On becoming a Biscuiteer

Brrrr! It's turned a bit chilly here, so here I sit beneath a blanket, in my jim-jams, though it's only a shade after seven in the evening!  Truth be told, I was up very early this morning, after a rather wakeful night, as I had to take Mr U-t-B off to Gatwick airport, so that's my excuse for being ready for bed at such a time.  

If I can stay awake long enough I will once again be using this present...

...which my dear husband persuaded me to let him get me at Lidl on Saturday!  

I was in denial that such a thing could help me with some of the WIPs I have awaiting my attention.  

After all, I've always had 20/20 vision, so even if the presbyopia monster seems to be running close behind me have caught me up and tanned my hide, surely things weren't that bad?  

Well, my goodness they obviously are!

This bit of kit makes such a difference - well worth the £29.99 Mr U-t-B lavished on my pressie!

(I'm only mentioning the price in case anyone out there wants to dash out and buy one, not as an indication of my worth to him!)

 

It took a wee while to get used to using it, but the magnifier makes easy work of my evenweave linen cross-stitch!  This WIP is now properly underway again (AGAIN!  This project has had more stops and starts than a London bus...)  Expect a ta-dah sometime in the not too distant future, because I will most certainly be celebrating when I've finished the last of the eighteen cows!!!

On Saturday afternoon, I decided to take time to enjoy a bit of biscuit-y baking, inspired by one of my recent bargain purchases...

This was definitely not a job for when one was in a rush!  First the biscuit dough was made, rolled out and cut, then chilled, cooked and cooled.  Next, the making of the Royal Icing, the piping of the outlines, the mixing up of different colours, the thinning to make flood icing and the flooding of the shapes, then the polka dotting.  And this was for the simplest of designs, in only three colours!

It was a good practice - next time I will be braver and have a go at something more detailed.

In the end, with the help of my retro-style Tala Icing Bag Set and the squeezy plastic ketchup bottles I bought at the catering shop for next to nothing, I managed to produce a selection of polka-dotted biscuits...

I learnt that a) they look best if the outline is done in the main colour (not white like I did for the pink and blue one) and b) round biscuits are unforgivingly hard to ice neatly.

Miss U-t-B was happy to take the resultant tin-full to school today, where her classmates declared me to be 'adorable' for having made them!

Here's something that made me chuckle today to finish...

Anyway, there seems to be a gentle moo-ing coming from nearby, so as I haven't put myself to the point of sleep with typing, I will switch my magical LEDs on and get stitching!