Decorating – Page 2 – MakeCookGrow.com

The Last Week of 2022

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food

Christmas means a lot of food preparation as we like sitting around with friends and family, eating, drinking, chatting and generally catching up. The days leading up to Christmas Day involved preparing so much food but this means those days afterwards can involve meals made from leftovers. Ham, turkey breast and puddings can all be served for days afterwards with the addition of salads or custard or some other quick and easy variation.

Leftover ham, leftover cheese plus five eggs, a cup of yoghurt and spring onions and a great quiche, served either hot or cold.

Hot weather lunch .

The ham plus remaining cheese appears again in light quiches and sandwiches, same with the turkey breast and the cassata can top fruit mince pies, a wedge of Christmas cake or a crumble of shortbread. For some reason we had lots of chocolate fudge slice remaining, so that became a pudding, too.

Boiled the plum pudding for an hour, doused it in brandy, ignited it and ate with icecream, not brandy butter.

I hope your Christmas break was peaceful and enjoyable, anyway, even if you are tired of party food. We have had our son and my Mother staying so lots of visitors and visiting. Planning for the New Year, too. Last year, inspired by a few bloggers I have followed for a long time, I chose a word to think about when making plans. I wanted to be organised, control the business surrounding us, have some calm times. None of those plans worked out and we experienced a year of constant change, worry and upheaval. So, not even considering a word for 2023, it will just happen!

presents

This time of the year is awash with presents! I seem to have reached an age when I don’t really want things and find it hard to give hints or answer direct questions about what I’d like for Christmas. Luckily, my husband is very aware of the decorating and gardening magazines I really, really like and continues to update my subscriptions and my son is very aware of my passion for paints, pens, papers and art journals. Lovely treats. Do you find it hard choosing gifts for older people who don’t seem to want more things?

Luckily, we are a family of readers and each year anticipate unwrapping new books.

As our tastes and requirements change we often want less and even things which were once precious are now just ‘things’. Although I am not good at decluttering and progress in fits and spurts, we took many boxes of things into the Salvation Army depot before Christmas. We just don’t use the storage containers, the serving dishes or so many other things which were so important to the way we lived. I found things long forgotten when I emptied a cupboard recently. I hope someone else is now enjoying them.

trends

How we decorate our houses directly reflects how we feel. Post pandemic it is no surprise people are abandoning minimalism for warm, cosy and relaxing interiors. White is being replaced with warm earthy tones which seem more nurturing. So, it’s no surprise that Panatone’s colour of 2023 is Viva Magenta, a bold vibrant pink/red colour, full of warmth and energy and not just for interiors. Already featuring in fashion, makeup and multimedia marketing, Panatone claim Viva Magenta is ‘full of vim and vigour” Florals featuring magenta are very popular for fabrics and this is especially evident in clothing. I think it is rare to totally change all your wall colours and furnishings at once but easy to add a cushion, a new chair or some warm works of art.

Viva Magenta

Of course, how you want to live will influence the furniture and colours you chose and many of those things will stay with you for a long time. The climate, whether you own the house, your budget and the views of other people sharing the house probably influence your choices. Many people discovered during the past three years that their houses didn’t really offer the environment they needed to feel comfortable. Trends come and go but how you live and what you want to feel when you’re in your house will change more slowly.

2023 is nearly here

The New Year always feels like a new start. The papers, social media and TV are awash with planning resolutions for the New Year, how to stick to them and the rather disheartening fact that 80% of New Year goals are abandoned by the end of January. Do you set New Year resolutions? Do you stick to them? I’d really like to know!

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Cleaning The Silver and Other Jobs

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cleaning the silver

Christmas preparations are much the same each year in this house. Apart from cooking and decorating I like the silver to be polished! I know, who cares? Well, I do! So I filled the sink with sheets of aluminum foil, a good shake of baking soda and hot water then dipped the tarnished pieces, leaving each piece for a minute then taking it out. Rinsed, then polished. Some of these pieces were so tarnished we had to clean and polish them with silver cleaner.

This was a good opportunity to wash all the bits and pieces I keep in the silver bowl. Time to refine the contents! The pebbles I’ve collected all over the world went back in and also my collection of miniature birdcages remained. Other bits and pieces went out! Also cleaned and sorted a long neglected cupboard. Little steps and so much more to do to declutter.

The discarded decorative pieces and lots of other things were all dropped off at the Salvation Army depot in town. Still more ‘treasures’ need to go but I find the process quite hard. Been loaned a very motivating book but I lose momentum rather easily.

dosing the cake

I made two Christmas cakes a few weeks ago. Three days ago my husband used a skewer to poke holes in the top of each cake. Next he poured the remaining port from macerating the fruit onto both cakes. Smelt wonderful. Moist, delicious and very popular.

I make the cakes using an old, photocopied, stained recipe from my Aunt, via my Mother. The ingredient list is very long although once everything is gathered and measured the process is actually quite quick. Every now and then I tear a recipe for Quick and Easy Christmas Cake, or No Fuss Christmas Cake or something similar from the paper and without fail, they have been mere shadows of the cake made from this treasured family recipe. Lesson learnt. Now I just plan a day for cake making as it takes at least four hours to cook! And weeks to macerate the fruits in port.

adding a pocket to a shirt

Had this light summer shirt for a while but I’ve only worn it once. The sleeves are very full and flappy so it felt too big. The other problem was it doesn’t have a pocket, so I’m always having to carry my phone or keys when I go out for a walk. Solution became obvious when I looked at it this morning.

I cut the sleeves to elbow length and folded and pinned a hem on the remaining, trimmed sleeves.

Trimmed one of the cut off sleeves to create a pocket. I left the existing cuff on the piece then turned and pinned the raw edges before pinning the now ironed pocket to the shirt.

Left the existing cuff from the sleeve as an edge on the pocket. The fabric is lawn and is quite thin so the cuff creates extra strength for the pocket.

I put the shirt on and pinned the pocket exactly where it was easy to access. Also ensured my phone fitted comfortably.

Ironed the pinned edges, then sewed them on place. Checked the sleeve length was right. Ironed the shirt, been wearing it all day. Considered making two pockets but I don’t really need two and I have a long TO DO list, anyway.

making biscuits

This time of the year is party time and many invitations ask you to ‘bring a plate’. This is an Australian tradition and involves taking a plate of food to share. I have a few invitations this week where I need to take a plate. This can be tricky when there’s no fridges available as the gatherings are outdoors. My solution is shortbread biscuits!

They don’t need refrigeration, cutting up or extra sauces or topping. You don’t need napkins and you don’t need to wash your hands afterwards. Easy!

saving seeds

The heat of summer has begun so it’s time to reduce the number of pots needing hand watering. I’ve also saved the ranunculus corms and red poppy seeds for next year. I intended saving the tulip bulbs, too, but only found their skins. The wild life had enjoyed a feast of tulip bulbs!

I store the collected seeds in brown paper bags pegged up high in the cool garage until it is time to plant again next year.

wrapping gifts

Printed this paper using brown packing paper, acrylic paint and a stamp. I smoothed out the paper and ironed it before printing on it. If you want to try this but want perfectly smooth paper, lightly spray it with a mist of water, then iron.

I hope all your holiday plans involve wonderful food and fun get togethers, plus lots of sleep!

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It Has To Be Red, Giftwrap and Teriyaki Beef Bowls

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in the red

Hugely popular in all things Christmas themed, the colour red is also a major decorator favourite for next year. From primary reds in childrens’ rooms, to AGAs and other stoves but especially fabrics and paints, every shade of red features strongly. Summer has just begun in Australia but temperatures in Perth have already reached the 30°Cs so red painted walls are unlikely to catch on here!

Red is historically associated with wealth and status. It didn’t begin with Louboutin’s red soled shoes! In fact, in the 17th century, aristocratic courtiers to Louis XIV featured flashes of red dye on the soles of their shoes. The concept of a red carpet event isn’t new, either, but goes back to Ancient Greece. Archeologists working at Pompeii found red walls were so common they’ve named the colour Pompeian red. Red signifies energy and warmth.

Louboutin claims he decided to paint the soles of his shoes red after a fairly plain pair were delivered and his assistant, who was painting her nails at the time, offered to paint the soles of the shoes bright red, using her nail polish. Louboutin went on to sell nail polish and lipstick based on the colour he used on the soles of his shoes.

Although Western Australia is no place for red painted walls, I really, really like furniture painted in Chinese red. This can range from orangey-red through to dark vermilion. The red I particularly like features throughout Asia. No longer made from ground cinnabar, for many Asian countries, red symbolizes good fortune, luck, vitality, celebration and prosperity. Splashes of vivid red are thought to ward off evil spirits and bad luck. We bought some old pieces finished in Chinese red and had some pieces made.

These two carved, ornate panels are originally from a door at the entrance to a hutong, a family housing complex. I was always on the lookout for more, but no luck!

I had these three wedding boxes restored by inmates at a juvenile detention centre. The boys were taught to restore old pieces of furniture using semi traditional methods so they would have a skill when they were released. The boxes now store memorabilia from our years in China.

I collected quite a lot of blue and white china, too, to add to what I already had.

The altar table used to be in the entrance to our apartment. The lower shelf was convenient for storing shoes as visitors removed their shoes when they arrived.

We bought the rice box after we returned to Australia.

Our bedhead and bedside tables are finished in traditionally made Chinese red using pigments, shellac and lacquer. I took the pieces to an artisan to be painted and he said he was too busy and wrote down his recipe! I eventually sourced the materials and mixed the paint myself.

wrapping paper

Continuing in a red vein, I’ve printed some Christmas wrapping paper. This brown paper began as packing around something bought online and delivered in a big box. I unscrunched the brown paper and smoothed it out and then ironed it. Some months ago I tidied the armoire I keep my art supplies in and couldn’t find the paisley Indian wood block I intended to use to print on the paper. Looked and looked, unsuccessfully, so settled on this slightly star shaped block. I knew where it was when the cupboard was a jumbled mess!

Gathered the paper, a dish for the paint, red acrylic paint and some paper towel. Smoothed the brown paper out on the table and dipped the block in the paint in the dish, tapped it on the paper towel and then printed.

I was pretty relaxed about the placement of the design as the paper will be folded around gifts so irregularities wont really show. It was a hot day and the paint dried quickly.

dinner

I keep writing about Nagi Maehashi’s new cookbook, DINNER because I really like the recipes. As I’ve said before, the ingredients are usually in the pantry, the process is easy to understand and the resulting dinner is very good. Nothing too fiddly but great flavours. All the recipes are on her online site and the book has a Q Code you can scan and watch her make the dish.

I decided on Teriyaki Beef Bowls because I had 500gm of beef mince and all the other ingredients, too. We loved it! I added beans and peas to the rice, not at all authentic, but I’m always looking for ways to add more F&V to our diet. This recipe made dinner for us for two nights.

The recipe called for 145ml of soy sauce. It was very salty. I will be shopping for salt reduced soy sauce which I’ve seen in the supermarket. Light soy sauce, common in Cantonese cooking is thinner than dark soy sauce, common in Northern Chinese cooking but both have very similar sodium/salt levels.

did you know?

Australia is the only continent in the world without an active volcano? It is also the only continent covered by a single country.

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Two Garden Renovations

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coalport stool

Did you have garden furniture made by Coalport? Generally two or four ornate chairs with a table, these settings were Brunswick green or white. I’ve had this stool for a long time, so long I don’t remember anything about its origins. I’ve kept it because it is the perfect height for weeding! I sit with a bucket for the weeds and reach all around me, pulling them out and dropping in the bucket, then moving on and repeating. I frequently make weed tea out of the weeds as it is ready to pour back on plants in about ten days and gives them a boost.

Gathered my supplies and set to work.

This stool has lived a long and hard life and looked it, too. So I decided to renovate it. I especially wanted to treat the rust before it affected the integrity of the metal. The first job was giving it a good scrub and hosing it down. That got rid of dust, dirt and a spider.

Next was a coating of paint remover. Originally Brunswick green I intended to paint it black. The paint stripper was a gel which make the old paint loosen but also gel-like and the only way I could remove it was with a wire brush. This was hard work and took longer than I’d anticipated. Then I used a liquid rust retardant and converter all over the stool. About five days later it got rained on which cleared off the residual evidence of treated rust. Time to tighten the leg screws and let it dry out properly.

As this stool is sometimes left out in the garden I used another rust retarding product to paint it. This was a Rust Guard Epoxy Enamel. It resulted in good coverage but it had a matte finish and I wanted a gloss finish, so I completed the job with a spray paint. These pieces were built to last. Referred to as retro or vintage online, there’s a surprising number of chairs, tables and stools by Coalport for sale. This one is light enough to move fairly easily from place to place despite being manufactured from cast iron.

decorative fence panel

This panel will be attached to the fence. It started life as a screen but my son cut the legs off for me.

The second renovation was a panel for the garden fence. Originally a screen, I knew where I wanted to attach it to the garden wall as soon as I found it. The first job was getting my son to cut off the rusty old legs. Then I gave it a good scrub before checking the strength of the welded joins. It’s old but in reasonable shape.

I coated the screen in paint remover and left it to work before using a scraper to remove the gel like dissolved paint. Messy. After I’d done one side, which took almost five hours, I flipped it over only to discover the old, cracked paint came off quite easily scraping at it. Still took ages but the gel was very messy and sticky, scraped off paint is easy to sweep up.

A coat of liquid rust remover, then a few days later I filled the cut off leg edges with builders filler. The screen will be attached to a wall where the lower part of it will be sprayed occasionally by the reticulation. Left the filler to harden for a few more days then sanded it to a smooth finish.

Sanded the builders filler used to seal the ends where we’d cut off the legs. I don’t have a workbench so improvise using the garden table covered by an old plastic tablecloth and sometimes the garden chairs, too.

Next was a coat of Rust Guard Epoxy Enamel, then finally I finished it with gloss spray paint.

Finished but resting in position on two bricks until I get the brackets to attach it to the wall. The timber slat screwed onto the wall to the left will stop the creeping fig from growing near the panel. I trim along another slat and the top of the fence to keep it under control.

These projects were very time consuming and hard work. I would probably investigate ways of having similar pieces sand blasted or stripped professionally if I had another project like these two. Once sand blasted they could be powder coated. Cleaning, stripping, treating the rust, sealing and repainting took many days. Although I am really pleased with the outcome, I wouldn’t want to remove paint from intricately patterned and pierced pieces again. I almost wore out the wire brush and myself!

Unfortunately, I have quite a long list of repairs or renovations to carry out in the garden, including resurfacing a chipped Chinese stool and restoring a small table. Might think about these jobs for a while!

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Happy Living, A Drawing Class, Painting and Cooking

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happy living

According to the World Happiness Report 2022, Finland has been named the happiest country in the world for the fifth year in a row. Other northern European countries follow with Denmark ranking second, followed by Iceland, Switzerland and the Netherlands. New Zealand comes in at number ten and Australia is number 12 on the list. Then Canada was 14th on the list, UK came in at number 17 and USA came in at 19.

Finland’s Flag Pexels

WHR considers lifestyle and peoples’ sense of well being to rate various countries. The report noted that volunteering, helping others and making donations had all increased in many parts of the world during the past two years. This increase in social benevolence due to COVID 19 has benefits for the givers, receivers and observers. Also evident was that countries with a higher trust in public institutions and more equality recorded much lower rates of death.

The six factors considered were gross domestic product per capita, social support, life expectancy, freedom of choice, generosity of population and perceptions of internal and external corruption.

Information is collected from a number 0f sources for this survey. If you are interested this is the site https://worldhappiness.report

drawing in nature

I enrolled in a four week “Drawing in Nature” course with a well known local artist, Jane, because I know I get a lot done when I focus for two hours. She introduced our theme for the session, ( last week it was feathers, this week was shells) and showed us examples of her work. Next we chose a feather/shell to examine and then draw. Jane talked about the different depth of line using 2B, 4B and HB pencils. We experimented, working on drawn circles, going from dark to light, exploring blending, pointillism, feathering and cross hatching.

Guinea Fowl feathers

Jane also introduced us to blending stumps used to blend our pencil marks. I had never used one before and I really like the way they allowed us to smudge and blend.

(A blending stump or paper stump is a stick of tightly rolled soft paper with two pointed ends. It can be used to blend, smear or smudge graphite, charcoal or similar mediums. Also known as a smudging stick or a tortillon. There’s online instructions for making your own! )

Inspired by Annie Herron’s art projects in the book, Around The Kitchen Table, Good things to cook, create and do-the whole year through, a mother and daughter project, I did some quick small paintings. Herron uses seasonal prompts to suggest quick works and talks about capturing simple scenes.

Around the Kitchen Table

Her daughter, Sophie Hansen, adds seasonal recipes and ideas for family fun, making this an interesting and motivating read. I chose one of Hansen’s slice recipes, Triple Ginger Crunch to make and take to my drawing class this week.

If you’re a fan of ginger, you’ll find this slice delicious!

Triple Ginger Crunch with glace ginger chunks.

decorating trends: GRANDMA COASTAL

Companies producing everything from paint, wall paper, furniture, lampshades depend on you purchasing new pieces regularly to support their businesses. I’m tragically a huge fan of decorator and garden magazines. I don’t follow decorating trends although they are an intriguing window into fashion and how easily we are influenced. I occasionally add or take something away, but not often. I am endlessly curious about people, how they build or renovate their homes, select colours, styles and finishes and how they allocate their budgets. I’m interested in how frequently they change their living environment and what provokes change. I’m a fully blown sticky beak!

Image PEXELS

As we all become more concerned about landfill and our use of limited resources so decorating trends change. When the mid century style replaced the white minimalist fashion we saw the focus move to re-using existing pieces. The latest decorating trend is partly based on recycling or upcycling everything from furniture to curtains and decorator items. Let’s look at Coastal Grandma and what it means.

Image Unsplash

Google has reported an increase of 334% searches last week into Coastal Grandma style. The style features nothing obvious like shells and faux life bouys on the wall, but neutral colours, loose linen covers and other natural, sustainable fabrics. White, cream, beige, grey and caramel along with cosy lighting, cushions and always, fresh flowers. The house should look lived in, comfortable and a bit worn and faded. Recover, restore, reuse. The aim is timeless, pared back but still luxurious.

Image PEXELS

Interestingly, the style is discussed widely in clothing sites, too. The same neutral colours reign. Button down collars, trousers, straw hats and straw market baskets plus knotted jumpers around the shoulders are all mentioned. Styles are classic in cut and design and feature natural fabrics. Again, faded, lived in colours and styles with a preference for vintage and recycled items. Sustainability is a constant theme.

international mens health week

The theme this year of International Mens’ Health Week, 13 -19th June, is Building Healthy Environments for Men and Boys. It’s about focusing on creating physically, mentally and emotionally healthy males. Lots of information online.

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Goodbye Plastics, Cold Weather and Reading

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Decluttering

I boldly revealed the terrible jumble in the drawer under the hotplate in our kitchen two weeks ago. Now I’m pleased to be able to show the decluttered and sorted drawer! The new silicone utensils have arrived and the plastic ones have gone.

Duplicated utensils are boxed up to donate and everything I’ve kept serves a purpose. Of course, the newly sorted slots are more efficient and attractive. We did seem to accumulate so much stuff over the years!

Sorted and easy to find what I need.

This is the best bread knife we have ever used. We’ve tried several types over the years and they’ve all needed replacing fairly frequently. Then our son introduced us to this knife, intended for cutting watermelons. It is the best bread knife ever!

I’ve sorted several more cupboards, too, and what is immediately obvious is my passion for red! So much red, from Dutch ovens, to storage containers, sieves and utensils. It has been a long love affair; many of these items have been in my various kitchens for nearly forty years. So, yes, I like a bit of red. Interestingly, although I dabbled with red lipstick and nail polish for a few months last year, I don’t wear much red. I only have one red cardigan and one red top. Everything else hanging in the robe is black, navy, olive green, a few mustard coloured things and some white. And leopard print but that’s a neutral, too, isn’t it?

Decluttering continues to feature on the TO DO list. I have an open wicker box on a chair pushed under the table (cleverly hidden so I don’t have to see it) which was in constant use when I was working. There’s pencil cases with felt pens, coloured pens, coloured pencils, stickers plus scissors and glue. I used to sit at the table preparing school work and marking, so these things were in constant use, but not for the past four years. Is it that long? Time to tackle the no longer used work stuff. No idea what I’ll do with all those stickers!

cold weather

Autumn days are so lovely! Clear blue skies and temperatures in the 20°C ( 68°F ) during the day and chilly at night. Such a contrast to our very hot, long summers. Autumn feels like a time for reflection, being still and noticing things all around. Time for planning the spring garden, for fixing the reticulation and sorting out the verge garden, currently planted with ivy. It needs a lot of water in summer, so time to go.

Autumn has turned to winter with some showers but we’re still experiencing warm sunny days and crisp cold nights. Each season changes what we eat and what we wear. We put a big rug over our laps in the evenings unless it is very cold, then we turn on heating. We shop at a green grocer who only stocks seasonal produce so everything is fresh and sourced locally. I still walk my 13 000+ steps, sometimes in a puffer jacket, often with a thick scarf when we take the dog to the dog park. What’s flowering in the garden changes (only camellias at the moment) and I’ve planted flowers for spring.

Australians don’t really celebrate autumn/fall or the other seasonal changes the way some countries do, with wreaths featuring yellow, orange and brown leaves, a different set of cushion covers and other decorating touches. I’ve seen blogs featuring seasonal artwork, which is very attractive but I don’t want to store seasonal decoration. Christmas and Easter decor items take up a lot of room already!

Image Upslash

Colder weather dictates warmer food. In our house this always means roasted vegetables and lots of soup.

Thick luscious cauliflower soup from our dear neighbour, chives from the garden.

reading

Recovering from post election media exhaustion but still not watching much television. I read a lot, fiction, non fiction, decorator and garden magazines and some blogs, too. This year I planned to make my life more balanced, to have time to enjoy completing the Code Cracker in the paper in one sitting, to enjoy the company of friends over long lunches, to just slow down and consider the things around me. That didn’t happen!

Needing to help other people sort out life changes, poor health and ongoing therapies, the opened border between WA and the other states and the resulting Covid surge, all hindered my carefully considered plans. One thing I have achieved, by default, is more time to read!

Really enjoyed Lucy Foley’s The Guest List, a gripping story about a wedding on a remote Irish Island. Several guests have a motive for killing the groom but of course, we don’t find out who did it until the very end! Great story. It’s being made into a film, too.

The other book I couldn’t put down is Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club. Set in an aged care home which was once convent, this rollicking yarn is told from the point of view of the main characters. Funny, clever and whip smart, this is a great first book. The author says it’s his first, and so far, best novel!

I’ve just read that this is being adapted for a film, too. Also found he has published another book, too, so checking to see if it is available at the library.

did you know

Australia has over 60 separate wine regions? Western Australia has nine distinct regions, mostly in the south of the state. The history of wine making in W.A. dates back to 1840 when the Sandalford Winery was established in the Swan Valley.

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Reusing Scented Candle Holders and Other Occupations

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Cleaning and reusing candle holders

An empty candle holder with a replacement pillar candle in it.

Do you burn candles for their scent? So many of them are packaged in the most attractive holders and I don’t want to throw them out! Some are glass and some are porcelain. They are quite easy to clean and reuse. My favourite scented candle is packaged in a tin. I’m still thinking of ways to use the pretty tins. The labels will peel off and the lids seal snugly.

Still deciding what I can do with these tins. Any ideas?

When the candle has burnt to the base of the holder you can light the remaining wick to melt as much wax as possible. Pour the liquid wax into something where it can set then be thrown in the bin. Don’t pour liquid wax down the drain! Then place the candle holder in the freezer. The wax shrinks a little and about five hours later you can use a knife blade to pop out the residual wax. There’s probably a metal disk in the base which can be eased out with the knife, too. Leave the holder to warm up before you wash it in hot, soapy water.

Then I reused this pretty holder to hold cotton pads. I’ve actually been reusing it for years in different ways.

Boil a kettle, squirt some detergent into the holder then add the boiling hot water. Leave for five minutes, swish it around then pour out the water and wipe with a paper towel. All the residual wax should be gone, but you might have to repeat the process. If I’m using the holder for food stuffs I put it through the dishwasher.

Stationery holders for pencils and paper clips.

Now the fun bit, reusing the candle holder! Some have lids and some don’t, so that dictates what they can be used for, but they’re pretty versatile.

Once a candle holder now a salt container.

Some ideas for recycling candle holder include using them as vases for small bouquets, holders for pencils and other stationery such as paper clips, cotton face wipe holders, pretty pots for serving treats like wrapped nougat and other food things. I keep salt in one. I’ve reused them by putting short pillar candles inside them, too. Some people make their own candles to put into used candle holders.

Now a pretty bowl for treats and sometimes a vase, too.

Sweet vases for single blooms.

These two have well sealed lids and will end up in the pantry with food in them. To get rid of any lingering scent after you cleaned out and washed the container leave it and the lid out in the sun in a safe place. Should be scent free in a few days.

ITALIAN NOUGAT

In case my paintings suggest we only eat healthy, fresh food I’ve included this photo of what we were eating one afternoon when it really, really hot. We were experiencing an historic heatwave. It was too hot to do anything at all active. Very delicious sweet, Italian nougat coated in dark, bitter chocolate whilst watching TV.

watching the parisian agency

So glad there’s a second series of Le Parisian Agency. (L’Agence) This series on Netflix follows the super successful but down to earth Kretz family and their real estate agency. The mother, father and three of their four sons all work together. The fourth son finishes high school during the second series and assumes one day he will join the agency, too. The family deals in the multi million euro market and the properties they sell are so interesting. Old, new and everything in between, originally in Paris but now throughout the country, too. We get a good look around properties few would ever get to visit. Fascinating, especially seeing how much of the original architecture from the Haussmann buildings has been retained.

Pixabay

Chateaus and palaces, once unpopular except with foreigners, are now becoming more sought after by the French. Foreigners buy deserted chateaus in need of restoration, the French like them already restored.

annual macaron day 20th march

Unsplash Heather Barnes

Unfortunately, this delicious day passed me by but I am willing to celebrate later than the actual day. Macaron Day began in Paris in 2005. Parisian macaron makers initiated the day to raise money for charities.

There’s some excellent recipes and demonstrations for making macarons on Youtube, but, for me, it’s far safer to buy a few from the patisserie rather than bake a tray of about 20 exquisite little treats. Way too tempting.

and finally, the last food painting

This is the last food painting! Moved onto other things now. Well, actually I’m back painting botanicals again.

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Painting, Cooking, Reading and Huge Lotto Prizes

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painting botanicals

A friend arrived with two picture frames. He asked me to paint pictures for the frames. I asked what he wanted me to paint. Fruit, vegetables or flowers? He pointed to my Moleskin painting book and said anything like those in there. So, flowers. Did he have favourite flowers, preferred colours. No, just do some like those ( in the book) So I did!

I began with the dark red geranium as I have several pots of them and I know he likes them. Then I painted a gladioli, which I didn’t like at all, so started again and painted some carnations. Painting for someone else is actually very different from trying to capture the colour and shape for myself.

Took my friend’s frames apart, cut some mounting boards then put them back together again.

The unloved gladioli.

cooking

This recipe for Feta and Leek slice was doing the rounds at yoga. I had a leek and a packet of feta so knew I was going to make it for lunch. Had everything ready to go when I discovered I didn’t have enough plain flour, so I used self raising flour and left out the baking powder. Worked well!

To make a LEEK and FETA slice mix 200gm yoghurt, 200ml vegetable oil (I used a mild olive oil), 200gm crumbled feta, 200 gm chopped leek, 2 cps sifted plain flour and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder plus 4 eggs.

Spray or oil a baking dish and spoon in the mixture. I used a spatula. Top with 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds if desired. Bake is a pre- heated oven 220°C for 15-20 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Can be eaten hot or cold

Conversions weight 200gm =7oz, temperature 220ºC-=430°F

This made quite a big pie. Next time I make it I’ll freeze half as eating the same thing for lunch and dinner and then again for lunch the next day is a bit too much. I drizzled sweet chili sauce over it the second day as it seemed a little bit dry.

NOTE I used self raising flour as I discovered I’d run out of plain flour. This made a ‘puffier’ slice than the original one. Tasted just as good.

Also I find leeks need a lot of washing to remove all the sand embedded with in the leaves!

Served at lunch time with salad, at dinner time with steamed vegetables and the next day with sweet chili sauce.

apple crumble

What do you do with leftover apples losing their crunch? I try not to waste food so peeled them, removed their cores and cooked them in water, a little sugar and cinnamon. Cold stewed apple with icecream would have been appropriate during this never ending, record breaking heatwave, but I decided on apple crumble.

While the apples were stewing I thought I’d look up a ‘proper’ recipe for the crumble instead of just mixing the oatmeal, flour, cinnamon, brown sugar and butter the casual way I usually do until it feels just right. I immediately discovered a problem. Apparently I should have weighed the prepared apples before I stewed them to determine the ‘right’ amount of crumble! Too late, proceeded in my usual casual ‘throw it all together’ way.

There are many recipes for making a crumble online. This is a great way to use up any fruit which can be stewed. Serve crumble with custard, cream or icecream. Delicious even on a hot day.

reading

Adrian Hyland’s Canticle Creek is a fast moving story about Leading Senior Constable Jess Redpath briefly leaving her police job in the outback to accompany her artist father to an awards evening in rural Victoria. This gripping murder mystery, taking the reader from one drama to another, left me not sure who the killer was until the very end. Full of twists and turns with some great descriptions of the various landscapes, the story has well developed characters and is a good read.

Kit Kemp, regular readers of this blog will know, is one of my favourite interior decorators. Her new book Design Secrets is full of her colourful and clever combinations of fabric, colour and shape. She talks about the design processes she uses with her staff to come up with new projects and ways to put things together. Kemp doesn’t dictate strict guidelines and encourages the use of everyday objects to create pleasing arrangements. The results are often exuberant! It did occur to me that this style of decorating with layers of fabric, paper and objects plus furnishings was probably more suitable for cooler climates!

huge lotto winnings

Last week one of Australia’s lotto prizes was $120 million dollars which sounds like an enormous amount of money for one person to win. Actually, there were two first division prize winners, winning $63 million dollars each. One of the winning tickets belonged to a Kalgoorlie syndicate of 250 people. They each won $261,986. Millions and millions of dollars can be life changing, but not in a good way, whereas $261,986 must be wonderful! This is a great deposit on a house, a way to pay off loans, a chance to travel, educate children or buy the family treats. I’ve just read in the paper, some syndicate members plan to pay off mortgages, buy caravans and travel, plan for their retirement and help their children get settled. Makes so much more sense that huge prizes.

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Growing and Propagating Lucky Bamboo

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cityscape photography during daytime

When my husband was working at his office in Hong Kong we would stay at the Excelsior Hotel which was just a block away. Sadly it has now been demolished. Closed in 2019 the site is being developed as an office block. It was quite easy for me to entertain our small son as our rooms always overlooked the Hong Kong Yacht Club where they still fired the noonday gun. This former naval military artillery piece on an enclosed piece of land near the waters edge is fired at noon and on New Year at midnight. Our small boy was also entertained for hours watching the planes landing and taking off Kowloon side across the water at Kai Tak airport.

green cactus plant during daytime

Growers turn the lucky bamboo stems to make them move towards sunlight, creating the twisted stems.

The other element I remember from the Excelsior, apart from the amazing range of cuisine available at several restaurants, was every room had stems of lucky bamboo in oriental patterned vases. These were popular in restaurants, hotels and office blocks but not common elsewhere. Some were ornate and twisted and some were just straight but they were usually decorated with red string knotted around the stems to encourage good luck.

Lucky bamboo is not actually a bamboo, but belongs to the Dracaenia family and is Dracaenia sanderiana. It is native to Africa and Southeast Asia. Lucky bamboo is thought to bring positive energy and strength. According to feng shui, the number of stalks encourage different strengths and good fortune. Twenty one stalks is a very powerful blessing for great wealth and prosperity.

This small lucky bamboo missed the constant attention of small hands at school but after a year or so when I had retired, it thrived.

Since we returned to Western Australia I’ve had lucky bamboo in two places. One was about 18 years old and very big and lush. The leaves were slowly turning yellow. I suspect I’d over fertilised it. I know now lucky bamboo only needs fertiliser every three or four months. The other lucky bamboo used to be in my classroom and began as two small stems. When I first brought it home it didn’t thrive. Maybe it missed small people breathing on it and poking the soil to see if it needed watering. Since I’ve stopped fertilising it so often it is thriving.

green-leafed plant

I decided the old, very big lucky bamboo, slowly turning yellow and already touching the ceiling, could be the source of new plants.

Birdcages on corner unit

The lucky bamboo a few years ago before it hit the ceiling and stated heading sideways. It has seven stems.

Propagating dracaenias/lucky bamboo

I gathered the materials, got down the old plant and set about making new plants.

You need:

stems of lucky bamboo

a clear jar/vase with some water*

garden scissors/secataurs

rooting/growth powder (optional)

* some people use filtered water, I used cooled boiled water

Cut stems with leaves just below a nodule. Remove any yellowed leaves, dip the stalk into rooting powder if you’re using it and put the stem in the jar of water.

Leave the jar of stems in dappled sunlight until little roots develop on the cut end. This took two weeks in the heat of summer. I left them another two weeks. One stalk grew roots despite the leaf yellowing and dying and one quite healthy looking cutting didn’t develop roots at all.

Although the single leaf on this stem died the developing root system is quite strong so I’ve left it in with the others.

I have left the stems in water for now. Lucky bamboo lives for longer in soil but it also thrives in water. In either case, use specific lucky bamboo fertiliser. Pour a capful into a jug of water to dilute it then add to the water or the soil about once a month. No more!

Why have I left the stems in water? Normally I plant my lucky bamboo in soil as they last a few years longer than in water. It is very, very hot here at the moment, has been for a few weeks and continuing hot weather is forecast. I don’t want these young and still quite small roots to dry out in soil so I’ve left them in water, which is easy to top up when necessary. When it is cooler I will plant them in loose, good quality potting mix and put the pot in one of the various holders I use ( a faux Greek antiquity vase, a stainless steel ice bucket, a chinoiserie teapot missing it’s lid) At the moment the jar of rooted stems is in an old teapot.

I trimmed the dead leaf off the flourishing stem and it is healthy so I will keep it in the pot.

If you’re growing lucky bamboo in water the roots will be easy to check. As they grow and become a tangled mass in the container they take on a red tinge. This means they are healthy!

opening the border between western australia and the rest of australia

On the 2nd of April, 2020, Western Australia closed its border to the rest of Australia in an attempt to stop the spread of the corona virus. It was very successful but also meant families, friends and people working or holidaying in the Eastern States were prevented from entering WA. Unfortunately, the hard border is still in place but the Premier says it will open on 3rd of March. The plan to open the border on 8th of February was postponed. This has been a difficult time for so many people and many businesses have suffered. We wait to see what happens!

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2022 The First Week

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It still feels strange to write 2022 but we adjust to writing the new date quickly. Did you make New Year resolutions? The New Year used to be a big party night but not since CV-19. I miss the fabulous fireworks but not the parties. My energy and interest used to flag by 10.30pm and I’d want to go home to bed.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU!

fireworks display during night time unsplash

packing away christmas

The Nativity figurine closeup photography

Apparently, Christmas decorations should go up four weeks before Christmas at the beginning of Advent. So, of course, there’s rules about when the decorations should be taken down and packed away. It seems decorations should stay in place until the Twelfth Night, celebrating the arrival of the Three Wise Men or Magi, who followed the Star of Bethlehem to offer gifts to the newborn Baby Jesus in the manger.

Twelfth Night is the 5th or 6th of January, depending on your religious affiliations. I quite like traditions which make it plain when things should happen but most of our decorations were hanging from high light fittings so were taken down by our 192cm tall (6’4″) son before he went back to Kalgoorlie. It is much more fun putting up Christmas decorations than taking them down and packing them away.

single use plastics

I often refer to the damage single use plastics are doing to our environment and therefore our health. Western Australia will be officially phasing out the sale of single use plastics as of the first of January, 2022. The list includes plastic plates, bowls and cutlery, stirrers, straws, takeaway expanded polystyrene containers, thin plastic bags and helium balloons. Single use plastics required in medical, aged care and disability circumstances will be exempt.

Reusable picnic ware, made from bamboo, taking your own bags for shopping and fabric bags for loose fruit and vegetables are easy swaps. Ask if you can provide your own containers for takeaway food. Not always well received but I hope that will change now! Plastic shopping bags will be phased out within six months.

image 123RF

The next stage in reducing our reliance on single use plastics will be in January, 2023. Cotton buds with plastic shafts will be banned along with polystyrene packaging, microbeads, oxo-degradable plastics, takeaway coffee cups and lids and polystyrene cups. Cotton buds with cardboard or bamboo shafts are available online and from many supermarkets. They use organic cotton, a cardboard or bamboo shaft and paper or cardboard packaging and are compostable. Oxo-degradable plastics are conventional plastics such as HDPE, like carrier bags, which include additives to promote oxidation resulting in smaller, brittle fragments as they decompose, but it seems the fragments don’t dissolve, they just get smaller and smaller.

assorted-color disposable cup lot unsplash

reading

I really enjoyed Hannah Kent’s previous two books, Burial Rites (2013) and The Good People (2016). I found her third book a bit more difficult. It is based on her Prussian/German ancestry and history around Hahndorf, in the Adelaide Hills. Some of my ancestors also came from Prussia and settled in the same area of South Australia. They left Prussia to escape religious persecution. Like many Australians I have a diverse genetic mix, in my case, Norwegian, English and Scottish plus German.

This story is like a grown up fairy tale or ghost story. It’s about Hanne, a German girl who ends up living in the Adelaide Hills as a ghost, having died on the ship journey to Australia. Before her death she was confused about her identity and her role within her community. She knows she doesn’t share the same interests as the other girls, but all this changes when she meets Thea, whose family also migrated to South Australia on the same ship. She continues to observe the behaviour of the people on board and stays with them when they land and eventually build their community in Hahndorf. Thea marries Hans, who wanted to marry Hanne.

Kent’s books are recognised for the level of research and historical accuracy in each. I found the information about these early settlers very interesting. Kent’s lyrical descriptions of the nature around her are wonderful but I’m not so keen on adult fantasy. Despite my reservations all the reviews are full of praise for the book and Kent’s gentle treatment of a situation which would not have been recognised within the religious sect both girls belonged to nor within the wider community at that time.

international cuddle day

2 girls sitting on floor unsplash

January 6th was International Cuddle Day. Cuddling releases oxytocin which is good for your health. A good cuddle should last at least 4 seconds! If a cuddle is not possible, a massage can result in the same health giving release of hormones, too.

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