Thursday, March 22, 2012

Donna Hay Roast pumpkin soup

If you love pumpkin soup but couldn't deal with peeling pumpkins (nightmare) then this will make you smile.  This is my go to when I'm feeling lazy.  Enjoy!

fat mum slim: Donna Hay's Roast Pumpkin Soup

Fabric dye experiment

Some once whites, a packet of dye & some salt.  Let's see what happens!  :-)


Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Monday morning @ Z65

The kitchen is coming along nicely...and, spring feels right around the corner!


Sunday, October 03, 2010

Berries...

The twigs and purple berries just had to come home with me, strange as they were.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Happy (Chinese) New Year!

Happy 2010.

Tippaniny is going off line for a while.

Well, offline from here.

Because, I actually have a project and well, my brain can't handle it all. ;-)

http://apartmentdiet.tumblr.com/

See ya!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

god

The other day I mistakenly typed that I am god (I meant to type good) but was thinking this morning that while it was just a typo (I seem to have many with my 'mummy brain' right now), I was actually right.

I am god.

You are god.

We are all god.

We all have the light, the energy inside us.

It, is everywhere.

Last night I was in blog land, wandering as I do, and I ended up on a worship leader's site, which led me to the blog of another worship leader. She talks a lot about Him and His but she also appears to be a quite unhappy or angry. Or both. She seems to be trying to convince herself of something.

She offers to make us happy and is willing to do anything. I wish I could tell her - don't. Start with yourself. What makes you happy? Because, at the end of the way, each and everyone one of us is responsible for our own happiness. Noone can make us happy unless we choose to be. And an endless pursuit to make everyone happy
will drain even the most faithful, because some people just don't want to be happy. End of story. That's not good and it's not bad. No judgement. Just how I see it.

She talks about His plan for her. And emplores Him to show her what that is. I want to tell her to stop looking outward towards others and towards Him and to stop and listen to her own heart. Listen and truly have faith that it will tell
her what she needs to know. And only through that will she know what the plan is. Only through understanding that the light is inside her, will she begin to get it.

And finally, what I saw was so much talk of suffering. Talk of what she needs to sacrifice for Him. Suffering and sacrifice to me are things made of men. Love and the light do not ask for these things. While we may have lessons to learn from
loss, that is just what they are. Lessons to learn, not ongoing suffering in an effort to be "good".

From all this you may believe I am an atheist. You're a step ahead of me then because I don't rightly know. I asked to be christened at the age of 6 into Catholicism and have had wonderful teachers throughout my life, both Christian and otherwise. I believe Jesus existed and I believe the Bible is filled with amazing and insightful parables that we all could learn a lot from. What I know is that it, and books like it from other faiths, were written by men, just like you and I. Human, imperfect and doing our best with the resources we have. All I know is that I am open to the possibilities each organised "religion" has to offer. I see the similarities in faith we all have and the differences in interpretations by men that are possible. I am not openly religious, but I do have faith. I subscribed to my own interpretation (which I believe most of us do, if we're being truly honest) and I do my best to treat people in the way that I would like to be treated. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, because, all I am is an imperfect human, but in the end I hope to do more "good" than "bad".

I am still a babe in the woods and have much to learn in this respect but this is what I will teach my children.

To love themselves, forgive themselves and be kind to themselves. That is where it must start. And to have faith - in themselves and in others. We all have the potential for great things.

What they do with the stuff mummy keeps babbling about, well, that's up to them.

Friday, January 29, 2010

White Tee test-off



Ah - the 'perfect' long sleeved white tee is in my sights. Though, I am not sure if I have found it yet. Karen (who always looks Devine!) recommends esprit and when wandering in the HEMA in Amsterdam on Wednesday I found some organic cotton ones there. So, I am doing a white tee test off. I'll let you know how it goes. They look almost exactly alike, except Esprit is more expensive at around 20 euros (HEMA's is 7.50) and well, HEMA is also organic. 2 plusses for HEMA already. Once I wash them, then we'll really know!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

chocolat

Yesterday, as I strolled around Amsterdam central station during a rare moment of solitude (you may wonder what I mean if you've ever been to Amsterdam central station in the middle of the peak hour commuting times but solitude for me means no kids and nowhere to be or rush to)...enjoying looking at the new stores and developments since I was there last quite a few months ago (including a Starbucks no less and one of my favourites, a HEMA), I noticed a couple of tiny stores nestled in a little annex of the station. On further investigation, I discovered one was a tea / coffee store and another, a chocolate shop. For some reason, I didn't head straight for the chocolate chain (luxury chocolates at a luxury price) and instead wandered into the other shop first. Some pretty colours at the front had drawn me in like a moth to a flame. Once I got closer, I realised that in fact, they were tiny chocolate packages (I'm usually a bit blind without my glasses on...though I tend to do this on purpose as it makes the world a better place, most of the time! Reminds me of my mother, who refuses to wear her hearing aids because they just make the world too loud and noisy! Ah, they do say we all turn into our mothers eventually, but that's a much longer story than the one I wanted to tell here.) What this is about is my discovery of some lovely little chocolates.

Affordable luxury at just over a euro for amazing taste sensations. Just like chocolate should be. If you ever see them in a store - do try them. I very much enjoyed:

Noir lavande de Haute-Provence (dark chocolate with lavender)
and
Au Lait Thé Vert & Jasmin du Maroc (milk chocolate with green tea and moroccan jasmin).

Yum. At only 30g a flavour packed block, you won't be breaking your diet either (if you can stick to just one block that is!).

Apart from their deliciousness, it's also nice to see that they consider the environment and are a carbon neutral company.

Dolfin - The Art of Blending

So I mentioned this to Nat today and well, of course, she came up with a counter: Dagoba Organic Chocolate

You gotta love their slogan "You can deprive the body, but the soul needs chocolate."

Perhaps we need to have a taste off?

Nat's favourites: Lavender Essence with Wild Blueberries or the Chilli Choc - Aztec style

And well, full circle sustainability. Tasty AND responsible. Can't go wrong with that.

Hugs from the kitchen,

txo