Miss Saigon Bake Off!

Hello! Did you see Miss Saigon, at the Theatre Royal in Hobart? what a wonderful show it was! And there was good stuff going on back stage too...the Miss Saigon Bake Off! Cast members brought goodness to the dressing rooms nearly every night to keep their tummies happy! The last night was Rowan's turn...so we went mad and made this! And these...a star for each of the stars- yum! Thank you to our friends P and J for their help!

Frustration is rife!

Hello! I am dying to update my blog, I have moved house, created a new vege patch, taken pictures of it with a lovely new camera, felted my first vest but I can't tell anyone about it properly cause I am trying to do assignments! Oh it is heartbreaking! I will be back once this semester is out of the way!

The wonderful place in which we live- Tasmania!

Inspiration for the beginning of the week. A little look back at a wonderful weekend walking in Mount Field National Park- ahhhhh...just to be there now!

Quincey Quincey Quincey paste!

One day recently, I took the plunge, I had never touched a raw quince before but I decided to make quince paste! What a good decision! Yum! My Method! Roughly chop up all the quinces and place them in a large saucepan, cover them with water. Add two strips of lemon peel (1cm/ 4cm, no white pith) (and a vanilla pod if you have one, I didn't though) and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and let cook until the quince pieces can be broken with a fork (30-40 minutes). Then strain off the water, throw away the vanilla but keep the lemon peel with the quince. Next, you need to puree the quince pieces, I did this with a bamix, of course you can use a blender or food processor. Then, measure the quince puree, this is how you work out how much sugar you need, add as much sugar as there is quince (ie, 5 cups of quince, 5 cups of sugar). Heat the quince and sugar on a medium to low heat. Stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar has completely dissolved. Now add the 3 table spoons of lemon juice. Cook the puree over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for 1-1 1/2 hours, until the quince paste is very thick and has a deep orange pink color. it gets even darker than this, I just forgot to take the picture! Now, once it is very thick, spread it into lined pans, I put mine into a slice tin and into some patty pans. Cook in an oven at a about 50 degrees Celsius, very low, to dry it out and help it set. This seemed to take a long time for me and part way through I moved the paste that was in the slice tins onto flat trays and I spread it out further (to about 1.5 centimetres) as it just didn't seem like it was ever going to set! Once they felt 'right', solid and not very liquidy (I know I use good, proper terms here!) pull it out and let cool. I then wrapped mine up in kitchen paper and now keep it in the fridge- it is the best thing to just have a stash of! I love it! With brie! Camembert! goats cheese! vintage cheddar! it constitutes a meal in itself in my opinion! I hope you make it and love it as much as I do! Wooo hooo!!

Re- inspire yourself.

After a bit of a drought on the felting front, I re-inspired myself with some amazing alpaca that I bought at an Australia Alpaca Day celebration- which was pretty funny in itself! So I made this special scarfe, I really wanted to play with a different way of finishing the edges of the scarfe so I made little holes and loops, which ended up working a lot better than expected if I may say so! It was lovely being back at the felting board! But I haven't been again for a couple of weeks- I have too much homework! But it is winter so it is felting season, I'm gearing up for a good one! The second scarfe I have here is one of the first I ever made, I just realised I haven't ever put it up! I made it for my partner but it was too girly for him apparently so when I saw my cousin wearing a lovely knitted dress and a top that matched the blue perfectly, around her neck it went! Here she is with it.

Explorations with 3D wet felting!

This was fun! I read instructions for making childrens' booties with wet felt, and then decided to go a bit further with the concept and make some random things ...tea cosies...robin hood explorer hats...little dollies, purses, melodica cases..it was great! I really like making my big shawls though as I can create images and feelings and relate more of myself with them, but these were a fun diversion for a while- I will certainly make more booties and I want to make some handbags with the method too!

Eggs! Eggs!Eggs!

It was easter time and I was on my teaching Prac, so I made eggs for all my students! I had some lovely friends help add the beads the night before..thank you! The eggs were different than I expected but good! The students really liked them too!

Micah and Beanie are out and about!

Here are some shots of the big day! I'll add some more notes in the next day or so...funny stories, but for now it is bed time.....I hope Micah is getting a big feed in tonight! Ok so weeks later I return to tell the story. When we released them it all went really well, at one stage they took off down the driveway and sat in the middle of the road, but we managed to call them back up- I think they were pretty scared so responded well to the 'tch tch tch' that Micah used to be comforted by. They got split up at one stage too, it was getting darker but finally they found each other and had a little kiss, when we knew they were together we said goodbye! This is the last Ro and I saw of them. After Micah was released, Des (who has been looking after him) woke up in the morning and saw a little wobbly waiting at the orchard gate, but he ran off when she went to see him. Later that day though, on dusk, Micah appeared on her doorstep! Des gave him a little treat of rolled oats which he guzzled of course! She offered him some water and apparently he just drank and drank and drank! Micah used to have a habit of sitting in the burning sun and being too lazy to get up and have a drink, once I was worried about him and put some water in front of him and he drank solidly for 10 minutes! This time he did the same! Des said she's never seen a hopper go so crazy about it! Poor little boy musn't have been able to find any water for 24 hours! Des told me she then filled up a little water pond near the house, the smell of the water (they have good noses!) drew out Beanie from the bushes, he hopped up and started guzzling too! But the best bit was when Micah and Beanie saw each other- apparently they hopped up to each other and put their arms around each others necks and had a little cuddle! How beautiful! So great! It was so good to hear stories from Des of Micah reappearing over the next couple of weeks, especially after a long stormy weekend! He turned up looking like a drowned rat! It was amazing releasing them! I didn't get sad and neither did Rowan, we are just so proud of him and glad he is out where he is supposed to be! It is great he has had a pretty good life even when he was orphaned. I think that he had it all going for him though, luckily his mum wasn't hit by a car, she broke her legs in a fence and was put down. This meant that Micah didn't have to sit in a dead mummy :( for a long time getting cold and thirsty. When we got him he was a little bit dehydrated but only as to be expected after such a change. He spent a lot of time outside when he was growing up, 10 minutes in the morning to start with in just a tiny pen, with me right next to him but he got really confident outside quickly so he didn't hold on to any signs of domestication for long at all. The day we took him outside to stay (and not come in over night) was after we had friends sleeping on the floor in our loungeroom, where Micah's area was. In the middle of the night he broke free, jumped on the couch, on the coffee table and my friend woke up and looked up to see Micah staring at him above his head!!! It was a sign, he needed to be foraging out there in the world! Now he certainly is! Hurrah for Micah!

Orchard time for Micah the Wallaby

Hello! We released Micah our wallaby (See previous posts!) into a big orchard in late February, and then visited him about a month later, this was who we saw! A lovely grown up boy! We are now preparing to release him this coming Saturday, I am so excited! He has been with another wallaby boy, Beanie, which another carer raised. At first Micah would quickly run away when they saw each other- he had never seen another one of his kind since his mother in October so I suppose it was fair enough! They seem to get along alright now, last time I went down Micah was grooming Beanie so I think there is some brotherly love there!!We hope they help each other out on Saturday! I've also added a picture that was taken in about November...for a bit of size comparison!

The harvest begins!

The harvest begins! Apples apples everywhere, tomatoes and peas! The Apple trees have gone really well this year, we have been here three years and in that time only one of the three trees has given us anything worthwhile- the other trees have just produced shrivelled up little things! But this year all three are going absolutely nuts! With the most delicious varieties! I think one is a cox's orange- my favourite. Our Tomatoes haven't been so good but are starting to pick up and bring in some decent numbers. And already, after a week and a half my new vegie patch is springing to life! It is a no dig patch that I started after I got so frustrated with all the weeds in my patch- and the very very poor quality soil that is there. so after wads and wads of newspaper laid out on the soil, and lots of water I layered cow poo and straw, and cow poo and straw and mushroom compost up and up till it was about half a metre high, then with very regular watering it all broke down into one lovely nutritious patch! I have planted out the 'Anti-Oxidents Patch' which is from the book One Magic Square by Lolo Houbein, this is a magnificent book! I couldn't recommend it more! It contains many designs for vegie patches that are only one metre square in size. For example there is the winter stir fry plot, the soup plot, the salad plot- it is amazing! It also contains planting times for nearly all the vegies and fruit you can imagine, and descriptions of these to help you decide! I love it! GO and GET it now! (its for temperate climates by the way!) So here are some piccies of my apple harvest, the trees and my patch, close up you can see thousands of little mustard seedlings (I tend to over sow, as I always think they will all just die- but these haven't yet!)

Its been a while!

Hi all! A little hello cause its been a while! I have been off having a lovely time in the summer sun shine of Tasmania (yes we got some!) and haven't been inside much to be getting crafty! I will start putting up updates on my new no dig, one magic square veggie patch which I have been working on- I sowed many seeds and because it has been so lovely and warm and rainy down here the have germinated- in only 4 days! Yippee!! we are on our way to more sustainable living! I was saying to my partner that all I need is a cow, some chickens and a sheep, then I'll be right, I will have milk, eggs and wool for felting....oh if I could! Our wallaby has headed off to its next home, he is now in a big orchard a bit south of us, apparently he has been chatting up the ladies in the evenings- so we are very proud! Here are some pictures of our grown up one- look back to a previous video- Introducing Micah Asha Harris-d'Arville to get some idea of how he has grown! He is bashing us up in some of these- don't worry- it is love! We are proud of his fighting skills, he will be able to tell them whats what in the wild! Go Micah!

but wait there's more!

A few more bits! BOOTIES! My pride and joy! I love these! you can order them from me at my etsy shop www.alouk.etsy.com, yummy yummy yummy! And one of my favourite scarves, Summer to Winter, which I have given to a friend named Annie.

The Felted Bonanza continues

A few more, the Caramel and the Snow Queen, and another little random one. The Snow Queen and the Caramel feature some wool that my grandad pulled out of the back of a cupboard for me, it is so fine and soft it is incredible! The Caramel is now with Sara Sister, the Snow Queen eagerly awaits her new home!