Pillow talk

The Child had always been fond of this vintage pillowcase but then decided it didn't go with her room (she was actually right). Now that her room has been redecorated the bright colour fits right in so I decided to give the pillowcase a bit of an edge, so to speak.

Was easy thanks to this tutorial at You Go Girl.

See what others are doing in their creative spaces today here.

Woman of the cloth

I love a tablecloth and these are the ones I use all the time. Trouble is, the only room I had for them was on a high shelf, which could be reached but not easily. So would either have to grab the little kitchen ladder to be able to pull one out from the middle of the pile or just take the top cloth every time.

Enter basket bought last week. Basket is perfect height and easy to pull down off shelf. I wish I'd done this years ago. High excitement in our house over this.

Admittedly haven't polled the entire household but would just demand a recount a la Pauline Hanson if excitement vote didn't go my way.

Lemon meringue cupcakes

The husband kidnapped a lovely IT man one lunchtime last week, drove him to our house, sat him in front of my computer and asked him to fix it. He did. After making some not-so-subtle enquiries to his wife, the Husband learnt that IT man's tastes lean towards lemon meringue. These cupcakes are an apology for the kidnapping.

Never having made lemon meringue anything I tested a batch out on some friends at a picnic last Sunday. Got the thumbs up all round with the Child declaring them equal ever favourite with her beloved brownies.

They look a bit fiddly but are in fact easy peasy to make if you have a stand mixer. Here's how:

Best to make lemon butter the day before. Do so by mixing all the following ingredients in a small bowl over simmering water until the back of a spoon is coated and then cover and pop into the fridge for next day.

Lemon butter
. 4 eggs yolks
. 1/3 cup caster sugar
. 2 tsps finely grated lemon rind
. 1/4 cup lemon juice
. 40g butter

Cupcakes
. 125g softened butter
. 2 tsps finely grated lemon rind
. 2/3 cup caster sugar
. 2 eggs
. 1/3 cup milk
. 1-1/4 cups plain flour
. 3 tsps baking powder

Beat butter, rind, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at time. Add milk. Add sifted flour and baking powder. Put batter into a pan that holds 12 cupcake papers and bake for about 20mins at 180C.

When cool, use a small knife to cut a 2cm hole into each cupcake and remove the 'plug' of cake. Fill holes with lemon curd. Discard plugs.

Meringue
. 4 egg whites
. 1 cup caster sugar

Whip the egg whites till soft peaks form and then slowly add the sugar. Beat until thick and glossy. Use a piping bag or plastic bag snipped at a corner to make a 1cm hole and swirl meringue over cupcakes. Bake in 200C oven for 5 mins so the meringue is lightly browned.

Hand around and be prepared to make a second batch, as these were extremely popular in our house.

Tip: As anyone who watched Masterchef last night will know, meringue is at its glossiest best when beaten for about 15 mins until sugar dissolves.

Thanks for the enquiries as to why I went missing towards the end of last week. Anyone with a Blogger account will already know, of course. For those who don't, I hadn't, unfortunately, skipped off to Positano at a moment's notice or, fortunately, been hit by a bus. Blogger crashed and burned last Friday, often deleting Thursday's posts and comments and leaving blogs in read-only mode until Saturday.

Birthday flowers

Needed a birthday card over the weekend so dug into my stash of pages ripped from magazines. Came across a wallpaper feature Elle Decorating did a while back and chose something that I could stick to a blank card with just a light spray of adhesive.

Trimmed the edges so they were nice and sharp, picked up some embroidery cotton and then quickly whipped up three small crochet flowers to stick on the front. The flower pattern is here, thanks to a tutorial at Attic 24.

Fabric screensavers

I have some pieces of vintage barkcloth that are too lovely to be hidden away in my stash where I hardly ever see them. So I photographed them to use as screensavers on my computer.

I noticed an option on Google's home page that lets you select one of your own photos as a background, which sparked the idea of using fabrics. This probably isn't even a new option as I'm not what you'd call an early adopter in the technology stakes.

Finally I've found a way to use these pieces without having a project in mind and scissors in hand.

And if I do cut them up I'll still have them whole.

Stormy seas

I start the day with a cup of tea. Tea made in a pot. Every day.

I've said before that I like to collect bits and pieces in stormy colours. These mugs, $27.50, from Bison are no exception. I bought them one at a time whenever passing the Paddington shop so now have four in my favourite Bison colours, which are milk, dove, limestone and the sandy one that I can't remember the name of.

Each one is hand made in Australia and lovely to hold. Particularly when filled with steaming tea first thing on a cold morning.

The good oil

Decided to make my own body scrub after looking at the silly prices and/or list of ingredients at what was available on the shelves.

Mixed up some salt with sweet almond oil and few drops of lavender essential oil - and it works a treat in the shower. I use it on a damp face cloth and scrub away. Leaves my skin feeling tingling, fresh and moisturised.

Makes me and my purse feel good. Win/win.