Getting Crafty

Good morning Mr Montgomery! As you can see he is saying "Good morning" as well. He always has things to say. Of course he knows I'm about to flip him onto his back and kiss his furry tummy. He would like everyone to know that his poor little leg is feeling much better, although he can still drum up a bit of sympathy with his pitiful limp.

Last night I had the brilliant idea to start some bread. I've recently started experimenting with making a biga or sponge with flour, water and yeast the night before baking to get a bit more flavour into my bread. The longer it takes to bubble away the better the flavour, apparently. Once I got the dough kneaded and happily rising we zipped off to the supermarket and look what I found!!!!!

The Country Living goddess was smiling on me. Look at that divine cover! Roses and vintage goodies. Perfection. I popped it on my sparkling piano for the photo shoot. I spent some time cleaning my workroom today, dusting, cleaning up Monty's mess (we share the room and he isn't keen on cleaning- see preferred activity in top photo) and digging out some of my many unfinished projects. These fabulous little birdies from Cath Kidston's "Sew" were crying out to be finished.

Here they are now, plump and starting to see the world through their brand new eyes. I have to give them some wings next and then decide whether to make them into the mobile, or hang them on top of each other.

And I know you were dying to know how the bread turned out. They made me smile in the oven because they reminded me of shark snouts. I made my first ever batch of mushroom soup from scratch to go with one loaf for lunch. It was good even though I made up the recipe. I had to use button mushrooms because the big flat brownies were ridiculously expensive today. I am thrilled to have a stick blender now. It makes yummy soup. Especially leek and potato.

Oh, oh, oh, Glee is on shortly. Are you ready to sing along Miss Dog? Oh dear. No. Well, clamp those furry Labrador earflaps down hard because Mummy is getting ready to join the cast with gay abandon.