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Easter long London weekend happiness

Look! An Easter tree. We found the perfect branch on the Heath and carried it home and we didn’t blow the eggs. Instead I found a little box of 12 for £3 at Heals which must have been a mistake so I bought them and they assured me that was the right price so we had a lovely Easter tree!

Right. We’re all back here now. All posts are ported back to A+B – although I will be keeping Lovely Food with duplicate content for now. It was a fun adventure trying a new blog. It went well. But I’m A+B and that’s that. And here I am and here I’ll stay.

Sorry if anybody was expecting sewing. It’s all food at the moment. Although, there is sewing in the pipeline. And gardening. And soon we’ll be visiting cousins in Richmond again, and because we like to stay late we always drive even though there is a lovely train from Hampstead Heath all the way to Richmond.

Back in the olden days when I first arrived we got given a car. It took days and days of me calling for car insurance quotes before we found anything – it’s never easy when you first arrive in a country to get yourself sorted. But I digress. The car didn’t last long. It was a Citroen and my boyfriend at the time, who had a habit of ruining my cars, asked what I thought would happen if he adjusted the suspension whilst we were mid-drive. The answer: the car will die and we will be left stranded in Stratford up Avon with a massive garage bill. That’s what will happen.

My point was – I do quite miss not having a car and it’s always lovely to catch the train and watch the world go by. Long weekends are good for that. How nice it was having a four day weekend. How nice it was having all that time to spend with the family, to bake and to sew.

Important things

I’ve been up late tonight ressurecting an old project. Something that’s coming back to life. Soon. Very soon. Very exciting to be back in blog land. And back with my old friends. It’s like waking up after a long slumber. Waking back up to life and love and living and friends!

And I said I’d reply to comments. I need to reply to comments! At the moment I’m reciprocal visiting and commenting on blogs. I am going to figure out a system. I like the way some people reply to comments in their next post.

Food food food food food. That is my important thing. Along with sewing and the garden and family and work and London. And home. And the Heath. And friends.

My secret hobby is spending hours in the evenings carefully coordinating the amazing supplies for the week from Abel and Cole, Goodness Direct and Ocado. And then when it all arrives I spend my time arranging it. And then I cook it into new recipes and I write these recipes into my moleskine notebook. Or for a really good one into my watercolour paper notepad with my Rotring pen. That’s when I know a recipe is becoming a final recipe.

Final recipes being lined up for the other big project this year. Recipes and photos and writing. And my favourite little Rotring pen. Go this year go!

Cardamom cake recipe to follow now that it’s in the proper notebook…

Party season

When I was young and sociable I used to often host afternoon tea parties with canapes and bubbles. I still make the same food. The party now starts an hour later at three and I definitely don’t wear fancy Steffen Schraut dresses like I used to.

But I can bake better than I used to. And I now use almond meal in everything. Apart from the other day because it was late and I for the first time in my life bought self raising flour. And I forgot. The muffins were good though. Jolly easy to make – from the Edmonds Cook Book.

I also baked a Hazelnut cake from the Silver Spoon, which I forgot to photograph, and I baked my usual cake, also forgot to photograph it. And I forgot to photograph all the little toasts I made with incredible Chicken Liver pate – again, from the Silver Spoon. I even baked biscuits from the Silver Spoon; flour, sugar and olive oil. That was all.

We got presents. Lots of bunches of flowers, what a lovely surprise! Some people dressed up in special party dresses. Some people dressed for a walk on the Heath complete with gumboots. I like both!

And another little present which I’ve tucked away – out of the way of little fingers that like to take little bites out of biscuits and put them back on the biscuit plate before Mummy will see – tucked away for a little winter fashion photo shoot soon.

{ Happy Birthday Bala!! }

A bit of a dry spell

Oh I wish it would have rained a bit more in April. It barely rained at all. We go on our long walks on the Heath with the girls now, carefully avoiding the playground but not necessarily the ice cream van. We walk up to Kite Hill and there are rivulets of dry cracked earth as we go – telling the girls to be careful of the holes in the ground when running at speed!

Yet again I went to water the garden this morning. Realising I’d left it too long between waters. Realising I’d even managed to kill the pansies this time. Our rose however is rewarding us for the September pruning beautifully. She is heavy with blooms and heady with fragrance.

The knitting needles have also been rewarding. Astrid’s cardigan is almost done. And Edith’s is halfway there. I’ve even found myself a pattern by Quince and Co – discovered on Loop’s blog. It’s a grown up version of the garter stitch cardigan I knit for the kids. Brilliant!

Knitting sharing will be next. And there’s even some sewing to show too!

I used to make things

Recently I’ve looked back on my blog and seen that indeed, I did used to make things.

Making things usually coincided with not working full time. I also used to write a few other blogs (which I’ve started doing again). And I still managed to buy loads of fabric and yarn even with no money.

It makes me sad I’ve not been making things anymore. And while I am so grateful for my commercial work, which is really amazing work, and I am very fortunate do do what I do – but I really don’t feel as though it’s what I want to be doing with my life. From a Soul persepective it’s not what I want to look back on my life and see that’s all I did.

Creating my web projects though, that is meaningful.
Time with the girls. That is meaningful.
Time spent making things. That is meaningful.

I went to Astrid’s school today and there was a big tug at my heart to be able to spend more time there. More time in that world. And there is so much I want to share here. Our home looks incredible all beautiful for Christmas. We have a seasonal table, a little tree I made with ribbons and decorations. Beautiful Winter faeries and angels. Lights, The best tree ever. And here sit I, literally sitting on my hands. My heart and my soul just bursting to jump out and be creative and make and do and sing and laugh and cry and run and watch and smile.

And be a mother again. And be me again.

Back on Ravelry – Lupine

Bread glorious breadmaker

Spelt flour bread

For the past few years every time we go up to Leeds to visit the family we wake up to gorgeous freshly baked bread machine bread. And finally the other week when I saw the new Panasonic breadmaker was out I caved in and bought one too.

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Back in the groove

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Almost.

There are four piles of fabric. My sewing room is organised.

Tomorrow I’m going to look at linen. For curtains. And tonight I’ll start pinning Astrid’s new quilt.

Today I placed my first order from Purl in a very long time, with not a care about import duty or English postal taxes. I got queen quilt batting, and nani iro oilcloth. How could I not get nani iro oilcloth?

knitting in the south seas

Ooooh. Thank you to Miss Esther of Toggle I heard about South Seas Knitting.
Look! We can buy Habu! In Nyoo Zillund.
Look! I bought my first ever Habu. It’s pink.

And a pretty box set of cards for taking on the ferry and knitting lace.

Just because I have nothing else to do I also bought some stuff from the Cath Kidston sale – including a kite, which I’ve been wanting to get for Astrid for ages but never saw one nice enough and now I have and here it is. I also bought a red paisley box file with compartments for putting all my lovely buttons from Kirsten in because they’re just one of the Very Important Things that came in my suitcase.

Also, I probably ought to explain ever so slightly why we’re moving around and why we aren’t back in our old Mount Albert House. Well, that’s because our first tenants asked to move out after four months because they wanted to move to Australia – and because they were friends we said yes. But what that means is that our next tenants still had a one year contract and we need to wait until that time is up until we can move back in. So for now we’re moving to Parnell on Sunday.

And the good bit is we’ll be able to pick up the amazing oak china cabinet I bought the other week from this guy.

Â (Yes, sorry, photos taken at night).