pandora pocket

Weekend not sewing

 

Five delicious courses of rabbit, fish soup, kolrobie, mackerel and strawberry parfait at River Cottage.

 

Lemurs at Monkey World.

 

A stormy night giving way to a beautifully calm, sunny morning for DD to compete in the Weymouth half iron man.

We stayed here and it was lovely - I like a b&b you can only access via a clifftop dirt track with grass growing up the middle.

Good luck today Donny.

Energy: High

 

This morning was all about knitting, waxing and snack preparation: Delia's energy bars, Nigella's rainy day biscuits, Josie's granola and Donna Hay's spinach and feta parcels (I was hungry after all that knitting and waxing).

  

This afternoon was all about storage solutions (and a sugar rush). Drawers and changing table painted, shelves in Merlin's room painted, a necessary treat from Muji online and the shelves in the living room stacked - with favourite old books and a couple of brand new birthday books. I might post about those another day as the sugar has worn off and I need a lie down.

 

hackney honey

I love bees but I hate wasps. (I am allergic to both).

it's national honey week. luckily I have a brand new jar of delicious hackney rooftop honey for toast and hot toddies. philip schilds who is 14 years old has 8 hives on top of his dad's house in hackney and from these he creates 500lbs of honey a year. there is something fantastic about inner city produce; our local garden centre recently created chateau tooting and of course my own potato crop will be ready for harvest in a matter of weeks.

for josie: windham fabric (lb krueger, farmhouse blues)

for jenny: dress pattern

weekend

thank you for a weekend of warm sunshine, good food, belly laughs, homemade cards, champagne and flowers. I am now half as old as my dad.

asymmetry

I'm still all about the positives and negatives (I ate 7 of these nigella rainy day biscuits yesterday - is that positive or negative?):

and the pattern:

and maybe less about the symmetry than I would have liked. according to the chiropractor my spine is all kind of twisty. and in spending all of yesterday trying to teach astrid how to make my favourite dress, I have become painfully aware of what a bodger I am when it comes to sewing ('the pattern says to do this, but I usually do this'... 'don't worry that there is much more of a seam on that side than the other, it will all get chopped off when we overlock it and no-one will ever know'...). I blame myself entirely for the very mismatched sleeves on lilly's new dress, although both astrid and I agreed it was the most beautiful dress ever (we are still waiting for lilly's verdict):

ignore that towering pile of fabric in the background. I will be imagining it to be much smaller and in need of a boost when I am shopping in new york tomorrow...

roses

roses are red, violets are blue, I like cooking biscuits.. and eating them too.

I thought I had a heart shaped cookie cutter. I was wrong, so I made the date:

recipe from nigella: cream 90g butter and 100g caster sugar. beat in one large egg and half teaspoon real vanilla essence. mix in 20g plain flour, half teaspoon baking powder and half teaspoon salt. wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for an hour. shake flour everywhere and roll out to half cm thick. dip the cutter in flour before cutting so it doesn't stick. bake for 8-12 minutes at 180 c.

they will probably all be eaten by the time my valentine gets home from swimming club.

heart shaped cupcake decorations from the small object

heart pencils from shimandsons

I heart pancakes

tossing..

..eating.

I spent yesterday at the new T5 which opens in 49 days. Lots of light, ginormous robot legs holding the whole thing up and big white dots on the ceiling. Sadly for those arriving in the UK for the first time, their potential view of windsor castle as they are spat through sliding doors into the waiting arms of taxi drivers will be obscured by a big concrete car park. 

My favourite part was the part I will never get to use: the executive lounge. Its all about luxury, infinity baths and art. Suspended above the escalators which sweep you up to the lounge entrance is a commissioned piece by Troika called 'Cloud'. Flip dots create pulsating patterns of black and silver, the sound of which reminds you of train stations or airport terminals before TV monitors. See a video clip of the Cloud in motion here.  And also by Troika, 'All the time in the world' - a 22m long electroluminescent wall which serenely displays simple text to magnificent effect.

All about the travel.

hospital appointment

A brief sojourn to weymouth to support (my loon husband) david in his first middle distance - 2km swim in the ice cold english channel, followed by 80km bike ride and then half a marathon. He's pretty amazing. Luckily the weather was perfect for half iron mans AND pebble hunting on chesil beach AND an evening meal of sweetbreads (lamb glands) at river cottage.

then after such a welcome break, back to sewing until my fingers bleed.

come to my exhibition if you are on your way through chelsea and westminster hospital over the next two weeks. unless your needs are urgent, pause as you pass through the entrance hall just by costa cofee. if you are hopsital shy or manage to remain unbroken for said time, you can always just visit my website (thanks stuart).

pandora pocket, 10 - 23 june, chelsea and westminster hospital, 369 fulham road

today's letter is the letter b

branches

bermudian banana bread

josie gave me this recipe when we lived in betnal bean: 4oz butter, 8oz caster sugar, 2 eggs beaten, 8oz mashed bananas (the older the more mashy), 12oz sifted SR flour, 1tsp baking powder, 1tsp salt, 1tsp vanilla essence, 2oz chopped nuts (optional).

1.pre-heat oven to 325F/160C/gas3 2.cream butter and sugar 3.add eggs then bananas then vanilla 4.add flour/salt/baking powder 4.stir in nuts 5.spoon into butter smeared loaf tin and bake for about 45 minutes.

buttons (beautiful birthday gift from the quinfords)

borka by john burningham, one of my favourite childrens illustrators.

booking theatre tickets to see small miracle

bigsmallhead

birthday gift: simple sewing by lotta jansdotter from jose lungs.

inspired by accounts of small heads and big heads, I really wanted to make the hat just to see what kind of head I have. I am none the wiser.

But it's reversible, jackie.

and the best thing about today?

raw cake mix for breakfast.