Did not think I would have time for my update today.. as today is usually a day spent in the kitchen... Baking loads of yummys  for Teahouse on the Lake and Snickerdoodles.  I would like to put better links in here but guess what!!!! the person who was spose to have created their websites has been a bit slack (I mean busy), should not really give myself a hard time.   Thought I might share a recipe with you today...Lemon  Curd.  This is one of my favourites... Nom Nom Nom.  I am not a big sweets eater but when I make this in the kitchen... I am more than helping myself to this one. ........One for me, one for the recipe, one for me one for the recipe.... lol.  Now seriously!  This is recipe great for lemon tarts, lemon meringue pie, lemon slice ans many more other dishes!

I promised last week that I would do some more testing with the two Resene Products I am using to replace the Citra Solve product that I can not get here in New Zealand.  Below are samples from a 1979 NG Magazine, I have labeled each picture with the product I have used.  Close up of  "the scream"  for  Loving Mixed Media

It was lovingly suggested that I play with my colours, you see I am great  fan of Burnt Umber and those hues and a very comfortable with them and how they blend.  So I listened..yes I did.... may have has a slight hissy fit and wiped it off when I tried "Yellow"  for the life of me I can't do Yellow.  Cream yes Yellow no!  You might also notice that one of the Fleur dis lis is the not same as a previous in a post below I redid it as I did not like it... but that is not really what I wanted to say.  I did  not like the roughness of the original Fleur de lis,  so I set about making a new one (the cream and red version)  this one I poured a the shape and basically carved the rest out.

Altered Books
Right... now that I managed to distract myself for the last half an hour on twitter ..  I will get onto this altered book segment.  I am doing a free workshop this Thursday at Real Tart Gallery for some residents of a local rest home, so thought as I was...still am preparing all the books... I might share a brief how to for all you folks interested out there...
Hmmm  so you don't know what an altered book is aye... well take a look at some the these... there are several different types but here are three    Claire Lee  Karens Whimesy  Su Blackwell  if you want to see more google image is always great 

How to make  foaming bath bombs

Supplies:
2 Cups Baking Soda
1 Cup Citric Acid
4 teaspoons massage oil ( or 2 teaspoons essential oil and 2 teaspoons olive oil)
Spray bottle with water

mold (60 mm 2 part plastic ball)

This amount only made 5 bath bombs. If I was making more I would buy the citric acid online in bulk. The small bottle you see pictured (1/2 cup) was $2.50. I purchased it from my local health food store.
Mix baking soda and citric acid in large mixing bowl. Mix very well! You can use an electric mixer if you like.
Add in 4 teaspoons of scented massage oil (or other combination of skin safe essential oil for scent and another oil for moisturizing the skin). The scent is personal, so start with a teaspoon or so and add more until you are satisfied. Mix well.
This next step can be a bit tricky because you don't want your bath bomb to start fizzing. Start by adding a couple of fine mist sprays of water to your mixture and mix well
You will continue spraying until the mixture will clump in your hand when squeezed. (I used 5-8 sprays, however this will depend greatly on your local climate)
Fill one half of your mold. Pack it tightly
Fill the other half of the mold and place them together---don't snap together. I slightly overfilled each half. When I pushed the two halves together they became a ball.
Gently remove the ball from mold. If I had problems with the ball coming out easily I dumped the mixture back into my bowl, added a mist of water (carefully), mixed well and then tried again.