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i thought i'd show you this. it's what my mum posted down to me for my birthday:
ok, it's not that she got confused between celebrating my birthday and celebrating Jesus' birthday. she just gave me some of the christmas decorations that i made as a kid. and that is pretty precious. the fact mum has kept them all these years is pretty amazing. and its pretty special that after keeping them for so long she has shared these ones with me.
they evoke so many memories - not so much of the making them, but of christmas and of the decorating the tree every year. and they also remind me that i have been into this making stuff pretty much all my life. and there's something kinda nice in that.
have you always been making stuff too?
i won a giveaway! from the very lovely catherine over at pencils and pins. they arrived in the post this week, on my birthday would you believe! i find it pretty amazing to get such a fabulous birthday present from someone i've never actually met. i'm not going to gush about blogging and friendship and stuff (i'm not really the gushing kind), but i will say it's really quite amazing to be connected with such a great group of women, who make stuff, all over the world.
and quite exciting to win a giveaway!
these little guys were the original giveaway prize
and because it was my birthday, she also stuck in some fabulous vintage sheeting,which will go great in my collection, and a cute little hanky. such fun prints.
thanks catherine!
eeek! i'm so excited! check this out:it's pizza dough. and look at this:
see it's not just any pizza dough, but this baby is gluten free! i've been making gluten free pizza dough for awhile now, and each time it has turned out somewhere in between cake batter and a very wet scone dough. sticky, impossible to roll. i had to coat my hands in flour and press it out into shape. but last night - it made a ball. and rolled out beautifully and even draped properly.
all thanks to my new find. i heard about this ages ago, but had no idea where to get it. after talking with sandrine, i actually decided to see if i could find some, and in the end found it at the supermarket!
after demanding admiration for my dough far and wide, i did eventually make the dough into pizza. mmm gluten free pizza goodness...
ahh, what a saturday we had. unexpected sunshine. good food and a crafternoon.
there was great food (easy peasy chocolate cake, fabulous and melt in your mouth macaroons and blue cheese scones)
i was working on making a quilted sandwich for my next quilt project
there was drawing and painting going on, but mostly i wanted to show you this: sculpture by my lovely friend. (sorry some of the pics are blue-ish - i forgot to turn the filter off)
she was sculpting it out of this weird aerated concrete stuff, and it was so much fun!
i couldn't believe how great it looked by the end of the crafternoon. the finished product is going to be fabulous!
so, i'm not actually doing blogtoberfest. (despite the fact that i have posted pretty much every day this week).
no, i've signed up for the salvo's nothing new challenge. it means that i am going to not buy anything new for the whole of october. given my everpresent love of op-shops, i didn't think it would actually be too hard for me to do (is that dodgy, signing up for a challenge cos you think it will be easy?), and it's been a good reminder of the fact that really, i already have a lot of stuff, and actually i don't need to buy anything new.
my only problems so far have been presents for others. the first one was easy, my friend who recently got married wasn't keen on getting "stuff" that they wouldn't be able to fit into their place, so a bottle of my burnt fig jam was very well received. but i've got a someone else's birthday coming up, and the best plan for a present - you know, when you come up with the PERFECT present idea and can't wait to get it and give it to them cos you know they will love it... the problem is that i have to buy it new. its not something you find in op-shops. and there aren't any second hand ones available.
i have a dilemma. do i buy it new and break my pledge? or do i hold off and wait until november and thus give them the present late (which kinda feels like poor taste, given i am holding off for my benefit and they lose out a little)? and given that i am going to buy it in november, does it matter if i buy it in october, despite my buy nothing new pledge?
what would you do?
is still full of owls...
i thought i'd be done by now. i really should have been done by now. but due to badly thought out cutting out. (read as forgot to add decent amount of seam allowance) i've had to hand stich these buddies up.
i've come to the conclusion i HATE hand sewing. well, HATE is a bit strong. but i certainly don't love it, and i've come to the realisation that an embroidery hoop would make a big difference (of course, i don't actually have one), so the slow slow slow hand sewing does continue. hopefully, this last owl will be finished soon.
at least they will be finished by the time the show "owl in spotlight" goes up at la mama theatre in carlton next week. its going to be a great show and is for all ages - if you are in melbourne, you should check it out.
and check out all the creative spaces this week...
and after my gluten free cooking boasting last night, tonight its all about the gluten.
orrechiette with multicoloured broccolini.
good pasta, with home grown* broccolini, a bit of chilli and a handful of parmesan. easy and so so good... and so full of gluten. good thing that in our house its only about having less gluten, rather than having to be totally gluten free!
*i must confess, not grown by me but in someone else's garden
so, with the encouragement of sandrine, i have been experimenting with gluten free. and its actually turned out easier (and tastier) than i imagined. so here you go:
gluten free potato and sour cream muffins (adapted from this book)
2 medium sized potatoes, mashed
2 eggs
1 cup milk
3/4 cup of sour cream
60g melted butter
315g gf self raising flour
1/4 teasp paprika
salt and pepper
mix mashed potato, eggs, milk, sour cream and butter in bowl. add flour and spices.mix until combined.
place into greased trays (i use the paper muffin cases as otherwise my muffins always stick), and bake for 25 min at 180 degrees C.
they are great with soup - as in "who needs bread!" great.
for me!
how lovely is this scarf! a good friend of mine bought it in Columbia for me earlier this year. she couldn't wait any longer, so she gave it to me early for my birthday (although my actual birthday is still a few weeks off). such a lovely lovely present, from such a lovely friend!
so, at least this time the possum is on the outside of the windowsill. last time we had this noctural visitor, the window was open and in he came.
let me tell you, trying to chase a baby possum out of your bedroom at 2 in the morning is not my kind of fun!
so, its been pretty busy round here. as you may guess from my lack of posts. sorry 'bout that.
but see, my very good and very lovely friend got married on saturday (yay!), so its been wedding central round here for the last week and a bit. particularly the last week as we had some of her interstate and international family staying here. the beds have all been full, and even the floor in a couple of rooms has been covered with matresses. wedding chaos and wedding joy - the two seem to often be linked. but the net result is that there has not been a lot of crafting. or blogging. or blog reading.
so in between the loads of bedding and towels i am trying to get done today, i have finally managed to jump online and show off the litte crafting that has been happening. yep, owls. or specifically i finally have finished one of the two owls i am currently making:
only one more to go. (that's ok, they were only due at the end of september - oops!)
