Massage- tutorials for indian head massage and deep tissue massage. ;)

Now, If theres one thing I pride myself on it's that I give a bloody brilliant deep tissue massage- I get plenty of practice as I have a willing massive volunteer living with me.

OK, not so much a volunteer, more of an activist.
Traff always has a massage in the evening- to manage this he waits until I'm comfy on the sofa, then comes and lies on top of me until I massage his head/shoulder/feet.
Quite often he then falls asleep.

His persistence is incredible. even after having had a sofa massage, often he'll still lie on top of the bed topless and refuse to move until his back/legs have been fixed too.

I've been meaning to learn Indian head massage for ages- As it's supposed to be very stress relieving and I though it'd be better to learn to do it properly- rather than just smooshing traff's face until he falls asleep.

The favoured tried and followed tutorial was this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAxxeEYBD84

Although, I'd leave out the "hitting on the head bit". I tried other tutorials but none of them seemed to be quite so relaxing on my massage activist (Willing volunteer)- and some of them involve pulling the other person's head all over the place.. that strikes me as dangerous!

I've also been looking for ways to make my massage a little less "brutal". Personally I very much enjoy a brutal massage- but having massaged other people in the past and had their reactions I realise some people need to be brutalised gradually-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcdYx1sku0Q

This tutorial uses a combination of swedish and deep tissue massage- I tried this one out too- Apparently even to my lover of brutality this was nicer. Although, he did also look a bit asleep.

Now all I have to do is persuade him to try these out on me!

I followed the tutorials on youtube whilst giving the massage- I watched them through first with the sound, but as a "security blanket" I played them without the sound whilst I massaged the wife-faced one. both are pretty easy to follow like that and made me more confident of which strokes or techniques to use- so no umming and arring over what to do next or worrying about irreparably damaging your massage-ee.

Flummery!

To mark Pride And Prejudice’s 200th anniversary, a new book- Dinner with Mr Darcy- shows you how to make the roasts, pies and puds Jane Austen’s characters would have enjoyed.

I am a huge Mrs Beeton convert- I have her books and refer to them for almost everything (Since we only have an oven and hob and no microwave it's actually better as I don't end up disappointed at how much longer it takes to cook that way!)
I do like my stodgy, traditional, carbtastic meals.
I'm not a very adept chef mind- but looking at the recipes from this book they don't seem too awful to make- Simple but different.
I am quite tempted to give this a go- Some of the recipes are on the Daily Mail website- I just liked the look of flummery.
Maybe I'mm make one for christmas!
There seem to be plenty of actually make-able savoury dishes too.


300ml (½pt) milk
50g (1¾oz) ground almonds
1-2tbsp caster sugar
1tsp natural rosewater (with no added alcohol, available online)
A drop of natural almond extract (from supermarkets)
300ml (½pt) double cream
Put the gelatine in a bowl and cover with cold water; leave for 4-5 minutes. Pour the milk, almonds and sugar into a saucepan and heat slowly until just below boiling. Squeeze out the excess water from the gelatine leaves and add them to the almond milk, along with the rosewater and the almond extract. Simmer for a few minutes, keeping the mixture below boiling point. Let it cool a little and strain through cheesecloth or a fine sieve.Put the gelatine in a bowl and cover with cold water; leave for 4-5 minutes. Pour the milk, almonds and sugar into a saucepan and heat slowly until just below boiling. Squeeze out the excess water from the gelatine leaves and add them to the almond milk, along with the rosewater and the almond extract. Simmer for a few minutes, keeping the mixture below boiling point. Let it cool a little and strain through cheesecloth or a fine sieve.

Dinner with Mr Darcy: Flummery

Flummery is a white jelly that was set in elegant moulds and served at balls such as the one Mr Bingley throws at Netherfield in Pride And Prejudice. Its creamy, delicate taste goes particularly well with fresh berries. If you prefer, you can add puréed fruit to the ingredients, omitting the same volume of milk.

5 gelatine leaves

Whip the cream until thick, then fold it into the tepid mixture. Take a jelly mould, ideally with a removable lid, and wet it (essential, to turn the flummery out). Put the mix in and leave in the fridge overnight.

Turn out the flummery and serve. (If you don’t have a mould with a removable lid, dip the base of your mould briefly in a shallow tray of boiling water before turning out onto a plate.)

HERB PIE

Dinner with Mr Darcy: Herb pie

This is an updated version of a recipe that Mrs Rundell, a contemporary of Jane Austen, included in her book A New System Of Domestic Cookery, published in 1806. At the time people did not distinguish between what we call leaves and herbs. The beauty of Mrs Rundell’s pie is that you can use any combination of leaves and herbs; even ones that the Georgians wouldn’t recognise, such as fresh coriander or rocket, would work here.

l 800g (1lb 12oz) of mixed seasonal herbs and greens. Mrs Rundell uses parsley, spinach, lettuce, mustard and cress borage, and white beetroot leaves. You could also use beetroot leaves, chard, kale, spring greens, mint, dill or chives

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Butter, to grease the pie dish

2 medium eggs

200ml (7fl oz) milk

250ml (9fl oz) single cream

2tbsp flour

For the shortcrust pastry

170g (6oz) plain flour

A pinch of salt

115g (4oz) unsalted butter (chilled)

Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/gas 5. To make the pastry, put the flour and salt into a bowl. Add the cold butter, then chop it with a knife until each piece of butter is as small as you can make it; make sure the butter pieces are thoroughly coated in flour. When you can chop no more, rub it in using just your fingertips – this will keep the mixture from becoming too warm, which may make it dense. Sprinkle in 2 tablespoons of cold water and mix everything with a knife until it clumps together. Add a little more water if necessary. Bring the mixture together with your hands just until it makes a smooth dough – don’t knead it. Cover it with clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge for about 20 minutes before using.

For the pie filling, quickly blanch any of the tougher leaves – such as spinach, beetroot, kale, chard – in boiling water, then immediately plunge into cold water. Gently squeeze out the excess liquid and chop them roughly. Mix with the more delicate leaves and herbs, season with salt and pepper, and put aside in a buttered pie dish.

Beat the eggs well, then add the milk and single cream, continuing to beat. Add the 2tbsp flour, whisking thoroughly to ensure that there are no lumps, and when thickened pour over the mixed greens.

Roll out the shortcrust pastry and cover the pie dish, making a couple of slashes on the top to release moisture while cooking. Bake in the oven until the pastry is lightly golden and cooked through, about 30-40 minutes.

SPICED MUSHROOMS

Gently cook the shallots in the butter until they are nearly soft – about 15 minutes. Add the mushrooms to the pan with a little more butter if needed, and cook for about 10 minutes until they are brown on all sides and oozing juice. Sprinkle over the spices and salt, add the bay leaves, cover with the wine, if using, and simmer for 10-15 minutes until there is just a little liquid remaining. If you prefer to dry the mushrooms like Martha, omit the wine, and leave them somewhere very warm, such as the bottom of an Aga, or the top of a woodburner, for a few hours. The dried mushrooms can be powdered and added to stews, or left whole and reconstituted in water.

Dinner with Mr Darcy: Spiced mushrooms

Martha Lloyd was a close friend of the Austens and her Household Book is a wonderful record of what Jane and her family ate. It contains a recipe for drying mushrooms with spices which is adapted into a side dish here. It has an earthy, robust flavour that goes well with venison, which Mrs Bennet serves when Mr Darcy and Mr Bingley come to dinner at Longbourn.

12 small whole shallots, peeled

2tbsp butter

450g (1lb) field mushrooms, quartered

Freshly ground white pepper

¼tsp ground cloves

½tsp ground mace

½tsp grated nutmeg

Sea salt

2-3 bay leaves

A small glass of white or red wine (optional)

Easy to make mittens from an old jumper

1. Trace the hands of the person you're making the mittens for.  (Just one hand will work if you can't get the other one traced too.)

I made two attempts - one with the fingers separated, outlining between each, the other more like a mitten.  (Please notice the scribbles and wrinkles in the paper.  He really doesn't like to hold still.)  Either way works, but be sure if you trace with the fingers separated, you make the pattern a little smaller than just outlining all the way around the fingers.

2. Use a piece of tracing paper or vellum (I always use vellum because it's a bit stronger and works really well as a pattern piece) and trace around the hand in the shape of a mitten to get the approximate size and shape you need the finished mitten to be.

3. Add about 1/2" around the mitten shape you just drew to allow for the seams.  This will also leave a little growing room too, since your seams won't be quite 1/2".  Then cut out your pattern piece.  (The picture above shows the cut out pattern piece over the original hand tracing.)

4. Line up your pattern piece at the bottom of one of the sweatshirt sleeves so that the wrist of the mitten lines up with the cuff seam of the sleeve - this lets you use the already finished cuff as the bottom of the mitten.  It makes it easy (no hemming! I'm super lazy) and it's already stretchy to fit over the hand, and hold around the wrist.  Trace your pattern with an erasable fabric marker.

(See how the base of the hand lines up with seam of the sweatshirt?)

5. Pin around your traced mitten to hold both layers of fabric in place, and cut out both pieces.

6. Now re-pin the two pieces together, this time with right sides together.

7. Stitch around the outside of the mitten, making sure to leave the bottom open!  (I stitched mine with 1/4" seams to leave a little room to grow)

8. Turn it right side out, and you're done!  If the unfinished edges inside the mitten bother you, you can use bias tape to finish them.

Crochet hooks, Christmas day dress, cakes on steroids and Alice In Chains (@Ally Pally)

Today is a miserable day.

It's really grey and rainy.

I completed my crochet hook mission- the Singer shop sells 8mm crochet hooks-that is the biggest they go to- Ideally I'd have liked a 10 or 12 mm monster but they didn't have one. Undeterred I went to the charity shops on the high street to ask.

None of them came up trumps- Oxfam only had smaller than 4mm (Which is what I already have) and all the others told me they don't stock crochet hooks or knitting needles incase they're used as a weapon.

I can't think of any instance where you would choose a knitting needle over brick-a-brack as a weapon.

Some of those glass ornaments have very pointy corners.

I could probably have gone to the junk shop and been successful, But it was tooooo far with the horrible rain.

I did however managed to find a christmas day dress- so it's an almost successful story! £5.99 from Oxfam for this navy blue lacy number- French connection. oooh (My charity shop policy is to only buy a better brand than I could usually afford i.e, no primark or tescos or anything like that- especially as half they time they're more expensive in the charity shop than they were new! I'll buy Topshop, and I've got some awesome dresses for work from charity shops- I rarely buy "vintage" as usually it isn't.)

On the way home I stopped at the bakers by the bus station for bread- because we're all out and I'm too lazy to drive to the supermarket and do the food shopping- It turned out to be a lucky break!

I got Traff and I some lush vegetable Samosas for lunch, and I got the biggest fondant fancy ever!

:)

It's the same height as my pint Cath Kidson mug and a little wider!

Cake craving destroyed.

Giving me the energy to vintage up my hair ready for heading into london.

It'll be lush to style it al up as it's miserable and raining so I'll only end up looking like a drowned rat otherwise- or end up with a bun or a ponytail.

We went straight to the northern end of the picadilly line once we got to london- we'd toyed with the idea of getting food in china town or heading up to camden first, but as we'd never been to Alexandra palace before we decided to play it safe and find the venue early.
We walked miles.
We got lost looking for somewhere to get food.
We finally gave p and got a subway each- walked out of the shop with them to be faced with 2 pubs serving food and the busses to the venue (If you ever go to Alexandra palace for a gig they run shuttle busses costing £1 from outside wood green tube station).

The palace has a father fair prospect of london!

We got there pretty early, but the venue is huge- honestly it's like an indoor festival with a food court and mobile bars (£5 per drink though- that a little steep even for london!)
The first support band were like an 80s marilyn manson love child called ghost.
Loads of effects and lighting and a flashy stage show to go with electonicy metally music- I don't know if it'll stand up to the youtube test later. we shall see.

Alice in Chains however were awesome.
Traff had the tickets for his Birthday present- he was so excited- and he sang all the way through the concert.
They only played 2 songs from their new album- everything else was of a 90s vintage- so everyone knew the words and joined in.
:D
And they played rooster which i my favourite.


We managed to get one of the first busses from the venue to the tube station- and a relatively empty tube rain back to St Pancras.
Then I listened to Traff so we missed the train. gah.

On the train on the way home some bloke was sick- and then some drunk man got on, grabbed Traff's leg and ranted on about how grateful he was we weren't polish. :S
Ah well, It's all adventures.

Beauty school dropout (Vintage hair workshop in Fancy), The new fridge & the curly fry tragedy

Yesterday evening I attended Sarah's workshop on vintage hairstyles.
I love my hair styled vintage- But I always have to pay Sarah to do it- So it's only ever done on special occasions- I'd like to have a pin up look all the time- And the point of the workshop was to teach us how to style our own hair.

The workshop was in my favourite cake shop in town! :) Fancy is lush- I especially recommend the chai latte and chocolate brownies.
Although, on this occasion I was restrained and had polenta cake- which transpired to be a mistake with my sideshow bob back combing I found a lot of polenta trapped in it.
Note to self- Stop eating cake to style hair!

I sort of mastered victory rolls- and the hair roll for the snood- Although this took me forever- but The woman I was working with who's a hairdresser assured me that my hair is just difficult to work with- and chastised me to washing it daily.



The next style was the full victory roll- 40s women wore their hair in a full roll round the head like guttering to prevent nasty accidents with machinery in factories- and just let the back part down for evenings or weekends- (So most 40s styles people wear are like "fancy going out 1940s hair).

My hair isn't quite long enough to be transformed into guttering- I was relieved because"
a) I'd barely managed victory rolls
b) It made everyone look like princess Margaret and not in a good way.

Next we moved on to a full up do with a scarf

This is a rolled fringe (mine is a bit big... something to work on!) one large victory roll just behind the rolled fringe (you eventually secure the scarf between them) 1 or 2 victory rolls on each side- until you're out of hair on the top and sides, then just twist the back part up and pin it.

The scarf is the tied on, and pinned where the bow is, rather than on the back.

This was a really tricky style. I'll practice it because I did like it in the end- but too much effort for most days!

On an unrelated note we also had some good luck yesterday- the leting agency have agreed to replace our fridge! yay!

So Traff emptied it when he got up- and I filled the sink up with water and put all the fridge dwelling foods into the water, and left the window open and the heating off.
This actually worked really well.
Expect that the bag of curly fries took on water. :( A sad end to an excellent and dearly loved snack.

The only thing which didn't fare so well were the vegi burgers- so we're having them for tea!

Another Bonus is that Today our "learn to speak Malay" audio CD and book came :)
We're going to be pros!

I started to try and crochet myself a snood this evening- I have the crochet down, but I think I need a bigger crochet hook otherwise it'll be more like a swimming hat than anything else!
I'm using the recycled Tibetan silk "wool" I bought from the hippy shop in Cambridge ages ago- It's surprisingly hard to work with as it's stubborn and quite inflexible- I'll post a picture of it if I ever manage to finish it!
I also had a go at victory rolls-


They're more "victory chelsea buns" but that's a good start, right?

Sarah is going to Trade me a hairdressing kit for a bag of tuppaware goodies- My mum gave them to me- but I just don't have the space for them in the house- There are some really cool jelly mounds, and serving dishes and a salad bowl with a grater attachment and a storage lid- all in various garish colours.

I was just going to charity shop them so getting a present in return is a massive bonus! :D And it'll encourage me to do my hair if I don't have to go out and buy anything to do it with. I styled my "chelsea bun" look with my normal hairbrush- it was OK to do but the backcombing was really difficult to remove- and the sections were difficult to make- I'm excited for having a proper comb and a backcombing brush- Less damage to my hair!

Sarah wants the Tupaware to make table decorations for her friends wedding- who is mad about the 70s- So, she's chuffed too.