Wales again...

Hi! We've been on holiday in Wales. Beautiful Wales! This time we went with my parents - they liked it too!

More pictures soon - right now I'm going to enjoy the heatwave' we've got at the moment.. and do some post-holiday washing and stuff... ;-)

*Anyone else get this song (about 3 minutes in) in their head when they see the word 'heatwave'? Or is that just me? ;-)

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Veg Everyday - a book recommendation

I got this book for my birthday. It's pretty great! River Cottage Veg Every Day! Since becoming a vegetarian I'm trying new things so it doesn't end up being all veg chilli and pasta all the time!

But there are a couple of things which really annoy me about some of the vegetarian cookbooks: there's a lot of them which are really heavy on the Asian food inspiration - for obvious reasons, I know; there's a lot of vegetarian foods there anyway. But I don't like Asian food much.

And the fact that a lot of vegetarian recipes are trying very hard to be exactly like the meat versions, only substituting the meat for something else.

But this book doesn't do that. Atleast not in my opinion. The vegs are used for their own qualities and a lot of the recipes use ingredients which are readily available and which you already know what are. And that's a good thing if you ask me. I want to make nice, delicious food - without having to look up the ingredients on Wikipedia! ;-)

Oh and the book is pretty too - just look at the end papers!

I've tried a few recipes from the book so far and they've all be lovely! Especially the Courgette and Rice Filo Pie was delicious. Most of the recipes are pretty straightforward and the ingredients list isn't a mile long! I find I have most of the dry and canned ingredients already, so no need to fill up the cupboards with more..stuff!.

If you want to eat more vegetables, I think you'll like this book. It's not just for vegetarians, you know! :-)

A couple more spreads from the book...

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Chalkboard frame tutorial

Here's a quick way to make a chalkboard - use it as a notice board, menu plan or maybe just to scribble cartoons etc..!

And when I say quick, I really do mean it. 5 minutes tops! ;-)


Here's what you need:

A frame
Self-adhesive chalkboard foil. Sometimes it's called chalkboard vinyl or chalkboard contact paper. You can find it on eBay if you can't find it anywhere else.
Pair of scissors
And some chalk!


Cut a piece of the foil to fit the size of the glass, remove the backing paper, stick to the glass and put the glass back in the frame. And that is it! You could also do this with a larger frame of course.

And because the foil can be removed from most surfaces you can also simply stick the foil anywhere you like (although maybe not on your painted walls because it could peel off the paint..!) - imagine the possibilities, chalkboards anywhere in any shape you like!

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Thoughts on a 6th birthday and a give away

How time flies... Six years I've been writing this blog. Can it really be that long? I guess it can! When you're doing something you enjoy, you scarcely notice time passing..

Because, you see, I truly enjoy writing this blog, my little space on the internets. Blogging can be such a wonderful thing to do, just the frequency of doing something creative like this.. writing, taking pictures.. it fuels itself. It's amazing.

Of course, there's the other side of the coin - the one where you think "oh who'd read this rubbish" or "I should do things differently because then something awesome would happen like it did for that other blogger overthere". That's just the way it is. You have these thoughts, they sneak up on you and that's kinda of a downer.

Lately, I've been thinking that maybe I should have like a proper mission for this blog, make things more stream-lined, have a regular posting schedule and such. Take things more seriously, I guess. That got me a little down, I must admit. Should. Should isn't very inspiring, I think. It feels more like a straight jacket, constricting, claustrophobic.

So I gave myself a good talking to: don't worry about it. It's ok. It's your blog. You do your thing. Don't worry about what other people are doing. Hopefully, they're doing things the way they are because that's right for them. I do things the way I do them because that's what feels right to me. The only thing I should do, is follow my heart, follow my inspiration...

I totally gave myself a permission slip to do whatever the heck I want. And it's signed with love from me. ;-)

Erm, listen to me babbling on..! Really, I also want to say: thank you for reading my blog. It means a lot to me that I get to share my thoughts and pictures and ideas with you. So thank you. :-)

To celebrate, take 20% off anything in my shop from now on until Saturday (included). Just use the code HAPPY6 at checkout.

And of course, there's a give away too! One fat quarter of the fabric in the picture below is up for grabs. The fabric is designed by me and I got a yard of it in the post today of all days, yay! So, if you'd like a chance at winning the fat quarter simply leave a comment on this post before 8am on Monday, May 21.

Oh and pardon the slightly blurry photo, it's all I've been able to take today - check out the design, Bouquet, in my Spoonflower shop to see what it looks like. :-)

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Oh bread!

We've been watching the Hairy Bikers' "Bakeation" on the BBC lately. It's been interesting to see the differences and similarities in baking across Europe.

Oh, in case you don't know the programme: two chefs (are they actually chefs? Doesn't really matter, they make up for it in enthusiasm!) who ride motor bikes through several European countries trying all sorts of baked goods, both sweet and savory. Sometimes they bake it themselves, sometimes they sample what other people have made. Throw in a good dose of national/cultural stereotypes and you've pretty much got this programme. It's a nice programme to watch. With lots of humour and quirkiness from the two hosts.

But the main reason we've watched it is because of all the bread they try along the way. We like bread in our household, oh yes we do. I'd happily swap cake for a nice slice of bread. And if it's really nice, there doesn't even have to be anything on it. :-)


I'm very lucky that I have a husband who enjoys baking bread, and who has the patience to actually follow a recipe! So he tried the Pan Rustico from the Spanish leg of the "Bakeation". It was quite the process, taking over 24 hours! But it was nice. Worth waiting for I reckon!

It had a really nice crust and the crumb was soft and spongy. Really good. You can find the recipe here if you'd like to try it yourself. The recipe calls for wholemeal flour, but we didn't have any of that so we substituted with regular strong flour. If you use regular flour you may have to add a bit extra because wholemeal soaks in more of the liquid...

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This will make you smile

It's a lovely piece of music.
It's a flashmob type thing.
The looks on the passengers' faces.

Absolutely wonderful.

Oh and it was done in the Metro in Copenhagen. Denmark, woop! ;-)

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Mosaic Monday, May 14

Carina » Polka & Bloom's favorites on Flickr.

Click on each thumbnail to see all the details over on Flickr, like who took the picture and such. 

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