Unicorn Quilt

Last weekend was my best friend's baby shower. She's having a little girl in a couple of weeks and ever since she told me I knew I wanted to make something for her. True to form, I put it off until about two weeks before the shower haha




I bought the fabric on ebay, it was a collection as I'm terrible at picking fabrics and putting them together myself. It's only very simple, just squares sewn together and then quilted in a diagonal pattern, through the corners of the squares. It is so far from perfect, the lines are wonky, it's only the second quilt I've ever made and I'm not a fantastic sewer to start with. You can really see the flaws in some of these photos. Luckily, I'm also not a perfectionist :D and I think overall, it looks cute enough to get away with it.



I backed it with some pink polka dot cotton that I had in my stash, and I just used pre made binding. The finished size is about one metre square, so perfect for a moses basket or pushchair or as a play mat.







I also made a clip for it, so it can be stored rolled up or easily thrown into the car or on the pushchair. I used the same fabric as the backing and I added a D ring so it can be hung off a pushchair or bag too. The clip ended up looking a bit like a dog collar when it was finished!





All in all though I was really happy with it, I gave it to her at the baby shower and she seemed to love it as well, which is all I wanted! Yay for handmade gifts!

San Francisco

In December, we went on what was an absolute dream holiday for me! We went to Hawaii, and had a stopover in San Francisco for a few nights on the way. When I was younger, I used to be obsessed with America. I used to tell anyone who would listen that I was going to move there when I grew up! So it was so nice to finally visit, as even though I've done a lot of travelling this was my first time there.




















Some highlights of the trip:

The Golden Gate bridge. What can I say, it's just iconic.

Breakfast and window shopping at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.

Mr Holmes Bakehouse. We had a doughnut and some monkey bread and it was delicious

Our first full day, we ended up just walking around the city and we saw so much, I think we walked 11 miles in total and I was exhausted the next day but it was so worth it!

Bonfire Night

We had a little bonfire night celebration at my Mum's this year - just all us girls and our partners, some fireworks and food. It was lovely. I took my camera, I'm still not good at photographing at night but I really want to get better!





^^Sisters and their boyfriends







^^We got some sparklers out and of course we had to start playing with taking photos of them. I have dozens on my camera, all of silly words and patterns!







^^All us girls

Wesley

Say hello to the latest addition to our family, Wesley. He's a 16 week old Boston Terrier puppy, and he is just the sweetest, most angelic little boy.



Welcome to the family, Wes.

Pom Pom Booties

I haven't knit or crochet anything in what feels like ages so when my friend invited me to her baby shower last week, I decided I'd make her a present! I knew straight away that I wanted to make a pair of baby booties. I'd never made any before but I'd visited a little market the previous weekend and I'd seen a pair for sale and I knew I wanted to have a go at recreating them. As per ususal though I put off getting started on them, so I spent a glorious day the Saturday before the shower on the sofa, watching films with the dogs while Adam was at work. It was bliss!



Part of the reason it took me a while to get started was because I just couldn't find a pattern that I liked. I'm not very good at seaming when knitting, so it had to be made in one piece. I searched Ravelry but the knitting patterns I saw looked a bit too complicated, or didn't have the right "look" I wanted. I decided to try crochet patterns, but again, I couldn't find quite what I was looking for. In the end, I found the Blue Whale pattern by Croby Patterns on Pinterest. I ended up using this pattern for the foot of the boot, following it up to round 5 and then I picked up the 27 remaining stitches and knitted the cuff in a k2p2 pattern for 22 rounds, turning it down and then sewing a pom pom onto each shoe. I'm so, so happy with how these turned out, and they were so quick, easy and used so little yarn; I'm already planning on making another pair or two to have on hand for baby gifts!

My Best Friend's Wedding - Hen Do Edition!

Last weekend was the hen do of my best friend in the whole world. We've been friends for probably around 20 years now. I love her to bits and couldn't be without her and I'm so happy for her and her husband-to-be!

We had a tour around a local vineyard (yes, a vineyard in the wilds of Yorkshire! The wine was amazing) and then a meal with some drinks and rude games (obviously, no hen do would be complete without that!) and the next day, brunch at one of our favourite places, a local farm. It was so much fun. Some more photos below!

Chicken Pulau with Mint and Coriander Raita

Rice is always a favourite in our house, and even more so since I've been experimenting with some new recipes. This chicken pulau has become a staple here, and we're serving it up at least once a week - normally with a simple salad and raita although in these pictures I made up some potato and spinach pakoras with some pakora flour I was given from a friend, and this tandoori popcorn chicken. It was so good! The recipe for the pulau is based on this one but I adapted the recipe somewhat to make it healthier as I recently started following Slimming World and wanted to make this dish free on the plan.



Chicken Pulao

Ingredients:

300g white basmati rice
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
½ green chilli (omit or add more to taste)
1 chicken stock cube
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 chicken breast

Method:

Put rice to soak in a bowl filled with warm water for 20-30 minutes

Finely dice the onion, garlic and chilli

Fry onions, garlic, chilli and cumin seeds in a saucepan with frylight or other low calorie cooking spray. If the onions start to stick, then add a splash of water. You want the onions to get nice and dark but without burning them

Finely dice chicken

Make up stock cube with 330ml boiling water

Drain and rinse rice

Add chicken to pan and stir to seal the chicken

Add the rice to the pan. Don't stir, but flatten it all down so it makes one even layer across the bottom of the pan

Add the stock

Cover the pan with a lid, and turn the heat onto high until the liquid begins to boil

Turn the heat down to the lowest flame

Now, step away from the pan! Don't be tempted to stir it. You need  to leave it, covered, until all the water has evaporated. It usually takes about 10 minutes, but I have a glass lid for my pan so I can see through to see when all the water has gone. When I can see that all the water has been absorbed, I sometimes crack the lid a tiny bit and using a fork, taste some of the rice to make sure it's done. Then I set the lid back on for five more minutes.

Stir everything through, and serve!

Coriander and Mint Raita

Ingredients:

1 tbsp mint sauce
Small bunch fresh coriander
250ml fat free natural yoghurt

Method:

Roughly chop coriander, stalks and leaves

Add yoghurt, mint and coriander to a food processor with a pinch of salt

Blend until smooth