How to sell a house

For about 2 years now, on and off, I've been helping a friend's Mother-in-law look for a house to buy. She's relocating to Reading from Cambridgeshire and given how long her working day is, she's been unable to spend large amounts of time house hunting.

 

I've seen a lot of houses, good and bad and here are my tips for selling your home successfully.

 

1. Go through your house and throw out all the rubbish. If there's a lot, get friendly with a skip hire company. If you've only got a small amount of stuff to throw, a small skip will set you back about £85 and a good company will make sure that whatever is recyclable will be recycled. Go out into the garden and get rid of the broken toys, pots etc. Be ruthless. If it can't be repaired, or you won't repair it, there's no point in keeping it.
2. Go through all your own personal possessions. Think carefully about each item. Do you still use it? Does it hold huge sentimental value? If it isn't used and it isn't of either monetary or sentimental value, ask yourself why you're holding onto it. Work out what you can get rid of and donate it to charity, to a friend or sell it on an auction site or offer it up on Freecycle.
3. If you have children, go through the process outlined in No. 2 with them. Get them thinking about their own stuff. Help them part from the clothes that no longer fit them and the toys they no longer use. Talk to them about giving them away to friends or relatives, or if that's not possible, about giving them to charity and helping people who don't have as much as you. And if they don't co-operate, offer them up on Freecycle.
4. Repeat the whole decluttering process by covering the garden sheds and your loft space and do the same actions with everything you have in there.
5. Be ruthless. By now you should only be left with the things that you truly use and are precious to you. Having done this, you'll find that your removal bill will be significantly lower.
6. Go an buy yourself a number of new moving boxes and some packing tape. Box up everything that you don't use on a daily basis into the boxes and label them NEATLY on both the top and the sides and don't forget to write which room the box will go back into.
7. Again, do this same process with the kids. Restrict them to maybe 10-20 toys that they use regularly and pack up the rest. Once you've accepted an offer and the sale has progressed to the point of no return, they can have some of them back and it'll be like Christmas when you get to the new home and they rediscover all their valued items.
8. I suggest that you also box up lots of your books, DVDs and CDs. Full bookcases make a room look smaller, so make sure that you can see to the back of bookcases in about 50% of your shelves. Put a few decorative items in some of the gaps to pull the eye to the back of the bookcase.
9. Clear the tops of your cupboards. Everywhere. Kitchen, bathroom, dining room, bedroom wardrobes. Seriously. If its being stored on top of a cupboard, you're not using it every day. You can afford to be without it until you move into your new home. Potential buyers will look up. If you've packed everything in up to the ceiling, your rooms will feel smaller.
10. Reduce the number of knick knacks you have out by at least half. Put away personal photos unless they're attached to the wall (because you'll have to either replace them with something else or remove the hooks and make the walls good).
11. Box up all your bed linen and towels etc except for one set for each bed and a spare set to wash, and one towel to use per person and a spare to wash. Keep the bed linen neat by putting the sets together and put them into the pillow case. Buy a set of new, white or cream fluffy towels for your bathroom/s. only put them out for viewings and threaten your family within an inch of their lives if they use them. This will cost you maybe £25 but will freshen up your bathroom considerably.
12. Box up most of your crockery, cutlery, glassware etc. Keep out only what you need. Firstly, your cupboards will look neater and you'll have less to wash up before viewings.
13. Now, where to store this stuff: your removers may be prepared to store this for you for an additional charge. This is the best solution as you don't have the hassle of getting the stuff out of the house and they'll arrange secure storage. However, if this is out of your budget, ask friends and family if they are able to store it for you temporarily. Just make sure you're able to get it all back before Removal Day. If that is not possible, then either store in a garage, loft, or a little-used room. Stack the boxes neatly and make sure they are not stacked too high so that the room doesn't feel closed in. Don't disguise them - buyers will understand that you're preparing to move and it will actually make you appear keen and organised.
14. Go through your kitchen cupboards and throw out all your out of date food.
15. Now clean everything. Everything. All your kitchen cupboards, the cupboard under the stairs, the garage, the loft, the bathroom. Wipe down all your doors, surfaces, windows. Everything. Clean out your fridge and wipe it all down - even if you plan to take it with you. Clear cobwebs off the ceiling and take down all lampshades and dust them. Dust the extractor fans in the bathrooms and kitchen.
16. Make your beds. Believe me, people do not want to see your unmade bed.
17. Vacuum. Everywhere. Mop floors that need mopping.
18. Go through the house and make a note of every little thing that needs fixing. You might like to ask a friend or neighbour to go through the house and point out all the flaws. You will probably have stopped noticing that patch of flaking paint on the ceiling in the hallway. They won't.
19. Fix all the things on that list that you possibly can. If its a patch of wall where you patched a hole, painting over the patch shouldn't be rocket science. Tighten the screws on the light switch panels. Scrape the paint off the tiles where it was left when you repainted the bathroom. If you've got a damp patch on the ceiling, have someone investigate why it's there. You might decide not to fix it, but a potential buyer will be relieved to hear that you know what the cause of it is. If you can't afford to fix it, at least be aware of what the problem is.
20. If you have coloured toilet seats, or wood ones that are a little scruffy, replace them with white ones (or ones that match the toilet if it is coloured). A new toilet seat goes a long way to making the entire bathroom work.
21. That's your house sorted. But having a badly kept house next door can harm your sale. An unkempt garden is nothing, but a garden filled with rubbish that stinks will stop dead any purchase. If you can't find the owner and ask them to clean up, contact the council for help.

Now, you can invite an estate agent. Remember that in the UK, estate agents are not required to have any qualifications, nor are they registered with any authority. This doesn't mean that all agents are bad, it just means that they might not have the knowledge you expect them to. Also remember that they are competing with other agents for your business, so they are likely to tell you what they think you want to hear in order to win your business. Estate agents have a really bad rep that isn't always justified. Be nice to them. Ask your friends if they've heard of good agents in your area. Ask at least three firms to come in and quote.

The Internet has a lot to answer for. In my experience over the last two years, because most people start their search through the various house selling websites, agents have become used to people pulling all the information from the Internet instead of using printed brochures. Choose an agent who appears to be proactive and enthusiastic about your property. Here is what I think an agent should do for you as a minimum:

• Arrange to take photos of ALL of your house and make sure that they take different angles of each of the rooms to show off each room at its best. And they should use something above a basic point and shoot camera. I'm not asking them to have a Hasselblad, but it should be better than an entry-level digital.
• Publish a brochure which includes the full EPC (energy performance certificate) and your council tax band, includes a floor plan and uses the best photos. They are only required to publish the graph section of the EPC which grades the energy efficiency of your house, but the full certificate includes estimates energy costs and that can really help some assess whether or not they can afford your house over someone else's.
• Put all the photos they took up on the Internet listing, put on a floor plan and include the size of your garden. They should also do a description of the features of the house.
• Do as many of the viewings as possible. Buyers will be more comfortable to poke around if you're not there.
• Market your house to their customer base, but only send you the ones who aren't time wasters. Depending on the market at the time, you might wish to state that only buyers in a position to move are sent around.
• That they take all offers and prospective buyers do not negotiate with you.
• They should "interview" you about your house. They represent you when showing people around, so in my opinion, they should learn as much as they can about the house. Whoever does the interview should write up a potted history that is available to all the agents to that they can appear knowledgable about your house
• They do all the chasing of prospective buyers. You should not have buyers contact details at all.

When they finally tell you what they think your house is worth, treat this with a lot of scepticism. Agents have a tendency to over inflate their valuations in order to win your business. A good agent will tell you that they'll market your house at X but you should be prepared to accept Y. There is usually at least £10,000 difference between these figures. Do not tell one agent what another's valuation is. This only gives them fuel to try and win your business. Take some initiative yourself: have a look at Zoopla. This site will compare your house with others in the area that have already sold and give you an estimate of what yours is worth. It's not definitive, but is a good guide.

The onus is on you to make sure that the information included in your description and documentation is correct. Yes, there are laws about estate agents misrepresenting your house, but if they accidentally leave a window off the floor plan, no one in authority will care but the people looking at your listing (and this is a true story) will notice the master bedroom has no windows and may not even bother to view.

Viewings

Inevitably, you will have to do some viewings. Most estate agents don't offer an extended hours service, or a Sunday service. But, if you want to sell quickly, choosing an agent who does offer this will be an advantage. But there may be the odd occasion where they just don't have someone available to do the viewing.

So here are my tips for doing viewings:

• Before the viewing, run around the house with the vacuum and dust down surfaces. Tuck toys away and make sure there are no shoes or coats in the hallway. Clear out your everyday towels and put in your white, fluffy towels (hide the towels folded neatly in the top of a wardrobe, or fold them neatly and put them at the bottom of the person's bed).
• Close all the doors to bedrooms and doors leading to the hallway. You don't want to reveal too much at once. A buyers mind becomes overloaded if they see into several rooms at once.
• Turn on all the lights.
• Make sure the front door is welcoming. If the weather is conducive, a couple of pots of flowers brightens up a door. This holds true regardless of whether you're doing the viewing or the agent is.
• Some people recommend having fresh cut flowers on display. Personally, I hate this. It adds clutter to the house and if you end up having your house on the market for 12 months, that's a LOT of flowers!
• I recommend airing the house about an hour before the viewing, but give enough time before buyers arrive to close the windows and let the house warm up again. Make sure your house is reasonably warm.
• Ask buyers to remove their shoes. Even if you don't normally have this habit, it makes you appear fastidious about your cleaning. Also, you have no idea where they've been.
• Invite them to take off their coats and make themselves comfortable. That's why you cleared to coat rack.
• In UK houses, most showings start with the Living Room, progress to the Dining Room then the kitchen, utility and downstairs loos if the house has them. Go upstairs and you do the bedrooms in order of size then the bathroom. You don't have to open the loft but be prepared to answer questions about it. Finally, collect the buyers shoes for them and exit to the back garden.
• Once you've given them time to ask questions about each space, dissolve into the woodwork as much as you can and leave them to look around the house at their leisure. Don't hover. This will make them nervous. Reassure them that they are free to look inside any cupboards and behind any doors. If the weather is reasonable, find an excuse to go out into the garden and leave them alone. A good initial viewing will take no more than 30 minutes unless your house is huge. Don't engage in casual chat with them, or give them a blow by blow account of last year's BBQ where the next door neighbour got incredibly drunk.
• On a second viewing, they'll probably have a list of questions to ask. This is where if the estate agent has done their homework, they'll earn their fee. They should know the council tax fees and approximately how much your energy bills are (the full EPC has projected costs written on it, but remember they're not required by law to publish that on the documentation). Anything they are not able to answer, they should be prepared to note down and ask you quickly.
• If you're not present during the second or subsequent viewings, make sure that you are contactable immediately after so that the agent can get answers quickly. If that's not possible, make sure they know exactly when you'll be contactable so they can tell the buyers when they'll be talking to you.
• Don't be surprised or annoyed at requests for three or even four, five or six viewings. Buying a house is usually the biggest purchase of our lives and people need time to make up their minds carefully.

My final tip is Be Patient. The whole house buying/selling process in the UK takes time. Governments have tried to streamline the process but until banks stop charging Stupid Money on bridging loans, the chain system of buying will remain in place and I, for one encourage the due diligence that solicitors, surveyors etc all do.

 

Posted with Blogsy on my iPad

Yes, you can have pie

Today I picked up a recipe book written specifically to give you tasty, filling recipes that are low-fat and low-carb. Their chicken and ham pie is good, coming in at about 430 calories per serve but I felt it could be improved upon.

 

The Filo pastry is tremendous. It gives the feeling that you're having pastry without the extra calories and simple carbohydrates that puff or shortcrust pastry gives. Although it doesn't qualify as frugal cooking as breast meat is quite expensive, at the moment, it is more important for me to lose weight.

 

Ingredients:

500g chicken breasts chopped into bite-sized pieces

300g wafer-thin cooked ham cut into 1cm squares

1-2 onions, chopped finely

1-2 leeks, sliced

2-4 carrots, sliced into circles

300g mushrooms roughly chopped

250ml water

5ml soy sauce

200g low-fat creme fraiche

100g low-fat natural yoghurt

2-4 garlic cloves crushed

1 chicken stock cube

2 tsp plain flour

Olive oil in a pump spray

 

For the pastry:

4 sheets filo pastry

12.5-15ml sunflower oil

 

Method:

Spray a non-stick frying pan with the olive oil and put the onions in to fry, stirring until they're translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the chicken, keep stirring until all the pieces of chicken are cooked on the outside. Add the leeks and carrots and turn the heat up.

 

Add about 200mls of the water and crumble the stock cube and stir to dissolve. Add soy sauce and continue to cook on the high heat until the liquid has reduced by about two thirds. Transfer to a large casserole and sprinkle the flour and disperse the ham evenly over the mixture. Stir in the creme fraiche and yoghurt and season with lots of black pepper. Push the mixture down until it is evenly spread across the dish.

 

Pre-heat the oven to 200°c/Fan 180°c/Gas 6.

 

Stack the sheets of filo pastry on top of each other and cut into nine pieces. Using just the tip of a pastry brush, dip into the sunflower oil and brush both sides of the pasty. Scrunch each piece up until you've done all 36 pieces.

 

Arrange the scrunched pieces of pastry on the top of the mixture. Place the pie in the oven and cook for 30-35 minutes until the filo is golden on top.

 

Serve with green vegetable. The original recipe said to not add potatoes, but I think you need a few new potatoes to keep you fuller for longer - about 100-120g, roasted with just one spray of olive oil.

 

This should serve four at 331 calories per serving (without potatoes or green veg).

 

And just in case you're wondering, I've lost 10.1kg (22.3lbs) in 7.5 weeks.

Posted with Blogsy on my iPad

Arty blogs

Just to let you know that from now onwards I'm going to post art-related stuff over on my other blog Inkingly Mine and save this blog for the other stuff.

 

Posted with Blogsy on my iPad

More recipes to share

I'm back on the whole "losing weight" thing again. I refuse to call it a diet because a diet sounds temporary. This is a permanent change. I'm not following any particular plan but I'm going to a low-fat, low-simple-carbohydrates food regime. Previously, I used to allow myself larger quantities of carbohydrate but only if it were complex - wholemeal flour, wholemeal pasta etc. Now, I'm not limiting it, just applying portion control on everything I eat. I've mentioned some of the things I've been cooking to friends and they expressed interest in having the recipes.

 

These three recipes rely on cauliflower. It sounds strange, but trust me, the cauliflower is essential for moistness and to reduce the total carbohydrate significantly.

 

To prepare the cauliflower for these recipes, cut the stem out of the cauliflower and cut into florets. Place a quarter at a time into a food processor and blitz with the blade until about the consistency of short-grain rice. Put into an airtight container and freeze. When you need to use it, take it out of the freezer and place back in the food processor with the blade and blitz until crumbly again.

 

Pizza muffins

 

Ingredients:

80g finely chopped onion

80g finely chopped peppers

80g wholemeal self-raising flour

10g baking powder

80g cauliflower rice as prepared above

10g chopped fresh oregano or 5g dried

5g sugar (I use Truvia to reduce the calories further)

40ml skimmed milk

40g crumbled low-fat feta

30g tomato paste

1 large egg, beaten

30g chopped black olives

2.5g garlic granules

Olive oil in a pump spray

 

Method:

Spray a non-stick frying pan with a little oil and fry off the onions until tender. Add the peppers. When cooked transfer to a small bowl to cool.

Heat the oven to 200°C and spray a muffin pan with oil.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, cauliflower rice, baking powder, oregano, sugar and garlic granules together.

Stir milk, feta, egg, tomato paste and olives into the onion mixture.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients and combined until just mixed.

Split the mixture between the 12 muffin cups and bake until golden for about 15-18 minutes. Leave in the pan to cool for 5 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack.

 

60 calories for muffin. These make very shallow muffins. You can push the boat out and double the recipe for more of a meal rather than a snack. Or, use the standard quantity and use a 24-piece muffin pan for a party muffin.

 

Banana bread

 

The banana and sugar (sweetener) mask all taste of the cauliflower. But, with the addition of cauliflower the cooking time is extended and varies from oven to oven and depends heavily on the shape of the tin.

 

Ingredients:

120g lightest spreadable butter (my preference is Lurpak).

65g Truvia or other stevia-based sweetener.

120g wholemeal self-raising flour.

120g cauliflower rice as prepared above.

10g baking soda.

2 eggs.

Between 2-4 bananas (depends on the size and ripeness of the bananas, better to have a little more than you think).

 

Method:

Put the butter and sweetener into the mixer and mix using the plastic blade. Lift the lid and scrape the sides until the butter and sweetener are creamed.

Peel the bananas and rip into chunks and add to the mix while blending.

Stop the mixer and add the flour half at a time until everything is thoroughly mixed.

Pour the batter into a non-stick 2lb loaf tin and place in a pre-heated oven at 180°c (170°c for fan) for 40 minutes. Reduce temperature to 150°c (140°c) and cook for a further 40 minutes.

 

124 calories per slice.

 

Pizza base:

 

All the cauliflower does in this is reduce the carbohydrate by about half and makes a wholemeal pizza base a little lighter.

 

Ingredients:

250g wholemeal self-raising flour.

375g cups of cauliflower rice

80ml cup skimmed milk

65ml sunflower oil

Pump spray filled with oil

 

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 190° c.

Put all ingredients into a bowl and mix until mixture leaves the side of the bowl. Gather the dough into a ball and knead 10 times to make smooth. Divide the ball into two.

On a lightly-floured board roll each half into a 30cm circle.

Turn up the edges 1cm and pinch.

Spray surface with oil.

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

Cover with chosen toppings and bake for a further 10-12 minutes.

 

Makes 2 pizzas. Half a pizza per serving is 367 calories. Load the toppings with lots of vegetables, lean meat and a very sharp cheese.

 

Posted with Blogsy on my iPad

It's amazing what you can get done...

...when you don't have a three-year-old going "Mummy, Mummy, Mummy"!

 

Yesterday afternoon while G was having her afternoon nap (I'm not sure how much actual sleeping she gets done, but it's two hours of quite time for both of us), I hauled out my travelling crafting stuff and started to play with some of the things I was given at Stitches (the UK craft Trade Show) this year.

 

So this morning while G is off having her first trial morning at Nursery School, I'm compiling together some of my discoveries. Most of this will be old hat to the more seasoned crafters (I'm Leading Edge, not Bleeding Edge), some of you may have not had a chance to play or have had failed attempts.

 

I'm playing today with the Spellbinders Nestabilities Majestic Elements. I took at workshop with Kim Hupke at Stitches and she very generously gave us each something to take home. This was my choice.

 

This is the set as it comes out of the packet. There are seven different dies in the set but the possible combinations are amazing. I understand that they are also sized to work with other Nestibilities so if you have them, it becomes mind boggling as to what you can achieve. The first thing I do when I get a new set of dies is to cut them out on plain paper to see what they look like cut. This gives me ideas of what might be possible. With these dies, they are so incredibly intricate that I think doing a plain cut is essential. Even if you choose to use them rather than keep them for reference, at least you'll have an idea of what is possible with them.If you're doing this with the Nestabilities, note that it is fiddle to get them lined up properly. You will need some low-tack tape. If you don't have any to hand (like me), normal tape will do, but rub it a few times on your trousers to remove some of the stickiness.

 

If you own a shop, position your low-tack tape right next to the spellbinder dies so that customers can easily pick them up when they buy the dies and if they approach the counter holding the dies, take the opportunity to suggest the additional purchase.

 

After taping all the dies down, I ran them through my Big Shot. Here is my sandwich recipe for the perfect cut using standard cardstock:

 

- Multipurpose Platform with all the tabs on it

- 2-3 sheets of lightweight cardstock

- Cutting plate

- Cardstock I'm cutting face up

- Dies cutting side down

- Cutting plate

 

When you run this sandwich through the machine, it should resist going through but not completely halt. If it goes through relatively easily, add another sheet of cardstock at the second layer. If it is too stiff, remove a sheet. I ru. It through and then just before it releases, rewind it back through the machine just to be sure. Never force a sandwich through the machine.

 

On these very intricate designs, you may find after a couple of uses that the dies are difficult to remove. Spellbinders advise to put a piece of wax paper between the die and the cardstock. since we don't have wax paper here in the UK, rub over the surface with a wax candle, blitz it with your heat gun and then rub down with a cloth to take off the excess.

This is the set, cut, embossed and stencilled. You can see there is some really fine detail that gets picked out when you emboss over the top. I've used Walnut Stain Distress Ink to really show up the details.

 

Some of the dies only emboss and stencil, not cut. It's fun to play around and see what you can come up with.

 

Next thing I've done is cut each die out separately so I could see exactly what each die is capable of.

You can see from the above photo that the fourth largest and smallest dies don't cut out a frame, but I'm imagining how the fourth largest would look on a photo.

 

My final thing I've done is to try out the die cut in a couple of ways. Firstly, I used No.1 and No. 3, taped both dies down and cut and embossed them. I removed the tape while leaving the dies in place and inked over the dies. I really love the sharp edges you get from inking over the die.

 

Finally, using No. 1, No. 4 and No. 5 I cut using a tomato paste tube. I have a few tips for using these.

 

- Cut the top and bottom off the tube as close to the ends as possible.

- Cut a sliver of tube off the side and unfold.

- Wash thoroughly (I throw them in the dishwasher).

- Run them through your die cutting machine as though you were embossing it to flatten it.

- now it's ready to die cut.

 

My sandwich recipe for cutting and embossing the tomato paste tubes on a Big Shot using Spellbinder dies is as follows:

 

To Cut:

- Multipurpose Platform with all the tabs on it

- 3-4 sheets of lightweight cardstock

- Cutting plate

- Tomato past tube I'm cutting with the inside face up

- Dies cutting side down

- Cutting plate

 

To Emboss:

- Multipurpose Platform with the top tab pulled back

- Cutting plate

- Die face up with cut cardstock on top

- Embossing pad

- Embossing plate

 

There are a few things you need to take into account when cutting metal. Firstly, metal picks up more detail than cardstock does. If your cutting plates are very old and therefore quite marked, some of this texture may show through on the final cut. Secondly, you'll need to tape the dies down before you run them through for the cut pass. No matter how steady your hand is, they will shift. However, if we go back to the previous point about metal picking up more detail, you need to remove the tape before you run through for the embossing pass or you'll end up with some very nice tape marks on the metal. Finally, the tiny little holes will not cut on tomato tubes. Although the metal is very soft and pliable making it ideal for this treatment, it is thick enough that it simply cannot cut these tiniest of holes. I actually like the look - little dimples.

If you're a teacher like me and you're planning to use these dies in a class, can I please advise you of one thing: design the class so that the students cut out their own die cuts. Although this will complicate things if you've either got lots of students and/or only one machine, trying to cut out all the dies needed for a class will drive you insane. In fact, if you can't see any other way of doing the class than having the dies pre-cut, hire a errant teenager to do this. The hours of poking little pieces of paper out of the dies will be punishment enough for any transgression committed.

I think you'll really love these dies. The delicacy of the finished die cut is amazing. They almost look like lacework. I almost wish they were my idea!

 

Posted with Blogsy on my iPad

Test posting

 

Posted with Blogsy on my iPad

Granny's Shortbread

Shhh. You're not allowed to share this recipe with anyone. Nah, not really. This is the recipe for shortbread that my granny taught to my mum and she to her children. I'm sure granny learned it from her mum and she from her mum etc. and so this is the most authentic shortbread I've ever come across. What is really good about it is that it is simple to remember:

• 4 parts plain flour
  
• 2 parts butter
• 1 part sugar

This means you can scale the recipe up and down as you need it.Method:

Rub the butter and flour together until the butter has disappeared into the flour. Add the sugar and continue to mix and it will eventually start to clump together. Put a handful onto a clean surface and then press the mixture together until you have a circle of shortbread with no clumps falling off. Pinch around the edges, prick the surface with a fork to decorate and sprinkle a small amount of white sugar on the top. Cut the circles into quarters and place on a greased baking tray and cook in a low oven for about 35 minutes, just until they start to go golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before allowing people to tuck in.

Now, that's what mum taught me. It was all done by hand and since I had an accident falling down a flight of stairs and badly damaged my left hand, I find the manual combining of the ingredients and the pressing it into disks very hard to do. So, here's my new variation.

• 250g soft butter - really soft
  
• 125g Demerara sugar (I find it gives a nuttier taste)
• 450g sifted plain flour

Using a food processor, blend the butter and sugar together until thoroughly mixed. Add the butter/flour mixture to the sifted flour. Combine with your hands until it all starts to clump together.Now, you'll need one of those hamburger presses. Mine is from Tupperware. Dust a tiny amount of flour in the hamburger form and a little on the underside of the press. Take a fistful of mixture (about halfway between a golfball and a tennis ball in size) and form it into a loose sphere. Place in the hamburger press and push down hard to spread the ball out into the hamburger form. Once the mixture is spread evenly over the form and you've pressed far harder than you think you need to, turn the pressed shortbread out onto a clean surface. Cut the circles carefully into quarters, prick the surface and dust with white sugar as before. Transfer to a baking sheet covered with non-stick baking paper or equivalent and bake in a low oven (160°c) for about 35 minutes. Much easier on the hands.

 

Posted with Blogsy on my iPad

Studio Organistion - May

I'm sorry everyone, but there will be no challenge for May. April has been a very full month and I've been unable to do any work in the studio.

Come back in June for the next installment.

Judi


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Eastercon - Olympus 2012

Oh, it's so nice to be home!

Just about every year, Zandy and I (and now with G) go to this strange thing called Eastercon. It sounds like a really strange thing to go to, but with its own context it is a wondrous thing.

After all, can you imagine any profession where a conference is held once a year that both people within the profession and ordinary people can go to and mingle freely, meeting and discussing a huge variety of subjects of interest to the profession, garnering opinions from the people who use the profession, that people can network (or not, if they want to) and freely share information, where the professionals eat and drink in the same spaces as the consumer, for four days, in one hotel?

Well, if you're an aspiring science fiction/fantasy writer, Eastercon is a good place to be. As well as having the opportunity to meet very well successful writers like George R R Martin (I've also met Anne McCaffrey, Robin Hobb, Iain Banks and Charles Stross) you can rub shoulders with editors and publishers from the major Science Fiction/Fantasy labels and genre magazines and meet others in the same boat as you. Buy them a drink and compare notes of how to cope with rejection. You can go to panels to discuss how to avoid the biggest potholes in your plot (one panel discussion was on how to get published) and others on tips to improve your craft.

If All Things Literary Isn't for you, you might go into the games room and play a myriad of games. You might join the costumers and create something marvellous for the masquerade or costume ball. You might wander through the art show and see work from some of the most successful artists hanging alongside art from new people. You might have the opportunity to see Mitch Benn live (and for free), or knit a Clanger or Dalek. And there's so much more to do and see.

This is Eastercon.

The Guardian has written an excellent article here about the community of SF and how there is something for everyone, to coin a phrase.

But at the end of the weekend, you pack up your room and leave the cocooned space where fairies magically appear and make your bed and clean your dishes, and you return to harsh reality where your house is 11.9°C and the nappies need folding.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Radisson Edwardian, Heathrow