[ Reverb10 : Day 19 : Healing ]

This piece was written on 2nd January 2011.
Day 19. What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip revelation? How would you like to be healed in 2011?

I'm confused by this prompt. I don't feel healed at all. In fact, I feel quite the opposite right now. My back is stiff from sitting too long, my stomach is roiling because I forgot to take my Colitis medication until lunchtime, and the eczema on my hand itches and flakes. Or does the prompt mean healed psychologically? Cos I'm pretty crazy...

But no, there is something I can think of. When I got back from Europe in October, I stopped waking up at 5am. The negativity in my head lessened. I was excited about things again. I saw more. When I tried to relax, it worked. When I ventured out into the company of others, the anxiety was less. I felt centred. I hate that word, but I can't think of any other way to describe how I felt - like I was in the middle of my life.

I beg the Universe every day not to let this feeling slip back into the oblivion of my ingrained habits.

Quick Art Journalling Update

All of my art journalling supplies are still packed up in boxes. But I wasn't silly enough to pack my art journal itself away! I need to know where that baby is! In the last week I've been desperate to express myself. So I went out and bought a glue stick and grabbed some of the magazines and junk mail that have been lying around. Obviously these pages are still very much works in progress, but it felt so good just to do a bit of cutting and pasting!

I took these pictures on my balcony, and the wind kept blowing the pages over, so excuse my foot keeping them open!

The one on the top right I did after I bought a mis-colour paint pot from Bunnings. This page is a response to watching reports of the cyclones and floods on the news. The words I wrote with a whiteboard marker that I found. Phrases like "torrential rain", "severe flooding", "emergency evacuation shelters" keep appearing. I couldn't find any paint brushes so I used my finger.

In The Kitchen, Special Edition: SPAM!

Recently, I've started receiving spam comments on my blog. They're mostly ads for what seem to be dating sites or online training courses. I'm not 100% sure, because they're in Russian. Google translate is good, but you can never be completely sure. [Note: this passage refers to my Livejournal blog, where this post was originally hosted.]

I don't know if I've been bestowed this honour because I've reached a certain number of readers, or just because my blog has been around a long time. Either way, I've decided to take the bull by the horns and make lemonade. Or Spam, to be more precise.

I declared a Weekend of Spam! A Spam-aganza!

I went out and bought 3 cans of Spam for 3 meals. All varieties just happened to be on sale at my local supermarket. The only varieties I could get were these ones:

But they were more than suitable for my needs.
On Friday night, Boy and I made Pita Pizzas with sticks of Hot & Spicy Spam for the meat. Sometimes when a food is advertised as 'hot' and/or 'spicy', it ends up tasting fairly lame. But this really had some kick to it. We used half of the can. The pizzas also had capsicum, red onion and a scattering of brie:

On Saturday morning, I made Eggs Spam-edict. I used the Spam with Real Bacon. It tasted quite bacony and had a certain, slightly chewy texture. I cut the slab of meat (or should that be 'meat'?) up into 4 large slices. Here it is sizzling away nicely in the pan. I used garlic butter to give it some extra flavour.

Here is the Spam with Real Bacon assembled on the muffins with the eggs. Boy and I like our hollandaise sauce! Needless to say, we didn't really eat much for the rest of the day.

On Sunday, Boy and I had Spam Lite for lunch. See how it glistens appealingly on the board after it has slid with an satisfying slurp from the can?

I wanted to make Spam Musubi (the Hawai'ian favourite). I've never made shaped rice by hand before, so I think I did pretty well. Boy made some handrolls as well with Spam cut into sticks, and eggroll that he had made. We had a couple of rounds of rice paper in the cupboard, so I turned the meal into a smorgasbord by cooking up some noodles and making Spam Paper Rolls. I'm glad I reserved the Spam Lite for this meal, as it gave the food a fresher feel. We used up about 3/4 of the can making this Asio-Pacific Spam-tacular for Two.

Even the cat loves Spam! (We made sure only to give her some of the Lite version). Actually, I think we've created an addict. She wouldn't leave us alone the whole time we were in the kitchen. Oops.

Tonight we'll be having the left-over Hot & Spicy Spam on another round of Pita Pizzas, as we wave goodbye to our 3-day Exploration of Spam. One thing is for sure, I won't be eating Spam again for a long, long time.

[ Reverb10 : Day 18 : Try ]

Written on 2nd January 2011.
Day 18. What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did/didn't go for it?

Try? I wrote about my dislike of the word 'try' just recently. To me, it smacks of failure. Perhaps it just needs a shift of perspective - to try something new, without the expectation of success or failure. Now it sounds almost exciting.

What did I try in 2010? What was new? The first thing that comes to mind is - I tried writing knitting patterns. Well, I was kind of forced into it really, due to a technical mix-up that I wrote about in this post. I found it fun and refreshing.

I often make up projects on the spot, and always regret not writing down how I made them. Recording them gave me a sense of satisfaction. I felt relieved that I had something I could refer back to easily later on. And I figured - why not clean them up and share them with other people while I'm at it? Ravelry provides a free and easy way of doing it. I just wonder if other people understand them....

I have no idea if I actually wrote them well as I have no feedback. Although a few users said they were looking forward to knitting my dishcloths, which was scarily exciting. (Or excitingly scary?)

The part I liked best was creating the PDF - editing the text, placing the photos, choosing the fonts, etc. I remember this being an enjoyable part of writing essays when I was at Uni, too. Perhaps its something I could look into finding out more about in 2011.