Thoughts Passions Love

Although I had stopped using the Multiply blog, I thought it fitting to copy this post here as all of these friends were on Multiply at the time that I think this was all arranged ....

Things Mel discovered this week:

Sitting down
   (I'm so dizzy, my head is spinning)
Closing my eyes while sitting down
   (like a whirlpool, it never ends)*
Opening my eyes while sitting down
   (Wham - migraine)
Standing up
   (Vertigo is not just the name of a Hitchcock movie)
Bending over
   (how to pass out without alcohol)

Sleeping
   (the knock-me-out drugs are out of my system)
Sleeping in a single bed
   (I forgot how many bits of me could hurt at once)
Sleeping in a single bed with my ample body
   (there is very little room)
Sleeping in a single bed bed with my ample body and a determined geriatric cat
   (did I mention the lack of room - or is this related to the sore body parts)
Sleeping in a single bed with my ample body and a determined geriatric cat and a determined elderly cat discussing dominance issues
   (perhaps sleeping is the wrong word)
Sleeping in a single bed with my ample body and a determined geriatric cat and a determined elderly cat discussing dominance issues on my body
   (oh fer crying out loud!) **

Are there too many ads on daytime TV?
   (don't bother answering that)
Are there too many insurance ads on daytime TV?
   (and why are the same ones played incessantly at strange times of the day)
Are there too many types of insurance ads on day time TV?
   (and do they all need to use scare tactics to sell their product)
Is it healthy for me as an ill person, temporarily home bound, to see an ad for funeral plans every five minutes?
   (my DVD collection arrives in 4 days!!!!)***

All however is not lost. I only spent one day reduced to relying on daytime-TV for pain/disorientation distraction. Yesterday mum and I went for a walk and bought some plants for the garden. I was quite worn out by the trip, but it was an improvement.  I was even gracious enough to encourage mum to buy the marigolds she was favouring instead of the carnivorous plants I was lusting after.

For an hour today I could not only follow a conversation, I could add meaningful suggestions and help make plans before the fog of pain and disorientation descended.

Its going to be a long journey, but it seems that we're heading in the right direction and that the encouraging bit.



*apologies to Vic Reeves
**  at this point I should mention that Abby, being the sensible young cat she is, avoids all of this, by sleeping on mum's Queen-sized (heated) water-bed each night, stretched out in luxury!
*** for those who comment about why I have the TV on in the first place, for the above mentioned vertigo/dizziness I cannot read for long periods of time and for noise-related issues I cannot listen to audio books or music - hopefully all of this will soon change

I had an Inkcircles day today :)

While wearing the hand knitted socks that Tracy sent me a while ago, I was stitching Inkcircles Masquerade when the postie knocked on the door.

He brought me a parcel from Chele that was the Inkcircles Fireweed kit! Thank you sooo much Chele!

He also brought me a parcel from Tracy herself.  It included some beautiful earrings and note cards I bought from the Inkcircles etsy shop.  The earrings are sooo cute and adorable - they are my new favourite earrings that I will wear everywhere!  The note cards are digitally coloured pictures of Tracy's own stitching - very bold and colourful and perfect to send to stitchers ...

Included in this parcel were also some Inkcircles bookmarks that Tracy mentioned on Twitter a while ago, and ....

and ....

and ....

I have a sneak preview of a new Inkcircles chart being released sometime soon ...  Mum and I are doing floss tosses tonight for an alternate colourway .... so ....

Neener neener neener - I know something you don't know :D

What? I'm supposed to act like a grown-up?  Since when???

Afternoon all,

Many stitchers are now on social media sites and chat via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, blogs (so many different types of blogs) and it's so unfortunate that we don't have a single port of call like the knitters Ravelry.

While trying to find or create a one-stop place for all our stitching adventures, we discovered so many of our brethren can or do only access via basic web usage or email.  After much deliberation, Mariann, Tina, Kay and I have set up a new Yahoogroup email list called All Stitchers Lounge and is now open for you to join.


With this new group, we have attempted to keep the best parts of previous groups as well
as trying some all new features. We believe All Stitcher's Lounge to be a place
where you can hangout, relax, kick back and chat about your stitching projects,
share latest stitching gossip, list new finds, or discuss old favourites :-)

We really aim for this to be a one-stop place where you can share your blog insights, new designers you have found, your thoughts on recent releases and old favourites that have been in your stash for years.

As moderators, we are actually very excited with the opportunities a new group
can afford us, and we are playing with the new Beta Applications area of Yahoo
Groups. If this sounds promising to you, please feel free spread the message and join in :)

We've been working on this group for the past few weeks, so please drop in, look around, make yourself comfortable and let us know if there’s anything we’ve forgotten to do to get it all ready for you :)

Feel free to contact Mariann, Tina, Kay or myself if you have any questions :)


EDITED TO ADD: In a blatant act of promotion, I am running two draws of free goodies open to those who spread the message about a new group.

Anyone who writes a blog post regarding the new group or mentions a link on their blog back here goes into a draw for a chance to win a section of threads and fabric (around $50 US). Please add your blog name and post in the comments here to be in the draw.

Any stitcher on twitter who retweets my message linking to this blog post will go into a draw for a chance to win a smaller selection of threads and fabric (around $20 US).

Both draws will close 11pm Australian Western Time on Saturday  5 March 2011. Winner will be notified after breakfast on Sunday :)

Yes OK so it's Tuesday - how was I to know I hid the camera on myself by actually putting it away where it belongs.  I never put it there :)

And that is fairly indicative of my health issues this past fortnight; I haven't been at work due to migraine pain and changes in migraine medication.  In between the usual drudgery of housework and fighting with medical receptionists I did manage some stitching.

Draco the Protector is finished.  He took me 10 days from start to finish - I think that's my fastest stitch that wasn't needed for a deadline! Pictures are here and here.

Also I did Part 3 of the Stitch Specialist's Tree of Stitches.  Part 3 is French Knots.  This part only served to turn my distrust of French Knots into outright hatred and loathing.  I will continue to replace any and all French Knots in any design with pretty beads. Now and forever Amen.

Mariann's Round Robin has turned up and I will start that on the weekend - I still have the migraine pain, but I'm back at work tomorrow so I doubt there will be much stitching this week.


Just to cheer everyone up (especially me) Stephen and I went into Perth this week and bought me the Giant Microbes Christmas Set and I also bought a sperm cell.  Doesn't he look cute?

Yesterday afternoon I was watching cricket, stitching on Rosanne's Round Robin piece* and keeping an eye on the bushfire to the North. Every now and then I caught a whiff of smoke but only rarely.  Then came the knock on the door.

The fire was still out of control and becoming very erratic. Anyone who's visited me knows we get gale force winds regularly. And these were whipping around in such different directions that the course of the fire was unpredictable. So anyone within 1km of its location was asked to fight or flight**  Within 10 minutes the roads were full of horse floats as all the neighbours evacuated livestock.

I decided to be sensible about my fire-fighting abilities; I grabbed the cats, their food and bowls, a change of clothes for me, my laptop and skedaddled.***  There was a Police car at the end of my road, letting people out, but no-one was allowed in.

I drove past the larger more threatening fire at Roleystone on the way to Armadale, and spent the evening with Janine, her husband and their cats. Janine looked after us very well and I thank her so much for opening up her home at such short notice.   I also thank her very much for a lovely dinner and a dessert that my diet will be rebuking me for for a while :)

Janine has five cats so we had fun after dinner watching Abby meet the new cats and the her cats meet someone new.  It was fascinating watching Abby explore the house nervously, then find her comfort zone (my lap) and begin to actively defend her turf with hissing and growling.  Abby is not the alpha cat at home; she is the submissive. And she never sits on my lap.  But as the above photo shows, the rules change when you are in a new situation.

Trubs spent the evening in the bedroom we were given quite happy that all the other cats were locked out of her area :)

This morning I got an all clear to return home.  During the night the fire had moved in a westerly, north westerly direction (I'm at the southern end of the affected area). So we are now home.  It looks like all the neighbours and their pets are home, but all the livestock are still away.  I presume they will return when the fire has been completely extinguished.  The fire is still raging out of control, with over 1170 hectares (2900 acres been burnt out). Its just raging off in a different direction :)

Everything is fine at home, not even any spot fires, but we lost the contents of the fridge and freezer due to the loss of electricity and the extreme temperatures due to the proximity of the fire.  So it was bacon for brunch and some thawed out but still cold steak for dinner tonight.

The experience was a wake up call not to be blase about fires and to prepare an emergency kit.  In hindsight there were things I left behind that I should have taken, such as identity documents, phone charger etc.

As I live rurally, we haven't lost any homes to this fire, mostly outbuildings, sheds etc.  The other major fire, down at Roleystone/Kelmscott has destroyed over 40 homes.  So far no loss of human life.




* I now know why she called it the Big Blue beast, it's because I swore a blue streak trying to make the last motif fit in with those that had already been stitched!

** OK so I think the actual words were "be prepared to leave or actively defend your home".

*** Well I got parked in by a couple of horse floats so I went back into the house for toiletries, my roll of finished stitched pieces and a couple of works in progress. I also grabbed everything that I had borrowed from the library. No I don't know why either.

See here for the details: http://www.coloursdownunder.com.au/shop/tree-change-sea-change-a11.html

This morning, after dropping mum off at the airport, I thought I would put a couple of stitches into this project before I got on with my day.

This is a Britty Kitty project I started but for some reason never finished while I was commuting on the train a few years ago now.

I started stitching away and discovered that the stitching wouldn't line up.  I frogged my stitching and went back a few more rows until the mistake was obvious and then put it all back in again.

And it still would not line up.  I took all of it back out, frogged a few more rows again, and put it all back in.

It still didn't line up.  I frogged all of it, and then kept frogging until I had taken out three quarters of the design.  Then I sat and stitched it all up.  And as can be seen, the cat is stitched. At 5:30pm this afternoon.

Not quite the day I had planned.  And definitely reminded me why I usually insist that I frog *before* I put a piece away so it doesn't contain mistakes to trap me next time.

Well this is what being on holidays is all about, right?

EDITED to add: Well I found the album for this WIP and um ooops now I know why I didn't finish it now .... oh well .... {surreptitiously sidles off the stage}

Firefox has crashed taking a fully written blog draft with it twice.  If it crashes again, no more blog!

News from this week:

Mum has headed home today.  As per usual it feels all too soon, we both enjoy each others company and both enjoy being on holidays :)  However in amongst the burning issues of warcraft, soap making and whether to eat breakfast or brunch, we did manage to get some stitching time in.

Mystery Start 1 was correctly identified by Shawn and Kay as Bright Idea by Inkcircles. I'm amused that so many people guessed it was an Inkcircles chart straight off. Are Tracy's designs that unique or is she that known as my favourite designer? Or is it that she is also a favourite designer of those doing the guessing? I've included an updated pic of the project here.  This project will now be set aside until the remaining threads arrive from Carrie.  Unfortunately Carrie's family all have the lurgy, so she has my deepest sympathies!

Mystery Start 2 was, surprisingly, not identified. Hint: It is not a Dinky Dyes design, but it is from another of my favourite designers ...  I did put a few stitches into this one, but not enough to help with identification. Update pic here.

I also stitched the first part of Abi Gurden's SAL over on the Stitch Specialists group. Part one was cross stitching on evenweave/linen.  I have already stitched on these fabrics a fair amount, so this was a quick stitch for me.  Update pic here.  Can't wait for the next part in a fortnight's time.

Also this weekend I found floss for rosanne and a chart for Julie, so my stitcher's karma has received a boost :)

However, like all good week's there was one down patch this morning.  While hunting for the threads & chart I stumbled over a project I was working on years ago as part of my train commute.  It's a small project, so I figured I could get some more stitches into it before spending the rest of the week on Rosanne's RR piece.

I really really really hate it when I get an attack of the frogs and put the piece away without unpicking it.  {grrrrr}  Well I've found the mistake now, and un-stitched all I've done this morning,  I'll fix the mistake before putting it away this time!

Finally this week's photo is of my two cats.  They don't get along so pictures like this are rare.  I call this one "Trubs is too hot & tired to growl at Abby for the temerity of eating at her own food dish"

Well I just made my first soap batch in a few years.  As it has been quite a while since I last made soap, I made a very simple batch with full water etc etc, no shortcuts or fancy footwork :)

So the recipe I made up was:

250gm olive oil
250gm lard
250gm coconut oil (Copha)
250 gm rice bran oil
138gm caustic soda (lye)
365ml water
25ml Brambleberry Ginger Orange

This traced quicker than I expected so it was a thick pour, in fact the last few moulds were glopped in rather than poured. Made 14 full bars.  Will add photo when the soaps are unmoulded.

Edited to include a link to the fragrance description.

Well I'm sure it's Sunday still somewhere in the world - say US Pacific time :)

This week was a great stitching week for me.  As can be seen above, I have finished Kay's RR and that is off in the mail this afternoon to Sisu.

Next up in the Round Robin is Rosanne's Big Blue Beast.  However with mum visiting we spent the last couple of days playing with floss and fabric and using my stash we kitted up a few new projects.  So of course, we had to put some stitches into the new projects to see how it would all look.

So my new starts are Mystery Start 1 and Mystery Start 2.  Can you guess which design and who the designer is for each start?

I also selected fabric and thread for a new SAL I'm joining on the Stitch Specialists group.

We also did lots of floss tosses for projects for mum - but I'll let her talk about those on her blog soon.

OK it's the first Sunday for the year and I'm starting as I mean to go on.

Here's my progress on Kay's Round Robin. I'm behind on this RR but I've made all of this progress in the past few days so I think this is a good start to the year.

I had to trawl through the BAPXS back messages to find this simple ice cream recipe because I simply couldn't remember the proportions (see previous post).

So here is Mel's Classic Vanilla Ice cream

1 cup organic single cream (or half & half)
1 cup organic sugar
1 beaten egg
vanilla to taste

Lightly beat egg and sugar mixture, add cream and vanilla.  Bring to a warm heat until the mixture forms a thin custard and lines the back of a spoon.  All mixture to cool and then put in the ice cream maker :)

I have been experimenting with different types of sugar and different amounts of sugar.  I remember I could use half this amount of sugar and still make a creamy ice cream, but that depended on what other ingredients are used.  Unfortunately I cannot fond my notes of those experiments.

The SECRET to remember for home-made ice cream is use organic ingredients wherever possible.  The difference *can* be tasted!

Always make your custard sweeter and richer than you intend for the ice cream.  The colder it is, the more the sweetness and tastes are muted.  If you don;t believe me, thaw out some ice cream until it is completely liquid and room temperature and then taste it :)

Variation - Chocolate Ice cream
Leave out the vanilla.  Add in a couple of spoonfuls of organic drinking chocolate or organic cocoa.  I also add in a touch of cinnamon, nutmeg and black pepper (sometimes also ground ginger) to make a spiced chocolate version.  Also while churning, add in dark chocolate and white chocolate chunks.

Variation - Tina's Buttered Pecans
Tina - do you wish to share your recipe here or is it a secret?

Mel.

Recently I've rediscovered my energy for cooking.  This is a good thing as I've been asked to make some of my well-known dishes for old friends.  Unfortunately as I haven't been cooking much in the last couple of years (and memory issues associated with the migraine) I just can't remember how to make many of these dishes I could just dash off the top of my head.  So, I'm going to be writing them down here as I use them, so I have a reference point for future :)

Recipe - French Bisket Bread aka Mel's Proto Macaroons

I made Rosewater and lemon variants of this recipe for the Midland Library Christmas Morning Tea and have been asked for the recipe.  Here it is.

A recipe from Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book

To Make French Bisket Bread (17th century)
Take one pound of almonds blanched in cold water, beat them verie smale, put in some rose water to them, in the beating, wherein some musk hath lien, then take one pound of sugar beaten and searced and beat with your almonds, then take the whites of fowre eggs beaten and put to the sugar & almonds, then beat it well together, then heat the oven as hot as you doe for other bisket bread, then take a paper, & strawe some sugar upon it, & lay two spoonfulls of the stuf in a place, then lay the paper5 upon a board full of holes, & put them in the oven as fast as you can, & so bake them, when they begin to looke somewhat browne they are baked inough.

Mel's modern version:
     100gm almond meal
     100gm sugar
     1 beaten egg white
     touch of rosewater

Lightly beat egg white, then add in almond meal and sugar.  Add in a touch of rosewater to taste and to ensure a good consistency. With damp hands, break over pieces of mix around a 50cent piece, roll into a ball and place on baking paper on biscuit tray. This size batch will make a dozen biscuits.

Put in the oven at 180C until the top cracks and turns golden brown.  In my previous oven this took 20 mins, in my current oven this takes 30 mins with the tray needing to be turned around at the 15min mark.

Variations:

• You can change out the rosewater and include lemon juice for example.  You can add cocoa for chocolate biscuits - the basic recipe can be easily adapted.
• The consistency and chewiness can also be altered by changing the type of sugar used - caster - granulated - icing.  I have had great success using demerara sugar.
• Grinding your own almonds for the recipe also changes the texture.

Play with the recipe and make it your own.  And please do tell me if you come up with any great variants!