20120923 Why Do?

20120919 To some, the decision to make or not comes just by a look at the ingredients.
To some others, it may take making one to find out.
To this one,
the urge to make one is too strong that the lack of baking powder was substituted with

 sodium bicarbonate
and the lack of molasses or honey was ignored.
The butter was melted in the microwave, 1/4c. liquid it became
and the whole place smelled of cow.
Was it the beer?
It smelled of plastic.
Maybe I should have used imported beer instead of Taiwan beer for this recipe?
I really want to post the recipe here, but couldn't find it now..
must have been that disappointed.
Oh well, sometimes the fun of making comes purely from an expecting spirit
I call 'hope'.

20120916 Following Instructions

Following instructions is one tough lesson to learn,
a never ending cycle,
specially when learning involves the prerequisite
of understanding the system of formalized symbols and signs
 to be able to understand
and get on to the basic,
if 
and 
only
if

along the course
of this enjoyable journey,
one can focus 
on the end,
to which I doubt.


Is it the urge to create?
Could it be the fear of being locked?

You know your answer
as well as I do mine.

20120915 To Warm A Neck

I finished this item yesterday and gave it to my
BS teacher.
I had another person in mind while making
this
but so unsure
as to how much she would appreciate
the style
until a good fortuitous turn came.

The airconditioner was too much
at 26 degrees C for our BS teacher to cope
and she started coughing.

She took a little towel out of her bag
and tried to wrap it around her neck.

I took this work in process out of my bag
and asked her if she can try it out.

I had a nice time watching this piece
working its effect on her.

The thread that wrapped around her neck
for the warmth she needed,
the extra length that fell down
for some adornment,
the color that enhanced her skin color,
and
the dangling ball of thread
that proved it an unfinished task
all telling me,
it's for her.

Working on more stitches
and a simple embellishment of several beads,
I handed it to her yesterday
to both our delight.

20120902 Insatiable

Looks absolutely perfect for a middle pull,

 save that it won't budge.

Finding not a place to prod,
I felt enmeshed before am trapped.

No more twirling, I've done enough.

Deliberately missing the important step,
I opted for this by now prosaic stitch.

Deeming my eyes be on the ball
until a triangle becomes it all.

Restless, as this stitch summons a try,

My needle went to ply.

20120901 Beauty in the Night

A spill in the kitchen
led me out to the
balcony for the mop.

 A fast growing plant
by the corner
led my sight to what's on top.

 Someone up there
knows I shouldn't miss this sight.

As promised it glows,
this beauty in the night.

20120828 Love Knot Triangle

Can't help admiring this work

The whole process of making it
feels like reading a book.

Engrossed, you don't want to stop

You know it is time for bed,

You know your eyes are seeing doubles

You know that tinge of blue feeling would surely come

when you're done with it,

and you think, just one more row..

until your thread's all gone.

20120826 Thanks for Time

I learned about balling a yarn
and am quite satisfied with
 my version
of a middle pull.

And am I glad to have found
something useful for this yellow
stuff, a name I have yet to
find out.
Meanwhile,
call it my contribution to recycling craft!

Thanks to vimeo.com
for the video tutorial
on love knots triangle

and

 David Pawson's Unlocking the Bible Series - Job Part 1
for a great introduction to
the oldest book
there is.

20120529 Hanging Plants

It is hard to express how amazing this new find is!
Imagine filling up the grilles in this balcony with different plants.

I really do not have enough space for smaller pots
and not enough soil to fill bigger pots.

So one can just imagine the thrill at
 how much soil and water I can save with these little plastic bottles.
No more worries of  water and soil going down the drain.
Besides, These plants can get in and out of the house
with no effort at all.

Think of people to be grateful for
http://skinnylaminx.com/2011/01/18/hanging-succulent-garden/

20120528 Hanging

Inspired by http://skinnylaminx.com/2011/01/18/hanging-succulent-garden/
I tried to make something last night and came up with
adding some key chains and old keys to the empty bottles.

Who knows what more would come out of this.

20120526 My Bookmark

   I am crazy about Pinterest lately.  Oh the joy of browsing through entries more than a weekly or a monthly magazine can offer and at no cost at all.  Not one to write notes because I never get to find where I kept them, nor one to keep journals that I may regret writing, I decided to just keep things listed here in blogger and pin up things I love on my Pinterest board.  I am only left with what I had posted in facebook, blogger and multiply when my laptop went down, so I'll just have to take advantage of this internet connections.

First entry in my bookmark, modge podge.  It feels like I would soon be making a lot more creative things with the trash I've collected for years using this glue.

Thanks for tutorials:
1. For Easy No Sew Roman Shades, http://365days2simplicity.blogspot.com/2011/04/easy-no-sew-roman-shades.html
2. Satin ribbon rosettes
http://bessiemary.blogspot.tw/search/label/Bonnets
3. "ALL knitting (the craft) is made of stitches, but NOT ALL stitches are "knit" stitches."http://heidibearscreative.blogspot.tw/2010/03/how-to-knit-tutorial-1-casting-on-and.html

Quilling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:QuillingShapes.jpg
http://www.etsy.com/listing/59669115/quilling-flowers-pdf-pattern-tutorial
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Daisy_002.jpg


Thanks for Recipes:
1. Oreo Cookies and Cream-No-Bake Cheesecake http://www.bakersroyale.com/cheesecake/oreo-cookies-and-cream-no-bake-cheesecake/

2.Mushroom Pasta
 http://sweetpaul.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/09/recipe-monday-1.html


Thanks for Green Thumbs:
20120529 Here's something I learned today: http://skinnygourmet.blogspot.com/2008/05/ten-mistakes-new-herb-gardeners-make.html

20120402 Grapes That Have Fallen

Leviticus 23:22
“‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the LORD your God.’”

It was the Bible verse I read one morning during my devotional time on the dining table in Ginger's home. It was the most direct way for the Lord to tell me that He cares.  I deeply felt His love through this verse,but it was immediately followed by these thoughts:  What if people do not obey.  What if people do not follow through.  It is so easy to grasp and believe a promise when one is helpless. There is home to go back to, there is still hope.

The beginning months which led to a year in this new country was made easier by Ginger, an American missionary, who opened up her home for me to stay by God's grace and mercy. It was not at all easy for her to accommodate a total stranger like me without ever knowing the duration of my stay and degrading on my part as I allowed myself the decadence of enjoying my stay at the expense of others worrying about my means of livelihood.

The English Bible Study class that the church offered  me to lead once a week every Friday night was the best part of my stay.  It was attended mostly by non-believers who need a group to practice their conversational skills with. What better book and what better characters to talk about but the ones in Bible stories. We had a wonderful four years together. We still have reunions until this day.

The Lord my God sustained my stay with grapes that have fallen.  In my case, the grapes that have fallen were the adult students who needed their lessons at their convenient time, anytime during the day or night. 
    It all started with sensitive people who have a compassionate heart. The daughter of a beauty salon owner, hired me to give their employees English lessons at 11:30pm right after they closed shop.  It was purely a job created for me, which I have to refuse after 3 classes because the girls were really too tired for it after a hard day's work. 

The Lord my God made my heart leap for joy and it is thankful each time I went to the fields for my gleanings. Sometimes they were grapes to sustain me for the day,and sometimes they were wheat that I could store.      
   The wheat that had fallen were the precious times I had with Doctors' wives and businessmen's wives who needed one on one lessons, for varying reasons like not being able to find learners with the same level or people who are too shy to speak out in a group. There was a time when I found a little basket of grapes on my doorstep. A manager who came all the way from Taipei, who needed to do work presentation for a meeting abroad and a government employee wanting to make presentation for visiting foreign delegates. 


The Lord my God made my heart  content working on a piecework basis.  He made me enjoy walking the distance to the fields for my gleanings of grapes and wheat.  I was into these gleanings for two years. A doctor friend from home once advised me to go home if I do not earn NT$80,000 a month in Taiwan.  I did not tell him that I have nothing left of the NT$20,000 I brought with me. I did not tell him that I have to walk to stretch a remaining NT$200 until I am able to glean a harvest of wheat that I can store. No one around me can relate to the kind of lifestyle I was enjoying then. My Father in Heaven has asked me how much in terms of money I could account for the pure joy of loving the work I was doing.  He wanted to know how much in terms of money I would be willing to sacrifice for the satisfaction of owning and managing the time He has alloted me.


The Lord my God talks to me and to His voice only will I listen.
In the beginning I was deaf-mute because of the language barrier,
then I was deaf-mute because I needed the silence to hear His still small voice.
Friends that I had acquired along the years had their good intentions.
"How can you live on your own?" 
"You do not have a steady income."
"How can you afford your rent?"
"Do you know you need NT$30,000 deposit just to apply for a telephone?"
"How do people get to you without a telephone?"
"Why don't you just humble yourself ..."
    By the third year, I was accomodated my own space for a very small token at someone's upper room.  It was a place I called my abode with an adjoining room for my workspace. It was in this place that I continued to glean from evening till past midnight.  There was a group of accountants who came for their lessons after working overtime.  I would go home from a 5:00pm to 9:00pm regular teaching class to wait for them to arrive some time around 10:00 pm and sometimes later.
   My home abode and my work place was situated in two parallel streets with the Lio Ho Night Market intersecting the two. It is the busiest street in the city from 4:00pm to 4:00am. One can never tell the time of day walking along the brightly-lit street at any notorious time of the night. It was a five-minute walk from home to the school. It was my kitchen for two years.


It was in this place I called my workshop where The Lord gave me a vision of a mission. A mission of creating a curriculum tailor-made for each individual student. A vision to make people learn to read, so they would love to read so they would read to learn and hopefully, someday to read the Words of Their Heavenly Father. 


I have long stopped worrying about people who do not obey.  For He had showed me how He can make people do as He wishes.  Whether the person knows Him or not, for He is our Creator.

20120401 Why not?

My Lord, was the one and only Person who had listened to me
when nobody else really understood my language.
My Lord, was the one and only Person who could speak to me
when I had not yet fully grasped the spoken language around me.
Deaf-mute is not insulting when used to describe my condition.
Deaf-mute is the only word to describe the deepest state of loneliness
I had gone through.


My Lord wanted me to talk about His goodness and mercy
since the very day that He brought me to this land.
I have since growned accustomed to my deaf-mute stage,
having lived with it for 25 years, that it has become
quite an agony to find the right words and phrases
to pen down and tell of His loving kindness;
and agonizing yet to dig out the bits and pieces
that He has seen me through,
as perceived through the other senses
which indeed helped so much in cushioning the journey.


Like the very first time He asked me the question
He is asking once again,
"Are you willing to take this ride with me?"
my answer is:
"Why not?"

20110730 Something About It

This morning I was awakened by the bird!
I couldn't be laying awake all night waiting for this.
I rushed to the balcony...

20120318 Time Out

We passed by this park on our way
to watch a 7:40 pm movie- The Iron Lady.

We could just pass by this path 

but not today.
 Hubby suggested we sit and watch
the sun go down.

We walked for an hour
getting to know the road that
we have not tread on foot before.

An hour's walk, deep in conversation,
along ostentatious shops,
that simply caught my glimpses;
along restaurants
that we both agreed to try out,
that is,
depending on how long the impression lasts.

We spent another hour at  Central Park.
My camera may not take the best of these blooms.
They seemed unmindful whether one takes notice
of them or not.
They seemed to know why they exist..

Then this, 

and this,
competing for attention it seemed.

This city tries so much to attract
but there is only one need I know,
to meet this little pang of hunger 8 hours
after lunch.

Where would movie theaters be without popcorn?
No popcorn here but these and many more.
I can feel the excitement of  a child.
So nice to be reminded of this feeling more than half a century later.
We both  had our own pick,
two bags each.
Our dinner in the movie theater.

There were about ten people inside the theater
not just the two of us as we are used to.
A couple was seated two seats away from hubby
and a young man two seats away from me.
I could hear the crunch of each munch
hubby did on his crispy fried tofu,
or whatever it was,
how could not they?
He can easily conceal the crunch and munch
with a noisy action film in this same theater.
"Sh! Papi, shhhh!"
but it seemed like my shhh's were more annoying.

I groped for the sweet potato and mushrooms
in the bag,
feeling all wound up,
thinking about taking the serious film too lightly.

The two hours passed all too soon
like the whiff of our treat.
We took the bus home
in silence.

If we are blessed with another day,
we can talk about it,
tomorrow.

20120228 A Party for Three

This is the fourth day of my
5-day-holiday.
It is back to school for my son tomorrow,
so I left my warm burrow
for the market.
This Mom chef knows she needed
fish on the table.

I had not fully closed the main door on the ground floor
when I beheld the cold and the gloomy sign of a coming rain.
It was 11:45am when I left the 7th floor.
There really was no time to go back  for a coat and an umbrella.
Such incredible motherly love
I cannot lay claim to;
on the contrary, I heard myself scold,
"Silly old lady to have braved the cold,
sillier still if you catch a cold."

Blame it on spontaneity,
blame it on the sudden urge to throw a party.
Yet, how can one not be reprehensible
even to self,
for the time spent on my Windows
to ever glance out the windows!

Nevertheless,
it did not take long for God to make me aware of His presence.

On my way to the market,
the red light was on, I do not have to stop walking.

While I was in the market,
the lady fishmonger  in her chatty mood,
gave me a brilliant tip for my fish and clams
(Please visit PaletteformyPalate and
here
for the details)
          
The rain did come pouring hard.
I heard it but was saved from an encounter.
It poured hard and fast
as fast as it takes to see
the finish of my NT$600.

On my way home,
the street was wet but without a drizzle.
Again, there was the red light, I do not have to stop walking.
I need neither a coat nor an umbrella.
I walked home warm with passion for a new recipe.
I walked home warm with passion for my family of three.