I apologize about the silence around these parts. The days around here have been full. Full of all the beautiful and complex things life can bring.
We’ve been enjoying the longer days, having this soft light after dinner has been nice. Evening light and early morning light are my favorite times to take pictures.
The ebb and flow of my bread making has hit it’s ebb period when all of my loaves fall flat. I don’t know why this always happens. Even in a period of using the same bag of flour, same block of yeast, I’ll bake loaf after loaf of bread that I’m proud of and then loaf after loaf of disappointments. The good news is that I’ve baked so many flops in a row, that a good loaf is bound to happen any day now.
The house is very slowly starting to come together on the inside. I’m a very slow decorator. I’m always amazed at people who can move into a new house and have it looking just perfect in a few short weeks. For me it takes me forever to be happy with how it looks, but then I won’t want to change a thing for years. This old couch gained new life with a denim slipcover. I heard that you should decorate your house the way you dress and being that I wear jeans most days, and denim is very durable when paired with little boys and muddy gardening parents, I went with denim. Next to be refreshed are the curtains. Although I’d love belgium linen, my budget is thinking burlap or painters drop cloths. It’s hopeful to see little corners of our house coming together in pleasing patches of order.
Especially when so much of my house is in complete disorder.
Denim slipcovers sound wonderful. I’ve had the same experience with bread as you. Maybe it’s the humidity? It’s always been a mystery to me. btw, we still eat the flops.
There is a local restaurant that has the same experience you you concerning the flopping bread. So don’t feel too badly…and people scarf down that flopped bread just as well as they do the fully raised bread! The same work goes into it. Pretend it’s deliberate, add a dash of cinnamon or oregano, and serve it proudly! Lol!
Your curtain delimma reminded me of when I was younger, in the late 60’s, my mom made curtains out of burlap.. with some orange accent pom pom balls at the top..She had a very old sewing machine and she made them very basic. I was horrified, but actually now that I look back on it, those were wonderful because she did not know how to sew and was pushing herself to make do with what she could afford, at the same time she was “before her time!”. She is 90, and still out there being before her time!
I had the same thought as happygirl – bread flops could definitely be related to humidity.
Hello from Greece!
My grandmother used to make home-made bread on a weekly basis. Now, the s e c r e t . . . is that when you have prepared the dought, you have to put it in a very warm place – grandma used to cover it with blankets, and my mother puts hot bottles around it before covering it with blankets and duvets. I wrap it in an electric blanket. Also, try not to sprinkle and flour nor cut the dought, instead sprinkle over some sesame seeds. It tastes fantastic!
Good luck,
Evangelia Koulouriotou
(ekoulouriotou@yahoo.gr)
The curtains you have look good from here, minimal and natural…sort of similiar to the texture of silk dupioni. We had oodles of curtains to replace when we moved in here and I ordered natural cotton duck tab tops and hung them on bamboo (so our rods were all of $9 for three big windows). 7 years later I love how simple they are.