Jam Tarts and Jummy Dresses

Goodness gracious I was in a dark mood yesterday! But that's how it goes, and the days that just keep getting darker and darker ( yeah, we're heading for the period of the year when the sun never rises above the horizon here ) or the fact that less than pleasant things just seem to be popping out of the woodwork at a really rather alarming rate) , but despite all that, today ended up being a, well, a rather pleasant day in it's perfectly normal and dull everydayness.  

One would be forgiven thinking that if you'd be feeling kind of, well, shitty physically, the last thing you'd want to be doing is baking. Ok, so maybe not the last thing but that it wouldn't rate too high on a list of things-to-do-right-now. Perhaps so. But seeing as my Sister and my Mother we're both coming for a cuppa, I just wanted to make something easy. And sweet. And did I already say easy? So, Jam Tarts.  English Jam Tarts. To go with the cuppa, you see...

So first the dough. As my Mother said after tasting these, it is indeed the most basic sweet pie dough imaginable. This one by Joy of Baking would work out fine. If you check that site you can see that mine look quite different, and one of the reasons for that is that I used sort of miniature pie ramekins and not a muffin pan. One of the other reasons is certainly the fact that as always, I was again highly unorthodox in my baking. Mixed together all the jams I could find from the fridge. Sort of threw in a seemingly nice amount of butter. You know the deal. And they came out mouthwateringly sweet and jammy. And since I really don't do light, I just had to see how they would taste with a bit of whippy on top...

You can tell how it tasted, can't you...

Lovely. And it's also lovely to have my baking groove back, since tonight I am supposed to make a Father's Day cake for tomorrow. It is already filled and waiting to be decorated in the fridge. I am thinking chocolate ganache. I am thinking sugar features. But we'll see, I'll post pictures when it's done.

And on to another topic. It's the Christmas Party Season coming on. And as I've mentioned before,  I have somewhat shrunk and was therefore thinking about getting myself a nice new dress, one of those dresses that you can just slink into and feel fantastic and comfortable at the same time. One that does not require a girdle or some such contraption. I value my ability to breath too much...

I mean, I do own a few of that sort of undergarments ( well, obviously not quite like the one above ) but damn if they're anything but sheer torture. Ok, so the ones I am talking about might look nice but who on earth wants to have steel sticking to your bits for hours when you're supposed to be enjoying yourself? Not me that's for sure. And the Spanx sort of thingys? Aahhhh, well now, I have tried one of those contraptions on once, and was getting mightily sweaty and pissed off before I had even managed to get that thing above my hips. No no no no no. And yet I do like a sort of vintagey figure on my dresses. I mean just look at this...

Yeah, love her.

And while I technically also love the sort of 1950's figure with the nipped in waist and acres of hem...

...I am also aware that dresses of this shape always need some fixing up to fit me. Sooo, anyhow, I was thinking of something along these lines...

This one is by Heyday.

Yeah, I know. It would seem that this too would require some hard working underwear, but really, no. For some reason the 1940's just works for me. I actually did make one almost exactly like this last summer during my blogging hiatus, and I still love it. Only it now needs to be taken in and is of a too summery material. Not sure of the poufy sleeves though, as I have some shoulders all of my own, so might tone that down a bit. And just so that you know, I did think of just buying a dress and being done with it. Not going to happen. Everything that seems to be available is either geared towards making the wearer the centerpiece, as in the Christmas Tree, just plain ugly or hideously expensive. Or all three at the same time. So, off to the fabric store on Monday it is....or not, since I just remembered I have some rather unpleasant business on Monday, but Tuesday then...

Which brings me to shoes. Well, for once a perfectly lighthearted post amidst all this gloomy existential musing. Nice! Now, I am strange with shoes. No, not that kind of strange. Strange as in for example I own a pair of black, high heeled, knee length leather boots bought fifteen years ago that I still wear. The zippers have been replaced a couple of times, they've been rehealed and sewn back together, and I fully expect to keep them for the next fifteen years. This kind of strange. I very rarely find the kind of shoes I both like and can wear so I tend to stick with the ones I have. Sorry, market economy... Oh, and the 'can wear' being due to the fact that my feet are rather nicely deformed thanks to all those hours of en pointe.

I still think dancing en pointe is one of the most beautiful 
things there is to watch but 
kind to your poor feet it is not.

Now where was I? Kind of got distracted by thinking about dancing...yeah, shoes. Heels, probably. Never mind the fact that in serious heels I tower over practically all of the females and most males as well, I have never let it stop me. I like wearing my heels. Only sometimes, they're simply just not practical. Enter ballerina flats. Which I love dearly as well but I think that this dress is screaming for heels. Sooooo. Shoes sorted. I am actually kind of finding this amusing, since I am certainly normally so not a very fashiony sort of person. Far from it. I just wear what I feel like wearing. If it is grandad shirts with the plainest jeans on planet, then that's what it is. On the other hand if it is stockings instead of pantyhose, then so be it. And by the way, I think pantyhose is a devil's creation, second possibly only to Spanx and corsets...

But now it's getting to be time to wrap this up. Still going to do some stocking searching, cuban heel or should I go for the french? Tough, tough decisions ahead...

I have actually found writing this post both exhilarating and weirdly liberating. Sometimes, when life gets to be just too dark and full of things that shouldn't really be happening at all, it's good to be all frivolous and superficial for a while. It doesn't mean that you're running away and hiding from your difficulties, it's just a bit of healthy escapism. 

Works for me.