Can you say 'neigh'??

Like a lot of toddlers... my little Doodlebug LOVES animals!  She just loves it when Toby gets all excited when she arrives... although he still doesn't like her 'touching' him.  Remember when she was tiny and he used to watch over her??

Then one day little Doodlebug ROLLED OVER and touched Toby... you would have thought he'd been touched by a branding iron!  Honestly... this boy knows no bounds when it comes to making complaints.

The first time Doodlebug crawled Toby went totally mental... you could almost hear him saying... Mum she MOVED!!  And then she started to WALK... Oh Dear God!

Now Miss Doodlebug RUNS and Toby just doesn't know where to put himself out of her reach.  She always says 'Puppy... gentle'.... and then tries to grab him.  She also has started calling him 'Toby' which is very cute... but we need to work on what 'gentle' actually means.

It's much the same where she is living... there's a cat.  Doodlebug is very fond of the cat... she wants to PLAY with the cat... but the cat doesn't really want to play with HER!  Their current game involves being outside... the cat running away.... Doodlebug running after the cat calling 'meow meow'... the cat disappearing over the fence... Doodlebug crying... oh dear!

Doodlebug has a couple of puzzles at Nana's house which she loves and one of her favourites is the farm animal puzzle.  She can say 'cow' and 'moo'... she can say 'chicken' and flap her little arms like wings... she tries to say 'sheep' and 'goat'...

Fitzgerald Glade

..and she's almost got 'horse' worked out too.

Which brings me back to... can you say neigh??? 

I've been seeing lots of Quiet Books on the internet lately and I love how interactive they are.... SO... I've started making one for Doodlebug's 2nd birthday in July... YES time has flown and she's going to be TWO YEARS OLD in July!!  Unbelievable!

I started looking around the internet for some ideas of what Doodlebug might like and I came across this picture:

Picture found on Pinterest

 Oh YES!!  I loved it straight away... the design... the colours... it looked great.  And if I'm not mistaken I'm pretty sure that Patron PDF means there's a pattern... Yippee!! So I clicked on the link and it took me to an Etsy store that told me:

This item is unavailable.

But I WANT this item... what do you MEAN it's unavailable... I NEED it to make my Doodlebug a horse page.

Ok... think.... I MUST be able to work around this somehow.  I know... I'll print the picture out to the right size and TRACE it!  Yep it worked... for most of it at least.  The only part I really had issues with was the horses head but after a LOT of tweaking I had something that I was happy with.

Here's a photo of my finished page... like I said... Can you say neigh???

I bet you're scrolling up and down to see how my page resembles the one I copied LOL

I took LOTS of photos of the process... and then I thought... let me see if I can make a 'quick little video' so that you can see all the inter-activeness of the page. Ha Ha Ha... what a joke!  My quick little video did in fact take less then a minute to film... and then it's taken over 3 HOURS to make it look like something semi professional.  So here's my 'quick little video':

 Actually... I'm feeling ridiculously proud of my efforts... both the sewing and the video making :)

This Quiet Book stuff is a little like scrapbooking except using fabric and felt. The finished page is 20 x 20 cm so it's pretty close to an 8 x 8.

I'm 'sew' happy now!  Sorry... couldn't resist that one!

It's a wrap folks...

... a beeswax wrap!

Sorry I just couldn't resist that one!

So... last night one of my girlfriends (Carey) and I headed over to Syd Workshops in Tauranga to do a workshop about making beeswax wraps, sustainability and the whole reduce, reuse, recycle philosophy. The classes are held at 'Our Place' which is a little group of shipping containers set up as individual 'shops'.

I have done a workshop at Syd's before.  At the end of last year Krystal and I did a workshop about how to make a Christmas wreath. We had a good time... learnt heaps... and even managed to raid Mum's garden on the way home to make another wreath... I'm surprised I didn't get the secateurs taken off me!  Luckily I was able to find a photo of my wreath... thank goodness for sending photos to friends on Messenger!!    After I got my wreath home I added some dehydrated orange slices and some cinnamon sticks as well... can you tell I love Christmas???  One thing I can tell you... my wreath smelt absolutely divine.  I didn't hang it on my front door... I decided to hang mine on the dining room wall and the scent of all the greenery, oranges and cinnamon perfumed the whole room. 

Which brings me back to beeswax wraps... a few months ago I received a couple of beeswax wraps... yes, they were Christmas presents... and I also bought a couple from the Farmers Market.  The quality varies greatly but I soon became hooked on using them.  I've got my cheese wrapped in one... my butter in another... and I have one that goes backwards and forwards in my lunch box every day.  Just so you know... my sandwiches NEVER taste like beeswax but they do stay fresh and not-dried-out. I'm not a huge fan of plastic wrap... mostly because I always seem to get it stuck where I don't want it to stick... or it rips crooked... I'm a plastic wrap disaster folks!... and to be honest I LOVE all the lovely fabrics I've seen them made out of... pretty packaging makes me happy!

Carey had recently done a bit of internet research and worked out how to make her own... and given it a go... so I thought she might be keen to go to the class with me... quite frankly I like doing stuff with other people... it just makes it more fun!

So off we went... the class was pretty much what we expected.  To be honest we both felt a little 'talked at' during the first half hour because Baillie spent most of that time asking us questions about how 'we' recycle, reduce, reuse and what we already knew about being 'green'.  We kind of felt that if you've come to a beeswax wrap workshop you're probably already somewhere on the sustainability journey.   Having said that we both learnt some new skills, techniques and tips for making our own wraps. 

Carey is a fabulous photographer and she took a couple of photos during the class... just using her phone.  She did a little photo editing... also on her phone... and viola... an arty photo of me stirring the pot of beeswax so we can make our wraps.

Photo courtesy of Carey Bennett

We were provided with plenty of ingredients and both walked away with FIVE new wraps to keep. The fabric we used was old... and well washed... sheets.  Not going to lie... I'm not sure how I feel about that one folks...  I mean WHO has slept on those sheets??? but it was all just part of the recycling last night.  I'm seriously thinking about making some more wraps for gifts and I'm 100% sure I will be using some of the lovely fabrics I have in my Fat Quarter collection.  Yes... I'm a closet hoarder of pretty fabrics.  I've been purchasing Fat Quarters for years... I've never had a reason for doing that... I just like to touch and feel the fabric and look at all the pretty designs.  It sounds a little Autistic now that I've written it down... oh well they say we're all on the spectrum somewhere... I suspect I may be further along the spectrum that I care to acknowledge. 

An added bonus of the class was that we were given recipes for making other 'eco friendly' cleaning products for use around home.  While half the class were making their wraps the other half had the opportunity to make either an All Purpose Cleaner OR Glass Cleaner.  Considering the glass cleaner included 100ml of Vodka in the ingredients list... and neither of us had vodka at home... Carey and I both made the glass cleaner.

Another reason I made glass cleaner was that I knew I had particularly dirty kitchen windows.  I've been 'meaning to' clean them for ages... in fact I remember thinking at Christmas time... gosh those windows are dirty... I must clean them when I get a chance... there's no need to rush these things is there???  So this morning... with my new eco friendly glass cleaner at the ready I pulled up the blind on my kitchen window and... SPOTLESS!!!  My window was SPOTLESS!!!  How had that happened??? Oh that's right... Mum came to 'puppy sit' for Mr Toby while Krystal, Chloe and I all went to Whangarei last week.  Thanks Mum xx

So I haven't tested out my glass cleaner yet... but I'm sure I will... after all these things take time right???

So... getting back to the yoghurt

I had a message from Krystal this morning: Two posts and you haven't even done coconut yoghurt.

So here we go...

I have recently discovered the benefits for me (being pre-diabetic) as far as coconut yoghurt goes... namely that it's MUCH lower in sugar than almost any other sugar but it still has a really nice flavour.  That's not going to help you if you don't like coconut... but thankfully I love it! The huge downsides of coconut yoghurt in the supermarket is that they don't always have the one you like... which for me is Cathedral Cove - it's SOOO good! but coconut yoghurt also seems to be wildly expensive.  So I did a bit of research and found out that it's pretty easy to make... it's just coconut cream and some 'culture' which comes in the form of probiotics or coconut yoghurt that's already made.

Roll on my first experiment with coconut yoghurt!  So I decided to make two yoghurts at the same time... same conditions... same everything except two different coconut creams.  If you've ever done school science you might remember this as 'Fair Testing'... so much cooler when you don't have to write a report or essay about it afterwards :) For this experiment I used Fia Fia coconut cream which came out of the can about the consistency of pouring cream and was delicious!!!  The other coconut cream was Pacific Crown and it came out of the can with a half can of SOLID coconut at the top and half a can of coconut water underneath.  It took a LOT of effort to get it to mix together smoothly... including a quick blast in the microwave... and to be honest I didn't love the flavour so I wasn't holding out high hopes with this one.

For my 'culture' I decided to use some of my delicious Cathedral Cove yoghurt because it's got probiotics in it AND I already knew I liked the flavour so was hoping that it would maybe impart some of its deliciousness onto my jars of coconut cream.

Now the idea is that you simply mix together your coconut cream and culture into a sterilised jar using a WOODEN spoon as metals react and can harm your yoghurt.  You then stir it every 12 hours and after 48 to 72 hours your yoghurt should be ready.  They did say a little bit of warmth can help activate the yoghurt but my hot water cupboard doesn't exist anymore because I've got a self-insulating hot water cylinder... and it was getting a little chilly in Rotorua so I wrapped my little babies up in a towel at night to keep them warm.

And then I proceeded to wait... stirring... and taste testing... every 12 hours!  After 24 hours the jars of coconut cream were both getting thicker... Yay!  After 48 hours they were thicker again and the Pacific Crown coconut cream was starting to taste a lot nicer than it had at the start... maybe this will work out after all. After 72 hours I still had a really thick consistency but... there was none of the 'yoghurty' tang there should have been... so I gave them a helping hand in the form of some probiotics. I added ONE capsule to each jar... all I did was open the capsule, tip the powder in and give it a good stir with my WOODEN spoon.  Back to the waiting game...
 

This morning we had reached just under 96 hours (4 days) and YAY!!!  Yoghurty tang!!  I've made my first coconut yoghurt and it's GOOOD!  It's REALLY good! I've also discovered the Pacific
Crown yoghurt actually now tastes better than the Fia Fia yoghurt... at least to my palette. So now both jars are in the fridge where they apparently will continue to get a little tangier over the next few hours as they chill down.  And then all I have to do is consume them within 7 DAYS... yep I think I'm up for that delicious challenge!

 

During this experiment I've actually had my camera out... when I took it out of the bag the batteries were almost dead... and I honestly can't remember the last time I used it... shocking!!  So I've been playing around with 'arty' photos and I'm particularly happy with this one...

Who knew photographing yoghurt could make me so happy???

I'm developing a taste...

...for coconut yoghurt.

Greetings from my little corner of the universe. I promised that my next post would be about coconut yoghurt and here it is.  I can almost hear my friend Nina say... are you seriously going to do a whole post about coconut yoghurt??? SERIOUSLY??? Yes Nina I am... come around and try some if you like :)

So first a little back track... I was diagnosed as being PRE diabetic about two years ago... nothing to worry about they said... the numbers will come down they said... just keep watching your sugar intake they said.  So what did I do?  NOTHING... after all it was 'nothing to worry about' right??

A year ago my numbers were checked again... they'd gotten higher... I was assigned a 'Diabetic Nurse'... say what???  Still 'not much' to worry about... although if you can make a few changes to what you are eating/drinking it will help.  So what did I do? NOTHING... yep I'm a bit of a 'put my head in the sand' if it means making changes I don't want to make. I know I'm not the only one who thinks like that... hopefully.

Actually the truth was I did worse than nothing... I kept doing EXACTLY what I'd been doing.  I kept eating chocolate in much larger quantities than I should... remember Michael was still here during that year and we were both a fiend for the peckish snack after having dinner.  I was also drinking copious amounts of Coke... no diet coke or coke zero for this girl!

Roll on another year and another catch up with my Diabetic Nurse and blood results.... ummm not going to lie... I got a HUGE wake up call!  My numbers were MUCH higher... I had to see the doctor... I was prescribed Metformin because clearly I wasn't managing my sugar intake on my own.  And then he said... this is still reversible IF you choose to take care of yourself.  This time I HEARD what he said.  Michael was in the process of walking out the door... and I knew there was never going to be a better time to put myself as a priority as right NOW.

So I've done some research... and made some significant changes.  I came to realise that I'm quite addicted to sugar... and carbs... and my portion control is pretty crap too.  So with the help of some good books like this one:

and this one:

along with some (read HOURS) of research online I'm starting to see some results... I've lost 5kgs so far... which is enough to keep me motivated and also tells me that I'm heading in the right direction.

One of the first realisations I had was that my consumption of Coke had to STOP.  My problem is that while I was drinking copious amounts of water I still wanted something for a change.  I don't drink tea or coffee... never have.  Fruit juice is too high in sugar as is most other things I found at the supermarket.  To be honest I missed the 'fizz' so I've opted for Coke NO SUGAR.

I'm sure there are some 'Food Police' out there who will say that it's still not good for me... and it contains preservatives... and there is caffeine in it... and I agree with you... BUT... this is about TRANSITION.  It actually took about 4-5 days before I could even like Coke No Sugar at all...  and my consumption of it is WAY less than the amount of Coke I was drinking before so that's a major improvement.

Best of all... as I've been weaning myself off the sugar my taste buds have started to come alive again.  I had a few blueberries with some coconut yoghurt last night for dessert and my goodness they tasted 'sweet'... blueberries haven't tasted like that for a LONG time!

My new blog name has proven to be accurate...

I fully intended to write today's post about coconut yoghurt... and I have DIGRESSED and DEVIATED into a post about sugar... diabeties... and coke.

Coconut yoghurt next time... promise xx
p.s. Nina the invitation to try some coconut yoghurt still stands :)

She's off on a tangent again!

Hi... and happy Easter!

We've had a lovely morning here with little Miss Doodlebug opening her Easter eggs... she clearly said 'mmmm' when she was tasting the chocolate! When Auntie Krystal opened her chocolate Miss Chloe rushed up to her and said 'please'.  Auntie decided that no more chocolate would be consumed in front of a certain Little Miss.

I've been thinking about my blog quite a bit lately... wondering if I should just leave it... or should I carry on with it.  Wondering what it would take to make me 'want' to update it more often.  Thinking maybe enough is enough and I should just call it quits... and then something happens and I feel like I want to share it.

I've just been away with Krystal and Chloe for a few days and there were a few thoughts percolating away in the back of my brain... musings... wonderings... you get the drift.  And then it hit me... I wanted to change the name of my blog!

When I started my blog way back in 2007 the title 'My Time' seemed so appropriate... between my job, the girls, family commitments, time with friends etc etc it was nice to think that I could sit at my computer and have a little bit of 'me time' to share what I was doing... or making.  Over the years things have changed but 'My Time' still felt really appropriate... until now that is.

Now it's just me and Toby at home so I'm able to have lots of 'me time'... which I really enjoy.  So then I started to think about what I wanted to call my blog and within a little while the light bulb went off in my brain... On a Tangent!

I've often heard people say to (and about) me... 'she's off on one of her tangents again'.  The reality is that I'm INTERESTED!  I'm interested in lots of things.  Some things interest me for a long time... some things interest me for a day... or a week... or maybe a month... and then I'm off on the next tangent.  Sometimes I have several tangents all happening at once... and sometimes I'm more focused on just one thing.

So I've renamed by blog: On a Tangent

I'll be back later with one of my latest tangents... coconut yoghurt!  Delicious!!!

p.s. I spent a ridiculous amount of time changing the signature for my blog posts... mostly because I couldn't remember HOW I'd done it last time... Thank goodness for Auntie Google!  Along with 'going off on tangents' I'm also conscious of not putting 'all my eggs in one basket'.