Karen Karn

PatternPie day. It started out like this.  Hours of fiddling about, produced this. Opened in PatternPie (by WellCrafted Software), these are just a few of the 360 possible 'scopes'. I made a video. (Once upon a time, I made PatternPie animations, capturing each of the 360 scopes and makong a viseo that way. Here's one I made earlier  One I Made Earlier .  I can't remember how I did it, though.... I'm working on it. In the meantime, I filmed it straight from the screen, with my phone.)

Once, many years ago, I was on the number 50 bus, going home after a busy afternoon in town. The bus was packed and I was sitting downstairs at the back. I was wedged between two fellow passengers, and there were people standing the length of the aisle. I wasn't going far. I knew that when it was time for me to get off, it would need some strategic planning - start getting up while the bus is stationary at the stop before mine. Make sure I'm standing close enough to the driver as he nears my stop, so he knows I need to get off, not just standing. None of this fazed me. I remember being totally content. Calm. I closed my eyes and sat there, travelling through Digbeth, Bradford Street, Moseley Road... A few years later, I was waiting sitting on a bus, going home after a busy afternoon in town. This time I was not calm, or content. I was savagely discontent. I was stressed out. I was harrassed and harried. The journey was the same, the bus was the same, the fellow passengers...

I've just watched this video, a TEDx talk by Dr. Parmjit Singh called, Pay Attention, Live Tastefully .  Illustration: Cristina Guitian Excellent advice. Here are some quotes from the last few minutes of the talk. "Attention is a trainable skill, and learning to deliberately pay attention to the whole spectrum of your experience, non-reactively, leads to architectural brain changes that support positive mental habits and traits." "There is more right with you than there is wrong. We often live in a world where comparison is, in fact, prided upon. We say we need to learn from each other, but those comparisons, though they are good in some ways, because they make us progress, in fact, all this comparitive thinking has brought us all this affluence we seek. Yet, it has a dark side. You cannot be equal to anybody else. It is impossible for you to be like anybody else. In some ways you will always be better, and in some ways you will always be worse....

Listening to the radio this afternoon, I hear a segment on Christmas gift giving. It seems that we're moving away from the tradition of giving gifts, as 'everyong has everything they need.' How wonderful! They interviewed economists and people on the street. The experts said that buying someone a gift for 100 kroner (£10) when it is something the recipient would only spend 50 kroner on, is a loss of 50 kroner. The people on the street spoke about the amount of times they'd received gifts that they really didn't want, or that they had no use for. It's all a waste of money. The solution they say, is to give money, or nothing at all. I like this trend. I hope it takes off and Christmas reverts to being a time of joy and feasting as it was traditionally. This year, I decided quite early on that I'd send cards to people instead of gifts. Then I thought about the cost of paper - both fiscal and ecological - and that it will sit on a mantle for a couple...

I've got a board on Pinterest with this title, Big Rings & Short Painted Nails . I'm not sure when this mini obsession started, but I don't think it had fully taken me when we were in England at the start of the summer... otherwise, I'd have come home with lots of Barry M nail varnish and charity shop rings. Quite a few of the pictures on this boards are of women with their hands covering their faces, like this. I thought this was a bit odd. How did they take the picture? I thought, assuming that they'd taken the picture themselves. How revealing. Obviously, just because I don't have the kind of social life which revolves around mutual portrait taking, doesn't mean it's not common elsewhere. The point is, though, all of these women had something I wanted, silver, turquoise and a manicure. Recently, I was inspired by this picture... The disembodied midriff of a fashionista, it's easy to imagine what the rest of her ...

This season's beauties, form Gina Tricot and H&M. 

Due to the snow storms, and living where we live, I couldn't pop out and buy sugar, so I had to substitute the sugar with light syrup. I substituted the milk for water, as I always do. Also, you'll notice that the measurements in the original recipe (also at the bottom of the post) are given in decilitres - this is what they do here in Norway. It's taken me a good few years to fathom out how to convert, quickly, dls into something I can work with. So here's my recipe: Ingredients 3 eggs, room temperature* 100mls syrup 100mls water, approx, cold/room temperature 450mls spelt flour (+ half a cup, if too wet, which mine was) 100g butter 2.5 tsp baking powder 3(5 if layering) medium eating apples 1tsp cinnamon pinch of salt cinnamon + sugar for sprinkling on the top Melt the butter and add the syrup to it while it's still warm. Stir until it's a uniform consistency. Leave to cool while you beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl. Add the water...

I'm making this tomorrow, for Kenneth's birthday. I might have to make myself some kind of pie... I made carrot tart once, which was delicious. Or I could make scones. With the weather the way it is, I'll be surprised if I get any sleep, so I'll need the carbs to keep me sane/happy! :D Here's the recipe, and the picture that went with it... If it's a success, I'll post the English version with my own photo. Eplekake i langpanne 3 egg 3,5 dl sukker 100 g smør 1,5 dl melk 4,5 dl hvetemel 2,5 ts bakepulver 5-6 epler kanel og sukker til å strø på toppen Visp eggedosis av egg og sukker. Smelt smøret, ha i melk og hell i eggedosisen. Rør om og sikt inn mel og bakepulver, og bland godt. Ha røren i en smurt eller papirkledd langpanne. Skrell eplene, ta ut kjernehuset og del dem i passende skiver/båter. Stikk eplebitene tett i tett ned i deigen. Strø kanel og sukker over toppen. Stek kaken i ca 30 min, på 180 grader. See the original post here .