Home Sweet Home

Today was a fresh and sunny winter's day, perfect for getting some washing on the line and having a pre-spring house clean. I had intentions to do my bedroom as there are two suitcases to unpack but I was sidetracked to my favourite room of the house, the living room. And since we do most of our living here, I do put some thought into the comfort and look of the room. My inspiration is with classic American interior design - I love how the use of lamps gives such a great ambience in a room. last year I painted the room (which is open plan with the kitchen and dining area) in Resene Poprock. Love it! I've made all the soft furnishings from offcuts I've picked up from a local interior designer. The tissue box is covered in Kaisercraft Hippy Girl paper. Now I'm looking forward to chilling out for the night and watching a movie!

Wintertime ducks

There is something about ducks that I've always had a fondness for. They are a good subject to photograph against the reflection of water and I often walk down to the nearby reserve to take photos. At this time of the year there are plenty of ducks taking sanctuary from duck shooting season on farmers' ponds!

I've had varied success with breeding and raising ducks in the past. When I was 11, I rescued a family of newborn orphaned ducklings and took them away with me on a weekend to Lake Tekapo to stay with a school friend. I remember they were very full on and would not let me out of their sight - there was a lot of noise at night time!
Pekin ducks are my favourite - I had a breeding pair about ten years ago when I lived in the country but found they make hopeless mothers. One duck took all her young ducklings through the long wet grass and they all died of hypothermia. Tragic. I've given up trying to raise anything other than children now!

My SENZ adventure

I'm just back this week from SENZ (Scrapbooking Expo NZ) in Auckland. It was a full on five days, delayed by one day due to the Chilean ash cloud and flights were cancelled. After a very expensive change of airlines (Air NZ were flying at a lower altitude to avoid the cloud) we finally arrived the next day. The stock had dramas on the way too and the train was derailed - everything arrived two hours before the expo opened to the public so it was utter chaos. Artfull Crafts not only had a fully stocked shop there, but we also ran eight classes. Melissa, Al and Christina from Kaisercraft in Australia were heaps of fun. They tutored some of the classes and helped promote their brand on the stall. Here is a photo of the Kaiser girls and our staff at the end of the event:

And of course, Liz never does things by halves so she thought she would would plan a bit of entertainment in the classes! Here we are doing a parody of Abba's Dancing Queen in the 'Makeup Madness' class. Oh boy, the things you do to keep a job......

We had great feedback from all our customers - it was fantastic to meet everyone from all over the country! What was a really great idea of Liz's was to have samples of the projects and papers made up. All the design team and staff helped out doing this over the weeks before SENZ, and the creations set the products to fly off the shelves. I've shown a few on the blog already. Here is the last one I did with the Kaisercraft butterfly album. The papers are Gabrielle from Bo Bunny (these are my favourite ones so far for this year) The photos are from Louisa's Year 8 Leavers Dinner.

I Heart Faces | Let's Hear It For The Boys!

My three youngest boys having a great time sliding at the local public gardens - don't you love the joy in their faces?

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge | Bright and Vivid

This week's picture was a standout for colour when I flicked through my thumbnails. It was taken about 18 months ago at dress ups day at kindy - Jack was one of about five spidermen! If you look closely at his eyes under the mask, I think it reveals what he was thinking....it's not so much fun when everyone had the same cool idea as you!

Macaroons for chocoholics

Would you believe the first time I'd ever eaten a macaroon (or even noticed them) was last November at the Arts and Plants Festival at Geraldine? Typically I avoid baking stalls for a number of reasons : 

1. It's probably not gluten free  

2. I'm highly suspicious about who made them and where they were made

3. I have unrealistic standards about baking and homemade stalls often have dodgy looking goods. 

I'm not claiming to be an expert myself but I can claim to being a past winner, and judge, of the baking section at the Mackenzie Highland Show! (and that is big where I come from...)

So it was lunchtime and I was hungry. These scummy macaroons with chocolate chips were labelled as GF  and I decided to ignore the ridiculous price that everyone seems to think is acceptable for GF food and try one. Yum! I ended up buying another to take home and try and replicate. 

Here is the recipe I devised with the assistance of google. I thought they would be better with a dip in chocolate, what do you think?

Double Chocolate Macaroons (GF)

3 cups coconut

2oz (3/16 cup) condensed milk

pinch salt

2 cups chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/4 cup rice flour

Combine these ingredients then fold into the meringue mixture made from:

4 large egg whites beaten until stiff 

then slowly add 1/2 cup castor sugar

Spoon onto baking paper and bake at 160°C for 20 minutes

When cool dip into melted dark chocolate

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge | From A Distance

Today I'm starting a new direction for my blog by entering in the weekly 'I Heart Faces' photography challenge. I've discovered this cool website by trawling through other blogs late at night when I should of being planning lessons. It is open to all skills of photographers and all entries are listed on the website and voted for. Although many are professional I thought I'd have a go and I'm always open to tips from good photographers!

 This week the theme is 'From a Distance'. Here is one of my favourite spontaneous photos of the boys at Caroline Bay, Timaru, New Zealand.