blogtoberfest - word of the day giveaway

As sad as it is to reach the end of Blogtoberfest I must say I am a little relieved.  Although I have really enjoyed myself, posting every day no matter how simple I made it grew difficult in the end.  I'm very proud I lived up to what I'd set out to do and mustered up enough interesting words to fill the month.  I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.

Now onto the fun stuff.  The giveaway.  As promised 30 days ago, I am going to have a teacosy made by 'moi' as a giveaway.  All you have to do is choose 10 words or more from the list of words below and create a crafty poem to win the prize.  The winner will be drawn randomly from the pool of entries so there's no need to worry about whether you are in the same league as Shelley, Keats or Byron.  I'm more like Shakespeare myself (husband would be cacking himself at the thought) so it's lucky I'm not entering...

I haven't posted a picture of the teacosy prize yet as it is not quite finished but if you want to get a bit of a feel for what it looks like then take a look at this post here... I will post a photo in a few days once it's finished.  It's been so much fun to make!

Entries will be drawn on Sunday 8th of November and I will make allowances for international time differences.  Leave your poems as comments on this post below.  I'll put a direct link to it in my left side bar so you can find it later.  I'm really, really looking forward to seeing what you all come up with!

A special thanks must go out to Tinniegirl too, for organising blogtoberfest.  Thanks Cathy, it's been great and I've had a lot of fun!

Day 31 - word of the day

Saving the best one for last...I was so excited when I discovered this...

Day 30 - word of the day

?????

Day 29 - word of the day

Day 28 - word of the day

I liked the 'art' part of this word which was found on the side of a cigarette bin outside a building.  The irony of it all...

Day 27 - word of the day

for each and every one of you....xo

Day 26 - word of the day

Day 25 - word of the day

Day 24 - word of the day

Day 23 - word of the day

have sweet ones!

Day 22 - word of the day

perfection.

Day 21 - word of the day

It's a lot harder than it seems.  It also needs to occur more often on so many levels.

Day 20 - word of the day & recipe

...because it's my favourite vegetable (well it's up there with eggplant and green beans), it's the same colour as my hair and I love, love, love it so.

It's kind of the wrong time of year but here's one of my favourite beetroot recipes:

Beetroot Risotto
1 bunch of baby beets (if on small side, 6-7, if on large side 4-5) you can substitute for large beets too.  I'd recommend you use 2 good sized beets.
8 cups of stock (chicken or vegetable) water (or more depending on how much you need for risotto-ing)
100g butter
2 tbs olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
salt and pepper
1 splash of red wine
a spring of rosemary
200g of arborio rice
200g english salad spinach, blanched and drained well
2 tbs passatta (pasta sauce)
100g parmesan cheese
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roughly dice washed beetroot and boil in stock water until tender.
In a separate saucepan heat oil and half of butter in a pan.  Add onion, rosemary and seasoning.
Add rice and stir until lightly toasted (you know, the risotto thing)
Add wine and a cup of the beetroot stock and continue to stir.  Gradually add stock and stir, waiting until rice absorbs each cup of stock before adding the next. (this should last for about 15 minutes or so).
Add spinach, (the chopped beets from the stock if you wish) and tomato sauce and cook for a further 2 minutes.
Add parmesan and remaining butter.  Serve.


* I scribbled this down years ago when watching a cooking show on tv.  If you have never cooked a risotto before then I recommend you check out a recipe with clearer instructions before attempting this one!!  

Day 19 - word of the day

Thought I'd start this week with a bit of a bang.  Creativity.  Can't live without it.  It's exactly what I need to think about when I drag myself out of bed on Monday.  I need to think about what I can do rather than what I don't want to do.

Have a creative day.  Have a create week.  Have a creative month.  Have a creative life.

Day 18 - word of the day

I dedicate today's word to all the crafters that have gone before us and to all the volunteers who crochet blankets for the sick and elderly and donate your time teaching and creating for the less fortunate.  You give us all something to live up to.

Hope your Sunday has been as lovely as mine.

Day 17 - word of the day

One of the other things I plan to do one day is to make a big difference somehow, somewhere.  Some people think having an ambition to change the world is a pipe dream but I don't.  Changing the world doesn't mean you need to be elected president of the US or anything.  It can be a small thing that makes a big difference.

I can't understand why we don't value human life on an equitable basis.  I don't understand why we continue to have such an enormous amount of poverty in the world when over the last 10 years the West has seen more wealth than it ever has before.

Stand up against poverty this weekend.  I am.

Day 16 - word of the day

english breakfast, earl grey, jasmine, pu-erh, peppermint, chai, chamomile, irish breakfast, orange pekoe, lady grey, oolong, darjeeling, yunnan, keemun, sencha, ceylon...

Day 15 - word of the day

I am late in posting the word of the day today but have chosen this word as it's quite apt if you consider it in the context of my creative space today.  How funny is the 'room for' above it?  It was as though it is meant to be!

Sewing is one of my favourite hobbies.  I love doing it and I love looking and admiring and being inspired by other sewing I see on blogs and the like.  Yay for sewing.  What would we do without it?

Day 14 - word of the day

It's a no brainer really.  It's the word that had to happen.  A pity it only has one R.

twinkle twinkle.

Day 13 - word of the day

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way." 

William Blake