April Fimo projects.

I spent the last two weeks doing paperwork, arranging for the wedding photography work and doing fimo! Thank you Natasha for that great entire day playing with fimo and thank you Julie for introducing and teaching me the technics.

This time it will be a post with more pictures than text. All about polymer clay projects. 

First of all, big beads, made around aluminium foil. This was my first attempt in making beads with aluminium balls and with the cat wanting to play with them that didn't help in making them perfectly round. 

I also wanted to diversify in my macaroons collection, so this time they are smaller and 2 or 3 attached together. Since I don't wear earrings, I have no idea if they are heavy or not. Anyone wants to try they on?

Plus, a couple of tries with different technics, using sugar, aluminium foil and also eye shadow and stamp. 

My plan was to make flowers with polymer clay, and I'm quite happy with my rose. I will have to make it in different color gradients and make other shapes.

I said I would not do any figurine, but I ended up making these octopuses using different technics. I really like how they look like but they are so fragile.

The octopuses were a present for my boyfriend, who liked them so much he told me he wanted to try and make some more. So we ended up spending an entire Sunday afternoon making these 6 animals for the newborn of two friends of us. They were then put together as a mobile sculpture to hang in the baby's room. 

I'm happy with what I have produced so far with fimo, but I'd like you to tell me what you really think of it, which item you like and which ones you don't; which you would probably wear or expose at home, and which ones you won't. That will help me a lot! Thanks in advance.

Polymer clay

We have a good warm weather in France right now, and I've planned in running a few half and full-marathon in the following months, except that my right knee completely prevents me from running more than 5 minutes. So I've been going from one doctor to an other, doing scans (while most of my friends who go for scans right now are probably pregnant...), x-rays to get to the conclusion that my right kneecap is a bit thin and slanted on one side and probably causes stress on the rest of the knee. They also found a bit of liquid in there but didn't seem to be a big deal. Finally I got physiotherapist sessions with electrodes to build up my right thigh (this is very weird that sensation when the alternative current makes the muscle contracts without me asking for it, it tickles hard inside my leg).

Anyhow, I can't go running! So I stay inside and play with food and Fimo!

Here it is, my new friend! The polymer clay! I'll say fimo, because it's shorter and it's one of the most popular brand. Alright, for those of you who are totally impermeable to crafts, I would certainly not do a good job in saying this is colored plastic clay like what you used to play with when you were kids. This is actually a colored clay, that you can do basically everything with! You can make shapes, you can mix colors, you can imprint whatever on it, even make patterns with sand, salt, sugar... anything. And you can paint then after you've baked them. 

So I've tried from a magazine, that was not the best colors I'll ever used, but still I got an idea of the concept.

I managed to make a flower and I tried to experiment a kiwi.

As you can see, I still have to practice!

I also saw people making pastries in Fimo. And macaroons were the perfect shape and colors for that kind of work!

And then I remembered Amélie and Julie's awesome work (see their blog, they really master this clay!). I asked for advices and Julie gave me a lesson! That was at her cozy place, with the 4 staring eyes of her daughters! During 4 great hours (sorry it took so long!), she taught me how to make color gradients in a pasta machine and how to build up canes. The canes are then used in thin slices to decorate beads for example. I had a really good time! Thank you so much!

P.S. I'm sorry for the crappy red saturated colors and the bad quality of the pictures in general. This is from my dad's point and shoot camera. I'll do a better job as soon as I come back to Toronto!

Macaroons.

Sorry about the long absence. I was secretly preparing a few posts.
First of the series is about macaroons!!

I am not so much into macarons. I don't find the taste extraordinary, but I find them really beautiful and the flavors can be very creative.

I would think it deserved to be in the "Eat before 30" list and even better if you eat them in France. I will make it a "Cook before 30" priority. I've already tried, once, that was good but nothing unforgetable.

Look at these watercolor painting by Lucileskitchen. A macaron a day...

To be inspired I bought a few at M le Macaron in Bordeaux. They make nice colors and they always have crazy flavors. This time they had Cotton candy and Osseau-Iraty ones (even better if two of my Eat before 30 are coupled in one!).

Then I saw Fimo paste macarons. I am into that polymer clay creative mood these days, so I couldn't resist in trying to reproduce them (I'll soon blog on that new passion of mine). It took me a while to get an approximate shape.

And finally, after savoring every single one of that huge macaroon box, I got myself into baking these delicacies. Moka, Matcha, Mango and Tagada!

First the ingredients: you need egg whites, icing sugar and almond powder.

Then you need to sift the mix of icing sugar and almond powder. That's the longest part. And mix it with very stiff egg whites until it makes a silky, flexible dough. 

You can add edible dyes in your preparation, then with a pastry bag you make small domes that you allow to sit for 30 minutes so they make a crust. Then bake at 110°C for 12 minutes. If you're lucky (in my case only 20% of them) they'll make the perfect lace like collar (this puffy thing at the bottom).
During all the waiting times you can prepare the filling. In my case a mix of chocolate and coffee powder, plus a few Tagada strawberries to use as gelatin to thicken things up.

 A lot more people were supposed to try them, but I kept all the nice looking ones (only 10) for Julie (see next post) to thank her for her very instructive fimo lesson! and don't worry, the misshaped ones didn't last long ;)

Teach my man how to cook before he is 30.

Teach my man how to cook before he is 30. That gives me a bit more than 2 months.

I must notify that he already is a master in hamburger making! Heathly yummy hamburgers! Here is how we spent "Valentine's Day" yesterday evening! So cool! that and taking pictures...

He is also a very good chef when it comes to Omelettes (at that point I don't even try to make one, his are way better!).

He is willing to learn some other recipes but each time he misses a step or because I never follow closely a recipe, he gets confused. We already crossed a big step in that a few years ago "cooking" meant getting something out of the freezer into the microwave!

And like every man on that planet he knows how to bake meat! But he can't prepare anything (except pasta) that goes well with meat. I have nothing against meat (I have to admit I myself don't have that much ideas when it comes to cook meat), but meat doesn't make my meal.

Soon you may see some of his cooking (or if I'm not blogging for a week, you'll know he did wrong). As a challenge to my not-30-yet-self I would try to cook meat in different situations. A friend of mine once told me that you know when a woman is ready to have kids when she can prepare a good stew. I've never made stew in my life, that's the time to try!

After food, craft would be the second big topic of that blog. 

As much as I'm addicted to berries and expresso beans, I'm also addicted to Pinterest. This is a stream of constant inspiration. As well as you can see how much people love food, love Ryan Gosling or the latest colour of the Essie nail polish, you can find quite a lot of interesting/fun/gorgeous Do It Yourself activities. From home decoration to wedding arrangement, sewing, painting... everything! And people keep pinning!

I'm addicted to Pinterest (which is good in my situation, not that good when you spend half of your time at work checking on that website, reloading the page every 5 minutes). The plan for the next few months was to pick an idea from this site, everyday, each day, and make it be! produce it my way! Because I have largely failed in that for the past days and because I also have ideas on my own I'll try to use their advices and ideas as often as I'd run out of inspiration!

And because I don't count much on Pinterest to tell me what are the important things I have to accomplish before I'm 30, I still count on YOU! (yes, YOU over-there!).

Last but not least, I've finally brought my business card for printing this afternoon. More handy/colourful/user-friendly than a CV, I had to make one. First of all because I'm going to a networking session tomorrow that would certainly be helpful to get my way into the world of industry or just make contact with people that might revealed to be helpful for me to find a job later.

I did want my business card to reflect who I am, which means what are my interests. As it wasn't visually pleasant to list them, I've tried to picture them. And because I can be super professional, very straight in my way of thinking and proceeding to tasks, I can also be very imaginative and openminded.  This business card reflects both my left brain and my right brain, together into one person.

Because this is the very first version of it and that I only had a week to make it from scratch, I do appreciate your advice/comments/disagreements and will do a new one in larger batch as soon as I'm fully satisfied of how that business card represents who I am. I'll have a nice, clear, unforgettable business card before I turn 30.