Making Chili Preserve

The members of my family recently bought vegetable combo packs from their local green grocer. Included in the combos, were handfuls of chilies. As no one in my family cooks with chilies, aside from myself, I was instantly rewarded with all of their combined chili purchases. As I already had a good stash of dried out chilies, I decided to preserve these latest additions in oil. I show you how to go about this in today's blog.

I started off by weighing the chilies in my possession. It came to about 300 grams.

I decided to add a decent amount of garlic to the chilies.

My niece showed up just as I was about to start, and promptly volunteered to assist. She chopped the chilies and garlic finely.

It is very handy to have a willing and well-trained helper at hand, aside from benefiting from cheerful company.

This youngster had her own ideas about crushing garlic as she is forever watching the food networks and have picked up a couple of nifty skills in the process.

We decided to add some fresh lemon juice and zest to the chili preserve, although this is optional.

We measured a cup (250 ml) olive oil, an equal amount of vinegar, and salt to taste.

The liquids were brought to the boil.

In the meantime, we cleaned some jars for bottling.

The dry ingredients was mixed together.

It was then added to the pot on the stove top, where it was brought to the boil, before being turned down and left to simmer.

Roughly an hour later, we were ready to bottle the preserves.

Seal the bottles while still hot. Refrigerate after opening.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
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School Holiday Project: Dala Wonder Woman Kit

I won a Wonder Woman Kit from Dala! I love winning things, especially when they are arts or crafts related. I wasn't home when the parcel arrived home, as I was away on an extended holiday to the Namaqualand, but this delightful parcel was waiting for me on my return. My niece's sixth birthday was only a little ways off by the time I returned and I accordingly decided to include the Wonder Woman Kit with her birthday gifts. Her delight on receiving it, was heart-warming. The plans for her birthday party later in the day aside, she insisted I sat with her while she painted at least one of the two canvasses inside the box. The result was a phenomenal success and she had great fun mixing the colours herself. Dala is truly on to something wonderful here and I am looking forward to more designs along this vein! Let me show what is included in the box, and how a six year old made sense of it all.

The box had my little niece perplexed. She is not a Wonder Woman fan and wondered out loud why the girl was dressed in a panty and bra. I could not help laughing out loud.

The back of the box has very handy info for mixing colours. I pointed this out to my niece and drew her attention to the fact that there were smaller and larger dots. The smaller dots indicated that less paint of the colour in question was required, while big dots required more paint. I expected it to be necessary to help her with this, but found that she managed perfectly well without further assistance, paying close attention to the sizes of the dots when she mixed the colours all by herself.

The inclusion of a glitter pen, was a stroke of genius on Dala's end, and was by far the favourite item included, as far as my niece was concerned.

I always love coming across brilliant products manufactured in South Africa and I wish to pay homage to this fact.

When the box was finally opened, my niece was thrilled to find canvasses inside that resembled the ones I also painted on.

Brushes, palette and paints are all included. Along with the beloved glitter pen, of course.

The two canvasses included in the box.

Our little budding artist refused all help, and I ended up keeping her company only.

I thought the background might overwhelm her, but she even took to this with great gusto.

I dare to say that mixing the colours all by herself, may have been the greatest fun she had in the whole project.

The final work of art is a testament to a well researched and executed product from Dala. The intense fun experienced by my niece, can not be measured by any standard. I don't think she even realized how much she was learning in the process.

Our proud little artist with her first completed canvas! We are looking forward to many more!

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
You can subscribe to any of these blogs and receive regular updates by email. Simply register your email address at the top of the applicable blog.

School Holiday Project: Painting Snail Shells

On a trip to Koiingnaas in Namaqualand, last year, I came across a number of large snail shells on my hikes through the veld. I asked about the snails themselves, and was told that it was the wrong season to find live snails. I picked up a couple of snail shells to take home with me, where the kids and I had a lot of fun painting the shells, before placing them in Grandma's garden.

A dried-up shell as I found it in the veld.

I did not have anything with me to cart them home, so I used my cap.

I painstakingly unclogged the shells of all debris and insects (!) before trusting them to my luggage.

The shells were also washed...

... and left to dry in the sun.

Once home, we used Dala Craft Paint to paint the shells.

Some colours we simply mixed ourselves.

One thrilled little boy relishing the project.

His intrigued little sister.

I painted an example of what could be done.

Some of their attempts.

The collection was ready for Grandma's garden.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
You can subscribe to any of these blogs and receive regular updates by email. Simply register your email address at the top of the applicable blog.

Painting A Heart-Shaped Horse In Acrylics

I have temporarily moved house so that I can fill a relief teaching post. The problem was that I missed painting so much that I simply had to go out and purchase some products to fill the longing in my soul. My choice fell on acrylics as my desk would have to double as an art studio in the confined space of the room I was renting, and acrylics dry quickly enough so that I wouldn't be sitting with wet canvasses strewn all over the room.. In today's blog I share the first of the paintings I did in this temporary 'studio' when I show you step by step how to paint this heart-shaped horse that was inspired by a line drawing I came across on Pinterest.

I bought three of these fabulous heart-shaped wooden die-cuts, as well as some gesso.

The first step was to prepare the surface with two coats of gesso.

I then used charcoal to draw a rough sketch of the horse on the canvas.

I used a clean dry brush to brush the loose particles of charcoal away.

I then painted the background a neutral grey.

I emphasized the features of the horse by painting it black.

I then painted the horse white.

I filled in cool shaded areas with blue.

Warm highlights were done in red.

Accentuation and detail was emphasized in black.

The final product!

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
You can subscribe to any of these blogs and receive regular updates by email. Simply register your email address at the top of the applicable blog.