Sakura season

I’ve not been the best at blogging this year. A mixture of work, cats, DIY (it’s always bloody DIY) and life has gotten in the way.

Today’s tasks included redoing the window box for spring, planting a mint and baking scones… I can’t pretend that it’s a tough life, because it’s really not. And one of the very recent things that had me counting blessings and dwelling very loudly about how lucky I am, is my recent (very recent. In fact so recent that I still have holiday blues (I know I’m talking about feeling lucky, but I change my mind quite a lot)) honeymoon in Japan.

Two weeks, 3 cities, 1 village, 4 geishas, countless temples, 1 chance of being eaten by bears… it was a whirlwind of a trip and I’ve got a few too many pictures to prove it.

One of my favourite photographic subject? Cherry blossoms. Planning my honeymoon to coincide with Cherry Blossom season meant that I was destined to take at least a couple (!) of pictures of the little things.

And I was in good company.

After all, where better to photograph a cherry blossom, but in Japan!

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One for the mums…

… or my mum, at least.

Happy Mother’s day.

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Twinkle twinkle

A few pictures from a recent (birthday!) trip to see Light Show at the Hayward Gallery.

The perfect exhibition for a magpie…

It’s on till the end of April, you should go.

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Sew Tote-ally Awesome

Two years ago, I got a sewing machine for my birthday. It was great!! I used it 3 times to make 3 cushions, and then I got engaged (not because of the cushions… or was it?!!?) and forgot about it for a while.

Fast forward a year or so and catastrophe strikes! A horrible accident involving a pot of olives with a leaky lid, and a trust oil cloth tote bag, means I am now without tote, and anyone who knows me KNOWS this isn’t good news. I’m a girl who’s always cold and can’t travel light. I need  tote. So… you know what I did? I decided to make one.

A quick glance online told me that it wouldn’t be that hard, so I bought some polka dot cloth (I might have outgrown the colour pink, but I’m still a fan of dots…) and started sewing.

Dotty fabric, and a twee measuring tape. Sewing Threesmallapples-style(!).

To add some strength and to make it less flimsy, I lined the bag using some heavy white linen fabric, which were the handy off cuts from some IKEA curtains.

“Measure twice, cut once” that’s the phrase, isn’t it? (I might be a bit of a nerd).

To make the body of the bag, I sewed the two pieces of fabric back to back, before turning the material inside out, so the seam was now on the inside.

For the straps, take a piece of fabric 4 inches thick, fold it in half to create a crease in the middle. Then fold each half of the fabric into the middle crease, before folding the crease closed. This way, all of the edges are ‘inside’ the strap, meaning the strap is stronger and has no loose edge to fray.  Pin the strap to hold it together, before sewing along the open edge to hold it closed.

I attached the straps to the body of the bag before sewing the side edges of the bag together.  I still need to figure out a neat way to attach the straps… A bit more practise needed, I think.

Almost there…

The old “sewing on the inside” trick again…

Once it was all sewn firmly together, all there is left to do is turn it the right way out…

And “Ta-da!!”, the finished article. I was so (sew?) pleased that I’ve actually already made another one as a gift and after 2 weeks of daily use, carrying a lunch box and a hard back, it hasn’t fallen apart yet. As you can imagine, I’m as pleased as punch.

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Extended absence

Home improvements forced me to take a bit of a blogging break, but Having Builders In turned into Christmas, which turned into New Year, which turned into DIY (EVERYTHING turns into DIY). Time really does fly.

Talking of time flying, a year ago today, I went on the easiest wedding dress shopping trip ever!  The first dress turned out to be THE dress:

It might not look it, but it really was.  But just to make sure, I did try on a few others…

The little 60’s bubble dress was a bit of a favourite.

Jacq was on hand (with glass in hand) to give some helpful advice.

Not loving frills so much…

A bit of pinning convinced me that this was the one.

And a little nip and tuck ensured it was perfect.

**apologies for the quality of the pictures, Louise was a bit too excited to focus the camera**

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Enchanted.

An indoor but ‘outdoors’ Swedish forest. In London?

Yep, thanks to Rekorderling.

Of course there’s a DJ in middle of the winter forest… at least the winter forests in East London.

Sweden isn’t Sweden without meatballs.

Skål

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Teatime!

In a not completely un-granny-ish move, I appear to have developed a fondness for tea. Not herbal tea, which fills my cupboard and makes ‘”do you want a cup of tea?” a question that needs a few serious moment’s contemplation before I can answer. Or Matcha tea, which might initially taste a bit ‘pond-y’ but is a brilliant green colour and a bit addictive. But normal tea. Builder’s tea. With milk. And one sugar.

Tea drinking isn’t something that I do very quickly. One of the reasons I drink herbal tea so much is that it’s still drinkable when it’s cold. No cloudy milk skin floating around grossing everyone out.  Drinking Builder’s tea means drinking from a small cup, and brewing a small cup of tea, with a normal sized tea bag feels a bit stupid.

So, with that in mind, it was time to find a teapot…! I had to discount the obvious floral numbers, because Mr Threesmallapples refused to let them in the house, so was feeling full of teapot-induced gloom, when a bike ride and a trip to the Tate uncovered this little beauty!

The Stump teapot by Forlife, available in 9 colours, and holds 3 cups of tea. Perfect for a bit of lazy Sunday tea drinking. Now all I need to find is a milk jug.

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Two Cake Sunday

For some unknown reason, I had an urge to make a plum and almond loaf cake. I don’t even really like plums, but I liked the idea of it.  Ignoring the cookbooks (not actually true, I flicked though a few of them and couldn’t find what I wanted), I did a bit of googling and found a blog recipe that seemed simple and idiot proof.

Unfortunately, it was a total disaster. I followed the bloody recipe step for step, but the result was a flat layer of slightly mushy, pink sponge. It tasted alright but it looked like something from a cakey nightmare.  I have to admit that I wasn’t totally surprised when it came out of the oven looking like a cake crash, as the quantities of ingredients used were a bit odd. How could a cake have 8 plums but only 35g of flour?!  And I couldn’t  actually fit all 8 plums in the loaf tin, so I probably only used 5. Pah! That blog can consider itself blacklisted.

Not to be deterred (actually, I was totally deterred but I still had about 3 plums worth of plum pieces left) I decided to try again, and this time I improvised:

150g butter

150g caster sugar

2 eggs

70g plain flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

100g powdered almonds

A squirt of almond essence

a handful of flaked almonds

3(ish) sliced plums)

Topping:

25g butter

40g light brown sugar

I mixed the butter and sugar together till it was pale and a bit frothy, chucked in 2 eggs and once that was all mixed together, I folded in the flour, baking powder, almonds and almond essence.

While that’s all going on, melt the butter for the topping in a sauce pan, add the sugar and mix it over the heat for a couple of minutes.

Put the topping in the bottom of the loaf tin, place the sliced plums over it, and then add the cake mix on top.

Bake the whole thing on 180 degrees for about 45 minutes, and ta-da! Some kind of Plum and Almond Upside Down cake.

I was so pleased with the result, that I’ve eaten about a quarter of the thing already!

And like all cakes, it goes very well with tea.

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New favourite

Another wedding related post, sorry! I’ll have something new to talk about soon… but in the meantime:

Here’s my wedding ring!

It’s a tiny 2mm band, handmade by the team at the un-wedding-y named Rust.

As my engagement ring doesn’t have a straight shape, finding a ring to fit around it was going to be that bit trickier, so I decided not to bother.  Instead, I wanted a super thin band that would sit on the same finger without clashing with the engagement ring.   I also wanted something that wouldn’t look dull or plain on its own.  The carved selection at Rust was perfect.  Delicate enough to suit the setting on the E.R but detailed enough to hold its own.

Feels quite grown up to be wearing 2 rings on one finger… but I guess I have to grow up (slightly) sometime.

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Lovebird

A present from the last person I spoke to, before I got married…

Instead of wearing these charms on a bracelet, I put them together on a 16 inch snake chain.

And look! The tiniest little lovebird inside…!  Thanks D. x

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