Today is about 18 degrees. It feels really nice!

The weather just drove me mad in the past two days. Two nights in a row, I was like in half sleep with the body lying on the bed but the mind feeling “it was so bloody hot” tortured me so badly that I was not really sure if I ever had a real sleep or not.

In the middle of the Friday night, I touched my neck and it felt like putting my hands into a pond. I was sweating all over. I turned to another side for a moment and by the moment I came back, I can feel that my pillow was all damp wet.

What a terrible night! Even though I expected that my current state makes me easily get overheated, I still find it hard to take. Now I am thinking how bad this is gonna become in the next a few months, given that now it’s only November.

Most of summer time in Queanbeyan and Canberra, the weather is bearable even in the hottest time. That’s why not many people need an air conditioning in their house. And most of time, temperature drops during the night time and we even need to use a cotton quilt at the night time. But there was some weeks that could get really hot, and I just hope this year is not one of those times.

Finger crossed, just let me go through it this year, otherwise I have to think of using the bath tub as my bed or get a portable air con to solve the problem

My recent experiment on my crafting journey is to decorate eggs. I kind of realised that I should have gotten my hands on this long time ago, given that I love eating eggs so much, you can imagine how many perfect egg shells I have had wasted in the past many years which could have been used wisely in this sort of craftsmanship

Thanks for the “Great Book of Egg Decoration”. When I borrowed the book at the library desk, the lady said I was half a year ahead of everybody. Well, I know it’s the Christmas coming, not Easter, but maybe I am half a year behind of everybody, who knows….When I had an idea, I just got to do it, doesn’t really care whether it is the time.

The book is so inspiring. When I firstly read it, I was thinking “Oh my God, how am I going to do this? It looks so complicated……” But when I really looked into it, I found it probably the best of all time egg decoration books that I could ever use.

The tools are very basic. If you can be creative enough, it almost costs no extra money. The patterns look so beautiful and full of variations but are only composed by some fundamental strokes. I guess to most of the people, they, probably just like me, won’t believe that they can do it until they really try it out.

So this afternoon, I skipped my nap and did a couple of eggs. The strokes look not very even and certainly need more practise, but the outcome was exciting enough to encourage me keep going ahead. Now I am so looking forward to try a dozen more with different patterns, colours…. and now I had just realised how much fun I have missed out before today.

I am picturing myself in the position of blowing 2-3 eggs everyday and working on a basket of emptied chicken egg shells, like an old European lady wearing magnified glasses working on tiny little strokes. But by the way, the egg decoration ideas from this book are really different from traditional Eastern European egg decoration in Slavic culture, like Ukraine, Poland, Croatian or Czech. If they didn’t look better, I would say they at least just look equivalently stunning!

If you want to get your Christmas home decorations sorted before everything gets frantic in the last month, I’d say that probably now is the time.

This year, apart from doing the Christmas tree as usual, I actually want to introduce a few new ideas, something simple, practical and can function well to add joyful seasonal atmosphere into the house.

Let’s just start from something that couldn’t be easier. This is a paper project from The Long Thread. 3 paper trees with light blue snowflake patten and big letters printed on the paper. All you need to do is to download the templates, cut and shape them into cones, then lay them somewhere in a line, now you are set….sit and enjoy!

If you have a fire place, I think it is the best place to display them. I just leave them on the window sill, facing outwards so people from outside can see. I reckon the principle of “white on white” works perfectly in this case. So try any white surface to put them, you will be amazed!

This is a sewing project that I had finished a while ago. I didn’t mention it because it seems a bit of too “normal” and I don’t want to make it a big deal. To be honest, I don’t know how many people really use a cloth peg bag nowadays, apparently we didn’t need one until the old plastic bag finally was broken two or three weeks ago. My husband thinks that plastic one was perfect and he seems really fond of it.

I hate that bag and wanted to get rid of it long time ago anyway. Watching it falling apart has been one of  the most pleasant and forseeable things in my life. I was like an evil holding this little “dirty secret” in my mind, and at the same time conceriving “a real peg bag” to just wait for the right moment coming.

Then I made it happen. I saw a couple of designs in the cheap dollars warehouse and also looked some interesting ones on the Internet, and believe me, some of them are really fancy. Finally I decided that I only need a basic one and comparing its look and function, apparently the latter weighs much more.

So basically I didn’t use any pattern, I just measure out the size that I wanted to make. The width of this bag was mainly based on the size of a baby cloth hanger that I had available in hands. I still used that old piece of fabric I had used in many sewing projects before and added it red bias tape as the decoration for the highlight.

It took me a second time to finish it. The first time I made the opening to sit below the middle, which caused a serious problem — it reduced the depth of the bag and held very little pegs. That was a very stupid idea and I do think I was just as silly as the bag looked. Then I fixed it by putting the opening above the middle, everything seems fine then, though I admit that the upper half is still not usable anyway.

See, I could have just kept quiet about this project to show my respect to my husband’s feeling (as he liked the old plastic one and didn’t think making a cloth bag myself very necessary and a terribly brilliant idea). But guess what, he went out to help me to hang the washings this morning, and he took the peg bag with him as I insisted. He seemed very impressed and found it quite handy and enjoyable.

My work was validated accordingly. So now, I am feeling quite motivated to share it with other people in my blog

This is something that even kids can make. I actually got the idea from one of the kid’s cooking books. My husband is not a big fan of sausages, but I get cravings from time to time. I have to say, I am always obsessed with making stuff with puffy pastry. They can create tasty, fun and quick snacks and making less mess in the kitchen.

So, here is how I did it, as most of people probably already knew about it. Cut the 1 sheet of  puff pastry to 9 little squares, in the middle sprinkle some grated cheese (I used tasty cheese), then sit one chipolata in the middle cross-way on top of cheese, then wrap left and right pastry sheet into middle to meet. They should overlap each other a bit. Insert a tooth pick to secure the pastry and chipolata.

Lay them on a lined baking tray, put in a pre-heated oven for 220 degrees and bake for 15-20 minutes or until chipolata cooked through and pastry turn to golden colour. Dip in tomato sauce or any sauce you prefer, and eat!!!!

Isn’t this easy? For a lazy day when you don’t really want to cook too much, maybe just make a tray of these cute things and have them while you are watching a DVD on the couch. Well, that doesn’t sound very healthy, don’t do it! Or, if you do, just don’t tell anybody!

Knitting, crocheting, sewing…..after having experimented all the stuff that requires a needlepoint job, should I really be surprised that I finally get myself into embroidery now?

I suppose that I shouldn’t be, but I still was. Look, my mom used to do embroidery, as most of women do at that time? I remember she did some flowers to decorate a pair of pillowcases, which was an exquisite piece of needlework and had been used for many years by the family. That’s how I get the impression about embroidery. An embroidery work is supposed to look like that, and certainly I got the feeling that I could never achieve it. So if I can’t, why would I be bothered even trying?

About 3 days ago, I happened to see some nice embroidery work on the net. Instead of being classic as Mom’s embroidery, they are just being as cute as I would ever wish. Suddenly my eyes are wide open to a new world. I realised that I don’t need to be good to do this, and an embroidery doesn’t need to be always as perfect or serious as what I see in mom’s work or in those traditional Chinese Art & Craft Houses.

In the following days, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of “I can do it”, so I picked up the needle, grabbed a book from the library, got a piece of felt and some cotton threads in the drawer, printed out some patterns (from Sibling Craftery), and started to stitch.

I have no intention to even match my mom’s job. I just want to create some cute stuff that can be used in my daily life or just functioned as a way to express my needs. I am very bad at getting evenly placed stitches and I was so frustrated with not being able to successfully doing a french knot so far, even theoretically I do know how to do it. I am still trying different ways to transfer a pattern onto felt fabric, which is very difficult, and I wondered if I only should have used only 3-4 strands of cotton instead of all 6 strands.

But that’s my Tweet Hearts Birds, a pair of birds facing each other chatting? They are not perfect birds, but they are very happy

We went to friends’ place for the lunch this Sunday. Before I got to their place, my mouth was already watering, thinking that we were going to have “Shao Ji Gong” (a kind of spicy chicken stew using rooster as a main ingredient), which I only tried once in my life back to 1998 or 1999 in Chongqing when I went to visit my boyfriend’s parents ( that boyfriend had been upgraded into my husband soon after ).

One of his best friends treated us in a restaurant with Shao Ji Gong, which was very popular around that time. I couldn’t remember what it tasted like, as to me the food from Sichuan almost taste the same at that moment, all very hot, looking reddish, being covered with half plate or bowl of oil, red peppers and chillies, rich in flavours and making you sweat. However, I remembered the name, a funny name to call rooster. It sounds more like a dish to cook SOMEONE (similar to Lao Gong) instead of cooking an animal.

Well, our lunch was very delicious. Our friend, the talented cook and hostess from Chongqing, absolutely embraced Sichuan spirit in her cooking. I ate a lot, claiming myself being someone “eating for two” and doesn’t give a damn to weight gain, as well as a way to show my appreciation to the cook’s fantastic work. The rooster meat, unlike what I have thought before being tough and bony, was very nice and tender. It was a satisfying meal for a warm Sunday in the early summer time. I kind of enjoyed rubbing my already pointing-out belly after the lunch and just not wanting to move much around.

That was what I did when we went out to the park in the afternoon practising golfing. I was wearing a black felt hat (kind of fedora style) given by our male host and just sat there in the park looking at another 3 persons swaying the clubs, either hitting the balls, or NOT, or watching the balls flying into nowhere or disappearing in the bush. I was not even fetching the balls. It’s an interesting thing to observe how people response to their first try. I wondered at my age, if I would ever develop my interests towards something after getting a lot of frustrations rather than successful experience. It takes a lot to have self-control to just focus. In terms of that, I really admire our host. He is very persistent and I just felt quite guilty for us being not good companies of him after about only half an hour’s practising.

Anyway I took a photo of his historic golf gears. According to his wife, he dug them out from his father’s garage. I reckon it must have something in there way too much than what I can tell.

The other day I was on the phone with Jessy who happened to just have a look at those new photos of my new craft project — the red paper roses. Apparently she liked them, as she asked me if I have any other good paper craft ideas to try out. I told her “yes”, but as a matter of the fact, I realised that I am not just having a positive answer, I actually have many many ideas hovering in my head, which not only make me feel compelled to tell, but also make me feel a bit of “overloaded” at this moment.

I had to write them down eventually, then I found that there are at least 6-7 of them on the paper. No wonder!!!! I am kind of mixing them all up and don’t know where to start now.

So I have made my decision today. I will only concentrate on one project at a time, and the one I just had a test-out yesterday was a paper dome ornament. Here is the link.

It would be ideal to use a bit heavy paper, especially if you want a big sized ball.  But seriously, you almost can use any weight of paper, magazine paper, printing paper, scrapbooking paper, card stocks. I hoped that tissue paper or newspaper haven’t passed through your mind, as they are going to make the whole ball too fragile

The instruction is very clear and assembling is easy too. Just be as creative as you can get. Try different sizes  or different colours for different circles, or use different paper patterns, or embellish a plain colour dome with decorative stickers, like lady bugs, butterflies, stars, sparkling stuff, glitter……whatever you can think of.

A paper dome ornament can be hung anywhere, or just put on your desk, on a shelf or several in a row on a window sill. Comparing to those paper roses I made, I know that they are probably not so much functioning as free-formed decorative pieces, but it is an interesting project and you will be certainly amazed by its construction. If you are also interested in the math behind this, check out this diagram below. Now we are back to high school age, aren’t we?

I always like the savoury version of almost everything. I think in my body, there must be something going on and requiring me to provide salt all the time. I was never a fan of sweet food to solve a starving situation in my life. When I was really hungry, I don’t go to a lolly jag or a cookie tin to haunt my target. I would rather spend another 5 minutes to cook something on the stove with salt or brew a bowl of instant soup than munching a piece of dry biscuit.

That’s the motivation behind all these savoury buns that I made this Sunday. I got to try them out. Not just they look funky and kind of skill-demanding, it’s also because they make me smell something, something with the aroma of cooking oil, shallot and salty meat. The minced meat looks like tiny little stars scattering on the white background. I can remember many many years ago in the canteen of my uni , they always had these things available, even though they looked slightly different. We had to be quick or go there earlier, otherwise, there won’t be anything left.

The way to make these buns was interesting enough to keep me focused. Roll a dough to 3 big skin-ish pieces, brush each piece with oil, sprinkle with shallot, minced meat, then stack 3 layers together. The next step is to cut out this three layers piece of pastry into many thin strips (about 15-18 cm long), then wrap a bundle of strips together to form the shape of the bun. It’s a bit hard to handle the minced meat from falling as well as forming the strips together from falling apart, as not all of them sticking well on the pastry. However, I managed that part.

The buns look very cute and extremely complex if you don’t know how they are made. It’s more like an artistic work than a cook’s job. When I’ve got them all cooked in a steamer, I can smell it, a kind of very nice smell. However, I have to say that I did miss something there. I should have sprinkled salt on each piece separately, instead of trusting the cooked minced meat’s own salty flavour, which is just not salty enough. So, next time, I will make them better.

Well, I admit that my mind is too busy and I just can’t allow it to be idle.

Recently I found quite a number of pretty things made of paper. Many of them are very practical to do it yourself at home and would be a great decoration to add a bit of touch into your daily life.

I highly recommend this one — paper rose I found at dozidesign. She has written up a detailed tutorial to show you how to make them. I had so much fun making them myself. It’s easy, cheap but so beautiful. It’s a décor that costs you almost nothing but would last forever.

I used one sheet of dark red A4 printing paper (about 80 -85g weight) and it works quite nicely. I actually picked up some branches outside yesterday afternoon on the way home. Yes, I am probably a very odd (if not crazy) person. I felt like I was like a mother bird gathering all the branches to bring them back to the nest but hey, if you seriously look outside, you will find plenty of beautiful branches on the ground and they look much better and more natural than those sold in the shops.

I don’t have any great tips on how to roll the paper, but I have realised that apart from using varied sizes of paper to make roses, you can also alter the spiral shape, such as drawing a square spiral instead of a round spiral, which actually gives the final effect more pointing petal-liked, rather than just a spool of rolled paper. You can compare the difference from my photos. I reckon that it makes a rose looks more like a real rose. But maybe different people have different opinions on this one. It’s totally up to you.

However, if you do using square spiral, rolling is a bit tricky, you probably will end up with a bigger sized rose and not so much sticking up together like those round ones. But I believe that you will figure out your own way to roll it up and once you did, it looks just perfect.

You know, I am very bad at flower arrangement (I actually have some reputation and history known by my husband), but with this one, no matter what you come up with, it always looks gorgeous. Remember: You don’t really need many flowers to make it work – “Less is more”.