Actually finished something!

Wow, a rare occurance these days, but I have finished a whole entire quilt, albiet a small one! I tried a new method of piecing together the squares following a method I read about on Sew Mama Sew and, for once, my squares lined up! Amazed, and very happy :) Then I backed it with calico, quilted it very randomly and bound it with calico too and then gave it a wash to see what would happen and I have to say, I am very happy with how it's turned out.
I was a bad blogger and didn't take progress photos, but once it's all dry then I'll take a final pic and pop it up in here, and then probably on Etsy to see if someone would like to buy it :)

Beef Strogonoff: Katie Style

We ate at SIL's last night, she made Beef Strogonoff in her slow cooker and it was delicious. I felt inspired to attempt to replicate it this evening. I went to the supermarket on the way home, SP bundled into her sling on my front. I bought beef specifically for cassaroles, and sour cream, and detoured past the magazines and cookbooks and might have accidently bought the Australian Women's Weekly Macaroon and Biscuit Cookbook (click), attracted like a magpie to the pastel coloured macaroons on the cover. Also bought organic rice cereal for SP, only a month to go until we can try solids out! Say it ain't so!

When I got home I looked up the recipe for Beef Strogonoff on Masterchef (am completely hooked, Adam to win!), wrote it down and then went and compared the ingredient list to what I actually had available.

On the left in blue are the ingredients, on the right in black is thought process.

2 tbs sweet paprika (don't have any, doesn't matter, must visit Indian Grocer to get some)
100g flour (have it)
500g piece beef eye fillet (from the tail end), sliced into strips (erm... or just plain old cassarole beef)
¼ cup olive oil (don't have any, will use sunflower)
40g butter, plus extra to serve (have it)
200g Swiss brown mushrooms, thinly sliced (don't have any, nor do I like mushrooms, use capsicum, much the same, right?)
3 eschalots, finely diced (or onions maybe)
2 tbs tomato paste (oh. No tomato paste. Can of tomatoes blitzed with stick-mixer will have to do)
½ cup brandy (is there brandy in strog? Who knew! Replace with cheap white wine)
1 cup beef stock (have it! Hallejujah! But it's frozen, attempt to hack off half with knife. Big fail, too hard. Put into a pot with boiling water to defrost)
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce (have it!)
1 cup crème fraiche (I thought strog was made with sour cream, guess not!)
2 tbs extra virgin oil, to serve (as ^^)
baby parsley, to garnish (have, but not trekking out into the garden in the cold and drizzling rain to get it)

Then the beef stewed rather than seared, and stuck to the bottom of the pan, and I spilt water all over most of the bench, and the onions seemed exceptionally oniony, and SP didn't want to be left to watch Masterchef on her own, so, basically, nothing like stroganoff at all but quite nice overall. And I ate it with baby peas and rye toast.

For the real recipe click here. I intend to try it sometime!

Hopeless!

That's what I am, hopeless at this blogging thing!

What's news? Well, the Small Person (SP) arrived on the 24th of February and one of the first things I learnt was that when you have a baby, your world really does revolve around them. Intellectually, I knew this, but the reality was even more than I realised. SP is my delight, my small, rolling, squeaking, never-sleeping-for-over-30-minutes-during-the-day delight. She has become the centre of my universe, but such a nice squidgy centre she is. Almost 5 months already, I can hardly believe it (my ears, however, tell me she is most definitely here and getting louder by the day!)

D and I have also bought our first house. A little 1950's asbestos cottage painted entirely white inside. It's my blank canvas, as is the yard. There are no trees on our land, not one! Needless to say, my mind is filled with grand plans for the yard, a fruit-tree filled wonderland with apricots, mulberries, blood plums and figs, with an understory of roses, correas, daisies and thyme. What to do with the inside of the house is a bit more of a mystery.

Anyway, I will attempt this blogging thing again, and hope to write a little bit more frequently than every 5 months. Wish me luck!

It's been far too long...

Wow, I last wrote back in June 2009!
So what's been happening since then?
Well, my boy and I went overseas to Japan for 4.5 months and came home just before Christmas. The trip was meant to be a wee bit longer but Fate intervened and we found ourselves expecting our first baby who will arrive any minute now. I took paints and paper with me, I was determined to get creative, but the creativity manifested itself in endless writing in my journal and buying copious amounts of Japanese cotton fabrics to bring home; the paints went unused but my credit card certainly didn't suffer the same fate!
Since we came home I've been sewing like a madwoman and finishing quilts I had started before we left. I did a couple for friends' babes and I finished one for our own baby. Then I started cutting squares and arranging squares and rearranging squares and making them into neat, numbered piles and stitching stitching stitching and building up a stash to put online to sell. I have finally opened a little shop on Etsy and hope to have the quilts listed there soon - provided I'm not waylaid by the arrival of the Little One! Also on offer will be some fabrics, purses, and of course my dolls and monkeys. I'm still working out the kinks but I think I'm getting the hang of everything now :)
Come in and have a browse:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/heartsinasia
Here's a sneak peak of the kind of quilting I do:

Kanazawa

Suppose I should write some sort of updatey thingum. I was feeling all inspired a few hours ago, but now... gone; brain off into the ether.
One family member is off in search of snacks, the other busy flinging themselves into my internal organs.
We are in Kanzawa, something-or-other prefecture, central Honshu. It's pretty cool actually, the train station is spectacular. I'm no architecture-nut, but I like a building which looks like it's been made of Giant's Mechano.
Our hotel is called 'Dormy Inn'. I was a bit 'hmmm' about the hourly 'refreshment' room rates, but actually it's fine and no sign of dodgy goings on at all. Also, they have a 'natural hotspring spa' (presumably they pipe the water in from elsewhere, as it's on the 14th floor), which I would like to get up the nerve to go in if I can stop feeling like I look like a hippo compared to Japanese women. You do the spa thing in the nude you see. And, apart from being a normal Western size, I also have quite a tummy (which is fine) and boobs which have taken on a life of their own (which is not fine).
Our room is much nicer than our apartment which is just a little depressing. Still, won't be in it a whole lot over the next 6 weeks as we'll be off travelling for half that time... or at least that's what we'd like to be doing. At this point, we're not entirely sure we can afford it.
Anyway.
We've spent the day wandering Kenroku-En, one of Japan's 'top three' gardens. Actually it was really lovely. I had mentally prepared myself to be disappointed, as the gardens I have seen so far have mostly been a bit 'woteva'. This one was full of trees in full Autumn flight. Lots and lots of running water. A few cute little teahouses, and not so many people that we got annoyed. Not like the other day in Nara when after one too many Little Old Ladies elbowed us out of the way, I deliberately charged into one in return (she deserved it, pushy old bat).
So, that'll do (Pig, that'll do.) for now, going to attempt to hire a car tomorrow and drive about the Noto-Pensinusla and look at fishing villages.
Cheers, Big Ears.

Where are we, again?

Tokushima... I think. I keep wanting to say 'Takamatsu' and I'm not even so sure that is a place.
Shikoku anyway. Arrived yesterday on the bus. It's quite nice here, sort of provincial. Well it seemed small anyway, until we caught the cable car up to the top of the nearby hill and looked out and realized that, no, actually this city is freaking huge. Grey and grey and grey as far as the eye could see, grey sea blending into gray horizon and overlaid with a hazy quilt of more grey. Sounds terrible but it is nice. We've walked around a couple of parks, some castle 'ruins' (would have been better described as a 'site' as no ruins were to be seen but there was a decent view and lots of nice trees, and thousands upon thousands of mosquitos.) Many interesting sculptures about, my favourite was a giant ant stuggling in a pond.
I was going to say more but the enthusiam to write has escaped me.
Tomorrow: whirlpools at Naruto.

Time for an update?

I can hardly believe we are halfway! Where did the time go?

The first 11 weeks are a blur, from not knowing for the first four, to passing the next 7 in an exhausted haze. At the time I was thinking, 'I'm not that sick, I can't complain, I haven't even vomited once' but now that I think back I realise that, actually, I felt like crap. Trying to pack to go to Japan was such hard work, I would sit staring into the suitcase with dismay, I could hardly concentrate on anything and just wanted to curl up and sleep. I forgot we even had a packing list. I forgot to take my trackies. I forgot my bathers. I took sheets for our bed, but forgot to take pillowslips. It’s impossible to know if it was just the hormones, or withdrawals from my medication as my GP halved my dose, either way I felt beyond ordinary, like having a 7-week hangover.

When we got to Japan I was just tired, but I didn't expect any less, even short plane trips are draining. Once that initial tiredness had worn off, I felt better immediately. It was like a switched had been flicked, from ‘crap’ to ‘fine’. The switch seems to have one extra setting: ‘great’. I feel so contented right now; it’s really quite a strange feeling for me. It seems those ‘happy hormones’ have cranked up a gear and I am very steady right now. In fact, I’m not anxious at all. I seem to be feeling very blasé about having a baby; I’m just convinced that it will work out fine. I have Dylan, I have my mum and brother, and I have Dylan’s family and my friends (including here on SIC) all as backup. Even my father has come to the party and sent me an email asking how I was, and telling me he was excited to hear that we are pregnant (I wrote him a letter from Japan).

Then, as you know, Dylan’s grandmother passed away a week ago after a long struggle with motor neurone disease (although it was a stroke that struck the final blow). I think this is a great relief to everyone as this way she, and others, did not have to see her go through the end stages of MND, where she would have been a prisoner in her own body with full cognition of what is happening around her but no way to control anything at all, no control of eating, talking, bowel movements and so on. At least she was spared that final indignity.

Dylan’s dad brought us home for a week and the funeral was yesterday. Ikingut twitched through the entire service, especially at the end when we stood around the coffin. I was surprised at how much I cried, I just kept thinking of how, in some ways, Nanny and I were quite similar. We both had a love of craft, of art and design, and we both have suffered from anxiety and depression. In her case, it was not until her 70’s when she had help from medication with this. I consider myself very fortunate that I was able to start getting better from 22. It’s taken five years but I feel good now, I actually feel good, and normal, and rational. I don’t expect to stay this way forever, there are ups and there are downs to go along with them, but I’m very grateful for this time of level-headedness and clarity.

We had a scan in Japan on Monday and the doctor told us everything was fine, but he mentioned that the placenta might be a little low; he also smirked at the size of my tummy. When we came back to Australia the other day we rushed around and were able to see my GP who said, ‘oh, you’ve put on hardly any weight at all!’ which was very reassuring (22 more weeks is plenty to time to add it), and we were also able to have a scan in Australia which was much more comprehensive than the Japanese one, this time I was told that the placenta's position is fine, it is low but well out of the way as well. Ikky looks totally normal and I am so relieved. Much as I like having minimal medical intervention when you have a totally normal pregnancy, it was still good to see and hear that the baby looks fine. I was just thinking about how S had mentioned her friend who’s child had DS and even though that was OK it would have been good to know beforehand so she could prepare. I realised then that forewarned really is forearmed.

I met up with my 37-weeks-pregnant friend and her husband today for coffee, they were quizzing me about nappies and so on, and I realised I have no idea anymore what I want. The irony being that they are going with cloth nappies, and I was the one who convinced them they should look into this in the first place. I still think I want to stick to as basic a set-up, and as green a set-up, as possible. Cloth nappies, no pram just a pusher, sixteen different types of slings, Ikky in a cot next to the bed so I don’t have to get out of ours when they wake. What I do have is a short-list of names (I keep adding names to it, Dylan keeps taking them off)

When we get home things will be interesting. We have no house. We have no car. We have no jobs. We don’t yet know which hospital we should even (theoretically) be going to. Luckily my GP is a very relaxed sort of person (perfect for me), and just said ‘oh, we’ll just sort that out when you get home’, she’s also planning on sending me off to a psychologist for a proper review before Ikky is born so we can see if I can reduce the medication, or stop it completely for a month or so beforehand so the little-one doesn’t have to withdraw from it.

Now my mind is consumed with ‘what will they look like?’ Will they have Dylan’s blue eyes, my hazel eyes, FIL’s grey-green eyes or MIL’s brown eyes? Will they have blonde curls like my brother, or dark ones like Dylan did? Will their hair be dead straight and white like mine was? Will they have one dimple like my brother, two like Dylan, or none like me? How big are they going to be? Will they be a waif, or a roly-poly? Will they be a sleepy baby, or eternally awake? Is Ikky a boy as I believe, or a girl as everyone else thinks? Are they going to be born in summer, or in autumn? I can hardly wait to find out, I’m so excited even if reality has not entered my brain at all (but then, as my latest book says: “You’re quite sure that reality and fantasy are opposites?”*)

Well, that’s my update. It’s ended up a lot longer than I intended, and much more about me than about the baby (oops) but oh well.

*Brave Story (p 120), Miyuke Miyabe