Monday, July 30, 2012

Self Care Swap

I had a wonderful courier delivery on Saturday morning! I loved reading the labels and opening the packages of a 'foot spa' from Tracey! Such fun.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Sourdough and Self Care

I have been hankering to have a go at some sourdough bread.  Last week after watching the Fabulous Baker Brothers talk about their ancient sourdough starter I checked out their recipe & made a starter.  Each day I have fed and nurtured this little bubbling mixture.  Yesterday it was grown up enough to be used for a loaf of bread.  My loaf isn't very loaf-ish looking but it tastes great.  I think I will look at getting a proving basket for the real sourdough experience.  I was up at 6 this morning to crank up the oven and get it cooked before work and school today.  So now as well as Caspian sea yogurt in a jar reproducing on our bench top I also have a sourdough starter  bubbling away in a jar there too.  There is still plenty of room for the coffee machine!

Today was the send off day for the self-care swap I have been collating over the last month or so that Janine organised.  I had a list of what another person likes/dislikes and have had this in the back of my mind when I have been out and about.  I would have liked a greater 'handmade' element but not really knowing what someone's home or 'style' is I found this to be in the too hard basket.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the process of choosing things for someone I don't know well, thinking about the kinds of reactions might be had when they open the packages and hoping they are ones of happiness - the kinds of emotions that I would like someone to have - I think that true self-care is perhaps allowing yourself to smile on the inside and gaining ongoing pleasure from that happiness.  But now that I've sent it there's an element of worry about whether I got it right or not...

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Pretty cups

I loved mums set of these cups, nice to drink coffee from and they look good! When they were in a local kitchenware store I just had to get them. Seeing them on the coffee machine makes me smile inside.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Sewing Skirts & Lightscribe


I used the previously posted skirt 'tutorial'' to make the girls a skirt each last night.  They are very happy with them (love that they don't notice their mum isn't too good on inserting zips). 

Last night I also discovered how nice Lightscribe is when labelling discs - I only did writing on it but next will try to add an image.  They look heaps nicer than writing on them with black vivid.  We've had the capabilities for about 6 years as our computer DVD drive has Lightscribe built in.  We just hadn't used it.  You can get coloured discs and gold discs which could be lots of fun.  Basically the laser that writes the images or info to the disc is then used to put the label on the disc (you have to turn the disc over so the laser can work on the label side of the disc).

I'm almost ready for the school term to begin, spent some time in my class today putting things back after the cleaners have been through and have a few loose ends to tie up to be ready for the week ahead.  I am going to try to do my planning on google docs this term to try to eliminate the paper clutter that always seems to surround me!
Posted by Picasa

Sunday, July 08, 2012

Term Break

Term Break has meant time in Dunedin with family, creative moments and playing with my camera!  Yesterday was 'Scrap Saturday' where a group of local ladies get together to make stuff with paper generally although there were some knitting needles out & about yesterday.  I worked on the below layouts.  '12' & 'Hi' were part of a 'kit'challenge that we had each made up our own kits (shopping from our stash) & we had some things to do on our pages to go in the draw for a prize.


Having 8 ladies to your home to scrapbook requires liquid handsoap in the bathroom...we were out so I made some:-)  Rose essential oils make this one smell delighful and I smile each time I wash my hands (kind of like my rose multipurpose spray too).  Julia asked for the recipe...I made mine from Wendyl Nissen's book and you can find it HERE.  I added rose geranium & indian palmarosa in equal quantities.  I didn't use sunlight soap either - used some Dr Bronners bar soap.  This only makes enough for about 250ml liquid soap.


Last week I had the double pleasure of catching up with a uni friend and her delightful daughters and nephew to take some photos as I learn my way around my camera more.  She made some delicious ham soup and used the left over fat from the ham to make bird feeders with these three.
 
Posted by Picasa