Painter of the year – Alfred Wallis: http://www.alfred-wallis.co.uk/
Alfred Wallis (18 August 1855 – 29 August 1942) was a Cornish fisherman and artist, who started painting when he was over seventy, as he said "for company" because his wife had died and he did not care for the rest of the company in St. Ives, where he lived for the last fifty years of his life. The paintings might seem childlike, but I love the colours and perspective. Well, look where they ended up – even the Tate gallery! So, next year, when you decide that you’re too old to start doing something, please remember Alfred.Writer of the year – Jodi Picoult: http://www.jodipicoult.com/
Jodi Lynn Picoult (born May 19, 1966) is an American author, who has an amazing ability to talk about the things that we usually avoid to talk about – feelings. If you haven’t read any of her books (pretty unlikely) – try them, I can guarantee it will be hard to put them down. And in the coming year start to express your feelings, life should become easier.
Aimée Ann Duffy (born 23 June 1984), better known by her stage name Duffy, is a Welsh singer-songwriter. This is the woman, who was asked to leave her school choir because her voice was "too big" and she "didn't fit in”! She’s good and hmm… different. Well, even if you don’t like her songs, next year don’t believe in everything people say – simply know that you can do it!Happy 2010!
May it bring you lots of nice expierences xxx
And the last award goes to Anne, my blog reader of the year ;) - http://nikkipolani.wordpress.com/
Thank you for your kind comments and would like to wish you all the best for the year ahead!
It wasn’t very difficult and I enjoyed it a lot, but there’s a problem – these days it’s a big dilemma where to get straw. It has to be gathered in the summer: end of July, beginning of August; and if you don’t know any farmers… hmm… you’d need to pick some from someone’s fields. But if the idea of “scrumpping” doesn’t appeal I suppose you could use reeds instead.
Symmetry is very important, so all of the straws you will use have to be the same length, width and preferably colour (colour differs depending on the type of the straw (rye or wheat) and the are ways how to make it brighter – you have to boil your straw in water with baking soda).
You have to use a needle that would be longer than your straws, so that you could take it out at the other end. And the thread has to be similar colour to your straw, so that it wouldn’t be noticeable. (We as beginners got a bright orange one, so that it would be easier to untangle it if need be.)
Yesterday I chose the ones that are easy to make.
Make dough from flour, cacao, baking powder, egg, sugar, butter, orange zest and almonds (I’m sure you can use some other nuts and orange can be replaced with lemon). Once it’s done wrap it into tin foil and put it into your fridge for at least half an hour.
For decoration use 3 spoons of orange juice mixed with caster sugar. Apply this mix on your biscuits. (I used some strawberry jelly and dried grapefruit – they might not look very professional, but are very tasty!)
I must admit I had this idea a month or so ago (the Christmassy stuff in shops must have stimulated my brain back then), so I have prepared – I’ve collected lots of watermelon seeds, that have dried nicely and it’s really hard to stick a needle through them now!
If you want to try this out all you need is seeds (any chunky ones should do, just make sue they are soft and not dried, this should help you to avoid little holes in your fingers), little beads, a needle and some thread. Also some paint, that you could make your garland look gold.
I promise I will post some more photos so that you could see what the garland looks like on the tree. Meanwhile I’ll continue trying to stick my needle through the dried seeds… as it’s not going as fast as I would hope it to be…
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