Herbs and sunflowers

hi,

Mu mum bought me these starter kits (organic!) to grow my own herbs and sunflowers on my balcony!Bless her :-)
So I took them out and planted and watered the seeds ... I'm curious when I'll see something growing?! I also wonder if there is enough sun for the sunflowers? I've got sunlight only in the early morning hours at this side of my apartment.
Alys Fowler is my great inspiration at trying my hands at growing my own herbs. I love her books, they are so easy to read. I'm a novice on this department yet she makes it all very easy to understand. My earlier encounters with gardening books has been one of discouragement, once they start to talk the talk they have lost me.
So cool Alys makes it all very amusing and fun.
And now I wait with excitement :D

hi :-)
Here a picture of the coasters I crocheted. As a novice to crocheting I am very pleased with the results. I tried out a couple of techniques but I must say the crocheting language is still a bit of a mystery to me. So I learnt to finish my coaster once starting it as I was making my own desings in my head and lost count otherwise haha.
I need to find someone who can explain me the terms and how to interprete the abbreviations. At work there is a colleague who just recently was bitten by the crocheting bug yet she encountered the same problems. Now we are discussing maybe to start some kind of a knitting club?
Have a nice weekend, Kristina

WHAT do you eat?

hi folks,

I'm often asked "what do you eat?" and then I have to explain myself.

About 20 years ago I was diagnosed with lactose intolerance. Lactose is milkprotein derived from cow's milk ... it's a sweetener.
I remember as a youngster now and then having to vomit after drinking hot chocolate or feeling really lousy after eating cream, butter, ... suffering from headaches, fatigue and bloating... with the years the symptoms became more severe : the fatigueness seemed never to leave me and I had always diarrhea.
My social life suffered, my self-esteem suffered, my schoolresults suffered... but no one knew what was wrong with me.

Then my GP put me on different diets. Two diets immediately helped, eliminating wheat products and milkproducts. I wish it was that easy.
Have you ever read the small print on your food packages?
You should, half of it is not understandable if you haven't studied nutrition. And almost every product contains milk protein in some form; milk powder, milk sugar... and so I discovered lactose is almost in everything that goes in our mouth, check it out, crisps, ham, margarine, müesli, spaghettisauce, sports drinks ... even medications.

Since then I have been battling with food, a love-hate relationschip.
I have eliminated everything sometime in my life.
There was my vegetarian time, my vegan time, my wheatfree time, my soy-free time, and always my lactose-free time. Last year I realized I cannot digest eggs anymore. People got/get tired with me, what is it this time you are not eating? And then they ask me WHAT DO YOU EAT?

So the second picture at the top is a meal I prepared for myself inspired by lovely Elena Brower, an anusara yogateacher from US.
Most of the time I try to prepare meals with vegetables, legumes, potatoes, spelt, quinoa, rice, soy... This picture has sauerkraut, avocado, cucumber, beansprouts, pumpkin seeds... And after eating it I felt nourished and healthy.

One kitchen item has brought me a lot of delight and that is my MAGIMIX juicer. In a whink I juice green drinks from celery, cucumber, broccoli stems... (see my first entry 'a sunny day') or selfmade applejuice (see top picture)... absolutely delicious. I recommend a juicer to everyone ... especially if you feel like you have eaten too little vegetables lately, a green drink quickly fixes that.

I will tell you more about my foodadventures ( raw food) in coming blogs.

Bon appetit,
Kristina

New beginnings!

Hi,
Japanese lifestyle has always intrigued me. The way they speak, eat, live, dress, talk, walk... It is all very different to what I know.




Sometime ago I bought cd's to teach myself Japanese, and I do recognize Japanese when I hear it. Sometimes I even understand a word :-) So you can imagine how delighted I was when I found this little shop "HASHI" in my neighbourhood selling Japanese products but also they organised workshops.
The first workshop I followed, was about Japanese teaceremony. In the picture you see me and my sensei (=teacher) who approves of the green tea I prepared, which I had learnt to make only minutes before.
In December I followed a workshop about Japanese giftwrapping. (See picture, me standing).
Japanese never give unwrapped gifts, scarves are used instead of paper !
As I am interested in painting I also attended the SUMI-E workshop; that is Japanese inkpainting. First it felt very awkward as you hold the brush in a strange angle. On the picture you see me painting my first strokes just to get the feel of the ink and the brush.
Lastly I participated an IKEBANA class. I loved it! The Japanese have this brilliant approach of flowerarranging. I loved the end result. With a few flowers I had this amazing creation.
I have never visited Japan (= on my to do list, must-have-seen places) but I do feel like I have had a little taste of the culture already. So a big hurray for workshops and people who organize them.


Arigato,
Kristina