Stable crafts

My parents live on a propery. Its magical. When they bought it nearly 25 yeras ago it was a Horse riding School. As a result there are amazing stables, riding tracks and general horse paraphanelia all around.

Years ago my mum (who is an incredibly talented potter) started “Stable Crafts” with a couple of neighbours who are also very creative. Once did folk art and quilling and that sort of crafty stuff and another, who had kids in a steiner school made dolls with no faces. They were a little scary…

(These arent the dolls my neighbour made)

And now Stable Crafts are making a revival. The neighbours have long since moved away but they, and other new neighbours are going to be involved. And me too, which Im pretty excited about. The aim is to have it on long weekends and despite it being in the middle of nowhere, it always attracted alot of people. Mum made a fair bit of money out of it. So, what am I going to make? There are the gerbras mum is selling this year.

Im not sure yet. I have a lot of my books I would like to sell and my little paintings on book pages. Maybe I could also make some of these, but I guess on a smaller canvas. and with less bubbles… And the whiteboards that I made everyone for Christmas (which I though I had blogged about… obvioulsy not!).

ok, enough blogging. more creating!

New book

After Jon very kindly introduced me to Tom Philips “Humument” I remembered a book I did years ago for my husband. Along similar lines- not nearly as awesome or as beautiful buy i made every page an artwork. Ill have to find it- I had a quick search of the garage this morning between making coffee and breakfasts (I must be excited). I did however find a book I had been keeping to do another- I have about 5. All beautiful old hard cover books with thick pages browned with age, that musty smell covering all those beautifully old fashioned phrases. 2 of the books I have are in French, well 3 but one os the book I have been using for these.

So this is the book I have chosen for this project. i very much doubt I paid $15 for it though! Much more likely to have picked it up for 15c at an opshop My plan is to do a page a day. So far none of my <insert activity> a days have gone well- I have done them… but not every day. I didn’t even finish my alphabet! But this year Im going to be kinder to myself and just try to do a page a day.

So thanks Jon- you have inspired me!

It’s about time

Today my new computer arrived. SOO excited. Our laptop had decided that when it felt like turning on it would default back to March 2009. As good a date as any I guess.

I spent the afternoon trying very hard to piece it all together with my little man under my feet. He was not impressed. I tried to put him in the box bigger than him, sure that it would entertain him for a good little while. Nope.

I let him play with the platsic. Nope. The little bread fastener thingos. Nope. So it took about 8 times longer than it should have, but its up and running. One of the forst things I wanted to do was put my travel photos on it. They need to be sorted. Its been 3 years now and I basically havent looked though them sice I took them. So my goal is to look though a few a night, deleting the billions of unneseccary ones that I are a blessing and a curse of digital cameras.

After that is done Im going to need to move on to the trillins of photos of my little man, I take farrr to many of him and his tiny little face. How can you not though!?

Here are a few of the travels photos that Ive looked through today.

The book of Pound notes has a little story…

I was volunteering at the Waterperry Art In Action festival and came across an amazing lady who made enamel rings. I dont wear alot of jewlery but one piece that i did have was “The Happiness ring” which my highschool bestfriend gave to me (or I claimed…). It was beautiful. Reds, oranges, yellows- little squares of enamel. I loved it. And then i saw this ladty creating rings so similar- i had to have one. But they were 100 pounds and i was a poor traveler so she offered to give me the ring and i would pay here when i could!! She had never seen me before, but she made me this amazing offer! of course I accepted but by the time i had got my new ring (which was – and still is- the most expensive peice of jewelry that i own) back to the Printmaking shed where I was volunteering i was already overcome with the guilt of owing someone money that had to borrow the money from my aunt. I spent the rest of the afternoon making this generous and trusing lady a handmade book, with 20 pound notes as the pages. I was so surprised by her trust and generosity that I had to make paying her back a bit ceremonious!

And the ring is underneath, i love it. But i dont even wear it anymore. I might just put it on tomrrow!

Another picture is of the book binding workshop I was lucky enough to attend- I actually ended up getting an apprentice ship with the bookbinder- that was an amazing experience that is probably best left for another day!

Just remembering these few things, from one folder of images reminds me what a lucky girl I really am. Good things DO happen to me! I just need to be reminded of them occasionally. Today especially! My son was feral today. Its so stressful when he is like that. All day. I couldnt get him to bed soon enough tonight. And its a full moon so I am super sensitive anyway. He is almost 11 months now and started walking this week. Its the cutest thing I have ever seen- it brought tears to my eyes this morning. This is his pretty little (happy!) face from yesterday.

Santa photo

My little man is scared of beards and strange men. Totally healthy fears I think!
So with the pending Santa photo I was letting my imagination get a little bit carried away thinking that we would have this terribly amusing screaming crying anti santa photo that would give me a giggle for years to come.
So we met Santa. Had a little chat. I sat with them for a minute then placed his slowly and super super happily “look your sitting with Santa! Yay! Your sitting with SANTAAA!” and bolted out of camera range.
To my amazement my little man sat there happily! No tears. A huge smile. And his tiny little hand holding the enormous hand of a totally I engaged Santa.
It’s the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen. Perhaps it should teach me not to have expectations for and of my little man.

Pumpkin pie

Yesterday I made this delicious pumpkin pie and I thought I would share the recipe. It was super easy- considering I don’t bake. I am somehow totally unable to bake. Anything savory and I’m fine. Better than fine. I love to cook but when it come to baking I manage to ruin even packet cake mixes.
So this year- especially as we are having Christmas at our place for the first time- I thought I would tackle not only a gluten free pumpkin pie but also a gluten free cheese cake! Ok so the cheese cake is not strictly baking but it was still new to me! And considering I’ve never even had pumpkin pie before and I’ve only ever had one cheese cake I think it was possibly a little ambitious!

Ingredients
800g butternut pumpkin, peeled, cubed
1/2 tsp each ground ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup cream
1 egg
1 egg yolk
200g (1 cup) tightly packed brown sugar

Pastry
225g cups plain flour, sifted
100g unsalted butter, cubed
1 tbs icing sugar

Method
Preheat oven to 200°C.
To make the pastry, place the flour, butter and icing sugar in a bowl and press together with your fingers process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add enough chilled water (about 4-5 tablespoons) for the mixture to come together to form a smooth ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to chill.
Meanwhile, wrap the pumpkin in foil, place on a baking tray and roast in the oven for 40 minutes or until tender. Set aside to cool slightly, then place pumpkin in a bowl with the spices, vanilla extract and cream and stir to combine.
Beat together the eggs and sugar in a small bowl, then stir into the pumpkin mixture.
Roll out the pastry and use to line a 23cm pie dish. Line with non-stick baking paper, then fill with pastry weights blind bake for 10 minutes. Remove the paper and weights, then pour in the pumpkin mixture. Reduce the oven temperature to 170°C and bake for a further hour until the filling is set. Set aside to cool.

Yesterday

The other day I mentioned I catalogued a whole lot of books… Today there were more. But this time with the added bonus of bones. Human. Fake. Animal. Bones.
Amazing to see and feel. These are a few of the things.
One of the items is a chiropractors adjustment chair, made from part of an old barbers chair! I think it’s beautiful.

And this is my cheeky cheeky little man. “look mum! Look what I can do with this!!” he is at my parents tonight and I miss his tiny little smootchy face. So I’ll do what I do when he is asleep or away- watch videos of him and look though my pictures! I can’t help it. He is beautiful.

Christmas tree

This is my Christmas tree this year… Clearly my theme is red and silver. I gathered sticks from my garden, spray painted them…(leaving huge silver areas of grass…), arranged some lights attached to silver sticks I bought and decorated- off the ground so my little bubba doesn’t get to it. Although- he did. Sitting high in daddy’s arms and attracted to all things shiny. It fell. He cried. I cried.
So anyway these are presents- all brown papered, white ribbon or red/ white ribbon wrapped with little handmade gift tags, my tree, a base of baubles- just cos I don’t know what else to do with them, lights on and off.
This is my Christmas. And I love it.

Christmas wreath

I started making this wreath.
I didn’t really plan it though. I just started. One day I will learn. But I think often mistakes like this make the best outcomes!
So I just cut out the little bits of felt, arranged them all beautifully on my lounge and went ‘right, so… Now… How… Do…I…,’ do I tried a few things before finally just putting paper underneath and pinning the felt circles to the paper. The other ideas were idiotic. Id had a few too many beers.
My original plan was to get out my recently serviced sewing machine which I was super excited about using again ( it had been sick for a little while. My birthday present was to get my sewing machine serviced). Anyway, to sew one perfect line all round through the middle of the large felt circles. But I was far too excited to fiddle around setting up my machine so instead got out my book making gold tread and made little stars in the middle of the small circles. Im so pleased I did it this way- I think it looks awesome!
So I cut the excess backing paper off and was left with a beautiful Christmas wreath.
Until I went to attach it to my front door. Again. Unthought out. Being summer the front door will never be shut and the screen door is a typical screen door- screen on the inside and metal all across the outside. Not suitable for wreath hanging.
So I’ve turned my wreath into a table decoration.
And I’m thinking I will make more!

Christmas cards

After painting far too many little bits of I finally had time to turn them into cards. These are the two main designs. Simple and Christmassy.

They are just on white card, currently sitting in their little envelopes awaiting stamping. I love Christmas. All the handmade goodness. All the love.

5 nights….!

My little man is a horrible sleeper. We have tried everything. EVERYTHING.
Herbalists. Naturopaths. 3 GPs. 2 paediatricians. Acupuncture. Herbal remedies. Teas. Oils. Massage. Music. No music. Lights, no lights. Routines. No routines. Phenergan (against my better judgement). Lactose free formula. Goats milk formula. Fruit free diet. Salicylate free diet. Gluten free diet (Im a celiac so that was early in the piece). Tresillian. Twice. Pro-biotics. Controlled crying. Twice. Im sure there is more- oh we were even approached by a medium who said my dead aunt was contacting me though my son!!! When I day everything I mean everything. And some people have the audacity to tell me “it may be as simple as the temperature of his room” . Please.
So almost a week ago we tried the phenergan again, just to see. And HALLELUJAH!!! We have had 5 brilliant nights of sleep. In nearly 10 month we (mainly me…) have not had more than 3 hours sleep in a row. But the last 5 nights have been blissful. Ulysses has only woken twice AT THE MOST! You have no idea how super exciting this is for me. After 3 nights of the best sleep I have had since I was about 7 month pregnant I actually feel alive. Not a shadow of a human- unable to communicate on any level other than purely instinctual. I can think. I have my body back, rather than feeling like a shell. Its beautiful.

So, on my brilliant nights sleep I have already become itchy for a new venture. So I have a new one. Im starting a new business. As if being a fulltime mum isn’t enough. Or my husband starting his own new business. Or trying (poorly) to run a graphic design business. There is another. Im going t start a Personal concierge business. Ill do all the things other people cant manage at home. Ill be like “your personal assistant at home”. The best thing about it is mostly I can take my little gremlin.

But ahhh- my husband needs invoices. Till next time.