DIY _ make your own butter

Making your own butter is one of the most easy things you can do. All you need is one ingredient: full-cream! Then if you want to add a flavour, like salt or herbs, that's up to you.
Total preperation time: 15min!

1. Start beating the cream. First it will become whipped cream.

2. After about 10min it will start to become grainy. Keep going.

3. After 15min it will be rather grainy and getting solid. If you put some between your fingers, it will infact feel like soft butter.

4. Put the mass on a kitchen towel. It's good if this isn't too tightly woven in order to let out the watery liquid.
Squeeze out any acess liquid. This liquid will look like murkey water / milk.

5. Open up the towel and this is what it will look like. Add any extra flavoring such as salt or herbs. With your fingertips or a fork, blend it together. Be careful not to use your whole hands as this will warm the butter too much.

I made 3 types of herb butter. Pesto, parsely and garlic, pepperoncino.

Balcony make-over.

I recently had the idea of making a sofa for my balcony and I'm not regretting that choice for a second. I used to have 2 wooden chairs and a table, which, theoretically was a good idea for eating out on the balcony. But the sofa is a different deal. It's so relaxing to lay there in the morning sun eating your breakfast, sunbathing, drinking a glass of wine in the evening or having an afternoon nap. I'm out there so much more now.
So what about the sofa? It wouldn't take a reader long to know that many of the things I write about on my blog are about DIY, so of course I had to make the sofa by myself! I picked up 3 wooden crates, put one up against the wall and two on the floor and "tada" it was all done. I cut an old mattress in 2 in order to give it the proper bend, and covered it all with a strong light fabric.
What else did my balcony need? Storage space. And what did I do to get it? Recycled DIY of course!
I felt a bit like a crazy woman keeping my eyes out near the bins on the street, but it was worth it. I'd stop my bike in the middle of the road and run over if I saw a beautiful wooden box. Then balancing it all the way home. My husband was making fun of me every time I'd come home with a new box. The result is 5 stacked up wooden boxes that are filled with pots, candles, pegs, seeds, etc. One I've used for the table, and its perfect because it gives me space inside of it for storage, and also a good solid table.
One corner is for the pots which I placed on one of the small wooden crates as well as an old kids wooden chair that I found while searching for boxes.
A bbq made out of a terracotta pot and a grill I found in the same size. Coal in the pot and it's finished. Great for just making a quite steak for 2.
Final touches were pillows, a mat, pots, etc.

The wooden box storage and table.

My balcony wouldn't be complete without Peanut by my side. Here seen in action licking my leg.

Home made ladder (check earlier posts) with can candle holders (also see earlier posts).

Old children's chair with a pot with mixed plants.

Tomatoes and the herb corner. Pots placed on wooden crates.

The wooden box table on a 3euro Ikea rug, Peanut sunbathing on the sofa.

Our wedding decoration

 Here are the decorations from our wedding. I did so many things in order to make our wedding as personal as possible. It all turned out amazingly and I was given many compliments. Our guests appreciated the personal touches making them feel special as well.  

 This is a road sign that I made where all the places are indicated where our guests had travelled from to be there for our wedding. 

 The table decorations. The napkin had a champagne coloured ribbon (our colour theme). Fabric flowers, a Protea flower, a pot with grass with the table numbers.

 A close up of the table decorations. 

 The cakes and the cake presentation that I came up with myself. The white chocolate of the cakes resembles the bark of the tree stumps. The beautiful seeds that I had collected over some time. The tin cans with babies breath flowers, and also the cake toppers that I had made of us. 

 The headband for the flower girl. 

 The cake toppers that I made of ourselves. They're made out of Polimer clay that are baked in the oven. 

 The ring pillows with the same lace that we also had around the jars on the tables and of the leg band. 

 The hair flowers that both I and the 3 bridesmaids wore on the day. 

 The window on which I wrote the table seating. Each rectangle had the names of a table. 

 Wish tags that were placed in the birds house, which our guests wrote their wishes to us. 

 We put photos of our parents, grandparents and other family members on their wedding days. It was a way to celebrate them and show our respect to them.

 The wedding program fans. On the first page it has the program, second page has the bridal party names, the third page had the text of That's Amore which we sang together with our guests after the ceremony. 

 Small flags which the guests waved after we were wed. 

Make your own Sushi.

How to make your own sushi.
Making your own sushi isn't as difficult as it seems and not as expensive either. If you don't have much knowledge in fish, I suggest you just to use salmon and tuna as they are the most commonly found and safe raw fish types.
For 21 pieces of Maki sushi and 14 pieces of Nigiri sushi, you will need:
- 3 arcs of Nori seaweed 
- 200g salmon
- 1 avacado
- 2 carrots
- 1 zucchini
- 7 king prawns
- 1,5 cup of rice
- 1 tbs white wine
- 5 tbs vinegar (i used apple vinegar)
- 3 tbs sugar
- soia sauce


Maki sushi:
a)First you need to make the rice: Boil 3 cups of water. Meanwhile wash the rice in cold water. Rince. Put the washed rice into the boiling water. Lower the temperature and put the lid on leaving a small space. When the water has absorbed, it's ready. Don't mix the rice while it's boiling.
b) In a small bowl mix the vinegar, white wine and sugar together until the sugar has been absorbed.
c) mix this liquid with the ready boiled rice. Let it rest while you cut the vegetables..
d) Cut the avacado, carrot and zucchini in thin strips.

e)Cut 2/3 of the salmon into thin strips.

f) place the Nori seaweed with the shiny side down on your placemat. Spread rice onto the seaweed so that it's half a cm thick. Leave the top 2 cm from rice.

g) place the salmon, avacado, carrot and zucchini about 1/3 from the bottom.

h) Wet the top part of the seaweed with water. Start rolling the roll, pressing the whole roll together with the placemat. It should become quite compact. The last part which is wet should stick together with the rest of the roll.

i) Slice the roll into 2 cm thick pieces. It should be 7-8 pieces all in all. You can wet the knife if it gets sticky in order to get nicer clean-cut pieces.

j) a succesfull roll will have the pieces of salmon and other garnisment in the middle. The roll will be quite compact and not fall apart. 

Making Nigiri Sushi is very easy. Simply put a 1-2 spoons of rice into your hands and shape it into a oval ball. Put a piece of salmon over the top and its done! You can also put a king prawn on top of the rice. The prawns on the picture are tiny and didn't really stay on the rice, but it was still yummy.

GOOD LUCK!