Every piece of art being created is so much more than the visual outcome alone...it's the journey not the destination.

Monday 27 April 2020

Day 27 To Day 31 Of Lock-down

Day 27 - Wednesday (22 April 2020)


A lovely quiet day of doing nothing.  You know like one of those days where you just don't want to think and just be.  Spending some time watching some videos on Earthship living.  'Earthship' is a house that has been built with some (not necessary all) recycled materials for example old tyres and a lot of the people owning an Earthship also practices permaculture.  Permaculture is agricultural systems that focuses on interrelationships and sustainability of natural ecosystems. 



I am really fascinated by this building method quite honestly wouldn't mind living in an earthship.



The videos have been extremely interesting and showing where you can produce quite a bit of food in a small garden through permaculture.

Had a lovely relaxing day of doing absolutely nothingness and watching videos.

Supper time came and I made vetkoek (you will find the recipe in a previous post) and curry mince.

Day 28 - Thursday (23 April 2020)


I went to bed really early last night as for some or other reason I just couldn't keep my eyes open.  I suppose subconsciously a lot of thinking is happening too.  So basically it was not physical exhaustion, but more mental tiredness.

Played a little bit with watercolours making blobs and want to work with some ink on top of that sometime.

Adrian went out to the shop for some bits and pieces and forgot the most important thing on the list...electricity.  We should have electricity to last us through to tomorrow and thus decided that he will pop out tomorrow morning for that.

Naturally when him or Jason comes back from the shop we have this whole cleaning and disinfecting routine.  So I spent quite a bit of time on wiping and disinfecting all the bits and pieces...even the bananas got sprayed with some Jik solution and rinsed off.  

Jason asked me if it would be possible to make some face masks for us all.  I had to hunt around for some material, eventually found a duvet which I can cut up and the duvet is cotton rich.

A while ago, I think shortly after lock-down started I searched online for some mask ideas and patterns which I saved.  I showed Jason the picture of the pattern I had and that was exactly the one he also had in mind.  I printed the regular size pattern, cut it out of material and started sewing it.  I probably finished it at around 2h00am.  

Here is the link to the pattern of the Face Mask I used and below the video instruction which I followed should you be interested in making some face masks for yourself, family or someone else. 


  

Another great pattern is the Better Fit Face Mask, this is a downloadable PDF and below is her video instruction.



As it was so late, or rather early morning it was time to go to bed.


Day 29 - Friday (24 April 2020)


Slept in a a bit later as we went to bed in the early hours of the morning.  After we got up Adrian popped out to the shop to get some electricity and other bits which he forgot yesterday.  Once he got home it was the washing of the clothes he wore and then wiping and disinfecting everything bought at the shop.

This afternoon I sat and drew the patterns for the masks with my sewing chalk on the material.  Took a break and had an afternoon nap, which Da Vinci our youngest kitty naturally loved.

I discovered another channel on You Tube which I have thoroughly enjoyed watching while I am busy with the face masks.  The channel is called 'Sailing SV Delos' and it's a yacht owned by Brian.  The yacht has been sailing the seas for the past decade by Brian and his crew.  Brian and his wife just had a new addition to the crew, little Sierra and she is around 8 months old.  If you are interested you can follow their journey here.  


This is their latest uploaded video


This evening I cut out the patterns for all 11 masks and then stitched all the half sections together so that I am sitting with 3 sections for each mask which needs to be sewed together.  I was determined to finish all of this prior to going to bed, thus it was another late night and went to bed around 01h00.

Day 30 - Saturday (25 April 2020)


I can't believe that it is Saturday already, this week flew by at a speed.  To me, being busy with various projects makes the time pass by so quickly.  

Today the entire day my focus was on sewing all the pieces of each mask together, ironing it and doing the stitching on the outer edge to neaten them up while listening and partially watching some more of 'Sailing SV Delos' You Tube videos. 

This evening at around 22h45 I finished all 12 face masks.  I really pushed to get them done as there are other projects I would like to get to ... for example painting nr 5 in the series and I also had a request from the family to make more of the Chocolate Brownies.  So the latter I will tackle first thing tomorrow morning.

Day 31 - Sunday (26 April 2020)


Well, good morning beautiful Sunday!  Today was truly creativity in the kitchen as I didn't get to my studio to paint, nevertheless I had great fun in the kitchen.

First on the baking list was some Custard Biscuits.  Again this recipe comes from my trusty recipe book called 'The Complete South African Cookbook' by Magdaleen Van Wyk.

Custard Powder Biscuits

Makes +/- 40 biscuits;  Prep time 30 min;  Cooking time 20 min.

Ingredients:

225 g Cake Flour
110 g Custard Powder
110 g Icing Sugar
225 g Butter or Margarine
1 ml (1/4 teaspoon) salt

Decoration Optional:  Halved glace cherries

Method:

1.  Combine the flour, custard powder, icing sugar and salt in a bowl.
2.  Rub in the butter or margarine, blending to a smooth dough.
3.  Roll little bits of the dough between the palms to form balls the size of walnuts.
4.  Place the balls on lightly greased baking sheets and flatten them slightly with a fork.  Place a halved cherry on each.
5.  Bake in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit) for 20 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.



My result

Next on the baking list was the Chocolate Blocks or also known as Chocolate Brownies.  I made the Marie Biscuits finer this time around.  Well, what can I say, another epic fail as it turned out the same as the previous batch.  I was not going to let a recipe get the better of me so I decided to make a plan.  I cut half of the Chocolate Brownies up in squares, put them in the Kenwood Chef and to that I added another 200g packet of Marie Biscuits and mixed it all up.  This turned out to be much drier.  I cut the other remainder of the Brownies into squares, placed them in the Kenwood Chef and added some of the dryer mix (to which I added the packet of Marie Biscuits) into the Kenwood Chef.  I blended it all up and then mixed the two batches together.  I put it into a flat baking tray and then pressed it down very firmly.  I put the baking tray in the fridge for about an hour.  Once I removed the baking tray from the fridge I placed some wax paper on top of the Brownies and then a wooden board so that I can flip it out onto the wax paper.  Miracles still happen as it came out of the tray in one solid piece.    I then used a sharp knife and cut it into squares.  The final result was perfect and tastes delicious.  I did some searching on Aunti Google and found a recipe that is very much like the one I have been using, the only difference is 2 packets of 200 g Marie Biscuits (compared to one packet in my current recipe).  Here is the recipe to the Chocolate Brownies

The final Chocolate Brownie result

This afternoon I also decided to try out a 3 ingredient recipe by 'Bigger Bolder Baking' for flat bread.  As the flatbread came out of the pan onto the plate I put some garlic, herb and oil mix lightly here and there with some salt lightly sprinkled over the flat bread.  This turned out to be absolutely yummy and I can highly recommend the recipe. 



You can find the written recipe here for the Flatbread With Only 3 Ingredients.

I trust that you had a great week.  Remember keep creative as it will have a positive effect on your mental and emotional health during lock-down.

Take care and keep safe.

Sending you love and light. 
























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