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.
Our amazing wedding cake
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1412325534690{padding-bottom: 30px !important;}”]Our gorgeous friend Hannah very kindly made our wedding cake, and it was wonderful! It was actually the first wedding cake that she has ever made – can you believe that?! The detail in the flowers was incredible, and many people thought that lots of the flowers were real! I used our…
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Butternut squash soup
Butternut squash isn’t something that I’ve cooked with a lot before, but recently I’ve realised how delicious it is and I seem to keep choosing it! Here’s a delicious recipe by Nigel Slater, which I saw on TV last week on his programme Nigel Slater’s Dish of the Day. It was first broadcast on 23rd…
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Petra Segreta Resort and Spa, Sardinia
We went to Sardinia on honeymoon and stayed at the incredible Petra Segreta Resort & Spa. It was definitely a ‘once in a lifetime’ holiday for us and it was pure luxury. The food was the best we have ever eaten, the location was perfect and it was absolutely wonderful. If you’re looking for relaxation…
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Instagram gallery: August 2013
I’ve really been getting into Instagram recently, and thought it would be good to have a monthly gallery round-up of some of my favourite photos. So hopefully this will be the first of many Instagram gallery posts! If you’re on Instagram, let me know what your username is by commenting below and I’ll check out…
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Pear, almond and amaretto tart with stem ginger mascarpone cream
Almond has to be one of my favourite flavours, and as I’ve got a super sweet tooth I’m always tempted by almond puddings! This one is so easy to make and is really tasty, and is taken from Lorraine Pascale’s ‘Fast, Fresh and Easy Food’. We had this for pudding after our Butternut and sweet…
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Butternut and sweet potato lasagne with sage, toasted pine nuts and nutmeg
I love getting new cookery books, and the latest addition to my collection is Lorraine Pascale’s ‘Fast, Fresh and Easy Food’. I saw her TV show when we got back from honeymoon and really liked the recipes, and when I flicked through the book in the shop this recipe caught my eye. I couldn’t wait…
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Make your own floral buttonholes
Making buttonholes is surprisingly easy – but it is a good idea to have at least one practice before the big day! I wanted to include a gerbera in them because they’re my favourite flower, but couldn’t find a tutorial that used one. So I ended up doing what I usually do – I made…
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Chocolate box wedding favours
We had the most amazing chocolates at our wedding, which were from The Chocolate Spa in Alnwick, Northumberland. After deciding that we didn’t want to have individual wedding favours, we settled on having a box of handmade chocolates on each table. One of my ex-students once bought me a box from The Chocolate Spa and…
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Grays Court York
We held our wedding reception at the gorgeous Grays Court in York, and we were blessed with lovely weather all day! Part of the house dates back to 1080 and it is possibly the oldest continuously occupied house in the United Kingdom. Grays Court is just behind York Minster, and the walled garden can be…
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A very special project
This year I’ve been working on a very special project for our wedding. Tom’s Dad, Keith, is a methodist minister and he took our marriage service, which was wonderful! As lots of you know, I made waistcoats for the dads and groomsmen, but wanted to make something extra special for Keith – so I decided…
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Our wedding day!
I’ve been so excited to tell you about our wedding day and have finally got the time to sit down (with a cuppa, obviously!) to write a post about it! As many of you already know, we spent lots of time planning and making various things for the day – there have already been several…
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Newcastle’s Central Arcade
In issue 8 of The Simple Things magazine, there was a wonderful feature about shopping arcades around the UK. I was fascinated by the stories behind them, and it inspired me to go out and take some photos of my local arcade – Central Arcade in Newcastle. If you’re a visitor to Newcastle it’s definitely…
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The Hummingbird Bakery Traditional Brownie
This week I have my last class with my English students, and as a special treat I’ve decided to make them some cake. I couldn’t decide what to make, and ended up with two choices – the first is chocolate brownies (I know, not really cake, but they will be easy for me to carry…
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Making Softpots
This weekend I went to York to spend some time with Mum and Dad before our wedding, which is now less than 2 weeks away! Mum wanted us to do something crafty and booked us into a workshop at Softpots on Stonegate. Softpots is run by the lovely Annie Austen-Meek, who invented the concept over…
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Lemon Sorbet
For the past week or so it has been hot and sunny here, which doesn’t normally happen in Newcastle, so it’s best to make the most of it! So I decided to make some of this lovely lemon sorbet from a bargain cook book that I found in a charity shop – Good Housekeeping’s Healthy…
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Wedding Waistcoats – complete!
After months of planning and making, today I finally finished the waistcoats for our wedding! To be honest, there were many times when I didn’t think I’d get them done, and an equal number of times when I wondered why on earth I had decided to start in the first place…but today I’m so…
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Courgette Filo Pie
So the first thing you’ll probably think is ‘that isn’t filo pastry in the picture!’ – and if you’ve seen my last post then you’ll know that it isn’t! I came across this recipe for Courgette Filo Pie in the July issue of Country Living magazine, when looking for a recipe that included olives. This…
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Wedding waistcoats – almost finished!
Our wedding preparations are in full swing – only just over a month to go (which explains why I haven’t been able to blog as much recently!). I had set myself a deadline for finishing the six waistcoats by the end of June, which hasn’t quite happened but I suppose it is only the beginning…
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Tuna and Courgette Quiche
My Mum used to make this tuna and courgette quiche when I was younger, and now we both make it! 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! It makes a great summer meal or…
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Simple Spaghetti Bolognese
I was surprised to discover that I have not blogged about what is one of our staple meals – this yummy spaghetti bolognese. It probably isn’t the most authentic recipe but we love it! It doesn’t include carrots or celery (I really don’t like celery) so kids seem to like it a lot! Great for…
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First attempt at buttonholes
Tonight I started work on something that I’ve been worrying about – buttonholes! I put together a piece of practice ‘waistcoat’ with some scraps that were left over. I started sewing them by hand, but this proved more difficult than I imagined! I thought I’d be able to control it much more easily than on…
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Right on track
I’ve been doing some more sewing for our wedding today, and am pleased that I’ve finished waistcoat number four out of six (minus the buttons and buttonholes…still not been brave enough to start those yet!). I’ve set myself a target for the end of June to have them all done, so I’m right on track…
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If at first you don’t succeed…
Today was one of those days where I spent more time undoing mistakes than anything else! I’ve been working on Tom’s waistcoat for our wedding and eventually managed to get it put together after forgetting to leave an opening to turn it inside out and forgetting to sew the neck together (only realising having turned…
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.
