Easter

Hope everyone is having a nice long weekend.


.............and it wouldn't be Easter without Easter Nests, ours went a bit odd with the chocolate overheating but with a bit of vigorous stirring, a night in the fridge and mini egg decoration they are now perfect.
I made some mini cheesecakes from a recipe in Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess, they are a bit of a flaff but taste v. nice!

Feeling better

After being off with ill kids last week, I have been ill for the last three days. I am feeling a lot better today and even chanced a cup of coffee (my first since Sunday).


So I thought I'd take this chance to have a blog catch up before the Vernal Equinox celebrations (Easter) begins.

No, I'm not being clever or Pagan, I just had to look up in my 'Wheel of the Year-Living the Magical Life' book by Pauline Campanelli, and found out some interesting thing's I thought I'd share -

At the time of the Vernal Equinox, eggs are used for the creation of talismans and were also ritually eaten. There is little doubt that clutches of eggs laid by many different kinds of birds in the Spring were a welcome dietary supplement to early hunter/gatherers after the spareness of Winter. It is also possible that gathering a variety of eggs from nests of birds by our ancient ancestors gave rise to two customs still popular today-The Easter Egg Hunt and coloring eggs in imitation of various pastel colors of the eggs of wild birds.

Ahhh, that makes sense now. I often wonder why we do these strange little rituals and my Pagan handbook always gives me the answer. I am not religious, but living in a Christian Country we (our family) observe most of the festivals in some way and I like to have a overview of why we (society) do these things and what the pre-Christian festival would have been.
It also puts a non-consumerist perspective on it all which is also something I am keen to pass onto my kids.
It's not all about chocolate, kids, but let's eat some while thinking about nature.


My book also gives the natural dyes for your eggs-

Soft Orange - Single skin of a onion
Deep Rust - A handful of onion skins
Sunny Yellow - One and half teaspoons of turmeric
Pink- Beetroot juice and vinegar or pickled beetroot juice
Robins Egg Blue - Vinegar and several layers of red cabbage leaves boiled with the eggs and left to cool overnight.

Might have to give it a go, I'll report back if I do.


In the postal receiving department I got a lovely matchbox full of buttons, plus extra buttons and this most brilliant stamp from Lia at Sleepyside Farm, I have stamped everything that's not moved so far, I'm now going to start on the things that do move!

Now, do you want to see what the Easter Bunny really looks like?

Sorry Dad, hehehe!

Leaves

Maybe it's just the time of year but I have been noticing leaves all around the place.

What is it with my Cats?

I know they are beautiful and I tell them often, but as soon as I get my camera out to photgraph my latest craft project one of our cats will appear from nowhere and plant themselves in the picture. I had to go away and make a cup of coffee before he decided that his photo session was finished.


I have been off work most of this week with sick children, they haven't been really ill, just a tummy bug that has meant that they were all floppy and haven't eaten all week.
But it has meant that we've watched lot's of films while I did a bit of crafting.

And for some reason I decided to make an apple today (might have something to do with watching 'Lazy Town' where apples are called sports candy). I was going to make tiny ones to put in a little basket I have but my first one turn out to be about 2 inches high. I like it, it's very jolly.

Nutmeg posing for the camera

What a Wonderful World

Thank you for all the journaling encouragement.

I started to practice on my journal and grabbed some felt pens and crayons and done a bit of colouring.


Now the reason for the title of this post is this.
I took part in a craft book swap on Swap-bot. This was back in October last year by December I was thinking that my partner had flaked and I wasn't going to receive anything.
Then the lovely Yoli contacted me. As the host of the swap she had noticed that my partner hadn't sent and she kindly offered to send me a book and this is what arrived.

Ginger checking out the 'Crafty Chica'

I have read it from cover to cover and loved it. It's full of encouragement to 'just have a go' and Kathy Cano Murillo seems like a really lovely lady. Thank you Yoli for such a lovely present.
My partner did send my book in the end, plus some extras to make up for sending late, thank you to her too.

I have been doing a lot of needle felting, trying to get some items finished so I can get my Etsy shop going.

When I grabbed the pens and crayons last night for my circle colouring I thought the colours I picked up were random, obviously not!