Challenges Report #3

Well for Dottie Angel's Challenge I have three items:
Wrist warmers from a ripped out knitting project of Sos'- her knitting had gathered dust for two years, but she really likes the wrist warmers.
Re-purposed item; we needed a coffee table so when its not snowing, we have one!

I found this paper bag in the rubbish, aren't the colours lovely? Just right for a quilt! So I kept it.

And now the Creative Every Day Challenge:

Sound:

Do you know Whitney Houston's song 'One Moment in Time'? The words are amazing (as is her voice, I think) but the ones i often hold before me are these:

Give me one moment in time

When I'm more than I thought I could be

When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away....

...When I'm racing with destiny...

Then in that one moment of time

I will feel

I will feel eternity.

Don't those words make you all tingly?!

Sight:

Watching goldfish is one of life's pleasures, well that and teasing the dogs. If you have ever spent time with fish you'll know what I mean- if you haven't you won't! My family all think the goldfish are a waste of space but I know better.

Do goldfish answer back?

Do they moan and grizzle?

Do you trip over them when they want something?

Do they whine in the night or bark at the moon?

See? Goldfish are good!

Scent:

Lavender and Orange oil in the burner...aaah!

Touch:

Making cushion covers from velvet scraps, gorgeous!

Taste:

(no photo, for obvious reasons) Burnt, purple, bean Casserole...my children said I should give the recipe to our local builder as being an Eco alternative to commercial cement...For that I made them eat it!

It was gross...

Challenge Update #2

So here are this week's updates for the Dottie Angel and Creative Every Day Challenges:

I love candles and candlelight so am always looking for new ways to safely have them around. I've seen pictures of punched tin holders so Nifty Thrifty here thought she'd try making one.

Firstly I removed the label, washed off the glue and scrubbed the tin well- I certainly didn't want 'eau de chilli bean parfum' wafting about later!

I used a nail to hammer a pattern of holes, but I think if I'd used a thinner nail I could have made more holes and a more intricate pattern.

I might add to it again but it was quite tricky stopping the tin from escaping, I should have used the vice, but the shed is too darn cold at the moment.
Apparently if you freeze the tin full of water it makes it less likely to bend, but I saw that in a magazine too late for my enterprise. Anyhow, its kinda fun.

Now my Creativity on the 'Body' theme for which I'm using the five senses:

Sight: my sister gave me a Tiffany Calendar for Christmas as I love stained glass windows. The pictures are beautiful and it made me look more carefully than usual at the windows in Church yesterday. I don't know the date of this window as it is in the side entryway, and rarely viewed. It depicts the story of Mary and Martha, one of my favourites. Since folks have been knocking our Church building around since the 1260's it's a bit difficult to find out the history- but I know this window is in a different style to the ones in the nave. Its beautiful.
Hearing: You know the way one can hear things over and over and then once in a blue moon the truth or beauty or irrelevance of the words suddenly hits one afresh? Well it was like that yesterday- suddenly the beauty of the words in Morning Prayer hit me as though I was hearing them for the first time (which I wasn't!).

'Beloved in Christ,

we come together to offer to Almighty God

our worship and praise and thanksgiving,

to confess our sins and to receive God's forgiveness,

to hear his holy word proclaimed,

to bring before him our needs and the needs of the world,

and to pray that in the power of his spirit

we may serve him and know the greatness of his love.'

Such a wealth of imagery and words!

Touch: On Friday I waxed part of the old wooden dresser, which is a very tactile job, and satisfying.

Smell: When it is frosty have you noticed how the air is just searingly cold and pure? And then there is a puff of turf or wood smoke from the chimney and it is startling in its intensity after the nothingness of the frosty air? Taste: A hot cup of rooibos tea after a couple of hours of hard housekeeping work!
After visiting some of the other 'Creative Challenge' people last week I think I'm on totally the wrong track. You should have a look (follow the links from the sidebar logo), there is some amazing artwork and esoteric writing happening out there. Obviously there are some very talented artists involved, not just silly people like me drifting along trying to add meaning to the everyday mundane stuff.

Ah well, c'est la vie en pays!

Items of interest?

Have you visited Dottie Angel and her 'challenge of the utmost kind?'For one year I have challenged myself to buy only handcrafted or second-hand goods for my house and my own closet. I plan to get creative with whatever our home or my wardrobe may require over the coming 365 days.'

Tif encourages anyone who thinks they could do this to join her and sign up. I've been considering it and I think it's a great way to work on saving the planet, not wasting resources, think twice before you buy, recycling, reusing, and all those other good things we are encouraged to do.

Our household recycles all the waste we can, we compost, we try not to spend money on things we don't need although with three children that's more of an economy thing than environmental! We tithe to the Church and Charities as the Bible tells us, since God too, is plenty interested in us minding His world and its resources. I try to grow some of our vegetables, and intend to plant fruit trees, we've insulated the house to within an inch of its life and heat almost entirely with wood fires. We combine car journeys in and out of town and do no unnecessary driving, although some days it feels like all I've done is drive the roads of Leitrim and Sligo!

But I still think there must be more I could do and this sounds like a fun way of figuring it out! Saving resources should came so naturally I don't have to think about it, and for it to be sustainable it should also not detract from the quality of living.

So along the same theme I have also signed up to 'A Year of Living Creatively'.

Lots to think about anyhow!

Quilters' Cookbook- see the button on the sidebar? I got the e-Cookery Book Friday and have been wondering what to try first! The ultimate eye candy because there are quilts AND recipes!

Yesterday I used a Crock-Pot Chicken recipe from it and it was rather tasty and economical on time too.

So there you go!