Long hot summer

The sudden heatwave (which has so pleasingly coincided with the purchase of a new lafuma recliner chair) has made me forget the wet and windy days of summer and solely concentrate on all the good things that have occurred which have clearly precluded me from adding to my blog.

In no particular order:-

• Bracelets made = 2
• Cupcake recipes tried from "Humingbird Bakery" cook book = 3 (not really loving the lavender ones)
• Crochet projects rediscovered and still not finished = 3
• New crochet projects started = 1
• Tops fashioned out of Liberty cotton lawn = 2
• Bunches of flowers artfully arranged = 10+
• Driving tests passed = 1
• Driving tests failed = 1
• Family holidays in sunny France = 1
• Weddings attended = 4
• Landmark Trust weekenders = 1
• Pedicures = 4
• Afternoon teas dans la garden = 2
• Afternoon teas dans la kitchen = 1
• Linen presses painted = 1
• Dodgy roman blind made = 2
• Number of decisions made for new kitchen = countless
• Trips to Detling antiques fair = 2
• Books started and finished = 5
• Books started and not finished = 3

It is frightening when you write a list and realise just what you can remember doing but it then also makes me wonder about all the things that I cannot remember doing. I think that for me some of the highlights of this summer have to come from the weddings that we have been to.

First there was the amazing one out in Chalfont St Something, in an amazingly huge village hall type building festooned with metres of homemade bunting, trestle tables covered in homemade table cloths, squat vases of fantastic fresh garden flowers. The bride was stunning in a dress made by a family friend that made her look all sublime and ethereal, and wine that flowed all night long (and that came from the Burgundy vineyard of another friend at the wedding).

Then number two was completely different and in a church in Hillingdon followed by a very glamourous reception at Pinewood Studios. A wonderfully sunny Saturday afternoon catching up with friends old and new whilst guzzling as much Pimms as possible and marvelling at the hat of the mother of the bride (the most amazing creation).

Number three was just up the A2 in Canterbury, trad church wedding with fantastic hymns - I'm still humming "One More Step Along the World I go", then a short amble to the grounds of the King's School at St Augustines for the most brilliant English themed reception ever. Galloons of Chapeldown sparkling English Rose wine, fresh Whitstable Bay oysters, Morelli's ice cream and great fun before the rains came down and it was time to retreat into the huge marquee. Cue more lovely bunting, little handmade hearts on the backs of chairs and a delicious feast of pie (chicken and ham, game, and pork) with salads and all good things. Then cometh the hour cometh the disco, it seems that the bride had exercised her bridely perogative and it was strictly 80s and 90s only and what a wise wise woman she is. Floor filled all night long.

As for number 4, we've had the first event and amazing sangeet 'party' thrown by the bride's family. Neither of us knew what to expect but we were met with nothing but warmth on arrival (and amazing fruit juices) and had the most amazing night, eating incredible food, dancing like Banghra demons and getting more and more excited about the upcoming events this week - Thursday night reception and dinner hosted by the groom's parents and then the wedding on Saturday.

Pweh, what a summer.

Cake, we all love the cake

I love village life.

It rocks, big time. There I was in the hairdressers this morning, half my head covered in foils when in bowls the village parcel postie woman. She is often the one who delivers my random ebay packages of fabric and yarn, so we know each other quite well by now and she likes to bring the occasional biscuit for Mr Rex. She spotted me under my tin man hat and bellowed "hallo, I've got a parcel for you". Me, being a tad brazen, asked if I could have it there and then. "Alright" came her response and off she went.

Back she came, not only with my hot new purple patent summer 2009 Birkenstock Madrids, but better than that, an Amazon parcel containing....."the hummingbird bakery cookbook". Joy!

Picture the scene, me (head full of foils), Becky (hairdresser extraordinaire) and Sam (junior teasey weasey) all drooling over the sumptuous pictures. I can tell you that the foil time has never passed so quickly whilst I flicked through the pages. So now I just have to contemplate what to make first. What do we think? Plain vanilla? Red Velvet? Lemon cupcakes? Ginger cupcakes??

Fresh from the oven

And here they are, the lovely little lilac vanilla choc chip cupcakes.

What is pleasing is that my camera seems to depict the buttercream frosting as lilac whereas in the kitchen they look more grey. Oh well.

I love how post baking the whole cottage takes on this lovely heady scent of vanilla and loveliness. Although the downside is that it is like sensory torment and the little devil inside my head bellows 'go on, eat the cakes...all of them'.

Missing - one excellent recipe

Dear readers,

Well, Sophie (I think that you might still be the only one out there in cyberspace who is following my homespun efforts), I have lost...well I think at this time I might prefer the word mislaid, the truly stupendous Crumbs and Doilies mint choc chip cupcake recipe that I made the other week.

Last night I thought that I would today make some simple little vanilla and choc chip cupcakes, with delicious vanilla frosting on the top and that I would use the C&D recipe for the frosting, only sans mint and green colouring. So whilst my cakes were doing their thing in the oven I decided to get the recipe at the ready, and strap me vitals, I can't find it.

I have paced the kitchen, looked in my recipe folder and in there is everything but what I want, I have opened my "Bake" cookbook, which is where I last hid the cutting.....ooooh, just had a thought.....

I am something of a fool. I suddenly thought when I was writing the above paragraph 'what else did I make on the day that I made the minty cakes? Aah, yes, some Nigella vanilla cupcakes. I wonder, would I have left the cutting inside "How to be a Domestic Goddess"??'. I sprang to my feet, so loudly that it awoke the slumbering Rex-pup, tore into the kitchen, over to cookery book corner, snatched Nige off the shelf and even as I held the mighty tome in my hands I could see the top of the cutting peeping out as if to torment me.

Crisis averted, recipe found, normality restored...but probably briefly.

p.s. is 11.28am too early for a shattered nerve restoring G&T? It would be medicinal after all...no, you're probably right, it would the slippery slope to ruin.

Let's put out the bunting

Some months ago, wandering aimlessly round the local Hobbycraft, pocket money burning my hand off, I happened on the felt aisle. Felt has only ever made me think of two things previously - fuzzy felt and comedy primary school "art" projects (which also generally would involve ric rac and macaroni and PVA glue). Then a chance encounter with Cath Kidston's "Make" made me realise that it was possible to use this childhood memory fabric to make excellent homemade goodness in my ripe old adulthood. And lo! burning pocket money made it out of Hobbycraft and was squandered on some felt squares from Lupin on etsy.

The deliciously coloured squares have sat atop my stash pile for sometime whilst I toyed with all the permutations of just what I could make. I sometimes struggle with this stage of the creative process as I will have seen a recipe for something amazing in Sew Hip! and then I talk myself out of making it for fear that it will be 'badly made with zero love and affection' going on. But I decided that it had to be done and I started making some bunting from felt, similar to a pattern in the first issue of Sew Hip!.

It is going to be a gift for my mighty fine neighbour, the lovely Ju-la-la (not to be confused with the super fine Shu-la-la, they are two completely separate friends dontcha know). I whipped up something hilarious out of paper for her birthday dinner the other month, and now every time I am sat in her kitchen wolfing down a chunk of one of her excellent cakes I see this paper joke of bunting hanging in what she loves to call 'Haversham Corner' (think dark and cobwebby, not that any part of Ju-la-la Towers is cobwebby, for she is the mistress of spick and span and if she wasn't so lovely she would intimidate me royally with her tidiness and spick-ness).

So one evening and one day of felt cutting and remembering embroidery stitches that I couldn't manage at school, not to mention a couple of cups of tea and the DVD of "4.30 from Paddington", and that's the lovely one with Joan Hickson, and the bunting is made. I struggled with some of the bunts (is that what you call each individual one hence giving you bunting?) my stars are a bit ropey and remind Toby of the logo for La Caixa bank in Spain, but overall I am pleasantly pleased and I hope that it adds a little j'ne sais pas to 'Haversham Corner'.

Sew pretty?

Whilst wolfing down the old vino collapso with Little Kate in the garden yesterday, I suddenly thought "I'll make some tab top curtains for the guest bedroom".

Now my sewing skills, hmm, probably best that I say that what I lose in technical skills I make up for in enthusiasm! So in anticipation of my own haste last night I prepared the main fabric, getting it all pinned and pressed. It is the first time that I have applied a sort of 'aim, method, results, conclusion' approach to home sewing and I think that it has helped me make something that I am not ashamed of.

This morning I was awake enough to prepare the lining and then sew the tabs before pinning them and the lining in place. There is something rather lovely about taking the time to pin, then tack everything together before firing up the old John Lewis JL100. I always want to rush to the stitching part but now that the curtains are, many hours later, hanging in the bedroom and looking rather fine, I have realised that successful projects cannot be rushed, and ain't that the truth.

Let me eat cake

I have been a busy little domestic bee of late.

Whilst wondering what I could snack on the other afternoon I suddenly had the craving for cake, lots of little delicious cakes. Then I found some recipes that I had ripped from my parents weekend newspaper some months ago. My hungry eyes rested on the lemon chiffon cake and I contemplated whipping the tasty little number up. Then I turned over and saw the most fantastic chocolate chip mint cupcake recipe. And there they are above, sharing the cake pedestal with some vanilla fairy cakes. Nothing quite beats going to the kitchen and knowing that there are all this lovely tasty delights hiding in my cake tins waiting to be devoured. It's a hard life...

Quilt..the first

So, I have attempted my first ever 'patchwork quilt'. I think that attempted is by far and away the best way to describe it. I took some delicious Tanya Whelan 'barefoot roses' fat quarters, chopped them into four and then began machine stitching the little critters together. Some rows are beautifully lined up, some are so haphazard that I am now pretending that they are meant to be that way.

Once the front was sewn I had to spend several anxious days waiting for Mr Postie to bring me the wadding that I had bought off ebay. There followed many moments of snipping and pinning and then days of waiting for the off white calico that I had ordered to come in the post so I could finish it all. You may have observed a slight impatience, more on that later.

Calico arrives and is swiftly set about with a snip snip of the scissors. One cup of tea later and I am sat at the sewing machine and I am stitching the patchwork to the wadding to the backing. Being a complete novice I opt not to put an edging around the quilt, plus I have run out of patience and I just want to see it finished.

Oops, slight impatience leads to severe puckering on some of the squares as I start my basic diagonal quilting across the top. It seems really hard to machine quilt, unless you have something called a 'walking foot' (!?) or you have a 'long arm quilter' both things that I am sure I will not need until much, much, later in my quilting career.

So, it is finished, and for a first effort it is not bad. Delightfully shabby in some respects, but also very cute. It is a tad smaller than I had imagined, but it lies beautifully across the foot of single bed in the guest bedroom.

I have learnt one very important lesson - that sometimes things shouldn't be rushed and that it you need to take your time.

Beady little things

Beads, buttons, things on wire with ribbon - what could be better?

Mr Kate despairs of things hanging of door knobs, drawer knobs, the backs of chairs, but I love it. I think that it adds a certain je n' I don't know what to our tiny cottage.

The tiny bit of inner pleasure at knowing that I made it. That I took some buttons, spent many minutes figuring out how to get them on to the wire properly, then bending the wire to form the rudimentary heart shape. All profoundly pleasing I have to say.

Now to work on making one for every door handle or drawer knob in the place!