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)?

Blocking

There's something about blocking which is final. It gives some kind of pleasure which is linked to a project being finished. It signals the end of something, yet at the same time, the begining of another. The end of the crafting cycle, but the start of the actual life of the project. The moment it starts being lived in, it starts serving its purpose. Blocking is time consuming, yet soothing at the same time. I feel like I'm putting myself through this process right now, at this very moment. I'm ready for a change, I'm in the drying process. The pins have been put in place. I'm ready for something new.

Landmark birthdays

Not mine, but two people in Boyfriend's family. Two ladies reaching an amazing birthday. Both are turning 90 this week. How brilliant is that?! So I made a couple of birthday cards... I had to put this secret project of mine I'm working on at the moment to the side and pick up my scissors and glue...

I've made cards using beads in the past and I love it. Although it does take a bit of time and effort, I think it's worth it, they make it look so much nicer. And this one below, well I guess I got a little glitter happy, but who can blame me?! The foam makes it fun too, I was pleased with this one as well. What do you reckon?

Happy February to you all, I hope you're still on track with your New Year's resolutions and have enjoyed 2010 so far! xx