Saturday 21 December 2013

Early Starts


My favourite croissants in the whole world from the Flying Coffee Bean

I am super enjoying my new job and I am up for all things new and learning as much as I can and days out of the office interviewing are a brill way to learn. 

On Wednesday I got to go to our London office, however this meant a 6am alarm and a train at 8.

It was still dark as I ventured out of he house at just gone 7 with a crisp, wintery feeling to the air. But there were some things along my early morning way that just made me smile...







Christmas Wishes

Gorgeous Christmas card from Sara Reeve

I love it when, at this time of year, you receive warm wishes from those you maybe don't see as often as you would like, or those that have meant something to you this last year.

My favourite card this year is pictured above and was lovingly sent from our gorgeous wedding photographer, Sara Reeve.  It was such a sweet reminder of how important this year has been for us and the image sums up all the cute, happy, warm feelings you get when spending your first year together as a married couple.

Sending my Christmas wishes to you all x

Friday 20 December 2013

Pie-fect

Steak and Mushroom Loaf Pie

I love it when it gets to this time of year and there is nothing nicer to warm you up than a tasty pie. I love a good pie! Olive the versatility of the pie. Big pies, small pies, sweet and savoury.  I even have experimented with round and rectangle! Not to mention all of the different pastry options.

I stixk to short crust as I have definitely mastered this now and am pleased to say not once have I taken the pie out of the oven with a soggy bottom! 

I believe the two key things to a good pie are 1. Cooking your filling first and 2. Using a metal pie tin.

I don't use a recipe for my fillings but so far they have included steak and mushroom, streak and ale, and chicken, chick pea and chorizo.

I do however stick to this recipe for the pastry which works every time. 

Ingredients
250g flour
110g butter
1 medium egg
Water to mix
Pinch of salt

Method
  • Put flour and salt in a metal bowl (metal helps keep everything cold = better pastry),
  • Rub in the butter,
  • Mix in 1 egg and use a metal spatula to bring to a dough,
  • Add a tbsp of cold water to bring all the dry bits together,
  • Quickly kneed to bring everything together, 
  • Place dough in the fridge for 20mins or so to cool down the butter again before rolling out.


Chicken and Chorizo
Steak and Ale


Wednesday 18 December 2013

New Christmas delights


Half a metre sausage!! I ate half a metre German sausage! It really seemed like the only option at a German market when they were only £5!!

I travelled up to Birmingham last week in my third week of my new job with a colleague.  I am delighted to have a new job and am working in a recruitment company - bit different from events but I'm really liking it!

We were working all day from the Birmingham a library over looking a cute German Christmas market and the Christmas wheel and ice rink.  It made me feel so Christmassy looking out all day that we couldn't resist popping to the market once we had finished working on our way back from the station.







Monday 16 December 2013

Twinkle Toes


I'm so excited by these absolutely gorgeous snowflake nail transfers from Amazon.  

I had my fingernails done with shellac a week ago with this gorgeous dark maroon colour and it suits perfectly as a background for the gorgeous snowflake and snowman transfers.  

I have Essie 'wikid' on my toes which is very similar to the shellac colour.  The snowmen are a really nice touch to my thumbs and the snowflakes are sooooo cute on my toes.


Sunday 15 December 2013

When Father Christmas Comes By...




I am really feeling the Christmas vibe this year. It certainly sets the season in motion when you put the decorations up and when Father Christmas passes by on his brightly lit double decker bus! (Not exactly traditional for most, but it has become one for us over the last 4 years).

Hope this weekend you are all putting up the decorations, turning the tunes up high, sticking the stamps on your cards to post tomorrow, and eating the first batch of mince pies.

All that is left to do is ice the cake and wrap the prezzies! I feel on top of it this year.

It Christmas time

The fireplace with our traditional Jack Wills stockings
new mantle piece garland, and the compulsory Poinsettia

We have very traditional hearth decorations and two gorgeous looking Father Christmas characters that stand beside the television, but when it comes to the tree decorations there are no rules.  Our hanging decorations all have meaning, however naff they are they go on the tree, so long as they were given to us by someone special or we bought them to remind us of a special moment.

One of our favourite traditions is to collect a Christmas decoration from our holidays throughout the year.  Each year the collection of our special, meaningful decorations grows. This year we had a Despicable Me decoration from our honeymoon and a wee Scottish Tartan Bagpiper from Edinburgh to add to the tree.

As another tradition we head up to The Gardening Club garden centre at the top of our road each year a couple of weeks before Christmas.  We think about what we need to add to our Christmas collection and have a wander around their Christmas wonderland.  This year we picked up a gorgeous mantle piece garland and a red berry wreath for the front door.


Cute Angel from our gorgeous 4 years old cousin last year

Our much loved artificial Christmas tree from Homebase

G helping fill the trolley with new Xmas goodies and
deciding whether this year we need a real tree or not.

Star decoration lovingly made by Bean and knitted Santa decoration (new this year) from Cath Kidston