Inside and out.

Howdy lovely people. How are you all? I hope you are having a nice day and have a fun filled week planned. Or if you have to work, at least everyone seems to be a lot jollier with the sun shining. I wish we were all like this all the time!

I have had a wonderful day today. I went up to London to visit the bigger of my little sisters (if that makes any sense) and we had a great day looking at the insides of things. Lots of things.

First stop, the Animal Inside Out exhibition at the Natural History Museum. I have heard of Dr Gunther Von Hagens work before but have never seen any. It was fascinating. There pieces included all sorts of animals from a tiny frog to an Indian elephant. Amazing.

We then headed over to the Wellcome Collection to have a look at Brains: The Mind As Matter. The exhibition seeks to explore what humans have done to brains in the name of medical intervention, scientific enquiry, cultural meaning and technological change. Not for the faint hearted!

I am now home, tired and happy!

Fun in the sun.

I am loving this weather. It puts everyone in a good mood, including me!

I am now sporting quite the tan and have been having lovely afternoons/evenings after work drinking pear cider and generally enjoying myself. It's gonna be a wonderful summer at this rate (as long as this isn't all the sun we're gonna get. Fingers crossed).

Yesterday i went and helped my friend Kreete pack, as she is moving. Well i say i helped, i mainly sat on her balcony tanning myself and drinking (see, it really is all i've been doing). Have a look at the view from her flat:

We were enjoying a bottle of rose, but once that ran out we started on a French Liqueur in a weird and wonderful bottle.....

 Hee hee.

Hot damn!

Good morning! Golly it's been a hot and sticky day and night. It's on days like this i love the fact i live by the sea and can walk to the beach in under five minutes! Perfect.

I am actually a bigger fan of winter than summer, although i have to admit that this lovely weather is making me smile. And everyone seems to be in a better mood when the sun has got it's hat on. Yay!

So, what fun things have you been doing in the sun? Feeling a bit pink? Luckily my leftover tan from Thailand seems to have kicked in so i'm going a lovely golden colour, which is good as i usually burn very easily!

Are you up to anything fun? A picnic maybe? Some sunbathing? Let me know!

What's for dinner?

Morning treacle! Did you have a lovely weekend? What did you do? Mine was good, although i was working so i mainly did that. Plus a bit of sitting on the sofa in my pjs watching movies, although i do like doing both those things so i was happy!

Plate by The storybook rabbit here.

I have decided that i need to start looking after myself a bit more. What with this nasty little illness still kicking my bum, i think i should. First stop: eating better. I am rubbish at cooking for myself and tend to live on crumpets and pasta. This must stop!

Last week i was quite good though, this is what i was munching:

Monday: Chocolate digestives (this was only because dinner went a bit haywire).
Tuesday: Pasta with pesto.
Wednesday: Crumpets and ice cream (not together, one after the other, i'm not that bad).
Thursday: Pork belly with mash, gravy and veg.
Friday: Yaki Soba (Wagamamas finest).
Saturday: Pasta with pesto.
Sunday: Beef roast dinner (as i went home to see the Moosh).

It's actually not as bad as i thought it would be, but it could be a lot better. My plan is this: the pasta and crumpets must feature less as dinners. In fact, crumpets are not a supper food so maybe i should knock them on the head altogether (this will be hard).

What have you been eating for dinner? Are you good or bad? Recipes to keep me inspired are more than welcome!

I can be a bit squeamish but....

....i think these are pretty cool.

Check out these anatomical cross section sculptures by Jason Freeny. The full range can be seen here.

He has also produced prints, that can be seen and purchased here. There's even a Domo one!

They fascinate me! Amazing.

Bleugh.

Camera cuteness!

Good afternoon lovely people. How you all doing today? Well i hope. I have just been told that i have a naughty little chest infection and have been put on antibiotics. So i am mainly feeling poorly. Boo!

So to cheer myself up i thought i'd put together a little Etsy collection as it's been a while since i did one. The theme today is cameras. This one's for you Rob!

Camera rubber stamp by Blossom Stamps here.

Black water drop camera necklace by Dollar Jewelery here.

Printable camera craft projects by Girlie Pains here.

Holga t-shirt by Little Lee Studios here.

Silver ring by Jennifer Wood here.

Diana brooch Pink Rain Shop here.

Print by Etched and Sketched here.

Handmade tags by Chicken and Custard here.

Felt camera onesie by The African Llama here.

Snap snap!

My beautiful new dress.

I have a wonderful friend who is getting married in a few weeks. She has asked me to be a witness at the wedding (which i'm very excited about!). So, i thought, i'll need an amazing outfit. And i have found just that!

Of course it's from Etsy. I love Etsy. The genius thing about this dress is that it's made to measure. Yup, that's right, for £60 odd quid i get a beautiful dress made especially for me. Amazing.

This is the dress. Except mine is being made in a plain dark red material. I think it's very Mad Men! What do you think?

So cute!

Good afternoon! How are we today? I think i'm getting a cold which is making me want to put the duvet on the sofa and drink Lucozade. But instead i'm going to do some cleaning.....and then mabe curl up under the duvet on the sofa and drink Lucozade. Perfect.

Check out these lovely prints from Gingiber Home Decor, they can be found on Etsy here.

I really like them, especially the bear one....but then you probably knew that would be my favorite!

I am a doofus.

Ok, so i have been a little quiet the past few days. This is because my internet broke. I therefore made a rather snappy phone call to Virgin in a grump because it was broken. They were very nice and arrange for a lovely man to come and fix the problem for me. Turns out i had unplugged it. Doh.

So, i did what any self respecting girl would do and acted like i didn't understand wires and such like. Then i blamed it on the cats. Job done.

But now i am back. And wanted to show you this:

This hoodie is dedicated to  couple of friends of mine, who should definitely own it. Mainly to warn others! It's from Etsy and you can find it here. Anti and Natalie, you know i'm talking to you.....

A cup of tea and some biscuits.

This evening i decided to open a packet of biscuit to have with a cup of tea. Cute, don't you think? They are filled with chocolate too. Yup. My new favorite biscuits!

Snickers fudge.

Hey hey hey! I have the next two days off work and plan on doing some boring things (cleaning, organising etc) and some fun things (cinema, sewing, seeing friends). I also plan on making this:

Snickers Fudge

Note: the measurements are American. Luckily i have russian doll measuring cups! Also, i don't think i'll be able to get some of the ingredients so i might have to adapt the recipe a bit. I'll let you know how i get on.

For the first layer

1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup butterscotch chips
1/4 cup peanut butter

For the second layer

4 tablespoons butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped salted peanuts

For the third layer

14 ounce package caramel cubes
1/4 cup heavy cream

For the fourth layer

1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup butterscotch chips
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

To prepare the first layer

In a small saucepan over low heat, add milk chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and peanut butter. Stir often until completely melted and smooth. Pour mixture into the bottom of a 9 x 13" baking pan lightly coated with nonstick spray. Using an off-set spatula, spread the mixture to an even layer and place in the refrigerator until set.

To prepare the second layer

In a medium heavy saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Mix in sugar and evaporated milk. Once it comes to a boil, let cook 5 minutes while stirring. Remove from the heat and quickly stir in marshmallow creme, peanut butter and vanilla. Stir in peanuts. Pour over the set chocolate layer and use an off-set spatula to gently spread mixture in an even layer. Place in the refrigerator until set.

To prepare the third layer

Place the unwrapped caramel cubes and heavy cream in a medium saucepan. Place over low heat and stir until the mixture has completely melted and is smooth. Pour in the pan and quickly spread to an even layer with an off-set spatula. Place in the refrigerator until set.

To prepare the fourth layer

In a small saucepan over low heat, add milk chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and peanut butter. Stir often until completely melted and smooth. Pour over the third layer and use an off-set spatula to spread to an even layer. Place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before cutting into squares.

I fear i may end up eating far too much of this!

On a whim.

So today, when i got home from work, i was browsing through some crafty type blogs and websites. Quilting ones to be specific. And i read about some hexagon quilts being made. Umm i thought, i could make one of those. So i started one!

First you draw and cut out some hexagons on a sheet of plain paper. I just googled 'hexagon' and then draw over the screen with the paper! I then cut out a load of them and cut little pieces of material to fit.

You then tack the material in place with some rough stitching (this is the stitching you can see around the edges, this will be removed once the hexagons are sewn together).

And then i started sewing them together. This will be my 'heirloom quilt', it's called an heirloom quilt as it will take me a long long time to finish it. But hopefully once it's done it's something i can pass on to my children some day.

This is how it's going so far. Cute huh?

 Right, back to the sewing...