New Year Surprises

First off I would like to start with a thank you. My sister encouraged me to open my blog to the public way back when I started. And guess what my little sis was right, I have met people who seem to get some of the things that makes me tick. There is also the bonus of unexpected friendships formed, with people I most likely would have never met in my regular day to day life.
.
So again thank you sis, your advice was spot on :)
.
Now yesterday the first lot of delayed post came through the letter box and low and behold there was a little letter for me, I knew it must have been seeds of some kind but since I was not expecting anything I was a tad confused.
.
A quick flip over and read of the return address told me who the sender was. It was from one of my newly formed friends I have made through my blogs, this blog in particular. Her name is Maureen and she also has a blog where she shares her gardening experiences; Allotment Heaven. She also recently started a new blog where she shares her delicious recipes which she cooks up with her allotment grown veg; Recipes from Allotment Heaven.
.
Maureen saw these sweetpea seeds in her local M&S and got some for herself and a couple friends and I was one of the lucky friends. look at the colour of those sweet pea flowers, you just know that the scent is going to be gorgeous and overpowering. I can't wait to get them growing along my picket fence boundary.
.
.
Now as far as I was concern the gift didn't stop there, look at the embellishments of the beautifully handcrafted card made by Maureen that the seeds were placed in. I was so taken by the simple clean beauty, that I was immediately inspired to create some wearable art. Plus I didn't want the card to get lost in my stash in a draw somewhere, I wanted to see it often and remember why I got it.
.
.
So I decided to make a necklace using the clay focal point (also made by Maureen, ain't she talented) and the seed beads accent pieces.

So with some ribbon I picked up in town today and using some other pieces from home I created this mixed media necklace. Now every time I wear it I will remember a friend and her kindness.

So thanks Maureen not only for the seeds and the beautiful future they will soon bring but thanks for the inspiration you awoke in me yesterday. It is the first mixed media piece I have made that I'm pleased with, so thanks again for sharing your spark.

Day 22 of the Advent Season & Meeting Santa

Recycled Juice Carton Wallets

.

I stumbled across the tutorial for these a few months ago and knew the next time we bought juice in these types of cartons (which isn't often) I would have to give them a go. The girls love them and immediately upon receiving them they initiated a game of shop and shopkeeper using glass stones as play money. My printer is down so I wasn't able to print out a template but they were fairly easy to make using other items to create the desired template shape, oh! and another thing, the tutorial gives an hour to create but I took about 25 minutes to do them both.

.

Today's Bible Stories.
.

On Sunday I smugly announced I was finished with my Christmas shopping, then late Sunday night I realised I had forgotten some things, arrgghh!

.

So I braved the treacherously icy pavements with kiddies in tow and went to town and the grocery store.

.

Good thing too as I had forgotten to take the kids to see Santa Claus, it was my youngest first meeting and she was a little awestruck and a little speechless (which is a not normal).

.

Anyway I got home thinking yep I'm all done now only to realise I had forgotten a few key ingredients (*&^*%^), so I'll have to pop over to the grocery tomorrow at some point to get them.
.

Today's Trini Christmas song is 'sung' by a local stand up comedian, who more talks than sing (not sure if he can sing) he has mixed in differing elements of local Christmas music. It probably won't be appreciated by most but another Trini would get it!! because he humour is based on local events and culture :) Gosh! I really miss home at this time of the year.
.

Sprangalang - Bring drinks

Day 16 of the Advent Season, First Snowfall and The End of An Experiment

Handmade Paper Dolls

.

The kids received paper dolls today from their Advent Calender, I made them with jointed arms using paper fasteners to create the joints and made simple clothes for them to start off with. My eldest made me proud by immediately making boots for hers and her sister's doll, which slips on and off quite well. Why did I feel proud? Well I wanted to make shoes for them but couldn't quite figure out how to do so without using a tab fold over edge (and she did) and I was also happy because my main reason for making them these type of dolls was to encourage them to use their imagination to make new outfits for the dolls which I hope will help to stretch their creative juices in relation to the materials they may use, etc. So I was really pleased that its purpose worked so quickly. (Golly just reread this and what a lot of waffle to explain something so simple, sorry about that).

.

The bible story they heard is pictured on the right.

.

.

Woke to an even more frosty morning today, with mini ice crystals designs on the conservatory window, frozen shed locks and completely frozen to the bottom bird baths. In the greenhouse the water in the watering can also had a frozen surface, these two very icy nights I'm afraid have lead to the end of the 'extend the season tomato experiment' and put paid to the hope of picking homegrown tomatoes on Christmas day. But there has been enough benefits for me to repeat this next year, I mean how great is it to pick ripe tomatoes right up into December :) The picture on the right shows how many more full tomatoes I had slowly ripening on the plants. I cooked some this evening for dinner, chopped up with onions and sauteed in a little olive oil, salt and black pepper.

.

The yukon plants have also been completely killed off from the frost and so I'll be harvesting some roots soon to try.

.

Well the frost doesn't only mean doom and gloom and to prove it, below are some pictures of beauty frozen in time for you to enjoy.

.

Calendula

.

Annual Salvia

.

Heartease

These although they were pretty droopy with the heavy frost, once it was melted by the sun they perked right up.
.

Sweetpeas - I couldn't choose between them so I decided to show you all both pics.

..

Now the sun did come out really bright and warm today and was much more efficient at melting the frost today than yesterday, it go so much warmer that I was sure the promised light snow forecasted would not have materialised, hmm? How wrong was I? Here is a short video this winter's first snowfall all be it a light one. It did settle enough to let you leave foot prints but during the night it was washed away by a light drizzly period.

.

Today's Trini christmas song is another parang tune originally written and sung by Daisy Voisin who I told you about here. This time the singer is another lady who is making a name for herself in the parang feild of music.

Sharlene Flores - Sereno, Sereno.

Day 11 of the Advent Season

Named Bracelets

.

To make these bracelets as personalized as possible I not only spelt their names but the beads colours were picked to relate to the girls birth stones and the flower that represents their month of birth.

.

For instance the eldest birthstone is opal which is an iridescent gem normally represented by the colour white. The flower that represents her month of birth is the calendula plant (also known as pot marigold). Its flowers are generally bright yellow/ bright orange.

.

My youngest birth stone is ruby so the colour red was a no brainer. Her birth month's flower turned out to be two, the water lily or larkspur, being as the water lily comes in many different colours, I decided to go with the larkspur which is blue. Oh, just in case you are wondering why there is an extra red bead in the little one's bracelet, its because I was a letter 'H' short (thankfully she hasn't noticed) I'll get more of those beads next time I'm in town.
.
On the right is the bible story I read to the girls today.

.

I made this book marker (book thong) for a friend, I have plans to make a few more for my blogshop.

Here is today's Trini Christmas tune, this one's melody is influenced by the locally produced calypso music which is more associated with our carnival season. The song tells the story of some of the preparations that are associated with Christmas and the loving merry feelings everyone is filled with at that time of the year, he then goes on to describe how 'he feeling to fete', something Trinis know how to do well, IE: Fete.....A party, loud music, lots to eat and drink, dancing to wee hours of the morning.

Rikki Jai - Neighbour Neighbour

Day 10 of the Advent Season

Homemade Puzzles with Storage Pockets

.
My girls love for me to make them puzzles, the eldest was once a real puzzle buff and has been good at them since the age of two. The youngest well.... simply doesn't have the patients but still likes to attempt them but generally passes them onto her sister to build for her :)
.
I made them with images taken from an old wildlife magazine mounted on cardboard which was further mounted on another piece of cardboard so as to create a backing for the puzzle to sit on. I also made some envelope pockets from thick old sheets of magazine for them to be stored in.
.
The bible story they heard today is above on the left.
.
Now I said I would include a Trini Christmas song with each post till Christmas but before I let loose, its only fair I attempt to explain a little about our Christmas music.
.
Besides the usual Christmas carols and the well known American Christmas tunes, we in Trinidad also have our own type of Christmas music. A large amount of the music is representative of a Venezuelan flair and our calypso also influences the music that is created or remixed for Christmas.
.
Like I said a large proportion is Venezuelan influenced and this type of music is called parang. The link will explain a lot better than I would.
.
So with that explanation out of the way I'll start off with an oldie which was written and made into a hit by the legend Daisy Voisin, she was and still is considered the Queen of Parang.

Daisy Voisin - Alegria, Alegria .

These are the two fox cubs that have frequented my garden this year, they were from a litter of five, what happened to the other three I don't know. Now they have not had very happy existence, with first one then the other getting mange along with very little to eat, they have looked a sorry state. Today I saw them out the window sunning themselves on my neighbour's decking looking a lot healthier with their winter coat on but boy were they scratching, so it seems the mange is still there.

P.S. You may have noticed that its snowing on my blog, I got the widget for this after experiencing some wintry weather over on Maureen's Blog. If you would like some snow too then the link for the widget can be found at the top of the listed links in the blue panel on the right side of my blog page.

Day 9 of the Advent Season

The First Visitors Arrive

.

The girls after their bible stories on the right got the new characters to put into their Nativity scene.

.

I thought it would be nice for me to teach them some Christmas carols as well, so to go along with the theme today I searched on You Tube for the carol 'Away in the Manger'.

.

We had great fun learning it but it made me feel rather homesick for a Trinidad Christmas, for at this time of the year the radio stations are not only playing regular run of the mill music but also a large amount of Christmas carols and local Christmas music. So with that in mind I searched out another song 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful' but sung by a Trinidadian calypsonian Baron which tells the same story of 'Away in a Manger'.

.

I plan to try and feature one Trinidadian/ Trinidadian sung Christmas song per posting till Christmas, why? because.... I want too ;)

.

. Away in a Manger

Oh Come All Ye Faithful by Calypsonian Baron

.

Just want to add, this is what what was delivered to me today by a freecycler who answered my want ad for blue water pipe and damp proof membrane. I plan to use the pipe to create supports for my nets which will protect vulnerable plants and the damp proof membrane will hopefully create a water tight layer for at least one green shed roof project (I have three to cover).

Day 7 of the Advent Season

The Stable's first human inhabitants.

.

The girls got the first Nativity characters as their advent calendar gifts today which went along with the bible story they heard today (pic below). In the picture on the left their little fingers point out what they got to unwrap; the eldest unwrapped Joseph and the donkey and the youngest unwrapped Mary and baby Jesus.

.

Thankfully I did find some strands of dried grass to use as straw which I placed on the top of a radiator to dry out further as it was picked in the rain this morning but later when I went to pick up my eldest from school I found some great stands of dried bracken, which I dried out further on the radiators and used instead.

Day 5 & 6 of the Advent Season

Homemade Bookmarks with inspirational reading related quotes.

.

Today the 6th day of the advent season the girls got these bookmarks. I thought it would be appropriate for them to have quotes encouraging them to reading, so I did just that. What's really cool is the youngest blind picked the blue one (they were both wrapped, so the girls simply pulled one each out of the pocket) with the quote "Once you learn to read, you will be free forever" which as she cannot read is fitting isn't it.

On Saturday they each got identical stickers which are pictured above on the left.

.

These are the bible stories they heard over the weekend, on the left is the one I read on Saturday and on the right is the one I read today.

Just a little update on the tomato experiment I mentioned here, this is what I picked in the greenhouse this afternoon, I think just enough to get us through the week.
.
The stable for the Nativity Creche is complete, as the advent continues the characters would be added as we read the bible story which introduces them, I just need to find myself some straw/ dry grass??? and with outside being wet that won't be easy!

Day 2 of the Advent Season

Homemade Notebooks

.

The girls delved into their advent calendar again today and received some little notebooks made by me. We also had another bible story, which produced many a question but I won’t go into that, it really was quite extensive.

.

.

.

.

.

They both have already begun to draw in their notebooks, can you guess which one was produced by which?

.

I’ll take this opportunity to complete my October to November updates:

.

One of the things that was weighing heavily upon me when I took a rest from blogging was my lack of dedicated work space to create items for my blogshop and so I decided to do something about it.

Before moving to a more work friendly area of the house this is where I was trying to work, in a corner of the living room. This just left me feeling cramped and the area made the whole living room look untidy and it felt ‘heavy’, which is not good for the creative mind.

.

I decided to move myself into the loft which was properly insulated early this year and so it does not get cold or hot. There was already a dedicated area for the sewing machine and some of my hubby’s gym equipment so with a little rearranging, I created a little space for myself. I covered a half of sheet of ply board with some lovely old blue linen cloth I had lying around used my storage draws as legs and made myself a work station.

.

Of course it doesn’t look like this all the time, the picture to right is more reminiscent of the area once its in use, which is fine by me. What I find stifling is having to tidy up my things at the end of every day/ work session while I’m in the middle of a project. If I can leave everything they way it is, it means I can come and do a fifteen minutes here/ an hour there whenever I have the time, without having to waste time taking everything out again and when the project is finished I do a big tidy up in readiness for the next.
.
One of the things I have been dabbling in is making my own focal pieces to use in my jewellery designs and in my paper crafts. These focal pieces are made from a cornstarch clay recipe, which air dries, the picture on the right are the pieces after I have hand painted and sealed them. I haven’t had time to turn them into anything as yet but I have a few ideas floating about in my head.
.

One of the things I offer in my blogshop is the opportunity to receive a Free Wish item from me, info can be found on the right hand side of my blogshop. The item above is the first Free Wish I have had to produce, you can read about it here.

I want to share my experience with a vegetable that I grew and ate for the first time, its called Shark Fin Squash. First and foremost the plant is a brute and a bully, it will try to take over your plot by any means necessary. It is though an abundant producer and if I knew then what I knew now I would have gotten a lot more produce from the plant than I did get, not that its not enough. I won’t go into to much detail but if you want more info there is tons out there just google it.

So the squash is a brute outside and a bugger inside, that’s if you can get into the darn thing. I kid you not, a cleaver and a hammer is how I got into the first one and that was hard going I tell you! I loosely followed a recipe for shark fin squash soup (incidentally that’s the only recipe you’ll find for this vegetable) and created a very nice tasting meal but I was so tired after trying to get into it that I couldn’t truly appreciated it. The next thing is the amount of flesh from one squash could easily feed 8 people and although the meal was nice it does not lend itself for eating as leftovers, you just don‘t want any more the next day.
.
Now this squash is more melon like, there is a mild smell and taste of watermelon when it is raw, which I find sweetens the soup slightly. So because of this the second dish I made was to create a sweet and sour vegetable sauce, then I added the flesh of a baked shark fin squash (I pierced the squash a few times all around it then I baked it whole, which made getting into it much easier). I only used half of the squash and we were all satisfied, I gave the other half to a friend whose hubby is from Vietnam and he used it in his chicken soup to good effect.

Now I have re read what I wrote I don’t think I have explained this vege properly but feel free to ask me questions in the comments of this post or by email and I’ll do my best to clarify my experiences with this veg, which by the way I don’t plan on growing again (unless I can sell it to a Chinese restaurateur).
.
During the month of October we also celebrated my eldest 10th birthday. I don’t do big parties every year for my girls, we celebrate the majority of their birthdays at home with the family, sometimes a few members of our extended family come along to make a fuss of the birthday girl, sing happy birthday and to share in the cake and ice cream. When they do get a big party with all the trimmings its on specific birthdays - 1, 5, 10, 13, 16, 18. So with this in mind my eldest was planning her 10th birthday party for the last year, writing and changing and rewriting lists in her diary. Well with my help her special day went beautifully, all invited friends came so counting my girls there were 14 in all. I filled the 3 hours with party games, arts & crafts, makeovers, food and a piñata. It was a huge success and I was knackered for a good 48hrs afterwards.
.

Now I know you all must be wondering what’s the latest with the allotment plot. Well the last time I was there was the first weekend of November and that was for a members meeting. The picture above shows the last lot of work I got done late October, which was the digging over of the main un-worked area. There is a strip of grass path about 4ft wide directly in front the dug area which awaits my elbow grease but time has not been on my side and when I did have the time the weather was foul. The meeting was fruitful though on two fronts and I’ll go into one of them at a later date when things are more concrete but the one I’m happy to share with you now is that I gained a further 5ft of width to my plot, whoopee!! More planting space and with that comes more digging than I thought I had laid ahead of me, ho hum, it’s a case of taking the bitter with the sweet.
.
Ta! Ta! for now.