Skip to main content

Mushrooms and Anzacs

Mushrooms in the garden .... we have had some rain in the last week, but these mushrooms are the beautiful hand printed Thea and Sami Fabric. http://www.thea-sami.com.au/ I was fortunate enough to win some of this hand printed linen from Thea's blog giveaway in February, and this is what I made with it. This woodland elf is an adaptation of Jacquie Lecuyer's pattern, Uma . This was a pattern of the month in January at Hello Dollies http://www.agbhellodollies.blogspot.com/ - my doll group at Anne's Glory Box . My version of Uma not only features the prize fabric, but some my embellished felt and one of my husband's wooden buttons. It is a cloth doll, with a needle sculpted face. I am still very much a beginner as far as needle sculpted faces go, as I tend to make most doll heads from clay, but I like the idea of "soft sculpture" so am determined to keep practising.
Mother's Day is coming up , so with the remnants of the mushroom fabric, I made some very simple little matryoshka dolls. I really enjoyed making these and think I will make some more, with other little bits of leftover fabric I have stashed away because I've liked the prints so much.
Tomorrow is Anzac Day - an important day of remembrance in Australia.for those who have been lost in war. The dawn services and other memorial ceremonies are very moving and allow for serious reflection, but later there is usually time for celebrating mateship and family. Our family love ANZAC biscuits. There are lots of variations of the recipe, and while this one isn't original , it makes the biscuits just the way we like them and we pretend it's healthy because it comes from the Weight Watchers' site.

Anzac Biscuits
POINTS® Value: 2.5
Servings: 18
Preparation Time: 10 min Cooking Time: 15 min
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Fast to make and utterly delicious, these ANZAC biscuits are not too crunchy or chewy, but just right!

Ingredients
1 spray Gold 'n' Canola Canola oil spray
150 g plain white flour, sifted
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 cup rolled oats
100 g butter, melted
2 tbs golden syrup
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Instructions
Preheat oven to 180°C. Spray 2 baking trays with oil and cover with some baking paper.
Mix flour, sugar and oats together in a large bowl until well combined.
Melt butter and golden syrup together. Combine one tablespoon of boiling water with baking soda and add to butter mixture, with vanilla essence.
Mix butter and oat mixture together to form a dough. Drop teaspoonfuls onto baking trays, gently flattening each one. Leave 3cm aside each biscuit for spreading.
Bake biscuits until edges turn golden, about 15 minutes. Let biscuits stand on trays for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool and crisp completely.
Notes
You can also add ½ cup of dessicated coconut to the dry ingredients for a slight change

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is it a mutant? Is it an alien? It's an octopus - or is it?

Have you ever thought how strange a creature the octopus is?  This week's fascination started when I asked the question, "What colour is an octopus when it's underwater?"  The answer is  "any colour it wants to be " -  An octopus' coloration depends upon its surroundings.  An octopus possesses the ability to alter its coloration depending on its immediate environment. This defensive technique protects the animal from predators and entices prey to come close to the animal . ((from  https://www.reference.com/pets-animals/color-octopus-be94f74fcdc74ebe)    . Why did I want to know the colour of an octopus? Because I wanted to draw octopus tentacles as mermaid hair for my art journal! Then, I began to think it might be considered a little too weird and even perverse to give a mermaid octopus hair.... Facebook friends assured me that this was not so, citing Medusa and her snake hair as a precedent, and even one friend said that she thought it was l...

Christmas Countdown Characters #22

So close to Christmas and it's getting harder to find Christmas celebrities but today here's  a wily W character.  W is for Wilma . Yes I am Wilma but I am NOT today's Christmas celebrity.  Wilma the weasel  is the one of the main characters  in  T he Flight Before Christmas , a 2008 animated movie    and its sequel   Little Brother Big Trouble: A Christmas Adventure . The Flight Before Christmas centres around the problem of Niko, a small reindeer afraid of flying, and in search of his unknown father who is one of Santa's Flying Forces (that is, one of the eight main reindeer who pull Santa's sleigh)  Wilma is a street wise fearless singing weasel, who Niki and his surrogate squirrel father, Julius befriend while saving Santa from a wolf pack attack .   Long story short, the climax involves  Niko, Wilma and Julius killing the wolf leader, the Flying  Squad saving themselves in order to save Christmas, Niko...

Evolution of Message Stick Art Dolls

Message Stick Art Doll - stick, polymer clay, hand dyed & stencilled fabric with embroidery  My    message stick art dolls    have evolved over the last couple of years.  Why have I called these art dolls “Message Sticks” ?    I wanted to recreate a doll which was based on traditional techniques, so I have used ideas from a few different cultures. Many traditional dolls were made from wood - often wrapped with fibres.   In Egypt, several types of paddle dolls have been discovered in tombs in Egypt. The dolls are made of wood, flat, and constructed in a shape has led the form to be called a 'paddle doll'. The dolls seemingly follow a convention for the female figure, emphasizing the hips and hair. The wooden figures are usually painted with a geometric pattern of lines and dots. These patterns may reproduce tattos or ritual scaring in female Egyptian culture of the period or represent clothing or jewellery.  A fine exampl...