By Candle Light

I know it's not the best for my eyes but I love to read by candle light. I especially love reading or watching horror/thrillers by candle light as it helps set the mood. I usually find it a great way to use up candles I've used for spells, firstly because it continues to release the energy that has been invested into the candle already and secondly... why waste perfectly good candles?, can't reuse them in another spell! I would love to have my own home one day and deck out the whole place with candles. Candles in the most amazing and original candle holders. I think I should start collecting candle holders for when that day comes.

In My Skin- Kate Holden

I am onto my second book that I have been meaning to read for a while now. It's Kate Holden's Under My Skin, which is an autobiography/memoir about Kate's life on the streets of St Kilda as a hooker and heroin addict. It's so weird reading it because I know St Kilda and the other places in Melbourne that she writes about. Even though she doesn't name places only streets I know by their reputation and physical description which places she is talking about. Usually the stuff I read is based in America or England so to have something set in my own home city/town it's really weird. Well I must say it's a one night read because it just reads so well and you don't want to put it down. There are times I wish I could just slap Kate out especially when she describes going straight from rehab to her dealer instead of home. I think you f^&$* idiot! Anyhow its an interesting read and very straight and honest account of one woman's life on the streets. What's best is she doesn't play the victim and talks about her inner thoughts regarding what she was doing. It's no Pretty Woman fairy tale that's forsure.

Finally it's all finished!

So here is some photos of the finished quilt which is for my sister's 21st birthday present. I decided on the maroon fabric for the binding which I'm happy with, looks like a double thin border. Now I have two items I can tick off my to-do list, also finished reading Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. Meh it was ok, nothing of literary genius or anything like that but a good no brainer read.

First of Two Felted Retro Cushion Covers

As you can see on my to-do list I have to finish two felted cushion covers having promised a colleague that I'll make her some for her birthday. Yesterday I embarked on making the first of the two cushion covers with the help of another colleague mentioned previously in a felting entry. We are pretty happy with the results and are now thinking the other cover will be the same but reversed colours, so white with red line work. We will need to prepare some more red fiber though as this cushion pretty much took up all the red we had.

Here's a bit of a look at the process, well the felting part at least, there's heaps that goes on in preparing the raw wool for felting.

All we have to do after the other one is finished is decide on the backing material and to sew it together!

A Thrifting Monday

Just thought I'd show off some interesting thrift store finds from today's adventures in thrift land. Yeah I know I'm just buying stuff I have no use for, well at least not yet since I still live at home but then there's nothing stopping me from putting the ceramic plate away for when I do move out. Anyhow the brooch is definitely something I can use now and for only $3.00 I don't care if I just look at it and never wear it at all. I just love the cute little forget-me-nots on it, so quaint and sweet. I think the charcoal colour of the plate will look great with a bunch of citrus fruits like bright yellow lemons and green limes. I can already see it looking fabulous on a kitchen table with two gorgeous wooden jarah candle holders polished with beeswax. Hmmmmm sometimes I wish I had millions or at least thousands of dollars so I could just move into my house and continually redecorate every 6 months!

I burnt a little frankincense today and a concoction of my own dried herbs which included, rosemary, sage, white sage, thyme and lavender to try and get rid of some negative vibes. Here arch angle Michael watches over. I sometimes dabble in a bit of witchcraft but haven't had time for it for quite a few months now.

Anyhow I hope everyone has a positive, bad-vibe free week! Now with holidays I'm sure I'll be posting more often so do visit!

When there's nothing else to eat... Muffins!

I am officially sick of ham and cheese sandwiches! I think I've had a ham and cheese sandwich at least once every day for the past week, ok ok I admit one day I had ham, cheese and tomato! So finding that once again there was nothing interesting in the fridge and feeling very hungry I decided to make some muffins. It's a fool proof recipe I've adapted for my students at school.

In a bowl put

1 cup self raising flour

1 cup milk

1 egg

1 pinch salt

and anything you like for flavour

stir and pour!

I didn't realise till this afternoon that I have become a better 'simple-everyday-meals' cook since becoming a special needs teacher. We do a lot of cooking in our class and I have to keep things really simple, sticking to recipes that one could make quickly and eat everyday. By nature I like to cook elaborate meals, I like to challenge myself with unusual flavour combinations and techniques but now I've had to learn to get back to basics and being able to whip up a batch of muffins for lunch today really made me appreciate this new approach to cooking. Though the irony to this story is that I only had CHEESE and HAM in the fridge so instead of cheese and ham sandwiches I ate cheese and ham muffins ahhhhhh!

The School Holiday's to do List

Yep it's Friday night and the final term school holidays has officially started! I've just handed in that darn assignment which I was still fixing till 20 minutes before the post deadline. Whether I passed it or not is another thing. So the to do list for these holidays, here is what it looks like so far...

1. Felt two pillow cases for colleague's birthday present
2. Finish cross stitch started for friend's newborn
3. Finish granny square blanket
4. Finish crochet flower scarf
5. Finalised invitations and special guest speaker for art show
6. Complete and publish art book 'Happy Pills' through Blurb
7. Study for exam
8. Read and make notes for second assignment for Teaching Social Behaviour subject
9. Finish reading Dan Brown's Angels and Demons
10. read Kate Holden's Under My Skin
11. Cast a couple of spells to help clear the 'illness cloud' that's been lurking around work
12. Finish binding on sister's rose quilt
13. Get other sister's engagement present framed
and finally...
14. Try to just relax and indulge in a little aromatherapy, tarot reading, gallery hopping and window shopping, maybe even get to take a day trip to the country!

Whether I get to finish all this in 2 weeks... we shall see. I'm starting tonight with working on the cross stitch and tomorrow I'm going over a friends to baby-sit her children and card and dye some more wool for the cushions.