After the Rain..

Sunday was a lazy day for us this weekend. After a late night socialising on Saturday we were all feeling tired and slightly out of kilter. It rained for most of the day, but then late afternoon, the sun came out and we headed out for a walk.

Sometimes I forget just how beautiful the area we live in is and how lucky we are.

8 years ago today...

..This wee lad was born and my life as a mother began..

Today we've been celebrating my eldest sons 8th birthday -We had a few of his friends round for a 'World Cup' football party and a BBQ after school.

It all went well, and felt like quite a relaxed event - I have to admit to usually finding children's birthday parties quite stressful. I think as parents we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make it a perfect day, but things don't always go to plan. The day did start rather too early (4:40am!) and by the end of the day we had a very tired little boy on our hands, but now I am sitting down with a glass of wine in hand, kitchen tidied, and looking at the photos of his special day, all the hard work seems worth it just to see his happy little face.

Thank you to Pixie Peg Jill, for the beautiful felt garland, this will become a firm birthday favourite in our house from now on.

So, tonight I will enjoy some of peace and allow myself a few days recovery before the onslaught of my June baby's birthday...

Green Things

At long last we have been enjoying some mild, sunny weather up here! Yesterday I made it up to my shamefully neglected allotment to plant my tatties - one more thing to strike of my ever expanding 'to-do' list. Back at home I have been a bit more diligent, growing a whole host of plants from seed. We have an old fashioned conservatory attached to our house - uninhabitable for most of the year, but perfect in Spring and Summer for growing plants!

Courgettes

Tomatoes

Watermelon (!)

Gorgeously scented basil

Lettuce

Cucumbers

Geraniums

..and outside my Sweet Peas are taking flight!

...all is well in my little herb patch..

Gardening in the North of Scotland certainly has it's challenges, but this year I've a good feeling...watch this space!

Easy Crochet Collar

I wish I was better at 'accessorising' - I'm not good with jewellery, often finding necklaces to be too long or too fussy. Scarfs are a different matter, I love the fact you can tie one on quickly and forget about it for the rest of the day and satisfyingly there are hundreds of crochet patterns out there for whipping up a scarf in a night. However, with it supposedly being Spring now, I was looking for a lighter alternative - enter the crochet collar!!

I found this pattern via Ravelry on The Ongoing Projects lovely blog, and using some grass green coloured bamboo tape I managed to complete the collar in around an hour. I added a vintage gold button for a bit of bling, and have been happily wearing my new green collar today....I'm thinking that the possibilities could be endless with the quick little project..

Mad for those Ginger Nuts!

I am quite excited about this newly found biscuit recipe:- low in fat (as biscuits/cookies go), easy to make and tasty with a perfect crunch to them. Its been freezing cold up here this week, and these ginger snaps have gone down a treat -prefect for dunking into a hot cup of tea!

These biscuits are similar to the ginger nuts you can buy in the shops, I'd run out of golden syrup at the time, so I substituted honey which worked just fine in the recipe, and arguably a bit healthier!!

Ingredients
170g (6oz) self-raising flour
1 tsp teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
70g (2.5oz) of sugar
1 tsp of ground ginger
70g (2.5oz) of butter or margarine
115g (4oz) of Golden Syrup
A pinch of salt

Method
Place the flour, salt and fat into a bowl and rub them together until they form a breadcrumb-like texture. Once you have the crumb-like texture, mix in the sugar, ginger and bicarbonate of soda.
Now add the syrup (you might find it easier to warm the syrup slightly) and stir it all together. It should, maybe with the help of your hand, be holding itself together quite well.
Make small balls of your biscuit mixture. When cooked these spread, so then lay them on the tray with a lot of space between each one, and flatten slightly.
Bake them in a moderate oven (160 degrees C / 320 degrees F) until golden brown. They will be ready in around 10 minutes.

A new picture for the wall

I'm on a mission to find some interesting frames and art work for our newly painted bedroom. I want the bedroom to have a vaguely vintage but modern feel to it- on a budget! I picked up an oval guilt frame from our local charity shop last week for 50p. It had a tired, insipid print inside it so I have spruced it up a little.

My First Lap-gan

Just another excuse to show case my new chair...my newly completed lap-blanket, and the best thing is, because its a nice girly pink colour nobody else in the family will want to use it!!

I started off with a small granny square and just kept going. This was a nice mindless project to pick up whenever, no counting required!! Once I had ran out of pink wool (a lovely thick and soft Texel wool) I worked a picot edging around in a contrasting green - perfect for tonight's Election results viewing in front of the TV..

Weekly Box Room Visit...

Wooden spindle chair - £6.00.

Pair of vintage print pillowcases -50p

Green Juice....

Yesterday afternoon, I pulled my old electric juicer from the back of my cupboard. Unfortunately it's so long since I last used the juicer, it needed a major cleaning.
This was all going to be worth it though, as growing rapidly in the heat of my conservatory is a tray of wheatgrass and I was eager to test it out as a juice ingredient. Growing wheatgrass is new to me, you sprinkle it on the top of a tray of compost, keep it well watered and within 2 weeks have a luscious tray of well, grass. Apparently there are huge health benefits of eating wheatgrass, but the one that sold me-

"Just 2 oz of juice provides the same nourishment as up to 4 pounds of fresh, green vegetables"

How fantastic does that sound?? OK, I'm a tad gullible when it comes to things like that, but I was keen to give it a go, and would be chuffed if my vegetable phobic children (and husband!?) would give it a go..
I decided to mix in some Kiwi fruit to sweeten the blow and pad it out slightly - I 'harvested' about a cereal bowl worth of grassy cuttings and wasn't sure exactly how much juice I would get from that quantity.
So, four glasses of pretty potent looking green stuff - I added a handful of ice cubes and a splash of apple juice (the kiwi's were a bit on the sour side). The verdict?

It's the cleaning of the Juicer afterwards that is always such a pain and a faff though, it almost puts me off - anyone else had any experiences with Wheatgrass? could I just whizz it in a smoothie using a blender instead??