Wednesday, November 24, 2010

WOYWW 77

wow, wednesday and here we are dashing down to Julia's blog to try to get the no 1 spot. Then we all go snooping to see what other crafty goodness is on everyone else's desk. Why dont you come join us?

This past week has been very busy, but today I'm hoping for lots of me time (aka snoopy bloghopping).




Short post this week. On the desk today: Christmas cards, foam balls that i am going to create with and a lovely scrapbook album that i found on a shopping trip to Aydin. Believe it or not, I am actually using the desk like this to make cards this week. Too busy to tidy...maybe next week!

Have a wonderful wednesday.

Friday, November 19, 2010

purple parsnips or carrots?

As Bayram (festival) draws to a close I found myself going through the fridge trying to work out what needs to be cooked now and what can be kept for later.

At the weekend market I bought a turnip and some rather unusual carrots.

The orange ones are my normal variety, but i couldnt help buying a handful of their more colourful neighbours. I felt that a week was long enough for them to linger in the fridge, so I thought I would boil up some turnip and carrot to make a mash as a side dish.

However, when the timer went off this is what i found (and halloween doesn't come round again for another 11 months....)


The purple carrot at the bottom had turned the water a lovely shade of purple, so not sure what the mash is going to look like at the side of the beef stew, but it tastes a little more like parsnip/turnip than carrot.

Oh well, such are the joys of living in a different country. Sometimes you find the most unusual things.

A big hello to Ann my new follower.

More crafty posts to come later, once i have tracked down my awol mojo.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

WOYWW 76

It's wednesday and that means Julia has a lovely list of ladies all linking to her blog and showing their desks. Wanna join in? Click on the link and it will take you there.

My desk still has christmas stuff on it, although i really should be doing some birthday cards as i have a few in December.
Isn't it funny, once people know you make cards they get quite insulted if you send them a shop bought one. That is all well and good, but i just dont seem to have enough hours in the day to make all the cards i need.



This post was prepared Sunday, and the photos were taken on Monday night actually because it is Bayram here on Tuesday so that means Tuesday and Wednesday we will be round at my mother-in-laws. Death by over feeding, but it all tastes so good. My diet is so not happening this week.

Incase you are wondering about the tealights, we had a power cut at the weekend, and i decided to leave them handy incase the power went again. Might investigate OTT lights when i am in UK.

The shoebox is telling me that it needs to be filled with more christmas cards.

Thanks for all the lovely comments last week. Sorry i never managed to get to everyone on Julia's list, it was such a hectic week. I promise to try harder this week.

Have a great wednesday, and happy hopping.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Did I really need to see that??? I think not....

OK, so it's Kurban Bayram here in Turkey today. That means that all over the country people are sacrificing sheep and cows. The point is that you are meant to distribute it in 7 pieces to 7 families in need.

We went to MIL's to pay our respects and eat and drink til we could no longer.....

but.....

what should meet me at the kitchen door (no pun intended) ......a whole cows head, already skinned....but still with the eyes. Eeeeyyyoooowww! Honestly, it was as big as my torso. And given that i am no waif....you can imagine the size....Needless to say I didnt ask what they were doing/ were going to do as I dont think i could stomache knowing.

And, as for the eating, really didnt feel all that hungry any more. Took my glass of tea and didnt venture into the kitchen again.

On the bright side, it was great to see most of the family in one place. That is no mean feat as DH is one of eleven! I didnt understand most of the conversation, but I got cuddles and kisses and it made me feel like part of the family.

Monday, November 15, 2010

red squirrels at Virgin Mary House

I was looking back at some of my holiday snaps, and i realised that i had not blogged about the Red Squirrels. I love squirrels, but we rarely see any red squirrels in Scotland (if we even have any left).

When my visitors were here in October, we went to Ephesus. Mum wasn't really in the mood for the long walk down marble roads so after dropping L & S off, we continued up the very winding road to the Virgin Mary house (2nd time for me in a week). But it is lovely there. So tranquil, no matter how busy it gets.



Only the raucous family of red squirrels were misbehaving. I managed to get a few shots, but to be honest most of the time it was just tail and a*** - not good blogging material. Everyone was laughing at the little critters though, and they seemed to be happy to cavort infront of spectators. It was almost like they were performing for the camera! Another reason why i love that place.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Turkish Craft Stash

I have actually managed to find some stash locally.





The red/black/brown flowers cost me ~50p
The hairband (i'll cut the felt flowers off) ~£1.20 
The vine ribbon (green, gold, silver) 3m cost ~£1.50
The rikrak (black,red,brown) 3m cost ~£1.50
Organza gold ribbon 25yd ~50p
pot of gold flower gems ~50p
sheet of gold/wine ribbon roses ~ £2.25
pink beads, white plastic flower ~50p
silver and gold waxed thread 1m ~ 20p

The shop had lots of ribbon and sequined butterflies/hearts etc so might be going back there. It is unusual to find anything other than ribbon here though, so i am quite excited.

I am going to use the rikrak for the weekly challenge on UKS, I'll post that later...but here are some anniversary cards i made earlier.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

It's Thursday...I think

My head is so not on right today, have you ever had one of those days where things just wont go right no matter how hard you try? Well, today was one of those....or should i say, yesterday was. Thankfully it is past midnight and i have managed to get past the day intact, lol.



Made this card on Tuesday, it is for a challenge that Spyder set for Quirky Crafts Challenges so i just had to play along. I used freebie papers (I'm getting good at this - huh!) The purple brads are actually card candy which i am becoming totally addicted to using. Used some twinkling H2Os and some sakura glitter gel pens and actually I'm relatively happy with the outcome.

so why not pop over and visit Spyder, she has some really fab freebie digital stamps and she posts a new one every wednesday.

happy hopping

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

WOYWW 75

Wednesday again, were there any other days inbetween this week?



This is my relatively tidy workdesk. I liked the freebie papers that much i used them again for a 21st card. The other card is a work in progress. I'm not sure that i am happy with it, well with the gold peeloffs and the chalking on the flowers and leaves anyway...it might evolve over the next day or two.

To the left is a pile of freebie papers, some adhesive gems (which i am truly begining to adore) and my trusty trimmer - CM.




I really do have a lot of freebie papers that need to be used up, some are still in the magazines. I'm getting better at using them, it pleases me when i see them on a page layout or a card, but does anyone else find it hard to make that first cut. Once they are no longer intact I can hack away without a care, but that initial cut.....well, say no more.....

Last week I managed all the blogs again, I am starting to understand why people dont like word verification! Will try hard, but I'm not sure I'll make it round to everyone this week because I have a few things on.

Happy WOYWW everyone, and if you are new to the desk-showing mania please pop over to Julia's blog to find out why we are all addicted...

Monday, November 8, 2010

Marvellous Monday

It's Monday again, so must be time for another UKS weekly challenge.

I managed last weeks challenge by the skin of my teeth. I stayed up last night to finish the layout way into the wee small hours. Wont be doing that late again, teaching 8 year olds after that little sleep is not something i wish to revisit!

The theme was out and about. We live 20min from Bafa Lake, one of the most tranquil places I know. Luckily eveyone who visits wants to visit, so it would be rude not to oblige.....





The layout is of my 2 gorgeous nieces, taken last summer when my brother and his family were over. I miss them more than i can say, but photos and layouts help...

We used a sketch, the bling is on the flipflop flowers and the blue bead below the dragonfly is a Turkish Nazar. The nazar (evil eye) fends off evil spirits, it is a protection charm. It is customary to give as a gift to visitors, babies etc which is a custom I love about Turkey.

Big hello to my new followers: Carolann, Bonnie and Debz.

Hope you all have a marvellous monday....

Saturday, November 6, 2010

pumpkin soup

I love autumn in Turkey because we get huge pumpkins in the local market. It is my favourite soup to make for winter. I have been asked by a couple of bloggers to post my recipe for pumpkin soup. So, here is how i make it:

ingredients:
1kg of pumpkin
2 onions
4-6 potatoes
veg stock cube
500ml milk
salt & pepper
butter

Peel and deseed the pumpkin then cut up remaining flesh into smallish chunks.
slice 2 onions into large chunks.
First fry up the onion in butter, then add the pumpkin chunks. On a low gas let the pumpkin sweat, stirring regularly for 20 min.
cut up 4-6 large potatoes into cubes and boil separately (as you would for mash potato).
Add the boiled potato to the pumpkin/onion mix
Boil 500ml water, dissolve the stock cube and pour into the mix
Add 500ml milk.
Add salt and pepper to taste
Bring mixture to just under the boil and simmer  for 30min. Beware, because there is milk dont let it actually start boiling. This will lead to disaster...believe me, I spent many a time cleaning overflow!

I tend to put the soup in a blender, but you dont have to. It freezes well so you can eat straight away or make it  and freeze it for a rainy day (when you cant be bothered to cook).

You could also add sweetcorn, carrot or lentil but i like it as it is.

When i visited WOYWWer artjen on wednesday, she had also posted a pumpkin soup recipie which is a bit different to mine. It tasted good ( i omitted the celery salt though - yack)! Incase you want to try a variation on the theme. Lets face it, there is always more pumpkin to be had!

Friday, November 5, 2010

Fantastic Friday

Well I managed to hop to all WOYWW blogs this week again. Very time consuming, but very very inspiring.

I wanted to say a big Hello to Kay and Jo, my new followers.

I have had a great day so far. Did a bit of housework, some washing followed by the last of the WOYWW hops. The sun is shining and it's about 21oC outside so a cuppa was in order and the mandatory cuddle with my dogs. They dont realise i sit out to have a cuppa in peace, they think i'm visiting them! lol!

Then..... i opened my email to find that my SIL had (as promised) sent me some photos of halloween. They were fab, but even better was the motorbike photos that she sent as well. I laughed so hard and ofcourse now I am wondering which paper to use because i just have to put them on a layout. Mum if you are reading this...the layout might be mine...not yours.



A peek of one of the photos I will be using. Layout to follow.....have a fabulous friday!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

WOYWW 74

It's Wednesday again...yay!




So, what is on my table this week? Just now, a card that i am working on using freebie papers. Well i had to have a little tidy up so that i could do some more scrapping. I can make cards in a mess, but i tend not to like scrapping in chaos. Somehow chaos finds me after i finish the layout though (snicker).



This layout was completed at the weekend as part of the team challenge for UKS.  The topic was ...What would you do if you had an extra hour?... my layout tells how i would go and spend it with dad and his dogs. (that isnt me in the photo, it's a neighbour's child I think)

It is a tradition that i do a couple of pages for mums (surprise...NOT) christmas pressie. What is on the pages is generally the surprise, not the fact that she is going to receive them.

Last week i managed to visit all 148 WOYWWers, apart from vicky #125 who's link went back to Julia's (the gatekeeper of all things WOYWW). Which is where you need to visit if you want to join in with our blog hop. But beware...it's addictive! So pleased with myself, although i did lose 3 days to the blog hops. I think there were only a couple that didnt let me leave comments, but i did have a good peek. What a fantastic creative bunch you all are.

Well, I'll try to pop round to everyone again this week - time allowing.  Happy hopping.

Fat Tuesday

Well it is still Tuesday (in the UK).... This week I managed to lose 1/4lb. Not much I hear you say....but you didnt see what i ate. Everything i saw basically.....

My excuse???....... None!

Today we did a habit audit, and it turns out that i eat for comfort, I snack attack and low and behold...I eat because it is there to eat! ...DUH!.... I knew all of that, but it is surprising how much it hits home when it is in black and white (or in digital figures on the scale infront of you).

So, this week I am going to change my habits. I am going to log what i eat, weigh it and calculate my points. That way I might have a fighting chance of losing some next week, but actually deserving the reduction in weight this time.

Had some ladies over tonight making christmas cards. I really miss the crops and classes that i used to attend in the UK. It is so nice to have some like minded people to share a hobby with. We are going to try to get together every Tuesday evening until I go back for Christmas.

A big hello to my new followers Sherry and Rhonda.