Shabby Blog

Monday 30 May 2011

Bank holiday monday salsa recipe

I fancied some salsa with my tortilla chips today so thought I'd give it a whirl.  It was surprisingly easy to put together and took about 2minutes start to finish in the food processor.


Ingredients:

1 red onion
1 garlic clove
1/4 of red pepper
1tbsp of tomato passata
pinch of dried chilli flakes
1 tsp sugar
1tsp white wine vinegar
juice of 1/2 lime
pinch of salt
handful of fresh coriander

Recipe:
  1. Add onion, garlic and red pepper to blender and blitz for about 10seconds (or until finely chopped) and add the passata and coriander and allow to mix.
  2. Next blitz in the coriander and chilli flakes until the desired constituency and mix in the white wine vinegar, salt and sugar by hand.
  3. Add a squeeze of  lime juice and taste to check whether it is too sweet or too sour and adjust accordingly.  Then, dig in!


Saturday 28 May 2011

Our weekend family outing

As a reward last weekend Neil, Gemma and I went off for an adventure to Greenwich.

We don't often get the chance to take day trips as Neil is hard at work revising for his exams at the moment.  The dog had been somewhat neglected and loves running around so it seemed like the perfect excuse.

Gemma is ready to go!
As we drove over the sun shone brightly as we zoomed around looking for parking spaces (clearly we weren't the only ones with the idea of going to Greenwich for the day.)  Then, just as we parked up and opened the car doors, the heavens opened and sheets of thick heavy rain descended on us.  I quickly jumped into the back of the car with the dog whilst Neil ran back from the pay and display machine to take cover.  Neil announced that it was merely a passing shower and I hoped it was as otherwise I had vision of us packing and heading home before we'd even arrived!  Miraculously he was right and once the initial shower subdued we were left with a bright fresh sky and a lovely day.


We first headed down to the shops to get a milkshake, it's one of our fondest memories of Greenwich and funnily enough is also one of the things Jess and Sean mentioned to us about Greenwich when we stayed with them for our honeymoon.  I decided to go for a Dime bar one and Neil had Peanut butter and Oreo one! I have to admit Neil's was delicious, I'd definitely have it again.


Whilst we consumed our milkshakes with glee we headed over to Greenwich market for a bit of a browse, there were a lot of distractions and amazingly Gemma remained very well behaved and received a few admiring glances and pats from some fellow shoppers.  We then decided to grab a bite of eat before walking back to the park to let the dog roam free.  I had a delicious hickory smoked hot dog whilst Neil grabbed some chips from the chip show, naturally we shared them both in the end!




Wednesday 25 May 2011

Bathroom antics

And I'm back, sorry for the delay! Working full time had removed me from my DIY goals so I'm a part time creative for the next week or so.

In any case, we are still on the hunt for our new bathroom, we are putting all the money we received for our wedding today a major renovation.  I'll add a photo of our bathroom later but suffice to say it is a bit of a mess.  Don't get me wrong its a massive space, just badly organised.  We currently have a corner bath and a massive double sink we don't use.  We even have a chair in the bathroom at the moment which is a slice of luxury I kind of enjoy!

We have decided that we want a traditional suite with a splash of colour.  I want some cute and quirky but also stylish and appealing to any future buyers.  Here are a few of the images that have caught my eye.


Love love love the colour mix and the bath!

Definitely want some shabby chic storage

Love the drama and the style

Love the light fitting!

Sunday 22 May 2011

Pinterest addiction

I've been dreaming of pinterest since I heard about it about 6 months ago.  I signed up for an invite on two separate occasions but still nada.


Anyway this week I took a punt and asked the gods of twitter if anyone had any invites going spare and they were merciful.  Now I'm a full blown addict! For those of you that aren't aware of it, there's an excellent post here that will make you covet it immediately I'm sure.


Do you love?

Saturday 21 May 2011

Garden Upkeep

As I disclosed earlier in the week, our garden looked a bit like a bramble hedge row when we first bought the house.  But, as previous occupants of a damp 2 bed basement flat we were pretty chuffed to have even a tiny bit of grass that we glossed over it for some time, dreaming of one day having a cute little courtyard garden.



Since last June we've gradually we've tended to it's needs, with Neil and I both learning that gardening is a joy. I think we've now realised just how rewarding it is, if a little time consuming.  But, it happy makes us both so happy.  I have to admit, even weeding seems like escapism these days!

I should add that the kitchen unit and the front loader are of our own fly tipping, we've since taken the excess junk to the tip and moved the loader to the side (we're still in need of a 1/2 shed).  So anyway, since the beginning I cut back and bagged up the brambles, then Neil removed the wood bark and laid some grass seed.  In a way, because the garden is so small it makes the jobs smaller and more manageable.



Here I am reclining stage 1, it still looks a bit rough and ready,  but I remember being very impressed with myself for clearing all those pesky weeds. Please ignore the poor photos, it was a grim day and these were the best available from my iphone!

So anyway, after that was done and the weather was a bit less grim the grass grew rather promisingly and it actually started to look like a garden.  As you can see we even purchased a table and some chairs courtesy of B&Q, naturally we bought them in winter in the sale. (This is actually a picture from this April but it shows that we now have grass where there once was brown rubbish!)  As the weather has remained dry, it's getting a bit patchy so we'll need to attend to that in the next few weeks.


The other issue we've had to tackle is the flower bed that runs along the whole side of the house as we are fortunate to live in a light and airy end terrace.  The bed itself has been full of god knows what, some of it seems to have been planted deliberately, there was a rose bush and we've had a few daffodils appear.  I say 'was' in the case of the rose because according to Neil thorny plants with flowers are 'weeds' and it died a quick death.  Please note, he did buy we a replacement so don't feel *too* sorry for me!


But, I am pleased to say that this weekend and last weekend I have made a concerted effort to tidy up the side of the house as a lot of it was just in need of a good sweep.  It has been strimmed on numerous occasions but it always regrows back in no time and really needed some time spent on it.  I've thrown in some pictures of our lovely veg for good measure.  I took the pictures last weekend and looking back the beds seem like they need a good weed. (Which it has had since).  Anyway, looking back I'm pleased with the transformation none the less!


Neil's Brocolli finally replanted in the ground
The random pea
BEAUTIFUL garlic
Slightly too fertile carrots
Pound lands finest shallots

And finally here's my little helper being cute. This is her spot on the top of the arm chair so she can keep an eye on me from the comfort of the house.

Friday 20 May 2011

Our wedding

I'm sure everyone who is anyone has already  been bored to death with the images of our wedding but I'll never get sick of them!

Here's a few taken from Danielle's blog just so I can always find them if I ever need a pick me up.  Their vibrancy reminds me of what is always going to be one of the best days of my life.  Although I'm still finding it weird getting used to this whole husband thang. But I'm LOVING being married, it's the same but better...











p.s here is us on my all time favourite wedding blog - Rock n Roll Bride!

Keeping up with the blog scene.

I'm survived day 3 of the first temp job I have had since before I went to uni.  I'm actually working for a couple of luxury skincare brands processing stock orders.  I remember on wednesday thinking oh my god what am I going to wear, I need to look fabulous.  I of course imagined this kind of scenario...


I actually arrive flustered from what has been the most irritating car journey of my life, to find myself in a regular open plan office with none of the fashion judgement I had anticipated.  Since that day I've been on a slow fashion decline from heels to sandals.  (It only took a day!)

Anyway, I know I've been neglecting my life when I don't even have to time to read my googlereader subscriptions.  In 3 days I'm up to 562 posts! Ouchies - I need to get that down to a more manageable 200 or so today.  Not that that's really a trauma sounds more like heaven.  I just miss having my iphone so I could do it in the bath! Boo

For a start before I tuck in to the yummy curry that Neil has cooked up for us this evening.



ta-ta for now, I've got some wilco to listen to!

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Mental Stimulation

I've just come home from my first day of work since the end of march and boy has it taken the wind from my sails.  I'm in need of some mental stimulation so I'm gorging on these :-





  • The Outnet -Appriximately £200 more than I'd spend on a bag...


Tuesday 17 May 2011

A Quick Home and Garden History

So, we were lucky enough to scrape some pennies together in June last year and purchase our first house.  I dreamed of something old (i.e Victorian or earlier) and spacious, if a little worn around the edges.  Strangely enough Zone 2 kicked us out, as out budget was barely enough for a 1 bed flat.  But, we found a place that could 'just' accommodate us in SE6.  Now we're cosying up in our slightly ramshackle little home which we love.

Timeline commences:

So here's the house when I first snapped it on my iphone 'back in the days' before it was almost repossed from the previous owner...


And this is the beautiful view from the back bedroom.  Although we have a teeny tiny garden the fact we have so much open green space around us makes up for it.



This was out first meal in our house when we met the lovely fish and chip shop owners for the first time and watched Wimbledon on the TV whilst laying on the floor in the living room.



Then the adrenalin buzz carried on and we decided to crack open the Laura Ashley Duck Egg Blue paint at about 8pm before we put together the rest of the room.  It was dark when we finished the first/second coat and realised we'd certainly need another. We decided it was time to call it a day and our first night in our new home we slept on a bed of blankets on the floor in our second bedroom (which is now my study).


The cards started to arrive the next day, and we arranged them on our beautiful downstairs fireplace and we blitzed the kitchen and arranged a few belongings that we had brought over in our cars.



But then for the mammoth moving operation... a la Street Van (even though I swore the last time we moved I'd never do it again myself) - Many arguments were had!


And once the walls were finished we put the wardrobes together.  We sneekily managed to snag some £5 PAXX frames and £15 doors in the bargain basement a few weeks before we moved.  And then it was time for Feather & Black bed frame donated by my mother.  I swear for a while there it didn't seem physically possible to put some of those pieces together without instructions.


And then it was done and it looked remarkably like it all went together!


But let us not forget the garden which was somewhat overwhelming!





And so we bring this story to a close with our new front door...




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