A right royal fruit cake fit for a pacific princess

I'm certainly definitely not a chef, I'm not even that fussed about cooking, and I'm not overly impressed by cooking prowess in others to be perfectly honest. It's about the company not the cooked goods that make a great occasion in my opinion.... I do enjoy the idea of sharing a meal with friends but I am slow to discover the joys of the preparation and such. And in confessing all this I must make clear that I am not judgemental of what gets dished up either.... ...but does that make me the perfect guest or a perfect pain in the ass? I do really like Fruit Cake - and I especially like that I am very much in the minority when it comes to desiring this style of cake and therefore when I treat myself it is my treat wholeheartedly and rarely am I forced to share. So this out of character post is in honour of my culinary exception - for those of you who share my Fruit Cake leanings. Have a crack at this, it's so simple its ridiculous. Take about a kilo of dried fruit, mix in a tin of crushed pinapple juice and all...I've also used pineapple pieces which worked fine tho too....- then soak it overnight in 2 cups of OJ. You could go the store bought sweeter style OJ but I tried to be all virtuous and use the oranges dropping off our tree which are nice but pretty tart so cake had a bit of a 'marmalady' flavour overall.....

Next day....heave all this juicey sodden fruit concoction into two cups of self raising flour (now I have also used rice flour with a couple of generous tea spoons of baking powder too....i have no idea why or what i thought i was doing but it worked fine - so go with whatever strikes your fancy or is in your cupboard...). Throw in a greased lined cake tin or loaf tin and bake at 180degrees for about 1 hr....or 45 min....or if your oven is like mine, start hovering around the 40min mark and check every 7 min thereafter until a skewer runs clean when you do the prod test.

My photography doesn't do this puppy justice....it's worth a go and for basically 4 ingredients it is a pretty slick safety net should you have a surprise visitor stop in for tea and cake (they'll either love you for it or never make the mistake of arriving unannounced and empty handed again!). xR

your best is good enough

Post by Gregg Braden.

I found this on Facebook over a week ago now and it got me thinking. 

I did lots of good things when I was growing up - an achiever in lots of little ways and in a couple of big chunky areas of life too. Lots to be proud of and enjoy. But I really don't remember feeling any great sense of happiness and contentment. My cello teacher used to talk about the idea of expectation vs attainment, the idea that no matter how hard you practised and improved, your perception of perfection or the expectations you held over yourself would always grow too. You would never catch up or feel satisfied with your performance.

I think this idea is ultimately very damaging if you aren't actively training yourself to accept a sense of reward or achievement too. 

I grew up wanting to be a world famous musician in a very select and specialist field within the Classical world. The reality of that lifestyle was absolutely not what would have suited me, but then even if I had been good enough (and I simply wasn't) I would never have realised it anyway! I would always have wanted to be more or better or somewhere else. 

 

Striving to be extraordinary meant that I never learnt the importance of contentment and my self-confidence suffered as a result. I wound myself up with so much judgement and expectation that it wasn't about ambition it was about trying to keep my head above that all pervasive sense of failure.

This morning on the radio I heard someone quote someone else...you know the way it goes....but as I recall the person had something to do with Andre Agassi, who during a particularly tough time in his life and during a low patch in his tennis career was told "Your best is good enough".....

Permission to feel proud of yourself and the fact that you have tried your best is very calming and strengthening. It gives you a secure mental foundation to accept bigger challenges or difficulties in life. It’s just good all round to feed yourself with good thoughts and kindness - it is something we tell ourselves to do for others so why shouldn't we do it for our own selves too.

I am getting into a little reading about mindfulness and I am enjoying reading people's facebook posts about the things that make them grateful. I am trying to unwind my stressful make up and take more pleasure in the simple things. Having a young family certainly helps and I hope that I can re-train myself to be able to teach my own children the difference between striving to be the best and striving to be the best you can be.    

magpie glam

stumbled across this in a fashion quarterly magazine and I thought it looked sweet and actually quite do- able.....a great way to put some of my scavenged junk jewelry to good use.

my beautiful 6yr old daughter has perfect wild princess hair - can't wait to get stuck into this with her on a rainy afternoon. 

speaking of rainy days and wintery things the whole magazine was a great read, chock full of rich regal fashion that was totally wearable yet still dramatic and interesting - I have a couple of formal things coming up which demands a huge change of look from my usual night time attire - lots of ideas in the 2014 winter edition of fashion quarterly - am imagining a sports luxe take with a homespun tiara on top. perfect.

Can I string you along for a bit longer?................

While I do miss my little craft classes things are certainly busy at home with my own 3 little people so I am very much loving the chance to focus on them at the moment. But no classes doesn't mean no more craft adventures and I am relishing having a little more time to explore different crafty arty stuff - and so - if you're still cool with it - I would like to share a few ideas with you guys via this Craft Dept. blog.

In addition, if I happen upon any really good worthwhile creative classes (for young or old) I'll definitely pass on the details and hopefully review them first hand as a participant - we have our spring time school holidays coming up here in NZ so definitely need to get myself and my kids out and about to check out what others are running in the way of creative classes and experiences.

It is also my hope that, until I find the perfect real-time space for my craft and art experiments, this can be our online Craft Dept. hangout.

So onwards with my first craft adventure and review......!

String Art

= such a 70s thing?....but I had to give it a go because I was convinved it would be pretty fun and fairly easy to achieve an interesting result worthy of sticking on my wall.

I've seen heaps of variations on pinterest etc and the complexity varies. Fiddly examples are certainly very striking but for the sake of my Craft Dept. objectives I am focusing on achieving something that is as striking as it is quick, and hopefully is simple enough that kids can also get involved too.

So with a nod to the whole font/ typeface art and design trend happening at the moment I've based my first 'attempt' at string art on 3 boards each featuring the first initial of my 3 kids names. After much fluffing around I ended up using "Times New Roman" font - so a very classic look perhaps but I encourage you to be more adventurous!

so here's the how to =

Ingredients:
9mm particle board cut to preferred size - use thicker or thinner whatever you prefer
Spray paint - I used white gloss
Embroidery Thread - I let my kids pick their colours....so they chose a variegated purple, blue & a green. I would have gone for a solid colour myself but the colour variation/ shading actually created a cool shaded effect, so I'll have to suck it up this time!
Bullet head nails - 1.1 x 12mm e.g tiny silver variety

Tools:
Computer + Printer
Hammer
Pliers

1/ Create your image or letter/word etc on the computer - enlarge to the desired size and print.
(NB. go for strong distinct silhouette - nothing too twiddly or fiddly!)

2/ lay printed image onto your painted (& dried) particle board - hammer your bullet nails into your particle board following the outline of your image i.e. you are nailing your print-out to the board.
(N.B. I used my pliers to hold the small nail in place while I nailed it in - this helped me get the nails fairly close together in even spacing - a helpful technique if you're keen on closely spaced nails).

 

3/ once you've nailed all the way around your silhouette carefully pull away the paper image so that you are left with just the particle board surface with the silver nail outline.

4/ start stringing! slip knot onto first nail and start looping it around opposing nails - I went for random angles and tried to avoid looping string around nails directly opposite for example....I would also recommend fully looping the string around the nails to help fix the string.
(NB. you can go for more regular patterns by following a consistent pattern or formula when crisscrossing).

In summary - this is what I discovered and how I would rate this 'craft' activity....

Time Friendly:
7/10 - a fair bit more time consuming than expected, the time consuming aspect being the hammering of the nails, so the less nails and less intricate your design the quicker the project.

Kid Friendly:
7/10 - have scored a bit low here because in reality there is quite a bit of adult involvement in this craft if little kids are involved....e.g. printing the image, possibly helping them to select appropriate image, then nailing in the nails.....but after all that there really isn't much reason the kids can't go for broke on their own stringing the stringy bits... again the less nails = the younger the kid as a guide I'd say.....probably best with kids 5yrs+ but really big kids and patient adults could go for more nails, cool intricate patterns, and/ or multi colour effects.....

Wall Friendly:
8/10 - I was actually really impressed with the end result - I have my E, G & M on some shelves in our family room nestled amongst some family photos, the TV and other junk.....

Overall I encourage you to give it a go - its a good way to use up some random quirky scrap wood, or even drift wood with that cool coloured fishing nylon could be quirky beach house art chic, or any interesting textured wool or yarn remnants....!

Good luck - x Rebecca!

(keep me posted on how you go if you decide to try some string art and what you think of this 'review' of course - would love your feedback - cheers!)

Stickin it to Collage

This is my attempt to make lemonade out of the total lemon effort my collage classes turned out to be. I do apologise for dropping the ball on spreading the word for these sessions and not getting them happening but I lost steam after the third week of hideous sleeplessness courtesy of 3 snotty sick kids.

Anyway..................I'd love to know if anyone feels inspired to do something collage-like with their kids after reading this, and if you were to forward some pics for my Gallery of Awesomeness - that would be totally stunning! It would certainly help make me look less of a lazy lady, so help me if you can!

Collage is......An artistic composition of materials and objects pasted over a surface, often with unifying lines and colour // A work, such as a literary piece, composed of both borrowed and original material. // An assemblage of diverse elements............... blah blah blah

Did you know that Picasso loved Collage? Eric Carle's Hungry Caterpillar = collage, Charlie & Lola, Bottletop Bill & his best friend Corky....collage (yes I watch a lot of children's TV).

Basically you'll be keeping good company by giving it a go and I can vouch for the fun factor my daughter & I had shredding the ridiculous waste of money that was our 2012 subscription to NZ Gardener Magazine.

I'm a fan of instant gratification so for a laugh we took some of the free printable files of famous artworks available online as our basis for our collage....I selected one of my favourite paintings Van Gogh's Starry Night, but I was equally drawn to that famous Mondrian work with the grid design with primary colour squares etc etc....

Here's the link to the files for your own interest.....  http://www.supercoloring.com/pages/category/artsculture/famous-paintings/

so here goes....

 

Good fun sticky stuff......and now it also feels good to have gotten this post off my chest so I can now move on to the next Crafty challenge with a free heart!!

PS. a few other ideas....
- use just text/ font....i.e. drawing the outline of your initials (big bold so lots of space for sticking within) then filling these letters in using cut out words and text that have meaning to you and describe your likes, wants, quirks etc....(could be an awesome confidence building project for a kid who is starting to read and recognise words etc...or a great Fathers Day gift?)
- younger kids could do this project but use cut out pics of things they love and which represent them instead of text.....end result will still be a lovely personalised piece.

POMPOM OLYMPICS @ The Library Cafe - Thurs 6th June 4.00 - 5.30

The Craft Dept is growing up and heading out into the big bad world - in fact we're now moving with the cool crowd at cafe's around Auckland and to kick things off we're at the best spot for kids and families in town - Onehunga's Library Café....

Session #1: POMPOM OLYMPICS
The Library Café, Princes St, Onehunga
4.00 til 5.30pm Thursday 6th June (ages 5+)
All materials, games and fun for 1.5hours @ just $17 per head.
All bookings & enquiries ph/txt Rebecca MB 0274666921



Dear KIDS
Come be a part of The PomPom Olympics. We'll be taking the old school pompom and mashing it up - Our PomPoms are going to be the fastest, funniest & most competitive craft experience you've ever had. You won't just make PomPoms we'll teach you how to make them in weird ways using weird things and it'll be super duper fast too....think huge and tinkly or tiny and sparkly or a few of each....it'll be up to you!

Then we'll let the games begin - the first ever Roly Poly Olympics - PomPom Petanque, PomPom Jenga, PomPom Snow Ball fights and a whole raft of other weird games.

There will be PomPom medals and prizes on the day and you will all leave armed with your new collection of pompoms and other game accessories for more rainy day indoor fun.

Dear GROWN UPS
I'm thrilled to be holding this session at the Library Café in Onehunga - it is a fantastic kid friendly environment that is as devoted to good food as it is to quality funtime for all members of your family. Thursday evenings are particularly special in that they are also currently running a 'Kids eat Free' promotion for Thursday evening dinners - I encourage you to stay on and enjoy someone else doing the cooking and cleaning up for once!

The PomPom RolyPoly Olympics session has been designed to provide your kids with some great indoor activity ideas that they can indulge in during these cold wet winter months. The humble pompom can have both quiet crafty applications as well as morph into a host of energetic but indoor appropriate games too.

By attending this session it is my hope that your kids will have fun and all those usual PC type benefits from creative play.....and all the while you can sit back, enjoy a coffee or glass of wine and watch it all unfold without worrying about who's going to tidy it all up at the end. All great ingredients for a good value night out in my books!

Hope this is of interest - places limited to 12 kids so please give me a call to book or make any enquiries.

Cheers Rebecca
MB 0274666921 

Hey good look'n what ya got cook'n

Massive announcement in the wings.....a major overhaul on The Craft Dept. set up in attempt to bring better crafting to the universe!!

stay tuned for big reveal this week.....

THE CRAFT DEPT. is coming to a venue near you!!!!!!

x R