My etsy niche

I think I found my niche (how ya spell that?). Wall decals... possibly even Christian wall decals.... I actually don't enjoy making decals that much though... I'd rather be a crochet designer, or card maker, or... actually, I think I want to be a proffessional HOUSE WIFE! that would rock. but they don't exist. so anyway. Oh they do, but you need a husband so.... ANYWAY. I just realised that there are alot of creative people out there, but what's my point of difference? well ( I thought), not everyone has a $3000 vinyl plotter at home... so that's my point of difference, and maybe I'll leave my crafts for hobbies. (Yeah right! knowing me there will be hand-made cards in my etsy shop next week... I'm so fad-dy).

God's Promise to mankind

Genesis 9 - "I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.... Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life".

And we walk around in our imaginations talking abour leprecauns and pots of gold, all the while God is communicating to us .. in this case the God we ignore who is perfectly capable of blotting us out when ever He choses, sends us a rainbow as a sign of his promise. And we plod on with our daily lives , not realising the significance of a rainbow in the sky!

Beef Noodle Soup anyone?

And I was so keen to get this recipe photographed I forgot to put the noodles in! anyway - you can ommit any of the ingredients depending on what you have.

BEEF NOODLE SOUP

Ingredients:

small ammount of cheap beef

noodles (any)

garlic

ginger

salt (or soy or fish sauce)

veges (any you have)

beef stock (if you want)

lemon (ESSENTIAL)

sugar.

corriander

HOW:
1. Put in a pot: cut up beef, salt (or sauce), beef stock, ginger, garlic

2. Simmer for 1 - 1.5 hours

Go and set the table, make a pudding, finish your chores or just watch the news!

3. Add veges and cook for 10 mins or till ready

4. Add noodles, just at the end, just before the veges are ready.

5. Add a table spoon or two of lemon juice and a few TBspoons of sugar (this makes the whole dish)... also add corriander if you have it

6. Taste... add lemon or salt or sugar, depending on how you like it... I prefer just a nice light lemony flavour

YUMMY!

I make this alot lately, its cheap and yummy and pretty healthy too.

Green pleated crochet purse

Oh my gosh! I finished this today for my etsy shop. Considering it took me over 6 months (!!) to get around to lining it, I don't think I could "quit my day job" selling them. Could think about trying to sell the pattern though. I'm quite inspired by a kiwi seller who sells crochet patterns on etsy (Luarna, let me know if you buy one incase we make the same thing for something ! :)

Here's her link - http://hollanddesigns.blogspot.com

there are some adorable patterns for babies..

My first Etsy request!

Yay! my first custom order through Etsy... all the way from the US of A. Designing for a little "Vespa".... keep ya posted :)

Snowboard decal

Hey. Well this one took a while. I offered it at a lower price, because I've never designed for a snowboard before, and if it works out well, thats another area I could think about.
Anway... turned out kinda cute :)

Walkin' in the rain

I need to get out more. Catherine's Dad made me believe there are baddies hiding behind every tree... but I used to walk to the park by myself all the time. This is my neighbourhood DAMIT, and I shouldn't let one person's world-view taint MY view of everything.

New painting... work in progress

Well. Here's what I did today. Hopefully this is the ugly undercoat my paintings usually start with, because I'm not happy with it... I just don't know why. The colours I think. Usually once I'm at this stage I leave them (coz I don't like them) and cringe at them every time I walk past them, then , say, a few months later fix them up... and maybe the same again a few months later.

But now I've figured out my process, I wonder if there's a way to speed that process up?

Jazz Dancer in oils

I just realised I've already posted this when it was a sketch. So I kinda cheated, becaused I transfered my sketch straight to the canvas. Its still my own work though. I'm actually quite happy with this. I was going to give up painting, because no-one wanted my last one, and a good quality canvas that size is $56 which is heaps for me! But I've decided to focus my efforts... spend the money now, and aim to put some art in the Auckland affordable art show, crossing my fingers that they accept my work. I'm kinda confident about that though. I saw worse paintings displayed than mine. I just hope someone buys them though... I'm quite money concious, unfortunately... and I don't want to be stuck with a whole lot of paintings nobody wants.

Memorise it!

"Come to me all you who are burdened and weary and you will find rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light" Matthew 11.28
And I didn't look that one up. That's the one I memorised tonight. I've found I'm quite good at memorising scripture. My pyscologist has said i need to change my core belief from "I'm Useless" into "I am competent - I am just out of practice"... and then start finding proof its actually true. Well heres some proof. I've discovered just recently I can now memorise bible verses again. I think I better put alot of effort into too, because I'm aware that life is a series of valleys and peaks. Right now I'm on a peak, but in my last valley I remember scripture that I'd memorised earlier coming to me. So I don't want to be too pessimistic about the future, but I'm not taking the good times for granted and I think I better take this time wisely...

TUTORIAL - Homemade Legwax

My first Tutorial... I make this alot, so I'm a bit of a pro. This can take a couple of tries to get the hang of, but it can save you so much money, I think it's worth the time...
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup of sugar
Juice of 1 Lemon
about a Tablespoon of water

INSTRUCTIONS:
Put all ingredients in a bowl.
Heat slowly until sugar melts
Bring to the boil and heat for around 8-15 mins.

TIPS:
-You want to heat the sugar slowly so the sugar melts, and is not grainy
-To know when the wax is ready it should look around the colour of oil, a light yellow, when hot, and then when you pour it into the jar/mug it should set to look like a deep orange
- Let the wax cool completely. It should be hard like toffee. Then heat in the microwave for 10-20 seconds, to heat up slightly. It should not be too runny, or it will not work. Heat it just enough until its like a gooey toffee.
- Cut strips of fabric for waxing, which can be washed and re-used.

Manual Labour

This is what I spent my holiday doing. Resetting the gobie blocks in our driveway. Can digging mud be theraputic? Is was for me! No money involved... no deadlines, no nagging... just getting dirty and ... having fun.

My garden in the winter.

This is our garden this winter. One small patch of cabbages, and the rest is planted in a green-manure crop to be dug in this spring.

I have big plans for my garden this year. I say that every year. Last year I got most of the garden looking good, and got to take some strategically positioned photos for our christmas newsletter. I'm going to see if I can get the whole lot looking good together this summer. It's funny getting the garden ready for a newsletter! But noone ever comes to see my garden, so I have to have some kind of motivation...

sad, i know. yet true.

Portrait done in Charcoal 2

Well. This is my last piece of paid work. Phew. All done.

Its a portrait for the daughter of a woman at church. The hardest thing about doing portraits of specific people is trying to capture their personallity. I can do a good piece of art, as long as no-one can see the original. But if it's sposed to look like someone, that's when it gets hard...

PRAYER - help in our weakness

Here's an exerpt from a really cool book on prayer I'm reading...

"- I don't seem to have any real desire for prayer
- I do it more out of a sense of duty than anything else'
- when I pray I feel as though God is a million miles away. I don't seem to have any real assurance that He hears me, and that I am truly talking to Him
- I pray but nothing seems to happen. I get so discouraged and feel, What's the use?
- I suffer from wandering thoughts in prayer and cannot seem to concentrate.

Scripture: "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness: for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words..." Rom 8:26

... How wonderful it is when we discover, often through the discipline of repeated failure, that this weakness, with which we seem to be permanently saddled is not "the end", but a new and wonderful beginning - the gateway to heaven's resources. "The Spirit helps us in our weakness." The weakness is perpetual only that we might be perpetually dependent on the Holy Spirit"

Source: Pray in the Spirit by Arthur Wallis.

Catherine's drawing

Doesn't this rock? And I had almost come to the conclusion that Catherine would be a 17 year who couldn't hold a pen... but no! She has taught herself to draw! I've never seen her do anything like this before.

Apparently it's me and Catherine on the left, and Nana and (her cousin) Asiza on the right. :)