this weekend...

This weekend there was crafting and sewing and playing. There was magazine reading, (oh how I love magazines...) and finally getting around to seeing Mamma Mia on dvd. There were fresh salad leaves from the garden, how I love the fact that rocket just keeps on growing year after year without needing any help from me. There was a homemade cake, (coffee in case you were wondering) which turned out a little like it had been in an accident but was delicious all the same.



Oh, and there was also sun. The kind of glowing evening sun that I'd forgotten all about but once I saw it I knew there was no going back...summer is on the way...

little bits of green and yellow...

Little bits of green and yellow have been catching my eye today. Firstly the lilies that came with these flowers finally opened today. A little shock of yellow and a hint of greenyness.


Then when out dog walking, I spotted that the flowers on the broom had opened their little petals to reveal this lovely swirl. Everything is really starting to grow, which is so lovely.


I've been meaning to make the recipe for Vanilla-coated pumpkin seeds from this cookbook which I got from the library, mainly because a.) it looked super easy and b.) pumpkin seeds have got to be healthy right?

All you need is:
1 egg white
15g (half an oz) of golden syrup
1 tsp of vanilla essence
400g (14 oz) pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

Preheat oven to 100 C (225 F/Gas 1/2)
Mix egg white with syrup and vanilla essence in a large bowl.
Add pumpkin seeds and mix well so all coated.
Spread over a baking tray lined with parchment.

Put in oven for about an hour, give them a shuffle every now and then so the seeds get a chance to dry. If they stick together this is fine, in fact a bonus!
Remove from oven when most seem dry. Let them cool as they're easier to move. Store in an airtight tin if you think you will resist the urge to gobble them all up before they get a chance to get stale! They're not as sweet as I expected but very moreish. Hence you may not need that airtight tin!

I didn't bother with baking parchment mainly because the piece I had left wasn't big enough to cover the tray, (note to self to buy more...) and they turned out fine.



Then to finish off my yellow and greeny day I was out this evening, just when the sun shines that lovely golden light and spotted these greeny leaves just glowing in the sunlight...just perfect! I'm now looking forward to the rest of the weekend...I hope you all have a good one!

and it came with flowers...

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. Mine was full of sun and lounging about in the garden,along with finally planting some seeds and eating lunches consisting of homemade bread and avocado, mashed with little flecks of chilli and silky yoghurt. There would have been a photo and I did think of going indoors to get my camera but greed won out!



The other thing that's happened over this weekend concerned our car. Remember when I told you we were having problems? Well a month without a car and a bill for £700 resulted in the car basically being useless - aaargh! The problem still couldn't be sorted and we ended up having to make the decision to get rid of it and get a new one. I've never had a brand new car before but we worked out it made more economic sense to do this as it would be covered under warranty and a whole lot cheaper than the recent bills we've been having for our other one which was only 4 years old. When M returned from the showroom he also presented me with a big bunch of flowers which the showroom gave him for me! Corny - yep, but still the flowers are lovely. Not having done this before it made me laugh, though maybe this is a standard thing!



Ive also been playing with these lovely threads over the weekend...



and another sneak peek of what I've been up to.



For those of you who were interested in the pay it forward in this post, I shall be sending out a little gift to Jessica, Rachel and Becka, (if you guys can email me your details I'll sort your gift out). I still need two more people to pay it forward to, so if you're interested email me, or I'll do another post on this in the next few months...

good mail and a give away...

I so love receiving lovely mail and today was a good mail day. Not that it wasn't expected you realise but still... I'm trying to get organised and make more time for craftyness and so to help me on my way I bought some embroidery threads from ebay. I love a bargain and a crafty bargain is even better. I found 100 Anchor embroidery threads for £14.99 - yep you heard me right £14.99!! I have a limited collection already but they cost me about £1.25 each so to get 100 for £14.99 had me swooning, so of course I had to purchase, it's only economic sense right?!



Today when they arrived I was so excited and I confess a little dubious to see whether I had been duped by some clever wording but nope; they were all perfect and lovely in their colours.



In fact I could have spent far too long just playing with them and arranging into colour combos but instead I started to play...A little sneak peek of the beginning of my little makes...



Check out this post of mine to find out how you can join in with a crafty giveaway from me.

pay it forward giveaway...

Hope you all had a lovely Easter out there in Blogland. The Easter break brought sunshine which was an unexpected surprise as the weather was forecast for rain...so cue lots of lazing about in the garden pretending that this was summer. A tease considering today is dull and overcast!


Just before the Easter break I received some lovely goodness in the mail thanks to Jodie from Appreciating Light as part of the idea of 'Paying it Forward'. If you haven't heard of the concept then check out this site which explains it in a lot more detail. Basically the idea is, that if you benefit from something, (a favour, gift, loan etc) instead of paying back the person who made your life easier etc you then in turn do something for others. Jodie sent me a little handmade gift, (which my photo doesn't do justice by the way - the badges are so sweet!) so I now in turn will send a handmade gift out to 5 others who in turn will then send a handmade gift to 5...


I love the idea of sending out a little piece of handmade goodness into the world, so if there are 5 of you out there who would like to receive a handmade gift from me and then in turn send a little handmade gift onto 5 others, then leave me a comment. If there are more than 5 of you I will draw the names. (I figure I will give it a week and then draw the names out next Tuesday 21st) As soon as I have the names I'll then email you for your details and send you a little gift in the next couple of weeks. It's up to you how you do it after that, I'm sending out my gifts quickly but I know others who say they will send out gifts to their chosen 5 sometime in the next 6 months, (could be nice if a gift landed on your doormat that you'd forgotten you were getting but there is always the danger I might forget - hence the sending out quickly!!).

back again...

So I'm back all refreshed after my break in the Lake District. We had a lovely time, did a lake cruise...



intended to do some hill walking...

but in the end opted for lazing around, just reading and eating cream tea; while looking out at the view and listening to this which was on the loop in the lounge area. Just perfect, I love a bit of Len...
Funny thing, I've only been gone a couple of days but already I can see how much everything in the garden has grown.

I love this time of year, when all the plants begin to grow and everything holds such promise. Note to self, tomorrow I need to sort out my seeds in preparation of planting...

'making mojo'...

Because of my travel problems at the moment I haven't had much time for creating, so I feel as if it's about time I got my 'making mojo' back. Luckily I have a fortnight off work - bliss, (no early travelling!) so I am hoping to use this time to recharge a little. Below is my inspiration board that I have propped up on my desk. It changes depending on my mood and the things I find inspiring at any one time.



Tomorrow I am off to the Lake District, (in a hire car!) for a couple of days, so I am going armed with my camera, notebooks, pens, crayons and books, amongst other things. I feel it's important to pack these essentials first and then see what space I have left for clothing! Hope you all have a wonderful and creative weekend!

37...

I've been so busy these last couple of weeks that I feel as if I might meet myself coming in the opposite direction. We've had car trouble which has meant having to walk ten minutes, get the bus, two trains and then another ten minute walk in order to get to work (which is about 35 miles away) and has been taking me 2 hours 30 minutes door to door in each direction - yawn! So long days and not much time for anything creative, although I did discover this site which has podcasts about craft which made my journey a little nicer.



It hasn't all been bad though; I turned 37yrs old last weekend, which is pretty scary considering I still feel as if I am about 23yrs old but I guess that's no bad thing! The sun shone for me which was rather lovely and made a change from the grey skies of late and amongst my cards and gifts, was a rather glamourous box of chocolates that put a smile on my face. I've never had such a pretty box of chocolates before and felt as if I should be recling on a chaise in some kind of silk affair eating chocolates. Needless to say this didn't actually happen but I felt like a grown up with my swanky gift!



Other good things that have happened this week include the reopening of the main library for our area which was badly damaged in floods, back in September. Did I mention how much I love books? Really really love books and can't imagine not reading? Well libraries are just one of my favourite places - all those books and for free - fantastic! (Unless of course you are like yours truly and sometimes forget to take them back and end up with fines but still...)



Well the library reopened on Monday and I managed to get there on Tuesday - firstly the place looks great as it has been completely redecorated/modernised but the best thing was the smell, the smell of all the new books. The whole of the downstairs was filled with new books never taken out. I don't know about you but I love library books when I'm the first person to take the book out! Well this was like all those great finds rolled into one as none of the books on the shelves had been taken out - such bliss, the difficult thing was the choice and the fact it was a very quick visit! Such small things can really make me happy, like this daffodil that my young neighbour left for me. I saw her walking up my lane carrying some flowers for her mum and stopped to say hello and commented on how pretty her flowers were, when I got back from dog walking I found this flower lying near my step and she'd even put the stalk in my water bowl for the birds - sweet!