Catching-up

I feel like a lot has happened since I last posted so we'll have a quick catch-up.

As you may know, I graduate from university in July so have been searching for graduate jobs for several months.  I have been to a couple of assessment centres including one adventure to Leeds.  I got a job offer after the interview in Leeds!!!  I have accepted the offer to work in the company's Sheffield office starting in September.  I've never been to Sheffield but I have friends who went to university there and loved the city.

I'm the first out of my uni group to have a job offer which is exciting but I was one of the first to start applying and the company was unusually quick in offering the job - some companies make you wait a month before letting you know whether or not you were successful.

Another fun event was Rob's birthday (which happens to be Valentine's Day).  His mum and brother came to visit and took us out for a meal - it's amusing seeing people's reactions when you say that you and your boyfriend are being taken out by your boyfriend's mum for Valentine's Day.  

I made Rob a card using an idea I saw on Pinterest:

I also used the fact it was Valentine's Day to include some heart-related gifts:

I used an old jam jar and filled it with hearts

The hearts are made using this pattern - I will include full details as part of tomorrow's FO Friday post

I also decided to make shortbread as I didn't have the right ingredients for any other cookies

These are a couple of the projects I'm working on now that I thought I'd keep you up-to-date with

My granny striped bag

I have now sewn the lining to the crocheted granny square so now I'm about to start crocheting the sides to make it more bag-like.  I'll be using this tutorial for how to do the sides of the bag

Converse Baby Booties

A friend is expecting a baby in March so I'm making some little booties for the baby. 

 The booties shown above use this pattern.  They are really quick to make and so cute!

Creative cooking day

Today I just felt in the mood to throw random ingredients together and see how it turned out.  One recipe was an attempt to recreate the 'mini pizzas' my Mum used to make for our  lunch-boxes when we were at school.  It uses shortcrust pastry as the pizza base and then I used pasta sauce for the middle, with bits of chicken sandwich meat and grated cheese.  My Mum always baked them in a cupcake tray so I did the same.

I'm sure I made 12 but they seem to keep disappearing.  I had some left-over pastry dough so I made a little version of a calzone (folded pizza) for The Boy and I to have for lunch.

The other unusual thing I cooked today was cod stir fry.  It sounds horrible - especially because I'm not a big fan of fish - but it was tasty.  I just felt like making something a bit different so went up to the fish counter in the supermarket and got some cod.  Mixed with noodles, stir fry veg and Szechuan sauce it makes a great meal.

Ooft what a pie!

The roast dinner was delicious, the football was ok, and the apple pie was sooo tasty!

All of my friends loved it and one didn't even realise it was home-made - so proud!  I based the decoration on the top of the pie on the one in my Mary Berry recipe book.

A Teeny Tiny Dinosaur (and other crafting)

As I mentioned in my last post, I got two Mochimochi Land books for my birthday. I just couldn't wait to get making something from them (although I was beaten to it by my Mum) so I decided to start with the Tiny Dinosaur. It didn't take long to make but I did get some funny looks when I was using 4 needles to knit at lunchtime.

I made myself a crown to wear on my birthday using this quick and easy pattern:
Cai's Birthday Tiara by Carrie Piper

The final thing I've made is Olive Damper Bread using this Lorraine Pascale recipe I actually don't like olives but The Boy does so I thought I'd treat him. I did try a bit of the bread and it was so tasty - I'll be making some without olives very soon.

We're off to the Liverpool Food Festival this afternoon which should be good.

A Lovely Birthday

I have to admit, being 21 doesn't feel any different from being 20 except that everyone is now telling me I'm all grown up.

I've had a great last few days, starting on Wednesday when I spent the evening baking cakes for work.

Thursday was my birthday and everyone at work was so kind and loved my cakes - they didn't last very long, I took 24 cakes and after less than 10 minutes of them being in the kitchen over half had been eaten.  One of the admin women gave me a hug when she found out I was 21.  It was great getting to see my Bestie too and he gave me a lovely card and present.  In the evening my parents and Eve came over to see me.  They gave me lots of lovely presents: my Mum knitted me a jumper (you can see it here), I got new double pointed needles, and I got 2 Mochimochiland books - can't wait to get making stuff from these books!

On Friday, Eve came over to help me tidy, clean, and bake for the family party the next day.  I couldn't have coped without her help (also thanks to Mum who helped with the cleaning and dealt with the maintenance man).  When The Boy got back from work, he took me and Eve to Nando's for a meal and then we went to a fancy cocktail bar (Las Iguanas) and spent a few hours there with another of our friends from university.

On Saturday, we did some more baking and cleaning (and watched Beauty and the Beast which was another of my presents) then all of my grandparents came over to visit (and see our house).  I don't think I could have managed without help from my parents during the party.  Or after the party really, they helped me with the cleaning and getting the house back to normal.  Below are the cakes left over for me and The Boy from the party and after my parents had taken their share.

By Sunday I was glad we had 2 days left of the weekend so we can sort the house out a bit more - we had some furniture removed on Friday and now have a lot more space so can unpack some of the boxes we left under the stairs out of the way when we moved.

I need to get some more photos from Eve and Mum but I'll hopefully post them soon.

A little bit of everything

I have many exciting things to report so this may become a messy blog post.

Firstly, a couple of weeks ago I went on holiday with my family to a little village called St Dogmaels in west Wales, near Cardigan on the River Teifi.  We had a lovely time, our mornings were spent relaxing and our afternoons spent on picturesque walks in the countryside.  Here are a few photos from the holiday but more can be seen on my Mum's blog post

When I got back from my holiday I was met with a beautiful bunch of flowers from The Boy which made me smile.  He had previously bought me flowers when I had two uni exams on the same day.  

Exam Flowers

Holiday Flowers

I like the colours of the holiday flowers best but both are beautiful and so sweet of The Boy to surprise me with them.

I'm halfway through crocheting a little surprise present for The Boy which is difficult to do when we live together so I can't hide things as easily.  It's mostly done so hopefully I can find a bit more time to finish it off.

I've got a significant birthday coming up in 3 and a half weeks and to celebrate I'll be inviting my family over to our house.  The house is definitely a lot tidier than when I first moved but we have surplus furniture that we need the landlord to take away that is cluttering up the living room at the moment.

This weekend I've been making an extra effort to get organised - I'm carrying a notebook around in my handbag and made a to-do list board based on an idea I found here at heartmadeblog.com.  As soon as I saw this daily prioritiser I had to come up with my own design using robots instead of people.  I also decided to use clips to hold the notes rather than use post-it-notes.

The other thing I did this weekend was a spot of baking.  I've been meaning to make little cupcakes inside teacups with jam in the little glass ramekins I've saved from eating Gu desserts.  They turned out exactly how I had hoped but I had forgotten how difficult it was to mix by hand and after a long time with no exercise this tired me out! 

I'll have to make these again soon but I have already planned what I'm baking next weekend.  Also, The Boy's Mum said next time I bake she is coming over to eat at our house - I'm just glad people like my baking!

Happy Easter!

The Boy and I are off for a roast dinner at a friend's soon so I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Easter  before I go.

I also made a pie to take with us for dessert:

I found the cookie cutters in the cupboard otherwise I would have had to cut out the shapes by hand

Yummy!

Last week we had a Sunday roast at a friend's house and the girls of the house did the cooking so this time The Boy and I cooked the roast and (my speciality) dessert.

The Boy did most of the work on the roast (with help from his friend) and I helped with some peeling.

UPDATE: I got permission to show this picture of The Boy and the friend who cooked with us:

Obviously potatoes are very interesting.

For dessert we decided that I would be baking a pie so I went for an apple and mixed berry pie - Granny Smith apples and a tin of mixed berries.  Since I had my camera, The Boy insisted on taking a photo of me chopping apples:

It was quite funny, when I was checking what I needed to take with me, I was asking Boy and it ended up that I had to take my scales my Mum donated to me and then when I got there and there was no mixing bowl I had to use a pan and a pyrex dish to mix.

I think the above picture looks a bit gruesome but it did taste great - honest!

I do like making pie - they all loved it and it was the most people I've baked for - 5 (I actually managed to cut the pie into 5 pieces and they were surprisingly even).

It makes me wish I had more time for baking!

Weekend Pie

Yup I baked a pie.  Well I love baking and The Boy has wanted to make a pie between us for a while now (he'd make the filling and I'd make the pastry).

It was so tasty!  I managed to kill the top part a bit though as I tried to lift it over the pie so spent a fair amount of time with a glass of water and any spare pastry pieces trying to patch it up again,

I cut out the little heart by hand and it really confused Boy as I didn't let him see it until after it had been baked.

 

It also meant I got to use my cookery book I got for my birthday for only about the second time (last time was scrambled eggs I think).  We'll definitely be making another pie again soon!

Om nom nom Crumble!

I decided to bake an apple and mixed berry crumble the other day and it was DELICIOUS!!!

We actually haven't finished it all off yet.

Here is the recipe I used:
http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/516845

Although I used tinned mixed berries rather than fresh or frozen.

Homemade Pie

We made summer fruit pie yesterday and it is so tasty.
Here it is:

Since we started watching Pushing Daisies a few years ago we have been inspired to make more fruit pies.  It is such a happy program that it makes you want to dress in a cute vintagey way and bake pies all the time.

On the DVD box for the first one it says that this program looks like Tim Burton is the new director of CBeebies which in itself is an amusing image.  If you haven't seen it already I definitely recommend it.