Master Bedroom Finished

Another crafty finish to the week. Yesterday I finally had time to do the finishing touch to our bedroom -







This is just a vinyl print that will peel off when we have to move. It was a bit fiddley trying to get it on, it took about half an hour to get it on the wall and i haven idea how long to cut it out. But it's got to be a tenants best fried, you can decorate and personalise without have to redecorate when you move out!

V x

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Mmmmm new favourite drink!

I thought id treat myself when we went shopping to a little tipple. This stuff is lush! You MUST try it! Crabbie's Alcoholic Ginger Beer -



V x

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

House Warming Gift and Week Two of the Craft Challenge

Today I popped around Harry's new apartment for tea and cake. I have to say I was kinda jealous, all that space to himself to chill and create! All week I've been creating is home warming gift which has been my weekly project.

I made him a cute (ish) gothic (ish) wreath! Just another excuse to get the glue gun out! :-D

This is only the second wreath I've ever made, so very exclusive!

It started with a polystyrene half wreath and rapping some ribbon around the majority of it -











Shock horror I didn't have enough so I tried something different and used some red wool -











I have to say wow that took along long time! Still going -











I had some amazing fabric I wanted to make some flowers out of and some cute buttons I used as centre. This is what I came up with (excuse the cup of coffee, mmm that was a good cuppa!) -











I made three of these, two large and one little. I used the trusty glue gun to attach them.

Next I needed to make something to hang it up with which took a while to sort figure out but I got there! The simplest of ideas take the longest to think of! This is the finished article -

















It's hard to get a good picture of the flowers with all their ruffles but you get the idea!

V x


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Amazing Tea Super Cheap

On the menu for tea tonight is Salmon en Croute with home grown runner beans and home grown new potatoes. Mmmmmmm

All for the price of £1.55 and that's for the two of us! Plus a little bit of electric not bad hey. I love being frugal and still eating amazing food!

What do you think -





Well put it this way it didn't last long, felt like the most wholesome meal we've had for ages!

V x

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

My current music play list, life and holiday update

Works kinda got hard lately and I'm finding it's wearing me away slowly. It doesn't help knowing that I have a week off around the corner. I've turned back to music to help lift me back up to the happy chick that everyone knows and I strive to be.

My Hubby randomly downloaded a tune from iTunes a couple of days that I adore but haven't heard for years - Tracy Chapman, Fast Car.
I have to say that it really sums me up at the moment, I must have listened to it about 20 times over the weekend! There's even a line that sums up how I feel about being so out of shape "his body's too young to look like his" people say I look great but I just feel so out of shape I owe it to myself to be fit and take care of myself after all my body's got to last me a life time!

So here's my really short play list-
Ed Sheeran - The A Team
Tracy Chapman - Fast Car
Aloe Blacc - I Need a Dollar
Charlie Simpson - Cemetery

So to get me back into the fit person I used to be I bought myself a Nike+ to get me back running like I used to. I'm not too fussed about losing weight ATM but I want to get some level of fitness back! I love the feeling after a hard Zumba session and that's how I used to feel after a run. I live in such a gorgeous part of the country I want to get out and enjoy it a bit more! So I have Zumba Thursday night, Saturday morning I'm going to make myself go for my first run/walk even if it's only a short one try and get the buzz back.

Holiday update, we've booked two hotels for two nights in each. The first is a four star hotel in Wimbledon, the second we thought we'd brave an Easy Hotel. I'll take photos and give you reviews when we get back. We've got tickets booked for the tower of London, we'll be going to watch a show but can't decide what to see! I'm desperate to go to Camden Market, Oxford Street and most importantly chill out in coffee shops to watch the world fly past. We're really going to go with minimal plans and go with the flow. I'm a country girl deep down but I think it'll do us both good to live a faster pace for a few days.

That's all peps.

V x
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Week One of the Weekly Challenge

Yesterday I completed my first week on my weekly challenge. This challenge involves creating something new every week! Week one is completed, I up-cycled this drab vintage dress into a very much needed apron. Here's my before -


I separated the back of the dress from the front and the sleeves, I also removed the buttons as I wanted to use a couple of these later. I used the full back of the dress for the body of the apron.


The front of the dress I cut into strips to use for the ties -


The buttons were just for a little bit of detail -


I wanted to add a pocket on the front so used a sleeve, I literally cut out the seem then attached to the front-


This is the finished item, it a bad picture as it's quite dark but you get the idea. I love the oversized ruffle on the front pocket!


Now I need to think about my project for this week! Any ideas people?

V x

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Friday Night

My Hubby and decided to hit the town for a couple of drinks last night. We mainly go to one pub called the Red Lion as it has a nice relaxed atmosphere and also has live music on most Fridays. The music last night was mostly good, they had a couple of guys and their acoustic guitars. They both played separately for half an hour each and the first guy was ok but the second guy was much better his name was Steve Davies. He's style was very Paolo Natini mixed with Mumford and Sons with a bit of rapping sounds odd but god he was good! The pub was quite rowdy but I still managed to zone out and listen to just him. This is a bad picture but still you get the idea -


He came over for a chat and seemed really nice, the other guy that played seemed way to full of himself tbh and wasn't any where near as good!

So last night was chilled music, great wine - so good I had nearly a whole bottle (Californian Rose called Furious Boar) and great company. Oh and on our out the pub we bumped into an old friend we've not seen for a while, so this is a little hi to Kev!

That's all now to enjoy more of our weekend!

V x



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Weekend well spent

You cant say no to free food so what do you do with a glut of apples that aren't too good for eating? Cook em all up and chuck em in the freezer to make gorgeous apple crumble in the winter!



Then what do you do with a bunch on over ripe bananas? Make banana bread! This is the recipe I used, it was super easy and gorgeous -

125ml milk
1 large egg
1/2 tsp salt
50g melted butter
125g caster sugar
360g self raising flour
3 very ripe bananas (chopped into 1cm chunks)
Vegetable oil for greasing

Grease a loaf tin with vegetable oil. Add the sugar, flour and salt to a bowl then make a well in the middle. Pour in the milk, melted butter and egg. Mix together, right now it'll look quite dry but don't worry! Mix in the bananas well this will loosen things up! Pour into the tin and bake for 50 minuets until cooked. I always check with a clean knife, if it comes out clean it's done but if theres mixture on it it needs longer.

This is my finished result -



I even had a little left over to make some wee muffins which too about 20 minuets to cook -




These were lush hot from the oven!

I made a start this weekend on the back garden and buy do I have my work cut out! I'm starting with the "flower bed" in the middle of the lawn that's more like a mountain full of winter flowering Heather. This looks great in winter but the rest of the time is really nasty. I want to lay it to lawn so I need to get the grass seed down by the end of September! the only problem is that the Heather is so dense it took me 2 hours to barely make a dent in it! I really have my work cut out!

Both of my Eglu's have now been sold and I'm impressed that we even managed to make a bit of money on them. We've only just been refunded on the chicken coop that we cancelled on eBay, took over a week to sort out! This money is going to pay for us to go away next month for our first wedding anniversary! But we now have a chicken free house and garden :-/ I'm trying to look on the positive side though.

No more alarm clocks 7 days a week
No more worrying about who's going to look after them when were way
No more worrying about shutting them in when we go out for the evening
No more clutter on the kitchen floor (feed sacks, bedding, cleaning stuff)

And now they have full run of a farm and other chooks for company!

But I really do miss them! Even my hubby said he misses them!

I have an objective this week . . . . Make myself an apron for when I'm baking. I always get covered in flour! Lol

V x

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Leonidus Update

So we've had our gorgeous Leo for a month now, he's now 3 1/2 months old and look how much he's grown -




This was him at 2 1/2 months -


His such a great character, one minuet he's super relaxed and the next minuet he's running allover you! I'm really thinking about buying him a companion soon so next year they'd be old enough to breed. I keep looking at the ones Southwest Geckos have available but I can't a female that's good enough for him! LOL

Oh yeah, the RSPCA turned up tonight! We thought it was about the chickens after our stupid neighbours "reported" us. But they were just fundraising, I've been wanting to sign up for ages but my Hubby in his own words is tight! somehow this guy twisted his arm and I got my way and now support the RSPCA! Yay!!

That's all for now, time for bed.

V x

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Garden Revamp Update

Bit later than hoped and more labour than hoped but here's an update on our front garden. I've got no idea yet what to do with the bed under the lounge window, I've trimmed the bushes under the window but now I'm stuck with what to do. All I need to do with the other beds is buy some pots and some plants to brake up the bark chip then hey presto!

Before-










After -

















Total cost was £30.00, £24 on the bark and £6 on the membrane to put underneath! Seriously impressed!

The first phase of the back garden is due to start shortly.

V x

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Yesterday . . .

Yesterday was a very sad very stressful day in the Asbo household. One of our neighbours knocked on our door at 8am and started to rant and raves about our chicken. Apparently the smell is unbearable and the noise in the morning is ridiculous! Oh and apparently it states in the deeds to the property that poultry can nit be kept in the garden. He wouldn't listen when we told we were only tenants therefore have not seen the deeds. I tried to explain that we asked the agency we rent from for permission and they granted it. Also explained that we'd talk to the agency and get this mess sorted out. He then left but swiftly came back with his property deeds and waved them on my face!

We got hold of the agency and explained what's happening, they said to tell the neighbours to put it all in writing to them as it's not to do with us. Also advised them to call Environmental Health if the smell and noise is so bad. Then the neighbours flipped and said they're calling RSPCA on us as we mis treat them! I mean what the hell look at these girls what more could they want -






They get fresh food and water every day, fresh grazing weekly, cleaned out weekly, let out to roam the garden! What are they missing? So I walked over and gave them the number for the RSPCA.

Because our jobs are so stressful at the moment we couldn't cope with the arguing so we secretly got rid of them. We took them down to a farm five minuets away that offered to give them a good home running around their yard with their 40 other chickens. In exchange for eggs when we wanted them, turned out that Buff Orpington's are the owners favourite breed. We don't want the neighbours to know and think they won.

I deal with people like them all day at work, busy body retired people with nothing better to do with their time but make people miserable! I bet it won't be long until they find something else to moan over.

But at least we can go and visit when we want. So now the eglu's are on eBay along with all the bits we bought and the house and the run! :-( I'm so sad about this, we now have neighbours that don't like us and my dream of keeping chickens is shattered until the day we move out!

We've been cheering ourselves up by going out for a nice breakfast and buying a new toy for Sookie.






She loves it!

Well that's all for now guys.

V x


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

New Cath Kidston Book!

I was wandering around Waterstones in Bristol yesterday and stumbled across Cath Kidstons new book. I have to confess I only "like" her stuff but I couldn't resist giving this cute little book a try -






It comes with everything you need bar the fabric, it even has a super cute "free" needle case with needles -






It includes all paper templates to make all the projects in the book -



I haven't decided on which one I'm going to start with yet, I'll keep you updated! If anyone has some other crafty/sewing books that are worth a try let me know.

V x

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad