Raining dogs and cats

Here's something for all animal lovers. It gets funnier every time you watch it.

I also found a feline version on YouTube by the same poster. Almost as funny I think.....

A good day

This morning I had my first ever meeting with a local retailer who is interested in stocking my jewelry. It was a lot of work beforehand putting together a presentable collection and working out terms, prices etc, but it paid off, as she is going to be selling my range from October! Chuffed to bits! Will keep you posted.......

On the grill

Saw a recipe in a women's magazine for grilled tortilla wraps that I had to try out and I loved them. As always I 'tweaked' it a little to adapt to what I had in my fridge. Ingredients for 4 wraps:

tortilla bread
1 avocado
half a red onion
mozzarella cheese
grated cheese
mache lettuce or rocket/ruccola
cherry tomatoes
fresh basil leaves
lemon or lime juice
salt and black pepppar

Chop all the ingredients and lay them on the tortilla. Sprinkle with lemon/lime juice and season with salt and pepper.



You may want to put a little less filling in them than I did!



Roll them and secure with a couple of toothpicks and lay them on the barbecue for a few minutes each side until browned. Keep an eye on them though, as they don't take long.

The mozzarella melts and becomes lovely and gooey.....

Staycation

Having a staycation this summer and am enjoying it immensely. I've bought lots of lovely plants for the veranda and my favourite has to be the gorgeous pink hydrangea.

Alice's Birthday Bash Spread

My little Alice turned 15 last week and what better way to celebrate than with cake. There was lots of it too as we couldn't quite make the choice of what to make, so we made them all. Triple layer chocolate and raspberry cake with chocolate fudge frosting, blackberry and strawberry pavlova and Alice's speciality - cupcakes.

The chocolate fudge frosting was especially nice and I am writing down the recipe below in order to be able to find it here in the future:

50g butter
200g dark chocolate
3 tbsps double cream
half a standard tub of philadelphia

Melt the chocolate and butter together by stirring slowly over a double boiler of simmering water. When completely melted stir in the cream and then the philadelpia and stir in thoroughly. It's good to soften up and stir the cream cheese first before adding it to the choc mix. Allow to cool slightly - but not set - before spreading out on the cake.

These cakes aren't edible although they look yummy - they're made of felt and I ordered them from an Etsy seller. Hoping to do a tea-party themed jewelry display with them in the future.

June glorious June

Is there anything better than these lovely Swedish summer days? It is just after midsummer here and the evening light is gorgeous. This photo was taken on my veranda at 8.30pm this evening and it was still 27 degrees. The barbeque and rosé wine added perfectly to the atmosphere. Cheers to many more similar evenings......

I own a relic

A while ago on Tradera (the Swedish version of Ebay) I saw this little guy for sale:



It's a cat bead from Ancient Egypt and I knew I had to have it! The seller could provide authentication and details as to its background - that it was part of a lot of small Egyption artifacts sold by a collector through Crafoords auction house. Here is the whole lot - my cat is in the top right corner:



The bead is at least 3000 years old and could even be much older. It's carved from stone and is so tiny. I keep it in a little box as it's too small to display - one sneeze and it would blow away!

On Etsy's FP

Just got notified that my marbled blue glass earrings made it onto a spot on Etsy's front page. Chuffed to bits! click on this screenshot to take a closer peek:

Pomodoro and Procrastination

Had lunch with my good friend E yesterday. I talked about my inability to get started on tasks and carry things through. E told me about the Pomodoro technique - a structured method to 'enhance focus' - working for 25 mins, then taking a break. And you use a timer for this.

I am definately going to try this out. Soon all my projects will be finished and my life will be clutter-free and perfect. Ha!

Here's a link to the Pomodoro technique and even and online timer if you need one.

Experiments with silverclay - part 2

Now that my pieces are thoroughly dry, it's time to fire them.

I placed my metal clay piece in the middle of the firing brick. You need a clock nearby for timing the firing and also a glass of water and metal tongs within easy reach. For safety reasons I also recommend wearing goggles. Make sure the place where you fire is well-ventilated - I set up a little station right by the open door to my veranda.

Ignite the torch and hold it at a 45° angle, about 4-5cm from the piece. Keep moving the flame over the piece. You will see a small amount of smoke and flame after a little while (this is the clay binder burning away), and then the piece will turn white. Keep the torch moving over the piece at all times. After a while you see the piece glow. When the piece turns a peachy-salmon color, begin to time the sintering cycle. Holding a sintering temperature (the peachy color) is important as it is sintering which joins the particles of silver together to create a strong and solid mass. Without this your piece will be brittle.

Sintering time ranges from about 2 to 5 minutes, depending on the weight and size of the piece. My pieces are quite small - about 1 cm across and 2 mm thick - so I held this temperature for about 2 and a half minutes. Increase or decrease the distance of the torch from the metal clay piece, depending on whether the color intensifies or fades. If the piece begins to look shiny or if you see sparks, the piece is near the melting point and you DON'T want this to happen. In this case just move the torch further away from the piece.

Immediately after firing, I used my metal tongs (tweezers will also do) to transfer the piece into the glass of water right next to the brick. This is called quenching. You can also move your piece (using a tool of course NOT your hands) to the cooler edge of the firing brick, and allow it to cool completely.

But whatever you do, DO NOT touch the piece until it is fully cooled!

At this point the piece will be white and still look like clay. Brushing and polishing, in the next tutorial, will bring up the lovely silver shine.