Things that make me happy: 2

I love making bread!  When our last bread making machine broke (we've worn out a couple over years!), I started making the dough in my Kenwood Chef.  I just pile in the the ingredients: 

 150g strong white flour

 500g brown flour

2 tsp salt

2 tsp brown sugar

 1 sachet of dried yeast

 1 tbsp sunflower oil

 14 fl.oz of warm water

 and then turn it on!  There's something quite reassuring about the clunking and rocking of my trusty, old machine as it sets to work turning the ingredients into a dough.  I let the machine have its turn at kneading and then I always like to give it a go myself so I tip the warm dough onto a lightly oiled work surface for a few minutes kneading by hand...nothing beats it for removing the stresses of the day!  Using an oiled surface was a tip that I picked up recently from a repeat of Great British Bake Off...it works a treat, so much better than using flour!

Put the dough back in the bowl and leave to rise.

Then, when the bowl is filled with pillowy dough, comes the joy of knocking it back and kneading again before shaping into a loaf or rolls.

Leave to rise again.  Then bake - Gas 7, 30 minutes for a loaf and 20 minutes for rolls - and enjoy the lovely smell that fills the house!

Last night's loaf!

The happiness continues...

with a big bite from a door step of sandwich made with last night's loaf....delicious!

Rebecca

x

Things that make me happy: 1

Happy Monday...the beginning of shiny, new week so full of possibilities!

Primulas just fill my heart with joy!

55 pence for a pot of sheer delight!

What's making you feel happy today?

Rebecca

x

Purple

 Without really thinking about it, I seem to be enjoying a lot of purple at the moment:

new towels

a work in progress for the studio

purple sprouting broccoli

and, very sad I know, but I'm even enjoying using my new, purple floor swiffer...it makes such light work of picking up all the bits and pieces on the studio floor!

Rebecca
x

Buttons & Flowers

One of my "things to do this year" is to try harder with this blog that I started nearly 4 years ago!  I have just about managed to keep up with Facebook and Twitter, but this has been sadly neglected.  I really don't know how others manage to juggle it all!  I am hopeful that my new camera will make it easier (and quicker) for me to keep things up to date so watch this space!  I have a smart camera that allows me to upload photos straight to social media sites...I just have to be smart enough to know how to use it properly!

Anyway, here I am!  A very belated Happy New Year to you all!  I  am so excited about all that I have planned for the year ahead...some things are business related and others are to do with home.  I hope to share it all with you here!

My first day workshop of 2013 will be taking place this Saturday...it is called Crochet Buttons & Flowers and I so looking forward to it.  The gorgeous colours I have been working with have really brightened up the cold, dark days we've having of late!   So, as you will see, I am still mad about buttons and flowers...

Rebecca
x

Macmillan Morning at The Mac

I shall be taking part in Macmillan's World's Biggest Coffee Morning at The Mac Gallery, 12a South Parade, Doncaster, DN1 2DY on Friday 28th September 2012, 10am to 2pm. 

The ladies from Vintage Teas of Doncaster will be serving tea, coffee and cakes and there will be a variety of local, small businesses there selling their wares...a chance to make a start on your shopping for that event beginning with C in 90 days' time perhaps?


We lost my lovely brother-in-law to cancer at the beginning of 2011.  My dad was diagnosed with a GIST tumour, a rare type of cancer, in 2010.  He's doing okay and takes tablets every day in the hope that the tumour will one day be small enough and accessible enough to be removed.

If you're local, it would lovely to see you at The Mac Gallery on Friday. If you're not from around these parts, then please do try to find a Macmillan Coffee Morning taking place near you.  I know so many people whose lives have been affected by cancer and I am sure you do too so let's help Macmillan help more people having to deal with cancer by doing what we can on Friday.

Rebecca

x

Flaming Ballerinas and Flying the Nest

We moved our gorgeous girl down to London at the weekend ready to start university.  I knew it would be emotional, but I have to say that I was not at all prepared for quite how upset I would be.  There was a moment on Sunday when I thought I might never surface from my pile of soggy tissues.  It sounds rather dramatic, but I felt grief stricken and rather lost, even though I am not completely "empty nested" yet.  It is a very strange feeling indeed and I don't like it but, as my husband (who is always very level headed about these sorts of things) keeps saying, we're just moving on to the next phase of our lives.  I'm not sure whether that's a comfort or not when you think that it also means we're getting older!

Dorothy's room at the Hampstead residence is much bigger than we had expected and it was instantly transformed by the addition of the blanket that she has been crocheting over the summer.


             














It was her 19th birthday on Monday so we had "fake" birthday celebrations last week with cards, presents, a family dinner, silly games and home made chocolate birthday cake.

Hubby went off into the kitchen to make some coffee and do the honours with the birthday cake.  As he came around the corner into the dining room, cake in hand with candles lit, and we began singing "Happy Birthday to you...", he said "those ballerinas are candles, aren't they?"

Well...we could hardly draw breath for laughing...the ballerinas were plastic cake decorations that Dorothy had spotted in my candle box as I was making the cake earlier that day.  She recalled how she had had them on a cake that our very kind neighbour had brought round to us the year that I was laid out in bed with an injured back following the collapse of our ceiling.  That was in 2002, her 9th birthday!

Ten years on, the two ballerinas with their gold and silver headdresses and tutus were a perfect match for the gold and silver candles that I had already put on the cake.  Unfortunately, they are now a little worse for wear...one suffered a burnt scalp, the other lost her head and most of her left arm in the incident!  I shall keep them in my candle box though and they will bring a smile to my face with each birthday cake that I make!

Dorothy seems to be making lots of new friends, finding her way around and partying well during freshers' week so all is good so far!  I miss her so much, but I don't have a tissue in my hand as I write this so I am seeing that as progress!  I know she will be feeling a little up and down for a while too and there will be things that trigger a tear or two for both of us, but we will be fine!

...and we have plenty!

I am so excited for Dorothy as she begins university life at King's and starts to enjoy all the delights of living in London.  When Dorothy started school here in Yorkshire one of the other children told her "you talk funny you do". Dorothy replied "Well, I was born in London you know!" so it's as if things have come full circle really.

Meanwhile, back up north, I am throwing myself into my work and keeping myself busy (to avoid falling into the tissue box!) by spending most days at my lovely new studio, which is a great place to be. I love the light here, I love having so much space to spread my things out as I work and I love having an internet connection which means that I can try to keep up to date with things like blogging!  I am very much looking forward to welcoming people to workshops at my new place and you can see what's coming up here.  

Bye for now,

Rebecca

x

Moving

If you 'like' my rebeccamaryjane's Facebook page, you will know that I have a lovely, bright, new studio that I am in the process of moving into! A blank canvas, a fresh start, new things...

  

 As usual with moving, you never realise exactly how much stuff you have until you have to carry it all up and down lots of stairs and load it into and out the car!  There's been a lot of that over the last few weeks!  

My new studio at The Mac Gallery, 12a South Parade, Doncaster is much bigger, much lighter and far more suited to the direction in which I want to take my business than the room I had before.  I couldn't let the opportunity to rent this space pass by!

More stuff...and there's plenty more still to come so down the stairs we go

...and down again

I really couldn't have managed it without the help of my lovely family: here's helpful hubby, wishing I would stop taking photos and carry something!

Now that everything is there, I have started moving furniture around, unpacking and started to settle in

I might re-arrange the furniture again, but I do like my small work desk by the the window

The union flag bunting over the lovely old fireplace was carefully arranged by hubby in the early stages of the move.  He's not usually very creative so, as a sign of appreciation of his efforts, I shall keep it there for the time being!

I am so impressed with the amount of space!  I love it and I think that I will be very happy there!

 Just a few more things to sort out!

I'm so glad I chose to move, so glad the moving part is over and ready to move forward with all my plans for the future.

Rebecca

x