salt dough

A while ago Kathy posted on her blog about working with salt-dough- that reminded me of my childhood when we made exactly the same thing. I made salt-dough with Neomi the other day. It is fast made, you can form it easily (we made beads and some other decoration with cookie-cutters), bake it and paint it afterwards.


To make the dough mix:
1 cup of flour (I mixed half a cup of flour and half a cup of corn-flour)
1 cup of salt
8-10 tablespoons of water

form and place on baking paper. Make holes before baking in case you want to use the "cookies" as decoration. Heat the oven to 150 degrees celsius (300 degrees farenheit)
Bake for approx. 40 minutes

The ornaments will last forever. We used to make decoration for the christmas-tree like this as kids and they still exist at my parents place.

out for a walk

My husband and I went for a nice walk through the fields yesterday morning. It is my 10th winter here (hard to believe!) and I still like this time of the year so much! It is so different from winter in Switzerland- more like spring. Already a lot of flowers are out there- daisies and cyclamen, anemones and dandalions and many more. In two weeks there will be even more. It is like an explosion of fresh green, colours and life after the very long and dry summer.

Thanks for all the nice comments on my last post!

fears...

No nice pictures today- sorry.

Yesterday my husband picked up our new gasmasks.
HOW I HATE THIS!!!
I don't want those things in my house!
That's one big issue I don't like about living here. The thought of war and violence scares me- even more so now that we have kids.
I just can't understand why there's so much hate in some people, why there are people so hungry for power that they don't mind anything, people so blind because of some extreme "religeous" ideologies. Come on- get a life!
My husband said: "Don't worry- we'll send you to Switzerland."- HA- as if someone will give us prior notice that he's going to bomb us and that there will be a war. And even then- if I would leave everything and we would make it to the airport and on a flight to Switzerland- what, am I supposed to leave without my husband???

You people up there in high and important places- use your brains and make damn sure no one will ever have to use those terrible gasmasks! Move your asses and make sure we can all live in peace!
(okay- I know it's not that easy....)

Sorry for my outburst- just had to write this down...

tuesday's handmade

Since my knitting-skills are not the best I am very happy that my dear sister Sara seems to have almost endless time (even with a newborn baby) and very fast needles ;o)
She knitted this absolutely wonderful jacket for Helen. I love it- especially the cute hoody. (Wouldn't mind to get one in my size....)

I am at home with Helen today- it's her turn to be sick. But she feels already much better and I guess tomorrow I will be back at work (well- I could think about something more fun than this...).

pita

Here the recipe for pitas- as some requested.

You need for approx. 10 pieces:

- 500g flour (I usually use 250g white flour and 250g whole wheat flour)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon dry yeast
- 375ml water (roomtemperature or a bit warmer)

Mix salt and flour.
Mix sugar, half of the water and the yeast very good and leave it for 10 Minutes.
Add the rest of the water to the yeast-mix and pour it slowly into the flour- mix well, knead for approx. 8-10 Minutes.
Place the dough in a bowl that has been lighly covered with olive-oil and set aside to raise for approx. 11/2- 2 hours.

Knead lighly, cut dough into 10 balls and form flat breads.
You can make them very thin or a bit thicker.
Bake in oven (230 degrees Celsius) for approx. 5-7 Minutes- until they start to be lightly brown.

You can add additional time to raise after cutting the 10 balls- approx. half hour.
You can also sprinkle some sesame on top of the breads.
If you make the pitas a bit thicker, they actually should "blow themselfs up" like balloons.

wreath

Already in Advent I wanted to make a wreath and never had the time. Now I made one with some vinebranches, feathers, a small bird, lace and those natural "beads"- looks like curled up leaves. I found them in the fields.

tu b'shvat

I was sick for a few days but now I am up and running again.
Yesterday we celebrated "Tu B'Shvat" in the kibbutz. On this holiday new trees are planted. Every year another spot around the kibbutz is chosen and everyone is comming to plant new trees. Some (like us) make small signs with the names of the kids or with the family name and like this you can always come back and check how much "your" tree already grew.

This year we planted olive- and palm-trees.
Traditionally we also get to bake pitas (flat bread) an eat them with chocolate-spread or labane (a kind of soft yoghurt-cheese).

Neomi rolling out her pita

baking the pitas

You can find my recipe for pita here.

I am sick....

golan heights

Some more pictures from our trip to the Golan Heights. My parents flew back to Switzerland but a month from now we will go and visit them there. Then I will also see my sisters again and - what i look foreward to the most: my niece. She's now two and a half months old and I am so curious to get to know her!

jumping down the stairs

enjoying the sunshine

gamla

stones and thorns cover the ground.

ancient sites- so old.

it's difficult to imagine

that people walked here, laughed here,

fought here and loved here

thousands of years ago.

We spent a weekend in the Golan Heights. On Friday we went for a short hike in "Gamla". It was terribly windy and chilly. There are over 700 dolmen (believed to be graves) in this area. They are over 4,000 years old.
There's also the ancient city of Gamla- dated back to biblical times.
More pictures from the trip will follow.
(just noted- gamla means old in swedish ... how fitting!)

postponed

Since quite a while I dream of opening a shop on etsy, of sewing and drawing more and try to sell some things. I wanted to start now and have enough stuff together by spring.

But in the last days I had a lot of thoughts and finally had to tell myself that the best would be to postpone this dream.
I would love to get started- but besides my job, being a mother and wife there's not much time.

It is important to me to spend as much time as possible with my girls- at least as long as they are still small and still want to spend time with me ;o)

I love to play with them, to be with them, to cook for them, to bake with them, to tell them stories and be outside with them. I love to discover the world anew through their eyes and I just wish I could be with them more.
I also like lazy evenings with my husband and reading and making things for my family.

So I decided to set aside my plans and use my free time

to sew pretty things for my girls,

create things for my family and friends,

to bake delicious cakes :o)

to watch the stars

.....

I guess right now all this is much more important.


Have a great day and thanks for visiting my blog.

tuesday's handmade

Those lovely cards are from Alice Cantrell- see her blog here and her shop here. She makes such lovley watercolour-paintings! She has also a beautiful free calendar that you can print out yourself.

This pincushion is from Imali- lovely touch of luxury! Her etsy-shop is here and her blog here.
(okay- I can't read the blog, but the pictures are nice for inspiration)

And... isn't he adorable- this viking? Made by Sandra from Herzensart- see her blog here and her shop here. Many more cute things in her shop!
Have a wonderful day!

a stroll in the Wadi

The second weekend in a row it was rainy and it looks like the next one will turn out the same. But this being Israel there are always sunny moments so we went for a stroll in the Wadi with the gummboots and enjoyed the fresh green grass, the first flowers and the running water. I went home earlier with my mother and Helen to prepare fresh Pita for lunch at home. Neomi, my husband and my father went on and Neomi was so tired from this long walk that she just fell asleep on the sofa (something that usually does not happen to her).

Today we have such wonderful weather. After the rain the air is fresh and cool and averthing is shiny in the sunlight. The sky is very blue with huge, white, fluffy clouds- to me they look almost like snow-covered mountains (and I do miss those ones a lot!).
How I wish I could be outside instead of being at work...

toy dolls

My sister Rebekka made for Neomi some small dolls for Christmas. One has even a packpack. I wonder how she managed to sew those tiny clothes. Noemi is building now houses for them with her wooden blocks.
Thanks, Rebekka!

who is the king?

In Switzerland we celebrate on the 6th of january the "Three Kings Day". The three kings being the 3 wise men that came to visit baby Jesus. On this day we eat a special yeast-cake with rasins. Someweher in this cake a small plastic-king is hidden and the one who finds him in his piece is the king for the day and gets the crown.
My parents are here for a visit and my mother made the cake together with Neomi. Instead of a plastic-king we hid an almond and we made a nice crown ourselfs.

handmade booties

My sister Sara made for Helen wonderful lion-booties. They are so cute and I admire her for being such a good knitter. The booties are knitted and then felted. Last year Neomi got pig-booties from her and they still fit her- she loves them.

We got more lovely handmade presents- about some of them I will post in the comming days.

a new year

A new year started without a big fuss. I did not even think about it much. My parents arrived for a 3 weeks visit and brought loads of presents. It's nice to have them here and I am always a bit surprised how easy also the girls "adapt" to them. Neomi can already remember them of course but Helen is only one year old and not always very friendly to strangers- but she has no problem with my parents at all- probably she can see and feel how close we are.

The weekend was rainy and grey- but as this is Israel, there are even in days like these patches of sunshine- so we went for a walk, I made a few pictures and we took back home fresh oranges- so juicy and sweet!


I wish you all a very happy and creative 2011.