Shoes and coffee...

...two things that make girls tick*, and it would appear that Makies are no different. Prof Plink has spent her Saturday morning trying on new shoes, fresh off of the plane from Hong Kong and stopping for a tasty caffeine-laden beverage.

Pink DMs and black converse! Woo!

Mmm coffee... yes, that is a tiny creamer and a tiny tiny packet of sugar. Whee!

I'm impressed with the Re-ment miniatures sets. Mine came from Amazon, ordered last week and arrived from Hong Kong today (surprisingly speedy, all things considered). They're a good scale for Makies and the detail is superb. The only slight snag is that they're sold blind-boxed, so you don't know what kit you're going to end up with (this is why I now have a washing-up set sat downstairs), but there are plenty of open sets available on the bay of E for your delight and perusal.

Not entirely sure what happens if you mix Makies with caffeine. Shall be finding out shortly, no doubt.

*yes, this girl too.

SCIENCE, yeah!

We can now reveal the focus of experiment one...

She wanted a laser pointer. I said NO.

Results are currently being analysed and typed up... more cups of tea are required.

Incidentally, if anyone is as bonkers as me (and has spare time on their hands), the Journal of Makie Science is accepting submissions of case reports, observational studies and original research. It'd be great if you can submit this in 'scientific paper' format, but given it's a bit of fun, panic not! Photographs of interesting research happily accepted. I'll dress it up and make it look pretty, then publish it online in a few weeks. Submissions to duckiemonster at gmail.com 

Accessories are important!

As a card-carrying speccy fours wearer, I'm delighted that Plink's glasses arrived. They're not just for making everything that little bit less blurry, they're essential face furniture for accessorising and creating a LOOK.

We've had some fun painting the glasses today; Plink was originally kicking up for purple, but given that we've got got any in at the moment, we decided on blue in the meantime. I'll hit up a Warhammer shop and grab something suitable violently violet in the near future.

The finish on these is apparently 'regal blue', with 'dwarven bronze' accents. Prof Plink is pleased.

Rocking a bit of a Mad Men look? 

Prof Plink

Today, there has been a lot of dressmaking for me. This afternoon, however, there was a short outbreak of SCIENCE, precipitated by the arrival of my nerd glasses and Makie bits.

Staring wistfully into the middle distance, Professor Plink ponders
the exact wording of her Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

The project is cooking right now, but we'll bring you results hot off of the lab bench as and when they happen... assuming things don't get all explodey first. Always a risk with Makies.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

This morning, my quiet 'lie in bed and catch up with twitter before I get up' time was interrupted by what only can be described as a kerfuffle from downstairs. There were bangs. There was the odd clang. There were sounds of a distressed cat or two.


When I descended, this is what I found cowering in the windowsill. 

This is Pirate. He is not happy.

And this is what I found bouncing around my sewing kit on the dining room table. 

Oh ye gods. Where did she get that from? 

Yeah. I've got no idea either. Apparently, this is 'Superplink', and Superplink doesn't have to do things like listen to her human. Apparently, Superplink does things like stand on precipices and moodily survey her surroundings. 

Superplink moodily surveys the vegetable beds.

She likes to pose, hands on hips.

Superplink moodily surveys the decking. 

Then she likes to zoom off. Noisily. 

Ta-da-da-daaaaa! SUPERPLINK!

She's also fond of supervising blog posts.

No... there's a comma there. Not there, that's a semicolon. Type faster, dammit.

I was thinking of getting a second Makie. Now I think one might be quite enough.

Oi! Gerroff! That is most definitely MY wine! Oi! 

  

Eyeses!

Today has been frustrating for the Plink. First off, we went to Ikea and wouldn't let her come, then I've spent the afternoon sewing... But sewing for me, not impertinent Makies. I've got a wedding to go to in a week or so, and I need to look fab!

Anyway. Plink was mollified by my tidying her wardrobe and all my special Makie clothing-making bits into a couple of boxes.

Apparently, googly eyes make everything better.

Cooking with Plink

"HELLO and welcome to Cooking with Plink! Today I'll be teaching you how to make some delicious cheese scones!

Yes yes. Wave at the camera. 

First, make sure you're wearing your prettiest apron and have your hair tied back. If you've been working on your rocket ship, you might like to wash your hands too. Have your human pre-heat the oven to about 180 degrees centigrade (a bit hotter if it's not a fan oven... you can work out the flipping gas mark yourself).

Now gather your ingredients! You'll need...

6 ounces butter, 12 ounces flour, a chunk of cheese, baking powder, salt, pepper, milk. 

The manky apple is not required. 

Put the butter in a bowl. Sieve in flour, a teaspoon of baking powder and a pinch of salt. Mix through the pepper.

Pre-breadcrumb stage. At this point, I threw it in the food processor. 

Plink had not yet irritated me enough to meet a similar fate... 

Rub the butter into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs. If you're lazy, like my human, you can whizz this step up in a food processor.

Now grate your cheese and stir through the mixture. You could add some more exciting ingredients at this point if you like! Cheese and ham works well. Cheese and Jellybabies is less of a success.

Do be careful with that. No nylon in the food.

Carefully settle yourself out of falling-into-the-bowl distance whilst your human adds enough milk to bring the mixture together and make a dough. Remind them several times not to over-knead this; it's not bread, you know! Press the dough into a round and get ready to roll out.

Rollin' rollin' rollin'

Cut out your scones; I like to use a tumbler for this, because my human is too cheap to buy proper metal biscuit cutters.

Harrumph.

Place on your floured pizza rock, if you're middle-class enough to have one*, otherwise bung the scones on a greased baking tray. Brush each scone with a little milk and top with some grated cheese. Be sure not to irritate your human too much at this point, as you may find yourself baked.

Apparently, I blurred the 'main photographic focus'. Diva.

Ask them nicely to put the scones AND NOT YOU in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until they're a little brown on the top and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Poking your human repeatedly in the head and asking if they're cooked yet is a great way to ensure they don't wander off and do something else in the meantime. 

I wonder if she'd fit *in* the kettle?

Admire your work. Have a nice cup of tea. Dream about your TV show/cookery book offer that's inevitably just around the corner. Chastise your human."


*I WILL get around to teaching her some manners, honest.