Sour Dough

My first experience of making sour dough bread was ...hhmmm... interesting.  Each day I fed and watered it and wondered if I was doing it properly.  It seemed to be bubbling up well after two or three days, then it seemed to do nothing on the fourth day.  I decided that it prefered to be in the plastic mixing bowl rather than the glass bowl.  Also, I don't think there was any need to change to a clean bowl each day.  Then last night I got the 'sponge' ready but I think I made it too wet.  This morning I looked at the sponge and was amazed at how it had risen, just how it was supposed to.  However, I was right, it was a bit too wet and I had trouble getting it to stay in a loaf shape.

It spread out rather more than I'd hoped as it was baking.  Never mind, it was my first go and I'm looking forward to having some at lunch time with some soup.  The starter is now in my fridge waiting for me to have another go.  Next time I think I'll bake it in a loaf tin, then if it is a bit loose it will stay a better shape.  It is a fun way to make bread, just hope it tastes as nice as it smells.

Cards & Cake

I haven't spent much time making cards recently.  I think this is because I made a lot in the past and ended up with too many to know what to do with.  Now that I haven't got so many hanging about I thought I'd get going with card making again.

I made four like the above then ran out of ideas, I couldn't show the other two because the picture I took turned out blurred.  So, when I need ideas I do a bit of surfing and came up with this blog and it really sparked off some inspiration in me.

I don't usually do so many layers on cards, my cards tend to be a bit minimal but maybe I need a bit of a change.  Rubber stamping isn't really something I enjoy, even though I've got a box full of stamps.  I prefer decoupage and I think this is the look I'll go for.  I have a small craft group that meets at my house and I think they'll enjoy making this style of card too.  We used to meet every Thursday but last April I closed the group down.  This was due to knowing Graham wouldn't be well enough for me to carry on with it for a while and also because I think we all needed a break.  We met for the first time again last Thursday and the old enthusiasm was back (plus one lady wasn't invited, which made a difference to the mood).  We'll meet alternate weeks this time, that will give me time to come up with new ideas for them to try and still leave me plenty of sewing time.

The cake I mentioned yesterday turned out really nice.  I don't usually fancy cakes with banana in them, I imagine them to be soggy but this cake tastes lovely and has just the right moistness.  The next one I want try from my new recipe book uses an orange in the ingredients, the peel as well as the pulp, so that will be an interesting one to try.

That's Better

After spending all that time reorganising and cleaning in my craft room yesterday, I think that it looks much better.  I sorted out a couple of shelves and managed to free one up for all my storage jars.

Then I tackled all my wadding, plastic bags and cardboard boxes that were spilling out all over the place.  I tied up the plastic bags and have them stored in a bin under my table.  Some of the cardboard was recycled into our recycling bin ready for collection by the council.  I was glad that I'd kept the tall box that I'd had some flowers delivered in (from my DS &DIL for my birthday) because I was able to use it for all the small bags/pieces of wadding that were always sliding out of that corner.

Now doesn't that look neat and tidy!!!

There are still areas that need sorting out but at least some of it's done.  The trouble is I can't motivate myself to do any crafting today, I just want to admire the tidyness!  Something I have done today though, is start off some sour dough.  I've never tried this before but when I read Melissa's really easy instructions, I just had to try it.  When I finish this blog post I'm going to make a Walnut, Date & Honey cake from my new recipe book.

Driving Myself Crazy - Again!

Today I decided to tidy my craft room.  I wanted to put things away that I'd used recently and give it a good dust.  It's amazing how much dust is created in here.  I've got two tables, one for sewing and general use and a small one where my guillotine stands, ready for when I'm card making.  The first thing I did was move everything from the small table and put it onto my work table.

Now I've got places where I keep all the tools and that will be easy enough to tidy up.  BUT - where shall I keep all the fancy storage jars and other decorative stuff?  That set me off and I started to get downhearted.  I'm sick of shuffling everything around to try and get some order in here.  I gave away a load of crafty items just before Christmas and now I concentrate just on sewing and card making.  There still isn't enough room in here.  One corner in particular always gets out of hand

It's where I keep all my wadding. for some reason it keeps escaping (because I rummage around under there looking for things).  I keep telling my DH that I need three craft rooms but he disagrees every time and refuses to let me turn all three bedrooms into craft rooms - the old meany!!!  No, he's very patient really and tries to help me sort it out.  We have different ideas about what 'sorting out' means.  To me it is to have everything in it's place and readily accessible.  To him it is to put everything away - full stop.  And why do I always want to keep cardboard boxes and plastic bags?  Well they might come in useful, won't they?  Oh well, I'll spend another hour in here then have a cup of tea.

More Pincushions

Another 1950s style dress.  The skirt is almost full enough on this one, I'll keep going with them until I get it right.

I like this one, it does look somewhat 'primitive' but I'll never get that look because when I do the 'grunged' look I just don't like it, even though I like seeing other people's work.

Pincushions

I think I've found a project that will keep me happy for another few weeks.

It's a dress form pincushion.  I've wanted to make one of these for quite a number of years now but it has taken a challenge in a group I'm in to get me going with it.  They are very quick to make and the only problem I'm having is finding something to use as the stand.  That is going to take a bit of thinking about.  Here's another one

I've got lots of ideas in my head of how I want to decorate them.  The first one I made has the darts in it as shown in the pattern.  The second one I didn't bother with the darts and it looks fine.  I also changed the size of the pattern and made it smaller for the second one.  Now I could do with a cabinet with glass doors to keep this sort of thing in, that way they would stay clean and dust free, instead of just putting them away and looking at them occasionally.  My craft room gets terribly dusty with all the cutting out etc, that goes on in there.

Machine Applique

I decided that I would use the pattern Melissa sent me to do some machine applique.  I haven't got the patience to sew the shapes by hand so I use the Bondaweb/Wunderunder method.  Apart from being less tiring on the hands and eyes, it's a lot quicker.  Here's another applique idea using this method.  You will see that you can do quite elaborate shapes like this.  Here's one I started (but haven't finished yet)

I don't know if I'll actually stitch this one, I might leave it just Bondawebbed, the stitching looks a bit too complicated for me!  I had decided that I would be doing more applique this year.  There are four appliqued wall hangings in the local church that I made, wish I'd taken pictures of them but at the time it didn't occur to me that I would want to put them on a blog.