30 May 2012

Jacob is here!













Welcome to the world Jacob! We are still over the moon and so relieved and grateful that we had a normal delivery and have a healthy child.

After five days of early labour we went to Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax on Saturday afternoon. Our son was born on Sunday, 27th May, just after midnight and we left the hospital by lunchtime.

Johanna loves her little brother and seeing them together is the sweetest thing in the world.

25 February 2012

Crochet your own coral reef

To get inspired you can virtually dive into the Coral Sea and have a look around the Great Barrier Reef with Seaview Underwater Virtual Tour. Seaview will soon be a part of GoogleEarth, but is already available on this website. It's well worth looking at snorkeling around.

There are tons of images of crochet coral on Flickr.

Also there is the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef,  "a woolly celebration of the intersection of higher geometry and feminine handicraft, and a testimony to the disappearing wonders of the marine world"  created by Margaret and Christine Wertheim. Find out how start your own satelite reef.

24 February 2012

Yeoman Warder Bill Callaghan

Watch Yeoman, Bill Callaghan, an ex-Regimental Sergeant Major, giving a brilliantly funny history lesson to a group of tourists. Part two is the funniest, but it's worth watching the whole thing.

I wish all history lessons would be so memorable.









I just found out that you can book Bill Callaghan for after-dinner speeches and auctioneering. I wonder if he'd also do master of ceremonies at a wedding - he'd be great.

The Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary, commonly known as Beefeaters, are ceremonial guardians of the Tower of London. In principle they are responsible for looking after any prisoners at the Tower and safeguarding the British crown jewels, but in practice they act as tour guides and are a tourist attraction in their own right.

The videos are recorded by Jerry and Judy Clark.

28 January 2012

Vorbote des Frühlings - Herald of spring

We enjoyed the warming sun today and so did this little flower.
Hope you are having a great weekend, too.

05 January 2012

SchOreo Cake



Hmmm... the house smells lovely, I wish you could smell it - or even have a slice of this cake. Delicious!

I made up the recipe for this fabulous looking and yummy tasting cake with Oreo Biscuits. I used ingredients I had in the house and found it was fun to make it all up, going through the cupboards, thinking about what might go together well and then just mix it all in.

Afterwards I googled recipes for cakes with Oreo biscuits and was surprised to find that there were hundreds already. Anyway, I still love doing the cake my way. It's easy to make and absolutely luscious, with crunchy bits of biscuits and a magnificent flavor.


So here's my SchOreo cake recipe:

4 eggs and a pinch of salt
120 g brown sugar
50 g soft brown sugar
1 Vanilla sugar
250g margarine
2 tbsp rum
¾ cup Bailey's
250 g plain flour
1 baking powder
3 tbsp cocoa powder
½ tsp cinnamon
100 g dark chocolate
1 paket (154 g) of Oreo biscuits

Beat the eggs until frothy. Add the sugar and stir in well. Add soft margarine, then rum and Bailey's and stir until well blended. Mix flour with cocoa and cinnamon and add it to your dough. Chop up the chocolate and stir it all in. Chop up the Oreo biscuits and add 70 g. Mix well.

Put the dough in a greased small springform baking tin and put the Oreo biscuit crumbles on top. Slightly press them in.

Bake at 180°C in a preheated oven for about 70 minutes.

Enjoy!



Und noch mal auf deutsch:

In einer grossen Schüssel die Eier mit einer Prise Salz schaumig rühren, den Zucker zugeben und unterrühren. Die Margarine in einer seperaten Schüssel schaumig rühren, dann die Eiermasse unterrühren. Rum und Baileys zugeben und noch mal rühren. Mehl, Backpulver, Kakao und Zimt mischen und unterrühren. Schokolade dazu. Oreo zerbröseln/zerhacken und ca. 70 g zugeben. Rühren.

Teig in eine gefettete kleine Springform geben, die restlichen Oreo Kekse auf dem Kuchen verteilen und leicht in den Teig drücken.

Bei 180°C im vorgeheizten Ofen ca. 70 Minuten backen.

04 January 2012

Be Linen Movie 2


BE LINEN MOVIE 2 from Benoit MILLOT on Vimeo.


More about flax and it's potential in this short film.

The fabrics shown in this film make me want to work with linen again, right away. I used linen in some of my textile sculpture and found that even with 100 % linen in plain weave there can be huge differences in it's quality and feel. It's a fascinating material, I love it's unique strength and performance as well as it's natural unevenness that reminds you that the fibre is grown, not manufactured.

Flax is one of the oldest fibers used for making textiles. Dyed flax fibers found in a prehistoric cave in Georgia suggest that wild flax was woven into linen fabrics 36,000 years ago. It's ecological and versatile qualities could also make it the fibre of the future.

03 January 2012

Be Linen Movie


BE LINEN MOVIE from Benoit MILLOT on Vimeo.

A short film about linen - it's wonderful to see people who are so passionate about that amazing fibre. Via poppytalk.

24 December 2011

06 October 2011

The transformation of a shirt

This girl turns an XXL men's shirt into the most beautiful dresses, tops and skirts.