Saturday 31 August 2013

Birthday Vegetable Hamper

Dad is a really difficult person to buy Christmas and birthday presents for.
Traditionally, I always buy him a pack of coaltar soap at Christmas time along with obligatory wine accessories, novelty socks and smellies. Birthdays are harder, and over the past couple of years I've baked him cakes or bought him, err... umm... more socks??
Not this year! My parents have been through quite a hard time recently having just moved out of a pub and now trying to find work all over again. They've been away on holiday and come back fat and brown (and happy), so Mum warned me off my initial idea of buying something sweet, stating that they are both back on diets as of last week.
I went into town today to have a look for things. In B&M they sell a lot of odd food items in amongst all the homeware, toys and kitchenware, and I found a big himilayan pink salt grinder for a bargain price of £2. It suddenly occurred to me that Dad might get more out of a 'useful' gift that will double up as a motivator towards him losing weight.

And so the idea of a hamper seemed the best shout!

Hemel has started hosting a diverse range of fruit and veg stalls three days a week, and some of them are really good for picking up more exotic items for a reasonable price. Dad's really into his cooking and trying out new recipes and ingredients, so I picked some more usual things whilst I put together the hamper items.

As well as the pink salt, I found a cinnamon and sugar grinder and a jar of garlic and rosemary in olive oil in B&M. I can't recommend this shop enough for things like this - all three items were cheap as chips, and they were things I hadn't seen in bigger supermarkets.

One market stall were selling bowls of veg and fruit for £1, so I picked up some oyster mushrooms for Dad to maybe make a nice risotto or mushrooms on ciabatta. Figs are a favourite of my Mum's, and I know she enjoys these with cheese particularly.
Butternut squash - a staple in my own kitchen, as it's incredibly versatile and goes a long, long way. I use it for soups quite often, but it's brilliant roasted too with spices and olive oil
The hedgerows lining our driveway are thick with blackberries at this time of year, and they don't come better than freshly picked and put into this box of treasure... would make an awesome crumble, especially with some of the sugar cinnamon ground on it!
The veg stall had HUGE peppers, so one yellow one and also a bowl of those long, pointy red peppers add a shot of colour in the box, which looks so pretty.
My landlady also gave me two garlic bulbs grown in her own garden to add to it. I also put in a couple of Sainbury's recipe cards. Look out for these; they release new, seasonal cards at the entrance to the store every 3 months with simple, tasty recipe ideas on them. I put a recipe for peppers, mushrooms, crumble and butternut squash in the box for inspiration.
Dad was, thankfully, chuffed! My best friend told me once that her grandmother gives her a hamper of toiletries for her birthday each year. Nothing fancy, just what she uses daily, but it's one less expense she has to pay out for and it's nice to give gifts that actually have a use sometimes.

What would be in your dream hamper? Something useful? Something pretty?


BBxx


Monday 26 August 2013

How to jazz up doilies, Kirstie's way...

As you all know by now, I am a HUGE fan of the woman who made crafts cool again, the one and only Kirstie Allsopp, and her new series 'How to fill your home for free' is as creative and inspiring as her previous ventures to try and bring us all round to her way of upcycling, crafting and decorating your home.
Her new show heavily features how to upcycle old furniture, giving existing or unwanted pieces a boost and instantly changing the way you look at a room. It ties in nicely with the news we received this week - we had an offer accepted on our first home!! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!! ... Ahem. But it's ok - because Kirstie has pretty much taken care of all the furnishings we'll have, because I'm not planning on going to IKEA once! No no, I'm planning to keep myself very busy with decoupagé, painting, distressing and fiddling about with scaffolding boards too. If you have no idea, what I'm talking about, go to 4OD and watch her new series. It will amaze you.

In the mean time, Kirstie gave me my Bank Holiday Monday activity in this week's episode: DOILIES.

I so happened to buy 6 lace doilies from a bootsale some time ago, planning on doing this with them:
But I didn't. Through lack of confidence that I wouldn't end up setting my flat on fire.
So there they sat in my sewing box all this time, until now.
Kirstie showed us all that doilies can be cool again, by simply dying them the colour of your choice and adorning your upcycled home furnishings!!

Here's what I did:


1. Prepare what you need; I used one sachet of Dylon purple dye, a plastic mop bucket, 6 lace doilies (and I also used two white pillowcases I had with a bed set, which would match the rest of the set better if they were in fact purple!) table salt, and rubbergloves and apron.

2. Prepare the dye according to the packet instructions. Then add your fabric to it and stir for 15 minutes without stopping.
3. Then over a 45 minute period, stir intermittently. After, rise out the fabric under a cold water tap, then I put all mine into the washing machine and put it on a super fast warm rinse for 14 minutes at 30 degrees.
Leave on a drying rack somewhere warm to dry.
4. Iron your dry doilies so they sit flat on the surface you want to put them on.

5. ADORN!!!!








I'm really impressed! Yes, it's a little bit twee, but they do look pretty and certainly not at all frumpy or old. It gives them a nice modern twist, and they cost next to nothing to jazz up.
What did you do with this lovely sunny bank holiday??

Lots of love,

BB xxx

Friday 23 August 2013

Patching up for winter...

I finally finished it!
This has taken me the best part of a year to make, from cutting out all the squares (a painstaking task before I discovered the rotary cutter!) to hand sewing the entire thing together and finally binding it. I am so pleased...

This is made up of Tom's old shirts, pillow cases, duvet covers, curtains, various dresses and skirts and fat quarts that I bought when I first got the bug for this stuff. It's come out smaller than I planned but it will still keep me warm sat on the sofa when the weather gets chilly again. It's far too humid and sticky at the moment!

I'm already planning the next one... Gotta have something to keep me busy until winter 2014!

xx