kitchen crafter

Robin Red Crafts

2011-01-06T05:15:00.001-08:00

I have moved over to a new blog now http://robinredcrafts.blogspot.com/! Please pop by!

It's beginning to feel a lot like christmas!

2009-12-05T09:37:00.000-08:00

Warming Wednesday

2009-12-02T05:34:00.001-08:00

Its that time of year again and I've got the lurgy (a yukky chest infection with which I have been keeping everyone awake for nights). I haven't got much festive feeling (most unusual for me at the beginning of December) no christmas crafting is being done, and nothing is being ticked off the on the Christmas to do list. I was feeling a bit sorry for myself today, so decided a bowl of warming soup was in order. It was SO GOOD I have to share the recipe with you!

Squash, Chickpea and Chorizo Soup

1 squash, around 800g, peeled and cut into rough 1cm chunks
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 small chilli, seeded and finely chopped
200g chorizo, halved and cut into rough 1cm chunks
Splosh of olive oil
1.5 litres vegetable or chicken stock
1 x 400g can of chickpeas drained and rinsed
Handful chopped parsley

1. Gently heat a splosh of olive oil and cook the onion, chilli and chorizo with a lid on for 4-5 minutes, stirring every so often.

2. Add the squash and stock, bring to the boil, season and simmer for 30 minutes.

3. Add the chickpeas and continue to simmer for a further 15 minutes.

4. Blend a ladleful of the soup in a liquidiser until smooth, add back to the pot with the parsley and simmer for another couple of minutes before serving. (Or you can do as I did and roughly blend the whole lot until you like the texture).

5. Enjoy and feel better!

That wasn't the only thing to warm up my Wednesday. Look what the postman brought me today!

A lovely surprise parcel all the way from Italy! What could be inside?

Just look at all these lovely things sent from Michela at Little Secrets From My Garden. It's her Christmas giveaway!

Lovely scented embroidery thread (how exciting I've never seen this before!) what festive colour, I will definitely be using that with something christmassy this week, some exquisite buttons - what beautiful colours! And a lovely lavender sachet, a strawberry bath cube and some lovely Scarlett perfume.

Thank you so much Michela, your lovely Christmas parcel really warmed my day, it was such a lovely unexpected surprise. You are so very kind! And I can't wait to make something with my festive thread and buttons!

I hope you are all feeling warm and festive this Wednesday!

Sally xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Want a peek at my CL Fair purchases?

2009-11-19T06:32:00.000-08:00

Here finally (!) are a few piccies of the lovely things that caught my eye at the CL Fair last week...

Some beautiful bowls by Jane Hogben, I just love the Robin! And these go so well with my new cream and red spotted china. I plan to build on these and collect a few more pieces!

Some lovely red and white bread baskets.

A Fairy post office set, with fairy paper & envelopes, fair stamps, a post office stamp!

Some marbles (my two are longing for some marbles and my husband is going to make a special wooden marble game/track for them for Christmas).

A Mi Casa Su Casa sign - don't ask :-)

A christmas tree for displaying christmas cards - Boy was I glad I bought that at the beginning of the fair to carry round through the hustle and bustle and then take home on the tube and train!! Its about a meter tall!

A scarf that I think goes so well with my coat, I love the colours in it. And as I still haven't got around to crocheting myself a scarf yet....

A lovely Christmas decoration to remind us to write our letters to Santa.

And a special envelope to put our letters in next to the Chimney to get to Santa. In our house the letters go magically go up the chimney (just like to Santa Clause the movie) to the North Pole.

And saving the best til last - What do you think is in the bag?

Isn't it pretty! I ummed and ahhed for ages, but I had to buy it. It was so pretty, so twirly. Very Strictly Come Dancing (!) and so soft. So many layers! I would love one too! But it is for my little dancer and I hope it will make her happy on Christmas Day.

Thats everything!

Off to get blown away on the school run now!

xxxxx

Filling A Christmas Shoebox

2009-11-18T11:05:00.000-08:00

Today we had great fun putting a shoebox of goodies together for www.operationchristmaschild.org.uk run by Samaritans Purse.

Every year our school collect shoeboxes filled with small toys, clothes colouring things, notebooks and sweets and they are distributed to children in disadvantaged situations in Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

We had great fun putting our box together, my two carefully chose some cars, little characters, a toy camera, felt tips and a notebook, spiderman socks, lots of different types of sweets and a little set of Bob the Builder books) and we wrapped it up in festive paper ready to take to school tomorrow.

Let the Shopping Commence!

2009-11-16T03:03:00.000-08:00

On Thursday my friend Sarah and I met up in London for a pilgrimmage to the Country Living Fair. Due to the trains we arrived about midday, so were determined to get started as soon as possible!

I know that lots of other bloggers went too, and not having been before myself I couldn't believe how crowded it was. But there were soooo many pretty things!! I had taken a trolley on wheels to put things in, and was soon causing traffic jams in the aisles.

We looked and shopped and shopped and looked...... Look at these fab decorations!

Wonderful aromas everywhere of oranges and cinnamon... (I think I might have a go at making something like this myself)

We had our serious shopping heads on, we didn't even stop for anything (including food or drink!).

We had a back up plan though....

the end of they day my lovely friend Sarah treated me to afternoon tea at the Waldorf hotel. Orange blossom tea, mmmm, dainty finger sandwiches and the most gorgeous lemon tart. A perfect end to the day.

I would love to show you all of my purchases, but I am going to have to wait until tomorrow.. my husband has taken my camera to work..

But I would love to show you some wreaths I made on Friday for our WI Craft fair this weekend.

Chillies and limes. (The chillies are ones I grew myself - Joe's Long Cayenne, well worth growing for eating and this sort of thing. I did a trial of 10 different varieties of chillies this year and this was definitely my favourite). If you would like to have a go at making your own wreath for Christmas have a look at my step by step instructions.

This other one has apples and verbena bonariensis.

Come back tomorrow if you'd like to see what I picked up at the CL Fair!

Making An Autumn Wreath

2009-11-08T03:20:00.000-08:00

We were lucky enough at our monthly WI meeting this month to have a fantastic speaker who gave us a demonstration on how to make a Christmas wreath. She showed us some beautiful wreaths and made it look so easy I thought I would have a go at making one for Autumn. Apart from the wire wreath frame (55p from the garden centre) everything came from my garden, even the moss which I raked out of the lawn!

This is how I did it.

1. You need to wire your moss to the wire frame using a reel of florists wire. I'm using a 12" frame.

2. Firmly shape the moss into ball shapes and attach them to the wreath ring. Wire them on passing the wire round and round through the ring. When you finish the moss, keep the reel of wire still attached to the wreath, ready to add the foliage.

3. You should end up with a covered ring. The moss needs to be damp, mine wasn't very damp so I watered it with a watering can before I attached the foliage.

4. Next choose your foliage, this is what I found in my garden. I used rosemary, eucalyptus, berried ivy, bay and lavender.

5. Snip into small sections and wire onto the wreath. You need to keep wrapping the wire around and around. Make sure that every side is covered. Thats it, its really that easy!

6. Heres my first wreath, and I'm so proud of it!

Wreath Tips

You should aim for 3 or 4 types of foliage.

You can use all sorts of accents for your wreath, once you have the background foliage you can add chillies, limes, apples, dried hydrangea head, pinecones, birch twigs, sprayed silver allium heads or poppy heads, honesty, hollyberries, orange slices.... They need to be pronged with a stubby florists wire and poked through and things like the chillies or orange slices look best in threes.

If your wreath starts to dry out you can submerge it in a shallow tray of water.

You can use a coat hanger shaped into a wreath shape if you can't get a wreath ring, but these should be available from florists or at your garden centre, or of course ebay.

You can pick a lot of foliage or berried things now (rosehips, berried holly etc) before they go over or get eaten (leaving some in place for the birds though) and keep for up to a month in a cold shed or greenhouse until you need them.

Home Sweet Home

2009-11-03T06:37:00.000-08:00

If you saw yesterdays post and the chaotic attic/office space we were turning into my craft room...

After much clearing of stuff and sorting out - here it is now!

this is the room where beautiful pretty things are going to be created!

I now have room to sew..

room for my fabrics...

room for my Martha Stewart & CL magazines...

a huge cosy bean bag in the corner for sitting and crocheting (here I'm following Lucy's instructions on joining Granny Squares!)

Of course it needs to be prettied up a bit, but at the moment its MY SPACE!!!

This is going to be my new craft room!

2009-11-02T06:57:00.000-08:00

We live in a bungalow but we have one space upstairs in our "attic" which at the moment is a bit of a dumping ground.

As you can see it is piled high at the moment with "stuff".

Come back tomorrow to see what it will look like when it becomes my new craft room!

A big bean bag to sit on and crochet, my sewing machine all set up with my fabrics and button tins, a big clear space to lay things out and work properly, and my "inspirational stuff" all to hand, including my ENORMOUS collection of Martha Stewart magazines dating back to 2001!

I love magazines and hoard my favourites, mainly CL, Living and Real Simple. Just last night I was re-reading all my Christmas editions for inspiration for things to make this year, I got lots of ideas, so I will be busy in my new craft room!

I've got tickets!

2009-11-01T09:31:00.000-08:00

I started trying to get tickets at 9am on Friday morning....

After frantically typing in hard to decipher code words about 482 times, getting countless messages saying no tickets were yet available for Birmingham, much panicking and cursing, after 1 hour 45 minutes of trying, I finally got tickets to see....

Near the front!!!!!! OMG!!! Can't wait ;-) Is anybody else going?! and as excited as me!

Right now I am...

2009-10-23T08:38:00.000-07:00

looking forward to cosying up tonight in my new rosebud pyjamas and cream knitted slippers (purchased from Primark this morning)... A pretty (but not blow the budget) treat to me!

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Crafting Again!

2009-10-21T03:42:00.001-07:00

This Sunday I went on a fab workshop called "A Christmas Home -Decorate your house with everything vintage at Christmas, transform woollen blankets, luxury fabrics and rich prints into all things Noel. Hand crafted stockings, swags and tree decorations will give you the perfect festive look".

Doesn't it sound great! The lovely lady who runs the course is an avid collector and treasure hunter and her workshop is an aladdins cave of vintage and salvaged materials, beads, sparkly buttons, lace and buckles. Just being surrounded by all these lovely things makes you confident you can create something beautiful!

This is her lovely workshop.

These were examples of the things that we could make.

We had a lovely time and over copious cups of tea and pieces of homemade carrot cake I put together a Christmas garland of gingerbread men, christmas trees and hearts, and a Shaker Angel. I didn't quite get to finishing both of them there, I had to do the final finishing at home. I've just finished my Angel, would you like to see her?

I've not tackled anything like this before, some of her I even tackled on a sewing machine without too many disasters(!), and I'm very pleased with how she has turned out. You might notice though, that she's missing one thing, her face! I'm still practicing drawing faces, before drawing hers on for real, but none of them have looked right yet. Does any one have any tips?!

My christmas garland is still being finished, I'll show that soon!

Getting in the Harvest

2009-10-02T04:57:00.000-07:00

All of our local farmers have been so busy over the last few weeks gathering the harvest in the fields surrounding our house. Yesterday we had our school harvest festival at our church.

Today we took the opportunity of the gorgeous Autumnal sunshine to get our own little harvest in.

I think squashes and pumpkins are one of our favourite vegetables for eating and for decoration. We have arranged them on a rack (so that air can circulate but the rain is kept off), just by our front door so that we can look at them every day.

FINISHED!!!

2009-09-21T02:42:00.000-07:00

Yey! I did it! I ran the Great North Run yesterday to raise funds for Breast Cancer Care. It was a brilliant event, super atmosphere, 54,000 runners, so many people raising money for good causes. The sun shone and the weather was beautiful, but crikey was it a hot run! Luckily there was lots of water enroute, and water tunnels to run through, and the atmosphere and buzz from the other runners really carried me along up and down all the hills.

The views of the blue sky and the sea that greet you when you run down the final hill and turn the corner towards the homeward straight really spurred me on for the final push to the finish and I finished the run in under two hours (which is what I was aiming for so I was very pleased!).

Once crossing the line the red arrows did an FANTASTIC display and I headed over to the charity village to the Breast Cancer Care tent to meet fellow runners and have a much appreciated complimentary post run leg massage!

My legs are a little stiff today - hence the comedy walk I seem to have developed!

Thanks to everyone who sponsored me I managed to raise £225.20 for Breast Cancer Care.

Sal xx

An Evening of Relaxation and Complementary Therapies

2009-09-17T01:37:00.000-07:00

I feel like I've been away a while and need to catch up a bit with all on all the things I've been doing. First of all we have had our annual Women's Institute Open Evening where we hosted an evening of Relaxation & Complementary Therapies (plus local food) for anyone who wanted to come along. We had lovely ladies doing reflexology treatments, hopi ear candles, indian head massages, a homeopath, organic vegetable box schemes, lots of local organic food and drink producers, beautiful natural beauty products and wonderful homemade cakes. I put together some bouquets of flowers for our Recycle Table and made some Apple Cake using the apples from our garden for a healthy nibble whilst people were looking round the stalls.

I really enjoy the process of growing flowers, picking them and making them up into something pretty. I find it very relaxing being out in the garden in the fresh air, listening to the bees, snipping away..

Bringing it all inside, laying it all out, all the lovely colours and fragrances, deciding which ones I'm going to put together,

And making them into lovely bouquets.

Here they are finished on our Recycle Table.

It really was a great evening, and one of our exhibitors, a lovely lady homepath

kindly gave me some Arnica Tablets which she recommended that I take training for my Great North Run and after the run itself to help my body recover. Her sons who both run marathons swear by it, so hopefully it will do good things to me! Not long to go now, the run is this Sunday! So I've been resting from running this until the big day.

Oh and I nearly forgot, my winning entry for that week's competition "A Posy of Relaxation"!

Tomorrow I'll share our local village show... enjoy your day :-)

Is it Autumn?!

2009-08-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

I don't know how it has been where you are but after an initial sunny start to the day this morning - hence washing on the line and two little people and me venturing out to the shops in summer clothes and sunglasses - the weather here suddenly turned very blustery and VERY rainy! Leaves started to fall from the trees, the temperature dropped and I could have sworn it was autumn...!

Leaving the house with the warmth of the sun on our backs I had forgotten to take any anoraks, nor did I think to check the weather forecast... so needless to say we got very wet... When we returned it was lunchtime and we were all in need of something warming for lunch. The little people said they HAD to have beans on toast, whilst I looked around to see what I could rustle up. Mmmm. Tomatoes.

Sauted off a bit of onion and garlic, plonked in the tomatoes and some basil, bit of stock, whizzed through my new gadget from Lakeland, a little mouli (very pleased with that latest purchase from there!)

and voila, warming tomato soup and a nice sit down with the magazine bought on our cold and wet shopping expedition.

Just what I need. Would you like to see inside?

I do love polka dots... Oooooh look at the beautiful things from Greengate...

and those spotty red tins from Tescos, not seen those in my one yet..... and I love that cakestand too...

Ooooh the postman has brought the lastest Plumo catalogue. I have to show you a couple of things. Have you got a minute?

Look at these beautiful Russian music boxes...

And I'm so inspired to make a lovely scarf with handwarming pockets now! Isn't that a great idea?

And look at this sewing stool - thats a makeover waiting to happen if I can just find the right stool!

And I have just opened another envelope - look!

Some lovely die cuts have arrived from Rose at Victoria Rose Crafts. They are perfect, thank you Rose! There are snowmen, Noel, Jingle Bells, some christmas trees and stockings and some lovely little people all to piece together and cut and stick. We are going to have lots of fun making our Christmas Cards!

Well that's it for now.... We have a busy weekend ahead involving a bit of a get together and a BBQ so hopefully the sun will shine! :-)

Enjoy your bank holiday weekend everybody! And I hope the sun shines for you!

A Celebration

2009-08-25T02:44:00.000-07:00

Look what I found when I got up this morning...

Today's our wedding Anniversary.

Eight years, which traditionally is pottery or bronze.

My husband bought me this beautiful mug. He knows me so well.

Thank you so much :-) and Happy Anniversary xxx

Imperial Teas

2009-08-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

Now and again I get a day all to myself. I can choose where I go, take my time to look at things, no little people getting bored and moving me on to something kiddie related.. This week I had one such opportunity and I decided to go to the older part of our town, a part I don't get to go to very often. Its really attractive and historical up there and there are some fab shops. You have to walk up "Steep Hill".

To make the most out of my day I get there at 9.30 am not realizing most of the shops don't open until 10 or 10.30. But I'm happy window shopping to begin with. First the chocolate shop... Probably best its not open yet :-)

Onto another shop where they sell CK, EB & F&B.. They were open so I bought some melamine tumblers (pink hearts) and a tractor one for my little man..

I continue my search for some new crockery...

hmm, what do you think?

And then stop in the Art gallery where I stop and admire this beautiful piece by Rosi Baxter.

Then I step into the magical Lincoln Imperial Tea Shop.

Here they sell every variety of leaf tea that you could imagine ... (four hundred types!). Chinese teas, ceylon teas, white teas, japanese teas and beautiful scented flower teas. They also sell coffee beans that they roast on the premises, again hundreds of different types, and stunningly beautiful tea pots and caddies from Japan and China, everything you could possibly imagine for tea or coffee.

Would you like to see inside?

I'm not sure if you can see this menu, click on it for a larger image, but have a look at some of the different varieties of tea that they serve in the cafe (across the road), particularly the Connoisseur's Teas..

I was told by another tea shopper that I HAD to try the "Golden Monkey tea" (I'd already ordered the Tea of Life, so maybe next time). Its called China Black Mao Hou "Monkey Fur" - Golden Amber in colour, its fragrance is complex, notes of coconut with a hint of sweet smoke and pepperiness. It has an equally intriguing flavour with notes of chocolate, honey and rose. The tea is full of yellow hair, which looks like the hairs of golden Monkeys. Grown at an organic farm in Zhejiang province. It an be taken with milk. Infuse for 6 minutes.

I buy some Lavender Earl Grey Tea, the Citrus Tea of Life, four different varieties of coffee beans, a delicate thin china teacup, and these Flower In the Sun scented tea flowers.

"Three pot marigolds floating up as if to the sun enfolded by tender green tea leaves that elegantly unfurl to reveal the blooming flower inside. These artist made teas require great skill and patience to create".

I open the packet and they look like this...

Add some boiling water and wait...

A beautiful fragrant cup of tea.. and the end to a relaxing day. Feet up, quiet, cup of tea, Country Living, aaahhhhh.

Perfect Day

2009-08-20T03:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a perfect day to check out what we could eat from the garden..

pick some french beans

some squashes and courgettes

pull up some carrots

and cook them for our tea with an easy roast chicken.... Delicious.

In the evening I went on a rooftop tour of Lincoln Cathedral...
Despite living close by I'd never been to the cathedral before. I did know that they filmed some of The DaVinci Code there though and have always been meaning to go for a tour, if you are ever in Lincoln and able to go on a tour I would definitely recommend it. We climbed lots of small spiral staircases up to the top, we went into the bell ringing tower, we walked along through the roof of the cathedral above the huge beams and plasterwork, saw some very early graffiti, and we peeked out from little balconies down at the huge cathedral below.

It was the perfect evening for it and the views from the top were stunning..

Although we went up on the roof our tour didn't go as high as to the top of the towers , but our guide told us that there are tours that go up there, so I will definitely be going back!

Selfridges and a concert!

2009-08-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

First of all can I say hats off to everybody else who is much better organised than me and still blogging away during the school holidays! I am afraid chaos reins here and admist all our days out, crafting, and general holidaying and reading all of your blogs(!) I am failing miserably at keeping up to date with mine! BUT here I am now, so this weekend guess where we went?!

Have you ever seen a stage like it?!

Of course we couldn't possibly go to London without a pilgrimage to my favourite shop first - Selfridges! So we made sure we got parked up early at Wembley and took the tube into town for a quick spot of tea and banoffee pie...

Followed by some shopping .. This is their kitchen department at the moment, a very vintagey vibe going on..

This is their Christmas department, an aladdins cave!

Don't you just love these soldier decorations... £9.99 (gulp!)
And what about these ones from Alice in Wonderland aren't they gorgeous... (a snip at £14.99 each !!!)

A few purchases were made ... (lining Ms Kidstons pockets again...!)

A bit of clothes shopping - a pair of winter boots and a fab cardigan called a DKNY cozy. Have you seen these? My friend told me about them, what a fab idea, a bit pricey but you can wear them 12 different ways so I am hoping to get quite a bit of wear out of mine, as long as I remember how to do it, but you do get a booklet with instructions which is just as well :-)...

Then we had just time for a quick bowl of scrummy noodles, and then back to Wembley for...

the LOUDEST concert I have ever been to and was AMAZING! Did anyone else go?!

Today's Harvest and 101 Ideas for Courgettes

2009-08-05T03:13:00.000-07:00

I love this time of year, everything in the garden is growing so fast and most days we can harvest a huge basket of produce for our tea. At the moment we have courgettes (lots!), squash, french beans, lettuce, beetroot, artichoke, tomatoes, cucumbers and the first chillies.

I squeeze veggies in wherever I can, I think these minature ones (munchkin) look beautiful weaving their way through the fence along the back of one of the flower borders.

This is a munchkin, lovely baked and just enough for one person.

I prefer to grow unusual vegetables, different colours, different shapes and types that I can't buy in my greengrocers or supermarket. This year I have grown yellow courgettes (soleil) and also these which are my favourite courgette.

They are a climbing Italian variety called Tromboncino. They will grow up to 2 metres tall and I grow them over one of the archways in our vegetable patch. I just love their colour, and the way they curl around, and I think the texture of them is much nicer than a standard variety, and they crop really well! I'm not joking, tens maybe over a hundred from just a couple of plants! Also if you leave them to ripen on the plant, they will form a skin tough enough so that you can store for a couple of months after harvest.

This is todays harvest of squashes and courgettes, and these were just the bigger ones! There were stacks more that need picking, and I am going to pick some more and take them along to my WI meeting tonight to our "Recycle Table".

I am sure those of you that grow courgettes know just how quickly they grow and how soon you table can be groaning under the weight them all, especially given all this rain we are having! There's only so many you can give away to family and friends, but I just can't bring myself to throw the excess on to the compost, and I'm not a huge fan of courgette chutney :-(), so over the last few years I've collected what I think are some fab ways to use up courgettes which I'm going to share with you. This is the first one.

This is a really easy tasty courgette salad. I originally got it from Delia's vegetarian cookbook but upped the herbs slightly. The original recipe is here.

Courgette Recipe No 1 - Marinated Courgettes and Herb Vinaigrette

About half a kilo of courgettes

Maldon sea salt

For the herb vinaigrette

A handful of some or all if possible of the following herbs Chives, Parsley, Tarragon, Rosemary leaves all finely chopped.

1 clove of garlic

1 teaspoon sea salt (I use slightly less but its down to your taste)

1 heaped teaspoon of wholegrain mustard

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

4 tablespoons of olive oil

black pepper

1. Prepare the courgettes according to their size. If they are small halve them, if they are slightly larger cut into four, if they are larger then thinly slice. Steam them until lightly cooked.

2. Prepare the dressing by pounding garlic with the salt in a pestle or mortar until a paste. Work in mustard, vinegar, black pepper and then lastly the oil. Whisk together then add the herbs.

3. Add to the courgettes, allow to get cold and refridgerate to marinate. This will keep well in the fridge for up to three days.

This is so tasty, we eat it a lot with fish or chicken in the summer, do try it.

So that's one idea... I would love to hear yours too!

Before I go I had to post these rainy day play photos...
A fab tea party...

and a very competitive wacky race...

See you tomorrow..

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cakes and lakes

2009-08-04T02:29:00.000-07:00

We're back! We've just spent a lovely holiday in the Lake District but boy was it wet!

When it wasn't raining too hard we did some walking, the little people loved climbing up the rocky paths to see the views. We climbed Latterbarrow, that's Lake Winderemere down there!

We climbed part of Stickle Ghyll in the Langdale Valley, (we had to bribe the little ones with a kinder egg if they made it to the bridge which they did!).

When it was too wet for walking we spent quite a few sessions at one of my favourite places..

where they do the BEST CAKES in the WHOLE of the Lake District!

So we had a lot of these...

and whiled away some rainy spells browsing their shop of lovely things.. (a few purchases were made - I'll share tomorrow...)

And of course all the rain meant I could spend some time doing a lot of this..

All that rain means I am halfway there now with the blanket!

That's it from me for now. Best catch up with the enormous amount of washing and ironing and tidying that always needs to be done after a trip away :-(

Will share more photos tomorrow...

Hope the sun is shining wherever you are xxxx

Jungly growth everywhere!

2009-07-17T01:18:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhh. Yesterday there was a break in the rain, so I went outside and pottered round the garden. Breathing in the lovely fresh air and soaking in the sunshine, and taking in the garden that seemed to have gone wild with all this rain we have had over the last couple of weeks. This is our veggie plot.

The pumpkin patch has gone mad!

It was lovely to see just how many butterflies and bees we had buzzing around, they really love this verbena bonariensis.

Pausing to stop at my sons creation in the flower bed! Hmmm, what could he have been thinking here!

And picking a bucketful of flowers for the house.

And turning them into this!

I love bringing the outdoors inside, doing creative things like this really give me a lift, and it did yesterday.

I am so pleased that things are back on track now and we are all really looking forward to the weekend. Some swimming, a long run (for me!), a little bit of shopping, a car boot sale (weather permitting), and setting up a shoe shop in my daughters bedroom - she has already appropriated all of my best shoes, with the idea that I buy them back!

Anyway whatever you are doing have a lovely weekend everybody, I hope the sun shines for you wherever you are!

Looking forward to the holidays

2009-07-15T03:25:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone! It's been a little while since my last post, and oh I have to say I have missed it! Lets just say we have been going through a bit of difficult situation at home at the moment, and I haven't been able to find the motivation or words for cheery blogging, but hopefully all of it will be resolved shortly and we will be able to start the summer holidays full of the joys of summer (if it ever stops raining here!) and a spring in our step. I have so loved reading all of your blogs though, seeing what you have all been up to, it really brightens my day.

I have to show you just a couple of things though! We had a lovely shopping trip to John Lewis on Saturday. There was a sale on! A lovely red polka dot tablecloth was purchased (I'll show you this in situ soon!), lots of lovely yarns and ribbons in the haberdashery department,
a beautiful mozzerella and tomato salad for lunch (their food hall is sooooo good!), and a few bargains in the clothes department!

And look at these, cut from the garden. Don't you just love the vividness of this lily.

And these sweet peas, carefully arranged by my beautiful girl - I wish you could smell them!

Look at that - the sun is coming out at last outside, and theres some patchy blue sky. I think I'll go and do a bit of mindless pottering this afternoon, snipping and deadheading and enjoy all the lovely new growth brought on by the rain (and probably weeds, but I think I'll try and ignore those till next week!)

Summer days & outdoor living...

2009-07-06T07:04:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful weekend it has been. I hope you have had a lovely weekend too. Doesn't the lovely weather just make everything jollier? Everyone here has been so happy, we have spent the weekend dipping our toes in the sea on the beautiful South Coast, enjoying lovely alfresco dining, sipping cold drinks and chatting outside to the small hours, but more of that tomorrow!

Today I have to show you my Sarah Smith bunting, totally copied from Emma at LavenderHouse.

I am so pleased with it! I love the colours and how easy it was to make! Emma you do have some amazing ideas, thank you!

Doesn't it look so lovely fluttering in the breeze, against a lovely summer day?

It was so easy to make - once I had mastered my sewing machine again. I am ashamed to say it is probably five years (!) since I have had it out of its little jacket to stitch anything. I am not much of a seamstress at the moment, although I would love to learn more :-), and it took me a good 20 minutes to remember how to thread it! But once we got going there was nothing stopping us and we raced through the bunting! We are having some friends and their children over soon for an afternoon get together I think these will look lovely draped around the patio and amongst the trees, to really make it an occasion!

I think I am just going to have to purchase a lovely tablecloth to go with it. I am thinking red and white gingham would be perfect, with one of my lovely hand embroidered tablecloths (one of my boot sale finds) draped pretty over the top. Perhaps I could make a tablecloth, that shouldn't be too hard should it? Just a bit of hemming? Yes, I think that might have to be my next project!

And on top of the table, I think I will have to copy Lucy's lovely idea over at Attic 24 and use my bonne maman jars, prettily adorned with ribbon as tealight holders. Thank you Lucy! I can see it all now! It will look perfect!

I have a dream....

2009-06-30T10:19:00.000-07:00

Today was the day of the school fete, and yesterday I was busy beavering away making cakes for the school, and picking flowers to make up some bouquets for our WI stand. By bedtime last night, the cakes had been made and iced.

The flowers had been picked and were resting in our garage ready to be arranged in the morning.
I don't know if 've mentioned this before, lol, but I LOVE GROWING THINGS, flowers and vegetables, things that I can pick and bring into the house for us to eat or to make it look lovely and pretty, is what I really LOVE to do.

I have a small vegetable patch and cutting patch, and over the last four years or so I have been learning myself how to grow vegetables and cut flowers, how to extend my growing season, which varieties to grow, how to condition them and so on. I like to give bunches to friends and family but have never done anything else with it (I haven't had the time for one thing!), its just something that I love to do.

If I'm being honest though, I do have dream of developing it further, but I have been waiting until the children start school, which is now only in a few weeks away. I had been a bit nervous about taking my flowers to the fete as it would be the first time that people would be "buying them", but having just joined our local WI and being asked if I could bring something to the fete it seemed like the perfect thing to bring, and the money raised would go to the school.

Here are some of the flowers. What do you think? The first of this seasons dahlias went into this one.

Some of my favourites Ammi Majus, scabious, black cornflowers, beautiful black poppies, mint and white dianthus.

Other bunches of flowers included my favourite sweet peas, (so fragrant!), salvias, calendula, dianthus and alchemilla mollis.

Finally the flowers were ready to go. Two boxes of them! I have to say I was very proud of them, and I LOVED every minute of doing it, from the growing, to the picking to the arranging them in their lovely coloured cellophane! Really LOVED it!

And here they are on our WI stall.
And yes, they all sold! Very quickly! I was so very pleased, and I received such nice comments from people about them it really made my day, it truly did. I was very, very proud!

My daughter hooking a duck.

So there you go, a really brilliant day and who knows? Maybe I could do something with my flowers, I SOOoooo loved doing it, and it would be so exciting if I could make it work somehow. It has certainly given me food for thought and something to dream about tonight ....

Got to Earn a Copper or Two...

2009-06-27T06:19:00.000-07:00

What a lovely morning we had today! Warm and sunny and whilst hubbie left early for work this morning to earn pennies for us, we eased ourself into our Saturday morning with milkshakes, toast and talked about "earning pennies" to spend on our Saturday morning shopping trip.

I have been a bit cross lately of the "I wants" in our house. "Mummy I want a Humungasor" is the latest request that I hear from morning til night at the moment. (It's a Ben 10 toy in case you didn't know!). Both our two are very lucky and probably have been a bit spoilt of late, and it is getting a bit difficult to walk from one side of their bedroom to the other sometimes. Little bits of everything, polly pocket, playmobil, bits of I don't know what that we have seem to have accumulated from car boot sales, things everywhere... )

(this was after the big tidy up!)

So, for a while, no more things are going to come into the house, unless they have earnt them themselves. We are going to encourage them to earn pennies by doing jobs around the house and save up for something that would like. They are only 4 and a half, so as we have only just started the "working for money" concept, I figure that I am going to have to show the work/reward principle fairly promptly so the message works. I decide that we will earn the money and then go straight out and spend it this morning on whatever they choose.

My daughter is the first to cotton on. She likes this idea. I say I will give her 10p if she makes her bed. She does and asks to make ours too. Another 10p. She asks for something else to do. She can tidy her room. Soon she has earnt 50p and is eager to go and spend it. It takes a lot more explaining and cajoling to persuade my son to tidy his room, make his bed (of sorts, but its a bit tricky being a cabin bed), and then get dressed and put his shoes on himself, soon he also has 50p.

Right! We're ready.

First to the market. I buy some red ribbon to make my Sarah Smith Bunting (I will show you this soon!). Then we look around the charity shops, known to my two as "the shops where the Grandmas work". After long deliberations, toys were carefully selected.
Both proudly told "the grandmas" what they had done to earn the money and handed over their hard earnt pennies. A lovely lunch and a coffee and then home to a nice surprise for me. Want to see?

It looks like a parcel for me!

What could it be!

A treat for me! I figure I've earnt a little something too!

So everyone had a good day. It will remain to be seen how long the spirit of entrepreneurship remains...

Summer days...

2009-06-24T09:09:00.000-07:00

Whiling away a beautiful summer afternoon...

Crocheting...

Picking some flowers from the garden...

& painting our toes..

Feasting from the garden

2009-06-23T06:19:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays are one of our busy days. We have school, playgroup, ballet and "jobs to do". I suddenly realized this afternoon that we have nothing planned for tea...

We are very lucky that we have the space to have our own little vegetable plot so I go outside and see what we have. Here is our plot.

It has taken us a few years to set it up like this, when we moved here it was just a patch of grass. D dug and built the lovely raised beds. He is in charge of hard landscaping and watering, and I am in charge of production and maintenance (sowing, tending, weeding, issuing orders and directions that sort of thing). Usually it works pretty well, although this year I have not been on top of sowing things at all, life has been so busy with either one or both of the children at home most of the time that it has been a bit hit and miss but we have some things growing.

We have broad beans. There we go. For tea we will have broad beans in lemon pasta.

(Can you see the Sweet Peas ready to spring into action growing up the archway, I can't wait I love their fragrance...)

One more thing, do you notice anything about the broad beans?

No? Let me point it out! This is the first time ever I have not had blackfly! We don't use any chemicals at all, so everything is organic, and the only thing I can think this year is that 1) I actually pinched them out in time, or

2) the companion planting (recommended by Sarah Raven) of growing Summer Savory with them really worked! I will be doing both next year anyway.

If anyone else has broad beans in their garden and is looking for ideas for what to do with them, here is the recipe for Broad Bean Lemon Pasta. Its quick easy and delicious. You can also have it with asparagus.

The amounts here are for two persons, double it for a family.

Broad Bean Lemon Pasta

Enough vegetables for two persons (one or more of broad beans, peas, baby courgettes, asparagus)
salt and black pepper
30g unsalted butter
100ml double cream
grated zest & juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Pasta, enough for two persons (orrechiette or spaghetti works well but it can be pretty much whatever you like)
Finely chopped parsley to serve
Optional grated parmesan to serve

1. Prepare the vegetables. Cut the asparagus into short lengths, slice the courgettes. Steam or boil until tender. Rinse in dold water and drain. For broad beans slip them out of their skins.
2. Cook pasta until al dente.
3. While you are cooking the pasta, warn the butter and the cream in a pan over a gentle heat for a couple of minutes. Add the cooked vegetables and lemon juice and zest. Take off the heat and leave for 5 minutes for the flavours to blend.
4. When the pasta is cooked drain all but a tablespoon of the cooking liquid, add the olive oil and combine with the vegetables and lemon sauce.
5. Stir, season and serve with chopped parsley scatterered on top. You can add grated parmesan too if you like.

Voila, quick, easy and delicious.

Now, that's tea sorted. This was just a quick pitstop, off to ballet!

A Time for Tea

2009-06-22T07:01:00.000-07:00

I can be a bit of a fussy fusspot. Ok, I admit it, I can be a bit of an

When we first met it took my poor husband many attempts to get the tea "right".

The tea has to be hot. The water has to be just boiled. Not too milky. That will not do. But not too strong either. Oh and the milk has to go in second, it just must. Then there is the order of the teas in the day. I don't know about you but I have certain tea & coffee rules in my day. Coffee in the morning, but never past midday. Tea can be drunk at anytime, but it has to be the right tea for depending on the time. And there I some times when I really need a cup of tea..

This is my tea collection.

The AM teas: English Breakfast Tea and Assam Tea, perfect for breakfast or midmorning.

The Afternoon Teas: Lady Grey (this has just replaced my Earl Grey Tea and is my current favourite!) English Afternoon Tea and Darjeeling.

The Evening Teas: All decaffinated, all a bit tasteless to me, but at least they don't keep me awake all night:-)

The Fruit & Herbal teas: Camomile - for when I need a bit of calm, the Mint collection -usually drunk after a big greedy roast dinner or on a hot day, and the lastly the Mixed Fruity ones, drunk in copious amounts in cold weather.

These are my teapots. If I'm on my own I have my teapot for one, the middle one is for my herbal teas, and of course my lovely EB teapot if I'm brewing up for my family or have company.

Now its time for my mid afternoon tea. Perfect!

Thats better!

Is anyone else as fussy as me about their tea?! Something less bossy and more creative tomorrow I promise!

Boot Sale Memories..

2009-06-19T06:54:00.000-07:00

I was so pleased to find this Knitting Nancy at my local car boot sale last weekend, do you remember having one of these when you were a child?

It came with a little hook/needle, some yarn, but no instructions. After about an hour of trying to remember how to french knit, we gave up and had a look online. Hurray for bloggers! Thank you SpoolKnitter! We printed out the instructions and we were off.

I also bought this lovely flower press, I used to have one these too. We're going to gather some flowers from the garden this weekend to make something special for Grandmas birthday later in the year! If it works!

Sowing seeds for 2010!

2009-06-16T02:04:00.000-07:00

Today it was time to spend an hour or so gardening..

I sowed my biennials. Honesty, Sweet Rocket, Foxgloves, Sweet Williams, and some dispaticus teasel (which the birds seem to love & it looks great with frost on it).

Seeing them in all their lovely glory at this time of year always reminds me to make sure I sow them now, so that I have them next year.

A little tour around a bit of my garden..

I call this the spring bed, it looks lovely at a time of year when there's not too much going on yet in other areas of the garden.

I love the white foxgloves, (this does self seed, but I sowed more of these this morning, just in case- would hate to be without them) and the purple one is sweet rocket, I love both of these for their tolerance of shade, especially the rocket which really brightens everything up under the tree. I bought some different varieties of foxgloves at Gardeners World Live last week, so can't wait to see how they turn out.

This is where I grow flowers to cut and bring into the house. Sweet williams are one of my favourites and I sowed more of these again for next year. I love the colour combinations and am growing the same colours again, Magenta Dianthus Oschberg, Dark almost black Dianthus Nigricans, and the lovely white one Dianthus Alba.

June and July are the ideal time to sow your biennials now for next year, sow them now, plonk them into their final flowering positions around August/September and they will look after themselves happily all winter and provide you with beautiful flowers for your garden and kitchen table from May onwards, really easy!

I buy most of my seeds from Sarah Raven, I love her taste, and she selects beautiful colours and hard to find varieties, but Chilterns seeds also stock a fantastic selection too.

Here I am!

2009-06-15T07:24:00.000-07:00

I have finally got it together to join in blogging, and thought it only proper that my first entry should be the granny squares I have been busy with after being inspired by Lucy over at Attic 24, and Lucy at The Antidote! Here they all are, laid out by my assistant on our kitchen table, looking very cheery! As you can see we have gone for colour, colour, colour!

Here is my crochet basket, with all my lovely yarns. I keep my finished squares one of my Cath Kidston washbags that came free with Easy Living a while ago, and the ones that need finishing and darning in in the other one, needless to say there are more than there should be in that one :-) I will get around to it..

Can you see my first sewing project a needle case that I made one evening?

It's my first applique project and I'm very proud of it. I'm planning to make a tea cosy soon... In the corner is one of the lovely badges that I was lucky enough to win from Snapdragon Jane, isn't it pretty! Thank you Jane!