New post, new floor..................x

Or old floor, as it goes.

This morning I set myself a mission. To get rid of the horrible velcro-like ( cos everything sticks to it ) carpet. The carpet in question is , at first appearance unassuming. Reliable even. Practical absolutely. Plain and calm almost. But under this ordinary exterior lied a monster. This bloomin carpet has made me cross on many occasion. For the life of me, I can never EVER clean it properly. Everything gets stuck to it, like my hair in the Q's beard. I had quite honestly had enough of it snarling and smirking at me.

IT.HAD.TO.GO.....

And go it did, my goodness it gave a good fight...........but I am feeling victorious and smug. Because underneath ( albeit a little woodwormy ) was a jewel of a floor. Why cover up this beauty?

I admit I got a little carried away and started on the bedroom carpet. I gave up half way through. The Q will be enlisted on the weekend for the great carpet battle. And I can't show you the floor in the bedroom just yet, as I want a before and after ( though the boards are sound, they need a little colour to their pale selves )....

I'm sure you have better things to read about than a whole post about carpets. Sorry about that. But I got ever so excited...........

Hope all the mummies are enjoying their half terms, lets hope the second half of the week goes by at snail pace. I enjoy my morning lazy lay-in..............hehe.

xxxx

With love..............................

Are you feeling the love?

There's not an occasion that we don't celebrate in this house. We will be giving and receiving ( hopefully ) valentine cards, we shall settle down to a good home cooked meal....( though I've yet to decide what on the menu......chocolate HAS to be included doesn't it? Oysters, asparagus....er cliche? Or are we going for cliche? How about the Q's favourite meal? Will go with that )...the bumblebee's will have a little pre mummy and daddy dinner...dinner....

However, we won't be sending expensive gifts, or buying into crappy card shop crappity crappyness. I love my Q, I tell him every day. I don't NEED valentines day to show it, or to prove it.

But will enjoy a nice evening together, NOT in a crowded pub/restaurant...been there before, was sooooo cringy , and that's from the hopeless romantic that I am....I want snuggles and kisses, chocolate and wine, a D.V.D and my Q to kiss my forehead and wind my hair behind my ears....like he does.

That's all.

Happy valentine's to you all.............no snogging in the back row please.........

xx

Wax crayon fun tutorial.......

All my blog posts seem to be for the kids this week. With half term holidays coming up I have a quick little craft you can do with them.

Making your own shaped crayons are all over the net at the mo, pintrest, blogs, and I thought it was time for us to give it a go.

All you need are some wax crayons ( which any house with little peeps will have, try and gather up all the broken pieces)......as many colours as you like.

Ask the kiddies to take off the paper wrapping.

Then we used a child friendly knife ( which worked to a certain extent )....you will have to find a sharp knife to finish off ( adult only of course! )...and cut up the crayons into small chunks. The kids can snap some of the crayons themselves.

Then finding a cake tin, or like us, use some silicone moulds and fill with the shards of wax crayons. Even using all the fine flaky stuff......

My bumblebee's wanted multi coloured crayons, but you could experiment with different tones....pinks, reds, and then add something like a green to them.....

Oooh top tip, try not to use many/if at all browns or blacks if you want fun colours, as they tend to take over......and no-one wants a sludgy brown crayon!

Pop into an oven for about 15mins on gas 5/190 c................

Open a window when taking them out of the oven......let cool, then pop out of the mould/tin.........

A fab way of using all those wayward crayons.....

have fun!

A re-use/make and mend/ upcycle lilydoll story.........x

I tend to hang onto the bumblebee's clothes that hold memories for me. I can, for instance tell you, that the green fleece jumper was bought for a snip on a second hand clothes stall, and both bumblebee's adored it, wearing it throughout their time at pre-school and on long wintery walks along a blustery seafront. The red hearts cord dress, bought for big bumblebee at three - has seen them both through many a birthday party, and even has a tiny rip on the side from Seth as a puppy.

I have plans for the majority of their old clothes, but this morning, a poorly little bumblebee asked for new lilydoll dresses........I may have been up most of the night, but that is what a Mummy is for, and it was worth it, to see her little pale washed out face, glimmer with happiness once the dresses had been made.

So take a few old clothes.......

And a dash of trimmings.......

An hours work, and look........two lilydolls, ready for a playdate.

If you have any little ladies in your life ( or boys, don't think I'm sexist ).......a lilydoll is a powerful investment. I think made by the company Manhattan toys  ( they make the smaller groovy girl dolls, which we do have, but I find the outfits of the lilydolls far more unoffensive, a doll should never, in my opinion, dress in animal print.....or any adult for that matter....just sayin )

The hours of fun my girls have had with these little ladies, and like I did today, you can make many an outfit for them.

Big bumblebee is at an Orchestra day today, playing her violin all day. I hope lilydolls new dress will be a nice surprise at the end of her busy, busy noisy day!

Is it nap time????

xxxx

Valentine teacup tutorial.......x

I can't claim this idea totally as my own. I first saw something similar HERE at A Beautiful Mess and my thoughts immediately went to a teacup. Firstly, I get a little bit grumpy, when on a thrifting mission,  at a car boot, or charity shop I can't find any cute teacups and saucers. Only rubbishy crappy ones...booooooooo.

So, one day I picked up a few crappy teacups and saucers, and told them " one day I will make you beautiful, I promise"......

And yesterday was their day.

VALENTINE CUPS.

YOU NEED.......

crappy teacup and saucer.

mod podge.

brush.

red paint.

lots of red/pink glitter.

a romantic heart.

I used a little of my Annie Sloan red paint to cover the teacup ( my saucer was already red)....this paint is expensive, but as I had it and knew I would only need a little bit, I thought yup lets do it. I guess you could mix a bit of P.V.A or mod podge in with a red tester pot?

Wait for them to dry.

Now for the messy part.....yeahhhhhhhhh.

You will have to work in sections, as it is quite fiddly, and you want to get maximum glitter coverage.

You might want to squirt some of your mod podge into a jar to use ( it will be contaminated with glitter, you don't want all your podge messed up with glitter )

Brush on some mod podge then sprinkle your glitter on. As easy as that........

Keep going, you might find you need to let it dry a while, so you can handle the saucer/ cup to get in the tricky bits.

Once covered it NEEDS to dry out completely, don't get too over excited and start glazing before you are meant to, it will only end in tears. I have warned you.

Now, brush on a lovely layer of your podge.......and allow to dry clear in a sunny spot. You will find 2 coats should suffice.This makes sure you won't end up with rogue glitter.

These are seriously b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l.........

Look at them sparkle......

Fill with valentines treats, obvs you won't be able to drink from you teacup, that would be a crazy thought, but you will be able to add some glitzy romance to your valentine's day, without breaking the bank and succumbing to the lure of the card and chocolate companies.

I think I'm going to use mine ( after valentine's) to hold all my rings in....pwetty eh?

Oh and you know what else? SOMEONE really needs to have a Wizard Of Oz party and use these as a table decoration........

Happy glittering.....Link me up lovelies if you do decide to make one.........

Spread the luuuurve xxxxxxxx

I have this thing about pale and interesting ........................x

I love colour, that's no surprise.

I also love calm.

And sometimes, it's hard to find the medium, within your home.

When we moved to the cottage, I wanted a relaxed, calm, pretty, cottage. A place where people feel they can slump on the sofa and not worry about non plumped cushions.

A warm, happy, cosy, family home.

I have this thing about pale and interesting, if I want all the colour and pattern, there has to be lots of pale and interesting........though, I fight it, oh I do. Because colour, to me, is a must. It's a personal thing. I know my house is not to everyone's taste. ( just like nail varnish, clothes, music, books ) and nor should it be. 

Some friends are doing a cottage up at the moment. They literally bought a shell. A very interesting shell. In the middle of a tiny Somerset village, nestled in between fields full of sheep, the village hall, and old red telephone box ( which has been turned into a Library B.T.W )

  It had been lived in for years and years by the same family, who just painted over the cracks, added more wallpaper to already layered walls. You know the place, you pull a piece of wallpaper off the wall, and a plant is growing up the crumbling damp wall behind. There are holes in the floor boards. The roof is great for star gazing at least.

Anyway, the house is nearly finished, they've done so well. But what I like love and adore about it all......is the fact that they have kept all the wood, they've kept the windows, they've bashed out the old ingle- nook fireplace, spent hour upon hour pulling, hacking up sticky manky floor tiles to find beautiful stone floors. The plasterer's have not smoothed the walls out within an inch of their lives. That would just look wrong huh? Wonky walls, thick and cumbersome are true cottage styleeeeee.

This is what I think......keep it simple, build upon what's there, if you have features of an unconventional style, use them. Don't try to hide them, or disguise them.

See how you use your space, big or small....then add colour, and shape.

This is just my opinion, and of course, my house is far too cluttered, there's never enough storage space for all our crap. And the dogs and bumblebee's cake mud and mess on everything.

But I do love the simple bits and pieces.

The calm in the storm.

That's all xxxxxx

On a diet? Look away.............x

I love cooking, if it can be unhurried, not rushed, a leisurely task.....I'm there. I knew there was a cake sale at school for biggest bumblebee's class that cakes needed baking for, then Q rang mid morning, asking me to add a few cakes to my tray for his "men" at work. He starts a new job this week, and will be saying goodbye to 20-something engineers he's been working with for the past few years. This is definitely once of those instances where the grass is greener,   he's sooo looking forward to his new job. And it has it's bonus's for us ladies of the house too.....as he will be working from here to Lands End........a few many a day out for us in Cornwall in the summer...whoopieeeeeeee!.......

Back to baking. I found this recipe for Rocky Road yonks ago, and it just suits. We all make it don't we? Perfect for cake sales as it can be made in foil tray bakes, and kiddies love it too. I tweak it everytime I make it, according to what's in the pantry....

ROCKY ROAD.

200G cooking chocolate ( good quality )

2-3 tablespoons golden syrup

135g butter

100g marshmallows

200g biscuits ( I find a rich tea/digestive mash up is good )

Glace cherries ( to taste )

1. Heat chocolate on a medium heat in a bowl over a saucepan with boiling water....stir every now and then until all melted.

2. Meanwhile you can pop all your biscuits into a sandwich bag and bash the life out of them, I like there to be fine crumbs and chucks too.

 3. Melt your butter and golden syrup in a saucepan until also melted.

4. Add the butter mixture to your chocolate and stir, then add your biscuits crumbles, marshmallows,cherries, and anything else you would like to add.

5. Mix, mix, mix like a crazy lady, then add to a suitable tin, using a fork to flatten making sure you have no gaps. Little foil cake cases or normal cupcake cases are good for kiddies.

6. If you want to pretty your Rocky Road up, now is the time, while the mixture is still damp, you couls either add more melted chocolate on top then shake some icing sugar on, or edible glitter. Or decorate with sweeties ( smarties, popping candy ??? )

7.  Pop into fridge for a few hours......then devour..all of it.....I dare you x

# I added sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and for adults I use pecans, or hazelnuts too. 

How cute are these heart foil cases????????? Tra laaaaa valentine's is coming up, I will be using these for a little tasty treat for the Q.......

I wanted to bake some savoury  cupcakes for Q's "men" as they were all having a meeting first thing in the morning. These Four cheese cupcake/muffins are great. So tasty warm, very similar to cheese scones, but as I am a crap scone maker these are my alternative...always.

FOUR CHEESE SCONE CUPCAKE.

makes approx 12.

50g chedder cheese.

50g red leicester .

50g stinky stilton.

50g mozzarella cubed small.

250g plain flour.

1 tablespoon baking powder.

half teaspoon salt.

1 tablespoon caster sugar.

1 tablespoon mustard powder.

240ml milk.

90ml vege oil.

1 large free range egg lightly beaten.

spring onion/chives if desired.

1. Preheat oven 190c/375f/gas 5. Line a tin with cupcake cases.

2. Keep half the chedder for later and put the other half in a bowl, with the other cheeses and mix.

3. Sift flour, b.powder salt and mustard powder into the cheeses and mix.

4. In ANOTHER bowl lightly whisk together milk, oil and egg...and add to the dry flour and cheese mixture.

5. Try not to over work the mixture, just mix until just combined, not worrying about any lumps etc. Add to cupcake cases......and then sprinkle the left over chedder on top.

6. Bake in the centre of oven for approx 20 minutes, or until golden............

Try to eat warm.......enjoy.....ummmmy.

My other recipe I found at the amazing a beautiful mess ( this website, if you haven't visited yet, will blow you pretty little minds, seriously....just gorgeous...) and I have to say it's very straight forward, would be great to do with kiddies.......biscuits dusted with glitter would be, I am sure a welcomed addition to any afternoon tea table....or just for gobbling on your own with a large mug of tea...go on have a go at them!

Phew.........have I scored a few brownie points??????? xx