Happy Halloween!

Just a few pics in celebration of one of my fave times of the year...

Pete the Pumpkin....

We were actually genuinely scared of him at some points... he doesn't look happy!!

And we also made some garlic eyeballs with a sour cream and chive dip, taken from the BBC Good Food website...

We had a few vistors tonight - one witch, a devil, and a couple of vampires. Our cupboards are now sweetie and choc free which I've decided can only be a good thing!

Sarah

x

New shoots

Good morning! I am very happy this morning. I bought an Orchid plant this spring - it was lovely when I bought it, covered in beautiful pink flowers. Over time (well, a few days to be exact) the flowers fell off, and the stem turned into a brown, lifeless little twig, and while the leaves still remained green, I was certain that it was a gonner. Nevertheless, I have continued to water the poor thing occasionally, and a few days ago I moved it upstairs to the lightest room in the house.

Anyway, I gave it a little check over earlier, and what I initially thought was just a root was actually a fresh new stem. Hurrah! (it's the one to the left facing outwards) No flowers unfortunately but there is now hope! Orchids are so tricky to care for aren't they? I have mine in a clear pot as I have been told by a friend that they like their roots to be exposed to light.

Have a lovely weekend everyone

Sarah

x

Flea market finds

Hello, I hope everyone is having a good weekend. I went to a car boot sale yesterday (held at the Wimbledon Greyhound Race Track every weekend - it's huge!). I always love going, even if you don't buy anything it's great to soak up the atmosphere and listen to all the bartering going on. I did treat myself to a few little goodies. I particularly adore the teacup and saucer with the little girl on it - it says 'Little Patty planted peas in a tidy row, every day she digs them up to notice if they grow' - very cute! I also found a couple of Bunnykins eggcups and a teacup, which I though would be perfect for my new little niece or nephew when he/she arrives in January.

The Denby casserole dish at the back was only £2! I bought it because my Mum has had one ever since I remember so it was purely for nostalgic reasons - and couldn't really say no at £2 (it's from the discontinued 'Gypsy' range Mum tells me). It does have a tiny chip underneath the lid but it's not very noticable.

And on my way home I spotted this wonderful holly bush with an abundance of berries on it, and couldn't resist taking a picture (which I think doesn't really do it justice). I few doors down I also saw a lovely display of mistletoe, but I couldn't really take a piccie of this as the owner was in her garden and would probably have wondered why I was taking pictures of her plants!

It's the last day of my week off today, back to work tomorrow. Sigh... Still going to keep up with the blogging though, and enjoy the rest of the Sunday!

x

Fabrics and colours...

I've been having a bit of a rummage through my fabric collection, and came across these little beauties and decided to take a piccie of them all together.

And here is a close up piccie of my snowman fabric that I found in the Beyond Fabric shop - I couldn't resist - it made me feel very Christmassy! I love Christmas - I made a christmas cake last year for the first time (from Nigella's Christmas cookbook, it was a toss up between this and the Delia one), and I was so chuffed that it turned out ok - my Dad bless him still talks about it to this day! I can't wait to get stuck in again this year!  I could be getting a bit ahead of myself, but I think it's time to start thinking about making them now?

Have a good day everyone :)

A green fingered moment

I am trying to keep to my promise and make the garden look a little prettier, and have planted some pansies which hopefully should produce lots of colourful flowers! Not so much of activity going on there at the moment but I am hopeful.... That little white one on the end looks promising...

Also, I bought a bunch of purple flowers for a pound (bargain) from the Columbia Road Flower Market on Sunday (I have no idea what they are called!?), and noticed something really interesting about them. During the day, each little purple bunch sprouts a little white flower which then closes up again at night, only to return the following day! I love nature.

Homemade Hottie

I had a go at making a hot water bottle cover last week on my trusty sewing machine, and result is shown below! I really like the flowery corduroy fabric that I found in the haberdashery shop. The trim is made of a velvety material which is very soft. I am now thinking that they may make rather nice Christmas pressies so may have a go at making a few more in fun/vintage fabrics....

And I used the extra padding that I bought to make a cute little camera/phone case with a drawstring fastening - which I much prefer to the grey boring one that I used to have!

Banana Bread

I woke up yesterday and decided that it was definitely a day to make banana bread. I found a lovely recipe from my Sophie Dahl Voluptuous Delights book and I must say it was very very yummy, perfect with a cup of tea. As you can see, much of it has been eaten already. It is very easy as all you need to do is throw all the ingredients in the bowl, give it a mix, bake in the oven for an hour and bob's your uncle!

Banana Bread

Serves 6

75g soft butter

4 ripe bananas, mashed

200g soft brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda/baking soda

1 pinch of salt

170g flour

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas 4. Grease a 30 x 23cm/ 12 x 1 inch bread tin.

Pour the mashed bananas into a big mixing bowl. Mix in the butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla extract. Add the bicarbonate/baking soda and salt and mix in the flour last. Pour into the prepared tin. Bake for 1 hour, remove and cool, then serve in slices with a little butter.

Day at Columbia Road

Had a fab day today at the Columbia Road Flower Market... can't believe I have been living in London all this time and never ventured here before! It has a wonderful array of plants and flowers all being sold in stalls along the street. If you get there later on in the day it's a great place to grab a bargain, and they have some great little vintage type shops along the way too...

I noticed there was a bit of a Halloweeny theme going on in some places!

Scary....

AND, I went to visit a lovely little fabric shop on the same street called Beyond Fabric, it has some gorgeous stuff in there, I could have bought the lot! I didn't though... just some lovely snowman fabric and some spotty fabric.

gardening project...

I've just been going through my photos, and have found this pic of my garden taken this summer - how things have changed! It definitely needs a bit of tending to now, I'll have to put it on my list of things to do on my week off...