The Ballarat Independent.

There's little worse than someone drying their hands on the tea towel. Follow these simple instructions and whip up a few hand towels specially made for the kitchen.

Christmas is upon us!  This week I've collated some images of the gifts I'll be giving this Christmas - all dolled up in fancy packaging with an indication of where I purchased the paper, labels, bottles, material and so on and so forth.  Enjoy! 

‘But why do you need an attractive looking shower cap?'

Why indeed!

These shower caps are the perfect handmade gift for those who like a bit of luxurious pampering in their lives.

Lucinda Horrocks and Jary Nemo of Wind & Sky Productions are gladly on the frontier of the communications transformation that is being unleashed and which allows true journalistic principles to be put into action. They are storytellers of positive stories, of sustainability, social and environmental responsibility, and social change. Stories where passion and integrity meet.

Did you know there's only nine weeks until Christmas?  It's time to start planning if you intend to give homemade gifts this year!  With the surplus lemons still hanging from trees around Ballarat, Limoncello is an excellent place to start.

A roundup of the public art happenings so far and the current paid opportunities available for artists to enliven the Ballarat area.

Local Ballarat Artist, Dawn Whitehand, recently returned from South Korea, having been invited to exhibit and demonstrate at an annual ceramics festival.

Coming up next Sunday October 9 is Ballarat's very own contemporary craft market, the Design Exchange. Founder and organiser Lyndelle Flintoft shares her inspiration for getting this market off the ground.

These cookies are perfect for a school holiday activity to keep the kids entertained for a bit and provide scrumptious snacks. They travel well so also make great gifts or picnic treats!

Organise your footwear with these easy to make boot stuffers created from an array of bright fabrics.

Happy first day of spring! On the first day of Chinese New Year (a variable date in January or Febuary) it is traditional to cook this vegetarian dish. Chinese New Year is meant to mark the end of winter/beginning of spring, so as it's officially the first day of spring here in southern hemisphere Australia, this recipe is quite appropriate.

Have you ever seen those heat packs filled with wheat and scented with lavender? They're often sold at markets, but can easily be made with the advantage of personal touches and great savings.

This week has been very busy due to a number of close friends celebrating their birthdays. Seeing as I like to give homemade gifts, several of them received birthday packages containing a selection of my homemade herbal teas.  How did I make them?  The answer lies within my column.

In the hunt for ethnic inspiration for tasty winter soup I stumbled across the notion of an Ecuadorian potato and cheese soup with avocado. It sounded a lot more appetizing than anything I could possibly do with turnip, celeriac, onion or brussel sprouts. I checked it out and immediately began salivating.

Now is the time to prepare ourselves for the activities that accompany fine weather - namely, picnics. Attract attention with original, stylish, personalised picnic paraphernalia this spring by making your own picnic set from recycled equipment and fabrics.

Lately I've been busy making bootees for friends' babies. Some have been knitted, but when I'm pushed for time, I find crocheting is definitely the easier option. Here you'll find my basic pattern that can easily be adapted to fit various foot sizes and decorated to create beautiful and orginal footwear.

Imagine if the Ballarat area had a vibrant arts community. What would that mean to you? What would that look like for you? What if it was as easy to meet other artists as it is for footy players to find a team? What if there was a dedicated arts space? What if studio/ rehearsal/ exhibition space reliably existed? What if experienced artists had a place to share their knowledge? How would such an arts community improve living in the Ballarat area for everyone? Surely you have opinions?

There are many successful working examples of thriving, connected, nurturing artistic communities out there and happening right now. The people of Ballarat & surrounds are invited to gather on Friday July 22 to figure out how we can make this happen here.

The reality of what feels like weeks of grey drizzle that creeps in under even the best gators, sodden gloves and mud smeared jeans has been a lot less bracing than those summer visions. Yet, this year I have finally fulfilled that goal - of being a winter gardener. No, it's not glamorous- no crunchy frost, just lots of slimy green algae that seems to turn my paths into ski tracks for unexpected slides whilst cursing under the breath. BUT - this is the year that I have gotten out there and it all started with a late olive harvest.

Well well well. Winter is upon us now. If you hadn't noticed, there are mushrooms popping up all over the place. Although Autumn is a better time for mushrooming, they are still in season in Winter. Don't know what to look for out in the wild? Never mind, the store bought mushrooms are reliably safe and perfect for this recipe.

Walnuts. If you know what you are looking for you can forage for them now and get a feed for free. Otherwise, they are in season and at the lowest shop price they will be over the year. And making great use of this seasonal feast is a delicious pasta dish that does not involve tomatoes! This is so easy it almost doesn't count as cooking.

Just over three years ago now I arrived fresh from my six by eight meter city patch of yellowing grass and dog-mangled flowers to a rural heaven on an acre and a bit in the Central Highlands. Initially I felt as though a hitherto unknown fairy godmother had waved her sparkly wand and procured for me my dream ‘project'.

What does one do when there's a themed dinner to attend and no suitable dress in the wardrobe or time for a shopping expedition? Why, whip one up of course! And the weekend's creativity did not stop there, not with the inaugural Lyonville Bake Off happening on Sunday. I tell you, getting out of bed on Monday morning was a trial!

Twenty years of driving through the Ballarat area admiring the hills, combined with an adoration of the moon are distilled into landscapes filled with beauty and zen.

These art pieces can be appreciated for their beautiful tonality, or for the linguistic plays on words, or the use of vintage elements, for the handicraft, for the gentleness, for the ephemerality, for the celebration of aging, for talking about menopause, for their use of traditional womens craft, or for the textile elements.

Melissa Pirie, bicycle blogger extraordinaire for BREAZE (Ballarat Renewable Energy and Zero Emissions) discovers it's easier to maintain your bike than you might have thought.

Find out how Melissa and a couple of friends went about sprucing up an old mountain bike to get it back in the bike lane.

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Last week I decided it was high time I did something with the large quantity of lemons sitting in my kitchen. Whilst their scent has filled the house with a pleasant aroma, it would be devastating if they were to go to waste. So for the last seven days or so I have been busy making lemon curd, lemon tarts and preserved lemons whilst sipping on hot elderberry, lemon and honey drinks to ease my sore throat.

Come have a look at whats happening this May 28th

The Earthship concept is an excellent example of redesigning build environments which the recent workshop held at the local tip demonstrated. People were so inspired that a motion was put forward at our local Council to complete the project and use it as a demonstration site.

SHARE is planning to hold a series of workshops and working bees to complete the project leading up to next year's full training for Earthship building. The project has also elicited interest from several parties who would like to build their own Earthship. If you would like to know more or get involved in the workshops and working bees please contact us on 5309 2664.