Deers....

Thank you again for kind comments - it is so very kind of you.  I will be blog visiting tomorrow all being well (where does the time go....).  Thank you for asking where all this stuff is kept in between times - it is mainly, but not completely, contained here.  I ventured into this cupboard today - I have filled two bin liners ready to take to the CS today.  I am getting a grip!

However I am rather partial to a nice deer.

So these are some more old photographs of mine from Flickr and one or two more recent ones

The photograph above reminds me to do a post about seasonal aprons one day

These bowls are not uncommon I think - from the CS a few years ago, also in blue!

I have a 'farm' of plastic deers - well why not.  These are also CS finds over the years.  Dear Mary from The Vintage Cottage sent me the WONDERFUL deer wrapping paper that you can just see in the back of this photograph - it is quite lovely.

This fabric dates from the late 1930s I think - this little scrap I used to adorn the front a Christmas stocking that I made a few years ago -  I decorated the top with some lovely old lace and some old buttons

I will tell the tale of these very, very delicarto glass deer.  Two summers ago (I like to hold back until the time is right to share something!)  I went, as I always do, to the May Day Fayre : lots and lots of stalls with plants, cakes and old stuff.  On one stall was an old shoe box full of kernickerty  kerknackerties - glass boats, chinese figures and I could just see a deer head poking out.  The deer was 50p but I could have the box for £3:

 'I don't really want the box thank you all the same'....
'Oh go on we need to get rid of stuff'...
'So do I!'

I handed over my £3...cough, cough..... and carried the box under my arm (bike basket was full of plants.....and cake) whilst steering my bike. The bike and I rattled all the way home.  When I reached base camp I found not one deer but two!  How these have survived undamaged for years (and the bike journey) I do not know.

I had never seen anything like these before so I Googled 'glass deers' and found this information about them .  They are little mercury glass survivors from the 1920/30s so deserve their place in chez Cootard I think.

Ever since that summer they have lived on the mantle piece - enjoying the space around them and taking in the fresh air devoid of shoe box atmos!

I will be putting holly in them for  this month

Deerio!

 More deer puns welcome.

A funny old summer and The Great British Bake Off....

So this is what I have learnt: some of you have seen Star Wars, some of you have eaten macaroons, some of you have done both and some of you have done neither.

What a fascinating group of people we are!

A strange old summer: for medical reasons we are not/have not gone away on holiday but have put our trip to Rome/Pompeii on hold until half term all being well (I had a Rome/Pompeii bag all lined up).

We are not boo hoo'ing about it - millions of people on this planet never have a holiday.  We have aimed to have a few nice days out instead. If you have read this blog for any length of time you might have guessed that I don't do 'boo hoo'ing' - I have nothing to boo hoo about!

This post is a medley, a meringue, a pottage, a gathering, a collection of bits so far this summer.

By the way this is not an embroidery representation of my good self...or is it....
I bought this 50s hat with a several others from a car boot  a few years ago - for the children really as I have the biggest head in all of the kingdom. I particularly like this embroidery as faces are particularly tricky to master and this one is nicely done I think.  This embroidery represents summer!

This is THE macaroon box - for posterity you understand

In early August it was Maille's 14th birthday - suitable to post these after the Great British Bake Off I think.  Dom baked the cake and it was very moist and chocolatey

I supplied the tablecloth and table setting!   As per previous post it was necessary to move the china forward a few decades and make it more 'modurhn' for a 14 year old - just about got this right.......gulp.....

Cake close up

Tea close up

Cake top close up

I could not cater for Dom's needs so he had to have a flowery cup

"Is she still taking photographs?"

"Don't look and she might go away...."

Back to the china

and the end of the cake.....

I have had these cups for years and they used to live in Bronte's bedroom - all different colours, I have the matching plates somewhere too.

Much earlier in the summer  I made the usual elderflower cordial - a particularly nice batch this saison if I say so myself.

Not so many insects around in it this year either!

The most simple of recipes

Just cover and leave overnight and in the morning - ta dah

Get side tracked by other nice mixing bowls if you must (I once sold one of these on Ebay and it broke in the post - never again)

Best to have a range....!

TG Green's made a lot of nice kichen bits didn't they

A nice range of bowls....

Anyway -  whilst we have been bowl gazing the cordial is all done so strain through some muslin

I leave a few flowers in because they look pretty

 and then decant into your original Corona bottles.


You do have some of those don't you?

Crikey I am not sure what we will do if you don't!

Really I am just pretending - I really wanted to show you some nice coastery mats

Then migrate to your neighbour's garden where they have kindly given you free range over their red currants.

A bumper crop this year and no insects there either!

I am ashamed of my Summer Pudding (one of my all time favourite puddings) as here it does not look too pleasant - rest assured it tasted lovely.

Little photographs

Yet another cake...this was my Victoria Sponge for a Sunday afternoon

It takes years to get it looking  lopsided like this

And the slightly 'brown' bits take even longer to perfect the art.

It tasted nice anyway.  We enjoyed the first episode of the GBBO - Bronte could not watch poor Ruby and her cake show down

We have had some nice days out but each time I forgot to take my camera - good thing really


Here is my backup:

Nice fabricos whilst we are at it don't you think? It even has an image of the only car that I hanker after - an Austin Healey Frogeye Sprite (the green car featured)....one day

I have never seen this anywhere else - have you?

Bronte went to Brighton today with a friend of hers so I was thinking of making a 'Brighton Bag'....but could bear to  slice into  this!

.....we will make do with me back on the beach for now: