Wow - that's a week gone by in the blink of an eye

I have posted nothing this week but can't believe that this week has already gone by.  In fact the shocking thing is that I need to do a photo for this week's image - and it is nine o'clock in the evening already.

So what have I been up to all week - gardening, gardening and gardening, then some more gardening.

We had a lovely dinner party on Friday - with more hand made pasta - I feel a bit of an obsession coming on.

We were up at the crack of dawn to head off for a car boot sale today, then had a lovely day in the sun messing about with the new timber for the terrace, then a surprise visit and drinks and nibbles in the garden with friends this afternoon - and in between I have been chasing down my pantry mouse - who has developed a real taste for noodles.

First Christmas dinner of the season

Complete with crackers, plastic toys, glasses of wine and snow.

I love Christmas.

Last night's menu was very French:

Charcuterie platter
Guinea fowl in creamy pepper sauce
Celeriac mash
Chocolate Creme Brulee.

Creme Brulee is not that hard to make, the biggest disaster is if you cook the egg yolks too quickly, they will curdle if the cream is too hot.

500ml double cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
75g caster sugar
25g vanilla sugar (I just have a glass jar of caster sugar with a vanilla pod in it)
6 egg yolks
4 chunks of rich patissier chocolate

Preheat the oven to 150°c

Break the chunks up and place on a plate in the oven while it preheats to soften.

Bring the cream and vanilla to the boil in a saucepan then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Beat the sugar and egg yolks together in a large heat proof bowl until light and fluffy.

Heat the cream back up to just short of boiling, then pour over the sugar and egg mixture, whisking continuously until it starts to thicken.  For a super smooth creme brulee, you can seive the mixture now.

Pour the mixture into 4 ramekins and place in a bain marie (an oven tray with hot water upto about half way on the ramekins), drop a chunk of chocolate into each ramekin, stir with a skewer to swirl the chocolate through the mixture.

Bake in the centre of the oven for about 40 to 45 minutes until the custard is set but slightly wobbly.  Leave to cool or refridgerate until about to serve.

To finish, sprinkle with caster sugar - and this is where my recipe fell apart last night.  I don't have a chef's blowtorch (Brendan offered me his plumbing one but I declined).  I tried to do the grill version of caramelising the sugar, but it just left the set custard runny.  So looks like a blowtorch is on my wish list now.

A friendly game of petanque

The cook-a-thon yesterday was in aid of today's picnic which typically ended in a game of petanque.
Here is Brendan concentrating on his shot (note the tongue stuck out to aid in his concentration).

A spirited discussion on whose boule is nearest the cochonnet.

Sunday's brief project - fly curtain for the studio.

We went to the sales yesterday.

Considering how rotten I was feeling and how much my psyche was begging for some retail therapy to ease it, I managed to stay strong and resist all the bargain clothes reductions - I didn't even buy a pair of pretend suede ankle boots  in soft beige with big buckles and stocky cowboy stack heels that I found in the sales reduced to 12€.  That's how strong I am!

Phew - wipe the sweat of resistance from my brow, and then shamefully admit:

"My name is Monika and I am a bargain basement material-aholic"

Having taken Thea around all the trendy young thing shops - (so no temptations there at all for me), we also trawled a couple of the larger supermarket for their sale bargains.

I must clarify (and digress) - I love the French way of handling sales.

There are only 2 sales periods in a year, one in February and one in July.  All the rest of the year you get the odd promotion, but not a real sale with knockdown prices and bargain bins of tat.  Nor do you get that very UK things of non-seasonal items reduced all year round, so for instance, you can't buy your next years Christmas decorations in the New Year sales, because there aren't any, and by February when the sales are on, no Christmas things are to be seen.  You have to buy Christmas decorations and cards etc before December 24th, and you may find things on 3 for 2 promotions or buy one get one half price then and only then.

This comes as a very real culture shock having spent the last few years in the UK getting used to being able to buy anything at any time and usually reduced.

You can't buy a swimming costume in France in the winter unless you go to a specialist sports provision shop.  Fashion swimsuits and bikinis arrive in the shops in May, and are all gone by August, if you miss them, you have to wait till next year.  Even the home order catalogues are seasonal.

I was struck by this after flicking through the summer La Redoute catalogue the other day.  I saw a couple of things that looked quite nice and so when I got home I went online to see if I could get a bigger picture of it to try to copy it (see no buying new clothes - just plagarism instead).  But I made the mistake of looking on the English version of the site and found all sorts of things including thick tights, winter boots, and mittens.  On the French site - only beach cover-ups and swimwear - nothing 'wintery' at all.  Very strange how different the stock levels of the UK/non UK catalogues are.  In fact the two catalogues bear no resemblance to each other.

Anyhoooo - back on topic.

We went around the supermarket sales, and in one of the dark and dusty corners I found a cardboard bin of opened and ex-display bed linens.

Now I actually think I was quite restrained.

Material is very expensive to buy, as are bed linens, but I managed to hold back from throwing the contents of the bin into Brendan's arms and running off cackling manically for the tills.  I actually sorted through the sheets and duvet covers and just bought those that fitted and the colours I needed for lining materials - and at 2 € a double bed fitted sheet they were real bargains.

I also bought a lovely voile tab top curtain for 2€, which I naively offered to Thea for a wall hanging, then when I got it home I squirreled it away into my studio instead to use as a door curtain to keep the flies out.

All that was required was a quick hem to shorten it, then a couple of hooks and a bamboo cane stolen from the garden to suspend it.

Job done.

And just because Thea insists that I am biased towards Ferguson (well he is the most beautiful kitten in the world)  here is a quick photo of Pond in the clover.

Shoe fetish - moi?

I had no motivation today, not a drop, not a trickle, not a teeny tiny 'ickle bit.

I don't really know why, but I think we all have days like that, days when we wish we had stayed in bed with the covers drawn up.  I did manage to drag myself out of bed, had my coffee, tried to read a new book (which was so bad I had to abandon it at the first chapter - you know it is a bad sign when you find three spelling mistakes in the first two pages) then went and watered the greenhouse.

I decided that the best thing to do other than dragging myself listlessly around the house and garden, was to shut myself in my studio.

So with my MP3 player set to play my new Johnny Cash downloads I shut the door, turned the lights and the sewing machine on and got on with the bags I cut yesterday.

And instantly felt lots better.........

....  so with my newly motivated self, I pinned together the black bag lining and the outers ready to be sewn up, and cut another tweed bag and the lining.  One skirt recycled, one dress recycled.

Rather than make material straps for this bag, I took some old brown suede trousers, and cut a single shoulder strap from them, and also some strips to make a suede hem for the bag opening, as well as a button flap.

After work, I finished assembling the bag, got it sewn together, and found a lovely vintage button to use as the fastening.  No photos today as I forgot to charge the battery in my camera - will get some uploaded tomorrow. (edited on Friday to include photos)

Hurrah for the studio - saved by a recycled bread oven!


When we were out shopping yesterday, Brendan got some new shoes.

New shoes are my absolutist most favouritist new thing to have.  I love how they smell, how they look in the box, I  love trying them on, posing in the mirror with them and most of all I love wearing them.  I was very sad to get home without a new pair of shoes for me, but then new shoes are really far down my list of things I need to buy.

Once upon a time in a land far far away, when I wore a boring grey suit to work and added up columns of figures for fun, I used to buy a lot of shoes, I mean a LOT of shoes.  A LOT OF SHOES.

In fact when we moved, and downshifted and switched lives with some French peasants from a century ago a lot of people asked me what I was going to do with all my shoes, I replied quite naturally that I was going to bring them to rural France with me - obviously.  What else would you wear when planting spuds in the rain in a muddy field, but some cerise kitten heels from nine west?  As for letting the chickens out, well I have a pair of 5 inch stiletto heels in a very fetching patent black with some contrast piping in turquoise!

I don't really need 200 pairs of shoes, these days I only ever wear my muck boots, and a pair of faux UGG boots as slippers.  I can't sell them though, one day I may need to wear a pair of cream sandals with crocheted flowers and a metallic sculpted heel - probably to plough the field with.

Boudoir cushions

I have no money to buy magazines but every now and again a magazine falls into my hands.

My ultimate favourites are home and garden style magazines. I know I can't afford the things in them, but sometimes they can be inspirational. I only wish I had the flair to copy what I see.

Anyway - some time ago a couple of these magazines fell into my hands ( I call them my porn mags - because I dribble and drool over them ).

Inside I found some cute boudoir cushion ideas in all sorts of fabrics, styles and sizes, so thought I would have a go at making some myself.

This one, available for sale in my Etsy shop here, is a small round cushion made from some recycled creamy linen from a shirt and some goldy beige satin trousers, that has been stuffed with some polyester kapok and finished with a simple tweed flower design and some vintage buttons.

I started this little cushion this morning, then finished it when I got back from the doctors (not a bad wait this time, just over an hour - wish appointment systems existed at our local quacks).

It was very easy to do, taking an old linen shirt, some old satin trousers (don't ask -  the fashion police have already been on my case about them) and a dinner plate.  Mark out two circles of material, then cut leaving about a centimetre of material for hemming, nip little triangles out of the hem to allow it fold in on itself more easily making sure not to cross over the line that marks the actual cushion. 

I then decorated the linen side of the cushion with some wool, some tweed leftovers and some vintage buttons, then baste right side to right side together with pins and machine sew on a small straight stitch all the way around save for a small gap of about 3 cms for stuffing, following the original line you marked around the dinner plate. 

Turn the cushion back through the hole and stuff with polyester kapok, real kapok or material scraps - what ever you have around, then sew the hole up in a matching thread making the stitches as small as you can.