My first Post

Hi Everyone! And welcome to My Blog. This being my very first post, I am feeling like I have no idea what to type. The first few sentences were typed, re-written, edited and then deleted quite a few times before I decided I should just type! I have decided to begin a blog in the hopes to share some of my creations and life stories with friends and those who might become friends and those people who I may never meet but have similar passions or are just looking for some inspiration. Most importantly I would like everyone who visits to feel as though they are part of my blogging family.

I have always loved cooking. Growing up, my Great-Grandmother lived in an attached Granny flat at the back of our house and some of my earliest and fondest memories are of times spent with her, my mother and two older sisters cooking up a storm! Nita (my Great-Grandmother) was one of a kind. She had a passion for food and family and has passed that on to my Mother, my sisters and myself. As a child I had an overwhelming awe of both my mother and Great-Grandmother and how they were able to turn simple ingredients into works of art that not only looked too good to eat but were nevertheless irresistible and subsequently ended up in my tummy. When I was little I played a vital part in the cooking process. Manager, taste inspector and primary cleaner. I did little of the actual cooking but most certainly enjoyed dancing around the kitchen telling them what colour the icing should be, while licking the cake batter off the spoon and making sure the bowl was as clean as clean could be by using my fingers, tongue and sometimes nose to make sure I had made the bowl shine once again. But of course, everything always tastes better when you share (thanks to my mum for this great life lesson)! So this meant letting my sisters help with the position of primary cleaner.

This love of cooking had always stayed with me and always will. However, life is much different than what it use to be. A couple of years ago after progressively getting sicker and sicker for 6 years, I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. This has meant that I have been fighting with food, and it has been fighting with me for many years. It is very hard to describe how something like hypothyroidism can affect your life unless you yourself have had the same experience. In future posts I hope I can at least give people some insight and create a safe space for those that always have "food fights" to learn and share new ways of cooking and enjoying food. These days my diet tends to be mainly vegan based (my body does not seem to like many animals products), or what I like to call it "veganfor5". I usually avoid animal products for the majority of the week and for 2 nights a week, I will give myself a break, and either go out and enjoy a really good meaty meal or make make something at home. Because of this most of the recipes I share will be vegan/vegetarian based. They are also usually free from processed foods, low in sugar and full of fresh tasty produce.

My love of creating is not only limited to cooking (although at this point is probably what I will be sharing the most), I love anything where I can bring something new into the world that can be enjoyed by many. Food, painting, drawing, yarn spinning, knitting, crochet and photography just to name a few and hope that this will be a place I can share everything I can have created so that more people can hopefully enjoy my art and find inspiration for their own creations.

I feel like now that I have started typing, I could type all day and still have more to say, but for now I am signing off and will put some time aside for tomorrow to work once again on my blog. Signing off!
Love Mandy M

A photo of my Great-Grandmother and Great-GrandFather (well before my time on this earth)