Change of Adress Card

Jasmina wanted to make some cards because she and her Mom moved last week from a second floor apartment to a first one with a backyard. She is so happy and asked me to help her make some cards for her friends.
I have a house stamp so we decided to use that for the card. Found a bicycle stamp as well. Since Jasmina rides her bike to school , we placed it in front of the house.

 It's a tri-fold card. She colored the house using colored pencils and blended it with oderless turpentine. Colorfull wrapping paper was used for the background and a ribbon to close the card.

Ready to be written.

Aren't they colorful?

November Zentangle Club: Christmas Card

The two tangles for Joni's November class were Verdigogh and Poke Root/Leaf. Since I follow this class from a distance, Joni told me they had made Christmas cards that afternoon; so here is my creation, this is the original.  I like to keep it black and white.

For the Christmas cards I made prints. Done some shading and added color to it.

 The prints didn't come out as clear as the original. Even though I used the highest printer quality.

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Weekly Challenge #48: String Theory v. VII: "Tri-Shapes"

This week is a guest challenge presented by Sue Clark.
For the string we had to use the basic shapes: triangle, square and circle. We should use tangles we haven't done before, so I tried: Ripple, Canard, Bateek, Bilt, Poke leaf and Daggerly. I chose them from TanglePatterns.

Spring time in November

After a fruitful summer, my blackberry bush is flowering for a second time in November!!!! In the last year we have experienced a warm and dry spring, followed by a cold summer with lots of rainfall. Then autumn was warming up again. Last week we still had temperatures around 18 C (64 F). No wonder that this weather is confusing plants. They think it's spring again.

Jasmina 10 years

Here is another cake I made this week for Jasmina's 10th birthday on 11/11/11.  She had a pool party with friends from school and I took the cake there. The kids must have been hungry from all that swimming. The cake was gone in 10 minutes.....

October Zentangle Club: Pumpkin

Joni's Zentangle Club Project for the month of October was to make your own pumpkin string.  Two of the tangles to use were Florez and Oof.

65 and Retired

Finally done the finishing touch to the Challenge # 45 tangle of last week and used it to make a card for my husbands 65th birthday.

Today was his day, well really Nov. 1, but we celebrated it today. Normally I only make birthday cakes for the grandchildren but for this special occasion  I made him one too.

September Zentangle Club: Leaf Shape

Last summer I followed two of Joni's classes while I was in SC but living too far away to attend her monthly Zentangle Club I could subscribe and receive the Zentangle Club Card and project by mail and send my tangles back to Joni to show the group. That way it still feels like being part of the group.
For September we had to do tangles in a leaf shape. My choice was a Gingko leaf.
The two tangles for that month were Baton and Artoo.

Weekly Challenge #45: New Tangle Punzel

I'm late finishing this week's challenge and then I noticed that I used Chainging instead of Punzel.  Well I will post it anyway and give Punzel a try later.
I made this challenge for my DH who turns 65 on November 1. I thought this tangle was perfect to create numbers with.
It's not finished yet. I think the numbers will show up more if I color it. Will do that later.
Here is the tutorial for both Chainging and Punzel.

Fun Time

Quincy and Owen spent a weekend with us. Their mom and dad needed some time out without kids.......
The first day I took Owen to Rotterdam on the bus and went to the Maritiem Museum. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera.
Leroy took Quincy to work with him. He had begged him already a few times if he could help out in the kitchen at his job, so this was a good day for it.

But what to do the next day when it is raining?..... Perfect to make cookies and make a surprise dinner for their mom and dad. So here is my little baker Owen...

....with his oatmeal cookies

and my big cook Quincy....

...with his own homemade healthy pizza with a lot of veggies but when he was ready to eat he picked off all the veggies.............KIDS.....

Carrot Cake with Banana

Mostly when I make a kids birthday cake I use a carrot cake recipe. Most children I know of love carrot cake.
For the Lightning Queen Cake cake I changed the recipe I normally make a bit and added bananas to it and omitted the nuts. It was delicious and a succes as the cake was gone in a minute.
Will add a picture later as I haven't made one of the cake itself.
Cake:
4 eggs
200 grams light brown sugar
200 ml sunflower oil
250 grams flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
300 grams grated carrots
2 ripe bananas mashed
60 grams chopped walnuts

Frosting:
50 grams butter
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
100 grams cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanille extract

cake pan with removable bottom, greased (Ø24 cm)

Preheat oven to 170 C (350°F)
Grease and flour cake pan.
Into a bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.
In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs and the sugar together until pale and thick.
Whisk in the oil and vanille extract.
Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Mix well.
Then add the carrots, banana and walnuts and stir until well blended.
Pour the mixture into the cake pan.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Cool on a rack.

For the frosting - beat the butter and cream cheese together, then add the sugar and vanilla. Spread onto the cooled cake.

Lightning Queen Cake

The little benjamin of our grandchildren, Ryan, had his 3rd birthday Saturday. His Dad had organised a private pool party and everybody enjoyed it.
I was asked as usual, to bake the cake and made the Lightning Queen (Cars). I used the Frozen Butter Cream Transfer again as I did with the Iron Man cake last year. Only I added cream cheese to the butter cream this time. This freezes and thawes well also, without the colors bleeding.
For the cake I used a carrot/banana cake recipe.
The cake was gone in a minute.

I really like this FBCT technique. It's easy but time consuming though.

My daughter likes to try out different cake recipes and she made two cakes as well:
a chocolate brownie cake:

and a lemon cake:

And then it was time to blow the candles

Mommy cuts the cake:

And I'm the first one to eat my piece

Then it was time to swim

The carrot cake recipe can be found here.

Weekly Challenge # 42: Hope

 October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and "Hope" is this week's challenge.

"Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today".

 Thich Nhat Hanh

Weekly Challenge # 40: Pinwheels for Peace

September 21 was International Day of Peace so this weeks challenge is to create a pinwheel of peace. There is a great  project which is called Pinwheels for Peace.

 This is an art  project which started in 2005 by two Art teachers, Ann Ayers and Ellen McMillan in Florida, as a way for students to express their feelings about what’s going on in the world and in their lives. The project was quickly embraced by their students and the entire school community and by millions of art teachers, teachers, parents, children and adults who desire peace in our world. I've never heard of this project and I think this is a wonderful project especially in the world of today.

Here is my part for this challenge.

Please help us spread the word about this project Thank you!

Fruit, fruit ,fruit....

If it's time to pick blackberries it's time to make jam. My blackberry bush carried a lot of fruit this year.

 When I made this picture, they were not ripe yet but it took a couple of days and then it was picking time.

Also a man in our neighbourhood brings me fruit every year. He gets it from a relative who has an orchard and  has so much fruit every year, he cann't use it all so instead of selling it, he gives it away.

I love when the man comes, ringing the doorbell  and calling out: "the fruitman is here!", his  car loaded with fruit and the best part ......it's organic.

I tried different recipes and I will post two of them which I really liked.

The first one is: plum marmelade with cardamom and walnuts. My first thought was: walnuts in marmelade? No I don't think so....but I gave it a try and it was good. The cardamom gives a special flavor to the marmelade.

Plum Marmelade with Cardamom and Walnuts

1 kilo plums, halved, stoned

5 cardamom pods

100 grams walnuts roughly chopped

800 grams gelling sugar

* Mash the plums with a stick mixer, add the sugar and stir. Let stand for a moment.

* Crack cardamom pods, take the seeds out and grind them using a mortar and pestle or use a coffee grinder.

* Add cardamom and walnuts to fruit mixture. Stir over low heat until sugar has completely dissolved. Bring to a rapid boil and boil for about 4 minutes.

* To test if the jam has set, remove the jam from the heat and place 1 teaspoon of jam on a cold saucer and put it in the fridge. When cool, drag your finger through the jam and if it leaves a channel then the jam is ready to be bottled. If the jam runs back together return to the boil and try again in 2 minutes. Skim off any scum.

* Pour into hot sterilized  jars and seal. 

* Invert jars for at least 10 minutes then turn upright. This will create a vacuum seal. Let cool.

The second one is:

 Butternut Pumpkin Apple Marmelade

600 grams butternut pumpkin
400 grams apples
1 lemon
800 grams gelling sugar
1 teaspoon Bourbon vanille or vanille sugar
± 200 ml. water

* Peel the Butternut pumpkin and remove all the seeds and fibers, cut into cubes.
* Peel apples and cut into cubes.
* Add water and cook for about 15 min. or until softened.
* Mash with a stick mixer.
* Grate zest from lemon,  squeeze juice and add to the pumpkin/apples.
* Add gelling sugar and bring to a boil.
* Boil for 4 minutes and then test in usual way for setting. (See recipe above)
* Pour into hot sterilized jars and seal.
* Invert jars for at least 10 minutes then turn upright. This will create a vacuum seal.
* Let cool.

This was my first time using pumkin to make marmelade and it was delicious. It also makes a nice gift from the kitchen as you don't find this marmelade in a regular store.

Weekly Challenge #39: "Love is all you Need"

This challenge is in memory of 9/11. Since that day the world has changed. Hatred, it's a word we've heard so much since then.  I believe in  “Love is more powerful than hate”.
This heart of love is for our cousin Hazeline who had to run for her life on that terrible day. We are so thankful that she is still with us today....

Weekly Challenge #38 "Better than a Pair of Ducks"

I decided to participate in the Diva's weekly challenge. Laura Harms aka I am the Diva  started this for anyone who likes tangling, regardless of skill level.
So I thought I give it a try. This weeks challenge is to use only Paradox. Here is my first attempt in this challenge.

The next one I messed up. I had wanted to add a border around it but the Paradox didn't show well so I just colored over it  and now it shows too much black and it's uneven....

 Maria commented and gave me a hint to use a white gelly roll pen to tangle over the black border. It sure made a difference. Thank you Maria!

Flower Quilt

After I took Joni's Zentangle class I got inspired to draw all the tangles (well almost all) I've learned in her class. I used a coloring page of a flower as an example instead of drawing a string. Is this cheating what I did? ;-) Well I think the petals can be perfectly used for practising the tangles I've learned. This is the result:

Zentangle class

When I arrived in USA, my next day was already planned. I was going to attend Joni Feddersen's Zentangle class.  She is the first certified Zentangle teacher in SC and she  lives only 25 miles away from my in-laws. Lucky me!!!! It was the introduction to Zentangle class. It was so much fun. We learned eight tangles.

These were the results

What I love about this is that we used the same tangles, same instructions but every tile looks different.

Tipple, Florz, Rockz and Crescent Moon:

Bales, Cadent, Zander and Hollibaugh:

Joni was so nice to make time, for Lisa and me, to teach the beyond basics class in the last week of my stay. We learned some other fun tangles:

Flukes, Nipa, Drupe, W2, Vortex, Paradox, Pepeer, Cubine, Ixorus and Knights Bridge

I have made Zentangle inspired art at home but taking this class one can learn so much more and now I could ask questions. Also learning how to shade I found very helpful. Thank you Joni for the two great classes, might see me again next year!

Joni's art can be seen here:

http://patternplaywithpens.blogspot.com/

and...do you see her necklace?...it's Zentangle too...