Advertisement
faithful Gracey
art, family life, design, inspiration
PINK BEET SOUP
One of my favourite soups is BEETROOT SOUP. Its ever so easy to make:
4 large organic beets washed with skins left on
1 large organic brown onion with skin left on
garlic oil
2 cups organic chicken/vegetable stock
half an organic orange
sour cream
salt and pepper
place the beets and onions in a foil pocket, drizzle with garlic oil. place in a low oven. allow to cook for about an hour or until soft. Once fairly cooled, peal the beetroots and onion and blend until smooth adding chicken stock until it reaches the consistency of your liking. Squeeze in the orange and season with salt and pepper with a huge dollop of sour cream on top. My little one loves this soup, she calls it Pink soup
OUR DINING STORAGE
Tagged dinning room, home decor, organising, sideboards, vintage, White
HOME DECOR
The round wooden jars were bought on our honeymoon. The glass candle holder -a thank you present. The beautiful hand embroidered cloth, belonged to my Grandmother. The ceramic heart, a gift from my sister to celebrate my first mothers day. The bust was found at a favourite car boot sale in England. Our home is filled with pieces that have some kind of significance or memory attached to them. For me its important to surround yourself with things that make you smile or laugh- either by the memory of attaining it or because it was someone special that gave it to you. I am a bit of a collector of things, which drives Mr B a slightly bonkers. ‘Someone’ once told me that my home resembled a well organised gift shop, this was way back when we lived in a tiny London flat. I’m not sure if that was a compliment? anyhow, I’m still learning the art of ‘less is more’ and i plan to perfect it. failing that i will have to open a gif shop…..
CHALK BOARD FUN
We had some broken picture frames lying around, where the glass had actually broken. Mr B painted them with chalk board paint. Our little munchkin loves to sit outside with us and scribble works of chalk art. The great thing is we can move them around to different areas of our backyard depending on where the sunshine is.
KIDDOS CRAFT ACTIVITY
Yet another rainy day… what to do with an almost a 3 year old who cant go and play outside? arts and craft of course. I have been collecting colourful pieces of card and paper from all sorts of random packaging, in the hope that i could use it for a craft project with the little one. So, using my large 2′ circle punches (that i just recently purchased from www.overstock.com for a very good price)
I cut out some shapes from my scraps and old magazines, added a few alphabet stickers and some sparkly bits that came in a wedding invite long ago. To make it interesting for the little one, i separated them into categories and placed them in colourful silicone baking cups. The idea was to create a colourful collage of shapes. She loved it, and spent a good 20 minutes on the project until there was pretty much nothing left in the little cups. A fair amount did find its way onto the floor. I think its really helpful to hold onto pieces of card and paper from empty food boxes or old cards so long as it has interesting colours and patterns. It saves having to go out and buy expensive coloured card and paper. Now just incase any of you are wondering, i don’t hoard all my rubbish in a secret room in the house with a sea of cereal boxes and junk mail pamphlets, with the hope that each one may find a happy and creative place in a child’s craft activity.
Its crazy to think how much work and thought go’s into creating the designs on packaging, and the materials needed to print and manufacture the final product…only to land up in some big landfill. Wouldn’t it be amazing to see a sculpture of some sort made out of all the stuff we bin every day. my mind is already ticking, maybe a project i can tackle one day…
Related articles
- Stocking up the kid’s craft cupboard (moonmum.typepad.com) – I love this idea of creating an area where the little ones have free access to creative bits and bobs, something to think about when my treasure is older- right now she will use up everything in one go.
Kitchen inspiration
Images found at housetohome.co.uk
I just love the feel of these kitchens the bespoke recycled glass countertops are such a clever idea. I also love the rustic wooden table in the first image.
BIRDS ARE A NESTING… IN MY HAIR!
I was given the wonderful opportunity to treat myself to a long shower compliments of my thoughtful husband who got home early from work . I was so looking forward to it, if you are a mother of small children you know what I’m talking about when I say: that moment in the shower each day is true gold- all external sounds of family activities are drowned out and its the only part of the day where I feel that I am truly on my own, even if it’s a 5 minute rushed shower, its complete bliss. Feeling very zen and ready to face the challenging ‘witching hour’ of the day- I calmly ran my brush through my just washed mane, only to find that there at the back of my head was a gigantic knot, the size of a birds nest! how had this happened? had I neglected my appearance and daily grooming to the point where birds could quite comfortably move into the mass of tangled strands I once called hair! look, I know having a new baby and chasing after a toddler all day can limit the amount of time spent in front of the mirror, but this was just ridiculous. the worst part of it all was that my dear hubby had spared me the humiliation and had turned a blind eye to the dark circles under my eyes, post pregnant pot belly, regrowth from hell and the new real estate sticking out from the back of my head.
Happy Lady Happy Dog
I painted this jolly lass with her dog one day when i was missing having a dog in the home. I grew up with sausage dogs (dachshunds) and its been over 10 years since i last heard the scurrying of little paws across the kitchen floor. I remember how obsessed i was with our dogs, my sister and i used to dress them up in dolls clothes. The dogs were quite literally tormented by two little girls who tugged at their ears trying to wrap ‘scrunchies’ around them. Actually, they were very patient dogs, or just to fat and lazy to move or resist. My mother had them on a diet of pet mince mixed with gourmet left overs, their food was so ‘a la carte’ that my dad served us dog food by mistake one day for lunch…no! we did not eat it, even after my dad had finished half his plate to try and prove to us that it was quite alright.
Oh how i miss them. one day when our girls are bigger, we might just have to get a dog….or two. have to convince my husband first.
I look at my 2 and a half-year old, and how quickly she is growing. Now looking at my new baby’s little feet, I realise I must cherish every little moment with both my girls. even when some days I feel totally overwhelmed and swamped by household chores, I deliberately have to pause for a moment and drop the wash basket that’s pulling a muscle in my back, sit down and just watch my girls. just to stare at them and be grateful for the amazing blessing my husband and I have been given.
Its raining again, and our little poppet is still feeling sick. So instead of trying to chear her up with some Dora the Explorer( totally obsessed at the moment)
We recycle most of our rubbish, but sometimes I collect egg cartons, cute and interesting plastic/glass containers for various arts and crafts. Here we have used lentils and a few bits and bobs to create a game of hiding and finding the toy animals.
This activity lasts a good 20 minutes before our poppet gets bored and needs a different source of stimulation…hello Dora!
Snappy Pleasant Pea Soup
This is a super quick recipe I use when I need to get lunch on the table in a dash. Today my oldest was up at 3am, a sick little puppy. When my day starts off like this, I just know that things will not be running according to schedule, and lunch needs to be a no brainer, and no strainer. That’s why a quick lunch like this is just perfect when I know my hands will be full nursing a sick child the entire day.
ALL YOU NEED:
- 1 pack of frozen organic peas
- 3 spring onions chopped tip: scissors works a treat for this chopping job
- about 2 cups chicken stock
- left over lettuce if you have (not essential)
- chopped free range ham
note: i use mostly organic ingredients, unless otherwise stated- unless you are an organic adict hippie like me, using non organic produces a similar result.
ALL YOU NEED TO DO:
Fry up the spring onions on a gentle heat in some olive oil for about 2 min, add the chicken stock, peas and lettuce. Bring to the boil. Add the ham. Turn down the heat and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
When you are ready for lunch, just transfer the peas with a slotted spoon to an electric blender( or use a hand-held blender) and gradually add soup ladles full of the liquid stock in-between each pulse of the blender until it reaches a consistency of your liking- we prefer a gorgeous green puree looking substance that smells just too scrumy-licious for words. I put a dollop of sour cream in the middle, and make a silly pattern so that the husband and little one feel ‘the love’!
A quick and easy treat
My mother in-law gave us some left over apple pie from a dinner party she hosted the night before. I decided it needed something extra special just to make this naughty treat even naughtier. Our oldest princess is in bed, littleone is fussing for a bath and feed and well this is really all we have to look forward to 8:30pm- oh how life has changed! so while hubby is trying to entertain baby for a few minutes, i escape to the kitchen to whip up our very second hand dessert. The vanilla paste once added to the double cream leaves gorgeous little specs that make it taste and look so ‘vanillary’.
baby fed, mommy and daddy fed- household content….
faithful Gracey 