Raindrops & Umbrellas

So, Jobags; this is your newly painted bathroom, LOVE the raindrops on the walls; awesome. I found so many fabric (mostly in the US) with umbrellas, clouds, raindrops etc.. on - thought I'd put them all here instead of continuing to clog up your FB page! 

YELLOW UMBRELLAS (from the UK!) >>>

RED & GREY UMBRELLAS and RAINBOWS & RAIN CLOTH >>>

http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1307319

RAINDROP BATH MAT???!!!! >>>

http://www.houzz.com/photos/3396197/Raindrops-Bath-Mat-modern-bath-mats-other-metro

beautiful clouds fabric>>>

I'll still keep my eyes out for something closer to home though....

Lots of love, Abi

xxx

Pies & Slippers

 Jo; I know you have seen all these pie pictures already, but thought it'd be good to post them here anyway:

 And here are the slippers; at all their various stages, we should make some for you next time we are in the same house:

Maybe you could post your seedlings?
Lots of love, Abi

lip balm

 making m strawberry flavour lip balm :) with all-natural strawberry extract made in canada by actually distilling REAL strawberries! when you smell the bottle it's amazing, strawberry fields forever!!

 the basic principal of making a creamy, smooth balm is to mix a wax with an oil. so i used some local beeswax, melted it together with some EU pressed almond oil high in vitamin E, some honey for it's natural antibacterial properties and the strawberry extract.

these fab labels were from angela! for jam jars, but that doesn't matter!

and it all took less than an hour! woo! want to try soap-making at some point. is there anywhere in london that does workshops i wonder? hope our throat gets better soon. i woke up today with a sore throat. going to take some vitamins and honey! xxxxxxx

Jo & William's London Trip

A basket of all we did that week

 So normally we are many miles apart. But last month we had a whole week together when you and William visited me in London.

Jo & William walking by the canal

It was a lovely time, and we did so much! Muffin baking, jam making, walking, market scouring, stitching and making woolly necklaces!

William exploring my books

Me & William walking along the canal

 I miss you both, it was great to be able to spend time with the little one.

Damson Jam we made from fruit collected in the park

A t-shirt for William that Jo worked on in spare moments

William using a spoon!

 Hope to visit you in return, soon!

xxx

Slow Cooker Part I

So Jo-Bags; now we have the same slow cooker we can experiment and tell each other our tips. I thought I'd start off here:

Tried & Tested

These following recipes are tried & tested by me. And as we have the same cooker they should turn out great for you too!

Baked Mushrooms with Ricotta & Pesto

5 or 6 large flat mushrooms
olive oil
250g tub of ricotta
3 tbsp pesto
2 garlic cloves (chopped)
25g grated parmesan (or cheddar)
fresh parsley (if you have any)

> brush inside of slow cooker with oil
> put in mushrooms, stalks up
> mix ricotta with pesto & garlic and spoon into mushrooms (pile it quite high)
> sprinkle cheese over and drizzle some oil on top
> cover and cook on low for at least 5 hours (some cook books say 8-9 hours but ours is quite a hot one i've noticed so really it won't need 8 hours! that goes for most recipes i've seen, take a few hours off the cooking time at least)
> serve with parsley, & good with a risotto rice on the side


Creamy Rice Pudding with Cinnamon Sugar 

I think this is the recipe I used before, but cannot be sure. I know I used full fat milk. I'll try it again soon and let you know.

25g butter
1 litre full fat milk
100g pudding rice
50g cinnamon sugar
handful of sultanas
pinch of nutmeg

> grease inside of slow cooker
> place all ingredients in slow cooker & dot with remaining butter
> cover and cook on low for 4.5/5 hours, stirring once or twice in last few hours
> sprinkle with a little more cinnamon sugar to serve


Not tried yet, but sound great

These recipes are ones I've got in books or off the internet and not tried yet. If & when either of us try them we should post any amendments we would make to make the recipe better.

Better Than Baked Beans

2 onions (thinly sliced)
2tsp oil
4 rashers of streaky bacon (cut into largish chunks)
2tsp sugar (brown)
2 x 400g cans of chopped tomatoes
200ml stock
2 x 410g cans of cannellini, butter or haricot beans (drained & rinsed)

> fry off onions & bacon in frying pan together, until soft
> stir in sugar, tomatoes, stock & seasoning, then simmer in frying pan for 5 mins
> tip all into slow cooker and stir in the beans
> cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours (it originally said 9-10 or overnight so 6-7 is my guess)

Light Fruit Cake

2 eggs
130g butter
225g brown sugar
150g self raising
150g wholemeal
pinch of salt
1tsp mixed spice
450g mixed dried fruit
deep 18cm tin (or one that fits your slow cooker)

> line cake tin; place an unturned saucer or metal pastry cutter in bottom of slow cooker; then pour in hot water to 1 inch deep and switch on cooker to medium/high
> crack eggs into mixing bowl, add butter & sugar. sift flours over and stir all together
> add mixed fruit and mix into mixture
> spoon into prepared cake tin and level ; cover with a piece of buttered foil
> put tin into slow cooker and pour enough boiling water to come just over halfway up the sides of the tin
> cover and cook for 4-5 hours

A post to make you feel better Jo

I know you are ill, and should hopefully be in bed, but if you have your laptop with you perhaps you can be cheered by this post and exploring all my recent Pinterest pins.

Food:

Don't these muffins look amazing? I so want to start baking muffins for breakfast; I never seem to know what to eat for breakfast and being so busy doesn't help. If I baked these once a week then maybe I would have breakfast sorted for at least 4 or 5 days out of 7.... shame its all in american cups..... hate trying to work out what that really means in english!

http://www.thecomfortofcooking.com/2010/06/savory-breakfast-muffins.html

These also look good; not exactly muffins as they use grated potatoes and egg, but good breakfast material, although probably a bit fattening...

http://thevillagecook.com/idaho-sunrise-part-two/

I've spent a few hours this morning on Pinterest; whoops! Its my only day off in ages and I needed a break from thinking about my MA work, here is the link to my new board on food where I am mostly re-pinning other peoples images for my inspiration, and yours. This is, by far, my favourite of the morning:

http://sandrakavital.blogspot.ca/2012/03/sables-sachets-de-a-devorer.html

It took me ages to find the original post for it (thats a big problem with Pinterest & Tumblr) but I did find it, but I also saw this recipe for the same thing:

http://www.teaspoonsf.com/2012/04/peanut-butter-shortbread-teabag-cookies/

I really want to try them sometime soon. Probably after the MA is done, when I get some more time! I barely have time or energy to cook dinner let alone bake!

Anyway, get well soon Jo-Bags. Miss you and the little one, hopefully see you later in the year for a week of baking & making. xxx

Twin Peaks Birthday Party

Thanks Jo for making the fabulous chevron table runner; it went so well with all the rest of the decorations. Wish you could have been there but had plenty of help from Mum & Kevin. 

Bento!

As a thank you for me proof reading her essay my lovely Japanese friend made us a wonderful Bento for lunch yesterday; Onigiri (rice balls) were so nice, and the carrots were cut in a cute flower shape, and there was a wonderful black sesame sauce stuff on the green beans. I will have to learn that one and tell you how to make it. YUM!

  And so I was inspired this morning to make a very speedy quick Bento lunch for Rick; I used the smallest heart cookie cutter I have (did you give me those?) and cut the ham and bread&butter, cress grass and some other veg for salad.






                 The blue&white encrusted cake thing is a leftover cornflake chocolate nest that I made for the party.

I hope he enjoys it; its not going to be the most filling of lunches, but its cute!


Enjoy the sunshine Jo-Bags. Love to little William and to Chris too. xxx

The Owl & The Badger

 So, as you know Jo, I have been chained to the computer and/or library writing my essay that is due in on Wednesday. So I have been having alot of tea!

I finished the first draft on Friday evening and so let myself have the whole of Saturday as a essay-free zone. Which is lucky because I had an animal themed fancy dress party to get ready for that night. I woke up not knowing what on earth I was going to be and ended the day with a costume to be proud of.



Here are some photos of the making process; it was great fun. I give you the owl (& the Badger):

 

So I raided the fabric stash and made 3 sizes of feather template and got cutting


                 and then started on the mask, I knew I had a pair of those cinema 3D glasses lying around so punched out the plastic lenses and drew around them on some cardboard.
        Then drew an owl face shape and cut out.

                                 After that I got sticking!

                  Rick helped me superglue the glasses on the card ( I hate superglue, it still scares me!)

            And hey presto, I had an owl mask!

       I knew I HAD to have a mouse hanging from my beak/mouth and so I made one!

    I used the leftover feathers to create my wings on an old brown cardigan; I could have done more feathers if I had had more time, but I think it worked ok as it was.

I wore brown tights, a mottled grey top under the wing cardi, that black layered skirt I have had for years and some super yellow socks for my yellow owly feet.










And so Rick was the Badger and I was the Owl: