I smell (of) lavender

Honestly, I probably do (smell of lavender), even though I don't realise it. There's now either a lavender pouch or a bunch of dried lavender flowers in nearly each and every room of the flat. And even some to keep my smalls company!

On a more serious note, you know what I've been up to. I showed you the fabric here and haven't put it down since. Lavender everywhere, lavender in the air!!! Hahaha!! (yes, ok, I'm going mental - but then it is Friday, so I'm allowed, the weekend is nearly upon us!).

Anyway, I love them. And I love linen. Shame the company I got these swatches from only sold linen that was dry clean only. Is it always like that? I'm sure some of you fabric people will know. I hope not because I have a couple of projects in mind and anything that can't be machine washed is not welcome in my house.


I love the pouch pictured at the top, it's hanging from a floor lamp in the living room. And the one to the left here, I totally am in love with that fabric. The blue embroidery is simply beautiful. I think I might have ruined it slightly with my wooden beads, but I wanted to embelish it somehow. Hmmm... Anyway, there's more to come, but I've only got two hands and can only do so many things at once!


Hope you have a lovely Friday all and make the most of your weekend! xx

Soup-tastic

What with Boyfriend having had a tooth removed at the end of last week, we've been having a lot of soups lately. More him than me, but I occasionally partake in his healthy bonanza. One of our favourites at the moment is butternut squash and sweet potato soup. I'm biased if I say you're bound to love this, because I reckon butternut squash is probably my favourite veg ever. Honest. E-VER. But if you feel the same way I do, all I can say is put down whatever it is you're doing, get yourself to the kitchen (via the supermarket if you don't happen to have the necessary ingredients) and get it on. It's that good.

You will need:

• half a butternut squash, cut in chunks
• 1 large onion
• 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in chunks
• generous pinch of cayenne pepper and paprika

Method

• Preheat your oven to 195C.
• Place all the veg in a large baking tray, drizzle over some olive oil and sprinkle some cayenne and paprika. Put as much or little as you like, depends if you like it spicy or not! Add a little bit of freshly ground black pepper too.
• Put in the oven for 50min (until the veg is soft and cooked).
• Make 800ml of stock in a large bowl.
• Add the sweet potato and onion to the bowl.
• If you're not keen on eating the skin of the butternut squash, scrape off the flesh and add to the bowl. Otherwise, just chuck it all in.
• Mix using a hand blender.

This makes about 3 servings, but you can easily make more or less, depending on how many people you want to feed. (I usually make more and have it the next day for lunch or freeze it). And that's it! What do you put in your favourite soup?

A bit of the sea in my bedroom

It seems that I'm asking you to do a lot of remembering this week. First the secret project, then the blackberry brandy. Well I'm going to call on your fantastic brain power once more and show what other crafty project I finished this weekend. Last year around October time, we went on holiday to Norfolk for a week. We had a lovely time and I came back with pockets full of sea shells. I can't help myself, that's just how it is. I'd put some of the shells to good use pretty much straight away and I've enjoyed looking at them every day since. But I had lots leftover and had an idea that took some time to implement. I needed the right tools and it wasn't an easy task to get it all together. A deep frame, nails, a hammer, some varnish. The whole shabang.

It all started with painting all the shells with some varnish. Not really shiny tacky varnish, but just enough to make all their natural colours stand out (those that come out when the shells are wet which are the very reason why you pick them in the first place!).

And then the assembling took place. No photos of the in-between stages, and that for your own benefit. Because it was punctuated by numerous bouts of swearing. Not pretty I'm afraid. It just wasn't all going according to plan. It's still far from perfect, but from a distance, it's fine. It'll do. Now I know that's not the attitude I usually take, I like things to be perfect blablabla, but this time, it was best for my sanity that I put it aside. I can take it apart some other time, when I really have nothing better to do. One day.

Until then, it's adorning one of our bedroom walls. And I like it. Now I'd like to give out a big Thank You to Boyfriend for letting me loose with my paints and crazy ideas and letting me explore my creativity to the full!!

(Sorry about the mediocre photos, it's so difficult to photograph something which is covered in glass!)

Happy Wednesday all! [As The Girl says, it's hump day after all. Doesn't quite do it for me though. It think it's a close battle with Tuesdays as to which one's the worse!]

Boozy almondy cake

Well it's not exactly a boozy cake, but it definitely tastes of it. Want to know why? Do you remember the blackberry brandy I made last year? Well after the alcohol was transferred to bottles to give as Christmas presents and store in more convenient sized bottles, I kept the berries in jars in the fridge. They still looked fine and I couldn't get myself to throw them. Honestly, what could be wrong with berries infused with brandy? So I adapted a recipe found on the internet and made the most yummy cake ever. Well ok,  maybe not "ever", but trust me, if you make booze at home and have leftover fruit, use it wisely, make this cake. Honestly, I can't wait till the end of the summer when it'll be time to turn our sleeves up and pick blackberries again. A world without blackberries would be a very sad place indeed. Anyway, enough of the mentalism (you know what I mean!) and let's get cracking with this recipe.

You will need:

• 200g ground almonds
• 175g soft butter
• 200g golden caster sugar
• 200g self raising flour
• 3 eggs
• a dash of milk
• 250g boozy berries (blackberries used here - would obviously work fine with 'normal' fruit, but I'm sure it's much more fun with these little babies!)

Method

• Preheat your oven to 180C.
• Baseline and grease and deep 23cm tin.
• Mix together the almonds, butter, sugar, flour and eggs until well combined.
• Add the milk if your mix feels a little clumpy and heavy. Mix well.
• Spread half the mix in the tin - you'll probably need to use your fingers to do this properly.
• Scatter the fruit on top then dollop the rest of the mix and spread (again, use your fingers).
• If you have any flaked almonds lying around in a cupboard, sprinkle 2 tbsp on top, but if you're like me and you don't, you've run out, and you forgot to buy some more, just put it in the oven for 50min.

Enjoy as it is or with a large tablespoon of fromage frais. Yu-um!!!

Before I go, I want to say a big thank you to all of you who left a comment on my big tapestry reveal yesterday. It pleased me no end to know that you found it nice too!! You're the first people to see after Boyfriend (and the people at the art shop who did the framing, but they don't count really!), so I'm really really happy you like it!! xx

Secret project reveal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good morning all!! Thank you for your caring comments on Friday, Mr Petit Filoux was fine in the end, although a little pale when I got him home. He had a nice relaxing weekend and has another couple of days off to recuperate, so all is fine. I'm glad he's ok, you just never know with general anaesthetics, there's always a risk isn't there.

Anyway, moving on! How was your weekend? Wasn't the weather completely bonkers? One minute we had heavy snow, the next bright sunshine! It's funny how we've had so much snow this winter, something we don't often get in this part of the world. And I've found myself to be completely blazée now, going like "oh look there's snow - again"!! Funny how you get used to things quickly isn't it?!

Apart from that, I kept myself busy these last couple of days. Made the most of this precious time off. I finished a couple of crafty projects I had on the go and started some more knitting. One thing at a time though. I can't believe it's all done and I'm about to show it to you. Wondering what I'm going on about? Remember this secret project I'd vaguely mentionned? Well it's done. Hours of work have come to an end. And a very happy end at that. I'm so pleased with it, I'm a little nervous about showing it to you!! I hope you like it too! So without further ado, I present to you what will be welcoming all new visitors into my home:

As you can see, it's a "Home Sweet Home" sign in tapestry! Had any of you guessed it when I gave you a sneek peak a while back? I just love everything about it, love the fact that it's all my own design, with the flowers, the Union Jack background, the obligatory French flag, the orangey tulip (one of my favourite flowers!), the music notes, the steaming hot cup of tea, the bright sunshine... I'm so happy!!!! And what about you, do you like it? Oh I do hope so!!! I got it framed professionally at a local art shop, I thought it was worth it considering the amount of time I put in. I didn't want to do a shabby job at it and ruin it! So there, thinking about it and making this post to show it to you has put a smile of my face! Because I can tell you, after heavy snow and bus replacement services due to 'overruning engineering works' on my train line, I definitely needed it!! Hope you all have a lovely day xxx

A little something for him

A little white rose to wish him good luck...

Boyfriend is having a general anaesthetic today to have a nasty impacted wisdom tooth out. Fingers crossed it'll all go well.

ps: these flowers were given to my mum last year, so no I didn't buy him roses! Maybe I should have...!

Out of nowhere

This newly found love of mine: fabric. I never knew I'd like it so much until I discovered blogland. Until then, it simply never crossed my mind. Never. But now, well it's a whole different story. I dream of fat quarters and fabric stashes (as if a yarn stash isn't enough). I dream of owning a sewing machine, even perhaps a magnificient old school Singer. I dream of making wonderful clothes like so many of you do. But I have none of this. [For the moment, fear not, I'm sure I'll get onto it one day, when I move into my lovely dream house with a big garden, a cat and a dog. Yep.] So until then, I make myself happy with a little hand sewing. Using some gorgeous swatches and some hand picked lavender. Gorgeous little lavender pouches - bliss!

Pancakes with a difference

As you may recall, I was a little early with pancakes this year, having got a little confused with dates... oops!! But Boyfriend had a brilliant idea - let's ditch the dinner we had planned (soup) and live the rock and roll life. Let's have some savoury pancakes for dinner. Cheese and mushroom got a vague mention. And then I had a stroke of genius. Masala Dosai. A south Indian curry dish centered around a savoury pancake. We'd had it in the past a couple of times only at a restaurant in London and absolutely loved it. So there, that was it. I was determined to recreate this dish as best I could. Obviously, I didn't have 6 hours to soak the necessary ingredients to make the traditional Indian pancakes, but fear not I told my other half, I shall improvise and it shall be grand. And grand it was ;-)

Ingredients for the pancakes (makes 4):

• 150g plain flour
• 100g strong wholemeal flour
• 3 eggs
• 300ml skimmed milk
• pinch of salt
• tablespoon of desiccated coconut

Ingredients for the filling:

• 4 potatoes, cut into chunks and cooked
• one onion, sliced finely
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• half a habanero chilli, finely chopped
• thumb sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
• large handful of green peas (I used frozen ones, so I boiled them first separately)
• handful of mushrooms (I used frozen ones)
• 2 small tomatoes, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp tamarind paste
• 1 handful dried curry leaves
• large handful chopped coriander

Method:

Start by making your pancake batter. Put the two flours and salt in a mixing bowl, make a well in the centre and break your three eggs in the middle. Whisk the eggs and slowly incorporate the flour, then add the milk little by little. Whisk well after each addition to avoid getting lumps. Finally, add the coconut and give it all a good whisk. Leave to rest in the fridge until needed.

Then go on to making your filling. [Here I made a vegetarian one, but you could add lamb mince or chicken.] Peal and boil the potatoes. While the potatoes are cooking, heat some vegetable oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot, add the mustard and cumin seeds. Once they start to pop (about 1min), add the onion, turmeric and chilli. Give it all a good stir and leave to cook for 5min on medium heat. Add the mushooms, garlic and ginger. Cook for another 5min. Add the tamarind, followed by the tomatoes and curry leaves. Cook for another 5min. Finally, add the peas and drained potatoes. Coarsely mash the potatoes in the pan and mix it all together.

Your filling is now ready so all you need to do is cook your pancakes. They cook in the same way crêpes do, so get a crêpe pan out if you have one, oil it a bit and get cooking. These pancakes are a little heavy so you probably won't be able to flip them as easily. Once the pancake is cooked, put about three large tablespoons of the filling inside and fold over. Enjoy!!! xx

Healthy-ish snack?

Good morning everyone! Well another rainy day here today, but I got something to cheer myself up. Last night, I whipped up something quickly in the kitchen, after having seen a tasty looking recipe on a blog. I adapted the recipe slightly because 1/ it was in US measurements and 2/ I didn't have all the ingredients. But I can tell you this, it got Boyfriend's approval so it can't be that bad!!

You will need:

• 3 tablespoons of peanut butter (I used crunchy peanut butter because I love it like that)
• 5 tablespoons of liquid honey
• 3 "glasses" of brown rice crisp cereal (basically brown rice crispies - I found some in the health aisle of the supermarket - ingredients: 100% rice!)

Before I go on about the recipe, I want to say something about the "glasses". Basically the original recipe calls for 3 cups. But I don't have US cups in my house, so I used those glass glasses you get from small jars of Nutella. Or use one of those small Duralex glasses. Either way, you want a smallish glass.

So, the next step is to heat the honey and peanut butter on a medium heat for about 5min until it's all syrupy in terms of consistency. Meanwhile, oil a 9x9in tray and a mixing bowl. Tip the rice into the bowl, add the syrup once it's ready and give it all a good mix (you may find you need to use your hands for this). Press into your oiled dish and put in the fridge for an hour. After that, you can cut it up in pieces and enjoy!

Happy peanut buttery Tuesday all! xx

And here we go again!

Good morning everyone!! Can you believe it's Monday already? Again?!! Honestly, I think it should be the other way around: work 2 days a week, rest for 5. That's much more like it isn't it? Anyway, hope you all had a good weekend. I had another productive one, but not in the same way as the previous weekend. Don't have much to show for it really. Well not unless you want to see photos of drawers!! As you might have guessed, I did lots of tidying up!! The exciting sort though, the sort where you re-discover things you didn't remember were in your possession. Basically the room which is used as a guest bedroom/ office was slowly but surely being taken over by my crafty stuff, but it had become ridiculous. So off I went, emptied some drawers, effortlessly throwing all these things we don't need anymore. There's a certain type of pleasure you can only get from filling up a bin bag - know what I mean? So there, it's now all clean and tidy and I even did some crafty stuff in between, making good use of these re-discovered treasures and things which I'd put aside, knowing I'd know what to do with them one rainy day. Because let's face it, it didn't rain at the weekend, but it sure wasn't sunny. Over in my part of the world we saw more snow on Saturday and were faced with a wall of grey on Sunday. Good thing we don't buy into this Valentine's day commercial rubbish, because it was a pretty miserable day yesterday!! Anyway, I'll leave you with this. A photo of my lovely daffodils. They blossemed over the course of last week, and were diffusing quite a peculiar odour in the living room yesterday. Not unpleasant, just a little odd I guess. But the sight of them was quite wonderful. Like a private indoor ray of sunshine, just for Boyfriend and all. No sharing. ;-)

Three fat blokes and some cheese

Hey, bet you're wondering what I'm going on about?! Well let me show you the light!! Or more appropriately, the boards. Still doesn't make sense? Follow me...

Follow me to the land of cheese....

Oh goodness do I love cheese....

And what does too much cheese do to you? (because in moderation it's good, it's full of calcium ok!) It makes you a little chubby...

Combine the two, fold, mix and turn, flour a surface and do a bit kneading, leave to rise for a good few hours and as if by magic, you have the joy of seeing this turn up on your doorstep...

I absolutely love both of these!! The three fat blokes (les trois cuisiniers!) are in fact key holders which now live by the front door, and the cheese is a chalk board for the kitchen where we write the meals for the week!! [ordered from this supplier]

Hope you're having a lovely weekend and a happy valentines day to all!! xx

Bloggy awards

I can't believe it, this week I've been awarded two awards!! Yes, two!!!! I'd received both of them, the Sunshine Award and the Happy 101, before, but it doesn't matter you know, I was picked by two lovely bloggy people and that makes me VERY happy indeed. Honestly, thank you so much Maddi and Maria!!!

Happy 101 involves listing 10 things that make you happy. I've done this once before, so this time around, I'm going to try and make it short and sweet!!

1. my ECCO boots - I'll say it loud and proud, I love my ECCO boots, they're so comfy!!! (well they were until a couple of days ago, don't know what's going on, not too happy about these after all! maybe it's because I've worn them every day since I bought them before xmas! anyway, I digress!)
2. my red beret which makes people smile at me in the street - I know they're probably laughing at me really but I'm waiting (honest) for someone to say something so that I can yell back at them "well if French people can't wear berets then who can?!" (interspersed with an adequate number of swear words of course)
3. cheese (sorry, there had to be food in this list) - even just a little chunk of mature cheddar, and there you got it, absolute ecstasy! brie, goat's cheese, manchego, you name it I looooove it
4. walking up at 2.30am to go to the toilet, only to realise that I still have 3.5hours of sleep left (rather than waking up at 5.45 thinking it's the middle of the night)
5. having Nesquick the French way - please don't wince, this is nice ok? - sprinkled on toasted buttered toast - it melts, tastes chocolatey, feels less fatty than nutella - honestly, don't diss it till you try it
6. the dinner which we're planning on having tonight: tournedos rossini (fillet steak with foie gras sauce) with wonderful beef from the butcher
7. watchin TV at the moment - Eastenders, Survivors, Nurse Jackie - love 'em all
8. crafty things I've ordered on the internet as a present from me - to me!!! three things I'm waiting to come through the post, I feel de-ca-dent!!
9. going to gym classes regularly - talk about feeling proud of oneself!! (I won't mention the cookies and brownies I had yesterday - didn't want to be rude, it was someone's birthday alright?!)
10. your support - don't want to sound cheesy but you people have been amazing recently - not just recently, you know what I mean - but your comments mean so much to me

Hope you're having a lovely day xx

Last bout of crafting - for the time being

Looking back, last weekend I was super productive and creative. I'm quite chuffed really! Today I want to show you the last things I made. And I'm quite happy to say it was a recycling happy party!!! Basically I'd kept lots of cardboard (think cereal boxes and the like) and magazines with pretty photos (mostly Cath Kidston, Boden...) [I'd just like to say here that I've never bought anything from Boden, I just get the magazines so I can drool all over them and think I need more money!!]

So off I went, scissors in one hand, glue stick in the other. And this is what happened: some serious tag love...

Seen enough gift tags and Cath Kidston patterns for one day? Yep, me too! Happy Friday all xx

Dough party

I didn't just make pancakes at the weekend. Actually, I went a bit flour mad. Flour-tastic as I like to say. You wanna know what I got up to? Well read on... I made something I'd never done before in my ENTIRE life.




Never.




Ever.




Before.




I made....




Wait for it.....




PASTA!!!!!!!!!!! (yes I know, what was that all about, I'm mental!!)

I followed the recipe in the River Cottage family cookbook and I must say it was amazing. Not the easiest thing to do, but then it was my first time. It got a wee bit messy, but I can live with that. I'm sure I'll cope better with the flour and egg mixing next time. But what I want to say is this. Yes it's more effort that just getting some dried pasta out of a bag. Yes it'll get your kitchen a little messy. But if you've ever done this yourself before you'll know what I'm talking about. It's oh so worth it. Honestly. And no I don't have shares in the egg and flour industry ;-) This is coming from my heart. And my belly ;-)

It was so good we had it for Sunday lunch. Forget the roast, bring on the pasta!!!! It couldn't have been any better: home made fresh egg pasta, home made tomato sauce (easy recipe using carrot and celery for a bit of veg goodness!) and grated parmesan cheese... YUM!!!!

But that wasn't all, that wasn't enough for my crazy little self. I had to go on to make some bread too, recipe from the same Hugh F-W book referenced above (easy white loaf). I've made bread before, but this one is particularly good. And even though it was made on Sunday, it was still fresh this morning. This may not seem very long to some, but I found homemade bread can sometimes go stale fairly quick, so this one was good all round!

One last thing though... my wrists are still recovering from all the kneading!! Happy Thursday all xx

Date confused...

Slowly but surely, I'm starting to feel a little better (most surely down to some of you sending me such kind messages, honestly for someone like me who is sometimes a little sceptical about human nature, this blogland thing is throwing me right off track!!!). So I now feel like I can get midly excited about stuff that I got up to at the weekend that I was soooo looking forward to telling you about.

First of all, something to make you laugh. Pancake day anyone? Yep, Shrove Tuesday is next week. Well we didn't quite work that one out and thought that it was yesterday.... And me - being terribly organised and hating to be rushed off my feet - made the following suggestion: let's make some pancakes on Sunday night, that way, we can take our time and enjoy them. And if there's any leftover batter, we can have it on Tuesday, like everyone else. Only thing is, everyone else will be having their pancakes next week. We were a whole week early. But you know what, who says they should only be eaten once a year anyway?! I've got a special crêpe pan as well, so there! ;-)

And my question to you is this: do you roll yours up or fold it in four? I still can't make up my mind. But one thing I'm sure about is that the best crêpe filling in the world is the French way: Nutella all the way!! (yes yes I know, as you can tell from the photo above, I had mine with lemon and sugar because:

1/ I like it like that

2/ I'd never had it with lemon and sugar until about 5 years ago - the English always have to do things differently! and

3/ because the pounds are holding on and I need all the help I can get!! And that certainly does not involve eating a whole jar of Nutella with a spoon. Who said anything about eating it like a pig in one sitting I hear you ask? Well I'm French, Nutella runs in my veins and I can't stay away from the stuff if it's in the house. As simple as 2+2=4. Honest.) ;-)

A little more time to heal

Thank you all for your kind words yesterday, they helped make the day a little more bearable. My anger and pain has faded a little already, words have been exchanged and it has been agreed things need to change. For definite this time. Some problems cannot be shared easily and can only really be dealt with by the person it affects. I can only lend a supportive shoulder, but I want to make it clear that there is no guarantee this shoulder will always be there. I will not be taken for granted.

Anyway, enough about this. I'm feeling a bit tired after a couple of nights of pretty rubbish sleep, and I can tell you I usually sleep like a baby, so I'm not quite sure how to deal with this! I wish I were at home where I could bury my face in this little baby:

I made a couple of lavender pouches at the weekend, using some Cath Kidston swatches I had lying around. One now lives in my underwear drawer, the other graces a door handle in the kitchen. They're filled with toy stuffing and quite a generous amount of dried lavender buds.

The smell is absolutely gorgeous and reminds me of those sunnier days when we picked this lavender in the fields nearby. Good times... Oh how I look forward to lying down in the sun, closing my eyes and letting my face get warm in those bright rays... Please summer, hurry!!

Not today

My dear readers,

I had so many things to tell you this morning, such exciting things to share with you. But I'm afraid I'm not up to it today. Someone close to me has behaved in an appaling way and ruined it for me. You know when someone you care about really messes things up, it affects you just that little bit more? Actually, let's face it, it affects you a million times more and hence it hurts a whole lot more too. So today I'm in no mood or state to write anything cheerful on this little blog. I'm sorry. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day, but somehow, I can't see that happening just yet.

x

I ♥ soap

Right, if you're like us and use bars of soap, you will probably have come to a similar problem: near the end of its life, the bar invariably snaps in half, making it quite impractical to use. Not one to be defeated, Boyfriend came up with a good idea. And. It. Works. Honestly, you have to try this, you'll be amazed!

To carry out the amazing task of using every last bit of bars of soap, you will need:

• a pair of scissors and some leftover dry bits of soap (the 'dry' bit is important here, it will make your job a lot easier and a whole lot less messier later on)

• an empty container - I got this from this shop in London, it's ideal as it's got a nozzle, but you could use a shop bought one once it's empy

Method

Step 1: cut all your soap in tiny chunks (or rather, get your helpful assistant to do it!) - this is where the 'dry' bit comes in. If the soap is dry, it'll be a lot easier to cut in tiny chunks, instead of turning into goo...

Step 2: fill your container with the soap and add warm water - sorry for the state of my container, but it's been used for this very purpose before!! You don't need to put too much soap in, as you can see...

Step 3: shake vigorously until the soap has dissolved

And ta-dah!!! Job done! You've got some wonderful creamy hand soap!

The following problem might occur: the soap starts to solidify and clogs up the tube linked to the pump mechanism. An easy way to deal with this is to immerse the container is some hot water, the soap will dissove again fairly quickly, and bob's your uncle! Voila!!

Sneak peak...

Right. I've decided to give you a sneak peak at my secret project. I've been working on it for a good couple of weeks now, and it's oh so nearly done. So I can't show you too much, I don't want you to see what it is before it's completely finished, but I just can't resist showing you just a tiny little bit...! All I can say for the moment is that I'm using tapestry thread and I so so so love it!!!

Want to try and take a guess? I promise, it won't be long till the big reveal! Well, it'll most definitely have to wait until the weekend, because there's no way I'm showing you photos taken in artificial light for this little baby! I'm telling you, it deserves bright sunshine. Mr Sun, that's a warning for you. You better show your nose this weekend. And yes. This is a threat.

;-)

ps one of my lovely readers seems to be having trouble leaving me messages - anyone else using the Name/ URL option and not seeing their message appear (obviously not immediately since I need to approve them)?