Friday, 20 September 2013

In which I bake some bread...

We needed some bread, but it was so rainy and I'd already got wet once, so I decided to bake my own. I've done soda bread several times, but haven't baked regular bread people can have for toast in the morning for ages as last time it came out flat!
I used a recipe from the BBC website and it was a good excuse to put the heating on - well you have to let the yeast get to work in a nice warm environment don't you! I'm actually typing this while it's doing its thing in front of the radiator, so will now save the post as a draft and finish it off when the bread is cooked, hopefully with photographic evidence of a tasty loaf!
Lump of dough!
Look, it's rising!

 Sooo, as you can see, it was worth putting the heating on! The recipe said to just put it on a baking tray, but it looked like it would be a round and very flat loaf, so I scooped it up on its greaseproof paper and put it in a loaf tin. Now, if you have made bread in this way before, you might be saying to yourself "oh dear, she's put it on greaseproof paper" and you would be correct in thinking it was a mistake! If only I'd Googled "is greaseproof paper the same as baking parchment?", not that I have any baking parchment. Turns out the bread sticks to greaseproof paper, so once baked you have to slice off the bottom and sides of your loaf!!
Still, apart from that it tasted really nice!

Tasty bread!
Home baked bread
 Apart from the whole leaving it in a bowl to double in size, then putting it on a tray to double again, it was fairly simple to make, so I might be doing it again sometime - once I've bought some baking parchment!

Tuesday, 17 September 2013

New Etsy shop

My weekly blogging plan didn't last too long, did it?!
I did keep meaning to, but I have been fairly busy making things. I am going to have a range of products in a high street shop, but I'll tell you more about that another time, as it isn't opening yet!

As I mentioned previously, I was thinking of opening an Emporium of Curiosities shop on Etsy. I had a shop of the same name on Folksy a couple of years ago, which did okay until I closed it when I closed the Pirate Treasures shop. I then moved it to a section on my website, but really wanted to get round to opening an Etsy shop so I could still use the name and banner (!) so I finally did it a few weeks ago. Here's the link The Emporium of Curiosities 
I have been stocking it with ACEOs, cards and gift tags and then decided to add my range of vintage "assemblage" jewellery as it goes with the general vintage inspired style of the shop.
I've enjoyed putting together the collection of various vintage pieces to make interesting necklaces.
   
Statement charm necklace

Vintage brooch assemblage necklace
Vintage Gentleman ACEO
Alice in Wonderland gift tags
 I should probably redirect my Emporium of Curiosities blog over to this one, it's not as if I post so often I need two blogs!
My next post will hopefully feature some baking...
~Jane