Table Cloth

One of the most basic things that can be done to make your dining room table a little more homely is to sew up a quick table cloth. It is perhaps the easiest thing to make too :)
I picked up some fabric from my local haberdashery and just double folded all the edges under and with my sewing machine I quickly sewed all the edges. Done in around 5 minutes! Fab. I think I mite embellish it a little with some knife and fork embroidery or something :)
I feel like doing a little more sewing now this week... Ideas are flowing...
x

A Real Hero

This song from the motion picture 'Drive' is a really lovely song, it makes me feel all warm inside and so on this Friday night I thought I would share it with you. Unfortunately there is no video for this song, but you don't need one. Sit back with a glass of wine and listen to the beautiful voices coming from your speakers!
Enjoy x

Soup

Soup is one of my favourite feel good foods. When the weathers all rainy and cold out I love nothing better than sitting down with a steaming hot bowl and some chunky rustic bread! After recently finding out I am lactose intolerant I have really struggled to find foods that don't contain cows milk, its hidden in everything, and soup is no exception, all my favourites are inedible for me. So, my mum lent me her copy of the Covent Garden Food Co.'s A Soup for Every Day book, and so far I have made 2 soups completely from scratch, and I am very impressed! A couple of weeks ago I made a creamy chicken, and this week it was Butternut Squash and Goats cheese!

This book is amazing, it contains a different soup for every day of the year, some sweet, most savoury and all special days are covered! Boxing day Christmas left overs soup anyone? YUM! The best thing I love is that so far they have been so easy, and if I can get them right, anyone can! Best of all is that the recipes make between 4 - 6 portions, so if there's just two of you, or even one, I bought these soup bags from Lakeland and you just pop your soup in there and freeze it, or fridge it, and they don't spill! Grand!

Ingredients to serve 4:
2 tbsp olive oil
150g onion, diced
1tsp garlic puree
1tsp dried sage
800g butternut squash, peeled and cubed
600ml vegetable stock
100g soft, mild goats cheese, crumbled (I used Feta)

Method:
1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onion, then cook for 10 minutes until soft
2. Add the garlic puree, sage, and butternut squash, then gently cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally
3. Add the stock and bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until the squash is tender
4. Stir in the goats cheese until melted
5. Blend until smooth, reheat gently, then season to taste and serve.

Beautiful with big crusty bread and butter! Nice and warming.. :)

Snapshop of my week...

This last week my man surprised me with a Birthday trip to Liverpool, the home of the Beatles! I turned 27 and wasn't really looking forward to the week so he took me away for a couple of days. We stayed in the Hard Days Night hotel in the Cavern Quarter of the city. This hotel is the fanciest hotel I have ever stayed in and we were lucky enough to get a Ringo room. We had a lovely two days in a city that was completely new to us, we ate some great Thai food at Chaophraya in Liverpool 1, visited the Beatles Story by the docks and found out lots of new information about the Beatles that I didn't already know. I think that my favourite place was Mathew Street, home of the Cavern Club (both the original and the re-built one), the Grapes pub where the Beatles had their pre and post gig drinks, and a generally nice atmosphere :) I enjoyed having a drink in the Cavern pub with some free live music, getting to read through all the people who have played their over the years and all the newspaper clippings with stories of goings on there. Great stuff! I say that if you get a chance to, go see it for yourselves.
x

Inspire me...

Autumn is here, there is a chill in the air (lets be honest, here in England its always here), and the leaves are turning a mix of beautiful colours! It is my favourite season, all my favourite colours are on display and we can start layering up. Some of these above things have bought me inspiration for outfits, craft ideas and places I want to visit if I ever can. Something that I would love to do this season is start going for long walks to new places and hopefully finding some new favourite places to visit :)
Hope you find great inspiration in Autumn too!!

1. Wreath, 2. Snood, 3. Beautiful original pumpkins, 4. Dress, 5. Pier, 6. Quilted Jacket, 7. Pumpkin cushions.

Crochet Teacup

I love finding a new blog that I can connect with and gives me great inspiration! One Sheepish Girl is a blog that I read every day. Some of the things that Meredith produces are beautiful and one of the things that she has made and done a few blog posts about is her Amigurumi Tea Cup. I have so many people that I could make this for, too many people who love tea and coffee.. and then I found it, the pattern!

I found it while looking for something else and yet that project is now on hold, I have to make a cup of tea! The pattern is a Lion Brand Yarn pattern and it looks pretty similar to Meredith's cups. It is free and although you do need to sign up, you don't get lots of emails.

Happy Crocheting x

Moseley Folk 2012

This Friday a couple of friends and I went to Moseley Folk Festival in Birmingham. This was our second year at this really beautiful festival. It is only small and a lot of the music is unknown to us, but we love it! The atmosphere is great, the people are lovely and it's just a really nice time :)

One of the first to play was Beth Jeans Houghton and the Hooves of Destiny. I had only heard one of her songs on an advert and although I liked it I hadn't looked into the band more. But they were good, with great costumes and strange on-stage banter, they were different from some of the acts we had seen earlier in the day.

Another great group were the Destroyers. A 15 piece "MegaFolk" band from Birmingham with a brass section, string section and an old guy on vocals. Great fun and got me dancing!

Their new single

Next up was an old favourite of ours, the Guillemots. Fife Dangerfield was born in Moseley, so another local boy, and his music I have loved for a few years now. They started in 2004 and have had four albums out and a whole number of singles. They played some really great songs at the festival and even changed some of their old songs to vary them, a lovely set!

Echo and the Bunnymen were the headliners for the evening, a band I saw a few years ago back in 2005 at Reading Festival in the pouring rain. They were brilliant to watch and were so thankful to the crowd, a real great set!!

The day was a really great one and I think I will go back next year too! I recommend it to everyone, take a picnic and some friends and just enjoy it!
x