Yippppeeee - my trip is halfway over, or halfway begun - it all depends how you look at it. In Beijing airport waiting for my flight to Dubai, and then on to New York.

But before I leave China, I thought i would just blog my last few challenges for this past week, 2 of which I finished before I got on the plane.

The forst one was my fotographic challenge, and I had to take a picture outside. Now please do not get me wrong, it is not that I do not like people, but sometimes a picture jsut does not need another smiling asshole on it. So for my outside challenge I took a photo of the sky, and I love trees as well, so there you have it - a bit of clear, sunny South African skies, something the Chinese desperately need around here. No wonder they are all a bit grumpy - it is fog and smog and not much sky.

Ant then everybody's favorite challenge is the sewing challenge (except mine because I need to be in the picture and I hate it). So the challenge was to sew something inspired by the 40's, and because of time limitations as well as lack of sewing skills - I made a hat from a 1940's pattern. Now it is a pity I do not look like the girls from the 40's, but gave it my best shot anyway.

And some parting shots from Beijing - littel chinese girls are just exquisite when they are small, and when they grow up they just become teenagers - look at the transformation below.

Some action photo's from me and the people - whay lies behind me and what lief before me - and me stuck in the middle

And with these parting words, I greet the Beijing locals goodbye



Lovies

Lizette

hallo from a weary world traveller. Tonight I am a lady of few words, and many pictures. But I promised I would update you on a few of my challenges (as if you really care!).

On the knitting challenge front, i actually packed some knitting for the trip - it is still in the New York bag which is still wrapped in plastic which is still lying on the floor where I put it when I arrived in Beijing.

But I have some other fantastic knitting to satisfy your passion for a bit of wool (hope it is not too cold in SA) The first bit of garment is actually done by another knitting artist from Pennington, Jacolette Crous. it is a once off designer piece, and has been developed to keep a neck warm. That enck happens to be mine, so sussie, thank you very much for my fluffie neck warmer. Hubby was already asleep so I took this photo myself, therefore the image of the photographer in the mirror.

The second piece of knitting was done by my own hands, and proudly but reluctantly modeled by Tiger, a mixed breed beauty with a gentle soul.

And then of course I had to develop an additional challenge for myself, and I introduce the "Reinvent" challenge to you. This is not linked to any websites or blogs, and is only limited by my imagination or lack thereof. every week i need to take one thing and reinvent it for another use. Recycling is not a nice word, I prefer reinvent as it sounds more dramatic, glamarous and arty. So a cupboard full of blue water bottles was driving me krazy. All the dog medicines (half packets of pills they enver finish, tonics they never drink.....) was also driving me krazy. So 2 krazies make a big krazy - and this is how I organised the dog medicine cupboard. I like the colour, and you can see what is in each holder.

Now for the Beijing pics with few words:

this is my lovely hotel room inside:

And this is my lovely hotel room outside:

And to end off this blog tonight, since there is no cookies to show, I dedicate my food section to the butternut in Beijing. Whoever introduced the Chinese to butternut should be punished severely. They put butternut in everything!!!! pasta, soup, pizzas, crab sticks, noodles, bread, pastries, salads, sandwiches, stews, stir-fries, omelettes, desserts..... Now I love a good butternut, but they are the only people who can make butternut taste like fish - please see evidence of fishy butternut in a plain pasta dish???? 

With that it is a big butternut kiss from Beijing - will log on tomorrow night to entertain you but mostly myself with this blog

Lovies
Lizette

I will start at the end, as the beginning is not so interesting....

It is now 3h33 in the morning Beijing time, and I am off to bed. What kept me so busy until now? - I am not baking, I am not knitting, I am not scrapbooking - NO, I have been doing what Beijingers do. Eating and then singing in a real kareoke bar.

But not eating normal stuff, and not a normal kareoke bar - just check out these pics.

We had jellyfish (cold and horrible - like wet seaweed),

shark fin soup (I did not touch it), other aspic mystery ingredients, mushrooms I did not even knew existed - and in my opinion should not exist. Some items were nice - the Peking Duck, the Steak, the fried rice, etc.

The biggest drama was when we discovered a whole chicken foot at the bottom of the chicken soup. Someone was thoughtful enough to clip the toenails, but that was not consolation enough.

But the best was the Kareoke. Deep down in the underground, you get led through a maze of passages, then into your very own sound-proof room with all the Kareoke gadgets you could wish for (or not wish for). Now I am not a big Kareoke fan, but being in an alternative world with your friends and singing Rehana and Gagga songs at the top of your voice without a care in the world is amazing - especially if you can mimic the videos and make believe you are in tune, on beat, and as fantastic as them.

Please see some action pictures below - and I promise, tomorrow I will act like an old woman again and put the knitting pictures on the blog

But just for tonight, I was a pop-goddess and loved it.

tra-la-la
Lizette

Another end to the week, and another end to my challenges. I finished them all, and it gives me such a lekker feeling when this happens. I am actually so far ahead, that i have started next week challenges, a I will be in Beijing and some of them will be logistically impossible to achieve while in a foreign country. (now that I am typing this it seems a bit OCD? )

My last scrapbooking challenge for the day was my best challenge of the whole week, and I am extremely proud of this page using one of my favorite photo's ever! My son David when he was just a little boy and we went on a lovely holiday to the sea. The challenge was to use the following colours in a layout - and I love it!

The cookies today was Chewy Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies. What can I say, they contain oats, raisins and then you chew them. Blah-blah-blah.



The cookie challenge is the one challenge I will not be able to continue with during my travels, so hope you do not miss my baking too much. Maybe my husband will even loose a few pounds while I am gone, and it will not be from pining away, but just a lack of butter-filled cookies.

And then a BIG challenge - the knitting challenge was to finish my sick-green jersey. At first I was going to knit little leaves to stitch over the mistakes I made with the jersey, but you know what. I did not. And why? Because everything is just perfect in its imperfection. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

I am perfect - you are perfect, - and my jersey is blerrie perfect.

So I have taken a few picture to take with me and share with you next week, and I am busy with my sewing challenge for next week (to make something inspired by the 40's) - so please come and visit my blog next week as I will be far away from home and need to talk to everyone here at home.

Lovies
Lizette

This is a warning before you start reading the blog today - it contains some scary pictures of me in a scary outfit. But before we get to play fright-night, let's do something sweet - something like the daily cookie from Martha Stewart. And this one is for all the grown-up kids out there, the ones who still like peanut butter and miss primary school. Because today's cookies were Peanut Butter Jelly Bars.

I still do not have any human tasters available, so will have to rely on my dogs. Shida won't touch them, and Tiger is drooling for them. So the result on tasting these are 50/50.  

Last bit of my 5-day challenge from http://www.onlinelifemakeover.com/ is to take a photo of the contents of my fridge.We have an ancient fridge, and the content would have made Dr. Atkins very proud (basically there are only proteins and fat in my fridge). And it would have made my mom cry. Not much in there but hey - payday is only a few days away!!!!!

One of the most difficult challenges must be the sewing challenges. There is so much pressure to come up with something, make it all in a week, then actually wear it and worse of all - publish the traumatic result. But I am not backing out of this one, so you have been warned.

My hubby was not here to take the picture, so I asked my garden help Edwin to be the photographer, and he insisted on a picture with the car - which might be the best picture of all.

Anyway, I had to make something using 2 or more printed pieces of material. I managed to use 3 - and went a little bit beserk on the sleeves, putting in a double ruffel. The result of this has a strong clown influence, but life is a circus anyway.

I think the dogs and the chickens and the geese are more interesting than the outfit!!!!

Tomorrow will be the last blog for a while, as I am off to Beijing and then to New Jersey for work committments. Flying around the world in 10 days is challenging enough, so I will not be doing any of my normal challenges while on my travels. But I will be sure to share any other challenges I come across with you while I am away (connectivity follows me like a silent fart  - you know those ones you do and then move away but the smell follows you like a sneaky shadow?)

Lovies
Lizette

The darkness has fallen upon us - and all electricity is gone. And no, it is not because I did not pay my bill - I had a peep outside and it seems to be out with all the neighbours as well. So I quickly want to do my blog writing before battery life has run out.

Today was a fantastic day, as I did not even take a taste of the cookies I was making. I had to make No-Bake Cashew brittle bars, and here is a candle-lit photo just for you.

This recipe takes about 5 - 10 minutes to make, is extremely easy, and I will let you know what they taste like as soon as my taste testers have returned to their normal posts. I also think it is healthy -ish, as it has oats, cashews, cinnamon, molasses, little bit of butter and little bit of dark brown sugar.



Almost done with my weekly challenge for http://www.onlinelifemakeover.com/, and my 4th photo had to be of "Something I can do to enhance my life". I knew from the start what this was, but did not want to admit it. All week I have been thinking what else I can photograph rather than what I knew I had to photograph. But here it is - I need to exercise more, and the picture actually looks so nice, I might just consider doing it to enhance my life.

Finally I had some time to tackle some of my scrapbooking challenges, and from http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/ came the challenge with the theme of "In the Garden". The queen of scrapbooking - Nevi - gave me a whole bag full of wonderful goodies, papers, tape, letters, stickers, and a whole lot of inspiration. So here is my best effort using all her gifts and her wonderful paper.

And then for tonight, I would also like to share my 2 photographic challenges with you. The first challenge was from http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/ and they challenged me to the following: THE CHALLENGE: Photograph a collection, whatever it may be. I did a few pictures, and could not decide which one I liked most, so include them all.

The second photographic challenge was from http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/weekly-photo-challenge-blue/, and blue it is. Also took 2 pictures and I include them both.

Just 2 days left to do about 7 challenges, so I am going to be busy, busy, busy.

Lovies
Lizette

Oh dear - I did the unthinkable, and the unallowable. I ate a chocolate brownie. And it is all my husband's fault (surely you did not think it was my fault?) So this is how it happened:

Today I was making a recipe from martha Stewart's daily cookie recipe's, and they happen to be called Deep, Dark Brownies. Now the name does not tickle my fancy too much, and I did not suspect any trauma when I started with the recipe. It was easy-peasy to make, it baked perfectly, smelled delicious, looked all chewy and crackly on the top. The trouble started when it was cooled down and I cut it into little blocks. The recipe said 9 brownies, but out of habit I cut it into many, many little squares (luckily). It was while I was cutting them and the knife was gliding through the crunchie edge, and then getting stuck in the chewy, chocolaty middle that a little thought crossed my mind?

"How will I know what they taste like?" My hubbie is not here to taste them for me, and I am not going to work tomorrow to ask my work-tasters, and the neighbours are too far, and, and, and....

So the only possible solution was to eat one myself. Let me just say, for someone who has not had a cookie or a sweet or any type of complex carbo in 3 months - it was almost too much for me. Not the size of the cookie, no, the taste!. I am feeling a bit sick now, so back to my chicken meal tonight, and water of-course. But boy - was it worth it.



Please do yourself a moerse favour and make these this weekend - then let me know what you think of them.

And I promise, it will never, ever happen again. It is back to reality.

OK, from http://www.onlinelifemakeover.com/ comes part 3 of my weekly challenge, taking a photo of something I do every day. I had to put in something to redeem my moment of brownie mania, but it also had to be the truth, as one of my developmental challenges is to be truthful to myself and others. So a wonderful habit I have developed and do every day is to drink a lot of water - so here is my picture of what I do every day.

My sewing challenge is to "mix-it-up", so just to prepare you for Saturday's picture, as well as make you understand how much of a challenge it actually is - here is the material and pattern I have chosen. I know - but it might turn out OK. I have started with this project, and cannot wait to model it and show it to you hopefully on Saturday.

Lots of guilty, brownie love
lizette