There are five of these stones. I gathered them as paper weights several years ago when I was learning about Chinese and Japanese brush painting and needed something to hold down my rice paper sheets. They are from the beach in front of my great-grandmother's house. The whole beach is pebbles. Smooth black and grey and white stones like the bedrock that can still be seen at points further up and down the coast.

I don't remember why I picked up five stones; papers have only four corners. Lately I've been using them to hold fabric and pattern pieces in place for tracing and cutting. They are a lovely shape to handle. Smooth enough to be comfortable but rough enough to not slip. They make a nice earthy addition to my sewing space ... and they remind me of summer vacations and grandparents and Chinese painting.

Just add a bit of thread and some fabric (and a little direction from a sewing book) and you can turn those into these.


Six nifty little bean bags perfect for a magician learning to juggle.

These were fun to make up. They are quite small so they go quickly and the construction is so weird that you just sort of have to trust that it will turn out. I found the instructions in The Classic Quilting of Sashiko. The shapes are a kind of twisted cube made up of four little rectangles. The directions say to sew with a machine but I thought that would be too fiddly and did them by hand; the three dimensional shape is made by sewing straight lines to square corners. I was really happy to be using the black fabric; I've had it for ages but never quite found the right project for it. What could be better than something for a magician.

Happy birthday Dad.

As part of the Spring Sassy Apron Swap each swapper had to include a family soup recipe along with the apron sent to her partner. We only had one family recipe when I entered the swap - a tasty Asian style noodle soup featuring rare steak and vegetables. I had a bit of a problem when I got my swap partner though - she was vegan and I just couldn't send her a soup recipe where the first instruction was "Choose a nice steak."

After mulling things over for a while, I decided to ask Rob for help. I wanted to send a recipe that was home-made by our family and Rob is really good at combining flavours and being inventive with food. Here is the result:


Rob's Spicy Corn Soup*

For the soup base:
2    tbsp  pepper infused olive oil
½  C       onion, coarsely chopped
¼  C       flour
4    C       vegetable stock
½  tsp    chilli powder
½  tsp    ground cayenne pepper
2    C       corn (frozen)

In a pot, heat oil and add onion. Cook until translucent but not browned. Add flour and cook 1 minute. Gradually add stock. Bring to a boil and simmer until slightly thickened. Add spices and corn. Return to boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Blend soup until mostly smooth. Return to heat and add spicy kernels (below). Heat to desired temperature and serve with pita bread for dipping.

For the spicy kernels:
1    C      corn (frozen)
½ C      water
1    tsp  cayenne pepper sauce
1    tsp  ground cayenne pepper
1    tsp  chilli powder
dash of cinnamon

In a fry pan, combine all ingredients. Boil over low heat until all moisture has evaporated. Remove from heat and set aside.


*watch out - it really is spicy.