Out of the Office

Sorry for the lack of blogging but lovely BM and I decided to take a last minute break and go to Tunisia :)

Cottage pie stuffed jacket potatoes

More food! Can you tell how much i love my new kitchen from all the recipes ive been trying!

These are just a-mazing, scooped out jacket potatoes filled with cottage pie filling and topped with their fluffy insides mixed with garlic and herb soft cheese - what is not to like!

Recipe is here

Pasta Alla Genovese

Nice summery plate of pasta :) Its Nigella's Pasta Alla Genovese - it was nice but maybe just too many green things for me, always makes things a bit bitter imo. Add some bacon though and we'd be friends for ever!

Felt Garlands

I made some felt garland decorations for Lovely BM's birthday party. Theyre based on these over at Purl Bee but i wanted them much more open and loose than theirs.

I made one with squares

And one with circles (ignore the snake tanks in the background please and focus on the cute little garland!!)
I love the circle one especially, i'm definitely making some more. In fact i dont think im even going to take these down even now the parties long finished, i like them too much!

Salted Caramel Brownies

I think the title says it all really, combining deliciousness with deliciousness makes something off the scale of delicious! The recipe is by smitten kitchen , who never fails to impress me with her amazing food :)

(I think the picture below demonstrates how yummy they were, we even scraped the greasproof paper clean, and may have ripped the middle of it in our enthusiasm!!)

Lovely BM's birthday cake

Happy Birthday Lovely BM!!! I've finally found a cake he loves!

Blackberry and Elderflower Pimms

This was how i spent my bank holiday weekend - Blackberry and Elderflower Pimms with strawberries and mint - y-u-m!

DIY drawer dividers

 

Ive been looking to buy some drawer dividers for our clothing drawers but everything i found was really expensive. Then inspiration struck! I had to shorten a venetian blind in our new house and i've been left with a load of spare slats - now arent they just perfect for drawer dividers!

 

I cut them to the right length and then, because i wanted the ends to be grippy and beause my cutting wasnt 100% accurate, i covered the ends with electrical insulating tape. I used insulating tape as its plasticy and grippy but anything similar would do

 

 

Then you can shove them in place and away you go!

 

 

Theyre not totally secure but they certainly do the job and they were entirely free so i'm happy with them!

Handmade shoe rack

Check out my carpentry skills!! Yes i made shoe rack corner shelves, with my own hands, so very proud! The corner in our cloakroom is a funny shape and i couldnt find anything storage wise to fit in it. So i decided to make my own :)

Basically the most important thing i did was make a template of the area i wanted my shelves to cover. But, because it wasnt a standard shape, rather than cutting a  template to fit the shape, i fitted smaller bits of cardboard into the shape, layering them over each other and taping them down, until i had the shape i needed. I then used this template to see what angles and length i need to cut my wood to.

 

I just bought untreated sawn timber from my local DIY store and cut everything to the correct length using a jigsaw and couple of saw horses for support. Once everything was cut i checked it all fitted and made a few adjustments.

As this was my first every carpentry project i didnt fix everything to the wall permanently at first. I used command hooks first to make sure i hadnt made any stupid mistakes

 

Luckily i hadnt so i sanded and varnished the wood and then fixed it together permanently. I screwed the slats to the supports from the bottom so the screws didnt show and then fixed the brackets directly to the wall - job done!

I think i want to add another shelf, a solid one this time, above so there is somewhere to put our work bags so i'll update you on that if i ever get round to it!


 

Ribbon hanging loops for towels

I always thought everyone added hanging loops to their towels but apparently not! I cant take responsibility for the idea, i copied it from my sister but we've both done this for years so i thought i'd share.

I love it when a towel comes with a built in hook but they rarely do these days so i always add one myself.

Its just a small lenght of ribbon folded over and sewn in place. Pin it first to make sure its in the right place.

Then sew backwards and forwards over the ribbon a few times as it'll need to be strong. You can do this by hand, just make sure its nice and secure

The ribbon ends will fray, especially after youve washed it a few times. You can seal the end with nail varnish but i never bother, it is just a towel after all!