Pink domesticity...

Last week I made these pink oven gloves in an attempt to soften the new cream glass splashback that sits above the cooker, mastic-ed to the wall. I am wishing that it was pink...but even more than that I'm really wishing that I had insisted on going through with my original idea: a transparent sheet of glass that would protect a little injection of colour in the form of some delicious pink wallpaper or fabric; glass that would have been screwed to the wall with little stainless steel caps so that I could take it down and replace the decoration behind whenever I felt like a change. I am mourning the loss of this piece of loveliness that might have been...and waiting for the passing of five years, by which time it might not look quite so frivilous to rid of the solid cream splashback and replace it with what I had originally dreamt of. In the meantime these little mitts that I made using some of the lovely Amy Butler that my mother bought me for my birthday do provide some comfort.

I have never quilted anything before and so this was a really good small project to sample it on....and I absolutely loved it, there's something so unchallenging about ploughing up and down the lines that I'd marked out that I found it a very absorbing and restful activity. Yet again, my walking foot was the most wonderful sewing companion, even if it was a little noisy.

For the pattern I drew around some old, charred, oven gloves, but decided to adapt it a little as I didn't want binding on mine...which was a good thing as it's such a very tiresome thing to try and install nicely!

Anyway, as this post is about such a very domestic item, I feel it is the perfect opportunity to share with you a tip someone told to me recently, that delights me every time I try it. It involves a bottle of the deliciously scented Baby Oil and a fat roll of kitchen towel for all the fun to come. It appears that after years of slugging away over previous stainless steel ovens with various cleaning products and e-cloths, only to be left with smudges and dull patches, that actually, all that I really needed was the Baby Oil from the children's nursery. It is quite amazing. You just put a small amount on with some kitchen towel, wipe it around and it will get rid of any troublesome splats that may have leapt from the saucepan and leave the surface looking completely and evenly shiny, and it even leaves a light film that seems to repel pesky fingerprints. It also leaves me wanting to cuddle my oven and being happily transported back to my babies' early days. It is a very good thing indeed.