bread, bags and au revoir

There is nothing like a few days off work to get you motivated. So fasten your seatbelts and I'll take you for a ride through my productivity.

First up bread. I decided to try my hand at No-Knead Bread, the New York Times bread recipe that has been doing the rounds in Blogland for sometime now.
All you need is flour, water, salt and yeast. Which are all mixed together and then the mixture is left for 18 hours - yes 18 whole hours - this is not a bread to make in a hurry. After all those hours the mixture is like some bubbly witches brew. At this point the mixture is folded in on itself and then left for another couple of hours to rise. It then gets cooked at a high heat in a big casserole like a Le Creuset. After all that time you then have to wait for the bread to cool before tasting. So after all that time was it worth it? Well I think it looks fantastic and it tasted not bad althought I would perhaps add a little more salt which is not like me as I rarely cook with salt. I think it would also be lovely with chopped walnuts baked into it.

Another tote bag - this has been packed and will be coming to Paris, for all those purchases I hope to make!It is made from linen blend fabric in a lilac and aqua as well as the scrummy cupcake fabric.

I am also rather pleased with myself - I have finally made something from some of the strips I received from Flibbertygibbet's first strip swap. I made this cushion cover from the fabric Sarah over at Made for Moot sent to me. It is just a very random log cabin type of patchwork that I machine quilted but it was good fun to work on.

So tomorrow - Paris here we come! Thank you for all your suggestions and ideas plans have been formulated and the weather promises to be on our side so here's to a great couple of days.