Illyria

I have been considering these topics in a spiritual light for my Invest presentation on Friday, but here are some other senses of the words…

1. Family foundations. I love my families in the broadest sense - I even feel like my colleagues are family - sisters! Church family is blowing me away at the moment.  Mira has been so incredibly sweet and snuggly and kissy today - andI have smooched a lot of teddy bear fur! My sister came down to support me at the weekend and we will have a few very lovely visitors over the next fortnight.

2. Creativity  - both a foundation and baggage! Part of what I do is recycling, but I wanted to make hearts that would endure longer than card and I don’t have time to carve my own. These will be amazingly transformed when next seen…

However, to be honest, a lot of what I do is hoard  and collect, and stash reducing is a necessity. But I have bought this wire… so why? It is steel, and to buy this amount in sterling silver would have cost me over £200. The anitque colour is perfect , it cost me about £7 and should last for ages. So once my prelim marking is over, I hope to get started  - my head is buzzing with ideas. I also wanted some clear hard resin for jewellery purposes but that is proving harder to obtain.

Ever since I saw this on Nigella’s show, I’ve wanted to make this, but I have substantially changed it so here’s my recipe!

1 2l tub of plain ice cream - I used Mackies soft scoop

1 shot of liquer - I used Baileys

150 g crushed choc chip cookies

100g mini marshmallows

100g crushed caramelised cashew nuts (yes I was weak)

crushed Minstrels and crushed Malteasers - whatever amounts seem good!

Soften ice cream and stir in ingredients. Pour into a cling film lined springform cake tin -8 inch. Cling film the top and freeze.

This seems a very forgiving recipe - I think you can vary amounts and ingredients to suit yourself.  Let me know if you come up with another version - I want to try one with jelly babies and freeze it in metallic muffin cases.

Scarf for Mira - her colours. Patons DK cotton and 4.5 hook.

As you may know, Ben and I have been on a bit of a spiritual rollercoaster ride this year - exciting, with ups, downs, and unexpected twists and turns. I’m going to try and share bit and pieces with you, and the Stir The Water site is one of them. It has really practical help for listening to God and the meditations are amazing. It has been a huge blessing to me, so if you want to know more, click the image on the top right here, or ask me!

Several dozen cupcakes later, I have reached the October holidays and feel like I just blinked and half a term disappeared.  ‘Creating’ is a word we use back home for someone making a fuss… so and so’s creating, kicking off. I have been creating in the positive sense - I made a number of gifts for people that were so rushed for time I sadly didn’t get to photograph them…

I have been creating in other senses - creating new relationships in Dumbarton at the Rock, creating new thought patterns about who I am, discovering new truths and giving expression to them.

I had a dream this morning about getting a tiara set with large purple faceted gems and sparkly glittery purple shoes.  This reminds me of my identity, and blesses me so much, but also presents a challenge to live up to.

I have been away on a couple of spiritual development courses lately, one with Streams and one with Invest. They were  both amazing and I feel very nourished! Many thanks to the grandparents who helped out with the little tiddler!

Tonight I am making cupcakes for a school coffee morning and getting to try out my new star nozzle for piping the top! I also hope to complete some creative projects. Maybe I’ll get some photos up at the weekend. I knowI didn’t get around to updating my Etsy shop yet but I will soon!

Right, off to cakeyness.

I have been playing with the stacked spinner idea for a month or more, but here is one finished and one almost finished!

“Heartflow”

I love recycling and the heart is tin coloured with embossing powder. The beads in the starburst are from my sisters wedding dress offcuts, and the pink button was a surprise to me - I didn’t expect to use that colour, but it makes the whole thing pop! As usual, the symbolism is important. I know there are only four layers, but when I tried adding more it didn’t work - it got too busy or unbalanced.

This was my first time sawing, heat treating and forging copper! I also broke my husband’s drill on the hole - sorry dear! It’s not finished, as I want to add some text to the tag. I tried to add in wooden scrabble tiles or fridge poetry words but neither seemed to suit.

“Valued”

This is a WIP layered embroidery of lace, angelina and metallic organza wrapped round some more tin, which I’m going to wire and bead to finish. All my recent work is going to go on my etsy shop later today, at discount price as they were training pieces. So come and take a look! I had so much fun with them!

This is my most favourite soup at the moment - it makes me feel so refreshed and comforted and happy. This is the recipe as served at my dinner party last night, but you can vary it a lot to suit your tastes too! Specially recommended for colds.

x

Ingredients (serves 2)

1 crushed clove garlic

1 heaped tsp grated ginger

1 sliced mild red chilli (or chilli oil)

2 sliced spring onions

Lime juice (and rind if liked) to taste

1 pint chicken stock

Tablespoon of fish sauce (nam pla)

1/4 can of coconut milk

2 packets udon noodles

Sliced baby corn and mange tout

Handful of beansprouts

Method:

Lightly fry the garlic, ginger, spring onions and chilli on a low heat in some oil and add the veg. Stir fry for a couple of minutes, then add the boiling stock and noodles and boil for three minutes, or more if you like your veg softer. Add fish sauce, lime and coconut milk to taste. If you are veggie, you could try veg stock and soy sauce. You could use any kind of noodles, and if I want a stir fry I leave the stock out altogether and add more coconut milk.

Enjoy!

Practice makes perfect…

…more on the way!

Pearl Pod - knitted wire mesh, pink and ivory pearls, faceted crystals, rock crystal and sterling wire. I used whipstitch to bind the edges of the two layers of mesh and distressed it a little to finish.

Deryn of ‘Somethin Sublime’ has inspired lots of us online creatives to work through Mary Hettmansperger’s book, which isn’t yet available in the UK so its exciting trying to solve the project without it! I love the organic form of the pod and its symbolism of growth, fruitfullness, sowing and reaping. In fact I have so much mesh there may be a lots of these to come!