I'm a potter. Not one that throws pots and makes goodies from clay. Just someone who loves to be busy, to potter around! Like Harry. Making and creating. I've done some scrap-boooking. Just not the really cool stuff that people do with photos and cool display techniques. I used old scrap pieces of paper to make little books. Borrowed the binder from work and set to. I am a hoarder! And it was long overdue to clean out my cubbies, which hold all sorts of paraphanalia from string and glue, to paper and sewing stuff. I made a cardboard template and simply cut all pieces up to size. That easy. Then arranged them together, punched the holes (easy-peasy with binder) and inserted old plastic binding spines I had hoarded from an old book project.
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| A potter's delight... the mess of a project underway |
I cut up some flower pics from an old 2010 diary, cool pics from old calenders reaching back to 2007 (yep! I am that kind of a hoarder!!) to insert amongst the pages for some jolly old joie d' vivre!. They're quirky little books of blank or patterned pages - not sure what I'll do with them - poetry from my love, or even gifts for quirky people like me who enjoy home-made, not-so-perfect gifts from the heart!
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| A selection of scrap books |
The next project that followed was card- making. I cut up old brochures, pamphlets and a book of Fijian images I bought from an Op shop for $1, with a broken spine, to create some blank cards for those occasions when you need a greeting card to say thanks, or welcome, or whatever the sentiment. I guess I could have bought a pack printed in China for a few dollars, but that wouldn't have given the cards a personal touch. Besides, it was a lot of fun.
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| Fijian Images to remind us of our holiday |
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Indian-inspired images from a little Hindu poetry booklet and
a Hare Krishna pamphlet |
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The greeting cards made from images from a catalogue selling
wooden stamps |
By the way, there's no such thing as yoghurt-hooking, it just rhymed with scrap-booking! But I guess it could work - to hook you up with yoghurt! Yoghurt hooking. I used to make kefir for about a year and a half. The process is tedious, having to sieve the "yoghurt" from the kefir bacteria granules. Every 24hrs. This has been superseded by the Mercedes of Yoghurts: Caspian Sea Yoghurt. Like kefir, it takes a while to grow accustomed to the taste. Kefir is sour. Caspian Sea Yoghurt is silky-smooth in texture. And it is soo much easier to make and use. A friend gifted us some culture - all it takes is 2 Tbspn of the yoghurt culture, add 1 cup of milk and 24 hours later, you have beautiful silky-smooth yoghurt. You simply repeat the process, leave 2 Tbspns culture to start the next batch again. Easy Pleasey!
And on that yoghurt note, we have changed our milk supplier. We were getting non-organic raw milk from a local dairy. Round about the same time that Mike decided his conscience was niggling at him to buy raw organic milk, I read in the paper, about our local dairy man being involved in a SPCA court case. It was alleged he filmed himself shooting a goat mid-air, which his mate threw up into the air! Sounds weird? Well, I thought, if he could do that to a goat, how was he treating his cows? No thank you! Mike now buys organic raw milk from a health shop in Tauranga. What is the world coming to?? I mean, if you have to shoot your goat, why have it tossed into the air as target practice?? Take up clay pigeon shooting instead! No fines or court cases incurred there! At least we know that we aren't willingly supporting a cruel dairy practitioner.
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| Stir fry |
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| Caspian Sea Yoghurt - culture left in jar to start next batch |
And then there's the other kitchen project I have slowly been chipping away at. Teaching my daughter how to cook an array of different meals, so that when she leaves home next year, I know she won't starve! She knows how to make soup, pizza, pasta, a stew, rice, dahl, a curry and a stir-fry. My thinking is, that if she knows how to make a soup - she can transfer that prior learning to other types of soups or cross transfer that knowledge of one dish to other combinations. Well, that's the theory anyway. She could possibly choose to eat instant noodles every day! But at least I'll know I did my bit for humanity!
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| Josephine, our scarecrow with a bad-hair day. |
I uncorked the last of last summer's ginger beer a couple of nights ago. Now being that we are tea-totallers, we were, uh, totalled by the ginger beer. A year on and that natural fermentation was spectacular! A half glass was all it took to have me giggling and sshlurring my shpeech and Mike plonking himself down on a chair to steady himself!! My daughter just looked at us and shook her head in disbelief! Its all a bit painful and embarrassing to her. My ginger beer batches have all been a little suspect! A bit alcoholic. Okay, maybe a lot! Probably a good thing I have just been gifted a clutch of water kefir granules. Hooray! So I have just started my new ginger beer fermentation process tonight and look forward to the result. More on that later, if it works.........
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A little bit of fantasy in the garden...
Let your imagination run wild as you decide on how the
turret got broken.
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Shho long, dearsh! Who shesh shushtainable living ishn't exshiting?
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