Home Styles

In one of the cupboards in my bedroom I have a lot of home decorating/style books.  I don't think I've ever really made up my mind what my style is.  Most of the walls in my house are pale and my bedroom has pale walls and soft furnishings.  Since fleece blankets became easily available I've done away with duvet quilts.  I hate duvets because they are impossible to wash in my washing machine so was always buying new ones.  I wash things a lot.  Now my bed looks much neater with sheets, fleece blankets and a nice bedspread.  

Hanging off the lamp in this picture is a necklace, one of those sort that you can buy in the supermarkets these days.  Unfortunately I can't wear jewellery that has nickel in it but I love jewellery so use it to just hang around the bedroom.

The other side of the bed has a chest of drawers next to it.  The two flower pictures you see are embroidered.  The orange one is of cross-stitched pansies, I think done with one strand, I didn't stitch it.  The other picture is a bouquet of flowers done in normal embroidery, I did stitch this one.  I'm never happy with how I display things.  I would like one of those wooden free standing mirrors on this chest of drawers so will be on the look out for one.

If I could afford it I think I would have a new look in each room every year.  Recently I've admired the shabby chic look, I'd have to buy the furniture ready done though, I haven't got the energy for all the work needed to shabby-up furniture!

A Day Off

I'm having a day off today.  A day off to me means no cooking meals or doing housework.  Also, no going out if I don't want to.  And, not making the numerous cups of tea we always drink throughout the day.  I don't very often get a day off, even on holiday we go self-catering so there is still cooking to do.  So, what do I do on a day off - I spend time in my craft room.  Today I'm still on my chicken making binge.  I have decided I like the back-to-front chickens best, I've got more cut out in this autumn themed fabric and will carry on with these, then I'll probably make a couple of zipped bags (another obsession at the moment).  I was given a box of six inch zips years and years ago and didn't know what to do with them.  This is one of the best things about being a hoarder, I didn't get rid of them and now have found a use for them.

This morning I spent a bit of extra time searching out interesting blogs and have added some to my links.  One blog had a 'show us what's at your bedside' (or something like that) so later today I intend taking a picture of my bedside to show here.  This article is in this blog.  I love to look at blogs that show their homes, especially the Norwegian ones, I think their decorating style is gorgeous.  I see some blogs that have pictures of a shelf with various things on, they look so decorative and artistic, my shelves just look full.  My house can be a bit dusty and some rooms look a bit untidy, though I have to say all my cupboards and drawers are organized, so you don't see how organized I can be.  My ideal house would be loads of cupboards with very little out, I suppose that is Shaker style.

What's your idea of a day off, I'd love to hear.

Tea Time

I wanted to make some black bread after seeing it on Master Chef the other evening.  After surfing the web I came across a recipe that I thought I could manage.  It contained fennel seeds, caraway seeds, cocoa, coffee granules, rye flour, bread flour, syrup, dark brown sugar as well as the usual water, butter and yeast.  I expected it to taste sweet and of chocolate but it didn't.  It was very light and fluffy though not as black as I wanted it to be, more dark brown.  The toppings I used were dressed crab and tomato for one lot and cream cheese, chopped cornichons and prawns for the other.  The bread didn't overpower the toppings at all.

I only make bread in my bread machine, I'm not fit enough to do it by hand - it's hard work isn't it!!!  My kitchen has quite a few gadgets, the one that I found the most disappointing was the juicer.  The one I couldn't do without is my food processor, I bought my first one about thirty years ago.  Just recently I got rid of my Moulinex electric hand mixer, I'd had it forty years so it had seen good service.  Another gadget I've had for a long time is my electric carving knife, it's great for cutting bread as well as meat.

Another thing I find very useful in the kitchen are the Teflon baking sheets, they last for years and nothing ever sticks to them.  For my baking I buy the ready cut greaseproof paper circles for the bottom of my sandwich cake tins and the cake and loaf baking tin liners, it saves energy not having to cut them out like I used to.  I've also got a multi-size foldable cake pan, the sides slot together and you can make from a huge cake to a very small one.  Recently I've been using measuring cups instead of weighing, this is because of the recipes from the USA that are on the internet.  I have bought myself some decent digital weighing scales though, they weigh starting at one gramme.  I'd love to hear what anyone else has in their kitchen and what their favourites are and what was a total waste of money like my juicer.

Pastries

The pastry on these frangipane tarts is delicious, I mentioned yesterday I wanted to make the Sable pastry and I used a quarter of the ingredients in the link.  For the frangipane I used 

3 teaspoons of butter

9 teaspoons of caster sugar

1 egg

1/4 of a cup of ground almonds

5 teaspoons of plain flour

Cream the butter and sugar, add the egg and mix well, I used an electric hand mixer.  Add the almonds and flour, again I used the mixer and gave it a good mixing.  Half the pastry and all the filling are just right to make six tarts.  Bake at 190C for twenty minutes.  I sifted icing sugar over them before serving.  The pastry that was left over is now in the freezer as this pastry is supposed to freeze well.

The pastry turned out so crisp and melting.  I'm not a good pastry cook so for me this was a success.

This picture was taken on the beach at Titchwell .  The sea must have been very rough for all these shells to have ended up on the beach, there were masses of them.

There is supposed to be a bird having a bath in this picture but I can't see it.  This is part of the marsh at Titchwell.

It was a fine day when we visited Titchwell Marsh Reserve and we were able to have a pleasant walk around.  We saw long tailed tits quite close up in one area and bramblings on the bird feeders.  Graham saw a stonechat.  We saw a lot of the usual inhabitants but my brain won't let me recall them at the moment.  We were very surprised at the number of people who were there too, mainly old codgers like us but also quite a few younger people.

Some Pictures

Sorry about the really stupid title but the old brain is a bit befuddled this evening.  I want to show some pictures I took while I was in Norfolk and I was hoping for good weather while we were there but it was pretty bad.  So, here are a few pictures I took, mostly of sky.

These starlings were a real sight to see, just like Bill Oddie showed us on one of his tv programmes.  They were so fast though, by the time I got hold of the camera they had zoomed off.

Shelducks, but mostly this gives you an idea of what the Wash looks like, huge expanses of sand when the tide is out.

These two pictures were taken in September and show the old wooden groynes at Heacham.

Well, I have more pictures but will put more on another day because I want to watch the final of Master Chef Professionals.  I don't usually watch this sort of programme except when I'm at the caravan and this is the first time I've ever watched Master Chef.  I was so impressed with some of the desserts that I can't wait to have a go.  I want to make sablé pastry and tuile pastry, then have a go at spun sugar.  I loved the episode where the chefs had to serve tea at Sketch in London.  I wanted to put a link to Sketch but couldn't find a decent one.  I love afternoon tea and have been out to tea rooms locally but can't really say that either was particularly good as regards the room itself.  The food at Mintons was good but the room was quite shabby though clean.  At Manor Farm Tea Shoppe the food was alright but the room was a bit scruffy looking and the staff were young girls who were a bit inexperienced.  Because of this I like to do my own afternoon teas.  Last year I invited a few friends round and we had a lovely civilised tea!!!  On the programme there was also a sandwich made with black bread, Graham found a recipe on the internet for this using a bread maker so I want to have a go at it.

Right - I'm off to watch the final!!!

Chickens That Look Forward To Christmas

In recent years I've been making Christmas decorations and joining in with a Christmas themed swap at one of the groups I'm in.  This year I thought I'd make some chickens as an addition to the package and my own collection - and here they are.   BUT - I made them back to front!!!!  So they tend to lean back unless I prop their tails up.  I wondered what was different about them and it wasn't until I checked a chicken I'd made years ago that I realised this *&^%!!!!  Oh well never mind, I'll make some more.  If you want a laid back chicken email me g.finch2@ntlworld.com and I'll get one to you in time for putting up your decorations, first come first served.

A Full Stop

I knew it was too good to last!!!  The last few months have been tough physically as well as mentally.  The strange thing is that while I was feeling so worried my 'bad back' hasn't played up at all.  I had moments when I would panic and think that if my back seized up we'd be in a right mess.  I felt very happy that I could get on with life without my back on top of everything else and probably got a bit over confident - as you do.  My crafting is starting to get back on track and yesterday I started getting some ideas together for an upcoming swap, as shown above.  I was so sure that today it would all be finished and I could start on a Christmas ornament swap that I'm doing next.
So of course I felt that horrible little twinge that precedes 'a bad back'.  Damn!!!
Looks like being a boring rest day for me.