Random

Ginger on the ground and Sunny on the chair.

Sunny appears to be thinking deep thoughts, but I think she's just planning a bit of fly-chasing!



Cut-work

 I found this table cloth when I was clearing up recently. It is a good many years since I made it.



Sunny

Hasn't she grown! She's three and a half months old now. 

Puncetto

This is the puncetto I am working on at the moment. It is not a pattern intended for puncetto, but one intended for filet lace, but I thought it would work very well in puncetto and I am enjoying it.



This lily was an accident. I had ordered pollen-free lilies, but this is what came up - quite a different lily! Because lily pollen is so dangerous for cats I check each flower daily, gently pulling open those flowers which are about to open, and snipping off the pollen bearing anthers. It makes the flowers last longer too.

Doll's House

I know I have shown you some pictures of my dollshouse before but I managed to take some better ones.

As it is set up as a museum I am able to have modern dolls as well as ones in earlier costumes. This is the meeting of the Friends of the Museum.

And here is one of the museum floors.

The partly open door is a complete fake as it is set against the outer wall of the house, but I hope it gives an impression of more delights just out of sight.

I never quite got round to making all the curtains for the bed, but actually I don't think it matters as the full set would be a bit over-powering.

As you can see, Sunny was very curious to know what I was doing taking photos that weren't of her!



Red-hot-pokers don't have to be red!

Ours are orange!

This lily will be covered in flowers - if it ever stops raining and being cold.

Just a nasturtium, but isn't it pretty!

The photo is a bit dark, but I was tipteoing to get it without waking her and couldn't switch the light on.



More Japanese calligraphy

This is my husband doing a piece for a test to go up a grade in the ranking.



Bread and butter pudding

 When I was a child my mother thought bread and butter pudding was an excuse to use up stale, mouldy bread, rancid margarine and milk that was well on the turn. As a result I never made it for years! But it can be delicious and is very simple to make. Here is my version.

Take a knob of butter and grease the dish well with it. Put the rest of the knob aside for later.

Cut 3 slices of bread (crusts on or off as you prefer) into quarters (or whatever suits your dish - I find an old-fashioned enamel dish, which I am happy to see can be bought again nowadays - is the easiest).

Lay half the bits of bread in a single layer on the bottom of the dish.

Sprinkle a couple of generous handfuls of mixed dried fruit over the bread.

Place the rest of the bread in a second layer on top of the fruit (you don't want fruit poking out the top as it is inclined to burn there.)

Sprinkle a dessertspoonful of sugar over the bread.

Break 3 eggs into a bowl and add a small carton of single cream. Whisk together until well mixed.

Pour the egg mixture over the bread etc.

Grate plenty of nutmeg over the top. 

Find the rest of your original knob of butter and pop it on the top (this little trick stops milk and custard mixtures overflowing during cooking.)

Leave the dish for half an hour - this is important as it lets the custard soak into the bread. Most unsatisfactory puddings don't allow for this soaking time.

Now you can cook it. Put the oven on to 150 degrees C.

Place the pudding dish on a baking tray and half fill the tray with cold water (this is all a bain marie is!)

Bake for about 30 minutes, until the custard is just set in the middle of the dish.

More tatting

More of the tatting I found in de-cluttering.

This is one of the very early pieces of tatting that I made and when I look at it now I see all the flaws in it!



Tatted buttons

I sometimes tat my own buttons. I use ordinary curtain rings as the base and work split chain stitch over the ring, adding rings at intervals.



Keeping my puncetto safe

Here is the little wooden box that I keep my puncetto in.

Here is my pincushion. This one, like most that I make, has a jar lid in the bottom to stop pins and needles going right through.

And here is the reason why I have to be able to flip the lid down over my work at a moment's notice!



More flowers

Yellow flowers this time.



Bear and friends

I made this little bear a good many years ago. His over-sized eyes give him character, I think.

A knitted doll and a sort of cross between a bear and a doll. Again, I made these a long time ago and no longer remember where I got the patterns.

Poor Tigger is having to learn to keep his tail out of Sunny's way - she finds it irresistible!



More puncetto

I'm doing a happy little dance because I managed to finish this little bit of puncetto yesterday. I love the fact that it is done with just a needle and thread - I'm a sucker for anything that lets me create a fabric from thread with almost no equipment. It alwasy feels like magic!

I can see we are going to have trouble telling Ginger and Sunny apart soon. Both even have pale tips to their tails. Sunny has been very good for Ginger - he looks at least two years younger since she came! His life is much more interesting these days.



Even Grandpa Tigger is getting more interested in Sunny - though he does wish she would leave his tail alone.

Puncetto Progress

I am so proud of this little sample piece of puncetto as I know I have the right number of stitches in the right places this time!



Tatting

I was looking for something else when I found this tatted bookmark. I had long forgotten about it and no longer remember where the pattern came from.