The staple gun's day out...

It was my birthday last week, where I set aside all shoulds and oughts, and do just what I want to do (for most of the day, anyway!).

This year I was struck with a sudden urge to peruse a charity shop for a flat picture frame, rip out the staples, glass and back board, and turn it into a screen printing frame:

I've been meaning to do this, like, forever! (as Girl would say...)

I also found one of these in the shop, which was a bonus.

My very own twisted-cord-making-device!

Then of course to test drive my new screen, I needed to make a proper printing surface. Staple gun, wadding, calico - check.

Large piece of chipboard? Not to hand, no. So off I went again, to the DIY shop to buy some board, then on a whim I popped into another place on the industrial estate and persuaded them to cut it to size for me, for the small fee of £2.40. Genius! Quicker than asking Mr G to do it, by several weeks at least...

And so a "few" staples later....

Ta da!

I even glued an extra cutting mat onto the back. How snazzy is that?! Happy Birthday me!*

Unfortunately life has now got in the way again, and it's back to the shoulds and oughts with no time to test it out - but at least I can now screen-print things when I have the time to play again! Meanwhile, it is a handy portable ironing board just for textile stuff, and I've even broken out the "extra" table space on my desk to use it:

* This wasn't all I did on my birthday, a large quantity of strawberry meringue and Prosecco was also consumed but I couldn't take a photo of that as it didn't sit still long enough.

Ingredients for a happy birthday

First, you need to wrestle with the knotty problem

of whether to throw a party or not

If the answer is YES! Then you need to work out ALL the details,

such as how to make things look festive

suitable party activities*,

how to smuggle in the party food and accessories...

make some bunting,

string up some fairy lights

post the invitation

and settle back to enjoy the party,

maybe even have a bit of a dance.

On the morning of the Actual Birthday (which by lucky chance is an INSET day)

there's the unwrapping of some fabulous presents

and the emergency dash to the supermarket with pyjamas under jeans to buy blueberries so that the Birthday Girl can bake the cake recipe she's spent three days researching and refining (but forgot to check she had blueberries in the freezer to make it)

And finally, you can admit that yes - polenta and almond and lemon and blueberry and mascarpone is a VERY good combination and no, Mummy hasn't lost her marbles putting polenta in a cake, and yes, please may I have seconds. 

Lemon & Blueberry Polenta Cake

250g soft butter

250g caster sugar

3 eggs

100g polenta**

200g ground almonds

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp almond extract

2 lemons - zest of both, juice of one

200g blueberries

• Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one by one with the almond extract
• Sprinkle over the baking powder, then fold in the polenta, almonds, zest and juice
• Spread into a buttered 23cm springform tin, with baking parchment on the bottom.
• Sprinkle the blueberries on top, and poke them in
• Bake 150C (fan oven) or 160C normal oven for 1 hour, test with skewer
• Leave to cool in tin for a few minutes, then turn out carefully onto a rack - line it with kitchen towel to soak up some of the buttery juices.

This is a very moist, very buttery delicious confection - wonderful served warm with a dollop of mascarpone.  I haven't a clue what it is like when cold, because we just got stuck right in...I'll let you know!

* Luckily the Best Dress competition was cancelled - I wouldn't have stood a chance because I ended up attending the party wearing my dog-walking trousers.

**I used coarse polenta, because that's what I had.  Fine or medium may be less gritty, but there's been no complaints so far...

Cake and culture

I've been meaning to post for what seems like ages, but I've been busy eating too much of this:

There isn't any left now: we ate large chunks from a tupperware box, washed down with tea from a cardboard cup, whilst perched on our wooden seats at the Globe on Saturday.  My favourite production there so far, and it was a delight to hear the Girl chuckling and giggling all the way through.

And if that little slice of Shakespeare wasn't enough, someone wrote a sonnet for me.

I only get one every twenty years, so I'm feeling a bit choked up!



Misc stuff for a misc week

Embroidery, done as a teaching sample but I liked it so I did some more and stuck it on a card.

Birthday cake for someone's breakfast - the candles are in dog years...

And a quick round of pop-up pirate whilst cooking dinner:

Sort of sums it up, really.

It's a dog's life

'Tis the Boy's first birthday today. We have made a cake (mince and carrot and egg and oatmeal, with yoghurt icing and bacon sprinkles....). He got his nails done as a treat, but he wasn't allowed to unwrap the neighbour's cat...

Happy Birthday to me!

A rainy day for my 40th birthday. How apt some might say, but I'm feeling philosophical and grown-up. What's happened?

My cake is the ultimate in naughtiness, but it is very good...if a little damp around the bottom. I thought I could do cakes? Maybe that's the first thing to go with old age. Blueberries, anyone?

Don't try this at home, folks

I have been working. As in out to work, pacing the exam hall and looking fierce yet supportive. It's nice to have a sit down now.

I made myself Significant Birthday Cake no. 1 today. I used a recipe from the internet, tweaked to make it fit in my tins. It involved custard powder for some reason, which intrigued me. My butter was too firm, so I put it in the oven to "soften". Ten minutes later, I had ghee. I couldn't be bothered to wait for it to resolidify, so bunged it all in the food mixer after about half an hour. The cakes rose magnificently, then collapsed into sad heaps with droopy edges as they cooled. I cut into one just to "see" and wished I hadn't. The bin men come tomorrow.

Birthday Cake no. 2 has just emerged from the oven, replete with blueberries and lemonyness, and is looking like an altogether more hopeful start to my fifth decade...