It's mine, but you can have some.

Another arts market today, and it went pretty good. I shared the stall with Sharon this time, and that was a good idea.

Another brainwave had called this new kind of monster into existence yesterday, and I couldn't stop hugging them, whilst Sharon fantasised about making them walk on their stringy legs. Fun alround!

52/9 - Easter bread

Well, this was supposed to be a create52 post, but it doesnae seem to be working at the moment.



So here goes. In Germany, my cousin can usually be relied on the make a scrumptious vegan easter bread big enough to feed a small country, so that everybody can happily spend the easter weekend eating. Here, I'm on my own, so I had to finally get off my bum and get my own.

I used this recipe as a starting point, but couldn't be arsed with the potato faff in the dough, and left the prunes out of the filling. I added about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of toasted oatmeal, to thicken it up, though. Oh, and I halfed the recipe, as well.

If this doesn't make sense to you, here's the recipe:

Dough:
500g flour
100g sugar
100g (I think) margarine
1 packet of fast action dry yeast
about 3/4 cup of handwarm soyamilk
Mix everything together and leave to rise, either in a warm place for a couple of hours, or over night in the fridge, which is what I did.

Filling:
3/4 cup pecans, chopped and toasted
3/4 cup poppy seeds
3/8 cup sugar
1 heaped tablespoon of margarine
1/4 cup soyamilk
1 1/2 tablespoons of oatmeal, toasted
grated zest of one lemon
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon



After it's risen, split the dough in 3, roll each third into a rectangle, spread with 1/3 of the filling and roll up. Place the 3 strands onto a baking tray and braid them - you can stick the ends together by brushing them with a bit of soyamilk.

Bake for about 50 mins, at gas mark 4 - I turned it down to about 3.5 after about 30 mins, though, to avoid it getting too dark.

Ice with a simple icing sugar/ lemon juice mix.



As you can see, it split a bit during baking. If you want to avoid that, maybe keeping the dough quite thick and the rolls quite loose might help. It tastes yummy, anyways!

And the final 25:

76. Make some paper.
77. Have a computer-free day each week and actually stick to it.
78. Paint a mural.
79. Decorate a flat.
80. Find a butterfly pupa and keep an eye on it until the butterfly hatches.
81. Go on holiday to Norway.
82. Watch a lunar eclipse with Nils.
83. Write a Wikipedia article.
84. Be an expert in something.
85. Grow my hair really really long (it probably won’t play along, but I can try, at least...)
86. Once my hair is really really long, cut it off on a New Year’s day.
87. See the Leutratal orchids.
88. Learn about edible weeds.
89. Make jam.
90. Stay in Frogg Manor’s Lady Guinevere Suite.
91. Re-read ‘Die Söhne der großen Bärin’.
92. Find somewhere that has fireflies.
93. Make a donation to a worthy cause.
94. Train myself to just know what time it is.
95. Make my own cough sirup.
96. Figure out how proper pop-ups work and use the knowledge in books of my own.
97. Own a bonsai.
98. Own a grandfather clock.
99. Make a kilt for Nils.
100. (Cheating again:) Actually do everything on this list.

100 Things to do before I go: Nos 51 to 75

51. Stop being scared of spiders.
52. Grow some mushrooms.
53. Try out moss graffiti.
54. Have an environmentally friendly toilet.
55. Live completely without sugar for at least 2 weeks in a row each year (including weekends).
56. Dye something using plant dyes.
57. Own a craft room.
58. Have a garden with a vegetable patch.
59. Never own a TV again.
60. Make some really fancy truffles.
61. Read the Communist Manifesto.
62. Take Nils and Mike to the Fairytale Forest by boat.
63. Own an insect hotel.
64. Learn to recognise common birds by their songs.
65. Find some ant lions in the wild.
66. Learn to recognise birds of prey by their shape.
67. Make a herbarium.
68. Learn about animation.
69. Own some designer wallpaper.
70. Try out Fastenwandern.
71. Knit something bigger than a scarf.
72. Finish my granny square blanket.
73. Have a big kitchen, preferably with some humongous antique kitchen furniture in it.
74. Sleep outside again.
75. Keep Emmeline running for at least another 5 years.

100 Things to do before I go: Nos 26 to 50

26. Visit some other buildings designed by Hundertwasser.
27. Make some buttons and use them in a project.
28. Learn how to do basic html magic.
29. Do some voluntary work.
30. Get the silver fencing award.
31. Learn to ride a horse.
32. Earn actual money from selling handmade stuff.
33. Make some wine.
34. Make some beer.
35. Teach my gran a new skill.
36. Live in Germany, at least for a bit.
37. Invent a holiday and celebrate it annually.
38. Finish this list :^)
39. Build another pinhole camera.
40. Make a wedding dress for somebody.
41. Have pets.
42. Get family and friends to contribute to a book.
43. Start and finish a project other people benefit from.
44. Be unreasonably kind to strangers for a whole day.
45. Teach a child (not my own) a skill.
46. Make [a vegan version of] pelmeni from scratch.
47. Own some snowdrops.
48. Go sledging.
49. Translate ‘Room on the Broom’ into German.
50. Go somewhere from where you can see the Aurora Borealis.

You started on yours yet?

100 Things to do before I go

Recently, this lady posted about 100 things she wants to do with her life, and of course, as these things go, challenged all readers to do the same.

I've been thinking about it ever since, and have finally started my own list. Here's the first 25 things. Some are of course more likely to happen than others, but I've tried to keep them as realistic as I could.

So, go on then, your turn next!

1. Build a kite and fly it with Nils.
2. Learn a musical instrument (Like, properly, with a teacher’n’stuff).
3. Learn another language.
4. Teach Nils how to cook.
5. Teach Nils how to sew.
6. Make some skin cream.
7. Make some ice cream.
8. Stay at Bad Blumau in Austria, designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser.
9. Sing ‘Dona nobis pacem’ with Jenn in the hall of the Glasite Meeting House, Edinburgh.
10. Start a family tradition and keep it going.
11. Bake my own bread again.
12. Build a doll’s house.
13. Learn how to re-wire a lamp.
14. Make some shoes.
15. Own an orchard.
16. Own a telescope.
17. Live in a place where it’s worth owning a telescope.
18. Sort out my driving license.
19. Stay on an island smaller than mainland Britain.
20. Grow a tree from seed.
21. Have another child.
22. Embroider some bed linen with monograms.
23. Be bold enough to introduce myself as an ‘artist’ to people.
24. Tat a piece of lace long enough to actually be used in something.
25. Make a hoodie and wear it to death.

We're on a roll!

*Another* great week here in Carmenland. I wonder what's goin' on. Maybe this year is trying to make up for the last one. I can live with that.

First off, Dave agreed to take my portrait, for the press kit I was supposed to put together. We went out last Sunday, and, though a bit weird at the start, wasn't anywhere near as bad as I expected it to be. And I did end up with a portrait I kinda like, too.

This was followed by me, after a week of chewing my nails, finally finishing off my bio. My relief at both these accomplishments was, of course, tempered a bit by the fact that I learned today that the gallery doesn't want them anymore. Oh well. At least I've got them now. I'll prolly put at least the bio up on my Carmenland website (which links to my etsy shop, but otherwise is very boring and currently also horrendously out of date...).

Fencing was really quite pleasant this week, and followed by (finally!) a brainwave. I'd been meaning to make another skirt for ages, but just couldn't decide what kind of fabric to use. On Wednesday night, suddenly it was very clear to me that it had to be light blue, with the lovely Elephant trim I got a wee while back. Even Nils obliged and had a 3 hour nap, just so I could finish it. I love it so much!

And finally, today I went round Sharon's and we finally tried out the Gocco printer, as we'd been meaning to for a good two years now. Well, you know all those people raging about Goccos? They're right! It was so much fun! I'm addicted.

Enough of this now.

Japanese rabbits

Say hello to Mr Rabbit! That is an order! I ordered some books from amazon.jp, partly because it was such a crazy experience, and partly because the books looked cool. The one above is definitely my favourite. It's got the cutest mobile, like, ever, in it, and I just want to sit and make tiny strawberries all day! Ok, so in the end Mr Rabbit won over the strawberries for the first go (and, well, the second one, too...) , but just you wait! There shall be fabric fruit all over the place soon!

The other ones I got were this one (ok, but not quite as cool as I thought it would be), this one (lotsa cute cross stitch patterns) and this one (funny mostly for it's random bits of japlish, but with lots of cool stamps).

The most amazing thing was how fast they got here. They were only shipped on Monday.

Well anyways. Giddy with desire for corduroy slices of watermelon, I shall leave you now. Good night.