Beware of the hunter!

It's been a busy month and a half since I last wrote a blog post and a lot has happened in that short space of time; lots of baking, crafting, worrying about my mum (poor health) and gardening has been taking place.  I seem to have even more flowers this year, most of them started from seed, grown in my little greenhouse and then hardened off, before being repotted outdoors. There is quite an array of colour going on, and I have to say I'm extremely proud of all my hard work.  I  just hope the wet weather stays away long enough so we can see them in their full colourful glory.

Of course, little Bean likes to be a part of the garden action (in the form of a hunter) she's got a real bee in her bonnet about birds.  She can quite happily spend all day staring and jumping up to the sky in the hope that she can befriend one. Well, I'm hoping she wants to be their friend, I'm pretty sure it's just harmless fun as she doesn't seem to have a bad bone in her furry little body.  I just love the shots of her in action, she is totally oblivious of the camera (plant pots, washing posts) and just goes about her thing; one minute she is rolling around, then trotting around and then using the garden as a race circuit. The latter activity usually ends in a warning, three strikes and she's back in the house, she's never hit the three strikes mark yet. Notice I said yet, she has been extremely close.

On the crafting front I've been knitting lace, trying a new craft (Tunisian Knitting/Crochet can't decide on the correct term for it) and swithering on warping my Ashford Rigid Heddle loom. I'm ashamed to say I've never used this guy before, it's only been sitting in it's bag for four or five years so I was thinking it's about time it had an airing, watch this space.  My sewing machine has also been on the go, but only for some garment repairs, I do feel a major project coming on.  I will have to have something on the go, as I'm due to come off for seven weeks summer holidays (this is a first ever in my working life). The schools break up on the 28th of June here, and we don't go back until the end of August, and there is no way I'm sitting around doing nothing for that length of time, as I may go quite mad!

Xoxoxo

How I Made Easter Special

Usually, my perfectionist's head kicks in, and I find myself planning special holidays like Christmas and Easter down to a fine line.  This year for Easter there was no rushing about, no organising (well, other than the food shop for Sunday Easter lunch) I just relaxed, I didn't make any plans and I went with the flow.  It felt odd, but when you organise and work with little one's every day in an education setting sometimes it's okay to take a step back and breath...right?

So, where did this take me?  Well, I woke up at the crack of dawn (so much for a long lie, my body clock had other ideas) on Friday morning did a bit of cleaning and tidying and then I declared to my other half that I wanted my portapuzzle case brought down from the loft. Don't ask me why I suddenly wanted this, I was into jigsaws in a big way about four years ago, but this request just came out of the blue. I then went out to potter about in the garden while Paul took to the loft.  This is really the first time I've been out in my garden this year and boy, it's been hit very hard by the lousy weather; high winds and thrashing rain, the garden wall has no rough casting left as most of it is lying on the ground, and quite a few of the plants are gone (died off) or are in need of some serious TLC, sigh!  Four hours later my garden started to look a little more respectable; no rough casting on the ground, plants pruned, fed and watered and wall assessed for repair. I then headed back into the house and found Paul had located my puzzle case from the loft but there was no jigsaw box. On opening the case I found 450 pieces (I counted them) of a 1000 piece puzzle. Yip! You guessed it the other 550 pieces are still in the loft and Paul won't go back up for them.

By Saturday, I had forgotten all about the jigsaw and spent a wonderful day with my mum. We went for lunch and I presented her with an Easter pamper gift and then we had a wander round the shops. We got caught being silly by two male members of staff in our local craft shop (I'm sitting chuckling to myself as I write this post). My mum and I were caught making faces at each other through a large crafting magnifying glass, you know, big eyes and lips (easily amused) We were so embarrassed that we slunk down an aisle sniggering and nudging each other like little school girls, with my mum declaring that I'm a bad influence. Eh! What! You're the adult, I'm the kid, it had nothing to do with me. All joking aside, I think my mum was quite impressed that I didn't buy anything from Hobbycraft , I usually come away with a piece of stationary, a sewing or knitting item. In fact, looking back I didn't spend any money that day as I bought my makeup treats through my Boots points card and Paul's Easter Egg using a voucher (I was very thrifty).

I'm sad to say my thriftiness didn't last, though, as yesterday (Easter Sunday) I decided to have a browse on Amazon (always lethal) whilst watching King of Kings and eating an Easter Egg.  I ended up buying not one but three books.  I've been having withdrawal symptoms after finishing all my Mark Haddon novels and I've been eager to find an author with a similar writing style. I found the Alan Bradley series of books through Good Reads.  I must have been destined to buy the authors books as on picking up the first novel and turning the pages to read, I was faced with this:

 My Christian name printed on the second page.  Now I know this read is going to be awesome.

Happy Easter holidays everyone

xoxoxo

(This post is dedicated to my beautiful orange boy 'Cheivo' who we lost on this day two years ago)

Forever in my heart

little man xx

How to make January a bit more bearable!

Trying to keep myself busy through this very drab and uneventful time of year. Why is January such a long month?  I woke up on Saturday and I thought 'Oh! Is that a hint of sunshine I see,'  but, it was short lived.  The sun came out for five minutes and then decided to hide again, which is a shame, because I'm really craving some warmth.  So, in an attempt to cheer myself up a bit, I looked out some pamper boxes that I subscribe to My Little Box.    A little box that  is mailed to my address each month, crammed  with  must have beauty products, trinkets and little gadgets to play around with.  I've been receiving these boxes for nearly a year now, and I don't see me canceling my subscription anytime soon.  The boxes are beautifully illustrated and contain some beauty items that I haven't even seen in stores yet.  So thrilled with this subscription,  I rush home from work on the day it is due to arrive and lock myself away so I can ohhh! and ahhh! over  the goodies I unveil. You could say, it's my one guilty little pleasure in life.

What a week!

Thank Crunchy it's not just Friday but it's finally the weekend, what a week it's been.  I can't go into too much detail yet but let's just say it involved a trip to the Citizens Advice Bureau.  Never had to use their services before but I can tell you I will definitely be using them again in the future.  I left their offices full of confidence, I felt reassured and the biggest plus I have a contact who is more than willing to help me sort out my problems (yes plural).  I'm now able to sleep properly at night and eat a full meal without feeling I'm going to vomit everywhere.  More information to follow.

Baking

The Great British Bake off started..... ohhhh! A couple of weeks ago, I think.  Love this series,  the only drawback,  I want to bake  and bake.  Fine if you have a large family to feed but there's only Paul and the dog.  Does this stop me from messing up the kitchen with flour, eggs, sugar and what ever else I can fit in a bowl?  Not a chance, queue photos-

yummy cupcakes

Flower Cupcakes

Flower Cupcakes

Vanilla cupcakes decorated with green icing and sugar paste flowers.  I placed these into clear presentation bags and shared them with my family.  I couldn't have possibly eaten them all by myself.  Unlike the little treats below.

Strawberry Velvet Truffles

 These guys are so moreish and to be honest I didn't give very much away.  Yes I did eat more than my fair share and I'm not scared to admit it.  Lol!  Plus their a secret recipe, so I'm not going to share. Sorry!

Banana Loaf Mixture

Banana and Sultana Loaf

Brilliant recipe for using ripened bananas, easy and quick to make, very moist.  I have also substituted the raisins for sultanas (juicier) and I have also used chocolate buttons before too.  Loaf is very much a comfort food recipe, you know the type, shut the world out, put feet up with a tea/coffee in one hand and a huge slice/wedge in the other, bliss.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

And finally Chocolate Chip Muffins.  Sugar is added to the top of these before baking to give then a crunchier, crispier top.

Some Sewing

Margaret Sherry Cross Stitch

The Robin and the Mouse outline

A kiss

Christmas Card

 I don't know what has happened to my knitting mojo I haven't picked up the pins for weeks.  It seems to have flown straight out of the window, however cross stitch has appeared in it's place.  In the form of a freebie sewing kit by Margaret Sherry.  I was so obsessed with it that I managed to finish it in one day.  I only stopped for food  and toilet breaks and nothing much else.  Doesn't it look cute?  I've advised Paul if he wants to perhaps  buy me a small gift at anytime, then I would love another Margaret Sherry kit.  Don't think he was listening as I haven't received anything yet. Sigh!

Pyramid Bag Update


In my previous post I announced that I would be adding some new stock to my Folksy account.  After losing the battery to my camera and then the lead, I have now found both and stashed them in a safe place,  the update will now take place on Thursday evening (15/09/11) at 8pm GMT.

Homemade Apple Pie! Slurp!

After a strenuous morning of abs, tums and bums and Aerobics Oz style, all in the comfort of my own livingroom, I could barely walk upstairs to the shower, my legs ached so badly. 10 mins later I was able to hobble back down stairs again, to the kitchen.

Flicking through this fabulous book for their gorgeous pastry recipe I decided to make this:

Gorgeous apple pie!

I wasn't sure how to make the filling, i.e., stew the apples or bake the apples in the oven. Stewing them would have made more of an apple sauce, which I wasn't keen on and baking the apple in the oven just seemed like too much hard work, well I had just completed 1 and a half hours of exercise and was in no mood to walk back and forward to the kitchen to check them hahaha!

So I decided to peel, core and slice 3 Bramley apples. I then arranged the slices on to the rolled out shortcrust pastry, which had been placed into a tart baking dish.  I then covered the apple  with (2 tbsp) of soft brown sugar and (1/2 Tsp) of ground cinnamon.  I then covered the apple  with more pastry, I  pressed around the edges to secure it and then using a sharp knife, I made a small slit in the centre of the pastry lid.  I then brushed the pie with a little milk and sprinkled some castor sugar on top. I then baked for 20-25 mins at 200 degrees Celsius until the pastry was lightly golden.

The result, gorgeous homemade apple pie with a  giant 1/4 of a chunk out of it, one-half to Paul the other to me.  Pauls reaction; gorgeous. Result!