Be A Warrior.....

I love this. It sums up why I do yoga :)

I haven't been able to go to my classes this week as the children and I have had a nasty bug...and then they got another nasty bug.  I really miss it when I can't go.  It's fair to say I can become a little obsessed.  My first big yoga obsession happened when my twins were babies and I used to do Barbara Currie videos whilst they slept and Gaby was at playgroup. I probably should have been cleaning the house but there's no fun in that! I wanted to be bendy! Now I just want to relax and stay healthy.  It works so I keep going when I can. 

Last week, I started a Tai Chi class. I really enjoyed it and will be going back, bugs permitting.  A possible new obsession.....?

Veg Box Pesto ~ Sophie

Last month, Carers UK pointed me in the direction of a competition on a new Carers forum, Carewell. ( http://carewelluk.org/). The prize was a month of organic veg box deliveries from Able & Cole.  To enter you had to share a recipe on the healthy eating message board.  I thought it would be daft not to give it a go, so I shared my Roasted Veg recipe and was lucky enough to be one of the winners. Yay!

We have just received our last box. I am not one for advertising on blogs, but I have been really impressed with the boxes!

Today's box contained the wonderfully green cavelo nero and a great recipe for making 'Magical Green Pesto'.  The recipe is available online at http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/recipes/magical-green-pesto

I've been quite determined not to waste this lovely free veg, and as a result we already have quite a bit of soup in the freezer! This pesto recipe is also freezable, so I thought I'd try it out.  The colour is fantastic...

I now have 3 pots in the freezer, plus enough left for a snack......

it's delicious and very easy to make :)

Knitting More Green Stuff ~ Sophie

This is a bit of a test post on the iPad which suddenly seems to be letting me type posts having not done so in the past.  We have been without a PC for a while, which is why there has been a lack of posts here! A lot has been happening this year, good and not so good.  Bad stuff is that I had to make the sensible decision to hand the allotment back after my wonky hip got worse, but the good news is that this has made me get back to yoga class which I am loving.  We are also having a lot of stressful issues to deal with with our sons so yoga is of huge benefit to me in that respect too.  At the moment it's all about the knitting, yoga and reading so I'm going to link this to Ginny's Yarn Along. http://www.gsheller.com/2012/09/yarn-along-94.html. 

I just finished knitting the 'Hogwarts Express' shawl.  I am really pleased with how this has turned out and as I have never done any cable knitting before, I feel like I've learnt something too.

I've now started on a sleeveless wrap thing. I loved the colours of this yarn when I saw it knitted as a cardigan in our local wool shop, but I'm not so sure now - seems a bit 'old lady' so far.  I will see how it goes.  I'm reading 'Engleby' by Sebastian Faulks.  After a false start with the audio version from the library, I've now got a paper copy and am enjoying it so far.

School projects ~ Gaby

Long time no see! I have had hardly any time to write a post in ages because of a school project I have been doing recently. My topic, dyeing materials. I wrote and tried different techniques with the help of my granny and created a project with instructions and details of what I did. I also included different products I made with the textiles that I dyed. After this we had a celebration evening where we presented our projects to our parents. A couple of weeks after this we had a celebration day at Kilve Court. It was really fun and I can't wait till next year!

Here's some pictures of my project.....

Strawberries and Cream Cake ~ Gaby

Today I have made a really delicious strawberry and cream cake that was simple to make. Here's how I made ours: 

1. Make a plain sponge cake with a 6636 recipe (6oz butter,6oz sugar,3 eggs and 6oz self raising flour). 

2. Whip cream and half strawberries. 

3. When the cake is cooked and cooled, put the strawberries on first, then the cream. 

4. Decorate with strawberries and a dusting of icing sugar.

5. Enjoy your scrummy cake!!!!?

Owls and Vampires ~ Sophie

A little post linking in with  Ginny's Yarn Along today.

  

I have started some knitting now the house is nearly back to 'normal' - I haven't been able to get to my craft drawers very easily and was starting to get withdrawal symptoms!  I am supposed to be using up my yarn stash but we are now six months through the year and this is getting more difficult.  Trying to find patterns that I want to knit in the yarns that I have is becoming increasingly difficult but this is, I think, a good thing.  There is no excuse to hold onto it all any more!  I've made a decision now that a lot of it has to go and obviously this will make room for lots of nice new yarns that I want to knit and crochet stuff with :-) 

The knitting I've started is a scarf/shawl called 'Hogwarts Express'.  Being a bit of a Harry Potter obsessive, I was drawn to the name but also, it has a border of owls which I like and I have a suitable amount of the right weight wool which I bought in a charity shop a couple of years ago - I loved the colour.  

Reading-wise, I finally got around to updating the iPad so I'm able to download audio books again. I will be starting 'Dead Reckoning' by Charlaine Harris,  book 11 of the 'True Blood' series, tonight whilst pottering about doing tea.  I feel like I've been reading this series forever now but I enjoy them and I have a (self-imposed) need to stay ahead of the T.V. show because although I like that, the books are, in my opinion, much better.  I feel the same about Harry Potter!

Good Stuff is Happening Despite the Storms ~ Sophie

I'm linking this post to Ginny's Yarn Along today.

We've been having a pretty awful half-term here weather-wise.  But, as the title suggests, good stuff has been happening too.  I got offered an allotment!  Today, we ventured out into the wind and rain to the library where I picked up the books above.  I also have this book...

...which was a birthday present. I will be pouring over all these and making some plans over the next couple of days.  I don't particularly want the allotment to be really low-maintenance but I know there will be times when I have less opportunity to get over there so I thought it may be worth seeing what was suggested here.

My crocheted coasters have been on the go a while.  Thanks to my lovely mum, we've been having a few kitchen alterations - the other good stuff - so I've been making these for when it's finished.  Which hopefully will not be too long now.