The Water Diary

...a short by Jane Campion

Some days the sky gets dark and you hear the rumble of thunder in the distance. Tiny drops of  water begin to fall onto the windscreen as you rush home to bring in the clothes hanging outside. But then you reach the house and  it stops. Completely.

Our lawn has turned brown. The haze is so bad you can smell the smoke. The people have been cautioned against heat stroke. Water rationing has started in some parts of the Klang Valley.  Last Friday 207 mosques in Penang held the special Istisqa prayer simultaneously where thousands prayed for the much needed rain. 

This is our water diary.

I hope it rains at and in the end.

Jingle Bells!

MERRY HAPPY CHRISTMAS!
:)

On Creativity

If you noticed, I haven't posted anything for over a month. The Man has been working out station a lot which leaves me with no one to help juggle the everyday chaos. In other words, I have almost no time and more precisely no energy to do anything creative. In the whole month I only managed to do 3 pouches. I don't know about all of you but I need quiet time or at least uninterrupted time, space to think and some energy to be even remotely creative. 

Found this excellent video via the excellent brainpickings. It's a talk given by John Cleese on Creativity. You can read the original post here where there's a shorter version or watch the full video below.

It's washable!

My new friend Agnieszka was wondering if the fabric markers are permanent enough to withstand washing. I've been wondering about that myself so today I popped this pouch into the washing machine to find out. 

And here it is! Right out of the washing machine. No fading, no running, no bleeding. Stained by Sharpie Fabric Markers work! I'll take another picture when the pouch has dried.

BTW you must check out Agnieszka's work over at her blog. Lovely! :)

WIP - pouch #7

I've had this piece of grey fabric for quite a while now so I thought I'd use it to make some pouches. Managed to get four out of it. I'm also using the felt I bought yesterday for the birds. I tested the Sharpie Fabric Markers on them but they don't work on felt. As you can see I'll need to embroider on the details. Will show you when it's done :) 

Felt

I'm actually not a big fan of felt but I needed something that doesn't fray at the edges. So I bought a whole rainbow over at Daiso, a popular Japanese chain store that has been popping up all over town. 

Great colours!

A little embroidery

I enjoy sewing embroidery but I find it can be a challenge sometimes. I tend to pull the thread a little too hard and end up bunching the fabric. You can see I did exactly just that to the left side of the little birdie. Oops :) 

 If you are into hand sewn embroidery, Mary Corbet's Needle N' Thread is a wonderful website where you can learn a whole bunch of stitches.

 

 Pouch #6.

A recipe - Ulam

The Man and I cooked dinner for his relatives last night. I made this local salad a.k.a. ulam with fresh coconut sambal to offset the hot sambal fried chicken. I love this salad. It's one of my favourites. It's a combination of my mother and mother-in-law's recipe. They're both from Johor so... yeah :) 

This recipe uses pestle and mortar for pounding, so, depending on the amount, you might have to do it in batches.

1) Selom shoots (water dropwort, water celery, water parsley) or ulam Raja (King's Salad)

2) 3 - 4 red chillies - chopped and deseeded is you don't want it too hot

3) A small handful dried anchovies - washed and strained

4) 2 medium sized red onions or shallots - sliced

5) 2 handfuls grated fresh coconut

6) 2-3 tablespoon thick tamarind juice 

• Roughly chop greens and set aside - Selom shoots are recommended but I used ulam Raja because those weren't available.
• Pound the chillies into juicy paste.
• Add generous pinch of sugar, salt + anchovies. Continue pounding into paste.
• Add coconut - using a spoon, mix and pound alternately to release some coconut juice and to combine with the chili. Do NOT pound to a paste.
• Add onions - mix and pound alternately again only to release some juice. Do NOT pound to a paste.
• Add tamarind juice and mix.
• Add more salt, sugar or tamarind juice to taste if necessary.

I like mine when I can taste a bit of everything - the coconut milk, the onions, salty, sweet and sour. And no overpowering taste of the anchovies. It takes a bit of experimenting so you're gonna have to use your taste buds as guide.

Chill in fridge.

Serve - Some people like to mix the coconut sambal and the ulam but I prefer to keep them separate like in the pic. It allows my guests to take a combination of whatever amount suits them. I like to pile mine on :)

Pouch Bug

I think I've caught the Pouch Bug. Bought a bunch of new Stained by Sharpie Fabric Markers at CZipLee in Bangsar and went right to work on another one. 

First I tested the markers and doodled on some scraps. The Man really liked the colours and the raw quality of the drawings so I decided to use them. Here's a glimpse of a pouch in the making...

If you have read my post on my first quilt you will know I sew everything by hand. I don't have a sewing machine. I don't even know how to use one! But it's there on my list of Things I Want to Learn along with Photoshop, taking better pictures, silkscreen printing, stamp carving, ... :)