Things to look forward to: June

Wow half way through the year already! Where did that go? I may be 6 days late but oh well here's the things I'm looking forward to this month!

A family day out at the end of the month. We are planning a trip to Bewilderwood which is apparently a great day out. 

Even warmer weather.

Staying out in the garden with the chimnea a light and a hot chocolate in hand.

Still painting the bedside tables (I will get round to doing it eventually!)

Thrifting a bit more. I need to start going to carboots more!

Making my garden look pretty again. It's such a state at the moment. 

Wimbledon ( I hate sport, but have a soft spot for tennis) at the end of the month and the obligatory strawberries and cream consumption!

Making time to see friends.

See last month's post here.

Keep up to date with me over the weekend on Twitter and Instagram!

Fig and coriander mustard scones.

Saturday afternoon after we returned from a morning of wondering around charity shops I was feeling a little bored and when there's nothing to do. I bake. I had some left over Parmesan in the fridge and after coming third in the Maille cullinary challenge I had a lovely range of goodies to use. I decided that it would be cheese scones. My mum makes the best ones (of course, she's good that mum of mine!) and we both agree that the addition on mustard or mustard seeds makes all the difference.

I used a fig and coriander mustard and it worked so nicely with the two cheeses in the scone. However you could use any mustard you like. When I got the scones out of the oven I decided that I would leave the crispy melted cheese bits around the scone. Although it doesn't look that pretty it was too yummy to leave off!

Fig and coriander mustard scones.

You will need:

250g plain flour, plus extra for flouring

generous pinch salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp of mustard

35g unsalted butter, plus extra for serving

200g strong cheddar

2 tbsp fresh snipped chives

150ml milk

Parmesan for sprinkling

 a little milk for glazing

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7. Lightly flour a baking tray.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl.

Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. 

Grate half of the cheese very finely, and roughly chop the other half. Stir into the flour mixture with the chopped chives.

Gradually add milk to make a soft but not sticky dough (you may not need all the milk).

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead lightly, then roll the dough out into a thickness of just less than 2.5cm/1in. Use a 6cm/2½in cutter to cut the scones, re-rolling the off-cuts as necessary. Handle the dough as little as possible to keep it light.

Put the scones onto the floured baking tray, allowing at least 2.5cm/1in between them and glaze with the  milk mixture and sprinkle over a good handful of parmesan.

Bake for 10 minutes or until risen and golden brown.

Serve with butter. Best eaten warm.

The neglected garden.

Yep. The title of this post sums my garden up at the moment. Neglected. There's far too many weeds that need pulling, dead plants and leaves that need tidying. Not to mention hedges that need a good haircut. Oh so much to do and so little time. I need a big kick up the backside to get it done. Gardener wanted. Apply within. 

On the plant side of things it's looking nice. I'm now past that awkward stage between spring flowers dying off and summer flowers blooming. The poppies we had last year are making a return and it won't be too much longer until they are in full bloom.

My potted plants are going quite well. I've had to put slug and snail pellets down to stop those critters from munching on my plants. It's working alright so far. Everything is growing nicely and I can't wait until they bloom so I can see what they are (stupid me didn't write down what was where!) 

We should be getting a new bench soon so I can't wait. I'm hoping in will make the wasted space by my backdoor looking more like this. I can't wait to make it look pretty!

Let me know if you have any blog posts about your garden. I need all the inspiration I can get right now!

A boat skirt and my weekend.

Top - New Look

Skirt - Primark

Necklace - eBay

How do days off go so quickly? This weekend has flown by and it feels like I've not had a minute. We went to the cinema Friday evening to see X-Men. I have to say I did enjoy it and the fact that Hugh Jackman is a little bit naked, well that's just an added bonus! 

We spent Saturday morning in the town over from ours, browsing the charity shops. I left empty handed which is always a rubbish feeling. We grabbed some lunch then headed home. I baked and then we just relaxed on the sofa finishing off the cinema goodies we had left over.

Yesterday we went out for breakfast with the Mr's family and then headed over to my mums. We talked baking and gardening. Mum knows so much more and I'm totally clueless when it comes to the garden. I need to bribe her to come over and help me out again! Mum then made the most delicious tacos, complete with spicy wedges and Mexican coleslaw. It was delicious and we left with rather full stomachs. 

It's been such a lovely weekend but it's gone far too quickly. I'm back at work tomorrow then off again Tuesday I'm hoping to blog and possibly even vlog (maybe, who knows?) about my day.

How was your weekend? Was the sun shining where you are?

Today is the last day to nominate for the Cosmo Blog Awards I can't tell you how grateful I would be if you could nominate we for the best food blog! Follow the link here. 

All nude and a little bit of glitter.

White - All nude by MUA

Glitter - Silver multi glitter by Barry M

I'm running rather late today. Ignore yesterday's post about being organised that starts at the weekend. 

I've got a thing for white nails at the moment. Before I would have hated them. Very 90's, almost as bad as white shoes. But I'm in love with them and white shoes to be honest. It's funny how fashion comes back around, it also makes me feel old that what I wore when I was little has come back around. Ancient.

I'm feeling a bit under the weather today. I think I'm just tired so we are heading over to my mums. We are going to take some lunch and then sit out in the garden and make the most of this sunshine. After the rain we've had all week it makes a nice change.

We are heading out tonight to see the new X-Men film. I do love a bit of James McAvoy and I'm looking forward to seeing him in 3d. I mean the film in 3d ooops!

Have a lovely weekend. I plan on having a good one!

Keep up to date with me over the weekend on Twitter and Instagram!

Forget your troubles come on get . . .

Happy. Nah. Well get happy too because that's always good but I was thinking organised. I'm a little bit all over the place with everything at the moment and I really need to sort it out. On my lunch break yesterday I debated buying myself a brand new notebook and pens to give me that little boost of encouragement. But I couldn't find something pretty enough and I then remembered that I have a stack of notebooks at home. Does anyone else hoard notebooks?

Working and blogging clash a lot and I'm very envious of those who pull off doing both. So this weekend I'm planning everything, sorting it all out. No more late night writing, it's not my best and I'd hate to think of all the mistakes I make. So here's to planning and sorting myself out so I'm not writing blog posts at nearly midnight. Lets hope it will work.

This post was also to show off my new camera. The Mr's brother found it for me and asked if I would be interested in it. Of course I jumped at the chance. It now sits proudly on my coffee table lined up with fresh flowers and a few other things. I'm not sure if it works but I already have an instant camera so I'm not bothered if it doesn't.

Any advice or tips of how to keep everything running smoothly?

Elderflower, vanilla and strawberry cream sponge.

Every thing recently has been busy and I mean really busy. Work has been busy and I've been busy. Have I said busy enough yet? Anyway after work on Saturday I had to hurry home, even turning drinks with my work girls down, because I needed to bake this cake. Not just any cake but my mum's birthday cake. I had this cake planned for a while and after searching around for recipe inspiration I finally found a recipe that worked well for me and with few tweaks I had it sorted.

I decided that no birthday cake is perfect until it's been topped with cake bunting. Or as my brother called it a clothes line. I made one before if you fancy a little diy project.  I will warn you as this cake contains cream it will need to be eaten within two days and stored in the fridge. But that shouldn't be a problem with how delicious this is!

You will also need to use English strawberries. Preferably local strawberries. I walked past the market in the morning nd was tempted to buy them but didn't want to store them at work so I waited until my lunch which worked out to be a good thing as they were on offer two punnets for £1. Can't argue with that and they taste so good.

Anyway enough chat. Time for cake!

You will need:

 175g butter, softened

 175g caster sugar

 3 eggs, lightly beaten

 175g self-raising flour

1 tbsp vanilla extract

 3 tbsp elderflower cordial

 300ml pot of double cream

 225g strawberries

 icing sugar, to dust

Grease and line 2 x 20cm cake tins. 

Preheat oven to 190ºC (375ºF, gas 5). 

Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, then fold in the flour and 2 tbsp elderflower cordial.

Spoon the mixture into the cake tins and level the surface. Bake for 20 mins or until the sponge has risen and springs back when pressed lightly.

Cool in the tins then turn out. Whip the cream until it holds its shape. Fold in the remaining 1 tbsp elderflower cordial. Slice the strawberries in half leaving a few for the top of the cake.

Spoon the cream onto one cake and arrange the cut strawberries in the on the cake. Top with second sponge and press down lightly. Add a small amount of cream to the top of the cake and place a few whole strawberries. Dust with icing sugar. 

Enjoy!

10 things that happened this bank holiday weekend.

1. On Sunday we all gathered at my mums house to celebrate her birthday. I won't say her age but the photograph of her cake says it all (sorry mum!). 

2. I walked to work Saturday morning in the pouring rain. Luckily I had my trusty pink umbrella so I didn't look like a drowned rat by the time I got to work. There's something quite nice about rain when your inside or not getting soaked from it.

3. I booked in a family photo shoot Sunday afternoon. Such a lovely group of people and I had fun capturing memories for them. I then spent the rest of the time editing the photographs.

4. Where we held the photo shoot was looking rather lovely. Even the duck pond water looked refreshing on the sunny Sunday, although I wouldn't advise hopping in. Last time I visited this garden the ducks tried to attack my mum who was taking photographs for me.

5. I became even more hooked on South Park. I always thought it was really stupid but after watching a few episodes I'm happy to admit I love it. Butters is my favourite character! He's just so cute. 

6. I baked mum's birthday cake. It was flavoured with strawberries and elder flower, topped with lashings of cream and dusted with icing sugar. It was rather delicious and I'm going to post the recipe up tomorrow! (Lucky you!)

7. Monday morning we made waffles for breakfast. Getting a waffle iron for my birthday was a great idea. I forgot how much I loved them.

8.  We sang, far too much and far too often, loudly in the car. I think they should put cameras in cars so people can watch you get up to. It would be really funny to see. Our two part harmonies are spot on and you should just hear our rendition of Take That's "Shine". 

9. I was told by my three (nearly four) year old niece that I had to paint a flower on the fence. I painted one on the fence in my mum's garden when I was little and she discovered it the other day. She told me that I needed to re-paint it in pink paint. When I told her I only had purple and asked would that be ok. She accepted. Now I need to get painting!

10.  We stayed up until midnight Sunday night watching T.V. I really regret it. I complained so many times about how tired I was on yesterday. I think I'm too old to go bed later!

I hope you enjoyed this post, I just wanted to post something a little different. How did you spend your weekend?