My weekend - autumn and nutella

I had one of those great weekends where you do lots and yet still feel like it was lovely and relaxing at the same time. On Saturday I popped into town, then went out for the autumn walk I’d been dreaming about whilst in the office all week. It was freezing, but the leaves and sunshine more than made up for it; autumn really is my favourite season. This was followed by an evening in the pub with friends, two bottles of rekorderlig later and I woke up with a bit of a hangover – what a lightweight! Sunday was also pretty perfect (after some not so perfect cleaning) I settled down with my favourite film, some knitting and my new favourite snack bananas and nutella. It’s sort of one of my five a day, right? And then headed over to the boyfriend’s for a roast dinner. It’s not often I accomplish all that in a weekend. The only thing missing was a trip to see James Bond which has been rescheduled to tomorrow evening after we couldn't book seats for any showing, anywhere!

What did you get up to at the weekend?

Picture postcard #1

It’s been grey, misty and miserable here for several days now and I’m longing for some sunshine to appear. I’ve got all my fingers crossed that it turns up in time for the weekend so I can head out and take some pictures. I feel I’ve neglected this hobby slightly as crafting has been taking up a lot of my time, so to encourage a few more trips out with my camera I thought I’d start a new feature – picture postcard. A weekly snap of somewhere I’ve been, something inspiring, or as in this case, something I want to be doing - enjoying the autumn sunshine, wrapped up in warm clothes and walking through crunchy leaves! This picture, taken on a walk last year, perfectly illustrates where I want to be this weekend and will hopefully help get me through the rest of the week... is it really only Wednesday?!

Lavender bags – a how to

This afternoon I’ve been making these cute lavender bags. They’re such an easy thing to make and are so small they could be quickly hand stitched if you’re not a fan of sewing machines. They also make great presents, yes I’m already thinking about Christmas, ordered first present for the boyfriend this morning! Anyway, all you need to do is cut some squares out of fabric, pin together and sew around three edges, then turn the right way out, fill with dried lavender and sew closed. You can make different shapes, or embellish them with ribbons or more fabric, but as these were just a practise run I kept things simple.

The lavender was picked from our garden a few weeks ago and left to dry out in the garage, but you can also buy pre-dried stuff online. They smell lovely and apparently also keep clothes moths away, all for less than an hours work!   

How have you been spending your Sunday?

Also, the lack of step by step photos is because my camera is otherwise engaged as I’m attempting some time-lapse photography (more on that soon). But this is such an easy make, pictures aren't really needed!

A deer little necklace

Whilst battling my cold this week I thought I’d keep busy with a simple craft project. Shrink plastic is such an easy way to make jewellery; I experimented with it earlier this year and made a butterfly necklace, click here for the how to. So I thought that now would be the perfect time of year to make a deer necklace (I love anything with deer/stag on).

Unfortunately, the design I chose didn’t quite work – it was really difficult to get the thin legs to lie flat and not twist as the plastic shrank. Deer number one lost his hind legs as I tried to force them back into the right shape. As you can see the second one turned out much better but had an interesting dent in him, no idea where that came from! It took a while for me to decide the best thing to do was fill it with a bead.

After much deliberation I went for an amber coloured bead, it is autumn after all, glued it into place and attached a jump ring and necklace chain. Easy! He’s a lovely little addition to my autumn/winter wardrobe.

Have you ever made anything with shrink plastic?

Etsy autumn wishlist

I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that etsy is one of my favourite sites and as autumn is also one of my favourite seasons, I thought I’d show you a few great etsy finds perfect for the coming season.  

Obviously, I had to start with a chunky knit and despite being told previously that I can’t pull off mustard yellow with my blonde hair and pale skin, I shall lust after this gorgeous scarf from The SimpleBoxCar all the same.

A cute CuteAbility acorn and oak leaf necklace, would it be too much to wear it with my squirrel print shirt?

Bluebirdchic - turning your camera into a fashion accessory, love the idea AND the autumn colours.

Finally not exactly autumnal, but how amazing are these lace doily envelopes from Mango And Passionfruit?!  

All images taken from etsy.

Triple chocolate and pecan cookies - a recipe

Good news – it’s nearly national chocolate week! I don’t usually go in for ‘national weeks’ seeing as we have them for pretty much everything nowadays, but if you’re going to buy into any of them it may as well be the chocolate one, eh? So I’ve decided it’s the perfect excuse (not that really I need one) to eat a bit more chocolate, it’s also the perfect excuse to try out a new recipe... gooey triple chocolate and pecan cookies. Now, I’m sure you’ve already got a recipe for triple chocolate cookies, but I’ve had so many compliments on this one that they’re really worth a go. As there’s not much flour and no butter/margarine in the recipe they almost end up a bit meringue like, totally delicious!

Ingredients

30g plain flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
100g milk chocolate chopped into small chunks
100g white chocolate also chopped
100g pecans (or any other nut you prefer)
200g dark chocolate
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
110g granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 180C

In a large bowl combine the first five ingredients and set aside.

Melt the dark chocolate in a separate bowl and set aside to cool down.

Combine the eggs, yolk and sugar until light and fluffy (easiest to use an electric whisk).

Mix everything together into the large bowl.

Spoon onto baking sheets in heaped tablespoons, you should get around 14-16 cookies. Bake for 10 minutes then remove from oven and allow to cool.

Best served with a cup of tea and a good magazine!