Damson Jelly Muffins

I made muffins yesterday with E, they're delicious - although mine didn't look quite as muffin like as I'd hoped but they tasted good - more baking powder next time maybe - I'm no Delia! here's the recipe I used...

• 220 g plain flour
• 100 g sugar
• baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 160 ml milk
• 75 g butter or margarine, melted
• Jam (your choice I used damson jelly that my mother made last autumn)
  
  Its very basic! Mix all the dry ingredients together in one bowl and beat up the eggs, milk and butter in another and then combine the two. Spoon half of the mixture in first and then add a little jam (or a lot if you love jam) Spoon over the rest of the mixture to cover up the jam. Bake at gas mark 6 until they're nicely browned, around 20 minutes - I usually check them once I can smell them.
  

The jam is boiling hot when it comes out so be careful of little mouths.

Ume Wristlet

I just listed this little flowery wristlet! I took this screen shot, nice feeling to see your stuff scrolling through on the live listings, that cup cake to the right is making me hungry - perhaps I'll have a go at making some with the kids this afternoon... yum!

London

So just re-read my last post and I haven't done any of it - no shop update and no little haptree frogs jumping to life yet, instead ...

...I went on the London Eye with the kids! Its awesome but it was boiling inside the pods. You have to get in them while it continues revolving - that really added to the excitement although you kind of get herded through in groups by burly security guards wearing pink ties and smart suits. I imagine there's less herding if you go on one of the champagne flights.

Big Ben from the eye, E was really amazed just how big and sprawling London is and P loved it, he didn't seem remotely freaked out - it goes so high!

Lovely day had by all!

haptree frogs - ribbit!

I'm hoping be able to do a shop update this weekend just a few wristlets without the beads, they're mostly done just need to make up some straps which is the most time consuming part as my machine has a tendancy to munch the fabric (I'm still not sure why, too much tension, blunt needles I've tried it all, I think it just has a strop for no reason)

Also I'm trying to find time to make up a few little frogs next week (haptree-frogs!) I'll post up some proper pictures, once they've metamorphosised from inside my brain - so far I have only this sketch to show you, but I'm not sure how these shapes will look once they're 3D - trial and error I suppose. I'm hoping I'll be able to use the japanese material for their backs and the millefiori beads for boggly eyes. I need to investigate what is best to fill them with, I want them to feel like the little bean bags you threw about in PE, I was thinking maybe rice or lentils.

Aaagghhhr... A spider!

We were twiddling around in the garden this afternoon, E was finding lots of things for me to take pictures of although with her instructions I got so close to the a little spider with the macro setting on that I nearly got my hair in the web - I did an instinctive "AAaaargh, I'm on fire" shake down on the lawn, the thought of a spider crawling around in my clothes or hair really freaks me out, just look at him all tiny and... menacing? I hope the neighbours didn't see me.

And here is a handful of little flowers (yes more!), lovely spring colours - awful grubby fingernails, E's not mine!

RPT 2 - the new laptop

My First Sale on Etsy

Wow, less than 24 hrs after my first post and kaboom... a sale, I'm so pleased, thank you Noel from Springfield, your bead kit is on its way already!

Whilst writing an email to said buyer this afternoon my laptop blew up... mild exagerration, but it made a bang and the screen went black and stayed black, I was fairly distraught. Given it was 5 yrs old and exceptionally well used (and well loved I have to say, computers are a bit like cars in that way for me) I made the exciting decision to head directly to PC World and wave my credit card at the nearest spotty salesman. Voila! welcome Robot Pants the 2nd, hopefully he will serve us well! Now to try and retrieve all my files and work out how to plug my camera in...

Bead Kits on Etsy!

My first shop update took place in the wee small hrs of last night...


The material for this blue wristlet is so pretty, its called Ume (Japanese Apricot), I have the yellow version as well, its such a cute pattern, it must be a subconscious seasonal urge to surround myself with an abundance of tiny flowers.

I'm really pleased with the yellow zip and pink strap- its so bright and zingy.

This is the contents of the kit - my daughter has been going crazy over these beads ever since my supplies arrived - the glass millefiori are all so unique (and yet more tiny flowers, it actually means a thousand flowers). Although duh! as you can see I spelt it wrong in the labels - more printing for me today I think!

We've made up one of the kits to test there's plenty of beads to play with, we got up to 5 bracelets and 2 necklaces and we still had lots left to thread - keeping my 1 yr old out of the way of the beads is also lots of fun!!!

I hope you like them, there's 3 styles in the shop at the moment but I'll be updating on a regular basis.



Enjoy the sunshine...

Springiness

The garden is pretty much a building site still, but here are a few little flowers I found yesterday that have made it through the dust. Click on the picture and you should get a close up view.

Spaghetti Westerns and Plant Sales

The upside of my new Twitter addiction is that I've stopped looking at facebook every half hour . Maybe if I hide my laptop under the couch for a day or so, I may actually get on with making more stock for my Etsy shop, which still lies empty. I can almost see the tumbleweed blowing through and hear the faint sound of a spaghetti western track fading in it's been waiting to be inhabited for so long now (yep, I agree the kawaii style banner doesn't really help with that imagery but you know what I mean)

It's OK though! I'm just waiting on some photo shopping from W and some new (and ridiculously expensive) ink cartridges (never buy a Lexmark) so I can print off the cute labels for my bead kits, and then I can do the photos.

In the mean time I can show you a pic of this amazing National Trust plant sale at Ashridge last weekend, but be warned it's a bit of a bun fight or a cream tea and scone fight at the very least. This pic was taken before the masses of crate carrying bargain hunters arrived. My 5yr old daughter (E) got shoved out the way by an old dear desperate for a particularly miserable looking violet and another lady climbed over P's buggy for an oxe-eye-daisy! Who'd have thought it of these mild mannered horticulturalists! Well worth it though it's a stunning place to visit.

Not Felicity Kendal

In case you were wondering, I'm not Barbara Good either... The description 'Good Lifer' for my blog came to me as a perfect way to describe what I'm aiming for - a good life, and to me that means creativity, geniality, love, passion (and compassion) and of course a big whack of entertainment along the way...

... some days I actually manage to fit these things in, yep really I do!

Here though as a nod to the real Good Life is my beautiful salad bed which may be a little scruffy, but of which I am still very proud, its real food grown by me!

(No it's not a real snake, according to my next door neighbour a rubber snake is a sure fire way of keeping birds from nibbling your veg patch. So far no birds, I'll keep you updated)