The appliance of science

After losing around six years of work on my website (I mistakenly thought my back up was backing it all up) I felt a bit down in the dumps yesterday - and not in the mood to cook a fancy Sunday lunch.

So I got out the new steamer that arrived Saturday - replacing our defunct old one and experimented with an all in one lunch




Front left - a parcel of chicken



Front right - one of my ratatouille mixes from out of the freezer




Back carrots, potatoes at far end, runner beans on the shelf



This steamer is almost as clever as me! You can set the timer for each compartment, and content. The vegetables at the back were the first to start steaming, the chicken parcel next and waiting to go is the ratatouille.

I only have a teeny kitchen so every inch of space has to earn it's keep.

This is my gadgets end of the kitchen - steamer, vacuum packer and food mixer. Rack of plates above and in the corner the bantam egg tray, and out of sight the pottery bread container.





Thirty five minutes later - and it is all finished.





The chicken is boneless breasts, which I cooked with two home grown tomatoes diced up, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and a couple of slices of chorizo chopped up which makes a lovely colour and introduces a fabulous flavour.



It's all home grown and I love the colours - OK so it's not as tempting as a Sunday roast - but boy did it taste good, and the sauces from the chicken parcel were amazing.

(For those of you who never got to read my Allotment Lady website - the chickens are not mine - I don't eat my chickens - a friend 'grows' them for me, and plucks them etc, I just joint them all. Well how can you eat one someone who is called Daisy for example).

Talking of chickens, I might just buy myself two more to cheer me up. I would rather have a little dog like Pat Winter's Angell


But can't - so fluffy little bantams are the next best thing!

Daisy and Gozzie - digging over where I was digging - looking for worms and bugs.

Why do things go wrong all at once!

You get spells when 'things' go wrong all at once don't you - but I really have had enough of them now!

My little old laptop packed up - it had been slow for a long long time and finally expired. Well not such a tragedy, I can live without it.

My printer died - I can't manage without that - it was silly really - just a tiny bit of paper stuck in it - and that's it - total malfunction "Error - look in your manual for your nearest service engineer". It really meant it this time - so I had no alternative than to buy another printer. Just a little cheap one; it would have cost more than that to get someone in to look at it!

Installed it - it wouldn't print. It sounded like it was printing - it pretended it was printing - but the pages were all blank.

A trip back to the little shop - they ran a check - and it printed - so they said it must have been a glitch with the installation CD.

Back home - uninstalled the software - re-installed it - and it worked - yippee!

Then the steamer died. We use our steamer most days, but it had just had enough - stopped working - and wet all over the worktop. Did it have to do a wet as it was on it's way out?

Cooking with just two saucepans was quite a novelty for just a day (Hence the slow pot being used as well) We have a new steamer now - more of that tomorrow!

My internet is still very 'flakey' but we are working on it - I am going to order a more up to date network card - just waiting for my son to send me a link for the right one.

But another disaster happened overnight.

I am famous for being 'The Allotment Lady' or just plain 'Allotment Lady' and had my own website which I have had for a few of years - and had had almost 300,000 visitors in that time.

Webmania - the company which hosted my website had a problem - and lost my site - the whole lot - gone - not just mine - but lots - so the email said.

Hundreds of posts, photos, recipes, information, stories, the lot - gone - forever.

I would just like this run of things going wrong to stop now please.

Enough is enough - it's not funny any more!

I can't face starting another Allotment Lady blog - its like losing a part of me - a very big part of me - hey ho - tomorrow is another day.

Night night

Autumn Warmers

You know it is Autumn and cold because I get out the slow pot cooker.



Add lots of home grown veggies,shallots, lots of tomatoes and a brace of pheasants and four hours later..............

Cooked - Free food from a farmer friend who doesn't like them - well we do! Served with fresh home grown potatoes, calabrese, Cherokee trail of tears beans, and carrots - warms the cockles of my heart on a cold day like this.

Wall hanging message board - note book.

I spent the afternoon and evening making this - I had had it on my mind for a couple of days, and I just had to have a go. I should have waited until morning to take the photos as it was pitch black at 7pm and my studio shed is not very bright.


I cut out a large piece of mount board to back the main piece and covered it both sides with K&Co - Teal Taperstry. I like this paper as it looks rather vintagey I thought and it matched perfectly the colours in an image on a CD I have.


Whilst that was drying, I printed off the lovely lady, mounted it on thick cream card then decorated it with some of the lovely sequins that were amongst the seed beeds etc which Pat sent me. They picked up the colours of her dress and the backing paper exactly.

I coloured with alcohol inks a little lace flower which I recycled from a old project, and added some seed beads and another sequin in the centre - it looks lovely in real life!

I cut out about 50 sheets of cream paper - took rather a long time, then punched holes in them with my Bind It All machine.

Next I cut out another piece of mount board to make for the front cover of the note pad, covered it, and matted the lady image onto it.

I was so pleased with the way that I managed to cut out a piece of the patterned paper, so that it matched exactly the pattern behind it on the board. Believe me - it wasn't easy!

Using lace from Very Mary I sandwiched is all around the note pad between a lining page - so it gives a lovely feminine feel to the book - and makes it stand out more.

I ran some more lace along the bottom edge of the message board mount too.

I used rick rack for the hanger which matches the paper really well (having first punched holes and inserted silver rivets in the backing board)

I then, with the BIA punched the holes for the backing board and the notepad front page and assembled the book. Added more lace and satin ribbon to decorate the wires - to match the colours the lady is dressed in etc.


Then I finished it off by mounting the pencil.

I managed to make it just as I had envisage in my head - makes a change - it took longer than I thought but it was worth it.

The added bonus is that if I keep it for myself - I can always make more pages for the pad, as it is easy to remove the owires and put another wodge of pages in.

Heavenly Gift from an Angell

I could smell this before I could see it - it was the smell of flowers on a warm summer evening - at dusk when the perfume is strongest.




From out of the envelope I pulled out pansies - I just love pansies - and this paper I am going to keep too - and I think I will carefully iron it and see if I can scan it - then I can use it and keep the original.

The package measures 6"x9" and look what an Alladin's 'cave' of treasure it held.


I have spread it out on the piece of net curtain I got a couple of weeks ago from the lady in the village - and the Autumn sunshine is streaming through my studio window - and it is glowing!

Here are some close ups - as usual click on photos to enlarge



Samples of silks and satins, lace, threads, pictures,ribbons all colour co-ordinated.



Take a closer look! The pictures of the little girl with the butterfly - printed on material - happens to be my favourite image. I don't have that image - but I loved it as soon as I saw it on a card that my friend Paula had on her blog. There are more little images, hand dyed ribbons, and look at that little bag crammed with seed beads, little leaves, flowers, and other glittering delights - I can't wait to examine them all one by one. But now I am so excited I just have to show you more.





Look at the lusciously rich brocade - looks like it is a piece from one of Queen Elizabeth I gowns - what a treasure. It positive gleams and glows in the sunlight.



Look at that little piece of hand painted trim - isn't it just amazing - and the painted portrait to the left of it - where did that come from - what a treasure!




This is a much covetted original work of art - one of 'her' very famous nest pendants - wow! The time and work that has gone into creating it!




My wondrous parcel has now been added to my stash drawer and I can't wait to get started. But first I am going to buy this book - it is a 'must have' for me! I was going to wait until Christmas but I need it NOW! Then I can start to make some of these well perhaps not some - but a crazy quilt little work of art(but obviously not as well as) this lady who is very famous - and just happened to have sent me such a wonderful gift to get me started.

It is going to be wonderful hobby for me to be able to do indoors in the winter, when the weather is bad, and it is too cold and wet and dark to be in my 'studio' (shed at the end of the garden.)

Thank you so very much Pat - I am going to get started as soon as I can - but first I need to buy a needle threader LOL my one broke and I am hopeless at threading needles.

It is pitch black outside - so best I go up the garden path and back indoors - and its not even 7pm yet!

P.S. you should Google Pat Winters - and see all the fantastic work she has done - visit her blog to see her very own Angell

A Very Mary

If you haven't found Very Mary yet you really must take a look. Take a look at her past posts - she makes so many things!

Have a look on her Etsy sites - the things she 'finds' are just amazing. All vintagey and or quirky - and just fabulous.

Very Mary had been reading my blog about my hunting for stash to get myself started on my new project - sewing.

I had browsed her Etsy shop and saw this wonderful vintage material - and thought it would be great for a bag.

I love the fact that it looks almost like Batik - and the pattern is so very cheerful.

Very Nary kindly offered to send me some of her vintage laces - and she was really poorly at the time with a fever and confined to bed!

I wasn't in a rush - but Very Mary somehow got them in the post to me - and what a surprise. They were wrapped in vintage clothes pattern paper - it is that wonderful shade of caramel that tissue paper goes over many years. I very carefully slid out the contents - as I want to use the paper in a future project. Not sure what yet - but it is such wonderful paper.

I am now building up a stash - so thought I would proudly show you how it looks now!



Very Mary had wrapped layers of pieces of lace onto card. What a surprise when I unwound a piece to find another underneath - and another.......

I have followed her lead, and spent a happy afternoon cutting up cardboard and wrapping hers - and my bits onto card and now look at my stash - doesn't it look good. I have added to it with pieces I have bought from charity shops these past few weeks, some Haruko, my lovely daughter in law found at a car boot sale. The maroon and grey on the top row, I found in another charity shop in a local little town. There is some that Haruko cut off an old dress, (the top right hand corner, with the silvery pieces) the latter her friend had cut off a top and was selling them at a boot sale - not all the pieces are long - some are just short lengths - but every last little bit I can find a use for.

Doesn't it look a wonderful collection. Before all the bits were just in a drawer - now it looks so much nicer all carded - and I can see at a glance the different sizes. It also looks like I have so much more too.

Thank you Very Mary for showing me how to store the laces properly, for the lovely selection you sent me - and for the material - I will put them all to good use!

Skinny Pages

I am doing my first alphabet skinny page swap - and I kinda jumped in the deep end without thinking. Gulp

I have to make 38 pages - and my letter is 'O'.

When I found out how many pages - my brain froze in panic!

I decided it was best to tackle it 'head on' rather than leaving it until nearer the deadline time and panic even more.

Here is a sample of some of them - don't want to put all the designs on here or it will spoil the surprise.



It is for a 'stamping' forum - so stamp I did - and distress!

I was limited by the little collection of stamps I have but here goes..............
(As usual click on the photo to enlarge)


O is for Owls - some of which are on sunset orange inked backgrounds - the colour is much richer than the photo shows. The other owls are supposed to look as though it is misty almost foggy and mysterious. The black distressing is to suggest night time.

I don't have many 'sentiment' or 'word' stamps - but this poem I just love - by Walter de la Mere

You should see the state of my fingers - all shades of ink. No two are the same - they make look it at first glace, but each page was inked and stamped individually so they are all slightly different.

O is also for Oriental



So I have stamped different Oriental ladies onto different coloured backgrounds and coloured them with distress inks and Promarker pens.

I took all the photos in sunlight on my work bench which has bleached the colours somewhat - they are all richer shades. I have yet to mount them all on a bigger piece of card. I have laid the Oriental lady onto pink card - its not Barbie doll pink as it looks here - but different shades of deeper pink - a bit deeper than the bottom of the backing card!

Edited to say

I have finally finished - this post is just a sneak peek at some of them there are more different orientals not shown here - and owls. I have embossed some too!

They have all been mounted on white card with the space at the top for where they are to be bound!

A better photo of some of the owls


All finished and ready to go - just got to buy some padded envelopes then they will be in the post next week.