Merry Early Christmas to me!

I have the best man-thing ever! Meet my new best friend, Jacqueline. She is my new kitchen hand.

wooly goodness.

HSC is OVER...well almost

I can't help but feeling, even though I still have one more exam left, that the HSC is over and I am finished High school forever, I feel weird. I feel numb.

Take two.

Done on better paper.

The transformed thoughts of my inner critic.

my journal started to fall apart. I am going to make a new one out of water colour paper and do it again.

Getting the veggie patch going

So, after the slugs and snails devoured my first lot of tomato and egg plant seedlings, I am ready to give it another go. Today i bought seedlings in 4 different varieties of tomatoes, and some Long Purple eggplant seedlings, as well as some seed raising mix and some complete fertiliser for fruiting plants. today was dreadfully windy, and my seedlings got wind burned really badly, and we are supposed to have a cold few days, so i am leaving off planting for a few more days, but soon, my garden will be full of plants and i will have seed trays full of heirloom variety eggplants coming up :) So here are some photos (not mine) of what i will be growing this year.

Grosse Lisse


Father Tom

Reggae Roma

Black Russian

Cherry


Listada De Gandia Eggplant

Casper Eggplant


Long Purple Eggplant


Lebanese Zucchini


Golden Zucchini


DesrieePotatoes


Butternut Pumpkin


Japanese Pumpkin


Snow Peas

there are a few things still left over from last year too, like the loganberries , boysenberries and raspberries, which are flowering like crazy, also some broad beans that re-seeded themselves, some rocket, and my herb garden. all in all, it is going to be a very full veggie patch this year, provided the snails keep out of it :)

Blargh!

I had my first exam of the HSC on Friday. it went ok, but I am SICK AGAIN!. It's not fair. I always get sick, right when i have something important to do. My dad said to me that it is psychosomatic, in that as soon as I have to do something I don't want to, my body instantly seeks out and contracts the first disease it can lay its tendrils on. i hope not, otherwise i am due to be sick a lot in the future.

Feeling lonely and a bit put out.

Art Therapy

So i have been trying to draw more lately because it makes me feel better. Soon the heart of Art Course will start and I am really looking forward to that, and it has motivated me to do a bit of independent drawing. I think that this course is going to be really good for me.

North Roe Shawl of Elven Kind

The other day, I finished knitting a North Roe Shawl for my Niece's Christmas Present.

As soon as I had finished it, my daughter proclaimed that she wanted it. Instead of surrendering the shawl to her, I told her I would make her one, and that she could choose the yarn. As it happens, she chose some very lovely Spanish angora, merino, nylon 4 ply. So, I set her up in the kitchen to dye it.

She had a blast mixing all the different greens together. She would dip the brush into all of the pots, one after the other and say "See, look at the green I made, I bet you don't know how I made that lovely green" :) so, she spotted, and painted and striped and dripped for about an hour on this yarn, and at the end, this is what she got :-

I must confess, she is better than me. :) I am so proud of how good she is getting. If she keeps it up I will have to start selling her stuff and putting the money away in her account. I think she could make a fortune !

So the yarn Is now being turned into a North Roe Shawl, which my Husband has dubbed the "Cloak of Elven Kind".

I think it will be very nice.

Snickerdoodles!

I have been having a bit of fun with some cooking :) My friend Rae used to make this kind of biscuit called a snikerdoodle, and I thought I would try my hand at making them. I have managed, once again to surprise myself with my ability to cook biscuits - a skill I thought I didn't possess. However, as a successful attempt at making gingerbread men and now snikerdoodles proves, I am in fact capable of cooking biscuits without them becoming little charred lumps.

Snickerdoodles

Ingredients

1 & 3/4 cups plain flour

1/2 cup margarine

1 cup castor sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 egg

1/4 tsp bicarb soda

1/3 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 cup raw sugar

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Method

1.Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F)

2. With an electric mixer, beat margarine at a low speed until it goes lighter in colour( about 15-

20 seconds) and add castor sugar and beat for one minute.

3. Add vanilla and egg, and beat for a further minute.

4. Add bicarb and cream of tartar, followed by flour. Mix with a wooden spoon.

5. mix raw sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Roll biscuit dough into 2 cm balls and roll them in the sugar until covered. Place on greased, lined trays, about 3-4 cm apart to allow for some spreading.

6.Cook in oven for 10 minutes. allow to cool on tray for a few minutes, before transferring to a plate or wire rack.

Makes a butt load.

Trads and Cheese

So, just a bit of a catch up, I now have my new spinning wheel, although i am yet to pay for it :/ Becky sent this wonderful Ashford Traditional into town with Em yesterday and Em dropped it off today, but once again, as is always my luck, I was out when she came by. I am sure I will see Becky soon. If not, I will post her the money. I also got some cheese roving, which I am guessing came from Tara. Thanks Tara!

ColourMart

I am IN LOVE with this web site, these wools, everything. The colours are all basic, which is good for me, who loves to dye, and it is SO affordable. Cashmere, merino, and Angora blend FOR SHIZ and I am speaking from experience. I bought some wools from them and it is AWESOME. These are remnants from designer knit wear producers. Spanish, and Italian spun wools. CHECKIT!

Sleeping Beauty Serena.

I got the opportunity to play around with a sleeping beauty Serena spinning wheel today. It belongs to my friend Ellie who was going to give it to me in exchange for sufficient yarny products. I was really keen on it too, but after having played with the wheel for an hour or so, I found it to have one too many flaws for me. :/ it is pretty disappointing, because it is truthfully a very pretty wheel.

Firstly, I gave the old girl a new tension spring, because every good wheel deserves one,and that fixed up the tension and she spins BEAUTIFULLY. I really cannot fault the wheels tension. The wheel also had a rickety pedal, which I fixed up with a screwdriver and some washers. It will still need a new hinge though, as the pin is loose and it still clacks a bit, but it doesn't move around as much now. The thing that finally did it for me, was the orifice. the orifice on the Serena is tiny. It is so hard to thread that it really gets quite frustrating. also, there are no maiden bearings on the Serena- after a bit of research, I have supposed this was a part of their way of making the Serena more affordable. In order to keep the wheel turning nicely, it needs to be oiled regularly, or it starts to make a loud "burpppp" sound - the result of friction I assume. This would be ok, except that the length of the orifice and the way it is positioned means that the grease gets into the orifice and onto my wool, staining it - which is NOT cool. :( So alas, I have decided to say no to Serena. I'm sorry sleeping beauty - your wheels are lovely, but the Serena is not for me.

I will still borrow it though :) because it is always fun to play with new wheels and Peggy broke again :(

Glitter in your Gruel.

So I am awake now.... and what should I do today?

Peggy is broken again.....ISO cheap working wheel to anyone who cares. Will consider any offer :P

I really don't know what to write about...blog for blog's sake....


maybe the day will bring more interesting things in it's wake.

Task 11.

Task 11 on my To Do list is done :) I have drawn/painted a picture, and I feel GOOD:) I may have some lunch now.

Green and other things.

I dyed some wool the other day, and I must confess, it is my favourite of all of the wools I have at the moment.

To do:

I am feeling pretty good today. I was on the Ravelry group "Over The Fence early this morning and came across a thread labled "I will clean all the things!" - which for those of you that are unaware, is a reference to the very humorous post on "Hyperbole and a Half - This is Why I'll Never be an Adult"

The focus of the thread was to create a To Do list and then publicly mark off when you have achieved each thing.

I like this idea. So, I put up my to do list, and have been working through it over the course of the morning.


So far, at 12 midday, my list is as follows.

1. Shower -DONE
2. Make Breakfast - DONE
3. Clean Kitchen - DONE
4. Make Caramel Slice - Pending
5. Vacuum House- DONE
6. Clean the Shower - DONE
7. Wash, Dry and Fold at least one load of washing - DONE
8. Tidy my desk - DONE
9. Make Lunch - pending
10. Colour in with Jordis - DONE
11. Draw at least ONE picture - pending
12. Cuddle Ryan - DONE
13. Water The Plants - DONE [by the rain ;)]
14. Feed Cats - DONE
15. Make Dinner - pending
16. Read to Jordis - DONE [will read some more at bed time too]
17. STUDY - pending

So I'm not doing to bad. I am looking forward to the prospect of doing some drawing this afternoon, and the house is clean[ish]. It feels strange, that I have, for the first time in ages, separated my day up into a series of tasks. If I finish everything early does that mean I get to knit?