Life lately and a bit of a happy list

Life has been very busy lately so I’ve been making the most of the little things that make me happy and making sure to spend the spare time I do have doing something fun. This new glass jar is the result of a shopping trip with my Mum to Lewes in East Sussex – if you live near and have never been I really recommend it - beautiful buildings and tons of independent shops make this a perfect place to explore. Head to The Needlemakers for tea and homemade cake (their blueberry and lemon polenta was amazing) and then wander round a few of their vintage and handmade shops. Anyway, back to the glass jar, I’d been looking for something to keep cotton wool buds in on my dresser and after a summer of no luck at car boots I’d almost given up hope. But I found this in one of the amazing antiques shops in Lewes, which was over three floors! I love the shape of it.

Here’s another picture from our day in Lewes it's of a beautiful street and archway near Lewes Castle – I’d love to go back and look round that next summer.

These flowers have also been making me happy, after over a month without a dining table as soon as we got one the boyfriend kindly brought me some flowers to put on it, they definitely brighten up the place.

Finally, I was lucky enough to spend the day a Goodwood Revival, in the guise of work but we had a bit of time to explore and it was great even in the rather questionable weather! Some of the costumes were fascinating and I did manage to catch a bit of the racing as you can see below. I'd have loved to have had more time to browse the stalls though and half of them were before the pay barrier so you could look round for free!

Simple Smarties cookies - a recipe

So a couple of weeks in and I’m already hooked on the Great British Bake Off. I’m not sure who I want to win yet, but I’m definitely sure I don’t want to see anyone go!

Anyway, in the spirit of the bake off I figured the weekend was a good time to try my first bake in our new flat and seeing as we’re still missing quite a bit of kitchen stuff – rolling pin, icing bags etc... I decided to stick with something simple. These Smarties cookies are so simple and really good, it’s also pretty much impossible to just eat one at a time.

Here’s the recipe
100g butter
100g light brown muscovado sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
150g self raising flour
85g smarties

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees, cover two baking trays in baking paper.
Cream together butter and sugar.
Mix in the syrup, flour and smarties.
Divide into 14 balls and place well apart on baking trays.
Bake for about 12 minutes until golden brown.

Simple!

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict – a book review

I read the majority of this book on a six hour train journey and it’s pretty much exactly as I expected, great fun and nothing deep, but with a good ending that’s not too predictable. I’d recommend it for next time you’re looking for a ‘nice’ travel read – as someone who once spent a good 30 minutes sobbing whilst reading on a plane I like something that’s not too sad or stressful when on public transport!

The plot is very similar to the TV series ‘Lost in Austen’ shown a few years ago. Courtney Stone, a newly single LA girl, dreams that she wakes up in Regency England in the body of Jane Mansfield (get it?), but as the days pass she realises this is no dream and she’s stuck until further notice. Add in a few Mr Darcy like characters, a mother desperate to see her married and a similarly broken hearted best friend and you’ve got the idea.

It’s written by Laurie Viera Rigler who it turns out has also written a book entitled ‘Rude awakenings of a Jane Austen addict’ I’d definitely give it a go after enjoying this one. It’s also made me desperate to either re-read or re-watch Pride and Prejudice and with autumn on its way a Sunday afternoon with tea, chocolate and P&P sounds pretty darn good.

Teacups, pigs and plants

Last Sunday was a fairly great one, filled with scones (x2!), a plant and art sale, my Mum’s Sunday dinner and knitting. But it’s the plant and art show I want to tell you about today. To be exact it was ‘An unusual plant and art fair’ held at Sussex Prairie Gardens, having never been to the gardens or a fair billed as ‘unusual’ we really didn’t know what to expect.

Firstly the fair, while I’m not an expert I’m assured there were lots of unusual plants - grapefruit mint anyone? There were also quite a few stalls with handmade home and garden accessories, the best of which were teacup and saucers on long metal poles which could be used as garden bird feeders! As soon as I have a garden I WILL be buying one!

The gardens were nice, I think we need to go back when it’s slightly less busy to enjoy them properly, but with lots of windy paths, hidden benches, pigs (both real and sculptural) and colourful flowers it’s exactly what you want from a garden.

DIY distressed mirror frame

This is the first thing I’ve made specifically for our flat, we have a big space above our (electric) fireplace and it was in desperate need of filling. It makes the room look both bigger and brighter, but the best bit, is that it was completely FREE! I found the mirror in my parents’ attic and then used a piece of sandpaper I already had and then leftover white paint from my parents’ garage. Just to be clear I did ask them before I started taking and DIY-ing things!

You obviously don’t need a step by step guide, but one top tip I did pick up was that when distressing the painted frame wrapping the sandpaper around a block made it much weightier, this made it easier to chip the paint giving a more realistic distressed look. I really love how it looks close up.

Here’s the before shot (I forgot to take one before removing the mirror)...

And here’s after...

Our flat

We’ve been in our flat just over one month and it’s gone so quickly, there’s still plenty we need to buy and do – a dining table and shelves are the main items on our shopping list so we can actually spread our stuff out a bit and I’ve still got a few boxes at my parents house. With all that in mind I’m not exactly house proud yet so I thought I’d just share a few snaps of my favourite things.

The colours are mainly dictated by one of the kitchen walls which is a teal colour, luckily I love the colour teal and already have quite a bit of blue stuff to match with it so it worked out well. I love this kettle from argos, a moving gift from the boyfriend’s parents.

Also in the kitchen is our new clock from Marks and Spencer , after being unable to get it online I was over the moon to find it in our local M&S, ironically the bigger M&S stores I’d been to looking for it first were all sold out.

Our window sills are made tiles, not exactly my favourite feature but it’s growing on me, covering them with candles has helped.

My butterfly cross stitch matches the teal colour scheme very nicely.

As does this bath mat from h&m home – they have some gorgeous stuff but be warned delivery takes ages!

Finally, these are our latest bargains. We’re trying to buy second hand wherever possible – mainly for financial reasons (!) but also because of how wasteful it seems to go out and buy everything brand new. This small stand was £2 at a car boot and in the next few weeks will be sanded and painted (not sure what colour yet). The small plant pot was 50p from a charity shop and is similar to ones I’ve been eyeing in home stores for around £5, just need a plant now!