One Year Old

I realised today that my blog is nearly a year old.  I made my first post on the 8th of February last year, and much to my surprise, I've managed another 24 posts since then. 

Seeing as I'll probably forget to make a commemorative post on the actual day, I'm doing it now just in case.  Here is a round-up of the memorable parts of my year, things blogged and not-blogged:

1.  I went to Egypt:

This was a mixture of experiences.  The first time I'd been on a river cruise, the first holiday with my mum for 11 years, I got a horrible cold on the last few days, I got to go inside a pyramid......so yeah, definitely an interesting time for me.

2. I went to watch the wrestling at the O2. 

I'd never been before and I nearly had no voice left the day after from shouting so much.  It was hilarious and brilliant.



3. I saw the moment an unknown player trounced Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon (I'm in the background somewhere, I'm not telling you where though ;-)):

4. I started an Etsy shop - still to make my first sale but at least I'm on there.


5. I found out I have an underactive thyroid that's slowly getting bigger.  Literally, a lump in my throat :-(


6. I went to Rome:

I love this city.  I'd never been before and it was completely brilliant.  I had to be pretty much dragged out of the Colosseum and I've never eaten so much ice cream in such a short time.


7. I went to an Olympic event, which I blogged about here.


8. I found Pinterest and promptly spent way too much time on it, as you can see from my boards.


9. I went to Greece:

Very beautiful island but unfortunately it rained for the first part of the week.  When I say rain, I mean sky-exploding, end-of-the-world lightening storms with torrential rain and flooding.  Fun.  Luckily, it brightened up for the last few days.


10. And of course, I made some jewellery:




Teapot necklace

 

Garnet bracelet









Amethyst necklace

 

Lapis lazuli and haematite earrings




I have no idea what the next year will bring but I'll keep gardening, making jewellery, trying out recipes and sharing my thoughts on here.  Hope you'll keep reading. 

Resolution for 2013

Every year I make a New Year's Resolution.  Some are successful, some fail miserably.  My last one was to take better care of myself.  I spent most of December feeling stressed, tired and ill, so I'm putting that down as a miserable failure.  This year, I am resolving to be more patient.

                           



I don't know if I've always had a lack of patience, or if it developed after I moved to London.  Everyone is in a hurry here; if you're moving slowly, you're a tourist.  Walking into/through people is common, if they're in your way and don't move after an 'excuse me', then they're fair game (some people don't even bother to say excuse me).  This happens especially at tube barriers when people stop after going through, even though it's a busy station and there are others behind them (why do people do this, why?).  So, possibly as a result of living in London, or possibly just as a result of being me, I have a limited amount of patience. 

I'm aware that it's not a good thing, not just for those I'm close to but also for myself.  Being impatient helps to make me irritable, which in turn makes me grumpy and/or argumentative.  I'd like to have more patience as I think this might help me to be generally a calmer person.  I'm not sure how much it would help but it's definitely worth a try.  When I find myself getting impatient, I'm going to count to ten and tell myself that it won't do any good.  If that doesn't work, I'll come up with another strategy (suggestions appreciated), and hopefully 2013 will be the year I become a more patient person. 

Autumn colours

I really loving the colours around at the moment.  Golds, browns and reds are everywhere in nature.  The park on my road is looking stunning with the trees all changing colour.

 

 

 

Fashion seems to be echoing the natural world.  There are some great outfit ideas on Pinterest, like:

 

          

Make up and jewellery are following these tones, with some glitter thrown in .  Jewellery especially has gone gold and chunky and items around at the moment really make a statement.  I love this stunning moonstone and diamond necklace by Max&Chloe but at $1,584 it's a little out of my price range.

I also like this cuff by Nissa Jewelry at $148.

 



For some cheaper options, how about this necklace from Accessorize:

This bracelet from Dorothy Perkins:

 

Or these earrings from Topshop:

 



Inspired by the colours and trends around at the moment, I'm making a multi-strand garnet bracelet with gold-plated chain.  As I've probably mentioned before, I love garnet.  It's a really beautiful, rich red stone and easily one of my favourites to wear.  It works really well with gold, as they are both really warming colours.  It'll be up on Etsy as soon as I've finished (unless I decide to keep it for myself!).

Pumpkin Trifle

Recently, I've been super-obsessed with all things Halloween.  We never really celebrated Halloween in the UK very much while I was growing up.  Possibly because it was too close to Bonfire night, which has always been a more important festival, with fireworks, sparklers and bonfires.  I love Halloween though, so I'm really glad that it's becoming more popular now as it gives me an excuse to have a silly party, dress up, and make lots of pumpkin-based food.  The party isn't for another 10 days, but I've been planning for ages, and practising the desserts I want to make.  Today, I attempted a pumpkin, white chocolate and ginger trifle.

 

 

I'd found a few recipes with layered pumpkin/cream cheese mixtures, which looked good.  I took the basics from one of these,  but I wanted to keep as close as possible to a proper trifle basis of sponge, whipped cream and custard, so I decided to match it up with some white chocolate custard, ginger cake and ginger biscuits, with whipped cream on top filled with white chocolate chips and biscuit crumbs.  

 

Due to the lack of cans of pumpkin puree or pumpkin pie filling, I bought a small-medium sized pumpkin and skooped out as much of the flesh as I could.  I then boiled it, strained it a lot and pureed it.  This is time-consuming, but if you're having a Halloween party, you're going to need pumpkins for carving anyway. 

 

The recipe is below, but first a couple of tips about the white chocolate custard: 1) stir like crazy or you'll end up with scrambled eggs; 2) don't taste it, or it'll never make it to the trifle and you'll discover you've eaten a whole bowl of custard.

Pumpkin mixture: (double this if you want to make it more pumpkiny)

1 cup of pumpkin puree
half an ounce of melted butter
8oz cream cheese
half a cup of caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
half tsp nutmeg
half tsp mixed spice

Other Ingredients:

White chocolate custard
Ginger biscuits of your choice
Ginger cake (I used McVittie's Jamaican ginger cake)
Whipping cream
White chocolate chips


Method:

1. Make the custard.  Slice the cake into even slices and use it to line the bottom of a large bowl. Pour over the custard. 
2. Arrange the biscuits (either whole or crushed) on top of the custard to form another layer.  Leave to cool.
3. Melt the butter and stir in all the pumpkin mixture ingredients.  Pour over the top of the trifle.
4. Top off with whipped cream sprinkled with chocolate chips and crushed biscuits.

Trials and Tribulations of Eyeliner

So, last year, I found a great eyeliner.  I work 10 hour days, and inevitably, my eyeliner would have mostly disappeared by 8 hours in, and I'd end the day looking pale and washed out.  I'd tried so many different ones, from cheap to top of the range, and nothing made a difference. 

 

 

 

Last December, I found a mineral eyeliner from Art Deco at a beauty show.  The lady at the counter promised that it was long lasting, and would stay on for 10 hours, so I gave it a try.  I'd never tried any mineral make up before, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I was really please with this eyeliner, it pretty much did what the lady had said and stayed on for the whole 10 hours.  It faded slightly and wasn't as defined as when it was fresh, but other than that it was great.  Also, it lasted ages.  I started using it last December and it only ran out 3 weeks ago. 

 

Of course, having finally found a product that worked for me, I immediately went to buy a replacement.  It was really hard to track down online.  Art Deco themselves didn't have any in stock.  Most companies that advertised it were in Germany or Holland and don't deliver to the UK.  I eventually found a company that sold it, and they had an outlet near where I work.  I went along, and they were out of stock.

 

*sigh*

 

I was told there would be a delivery in a few days, so a few days later I went back.  Nothing.  I went back again a few days after that.  More nothing.

 

I gave up and bought it on their website.

 

Then I got an e-mail.  Art Deco had discontinued it and there weren't any available.

 

Argh!

 

So, back to square one.  At least now I knew that mineral eyeliners were the way to go, as they really are much longer lasting.  Bare Minerals seems to have made quite a reputation for itself, so I headed to a nearby department store and bought the only black eyeliner they produce, keeping my fingers crossed.

 

I tried it for the first time today.  I put it on 12 hours ago.  It's still there.  It's brilliant.  A really great black hue, it goes on super-easily, it's really soft to put on and it stays in place amazingly.  A tiny bit has rubbed off in the corner of one eye, but that's all.  I am, in fact, slightly worried I'm not going to be able to take it off later.

 

So, I love it.  I'm glad Art Deco's one isn't available now, or I wouldn't have found this one.  If you're looking for a decent mineral eyeliner, I heartily recommend trying Bare Minerals.

Things I've been doing

I've been a bit rubbish at posting, mainly due to work but also due to feeling rubbish because of a growing wisdom tooth.  Seriously, why are they called wisdom teeth?  They should be re-named painful, unnecessary, stupid teeth. 

 

1. Anyway......I have been making jewellery, even if I haven't been blogging about it.  I made a necklace for my friend's birthday, which I totally forgot to take a photo of.  Clever, eh?  I also made three of these for some people who blog about tea.

Tiny teapots!  So cute.  I made one with an amethyst bead, one with garnet and one with rose quartz.  I'm not sure if I'm going to make any to sell, or just leave them as a one-off for the bloggers.

 

I also made these malachite earrings, which I've put on Etsy, and a couple of necklaces which will be going on there if I ever take a decent photo of them.

2. I've been baking.  We took advantage of some nice weather a few days ago and went fruit picking, so I made a damson and blackberry crumble and some lovely blackberry muffins.  I couldn't find a recipe I liked, so I took one for blueberry muffins from a recipe book I have and altered it a bit.  I've put it below, as I want to make it again and I'm bound to forget what I did.

Recipe

6oz fresh blackberries
10oz plain flour
4oz soft light brown sugar
1tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
half a tsp mixed spice
2 medium eggs
9fl oz milk
6tbsp sunflower oil
1tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas mark 6.  Grease a 12 cup muffin tin or line with muffin cases.  Sift the dry ingredients together and add the blackberries.  Beat the eggs in a jug and add the milk, vanilla extract and oil.  Add to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined (don't overmix).  Bake in the oven for approx. 20 mins.

 

 

So, what with working between 45 and 50 hours a week, baking, making jewellery, growing a wisdom tooth and occasionally seeing friends and sleeping, I haven't had much time for blogging.  I'm going to make an effort to do better in future.  Honest.

The obligatory Olympics post

So, I'm in London, the Olympics are on, and like many Londoners, I've unexpectedly gone a bit mental. 

For months we've been told about the chaos that will be inflicted on Londoners trying to go about their daily lives - the unprecedented amount of tourists, the endless travel delays, the extra two hours that will be added to my daily commute.  We've all been urged to visit the 'Get ahead of the Games' website to make sure we have alternative routes planned to work.  That's if we're going to work.  If we can, we've been told to work from home, or better still, take a 2 week holiday and get out of London until normality has been restored.

And......it hasn't happened.  There is no chaos.  Maybe in East London, there are unprecedented amounts of tourists, but Central London and the West End are so quiet you can almost see the tumbleweed.  I haven't had any delays on my daily commute, or noticed tube trains being any busier.  So instead of being royally pissed off by this whole Olympics thing, I've actually become a little bit obsessed.

Tonight, I watched some Handball.  I have no idea what the rules are, or what's going on, but it's in the Olympics, so I watched it.  I've also watched bits of the Tennis, Swimming, Gymnastics, Equestrian, Rowing and Cycling tournaments.  These have all been from the comfort of my sofa, apart from the Tennis.  I love tennis, and after several attempts, managed to get tickets for the second round.  I go to Wimbledon regularly every year, so the chance to go to two different tournaments there in the space of a few weeks, one of which is the Olympics - well, there was no way I was staying at home.

Olympic tennis logo complete with Portuguese umpire

Federer on Centre Court

Olympic net

The Royal box gets branded

There were so many good things - great players on outside courts for anyone to see, Wimbledon branded with Olympics logos yet still retaining it's essential Wimbledon-ness (that's a word now).  There were some bad things though - lots of little kids who were so uninterested but had been dragged along by their parents for a family day out, lots of people who were just there to be at an Olympic event and had no interest in tennis - cue phones going off during matches, people talking and shouting out stopping players from serving, and what I found the most disrespectful thing, people leaving once they'd seen the person they'd heard of.  The latter led to Centre Court being mostly full for Federer, and mostly empty for Del Potro immediately after.  It annoys me that true fans missed out on those tickets and players missed out on their support. 

Having said that, I'm really glad that a lot of lesser known sports are attracting attention.  Over 70,000 people went to the women's football match last night - that's completely unheard of in this country.  Maybe 500 people at most would go to see a popular women's match.  The BBC are showing everything they possibly can on TV and online.  And now that we've won some gold medals, the newspapers are going to be plastered with the faces of Bradley Wiggins, Heather Stanning and Helen Glover.  I'm hoping these 2 weeks will do exactly what the British Olympic organisers have set out to do: