Garden Soup

A delicious summer soup recipe created by Alice.



Ingredients

I cupful of orange juice
I cupful of rainwater
2 handfuls of rose petals
1 handful of grass
Slivers of apple
2 oz dried pasta
Shredded tissue
A few twigs



Method:

1. Whilst parents are not looking remove orange juice from fridge and take into garden.
2. Wander around the garden gathering your ingredients.
3. Add the ingredients into any container you discover (search house and garden).
4. Realise the soup is not quite perfect so sneak into house to obtain some pasta and apple. Also "borrow" some tissues while you are there.
5. Tear up the tissues into pieces and add to the mix until they are completely soggy.
5. Add this to the broth and stir with one of mummy's pegs and a red crayon.
6. Carry the dish precariously into the house to show off your masterpiece.
7. Wonder if the tissue was just too much so remove, squeezing as you do, then deposit said tissue all around the garden.
8. Serve and enjoy!

My Knots Are French

One of my very 1st embroidery projects was whilst at school, the remit was to design and embroider a fabric frame for a mirror. I'm pleased to say the mirror - and the embroidery - remain intact, despite many years having passed. It also delights me that the mirror is still used daily by my mother.

Each corner of the mirror frame hosts a little collection of pink French knots and this must have been in my mind when I started to think about embroidering a brooch.
I choose a pale cream linen (linen is wonderful to embroider on) and a lilac thread to create the French knots, and this is the finished result:





It now joins the collection of brooches in my Etsy shop, and is the 1st hand embroidered one there. It won't be the last though, embroidery is just ever so slightly addictive.

A Coconut Day

I love Summer Fetes. A unique combination of cake stalls, pony rides, bottle raffles, face-painting, and other such delights guaranteed to excite most small children.

This School Fete had a coconut shy.
Aim - try and hit a coconut with a tennis ball.
Success rate - usually poor.

To lessen the disappointment for those that were determined to practice their hand/eye co-ordination on a coconut, prizes were awarded if you managed to make the coconut wobble - or perhaps the teachers didn't want to lug the 2 huge sacks of coconuts home if there were no winners.

A few tennis balls later we set off home with not 1 but 2 coconuts.

"So how do we open it?"

Hmmm, not sure, I'll quickly pop over to the Etsy forums and ask my UK Etsy friends.
They advised large bowls, wearing of an apron and an array of tools. And so the coconuts were opened - without any accidents too.






Coconut water on a warm day was a delicious treat, I just wish we'd won a few more..

Its A Moo Day!

I have been drooling over Moo cards for a while - those cute, stylish little business cards. And I eventually took a Moo plunge and ordered some - here are my Moo's!





Don't you just love them!

It's A Green Day...

It has been a busy few days for all things green and growing. A few rainy days followed by little bursts of sunshine is starting to encourage sudden bursts of strength in plants which have been looking a little pale.













Courgette plants were put into the ground, (keep away slugs keep away!) and I also gathered some flowers to bring a little positive purple energy into the house.




Inspired by all this greenfingeredness I also created my latest brooch - a most wonderful shade of green topped of with a lovely black button. I have put it for sale in my Etsy shop despite being sorely tempted to wear it myself. Though with one black button remaining in my button box I doubt it will be long before I make one of these for myself..

My How You've Grown!

It doesnt seem that long ago that I was sitting these little potatoes onto a layer of soil, covering them just so the leaves were peeking through, and watching and waiting.

We didn't have to wait long before each day required a check of flourishing leaves and stems, that seemed to grow inches on an hourly basis, covering them with more layers of soil, until the tubs could take no more.

And this is how they are today:



Tall, green, healthy, looking lush - lets hope buried beneath is a bounty of home-grown potatoes.

I have also been given some courgette plants which need a place to live - and lets hope the slug army that try to govern my garden leave them alone this year - and today received an email offering me some tomato plants. And before you ask, no, it was not some spam dodgy emailer masquerading as a bearer of tomato plants, it was my very green-fingered mother. Who grows lots of things.

Time for Tea

A day does not feel quite right unless it begins with a cup of tea. Other things I can skip without causing too much discord - toast, cereals, coffee - but tea is an Absolute Must.

So of course when I discovered teapot fabric whilst on one of my many missions to the fabric store, I knew it could be created into something sweet and unique.

Finding the perfect deep pink wool, cutting the fabric so the teapot would be seen in its entirety, lining it in a pure white fabric, and hey presto the clutch bag was finished today.

I've listed it in my Etsy shop too so I shall see if there are any other tea lovers out there.





And of course I rewarded myself with a nice, hot cup of tea.