A day in the garden...with spots!

At last we have clear blue skies and some sunshine...hurrah! We would usually go to playgroup today, but no, not today...we are going to have some fun in the garden my boy.  I must get him some little gardening gloves (do they even do them that small?).  Anyway, the 2 veg plots needed weeding as hopefully I will have something to plant in them soon, so we set to work in our rubber gloves!

We are about to give the garden an overhaul due to our old conservatory being demolished and a new one built and renamed 'the playroom'. So a bit limited as what to play around with until work can start. The fruit trees are staying so I thought I could make a start around that area. This is how it looks now...

We planned to make this into a kind of secret garden area for the kids, so thought I'd start with some stepping stones, the first one laid (it's actually the bottom of a strawberry pot that's blown with the frost), then we collected lots of other stones from around the garden and the field next door. Ro moved them across the garden with his digger and trailer...

They're quite big, but I tried to choose smooth ones so there are no sharp edges.  When I'd laid them all out in a wiggly pattern, I put the broken top of the strawberry pot at the other end as hidden treasure, I plan on planting something lovely in there. We can now choose some nice plants to put in and around and J's out there now cutting the grass so it will look all neat and lush tomorrow, I'll take a picture then.

Oh yeah, the spots part of the post...we saw a ladybird on the washing line (excuse his dirty nails, mucky stuff gardening!)...

and after taking the washing off the line I chucked all the pegs in the house and they landed on our new door mat, I thought they looked pretty, so took a picture...

any excuse to mention my gorgeous homemade toadstool pegs ;-) I do honestly feel great putting my washing out with these.  Just one last picture...

stripey wellies...Nx

Home

This weekend was mostly spent cushion cover making, gymnastics and swimming. Saturday was the best day weather wise so J and I took the kids to the park.  Thought I'd add a couple of photo's...

This is one end of the park - it shows the putting green, our school and the local church.

This is the view from our bedroom window, the farmer has planted wheat again this year, the first year we were here this field was full of sheep. Nx

Little owl sat in a tree - applique cushion cover

I had to cover my 'Thrifty Thursday' find and I knew just the thing.  Pinterest is quite new to me, but I love it for inspiration so this is my first attempt at a link - fingers crossed...http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2009/10/tutorial-scrap-buster-fall-pillow.html
Did it work?

J took Miss M to her gymnastics lesson this morning and the boy got me up at 5.30am so I had eaten 2 breakfasts by 7am, pottered, tidied and made bread (well...put the machine on).  So I got all my chosen material out and off I went...

Tea, cake and sewing, listening to Ellie Goulding with the sun shining outside...doesn't get much better than that.

Starting and finishing something in the same day is very satisfying and I have to say I LOVE my new cushion cover.  Here are a couple of pictures...

Ter-whit-ter-woohoo! Hope you like it too. Nx

Mini Victoria Sponge Cakes (cos we've nearly run out of jam)

I'm tired and feeling a bit achey and sickly so don't want to do much today.  But the boy wants to bake - sigh.  "Ok, choose something out of that little book over there then".  He chose a victoria sponge cake; we only have a scraping of jam left in the jar...I know let's make mini cakes!  I have never made these before but let's give it a go...

To make 2 mini sponge cakes you will need: 

4 small tins (9cm), a baking tray (to put your small tins on), greaseproof paper, 3 year old helper.

75g Caster sugar

75g Unsalted butter (softened) plus extra for greasing

1 Egg

Half tsp Vanilla Extract

75g Self Raising Flour

First grease your tins (I used four 9cm tins) and line with greaseproof paper. Put the oven on 180oC/160 fan/Gas 4.

Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, add your egg and vanilla extract a little at a time.

Sift the flour into the mix and fold in to combine.  Divide the mix between your chosen tins and smooth (ours didn't smooth so well, see pic). Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, cool for 10 minutes in the tins, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

While this is going on you could wash up, or get your little helper to do it, dance around the kitchen, wave to the window cleaner and keep peeping through the oven door to see if they are "growing".

Spread on your jam of choice (ours was a mixed berry one), sandwich together and dust with a little icing sugar. Voila, scrummy mini Victoria Sponge cakes.

I enjoyed my half with a nice cup of earl grey tea. If I made these again I would use less sugar, they are too sweet for my liking. Nx

Thrifty Thursday

Today's finds...

2 picture frames (for the family tree tree), 1 teeny tiny embroidery hoop (to be used as a picture frame I think), 1 feather cushion and a BMW Z8 Roadster all for the bargain price of £6...woohoo.

Miss M fancied planting some seeds after school, so here she is planting broad beans in old creme carmel pots (I personally would prefer to eat the soil! but the kids love 'em)...

 I hope they grow, don't know if the pots are too small.  I planted broad beans directly into the soil last year, but it seems too cold outside yet. Nx

Baking with my boy - and egg on your face

After a bad nights sleep (Ro woke about 3.30am) had to near enough drag Ro to playgroup this morning after the school run, when we were there all he did was cry and struggle with the whole sharing thing. So we decided after lunch we should bake...he sat on top of the buggy hood on the way home...only then I realised there was 1 lonely egg left in the basket.  I remembered having some marzipan left over from the easter holidays, so I searched the wonderful web for a marzipan biscuit recipe, so here goes...

The boy has just nabbed the one and only egg, eek! I am not going to actually write the whole recipe out because I will never make them again...far too sweet and not that great, sorry to disappoint but I have to be honest.  I will show you the finished product though, just so you know what they looked like, Ro put a smartie marker in his chosen biscuit just as they came out of the oven and one for his big sister, here you go...

By the way, I only used the egg white for this recipe, do you throw the rest away? Noooo don't waste it.  You can freeze egg yolks if you add a little sprinkle of salt and stir gently (don't add air) then pour into ice cube trays and freeze, keeps for up to a year apparently. Anyhow, I didn't freeze it I made a face mask, for one egg yolk you just need to add half a teaspoon each of extra virgin olive oil and runny honey and smear it all over your face (avoiding the eye area), leave it on for 10-15mins, rinse with a warm wet flannel and tone and moisturise as normal - there you have it, beautiful soft smooth skin. I love food for your face.  Nx

Meat Free Monday

I don't have a regular meat free Monday, it just happens to be Monday and I didn't get anything out of the freezer yesterday.  So, looking at the contents of the fridge today...decided on carrot pie, with the addition of parsnips.  Mum makes lovely carrot pie with gorgeous wholewheat pastry, mine was ready rolled sadly. Now, what to go with it? Got broccoli and sweet potatoes. Need to think about the littlies here...what will they eat?  Nowt usually. So this is how it goes...grate the carrots and parsnips, grab some thyme out of the garden, place in a pan with some bouillon stock, cook for about 10mins,  (just realised there should be chopped onion in this recipe but I forgot today),strain and allow to cool. I saved the stock to blanche the sliced sweet potatoes in, brush these with a little oil ready for the oven...so far you've got this...

Pastry out of the fridge, unroll (ha ha how lazy). Cut the bottom for your pie and place in tin, I put mine in the oven then for a few minutes then pile in your filling, cut a top for your pie - anyway you like and brush with milk. Cook for about 30 minutes on @190 or until golden. Et voila...

Small person's plateful...and no, they didn't eat it all - sigh!

Gave the children the leftover pastry to play with and this is what they came up with...

On another note, I planted some sweetcorn today, in home-made propagators, made from: empty mushroom box, avacado tray, empty cheesecake pots and toilet rolls, can't remember what the lids were from but it saves putting them all in the recycling bin. Watch this space to see if they grow...ttfn Nx




Windy weather and Thrifty Thursday

So, it's been a couple of days...We had major blustery weather the other night, our 10ft trampoline had blown across the garden! assessed the damage today and it's bent - hopefully J can fix it.  Also noticed a bird's nest above the alarm box of all places. I did a nice bit of thrifting at the local charity shop £3.25 for 3 picture frames, which are going to be part of a wall display in our living room, a family tree.  Here they are...

I've painted the top two in Laura Ashley Sage green, so it will tie in with the rest of the decor.  Need more frames though, so I'll post a picture of the finished wall when it's complete.

 

I also managed to get Ro to eat ALL his lunch the other day, you have to do all sorts I know, but this fruit on a stick worked...he loved it.

 

Miss M came home and asked for scissors?!? always cutting things up she is. Anyhow she said she wanted to make a collection and went outside in the garden, this is what she brought back...



A little bit of everything she could find - including thyme and a tiny bit of broccoli that I haven't dug out from last year!  I often ask her what she wants to be when she grows up and when she was 3 her reply was "bigger". Last month an Artist, and today she said a Teacher.  She's got a while to decide, she's only 5 and a half!

 

I'm tired now and I'm off for a snuggle with J before the boy joins us! Night all. Nx

Day 2 in blogland - Spring has sprung

Day 2 in blogland...I'm finding all this blogging lark quite difficult as I wanted this to be a kind of scrap book, something my children and grandchildren could read in years to come. But I also know that strangers are reading it and it's quite offputting :-) Anyhow I like reading about other peoples lives and I'm often inspired to do things by reading blogs so now I've got that off my chest let's get on with it hey...
Today started with the usual who's having the Tony bowl debate (the free kelloggs bowls with attached plastic straws to suck the milk up). Then we had a dance off in the kitchen to Maroon 5's Moves Like Jagger which was playing on the radio. Eventually we got Miss M to school with lunch bag, book bag, PE bag and umbrella, honestly how much does one 6 year old need? Then to the supermarket - yes again! we needed actual food to go with the store cupboard essentials from yesterday. Nipped across to the market for some wadding, I feel like making something. Back home at last...checked on my lovely little pink hyacinth that's emerging quite quickly, Ro's pointing at it! see...

and then Ro helped with the coffee machine and we had toast.  He decided to have a tea party in his Superman costume, fair enough...

and the daffodils we picked out of the garden have opened and are looking very sunny indeed...

Back to school at 4pm to see Miss M in her street dance performance, she's been doing this after school for the last 5 weeks. They all looked so cute, all uncoordinated but trying their best. She did look funny swinging her long hair round like the 'big girls' do. So that's it for today, let's see what tomorrow brings. Nx



First post ever...and not a blummin clue!

Font testing is a must, Trebuchet sounds very appealing to me.  I won't ramble too much with this 1st post...this will be my online diary of everyday happenings. 

So today we went to playgroup, little Ro wore his new glasses, one mum commented that he looked 'edible', which I found rather sweet. Then a quick nip to the supermarket for store cupboard essentials, Ro managed to sweet talk (hmm) me into buying him a toy car (hot wheels BMW). Then to my lovely friend Faye's house for lunch and leftover birthday cake - yum. Her washing line blew down in the strong wind and the 2 boys used offcuts of line to 'pretend fish' in her pond - nowt to catch, but kept them amused while we chatted. Then to school to pick Miss M up and home for tea, no hubby today as he's gone to Wales for a couple of days. I did say I wouldn't ramble haha, nuff said. Nx