Rain rain go away...

What a horrible rainy day we are having here in the South. Though I must admit when I popped some rubbish in the bin shed earlier the air smelled amazing and fresh. The plants are probably welcoming it quite happily and as long as its only for one day I don't really mind.
On Sunday our lovely kind neighbour knocked on the door and gave DD an Easter egg. She always pops in a little something for DD and our other neighbours children throughout the year. Be it Halloween, Christmas or even St.Patrick's day there will be little gift waiting by our door or popped through the letterbox.
So today our main job to do was making a Thank you card in return for her kindness. I popped Cats and Dogs on the telly to keep us company while Daddy had a much deserved lie in, and we busted out the craft supplies. After 20 minutes of cutting, sticking and coloring later our masterpiece was ready. DD is now covered in pen and watching the end of her movie after we delivered her paper creation into the neighbours letterbox.
All in all a successful and worthy use for a morning.

x x x

Sneak Peeks

More wonderful kindness has come my way (I am so not worthy). Several pieces of fabric in 4 lovely patterns. A blue wood grain type pattern, a cartoony emu in several poses, blue palm trees and white flowers on dusty pink. I've kept the two blue ones out and nabbed a blue velvet and a blue tie dye fabric from my little stash.
I've been a busy bee this afternoon during nap time so watch this space for tomorrows project reveal.
x x x

Royal Doulton Love

Isn't this beautiful? I love love love the pale poppy's and the tiny pretty daisy's. And best of all....


I have 4 dinner plates, 5 tea plates, 5 bread plates, 5 bowls, 1 coffee pot and 1 veggie dish with lid. I will be keeping my eyes open for another dinner plate on Ebay so I can complete my little set.
A friend of mine gave them to me when I told her my plans for hosting Christmas at our flat. As we are a family of three, one of whom being a toddler we only have 3 mismatched dinner plates in the cupboard and lots of plastic bowls for DD. She said she never hosted anymore as her children had grown up and she was now the guest, so if I promised to care for them and use them they were mine mine mine. Such incredible kindness!!!
x x x

P.S This post is part of Down to Earth;s On my mind

The kindness of (almost) strangers.

A couple of days ago my wonderful OH arrived home from work with a giant carrier bag of fruit from a friend of a friend. Apparently word has spread of my abilities to make use of almost everything that comes our way and if anyone could find a use for it all then I could. So after feeling a little big headed from my apparent fame I dove in to see what goodies had been kindly passed our way.
This picture doesn't really show how many satsumas there were (around 30!) but that glass mixing bowl is the one I use when making doubled up cake recipes!
So that evening was spent duly peeling the majority of the satsuma mountain, removing as much of the pith as possible and separating the segments. Next I packed them into some clean, sterilised jam jars and covered them in a simple sugar syrup (8oz of sugar to 1pint of water).
The next day I popped them (lidless) into the oven while I cooked the family dinner for around 25-30 minutes until the liquid was bubbling away furiously. Once ready I carefully took each jar out of the oven in turn and screwed the lid on nice a tight. As the jars and contents cool they create an air tight seal and a delicious popping noise as the "button" on the lids descend. And voila 4 jars of satsumas in syrup for my pantry. I could possibly have made 4 1/2 jars but some segments seemed to go missing during production lol.


(Please excuse the terrible picture my camera seems to be having an off day!)