Garden Goodness

Lots of things have been happening in the garden recently. This year we planted a couple of small raised veg beds to try to grow a few veggie plants in. 

a leek amid the strawbs

This week its exciting to see that we finally have a very small cob on the sweetcorn! 

There are other treats growing wild in the hedges, lots of blackberries, and rosehips - many, many rosehips - I can't wait to try making rosehip syrup with them.

The hydrangea's are in full bloom and are in various shades of purple, pink and the most vibrant peacock blue. Just lovely. 

But I think I am most excited about my courgette plant. Every year I listen to people speak about their glut of courgettes and every year I watch as mine are eaten by giant slugs, wistfully dreaming about the courgette cake recipes I have just waiting for my non existent glut. This year, there will be no glut, but thanks to my darling friend who gave me a very healthy plant this year, I may just be able to make that cake with my very own courgettes! Thank you V x

Happy days x

Happy Tuesday! What a lovely sunshiney start to the week here in Cornwall.

Saturday was a very wet and windy day on the farm, so we tucked ourselves away and baked (feta, courgette and mint cake recipe to follow), and had lovely friends over for a children’s supper. Sunday was, in contrast, so very gloriously warm and sunny. There are some newly arrived calves (aka “moos”/ baby cows, depending on whether you are 2 or 3), which we visited (there are 21 of them – counted carefully by Edie, skipping the numbers 13 and 15). We wandered around and rescued the daffodils that had been snapped of in the wind and the house is filled with spring.

A mountain of washing was folded and put away and some terribly organised weekly/meal planning went on, finished off with a lovely roast.

Happy days indeed xx

Brown paper packages tied up with strings.....These are a few of my favorite things!

SPRING HAS SPRUNG... well almost!

I totally LOVE this time of year. New beginnings, bulbs sprouting, and blossom - which has to be one of my absolute favourite things.....

Cherry Blossom

It also is still chilly enough to wear knitwear, and this is my favourite cowl of the moment...

Starry, Scallop Cowl

Its not quite a brown paper package tied up with strings..but a mint one...but also one of my favourite things at the moment...

Order ready to ship

Sherbert Clutches now in the shop

Wowzers! It's been a long week...but a good one!

Clutches a go-go, I'm loving the spring pastel trends which have inspired these fold over clutches, nice to add a bit of sherbet to an outfit!

Early to rise...five am seems to be rather familiar to me this weekend, thanks to little Edie Rose!

Planting peonies - LOVE peonies and finally got round to buying some, so yesterday Charlie and I spent the afternoon in the garden planting peonies and hollyhocks and digging up wiggly worms (Charles not me!)...

Crafty weekend fun!

Here's how the weekend is panning out so far....



A bit of baking - Made a little carrot cake for a friend.

SEW fantastic -Working on finishing off some spring creations for the shop, sew excited to use my new machine.

Happy flower time - lovely flowers from a  dear friend and I was properly excited when I popped into the garden an found the rhubarb thriving under its dark forcing cover (AKA a cardboard box!!)...

Crochet Cowl crazy indeed...

Mustard Chunky Cowl

Olive Chunky Infinity Cowl

Spring Green Knitted Cowl

Olive Chunky Mini Cowl

As i said, I've gone a little crazy on the cowl front! Here are the contenders so far, they're all in the shop now... I'm half way through a navy version of the mustard one and started a denim blue version of the Olive infinity cowl (I think its my favourite so far)...

The boy and I got busy planting more bulbs in the garden today, he loves digging for worms, watering things and pottering about, another thing ticked of the to-do (plant bulbs that have been hanging around for AGES)...

I'm off to London this week to say farewell to my lovely sister Lulu who is moving to Berlin on Thursday...I'm mega proud of her  and her lovely man and I know they are going to have the most AMAZING times in Germany, but I am going to miss her like CRAZY!! Thank goodness for living in an age of Face Time and Skype :) I am so looking forward to some girlie time seeing her and my other sister and my mum - its going to be mani's and blow-dries galore :)

Happy Funtime Friday - Front pages, playmates and wonderful winter weather!

1. What a wonderful start to the weekend - my Mustard Crochet Wristwarmers were featured on the front page of Etsy.com - I am so excited and can't believe how my shop views have rocketed. SO happy!

2. Lovely fun playdate had this morning, a very happy little chappy really enjoyed a nice couple of hours of play with his dear little friend and lovely for me to see mine :)

3. Wintry weather - its so beautifully chilly and sunny..there is lots of frost in the garden and as they weather was nice and dry I thought it the perfect opportunity to plant the bulbs I bought ages ago (another thing to tick of my To-do..). Unfortunately...the ground was frozen solid! Only managed to poke a couple of tulips in a couple of shady places!!

Happy Days...

Thursday 15th December 2011 - how to be a domestic...goddess isn't that what Nigella says?

Today's Three:




1. Brilliant baking - have really enjoyed baking for christmas coffee tomorrow. Nigella's Christmas was the go to recipe book, with some Chocolate Christmas Cookies and Spiced Christmas Tree Biscuit Decorations!





2. More organising - the planner is almost done thanks to some brilliant printables found via a brilliant round up of free printables...ahhh

3. Christmas is coming - almost ready, well not really... cards to post, presents to wrap and so much more, but I can't begin to say how lucky I feel right now, something quite magical about this time of year that really makes you appreciate what you have!

- Happy Days!

BELATED - Thursday November 10th - Pickles, Poseys & Plates...

1. Neighborly love - yet again my adorable neighbors have given us treats, dearest Roland arrived yesterday with a pot of marrow chutney and pickled onions which will be ready for Christmas - human kindness is a remarkable thing...

2. Bloomin' marvelous flowers - My lovely grandparents popped over last night with a lovely pot of Hyacinths - my favourite bulbs, I keep meaning to pland some in the garden, so this is a wonderful treat to brighten up the house.

3. DIYed Plate - I've been making some decorative plates for people as gifts for special occasions (weddings, children's birthdays etc..) and I've just finished one for my grandparents. The family home that my mum and her 5 siblings grew up in, and the subsequent 13 grandchildren and now 2 great grandchildren have known all our lives, was 100 years old this year and they organised a big family party to celebrate family life in the home. Unfortunately they had to cancel it for various reasons and I know they were so disappointed, so I thought I'd give them a plate to keep and remember :)

Saturday November 5th 2011 - Bonfire Night, Baking and Cloud Dough?!

Yippee its the weekend! A long old week, this week, so so glad to have a couple of days off work to enjoy the best things...

1. Fireworks Fun - watched a firework display at a friends house last night, Charlie surprisingly liked the spectacular views and noises, while little Edie was not convinced!

2. Bumper baking - some River Cottage Booster Bars today (click for the adapted recipe), rather de-lish looking, honey, oats, peanut butter, dried apricots...mmmm...Charlie has just help dig a couple of potatoes from the garden("they're very tiny potatoes mummy")and its rather chilly outside, so we're looking forward to them cooling down before we tuck in!

3. Cloud Dough - saw this lovely idea on pinterest which mixes flour and baby oil to make a lovely sensory dough. Charlie and I made it today and he absolutely LOVES it. He's been hiding dinosaurs all day - so adorable!

Thursday November 3rd 2011 - Spooksville

Its been a MEGA busy week! Poorly babies, loadsa working and not much sleep! Still time for a load of lovely things though..of which here are a lovely three...

1. Happy Halloweeeeeeeeen - a super spooky lunch and a halloween party - so much fun and far too many sweeties and spidery cupcakes!

2. Baking Bonanza - River Cottage Cookies, loads a lovely leek and potato soup, halloween cupcakes, pumpkin puree, oh and the aforementioned spider cupcakes. Much more to come this weekend with Christmas cakes and homemade apple sweeties on the agenda...Nigella, eat your heart out!

3. Bloomin bloomers - not got around to the Etsy pics for the bloomers yet, but a sneaky peek...

Sunday October 23rd 2011 - Today's Three Things!

Today's Three!


1. Wintry walks - lovely walks in lovely gardens, such beautiful flowers, I just LOVE Hydrangeas :)

2. Baby bloomers - tried a new pattern out this weekend and made a lovely pair of baby bloomers for Edie - adorable especially with her chunky thighs!

3. First steps - Lil' Edie Rose being amazingly awesome and walking - soooooo fantastic!

- Happy Days!

Sunday October 16th 2011 - Today's Three Things!

My daily bread!






1. Home baked bread - a cheats version of soda bread, turned out rather well, house smells delicious and I'm now mega inspired to make our daily bread rather than buying it, so have tried to start my own starter...just another 10 days of waiting to see if it works :)

2. Lovely long walks - we've spent a lovely weekend outdoors having a couple of hearty stomps - todays was topped off by a lovely roast with runner beans and purple sprouting broccoli from our allotment! Cornwall is one beautiful place, beaches, countryside, woodlands and stunning gardens, super lucky to live here.

3. So excited to have made my first sale in my Folksy shop! Admittedly it was my friend, but very happy all the same :)

- Happy Days!

Life is sweet - especially when you make it so...

Today's Three:










1. Healthy Wholemeal Banana Breakfast Muffins were made at 7am with the help of a happy little 2 year old, happy that was, until he realised that you have to cook them! Bless him, a long 25 minutes followed until they were ready! But they were a yummy start to the day!









2. Summer Berry Jam finally made with blackberries from the garden and Cornish strawbs, now to find some cool labelling ideas...hope my neighbours like jam! So easy to make and such a tasty result!







3. Happy lovely people - today I've seen one of my bestest friends the beautiful Poppy! She's getting married on Saturday and i'm so excited for her, it's going to be a wonderful day! Can't wait! Also so so looking forward to the arrival of my mama, she's coming to stay tomorrow and she's having the babies overnight when we go to the wedding - such an unbelievable treat. So lucky :)

The sweet peas are from my lovely neighbours and smell so divine, as I say life is pretty sweet right now!

Monday August 29th 2011 -Sun, Sand and Sewing!

Today's Three Things!










1. Finally a little sun has come and put his hat on in Cornwall - hip hooray! We've had such a wonderful, wonderful couple of weeks with the family visiting from London, it's so wonderful when they come down and see how much the babies have changed and grown - happy days were had and memories made! We are so lucky to live near the beach and have spent some fab days there recently, building sandcastles, splashing in the sea ( with Charlie falling over lots) and eating sand ( mostly Edie).












2. Sew much fun! This time it's been PJ pants for Charlie - he thinks they're brilliant ( if a little short!), but I'm really looking forward to having another go and making a matching pair for Ross!


3. More neighbourly love! I absolutely adore my neighbours Roma and Roland, they are so unbelievably kind and thoughtful. Roland has given me a beautiful bunch of home grown sweet peas again, the smell divine! I'm hoping to return the kindness with a pot of homemade blackberry jam, with berries from the garden, which I plan to make tonight!

Happy days!