Painting, Illustrations and a New Video

Well. I have been busy doing many paintings and illustrations and I thought it was about time I shared some of them.
I have joined a Facebook group called weekly character design and absolutely loving the prompts. Below are some of the illustrations I have created.

That last one was a present I painted for my 4 sister' for Christmas. They each loved theirs.
Now, I thpught I wpuld try something new and started a YouTube channel. I recently created a few simple Valentine's cards. And actually suitable for kids to create too.
Here is the link to it in the "heart card" text below.

                                   Heart Card   

 I am going to link this to Paint Party Friday too. Haven't linked in quite some time and you will find the direct link to PPF to the left.

Would love to know what you think of the little video.
Until next time
Lots of it
Mandy
XXX

Minty Kinrda Sauce

Monday is Recipe day.
There is so much delight in growing your own food. I love being able to just go out to the back yard and pick some greens and make a delicious sauce.
So excited as well as I splurged and bought this wonderful whiz bang food processor. It is so powerful and a joy to use.
To be honest, I can't tell you exactly what I put in but it was roughly as follows:
Couple of bunches of mint
Some Thai basil, not very much at all
A large green chilli (take out most of the seeds)
Squeeze of lemon juice, you could probably add a bit of zest too
2 cloves of garlic
And some olive oil
Salt and ground pepper
The beauty of this is, you could just about add anything to it, or take away from it.
It's just basic ingredients.
Take out the chilli if you like, add basil instead.
It's just green mushy, but the mint is oh so easy to grow and so refreshing.

Until next time
Lots of it
Mandy
XXX

Another Big Catchup

I have been busy. Drawing and painting mostly. Experimenting with different mediums and would you believe I have actually sold 3 little pieces I have done. So very exciting. I adored the pieces I did and s happy that the recipients loved them.

I am linking this to Paint Party Friday.

Will get back int my weekly blogging next week...

Until next time
Lots of it
Mandy
XXX

Huge Catchup

It has been a bit of a few weeks.our family as a whole, have been very busy.
We were lucky enough to have gone on an adventure to Bali, staying in a beautiful 5 star hotel, and attending the wedding of my lovely niece and her partner, Zoe  and Luke.
The whole family went, and so many of my extended family...it was truly a magical experience, and one which we will all cherish for our whole life.

This took much planning, as it was our first holiday overseas, so we needed passport, luggage, travel insurance, immunisations, locks, money had the be exchanged into Indonesian rupiah, we had to get wedding outfits, and summer clothes, and all the medical organising was full on, with scripts needed and letters for every medication we all needed to take.

But we did it, and it is done.. including all our very first plane ride.

                                                        the beautiful bride and groom

                                                          the view from our hotel room

                                                   arghhhh...hoe do these things stay up??????

sunrise walks were stunning

                                           indeedy do, I sipped cat poo coffee...yuk!

visiting a temple. we all had to wear sarongs and cover our knees

                                                      a trip to one of the islands and i got a couple of little bracelets off this sweet little girl. she did the peace sign, which is what I do....
   

Ok.
Recipe
I cleaned out all of my food cupboards and decided to use up some of what I had n them.
I made three lots of muffins. They all pretty much had the same ingredients, except the fruit used.

2 cups of flour (I used wholemeal plain and added a spoonful of bi carb soda)
pinch of salt
Teaspoon of cinnamon
Mix

In another bowl
2 eggs mixed with fork
Spoonful of vanilla paste
1/3 cup vanilla yoghurt
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup honey

For the banana muffins
3 mashed bananas
Walnuts sprinkled on top

For the Apple pie muffins
Jar of apple sauce with chunks
I left a little to add in and stir through the top of the muffin.

For the Blueberry muffins
2/3 cup extra of vanilla yoghurt
1/4 cup oil
1/3 cup dehydrated blueberries soaked in water that just covers them
I drained the water before adding to the mixture.

They made 34 all up and provided a week's worth of snacks.
All of this was free, as I had everything in the cupboard and fridge.

Nothing today on the home schooling front. Will start that again nxt week.

Frugal living....look at the recipe above. All free....
My message is, use what you have...you'd be surprised at what you can create.

Home and Garden.
This week, I planted about 20 potatoes. I dug up the raised garden bed with the help of the boys, and got all the roots out. There were so many. I removed the soil, place black plastic on the ground and added half of the soil back. I then placed a couple of bags of potting mix and compost and planted he potatoes.
I then can't very them with potting mix, compost and manure, up to about 20 cm, and then sugar cane mulch over the top.
Can't wait until they start to grow.

And finally, art.
I have been busy creating a piece weekly, in the 52 weeks Illustration challenge, and this week I was taught but he lovely Penelope, how to edit on snapseed. .

 Some produce from the garden yesterday

                           Final birthday money spent on these gorgeous peter Alexander harry potter pyjamas.


Well...that's it for now.
If you are visiting from Paint Party Friday....welcome....
And thank you all for popping by...you can find ppf link to the right.
Until next time
Lots of it
Mamdy
XXX

Busy Busy and Almond and Vanilla Cake

Seems I am busy...well....lots to do...and to make matters worse, everyone has been incredibly sick. We know at least the kids have had influenza A. It has been a snot and cough fest here, filled with bouts of nausea. Oh joy.

So, my one post for this week will have a bit of everything in it.

Here we go.

Recipe for this week was absolutely delicious.
It is an almond and vanilla cake...sooo good.

I made double recipe and tweaked it a little

I use
3.5 cups almond meal
1.75 cups dessicated  coconut
2 cups organic raw sugar 
Pinch salt

I melted 1.5 bars of butter(about 400 grams or just under) cooled
6 very large eggs
A huge gloop of a teaspoon of vanilla paste

Mixed the wet together.
Mixed the dry together
Mixed them together and placed it into a lined tray.
Sprinkle as much slivered almonds on top as you need to.

The oven was preheated to 180(fan forced)
I cooked it for just under 50 minutes.

I had a piece hot with sprinkled icing sugar. 

Original recipe is here

Also this week, I got. Ahead start on the next prompt word for the 52 Week Illustration challenge was "bucket list" . My immediate thought was to do a picture of me getting ready to travel. My first journey coming up soon, heading to Bali for my nieces wedding. My irrational fear of flying will have to be placed aside and I am actually heading off in a plane. 😱

I am also a firm believer of marriage equality. So a little #watercolour was done ...

I have nothing on the homeschool front...the twins have been so incredibly sick...

That's about it for the week. If you are visiting from ppf, I appreciate your lovely comments...you keep me inspired to paint and draw. Thank you.
And to anyone else who visits...thank you too....would love to hear from you...xxx

Until next time
Lots of it
Mandy
Xxx

Deep

Well....still no crafting. How I long to get a crochet hook out or some knitting needles, or even get the material and sewing machine out. But, at least I have been able to paint a little bit. I am really into illustrations at the moment.

I have a few to share with you.

The prompt word for this week on my 52 week Illustration challenge is "deep" . 

The first thing that came to my mind was me, in a very deep hole, looking up and hoping someone would come and rescue me.

But.....that would have been boring, so, I then decided that deep also meant to me, way below in the ocean. So, I thought, mermaids....you know I am very partial to my favourite painting I ever did...my breast feeding mermaid with the little baby with its long hair.

So, here we have it.
It is painted in watercolour, then zentangled over the top with white posca pen. Then I drew and painted the rest, and collages them onto the background. I am quite happy with the result.

When You Wish Upon a Star

I then thought I would like to try something different, so, I got out my water colours and splashed on some bluey greens colours. They looked all lovely and oceany. They were left to dry overnight....

I then searched images of whales....these two are kind and baby ones, cross between a whole lot of whales, but I am thinking blue and sperm.

Such a fun process, and I am pretty happy with how these both turned out.

Feel like I have plans for some more....thinking killer whale and a sweet dolphin.

If you are visiting, thank you so much....would love for you to say hi. If you are from ppf, I am looking forward to visiting and checking out your work.

That's it for today....just so busy lately...need to spend time working with the kids...a little to catch up on...

Until next time
Lots of it
Mandy
x

Update on my $50 challenge.

I almost made it to two weeks only spending $50 dollars each week. But, I spent $170 on Monday. I had too. We needed some meat, and some snacks for the workers, and some vegetarian patties and some cheese, and, well, you know, these things add up.

It was a challenge, but I am sure I could do it again in a month. Two weeks with only $100 to spend.

It did save me lots of money, so I think it was definitely worth it. We still have sooooo much in the cupboards it's not funny.

I have 00 flour, so I can make some fresh pasta.

I have tins of chick peas and bags of lentils, so there are still plenty of vegetarian meals to be made in that lot.

Now, onto the next money saving item.

I am planting potatoes in the garden soon.

Potatoes are no good when you partake in the paleo way of eating, however, it's only me doing that, so planting them will be very useful in this house, and you can cook and enjoy them so many different ways.

I will be using some wire in a circle to hold the soil in, then add soil to it as the plant grow.
I will also try them in the ground and see how they go. I have one packet of seed potatoes. Hopefully that grows into many.

We have been lucky this season to have loads of mandarins, oranges and lemons. They are still on the tree, and this has been such a saving to us as we don't need to buy citrus at the supermarket. It's so good and easy. Potential savings there for sure.

I mentioned above that I spent $170 
I spent a little of that on snacks, and I am not too happy that I bought them. They cost a little bit but also, they are processed. I haven't bought processed foods like that for a while ....I am crazy not o make them myself, sorom now on I will be.

I am thinking muffins, popcorn, maybe a healthy paleo slice, which I always have ingredients for.

What are your go to recipes for snacks? Would love to hear about them, or show me a link to a recipe.

What are some of your favourite ways to save money?

Until next time
Lots of it
Mandy
xxx