangling hair, and it was time to make dinner. So I made my fave on such occasions, a Dutch Baby (I'll post the recipe later, another day, it's a great "save me I don't want to cook" type of dinner!)...

So I proceed to put my milk, and add eggs one by one to the blender jug. Then I place the blender jug on top of the blender in order to make room on our small kitchen bench to get the flour out to add to the mixture (yes, a Dutch Baby is made with those ingredients!)... well... someone most likely yours truly left the blender in the ON position (I must've been in a rush last time and just took it of without thinking... it happens sometimes, I just forget to think!)... well, even the split second it took me to put it in the OFF position wasn't enough to prevent a big egg mess all over my kitchen bench, the floor, the toaster, everything else that was on the counter, the floor, AND ME!!! And if you've ever had to clean egg up, it's not easy!!!

*sigh* well, I cleaned the kitchen as quickly as I could before I started hearing some "mummy! i'm hungry!!!" sounds... and tried to guess how many eggs had flown out of the blender, and how much milk I had lost, as I wanted to recuperate what was still inside the blender jug!!!
Well, it turned out to be a beautiful Dutch Baby.
BUT...

My "cool pants", not as in they are so fabulously fantastic that they are "Cool man" but in that they are not hot, and it's been hot here the last two days.... were dirty, they are the only pair of pants which survived last Summer and which I can stand when the thermometer rises above 30... they were eggy, to say the least... so I thought washing them before bed would be a good idea...
I've been going to bed around 10-10:30 lately, just too pooped to burn the midnight oil :) but last night I got a bit sidetracked and at 10:30 I realise I was ready for bed, but I hadn't washed my pants..... so I go for the short cycle, they aren't super dirty, just need a bit of a wash (seriously, I couldn't even see the egg stain anymore -- but I KNEW it was there!!!)...so I check all my pockets, and throw in a black top I like (again, not too hot, and it needed a bit of a pick-me-up as well)... keep myself busy for half an hour while the cycle runs its course... and get ready to hang the pants and shirt so they are ready this morning... what do I see? I can't believe my eyes, those darn cargo pants... so many pockets, I must've missed one... because... it snowed tissues in my washing machine..... millions of specks of tissue everywhere on my pants, and on my shirt!

I can't help but laugh a bit, and go show DH. By that time I'm in my nightgown, I go outside to hang the clothes, and when I come back inside, I realise my nightgown is inside out...

I figure there's only one thing to do: GET TO BED as soon as I can before something else happens.

This morning I wake up and feel a bit "not quite there", I manage to get the girls ready for school, and DH drives us to school/work in our cheapy car rental (can't expect much for $16 a day), and I'm grateful to not be walking or bussing this morning because it starts to sprinkle when I get to work. I'm tired, I don't feel too cheerful, and I have to go to the other office (sort of next door, actually,r eally next door) to finish a little dust job I was doing, and I have to unlock, and I manage to get the key completely and utterly stuck in the door. I think to myself, this is silly, this can't be... so I go back and ask J(one of the guys there) if he can help, and lucky for me, and I think he actually made my day, he told me that it's the lock that's hard to open - Yay! it wasn't my fault... my day went a wee bit better from there.... and I think, maybe, my stroke of bad luck is over.... I HOPE!

===============================================================

Did anyone watch the first episode of Season 9 of CSI? (the Original Las Vegas one?)... goodness, soppy... I cried. (Oh Crap! Julie K!!! Oh no... you'll know exactly what that means, concerns Miami CD which is still HERE and not on its way to you! I am such not a good friend!!!)

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I feel guilty leaving you without any graphics, pictures, or any cool stuff...
but I can leave you with a cool tip. I found some really well priced Essential oils on eBay from Sally who is from Western Australia too... I love essential oils. Just wish I knew more about what to do with them... other than smell them!

That's it for now, enough already!! Hope I made you smile, as that's an important thing to keep doing!!!

Be well, be good, be nice.

France

4 Cs

CAKES

After trying many different cake recipes during the holidays, to the delight of hubby and progeny (or should I say progenies?), we settled on Fudge Cake cupcakes and Decorator Frosting, from Allrecipes.com for the party.

I really had my heart set on Cupcake Cones, but my oven being so temperamental, the edges of the cones would burn on some, not on others, etc... quite the experiments, and some recipes don't "dome" as well as others.

So with the help of the recipes above, and a gizmo I had picked up from Multix at Woolies (I think?!) I set off to make little cupcakes...


I found the candles at IGA.

The great thing about this icing is that unless it's left in a hot car for too long, it remains pretty stiff, and does not stick to plastic wrap, so it's perfect for cakes you have to bring somewhere!!

My photos did make it on the front page of Allrecipes as 'newly added photos', probably because I picked Canada as my location - if I had USA they'd be drowned by other "new photos". I had picked Australia before as my location, but it would give me measurements in grams, and I am very much used to cups, if I have the choice I prefer cups -- also the fact that I don't have a kitchen scale for food doesn't help!; and if I pick Australia now it goes to the new site, for which I did register, but which seems much more demanding on my computer, for some reason, I'll have to email them about that!!! See the *** below.

The cupcake photos are mine, and the iced ones are on there twice, once submitted for the frosting page, and once for the cake page, haven't yet found a way around submitting the same pic twice, I'd rather have submitted one pic for the two recipes, since it was the same pic? Dunno... sometimes things make no sense to me :)



CARS
Sometimes you wonder why things happen the way they do... I guess in the end there's always an answer to be found, but we don't always find it... Yesterday, on our way to the party (which we ended up having at Tropical Twist) we're about to turn the corner, just very near our house, and our car died! AGAIN! (though now we think we have a better idea of what's wrong with it, which is not what we previously thought was wrong, so maybe it can get fixed for good this time. Let's hope!!). Luckily my phone was charged up, and I called one of the other mums and asked her if she could come rescue me and the birthday girls! On the way back we got a ride with a different mum (the first mum had committed to bring other kids back home) and when we got to our house, her daughter wanted to come for a play, and the three girls had a wonderful time, so maybe that's why our car broke down, so that little Miss M (I avoid putting other kids's names on my blog) could come have a play with my two little Misses...


Still, we really could have done with a working car this weekend :) if only to finish the birthday present shopping! Hmmm, maybe we'll need a second car?! :)

CRAFTING
Anyway, and nope, haven't touched stamping or polymer clay since July... still... and won't today as I have to get yet another cake ready for the actual day :)
hmmm, which one to make..... Maybe cake making can be considered "crafty"?

COMPLAINTS
Oh, yeah, the *** above.... well, if you're not happy about something, you should politely let someone know... A couple of weeks ago we went to Maccas (yes, even good parents sometimes need Maccas!) and 1) they were out of the Littlest Pet Shop toys, disappointment but we can survive 2) one of our nugget Happy Meal was missing a nugget (well, that's annoying but we can survive), and 3) we asked for BBQ sauce (though seeing what that sauce did to some coins I had in my bag one time when such a BBQ container decided to leak in my bag, and yes, good parents might take their kids to maccas twice!!) I wonder why I let the girls eat that stuff, but anyway, we asked for BBQ and we got Sweet and Sour which the Happy Meal eaters in this house don't like. Ok, we could survive, but three "not too good" things on the one meal sort of got me annoyed... so I wrote a letter, and in return we have received two free happy meals (hmmm, am I still a good parent if I take my kids to maccas 3 times? 4? )

And another similar thing, I bought some dark choc chips (see above, been trying a lot of recipes lately) and when I poured them in, there were dark choc chips, but also milk choc chips... now, if I wanted milk choc chips, I would have bought milk choc chips.... so a little email went to Cadbury telling them about my experience (well, yes, chocolate is chocolate but the point is that I expect to receive what I pay for, not a substitute, specially without warning -- that goes for the sauce at maccas too!) and I was told I would hear back from them via mail, so I'm waiting :) Free chocolate for a year? probably not, but a coupon for a replacement pack would probably be fair compensation for my distress! LOL!

I hope you all had wonderful school holidays, I played Working Mum while DH played Stay at Home Mum. Oh well, the progeny is kept happy, that's all that matters!

Cheerio!

White Gum Valley Primary School Spring Fair

A local primary school is having a School Fete.

Something silly I found in my emails!

I found this tonight, pretty much by fluke, and thought I'd post it here so that I can find it if I ever need it again, and also as it sort of reminded me of my life at the moment, when I'm not running around at work, I've been there over a year already! Time flies! And yes, I still like it -- just in case anyone from work reads this! tee!hee!!! (I do still enjoy it!).

Ok, so this is all I have since I've not been crafting at all (I hope to change this a bit soon!)

Recently, I was diagnosed with A.A.A.D.D.- Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.
This is how it manifests:
I decided to wash my car. As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the hall table. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the rubbish bin under the table, and notice that the rubbish bin is full.So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the rubbish first. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the rubbish anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my cheque book off the table, and see that there is only one cheque left. My extra cheques are in my desk in the study, so I go to my desk where I find the bottle of juice that I had been drinking. I'm going to look for my cheques, but first I need to push the juice aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. I see that the juice is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with the juice a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye--they need to be watered. I set the juice down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning. I decide I had better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table. I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, we will be looking for the remote, but nobody will remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the lounge where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. I splash some water on the flowers, but most of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill. Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.
At the end of the day: the car isn't washed, the bills aren't paid, there is a warm bottle of juice sitting on the counter, the flowers aren't watered, there is still only one cheque in my cheque book, I can't find the remote, I can't find my glasses, and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.
Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail.

Flus and Colds and Sniffles, Oh My!!!

Doing a bit of research online to figure out how to stop one of our two little ones from coughing incessantly -- though, at the moment Robitussin seems to be doing the trick, I always prefer natural or homeopathic medicines whenever possible...
So while looking around for Aconite (this is indeed the name of a homeopathic medicine, don't go and eat the plant!! Thanks Danielle for your comment which made me think not everyone would think of homeopathy reading this!), as suggested to me by my very cool pharmacist (who seems to believe in natural/homeopathic therapies) I found these two sites which I wish I'd found earlier.
http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/ offers all sorts of tips and recipes for cleaning your home, using homeopathy and essential oils, amongst other things.

http://www.andreacandee.com/
She has a small but very interesting Ask Andrea section, found new things to do with bananas and cayenne pepper of all things! She also has interesting articles.

As for Art... well, given the above, there hasn't been much time for it lately, although I did manage to update the Krafty Lady Gallery this weekend!!
Your best bet is to go to this page: Design Team Section - Latest Additions
and this one: Customer Gallery - Latest Additions where I had the pleasure of adding three pieces by talented local artist (and friend) Carmel Trigwell.

Sorry, no eye candy from me this time, but if you want some, I suggest this wonderful site, where you can read all about an amazing adventure by two young Australians: The 1000 Hour Day, an expedition in the North of Canada done during the Northern Hemisphere's Summer, I'm only halfway reading it as I became aware of this when it was on its last days. You can also see more eye candy by viewing pictures from Chris Bray. Chris and Clark were the two guys in the expedition, and no I don't know them but I just love the writing, the pictures and the adventure! Nice to see young kids with good brains! :)

Fun(d)Raiser

I'm selling four items in my Etsy shop, as a means of raising funds for OrientalStampArt's new website. OrientalStampArt is a Yahoo!Groups community for Rubber Stampers who love the Asian/Oriental style of images. The group has been around for many years and has some of the most enthusiastic members around!

Affiliated with the group is a fabulous website, I invite you to have a look: http://www.orientalstampart.com/

That website is so jam-packed with information and artwork that our current server cannot handle the sheer amount of goodness we have to offer, and it has to be upgraded. This costs money.

Selling these items I made is my contribution to the cause.

All proceeds of this sale will be going DIRECTLY to the website upgrade.

Postage on this item is FREE to the buyer.



For more information on OSA see this glorious review by fellow Australian Carole Meisenhelter



Here are the items up for grabs:






That's all I have for today.
Yesterday I celebrated 10 years of landing in Australia for a "new" life.
Tomorrow, we'll see what tomorrow brings :)

The Maneki Neko necklace has been sold already as has the magnet with the Geisha holding an umbrella.

Faux wood, rice pudding, and a preview

I've been having another faux wood/scrimshaw attack... months after I actually made my turtle necklace (see previous posts). A technique can be very addictive when you enjoy it, I try to use it as much as I can!!!
But first, I'll point you towards Julz's Blog as she tried this technique and her results are wonderful. I've yet to bring myself to actually texturise the wood...

Oh, and you MUST SEE Kim Cavender's wood cuff, oh and this one too, they are absolutely gorgeous... When I grow up I want to clay like that!! Have a look at the rest of the cuffs while you're there (and the rest of her work. If you're not familiar with Kim's work, you should be!!).

And these are my latest "faux wood/ivory/scrimshaw" efforts:

I've also done some colourful playing, assembling some casts I'd made a little while ago. I used some oval jump rings for this. I'd probably need to hammer them to make them stronger! I'll get to that eventually. I even made the little clasp but it didn't fit in the picture.

I just love this mould. It's called AM019 Med Etruscan Shield and you can see pricing on this page near the bottom. This is the mould used in the top pendant too. The round pendant was made with AM332 X5Lge 7 UP (prices available on bottom of this page). You can order these moulds through various people depending where you live. If I get myself organised, I plan on bringing a few pendants to the next craft meeting, we're having a pre-loved sale, and a "bazaar" of things we make ourselves, if nothing else, it'll be great eye candy for everyone to see what everyone else has been up to :)

Here's something else I made with the Etruscan Shield:

And with two products I've been wanting to try for a while, some Sheer Heaven Vellum, and Tim Holtz's Adirondack Alcohol Inks!!! I've been using Pinatas, and quite like them (bought them before the T.H.A.A.I. were available) but, like many, I am a sucker for the colours in the Adirondack range! Specially Terra Cotta and Butterscotch!!! *grin* That stamp is one from The Stampsmith, which I hadn't used in a looooong time!!! I think I stamped it in Russet, from the Archival range (also from Ranger).

I'm also hoping to be shown the ropes of Felting, by Kylie Mell who has been playing with felt a bit. I saw her do ONE DOT and saw a gorgeous little calico bag she'd made. It's contagious! I've used the back of one of my calico bags to experiment on, so far, added 3 felt hearts (cut out from Spotlight felt) and even made a freelance flower with a stem, with fibres I felted myself. It's not perfect, but it's satisfying somehow... yup, all I need is another craft! Though, anything that is quick and yields good results is what I prefer these days as my time is limited and evenings are usually spent preparing something for the next day's lunches. My two are a bit ... how can I put it, particular about what they like and don't like, and I can't make anything with peanut butter, due to allergies (I respect that, but it does make my life a bit difficult as pb, but... I'd really hate to be the parent who sent a pb sandwich to school and killed a child!!!)

Speaking of food made me think of this recipe which I quite like on cold Winter weekend mornings: Creamy Rice Pudding, just make a bit more rice than you need for dinner, and you have the perfect excuse to have that the next morning! I made it without the egg the other day as we were all out of eggs, and it wasn't as thick, but it was still delicious. It did have a strange-ish but pleasant taste but that's entirely my fault as I went to pour in some cinnamon (I love cinnamon, I add it and nutmeg to the recipe) and realised, only too late, that I'd put cummin in there! I scooped out as much as I could (I don't think I love cummin in the same quantities as I love cinnamon). I kidded myself that it was an Indian breakfast! I did enjoy it. The girls didn't want to touch it, and by the time DH got up, there was none left ;)

I still haven't received my copy of Altered Arts Magazine, in which a tin I made is published, so I'm giving you a sneak preview anyway:

Hmmm, well, I can't wait til the postie brings this mag home!!!

Wire weaving bug

I got this bug from Carmel... after seeing her beautiful jewellery, she mentioned a book on her blog, and my local library (Fremantle) just happened to have it on the shelves! So I borrowed it and I had to try (having had a quick but informative demo from Carmel) and I did.
This is the wire work

and inspired by what Carmel had done but not having the same little gizmos, I finished mine with a Krafty Lady mould (of course)... I rolled a ball, pushed the wire in it, and pressed it into the mould. I'm very happy with the design.


Well, that was fun, I then had to try with three wires, and wider! Well, nice, but sheesh, mistakes show up quite a bit, and it's not as easy to undo as knitting!!


Anyway, it's been fun, still I have no idea how to finish the copper one... and I'm sure the "mistakes" won't show as much when it's a piece of jewellery!

You can see Carmel's wire creations here and here.

Electronic Copy of Beads Etc is available!

If you subscribe to the newsletter you can see the whole magazine for free, and have access to past issues too!
The mould is from Krafty Lady.
Although I did mention it when I sent the article to the magazine, they didn't print it (well I didn't see it when I read it quickly, must read it more in depth, but then I wonder why since I wrote it, after all!)... the idea for using only two colours to get the look, came from this faux scrimshaw tutorial. I credit the technique throughout the Krafty Lady site! So apologies to my inspiration, I did try to give you credit in the article!