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Saturday, January 30, 2010

I Love Play Dough!


I so enjoy playing with squishy squashy things. I love the feel of bread dough in my hands as I pound and pummel and knead it into submission. I always love getting my hands dirty in the garden. I even love shaping mince rissoles for the BBQ!

So today when I made play dough for a friend's kids, you won't be surprised to hear that I've been thoroughly enjoying a little play dough play myself!

There's something so satisfying about turning a lump of nothing into something pleasing to the senses – whether it be pleasing to the touch, or pretty to look at, or delicious. And in the case of play dough, more than the finished product, I really just enjoy the feel of the dough in my hands as I squish it and squash it from one shape to another.

Play dough is so easy to make. This is what you need:

1 cup flour
½ cup salt
4 tsps lemon juice (most recipes call for cream of tartar but since it's impossible to find here, I used lemon juice which works just as well)
1 cup water
1 tbs oil

And this is how you do it:

1.In a saucepan, combine the flour and salt.
2.In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients.
3.Gradually stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture until smooth.
4.Constantly stir the mixture over medium heat until it clumps together into a ball.
5.Remove from heat and knead until smooth.
6.Divide the dough and add a couple of drops of colour to each ball of dough.
7.Knead the balls of dough separately until the colour in each is uniform.
8.Store in ziploc bags or air-tight containers

I made blue and green play-dough today. Which just happen to also be the 2 colours that seem to work best. What do you think of my little one-minute monsters?






Saturday, January 23, 2010

Introducing ...

For more than 10 years I've been floating along on the wind of life through many parts of the world. I've experienced so many memorable moments and always tried to treat all my senses generously. My life has been so ... full! For me, every new experience becomes so much more enjoyable when shared with those I love. Of course I've tried to share my life with family and friends through emails and more recently, Facebook. But sometimes life blows me along so quickly that I realise too late that I've neglected to send an email to a good friend for much too long, or I've been unable to adequately describe an experience with words alone, or I've be unable to attach photos due to internet connection problems and ended up losing all that I'd already written. We've all suffered through internet/connection/email difficulties, I know you understand the frustration I'm talking about. And I do feel frustrated that I haven't adequately recorded my experiences to share with you.

Then along came Kaya. Since he was born, the wind of my life has become a cyclone of so many more unexpected, wonderful, incredible and beautiful moments, experienced through the eyes of our little angel. I'm enjoying life with this little one so very much and now more than ever before I want to share our experiences with you more comprehensively, in an organised and visual way.

So, here I introduce "Passionately Life" - a blog about my most exciting and most challenging adventure yet; growing a family!