Saturday, December 31, 2011

"Pack up your troubles....

in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile" go the lyrics of a popular World War 1 marching song.
It is that time of year for making resolutions and deciding on our course in the coming year.
Rather than make decisions to eat better, exercise better, work better, all of the things we have meant to do and failed to do so many times, I have decided to try to live in the moment. "Seize the day", or  the moment, because that is when happiness happens, in little snatches, often unrecognized as we long for unattainable things or goals, keeping our eyes on the prize and missing the little bits of life that can add up to satisfaction.
In my six plus decades I have made mistakes and failed to meet many goals but it is only now with the realization that one's life no longer stretches "To infinity (and beyond"), in the words of Buzz Lightyear, each moment becomes precious, so this year I  declare that I mean to leave behind as many negative traits and thoughts as I can find within myself (and any pointed out to me by my  helpful family :D).
I shall keep this etegami before me to remind me of my goal.


May your resolutions stay with you for the whole year, if not, remember failure is just another experience we can take on board.




Wednesday, December 28, 2011

So that was Christmas,

And what have I done? to misquote John Lennon...well, cooked a massive Christmas dinner for 10, opened my gifts and promptly sank into a torpor, rising only to sling leftovers to the assembled hordes for supper and dish up the numerous desserts made by various relatives, friends and onlookers who were perhaps hoping to be treated to the spectacle of exploding people in the style of Monsieur Creosote of Monty Python fame, he who succumbed to the temptation of 'just a wafer thin" mint.) please do not look at the clip on YouTube if you are at all sensitive,
Leftovers are perhaps the chief joy of the profane side of Christmas or indeed any gathering where many are fed, the cook has days of the luxury of being able to say "just look in the refrigerator, there are leftovers there", thus freeing them from the responsibility of menu planning and preparation. One cannot be  held responsible if people choose to have pavlova washed down with cola for their meal.
Further to the saga of the  near and dear one on the Cave Man diet, I am impressed at how well he stuck to his guns and eschewed the many tasty starches thrust under his quivering nostrils, WILLPOWER! you don't see much of that these days. As an added bonus no blood was shed during the entire day and the whole family behaved themselves impeccably.
Enough of that, like the Japanese expression "Chlistmasu Caku" (used to describe a no longer nubile 26 year old woman, yes sexist I know), talking about Christmas after December 26 is really not very interesting so, on to...

                                        NEW YEAR!!!!!!


Which brings me to my new year etegami and the bold experiment of copying the original onto thin washi sheets and pasting them to postcards.




This is the original (sans the gold glitter I added after copying),




and this is the copy, the glitter did not scan well and the colour changed a little bit but altogether not a bad way to go. It allows me to send a card I am happy with to more people and that is A GOOD THING. ( I am suddenly in love with capitals it seems, not shouting, just excited! oh, and exclamation marks).

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

A whisper of wings...

Just a little homily from Keats to remind everyone that this is the season of good cheer (as well as good beer) and may all the strangers you meet in this life be angelic.


Happy Christmas everyone.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Scrooge McPig

Not everybody is looking forward to Christmas, and as we contemplate our festive boards groaning with ham and pork, spare a thought for the pig. As Homer Simpson once famously remarked,"Bacon, ham,sausages, a talented animal is the pig!" (or words to that effect).


May your festive boards groan with goodies but just take care that it is not you who are groaning from overindulgence!
One of our party who shall remain nameless is currently following the "Paleolithic" diet (no carbohydrates, i.e. bread, potatoes, pasta ) so meat will feature very heavily on our table this holiday season. Whether he intends to catch and club his own I cannot tell but what is true is that by following this high protein diet he has reduced from about 95 kilos to 73 kilos in just a few months. I wonder if Christmas cake, trifle and potato salad will seduce him away from the diet?

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

One cicada does not a summer make...

We are having an unusually cool damp start to summer here and that is a "good thing" as Martha would say. The Prof may yet get his baked meats for Christmas dinner.
The weather may be unreliable, blame 'La Nina', for the weather pattern we are experiencing, but the cicadas have drilled their way to the light on cue and  are droning on in the background.  To mark this wondrous annual event I have revisited my very first etegami HERE and tried a different approach, a bit overworked maybe but I can't help trying to see how far I can push the lovely velvety surface of the washi cards. The image is a bit fuzzy and the colour is off, I think it is time for a new scanner.


Saturday, December 10, 2011

"Don't come the raw prawn!"

Yep, in the Aussie vernacular, 'to come the raw prawn' is to behave despicably, the etymology of the expression escapes me, why a raw prawn? why a prawn at all? Aaah, language is a beautiful thing.
Never mind, the prawn (shrimp, ebi) in my Christmas etegami is well and truly cooked and honours our tradition of a casual summertime approach to Christmas dinner which is likely to be a barbeque featuring seafood. There are a few die-hards like the Prof who want the full disaster, the baked ham, pork, chicken and vegetables followed by some kind of stodgy dessert...dream on I say! It is hard to get excited about slaving away in the kitchen when the mercury is above 30 degrees Celsius.
All of this is merely a preamble to explain my Christmas etegami. This year I am trying a bold experiment, printing the original onto thin washi, pasting it onto cards and sending them off (my printer jams if I try to print onto cards).
I hope no one is offended that they receive a copy but I just didn't have the time or energy to do individual ones and as 'they' say "it's the thought that counts". Maybe I have 'come the raw prawn'?



Anyway, to my friends who read or follow this blog, a happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas season wherever you are and whatever the weather.

Friday, December 2, 2011

What do you have for breakfast?


That was the question posed by Deborah Davidson for a mailart call on her blog HERE  and this was my response........

Unfortunately it is the awful truth that I eat more pills than food sometimes!   By a strange coincidence (aren't they by nature strange?) one of the other contributors shared the same Alma Mater, the Canberra School of Art, with me albeit 10 years later. Given that the number of graduates is pretty small compared to other places in the world and Debbie's blog originates in Japan, it is probably low odds that this would happen. It's a small blogosphere!