Hubby cooks vegan

Hubby's January vegan challenge ends today. He stayed commited and only cheated once, when he had a quiche for lunch yesterday when nothing vegan was available at his work's canteen (and he loves quiche...). He also loves pizza. That is something I very, very rarely make and once he figured out how easy it is to make a vegan pizza, it has become one of his classics.

artichoke-olive-bellpepper-pizza

with a simple yeast dough

Hubby tried vegan grated cheese on this, but I very much prefer a nutritional yeast sauce on top for taste (tastes much better than it sounds) and texture. While his vegan month ends, Hubby's cooking for me continues...

Inspiration Corner: Collage

Making collages was contagious for Clara and me.

 Mother or daughter, what do you think?

(Clara got her school report today - 

it said in the art section, that she likes very expressive colours).

I got this collage-inspired fabric 

(reminds me of the aztecs also)

And another one by Clara:

May your week just be as colourful.

Stone Graffiti

That's the building where I teach my Tuesday night Kundalini Yoga class in. It has been a site of yarn graffiti before. Do you see that little blue spot on the ground?

photos by steinreich

Will there be more rolling stones around town?

Yoga Art

Sat Nam - 

we close every Kundalini Yoga class with chanting these two words.

Sat means truth.

Nam means identity.

Truth is my identity - I am my true self.

I just felt like painting some spirals.

Later I found out, 

that triple spirals are actually ancient symbols (here).

I wish you a soft spiraling into this week!

Pink Moment of the Week

... first snow of this winter, big big fun.

Paintings, this Week

I made a fraternal twin to the flow-collage that also rhymes:
 

 Then I started working with acrylic inks and their fluid nature.

Not indended, but also some kind of twins:

Day and night, dreams, magic and snow.

Hubby cooks vegan

Veggie-Seitan-Packets

Of all the mock meats (what a terrible word) seitan is my favourite.

I made the seitan from scratch (with this)

and Hubby made the packets.

Potatoes on the side.

Great for vegan barbecue in summer.

German recipe here
We left out the garlic (work next day) and chili (children),
but still the flavours were fantastic (lime, ginger, tamari, maple syrup).

Note: The seitan has to marinate for two hours,
keep that in mind, before you become to hungry.

A Touch of Green

It is January.

 It got colder this week, 

with temperatures around 0°C. 

While a little pink of bright always brightens up my day, 

I am having a longing for green these days. 

Some plants, flowers, herbs and leaves. 

For this "kitchen collage" I used magazine clippings (from happinez and we love living), decorative paper, acrylic paint and white paint pens. I just love those antique botanical prints (great drawings for download and print you can find at The Graphics Fairy here).

With green paint left on my fingers,

also my knitting tells a tale of spring.

A Plain Apple Skirt, and a bit of Obsession

Decluttering all those apples on Saturday and Sunday 

made me wanna sew something yummy. 

I had this jersey apple fabric (by Hamburger Liebe) and in-between cooking appleauce, 

baking apple-cinnamon-muffins, 

Hubby sleeping (and then jogging and getting lost, but that's another story) 

and the girls playing, I got stitching.

Another pattern by Mamu Design, this time Caprice. The pattern gives you ten different versions, with all kinds of ruffles and layers, but I just wanted the simplest no-frills skirt.

Just two sideseams, a hem, a little bit of gathering and a waistband.

Easy, yes.

(had I not messed with the ribbing and then used another one I didn't like from the beginning and even less on the finished skirt and all the fabric stored closed on Sunday and opening the top seam for half an hour and be frustrated and thinking how I can get the pink ribbing on Monday, with yoga-classes and a tired child on my bike - I found a way, get up early, be the first when a fabric store opens, obsessed?)

And who couldn't wait to play with the skirt?

Stay light at heart and cheerful.
It's just sewing, Mama.

Pink Start of the Week

It's been a very mild winter in Northern Germany (so far).

 this blossoming tree

 near the birthing home 

where I teach prenatal and mama & baby yoga

in the middle of January

Pink Moment of the Week

... that's how my yoga students know me: pink.

Colours

This week my word for 2014 (this one here), 

like a seed cracked open, 

has seen me play with paint, colours, collage and words.

And I was not the only one.

 Clara's "Luscious Jungle"

Hubby cooks vegan

Simple, warming and very filling, 

with my special friend Hokkaido pumpkin 

and white beans for protein:

The recipe comes from Peace Food and can be found in German here.

Birds and Trees

The birds were still humming in my head, so last week I took some fabric leftovers and also made a trip to Seligkeitsding for extra birds and started cutting, pinning and sewing.

 A textile collage, I think of fusing it to a canvas to hang it on the wall.

 

I used the quick-gratification raw edge appliqué technique 

and like how the frayed edge resembles grass.

For a sketchy look I stitched twice around the pieces.

Another little bird instantly connected.

piep-piep. chirp-chirp

And I have to show this picture Carolina doodled on her magnetic drawing board. It was all free lines, I just added an eye and a beak.

I see birds everywhere.

My Word for 2014

2014 is the first year I have ever intentionally chosen a word for. In the late evening of 31 December 2013 with Carolina on my lap, Clara and Hubby also filling pages of Susanna Conway's workbook for 2014 (here), I found a word that had the strongest vibration for me, my word for 2014. And even though it sounded quite cliché, it felt right: creativity.

The first Kundalini Yoga set I taught this year was for creative energy,
I taught it even twice (not quite selfless).

 

Last week I somehow stumbled upon a beautiful video tutorial by artist Alena Hennessy (here), which was also about finding your word for the New Year and turn it into a painting. A lovely way to enjoy a Sunday afternoon all for myself, with Hubby working, Clara at the cinema with the grandparents and Carolina taking a nap.

Do you have a word for 2014?

Pink Moment of the Week

... pink crayons in a sea of new ones.

Hubby cooks vegan

After his beginner's luck instant success (here), Hubby cooked another meal in the same week.

Scrambled (V)eggs

The recipe comes again from Peace Food (like I suspect will be a lot to come, he is a thourough man). The (v)eggs look quite similar to the curry before, must be the Indian spices. But the taste was different and again very, very good I must say. The main ingredient is tofu. I am cautious about tofu recently, since I have heard about soy products being rather poisonous as opposed to their health food image. I still eat tofu a couple of times year, but not as jolly as I used to.

For the scrambled (v)eggs I advised Hubby to get a soft, curdy type of tofu (I like the German taifun brand) for the best consistency. There are hard, rubbery tofus out there, that would rather spoil the whole meal. He also put tomatoes, bell pepper, onions and mushrooms in it and topped it with fresh cilantro - my favourite herb, even though for some others it tastes like soup. Cilantro is considered to be a major cleanser of the body in ridding heavy metals such as mercury, lead and aluminum - a great blood cleaner. 

Some poison, some cleanser, it's all about balance, I guess.

JA-MI

Riding my bike to my prenatal yoga classes on Monday nights, it was a couple of times that I passed a new store, that looked very inviting selling colourful clothes by a local designer. But always closed at this late hour when I set out to work.

The shop has been there since the middle of October, high time for Carolina and me to see it in daylight.

The shop is located on two floors and looks very appetizing and positively stylish inside.

The paintings come from a Bremen artist who photographs graffiti.

The friendly shop owner is Beate Dehmer, who started her own fashion label in 2001 with a kids' collection when her own kids were young.

 Originally a goldsmith by training, she is a self-taught dressmaker.

Her ladies' collection consists of skirts, dresses, jackets, coats, tunics, tops, scarves and fingerless cloves.

Beate Dehmer also takes special sewing orders 

and has her regular customers.

You can also buy fabric.

Interesting fabric, I thought it was crochet.

A whole lot of work for one single lady! She also sells her clothing (here) and fabric (here) online. Beate Dehmer told me that she is looking for someone to work with her, be it an eager intern or even better an experienced seamstress. You can find her store in Oldenburg, on Nadorster Strasse 22.