Raven's Diary

The painters have finally left! 1 day job turned into FOUR! Eish. But now the fun begins….for me. Putting everything back AND acquiring a little something new here and there. But I’ve had some brilliant brainwaves I’d like to share….yes to show off a bit *blush* I’m just so chuffed with myself. My previous theme was red and chocolate and I have these cute little red glass candle holders I just did not want to throw away. On a trip to a marvelous all sorts store I found some sticks which has the most gorgeous green and sand hue to it, matching perfectly with my new theme! So I immediately knew I could rescue my cute little candle holders and voila it worked out beautifully. See pic….before in front – after behind. And don’t you just LOVE my new table runner. I’ve seen it in pictures before and then I finally found one for myself. Gorgeous! Then I was sad to put away my silver placemats. BUT….yes indeedy somehow by some miracle another brilliant idea popped into this pretty little head of mine and voila….some more creative magic appears. More simple you cannot get. I took black paper, a compass, drew a circle then cut it out with a patterned scissors. Glued the paper to the placemat and for extra bling glued a glass bead to the centre. I absolutely love it, can’t believe how WOW it is and fits in perfectly with the entrance hall theme. That pillow is also so awesome! Could not resist! Another idea I’ve had for years I have finally implemented! The simplest DIY project ever. Buy a tin of blackboard paint and paint any surface and voila you have an instant blackboard you can chalk messages or your shopping list on. I’ve called it my Doodle Door! I think it’s FAB. I still have a way to go to add more finishing touches; I’m having so much fun!

So I finally got to try this recipe and it worked out nicely! Credit goes to an Afrikaans magazine I unfortunately cannot remember name of, sorry, I took mobile snapshots of it.

Makes: more or less 30 biscuits

Preparation time: 15 mintues

Baking time: 50 minutes

Oven temp: 160 degrees

Ingredients:

65ml or 65g margarine

10ml marmite

75g milk powder

1 large egg beaten

500g whole wheat flour

125ml biltong powder

Steps:

1. Mix margarine and marmite in big bowl with 220ml warm water.

2. Add milk powder until smooth

3. Add the flour and biltong and egg little by little.

4. Kneed the doughy mixture til ingredients stick together

5. Roll out to about 1cm thickness

6. Use cookie cutter and press out the forms

7. Place onto greased baking sheet and place into oven

8. Once done let it cool to harden

9. Store in airtight container

10. Voila…furchild has healthy homemade snack!

…So I’ve started taking art classes. I thought that it would be relaxing and no pressure and revive my creativity! Boy was I wrong…about the relaxing and no pressure part. This isn’t for sissies. The first lesson we were thrown in the deep end to draw a toilet roll inner – yes you read right. One would think ah what’s in a toilet roll inner? Well let me tell you there’s apparently great artistic value in a toilet roll inner. In short – the shape lends itself to the perfect example of tonal value shadowing. LOL – sound easy? I must say I was freeked out as I don’t like or take crits very well and to be immediately have a teacher watch your every pencil stroke and then swoop in to erase a thick line, is scary.

The homework was to draw a full toilet roll with side light in a dark room…well another daunting task. But I did it and it came out pretty good.

Following lesson was to draw your own hand. Let me tell you, holding your own hand like a hand model isn’t fun…my hand went blue eventually. But I, and teacher, were quite impressed with results. I was finally looking as if I had some potential.

So now I await the next class to see what challenge follows…this teacher does not know baby steps!

What an experience. This was set up by a mutual friend and it was quite daunting for me to know that I would not only assist and watch a pro at work but spend several hours in someone’s company I had never met before.

So the day arrived and by 12pm sharp we were on the road toward St Francis bay, the location of the wedding. We quickly got chatting about photography stuff and I asked all the burning questions I had racked up over the weeks prior.

Liza is such a lovely young lady and we had fun chatting up a storm while a storm was brewing outside. Rain on a wedding day, not exactly ideal but worst case scenario for any photographer and I was relieved first that it wasn’t my client wedding AND that I would get to learn some tricks if it were to happen to me. We arrived very early to a very nervous bride and started snapping away at her shoes and flowers. Time flew by so quickly then that in no time we were already rushing to the venue, beautiful golf estate.

The ceremony was held in a conference room with NO lighting besides a big door opening right in front of the bride and groom. So Liza stood in front getting good closeups with natural light bathing them from the front and I struggled a bit at the back. Was good practise though and I had enough time to test out shots and settings.

The petal throwing was beautiful. People lined an embankment with steps so it was a lovely long episode of petal throwing so we could get many shots. The very efficient hostess quickly got all 120 guests together for one moerse group shot and then by murphy’s law the rain started. So quickly some family shots were done and then we headed off to location. As we got to the jetty the rain stopped and the fun began with the lovely couple. They had very specific ideas as they chose and sort out all the locations themselves. I jumped in now and then and got a few good shots, Liza was very accomodating and didn’t let me feel I was in the way, which I am so glad for. The beach (well it was the tiniest little stretch of sand I’ve ever seen) shoot was the best for me, the background was just lovely with big rocks, stormy clouds and crashing waves.

Once that action was all over the rest of the night dragged on. The reception venue was not very well lit either so was difficult to get great shots. We did what we could and then we were out of there. The drive back in the rain was quite scary but we chatted all the way, specially about the chocolate eclair ball cake thingy that we both just wanted to dig our hands into, yum. Now the hard work starts to edit all the photo’s…

I’ve just learnt how to make fudge and now I’m totally addicted for the rest of my life!!!

On one of our adventures we landed in a small town for some snacks and bought this divine thick chunk of homemade boere fudge, it was heavenly, and I’ve been dreaming of going back there, just for that fudge!!! Since then I had wondered how difficult is it really to make my own? Then I discovered in a recipe book that a very very dear friend gave me a few months back, THE fudge recipe. I can now call it THE fudge recipe as first time it worked like a bomb and I can’t stop eating the delicious melt-in-your-mouth blocks of heaven…

I won’t be selfish and keep this secret to myself…here’s the recipe:

1 tin condensed milk

500g castor sugar

125g butter

5ml vanilla essence

5ml vinegar

Grease 25cm square heat proof dish.

Large hard plastic bowl. Throw in condensed milk, castor sugar, butter. Microwave 100% 2 minutes. Mix well. Microwave 100% 5 minutes. Stir twice during that time. Microwave 70% 8 minutes. Stir every time mixture rises – this happens alot during that time. Add vanilla essence and vinegar. Beat well quickly. Pour immediately into greased dish. Cut into squares with wet knife before completely set…and voila….mmmmmmmmFUDGE!