vulnerability

It's unnerving to hear that there is/are case(s) of gun robbery, with the bandits posing as water and electricity bill collectors in the estate I'm living in, only recently. What unsettling hearsay if it's true, bad news. I hope Mambo roaming in the front porch and our two schnauzers at the back would help deter such an unfortunate encounter.

Here, more innocent updates. Two owl brooches now in my shop.

graffiti

As a family, we're trying to get into a more structured schedule and it involving a bit more outdoorsy activities. Cycling is one of them and this morning, I wanted to take some snapshots of a particular wall of graffiti art about five minutes ride away from home. This wall acts as a barricade for a separation of lands and we were within the estate we live in. Graffiti draws my attention and I like reading into the message,if any it gives.

01.01.10 :: meaningful simple

A delivered cake in the morning, a prayer then tucking into the fruit cake to mark the first day of this year. After breakfast, we attempted some painting on the back of last year's calendar paper and this was also Kaeden's first venture with brushes and poster colours. Then a new shirt with machine applique for that small fellow. I used to lament (mentally) that boys have a limited choice of clothing from malls. But I think Kaeden simply looks good in a white shirt with a simple design and cotton stripy shorts. Less is more.

I hope for a fulfilling year of simple but meaningful achievements.
Have a joyful new year.

tidied threads

Maybe it's because of the year's coming close to an end, there is an in-built mechanism in me wanting things tidied up for a new year for a fresh beginning. So for a tiny start, I got my paper box of threads tidied up by wounding some loose threads over cardboard fifi tags that didn't work out, then put them together with some new threads into a box which once held things I wanted stored and no need for. I also add a new pin cushion for needles. The box is ideal for putting my small work in progress and the embroidery box can now follow me in my favourite spots of the house without having me to get up and replace threads on my table when I'm working on something.

holiday gifts

As practitioners of Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism, my family doesn't celebrate Christmas but the three families surrounding us do. To show our appreciation for these families for looking out for us, I prepared some gifts (clothing, jars of poster colours, wooden necklace) for the children and baked this cake for the adults. I started baking this morning and had the idea of using new kitchen linen which I washed last evening to wrap around the cakes. But I'd to use parchment paper first. You might find the kitchen linen familiar.

Brian's off from work workplace is closed BUT he'll be back very now and then until the new year. I'm looking forward to lots of pleased to be having more quality family time.
Happy holidays.

apples

The forgotten thought of getting breakfast for today made me think on the feet and I decided to bake a cake last evening, knowing I have some apples in the refrigerator, hence an apple raisins cinnamon cake. I like baking at night, when the weather is cooler and I can take my time without distractions from Kaeden as Brian takes over the babysitting. I particularly love the calm and homely feeling emitted by nice cinnamon smell wafting out from the oven to the whole house. The recipe is really my own, sourcing the available ingredients in my pantry and fridge at that moment. The other nice factor of baking at night is that the cake can cool overnight on the table and ready to be eaten for breakfast the next day. Of course I didn't wait. The cake was moist and warm and good with cold milk. If only there is vanilla ice cream in the freezer!

I made two apple brooches this morning. Simple appliques. I suppose they make good stand by present top ups.

------------------------------

Recipe:

Apple Raisins Cinnamon Cake

Ingredients:

230g self-raising flour
150g granulated sugar
1tsp cinnamon powder
1/2tsp nutmeg powder
1/4tsp salt

150g unsalted butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
1tsp vanilla essence
3/4cup milk

1 large apple, coarsely chopped
1tbsp raisins

Directions:

Pre-heat oven (180 deg cel).
Mix flour,sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg powder and salt in a large bowl. Set it aside.
Combine butter, egg, vanilla essence in another bowl. Add chopped apple bits and raisins into the wet ingredients and mix.
Pour the apple mixture into the first bowl of dry ingredients and mix well with a spatula, slowly adding milk into it when mixing.
After which, pour into a non-stick baking pan. (I used a 9.25x5.25x2.75 inch but a smaller 9inch should suffice.)
Bake for 60min.

Enjoy!

Frank and breadfruit

It was a difficult process making conman Frank. My first attempt at making a doll of humanly features, alright, wacky humanly features and I'm just not happy with everything. He had had ears which looked awful. Before he had hands, I'd wanted to rip him apart. He would survive on the condition that Brian take him and leave at his office, just so I won't see him. Frank had been sitting around idly over the weekend, with me thinking that there is something just not right about him. Finally, I lopped off his ears and gave him a surgery and new hands today. He's a gift to his saviour who by the way, named him.

---------------------





Have you had breadfruit before? It's not often I eat it. Brian just brought one back yesterday from his father's warehouse. There is a breadfruit tree growing there and from what I hear, bears fruits when the season turns wet. It may look deceiving but it tastes alright when fried dipped into condensed milk, especially when cut in chunks, it feels like biting into fried bread. Not the healthiest breakfast but a gratifying one.