Gifts!

My favourite reading chair is now covered in a gorgeous red velvet (see the chair before here). It was my Christmas gift from Erich. The children bought me some wonderful books - my favourites are the ones written by Astrid Lindgren. Bottom right you can see the felt garlands I made and used to wrap around gifts, the christmas tree and beams in our flat. I love them and they were so very easy to make following these instructions by Liz. Christmas has passed and the days before New Year have me in a thinking, planning and mellow mood, waiting to jump into action in the New year. I have some plans and will be updating a list that has been neglected lately. I also have some news...my divorce was settled just before Christmas and Erich proposed immediatley afterwards so we are getting married in early 2008! I wish you all a Happy New Year, I´m sure 2008 is going to be fabulous!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

To all my blogging friends who have brightened this past year, I say Merry Christmas.

11 days and counting!

Are you in the Christmas spirit yet? Check out all these wonderful things to see and do. Amanda´s Christmas stockings, Bella Dia´s countdown to Christmas, Swedish cinnamon rolls, this beautiful photo, this bedroom, this group, December Views and the lovely Soft Trees.

Advent, Advent, ein Lichtlein brennt!

In Austria it´s tradition to have an Adventkranz with 4 candles which are lit, one after the other, on the last 4 Sundays before Christmas. We all went for a walk on Saturday and collected twigs, fir branches and dried leaves to make our own Kranz. With some sheets of newspaper and thin wire, it´s easy to form a ring and then you add your branches and leaves, wrapping the wire around as you go. This is our table centre-piece up to Christmas when it´s replaced with a large plate of Christmas biscuits. I always start baking at the beginning of December for our annual Christmas market. One of the favourites is Rasberry stars. Here´s the recipe.
I cut out stars and make holes in half of them with a small piece of plastic tube before baking. After the biscuits have cooled down, put a teaspoon of rasberry jam on a star and top with another star(with a hole in it). Put all the stars next to each other and sprinkle with icing sugar.

A year ago today, I wrote this post. I thought you might like to read it again...

Thursday November 23rd 2006.

What´s my creed? (Click here to find the link for the book)
Jamie got me thinking about this again after I read her recent post. There are rules we all live by...rules we were brought up with or taught along the way and rules we make for ourselves. I was born into a catholic home and I learnt about the 10 commandments at an early age. My family went to church often and I listened to what the priest had to say about loving thy neighbour and Jesus being our saviour but within my family I didn´t find the unconditional love that was preached about. I tried to be a church goer again after my children were born but I didn´t feel at home and after my marraige broke up, most sermons had me feeling like a loser.About 2 years ago I found a book called "Message from Forever" by Marla Morgan. It´s a story about finding yourself and finding your roots. At the end of this book there are 10 "you should" commandments that the Australian Aborigines live by. I do my best to remember them and live by them and although I don´t always succeed I know that they are right for me. Here they are:

1. You are to express your own creativity

2. Recognize that you carry responsibility

3. Before your birth you consented to help others

4. You are to attain emotional maturity

5. You should be entertaining

6. You should be a good manager of your energy

7. You should enjoy music

8. You should strive for wisdom

9. You are to learn self discipline

10.You are to observe without judging

There are explanations for all of these and if you want to know more, I encourage you to read the book.

Autumn Colors

Ask me quickly and I´d probably say autumn colors are red and orange but this autumn I am having a love affair with red, yellow and sky blue. Aren´t they beautiful together?

My Flickr Favourites

Click here to see who all the eye candy is from.

Autumn Crafting

I had a basket full of left-over bits of wool, not enough of any color to make something with so after seeing all the crocheting going on I decided to make a small rug. Once I started, it just kept getting bigger and ended up 50cm in diameter (20"). All you do is keep crocheting round in circles, taking care to do double stitches every now and then so the rug sits flat. Now my wool basket is empty and I can look for a new project, maybe out of this book?

Getting colder...

as winter is approaching. I love our cosy living room, it´s like a cave with attic windows to let in lots of light. In the top right photo you´ll see the wonderful wooden support beams that gave me the idea to paint a tree silhouette on the wall behind. Bottom right is the little lane that passes by our building, one of so many hidden short cuts we´ve started to explore almost daily. I lived in this town 10 years ago when my children were babies - now they walk along side me while we go exploring, almost grown up now and I remember holding their little hands and pushing them in their prams on these same streets...it makes we want to turn back the clock.

Our new home!

We´re settling in. It´s been a lot easier than I thought it would be to make a new start, especially for the children. As you can see, our home is filled with familiar treasures so it´s not difficult to feel at home. There´s a lightness to our new place - old ghosts have been left behind, unfinished business is coming to a close and we have reduced our belongings to an easy to care for minimum. I´m looking forward to blogging and crafting again...stay tuned!

Italy

We have just arrived back from a wonderful holiday in the area around Lake Garda in Italy. It was so good to get away for a while...sun, water, relaxation and exploring were so enjoyed by all of us after the troubles that have marked our lives lately. We are soon leaving this much loved house behind us and moving to a nearby town where 2 of my children go to school - Bad St. Leonhard. We have found a large appartment there to rent and I am about to get started on painting the walls as they are all white...and that doesn´t even count as a colour as far as I´m concerned. We will have moved in by the 1st of October and although I´m really looking forward to living somewhere a little more livelier and practical than here and decorating and making a new start with Erich and the children, it is breaking my heart to leave this house. I have a song on my ipod - I have no idea who the artist is - and one line is "it will be just as quiet when I leave, as it was when I first got here"...time to go and make some noise somewhere new.

Birthday give-away!

It was my birthday on Sunday and I spent a lovely day with friends - it was a beautiful day so we ate and played and chatted outside. I realise more and more that I have so much to be grateful for and I´d like to give something away...anyone who leaves a comment on this post over the next week has a chance to win my version of the bag on the cover of the Japanese book I mentioned in my last post. I´ll put all your names on bits of paper, put them in a box and draw a winner. I hope those of you who drop in without leaving comments (I have a counter so I know you´re out there!) will be motivated to do so, good luck!!!
AND THE WINNER IS......
ANNE IN OXFORDSHIRE!!!
Congratulations, send your address to me at kangoo1atgmxdotat and your little gift can be on it´s merry way!

TAGGED!

I´ve been tagged by the lovely Megg...
*We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
*Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
*People who are tagged write their own blog post about their eight things and include these rules.
*At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and they should read your blog.
I´ve decided to write about 8 things that have made me smile over the last few weeks...


A package from Darlene, my partner in the tea-towel swap and from Mirre because she´s a lovely and generous person.





A beautiful new magazine my boss bought for me on a holiday in France.
The film "Little Miss Sunshine. (I adore Toni Colette!)









Our amazing cat Larry who thinks he´s a human.
Eating breakfast outside.









My first Japanese craft book (atlast!) which I bought here. Now I know what all the fuss is about.
My new journal.








Here are 8 blogs that I visit regularly but aren´t yet in my side bar...
Denise, Shim and Sons, KC Quilts, Heather Bailey, Darlene, Rainbow, Mollychicken,Mommycoddle, you´re all tagged if you like!

On Our Plates

Today´s lunch...
Mashed potatoes with green beans. Peel potatotoes, cut into large chunks(leave whole if the potatoes are small) and boil in a little water until soft and falling apart. Meanwhile, boil or steam green beans. Add enough milk to cover the potatoes aswell as a little butter and salt. Mash the potatoes, fold in the green beans and serve.
Carrots in spiced butter. Steam carrots and place in a serving dish. Melt butter in a small pan and add a little curry powder, koriander and a spoon full of crunchy peanut butter. Pour this over the hot carrots and serve. (This is a meal in itself with some basmati or jasmin rice).
Grilled zuchini. Heat up your outside griller. Put some olive oil in a small jug or jar and add fresh herbs( rosmary, thyme, oregano, garlic, basil, chives, whatever you like). Cut zuchini into thick slices and when the griller is hot, roast on each side for about 8 minutes. Put the zuchini in a serving dish and pour the herb oil on top. Let this sit for about 30 minutes before serving.
Dessert: semolina pudding (I use a vanilla pudding mix for this one) . Heat up milk according to the pudding instructions and add an extra cup of milk. When hot, add 3 tablespoons of semolina and simmer on low for 5 minutes. Then add sugar and pudding mix according to the instructions. Pour into a mould and leave until cold. Turn onto a serving plate and pour rasberry sauce over the top before eating.
If you want to serve this all together then make the pudding a few hours before, the zuchini about an hour before and then the potatoes and the carrots. MAHLZEIT!

Harvest Time

We are enjoying a wonderful summer - long, hot days reading in the shade, swimming at the local pool, eating outside and keeping the garden watered. We have 2 large water tanks - one collects the rainwater from the greenhouse roof and the other one collects the water from the back roof of the house. This year it has rained regularly so I haven´t had to turn on the tap to water anything. I also collect the cold water from the shower (while I´m waiting for it to warm up) in a bucket and that´s enough to keep our indoor plants watered. The vegetables in the garden are maturing much earlier this year and aswell as eating them fresh, I´ve started stocking up our pantry for winter. I am so grateful for this garden and when we move house that is high on the list of must haves - I would hate to have to buy all my vegetables again and start worrying about pesticides and the long trip a head of salad has behind it before it reaches my local supermarket. For those of you who don´t have a garden, try your local farmer´s market. We have an abundance of green beans, zuchinis and spring onions this year and I spent yesterday afternoon making chutney and zuchini slices with herbs. I think you call chutney relish in the US, it´s a sweet and sour mix of vegetables that you eat with meats or bread or roasted potatoes. Basically, you just use a bit of oil to fry some spring onions and then you add diced zuchini and pieces of green beans(you can make this with almost any other veges too). Add tomato paste or pasta sauce or curry paste aswell as any other herbs and spices that you like and a little salt and pepper. The magic ingredient is cider vinegar (how much depends on how much chutney you´re making. Start with a dash, taste and go on from there)- it gives the chutney a kick. Let the whole lot cook on low for about an hour until it´s thick and saucy and spoon the mixture into clean jars while it´s still hot. It will keep up to 6 months in a cool place, about 3 days after you open the jar. For the zuchini slices, layer slices in jars, add herbs (rosmary or oregano are my favourites) and some mustard seads. Put a mix of cider vinegar and water (1:1) in a pot and boil, add some salt and spices (chilli powder, koriander, anything you have at home). Pour over the zuchinis while hot, about 3/4 of the way up is enough as the zuchinis will lose some liquid. Put the jar lids on tight and place them on the middle oven rack and sterilise at 90°C for 30 minutes. These are great with mozarella cheese and bread or mixed in a salad. I love going to the cellar during the colder months and choosing condiments that I know grew in my garden. Stay tuned for more recipes this week!

Last Day of Colour Week

Day 5 Blue and purple (sorry, not much purple around here).

Colour Week

Day 4 ORANGE

Colour Week

Day 3 YELLOW

A Week of Colour

Day 2 Green

A Week Of Colour

I discovered "a week of colour" over here. Day one - pink and red.