smmmooothies

I love smoothies and I love my blender. It was a family Christmas present brought at the end of last year at a excellent factory shop price. Every morning I make smoothies for my family. I highly recommend it as an excellent way to get fruit and breakfast into Husband and teenagers who are tempted to skip both. I am sure it would work well for picky pre schoolers too.

One of us in dairy intolerant, so at the moment I mostly use various combinations of bananas, mango, canned peaches, pineapple, frozen berries, and various juices. What I would like to do tho is sneak in some more nutrients - has anyone got any ideas?

Inheritance

More inspiration from Pip at Meet me at Mikes

- a family tree

Gma- Mums: sewer, knitter and plays with the cutting and gluing of paper
Gma- Dads: knitter, baker and the best fruit salad jam in the land
Dad- leadlighter, sculptor, jeweller, wood carver and turner, writer, all round bullshit artist (I say that with love)
Mum: knitter, sewer (applique t-shirts when we were kids), quilter, dyer (that is one who dyes fabric, how do ya write that?), baker of great foccacia, writer, all round fantastic fibre artist. I tell ya it just comes out of her pores
Mum and me: collaborated on fibre art creations
Me: stitcher, felter, beader, painter, sewer, weaver, creative cook
Daughter 1st actor, baker, sewer
Daughter 2nd sketcher, digital, artist, writer

How 'bought you?- the creative gene run in your family? Play along....

Fantastic Felting

Can't stop felting now.
Finished off a couple of new numbers to take down to Little Sparrow today. In the afternoon I realised time had got away from me and I had to meet one of the girls in town for new shoes - left in a hurry. When we got home my family couldn't decide if a large coloured sheep had come in and shook itself or if it had farted! (strange sense of humour my family) there was wool everywhere.

You see although I have a lovely wee space to work in the corner of our living room, when I have the house to myself during the day I do spread out a bit. As well as the wool roving (or tops depending where you're from) today I also had my embroidery thread, commercial felt, beads, mat and frames all spread out and had over-flowed into the bathroom for gluing. Oh what a delightful sight; evidence of a day well spent. However others like to relax on the couch at the end of the day so it has all been tossed back into my area now while I anxiously wait for tomorrow to come and I can get it all out again - yay!

Meet Me At Mikes is having a Make-a-long - February is Felt and I am just in time! I am posting today's works as my participation. I haven't worked out the flicker thing yet and maybe I will and maybe I won't but I still wanna play a little anyway.

Further to Mikes, we had the first Brown Owl meet for the year last night and my first one ever! I was very nervous walking in but had a great time meeting lovely crafty ladies. There was talk of "I do this but sometimes that" and confessions of projects yet to be completed. There was sharing of hopes and plans for Meet and Makes for the rest of the year, and there was a lot of laughing about kindred obsessive spirits being found. Hooray, it was fun and I look forward to the next get together.

Of shopping and dinner planning bliss

Meet me at Mikes’ Pip wrote on her blog about her shopping list. Her organisation inspired me to share my scheme and my pimped out trolley. It really is a work in progress- one day it will feature more stitch and maybe some bling too.



I am a list maker (Thanks Mum), my menu and shopping list is on the computer, a database even; it gets compiled, printed and then attacked with a highlighter. (I can’t believe I just admitted to that.) I select a meal and the printout will tell me where the recipe is and ingredients required.
I would rather shop for treasures than flour so monthly I do the supermarket(s) shop (a huge day), with little weekly or sometimes more market or corner store visits (and my pimped out trolley).
My menu lasts a month in weekly blocks, although I can't commit to days. That is just too much organisation. I also like to cook double (or triple!) quantities and freeze for busy creating days. The feeling of being able to continue to make, and create knowing I can feed by family at moments notice gives me a feeling of more wealth than I can tell.
I do notice when I don’t plan I spend more money and more time making more average food; an incentive to keep it up to be sure. Apart from having to follow thru and sit and plan once a month the only part where it falls down is with my new year plan to make the kids and husband cook too. Can’t get them to commit in advance yet. Aahhh…. we are all a work in progress.

Creating my way thru

After a week of being in shock I finally feel ready to reach back out into the world.

The fires here just outside Melbourne were a shock to us all. On Saturday before we even knew what had happened; you could feel the danger in the air. Then came the wait to hear if friends were ok, thankfully they all are. Sadly the parents of one of my dear Princess friends lost their home. At a time like this it becomes clear that a home is more than just the place to sleep, and gather for meals, but all of the memories of past years and the plans and dreams for the future. Our family is our home; today we are grateful for those still with us and mourn for those gone.

I spent a lot of last week walking around in circles and sitting on my couch watching updates and creating my way thru. I spent the weekend making some meals and baking for the freezer to be passed on to friends at a later date.

Creating the way thru seems to be the way a number of us have coped with this. I have been thinking of those creative types who have lost or can't get to their stash. I had already put some supplies together for my friend Princess Sparkle Fern and now with the help of Handmade Help I am able to put together more supplies to go to itchy hands. I will be dropping my supplies down to Little Sparrow.

In the creating this last week, I have been making cute little brooches and needlepoint tapestries. I made the one of the King Parrot for Princess Sparkle Fern. They are made from 100% wool felt, recycled fabrics embroidery threads and beads. What fun they are as they come to life in my hands. The little owl is in acknowledgment of my very first Brown Owls meeting coming up very soon. I am so excited and very nervous about meeting a whole lot of crafty women.
Husband is laughing at me at the moment, as I am a little obsessed with these projects and take them everywhere we go. I love to have something so portable and to keep my hands and mind busy.

On the topic of Husband we celebrated our wedding anniversary in the weekend with a lovely long three hour walk and talk and a drink at Batch- a cute kiwi themed café in Balaclava. Husband was especially excited to find a favourite NZ beer- Monteiths Summer Ale- a wee taste of home. ahhh :)

Time to go create some more .......

Blessings to you all especially for those separated from home and family.

First post

Time to join the world of blogging, like many of us I am always curious and have enjoyed the chance to peek into others lives thru their blogs. I hope you too enjoy a wee peek into my simple wee life.

I love to play, to create and to celebrate life everyday.

I believe in magic and have some dear Princess friends who like me love to dress up and to play.

I make something most days but sometimes it is just the kids school lunches. My favourite is to create things out of interesting (mostly recycled) fabrics and stitch. I also dabble in a bit of paint, papermache, beading, felting, collage and if the concept requires it; plastic, metal, recycled furniture or just about anything.

Here are some cute little ponies I made from pure wool felt. They are currently living at Little Sparrow waiting to trot off to some new homes. They have been really hot under the Melbourne sun lately so Shelley made them a gum tree to rest under.