October Goals Review

This was my least productive month in a while as far as goals go.

The running didn't really take off, but I'm not entirely giving up on that.

I did get those Project Life inserts done - two for our wedding and one for our trip to Denmark.

Those clothes are still sat in a box here, I'm still trying to get around to it.

I did write two letters.  It was nice to get in touch with an old friend that way too.

I completed a little lilac owl for my best friend's baby for Christmas and have lots more in mind for the sewing machine this winter.

It wasn't a complete wash out but I am excited to get going next month.

Recipe: Asparagus Quiche

Ingredients:

• 50g rice flour
• 50g cornflour
• 50g butter
• 4-5tbsp water
• 200g fromage frais
• 2 eggs
• 100g asparagus
• 15g parmesan cheese
• seasoning

Instructions:

1. Place the flour in a bowl and rub in the butter.
2. Add the water, roll into a boll of dough and allow to rest in cling film for thirty minutes.
3.  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease a 20cm tin.
4. Roll out the pastry and use it to line the tin.  Use your fingers to press the patry into place where necessary.
5. In a bowl mix together the fromage frais, eggs, asparagus and seasoning.  Pour into the tin.
6. Sprinkle over the parmesan cheese and cook for 25 minutes or until golden.

We often change up the filling in this recipe, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, the possibilities are endless!

Linky Link Up

Today I thought I would share some of my favourite links from around the web at the moment.  For my all time favourite blogs, you can read the list on the right hand side and see when they were last updated too but here are some more general ones.

Lots of interesting articles lately.

A great language learning resource which I recommend to my classes too.

Giving me house envy.

Always a favourite.

Giving me travel envy.

Another brilliant tutor from the Project Life course I took.

And now you know the countdown to Christmas is on.

Craft Corner: Innocent Hats

A couple of weeks ago my mum put me onto this little project.  Innocent smoothies are doing a special offer over Christmas where you buy a smoothie with a little winter hat on it and they make a donation to charities which help the elderly through winter.  Of course they need people to knit the little hats to go on the smoothies.

I put these two together that weekend and learnt for the first time how to make a pompom!  I was very pleased with myself.  Unfortunately the first one I made was way too big for the little hats so it's just hanging around the flat until I find a use for it but I was pleased with these too.

 

Their website has a whole host of different designs, most of which were well out of my reach but I did these two in the beginners level 'doddle' pattern and had them done in no time as well.

It's a little late to send them in now as the deadline is 31st October, but I am sure they will repeat the project next year, plus I then discovered that they are running the same project here in Germany with a 1st December deadline!  So I may even manage a couple more by then!

The Saturday Update

Some of you may have noticed delays in the posts this week.  To be honest, I have had plenty of time on my hands, only working Monday and Tuesday, but I have been feeling very under the weather and it's kept me from my endless to do lists.

The weekend was still quite productive, I got some sewing and knitting projects done as well as some baking.  

It was good to be back at work this week and catch up with colleagues.  I had a really calm couple of days at work, especially as year ten are out on work experience.

However, it went down hill from there this week and I have been less than productive for the last three days.  I'm not one for using the blog as a space to complain, so with the lack of anything else to report, I am going to leave it there this week.

Next week will hopefully be a full week at work and I will hopefully profit from the extra hour in bed tonight!  Don't forget to put your clocks back!

Project Life - Week 29

So Much Journalling this week...

After a crazy photo only week in Denmark, we pretty much forgot we had cameras this week which was nice and relaxing until it came to trying to put this week's spread together.  I managed to fill it out with journaling and keep the colour theme together but I will definitely be snapping away this weekend.

Monk

Today saw the end of an era when we finally finished the final season of Monk.  We have been following this series since our early days together so it does feel a little strange.  There are so many funny moments and here's just one of them.

Recipe: Gingerbread Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 275g gluten-free flour (I use 50/50 corn and rice flour)
•  1.5 tsp pure ginger
• Baking powder
• 125g butter
• 125g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup

Instructions:

1. Preheat the over to 170.
2. Sieve the flour, ginger and baking powder into a large bowl and rub in the butter.
3. Stir in the sugar and then the syrup.  Add water if the dough is too dry.
4. Roll out the dough between two sheets of greaseproof paper and cut the biscuits to your shape of choice.
5. Place carefully on a try and bake for ten minutes.

Denmark! (Part 3)

The Royal Palace

 Sunday was by far our worst day in terms of weather but we didn't let that stop us getting out and about.  We headed along the harbour to the royal palace and to visit the big one - The Little Mermaid!

Statue in front of the royal palace

Photo Bombed!

The church viewed from the Royal Palace courtyard

The changing of the guard

Nature in the harbour

With the Little Mermaid!

The dummy tree

 Walking through the park we found this strange little tree literally covered with babies dummies.  We think that there must be a nice story behind it - something to do with the children giving them away as they grow older.

A modern take on the traditional statues in Copenhagen

On the long climb up

 Our last day was also our travel day so we didn't have as much time but we did manage to squeeze in a visit to the church tower for an amazing view over the city.  We had waited, hoping that the weather might improve and we were rewarded with blue skies after our climb and a great view of everywhere we had walked over the weekend!

The church bells

View of the centre from the top

View of the harbour

The golden staircase

The last part of the climb was outside around the tower.  Daunting but spectacular views.

We made it!

At the top!

On the viewing platform

On the viewing platform

P.S. Read about Part 1 and Part 2 of our trip.

Craft Corner: Rustic Owl

When my best friend saw this owl I made earlier in the year, she immediately asked me to make one for her baby daughter.  On Sunday, I finally got cracking and made a lovely little lilac one for her.  I'm really pleased with the result again and I'm thinking of making some more for a new project.

Here's how it's done:

Pinning the pattern to the material, cut the pieces out

Here are all the cut pieces

After sewing the smaller pieces on, I pinned the two main pieces together and sewed them together with the machine.

That completed the case of the owl

I love the back detail too

Cute little heart detail

The finished product

You can buy the pattern here and I buy my material here.

Denmark! (Part 2)

The church tower we climbed on the last day

 When looking through the photos from this day for this post, I feel like we must have walked much further than we did.  There was so much to see and experience in Copenhagen.

Lille Molle - little windmill

Christiania - hippy commune

Fountain in the town centre

Approaching the round tower

Rooftop Statue

In the crowd

The round tower

This tower was originally a church, student library and astrological observatory.  I'm convinced it's the one from the Steve Berry novel due to the winding path upwards, rather than steps like most towers.  It was a really interesting visit and as you can see below, the views were impressive.

The round tower and church

Dad on the way up

Nico on the way up

View from the top

Another view from the top

With Dad at the top

With Nico at the top

In the park

Halloween witch hunt at the palace

Palace and royal treasury

Palace

Typical street view - love the colours

Echo

Denmark has a monarchy too

Another interesting statue

Pete's ginger cousin hunting birds in the park

Walking around the lake

Swan lake

Ghostly bike in the lake

Mural

 We saw some crazy sights on our way back to the apartment on this day.  Here are a few...

Chicken feet in the street

!!

!!!

 Check out Part One of our trip too.

Taking a well earned break on the pier in the park