Introducing my first SPONSORS!!

Things are going well in the world of blogland and now that this blog has been (almost) running for a whole year I have decided to have sponsors on my page.

The first 3 lovely sponsors are…..

• Natural and Clean – the UK’s cleaning specialist offers a wide range of innovative and
  environmentally-friendly household, travel and pet cleaning products to  leave
  your home fresh, clean and odour-free.
• Bubbaboom.com – Cool baby t-shirts, retro toddler tees, personalised organic toddler and kids clothing, unique Organic baby babygrows, Cool kids organic slogan tshirts for ages 0 – 10 years and some for grown ups too.  Superior quality cotton children’s t-shirts.
• Beneath The Rowan Tree – At BTRT you will find quality handcrafted items made with natural materials.  Their toys are made in the Waldorf tradition of simple, child-led, open-ended toys from nature that inspire imagination.

I will soon be hosting a giveaway for each of these fantastic companies so watch this space!………………

Boo! Pumpkin carving

After carving 3 pumpkins over the past 3 years it wouldn;t be right for me to go without carving one this year! Anyway, here’s this years’ carving………….

‘T’ was very impressed with it (even though it was a bit basic compared to others I have done) and thought it was great fun when the lights were turned off to really see the ‘glow’

Remember to head over to ‘Handmade Monday’ for some other crafty folks xx

Here are the other carvings I have done:

2010:

2009:

2008: modeled by my step-son!

Wellington walks in the mud

We went for a walk yesterday afternoon; a squelchy, muddy walk. The rain held off and we went in search of horses. I grew up opposite horse fields and with a passion for riding so it’s an afternoon activity that I enjoy as much as ‘T’. We got to the first horse field which was completley empty – it was sweet to watch ‘T’ calling ‘D-orsch’ over and over to an empty field! We walked in our wellies to the next field and there were no horses there either, though ‘T’ enjoyed the walk, stopping to look at feathers, berries and make squelching noises with her boots.

Finally we found a horse and said hello and fed him some grass. I love these afternoons with my girl xx

this moment……….

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a
moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want
to pause, savor and remember. – soulemama

Begging and pleading………

Ok, so I’m doing this run on Sunday – in fact it’s the biggest 10 mile run in the World! It’s the Bupa Great South Run, in Southsea/Portsmouth and will be live on TV plus a show late on in the evening.

I’ve done several 5km (approx 3 mile) runs for Cancer Research – (blogged about here) but this 10 mile one is a lot further! I was hoping to do it in approx 1 hour 30 minutes but I would be really pleased to finish it in 1 hour 45 minutes, thinking a bit more realistically about it.

I’ve been training hard, and typically, little ‘T’ has decided that sleeping throughout the nights isn’t her idea of fun just recently so it’s been extra hard going out for 8 mile runs after getting up several times a night (though thankfully she slept through last night – YIPPEEEE!!) Click here for a link back to some photos I took whilst out on my runs.

Anyway, if you can spare any money at all, I would seriously appreciate it, the link to my sponsorship page is here.

Alternatively, PLEASE feel free to add a link to your blog/facebook page/website etc, even if I get no extra aponsorship from this, a bit of awareness is always a good thing.

MS is a cruel condition, my father in law has been suffering terribly and has been in hospital for several months, he was diagnosed at just 24 years old. I also know 3 other people affected, and it’s just so unfair.

So that was me, begging and pleading! Thanks for taking the time to read.

xx

Potato painting

It’s getting rainy and darker outside so less trips to the park and more indoor activities are needed. After preparing dinner and a trip to the shops yesterday morning we came back to do some potato painting and tent-building.

The potato printing started off well…………

Got a bit messy……..

But was all good fun!

Now for a stroll in the woods – I think our waterproofs and wellies are going to be needed…………

xx

Mixed bean lasagne recipe

I’ve managed to almost halve our food bills by being really careful with the shopping and this meal was cheap yet tasty plus quick and easy to throw together. Great served with salad leaves and bread.

Ingredients:

1 x cup/can beans – I used dried pinto and dried turtle beans which I soaked and cooked, though any will do.

1 x tin baked beans

1 x tin chopped tomatoes

1 x stock cube

lasagne sheets

1 x chopped onion

1 x chopped capsicum pepper

cup of chopped mushrooms

tomato puree

mixed herbs

grated cheese for topping

salt and pepper for seasoning.

Method

Add to a pan the onion and cook until soft, add in the beans, mushrooms and peppers and cook for a few minutes

Add the rest of the ingredients apart from the cheese and lasagne sheets and cook on a low heat for around 20 minutes.

Grease a dish and add a layer of pastae before lasyering up as you would a normal lasagne, top with cheese and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. It’s extra- tasty if you add a cheese sauce to the topping as well, it also freezes well and is a good meal to prepare in the morning and pop in the oven at dinner time.

 

Bye-bye Mavis

I went outside last week to give Mavis her daily fresh food and saw that she was lying very still – unlike her, as I though she had passed away when I checked. I had been expecting this day for a while now, after all she was nearly 8 years old which is quite old in rabbit years.

I was more sad for ‘T’ than for myself, she loved to go outside everyday and feed her a carrot or an apple, she’d spend ages just watching her and calling her name from in our bedroom whilst looking at her hutch in the garden.

 

Drying, baking, sewing, making

Some pictures from the past week, I haven’t been online very much, ‘T’ has been suffering terribly with her teeth for the last 10 days, she’s only slept through one night (thankfully the night before I needed to go on an 8 mile run in the morning, phew!) and has been waking 5-6 times every night leaving us both exhausted and grumpy. It’s good to know this is just a ‘stage’ and will pass!

My husband brought home a bag full of walnuts last week – how fantastic are these!:

I have dried them in the oven and now they are drying on the side, I hope it works and that they are okay to eat for Christmas! (just think of all the cakes I can make!)

I’ve started to make a tiny Waldorf doll for ‘T’ though it’s proving quite fiddly – it’s currently with ‘T’s Grandma so that she can crochet her a wig – far too tricky for me!:

We found this sweet little shelf at a car boot sale a few weeks ago for a bargain price of two pounds!!! My husband put it up in the kitchen last night and I’m really pleased with it:

It’s been quite chilly here too with the first bit of frost in the morning so I made a batch of muffins, the cinamon, pecan and raisin ones were lovely whilst still warm from the oven with some custard!:

Hope you all had a lovely weekend xx

this moment……….

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no
words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary
moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.-soulemama