9 weeks

An update on his top half

This weekend

Joe wants a pair.

New (old) stash

Elderflower and Gooseberry Fool

Courtesy of Hugh again.

Gooseberries, elderflowers, sugar and lemon zest made into a puree, folded into whipped cream and put in the fridge for 2 hrs - the recipe uses 500g of gooseberries to 10 heads of elderflower with 300ml of double cream to serve 6, but we stretched our 80g of gb's to serve 3...and skipped the fridge...sorry Jon - we'll make it again. (without the fly)

A holey jumper

a machine washable, lightweight jumper with a hole in the front (promise)


some clothes to use as a template





use folds and ribbing in original garment where they are useful in the new one




pick a contrast rib for the envelope neck and attach (v. fiddly)



sew pieces together



make tassels for hat


and dress the poor baby

UPDATE The hat was too small (might explain the slightly pained 'I think I might cry' smile in the above photo) and the neck was very loose and untidy. I replaced it with another stretchier piece of ribbing and cut it about half the size of the neck and sewed it while stretching (still fiddly). I also cut the neck a bit lower in the middle. So partial success. I still think it's a nice basic shape for future clothes - will try again!


Inspired by The 90 minute shirt on Made - A Creative Collection
(Thinking about it, I should've read this again before I started - would've saved a lot of time!)

our gooseberry harvest (yes, all of it)

Good morning

left over lemon meringue in the fridge

a tiny caterpillar on the underside of a leaf

Ta-dah!

- sitting room post sand and paint


- as was (not quite as grim as this - v. bad photo!)



- and in use (pram doubles as dust-cart)

The Elderflowers are here

Isaac's been cooking

This is the Ten-minute Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's 'River Cottage Everyday' cook book.

125g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
75g soft light brown sugar
1 medium egg, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
150g plain flour
half a teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of sea salt
100g dark chocolate (chopped into chunks)

Briefly; melt butter, add to sugar and beat well, beat in egg and vanilla extract. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into bowl and stir in, then add the chocolate. Dot heaped desertspoonfuls of mixture on greaseproof paper covered baking sheets and cook for 8-10 mins at 190 degrees C/gas mark 5. Leave to cool and firm up.

Getting there?

Been tinkering with the blog, as you can see, trying to get bigger pictures. I tried one of the new Blogger templates which I quite like, but found I can't get my old one back, (needed to save the old version before I started). Now I've got photos with a border (which I don't want) and bigger photos that are a bit fuzzy - any ideas?

Update: Sorted out the fuzziness! (pick a photo on another blog and change your own sizing and definition(?) numbers in the html to match it). Still have to change the settings of every photo, every time I upload though. Hmmm.