another years end

The end of a year always brings mixed feelings for me…. on the one hand I am terribly excited to be making a new start with all sorts of possibilities and yet a part of me is sad that another year has passed by and perhaps I didn't really make the most of it! Not to mention, that the end of the year brings my birthday which makes for even more introspection! What if I could have done and seen more? Created something wonderful? Been a better parent, friend or daughter? Saved that extra dollar? A thousand what-if's all to no avail - the year has passed and there is another just a day away now, all ready to be planned and savoured!

And that is the best part of this time of year - oh, all the possibilities!!!! A whole year, freshly minted and all shiny and new, waiting to be used to its full potential. I don't make New Year resolutions any more but I do always attempt to become better at something……and that something is usually 'being organised'! I spend a good part of the week after Christmas and the first week in January, writing lists and preparing a new planner along with reading blogs about organisation as well as books about getting things done and doing them better. I have been mulling over my Word of the Year and have finally settled on one that I feel will speak to me for the next 12 months. More on that in another post.

I would like to take this opportunity, right here at the very end of 2014, to thank all of you for coming here to read my thoughts and share in the joy of my family and home. Its been a pleasure to use this space as a bit of fun, a bit of therapy and a lot of shared thoughts.

From my home to yours - from the far south of this wondrous blue and green globe to the far reaches in the north and all in-between -  I wish everybody a wonderful, richly blessed and fulfilled 2015.

pfeffernüsse biscuit recipe

So. I had great thoughts of posting a few of our favourite Christmas biscuit recipes. Now its only two days before the Big Celebration and I haven't posted any yet. Ahem. My days are filled with baking, cleaning, decorating, organising, shopping (yes, I'm still doing that) and a myriad of other now or never must do's. But truly, these tasty little flavour bumps are worth putting aside a bit of time for, amongst all the busyness of this busiest of seasons. 

I make LOTS of these spicy biscuits every year - just before Christmas - and they should keep for up to a month if you store them in a tin in a cool place. Of course, in my house there are very rarely never any left after about two weeks so I can't truly verify if they are good for a month, so please use your discretion!   

Pfeffernüsse

4 eggs

400gm caster sugar

100gm almond meal

1 heaped tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cardamon 

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated

500gm plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

******

For the glaze

100 gm icing sugar

Lemon juice

*Mix sifted icing sugar with enough lemon juice to make a thickened cream-like mixture. Add more lemon juice if you want thinner icing.

******

Whip the eggs and sugar until light and frothy.

Add almond meal, spices and lemon zest. Stir.

Sift flour and baking powder into the egg/spice mixture, mix until smooth. 

Give the dough a light kneading in the bowl until it looks smooth. You may need to add a little more flour if its too sticky. 

Take portions of dough (about a cup size amount?) and roll it into long sausage shapes (approx 2.5cm diameter) on a smooth surface. You can see in these photos that I use our plastic covered table! 

Now cut your sweet sausages into 2.5cm lengths and put them on a greased tray….not too close as they do spread a teeny bit. 

Bake at 160C for around 12 - 15 minutes depending on how hot your oven runs. I do mine on 165C (sorry not sure how to get that little degree sign!!) for 13 minutes or so. 

While warm dip the tops into the lemon/icing sugar mixture.

Leave to dry well before storing. 

And thats that! The biscuits will be a bit crunchy but heres a little trick to soften them - just add a quarter of an unpeeled apple into the tin, leave for a few days and the apple helps to moisten and make them chewy. Be sure not to let the apple touch the biscuits though, as they will get a soggy spot!

This recipe makes quite a few biscuits. My family also eat quite a few biscuits over Christmas. I make 4 batches of these, along with 4 batches each of at least 3 other kinds and although I wrap and gift quite a few, there are not many left after New Year. I told you they ate a lot of bikkies but perhaps its because they're all deprived for the rest of the year when I mostly make healthy, sugar free cakes!!

I do hope you give these a try. There are endless variations of this recipe but this is the one that I've settled on and find easy enough to whip up quickly. They are really very moreish and such a special treat!

Dieses feines Gebäck wert ihr schon kennen! Ich backe Pfeffernüsse nur zu Weihnachten und meine Familie ist immer ganz begeistert dabei. Ich hab hier mein Rezept aber sicher habt ihr selber eines und ich muss es nicht übersetzen!  

a teeny confession

I have a confession to make. No, no its nothing really sinister, such as perhaps, a former life as a can-can dancer (which I have been, ahem) or a clanking family skeleton hiding from the light of day (which I'm not aware of). Nothing like that. Really. None the less, this secret that I try to keep from friends and family (less successfully from family, I might add!) is an ever growing dilemma…..and its threatening to become a chronic illness. 

Come closer. Im going to whisper to you now, ok?

I'm a hoarder.   

Right. So you didn't hear me? I'll say it louder then - I'M A HOARDER! Yes, yes I am indeed! There, I feel better now having got that off my chest! So, are you still my friend? 

But hang on, let me explain. I'm not as bad as those poor people from that TV show which I can't remember the name of right now - you know, the one with the nice Greek psychologist who says,  "Theres a little hoarder inside all of us". I only hoard most things useful stuff and I sometimes mostly use it. For example, look at that photo above. I collate an order for bulk whole foods every two months, and there, see what comes wrapped around the shampoo bottles? Long lengths of paper towels. Ooh, can't throw that away because I have the perfect use for it and anyway, what a waste - lets repurpose that. 

And then there are the toilet rolls and the longer cardboard rolls from inside waxed lunch wrap….and the odd bottle top (just the occasional one, I do not have boxes of them stashed under my bed, just for the sake of keeping them, alright?) They both make great circles when dipped in paint and applied to journal pages. Old paint chips come in handy for adding a pop of colour and the thicker type of junk mail make great paint palettes. Bubble wrap for making pattern, gyprocking tape for added texture, used gift wrap, old paper dress patterns, styrofoam trays, old credit cards for spreading paint and the list goes on…..

Then theres the lovely array of mini mags that come inside the slightly more useful magazines I buy or pick up second hand. Some of them are small and cute and have nice thick pages and, if I don't cut out the nice images, I use them to make a quick, small journal……its far easier to paint over an image or bit of writing thats already there on a piece of junk mail, than it is to face a blank white page in an expensive journal! It matters not if I make a mess!

Heres an example of a mini mag journal. I think it was from a furniture shop called Domayne? Not sure, but I do like it a whole lot better now!

How about old book pages? One of my children made one of those secret cavity books out of a very fat Australian Trotting Stud manual and I couldn't bear to just throw out all that lovely printed paper. So now, it comes in handy to do quick sketches or to paste as backgrounds for journal pages. Once again, it doesn't matter if I muck up a drawing - its only junk paper! Yep, lets repurpose that too!

Lately we have been eating a lot of Vita Brits for breakfast (yeah I know, but the kids actually like them) and now I have a lot of Vita Brits packets. They are nice and sturdy and since I've been adding them to my collection of other nice sturdy cardboard packets and have quite a large amount, I decided I'd use them for painting and playing. A coat of gesso and then whatever paint or paper takes my fancy and another 'masterpiece' is born!!!

What about those little bits of 'junk' that pass through our lives? Make art!!!! This one was for a Journal52 prompt, 'Recycled Art' and I used words from newspapers and magazines, old stamps, some of the many business envelopes I hoard collect and other bits of ephemera. I think it needs something else done to it but my mantra is "It doesn't have to be perfect and it only has to please me" so for now I'm pleased with it.

Now that I have bared my soul to the world (huh, wishful thinking!) I wonder if you can relate?

junk journal collage

And just for something a little different from the everyday Christmas events happening right now…. here are a couple of pages from a journal I've been working on. Every month, we receive a free newspaper/magazine/booklet thingy, printed by a local publisher, with news, notices, upcoming events  and other articles about our community. I've been thinking for a few years that there must be something else I could use them for, other than just throwing them into the recycle bin when we've read them. And now, finally, I've found it! Since discovering my passion for art and journaling, I've needed more books to splash paint into and these are just perfect.  

Printed in black and white on non glossy paper, 30cm x 21cm and with mostly around 18 pages, these are perfect for a decent size spread. I simply pull out the staples and bind them with yarn or string, gesso (or glue) every second page together, then gesso each spread using an old credit card to get it nice and thin and even. Some paint in whatever colour takes my fancy (these two just happen to both be pink, but I do use other colours too!!) and then I go wild with the magazines! Gardening and bridal mags are great for pretty flowers, womens mags have delicious cakes and, well…..women... and National Geographics have some really outstanding pics. There's also a bit of washi tape in there!  

You can see in the above spread that I'm not fussy about whether the print shows through - I think thats part of the charm of repurposing - but I did turn the booklet upside down so it wasn't too obtrusive. 

These are the results of some very late night cutting and pasting and I will eventually write in the blank spaces or perhaps fill them with some words of wisdom. For now I'm enjoying looking through my new-repurposed-old magazine spreads just as they are and wondering if I should do a few workshops in my area, encouraging women to have a go at letting out their own Inner Collage Queen! After all, its a great way to re-use our local newsletter!

I'm joining in with Art Journal Journey again since their challenge this month is 'Collage' and also with Linda at Natural Suburbia for Creative Friday. 

Thanks for stopping by and visiting!  

sharing the love around

Look what someone found in their Advent box this morning….. ;) 

….and they did!! 

slow living november 2014

Well hello friends!! Its been a while since my last Slow Living post! In fact it had been a while since my last post although I've rectified that now by posting several times in recent weeks. I have turned a corner in life and I feel fantastic, motivated and inspired!!! Whether that will keep me busily posting here or whether I'll be swept off into new horizons and ideas remains to be seen, but right now Im delighted to be sharing our days once again!
So, whats been happening here on our little bit of land? To borrow a phrase from one of my favourite movies* …."Read on"………!

Nourish -  We ate the last of the broccoli and I've now pulled the remaining plants out due to the beginning of cabbage moth season (my children take offence at finding a fat, green, well cooked grub on their dinner plate!), ditto the cabbage. We had an awesome crop of what I think may have been English spinach, which provided us with many a hearty pie and we have begun to enjoy some of the garlic that is almost ready to pull. There have also been parsley, coriander and a few onions gracing our meals.
I am still following the Trim Healthy Mama plan and am pleased to say it has worked excellently on a minor health issue I'd been battling……. as well as losing a bit of….. ahem, belly, which was a bonus!


Prepare - Hmm, preparing for xmas maybe? No not really because that comes in December. Mostly we have been preparing the poly tunnel and veg garden for planting. We have a large garden and it takes quite a while to get around to forking it all over and pulling all weeds but I think its finally done. There is really not anything much in the garden to prepare - at this time of year all there is gets eaten quite quickly 'au natural'!

Reduce - I know I've mentioned the great little op shop we have here but have I told you that they often have free books? (and other things but I'm mainly interested in the books!). They are usually older books, sometimes with nice covers, sometimes with nice thick pages of interesting graphics and occasionally with something worth reading. I like to repurpose and I like books and papery stuff, so I can never resist bringing home the best ones but really, how many old books does one need? So I thought I'd turn them into journals for painting or writing in and try my luck with an Etsy store. Of course, its not luck and after having a little read about how to boost sales and make interesting listings, I've realised that there is a whole big Etsy world out there and people take this very seriously indeed! Never mind, I love to play around with paper and cutting mats, not to mention making good use of interesting old books, and if I don't sell them I can always gift them!


Green - No, once again I haven't got anything to write about in this category. I still use bought washing powder (although I buy in bulk and it lasts me a looong time) and I've never tried making soap although I'm always a bit envious of those that do manage it. Bicarb soda for personal deodorant is as good as it gets here, I'm afraid! I hope I make up for my lack by doing a lot of repurposing….??

Grow - Oh, but on the growing front is where its all happening: potatoes are shooting up in wild abandon in a new patch of ground; tomato, cucumber, capsicum, and eggplants are reaching for the sun in their tropical paradise inside the poly tunnel; onions, lettuce, parsley and poppies are vying for space and for glory….and the poppies win! I love the garden at this time of year, with so much promise and all the possibilities - shall we plant this here? what about this veg? look whats popped up today? Its always a delight to watch the progress of seedlings planted with a wish and a prayer (and a good soaking)!

Create - If you've been reading here in the past few weeks you will have seen a few things I've created this last month! Here are a few more of the many art journal pages I've been creating. This is a newly re-discovered passion - years ago, before babies, I did quite a lot of drawing and sketching and of course there have also been arty happenings during my years of home educating, with nature journals and lessons in art appreciation. This, however, is now purely for enjoyment - my own - and while to others it may look like a quick sketch and a scribble, it lightens my heart and feeds my creative self.

Discover - And leading on from all this art, is something I'm not really sure of yet but am excited to have discovered it anyway……. a Visual Arts course at TAFE. I found out quite by accident that there was one coming up next year and have been for two interviews which seem likely to result in being accepted. I'm VERY excited but, damn it, the logistics are creeping in and now I'm not so sure if its a good thing for the rest of the family, blah, blah blah…..!!

Enhance - I spent quite a few afternoons working away on this lovely sled and certainly hope I've enhanced our lovely ballet teachers life by doing so. Our Fairy does ballet and the annual concert this year was 'The Snow Queen' so I offered to turn Cinderellas coach (from a previous performance) into a sled fit for a queen. Of course, there was also the job of sewing sequins and sparkly fabric onto a unitard for my sweet girl who played a very menacing imp to perfection (can it be otherwise?).

Enjoy - We have the second last birthday of the year in November - our third youngest turned 17. Seventeen!!!! Oh my golly gosh!
She is a delight, I thoroughly enjoy her company and we all enjoyed her cake! And I can't believe she's already 17!!

Im joining in once again, with Slow Living Month by Month which is now collected by Linda at The Greenhaven Good Life. 

*'Pride and Predjudice' - the BBC one with that delicious Colin Firth.

advent boxes from last years cards

Well, so much for being well ahead and organised for the pre Christmas rush this year! No, hang on, I am organised but certainly not ahead of schedule as you can see. These lovely glittery little parcels are our advent calendar this year and while the boxes were made by some of my children a month ago, their over-worked mother didn't get any goodies for inside them, until yesterday! Oh and I had to find and print some corny jokes as well! I love them and the children humour me!! 

So this morning was spent filling and adding a bit of bling to 24 little boxes made from old Christmas cards - I wanted to tell you all about this ahead of Advent but good plans often go astray….sigh. And then I wanted to quickly link to a tutorial for making the boxes but it was not to be. I couldn't find a nice and easy one without a lot of pesky measuring - so I enlisted the help of one of the girls and we made our own tute!! 

Tutorial - how to make recycled Advent boxes!! 

I won't go into detail about materials needed (see above) 

Cut the card in half along the spine. On the writing part of the card, make a mark approximately 5mm along the long edge and a bit more, maybe 8mm,  along the shorter edge and cut along the lines to make it smaller. This is to enable the base of the box to fit into the lid. 

Measure carefully from corner to corner and draw a line to make a cross on both cards. 

Now fold both short sides so that the edge meets up with the centre of the cross. 

Do the same with the long edges. 

Now cut along the fold on all the short sides of the card (not the short fold) until you get to the line. 

Im not going to try and explain this next bit because I'm sure you should be able to see whats going on in the photo but there is a bit of folding along previous folds as well as another new fold over the top at the ends. 

Do the same with the lid section.

We staple the sides with the sharp bits facing in (yes, I know this lid is not done like that….. what can I say?…. a kid made it!) but you could try gluing if you don't like staples. 

And viola! a nice neat little container to put all sorts of deliciousness in! (and if you are one of my younger children, please don't look at any further pics or you won't get a surprise!) 

We have a very cheap little op shop here in the village and they have lots of Christmassy stuff for sale from November on, so I was fortunate enough to find lots of rolls of half used glittery packing type ribbon to tie this lot up with. Do excuse the very stained and ratty tablecloth that is being held up here by two unwilling helpers just out of the picture - I only noticed what they'd used when I put the pics on the computer.

So there you have a nice easy way to make little boxes. Years ago we used to make them to hold all sorts of little hand made gifts for friends, using old birthday cards but sadly, children grow up and old ways are forgotten. Now they want to buy gifts!

I hope you give these a try with any little people in your life!

Here is last years Advent wreath and here you will find the one from the year before.

And when I went a bit further back into the archives, I found this one as well (with a very much younger Fairy!)

I'm linking this to Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia (even though its Monday!!)

And I've also linked to Artist Trading Post Exchange where you will find other great ideas for recycling for Christmas, and at Frontier Dreams with Keep Calm Craft On.


Ich bin schon wieder spät mit unser Advent Kalender. Die Kinder haben schon seit längere zeit die kleine schachteln gebastelt aber erst heute Kamm ich dazu sie aufzufüllen! Von alte Weihnachtskarten, sie sind sehr schnell zum herstellen und immer sehr beliebt von groß und klein! 

progress

You may have noticed that I have a new little gadget thingy in my sidebar. Yes? Well, thats because I am now the owner, manager and general dogsbody of a shiny, new shop! Of course, its not like an old fashioned bricks and mortar shop where one walks in and is greeted by the sights and smells of whatever that particular store is selling. Oh, but how I would love one of those varieties - an old building covered in roses, bursting with whole foods and sweet smelling herbs or perhaps crammed with lots of pretty fabrics and a wall of yarn and ribbon……and the fragrance of soap and paper, wool and lavender. Yes, that would be the best of fun!

But no, this one is just a 'presence' amongst the great wide inter-web and some photos on your computer - but to me its still a step forward, moving in a new direction and overcoming some of those fears and self doubts that creep in and make life a little stifled. I've been considering a small Etsy store for a while but have not had the brain power to think straight let alone work at creating goods and shop front. Until now.
I will be creating some different notebooks and journals when I can carve out a bit more time, but for now there are just a few journals made using repurposed book covers and some nice thick, watercolour papers. My girls were admiring them today and casually mentioned that they would love a 'journaly' Christmas gift….. cheeky girls!!

Thank you for stopping by and leaving me such lovely comments in my last post - its so nice to hear from you.

happy birthday henri de toulouse lautrec

Yesterday was Henri de Toulouse Lautrecs 150th birthday. I know this because Mr Google told me so. (I do think its funny that some smart cookie in a high rise office somewhere, decides which famous person or event should be remembered by me!). Anyway, of course I clicked on the little graphic there on that home page and discovered a lot about the aristocratic Henri who died far too young (of syphilis and inbreeding) after a very productive artistic life. I also scrolled through a lot of his paintings on the official Toulouse Lautrec site which set me thinking that I might sketch a tribute to this master artist for another Art Journal Journey entry….. but alas, my day was busy with all those daily tasks that seem to have priority over creative endeavours and it wasn't until 10.30 last night that I managed to sit and scratch together a quick sketch.

Mine is done in cheap pastel chalks on the back of a brown shopping bag - because I like to repurpose stuff - and I call her "Naked Showgirl" which seems to be along the lines of where Henri spent most of his time  and from where he drew much of his inspiration. I didn't nip out to the local Moulin Rouge club though, I just followed a small basic pencil drawing from a book on how to sketch nudes and gave her a flowing pink shawl to hide the parts of her legs I couldn't get quite right! I'm pretty excited to have managed to get her mostly in proportion and will eventually glue my showgirl into my journal (after I've admired her for a while up there on my easel!).

I am having so much fun with all this art and art journaling and I want to try so many different mediums and styles and processes…… its taking over everything we do, what with paints, papers and paraphernalia all over the house!! I have to laugh when my teenage daughter tells me, "Mum, you are out of control!"

When the clock strikes midnight while I'm just finishing off a new creation, I tend to agree though! 

essence of poppy

Right now I am truly enjoying the show of poppies in my vegetable garden.
They are everywhere.
Self sown from last years seeds.
They seem so thankful to be growing and bring me joy every time I wander past to turn on sprinklers or rush by on a mission to bring a basket of food to the kitchen.

I can never bear to pull out any baby plants that have had the strength to sprout amongst the weeds - it seems unkind to end their short life when they've had to struggle so hard to gain a hold in paths and rocky ground - so I leave them.

Later, when the plants are fully grown and squeezing too tightly between lettuce, onions or parsley, I discover tightly furled buds and once again I leave them.

My reluctance to cull is rewarded now, with beautiful blooms and a sense of magic in my garden.
I rarely pick any to bring indoors, preferring to enjoy their jewel like beauty in situ.

And I am grateful.

woman in hat with green collar

I've often wondered what made the great artists, great? What is it about their paintings that was so good, unique, unusual, daring and different? Why do we drool over Mona Lisa or wonder at the magnificence of the Sistine Chapel? (apart from the fact that Michelangelo had to lie down for years to paint it!).

Did the Masters do anything amazing in their life time or is it only after they've gone that we think of their art as masterpieces? No doubt, many a scholar has debated long and loudly about these questions and someone will surely have written a book on this subject. 

So, having done all this wondering, I decided that I'd like to join in with this months theme at Art Journal Journey, a blog I found a few weeks ago as I was searching up yet more creative delights! I like to have a prompt or idea to give me a direction in my journals and I liked this months theme at AJJ - "Inspired by the Masters"- so I had a quick ramble round the web and thought that I could possibly do a teeny bit of justice to Pablo Picasso. His 'Woman in Hat and Fur Collar' really appealed to me but as I didn't want to copy it directly, I just had a good long look at it and then started work a few days later. 

I used water soluble Oil Pastels and outlined in black acrylic paint. When I'd almost finished I had another look at Señor Picasso's painting and decided that mine was missing too many of the little added bits - thats why she has the checked collar and broken heart! Mine is also a lot 'sweeter' in looks than his ferocious female. I really like the original painting but I'm also quite fond of mine and will definitely try again with another painting from another Master. 

Woman in Hat and Fur Collar - Pablo Picasso
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia 

My children thought this one looked ghastly with her eye staring towards herself and also that there was too much 'busyness' in her face but I love her witchy green and yellow looks! In fact, I'm going to try to paint another one using these colours and more angles!!

And I'm still wondering about what makes some artists great…… even though it was much harder than I thought to make my painting look even vaguely like his!!


(For those of you that write German far far better than I do, please forgive the garbled language below! I write now and again for my non English speaking Austrian relatives, who, hopefully get the gist!!)

Ich bin jetzt viel beim malen und zeichnen und hab das obere Bild nach Picasso gemalt. Sie kommt mir vor wie eine grüne hex! Ich hab dabei viel spaß aber leider ist es nicht ganz so toll wie seines und bestimmt würde ich nie ein Meister!  

chicken run

Im going to backtrack a little and post about a few things that have happened around here in recent months. I do have a lot of photos and events that I'd like to share but I promise to intersperse them with current projects too! 

One very clever little brainwave that we created was a temporary chicken tunnel. Early in spring when the weeds greens were growing prolifically in the unused garden beds but not so much in the chickens usual enclosure, we thought it would be advantageous to the chookies to let them frolic amongst the greenery and at the same time save us the chore of clearing out the beds. We have a path that runs right through the middle of the garden and as we didn't want a fence stopping us from getting to the poly tunnel, we had to do some lateral thinking. 

    

So, the chicken tunnel was conceived! A small hole cut into the two temporary fences, a few dowels from another old cot (have a peek here for other ways I've used retired cots!) some lengths of small irrigation pipe, a piece of old wire netting and hey presto, happy chickens and more importantly, a weeded garden.

There was a bonus too - it was so cute to watch them jostle through in a hurry at mealtimes or slowly meander along at their leisure through their own private walkway!

 It has been pulled down since - the chickens are free ranging out in the paddock and there is a nice crop of potatoes in that patch now - but we will certainly be using the chickens in the garden over the next winter. It saved us a lot of work!