Micr-o-rigami

Some like it big, some like it small. Me? I prefer micro :-D

The tinier, the cuter! And the more difficult to fold. It takes quite some skill to pull off something like this. Which, more or less, I have (yep, no sign of modesty here :-p)

These are the smallest cranes I have ever made. It's not folded very neatly, but you can still recognize the shape of the crane :-). I've put them on a 10 euro cent coin so you can amaze yourself with the seize of them. :-)

Thinking about the frustrations while trying not to fumble the tiny miny piece of paper I don't think I will expand this family of micro cranes anytime soon... :-s

Electra Icosidodecahedron

Electra Icosi- what?? That's exactly my reaction when I saw the name of this piece of art. Luckily this modular origami ball is much easier to fold than to pronounce. It only takes some time to assemble it. Especially when you make two of them, one smaller than the other.

There are 30 units needed to complete one ball. I used paper seize 4 x 4 cm for the outer pink ball and a seize 2 x 2 cm for the inner yellow ball. Inside the yellow Electra there are some red beads on a thread. I thought that would make a nice contrast with the yellow. And it would, had I made the Electra's a bit larger so you could actually see the beads :-)

Piroshki with mini frankfurters

I always forget to take pictures of the results of my attempts. And when I do remember, most of the food has vanished in our bellies. I made at least 2 dozen of these mini Piroshki and this is all that's left for the snapshot. :-s Which is, come to think about it, absolutely not a bad sign :-)

After I made a lemon-cheesecake I had some yoghurt left. Instead of consuming it plain as it is, I searched on the internet for recipes with yoghurt as an ingredient. I came upon this snack. I think the yoghurt works really well in this recipe: never had I worked with such supple dough. And the piroshki didn't turn into little bricks when cooled down, as has been my experience with other dough-recipes. :-)

You can make the filling as you like, but because it was my first attempt, I didn't want to spoil some minced meat should the dough go bad. Instead I used mini-frankfurters to keep the savoury taste. By the way: they tasted real good, especially fresh out of the oven! :-D

Here's the recipe I used:

Dough

- 300 gr. flour

- 5 ts milk

- 125 ml yoghurt

- 1 egg

- 4 tb vegetable oil

- 1 packet baking powder

- pinch of salt

- beaten egg to glaze

Mix everything in a bowl until you got a smooth dough-mixture. If it's too sticky, gradually add some more flour.

Peridot crystal balls

No, these are not frogspawn, as my sister calls it. It may look the same, but surely that's all they have in common :-)

These are peridot crystal balls. At least, that's what they're called on the site I've found the recipe.

It looked too cool not to try it myself and luckily I had all the ingredients needed for this dessert.

In case you're wondering why I went through all this trouble just to make two balls: there were more of them, but when I remembered to take a picture, only these two were left :-)

Unfortunately the taste was not quite as spectacular as the appearance (look at the bright green color!!) It actually tasted kinda weird. But that can also be because I left out the coconut milk and because I'm not a big fan of the heart of yellow split bean paste.

But I will definitely make it again one day! Think about the surprised faces when serving this dessert to others! :-D

And another tasty looking picture :-D

Kitchen princess... or pastry chef??

My mum is a great cook, my sisters are great cooks..... except for my youngest sister. Although I know she won't starve should she be in the situation of having to cook for herself. She's just a bit lazy since she's still living with my parents and therefore having a mum around taking care of everything, including the cooking part. At least she can brag about her homemade sushi. That is one of the few dishes I have no intention of ever making it. And why should I, knowing one who can :-p

Now how to describe my own cooking talent without bringing injustice to the truth?? Well, let me put it this way: my meals are edible and we only eat deep fried/take out/pizza once in a very long time :-) I think I'm an average cook and I know I will never ever hit top chef level.

But I love to bake! I love to make pastries, cookies, little snacks whether it's sweet or savoury. And I love trying to make desserts from Asian cultures! Each weekend I have to make an attempt in the kitchen, just to see if the recipe and the result are worth another try. Luckily most times they are. :-)
Sometimes I feel sorry for my hubby for making him sample everything I bake. Especially when it tastes entirely different than it should. But it's a good sign if he likes what I have made, because when it comes to food he's quite picky :-)

Velvet rose

It seems like I'm in a sort of origami-competition here. My youngest sister once surprised me by telling me her boss is also into origami. His favorites to fold are flowers and bugs/animals. She showed me a picture of an origami bouquet he made that now adorns his office and from to look of that I was quite impressed.

I made her a mini K-rose (like the one in the Birthday-bouquet) to give to her boss to show him what I am capable of. In return he gave me the rose pictured below. It's made of velvet paper in a pretty shade of red and when I first saw it, I thought it to be a real rose :-).

Unfortunately this picture does not show the best side of the rose. In real it's much nicer.

I sacrificed a kusudama as a sort of a thank you for the rose. After my sister gave it to him she told him she now expects him to come up with something spectacular to 'beat' my kusudama.


Well, I don't have an origami bug... yet... ;-)

Old and New Kawasaki

It may not be a surprise now how big a fan I am of the Kawasaki Rose after reading my last posts. So when a colleague of me asked me if I could fold a Kawasaki Rose new style I was surprised at first, because I thought there's only one way to fold it. After founding a diagram on the internet that shows you how to fold the K-rose new style, I at first didn't dare to get started with it. Because the instructions seems to be above my skills and I couldn't quite figure out how to fold the last steps.

Well, I tried it eventually and indeed I couldn't finish my rose properly because I got all messed up while following the last steps. It took me at least three more tries before I figured out the trick.

This style definitely has it's own charm, but I prefer the old style: to me that one is much easier to fold :-)

Birthday Roses

A short while ago it was my fathers birthday. Because I find it difficult to come up with a 'perfect' birthday gift (regardless whoever birthday it is), I made him a bouquet of mini Kawasaki roses. I made 12 of them including a paper stem and leaves and I arranged them in a small pot of glass, filled with tiny lucky stars. Fortunately I had made the lucky stars in a far earlier stadium or else I wouldn't be able to finish the gift in time. :-)

The bouquet is now an unique decoration on the family altar at my parents home.

My very first Kawasaki Rose

I don't remember precisely when I got interested in origami. It could be when I happen to come upon the Kawasaki Rose on the internet when I was surfing without a purpose. I was immediately intrigued by the ingenious way of folding a piece of paper so that it looks like a rose. Of course I knew of the art of origami long before that, I just wasn't aware of the extent of it. Until then origami was only folded lilies and cranes to me. Only lilies and cranes... now see how limited I was in my knowledge? :-)

After seeing how lovely a folded Kawasaki Rose is, I had to try one myself. And tried I did! I found this very clear instruction on Youtube that helped me made my very first one. Back then I didn't have 'real' origamipaper so I used ordinary college paper.

This has been a few months ago now (that short period?? It actually feels like I've been folding for ages! :-D). Since then I have 'mastered' the skill of folding the K-rose. And I plan to make many more of them! :-D :-D

Where do I begin...

I love to make things with my hands. Whether that's with paper, paint, needle, wool or just baking something tasteful in our kitchen :-) I may be just an amateur, but every time I finish one of my 'projects' (as I like to call the subject on which I'm working at the moment) I feel happy seeing the result being not so bad at all. Most of the time it even looks like it should. :-)

Only recently I came upon the idea to put pictures of my makings on the internet to share it with others. I can assure this has absolutely nothing to do with wanting to show off my skills!! :-p :-p (Though it is nice to hear people admiring your work. Hey, just being human here :-D).
Wish I thought about it earlier, it would have been a great advantage to my own administration recalling going through all the different folders containing pictures on my harddrive in search for that one picture :-)

I found out it's really not hard to make something, if only you put your mind to it. Yes, it can be annoying if the process of making is not going as fast as you thought it would go or if the material does exactly the opposite of what you have had in mind. But in the end, if you see what you are capable of doing, all the efforts are worth it. And if is doesn't work out this time, there will always be a next try. I sure have my fair share of tries! :-D
Also an interest in handiwork and having skillful hands does help one get started. :-)

Well, I hope this may be the beginning of a new, endless 'project' with lots of inspirational pictures!! :-D