Sun, kites and a birthday

June 1st, 2009

Have you seen ‘The curious case of a Benjamin Button’? It’s a beautiful film in many ways and perfect for the night before the rebirth. The same night after seeing it, before falling asleep I suddenly realised, there - the question of my self existence is no longer a question. If my biggest value of all is love, that counts everything in: my most dear ones, myself, what’s around, ahead and what’s behind me, then that’s what it is.  I came to this world and it embraced me and it still feels good.  I want to grow old with my dearest, want  grandchildren, want achievements that have a meaningful value, input and peace at the end of my life…

I woke up on Saturday feeling reborn.

7

flying pirats

dragonfly

23

6

the man that makes me happy

4

10

21

9

34

THANK YOU KNN - I loved loved loved (!!!) my birthday!

eat well

May 4th, 2009

It was my dearest person’s birthday yesterday. Very important day and so a very big but nice task pressed down on my shoulders.

I’ve been thinking, this whole present giving ritual that so many of us expect on our birthdays is not really something we do in our family. Kids do get something special from their wish list, but us big ones, we try to just be part of a great celebration and make sure the ‘birthday person’ will have something that will lift him or her up and hopefully will leave something lovely to remember. So with that all in mind, I’ve offered our oldest son to make something for Karsten, that would pass as ‘especially for you’ and more importantly -’ with love’. Mr. K loves to eat. And he loves a good treat. So this time it was very easy. We chose biscotti.

My boy added, peeled, mixed and giggled as his very first biscotti was being made. I had to do the cutting, and brushing with the oil part, but the rest was done well without my help (not that there is that much to do anyway) :)

And the result was good. They look great, taste great and it made K very happy. Even though the surprise was ’spoiled’ by a 3.5 year old announcing first thing in the morning before the big day that ‘we made biscuits for you daddy, it’s your birthday surprise’… bless those little darlings!

the loaf

biscotti

all packed

Next day it was my turn to bake. I spent quite a bit of time looking for the right cake. Wanted something new, something quarantined to taste more than good and something that doesn’t take too long to get to the final result. It was a French style yoghurt cake with lemon that made the honours. And if you haven’t tried one yet - this should be the next thing you will bake. Ours is gone. Two adults and two little mouths - in one day. That’s the reference. And if any of you did hear me talking something about ‘reaching my normal weight very soon’ you will have to wait longer till you see the results. Even too tight jeans will not stop me from making (and eating!) one of those French yoghurt cake variations again soon! Gosh… that’s not the right attitude is it?

Recipe is from here. Again: 50×50 whole wheat and plain flour, 180gr of raw sugar, red palm - canola oil, some ground almonds, 1,5 grated lemon zest and some frozen summer berries (blackcurrants, redcurrants, blackberries, raspberries).

cake you should make

Plus to all those good calories from sweet things we also went to a Spanish tappas place and stuffed ourselves with delight. Ah, good food and a good birthday goes so well together!

I’m detoxing myself today :)

the change

April 28th, 2009

Spring.

babies

lady

snake face

sing us a song

two

so lush

easter

It’s so beautiful outside, green, warm, so lovely smelling and above all - it’s so life kicking!!! Hope you’re enjoying it. I’m. More than I should actually.

I’m also enjoying dreaming about holidays, yeppeee! Dreaming about how I’ll finish my unfinished orders/projects and will find a balance between myself and everything/everyone else. All looking good!

A quick update from my studio - some finished and sold toys

Felix

felix2

Pippa

pippa1

Poppy

poppy1

Bob & Holly

hollybob

Kiki

kiki31

Neda

neda

And a few more to come soon…

at last

March 11th, 2009

after some silence let’s make some noise! :)

‘Hot crossbuns’… - whispers big bear no1. Or do I hear my own whispering? Hmmm…

dark chocolate

‘I don’t want a new home!’ - shouts big bear no2. I’m gonna have to make sure he goes to a lovely family (as lovely as ours, he he :)

bigbear

‘Where are our promised wooden boxes?’ - I hear these two non stop… ‘Sigh’…

Small bear 1

bearbr

and small bear 2

whitesmall

‘Carrots! Carrots! Caaarrroootttsss!’ - on demand from this little creature

robun

‘I wish my scarf would be white, not brown…’  - comes from the corner of my desk. So I’m looking for some white yarn now for my white bunny. I’m also gonna make a white quilt for her. And white cakes to go with a white tea set. All in a white wooden box…

whitebun1

And there are two more bigger bears… One needs legs and both - clothes, toys… So still quite a bit to do, but I’m getting closser and closser with my proper shop update. I’m!

BTW I’ve sighned up to open a new shop in a new place. More info on my lovely friends blog. I think it’s gonna grow big ;) Or so I hope.

That’s it for now. Will be back with the progress on my shop update very soon.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

play

February 24th, 2009

I so often wish the ‘adult’ in me would just find more time to put all the non urgent things aside and join my two little men in their games. We grown ups so often forget the joy of play and it’s such a shame… One thing I hardly ever say ‘not now’ to is building a train and a road tracks. It’s one of many many things I wish I would have had as a child. Especially Brio Network and Plan Toys stuff. We have quite a few of the railway sets, along with the road ones and some little wooden cities, lights, traffic signs, trees and animals. It’s great. It encourages your child’s creativity to make interesting and complicated rail and road sets and have a fun playing with it. I love to watch my boys kneeling around their tracks and pretending to travel the world…

brio network

plan city

plan city

brio network worker

bring me Monday

February 22nd, 2009

Saturday was so warm and so sunny we spend half of the day just walking around lovely Hampstead Heath

flying high

not long anymore

alone

It really feels like it might be it for the winter. Can you believe February is nearly over…  I can not await for the spring!

As for crafting, considering it’s boys holidays, I actually managed to sit down in our studio from time to time (mainly nights), so I’m relieved  there will be new toys in my shop in a weeks time.

This pencil case will not be up for sale, but still hope it will be for someone. Don’t know for who yet…

for pencils

swap with me

February 18th, 2009

With help from Lithuanian post, my part of a swap finally reached  Loreta!  So, what was in that box:

for l

Jane. This girl has a bit of a history as originally she looked very different from what you see in this picture below (for 4 years she was very much a girl of more modern times -  bright clothes, ginger hair… high boots and she was tucked away in one of my craft boxes).  My swap partner loves original dolls and she loves old, vintage things, so I decided to embrace the challenge in order to surprise her… I’ve only kept the original body and changed the rest to make Jane look like she’s from some older times (her dress is actually made from a vintage and I believe early 20th century fabric and lace!) … It took me two long nights till I got some sort of decent (not perfect) result… I can only hope Loreta honestly likes Jane. As for me - no more dolls on my work desk any time soon!

jane

jane2

Loreta’s youngest daughter Une is attending art school, this pencil case is for her…

pencilcase21

pen1

It was a great fun. And I’ve got some beautiful stuff to remind me of it for the rest of my life. Thanks again Loreta! x

I want to do more swaps!

I was baking

February 14th, 2009

Who doesn’t like a good treat? Well, I’m sure there are some people who would say they choose savoury or something else  instead of anything sweet, but me - I’m a sweet tooth girl. Not too sweet, but still - a bit of sugar in my life does me good. And the baking process… the mixing, the smell that travels around the house and tickles your taste buds and makes you feel happier - hmmmm… It’s a perfect therapy! So I bake…

Here we have a simple ‘honey cake’ recipe, but since we did not use any of it, it has to be renamed into a ‘molases cake’ (although it’s very yummy with honey too)

honey -  it's a honey cake!

with a cup of tea - hmmmmm

Ingredients:

3 eggs (separated)

1 glass of milk

250 g butter

200 g honey (in our version it’s 4 heap spoons of black molases)

500g flour (in our case 250 plain and 250 wholegrain)

1 tsp baking powder

4 tsp cacao or carob powder

3 tsp mixed spice (ground: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, coriander seed, caraway)

100 g  chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 220C/ gas 7/fan 200C and lightly grease a cake pan. Dust with flour.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cacao and mixed spice.
In a large bowl,  cream together molases  and egg yolks. Add milk and melted butter. Add flour. Whisk the egg whites and gently fold it in the rest of the dough. Add walnuts.
Working in two or three additions, alternately add flour mixture and milk to the sugar mixture. Stir only until just combined, then gently stir in the diced pears.
Pour into prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean and the cake is brownish in color.
Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
Dust with powdered sugar before serving if you wish.

Now, how about some very quick and very easy morning buns? Can be vegan if you choose! Originally it’s a scone recipe, but we change it a bit and those buns taste even better.

It takes 25 minutes. Makes 5-6, easily doubled and can be frozen after baking.

225g self raising flour ( I use wholegrain spelt)

1/4 tsp salt

50g butter (I used vitaquell spread), chilled, cut in small pieces

25g caster sugar (1 heap tbsp black molases is even better)

I also add 1 spoon carob syrup

125ml buttermilk (we substitude it with plain soya yogurt)

4 tbsp full fat milk (or soya)

a handful of linseed, sunflower seeds, rasins or anything else you want

I also put 1 tsp mixed spice and grated zest of an orange

a little extra flour for dusting

Preheat the oven to 220C/ gas 7/fan 200Cand lightly butter a baking sheet (unless you’re using a non stick sheet). Tip the flour into a mixing bowl with the salt. Shoot in the butter, then rub together with your fingers to make a reasonably fine crumbed mixture, lifting to aerate the mixture as you go. Try not to overrub, as the mixture will be lighter if it’s  a little bit flaky. Now stir in the sugar. If you’re using molases, mix is with the buttermilk or yogurt.

Mix milk with buttermilk/yogurt. Make abit of well in the middle of the flour mixture with a round - bladed knife, then pour in buttermilk mixture. Using knife, gently work the mixture - just kut it till you get a soft, sticky dough. Don’t overwork at this point or you’ll toughten the dough.

Put the dough out of the bowl on to a lightly floured surface. Pat the dough gently with your hands to a thickness of no less than 2cm and no more than 2.5cm. Dip cutter into a bowl of flour , then cut out the buns. Place on the baking sheet and dust it with flour.Bake for 10-12 minutes until risen and golden/brown.

Eat them as fresh as you can and smile!

mine

February 12th, 2009

Loreta makes all the beautiful things. And this here is from her to me

set

it’s even more gorgeous in real (every piece has  stitching on both sides and is so beautiful, so perfect!!!) and it’s mine! M-i-n-e!!!

Pincushion

set1

This notebook (and a bookmark)  is just …what’s the word? Pretty in every way and is gonna be used and treasured! Thank you Loreta so so much! I love it all!

21

4

It was a swap we had and as Loreta still hasn’t received my parcel yet (even though we sent almost at the same time), I can only give you a tiny sneak peak for now…

loreta2

More pics soon, I hope!

to help myself

February 9th, 2009

ok. In my defence, the computer, or more concretly - the  internet is not exactly a bad thing to be addicted to… isn’t it? Well, I’m not addicted really (really!), but I can from time to time get ‘lost’ in it…for a little while and then when I hear a question at the end of a long day ’so what did I do today?’ I quickly answer in two words:  ‘a lot’. And then immediately draw the attention to something more satisfying like ‘the house is clean’ and ‘ I did cook’ and ‘kids stuff is ready for tomorrow’… And I’ve spent some 4-5 hours in all on the net… browsing. Sigh. And apart from a few good ideas that went into my ideas book, apart from posting some comments on the bloggs I’ve found and liked…some emails that have been answered and a lot of other so not important information that has gone in and out - I’ve spent time, precious time doing…well not much.  It takes  hours in total for me to make a full boxed set. I could be making one every day. But I haven’t got a set to show. Another ’sigh’.

The internet is bad if you don’t use it wisely… or you’re foolish to use it to spent your day for…  Mia!!!

So, I’m planning to resist the  internet, not entierely, but see it as a helper, friend and above all - tool. And I’m gonna treasure my time. Words  heh? :) Lets see…

P.S. that shop update… I was mentioning the 12th of February- it’s so not happening… it’s kids holidays from the 12th so will have new items only by the very end of this month.

:)