LOVE my (soggy) garden

So, yesterday I ventured out into my garden again, for the second time so far this year (for gardening purposes). The weather has been awful so I am hoping this means we are on for a scorcher of a summer..hell, I'll even take a hosepipe ban people! However, I think it is part of the British psyche to make bets on weather we are going to have a good summer. The weather is such a huge part of our lives here in the UK and yes, we have a reputation for awful weather (and food but that's for another post) but the thing is, when the weather is glorious, it's an amazing place to live! the issue is that the weather is glorious for about 2 weeks a year - out of 52...not good stats.

Anyway, back to my garden. It wasn't glorious, or even warm, the truth be told, but it wasn't raining so I togged up and went out to weed, no less. My mum tells me that weeding is an essential part of gardening (as does Alen Titchmarsh. I have this book of his and it's my gardening bible), so I went out to weed my strawberry patch and to plant more strawberry plants in the hope that I will get a crop this year (I got about 13 strawberries last year 11 of which were eaten by birds). My rhubarb is nicely taking over it's patch, almost ripe for picking and putting in a crumble ready for the parental visit next weekend. My raspberries seem to have got a little.. erm...wild. I think this is because I didn't prune them when I should've but we shall see what happens and whether they are salvageable. Garlic looks good and broad beans look ill - not holding out any hopes for a broad bean crop this year but shall persevere (which actually means leave them and hope for the best) and report back. One of the best things about gardening these days though...my lovely wellies! Mr K bought me some Hunter wellies for my birthday last year and I feel like a chic gardener when I wear them. What can I say, my soggy and overgrown garden is my catwalk.

LKx

Book group

One of the highlights of my month is meeting up with the lovely ladies in my book group. Now, I think book groups have had bad press in the past but there does seem to be a bit of a revival and I am all for it! The idea behind it is that you meet up, all having read the same book (this is where the 'fail' bit starts) and swap thoughts about said book. We do the meeting up bit and we chat about lots of things (the book included) but I have been failing badly on the reading front.

My main reason for joining a book group is to make me read (fail) but it has introduced me to some really lovely people too (not fail). I totally recommend it. My recent choices have almost seen me ejected from the club they've been so rubbish. Saying that, they've all been a bit crap apart from The Help which we all liked - brilliant book club read. I am currently reading the third Chocolat book Peaches for monsieur le cure. by Joanne Harris - I shall report back on the verdict. I am a fan of the first two though (Chocolat and The Lollipop Shoes) so it's a good start.

There is always a bit of debate about what books are good book group reads. I'm up for reading anything new but we often discuss whether books are too 'challenging' for our book group or sometimes not challenging enough. I have to admit though, my choice of a good read has changed from my French literature days of university, Flaubert would NOT cut it in my book club these days, I need a much easier read! Rubbish I know. Any thoughts on good reads?

LKx

Weddings and friends

This is not at all a craft or gardening post but last weekend we took a trip to London Town (sans baby Kitch!!) and went to the wedding of an old friend of Mr K. I love London sooo much. I love the atmosphere and the sights/sounds/smells(?!). We did the sights and the had a few cheeky cocktails in Camden.It is such a fabulous city and we were staying in the thick of it all. We had so much fun with our lovely friends. I have to say though, I am always pleased to get back to my (much less hectic/exciting) life on the coast where I have my garden and sewing machine...I won't mention the hangover we were all suffering after a night abusing the free bar. I was also pretty desperate to get back to baby Kitch who hadn't missed me at all!

I decided that I don't take enough pictures anymore. I love taking photos (I am not calling it photography for good reason) and I am in love with instagram. I hereby pledge to take more photos.

 Been doing some gardening so much less exciting stuff on the way!

LKx

 

What's that you say? HEALTHY CHOCOLATE?

 Considering my last post, I thought that I would have a go at trying some healthier recipes to go hand in hand with my healthy(ish) lifestyle of late (or, more accurately, my wannabe healthy lifestyle...I don't think that kit kat I ate last night could be considered healthy, although, it was the healthiest of the chocolate bars on offer so I give myself a few brownie points for that). I love cooking and trying new recipes as well as exploring new cuisines and, basically, having a go. Not all are successful but many of them are and I get such a sense of satisfaction when I try something new and it works - I'm always a little shocked at the success too.

So, my latest creation combines 2 of the blogs I like to read. Becky from the blog beckymayhem.wordpress.com has decided that for Lent (I think) she has decided to cut out alcohol, refined sugar and caffeine. From my impression of Becky, she is strong, gutsy and has much more willpower than me (her blog is fab by the way - check it out). She mentioned in her posts that she has been able to indulge in cake and truffles, none of which contained refined sugar - ah ha! There is the key to happiness. So, I went searching for sugar free truffles and happened upon a really beautiful blog www.journeykitchen.com . This blog is a must read for anyone wanting to explore interesting recipes and the photography is stunning.

This recipe contains:

750g dates
Cocoa powder (the recipe says 2 tbsp but I did add more)
50g butter
1 tsp cinnamon powder

You melt the butter, add the dates to stew until the reach a pulpy stage (I guessed at pulpy, never having dealt in dates before). Mine had a little bit of a burning incident so be careful of that. I then took it off the heat and added the cocoa powder and cinnamon. I let it cool a little and then got rid of all the seeds, rolled the truffles into balls and rolled them in cocoa powder. Voila, sugar free truffles.

(I only included the above photo so that if you try this and it looks as gross as this does, you shouldn't lose heart - they will be delicious)

You know what? They are pretty good! Mr Kitch was sceptical at the thought of them but was suitably impressed! They passed a whole host of tests there as he is BIG on food. I reckon you could probably swap the cinnamon for other flavours and create all sorts of guilt free delights. This one is a keeper.

LKx

Soundtrack: Alt-J - Tessellate

Where's my waist?

This post is probably a good one to write at the start of my adventures in blogging as nobody I know, other than Mr Kitch, has any idea I write this. If they did I might get some pregnancy/baby/motherhood evangelists telling me off.

I have always been quite an active person and have always been conscious of my weight but have never really had to set my mind and body to losing it...and a lot of it at that. With that in mind, one of the challenges I have set myself recently is to get back in shape after having a baby last year. I thought that being active during pregnancy (walking to work and back and swimming at least 3 times a week) would set me on the right path and getting back into shape would just happen by virtue of being an active and healthy person....NOT SO PEOPLE! (Well, I say healthy but I did develop a taste for chocolate flavoured milk and Tunnock's tea cakes from about week 4 until about week 38). Putting on 4 1/2 stone was easy enough, losing it has been one of the biggest physical challenges I have ever faced.

My 'journey' to getting my body back has been an 7 month slog so far. I started running when my son was 4 weeks old so that marked the beginning of the ordeal for me. After my first run (well, walk/run) a well meaning neighbour said to me "oh you're not one of those mums are you? Trying to get back into shape" well, um, yes I am actually and it is really bloody difficult. The thing is, I totally agree that no pressure should ever be put on women to lose weight after pregnancy but I just know that I will not be happy if my copious ass does not get itself moving and I do not want to slip into being comfortable with elasticated waists!!

So my programme of 'study' consists of yoga, Jillian Michaels (OH.MY.GOD), swimming and running and walking. I have started doing the fantastic parkrun on a Saturday morning with my buggy, which I recommend to anyone who would like to start running in the UK as I think it happens all over the country..oh and in Denmark! (and nobody laughs at me for being rubbish - they do clap though, which is almost as bad).

I think the main thing I have realised is that results take work and a lot of it, not just with my quest to find my waist again but with anything we set our minds to. I like that.

LKx


Soundtrack: The Killers - Mr Brightside

A retro cushion and a Welsh triumph

Just because I haven't blogged over the weekend does not mean I haven't been doing my thing but I had the small matter of a Rugby 6 Nations decider to watch in Cardiff. Myself and Mr Kitch had tickets to go and watch England Vs Wales. I am a Welsh fan and he is an England fan so we knew it was going to be interesting. We met up with family and friends, drank some beer and watched Wales cruise to victory - amazing!

On Friday though I did turn my hand to making a cushion out of some of my recent ebay acquisitions. I decided I wanted a round cushion which would be a little trickier to sew (for me anyway, not for people who can already sew). I am fine with things in my house looking homemade but I also wanted it to look alright and not look like it had been made by a small child and displayed out of parental pride/obligation. So, this is how it went...

What you need:

• Fabric for the outer cushion
• Fabric for the inner cushion
• Dressmaking scissors
• Coordinating thread
• Extra strong thread (good if it also coordinates)
• Pins and a hand sewing needle
• Covered button
• normal button (or another covered button if you want, I only had 1) 
• Yard stick, just to make sure you have an equal ish cushion
• Something to fill the the cushions with. I got 1kg from Dunhelm Mill for 7.99 and used about a quarter of the bag for this.
• Something to draw around if you have it - trickier than I thought it would be to draw a circle

 I used an Ikea lampshade to draw around. A little inaccurate, granted, but it did the job. I cut out two of both the outer and inner fabric.

I then stitched around the inner lining (as above) right sides facing and left a 3 inch hole for stuffing purposes.

I turned the lining the right way out and  stuffed the lining until it was very full. You don't get the effect I wanted if you don't stuff it full. I then stitched up the hole

 I then stitched the outer fabric together, right sides facing and left about a 6 inch hole to put the cushion inner into the outer. I then put the cushion inner into the outer and used closed the hole using slip stitch which means you can't see the stitches. This is the first time I've tried this and was amazed that it actually worked!

                                       
I then covered the button using the instructions on the packet. It is fiddly but the effect is quite good. I then got a normal button (pictured below) and the covered button, found the centre (ish) of the cushion and began to sew through the cushion, using the extra strong thread to secure both buttons on either side of the cushion. Again, this is a bit fiddly but I really like the results.

                                        

I had a brown button in my button tin and thought it went quite well.

 

And voila, my 70s cushion. Perhaps a little like a child's school project but if anyone asks, I'll say I am displaying it with parental pride/obligation. To be honest I am totally chuffed with it (especially as I made it up as I went along) and it adds to my retro theme. I hope you had a lovely weekend.

LKx

Soundtrack: Eddie Vedder - Guaranteed

Camping on my mind

Today is a beautiful day here on the south coast and there are, once again, hints of spring are in the air which inspired me to dust off the camping books and delve into some serious camping planning.

 We bought our campervan, Nev, around this time in 2010 and have never looked back. We have had some spectacular (and spectacularly bad) camping trips and having a van rather than a tent does seem to make the process all a bit more spontaneous and erm comfortable. I am, it is true, a fair weather camper. In my book, no prizes are won for endurance when it comes to camping and I embrace it and everything that comes with it, until it rains. Mr Kitch is a camper, fair weather and very unfair weather. So, for two Easter holidays on the trot we had amazing camping weather and I have to say, I fell in love with Britain. As a child I spent most holidays in the south of France, which I loved, but discovering the unrivalled beauty of the British Isles has been such a pleasure for me. Our Easter camping trip of 2010 was my first ever trip to Cornwall - simply stunning.

Nev in all his glory (campsite - treveague farm - sublime..and only letting on as I have about 3 readers!)

Then in 2011 we spent our Easter holiday in St Davids in South Wales (campsite - caerfai farm - loved it)

Seriously, what's not to love?

Every year, without fail, we spend at least a week in Croyde, North Devon with some good friends. It is tonic for the soul and I just love it.

This year we're hoping to introduce Baby Kitch to Nev and allow them to spend some serious, quality time together. Hopefully we'll be in Croyde in the sun at some point and then we're planning on the south of France. As you can probably see from the photos, we're into quite simple camp sites (with amenities, ALWAYS with amenities) but if there's a pool or a bar or any kind of club house, we tend to keep our distance.Cannot wait to dust Nev off and hit the road, eeek, excited!!

LKx

Soundtrack: Beady Eye - Millionaire

Cheap and easy wall art

I'm not sure if, strictly speaking, this can be called art but, in my humble opinion, it is as pretty as some of the (ahem) art I see anyway. So, I am a bit of a pinterest addict and I saw this and thought it was lovely. It is perhaps a bit over the top for Mr Kitch so I thought I'd do my own, much simpler version. We have just had some major work done in our house and  I decided we agreed that a bit of a retro theme would be a nice complementing contrast to our ultra modern gloss kitchen. Please do remember that I am a 'have a go' type of person and happy for things to go wrong. I want to reflect that in this blog. So this is how it went..

What you need for this project...

• fabric of your choice. I thought these two fabrics from my existing stash were quite retro ish
• embroidery rings. You can get them in a load of different sizes, I had these two from my days of a cross stitcher (when I was about 7 - I don't have the time or patience anymore)
• pinking shears
• scissors
• cork (you will see later that a much easier version ditches this and uses glue instead)
• needle and thread (again, can be ditched)

Draw around the inside ring of the embroidery ring onto the cork and cut it out

 Cut out a piece of your fabric which is larger than the ring (this is too large and you can cut it much smaller than this). I used pinking shears to avoid fraying.

I then stuck the cork to the inner embroidery ring to make the finished article a bit more solid.

I  then put the fabric over the corked ring and put the outer ring on as you would usually with an embroidery ring.

I turned it over, trimmed the edges and using a needle and thread, gathered the fabric together in the back like so..

I think the finished article looks really lovely

I then thought I'd try a much easier version for my second one and so I missed out the cork, cut a piece of fabric larger than the ring, put the fabric in (as per photo 6), trimmed off the fabric until there is only a small amount outside of the ring, and used glue to stick it to the ring so that it cannot be seen when hung on the wall, like this...

I would say that the first version is more solid but the second version is much easier and quicker.

And here they are on my wall. I may not add quite as many as the picture I originally got the idea from but I do love the effect and is a great way of displaying some of my left over fabrics so may try to sneak a couple more in. I reckon it took me about 30 mins to complete - quick easy and, again, totally individual. Love it.


LKx