February 2012
2 posts
January 2012
1 post
June 2011
1 post
February 2011
1 post
November 2010
1 post
September 2010
1 post
August 2010
1 post
July 2010
1 post
June 2010
4 posts
Ridiculous items I don't need but really really...
Tattoo print kitchen roll! It’s £5.50 from Rockett St. George. I know, it’s ridiculous, frivolous, expensive and expendable, but look… so pretty!
“Do not allow children to mix drinks. It is unseemly and they use too much...”
– Steve Allen
May 2010
1 post
April 2010
5 posts
Girly gardening
Mr. Tweed Cat and I have been gardening a lot recently. With Spring came the fun/misery (delete as appropriate) of pulling on a pair of old jeans, dragging our pasty, post-winter-hibernation selves outside and making pretty things happen in the garden.
Now I find I have a fight on my hands to stop the encroaching threat that is Mr. Tweed Cat’s ever-increasing vegetable patch. My cornflowers...
Chocolate Button Butterfly Birthday Cake
I made this as a birthday cake for my housemate, who loves chocolate buttons. The recipe is Nigella’s sour cream chocolate cake, from How to be a Domestic Goddess.
Though it looks beautiful and was very tasty, I actually found it didn’t rise half as much as I’d have liked, resulting in a dense, unrisen-y texture in the middle. I think it’s because she uses plain flour...
Giant Teacup Planters
I saw this giant white porcelain teacup plant pot at Rockett St George and wanted it so much I almost forgot about the £159 price tag. No I didn’t omit a decimal point there.
Luckily there are some more affordable alternatives, notably this extensive range from Exclusively For You that includes spots, stripes and flowers from only £7.99. You can also buy blue and pink spotty ones for...
Linkage: how to make the perfect cookies →
This is a fascinating article from Allrecipes.com about how different ingredients, methods and cooking temperatures affect how a batch of cookies will turn out. Baking chemistry, if you will. For example, white sugar makes a crispier cookie than brown sugar, and cookies made with butter are more likely to spread in the oven as butter melts at a lower temperature in the oven than margarine.
...
March 2010
14 posts
Knitted egg cosies from the Black Rabbit
I’ve mentioned the Black Rabbit knitted egg cosies before, and I’ve still got my beady eye on the cat. One would make a splendid little present. I do find the winking rabbit ever so slightly disturbing though. At least, I presume he’s winking and not having a partial stroke.
Folksy: handmade iPhone covers
Yes, the Tweed Cat has joined the smug hordes and got an iPhone. Now I’ve got over the initial squeeing joy of smart-phone ownership, I’m on the hunt for an adorable case to make sure my new baby doesn’t get scratched when I’m running late and fling it unceremoniously into the bottom of my handbag along with my keys, umbrella and, probably, an empty and slightly sticky...
Say it with a Candle
What do you get someone instead of a thank you card? A thank you candle! This is £7.35 from Kiarie. It burns for 50 hours, so what you’re paying for here is 50 hours’ worth of gratitude. Now that’s good value. (Just imagine having to sit in someone’s living room for 50 hours telling them how grateful you are).
Scones and Cornishware
Nothing like scoffing down a plate of light, fluffy scones on a Sunday afternoon. These particular scones are served on Mr. Tweed Cat’s shiny new T.G. Green Cornishware set, which he bought here. No, you didn’t read the price wrong. He wanted it that much.
For this batch I used my old favourite Be-Ro recipe, used with great success by my mum before me.
Ingredients 8oz (225g)...
Linkage: the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation... →
One for my fellow grammar geeks. An amusing blog showcasing the increasingly prevalent (un)grammatical trend of lavishly peppering signs and labels with irrelevant quotation marks, usually imparting an unintended sense of sarcasm or innuendo.
Chests for tiny treasures
I am an inveterate hoarder of tiny treasures. From heart-shaped pebbles to my miniscule leather-bound copy of Romeo and Juliet, trinkets and knick-knacks litter my house like an army of Borrowers has had an all-night party.
The ultimate storage solution for these treasures has to be a little chest or cabinet, like Pippi Longstocking had for the treasures her father brought back from the high...
“In nature’s infinite book of secrecy
A little I can read.”
– William Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra, 1.2.9-10
Easy Almond Cake (Reasons why I want to marry...
This recipe from How to Be a Domestic Goddess is ridiculously easy to make yet looks stunning when it’s done (photo credit to Mr. Tweed Cat). It is dense, moist and rich and not even a novice at baking could mess it up.
Ingredients 250g softened unsalted butter 250g softened marzipan 150g caster sugar 1/4 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 tsp almond essence 6 large eggs (lots, I know! I only...
6 tags
Fantabulous postcards
I’m on a bit of a postcard kick at the moment. There’s so much you can do with them - send them to friends, stick them on the fridge, cut them up and use them as gift tags, decorate walls and notebooks and furniture… these are some of my favourites.
This pretty book of 20 Japanese inspired cards is £16 from Mirror Mirror. The designs are absolutely fabulous and you need...
Lovely Chocolate-Dipped Lemon Shortbread
The lemony tang of these shortbread is perfectly set off by the bittersweet dark chocolate. I was inspired to create these after having a very tasty lemon-and-chocolate shortbread in the first-class carriage of a train to London. I’m very keen on first class, because of the free tea and biscuits.
Ingredients: 4 oz unsalted butter 2 oz caster sugar 1oz ground almonds Zest of 1 lemon ...
February 2010
15 posts
Fairtrade Fortnight - Fairtrade Chocolate
I have found an infallible excuse to buy chocolate. It’s Fairtrade Fortnight until the 7th March, and we’re all being encouraged to take part in the Big Swap, swapping the usual products we buy for Fairtrade ones.
I feel that consequently it’s very important, globally speaking, for me to go out and buy lots of Fairtrade chocolate.
First stop, some Divine dark chocolate. Not...
Bookends to end all bookends
The Tweed Cat loves nothing better than to curl up on a squashy sofa with a good book. But recently I have realised that my books could use more love and attention. That’s why I’ve decided to treat them to some new bookends. Here are the loveliest I’ve found…
This ceramic bookend vase from Rockett St. George is the most amazing bookend ever. You would never be without a...
Vintage porcelain rose necklace
These porcelain rose necklaces from Love Miss Daisy are so pretty I could eat them. And I know I say that a lot, but just look…
The roses themselves (in pink, green, purple, yellow and blue) date all the way back to occupied Japan in 1945-1952, which in itself is pretty amazing. You could justify your purchase (at only £12.99!) as being in the name of historical research. If anyone should...
“My jumper and her jumper are embracing on the floor.”
– Unknown - part of an exhibit at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, May 2009
2 tags
We're men. Men who like cupcakes. →
They’re New York based, and therefore sadly very far from the Tweed Cat, but I can still appreciate the genius of the Butch Bakery for trying to make cupcakes manly. They sell camouflage, checkerboard, tartan and houndstooth patterned cakes, among other manly designs. Hats off to you, boys.
Giant Cushion from Runaway Coast
Where are you, Spring? I’m tired of sleeping under three blankets and rolling out of bed on cold, dark mornings, clutching a cold hot-water bottle and shuffling grumpily into my fluffy slippers. I will be glad if I never see another Lemsip again.
But here is a little taste of delights to come - crisp spring sunshine, venturing outside without a coat, snowdrops, ducklings, Easter…...
Paris Clock Studs from In All Her Finery
Check out these adorable clock stud earrings by In All Her Finery. Tiny and cute, and only £6.50!
The time reads twelve minutes past ten - the perfect time for a cup of tea and a biscuit for those of us who can’t wait till elevensies.
I can’t wear studs this size because of my freakishly small earlobes, but someone should have the pleasure and joy associated with owning them....
Tasty linkage: Nigella's Mughlai Chicken →
I can honestly say this is the best curry I’ve ever made. Being a sissy girl, I can only eat mild, sweet curries or my face falls off. This mughlai chicken recipe is mild and creamy but still flavourful enough to keep the real curry fans happy!
In a cursory nod to healthfulness I substituted the chicken thighs with diced chicken breast, and it was still delicious! I have no pictures,...
5 tags
I.V. Drip Plant Pot by Vitamin
I find this I.V. drip-feed plant pot at My Living Space supremely, wackily brilliant. I love how closely modelled on human I.V.s they are - they look like little planty patients, in for root replacement surgery or a tendrilectomy.
I know what you’re going to say… £127 for a plant pot is insanely expensive. Yes, yes it is. But if, like me, you can kill cacti just by looking at them,...
Paperchase gets it wrong
I have always loved Paperchase. In fact, I’ve often been heard to say that I’d like to live there. With their many ranges of super-cute stationery and bits and bobs and pressed glass cake stands and lovely wrapping paper, it’s just my kind of shop. But I’ve never put much thought into the commercial presence behind the stationery giant whose products I’ve loved so...
Lip balms I want to eat
These are my three absolute favourite lip balms. And in horrible wintry weather like this, a girl needs all the lip balm she can get. They are organic and full of shea butter and beeswax and jojoba oil and other natural loveliness.
Firstly, we have the admittedly quite pricy L’Occitane 100% shea butter, coming in at £5.50. But then you can put it anywhere - face, elbows, knees,...
4 tags
Baking paraphernalia to make you go 'squee'
There are no words for how much I love edible glitter. I want to put it on everything, including myself, and wander about in a glittery haze of joy. Occasionally I might lick myself. Others might find this weird. I would be too glittery to care.
This is a genius idea: cup-adorning cookie cutters, with a hole to balance the cookie on the side of your mug. You could freeze a whole batch, and...
January 2010
1 post
2 tags
Cake Friday - Caramel Shortbread
I can’t be only one who brings cake to work every Friday and then finds themselves looking at the clock approximately every seven minutes to check whether it’s an acceptable time to start eating it.
This morning, it was twenty past nine. But then, I have brought what are clearly the best cakes in all cakedom - the Millionaire’s Shortbread. And not just any Millionaire’s...
December 2009
9 posts
2 tags
Tea Party Tuesday: The Oxford Tea Party
I adore tea parties. There’s something so very comfortingly English about an afternoon filled with cups of tea, little triangular sandwiches and scones with jam and clotted cream, andf they’re all served up in vintage china then so much the better.
The Oxford Tea Party is the perfect place to start my Tea Party Tuesday posts. This stylish website is a happy-making place where you...