Women's Creative Centre, Greenslopes and Lifeline Store, Mt Gravatt

Last Wednesday I managed to get myself along to a craft workshop organised by the Women’s Creative Centre in Greenslopes. I post every Wednesday to help motivate me to write about getting out of the house. Included are some photos of things I bought when David took me to the Lifeline shop at Mt Gravatt the previous Sunday, like this cute little garden charm we now have sitting on our garden outdoor table.

It was a challenge to even find out about this craft group in the first place, as I’ve been looking on the internet for a while and hadn’t found anything local. I only happened to be told about this group when I asked at the Kingston Butter Factory craft shop if they held lessons. After searching the net for “Creative Women’s Centre” I found one short page as part of some listing site which had precious little information, just an email address. So I wrote to the email address and got sent a document that I couldn’t read because I didn’t have the software. Luckily, David helped me download it so I could read a little more. Last Saturday David drove me out to Greenslopes to see the place, as I wasn’t going to go by myself without ‘casing the joint’ first! I plucked up the courage to speak to two ladies in the shop about going along to a lesson.

The lessons, or workshop which cost only $4.50, is not held at the craft shop but in another room in the shopping centre. It was nervous for me to walk into a strange room with strange people, its a pity they kept the window blinds closed. One lady went to close the blinds because she ‘didn’t want people looking at us’. I think that’s a shame because it makes it harder for new people. I’m really glad I went to the craft group, and it went for two hours which was just the right length of time. I fit right in with my wonderfully perfect cane sewing basket which I got second-hand for an amazing $3 from the Lifeline shop last Sunday.

I learnt a new way of starting and ending my crochet work, which is great. I also talked with the instructor about tension and how to better judge which wool and hooks I should be using for certain projects. I had a go at an Irish Rose and I got a copy of the pattern, which is great. I also talked about the bolero I want to make, ending up changing my mind about which wool to use. There was a lot of inspiration for me to get going on several projects, I just don’t know which to start next! I’ll be going along again today, taking my patterns and cottons to ask about making doilies and to try and use up my pile of wool … which doesn’t seem to be shrinking yet!

Perhaps I should stop buying new wool??? lol!

Red Hearts of Love

All these photos were taken last Sunday morning. When I saw them in my pictures folder together I realised they were all red so that gave me an idea for a post to join in with Ruby Tuesday hosted by Mary at Work of the Poet!

After a couple of hours of me checking the Pink Saturday blogs and he playing a computer game, we got peckish for some breakfast. We were in the mood for our favourite lovey dovey breakfast, sausages and tomato with love heart eggs and mushrooms!

On Saturday, David took me to a Salvo’s store (Salvation Army charity shop). We hadn’t been there before and there were lots of bargain treasures to be found, some of which I decided I coudn’t bring home. One thing I did grab was this very good toy for developing fine motor and hand-eye coordination in very young children. It’s pretty solid, not flimsy, so I grabbed it for $3. In the background you can see a red love-heart bag. I can’t remember where I got it from but I keep some Barbie things in it, it’s so cute. Also in the background you can see my tiny teddies where they live now, sitting on one of the vintage doll’s chairs to keep Barbie company. The doily you can see I believe was made by my great-grandmother, which I hope to try copying one day.

Another bargain treasure we found at the Salvo’s store on Saturday were this pair of lovey dovey coffee mugs. We’ve decided to collect coffee mugs with love hearts on them, as well as other things with love hearts because we are sooo lovey dovey! /awwww… lol! These are probably not so great because the shape means that one is smaller than the other. I don’t like the idea that to be in love one person must be smaller.

Our first love heart coffee mugs we bought were these very cheap ones we saw at the supermarket a couple of years ago. We got four, one broke and has been thrown away. That’s a shame, I really must remember to keep broken crockery for my mosaic projects I hope to do one day. Two of the remaining three mugs have broken handles, so one is now used as my pens holder by my pc. That’s why I’m afraid to use the 3rd mug for drinking as I have a terrible vision of someone spilling hot coffee over them when the silly handle breaks! But they are just too cute to throw away, they are too lovey dovey! When a coffee handle breaks, it can still be recycled into something useful.

I also took a photo of this very cute red chocolate tin. It cost me $5 full of chocolates from Coles online last Valentine’s Day. I havent’ decided what it will be used for yet, but I’m sure it will turn out to be nice. It’s sitting on top of the table my great-grandfather made, which I will do a post about one day.

I didn’t realise how many red love hearts I have about my house!
❤ ❤ ❤

Be sure to check out other Ruby Reds at Ruby Tuesday!

Highlights from this week’s party

• wonderful Flame Tree image and poetry at Rinkly Rhymes
• on friendships at Anne-Marie with a dash
• a beautiful close-up flower photograph at Little Bang Theory
• “I blog therefore I am” at Joysweb

Three Small Things – fingerpuppet, granny square, doily

Here are three small things I’ve made in the last few days, a Teddy Bear fingerpuppet, a cross-my-heart granny square and a lemon doily.

<<< There is no pattern for this finger puppet, it is merely one of my early attempts at making a crochet toy. I decided to pop a little dress on her, along with a matching flower headband. It was after I embroidered her face that I realised she was back the front. Oh well, her backwards legs are hidden beneath the skirt so it doesn’t really matter. She is just for practice after all, and was fun to make. You can see her before she was decorated in my Five Tiny Teddies post as one of my early attempts at making a crochet toy. I think she makes a great companion for my Octopus Boy!

>>> When I asked David what he thought I should make next, his idea was for me to make a lovey-dovey blanket for the lounge, one with a heart motif. I’ve seen lots of square heart motifs so went back to the net for some ideas. One I saw was a cross my heart granny square. I didn’t use that pattern, just looked at it for the idea. I think I might have a go at making a granny square all in one colour then out-lining just one of the four hearts in a contrasting colour using chain stitch.

<<< I was feeling brave so was ready to give making a doily another go. I found a simple doily diagram at a page of beginner crochet doilies. I hit a snag at the 10th round so took it to the Women’s Creative Centre to see if I could get some advice on it. Apparently my tension was too tight and I need to use a bigger hook, so after we unravelled the mistake we fastened this one off to make a small doily. It’s just the right size to put under the phone that is sitting on my piano.

Pink Coladas, Pink Porridge

There are oh so many ways to bring pink into your life! Even a little splash of pink in food and drink can help! Here are two examples I use regularly.

My husband and I are in a very romantic phase at the moment. We’ve been together over three years now and I’m so happy our love is not diminishing like you’re sometimes told it will. We keep ‘lovey-dovey’ ice cubes in our freezer, and pop them into our drinks all the time, although now winter is coming, maybe not so often anymore! One of our favourite drinks is “Pink Colada”. Its just a normal pina colada, but instead of using pineapple juice we use apple and strawberry juice. Last night we made some, but this time we used Lychee Liquor instead of rum, and I served them in my special pink wine glasses, so these were some yumscious cocktails!

Now the weather is turning cooler, its time to use up the last of our porridge before I buy some more. I try and keep some raspberries in the freezer, buying them when they are on special, so we can throw a handful into our porridge, making it a very cute pink! Sometimes, we might have forest berries instead, or blueberries which are very healthy, and the porridge still comes out a rosy colour. Having pink porridge for breakfast is always a cute way to start the day, and my husband doesn’t mind at all! (and I rather like the messy dribbles, they make my foto more artistic, kk? lol)

We were going to visit my family today but aren’t going now. I’m disappointed because I got some gifts for the children, including this cute litte book, which I just noticed is Pink!
PS. Happy Mother’s Day for tomorrow!

And don’t forget to stop by Beverly’s blog for more details on Pink Saturday!
http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Each Sunday morning I like to visits lots of Pink Saturday posts, its a great thing to do while I have my morning coffee (as I’m in Australia, most of the posts appear for me during the night). I visit everyone who comments on my blog, and today I also visited all of our new Pink Saturday participants. One new blog I’d highly recommend a visit to is A Gathering of Thoughts by Rebecca, its a simply gorgeous site and very PINK!
❤ ❤ ❤

i

Earlier this year, I tried to give up my World of Warcraft guild but found out just how much it really means to me.

I’ve always felt a need to be productive in some way, I need to devote my passion and attention, and to these virtual friends whom I’ve never met irl, what we can achieve together is something meaningful. I know a lot of people scoff at these virtual relationships, but after hanging out there for the last five years I would have to suggest that those who criticise it don’t fully understand what it involves.

After we strip away the facade we are forced to wear in reality, having to play sometimes superficial roles at work or for family, the avatar we choose to play ingame is, in part, a mere fantasy, this is true. But during our work together as a team striving to achieve group goals, and for some this is for years, the ‘true colours’ of a player always appear, sooner or later. Here you are in your pure form. The facade we wear for society is stripped away, and then what is left? Your real personality, your true self is always there, hidden under purple loot and boss kill achievements. So there we find true heroes, with strength of character that you might not see in the ordinary people around you, living ordinary lives.

And so I came to the conclusion that I love my guild, because to me it is meaningful, it gives me purpose. And at the end of the day, its all just a game, but so is the real world, and what all of us are really seeking is something meaningful to devote ourselves to with passion, to make our lives all the more richer.

Images are of the Bloodlust of Nagrand merchandise we recently ordered to celebrate my renewed passion for our guild! They arrived yesterday, and I’ve already ran the mugs through the dishwasher so the quality of these products looks great so far. And yes, you can see in the shot of the mouse pad, I do keep a bottle of port handy by my pc, complete with shot glass, for medicinal purposes only, mind you! Link to the BoN shop is on our guild website http://www.bloodustofnagrand.com

What Pink means to me

It wasn’t until after I left my first husband and found myself living in a strange city after living in a small town for 23 years, that I remembered when I was a little girl my favourite colours had been pink and silver.

Somehow I forgot this while growing up and studying at university, fervently avoiding anything pink, dressing all in brown, black and navy with stripes, never anything frilly, accompanied with gold jewellery. Because I had to take myself oh-so-seriously, I was terribly grown up and professional! Then I started to develop a fancy for strawberry flavoured milk of all things, how strange! I never drank that stuff before? I found myself referring to it as “Pink Milk” and felt a need for it every now and again. Then there were the pink milkshakes, and I started to remember as a young child my favourite flavoured ice-cream had not been chocolate at all, it had been strawberry. Ever so slowly pink started to creep into my wardrobe when before this shade had always been shunned. In my old life, the colour most represented in my closet was black. Now, thankfully I’ve been working hard to fix that, although I still do have far too many black shoes and jackets …

Pink for me means a return to ‘me’, remembering who I was and what I wanted when I was a little girl, when I was  not concerned with how other people saw me. It was my pure, untainted  self, free of expectations. Pink for me is more than just all things girly and pretty, its more than getting in touch with being female. Its about surviving the trauma of a broken marriage, grieving my hometown which I loved dearly but simply had to leave in the end, its about getting away from all the things I thought I was expected to be, a modern professional career ice-woman, and just starting to enjoy life for what it is.

Blessed Be All Things Pink! see more pink stuff on my blog >>> PINK
This is my first post for “Pink Saturday”! For details check out “How Sweet the Sound” at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Every Heart stands for Love

What do you give the couple who has everything? Something sweet, simple and thoughtful, complete with your very own homemade touch – homemade is best!

I have named these homegrown second generation chilli plants “Spicy Hot Love Trees”, to bring good luck and passion to a newly wed couple. I’ll pick the most handsome tomorrow, but I’m thinking the one with the red fruit is a favourite to win! To bring spicy hot lovey-doveyness into the home, this chilly plant will need lots of sunshine and happiness. A good drink of water everyday is in order, but this special plant will not like to sit in water for too long,  so it’s best it doesn’t have a saucer and is well drained. Keep it in a pot, so that in the winter its easier to move into the sun, or to a sunny window indoors. I’ve written about our homegrown chilli plants in a previous post.

Fresh herbs are usually best, but these “Love Sprinkles” are a lucky love charm to add when cooking food to share. These herbs were homegrown, dried and prepared with love for good luck! Marjoram is well known as the herb of weddings, rosemary is for love, and just a few little chilli flakes are for spicy passion. These herbs would be good to add to a pasta sauce dish. I’ve written about drafting this idea in a previous post.

I’ve also made my own gift card and wrapping paper for our other gift (another simple gift for goodluck, to help with homebaking). This is a magical gift card with its matching paper. Every time a heart was handdrawn, the word ‘love’ was whispered for goodluck.
xoxxox

Hollandaise Sauce and Rosy Pink Meringues

On Saturday 13th February, the day before Valentine’s Day, one of the many things we baked was David’s yummy hollandaise sauce for our salmon eggs benedict. But what to do with the left over egg whites? Why, my Rosy Pink Meringues, of course!

I helped David with the emulsion step of the hollandaise sauce, which has to be done very slowly, adding one cube of butter at a time. We then refridgerated it in a jar over night. To heat it up the next day, you have to warm it very very slowly over the double boiler. If you do it too fast, the emulsion will break and the egg and butter will seperate. It is possible to do this, but on Sunday morning, it was heated a little too fast and it did break. All you have to do to save it is, put a tablespoon of lemon juice in a fresh bowl to use as a double boiler. Then add one tablespoon of the broken emulsion, mix until it’s the correct consistency, then slowly add the rest of the broken emulsion one tablespoon at a time. We also discovered that hollandaise sauce, it’s main ingredient being butter, makes a very yummy buttery spread on bread when it’s cold from the fridge! No need to warm it over a double boiler, it’s yummy cold. I reckon it tastes a bit like the kraft cheese spread.

Because hollandaise sauce uses three egg yolks, you are then left over with three egg whites. We don’t make hollandaise sauce often, its a special treat which I love, so we usually make some meringues with the egg whites. I use a very simple recipe I found in my “Australia the Beautiful Cookbook” by Hayes and Gorrick, 1982, page 168. You only need the eggs whites and a bit of sugar. I also added a drop of red food dye, which I clumsily splashed on my fingers, and a drop of vanilla essence. David whisked these up using our new handwhisk, so these turned out the best so far due to the proper whisking they got! I had considerable fun playing with the gorgeous pink mixture that spooned onto the tray so delightfully. When they come out of the oven, the pink had a rosy tinge to it due to the browning from the cooking, which I think looks rather lovely. When we were eating our love heart icecream cake on Sunday, David thought to crumble one of these pink meringues over the top of it, and it was scrummy!!

Lovey Dovey Greeting Card and Envelope

I couldn’t post this before yesterday, but this is the lovey dovey card I made for David, wrapped up in a custom-made pink envelope.

First, I made the snowflake from red coloured paper which I had in my stash left over from my school teaching days (I have kept soo much stuff). This measured 9cm x 9cm. I got the idea for the front of this card from the snowflake greeting card from allfreecrafts.com I carefully glued that with craft glue onto the front of a 10cm x 10cm card cut from white cardboard. I then made a paper insert with pink paper which was 9cm x 9cm. I attached it by handsewing with red embroidery thread a few stitches down the spine and ended that with a soppy bow on the inside of the card.

I finished off the greeting card with love hearts hole punched into the top right hand corner of the pink paper insert, before adding some lovey dovey words for my sweetheart! Then using some more pink paper, I folded it around the card to form an envelope, trimming it to be neat. I secured it with a small dot of glue on the inside, which I concealed on the outside with a lovey dovey sticker I bought as an impulse. Not very thrifty of me I know, but those lovey dovey stickers were very cute!

Feast for a Day – Valentine's (part two)

After much planning and a full day of preparation yesterday, this is what we actually ended up having for our special day-long celebration today for both Valentine’s and Chinese New Year.

breakfast
Love Heart Fried Eggs with Smoked Salmon, generous dollops of hollandaise sauce and a sprinkling of fresh chives
Homemade Tomato, Capsicum, Chilli and Garlic Pull-apart Bread
Peppermint & Lemon Balm Tea with honey
Chocolate Coffee with cream & sugar

mid-morning snack
Mint & Ginger Fruit Punch
Poorman’s Caviar with Corn Chips
Lemon Myrtle & Pistacio Biscotti dipped in cinnamon honey

lunch
Smoked Salmon & Carrot Sushi
more Mint & Ginger Fruit Punch

afternoon desert
Love Heart Icecream Cake with strawberries, chocolate sauce, and crumbled pink merringue

dinner
Lemon Myrtle & White Fish Cakes with Sweet Chill Sauce and Basil Fried Rice

How to make

Icecream Cake
6 scoops of strawberry shortcake icecream mixed with 6 cut up caramel chocolates, a handful of crushed cashews, 3 crumbled chocolate biscuits, press into a cling-wrap lined heart-shaped small cake tin and freeze overnight

Mint & Ginger Fruit Punch
1 can of fizzy soft drink (we used Lemon Squash), a tablespoon of fresh ginger juice (grate and mix with a little tonic water then strain), add cut up 2 nectarines, 1 orange, a handful of strawberries and love-heart shaped ice cubes, a handful of fresh mint leaves, top up with Mango Juice as required