Our First Garden

At the back of our houses many years ago there used to be some allotments, unfortunately they built on them, however they left the few that were directly behind the houses for gardens. So each house rents their garden from the council, in the same way you would rent an allotment.

Last year we were so busy decorating the house that the garden got pushed to the bottom of the queue. So this year is our chance to attempt 'our first garden'.

I always fancy the idea of gardening, but when it comes down to it I realise I have no idea what I'm doing. So we went to a really good garden center a few miles up the road from us. They grow a lot of there own plants and really know their stuff. The lady that was working there was so helpful, she helped us pick out some lovely plants and advised us on the best way to deal with a boarder that gets absolutely no sun at all. 

So, off we went home with a car boot full of plants and spent the afternoon digging, planting and generally pottering abut in the garden. It was a lovely day and I cant wait to start seeing everything begin to grow (hopefully).

I have 6 painted outdoor chairs and I've ordered a big outdoor table. Mikes mum gave us an awesome kitsch parasol and I intend to go mad with solar fairy lights. I'm really looking forward to long summer nights in our beautiful garden. Ill post some more photos as things really start to take shape. 

Packing tape transfer

Anyone else got a small obsession with washi tape?! I can't help but by it every time I see some I have to buy a little roll. So when I saw this blog for making a DIY version I had to try it! 

Here are some examples of the ones I made. I have displayed them on clipboards along my landing.

To find out how to make them follow this link to this amazing blog by Emma and Elsie www.abeautifulmess.com , it's so easy! 

Emily's Home Tour: Living Room

Like many others our living room is a multi functional space. It's where we 'live' day-to-day, eat most dinners (if I'm honest), watch movies and generally hang out with Millie. It's also a place to house lots of my beloved items. It's a balancing act to make it a baby safe paradise in the day and an adult space quickly and easily after 7pm. Storage is key!

The IKEA unit and boxes holds a multitude of toys and its really easy to tidy them away at the end of the day = Happy Mummy! For the music/film buff I married the shelves and chest of drawers hold all his CDs and DVDs = Happy Daddy! Millie can easily get her toys from the boxes and the one cupboard not baby proofed under the TV = Happy Baby!

Items I love in this room include our framed Rob Ryan wedding cards and the candle sticks my Dad made me for my birthday (made from the same oak that he made our mantle piece from).

I'm a little bit obsessed with 'Lush Designs' - see lamp and cushion, truly LUSH!

I like to change things around and often rearrange items on the mantle piece and love my flexible gallery wall.

Emily x

Frame-o-sauras

I saw this project for making these quirky photo holders ages ago in a book I have called 'Photocrafty' by Sue Venables.

I am always struggling to find different ways to get more photos around my home. I obviously love to take photos but find lot of conventional photo frames all around the surfaces a little cluttering, these frame-o-sauras however just had to be attempted.

You will need:

• Children's plastic toys
• A saw
• small magnets (I got some off eBay)
• A glue gun 
• Craft spray paint

I found these dinosaurs at a car boot sale for 20p, and went to them with a saw. I tried a hacksaw first but found a bigger saw worked better. Watch out for fingers! This bit was pretty tough going but once the toys were in half it was easy. (Some toys are hollow and may need some kind of filler putting inside to them to stick the magnets to).

Once the dinosaurs were in two pieces, I sprayed them white with some craft spray(this stayed tacky for ages, I ended but completing the frame-o-saurs nearly a week later).

Next use a glue gun to place magnets on each piece of the dinosaur (at first the head was too heavy for the magnet to hold so I added another magnet). Finally, trap a photo between the magnets and wait for hilarious exclamations to follow! 

Italian Shepherd's Pie (Sweet Potato Pie)

This is a firm favourite in our house, its lovely comfort food and easily frozen and heated up (great for a family that often has to eat at different times). We call it Italian Shepherd's Pie, although I don't actually use lamb. We also call is "Sweet Potato Pie" but this has to be pronounced with a Texan drawl!

I make a bolognaise base - so you can do this in whichever way you please, either follow your Granny's age old recipe, or like me, use whatever you have in the fridge/cupboard.

For this one I used:
500g Beef mince
1 red onion diced
1 red pepper diced
Handful of button mushrooms sliced
2 x tins of chopped tomatoes
3 x garlic cloves finely chopped
Teaspoon dried basil
Olive oil
3 large sweet potatoes peeled and chopped
Knob of butter (unsalted for under 1s)
Splash of milk
Handful grated cheese

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and brown the mince. Add the onion and garlic for a few minutes. Then add the pepper and mushrooms for another few minutes. Add the tomatoes and dried basil and simmer for 20 mins (ish) - stir occasionally to stop burning.

In the meantime put the sweet potato in a pan of water - bring to the boil and simmer until soft (about 10-15mins). Once cooked, mash with butter and a splash of milk.

Put the cooked mince in an oven proof dish and top with the sweet potato mash.

If you have too much mash, you can always freeze some. I freeze it into 'Millie' portions using a silicone muffin tray (I pop them out and into freezer bags once frozen).

At this point you can put it in the fridge to bake later (I often make it during Millie's afternoon nap so I just need to bake it when it comes to tea time). If you are freezing it, I'd layer it up into a foil dish and freeze that.





Top with cheese and put in the oven for 30 mins (45mins if it's been in the fridge).

Serve with green veg or salad...

Enjoy!

Emily x

Macrame Plant Hanger

Hey, good news everybody! So far I have managed to keep all my house plants alive for over six months! So, with my recent success in mind I intend to fill the house with lots more green.
However, I'm running out of surfaces to put plants on, especially as the cat ensures there are several 'no go' areas if I want these plants to continue to survive, as he was there first and therefore completely entitled to tip over, push off or chew to death anything that's in HIS sleeping place. So having seen lots of these macramé plant hangers on pinterest I decided to give it a go, and... it worked! I'm not sure if it is specifically macramé as I am sure proper macramé is much more complicated than this but it was super easy and has solved my plant placement problem.

I used 4mm rope I found in a haberdashery, the kind you can use for blinds or binding etc.

I cut 8x 2 meter strips and knotted them altogether at the bottom. I them knotted two of the pieces of rope together leaving about a 5 inch gap, do this  four times. See below.

Next knot two pieces of rope together again but one along, see photo below. 

Finally as you knot the last two pieces together it will form a place that will nicely nestle a small plant pot in. Tie a big knot at the top and hang from the ceiling or wall on a large hook. Voilà! 

DIY Postcard Staircase

We have a wooden staircase up to our loft room so when it came to decorating I wanted to do something a bit different. I'd seen stencils and paint effects on wooden stairs but I'm not brilliant with a paintbrush. Then Paul gave me a box of 100 postcards with the pictures of Puffin books covers on. I loved them and knew exactly what I was going to do with them.

I painted the stairs with white eggshell and added a white 'non slip' strip to each stair. Then I had fun choosing the postcard combinations and using strong double sided tape I attached them to the uppers of each stair.

I absolutely love the final look and they always make me smile.

 

 

Emily x