Yeast, Mischief and Frocks

This week I have been mostly battling with yeast.

I got given one of these German friendship cakes by my friend Helen a few weeks ago and it was such good fun and without doubt the loveliest cake ever that I wanted to make another.

So I did some research, lots of research, as I'd long harboured a desire to make sour dough bread a la Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall or whatever his name is. He was harping on about it a while back and aside from it looking well tasty it looked like a really lovely process.

I've very nearly thrown the stuff out of the window in the last couple of days, and, as usual it's all my own fault.

I naively thought that given that my yeast was hermetically sealed and un opened, the fact that it was six years out of date shouldn't make a difference. I'm not one to believe in "sell by dates", but on this, I have had to concede defeat. Six years out of date is a bit much. Who'd have thought it, eh!?

SO I think I'm onto a winner now. I've got a bowl of cake starter bubbling away nicely, and a bowl of bread starter also bubbling away nicely.

I very nearly did myself a mischief this week re upholstering a chair. Just for the record, I did not enjoy doing it one bit. I don't know why (perhaps I'm just not in the very best of frames of mind at the minute - I'm having a day off today, normal service should be resumed soon) and after paying a bloody good Chiropractor called Simon (see me for details - he really is marvelous) perched on the edge of the sofa upholstering, I very nearly undid all of his good work, and had to go and have a lie down.

I am sooooooooooo looking forward to my next appointment. Nothing like it in the world. 

Looks alright though.

Aaaaaaannnnnnnndddddddddd I finally got Meg's 50's inspired frock finished. Now don't look at her miserable face on this, just look at the frock! I had accosted her in the middle of the night when she just wanted to crawl into her scratcher and made her put it on. I'm sure uber-photographer Mark Coxon will come up with something much nicer he might let me use - seeing as it's being featured in a photo shoot today (and I can't be arsed with photography any more :) 

Today, if you want me, I will be mostly on my sofa, covered in Labradors and Spaniels, a vintage lilac gingham wool blanket, and my tea pot print cushion. Good luck getting me vertical.