Hello! Hooray! blog
I really believe that it is so important to take time out to be creative, so here on my blog you will find lots of ideas of things to do in your creative time.
We spend so much of our lives focussing on our day jobs that we often miss out on time for making, but finding even small amounts of time to create something with our hands can have a big impact on our productivity and well-being.
Millionaire’s Flapjack
This is a delicious combination which makes normal flapjack just that bit more special. The recipe is from the Gu Chocolate Cookbook (another book that comes highly recommended if you have a sweet tooth – you’ll want to make everything! I’ll definitely make these again but will probably double the flapjack amounts and chocolate –…
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Instagram gallery: October 2013
October was a busy month for me on Instagram – so many pictures to choose from! These are some of my favourites 🙂
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Honey Ricotta Cheesecake
I have a really sweet tooth, but strangely I don’t really crave chocolate or sweets very much. Cake and cheesecake are a different matter though! I decided to make this because I had some leftover ricotta cheese from making spicy chorizo and ricotta stuffed ravioli last weekend, and I wanted to make something new and…
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Amy Butler A-line Skirt
I haven’t made any clothes or done any big sewing projects since making our wedding waistcoats, but I’ve been planning several things and collecting fabrics to make them! I really like A-line skirts as they’re not too tricky to make and are really versatile, so I decided to start with this project first. This was…
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Lined wooden drawers (part 2)
I’ve had a lot of time to craft over the past few days – even more so than usual because Tom has been busy working to finish a deadline for the opera that he’s working on! So I’ve been left to my own devices and as well as trying out some new dishes, I’ve…
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Spiced Apple and Squash Soup
Our lovely friend Sandra gave us a homegrown squash from her allotment last week (there’s nothing like homegrown veg!), and I’ve been looking for something tasty to make with it. I’ve recently discovered the recipe finder on the Waitrose website and decided to see what it suggested – this soup recipe is apparently one of…
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Spicy Chorizo and Ricotta Stuffed Ravioli
If you follow me on Instagram then you’ll already know that I’ve been busy making my own pasta today! It’s one of those things that I’ve wanted to do for ages and we got a pasta machine with some vouchers that we were given for our wedding. So today I used it for the…
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Maple and Pecan Autumn Leaves
I had a really productive crafty day today, and if you’ve seen my previous post then you might have guessed that there was a bit of a leafy theme going on! I found this recipe for these biscuits in the November 2013 issue of Country Living magazine, and bought a set of leaf cutters to…
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Liberty Fabric Autumn Leaves
I love the variety of projects in Mollie Makes, and I particularly love finding out about new blogs and discovering new crafters. This project is from last year but I didn’t get round to making it at the time, and I’ve been planning on making it as an autumn project for this year! These Liberty…
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Beef Stew with Dumplings
If you’re planning meals for the weekend, then this recipe is definitely a winner for Sunday! It’s perfect on a cold Autumn day – proper comfort food. The recipe originally comes from James Martin’s ‘Slow Cooking‘, which is a great book packed with recipes that you can take your time over (you don’t need a…
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Bakewell Cake
It’s always good to have cake in the house when people come to stay, and this weekend our lovely friend (and old flatmate) Katrina came to visit 🙂 So I decided to try out a recipe from Rachel Allen’s ‘Cake‘ and this Bakewell Cake seemed like a good choice. It’s a really easy recipe and…
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Elderberry Liqueur
So it’s that time of year where you start thinking about Christmas presents. More specifically, what can you make for presents this year?! A friend at work brought in some elderberries from his garden, and after a quick google search I found this recipe for some elderberry liqueur. I don’t really drink (except for the…
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DIY Spice Rack
We bought a spice rack several months ago with the intention of finding some little jars and making our own labels for them. As is often the case, we start off with good intentions but then life gets in the way and more important tasks come along! It was also delayed because we found some…
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Holiday Reads
It seems like such a long time ago since the summer holidays doesn’t it?! The heavy rain today reminded me of that, and that I was going to do a short post about my holiday reads. I never seem to get the time to read as much as I’d like to during the year, so…
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Lined wooden drawers
I bought these wooden drawers months ago, and did a little blog post about them at the time with my idea to do them up. This year really has flown by – when I looked for the original post, I was really surprised to find that it was in January! So, it’s October and…
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Guinness Parkin
Parkin is a real taste of Autumn, and I absolutely love it! Last year I made a traditional Yorkshire Parkin, but recently I spotted a less traditional recipe in Edd Kimber’s ‘The Boy Who Bakes‘ and just had to give it a go! I made two (one for a friend, who bought the Guinness –…
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Instagram gallery: September 2013
Here is my Instagram gallery for September! For more photos, visit my Instagram page.
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Super simple creamy basil pesto and spaghetti
I’ve been meaning to get around to making my own pesto for ages, and the basil plant on our kitchen windowsill was looking a bit overgrown so I decided to give it a go. This recipe is from Gino D’Acampo’s book ‘Gino’s Pasta‘, and you could make it without the yoghurt if you don’t want…
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Moroccan lamb tagine with lemon and pomegranate couscous
We bought a gorgeous Le Creuset heart-shaped casserole dish with some vouchers that we were kindly given for our wedding, and I decided to try out a new recipe for its first outing. I found this Rachel Allen recipe on the BBC food website, which is originally meant to serve 12-14 people and would be…
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Tutorial: How to make your own bunting cards
Before our wedding, I had hoped to make these lovely little bunting cards to use as our thank you cards – but by the time we got back we were back at work in a flash and I didn’t have the time. But they would have made excellent thank you cards! In fact, they’re great…
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Dark chocolate and ginger cookies
I absolutely love The Great British Bake Off, and am already hooked on the new series! I’ve just got the books of two previous winners, and this recipe come from John Whaite Bakes (John won the third series). It’s one of those books where you want to make everything in it! I love the photography…
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Embroidered eye mask
On Thursday I had lots of crafting planned (I’d been thinking carefully about it all week!) and was really looking forward to making the most of my part time days. But I woke up with the most horrible migraine and ended up staying in bed for the whole day! 🙁 Needless to say, I didn’t…
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Bacon and leek quiche
This is another of my Mum’s tried and tested recipes and it’s really tasty and easy to make. You can either make the pastry yourself, or use cheat pastry from the shop if you want to make it quickly during the week (which is what I did!). Smoked bacon works really well with this recipe,…
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Rich chocolate almond cake with white chocolate frosting
Last week we had a pre-birthday celebration for our lovely friend Hannah, and everyone brought something along to contribute to the meal. We were set the challenge of making a birthday cake – but what sort of cake do you make for the person who made you the most amazing wedding cake?! So we decided…
Read MoreA little bit about me and my blog
I have certainly found that being creative has helped to improve my mental health over the past few years. I find that when I have the space to take time out to be creative, I feel like I am working on something positive for me. Craft can't fix everything, but it certainly makes me feel good!
I am passionate about being creative with my children as well as working on my own projects, so some of my posts will discuss how we juggle our family time with running a small business and everything else in between.
Do feel free to get in touch, either by commenting on a post or by completing the contact form.
