Liberty

After saying I'd get back on form with my blogging, I've really failed miserably. It's not for want of trying; all of a sudden I'm finding it really difficult to write anything - I feel as if I've got out of practice and lost my voice. Today I thought back to when I first started to write this blog, and how it just seemed to help me to get on and write this thing, so that's what I thought I'd do today. But I haven't been working on anything lately. Well unless you count a bit of a furniture moving/house re-arranging frenzy that I had at the weekend, which I guess may be a bit of a nesting thing, but was actually driven by a run in between the Boy, a power drill (and not of the child toy variety) and one of my beloved yellow linen cushions in the sitting room (sigh). But rather than dwell on the sad loss, I decided to take the opportunity to have a little change around, which initially meant just changing the colour of the cushion covers, but somehow resulted in a full-scale re-organisation. What with all of that activity, I still haven't made the cushion covers which prompted the whole debacle in the first place, so here's a picture of a liberty suitcase instead. I love it.

Just saying

I'm back! Sorry for the break

I'm feeling woefully guilty of having neglected my poor blog and shops a little - well a lot really - over the past few months.

I'm pleased to be able to say that (for once) I have a pretty good excuse. All being well, baby number two will be arriving with us in August, and I've been suffering just a bit with the morning/afternoon/evening/nighttime sickness that comes hand in hand with this stage of pregnancy. Couple this with the raging insomnia that also hit me about 6 weeks ago, and you end up with the shell of a person that I've felt like for the past few months.

Consistently getting a maximum of 4 hours sleep, no doubt coupled with raging hormones, finally took it's toll last week, and led to me being signed off work by the doctor for a week, so that I can rest, relax and recuperate. Oh, and not run the risk of shouting at/bursting into tears on the next person who moans at me at work... something that I'm not entirely sure how I managed before I went off (although I can say with absolute certainty that I would have had the doctor not intervened!)

And slowly, slowly, I do seem to be feeling a bit more human again. I even mustered the enthusiasm to do a bit of sewing this morning, which is a first in a long time for me. Nothing too complicated, just these little felt flowers. I planned to turn them into a brooch, but I'm kinda liking the way the look against the linen when I photographed them, so perhaps I'll have a rethink!

Thanks for sticking with me during this quiet period, and I promise to try to resume with business as usual as soon as possible.

too good not to share

It wasn't so long ago that I used to spend a lot of my time in the kitchen cooking and baking, which I love doing. These days circumstances are such that I don't really do an awful lot in the kitchen, but this morning I really fancied making something naughty. I found this cookie recipe here a little while, and decided to give it a try. the reviews are right, and they're really like proper shop-bought cookies, so I thought I'd share the recipe.

Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

250g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

170g unsalted butter, melted

150g dark brown soft sugar

50g caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

325g chocolate chips Preparation method 1. Preheat the oven to 170 C /Gas mark 3. Grease baking trays or line with parchment. 2. Sift together the flour, bicarb and salt; set aside. 3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and caster sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough onto the prepared baking trays, with each cookie around 4 tablespoons of dough (for smaller cookies, drop 1 rounded tablespoonful and adjust baking time as necessary). Do not flatten the dough. Cookies should be about 8cm apart. 4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking trays for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

If you look at the site itself, you'll see that I've changed the sugar and vanilla extract volumes based on the feedback on the site. I also only added 100g of chocolate (I just had a bar of green and blacks which I chopped up into chunks) and I would probably go with the volume on the recipe! Finally, I used tablespoon sized blobs of the cookie mixture, and came out with the cookies in the picture above - I think if you used the 4 tablespoons that the recipe recommends, then they'd be the size of dinner plates ... although that doesn't sound entirely awful!

phone case

I had a Folksy order yesterday for a phone case. As I passed on some stock over Christmas for presents, I had to make one up from scratch, and I love, love, loved doing a bit of freehand machine embroidery, and just getting back to the machine again. I've altered the design ever so slightly now to add a little elastic button loop, as my experience of using my own case was that without some kind of fixing, the phone kept falling out! More will be added to the shop shortly.

a parcel

the first of my ebay purchases arrived today. Which was very quick, and very exciting. I have been collecting Fishley Holland pieces for some time now

large jug

If you have not heard of this pottery before, it is from Clevedon in Somerset and is known for the distinctive grey and duck egg colouring.

small jug

I had a little gap at the end of my shelf just waiting for one final piece, so was really pleased when I found this listing, as I knew the smaller of the two jugs would be just perfect. I don't know what I'll do with the larger one, it seems a bit sad to split them up when they're such a lovely pair, although I expect I might know someone who might like to give it a new home (that means you Mum)

small jug joining some friends

and I thought I'd take a picture of it all in situ, as I love this bit of my kitchen

I still have a little Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket, and as the only shops I've managed to visit this year are supermarkets (sad but true) I've been browsing on line. Today I thought I'd share a selection of lovelies I found in Urban Outfitters

I shouldn't make myself sound like too much of a martyr, as while I haven't ventured to any brick and mortar shops, I have been doing a bit of ebaying; some new OK fabric and some fishley holland jugs to add to my collection. Unfortunately I can't copy the pics over from ebay, so I'll have to save those for when they arrive!

Amber

I was brushing the Boys teeth the other evening, when I found that he'd cut not one but two eye teeth. Anyone with small children around will know that for this event to pass without sleepless nights (I do hope I'm not tempting fate by having said that) is something of a miracle, so I thought I really ought to share the love for amber necklaces. They're supposed to release natural anesthetics that not only help with teething, but also skin problems like eczema. I don't know whether they actually work, or if it's just a coincidence, but I'm a bit scared to take it off until he has a full set of gnashers, just in case. He's been wearing his since he was really ickle, so doesn't seem to notice it. but we do. Thanks for the sleep necklace!