Margaret Hale Academy of Tea-Pouring & Wallpaper Selection at the University of Milton Northern

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Welcome to our new common room which, as you would expect, is decorated in impeccable taste (despite the limited choice of wallpapers available in Milton Northern). Above the marble mantelpiece hangs a portrait of the Vice-Chancellor of the University. As we recline elegantly on the chaise longue, we partake of tea and ratafia biscuits and discuss the works of Plato, although in the evening the finest wines and Polish cordials may be served.

at Lucasade

No not a Gizzy fan particularly Lady D, I'm more into Lucas and our bad boy Soldier

So maybe we can have a party later this week if everyone is around?

Can you make a cake like this?

Please?

Phew, glad you knew what I meant :o But oh now I must talk to you about cake-making! It's something I often think of doing to make some money - I've made novelty cakes for years and sometimes think about doing it for cash but I don't think I'm good enough at it. It also drives me a bit crazy.

Party - definitely! Tomorrow or Friday best for me but can try to be around on Thursday if that suits most people.

Re. the clip - it's the way he effortlessly controls her, I think. Like she can't help but do his bidding :) It is SO dated though - LOL at her hair!

Oh, I'd lick the icing right off that one, Small...

Lady D, do not listen to Twigs being modest, she makes AMAZING cakes.

I'd lick almost anythin off that one Twigs

including a 'g'

Roght I'd better do some work as I am out at a very important function tonight

I'll have a good go, Small although I would worry it may end up looking rather more like one of these.

Yes, party next week - will there be a guest of honour?

Roght?? What am I, West Country? Right!

OMG Lady D those are hideous!

I am the guest of honour!

We like to dress up in our best frocks and invite a few guests to join us.

(I was joking about the guest of honour thing btw. I forgot my smiley )

Definitely going now.

Honest.

Twigs, I thought that when I started but people were happy to pay me for them and I haven't yet had anyone complain so I figure I'm better than I think!

I started off very slowly, making them for friends and gradually word spread round the village, then further beyond and 2 1/2 years on I do a couple a week, sometimes more. Once the youngest BabyD starts school in September I'm going to attempt to break into the wedding cake market as that's where the real money is but the birthday/christening/celebration side brings in enough to indulge my Amazon habit!

Oh I love CakeWrecks - brilliant website. I am really not very good at them though (eg. I can't do bodies at all) but I have got good at hiding mistakes and learning to adapt designs to my abilities - eg. having people peeking out from behind things so I don't have to make the whole body :)

Hope your important function goes well tonight, Small. Never forget what time it starts... and if you get cold later just relight the fire

I helped to make my wedding cake but it wasn't a traditional one at all, I could never be that neat, all that piping and latticework and whatnot I have said that I'll make my brother's wedding cake but SIL wants a traditional cake then I think I'll have to pass! Aaaah, my wedding cake was lovely though - everybody else would hate it I'm sure but it was a beautiful teal colour, with gold stars all over it and shooting out of the top, inspired by this

:)

Twigs, I can NOT do any of that fancy schmancy royal icing stuff, either. Luckily I've never been asked and wedding cakes trends seem to have veered away from that design in recent years. Unless Kate Middleton has triggered a revival in the very traditional designs I think I'll be okay!

Your wedding cake sounds absolutely beautiful, was it the talk of the wedding? (And, at risk of revealing my ignorance, what is the building?)

It is a clock tower in St.Mark's Square in Venice. It's not ignorant, you'd have no reason to know unless you'd been there! I think people were polite about it, rather than it being the talk of the wedding! "Oh, how... unusual!" :)

Personally, I would far rather see a wedding cake that's personal to the couple than a 'tasteful', 'on-trend' cake that could be seen at any number of weddings. I'd have said "Wow, it's amazing" and meant it .

Thank you, LadyD :) Are you married - did you make your wedding cake, if so?

Now, why am I talking about cake when I'm on a diet?

Oh and before you joined us, I think, we had this cake :)

Right, well I've watched some Pretty Spy Men abseiling down an embassy (I'm almost getting it Spiro, but not quite - though it adds a new dimension if one imagines that they are abseiling into one's bedroom, which I'm guessing you were :o) and I've painted a cupboard to alleviate my guilt at watching TV for an hour. Now it's off to get the boy - I think we might go and feed the ducks for a bit.

Just found this pic - swap the silver to gold and our wedding cake looked remarkably like this

Ah, yes. Darkness of Garb, Darkness of Heart: Black Leather as the Exemplification of Moral Complexity in Robin Hood has always been one of our more popular courses, although it must be remarkably difficult - some students have failed it repeatedly and had to retake the course several times.

My MN life is going full circle. I have just posted a pic of Mr Thornton in the one and only tea room, which is where I first met the naked Mohawk babies from the cake wreck site.

Is Small going to a Boy Scout jamboree?

What they think of him, Maud? Did they approve?