Ten things

• I've entered two of my tops into the 2010 Spring Top Week competition, by Made by Rae. As I've been making so many tops these past few weeks it seemed rude not to. This sudden spring weather has got so many people sewing tops.  You can see all the other fantastic entries in this Flickr pool.
• I made a great loaf of bread for supper the other night.  It is a batter bread, rather than a dough bread, so does not need to rise.  Recipe here.  My children won't eat olives or asparagus, so I made it just with sundried tomatoes, herbs and cheese and it was a roaring success.

• O has gone up a grade at ballet and now wears a red leotard which really suits her. She suddenly looks so elegant and grown up.
• She learnt how to ride her bike at the weekend, and I shrieked like a mad woman when she cycled away from me for the first time.  So exciting!
• The garden is full of cherry blossom, drifting down from our tree.  It looks nearly as pretty on the patio as it does on the tree.
• I made a peanut butter cake this week.  It's another BBC Good Food recipe, which you can see here.  I left the peanuts off the top, and used crunchy rather than smooth peanut butter, but otherwise stuck faithfully to the recipe.  Really, really good.
• I am reading Mathilda Savitch by Victor Lodato, which is brilliant and energising. Next up is Wolf Hall, which I've been waiting to come out in paperback for what seeems like ages.  I'm glad I waited though, because the paperback is pretty chunky and the hardback would have been far too heavy to lug around in my handbag.
• The next top I'm going to make for me is the trapeze sundress from Weekend Sewing.  And I'm also going to make O a top version of the Oliver + S ice cream sundress, which I think I will like better on her than the dress version.
• I've been cutting up scrap fabrics and making bunting for the past few days.  Cutting up huge piles of fabrics with pinking shears is hard on the hands.
• I took some photos of the bunting, but struggled to get it all in one shot. So I took a film of it, which then turned into a film of the chickens.  Have a look - you'll find out what a broody hen sounds like!