22 Dec 2008
Makes
Hello, I've mostly been busy with these......
Christmas cake. I hope that the 4 1/2 hours of baking at warp factor 1 and leaving overnight in the oven did actually cook this bugger, cause I'm going to be upset if there's goo in the middle of this. I ask you, a kilo of fruit!!!!!!
Elizabeth, the birthday doll. Complete with pink frock and green knickers (underpants for you lot over in the USA). She was made following the kinda-pattern in one of my birthday books, I was quite pleased with the finished result. The idea of this particular type of doll is that you leave the features very generalised, in the Steiner manner, to help the child develop their own imaginative play. She took about 5 hours to cut, sew, hairdress and clothe. And of course I did leave it until 2 days before the actual birthday to make her! She also got a little mattress, sheet and quilt to go in her beautiful red pram - the other part of No 2's birthday gift.
More 5 minute bread.
Advent stuff - Santa Christmas (as my little dears insist on calling him) and Christmas placemats. The little printouts were downloaded from fellow blogger aprintaday who very generously provides her stunning artwork as free files for plebs like me to use. Have a look, the art is fantastic. (Hers, not mine!) And the twiddly tree - just for the children to do really. They found this stick in the local park gardens, and we decided to decorate it. Fortunately one of our local garden centres has a great Christmas decorations department where we found the tiny decorations - just perfect for this sort of thing - even the fairy is the right size.
Birthday presents for various bodies large and small.
I know this looks like a pile of nonsense, but eventually, it turns into a lovely tinkly ball!
Happy Christmas everybody, and a peaceful New Year.
Christmas cake. I hope that the 4 1/2 hours of baking at warp factor 1 and leaving overnight in the oven did actually cook this bugger, cause I'm going to be upset if there's goo in the middle of this. I ask you, a kilo of fruit!!!!!!
Elizabeth, the birthday doll. Complete with pink frock and green knickers (underpants for you lot over in the USA). She was made following the kinda-pattern in one of my birthday books, I was quite pleased with the finished result. The idea of this particular type of doll is that you leave the features very generalised, in the Steiner manner, to help the child develop their own imaginative play. She took about 5 hours to cut, sew, hairdress and clothe. And of course I did leave it until 2 days before the actual birthday to make her! She also got a little mattress, sheet and quilt to go in her beautiful red pram - the other part of No 2's birthday gift.
More 5 minute bread.
Advent stuff - Santa Christmas (as my little dears insist on calling him) and Christmas placemats. The little printouts were downloaded from fellow blogger aprintaday who very generously provides her stunning artwork as free files for plebs like me to use. Have a look, the art is fantastic. (Hers, not mine!) And the twiddly tree - just for the children to do really. They found this stick in the local park gardens, and we decided to decorate it. Fortunately one of our local garden centres has a great Christmas decorations department where we found the tiny decorations - just perfect for this sort of thing - even the fairy is the right size.
Birthday presents for various bodies large and small.
I know this looks like a pile of nonsense, but eventually, it turns into a lovely tinkly ball!
Happy Christmas everybody, and a peaceful New Year.
12 Dec 2008
Look, but not with your purse open
Have a look at this lovely site for Japanese designer Shinzi Katoh stuff - http://www.shinzikatoh.co.uk/
As they say - lovely things to make you smile. But my husband just about had a fit when he looked at the prices, so I suggest you keep those blokes away while you're looking! I was just browsing and I got up to about £50 with no effort at all. But I will be having a couple of things, I think! And if you need a gift for a special friend, I don't think you'd have much of a problem finding something suitable.
Happy shopping.
As they say - lovely things to make you smile. But my husband just about had a fit when he looked at the prices, so I suggest you keep those blokes away while you're looking! I was just browsing and I got up to about £50 with no effort at all. But I will be having a couple of things, I think! And if you need a gift for a special friend, I don't think you'd have much of a problem finding something suitable.
Happy shopping.
Suffering from neglect, somewhat.
Hello there
As it says above, I haven't been paying much attention to this poor ol' blog lately!
One thing after another, germs, germs, almost terminal germs, and a general sense of laissez-faire have done nothing for the writing up of day to day life in our lovely flea pit. Yes, one of the more recent developments is both cats acquiring those little bitey beggars (fleas), and spreading them amongst the house and family. Cheers to you, Mouse and Boo, and begone. Never had them before, and I hope to God we've got rid of them all now cause I'm fed up with being bit.
With my newly acquired ill gotten gains (sales of handmade stuff) I treated myself to this fantastic bread book - Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day which has rather occupied my time. Today, I finished off the most recent batch of bread with this little dear :-
And then, being unable to resist the thought of lovely bagels, made these from a new batch for me and Teflon boy for tea. Mmmm, mmmm, good!
I would highly recommend this book. I've been making my own bread for about 8 or 9 years - on and off. We slipped into buying from the supermarket when I was in hospital and recovering this year, and I kind of stopped bothering for a while. Also my bread making machine (which I just use for mixing and rising the dough) packed up last year and I was too idle to do much making without it. Then I managed to get a new machine a few months ago, and started up the old home bakery again.
But, to be honest with you (and I am well aware of how silly this sounds) I was beginning to lose the will to put a mix up every day - then I saw this book on someone else's blog and had a look. It starts with a simple premise - mix up a big batch of dough - enough for 4 or 5 loaves, leave it to rise, refrigerate it, and cook up a loaf with very little fuss. There's no kneading, so you don't have to worry about your weak little wristies (like I do), and it does take literally 5 minutes to make a batch up, and five minutes to put enough dough up for the day's loaf. The only time you need is rising time for each loaf, and you'd have that anyway with the regular method. The great thing is, the longer you leave the mix, the more the flavour develops, so you end up with something similar to a sourdough flavour without all the palaver of starters, bigas and all that. Hooray. And, it's really good fun. There are plenty of recipe variations, so lots to look forward too, my only bugbear is the lack of photographs - 3 or 4 plates in the middle of the book is a bit thin in my opinion. Go and buy one, or borrow it from your mates - it's worth it.
And no, I haven't bought any bread from the supermarket since I started doing this method - and the children now always ask if the bread they're having is 'Mummy's homemade'.
As it says above, I haven't been paying much attention to this poor ol' blog lately!
One thing after another, germs, germs, almost terminal germs, and a general sense of laissez-faire have done nothing for the writing up of day to day life in our lovely flea pit. Yes, one of the more recent developments is both cats acquiring those little bitey beggars (fleas), and spreading them amongst the house and family. Cheers to you, Mouse and Boo, and begone. Never had them before, and I hope to God we've got rid of them all now cause I'm fed up with being bit.
With my newly acquired ill gotten gains (sales of handmade stuff) I treated myself to this fantastic bread book - Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day which has rather occupied my time. Today, I finished off the most recent batch of bread with this little dear :-
And then, being unable to resist the thought of lovely bagels, made these from a new batch for me and Teflon boy for tea. Mmmm, mmmm, good!
I would highly recommend this book. I've been making my own bread for about 8 or 9 years - on and off. We slipped into buying from the supermarket when I was in hospital and recovering this year, and I kind of stopped bothering for a while. Also my bread making machine (which I just use for mixing and rising the dough) packed up last year and I was too idle to do much making without it. Then I managed to get a new machine a few months ago, and started up the old home bakery again.
But, to be honest with you (and I am well aware of how silly this sounds) I was beginning to lose the will to put a mix up every day - then I saw this book on someone else's blog and had a look. It starts with a simple premise - mix up a big batch of dough - enough for 4 or 5 loaves, leave it to rise, refrigerate it, and cook up a loaf with very little fuss. There's no kneading, so you don't have to worry about your weak little wristies (like I do), and it does take literally 5 minutes to make a batch up, and five minutes to put enough dough up for the day's loaf. The only time you need is rising time for each loaf, and you'd have that anyway with the regular method. The great thing is, the longer you leave the mix, the more the flavour develops, so you end up with something similar to a sourdough flavour without all the palaver of starters, bigas and all that. Hooray. And, it's really good fun. There are plenty of recipe variations, so lots to look forward too, my only bugbear is the lack of photographs - 3 or 4 plates in the middle of the book is a bit thin in my opinion. Go and buy one, or borrow it from your mates - it's worth it.
And no, I haven't bought any bread from the supermarket since I started doing this method - and the children now always ask if the bread they're having is 'Mummy's homemade'.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)