DIY: Painted Plant Pots

Gardening can be an expensive business so Hatty and I have been trying to find ways to do things a bit more cheaply. Cheap plant pots are fairly boring and ugly so we decided to jolly them up with a bit of spray paint. This is also a good way of tying a collection of pots together that you may have inherited or picked up from a charity shop or car boot.

Ours were just plastic tubs that started out a terracotta colour.

 



Spray the pots outside and use a large sheet to protect the floor (unless you want coloured grass). With spray painting its best to build up lots of thin layers (leave about 30mins in between each if its a warm dry day).

 

Hatty left her pots all one colour and has planted them up beautifully and surrounded her back door with them.

 

 

I turned my pots upside down and with a contrasting colour paint I sprayed heavily around the base and allowed it to dribble down. I've then planted herbs into them, I think perhaps I need a few more.

 

 

Emily x





Lemon and Raspberry Tart

Lemon and raspberry tart

This is a lovely light tart, perfect for the those long summer evenings when the weather calls for alfresco dining. 

300g shortcrust pastry
150g Sugar
4 eggs 
300ml double cream
2 lemons, zest and juice
200g raspberries 

Line a 10" flan tin with shortcrust pastry. Blind bake the pastry for 12 mins, remove the baking beans and bake pastry for a further 8mins.
Whisk the eggs and the sugar together, then whisk in the cream, lemon juice and lemon zest.
Pour the lemon mixture into the pastry case and drop in raspberries one at a time. 

Bake at 170 C for 25-30mins until golden and not too wobbly in the middle.

DIY: Blackboard Herb Pots

I've seen these on pinterest and have been meaning to get motivated with my fresh herbs and this was the inspiration I needed. I grow some more hardy herbs outside, rosemary, chives, thyme, parsley and mint but I find basil and coriander are best grown on a sunny window sill, and I have more mint, what can I say? I LOVE mojitos. 

This is a easy DIY, it literally took me about 15 mins start to finish.

You will need:
Terracotta pots, with a drainage hole
masking tape
chalkboard paint
paint brush
chalk or chalkboard pen
herbs

Simply masking tape around where you wish the paint to stop. Paint on the blackboard paint, this only needed one coat and was dry in 10 mins. Then simply label your selected herb pots with chalk and pop some herbs in them, place on a saucer, put them in a sunny spot and give them a good regular water.

Millionaires Shortbread

I have no idea why this is called millionaires shortbread, it just is, perhaps it is particularly loved by millionaires??

400g Milk Chocolate

1 x 400g can condensed milk

225g plain flour

170g butter

55g sugar

Rub butter into flour and sugar to make a soft dough and push into rectangle tin 13" x 9", bake at 170 C for 20mins until golden.

Pierce two holes in the can of condensed milk with a tin opener, place in a pan of boiling water one inch from the top of the can and boil for 4 hours.

Spread condensed milk over base.

Melt chocolate and spread over caramel and leave to set.

 

Tip: if your condensed milk is still too sloppy when it has turned to caramel, try stirring 100g of melted white chocolate into it, the chocolate will help it set.
Hatty x

Flapjack

I love flapjack, its really simple and you can add all sorts to mix it up a bit, try adding cranberries and nuts or fresh raspberries and chocolate chips to this classic recipe.

450g butter

300g brown sugar

8 tbsp golden syrup

700g oats

Melt butter and sugar, add to oats and golden syrup.

Bake in lined 13" x 9" rectangle tin at 170 C for 30 mins until golden

 

Emily's Summer Wishlist

Ok, a capsule wardrobe it isn't, but here are some lovely things I'm loving for this summer...

1. Tatty Devine necklace (part of the Rob Ryan collection that I love!)

2. River Island top

3. Fat Face dress (I plan to spend the summer in Maxi dresses)

4. Disaster Designs bag (I like too many of the prints of these bags, how to choose?)

5. TopShop jeans

6. Converse trainers

Emily x

Almond Slices

Almond slices are another top seller in the cafe. They are basically a bakewell tart in slice form. They make a great little snack and delicious with a cup of vanilla tea. The best recipe for them is straight out of the trusty be-ro book, see below.