Chasing Rainbows

Yoghurt making

One of the things that I'm doing to save myself some money is I'm making my own yoghurt. Years ago I tried this using an Easiyo system and used their packet mix. The problem is I like REALLY thick deli style Greek yoghurt, which I found impossible to make! So I went back to buying it and the Easiyo containers got pushed to the back of the cupboard. After reading a few posts on Down To Earth, I decided to give it another go using my favourite Greek yoghurt as the culture. The first batch I made was horrible, the milk powder I had was rancid. So, I bought new milk powder and made another batch and it is FABULOUS!!! It's pictured here with some stewed plums I made. I ended up sitting the bottle of yoghurt into the Easiyo container without the insert (it was too tall for the lid to go on) and leaving it all day, so I could have it for breakfast the next morning. Seeing as it was costing me $9 a week in yoghurt and this batch cost less than $2 to make I think I'll keep doing it. I think ricotta is going to be the next thing I try and make. I've got a recipe from a friend and have the lemons at the ready! 

Seed sprouting, photography and lazy days in jammies!

Last Sunday I spent the day reading Rhonda Hetzel's blog after my friend Ngaire posted a book review of Rhonda's book on her blog. Who would have thought something so simple would have changed my outlook and recharged me!

Since the anniversary of my car accident last month I've been feeling quite useless. After doing two hours of "work" (facing up screws) at Bunnings my back spasmed for 4 days, which I really wasn't expecting, and physically it took me back to pre-back rehab. The most frustrating thing for me is that even though I can't stand or sit for more than 30 minutes without severe repercusions later (and the next day) I'm quite fit and still very flexible. Those are the two things that have gone against me (believe it or not!!) when seeing specialists to assess my condition. They see that I can almost touch my toes and think "wow she doesn't really have a problem", even after explaining that I used to be able to place my whole palm on the floor, they go by what they see, this was cemented when I was seeing an Exercise Physiologist last year. After I'd been seeing him for a couple of months he'd still exclaim "you really are very flexible!"... um yes I have been saying that all along! Thankfully, I have a great GP who does listen, and has known me for 14 years, so understands me a lot better than the specialist who's seen me for 15 minutes!

Due to lack of energy my veggie patch became very overgrown and the only things still growing were the self seeded pumpkin (which has an impressive vine with fruit that drops off too early), two tomato plants and an eggplant. With Isaac's help last week we tidied it up a bit and I decided to replant. I have a stack of seeds and a lot of them were past their useby dates but after reading this post on Rhonda's blog I decided to see if they were all really past it. 

Varied results with them but lots of them haven't done anything yet so I watered them and put them back on top of microwave in their greenhouse (plastic shopping bag). To help my back I'm going to plant my seeds into empty toilet rolls then transplant into the garden with Isaac's help. It will lessen the chance of root damage by little fingers and save them from being landfill!

Yesterday, I was very lucky to be able to do a workshop with Rachel Richter. I haven't used my dSLR for years. It was covered in a thick layer of dust even though it was securely in my camera bag. The workshop was all about understanding how to shoot manually and then practicing on models that she'd organised. Now I do prefer to shoot buildings, wildlife and generally things that sit still lol, so I did find people hard, but for the first time I understand what the settings on my camera mean. I read the instruction book that came with my camera once in a vein attempt to understand but no... didn't help! Rachel explained in English (yes I did read the English part of the manual but it still didn't help) lay terms that I finally understood, and answered all of the silly questions I had. This morning when I took the above photos I used my camera on manual settings instead of grabbing my iPhone which is a major step for me. If you want to learn how to use your camera I can't recommend a workshop with Rachel enough!

Photo of a softie owl I made a little while ago. He was made out of a lot of fabric scraps and recycled jeans. I have another one ready to sew up and stuff for a friend but I have so many little 'feathers' cut out I may make a few more while I'm at it!

Thanks for reading. Happy Sunday!!

Testing testing... 1... 2... 3

I've decided to blog again so my poor Facebook friends don't get sick of me talking about my lastest adventures in my garden and bread and yoghurt making! There will be the occasional crafting post but, unfortunately, as I can't sit for very long, that is still limited to what I can do standing, reclining on my bed or on the sofa!

Today I received an order from Eden Seeds. With my little helper (thank you Isaac) I'm hoping to be able to plant lots of goodies in my veggie patch. I've always been a seed collector but never knew why a lot of them wouldn't grow until I read a blog post by Rhonda Hetzel. So I made a list of all the vegetables that we eat on a regular basis and picked varieties that would grow in Brisbane. It feels good knowing that when I collect the seeds after they've fruited they WILL actually grow!

Ten Rules for Being Human

Love this.. read it here.It made me smile :)

Ten Rules for Being Human
by Cherie Carter-Scott

1.	You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's yours to keep for the entire period.
2.	You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, "life."
3.	There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work."
4.	Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5.	Learning lessons does not end. There's no part of life that doesn't contain its lessons. If you're alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6.	"There" is no better a place than "here." When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."
7.	Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8.	What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9.	Your answers lie within you. The answers to life's questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10.	You will forget all this.

Pretty things to try and lift my mood...

 this decal from Leeloo.com.au is very cute... 

this makes me belly laugh... it's how I *TOTALLY* feel about diet Coke...

 

baaaaaaaa he comes in white and black too lol (and clear)

 

this would look cute on my lounge room wall... I'd need two though...

 

Paint Place have a heap of downloadable graphics that would look cool framed or put on canvases.

this fabric would look great as part of the quilt that I am going to make...

 

this probably wouldn't completely go with the quilt but i make have to tweak my colour choices so it does lol (I was going for muted aqua, green and pink with denim)

My bucket list

No I'm not dying... not any faster than anyone I know anyway! I have a lot of things that I'd like to do 'one day'. I figure that if I write them down I have a better chance of ticking them off.

1. Drink a latte and eat a chocolate crossiant in a cafe in Paris
2. Ride in a hot air balloon
3. Go camping at Kakadu National Park
4. See Uluru at sunset
5. Visit the Pyramids of Giza
6. Make a difference in at least one person's life
7. Go sky diving
8. Walk a few kms of the Great Wall of China
9. Go to Nepal
10. Sail around the Whitsundays
11. Go on a road trip that lasts more than 4 days
12. Go to the Lourve
13. Climb the Eifel Tower
14. Holiday at Orpheus Island
15. Learn to make pasta
16. Watch Bathurst live
17. Do a Thai cooking class
18. Have a vegie garden and have it produce vegies!
19. Learn to say 'cheers' in 10 languages
20. Learn to knit
21. See Stonehenge
22. Study and get a degree
23. See "Christ the Redeemer" in Brazil
24. Learn the piano again
25. Go to Latin dance classes
26. Visit Machu Picchu
27. Stay at Golden Door
28. Pick tulips in Amsterdam
29. Make a quilt for my bed
30. Visit every state/territory in Australia
31. Go to King Island and eat without thinking about the fat content of anything I put in my mouth
32. Make a garden sculpture out of machinery
33. Read The Chronicles of Narnia
34. Allow myself to make mistakes
35. Sleep in a castle
36. Learn to take a compliment
37. Win a game of tennis
38. Have a basic knowledge of world geography
39. Watch "The Wizard of Oz" again
40. Feed dolphins at Tangalooma
41. Watch turtles hatch
42. Create a sacred place in my home where I can go for quiet time
43. Go to the Melbourne Cup
44. Own a pair of red cowboy boots
45. Go to the Blue Mountains

Photo share

I've been really bad taking photos even though I did promise that I would take one a week lol hmmm I took 44 on Saturday so I guess I'm almost there! :D

Here are the faves...

Photo of the week - 1

Photo for the week... little decoration I made for my 'branch'.

Photo challenge

So I've been REALLY (read REALLY x 10) bad at getting my camera out the last couple of years. Each time I see the 365 challenges I feel guilty. I know I paid all this money for my camera and now I just don't use it. I've only used it a couple of times in the last year because my phone has a pretty good camera in it.

So... I've just decided that instead of singing up to a 365 group and failing I'm going to pledge to take at least one photo a week. 52 photos. Shouldn't be that hard right?

Who wants to join me?

Art Journal is finished yay!

It feels good to have completed it even if I did do all the pages for the year in a week LOL here are the rest of them, plus another one I did as well!

The prompt for May was Masking. I used a Tim Holtz mask, I did want to use this gorgeous feather one that I bought from BB  but I'll be stuffed if I know what I've done with it :(

 

 

 

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June's prompt was Texture and Music. This was a bit hard to photograph to get the words in because on certain angels you can't see them at all.

 

 

 

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Another hard one to photograph... October, the prompt was monograms. I'd done this one already on a canvas but I decided to do another version for my journal. I covered the pages in chipboard hearts and painted and crackle mediumed it. The words on the wings say "I'm done".

 

 

 

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I feel like I cheated a bit with this one... November, creating a mono background, and well that's all I did lol

 

 

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December's prompt is floral, to draw a flower. And I did :D

 

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I've decided I love Perfect Pearls but they don't photograph too well...  I think I might do a whole series like the little tree and frame them... I need something on the hallway's walls.