Advent Conspiracy

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Something New

Here's something different - a recipe!

This is how it all started... Our butcher gets lovely fresh lamb from New Horizon Farming so we decided to take a little diversion from the usual chicken meals.

During the week I received a recipe book with hooks to hang up my Multix plastic bags. The Multix recipe, funnily enough, used chicken, but I decided to do my own failsafe friendly lamb version. We're going to call them Guyra Parcels to commemorate the Guyra Lamb and Potato Festival - to which I never went in all the 20 years that I lived close enough to do so. :(

Okay, so here's what I did, which doesn't really resemble the original recipe much at all.

Tore off squarish sheets of foil and laid them out on the counter.
Sliced potato and coated in flour and salt (in a bag, which is the way I do all coating of things edible).
Laid slices of potato on the foil.
Put diced lamb into the bag and coated with flour too (I wanted the juices to be absorbed into the meal rather than running away at the end).
Arranged the lamb on top of the potatoes.
Added some fresh beans.
And slices of sweet potato (for those who can tolerate the salicylates)
And a little bit of capsicum (for those who don't care about salicylates!)

Then I wrapped the parcels up by bringing up the sides and turning over to seal. Then folding the ends up. The idea is to trap the steam in - it worked! I even wrote names on the outside so that we knew whose was whose.

Popped them in the oven at 180 C for about 30 mins and Voila!!!

Carefully opened the parcels and served with a small (or microscopic - depending on who) dob of Masterfoods (because it seemed to be relatively boochie-free) Mint Jelly.

And you know what?! The pans didn't need washing.

Thumbs up, with a minor adjustment - MORE in the parcel. Last night we had to supplement dinner. 'twould make a good lunch, I guess.

Or we could just lay it all out in a big dish. It's just that we need to minimise cooking time to keep the amines low so I think we'll stick with the parcels.

So there you go!!!

More flowers - no more spiders!

Last week the kids and I caught a train into the city to meet Saroja and visit the Royal Botanic Gardens.

It was a beautiful day after a few days of rain and wind and generally unsuitable weather for Botanic Garden visits. God is kind. We plodded around. The kids played, whinged, looked, whinged, ran about, whinged - you get the drift. But all in all it was a lovely day.

I had fun taking photos of flowers and things. We went into the Tropical Centre to see Sex and Death: starring Orchids and Carnivorous Plants - so cool!



The trees were beckoning and the kids were sorely tempted to climb. I drew the line at tree hugging, which we were all invited to do by a sign at the entrance to the gardens.



I love the city. I love architecture - old and new. I love Australia. I love the Botanic Gardens. Okay, I'll stop now.



But this is what someone thought about it all... No. I won't put that picture in - glum face. Bored. Whatever!

That's all for now.

:D

Flowers and a Spider

I've been a bit slow to get to this...

A collection of photos of the flowers in our garden when we arrived and a spider. 'twas Spring! Still is, even though it feels like winter.

Wisdom is Supreme

Therefore get wisdom. Proverbs 4:7



Inspired by Meredith and her gorgeous owls.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

I am tempted to just post the pictures. Suffice it to say...
I am doing Viv Bonder's Art Journal Workshop.
This is a collage page.
When I was finishing this page I looked up here and found a Latin version of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.
Here are the pics - the process and the finished product.
TFL

Living Vicariously

Last night a wrote a whole blog post in my head - it was great! Eloquent, precise, meaningful. All those things. It's gone now.

In this world today we have many opportunities to live vicariously. We can experience love, romance, violence, revenge, loss, grief, travel, sports, excitement - Oh so many things! Whether or not this is a good thing, I don't know.

It's a bit scary, really, to think of the experiences that any person, young or old, can participate in through movies, computer games and the Internet. It makes me wonder if we are not careful enough with what we allow even ourselves to experience. We don't need to take on (as our own) the romance of a friend's relationship, the pain of someone else's broken marriage, the loss of someone else's loved one, or even the joy of someone else's happy event.

There is one experience that is the ultimate vicarious experience that is ours for the taking - Christ's death on the Cross. Jesus died once for all. Hebrews 7.27 says Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.

The death of Christ on the Cross was a legal action. Jesus took the punishment that we are required to experience. He was our substitute. The payment for our sin is paid. All we have to do is believe it.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10

And, that's all I have to say about that. (For now.)

Happy Birthday, Grace!

From little girls to little ladies - and in a blink of time. Look at those cute little teeth - two years ago!

Happy Birthday to Grace, Caitlin's very special friend since birth (Grace's birth, that is!).

This is what Caitlin made for Grace (with a little bit of help from me).



I have been doing some workshops with Vivian Bonder and having the greatest time playing with LuminArte products. We needed to work out if the structure gel that I had would work with the pigments so we tested it out on a little bit of chipboard and this is the result.

There was a bit left over so I fished around and found some other nice chippie shapes and added the polished pigments to them.

Solace

My greatest solace comes from God. My faith in His abundant grace and mercy, His love and goodness towards His creation, His justice, is firm and unwavering.

Psalm 121
A song of ascents.

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?

2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;

4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;

8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

Having said that, I am sad. Not just sad-cos-I didn't-get-what-I-want-type-sad. Sad because one of my very best friends has left this world cursed by sin and has gone to be with the Lord. Sad for her husband and family. Sad for her friends. Today - sad for myself.

Words elude me - the words that Kim and I played with together, shared a love of, edited and elaborated - they are all hiding in the recesses of my mind refusing to come out and express how I feel. So I am turning to unspoken prayer and mixed media.

I started this "piece" before Kim left her earthly abode and I almost wasn't going to finish it. But it reminds me of Kim - just a bit. The fabric that I used as the background actually came from Kim - she was having a clean-out and offered me a whole pile of upholstery samples. I just couldn't let them go (this is like 4 years ago!) so I hid them away, every so often wondering if I should just chuck them.

It just so happens that the mixed media challenge at Blue Bazaar for this month is fabric.

Here's my rendition.



I have digitally added the black edge for now but it is my intention to sew some kind of black edge to it - just need to get the black stuff.

Here's a close-up.


Products: Upholstery fabric from a sample book; feather wool that Sophie-Lee knitted (well, sort of) into a shawl but she didn't want it and I couldn't throw it away!; Hand dyed silk fibres from Vivian Bonder - love those colours; foam protective net from a custard apple - my fave fruit; K&Company fabric brad with a foil chocolate wrapper arranged underneath it; brads of various brands - I'm pretty sure there are some Basic Grey ones; KaiserCraft Rhinestones; Reeves gold paint; and some thread that was Mum's and we've had "forever".

Psalm 23 and a layout

I'm back! A bit.

I've had a little bit of creativity to alleviate the drought (my drought).

Every so often a scripture pops into my head, often in song, and I start pondering the things of God. The other day it was Psalm 23 - a well known Psalm so full of comfort and praise. I know lots of songs with The Lord is my shepherd as the theme so after I had hummed my way through them I got down to meditating on the the meatier bits... the valley of the shadow of death, rod and staff they comfort me.

Then my creative juices starting flowing (just a little bit) as I was unpacking my scrapbooking stuff. So in amongst the mess of moving I started pulling out bits of patterned paper and cardstock. I decided to do a layout inspired by Psalm 23.

My starting point was a layout that I did in a class with Loretta Grayson - I love her layering of papers and other bits and pieces - keeping the green pastures and the sheep in mind. Even though I had taken only a cursory look at the Aussie Scrap Source blog there was a sun that made an impact on me. There may have been another sun somewhere else too, but I can't remember where it might have been.

So without further ado...


There is not a day goes past that I don't think of my dear friend Kim. This is for her.

My Dearest Kimbo,
If I could take the length and breadth
and depth of all the beautiful words and meanings
I could find, then they are all in these simple words...
My love and prayers are with you.
Blessings from your Pud xx

Products: Bazzill; Love Elsie; Creative Imaginations: Alison Ellis Designs: KaiserCraft; Doodlebug Designs; Scrapware Karen Day Designs; KaiserCraft Rhinestones; Gold Folk Art paint; Uniball Gel Impact; Sequins;