Callaloo Soup

Sunday Through The Shutter

Some of the shots that I captured yesterday while we were out.

P.S. Happy Memorial Day to those observing the holiday today!

Friday Morning Light

Possibly the last iris of the season captured in my garden this morning.

Have a wonderful weekend friends!

5 Innovative Scrapbooking Things I Love

I just finished making a scrapbook page, and as I was working I realised that there are certain things that I just love to use that are now available, that weren't when I first started this hobby about 10 years ago. I am listing my top five. These are things that are now staples for me, and I use them almost every time I scrap.

 

1. Kraft cardstock for backgrounds. It changed my world

2. Non-matchy monthly scrapbooking kits.I love receiving an ecelctic mix of products that work well together.

3. Double sided patterned paper. Double the options!

4. Decorative cut off strips. Thank you Sassafrass. You rocked my world.

5. Tiny Letter stickers. Sigh

 

What are some of the scrapbooking or crafting innovations you love?

Sprucing Up The Backyard

This past weekend we got a bunch of stuff done in the backyard. First we went to a plant nursery that our neighbours told us about and stocked up

That's a peony plant on the left there! I also got my other dream plant: an aloe vera. I'm pretty excited about those!

Meanwhile Kieran was picking and offering us clovers

The next day we found a great deal on terracotta pots. After going to two discount stores and finding nothing, we went to get groceries and the supermarket had a bunch at reduced prices. It just goes to show ya! So we got busy planting and repotting.

 

That's our avocado plant that we grew from a seed about four years ago. I think he is much happier now.

I'll share more photos of the entire space soon!

P.S. It's my birthday today and to celebrate you can take 21% off in both my Callaloo Soup Designs and Callaloo Soup Vintage shops on Etsy. Just use code HAPPYBIRTHDAY21 until midnight tonight!

 

Cute Things Kieran Says

Between being a toddler and bilingual Kieran sometimes comes out with the cutest words or phrases that make us laugh. Here are a few things in Kieranese

1. In French he refers to his knee as kneenou, which is a combination of the English "knee" and the French genou (prounounced juh-noo)

2. Shoulders are "lowlders" - you should hear him sing "head, shoulders, knees and toes"!

3. After handing him something he says "Merce-you" (merci plus thank you)

4 "Mummy water too?" - Mummy are you having some water too? This is the formula for anything we are eating or drinking

5. Ma-ique - his shortened form of Mozaique, the cat. This has progressed from Mo-Mo

6. Aww-mi-ack - his attempt to pronounce grandmère

7. His uncle's nickname is Manouche, and in French fly is mouche, so during a brief period he called flies Manouche. We haven't told his uncle this.

I really need to try to record these, as well as write them down when he says them, because I am sure there are more that I have forgotten.

What cute things do your kids say?

 

 

Sister Sketch | Iris

Hello everyone! It's time for another Sister Sketch! This month we're using another sketch from the Silhouette blog.

Chevrons are hot these days. I loved this super simple sketch and stuck extremely closely to it.

This was the first iris that bloomed in the garden this Spring. The plant was left by the previous tenants.

I was lazy and didn't feel like cutting out all the chevron bits, so I just used decorative masking tape. I love that stuff!

Here are a couple of other close up shots.

Isn't it lovely?

Now you can hop over to see what Vernell did with the sketch.

Until next time!

My Green Smoothie Experiment

I have wanted to try green smoothies for months. Seriously. Since January when I wrote down being healthier as one of my goals for this year. But the truth is that I have never liked the green stuff. Let me rephrase that. I hate vegetables with a passion. I'm talking about your traditional steamed, tasteless "but they are good for you" vegetables. Just ask my mother (Hi Mummy!) Luckily as I matured (ahem), I have learned to appreciate veggies, especially when well seasoned and prepared.

But honestly? Drinking spinach or kale? Um, no thank you. But our neighbours gave us some spinach on the weekend, and since I wasn't going to cook it (although I loved it in the salad they made), I figured it was now or never. So I hopped onto Pinterest - because of course I have been pinning smoothie ideas all along. I decided to go with this guide by Sweat and The city  which broke it down very simply (the site seems to be defunct now though).

I used green tea as my base, then added spinach, frozen strawberries and bananas, flax seeds and agave as my sweetener.

It's more pink than green, but I'm ok with that!

Big glass for Mummy (me that is, not my Mummy. Was that confusing?), little glass for Kieran.

Yummmmmy! He didn't drink all of it, but he did have several sips. I quite liked it, although I think next time I will also add yoghurt for the consistency. I don't know if it was the energy boost from the smoothie, or the fact that it was warm and sunny all day yesterday, but we had a great day running and playing, and I didn't feel like collapsing on the couch and groaning until at least 6 p.m.

I guess I will be looking for spinach and kale at the market from now on!

Do you like green smoothies? Can your share your recipes and tips?

 

 

 

 

10 Herbs Growing in My Garden

We love cooking with fresh herbs, and this year we finally were able to plant a real herb garden. I wanted to have a wide variety, but we don't have tons of space so I did some research and found out about spiral herb gardens. Ours is a mini version, but still big enough for the 10 herbs currently growing, with room for some more.

The ones we have right now are

1. Thyme

2. Rosemary

3. Marjoram

4. Basil

5. Chives

6. Sage

7. Mint

8. Coriander

9. Parsley

10. Lemon verbena

 

With this mix we have savory ones for cooking and a couple for herbal teas (lemon verbena and mint tisane anyone?). I also want to add oregano, savory (or sariete), dill and also an aloe plant.

So tell me, do you grow your own herbs? Have any suggestions for some I should add?

P.S. See more lists of 10 Things here on Shimelle.com

Me and The Kindle Five Months In

I mentioned back in January that I now have a Kindle , compliments of my sister, who passed hers on to me when she upgraded .

 

 

For some reason even though she already activated her new one, the old one still had all her loaded books. Some kind of Kindle loophole I guess, but a total bonus for me as it meant I essentially got a year's worth of books! (Luckily we do have similar tastes in reading material.)So while I am pretty excited about having all these books to read, and I have been using it pretty much daily (I am a read before falling asleep kind of person), I am even more sure now that real books are better. For me I mean. Here's why

1. It's totally in my head, but because I am reading everything on the same device, I feel like I have been reading just one very long book since January! Sometimes I even get confused and wonder what happened to a plot line or character before remembering that was from another book. Or maybe it's just age, or the fact that I am reading at night when tired?
2. I really miss being able to flip to the back cover of the book to reread the description and promo blurbs.
3. I feel like I don't have a real sense of the book because there's no cover art to look at!
4. You know how when you're reading a book, and something seems wack, or you forget something and you have to flip a few pages back to double check something you might have missed? Yeah, can't really quickly do that with a Kindle.
5. Call me Kindle challenged but I don't get how the locations work....why can't I just click a button to go to a certain page?
6. I miss the feel and smell of paper. So there.

It's just not the same.

I am happy that I have it, and I know it will be great when next I travel. I do like the instant gratification idea of being able to purchase a book and have it immediately if you need it in a pinch. I will probably buy other books for it eventually. Most likely not novels though, maybe more non-fiction or how-to type books.

If you know me, you know that I am a huge technophile. For example while I love paper scrapping, I also do it digitally (I am bi-scraptual!). I guess I just feel like books are sacred, and I worry a bit about where things are headed. Or I am just slowly becoming a curmudgeon.

Do you have a Kindle or other e-reader? What do you love about it? What don't you? Lets's chat in the comments!

Quick Etsy Shop Update | Buttons and a Blotter

I just listed two new items in my French vintage shop on Etsy.

First some French vintage buttons from the well known brand Haute Nouveauté.

What is it about buttons stitched on cards?  I just love the look. The card still has the original price written on it in pencil. A very authentic touch!

Next is this wonderful wooden rocking ink blotter.

In doing my research I discovered that blotters have played many an important role in detective stories such as Sherlock Holmes' ‘The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter’. You can read a wonderful description about rocking blotters and other vintage desk items here.

Are there any bakers out there? I have two baking related vintage items that will be listed in the next couple of days. Stay tuned!

Get Close. Get Very, Very Close

I love getting very close up to take photos, especially photos of objects and nature. It totally changes the feel of the resulting image. I took the following two photos below by getting as close as I could with my 50mm lens.

Pretty cool, but not good enough for me. I wanted to get even closer! The next time I went out to the garden I grabbed the macro filters that I have for my Canon 50mm lens. These nifty filters screw on to the lens and reduce the minimal focusing distance, allowing me to get very very close. (They are also available for Nikon cameras)

 

You can practically taste that strawberry!

 

The flowers seem to take on a life of their own at this perspective. The best part of getting this close is how common things become extra special.

How beautiful are thyme and verbena when seen like this?

Raspberry and tomato flowers are lovely and delicate.

Coriander looks like lace

And a dying tulip resembles a twirling ballerina.

Next time you're out in the garden, grab your camera and get very very close. You might be amazed by what you see.

Toddler Time | Drawing and Stamping on the Floor

Usually when Kieran and I do art projects we will sit at the big dining table that was made by his great grandfather. Earlier this week, I felt like changing things up a bit, and giving him a bigger canvas to work with. With Kieran's "help", I taped two large pieces of our drawing paper onto the plastic tablecloth we use for protecting surfaces, and spread it out on the floor.

We got out the markers, crayons and his new set of stamps and went to town.

I drew some streets so he could add his car stickers.

Being able to work on top the canvas is so freeing!

We also did outlines of our feet. You can see him colouring one in above.

He really enjoyed this art session. It's definitely one we will do again!

How do you enjoy art with your children? Tell us in the comments below!

Toddler Time is an occasional series where I feature activities that Kieran and I do together.