Thursday, 15 March 2012

Mothers Day Cards

As its Mothers Day this Sunday (in the UK) I spent some time yesterday making cards to give to mine and my husbands Mums. I love making cards, I make all the cards we send, I find it really relaxing and being creative on a small scale is right up my street!
I decided to make a few different cards and then choose my favourite to give to our Mums. The others I will keep and use later. So here they are:

For this first one I drew a cup on the back of some pretty paper and then cut it out. I cut out a saucer shape from some card that I thought matched and then added some pretty ribbon at the bottom. I quite like this one although the ribbon doesn't look straight in the photo and my cutting could have been better, but overall not bad. Also the Mothers day message can easily be replaced for something else.

For this next one I stamped the teddy image and then coloured it in.I think with the pretty paper and the ribbon it works quite well. Although again the ribbon doesn't look very straight! Also as this doesn't say Mothers Day on it, it could easily be used for a birthday.

This last one is my favourite! Again I stamped the teddy image and then coloured it in. I love the purple paper and the matching button too, I think this will be the one I copy and send to our Mums.

Well I had better go and finish making them so I can get them in the post tomorrow!
What are you doing for Mothers Day?
Do you make cards?

Tuesday, 13 March 2012

Mac and Cheese

Mac and cheese is a firm favourite in my house, it's cheap, quick and easy to make, all winners in my book! I want to share my recipe with you today so if by some chance you have never tried to make your own you can give it a go!

Here's what you'll need:
- 4 tablespoon's unsalted butter
- 300g macaroni
- 1 small onion diced
- 1 teaspoon mustard
- 2 tablespoons plain flour
- 375ml milk
- 230g grated cheese
- 1-2 slices of bread

Here's what to do:
- pre-heat oven to 180
- butter dish
- bring a pan of water to the boil
- add macaroni and pinch of salt to water
- cook for 8-10 minutes

- in saucepan melt butter
- add onion and cook until soft

- stir in flour and seasoning

- gradually stir in milk until the sauce is thick

- add mustard
- remove pan from heat and stir in most of the cheese

- drain the macaroni and put into prepared dish

- add cheese sauce to dish and mix together 

- blitz bread in blender to make breadcrumbs

- mix breadcrumbs with remainder of cheese

- sprinkle cheese breadcrumbs over dish

- cook for 20-30 mins
- take out oven when golden brown

There you go, simple and yummy!

We like to have ours with a nice tomato salad and some crusty bread!

Sunday, 11 March 2012

Has Spring Sprung?!

I don't know if Spring is definitely here but there was certainly a glimpse of it this weekend. As it was looking so lovely outside husband and I decided we would do some gardening this weekend. Our garden was in desperate need and we have husbands parents and Nana coming in a couple of weeks so there was extra impetus to get in there and sort it out. We went up to our local garden centre first thing yesterday morning to pick up a few things. Now bearing in mind it really is barely spring and there was not that much available to buy husband and I still managed to go over budget. Never mind though the garden was needing it.

So yesterday we spent most of the day weeding, picking up leaves and cutting back the plants we have. It doesn't sound like much but it took ages. It was worthwhile though because today we got to do the fun stuff, the planting. We planted a Raspberry bush, a bay tree, some herbs, some daffodils and added fresh compost to our existing plants. All in all we were pretty pleased with the results. This will be our third summer in our house and really only our third year gardening, so we are still newbies at the gardening game!

Want to see some photo's?

Of course you do!

Phoebe was not sure if she like herbs...

On second thoughts, she loves them!

My new herbs, in my new planter

The Raspberry bush

Gooseberry bush, all pruned

Christmas trees

New Lily shoots

Heather

more Heather

 Lavender all cut back and deadheaded and my new Daffodils

Veronica all ready for another year

finally some new shoots and flowers on our tree

So there you go that's how my garden is looking after this weekend.
 Have your been in your garden yet? I would love to hear about your planting!

Saturday, 10 March 2012

Relax, it's the Weekend!

 

Doesn't the weekend always seem to take forever to come?! I feel like I haven't had a proper weekend in such a long time, we've been so busy and ill and then busy again, it feels like forever since I had a relaxing weekend. This weekend though, this weekend it's all going to change! For a start I'm still in bed and I'm blogging, this has not happened for ages! I'm also in the process o convincing husband to bring me breakfast in bed- we'll see how that works out!

My other plans for the weekend include some gardening, a swim, some reading, a movie, some knitting, some card making and I may even bake! This may seem like a busy weekend but I think when you're doing all your favourite things it feels different, do you agree?

What are you doing this weekend?

Happy weekend everyone!