Moments from the last 7 days

Source

Well well well...what a crazy week it has been. This will be my fourth week at my new job and it has gone so quickly...my diary is filling up pretty quickly too which now makes me realise i need to be quick about getting annual leave booked!! Anyway, some moments from the last week that have made me happiest:

1- Making headway on my knitted blanket..

2- Singing in a choir for the first time since secondary school....i was humming my song the whole way home on the bus.

3- Unexpected chats on the bus home

4- Discovering my way round South London even more.

5- Having a big night in..steaks, wine and the Hobbit 2!

6- Putting a deposit down for my new bike....excited doesn't even explain how i feel!

7- Being able to walk a big chunk of my commute to work.

Sorry for the work heavy post....I'm sure this won't be happening very much as the year goes on!
How has your week been?

Moments from the last 7 days

Gosh where are these weeks going? Apart from some pesky neighbours partying into the early morning last night my week has been a really good one and this week is shaping up to be alright as well...love it when that happens! Now for some moments from the last week that have made me particularly happy:

1- Mapping out potential pubs and eateries along my route to work to make into a pub crawl...

2- Going out for dinner not once, not twice but three times this week....being in full time work definitely creates an appetite.

3- Enjoying the landmarks in London. Sitting in the park at Westminster is a nice way to clear your head after a full on day.

4- Walking through Carnaby street during the busiest moment this week, every shop had a discount and everyone bar myself it seems had a bottle of beer/ cocktail in their hand

5- Collecting conkers

6- Following strangers around Sainsburys to find where they got the soda bread mix from....

7- Making said soda bread with our homemade Ulster fry...bit of home in London yum!

How has your last week been?
Chloe x

Moments from the last 7 days

Yay...I managed to only miss one 7 day review so far....I'm feeling a little bit proud of that. The last two weeks have been so lovely. Adam and I went back to Northern Ireland for a week and then I stayed on a week longer to attend a family wedding. We were total tourists while in Northern Ireland which was nice for a change, we even managed to get in a gig since Belsonic was on while we were back.

Anyway, the last 7 days:

1- Visiting childhood locations with happy memories.

2- Saving some kittens

3- Playing hairdresser for my little sis despite the fact I am one of the worst people to ask to help when it comes to hair...it worked out okay in the end.

4- Attending one of the most beautiful and relaxed weddings i have been to. An outside wedding in Ireland is brave but it paid off for them.

5- Acting silly around family

6- Getting seats with extra leg room for my flight back to London....most likely the comfiest flight I've ever had as a result.

7- Being distracted from my nerves by Adam all day long....and getting a delicious dinner in the meantime.

All in all it was a pretty good week. This week is my first in my new job so I'm expecting to be exhausted come Friday!

How has your last week been? Chloe x

11 things you didn't know

Thank you to the lovely Annie who has nominated me for a Liebster Award. Below are the 11 questions asked by Annie. Here goes:
 
1. If you could be any animal what would you be and why?
I would probably have to say a bird....most likely a robin. Mainly cause I could just fly wherever I want to. Although I love walking how cool would it be to be able to just fly everywhere. Also Robins are pretty dam fancy, yet casual at the same time!

2. Money is no object, where's the next place you'd like to travel to?
Sadly I haven't really had a chance to travel at all so far so anywhere really. At the moment however, I really want to go to South America. Also Iceland but maybe wait till this volcano calms down (unless my money can control volcanoes as well in which case Iceland first).

3. What's your favourite breakfast food?
Breakfast is my favourite meal so this is a bit of a toughie. If it's normal everyday breakfast.....cereal and toast cause it keeps me full. But if I can do whatever I want...pancakes and honey with blueberries and strawberries.

4. Best fancy dress costume you've ever made/wore?

This little gem is probably one of the best as it took so little effort and I won best costume (unbeknownest to myself) One of the few joys of having curly hair is that I am able to make it look crazy with very little effort..all I did was brush my hair and spray it with colour in this photo!

5. What's your favourite thing about where you live/your home town?
My favourite thing about where I live at the moment is the variety of parks close at hand. Also as a country girl at heart I love being able to escape the crazy London crowds during the summer time and sit in the nice quite park in Ladywell.

6. A song that'll always get you on the dance floor?

Saturday night is always a goodie when it comes to dancing......mostly at cheesy get togethers though!

7. What did you want to grow up to be when you were little?
Weirdly I wanted to be a pathologist when I was little.....

8. Do you have a favourite quote or motto?
Not one that I would say out loud but lately I do think a lot along the lines of 'If it's meant to be'.

9. If you had to cook a three course meal ('Come Dine with Me' style-y) what would you make?
Oh good question! Starter would probably be a Charcuterie board of some effect...maybe mini individual ones for the person who doesn't like to share their food. Main could be beef, most likely steak. Finally for desert I would make a lemon tart...cause its delicious!

10. What are you most looking forward to right at this moment?
Dinner....roasted ham.

11. Lastly, but not least importantly, biscuit or cake?
Biscuit.

Now for 11 facts about myself:
1- I have always been told I talk too much.
2- 'Inside voice' is a common statement directed to me.
3- I love to bake although I don't do it very often cause we never end up eating all of what I made.
4- I am obsessed with any form of house programme on telly. 
5- I wish I was better at playing both the violin and piano.
6- I love walking and really wish I could have a dog to walk these days
7- Cats scare me....they are too clever and always seem to be up to something.
8- I constantly come up with craft ideas and very rarely start or finish them.
9- I hate nightclubs....give me a pub with some good friends and live music any day.
10- I start my first ever real job tomorrow and I am most worried about the fact that there are no hot drinks during the day!
11- I love the sweet peas (the flower....not some weird sweet pea.

I'm pretty sure that all of my favourite blogs have had been nominated for a Leibster award but as I would love to learn more about this lady I nominate
The cup and saucer

My questions for you are as follows:
1- What is your favourite meal?
2- If you could live anywhere where would you like to live right now?
3- If you could have one skill what would it be?
4- What is your favourite part of blogging?
5- What's your favourite place to eat/ drink at the moment?
6- Cat or dog?
7- Staycation or vacation?
8- If you won the lotto what is the first thing you would do?
9- What season do you like best?
10- Most recent movie watched?
11- What is your favourite way to spend the weekday evenings?

For anyone else who wants to answer the questions please do and let me know...I love being nosey!!
Chloe x

Moments from the last 7 days

Wow, look at this, I've managed to keep up to date with blogging. Sadly i have a suspicion it won't be for long as I am currently back in Ireland and although I have managed this post I'm not sure if I'll be able to find time for next weeks....but I will try my best!

West Coast of Ireland a few years back.

Anyway, seven moments:

1- Watching awful movies while it pours rain outside...summer holidays are allowed to be lazy.

2- Catching up with friends and walking aimlessly around London. It's so nice to be able to enjoy the city without feeling like you have to 'do' something.

3- Great British Bake Off.....

4- Visiting new places. This week i went to see an photography exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society. It is well worth a visit.

5- Having breakfast and falling back to sleep until 10:45....oops!

6- Looking up the weather for Ireland and working out what to pack.

7- Airports. I like them. As long as i have all my carry-on sorted out properly.

What moments from your past week have made you smile?

Chloe x

For the love of maps

I LOVE maps. I mean LOVE them. I love to stare at them, work out where i am, how to get to another place, remember it all and give it a go in real life. Then i like to stare at old maps and think how unbelievable it is that people were able to get it so wrong and yet so right at times with regards to where places are.

My love for maps means that I am one of those who still loves to check out the London A-Z before i need to go somewhere new. I dont really like google maps, it just feels wrong relying on a little dot to tell me im going in the right direction.

Why am i telling you this?

Well, last weekend i was in heaven pouring over my new london cycling guide maps i got in the post, check them out....amazing!You can order the free guides here. Adam had to forcefully remove them from my hands so that i would actually leave the flat and do something with my weekend but he also came up with a clever solution to indulge in my map love.

The answer? Maps Coasters.

Now, these are no new idea. In fact im sure there's a million of them floating around etsy and everywhere else but Adam has no idea of that world so we decided to do it ourselves with some trial and error.

How did we do it?
We headed to lewisham hoping that the charity shops would have some old maps. They didn't. Then i thought we should chance having a look in the pound shops, you never know what they have. Well lucky us. We got a 2012 version of the Collins British road map, along with four coasters and some book covering in the 99p store....that 1 penny means everything!

For some reason, this map includes Ireland in it.....not part of Britain but I was happy because it meant i got to include my lovely hometown as one of the coasters.

 We cut out sections of the map to size. Before we could stick the cutouts on to the coasters we peeled the thin film of plastic off the top of the coasters.
We then stuck the map cutouts on with PVA glue...lots of it. I think each coaster took 3-4 coats of the glue.
I was hoping that the glue would be enough to seal them but it wasn't so we stuck some clear book covering on top and it seems to have worked a treat.

Adam has decided though that if we make them again, or if you guys would like to try it out, sticking the book covering onto the map cutouts first and then sticking the whole map cover onto the coaster would work better. Why? As the maps were quite then paper the glue soaked right through and made them wrinkle up a little bit when drying.
Overall thought I'm pretty happy with them, for £1.98 we have four new coasters that our more our style than the originals!

Am I th only one who loves maps? Chloe x

Moments from the last 7 days

I've decided to introduce a new little segment into this blog since i seem to have failed at keeping a monthly review of my activities.

This little segment aims to give a snippet of the moments that I've loved, laughed at, and enjoyed in the last seven days. I hope you like it.

1- My first ever trip to Brighton with my bestie. I think we picked the perfect day for it as we got continuous sun the whole day. Sitting on the beach, sun warming my skin, just chatting to one of my closest friends is sheer bliss in my books

2- Morning lay ins, listening to the slight breeze blowing in and watching as the sun shines through the crack in the blind.

3- Picking blackberries in the cemetery. Slightly creepy spot to go to but the sound of silence is often necessary in this busy city. Picking and checking the berries is oddly relaxing, blocking out everything else from my mind.

4- Getting an official letter with details of my work induction date.....its draws nearer!!

5- Spending time with my second family, eating the most delicious meal in ages (even if i couldn't quite bring myself to eat the razor clams) and walking home in the pouring rain happily chatting the whole way.

6- Celebratory lunch and cocktails.

7- Listening to the tourists scream as the sky opened and the rain poured down on top of them, as Adam and I safely settled down to desert and a Baileys latte!!

How have your last seven days been? What were the littlest moments that made you happy?

Chloe x

Checking in

Flower exhibit at Royal Welsh Show

Hi there!

Once again I've managed to let a whole month go by without posting anything new on here. I've been filling my time pretty well this month and had so many opportunities to photograph and write blog posts but I haven't really felt the need to whip out my camera in the middle of a delicious picnic. I sat and ate till i could burst and talked to my friends instead! As much as i enjoy writing this blog and taking pictures of my knitting to share (cause no one in real life cares!) i like to reduce the amount of time i spend online and engrossed in social media.

Anyway, enough of a rant i think!

So what have June and July held for me?

• I started and finished my last ever placement, at the most wonderful centre demonstrating the best example of how health care professionals should be working together. I learnt so much there in 6 weeks.
• My first ever 'real job' interview, i.e. a job i actually care about getting and not just a part time post to give me some moolah!
• GETTING OFFERED MY FIRST EVER REAL JOB!!!!!
• Park picnics
• Celebrating the end of uni with a 'class' party. Getting a chance to see how everyone found placement and catching up and saying a possible last goodbye was really nice.
• Little sister came to visit last week. It was her first time to travel by herself and it was really fun to have just the two of us hang out as we never really get the chance when i head home as visits are usually pretty filled up with seeing everyone i need to see.
• A trip to see some family in Hereford. It was so nice to get into the countryside, especially when London has become a wall of heat everywhere!
• The Royal Welsh show. I'm a country girl at heart so while i was with the fam i went along to the Royal Welsh....on a beautifully sunny day it was wonderful to watch all the comings and goings. 

Lil sis at Greenwich

King's Troop at Royal Welsh

Now I've got myself some time off until i start work in September so I'm planning so day trips, two weeks holiday at home, a family wedding and just relaxing in general!
How have your June and July been? How nice is it to be warm all the time?
Chloe x

Little Nan's Cocktail Club

As people really start to take notice of things happening South of the river, more and more interest in new places to eat and drink develops.

Little Nan's Cocktail Club is a summer pop up in Brockley.

I've followed their Facebook page since they

hinted that they would be arriving to Brockley. What with exams and all of the other stuff life puts in it's taken me a few weeks to get there. It was worth waiting for.

Situated upstairs at the Talbot pub, Little Nan's really feels like your nana's house. The staff are super friendly and immediately welcomed us when we were looking a bit daunted by the more unusual layout they offer. People are seated either at large dining tables or a pretty damn fine couch....made especially for that space.

That couch....

With walls lined with either tea cups of pretty vintage pictures, the space really feels welcoming and relaxing. There's a lot of pubs around at the moment that are trying for the 'welcome to our house, it's quirky' look that aren't quite getting there. Little Nan's definitely is on top of the 'quirky, not your average drinking establishment' list.

The menu is pretty extensive on the cocktail front, ranging from £12 to £19 depending on what type of cocktails you go for. There's also an option to put beer in your teapot from the pub downstairs but that just seems silly when you've come for some delicious cocktails.

We picked the Paddy Ashdowne- a whiskey and lime based cocktail. Served in a teapot and with extra ice in a sugar bowl, quaint and quirky are key words to describe it. The Cocktail itself was delicious....sometimes there's too much alcohol and other times just not enough. They have the balance just right at Little Nan's so you are able to walk back up the hill home.

It's definitely worth a visit. They are staying throughout July so get on over there if you can.

Chloe x

Self-tour walks

I don't know about you but I love just walking around. Discovering nooks and crannies that i didn't know were there. Finding out how two places connect. Watching how the demographics change from one place to another.

Walking is the shit!

This Saturday, I downloaded a Riots and Radicals tour guide from Timeout. I had planned a day of fun to celebrate Adam's birthday and as I'm still a student I couldn't afford to spend money all day long.

This tour was really enjoyable for a do it yourself. I played the role of tour guide brilliantly....even if my customer knew more of the facts than I did!
Plus I think I picked the perfect day to do it on. Gorgeous weather meant that we could fully enjoy spending up to two hours walking and, arriving at Whitehall while a protest march was happening was of course entirely planned! (Of course).

I had a little bit of bother getting to the right part of Kennington park but the rest of the 'ramble' is well described and interesting without overloading you with too much information.

I especially liked the Royal Doulton Pottery factory...such an impressive building.

Have you done any self guided tours of London? What parts are your favourite to have a stroll around?

(Excuse the more awful than usual pictures.....silly ol' me forgot to bring the camera out so thank a Nokia Lumia for these!)

Chloe x

Where's the past two months gone?

I've been quiet.

I've been really busy.

In the past two months, Uni finished up, 5 exams were completed and now my final placement has started. Throw in a trip home, my birthday, a weekend in Hastings to celebrate my birthday, Adam's birthday, and the stresses of having to constantly revise, i haven't managed to find time to post here.

I have been busy reading my favourite blogs and following everyone's excitement as it starts to get into summer and the sun shows us what he's made of. Of course, there's also loads of other stuff to read but seeing everyone indulge in the summeryness is nice.

Since it's been so long, here's a selection of pictures from our Hastings trip...it's safe to say that I LOVED my trip to Hastings.

We headed down to Hastings for the May bank holiday, and it was definitely the weekend to go. The whole town was lively and full with all the May celebrations happening and I got my first dose of Morris dancers. It was fun.

Adam had organised a fantastic flat for the weekend, right on the seafront and the perfect distance from the town centre to easily walk in and out as we wanted.


Hopefully now that life has calmed down a little bit I'll have much more to talk about on here!
Chloe x

Soho Flea Market

A few weekends ago, during the THIRD bank holiday when i was stuck revising, i took the Sunday off and Adam and I headed into town for a bit of a wander about.

After having looked around the V&A we headed to Soho for the Soho Flea Market.
It wasn't quite what i expected....flea market sounds more second hand in my mind, but it was lovely to look around all the stands of independent crafters.

Here are a couple of my favourites from the day.

Blank Inside

Source

Eightbear

Source

Adam and I used to come up with 'products' that rhymed and cats in hats was one of them.....so tempted to get this print when I have some spare pocket money floating around!

Eleanor Stuart
There were so many beautiful things to look at, but i especially love the Tiny Collection of mugs....so cute!

Source

Jimbobart
Once again....so many cool things, the linguist in me particularly likes this plate!

Source

I love to check out indepent shops and makers and now that there are so many summer fairs happening around london it's the perfect time to check them out in person!

Chloe x

Rocky Road

I haven't put many posts up about baking prior to now, mainly because whenever I bake I eat everything really quickly and never get any time to take photos of it looking pretty. It's either that or I generally bake in the evening time when the flat is enveloped in a wonderful shade of grey!

Anywho, it's high time I share my love of baking with you so let me introduce you to what I believe to be one of the most unhealthy things I have ever baked.....actually I don't think it counts as baking but...whatevs!

I have been wanting to make rocky road with turkish delight in it for ages.
This recipe has been adapted from Jamie Oliver's Rocky Road Kill. Now don't get me wrong, I love Jamie Oliver but this recipe is just a tad excessive...even for me.

Looking pretty disgusting

Looking better

I changed it up a little by adding some turkish delight ( lemon and rose flavoured), glace cherries, chocolate digestive biscuits, weetabix, and chocolate chip cookies. I know, this recipe really did not need more chocolate in it but in for a penny, in for a pound.

I didn't really go down the whole nut road, Im not a big fan of them in chocolate.

If you do ever try to make this recipe, I would suggest adjusting the amount of chocolate you use. One of the main reasons I added in more biscuits is because the mixture was so wet and I had run out of digestives!

There are no measurements with regards to what I added in, I went with the 'throw it in and it'll be fine' approach and it worked out pretty well. I brought them into uni and they went down a hit!


What classic favourites have you personalised?
Chloe x

What i will never be

This may seem like an extremely negative title but read on and you'll find out it's not.

A few weeks ago I went along to a ceramics painting coffee shop. I had done this before and knew that what I made didn't turn out into a work of art, but I went along anyway cause it sounded like a fun thing to do on a Sunday afternoon.

Needless to say, my suspicion were right and my painting turned out.....awful.

Just look, I cant even paint leaves.......leaves for god sake, children as young as five know how to paint leaves better than I do.

That was when I realised, I will never be an artist. Sob. Not.

Because I know that there are things I am good at.

I'm good at giving things a go.

I'm good at other creative ventures, like sewing, knitting, cross stitching.....well better than I am at painting anyway!

I'm good at thinking creatively. Even though I myself am the worlds worst painter, over the years I know that I have helped people who are good at shit like that come up with ideas.

I'm good at listening.

I'm good at laughing, both with others and at myself, something that I believe is important to be good at.

I'm good at 'going with the flow'. Life has taken some detours in the past but I've become good at embracing them. You can make all the plans you want about your life, but be ready to embrace something when you haven't planned for it to happen.

And lastly, I'm good at looking on the bright side of things.

Sometimes it's important to encounter things you are not so good at to fully appreciate those that you are.

What have you realised you are good at? Is there anything you wish you could be better at?

Chloe X

A round up of what's been happening

Our picnic spot in Greenwich park

And so March draws to a close.

It's been a quick month i think. I've barely had time to think, and unfortunately I haven't been able to do much posting on here. Must try harder.

As March finishes up, uni is starting to as well. I've got two weeks left of lectures than all of April to get the head down and get stuck into revision for end of term (and fingers crossed) last ever exams!!

So what's been happening in March?

Eating: Far too many Friday nights at our local Tandoori. It is literally across the road from us and we love it, but I really think we should make more of an effort to try other places! I've also been trying to work our way through the recipe books we have and have made some winners and some total failures. Winner of this month was The Hairy Dieters Chicken Korma (if you ignore how long it takes to make!)

Drinking: With the warmer weather that has graced a few times in March, the gin has been brought out.....gin and sunshine are a match
made in heaven! I technically shouldn't drink coffee but i just can't resist that delicious smell. This month I've been trying to make homemade mochas. I've made them a few times now and each time they get a little bit better.

Watching: Thanks to the geniuses at Amazon/ Lovefilm there's no more Grey's Anatomy but I have become somewhat addicted to 30 Rock! That creepy drama on ITV at the moment, The Widower is also a good 'un for mid week viewing.

Reading: Yea, March hasn't really been a big month on the reading front. After sitting all day reading lecture notes and journal articles I don't really fancy reading at night. I did finish the book i talked about at the start of the month called 'These is my words' and would recommend it to everyone.

Doing: St' Patrick's day parade, Six nations triumph for Ireland, knitting some bunting for the flat and a baby's hat which was way too small! Adam and I have also gotten the chance to have the first picnic of the year, a BBQ, and the bikes have gotten their spring clean and lots of bike rides!

I'm really looking forward to the end of April. Some much needed time from uni, a trip to see some family, my birthday and a trip home.

How has your March been? Any exciting plans for April?

Knitted cushion cover

The quest continues.

I've been trying to keep going with knitting and learn new techniques and stitches.

If you've looked at my knitting pinterest board you'll have seen there a quite a few knitted cushion covers on there. I couldn't control myself during December.....all i wanted was more cushions everywhere!

I took inspiration from this pin.

Knitting the cover was easy peesy....just knit the whole way. I had a small cushion insert lying around and used it. It's more on the rectangle side of square. For the life of me i can't remember how many stitches i cast on or how many rows a knit...bit of a shame but not a complete disaster....it's finished now so if i ever make another one ill just make it up as i go along as i did on this one.

The only bad bit that happened with this project was the mattress stitching.

I got a lovely knitting book for Christmas and it looks like it has the answer to everything. All the abbreviations and how to stitch them. Unfortunately I'm not so good at reading knitting instructions.

Hello Youtube. What a life saver. I spent ages trying to figure it out by myself but why bother.....there's tonnes of helpful videos out there that take no time to watch and are way easier than trying to mentally work out what written directions are trying to tell you to do.

One side

Then the other

My favourite one i came across was Nancy's video.

In no time at all i had all the side stitched up and the cushion looking semi respectable.

Sadly i did make a mistake (as always) and stitched up one of the sides on the wrong side and then when it came to turning the cover the right way round it looks ridiculous.....but i hide that side from myself now so it's all good.

It's nice to have something easy to knit that then also has a little challenge to it. I'm getting ready to mattress stitch everything now!!

What's your preference, videos or written instructions?

Chloe x

Let's talk about lemons

source

I am in love with lemons.

I have been for quite some time.

They're colour, smell, taste, everything about them makes me smile and be happy.

Years ago in me home economics class we had to make a dish using coagulation....loads of people made mouses, or cremes of some sort, i made a lemon tart. There was no need for a bain marie, the pastry kept everything safe. And so  began my love affair with lemon infused desserts.

Since then I've made several lemony things....some too lemony for my family or friends to eat, I on the other hand loved them.

This week i had a real hankering to make some lemon treats but with it being only myself and Adam knocking about this flat the lemon tart is too much for two people to eat. I've made lemon drizzle cake before, usually in the loaf variety, but it just wasn't ticking my boxes this week.

I had a look around pinterest but all the recipes i liked the look of had American measurements, and while I'm usually up for some conversion, i really wasn't bothered with all that either.

Hello BBC goodfood website. You are a gem. I found this delicious sounding recipe for lemon drizzle cakes, yes that's right...plural!
It was a pretty easy recipe and the results are exactly what i was in the mood for, tangy, refreshing, zesty and sweet all at the same time. Even better is that fact that there's no cutting a slice each time i want one, win win!

P.S. look at this board for some yellow goodness...

I'm off to enjoy some of this spring sunshine, how's you're Thursday coming along?
Chloe X

A round up of what's been happening

Wow February has gone by in a jiffy! Spring is definitely here now, there's daffodils and crocuses sprouting up all over London and I've seen loads of cherry blossoms starting to get their game on too! I love this time of year.

So what's been happening in this corner of the world?

Eating: Generally there's been lots of roasts happening in our flat lately, roast pork, roast lamb, roast chicken.....every Sunday we seem to be doing a roast.
I finally got to take a dander on over to  The Flying Pig in East Dulwich. I had the Mountie which was amazing....but to be honest all their burgers sound delish. I'll be back....

Watching: Sadly Grey's Anatomy has been taken off LoveFilm. I tried my best to smash through the last two series on there (8 and 9) but i only reached the penultimate episode of series 8.....please come back!! I've also been watching the Great British Sewing Bee.....man would i love to be able to sew clothes...some day!

Reading: This month has gone too quickly for me. I started one book, didn't like it and now I'm half way through 'These is my words- The diary of Sarah Agnes Prine'. It's a cool book actually, although i am partial to a bit of diary format so i could be biased

Doing: Definitely the highlight of this month has been the 6 nations match between Ireland and England in Twickenham. I've been a rugby fan since school but I've never been able to get to an international match so being able to go to Twickenham as my first match was pretty amazing, and it was a damn good match too. There's been a heap of ly-ins, brunches and a late trip to the Natural History Museum (we saw a mouse running round looking at the dinosaurs!!). I knitted a wee cushion (more to come on that) and I've just started some bunting....so far they are quite fun to knit.

Anyway.....March is going to go even faster for me I feel, there doesn't seem to be much on the social front but Uni is really making itself known!

How did your February shape up? Are you looking forward to more Springyness in March??
Chloe x

A weekend of relaxation

The monster fish!

Sometimes you just need a break. Not for any real reason. Sometimes it's just nice to self indulge. Adam and I decided we were going to do just that this weekend.

We planned a cinema trip (courtesy of a Christmas voucher), lunch, ly-ins, and just general relaxation.

We pretty much nailed it on the head. We did exactly what we wanted, when we wanted.

We don't do valentines around here, not for any real objection to it but it's just not our thing, I'd rather a bunch of daffodils than a bunch of roses. That said however, i had some observations on Friday so to cheer me up in case they didn't go well (thankfully they did) we planned a steak night! Oh yea.....steak!!!

Saturday was lazy day.....a long ly in, papers and croissants in bed, no rush to get up. My kind of Saturday morning.


Wolf of Wall Street was our film of choice to use up the vouchers. So glad we chose it.

Wolf of wall street was definitely worth the wait. What a film. Despite it's length, i only got a tiny bit restless just at the end (i like to stretch me legs out and that can't happen in the cinema). We left quoting all our favourite lines and thinking just how crazy his life was.

Then the biggest treat of the day was definitely going to a Turkish restaurant in Lewisham. We have walked past Levante Pide a hundred times and repeatedly said we should try it out. We hadn't booked anywhere and couldn't get into where we wanted to go so on our way home we decided to go here as plan B. I'm glad we did. It was delicious. No photos cause we were far too busy munching our our kebabs, but a nice change from the tandoori we usually pick up on a Saturday night.

As good as Saturday was, Sunday was definitely my favourite day of the weekend. A beautiful day with sunshine all day long and that chill in the air that makes your face tingle. We hadn't made any plans but inspired by Annie's post about the barbican I suggested we give it a visit.

A nice and detoured walk from Canon street, with a stop at the Guildhall art Gallery, (there's a Roman Amphitheatre underneath it) we walked along all the high walks till we reached the centre of the Barbican estate. What a cool place. With flats selling at £500,000 for a one bed flat sadly ill never get to live there (a new dream i formed while walking round it) but wow....it's amazing.

The Barbican centre is also cool, and the conservatory is just bizarre. My favourite was definitely the giant fish they have in the pond there.....they are beasts!!

We stopped for some hot chocolate and a giant slice of Victoria Sponge at the Foodhall on the ground floor and watched all the people come and go.

And then it was time to head on home....but wandering around the City in the sunshine was such a relaxing way to spend our Sunday that we were tuckered out by the time we got home!

How was your weekend? Glad to see some sunshine finally making an appearance?

Chloe X

A round up of what's been happening

 January is quickly coming to a close....who could have believed it would go so fast? Only a few more days and then it's spring.....in Ireland it is anyway!

This crazy little difference between Ireland and the rest of the northern hemisphere is something I only realised last year......for some reason we follow a different seasonal calender. The lovely little emerald isle follows the Gaelic calendar which sees the seasons change at different times based on the strength of the sun! So happy Spring everyone!! (Okay I'm a few days ahead of myself but one can only look forward in life!)

In a little bid to get more accustomed to blogging more regularly I thought I would do a little feature at the end of each month to summarise how it's all gone.

So what's been happening?
 
Eating: We've been eaten quite a lot of one pot wonders this month, Goulash, creamy risotto, curries to name but a few.

Drinking: Too much!! There doesn't seem to be such a thing as a post Christmas detox round these parts. Also teapots of tea at a time.

Watching: Grey's anatomy, The Big Bang theory (two new episodes and then it stops...whats that about?), Revenge has also started back.

Reading: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult. It is such a lovely read, cleverly written with the right amount of suspense throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was also a nice break from all the Game of Thrones I had been reading before Christmas.

Doing: We started back our cycling again although we has now been hampered by that dame thing called rain...ugh!! We also ventured out around the Green chain in our new walking boots, you've got to break them in somehow! I'm really looking forward to getting out on longer walks and eventually getting a proper hiking weekend in there somewhere.


I've had a pleasant January, not as depressing as i thought it would be after all the festive fun. February looks like it will be good too. A swanky dinner is planned in the next few weekends which I cannot wait to have!

How has yours been? What are you looking forward to in the coming month?

Chloe x

Knitted wristwarmers

In a bid to try and get my ass in gear and post more often, I give you a long awaited post!! This is a prime example of my unorganisation, as I was meant to post about it in November!! Anyway, better late than never I guess.

I've been trying to keep myself occupied now that the darkness seems to be constant in London. Sadly that has meant watching endless amounts of Grey's Anatomy and Breaking Bad ( I've finished season 2 and STILL haven't found out whats so amazing about it).

With this in mind I've decided to turn couch sitting into a productive occasion.......enter knitting!!
I may have mentioned before that it took me three months to knit a scarf a few years ago (said scarf is in the above picture). Well when I was at home last I managed to find a few balls of the same wool and decided to nab it to make a hat with. Sadly I couldn't find a nice* hat pattern (*that was free) so decided instead to change my plans and knit some gloves. While perusing pinterest I stumbled across some lovely moss stitch wrist warmers. Now bearing in mind that I only just finished a tea cosy as my first solo knitting project, these seemed a bit adventurous for my skill level. Surprisingly no. I took some books out of Lewisham library, one of which was the excellent knit step by step. This book definitely helped me complete my wrist warmers.

Nevertheless there were some mishaps. Firstly the pattern calls for 54 stitches to be cast on and I have no idea why. I made them to these specifications and ended up with warmers that could fit both my wrists together with some leftover. Then came the mind boggling task of trying to work out how many stitches my wrists needed. After several attempts I ended up casting on 38 stitches and this seemed to work well. Despite the overestimate on wrist sizes the wrist warmers were pretty easy to do once I got into the flow of it. Moss stitch is a bit slow to knit, endlessly changing from knit to purl but hey....you end up with a really pretty pattern that makes your project look much more impressive that it is!

Sadly even with my new stitch count the two are not the same size.....but for a first time at moss stitch I'm pretty happy to have one slightly baggier than the other.

I also included a little thumb hole....which I wasn't meant to do but I hate having things that aren't far enough down my wrist so I thought having a hole for my thumb would stop the warmers going up my arm. It was easy to do, just don't sew up the whole side!

Have you ever had a project that just didn't turn out right? Or have you knitted something that you are really proud of?

Chloe x

Pop on over to my Pinterest board to see what other knitting patterns are rocking my boat at the moment.


(I do apologise for the over use of the word wrist.....)

That's not what it's for....

Why hello there!

Today I'm going to show you a little something I did em....let me see.....maybe three months ago!! Yea, I told you I fell behind with my posting on here.

When we moved into our flat originally we slept on a mattress on the floor. The first day here we managed to get a lot of our furniture from the local charity shop, including a bedside mini chest of drawers. So we had a bedside table going on without the bed. The eventually we got the bed. I was the lucky one who got to sleep on the side of the bed that didn't have the chest of drawers so I had to put my light on top of the head board of the bed!

For a long time I would pop into the furniture charity shop in Lewisham and have a quick whizz around to see if they had anything suitable for my side of the bed. Unfortunately because the heater is pretty close to the bed I needed something that was fairly skinny.

After months...actually over a year of looking, I decided to do it myself. Myself and Adam went of to Ikea looking to see what could work. Just as I was about to give up hope I spotted this box and thought it would work perfectly (while looking for a link to it, it looks like it's not there anymore). I bought the cheapest stool Ikea had to offer and hey presto, a bedside table!

Despite the fact that none of the furniture in our bedroom matches I didn't want to keep the box in its original pale wooden colour so decided to stain it. I stained it with a mahogany wood stain. Unfortunately since I was doing it on a not so pleasant day I had to try do it inside.....bad move. DO NOT try to stain wood indoors. I managed to give all parts 2 coats of stain and then we promptly left the flat for the evening to avoid the fumes!!

It'll need a quick going over in the summertime as I'd like it a little bit darker but it does it's job nicely at the moment. I like having more storage in the bedroom too and for once i haven't filled it up completely!

Another little bit I like about it is that it doubles as two items of furniture (essential in a tiny London flat). As I didn't screw the box onto the legs I can still pop the top onto them and turn it back into a stool...yay for extra seating!!

Do you loath having mismatching going on or do you just embrace the oddness of it all? What have you re purposed?

Chloe x
(p.s. did you notice my lovely new cushion on the bed??)