A Hairstyle, some Garden Photos, and an Interesting Experiment!

 This morning I decided to do my little sister Anna's hair. 

"What sort of hairstyle do you want today?" I asked her. I had done her hair the day before, and it had worked out. I had done two little piggy-tails on either side and then left the rest of her hair out.

"Two pig-tails on both sides and then one at the back!" said Anna. 

Hmmm…I wondered wether it would look cute or just….weird. 

But to Anna I replied, "Okay. Are you sure?"

"Yep!" said Anna. She picked up the brush and gave it to me. I stared at it for a minute. Then I gained confidence and began brushing. 

"Ow!" said Anna as I finished the first pig-tail. 

 "I'm finished that one," I said. 

Anna smiled. "Now the next one," she said. I gathered up courage (and hair) and tied the hair tie around.

"Two down, one to go," I said. I picked up the hair tie and grabbed the rest of her hair. 

 As gently as possible, I tied the hair tie around with difficulty, as her hair is so short (because of a small accident a long time ago including scissors and her cutting her own hair, now she always wants it short) and I looked at her. She was looking at herself in the mirror and smiling, so I guess she liked it. "How is it?" I asked. 

She turned around. "Good!" she said, and she looked pleased. I let out a sigh of relief. It looked good. 

Not only that. 

It was really cute!

Now for the garden photo's! I took some today and I will be posting some of them but the rest aren't good enough so I'll show you some really nice one's I took the other day.

I 'm very pleased with them.

NEW PHOTO'S

I didn't like those ones so much, so I will add the good photo's. 
I got some really cool photo's of bees!

Okay, enough of the garden.
THE INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS


After I took those photo's, I asked Anna, "Would you like to do some experimenting?"
"What's experimenting?" asked Anna.
I told her.
Finally she agreed.
We did one experiment (I'm afraid I forgot to take photo's) and that was where we put milk in a plastic plate, ( this was something Dad found on the internet a while ago) and then dripped some food colouring on that, and put some dishwashing liquid on a cotton tip. Then we dipped the cotton tip in the milk, and the colours spread. Of course, you need lot's of different coloured food colouring dripped in there, or it doesn't work very well.
Then I did my own experiment.
I poured oil into a glass (just sunflower oil) and dripped some red food colouring in.
It stayed on top, just little dots, and suddenly, one of them sunk to the middle of the cup. Then another did. We put more drips in, and then mixed it gently. Not too much happened. So then we added water. Then something happened. I'll show you a photo to explain it.

 THEN WHEN WE PUT THE WATER IN….

Then we got a cotton tip and soaked one end in milk.
Then we dipped the milk in there and because it was on oil, the milk floated just like the food colouring had!

It was pretty cool. Then we put lots of drips of milk (We even tried to put honey in but it just sunk to the bottom and didn't do anything) and mixed it.
This is what it looked like.

Then I tipped in the rest of the milk and it looked like this!

 This is what the final thing looked like.

It was a valley of bubble-hills!
It was a cool project. We left it to sit for a while, and finally, the last of the bubble-hills popped.
It was a really fun experiment! :)

Do you like to do experiments? 

The Donut Disaster…and a cake!

I like to make clay things. Polymer clay is very fun to play around with. I have made a few clay things, the cake, recently, and the donuts are from a while ago. 





THE DONUTS

I had the clay in front of me. I had a "How To Make Polymer Clay Food" book in front of me. 
I flipped through the book, marvelling at all the awesome realistic clay food in it. 
"Mum," I complained. "I don't know what to do next. All the stuff in this book is so realistic….But I don't have the right things for them, and not the right talents, either!"
"There are some cool looking donuts there," said Mum. 
"But you make them with liquid clay," I sighed. "We don't have any."
Mum thought. "I'll look clay donuts up on the internet," she said.
So we looked. And then we found the perfect thing. Donuts, that didn't need liquid clay.
"You could make them," suggested Mum.
I smiled. "Okay," I said. "I'll give them a go."
So I tried it. I rolled them into little balls, then I used a little round tool to make the hole. Unfortunately, I couldn't make the hole go right through to the other side. Dad gave me some tips on that so I will try it sometime. 
The icing was a little more tricky. I had to make it very thin. Then I carefully layered it on.
"Mum! I did it!" I said triumphantly. "Can I put them in the oven now?"
Mum put them in the oven and we let them stay in there for a while. Finally, they were hard enough.
I waited for them to cool and then glazed them. Success!


The cake wasn't as tricky. Actually, it was really fun!
It was my own idea. It worked out pretty well. The problem is, The cake sort of went….crooked. 
I rolled it and tried to get rid of that, but it didn't work. Any ideas?



THE CAKE

It worked out pretty well apart form that!
I hope you like it! We hope we can buy liquid clay sometime because it will make things look much better. It's a pity it is so expensive. 

Do you like to make clay things? 
Have you got any tips?

Nori Rolls, Scallops, Fish Eggs And My Birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday! I got lots of presents, including a very pretty sort of patch-work dress that my mum (Kelly Casanova) made.

  Then we went out to mass. I am so blessed to have the latin hymns and Holy Communion on my birthday!
 After mass we went to a market, to things for the cake and other stuff.
It was so busy! At one point we lost Dad. We got strawberries for my pavlova, and some other interesting things…like flying fish eggs. And raw salmon (I think it was salmon) and tuna for nori rolls.
Then we went to a little Japanese shop called Fujimart. We got some seaweed for the nori rolls and Dad asked me if there was anything I wanted. I took a look around the shop, wondering if I should get any teacups or little Japanese bowls. Finally I shook my head.
"There's nothing that I really want here," I said. "I already have a teacup and saucer."
"Alright," agreed Dad. "Let's go and check these things out."
We went to the counter to check the things out. I was standing there waiting for Dad to finish and wondering how the nori rolls would taste with flying fish eggs and what the eggs would taste like, when suddenly something caught my eye.
There were tiny packets of gummy looking things right next to me for sale.
I wondered what they were.
"Dad, look at these lolly things," I said. "They look really gummy."
Dad looked at them in surprise. "Wow!" he said. "These are smoked scallops!"
"Oh," I said. "I thought they were lollies. Are they nice?"
"Yes!" said Dad. "It's been about ten years since I tasted them. They are great!"
I was happy with my find. Dad immediately bought them and we trotted back to the car. Then we went back home.
A while after we got back, Dad started on the nori rolls. He put avocado in them, and the tuna, in some, and in others, the salmon, and also the rice ( of course) and Japanese mayonnaise, and the fish eggs. When he opened them (They weren't that expensive fortunately for us) he let me taste a bit of them. I was surprised to find that they popped in my mouth!



THE NORI ROLLS
ORANGE THINGS ON TOP ARE FISH EGGS.
UNDER THEM IS THE MAYONNAISE. THE RICE ON TOP OF SEAWEED.

DAD PUTTING TUNA IN NORI ROLLS. ABOUT TO ROLL THEM UP.

We ate some of the food and then started on the nori rolls. I was pretty full before too long!
We decided to wait for a while before eating the cake, and so me and my siblings went out into the backyard and played until it was properly dark.
Then Mum and Dad started on the pavlova. Dad had made the base before, and now he made the cream and spread it thickly over the top.
Then he grated chocolate over the cream and covered that with strawberries.
I poured juice and then we turned out the lights.
I smiled as I saw the cake, with all the candles lit, come over to the table, and heard, "Happy birthday to you!"
Then I blew out the candles and Dad started handing out the plates.
I dug into my piece of pavlova.
Yum!

ME BLOWING OUT THE CANDLES.

Then I watched a movie and went to bed. It had been a wonderful day. :)
But……….I have to wait another year until my next birthday!!!!! :(


Have you tried fish eggs or smoked scallops before?
And….., do you like pavlova? I love it!

My Party

As my tenth birthday is on the 13th, we had a party on Friday, two days before my birthday.
My mum and I stayed up late making toffee-apples for the people at the party.
Then we wrapped them and went to bed, very excited.

The next day, we got all ready and set off. The party was going to be at Altona, so we had to drive. 

When we got there, none of the people were there.

We waited for a long time, and finally the first family arrived. 

I got a few presents as two more families came, and then we were ready for the games.


First we had an egg and spoon race. Luckily no eggs broke! My team won. Then we played sneaky ninjas. 
After that we ate some food and then played at the park. 
We played for a long time and then I gave the toffee-apples to everyone and we all went home. 
Now I am excited. My birthday is tomorrow! I can't wait. :D



Do you have a birthday coming up?

APPLE CHOC CAKE

My name is Gemma Casanova. I am a homeschooling ten year old. I share my mum's account so
when I post it makes me look like Kelly, but I'm not her, I'm her daughter. I also love to draw and to make things with polymer clay.
My birthday is 13th September. I am very happy to be able to share these things with you on my blog.
:D







I love to bake and make up new recipes! This is one I made up a while ago but just made it again. It is called APPLE CHOC CAKE.   I would like to share it.  :)

    Ingredients:
1 cup of SR flour, sifted.
120 grams of melted butter.
1/2 cup white sugar.
1 cup whole milk.
 2 eggs, whisked.
1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
2 tablespoons desiccated or shredded coconut. 
1/4 cup of choc dots or chocolate cut up in small pieces.
1/2 apple, diced.

Pre heat oven to 170 degrees C.
Put flour, sugar and coconut in a bowl. 
Add milk, eggs and vanilla, and whisk until smooth. 
Put rest of ingredients in bowl and stir.
Place in greased cake tin (use baking paper on the bottom to prevent sticking)
And put in oven for 45 minutes, check
the middle with a skewer for doneness.

And you can eat it iced or un-iced. Enjoy!