The Country Living Spring Fair

Last week I was lucky enough to head up to the Country Living Spring Fair with work. It was a long day (how do people commute to London everyday) but a great day. The fair was filled with exhibitors offering gorgeous home accessories, flowers, fabric, clothes, jewellery, ceramics, chocolate, craft accessories and more.

Working on our stand kept me very busy, so I only had a quick break to explore which was a shame as there were lots of eye catching things I would have liked a closer look at! Next year I’d definitely make the effort to go on a day I wasn’t working as well to take part in some of the craft workshops and watch some of the demonstrations by sellers and makers. I managed to glimpse people decorating chocolate eggs, trying watercolour painting and making felt Easter chicks – all of which looked great fun.

You can't have a country home without flowers 

Gorgeous fabrics 

Very interesting chairs and lamps 

Everybody loves a satchel

Which London fairs have you been to?

Crumbly apple flapjacks – a recipe

We’ve had a couple of far too sour apples sitting in our fruit bowl for a while now, but seeing as I just couldn’t bear to throw them away I figured it was time to bake something with them. I love apple cake but have been craving flapjacks all week... apple flapjacks it is then!

I’d never heard of, nor made apple flapjacks before but simply adapted my usual recipe.

Ingredients
6oz butter
5oz golden syrup
6oz dark brown sugar
12oz rolled oats
2 apples peeled and chopped

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Line an 8 x 8 tin with baking paper.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat. Stir in the golden syrup and sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in the oats and apples.

Spread the mixture into the tin and bake in oven for around 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let them stand for about an hour, then slice and enjoy!

HOOKED – learning to crochet

It’s no secret that I’ve wanted to learn to crochet for ages, but have always been a bit apprehensive (mainly due to concern that if I started to crochet I’d then forget how to knit) but a couple of weeks ago I finally took the plunge. And the good news is so far I can still knit, but I can also CROCHET A GRANNY SQUARE!!!

Yes, that is how excited I am. It still doesn’t feel as natural as knitting - I still keep trying to hold it like you would when knitting but I’m getting there. So far I’ve made 12 granny squares and am aiming for enough for a cushion cover, the first one took me about 3 hours but I can now average two squares per evening and am pretty pleased with that.

You can find the pattern I'm using here.

A few tips for beginners like me:

• The US and UK have different names for the same stitches, for example the pattern calls for double crochets but in UK terms this is actually a treble crochet and a UK double crochet is something different. I learnt this the hard way, but it’s all practise.
• All stitches are based on a chain stitch and there are lots of helpful youtube videos around.
• Find someone who can already crochet to help you, my Mum learnt at 11 (I’m so behind!) and she’s a great teacher.

Do you have any favourite crochet patterns?

Spring blossom... picture postcard #10

This picture postcard was taken at the weekend, and what a great weekend it was; we made the most of the sunshine and headed out to explore a local garden where we came across this beautiful spring blossom and lots of bright daffodils. Sunshine and flowers - the perfect pick me up after an exhausting week. In fact, the unexpected Vitamin D must have been so good for us as the boyfriend and I felt the need to wash both our cars (for the first time EVER) just to stay outside a little longer. It turns out my car is actually silver rather than the dark brown/grey it has been for the past few years – who knew!

Hope you're all enjoying the sunshine :)

Simple DIY: sea glass in a jar

When in Barbados last December I developed a sudden love for collecting sea glass, there was plenty to be found on the beaches and the jewel like colours couldn’t help but catch my eye. It didn’t take long for me to decide that a new home for these pretty pieces would be in a glass jar on our windowsill and voila! - This quick DIY idea was born.

But after a few hours in my beach bag I was disappointed to see just how cloudy and flecked with white the glass had become, I took it home with me and resolved to find a way to get it back to its former glory. And guess what the answer was... baby lotion! After a go at cleaning normally and quite a lot of google-ing I came across baby lotion and it worked perfectly – you can see the difference in the image below.

Once I’d rubbed baby lotion into all the glass pieces (yes, a slightly strange way to spend a Saturday but there we go) I sorted them into colour and then placed into the glass jar, starting with the darkest glass on the bottom. As a finishing touch I tied some string around the top.

I love how simple it is and the memories connected to it, one day I’d love a collection of jars full of things collected from our holidays – much better than tacky tourist souvenirs.

What things do you collect when on holiday?