Tuesday 29 June 2010

Fabulous Car Boot Find

What a find!!



Went to a car boot sale in Reading on Sunday, the biggest in Reading apparently!  It was brilliant, we arrived quite near the end and people were already starting to pack their things away, so we were rushing around a bit but quite quickly I noticed something peeking out of a box.  At first I noticed the colour, a lovely sagey green colour, and it was the shape of a polaroid camers, in fact I thought it was a camera at first but on closer inspection I read that it was a solar viewer, I didn't really know what this was and didn't know if it worked but asked the price and imagine my joy when the seller asked for just £2.00!
I though, even if it doesn't work it would look lovely on a shelf, so I snapped it up.
I inspected the inside when I got home and discovered that it was a sort of slide projector that you look into to view slides of photographs; it needed three batterys.  It already had a bulb which looked like it would still work and also came with instructions and several sets of slides from some elderly couple's holidays.
My lovely hubby broought home some batterys this evening and I tested out, it worked!!  What loveliness.  And to make things even more wonderful one of the sets of slides in from Mont Serratt in Spain, a place where we went on holiday a couple of years ago!!
Here are some pictures of my wonderful find.








The Mont Serratt slide


Someplete with instructions and several sets of slides!

Happy days.

Also snapped up two crocheted table cloths and two crocheted doilies, a plastic yellow lemon squeezer and two books of cigarette cards, one of flowers and one of butterflies.

Sunday 27 June 2010

Help with blog?

Hi everyone,

Is there anybody out there who can help me or give me advice about designing the layout of my blog.  The previous layout (although popular) was one I downloaded for free and thus I didn't feel it was really me, I wanted my own photos and own choice of fonts to be part of the blog.  I have tried with all my might to get it right and I am still stuck with blogger.com's choice of font and this stupid grey shadow round the edge.
I am totally useless and don't have the patience for html codes and css thingys please help!!

Wednesday 23 June 2010

Things I want to do vs things I have got to do.

Things I want to do:

Paint,
Make collages,
Make clothes,
Weave baskets,
Work with clay,
Make jewellery,
Write poetry,
Sew,
Embroider,
Applique,
Exhibit my art work,
Photograph babies,
Photograph pretty things,
Plant things at the allotment,
Harvest things at the allotment,
Drink wine,
Being with family
Meet with friends,
Go on bike rides,
Walk in the woods,
Sleep,
Bake cup cakes,
Eat cup cakes,
Read books,
Shop for pretty things,
Make myself look pretty,
Look after my husband,
Have babies,
Dance.

Things I have got to do:

Clean the bathroom,
Hoover,
Ironing,
Washing dishes,
Putting clothes in the washing machine,
Hanging clothes on the line,
Scrubbing the carpet,
Cleaning the kitchen floor,
Dusting,
Being with unpleasant people,
Weeding the allotment,
Putting things away,
Planning for lessons,
Attending meetings,
Going to work,
Going to work,
Woing to work,
Changing bed sheets,
Paperwork,
Shopping for food,
Dress for practicality,
Going to the dentist,
Going to the doctors,
Have babies,
Stand.

Tuesday 22 June 2010

Illustrated bread making tutorial

I got this bread making recipe from a wonderful website called selfsufficientish and it is pretty fail safe although is not a quick fix, you will need to go the the shops if you have a bread emergency, it takes a day to make. 

First pour 750ml of luke warm water into a jug:



Next add two teaspoons of yeast and two teaspoons of sugar and stir it in:



Leave the mixture in a warm place untill it is all frothy on top, (about half an hour)



Pour the mixture into a bowl:



Take your flour.  I use half wholemeal and half white breadmaking flour.  Organic of course.


Add flour to the yeasty mixture in the bowl:



Stir:



Add more flour to make a gloopy paste:





Cover with a damp cloth and leave in a warm place overnight (I do mine in the morning and leave it while I am at work)



While you are away the mixture with froth up and become all bubbly:




Give it a stir and you will find that it's all gloopy and stretchy:



Add more of the flour until it has thickened:






Flour your worktop:



Tip out your mixture:



Add more flour:



And some salt (I do 3 teaspoons) don't forget to do this or you will end up with quite bland bread.



Then begin the process of adding flour and kneeding until you have made a dough, don't add too much flour though, your dough should still be a bit sticky:



As you kneed, don't just fold and press the dough, really tear it and stretch it:


Lovely!
The dough should be nice and stretchy and spring back when you poke it:



I then cut my dough in half because I have found my tired old over can't cope with cooking one large loaf so I make two smaller ones:



Make two lovely round balls by kneeding them a bit more:
Beauties:



Put em into tins:



Then cover with a damp cloth (this one is actually clean but looks manky from fruit staining).  leave to rise.  The time it takes to rise will vary depending on how warm your room is.  Basically just leave it till it has risen lots!
Put the oven on just before you think they are ready to go in.




Ohh




Put them in the oven.  My oven only goes up to 200 degrees and this seems to work fine.

Then as if by magin, in about 20 minutes you get a beautiful loaf of bread.  Take the loaves out of the tins and leave to cool on a rack.

Then enjoy





Hope you liked by breadmaking tutorial.  Comments are welcomed.
Come again soon.
x

Wednesday 16 June 2010

Photography

Hi peeps,

Did a really great photo shoot yesterday of two gorgeous boys. One was really funny and cheeky and mischevious and soooo beautiful with big blue eyes and beautiful blond curly hair. And the other was so cute and sleps for a lot of the time. It was a really great and challenging shoot. I am really hoping that I will get more work in photography so I have something to fall back on later in life when I might not be able to teach full time (when I have babies for example).
Here are some of my favorites:
















Monday 14 June 2010

New Etsy item

I have just added another set of Vintage music sheet love heart confetti to my Etsy shop.  This item seems to be quite popular, I have recently sold 400 in a private sale!! Here are a couple of pics of the new set, it is made from a slightly finer and older paper which gives it a more vintage look.





I have a few posts in the works waiting to be written, but I feel like a saddo writing more than one post a day!!  Buy come back soo to see another photo of my role model box, my milk bottle head of Captain Jack Sparrow and a bread making tutorial.