Shoshiplatypus

What’s On Your Workdesk this Wednesday?

It’s been quite a busy week.

Birthday card for my hubby

My hubby’s birthday is coming up, and I’ve been so inspired over the last couple of weeks by the WOYWWers who have shown us their gorgeous accordion albums/cards that I thought I’d attempt one myself.

My hubby loves his teddies! We have got a lot, and they sit in the front window watching the passers-by and getting the occasional wave from them. I decided to illustrate his card with a teddy on each page. I began by photographing them so that I’d have a reference for my drawings.

For the backgrounds, I thought it would be fitting to use some of the reject watercolours that I rescued from the bin when my hubby threw them out. I hope he’s now got the message that he mustn’t do this – the paper is fabulous quality, and I can either use the backs, or gesso over them, or cut them up and use them as-is, which is what I did in this case.

I cut 12 little squares, each measuring 3 1/3 inches.

When they are cut up, it’s often quite difficult to see what they were originally. Some of them were a bit dark so I gessoed over these. Then I added a shape, roughly painted on with watercolours, and once they were dry, I spattered them with water and blotted them off. Interestingly, anything without gesso on it didn’t respond well to this, probably because the watercolour paper is designed to absorb the paint and water. Another time, I think it would be worth adding gesso to them all. I distressed the edges of each one with Distress Inks.

I made a series of drawings from my photos, with a little online inspiration, and tried to make them as distinctive as possible so that he will recognise each one. Each teddy has his or her own unique characteristics!

Once I was happy with the drawings, I copied them onto the background squares, and went over them with a permanent black marker. I then attempted to lift the watercolour background with a wet brush, but again, this was only successful with the gessoed ones. I was quite surprised to discover that on this surface, the permanent black marker wasn’t that permanent! Perhaps I need to heat-set it before attempting to add any water. Anyway, the result was OK.

This is as far as I have got. I shall be adding some colour to each one, using my Tombow dual brush markers.

Knitting

I’ve resurrected the purple circles jumper project again. I had finished the front (or so I thought) until I realised that I’d made the shaping of the neck all wrong and it would be far too tight to get my big head through the hole!! So I’ve had to undo it back to the beginning of the shaping – nearly done now, and then I can redo it.

I have stretched the back onto the new blocking mats and spritzed it with water to damp it down. As soon as it is dry, I can take it off. The grid lines on the blocking mats really help with the measuring, and the pins go into the thick foam really well. It’s a dream to use, particularly as it can be done on the table, so I don’t have to work on the floor, which is far too exhausting and uncomfortable. These blocking mats are absolutely brilliant – wish I’d had them years ago!!

On the right in the photo, you can see the little tin that the pins come in, my tape measure, spritzing bottle, and the transparent folder with my pattern and notes in it. The red folders are my Bible study stuff and nothing to do with this project.

Once the front of the jumper is finished, I shall block that out, and then I can join front to back at the shoulder seams, and pick up the required number of stitches for the sleeves, and knit them downwards.

Also this week, I have re-drafted the neckline pattern for the front, and the sleeve pattern. A few months ago I bought a pack of A3 graph paper, with 10 squares to the inch, which I find to be the ideal size. I have some centimetre graph paper divided into millimetres, and I find this much too small to read.

New washing line

Last Friday was the first week that I’d done the washing since the arrival of the new whirligig washing line, and the sun was shining! A perfect drying day. There is enough line space on this thing for more than my regular 3 loads per week. I’d got the first lot up and Lily appeared, and hadn’t a clue what to make of it! She was very wary of those huge flapping things above her head!

My hubby moved the bench closer so I could put things on it, or sit down if I needed to. It all went very well. When it was all done (almost everything was fully dry), my hubby took it down and put it away. On the ground in front is the black cover for the line when it’s not in use. The hole has a little cap over it, recessed into the lawn and quite brightly coloured so he can easily find it, and also he can mow over it. It’s a perfect arrangement.

Am I excited about putting washing out? Yes! It smells heavenly after the fresh air has blown through it. No doubt the novelty will wear off in due course but I found myself getting super-excited about it! I know, I know…. I should get out more! Oh, I’ve just realised, I can’t at the moment!

Our garden

Some more garden pictures. Here is the water feature now it’s mended and running nicely again.

For some reason it’s making a bit of foam. I asked my hubby if he’d washed the stones with washing up liquid but he said no! The little hedge already looks as if it’s starting to recover a bit. This water feature is made of an upturned plastic planter sitting in a zinc trough that my hubby got off Ebay. The other bits and pieces came from the garden centre. The little fountain makes a pleasant splashing sound and the water flows down the sides of the planter.

While we were sitting out in the sun the other day, I noticed a little bumble bee busily searching for nectar among the flowers beside us, and saw that it had very full pollen baskets! These are little cage-like receptacles on a bee’s legs and the bee packs the pollen into them to take back to the hive. If you look carefully at the photo you can see the bright yellow blobs either side of the bee’s body – this is the pollen in the pollen baskets. They are absolutely stuffed with it!

Busy little bees! We depend on them so much. Without them to pollinate our crops, we would all die.

My hubby and I have always loved the idea of pollen baskets, and when I made a beehive explosion box for a bee-keeping friend many years ago, I illustrated this on one of the tags:

That was one of the most fun projects I’ve ever made. You can see all the photos of it here.

Food

My seed sprouting and microgreens project is coming on nicely. Here is the beginning of the seed sprouting on Day 1.

I marked the first tray with Fenugreek and the date. I am adding different seeds to the other trays two days apart so I can stagger the crop. The peas were in the bowl soaking.

On Day 2 I transferred the peas to their little tray and left them in the dark to germinate for a few days. The seeds are getting a wash through twice a day, and by the end of Day 2 there were distinct signs of germination, with little white roots beginning to appear.

Yesterday was Day 6 of the process. If you scroll down you can see I’ve done 2 posts giving details of the whole process to date. The fenugreek seeds are now harvested and ready to eat.

I’ve now got alfalfa going as well as the red cabbage, and I am about to start the pink kale.

The peas have started their top growth and now look like this.

SCOBY Date Balls

I made my usual batch of Kombucha on Friday, and the SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeasts) which converts the sweet tea into Kombucha, had grown really thick again. This living culture grows each week, and you can pull apart the layers. It feels quite rubbery. I have what is known as a “SCOBY hotel” in the pantry – a jar containing spare SCOBYs sitting in a little Kombucha, and under normal circumstances, every now and then my hubby takes these over to a local whole food shop and we give them away. They have customers who ask for them because they want to start making Kombucha. Once you start, if you don’t give them away, they can end up taking over the house! I don’t like to throw stuff away, especially when it’s full of probiotic nutrients, so I had a look on the Internet to see what I could do with them.

One suggestion was to make SCOBY puree and keep it in the fridge ready to use in recipes. I got my trusty high speed blender going and made a batch. The SCOBYs are quite tough and it’s best to cut them up using kitchen scissors, but even after chopping them into fairly small pieces, the blender had to work hard to produce a nice smooth puree.

I found another recipe using the puree, for SCOBY Date Balls. These little energy-packed treats came out a bit sticky so I am tweaking the recipe somewhat. They are the most delicious thing! You can taste the coconut oil in them, and the Kombucha flavour of the SCOBY puree gives a fabulous tang.

I plated some up and we had them with a cup of tea in the garden. I made the mistake of telling my hubby what was in them – he thinks SCOBYs are quite revolting (and I do agree, they do look a bit like a dead jellyfish!!) and we laughed a lot about it, but he ended up by eating three of them and said he enjoyed them! I’m always after recipes for tasty whole-food teatime treats as I like a nibble of something with a cup of tea.

The next day they were a bit firmer, having been in the fridge overnight. When I make them again, I think I might add some almond pulp.

I was very amused to read some other uses for excess SCOBYs. Apparently some vegans split them into very thin layers and dry them – and use them as faux leather! Do they make shoes out of them, I wonder? What would happen if they got wet? My goodness, the Internet can be a weird and wonderful place sometimes – you never know what you are going to discover.

Last week I also made:

Recipe of the Week

Almond Pulp Chocolate Chip Bars

I adapted the recipe somewhat, because the first time I made these, I thought they tasted pretty bland. I now add a good 1/4 cup of cocoa powder to enhance the chocolate flavour, and cut them into cubes. They are slightly reminiscent of brownies, and unlike some of my teatime treats, they do require cooking. Very delicious!

New kitchen gadget

Yesterday a new machine arrived: a Soyabella soya milk maker. You can also make nut milks, soups and other things in this kettle-like machine. Soya milk is a bit more complicated to make than nut milk because it requires cooking, and this machine will do everything.

I am keen to start making tofu and need soya milk for this. I have soya beans on order, but my wholefood supplier is taking longer than usual to send stuff out at the moment because of the current situation, so I shall have to wait before I can put it to the test. Yesterday my hubby tried to get me some soya beans in several different shops without success. I have also got a tofu press and some coagulant on order – more news on the tofu as I get started with that. I’ve found some excellent YouTube videos on the subject and lots of different ways you can use this rich source of protein.

I have also discovered that you can make soya milk yoghurt using a dairy-based culture (which I have been using for over a year now – an heirloom Lactobacillus bulgaricus culture that I bought in powder form and which just goes from strength to strength). The natural sugar in soya milk is quite similar to lactose,which is what the Lactobacillus bacteria feed on, and apparently soya milk will make excellent yoghurt which sets up beautifully, after a few initial runs during which it builds up strength. Nut milks do not thicken and you have to add some thickening medium like agar, which I have tried and didn’t like. If I can make successful soya yoghurt which tastes good, this will be one more dairy-free option. I shall also try to make kefir with it. The only reason I am still buying milk is for my fermented products.

I have heard that you can also make tahini with this new machine. There isn’t a recipe for it in the booklet (very few recipes in there, actually) so I shall do some research online. It would be great to make my own because I get through quite a lot, and it can work out quite expensive in the long run, and sesame seeds (the only ingredient) are relatively cheap in bulk from my wholefood supplier.

Kitties

My hubby went upstairs the other day and found that Lily had made a nest in the jeans he’d left on the bed.

Later, he called me up to see that Ruby had joined her sister!

It was with a heavy heart that he had to move them in order to get into bed!

I’m sorry I didn’t get to visit everybody last week – it’s been very busy here and I just didn’t get to it. I’ll try and do better this week! Have a great creative week, everybody.