Sade’s Blog

Hard to take pics of, but. Tuesday is inauguration of the shower! (The silicon needs to dry perfectly before, and won’t be until monday night, so, tuesday!)

The corner shelves are from Ikea. Nice, functional, cheap. Yay!

Apparently I still need to retouch some spots on the walls. Yeah, my back is so sore I’ve been waking up at around 3-4am these past two nights from the pain. After taking a painkiller to be able to sleep. Not a happy camper.

And back from the dentist, I have no wisdom any more. That was the last wisdom teeth being pulled today. Anaesthetics make me feel crappy too.

Kthnxbye.

He gets drunk, and proceeds to screw the labour of love and 4.5 days of work (and I mean 12 hours of work per day). Why? Because it’s not up to “his standards”. Nevermind the leaking toilets, the wallpaper coming off the walls, or the ivy distroying the façade. Yeah, I’m pissed.

Now, that will take a lovely how many days to fix? I’ll update you.

Yeah, I told you on the previous post. Trip to London, bathroom renovation, trip to Düsseldorf. So now I’m back and it’s time to play catch up. I’ll write an entry about the trip to London soon, meanwhile you can amuse yourself with pictures. The trip to Düsseldorf was to visit our friend Laura, her husband Christian and their daughter Lumi before they move to Finland. We had fun, and we relaxed some and didn’t take pictures because we really didn’t do much tourist stuff. If you want pics, you can check last year’s tho.

And if you want to know some about the bathroom, we also created a gallery to share our progress. First day we removed all the things from the bathroom, removed the paper and fixed the wall. Then tuesday we kept on fixing the wall because the plaster was completely fucked here and there, also masked all the stuff, and painted on some primer for the tiling and started painting the walls. Wednesday saw us tiling the shower plus the sink backsplash, and painting the rest of the colors. And thursday was spent retouching the paint and grouting all the tiling area. However we were short a handfull of grout and that will be finished today. On friday before leaving to Düsseldorf, we cleaned everything like crazies, and put some accesories and our closets back in.

And because a post without pictures seems boring to most people:

Marr from Smelly Chick’s Online, a soapmakers’ resources website, tagged me for this six things about you me-me.

Da rulez:

1. Link to the person who tagged you (see above).
2. Post the rules on your blog (this is what you are now reading).
3. Write 6 random things about yourself (see below).
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them (This is only a game)
5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up

Six Things About Me (that you couldn’t care less about)

1. I’m a Scorpio, and it does show, sometimes, when I’m pissed.
2. I love Linux. I loathe Windows.
3. I’m dabbing in too many hobbies at the moment, but loving it.
4. Paracetamol gives me trippy dreams.
5. I lurve chocolate.
6. I only started liking plush toys (teddies, stuffed animals and so) in my laaaate teens.

There, that’s it, Six random things about me, that you most likely don’t care about. Know me better? I doubt it :p

Da taggin’

Uhm, yes, I’m supposed to tag six people who haven’t done this lately. Lets see…Smartash, CJ, Zanne, Asa, KnittingKitty and Purlpower.

And for those who are wondering, I’m not dead or falleth off the internet, I’m just very busy. Last weekend (8th-10th August) we were on a city break to London. This week (11th-14th August), we’ll be renovating the bathroom. First stage done (everything removed and ready to tile and paint), more to come. And next weekend (15th-17th August) we’re on another city trip, this time to Düsseldorf. We have booked a weekend special at Relexa Rattingen City (10 minutes away from Düsseldorf), with a candle-light dinner, use of spa, breakfast buffet, and more things for a nice price. So yeah, I’m not much online at the moment. More about the London and Düsseldorf trips when I have time to write all the stuff down!

On knitting news, I “joined” the Ravelympics (Ravelry inside link, if you want to read you have to be a member. I joined cause they made me join). I’m knitting the Anastasia Socks, in Opal Neon 1934.

Last thursday, the 31st of July, I got a parcel in the mail in Spain, my mother told me. I asked from whom, since I wasn’t expecting anything at all, and it was from my friend Michael who is on a year break in Japan.

Want to see what was inside? Read more »

Friday night I set out to discharge my mother in law from cooking yet another meal for the family, since she’s doing so a lot more than when she’s working. I looked through my recipe books, and the recipes that kept calling me were Potato - Greenpeas Samosas, and Green Thai Curry, both from Vegan with a Vengeance.

Revised both recipes, hoped I could find everything, and did my shopping list. I did find everything, but I did substitute a couple of things. For instance, the Samosas call for green soy beans, not green peas. And that’s the one thing that I knew I wouldn’t find, however the recipe says green peas are a perfect substitute and actually make the samosas a bit more authentic. So green peas it was. Of course, the can of peas was too big, so the leftovers were added to the curry. We all know nearly everything goes well with curry. I also halved the recipe for the samosas, cause we’re only four for eating. I also used lime juice instead of lemon - I had to buy limes for the curry and the coconut mint chutney I served with the samosas.

The curry had little mods. Since the choice of hot peppers is very limited, I used four of what looks like Thai hot peppers, but I am not sure, because they’re not labeled as any special pepper. And used no jalapeños. I also used preserved lemongrass instead of fresh because I am lazy and it was cheaper. And black pepper instead of white cause I wasn’t going to buy a jar for 5 pepper corns. I added the leftovers peas from the samosas to the curry (hey, they’re green, so it matches!), and also added some 125grams (dried) basmati rice, cooked. Love me some rice to soak all the curry.

It was all served, and all devoured. I thought there’d be some leftovers, but apparently every body was starving on friday night. Also, I spend about 3 hours in the kitchen in total, so it was a looooong cooking session. But so worth it.

Oh, I made eight samosas total, I just took the picture after serving four so I could put the sauce in the middle.

Living in Belgium, I’m stuck with not much natural light. Most days are over cast, or plain down pouring, and then if by any chance the sun shines without a cloud to hide it, most of that light doesn’t make it into the house. The brightest room is the bathroom (upstairs) followed closely by the hallway (upstairs), they’re the two places blessed with roof windows. The rest of the rooms have normal wall windows, and most of them are shadowed by a huge amount of ivy. That’s another thing, the never ending ivy trimming. If it was for me, I’d just tear it down, but at this point, it might be a point in the stability of certain walls where the ivy roots show inside.

To the case in point, we all know to get good pics, you need a pretty decent lighting (amongst other things, such as a decent camera, doesn’t have to be exceptional, some artistic view, and perhaps a good item to take a pic of). The solution to take pics of most still life, food that won’t get cold cause it’s already cold, or won’t melt in the heat, yarn, toys, rubber stamps, and a long etcetera, is to make a light-box, or purchase one (if you’re in for the 50 euros or more). I searched the internet for a foldable light-box, cause I didn’t want to have it taking room, and found the expensive foldable light tents, or a DIY solution that called for foamcore cardboard, tape and vellum paper. Obviously I went for the DIY option. You of course need some lamps, but I make do with what I have at home that can be moved around.

Off I went to AVA, to get the foamcore and the vellum. Since I wanted to be able to take pics of things bigger than a moddle figure, I doubled the size. Some hard work later, I got my light box made up (although I left the “roof” unattached). I set up to find the perfect place to take pictures with the new toy, and found out that our mini dinning room table was ideal. It already has one light over it, so I only need to provide the side illumination. Wanna see my setup?

First pic there, it’s taken with flash, so you see things clearly. The tiny camera in the mini tripod is my trusty Olympus :mju mini 5.0 mpixel. It’s so small it fits in my pocket, and I don’t mind carrying it in my purse more often than not. It also takes great pictures if you take the time to get to know all its quirks. Of course, I’d love to get a dSLR, but I can’t cough the dough for it at the moment (and probably not for a few years), so I make do with what I have. The Olympus, by the way, was a present from Jan.

You’ve already seen proof of what such a small camera and a light box can do, but in case you don’t remember, let’s post the picture again, ok?

Now, what I could do with even better tools!

Lets start by saying how nice and lovely and sweet Jan is. While I was in Spain, taking exams (better not talk about those grumble), he went to Aldi and bought me an Ice Cream Machine! Yesh! All for us! He told me he had bought me a surprise that day, and I wondered if it’d be the ice cream machine I had been showing him for the previous week. But I didn’t ask, wanted to be nice ;) In the end he told me, and I was already looking forward to make ice cream!

Fast forward to last friday (the previous was around the 20th June). I finally had time and peace to make the base of the ice cream. I decided on plain vanilla, because you can’t go wrong with vanilla ice cream. I followed the recipe that came with the ice cream machine, and got a nice vanilla custard that I let chill for a full day - while the ice cream machine bowl froze. Then I set up the machine, poured the custard, set it to “soft serve” and let it work for 30 minutes. Lovely result, a sweet intoxicating vanilla icecream. Simply delicious:

You can see how creamy and soft it is in those pictures. And yes it has vanilla speks from using a real vanilla pod and scrapping all the seeds so the ice cream would taste like real vanilla and not those chemically loaded ones they sell out there.

Basic Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 3,5 dl milk (I used half-skimmed)
• 2 dl cream (I used 30% fat)
• 1 vanilla pod
• 150 grams sugar
• 3 egg yolks

Make it:

1. The day before you want to make ice cream - yes it’s time consuming in the waiting department, it is definitively no instant gratification here - make your custard, and put the ice cream machine bowl to freeze. You want a good 24 four hours of cold in that!
2. In a deep sauce pan, heat up the milk and cream, with the vanilla pod. Make sure to slice it in half lenghtwise and scrap all the seeds. Once it’s reached boiling point, remove from the heat and let cool with the pod still inside.
3. While the milk cools down, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until foamy and creamy. When milk is warm, remove vanilla pod and add milk to eggs slowly while whisking non-stop to keep the custard from going, well, custardy and lumpy before time.
4. When the eggs have been warmed up by part of the milk, add the egg mixture to the rest of the milk and heat the pan again. Do not let it boil and stirr constantly. When custard has thickened, about 10 minutes, remove from heat, pour in a bowl, and cover.
5. Chill your custard to fridge temperature, ideally over night (that way the machine has less work to do!). Once everything is nicely cold and chilled, assemble your machine, pour the custard in, and let it do its thing for around 30 minutes.
6. Dive in, enjoy.

Yield: One liter of frozen orgasmic vanilla ice cream.

Yorkie recommended me some mineral makup when I was in the look for new makeup. Mine was old, and felt like a mask. Not really nice to wear. Anyway, she recommended me Everyday Minerals.

I checked them out, and found out they send you five samples for postage. So I tried them, because trying three foundations, a concealer and a blush for €3,20 ($4.95 for an international order) is damn cheap! I found my color, and didn’t feel the makeup while wearing it, which is a big plus. It also lasted all day long during a very warm day. I was sold.

I ordered a Personal Custom Kit (Full Sizes) and a Sample (so I could get a free blush because they had an offer). This was the 13th, I was afraid it wouldn’t arrive on time (that is, before friday), because I need-want it for a couple of weddings, and I’m leaving on a jet next monday and not coming back for about two months!

If you want to see the full size pics, click on them and you’ll end in the gallery. If you hoover over the pic there, you’ll see what each jar is.

Uh, yes, now my makeup bag is too small for these jars, dammit! I guess I’ll have to find something else *sigh* Wonder if I can find something tube-like where the jars fit and don’t get too shaked. A Pringles tube, maybe? But that won’t solve it for the samples and the eyeshadow.. mmmm *thinking hat on* I’ll keep you posted!