Stepping into Sixty

Those chills are multiplying!

This week it has definitely been getting cooler in the evenings and first thing in the morning when I let the dogs out it’s decidedly chilly. Although during the day it has been lovely and sunny and warm most of the week which is allowing my tomatoes to hopefully ripen naturally. I have brought a few green ones in to sit on my window sill with a banana skin and they are ripening nicely. The blankets are coming out for sitting around watching TV in the evening too!

My granny square pattern is finally written and ladies from my craft group are going to pattern test for me and give me some feedback so hopefully in a few weeks I will be able to let you have the instructions.

I have been making cute little squares to make a clutch bag to go with my dress I am wearing to a gala event. They are super easy and quick to make. Here is the first side of the bag

You can find the pattern here

Crochet Pattern: Flower Clutch by Thoresby Cottage

Last week I mentioned I was going to cook my chicken in the new air fryer. Well I was truly impressed, I placed my chicken in for 40 mins and then turned it over and did for a further 30. It came out golden brown and crispy outer and the meat was still very moist. I will definitely be doing it that way again. The other meal I made in the air fryer was a sausage and roasted vegetables dish. It was super easy and wonderfully tasty and my oldest daughter really enjoyed it and she is not normally a fan of roasted vegetables.

I chopped all the veg into cubes and chopped up the sausages into bite sized pieces. I used courgette, carrots, potatoes, onions and cherry tomatoes but any veg that you can roast could be used. I placed them all in a ziplock back with a little oil and salt and shook until all was coated. I then tipped into the air fryer basket and cooked at 180 degrees for 15 mins and then gave a good shake and cooked for a further 10 mins.

I have just received my new silicon donut moulds and I am going to have a go at making bronuts today which is basically a brownie donut. So I will let you know how I get on in my next blog post. Until then I hope you have a lovely week.

Chris x

A Sad Time

With the death of our beloved Queen Elizabeth, here in the UK we are in a period of mourning. Whether you are a royalist or not I don’t think anyone will not feel a little sad at the passing of this amazing woman who at such a young age took on such an important job and continued to work until her death. For her there was no retirement, she dedicated her whole life to it. I and in fact most people alive have never known life without her so life will be a little strange and we now have a King who many wondered if he would ever become King as we felt she would go on forever. Rest in peace your Majesty and Long live the King!

To add to the sadness my youngest daughter went back to University this week and I will miss having her at home even though we speak most evenings to catch up on our day. She is definitely her mother’s daughter and already has hit the local yarn store and the sale bin and picked up some gorgeous fluffy yarn. Looking forward to seeing her projects grow.

I am still working on my granny square pattern and nearly have it all written up and hope to get some friends to pattern test it in the coming weeks. I will then post it here on my blog and also do a pdf for my Etsy Store.

As my daughter went back to Uni she took her Kombucha with her, so therefore I have had to start my own jar. Luckily her scoby had produced a few new scoby so I was able to use one.

If you don’t know much about Kombucha it is a mildly fizzy, fermented drink made from sweetened tea and a specific culture known as a ‘scoby’, short for a ‘symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts’. The bacteria and yeasts in the scoby convert the sugar into ethanol and acetic acid. The acetic acid is responsible for kombucha’s distinctive sour taste.

I love it as a hot drink too and add hot water and honey to about a quarter of a cup of the kombucha and often drink it late afternoon. Here is my scoby in her jar waiting for her first batch of tea and sugar. I didn’t have any green tea bags so just used my ordinary black tea but think I will get some for my next batch to improve all the health benefits this drink can give you.

My Scoby I have named her Lili in honour of our late Queen

I have been experimenting with my new air fryer and today will cook my chicken in it for our Roast. One of the things I have made is ham and cheese wraps all crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside. These are great for lunch.

I hope you all have a good week, chat soon.

Chris x

Ber Months

The cozy months are upon us. Whilst not a huge fan of Autumn and Winter there are some things I love about them such as the colours created during the Autumn months and the cozy evenings wrapped in a blanket drinking hot chocolate or sipping one of my flavoured gin’s.

This week I made some blackberry vodka and greengage gin. They will now sit in my cupboard for a month with a weekly shake up to make sure sugar is mixed in. Then will decant into bottles.

We had a lovely time celebrating my eldest daughter’s Birthday and a delicious afternoon tea at our local garden centre’s cafe. There were finger sandwiches, Eton mess, scones, jam and cream and little squares of rocky road, flapjack and brownie. We could not manage to eat all of the cake but bought some home with us for the following day 😊

Last week I gave you a traditional Autumn Meal Planner freebie, this week I created a shabby chic autumn Planner for my Etsy Store. I love the soft pastel shades and will be printing and using this one for my meal planning this week.

With the announcement of the energy prices going up I thought I should think about how I can change the way I do everyday things to save energy and hopefully cut down on costs. Therefore I have bought an air fryer which is much cheaper to run than the oven. This is the one I bought

I will be using my slow cooker more too. I have also bought a large drying rack to use rather than the tumble dryer which I usually resort to in the winter months as outside line drying is almost impossible.

The air fryer I have bought will be fine for when there is just myself and my eldest daughter at home but already I feel it is a little small for a larger amount of cooking despite them calling it a family sized air fryer. If you are thinking about investing in one then definitely buy a larger one if you are cooking for more than 2 people.

Watch out for some recipes using the air fryer in the coming weeks. I can say that our jacket potatoes were lovely. I microwaved them for about 10 mins then rubbed them with oil and sprinkled a little salt onto their skins and then popped them into the air fryer for about 35 mins on 180 degrees. They were crispy on the outside and fluffy in the centre and if you are like me and enjoy eating the skin, these were the best skins I have ever made.

My crocheting project for this week has been creating a granny square. I think I have it done and am fairly happy with its look. Now to get it all written up and get some of my friends to pattern test for me. I also need to come up with a name for my square, so any suggestions will be gratefully received. Here is my first finished square. I have tweaked it a little but it looks fairly similar.

Anyhow I should be off now so enjoy your week until next time we catch up.

Chris x

Berrrr months ahead

How is the Summer nearly over!

We are on the last Bank Holiday before Christmas and I have started thinking about Christmas decorations and gifts in advance. I crocheted some sweet little gnomes as tree decorations and got some cute snowflake buttons from https://kawaiisquirrel.co.uk/ to look like little bobbles on their hats. These will make great gifts as they will be easy to pop in the post and do not take too long to make. I have also popped them onto my Etsy Store just in case other people might like them.

I love greengages and had a very old tree at my last home. Unfortunately my new garden is not large enough to have one. Therefore it was lovely to see them for sale at my local supermarket.

I found this recipe for plum torte https://thelinkssite.com/delicious-elegant-plum-torte-recipe/

Therefore I used the greengages for this very delicious dessert. It’s great hot or cold.

I’m going to make some greengage gin this week too. I just need to buy another mason jar to store it in. This will make a nice little tipple for the Christmas Holidays. Flavoured gins are all the rage so I am going to look for some sweet little bottles to put it into once done to create a gift for some of my gin loving friends.

As we enter the ber months I wanted my meal planner sheets to be more autumnal and therefore created this printable, you can download this freebie below

Autumn Meal Planner Download

It’s my eldest daughter’s Birthday tomorrow which is the Bank Holiday Monday and we have booked afternoon tea at a local cafe. We love a good afternoon tea with little sandwiches, mini cakes and of course scones, jam and cream and lashings of tea. I often make for special occasions at home but we decided to go out for one this time as normally we would go out for an evening meal to celebrate but she is having a virtual party on line and playing games with all her on line friends from all over the world.

It’s such a different world when I was 22 I had just returned from living in L.A. so I probably celebrated with my friends at a Chinese Restaurant and drank far too much and laughed the entire evening. Oh those were the days! 😉

Well I must be off now as I have to pick up my youngest daughter from the train station as she has returned from her University field trip to the Azores and I am looking forward to hearing all about it and seeing photos.

Chris x

The Heavens Opened

Whilst it feels like I only just posted last week’s blog, it also feels like it’s been a long week.

On Monday the heatwave finely broke with thunder and a really heavy downpour. We had met up with my sister in law’s sister, who moved down to Devon last year and only lives 30 miles away. We went to Strawberry Fields just outside Launceston where we did their Maizie Maze. It was great fun but oh so hot but all around were grey clouds and we could hear thunder in the distance. We decided to make a retreat for the restaurant for lunch and I’m so glad we did as during our meal the heavens opened and chucked down what looked like a month’s worth of rain in about 10 mins. It was pretty spectacular! The photo doesn’t do it justice!

On Tuesday the lovely Standard Poodle Carmen came to stay with us. She has been staying with us since she was 6 and she is now an old lady of 13 and whilst completely deaf and a little blind is very happy to keep up with my girls. Her owners kindly brought me a copy of my old town’s local newspaper to read which was lovely especially as it had an article on one of my friends parents who have just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary.

I have done a fair amount of crocheting this week. I managed to finish my mushroom boy which is super cute but not sure I will make another one as the hat definitely had me thinking I would never finish 🤣 I followed a YouTube video this is the link, there are 3 videos in total for this pattern https://youtu.be/x04-ukSEp08

After that larger than I was expecting project, I decided to go for something smaller and have made these little cupcakes – unicorn and bunny. The patterns can be found here https://www.sweetsofties.com/2020/05/unicorn-floral-cupcake.html?m=1

I think I might make more of these to sell as they were easy to make and do not use much in the way of materials but are super cute ❤️

On Friday evening our local pub put on a 70’s buffet night it was great fun and the food was not only nostalgic but very tasty too. We did lots of reminiscing of the things we did and ate back when we were children in the 70’s. Some of the things mentioned were Finders pancakes and arctic roll 🤣 You can still get both although Finders are now under the Birdseye brand.

Mia my youngest has flown off on her University field trip to the Azores so I am looking forward to hearing all about it and whether it is a place I should put on my bucket list of places to visit. It is meant to be very diverse in its fauna and flora. She is staying in the capital of Ponta Delgada.

Have a good week everyone.

Chris x

Hills and Hauls

Hope you are all coping with the heat. I personally am loving it but then I don’t have to do any manual work at the height of the day. It’s been early morning walks and crocheting in the shade most days.

I did a lovely early morning walk with Faith combining one of our field walks where we normally get as far as the stream and then turn and walk back. I decided to continue over the little bridge and do the complete circular walk. It was 6km in total and probably a little further than I intended and a lot more hilly but will definitely do again but maybe wait until the weather is a little cooler.

On Tuesday afternoon Mia and I ventured back to Shilley Pool to wild swim. There were quite a few people who had made the same trek and were enjoying the cool water. We managed to find a shady spot and enjoyed a plunge in the very refreshing water and then a nice read of my book and a biscuit in beautiful surroundings.

I finished my crocheted butterfly which was a mish mash of different patterns. On the whole I am very happy with it but would like to improve the wings. Therefore I will be checking out a few patterns to get some more ideas and then retry.

Mia is doing very well selling her crocheted bee’s on her Etsy Store and also doing pattern testing for a couple of people. She needed to get some more yarn so a trip into Hobbycraft turned into an expensive trip for me as I could not resist buying some yarn for myself 🤣 Watch this blog to see what I make from it all.

I am now making a mushroom boy using a YouTube video from Amilove AnAn I will post the link when I have finished it. Let’s just say it’s a bigger project than I realised but it will be so cute.

As you can probably guess the kitchen has not been a place I really wanted to be in this week although yesterday I did make a rather nice Tomato and Manchego Tarte Tatin unfortunately I didn’t take a photo but you can find the recipe here https://www.delicious.com.au/recipes/tomato-manchego-tarte-tartin-recipe/35b3ywy7

I believe we are to have cooler and a little wetter weather next week so will maybe be a little keener to use my oven.

Till next week.

Chris x

Better Late than never!

Sorry for my weekly post being a day late but we had a very busy weekend at Paignton Championship Dog Show. On Friday we went without dogs to watch a friend do Hoopers Agility and to get the lie of the land as we have not been to a competition before. We also watch a few of the other breeds being shown.

Then on Saturday it was our turn to compete at our first ever Hoopers Agility competition. It was lovely although very hot. I ran Adira and out of 4 runs we managed one without getting eliminated and got a clear round and 2nd place.

Sunday we were back again but this time for the breed showing. Adira managed 1st in Special Beginner’s but Mouse got first in Post Grad then went on to get best bitch and then best opposite in breed, so she came home with the rosettes that day.

I have been busy crocheting and made a little octopus and a pumpkin and am now making a butterfly which is nearly complete but just I need to sew together so I should be able to show you the finished article next week.

In the kitchen I made some strawberry and blueberry shortbread cookies which were lovely on the day I made them but because of the fruit content they did go a little soft the following day. So in future I either need to use them all on that first day or maybe look at using freeze dried fruit.

This is the recipe

1/2 cup butter softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 egg at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 & 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup fresh blueberries washed and dried
1/2 cup fresh strawberries Washed and dried, cut into small cubes, dry again after cutting.

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350F then line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.
Cream the butter, granulated sugar, and powdered sugar together until smooth and creamy.
Whisk in the egg, the vanilla extract, and mix until combined.
Mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt until the flour mixture disappears. Don’t overmix your dough. Fold the fresh fruit making sure not to overmix. Make equally sized cookie dough balls, ( I made 9) place them on the prepared baking sheet and gently flatten them to about 1-inch in thickness.

Bake the cookies in the oven for 13-14 minutes, then let them cool down on the baking sheet for 10-15 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool down fully.

Strawberry and blueberry shortbread cookies

I also created a few printables for my Etsy shop, one being a cute cubed gift box for Halloween. I also decided I needed a new Meal Planner sheet for August and if you would like a copy just click the button and it will download a free copy for you to use to plan your week’s meals and shopping list.

Floral Meal Planner August Download

It looks as if this week is going to be a very warm one again so keep cool and I’m off to do an early walk with the dog’s.

Chris x

Short but Sweet

Nothing notable happened this week, sometimes you just have weeks that just happen and then they are over without you really knowing where they went. This week was one of those!

I have been creating things for my Etsy Store and this week Christmas made an appearance with some cute little cubed boxes to use for small gifts or sweets to add to stockings, hampers or even use as decorations. There are 5 designs and all you have to do is print, cut and glue to make them.

I am now working on doing some of the boxes for Halloween, they will be great as little treat boxes for those Halloween parties.

In the kitchen I made a banana bread ice cream cake.

I made this banana bread from Beyond Frosting When cool split into 3 and line the loaf tin you used to bake your cake in with cling film. Place the bottom layer in and then add ice cream of your choice, I used vanilla, make sure it’s soft to allow you to spread it out easily. Then add the next layer of cake and then ice cream (you could use a different flavour if you wanted) and the add the top of the cake and cover over with the cling film and place in the freezer for at least 12 hours.

Youngest daughter Mia is still busy crocheting her amigurumi creatures and is doing very well at selling them on her Etsy Store. We are off to look at a local car boot today to see if it might be a good place to have a table to sell some of our crafts.

We are also going to practice our Hoopers as the competition is next weekend!

Hopefully I will have more to chat about next time. Have a fun week whatever you get up to.

Chris x

Dessert for Dinner!

Well we all survived the hot weather and it’s back to normal, grey and windy with the odd shower British weather!

Whilst the hot weather was with us, we spent a lot of time sat in our downstairs garden, with the umbrella up and the sound of trickling water from my water feature I created back at the beginning of summer. (See my post). There are plenty of shady spots thanks to the trees and bushes so the dogs were happy just hanging out with us in the cool.

I worked on my printables and managed to create a nice selection of daily planner sheets to load onto my Etsy Store.

I also created some freezer labels for when I have leftovers and freeze them. I am constantly getting a container out and hoping it is what I think it is, hence the title for this week’s blog! So I created these labels and now can put them on containers and freezer bags to take away the guess work, no more apple pie instead of steak and kidney pie (shame) 😂

You can download your own set of labels by clicking the button below. There are three A4 sheets – one for meat, one for meals and the last for desserts. These are free for your own personal use.

Dessert Freezer Labels Download

Meat Freezer Labels Download

Meal Freezer Labels Download

I still have not finished the scarf I was making but I will get back to it soon but with the heat I could not face it. So I decided to have a go at creating an amigurumi tortoise, my daughter was crocheting a version in chunky wool but I decided to do mine in some variegated cotton yarn I had in my stash.

It turned out super cute and I then found a pattern for an amigurumi fish and so made one to go with my tortoise.

The patterns are available free from the links below.

My daughter’s version and my teeny tiny one

Little Miss Turtle (Free Crochet Pattern)

https://free-crochet-patterns.com/free-crochet-pattern-fish/

In a couple of weeks myself and my daughter Mia are going to be doing our very first Hoopers Agility competition with the littlies and our running order arrived this week, which has made it seem very real! This is definitely out of my comfort zone!

Now the weather is a little cooler I hope to get out and do some longer walks with the dogs as this week they either were very short and done early morning or did not happen at all.

Meals were pretty boring and consisted mainly of salad. Hopefully I can do a few interesting recipes this week.

Chris x

No more Teenagers!

This week my baby girl turned 20. Therefore I officially have no more teenagers in my house.

Looking back over the last 20 years so much has happened in my life. We were living in a village just outside of Beddgelert, North Wales and a 40 min drive to the Bangor hospital when my waters broke at 2.00 am. Mia was born 5 hours later.

We moved back to Henley on Thames about a year later and then to Spain a few years after that. Whilst out there I left my mentally abusive husband and drove back to the UK with my two girls and whatever we could fit in the car.

I was lucky and had my mother and my grandparents old house to come back to and I rebuilt my life and my confidence. The girl’s were 7 and 9, so bring up two children on my own was not easy but they have turned into strong independent woman because they saw that just because you are a woman you do not need a man to get things done. Also if you want to achieve something you have to put in the work. Good life lessons.

This week has been another scorcher, so meals have been simple as you don’t want to spend too long in a kitchen slaving over a stove!

We had a BBQ one evening as Mia had a friend to stay for her Birthday and also an evening out for a meal. I have made a few nice salad meals like this nice noodle salad which I adapted as could not get the right noodles so used Pad Thai noodles. Also used white cabbage instead of red and did not add the peanut butter to the main dressing as the girls do not like nuts in general but made up extra dressing with the peanut butter just for me and I have to say I loved the crunchy peanut texture it added to the salad . You can find the recipe here

Vegan Soba Noodle Salad

Friday evening we took the littlies out for a lovely cool walk along the river at Sticklepath and walked up to Belstone, stopped for a bottle of Sandford Old Blossom elderflower cider before making the trip back. It’s moments like this that make my move to Devon feel even more perfect.

We returned home to have a very easy meal of Greek Chicken Gyros, salad and homemade Tzatzki which was another recipe from Ahead of Thyme. I had made the marinade earlier and put chicken in one half and prawns in the other.

Last week I had some free stickers to download on my blog which I had made for a friend. I gave them to her this week at craft night and she loved them. They had the desired effect and made her chuckle. If you fancy printing off some humorous and motivational stickers just pop back to my previous blog where you will be able to download them for free.

I have been playing around with my sketchbook and coloured pencils this week to come up with ideas for stickers. They are just draft ideas that need perfecting. Which one do you like?

We are about to have the hottest few days so planning on just chilling in the garden under the shade.

Stay cool and hydrated everyone!