Pink Green

Was that Spring?

Please tell me that those few days of glorious sunshine weren't the only truly Spring-like days we are going to see. My garden is beginning to bloom, I put my boots away, dug out my Summer wardrobe, made salads and drank g&ts (well, ok, I know I do that all year round, but this was in the garden!) I'm not ready for more rain and chilly nights.

So, yet again, this blog has been seriously neglected. I love blogging - I love the writing and recording, and then reading it back a while later and remembering things I would usually have forgotten. I also love reading other peoples' blogs, and I still manage to read my old favourites and find some new ones, but as for commenting... I read them on my phone usually while drying my hair, waiting for the spuds to boil etc, so never manage to leave comments. I'm still there in spirit though. I'm hoping to pick it up in the next few months and I have changes a-coming, which will mean that I will hopefully have more to blog about, and more time to comment on yours (if anyone is still reading!). More on that another day...

I'm out of the way of taking photos for my blog, so I don't have photos to show you of the clothes I've been making (including my first dress, complete with lining and a zip), the jewellery I've been creating, the patchwork I've been doing or the crochet I've grown weary of, but I did remember to take photos of the food I've been cooking.

Salmon with Honey, Mustard & Dill marinade.

Swedish style potato salad with radishes (and dill). These recipes were both taken from last month's Sainsbury's Magazine, and are a huge hit with us all - largely because anything with dill in it reminds us of the fabulous Summer we had in Sweden a few years ago. This is comfort food Scandi-style for us!

Pear Frangipane tart. This is soooo easy to make and is fantastic for entertaining with some chantilly cream, or warm from the oven with a cuppa. You can either make a basic shortcrust pastry, buy some Jusrol, or even buy a ready made case, fill it with a basic frangipane recipe (of which there are hundreds online - I tend to make it up as I go along, but it has approxiately 75g butter and sugar creamed together, then 1 egg, a few grams of plain flour, and 100g or so of ground almonds mixed in until it looks like cake mixture), and then peel and slice some pears and plonk them on the top. Sprinkle with demerera sugar and pop in the oven for about 20 mins - or until it looks done. It's also pretty scrummy with plums instead of pears, or raspberry jam on the bottom. Sorry for the total lack of professional recipe, but it really is that easy.

We've been growing our own food, too. Unfortunately as it is pouring with rain you can only see the indoor produce, which consists of 2 of these gorgeous little houses with a freshly seeded lawn - which hopefully will be lush and verdant in only a few days. Cress is a wonderful little sprout!

Talking of little sprouts (did you see what I did there?!), my not-so-little-anymore sprout is about to take her pesky SATs (controversial tests in Maths, English and Science at the end of Primary school for those not in the know), and will be leaving Primary School forever in a few weeks time. Here she is in school uniform making jam tarts, complete with 'helper', who is hopeful of bits of pastry dough making their way under the table. As I'm typing this my even bigger sprout is in the kitchen making biscuits. Dieting is pretty hard in a house where there are 4 bakers (Andy makes a mean banana loaf on his days off!).

Well, fingers crossed for more sunshine, sandals, ice lollies and barbecues. I've got blue tits nesting in my little bird house, and a lilac tree just about to flower - I hope they don't get blown away by the stormy weather.

See you soon...!

 

Happy Easter!

Eggcups available here.

This is the 11th Easter these eggs have brightened up our house!

Double Daffs - £1 a bunch from M&S...

...so I bought 3 bunches!

No Easter is complete without a trifle...

...or a chocolate bunny!

Hope you've had a lovely Easter. Spring is nearly here!

It's Nearly March...

Well, February has nearly passed us by, thank goodness. I am longing for some sunshine, a cup of tea on the bench in my garden, opening the windows and the doors and generally not feeling quite so cold and grey. I don't usually feel the cold but it has been the sort that gets into your bones. The fire and blankets have been working overtime, and we've taken to allowing Bodie on the sofa occasionally just for his warmth (which he is quite happy to provide in return for a cuddle).

We had a fabulous half term week in a cottage near Chichester. It was right on the beach, and we had a lovely time exploring places we had never been before.

This was the beach that was a 30 second walk from our front door.

This is a really pretty florists shop in Arundel, and it serves to remind me that the sun did shine while we were there!

West Dean Gardens were my favourite discovery. Even in the depths of Winter there were signs of life everywhere. 

The fruit trees were all trained in the most perfect manner around metal supports. It must be breathtaking when the blossom is out.

I managed to squeeze in a visit to Clothkits in Chichester, which was a fantastic sanctuary from the blizzard outside. I took a couple of sneaky photos on my phone, but as I was with children and men I was only allowed a few minutes to browse. I came home with some little bits of fabric and lots of ideas!

One good thing about the weather is that I have been reading, knitting and crocheting much more than usual. I knitted a hat from this book, which has been keeping me warm, and I am currently working on a cowl from a pattern cobbled together from various sources in gorgeous mustard coloured wool. I will be taking this with me to tomorrow nights' Craft Night In at Cafe Moochoo, which is a lovely way to spend a couple of hours with friends (and cake).

Well, I had better go and start tidying. I've got friends coming round for wine and gossip tonight as Andy is working, and as always I've put off the tidying up until the last minute. In my defence it does get messy very quickly so the later I leave it the more chance there is that it will still look ok at 8pm!

 

Here Come The Girls...

My lovely sister Rachel came to spend this weekend with us while her hubby is away, and as Andy was working nights and sleeping days we had a very girly time of it indeed. When we get together food seems to form a huge part of  the planning. We are both good, homely cooks, and treaty food is a bit part of family time. My girls approve heartily and joined in with gusto too.

Friday night consisted of one of my favourite Madhur Jaffrey recipes - Red Pepper Chicken, and copious wine and a catch up in front of the fire once the girls had gone to bed.

Despite the grown up girls feeling a little weary, the not-quite-grown-up girls were full of beans and so we headed out of Cheltenham to show Rachel some of our favourite haunts. We hit Stroud Farmers Market first, where we bought bread, olives and cheese for a platter tea, plus scrummy Thai Yellow Curry for lunch from a street vendor, washed down with spiced apple juice.

After a little walk and a mooch we headed for another favourite place - Nailsworth - for more mooching in the stunning (but also, sadly, stunningly expensive) Sharland & Lewis.

Restorative cake was needed, so we had a cake sharing platter in a tiny tea shop. This was meant to be for 2 and was advertised as 'slivers' of cake. We had actually eaten one slice before I took this picture. It served 4 and we didn't finish it all. Doorstops would be a more appropriate description. The orange and poppyseed was especially scrummy.

Following on from that we waddled back to the car, and headed back to a more local, and much newer haunt of mine - the gobsmackingly beautiful Whole Foods store. Now, I am not normally one to get excited about a supermarket, but the pristine, stunning displays make me swoon every time I walk in! I am too afraid to take something in case the whole thing collapses, and I am sure that once you remove an item an alarm goes off and someone instantly comes out to replenish the display.

Oh, but the beauty of it all. I have to confess that having stuffed ourselves with cake earlier we weren't feeling foody, so left with nothing more than 2 yogurts, a bottle of pear and raspberry juice and a packet of mints.

A good hour of Just Dance, a platter tea and some late night crafting ready for a hen do finished off Saturday just nicely.

Sunday started with a trip to the car boot, as Rachel has a new, much larger, house to fill (and I helped her with that mission considerably). I bought a gorgeous, bargainous kitchen table for £30 which I have yet to photograph, and this gorgeous set of drawers which I bought to  sell on but decided I can't part with.

We spent the rest of the day chatting, laughing, drinking tea and chilling out. Now she has moved to just over an hour up the road I am already looking forward to the next girly weekend. I may need to diet in preparation though!

Did anyone else have a fun, foody weekend?

 

Breathe in the positive...

...and breathe out the negative.

I've just started yoga and this quote from the instructor in my first week has really stayed with me. I've just done week 3 and am feeling like a new woman. Who knew that an hour a week of deep breathing, adopting the tree position or downward facing dog, was just what the doctor ordered?!

The last few weeks then have been focussing on the positive. It's not always easy in January, when everyone around you is doing the fasting diet and the weather is pretty awful, but I've coped ok!

Aside from the yoga (which is hopefully going to strengthen some of the damage done 4 years ago when I broke my leg in some style)

the sun has shone (albeit briefly, but it was definitely there),

we had some snow,

the shops are full of tulips, daffs, pots of bulbs and primulas (some of which made it home with me),

I'm not doing the fasting diet so have been able to eat cake every day (and some of the biscuits on the staffroom table would have gone off without my help),

I have improved my knitting,

I didn't actually put on any weight over Christmas,

My legs didn't feel like jelly this week after yoga,

I have lots of things to look forward to in the coming days and weeks, such as my sister coming to visit (tomorrow - woohoo!), a holiday to the South Downs in half term, tickets to the theatre, drinks with friends...

In other news...

I had a lovely evening last night at the Craft Night In at Cafe Moochoo, in downtown Cheltenham. It is a fabulous cafe owned by my lovely friend Lara, and the evening was organised by the very talented Bex from Stuffed Nonsense (my daughter Ruth has a huge array of well loved Human Beans and Beardy Weirdys). I coaxed a friend along with the promise of teaching her to crochet, which I did, and there was a multitude of talented knitters, crocheters, printers, artists, embroiderers, some old and some young, and a good time was had by all. It was very inspiring, and I am already planning a trip to the wool shop to buy mustard coloured yarn to make a scarf, having got knitting envy! They are going to be a regular event, so maybe I'll see you there?!

(Photo: Stuffed Nonsense)

January has also brought excitment as I have had my best ever month on Etsy. Who would have thought that January would be the time that people want to buy vintage?! Thank you to everyone who has bought from me, either from Etsy, Folksy, fairs or shops. I feel 2013 is going to be a good year for Pink Green.

Sorry for the lack of photos to link with my writing - I'm out of the way of blogging and taking photos, and the light has been so awful. I'm not going to promise to post more frequently because when I do I never keep my promise, but you never know...

 

Things I'm Loving Right Now

1. Crisp sunshiney days - making me feel energised.

2. My new pillow from M&S - making me sleep well.

3. Spending an Amazon voucher on new books.

4. Fireworks.

5. The excitement of having 3 rooms decorated (although not loving the chaos that has caused in the meantime!)

6. My Pink Green business taking off in new and exciting ways.

7. My job at school (having had a few bleurgh days recently it's back to being fun).

8. My lovely friends, who are making me smile in many different ways at the moment.

9. The thought of lunch at Jamie Oliver's tomorrow with one of said friends to celebrate my birthday.

10. My art club.

11. My comedy dog.

12. Starting my Christmas shopping before the middle of December.

13. My children making me laugh until tears pour down my cheeks.

14. My sister and her husband finding a new house 2 hours drive closer to us than they are at the moment.

15. Several new vintage finds.

16. Just having had the first (but not the last) hot chocolate with Baileys of the season.

 

And, a much shorter list, but for balance here are some things I'm not loving right now.

1. Going to the loo by candlelight. Sounds nicer than it is.

2. Only having 2 available chairs for 4 people to sit on.

3. Getting up at 6.30. My new pillow (see point 2 above) means I am still dead to the world then.

4. Not being able to get to my camera.

5. Actually I can't think of number 5. It must the the Baileys ;-)

 

What are you loving right now?

 

Five Go Mad In Dorset

Wow - time flies when you are having fun. I don't know what has happened to October, but it has passed by in a flash. I could list all the things I have been busy with, but that would send you all off to sleep in no time, so let's gloss over the gap since my previous post.

I will, however, show you what I was up to last week. It was half term, which is cause for celebration in itself, but combined with my birthday (37 and counting!) and a trip to Dorset, it couldn't have been better.

This was our cosy home for the week, in the centre of Corfe Castle, the top of which could be seen from our bedroom window. You can just see Bodie escaping to make sure he was in the photo.

The castle (just in case you were wondering).

Although we are on the wrong side (or right, depending on your viewpoint) of the sign, I can assure you that we were all fully dressed, as was everyone else in sight. It was pretty Baltic on Studland beach that day, which was a relief.

A gorgeous building in Poole Harbour, made even more special by the name. Grace was very taken with it, but Ruth was a tad miffed they never have anything named after her.

Max Gate - the former home of Thomas Hardy. It was a fabulous house and the National Trust ladies were fascinating. We were told we could pick up anything we saw, read the books and sit on the furniture - not often the case with the National Trust!

Thomas Hardy's birthplace. I'm sure this has graced a few chocolate boxes in its time.

The steam train and station in Corfe Castle. We took the train into Swanage, where we sat at the station and ordered a new washing machine as it was the only spot in the whole of Dorset with a 3G signal and our washing machine gave up the ghost the previous week. It was definitely a clash of eras - not many people visit the John Lewis website on an iPad on a steam train I'm sure. It's arriving tomorrow and everytime I do a load of dirty washing I will think of the train ride. That will be frequently.

This nonchalant deer on Brownsea Island was much happier to have her photo taken than the hundreds of red squirrels we saw - they were so quick leaping away with mouths full of acorns that we only have russet smudges on our photos.

Brownsea Island from the ferry.

The Bucket Tree at Lulworth Cove. The owners have raised over £3300 this year for charity from passers by putting money in a bucket on the wall.

So, I am another year older, and as always I have made my 'new year' resolutions. One of which is to blog more. I feel I am getting more inspiration again and I am creating more time to indulge my creative side, so watch this space.

Roll on November...

 

10 Reasons To Love September

1. Dahlias

2. Doing jigsaws with Ruth on rainy days.

3. Nectarine and Almond Tart


4. Roast Dinners

5. Making Christmas decorations in the evenings.

6. Wearing shoes, not sandals (hiding the chipped nail varnish I didn't have time to do again).

7. Candles in the evening.

8. Sleeping with the duvet on.

9. The return of Downton Abbey and Strictly.

10. It's not long till half term!

I'll leave you with a very grainy picture of the female blackbird I have nurtured back to health over the last couple of weeks. She had an injured wing and was sat in the tree at the end of the garden. I couldn't reach her as she was still hopping around, so I put out some food and water in a place she could reach and kept an eye on her. After a few days she was able to hop down to the floor and back up again, and I saw her yesterday drinking from my pond and then flying up to the tree as if she had never had a problem. Her husband has been in constant attendance the whole time, chirping angrily if we went too close. A happy ending - something else to make me smile in September!

That Friday Feeling!

Why do I still get that Friday feeling even though I'm not at work for another 3 days and I've had 6 weeks off? It really does feel special - lie in tomorrow (just like the last 42 days!), dog walking (ditto), nice food (ditto) and wine (again, ditto). I'm off for a Singstar night at my good buddy Ruth's house tonight with a gaggle of good friends, which has been booked in for weeks. I can guarantee there will be a huge amount of hilarity and chatter as we haven't met up for quite a while so there is always lots to catch up on.

I've been busy crocheting, sewing and making things for my latest venture - the MADE Market next Saturday (8th Sept) at the Gloucester Folk Museum. It sounds like there are some amazing sellers there and it will be really good fun. I also like the fact that I can pre-book a Ploughman's lunch - so it will also be civilised! Please come along if you are in the vicinity - and check out the link above for the list of other sellers too.

Aside from that I have been pottering at home. We finally (after 11 years of hating it with a passion) pulled up the AWFUL laminate flooring we had in the dining room (not through choice - it was down when we moved in)to reveal gorgeous floorboards and a hearth. We are getting them stripped and a fireplace put in, plus then decorating the living and dining room. I'm leaning towards grey, and am off to get paint samples tomorrow. I am very excited about finally getting it done. It means so much more when you have planned it for years!

I finally managed to find time to finish a project I've been working on for a while over the Summer. This mosaic is of our house, and I made the clay tiles with the birds, leaves and initials, and then filled in around them with broken china. It was so much fun to make and will be a permanent reminder of this house. I just need to find the perfect place to hang it now, and finish off the rough edges either with some paint or with a frame.

I hope you are all enjoying the last few days of the Summer. I get very excited about Autumn and have already made several vats of soup and stew. The blankets have been dug out and the chimney sweep is booked. We need the fire though as I have a rule that the heating cannot go on until November unless there is snow!

I'll leave you with a few pics of items in my Etsy shop - enjoy!

 

 

 

That'll be Summer over then!

We had amazing weather the whole time we were in Southwold, unlike the rest of the UK apparently but it feels like that's probably it for sunshine now. My tan is fading already and this morning was the first morning for weeks I sat in my 'coming to' chair by the door with the door closed. Even if it is raining I like the door open, but it there was just a bit of a chill at 7.00 this morning.

I sat here with my customary two cups of tea and persued paint charts. We are having some bits and pieces done to the house in the next few weeks and I, for once, have no clue what colours I want. Normally I know instantly, but I am having a bit of 'decorator's block' at the moment!

Yesterday I dodged the showers and went to the Cotswold Vintage Fair at Toddington with my usual partner in crime, Stacey. We were remarkably restrained and I came home with a French tin, a Fire King jadeite jug and a Pyrex bowl in the same colour, plus a subscription to Pretty Nostalgic magazine. Not bad at all really. Unfortunately due to the torrential rain the road was flooded on the way home and we were too late back for me to cook tea for Andy before his night shift. So although I didn't get a telling off for the shopping, I was still persona non grata and had to send him off with a frozen Shepherds Pie while the girls and I had a take away!

I love this colour green so much, and it goes perfectly with my little terrier salt cellar.

I made up for yesterday by making a fantastic (if I do say so myself) Kleftiko (Greek Lamb Stew) with Rapeseed Oil Roasties, and I am now back in the good books. The recipe is from BBC Good Food and is really easy and tasty. Unfortunately it was hoovered up before photos could be taken, but it was definitely one to add to the list of regulars in my recipe book.

(source)

Aside from cooking, today has mainly been taken up with crocheting Christmas decorations (yes,really), jewellery making (in Autumnal colours to mirror the weather), and cutting out things to sew tomorrow.

Vintage pudding basins listed in my shop - perfect for your Christmas puddings!!

I've been busy listing on Etsy again, having been inspired by yesterday's lovely stall holders. I thought I would try to get organised and on top of things before we go back to school as I will have much less spare time then. I'm moving up with the class I had last year to Year 4, which will be fun but hard work. I have a pile of things to sew in preparation for my next fair - on 8th September at Gloucester Folk Museum. It is organised by The Made Project and should be fun. Pop along if you are free (I hear there is a good tea room, just in case you need further persuasion!).