Fridge Magnets from The Art of Kathy Shell.
Tropical Orchids. 06/21/2010
   I love orchids and I used to grow and even sell them a few years back. I started with Cymbidium orchids easy to grow outdoors in Victoria; I had 200 named varieties I was propagating. Then I moved on to growing the Dendrobium or Australian rock orchids with these cymbidiums, giving them more light and I found these rock orchids, even easier to grow out of doors than the hardy cymbidium orchid, as long as I provided them with filtered light and protection from frost. Eventually I fell in love with the tropical orchids, the Vandas, Cattleyas and Oncidiums and began growing these indoors in an artificial climate. When we downsized to make caravanning a way of life, I downsized my orchids but still have a love for them so I was delighted when I see them growing here in north Queensland, both indoors and out of doors, where they look especially beautiful in the evening under outdoor garden lighting. Read more: How to Care for Tropical Orchids | eHow.com     When I stayed at one of the caravan parks down south, the entire staff was attending Zumba From that moment on I have wanted to 'do it'. The office workers said the 'found it hard'. The cleaning staff 'found it easy', all found they lost weight doing Zumba. Here is a way you can do it at home:- Zumba Ditch the Workout, Join the Party! the Zumba Weight Loss Program [With DVD] I think if you are active, you can do it and it sounded to me as if you can make your own moves, do it at your own pace. I guess I will know tomorrow and will certainly write about it. :-) and feel it would be more effective at burning calories than weight loss pills. About Zumba Let's face it, working out can be healthy, rewarding and beneficial. Working out can be lots of things, but it's never been known to be an exhilarating experience…UNTIL NOW! The Zumba® program fuses hypnotic Latin rhythms and easy-to-follow moves to create a one-of-a-kind fitness program that will blow you away. Our goal is simple: We want you to want to work out, to love working out, to get hooked. Zumba® Fanatics achieve long-term benefits while experiencing an absolute blast in one exciting hour of calorie-burning, body-energizing, awe-inspiring movements meant to engage and captivate for life! The routines feature interval training sessions where fast and slow rhythms and resistance training are combined to tone and sculpt your body while burning fat. Add some Latin flavor and international zest into the mix and you've got a Zumba® class! In the past years, the Zumba® program has become nothing short of a revolution, spreading like wildfire, and positioning itself as the single most influential movement in the industry of fitness. As of May 2010, the Zumba® program is being taught at over 60,000 locations in 105 countries, has sold millions of DVDs, and has changed the lives of Zumba® Fanatics worldwide with an astonishing 7.5 million participants taking Zumba classes every week. Why? Because it's the best party around. I am very excited about my first attempt tomorrow, in a Zumba class. J Want to buy the Home program, with DVD, click on image below.  Reg and I had another wonder around Innisfail today, doing the touristy thing. First of all a visit to the pathology, yes it’s that time of year again the routine blood test I leave behind all over the country, and the wait in the non design furniture waiting rooms with the 5 year old trashy magazines. As I didn’t leave the pathology until 11.30 am I was longing for a coffee so we sat at a sidewalk café and I ordered the eggs on toast and a coffee and the coffee arrived with a most delicious little chocolate bar called TWILIGHT. It was individually packed, tiny bar of dark chocolate with a peppermint praline interior, and a final crispy crunch and it was not excessively sweet as I find most chocolate and the tiny size was perfect with a hot coffee for someone who has never been overly enthused about chocolate but enjoys sampling it once in a while when out. I would have given it to Reg, I usually do, if the coffee had not been so weak and me desperate after fasting to give blood, for a caffeine hit. lol. Have you tried Twilight chocolate? What did you think of it? I still would not bother buying it again; I can take or leave chocolate but this one, I did like. I found out that these were called, Terry's Twilight after Dinner Mint. If you are going to have the occasional indulgence, you might as well try something extra nice and not too sweet, these appealed to me. This was not a paid review for Twilight, just my lol, waffle about my day :-), sharing my views with friends.   Did you know that heart disease kills more women than breast cancer and is largely preventable? My mum had her first heart attack at 52. A best friend of mine who was slim and played tennis had her first heart attack at 52, both of these heart attacks could have been prevented if they had both known they had the warning signs and had known what to do and done something about it. The Heart Foundation is helping women by raising awareness, educating and doing research to help us help ourselves. Let's help them and other women by raising awareness of heart disease in women and raising some funs for the Heart Foundation to enable them to keep helping us. Here is the deal :- Go Red for Women day Grab the girls on Friday 11 June, Go Red for Women day and join the Heart Foundation’s campaign to raise awareness of heart disease as a women’s health issue. http://www.heartfoundation.org.au/SITES/GOREDFORWOMEN/GET_INVOLVED/Pages/GoRedforWomenday.aspx In an nusual move for me, for me, I have writtena blog post about Chocolate, next. One reason I have never been keen on chocolate was because it used to give me acne and I would be looking up acne solutions like, www.bestacnetreatment.net instead of looking up information about the chocolate I like, to show you.If you have tried the chocolate I discovered today, (see my next blog post), I would love to hear your opinion of it. Rosella Jam and Pumpkin Scones. 06/08/2010
 I had a beautiful day on Sunday, visiting my friend Gem and enjoying her home grown and homemade rosella jam on homegrown homemade pumpkin scones J I wish I could have thrown a double bed mattress in the car and stayed overnight so I could have spent more time with my friend Gem Rosella jam Rosella jam is made from the fleshy red calyx and bracts that surround the green seedpod of the plant. Harvest the crop before it becomes tough and the seedpod discolours. You will need to half fill a 9-litre bucket with rosella fruit for the following recipe- or you can adjust the amounts accordingly. Rosella seedlings are available through local nurseries. Six homegrown plants will provide plenty of fruit for several batches of jam. Individual plants grow around 1.5m high and 1m wide.  Ingredients ½ a 9-litre bucket freshly picked rosellas 3-4 cups sugar 1 green apple, peeled and chopped 1 cup water Juice of one lemon (not Meyer variety as it contains insufficient pectin)  Preparation Soak the fruit for a few minutes in a sink full of cold water and then drain. Then separate the red calyx (the fleshy cover surrounding the seedpod) from the seedpod.) An easy way to do this is using an apple corer pushed hard against the base of the calyx; the calyx will then separate from the seedpod. Put the red calyx into a bowl and the seedpods into a saucepan. Cover the seedpods with water and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until soft and translucent in appearance. Strain the seedpods through a sieve and dispose of the seedpods, reserving the liquid. This process extracts pectin from the seedpods to help the jam set. Then pour the liquid back into a large saucepan, add the red calyx, apple & lemon and simmer gently until they are very soft. Measure this fruit pulp and add cup for cup of sugar to fruit (or for larger amounts, 1 litre of fruit pulp = 1 kilo of sugar). . Stir over a gentle heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and then bring to the boil. The jam will froth high in the saucepan and so needs to be no more than half full before you start it boiling. Test for setting by putting a saucer in the freezer to chill, then put a teaspoonful of jam on the saucer, wait for it to cool slightly and then push the top of it with your finger. If it crinkles it is cooked. Another sign that it is setting to watch for is when the jam stops frothing and settles down to a hard boil. As the jam reaches setting point it is also most likely to stick and burn so pay close attention and stir often. Remember that the setting of a jam is a chemical reaction between the fruit acid, the sugar and the pectin, not an evaporation process. Jams set as they cool, if over-cooked the setting point may be passed and instead a thick syrup rather than a gel is formed. Bottle the jam into clean hot jars and seal immediately  Uses for the Rosella Plant. Food: the fleshy calyx is used in salads, jellies, cranberry-like sauces, jams, syrups and wine. Dried the red calyx is used for tea and it is an important ingredient in the commercial Red Zinger, Hibiscus and Fruit teas. The tea is very similar in flavour to rose-hips and high in vitamin C. Seeds are roasted and ground into flour. Young leaves can be steamed or stir-fried and are known as Red Sorrel in the Pacific.  Gem's Pumpkin Patch. Below, Pumpkin harvest and Pumpkin Scones.      I have begun a series of art lessons in my ‘A Creative Life’, blog and I invite you to join me there. I have begun with the basic lesson one, drawing and this is broken down into many parts. I can show how in picture images, explain why, as the free component of these lessons but if you would like me to constructively critique your progress so you can advance faster there would be a fee for that. Now that I have retired as a professional artist and left out gallery for a touring lifestyle, I do not practice art as much these days, because it simply is not one of the top fat burners in my life so in my leisure time I prefer to be active. Please invite any friends you have who are interested in learning art to my Kathy Shell page in facebook where I publish all my blogs, there they can connect with those blogs that suit their interest. Thanks. Kathy Shell on Facebook     This great prize, valued at $45. Plus free postage to you, is our FREE Giveaway, to be in the draw with one entry, just:- 1/ Leave a comment on this post saying why you would like to win this audio book. I will draw the prize late June, so you have time to invite your friends to enter too. 2/ Get a two entries into the draw by making a comment and being in the people who have clicked ‘like’ in my Kathy Shell artist, facebook page. . Kathy Shell on Facebook 3/ Get Three entries in the draw by doing the above two steps and following this blog through facebook, network blogs, see the link to do this in the side bar. When I add the names of the peope who make comment about why they would love to win this giveaway I will cross reference with my Kathy Shell page and the blog followers and I will add the extra entries for you if your name appears in these places as well as in the comments. Thanks you for participating and :-), enjoy this easy to enter, competition. Kathy Shell The Giveaway Prize. Win this for your teenage girl or yourself and it will be all smiles, and no anti wrinkle cream will be required as the love triangle is resolved. Breaking dawn / by Stephenie Meyer Author Meyer, Stephenie, 1973 DVD's Audio Book Summary "To be irrevocably in love with a vampire is both fantasy and nightmare woven into a dangerously heightened reality for Bella Swan. Pulled in one direction by her intense passion for Edward Cullen, and in another by her profound connection to werewolf Jacob Black, she has endured a tumultuous year of temptation, loss and strife to reach the ultimate turning point. Her imminent choice to either join the dark but seductive world of immortals or pursue a fully human life has become the thread from which the fate of two tribes hangs. Now that Bella has made her decision, a startling chain of unprecedented events is about to unfold with potentially devastating and unfathomable consequences. Just when the frayed strands of Bella's life - first discovered in TWILIGHT, then scattered and torn in NEW MOON and ECLIPSE - seem ready to heal and knit together, could they be destroyed. . .forever?" Choosing our Caravan. 05/31/2010
 Welcome When Reg and I were shopping to buy our home on wheels, I only knew I did not want a conventional caravan and we were prepared to spend around $150,000. all up on the car and the caravan combination. Reg loved some of the fifth wheelers and I thought many of them were too large for the two of us and a scary concept for me the driver, the one Reg liked I didn’t and vice versa. We both agreed on a Winnebago, almost placed an order for one. We had reservations about the height, we were so used to being able to scoot around towing a light weight AVan ALiner and I did not want to be restricted in where I could go due to the height of those things Then I found a caravan I loved. The Palomino Thoroughbred, Caravan. I was rather apprehensive about towing a van that size. 25 of luxury, modern furniture fittings inside, lots of storage space, off highway and it had the push out lounge, expandable kitchen area, I loved as it gave a spacious size to the interior one set up. Reg was not so keen on this one. The only thing both Reg and I agreed on was the Eco Tourer Caravan We kept going back to look at it. It is perfect for our needs though for the third trip out in a row, I still have too much clutter in it. Given I am having clutch problems with the Toyota troupy, it looks like it is just as well I did not buy that very large heavier Palomino Thoroughbred, I would be cursing having towed that one up all the hills we have manoeuvred on this trip. I have to agree, Reg was right, the ergonomic design of the Eco Tourer, was a far smarter purchase for us. I hardly know I am towing it and we get great fuel economy and it is plenty, big enough for Reg, Indigo and me.      I have had the My Michelle Bridges, work out DVD’s on in our caravan. I know most of us dream that taking a weight loss pill would be the ideal way to lose any excess weight but I am eager to have a bone density scan done next January and I hope, to be told, that my bones are denser, than the last time I had the scan done. I know that requires, strength training. It is the workouts I am doing that will be helping me protect and even increase my bone density, that to me is more important than just the weight loss effect of the exercise. Travelling is not a reason to sit around, in and outside the caravan inactive and over consuming food and drink. I love this life too much to join in the inactive senior crowd. We become old before our time, if we become inactive, eat, and drink too much, we do not become overweight and inactive, because we get older. I cannot see myself as part of the happy hour set. Who knows I may yet start a trend for seniors to want to start getting fit, lol. J    Above is the beach and the swimming pool where I have spent most of my day, here at Flying Fish Point, North Queensland. Temperatures of 20 to 29 degrees, just perfect. My newest fridge magnet from my art, has arrived and I will shortly add it to the shopping cart pages on the inner pages of this website. The are available, for $5. each and this includes postage within Australia. You can contact me and let me know if you would like one or more of these business card size fridge magnets of the Warby Hut. The website details are not printed on the magnet.  Tonight I have settled in for an evening of relaxing blogging, here in bed, in the caravan. The dog is asleep by my feet, Reg fell asleep after I rubbed his bald scalp, as I do most nights with my best night cream, Jlol, a little touch of care he seems to enjoy and it stops him scratching his head, which would annoy me, lol,J so we are both happy. It is a beautiful balmy tropical evening of 20 degrees. Currently I am not finding any time to paint, though I brought an entire studio full of art supplies with me but we are still having an amazingly good time here at Flying Fish Point and I have lots to write about and plenty of opportunity to exercise and keep fit. Reg is fishing off the beach below and there are a lot of boats heading out each day as the reef fishing is excellent.   | As of Sept 2010, 'Just Me 'n You'.
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