This is my gnome that I have been working on for the past few days and at last he is finished. He is really sweet and stands about 30cm tall! I still need to make him a jewel bag. Jenna has decided to knit a gnome as well, she is going to make him different colours to mine, she loves to knit and so do I!
Pressing Flowers
Jenna was busy with a Botany block a few weeks ago. She collected some herbs and flowers and pressed them in between some paper towel, between heavy telephone books. She left the plants for a few weeks and today they were ready. She arranged them, she glued them down, we wrote the correct names next to the plants and then she framed he composition. It was a lovely project and beautifully finished. If you try this project, the colours will last longer if the finished picture is hung in a position away from direct sunlight.
Making Butter
We have been reading quite a few of the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and this led us to making our own butter. We have also been studying a Southern African tribe of people who used to exist along the Cape coastline of South Africa called the Khoikhoi, they would also make their own butter by rolling cream in a calabash from side to side.
We used a jam jar, poured some cream into it and also put a small marble into the jar (this acts like a little mixer while you shake the jar, don’t forget to remove it when your butter is made, we used a hard plastic marble because I was concerned a glass marble would crack the jar). If your prefer salted butter, now would be a good time to add some salt or just leave it unsalted. Make sure that your lid is on tight, or you could have cream fiasco!
Thickening Cream
After you have been shaking your jar for about 5 to 10 minutes, you can open the lid and check and see that your cream is beginning to thicken and become bubbly. The small brown circle on the left is the marble.
