stirred

I wanted to do two things.  First, I wanted to show off the latest beautiful kitchen spoons my husband made for me.  These were "things that didn't exactly go to plan", according to him.  Oh my eyes rolled and I "tsk'd" emphatically!  I adore them.  I love all the spoons and spatulas he has made me: they are the perfect size for my preferences - I find the commercial ones are all too clumsy and big.  I have two small chestnut wood spatulas he made me a few years ago and I use them almost every day - never happier than when I have one in each hand tossing garlicky cabbage over the heat!

 

This is a lovely spatula, made from elderberry wood with a plum wood handle. I'm thinking it will work perfectly for pancakes, because he got the blade nice and thin but it worked perfectly today as I started to assemble our lunch.

 

This is a beautiful little black walnut spoon.  I love the shape of it and plan to find a way to use it very often - in the tea caddy maybe, or in the salt pig I keep a perpetual eye open for in the charity shops.

 

And, second, I am stirred in another way too - and I want to share that!  I won a place on the "Eyes Open" e-course developed and taught by the amazing Erin of A Love Supreme - she is such an artist with her incredibly atmospheric and impressionistic photography, and I am excited to have a chance to become more comfortable and more expressive with my own camera.  I was so excited to go and read her blog (for light relief as Oz was watching "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and I was fed up people getting beaten up, sweating like pigs and cackling in an evil manner) and see that I had been fortunate enough to win this fabulous opportunity that I began to hop about the room gasping "Oh my gosh!"  Not only am I thrilled to have a chance to improve my photos and have a shot at capturing more of the essence of a person, place or experience, but I am so thankful to have something that will be just for me, just for fun in the midst of mothering, home educating and running a home.