Friday! Hurray!

Excuse the poor quality of this 20 second video! I made it on my phone the other night bringing Bo for a walk. A five month old puppy and water are a messy combination. She's so damn funny. Have a great weekend!

Knitty Cat

Miss Prim Pram Prum...

I'm after getting my hands on a new camera lens so excuse the ridiculous amount of photos in this post! x

This week when I was making cakes for a little girls 8th Birthday party I knew just what to top them with: crystallised primroses!

Gorgeous delicate petals encased in sugar, sparkling and shimmering on a bed of snowy white. I just had to. The garden is covered with primroses this year. These are so easy and cheap to make, they're a little time consuming and you have to be gentle but it's a very relaxing way to spend an hour!

The Hostess with the mostest!

I actually love being a hostess. Who'll be in charge of drinks: Me please! Who'll make sure there's napkins and cutlery: Me! Me! I love it. Everything organised, nobody desperately seeking brown sugar for the coffee. Don't drink coffee? Here's a selection of teas...

Despite all this my sister recently gave me this book.

I think maybe because she knew I'd appreciate the outdated party games and canape selections that the pages gaudily boast.

Pacific Pea Soup

I was a major fan of Band of Brothers, the World War II miniseries. I loved it. Then I was delighted to hear about The Pacific. A new show about the US Marine Corps fighting the Japanese. But it's just not the same. Maybe I haven't given it enough time. The writing is poor, the characters aren't as likeable as in Band of Brothers. I want more Band of Brothers basically. More of the same please HBO. No changes.

I'm still going to watch it though.

Anyway I was eating this gorgeous soup as I watched the marines trek their way through the jungle. This is one of my all time favourite soups. So quick and easy. And you can throw it together from stuff you have in the house normally. All you need is a bag of frozen peas! I've made this with mint before too and it was lovely.

Painting Pots and Sunshine!

Last weekend I went to The Pavilion Garden Centre near Cork Airport. It was my third time going there. All the plants are gorgeous. There's an amazing homestore with Cath Kidston and Green Gate stuff. And Burleigh China. Ugh I love it. And to top things off they have a really nice cafe. I must actually get onto them and ask for the recipe for their carrot cake, it's unbelievable. Really. I think they put pineapple or something in it...

Baby Blankets update

You may remember me telling you about the lovely blankets being sent out to my sister Ettie who works with UNICEF in Hargeisa, Somalia. Well She sent me these photos of babies with their blankets in the paediatric unit of Burao Hospital. Absolutely gorgeous.
If she wasn't so busy saving the world she'd make a brilliant photographer!

Hey Pesto!

I know I was only saying a few weeks ago how dated pesto is. And I still think it's more 90's than Cindy Crawford but Parsley Pesto? Yeah! Parsley Pesto is gorgeous! I was given a whole load of normal curly parsley and was trying to think of a way to preserve it. So I decided pesto would be the best bet.

Handsome Chester Cake

Last weekend we got a taxi home from Cork city and after my few glasses of Sticks pinot noir ( really a nice wine) I was hanging over the passenger seat quizzing the taxi driver on his favourite food. What does he love to eat? I just had to know. Anyway he told us that his friend regularly gives him two rabbits and he 'sticks 'em in a stew and bubbles 'em away with a few carrots and onions and two hours later tis handsome'.

Now I just can NOT stop saying that everything is handsome. Your new baby girl is handsome. That wedding dress is pure handsome on you. A cup of tea: Handsome.

But little did I know that late night heart to heart with Joe le Taxi supplied me with the perfect adjective to describe Chester cake. A huge slab of highly spiced cake studded with plump sultanas, encased in buttery pastry and lovingly drenched in thick white icing. The cake of my childhood. So filling, so comforting. Handsome.

Makeover Time!

Did you notice? I made a new banner thing! Hurray! Do you like it? (I'm highly praise driven, a classic Leo.) I wanted it to reflect what this blog is about so I knew I couldn't just write it out. It's all about me making and baking stuff and sharing the photos, ideas and recipes with you cool dudes.

Massive Colour

I love the feeling of having a day off and I always have brilliant plans for what I'm going to do. I'm usually great for the whole motivated getting things done stuff but it just hasn't kicked in this weekend. I spent about twenty minutes watching the hens having their breakfast today, then made banana pancake things and then we spent two hours on a very blustery beach with Bo who is now absolutely huge. She's brilliant.

Here's a blurry close up. Massive.