Kiwi As!! New Zealand Wall stickers

I've had these on my computer for a while but only just got around to taking photos and setting up my etsy listings. They are a series I have called "Kiwi-As" (based on a New Zealand colloquialism...

ie: "funny-as" "cool-As" or anything "as" to emphasise your point :)

Stan Wins!!

Yay Stan... you won!!!!

Christmas figures... I year of blogging!

Wow. As I was repainting the remaining christmas figures I realised I've been blogging for about a year. I think one of my first entries was doing some of the first figures(, and our church being the way it is, I'm repainting the remaining figures this year). How do I know this? I'm one of my biggest fans! Yes, I have to admit I treat my blog a bit like a diary and re-read my own blog entries!!

I need to get out more..

Reading about other people's adventures makes me realise... I need to get out more! Catherine's Dad hasn't been in contact since he was at *the place* and I 'm thinking it's better that way. I've been feeling less anxious aobut making sure the door is locked at all times and I can be outside at twilight without too much fear now. I've alsomst stopped going on in a mental dialougue every time a male name pops up in my inbox (..." It's called SPAM, ok?? they try to trick you by putting a name there so you'll open it and it sends you to a website... etc....")
I was out in the van today, sitting at a stop sign when a van went passed and started beeping. I wondered why. It turned out to be a signwriters van. Still wondered why. Got home and realised.. "hey... was it an old workmate?? the sign industry is quite small.. is it possible someone would remember me??". My van was all marked up so it's possible.
Also was at the petrol station, and another guy recognised me. He has installed some of my signs. I must have looked like a deer in the headlights as I tried not to look like a freak and attempt conversation.
But it's as if God said.."It's ok. Make friends... I don't mind!".
Well... hold on to hope as JK says on the ads. Maybe there's still hope for this life yet..

ALWAYS BLOW ON THE PIE

I think only kiwi's really get

the humour... but a kiwi police officer became a You Tube hit with his conversation with a dodgy youth.

Interviewing a youth suspected of robbery, who tells the police man he is off to BP to buy a pie, completely deadpan Sergeant Baldwin replies "Three o'clock in the morning, that pie has probably been in the warming drawer for about 12 hours.""It will be thermo-nuclear - always blow on the pie. Safer communities together," he says (quoting the lame Police catch phrase).

You tube link is here-

You can buy the decal at my etsy shop here

Just to prove I actually do set the table most nights I have posted tonights setting. But just look at the state of our fridge!! hillarious. No, don't worry, we're not broke. We just havn't got around to going to the supermarket for a week or so... on the other hand... look at what I managed to make for dinner. I made it with literally almost everything we had in the house. Left over rice. Half a cabbage. left over bacon and fish. Quarter of an onion and some ginger, garlic and soy sauce. Turned out mint!

Hidden beauty

I thought I'd share tonights dinner table setting. It was just a simple meal... just what we had left over after not going to the supermarket for over a week... rice, fish and cucumber.. not flash. But I put the time into setting the table all nice and pretty. I do that as often as I can now.

I do it ever since I read Hidden Art by Edith Shaefer. It's a book that talks about making things beautiful, even if nobody but God sees it, because God likes beauty too. That's why there are beautiful little flowers way up the top of mountains where nobody sees (she said) because God sees and it makes Him happy, and so (it follows) that God is happy when we make the effort and make things beautiful just for Him! Even down to mundane things like setting the dinner table :)

Spagetti Pizza!

First of all... It's Teresa's birthday on the 26th. Since I won't be seeing her on her birthday I gave her her gift on Friday (our fish n chip night).
Gift one was the portrait here, and gift two were some gingerbread men. ( Recipe here).They're her favourite!

I also thought I'd share a pizza recipe. I usually make pizza when we have leftovers and not much else. Usually turns out really yummy.

Please note: The way I make pizza is not an exact science. (I explain as I go...)

SPAGETTI PIZZA.

Dough:

2 Cups flour
1 tsp yeast
1 cup of room temp water

Topping:
Whatever you have... I usually use-
1 can of watties spagetti (I think it yummier than the bought pizza sauces)
Cheese
Left over meat
onion
Maybe something like capsicum or mushrooms (I had an avocado).



METHOD:




1. Put yeast into cup of tepid water and leave to froth (sometimes I add a tsp of flour and sugar to help it along)

2. Put flour into bowl. (may also want to add some oil and salt)

3. Add yeast mixture bit by bit untill a little sticky as I find this kneads the best. Add more water or leave some out for the right consistency. (This comes with practice).

4. Knead for 15 mins. Do it for the whole 15 mins. It's not that long and the yeast is worked through the dough and the gluten in the flour is released and makes the dough elastic.



5. Put in a bowl in a warm place with a teatowl over it and leave to rise for one hour.

6. This ended up making 2 pizzas! (but you could have one pizza with a really thick base)

7. Spread topping on. I usually quickly fry the meat and onion before I put it on.

8. Cook in a warmed oven @ 350 F , 189 C , for 15 - 20 mins.

9 . YUMM! Just like a bought one :)

Interview with my Dad.

Here's an interview I did with my Dad for a school project. It always makes me smile when I read it. This was in around 1995.


INTERVIEW (With Dad)
Intro: Steven Eldrid Grigg (author of 'Oricles and Miracles') said women of that period (1930's-) worked hard at home all day while being told it wasn't work....
Dad: Nobody would have siad that in my family – that was a silly thing to say. People worked as a team, like half-back and five-eigths... they did different things but it still would have been regarded as essential – working in the garden, cutting the lawns, working for wages or doing the housework – it didn't make any difference, it was a family effort not an individual one.
Me: Did women ever chop wood, like in that song?
Dad: You're telling me they chopped wood.
Me: Did they? Did your Mother and Grandmother chop wood?
Dad: Yeah
Me: Really? Chopped wood with an axe?
Dad: Yeah, how else would they have chopped wood?
Me: Heh heh! I thought your Grandfather and father would do it.
Dad: Everybody did whatever needed doing.l In spite of what they tell you there was no particular division in those days – a father could help make clothes or anything and a woman could help chop wood or prune tree's or anything
Me: And the sisters wouldn't have been made to scrub the boy's boots?
Dad: They might have... they wouldn't have been made to. Older sisters would have cleaned little boy's boots. But the idea that women were some sort of slaves... and that the brother could say “sister clean my boots”... she'd probably tell him what to do with his boots.

Pain

We had a guest speaker at our little church this week. He said one of the most disturbing moments of his life were when he and his wife went to Germany and went into a dark mirrored room filled with candles. On and on into the dark went the candles - each one representing the life of a Jewish child who had been slaughtered during the holocaust. And then he said something. "Each of us, in our own way, can have our own holocaust experience". That's something I've thought for a while, but didn't think it was acceptable to say out loud. But he said it.
I read a book a while ago by a Jewish man Victor Frankl who was in a concentration camp for over 3 years. He founded a form of psychoanalys called Logotherapy. He came to the conclusion that pain fills the space it occupies. That someone can stub their toe and suffer as much as someone in a terrible situation. Please don't get me wrong. I'm not diminishing the pain of the holocaust. I'm just trying to acknowledge the pain we all go through in life. We all suffer.
Anyway. The thing our speaker pointed out to us was this: Never compare anybodies pain. Each persons pain is unique to them. Like me. I have a tendency to think. "what do you know about pain?" But no. We'll never really know what people suffer. Only they do.

Charcoal Drawing

Well, someone asked me to do a charcoal drawing of their daughter. It's a wee bit off centre... the mouth I think... but it's ok. I'm gonna give it to her at playgroup tomorrow.

FICKLE

Anyone who reads my blog will deifinitely know what a fickle person I am. I'm always having blinding flashes of insight. One minute I'm quoting scripture, the next minute I'm telling everyone to rack-off coz I want to be alone forever!! All I can put it down to is the battle. Most of the time I'm on the back foot. Actually, my blog is the only place I trumpet my christianity. I mean - how could I tell my neighbours about my faith when the day before I could be heard screaming "LEAVE ME ALONE FOR ONCE, I WANT TO BE ALONE, GO AWAY!!". I'm not exagerating. When i go down I go DOWN. (I guess it could be worse... it doesn't look that bad in type.. but I'm pretty sure it sounds bad in real life).
Well, what can I say? Next time I get one of my change-my-life-forever-revelations that doesn't involve God.... humour me. It will mean I've strayed again, hopefully to be back on track again soon.

Go Stan!

AArghh... I'm a stalker!! na... Just finished watching Australian Idol. Every week I watch just to see this guy!! Stan Walker. He's a kiwi and he's a christian. Tonight he sang Amazing Grace and you could see his spirit being lifted up in worship...

you know... like that old buddist proverb about the 3 blind men and the elephant... we all have a different piece of the whole of what God is. I used to listen to Radio Rhema alot. Joice Myeres piece of the elephant seems to be having a good attitude. That's the main life lesson God has taught her. James Dobson is all about evangelising the world, starting with your very own family. Chuck Missler is all about the devine design of the bible. My main learning experience would be silver refined in the fire... God shaping us through tough times... but I lean towards the negative quite alot... tonight I saw again how a simple relationship with God, accepting forgiveness and worshipping him is what it's all about. Go Stan!!

painting

I had a painting here, but I have taken it off. If you happened to see it I have decided to keep to my new guide: one third the activities done two thirds better... and I am currently trying to get it as good as possible. (It will be another one for CCF)

Alone

Alone! I wish I was alone
(I'm not replacing my lost phone)

In a little shack, I'll do it up
And milk, tea, sugar in my cup
I'll plant some trees around the border
It'll be a mess, but still have order!

A room with canvases and paint
An open window in case I faint...
A sewing machine and stacks of wool
And a little shed, (that would be cool)

I'll be a wierdo, I won't care!
Bare feet and jeans are what I'll wear
And daisies in my greying hair
Listening to birds in my rocking chair

A Portrait of a friend

This is a portrait of a friend. We have fish'n'chip nights every friday, and 2 fridays ago I said to her "Why am I here?? What's my purpose.. I still don't even know!" and she said "well, what are you good at?" and I said "art?" and she said "Then help people with your art !"

And that very week I was given some canvases and paint and I did my painting for CCF.

So, thanks Teresa, for your prompting! (Although I don't want her to see this before the 26th, coz this portrait is for her birthday :)

nb. it's a bit blurry. I'll take a better photo tomorrow.

New painting - Money goes to Child Fund - pass it on!

Well, like I said, my new theory is that life is all about what you give away, not keep, so I have done a painting which I will try and sell and give the money to Child Fund NZ, gifts that grow.

At the moment it is on the NZ website Trade Me... here http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=252551149&ed=true

It is acrylic on stretched canvas.

It is quite large, 800 x 1000mm.

One more brag...

Ok. One more brag. This is what I did today. It was

basically knee high wandering dew and creeper over the whole thing. I was able to uncover the 2 avocado trees I grew from a stones. I think I am into year 2 of waiting 7 years to see if they fruit. If they don't I guess I'll just chop them down and buy one! I don't mind waiting...

Bog brag

Excuse me while I BRAG. This is a bit of bogging I did yesterday. Bogging is really hard. Its the same stuff you use to repair dings on cars... it sets really quickly and starts to crumble if you dont get it on real quick. I think I did a pretty good job this time.

My money-diet is going great too! I'm waiting till next week till I buy some material for Catherines pjs, and in the mean time I still have the art paper and marigold seeds I bought with last weeks allowance. In the mean time I'm starting on a quilt for Catherine using nothing but our rag-bag. It's a long term project. I had one made for me by my grandmother and I loved it. Doesnt look like much yet, but it will be a scene of houses on hills above a lake.