Back To Normal.....

I had a really lovely break over Easter.  We spent a busy few days visiting family and attending football matches but this morning it was back to work for hubby and back to running my little online business for me.

I spent the morning printing patterns and packaging up little booties that had been ordered over Easter and then it was on to housework.  We have barely been at home the past few days so caught up with the washing, hoovering and dusting etc

I found time this afternoon to make a lasagne and a yummy lemon drizzle cake so that's tea sorted for when hubby comes in from work.

I'm looking forward to sitting down this evening and doing some knitting/crochet....I have a fine 3ply shawl that needs finishing and I also want to make a knitted hat and pair of mittens to put with a pram blanket I finished last week.

So Cold......

It's been another cold week with snow and freezing temperatures thankfully I have had my crocheted granny square blanket to snuggle under!

I used Stylecraft Special DK in shades of orange, brown, cream and beige...very 70's

I really enjoyed this project as I do with almost all the blankets I make although I am running out of places to put them!

A Treat for The Weekend..

It's been such a dreary, wet day today that I fancied making us a treat for the weekend.  I have made this dessert before and believe me not only is it sooooo easy to make but it tastes absolutely delicious.

Key Lime Pie

75g butter

225g crushed gingernut biscuits (you could use digestives instead)

1 Medium Carton Double Cream

Juice of 4 Limes 

397g can of condensed milk

I start off my weighing out my butter and popping it into the microwave to melt.

Meanwhile I blitz the gingernuts in the processer until they resemble breadcrumbs

Next mix the biscuits and melted butter together and press into the base of your tin.  The tin is then popped into the fridge to chill.

Whilst the base is chilling prepare the filling.  I always pop my limes into the microwave for about 40 seconds as this helps to maximise the juice from them. 

Place the condensed milk, double cream and the lime juice together in a bowl and whisk until thick and creamy.  This happens in a very short time probably less than a minute.

Spoon the cream mixture onto the chilled biscuit base and pop into the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight if you prefer

I decorated the top with chocolate flakes but sliced fruit works equally as good. 

Enjoy!!

A Bit of A Leak....

I had a dentist appointment yesterday morning and on returning home the first thing I did was to go into the kitchen to make a cup of tea.  I glanced up at the ceiling and saw that the plaster was bubbling away from the wall and a dirty stain was appearing on the white ceiling.....

I rushed upstairs to the bathroom as this sits directly over the top of our kitchen and around the bath was a pool of water....we must have a leaky pipe!

Hubby has sorted out our little disaster upstairs but now the kitchen needs some attention.  The plaster will have to be removed from the section of wall and ceiling and redone.  Thankfully my husband can sort this out and we will have to re-decorate (which I am secretly pleased about)

At the moment we have a terracotta shade on the walls with beech cabinets, white ceiling and white paintwork. I never really took to the colour the last time we painted but I had learnt to live with it!

I think this time around I fancy something completely different......an olive shade of green.....similar to this shade

Looking on the internet I have seen similar shades working well with the colour cabinets that we have.

I came across this picture whilst looking for inspiration last night.

I think it will work well in our kitchen as we have lots of light coming in so it won't be too dark.  I am quite looking forward to popping to the DIY Store soon and choosing the paint......although I can't say that I am looking forward to the actual painting!

Spice Cake

I've not been able to do any knitting for the last couple of days due to a recurring shoulder and wrist problem I have but what to do to stop the boredom setting in......bake cakes of course!!

I love to try new recipes and found this very simple one to make a low fat spice cake on the allrecipes.co.uk site.  I find this site so useful and have had successful results from the recipes on the site.

The cake is very, very simple to make with minimal ingredients:
flour, syrup, brown sugar, cinnamon and mixed spice with no eggs or butter being used.

The cake took literally minutes to mix and have oven ready....

and this was the finished result

the cake is absoloutely delicious and one I am sure I will be making again in the future

You can find the recipe here: Low-Fat Spice Cake

A Funny Sort of Day

Well hubby was back to work this morning after the rainy May Bank Holiday, I think he would have preferred to stay at home.

Tuesday has been a mixture of lovely spells of warm sunshine and dreadful rain showers...to me it feels more like April than May.

I changed the bed sheets this morning thinking I would get them washed, dried and ironed...by the time the washer had finished and I'd got a line full of washing out it had started to rain and I had to bring them all in again!

I was looking through my stash of yarn and wool last evening and came across a gorgeous reel of blue cotton which was just begging to be made into something light and lacy....so I got out the crochet hooks and decided to turn it into a baby girl's dress.

By bedtime I had just got down to dividing for the armholes

I am hoping to crochet a few more rows on the skirt part this evening.

I have also challenged myself to try and list in my Folksy each day as I think it is looking pretty bare and I'm sure I will attract buyers if they have more to look at..so....I listed this cute pair of baby legwarmers

Domesticity

Have spent much of the last two days catching up with housework and the 'dreaded' ironing.  I quite enjoy the routine of cleaning house but really don't like the ironing or the 'putting away'...but I can't bear to wear un-ironed clothes so I'll have to keep doing it.  I've started to put a few drops of lavender oil in the water and the gorgeous aroma as I iron makes it a much more pleasurable chore.

I even got around to doing a little baking this afternoon and made a homemade steak pie which was quite delicious and a trifle for afterwards.

I'm hoping the weather will be a little brighter tomorrow as I want to get out in the garden to do some potting up.

This is a mint cutting that I have been cultivating in a glass of water

It amazes me how quickly little roots form and once potted up you have a new plant which has cost nothing.