Soup and Swaps!!

Hello there, I hope you all had a lovely weekend?


Today I would like to share one of my favourite soup recipes with you - it's for Red Lentil, Chilli & Chickpea and you can find the recipe here at the BBC Good Food website (apologies for photo quality today, camera is flat so am having to use my iPhone):

Awww, my poor roses are looking a little sorry for themselves aren't they?

Don't worry if you dislike chickpeas - this batch is missing them as we were out but it's still lovely - the chickpeas are added after whizzing so are left whole, which means if one of you loves them (me) and one of you is not so keen (Hubby) you can fish them out!!

The postman brought me a lovely treat today:

This is a swap I did with my friend Ashley over at Jellybean's Odds and Ends and I can't tell you how chuffed I am!! The gorgeous little knitted pillows smell divinely of lavender; the Rice DK pins are fab. Underneath are some sweet little zipped purses, one of which is made out of babushka fabric which I love (I am 1/4 Polish and loved playing with babushka's when I was little). Also in there is some gorgeous, gorgeous fabric!!

Hubby and I have already polished off the pistachio chocolate!! Thanks so much Ashley!!

This afternoon we are having a chap come out to quote us for having a woodburning stove - when I was a child we had one and I loved it and so I have wanted one for a while.

Something like this perhaps?:

Or what about this for a shabby chic stove?:

We originally wanted it in the conservatory but after doing a bit of research think the installation would be a lot more complicated and costly than having one in the corner of the living room. 

So, I sat here and scratched my head until I worked out how we could fit one in there. We can't have it on the fake chimney breast we have as that was built to accommodate Hubby's huge TV (the TV is kind of boxed into a fake "chimney breast" which only sticks out about 6" into the room) but I think if we move one of the sofas around we could fit a stove into the corner. 

In some respects it would be better in the living room as one of the best things about a real fire is sitting in front of it in the dark and we don't tend to use the conservatory at night.

Just hoping it'll be feasible/not too expensive now. Fingers-crossed!!

S x

And The Winner Is....

I have used a random number generator and the winner of my giveaway is Sarah @ Modern Country Style!! Well done!!

Many thanks to everyone who entered!!

Yesterday we had this little guy in the conservatory:

At first I thought he must be terrified but he was soon sat up there trying to eat my fake rose garland!!

We opened the French doors and it wasn't long before he found his way out.

He was very sweet and pretty - but I still had to stop myself fretting about superstitions to do with birds coming into houses!!

Hope you have a lovely weekend!!

S x

Little things....

I must show these flowers that I picked from the garden today:

Aren't they gorgeous? The roses grow in the front garden and this year there are lots of blooms and so I persuaded Hubby to let me cut a couple to bring indoors (he doesn't approve of cutting flowers). The bush was here when we moved in (11 years ago this month) and we do nothing to look after it except prune it (badly) once a year.

The flowers are so sweetly fragrant I couldn't resist bringing them in to grace a jam jar (has there ever been a more perfect vase than an empty jam jar?)

I also picked a few of the pink flowers from the back garden (that you tell me are a kind of geranium, thanks for that!!) and I was rather naughty and leaned across to rustle a couple of our neighbours cornflowers.

Last year I sowed some wildflower seeds containing daisies, cornflowers and poppies but only a couple actually came up (poppies) which was disappointing. I've sown a similar mix this year in the gaps in the flowerbed but not much doing so far.

I can't tell you how pretty these simple flowers look on my coffee table, completely free and guaranteed to make me smile whenever I see them....

S x

PS Don't forget to enter the giveaway - it closes on Friday....

First of all I have completed the cupcake panel for the giveaway:

Don't forget to enter here by leaving a comment - the giveaway runs until 13th May.

I hope you have all had a nice weekend? 


We had a pretty quiet one (as usual!!) on Friday I had to give in and go into Portsmouth (I hate going into Portsmouth!!) to get my eyebrows threaded as I was beginning to look like Dennis Healey!! 


There is a lovely Indian lady in Debenhams who does it and she is fabulous, the only person who can ever make my pale caterpillars look like beautiful arches worthy of any celeb!!


Whilst I was there I naturally had to pop into Fabricland and I made a couple of purchases:

The red t-shirting is to make another maxi-dress and I also got these to make skirts:

You'd think at 38 I'd be past ice-cream and skull prints wouldn't you? But I'm not. I still wear my hair in pigtails too....

On Saturday we went to Petersfield and had a mooch around the charity shops and the "Smelly Book Shop" - this book shop is a rabbit warren of floor to ceiling bookcases with all manner of "smelly books". I was delighted to come around a corner and find my boys:

I had to take a picture with my phone as I was so pleased to find them as absorbed as I was - in fact it was Hubby who decided he'd had enough first!!

We had dinner with old friends on Saturday night which is always really good fun and then I spent much of Sunday sewing as Hubby was out racing his radio controlled cars.

Today I had a little mooch around the garden.

The clematis is starting to flower:

Isn't it a gorgeous colour? Mother-In-Law bought it for us last year, she also got us this aquilegia:

Which has self-seeded and produced two of these:

Isn't that amazing? I love "free" plants.

This one was a cutting from MIL as well, not sure what it is (I'm rubbish) but it's pretty AND pink:

As you can see we go for the wildlife look in our flowerbed - plant it and let it do-it's-thing - I'm not one for trimmed and formal which is just as well with Hubby's attitude to lawnmowing!!:

What did you get up to this weekend?

S x

PS Don't forget the giveaway - there are only a few entries so far which is a bit disappointing for me but good for you as you have a good chance of winning!!

50 Followers Giveaway!!

You may remember that I promised to do a giveaway when I reached 50 followers? That number was reached this week so today I have details!!

This is what you can win:

Included is:

• A Sizzix Sidekick Starter Kit including the machine & two dies - find out more about this little cutting machine here

• A machine embroidered cupcake panel - now the one above is for illustration purposes only as I haven't actually made the one I'm giving away yet BUT it's going to be bigger (so you can make it into a cushion if you want) and have a green polka dot background.

• A FCUK Polished Sugarscrub body exfoliator which smells gorgeous.

• A fruity pink, slightly sparkly lipgloss.

• All this comes in a fab 100% cotton tote bag emblazoned with a Union Jack - I bought two today, one for you and one for me. I used mine for my shopping and it's really big as well as having long enough straps that you can wear it on your shoulder.

To Enter:

Leave me a comment below. Simples!!

If you want a second chance then do a link from your blog to my giveaway post for another entry.

The giveaway runs for one week until 13th May when I will pull one name out of the hat - make sure I can reach you!!

Ooooh, and I have done a tutorial for you - my very first, so watch this space!!

Hugs,

S x

Giveaway News and More!!

I have reached 50 followers!! I am so chuffed!! And so I shall soon be doing a little giveaway - just need to have a little think and collect some goodies so watch this space!!

Yesterday I picked up Free And Easy Stitch Style by Poppy Treffry from the library (I *love* the library).

I fancied doing a bit of free motion machine embroidery after seeing the lovely Kirstie Allsopp have a go on Kirstie's Homemade Home last year.

Many years ago at school one of my GCSE assignments was machine embroidery - I painted a rose onto silk and then embellished it using the machine. Goodness knows what happened to it - perhaps it's in the loft?

The book:

It has some lovely ideas inside and clear instructions and tips on how to be successful, one of the most important being it doesn't have to be perfect!!:

So using this picture as my inspiration, I had a go:

And this is how it turned out:

I'm quite pleased with it and it was sooooo much fun!! I need to invest in lots of colourful thread though as I only have a limited selection, but I can see myself doing lots more of this.

This morning I collected a lovely basket from a lady on Freegle  who was giving it away. I need it to hold my yarn as Bear is just obsessed with wool!! If it's not shut away he spreads it around the whole house, cartoon style!!:

Don't you just love secondhand stuff? In fact, in our house we have only ever bought two items of furniture brand new - our wardrobe & bed. The rest came from junk shops; eBay; family castoffs or the tip!!

I love painted furniture so the majority of it gets a coat of cream paint, I'll have to take some pictures of our secondhand finds and show you in another post.

Hope you are enjoying the lovely weather, don't forget to check back soon as in the next week I should have details of my very first giveaway!!

S x

How Was Your Weekend?

After all the wedding fun on Friday we had a lazy day on Saturday - I did a bit of sewing (finished another maxi dress which I'll show you another time) and then on Sunday we went to watch my little neice Evie's "pony party" for her birthday (which was on Easter Monday).

Getting the reins sorted:

I must confess it was all a little chaotic - Evie adores horses (I always say she has the "horsey gene" like I do) but some of the guests who attended (ten little girls!!) were not so sure and so there was quite a bit of crying, and mums having to run in and out. And then, one of the little girls was sick. 

Now, I haven't mentioned it before but I. Don't. Do. Sick. I mean I. Really. Don't. Do. Sick. 

I have what is known as emetaphobia - a fear of vomiting. When I was pregnant with Son#2 I was sick for the whole 9 months and admitted 9 times to hospital to be rehydrated as I couldn't keep anything down. This has left me with my phobia.

So - after I realised the little mite had been sick I was off like a shot and came straight home!! To me staying there meant I might catch whatever had made her ill and due to my phobia I couldn't risk it.

I have tried all sorts of treatments for my phobia, but nothing works and it does have a big impact on my life :0(

Anyway, I called my sister later and it transpires that in the end all the girls had a good time. I'm hoping that my sister will let Evie have lessons now. I really want to nuture Evie's horsey gene as my boys are not interested and it would be lovely if Evie could one day ride with me.

Just before I leave you let me show you this pic of Jasper and I:

I was doing a quick bit of hooky whilst dinner cooked and Jasper came for a cuddle, he really snuggles in and you can't help but stop and sink your face into his velvety fur.

(Please ignore the frizzy hair, I neglected to use the GHD's today!!)

S x