Birdhouse cane toppers

Some little cane toppers I have been making over the last few days - with the chocolate clay I picked up in February. It has meant I have had to invest in some earthenware glazes, which should arrive today I hope!

Quilting!

Last year at the quilt show I bought lots of fat quarters to make a quilt and at long last today we cut all the squares and then laid them out. I just had enough cotton to sew the rows but will have to wait til next weekend to finish putting it all together!

Over Easter we went to visit Wampe in her new place in Baarn, we squeezed in trips to Utrecht (where we had a fabulous dinner at Straks), Den Haag (popping into the centre to see many of the old spots and helping Saskia to celebrate her birthday, with spekkoek) and Amsterdam (for a spot of cuture in the Rijksmuseum)!! N even managed to win an easter egg for saying paashaas (Easter rabbit/hare), which was the Dutch I taught him for the season!

Gingersnaps

After a super weekend in Holland with Wampe I have another couple of days off, so I have started by making some yummy gingersnaps - lots of treacle and spices!

110g unsalted butter
60g caster sugar
60g dark brown sugar
1 egg
75g treacle (about 1 1/2 tablespoons)
160g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon

cream together the butter and sugars, add the egg and then the treacle. To this soft mixture add the remaining dry ingredients. Pop the dough into some cling film and firm up in the freezer for 20min. Then spoon out walnut sized balls onto lined baking sheets and bake for approximately 15min at 180C, cool on a rack and then enjoy with a cup of tea!

Happy Easter!

Pitcher plant pot

A little tealight holder inspired by my favourtie plants (like the Celphalotus behind) - flameburst nanoglaze plus 4% copper carbonate glazes on flaxclay.

Periodic table installation

Our task today was to pop into the lab to make an installation on the whiteboard with the atomic pebbles. Little did I know that not all whiteboards are magnetic! So our mission was not successful but thinking on our feet we decided to potter off to Ikea to see if they might have a magnetic board ( and a bread board as ours has warped), however they had neither and we further poottled down to Office World where we got an enormous magnetic white board in the sale! So hot footing it back to the garden we started out with Mendeleev's periodic table - N even got out the spirit level! Then I had a go at the Periodic Arch of the Elements just managing to get some photos before the sun left the garden. Then of course we barbecued!