This week I’ve been...

...buying a bargain blazer - £7 from h&m, how could I say no? It also replaces my old, once black but now a rather faded grey, blazer from Primark and is the perfect size, not too fitted, not too big.

...sorting through all my important documents, keeping the ones that are actually important and filing them into these pretty storage boxes (£2.50 from tesco). It’s a job that’s been hanging over me for a while and I feel much better now everything is more organised! Plus shredding stuff is quite fun.

...trying my first night cream, I’ve used this nivea pure and natural cream every night for a week now and my skin feels much healthier. I’ve also discovered that Sudocreme is brilliant for getting rid of the odd spot in a hurry.

A day at Drusillas Park

Last weekend the boyfriend and I visited Drusillas Park, a small zoo in East Sussex. It was a beautiful sunny day and although the zoo is really more for families (there’s loads of interactive stuff and huge playground) we had a great time looking around. I’m never really sure how I feel about zoos, seeing wild animals in cages just doesn’t seem right, but I know how hard many zoos work to contribute to conservation and protect endangered species. So, while I remain unconvinced it was still a chance to have a practise with my camera. I love taking photos of animals, particularly close ups, as you can probably guess!

It's the little things - cross stitch bunny

Work has been so busy in the last two weeks and one of the few things keeping me sane has been stitching this cute little bunny. I’d hoped to have it finished in time for an Easter card but that didn’t happen, so I’m still deciding between framing it or saving for a card next year.

I found the pattern after searching for 'free bunny cross stitch patterns' on google – here.

More things cheering me up have been pastel yellow nails - catching a glimpse of them while tapping away on the computer at work definitely brought a bit of sunshine to some long days. Much like these daffodils...

Thankfully, it’s the weekend now and I’m planning a shopping trip today and hopefully a day out with the boyfriend on Sunday! Hope you have a great weekend.

I heart knitted fingerless gloves

Not that I want to go on and on about the weather but I’d assumed I wouldn’t get to use these knitted gloves until next winter, but after finishing them a few weeks ago they’ve come in very useful! They accompanied me on a walk last weekend and as you can see they were perfect for layering over some thin black gloves.

The pretty heart pattern is one I found on ravelry – which I’m now obsessed with, free knitting patterns AMAZING. I’d highly recommend trying this one out and it encouraged forced me to learn magic loop knitting (see earlier post for a tutorial) and something called an afterthought thumb, which isn’t explained on the pattern but this step by step guide is really helpful.

They took just a few #creativesunite sessions to complete, once I’d figured the magic loop thing out and I think I’ll be doing some more for Christmas presents later in the year.

They also look good worn without gloves underneath; perhaps I’ll try this outdoors when the temperature rises a bit!

Old phone boxes and daffodils

Last weekend the boyfriend and I went for our usual walk around Warren Hill in West Sussex, we go there fairly often and always seem to take a similar route through the woodland – just out of habit. But this time we decided to turn left instead of right and were surprised with daffodils, and old phone box and my new favourite village sign, proving that sometimes it’s good to change your routine!

It was also a chance to test out my finished knitted fingerless gloves, which I'll show you soon. I hope you all have a fantastic Easter weekend!

Cadburys creme egg cookies – a recipe

Well, I’ve given in and jumped on the baking with Cadburys creme eggs bandwagon. After seeing so many delicious looking recipes all over the internet it was bound to happen at sooner or later, these creme egg brownies and some creme egg cupcakes looked particularly good. But to be a bit different I thought I’d try creme egg cookies and rather than using normal creme eggs I used mini creme eggs and creme egg splats (no I hadn’t heard of them either but they were on offer in tescos). Hopefully these aren’t too bad for you and they taste so, so good.

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees (160 for fan oven)
Mix 100g margarine with 100g of brown muscovado sugar.

Add 1 tablespoon of golden syrup.

Add 150g self-raising flour and mix together.

Add half a pack of creme egg splats, or a few mini creme eggs chopped into quarters to the mixture.
Separate into small balls and place onto a baking tray. Cut mini creme eggs into halves and push gently into the top on each cookie.

Bake for around 8 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve on a pretty plate and try not to eat all of them at once.

The soundtrack to my baking yesterday morning was Now that’s what I call Disney - perfect for dancing around the kitchen to!