tow procrastination

Oh the things I find to do when I am putting of important things! I am not sure how but I ended up on the Bushells Tea site and took the test to determine if I drink my tea Aussie style or British style. Since I like dunking “bickies” in my tea and I don’t fuss about things like saucers or stirring my tea with a teaspoon I drink the tea Aussie style. Oh and a “bicky” is a biscuit, which is what they call cookies on this side of the world. Of course “biscuit” is too long of a word, so it gets shortened to a “bicky.” Gotta love the Aussie English! Lately I picked up the habit of adding *gasp* milk to my tea. I don’t know if I can be considered a Turk if I add such nonsense to my tea!
Another way to procastinate is to bake. I got a banana bread recipe from the Amateur Gourmet website. The bread is in the oven now and it just started smelling awfully good. I love the smell of cinnamon-y things being baked.
Back in uni most of my procrastination was achieved through writing random blog entries. Have a look at my old blog, particularly entries as the deadline of my senior thesis approached (Spring 2006) and you’ll see what I mean!
Speaking of random blog entries, here a yarn I’ve dyed, and my inspiration behind it.

I thought about dyeing a yarn in these colours while I was listening a song they play at “kina gecesi.” In Turkish tradition the girl and her friends get together for kina gecesi (henna night) the day before the bride gets married. The colours that came to my mind was red, brown, and orange. The highlight of the henna night is the application of henna to the bride. Now I went unconventional and got a couple of my friends to apply henna Indian style. This is how my henna turned out.

The photo is from my wedding day. You don’t wear your wedding dress to the henna night. There is a special outfit that you wear but I went without it so I can get a more useful item –my dishwasher! The outfit is called a bindalli and you find tons of examples from google.

That’s me seated in the middle at my henna night. The girls walk around you holding candles and singing a song about a girl who got married off to a far away land (heh, fits my story doesn’t it!). You are supposed to cry, but I couldn’t stop giggling honestly! One of the girls carries the tray with the henna on it. When they are done singing mother of the bride applies the henna. Then the mother-in-law places a piece of gold on your hand with the henna on it. At least that’s how we did it. I am sure there are tons of variations from place to place. After they took the red scarf off me I saw my mum crying, then I busted out crying as well! I looked around to find the version of the song we used at my henna but I couldn’t find it. This one is sung by my favourite Turkish singer, Candan Ercetin. It is not the traditional version, but it is still pretty.

The moral of the story is I was trying to capture the colours I have remembered from my henna party. Mostly reds and golds with a bit of brown for henna. I am still new at the yarn dying business, so when I get better I will take another crack at it later. I am happy with how this one turned out as well!
The banana bread is done and I am sorry to report my oven burned the outside while leaving the inside mushy. I really, really dislike my electric oven. When I get my own house ins I am getting a gas one!