To kindle or not to kindle

I’ve been thinking recently that I might like a kindle.

I used to adore reading books, not quite the appetite for them as my sister, but an avid reader nonetheless. As time has gone on though, I’ve found that I’m reading less and less – the last book I read was I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, and I finished that in January. Worse still my honeymoon read, A Guide to the Beasts of East Africa, is still lying half read, and I’ve not even touched Life of Pi, which The Bert bought me for Valentine’s. I can probably count on one hand the number of books I’ve finished in the last five years and that saddens me a little.

I know what you’re thinking – why on earth would I want to get a kindle, when I read so little? I’ve been asking myself the same thing. I think part of me wonders if it would encourage me to read more, because books would become a lot more accessible and easy to download at the touch of a button. And portable too. But having said that I am not a book buyer, I am more a library goer. And part of me also really enjoys turning the pages of a real book; being able to flip back to the cover to check I’ve remembered the characters and the main plot of the story (extremely useful when I’m picking up a book that’s laid forgotten for too long), and despite the saying – I do judge a book by its cover. I think you can tell a lot from the cover image and fonts and wording used.

My colleague has kindly let me borrow me her kindle so that I can see how I get on with it. I thought this would be a good idea to see if I enjoyed reading from the screen, as much as anything else. But I’m interested to know from you what your thoughts are on reading, books, kindles… have any of you bought a kindle and found that you’re reading more than ever? or is it lying unused because you really do just like a book?

Regardless of my final decision on to kindle or not to kindle, I’d be really grateful for some great book recommendations. I’m determined to read a bit more, whether it’s the newfangled way or paperbacks! It’s always nice knowing that it’s worth persevering on a book, and I bet you lovelies have got some great suggestions.

I know this has been a bit of a different type of post from me today, I hope you don’t mind? I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the matter – thanks in advance!

Jones x

52 weeks of happy (17/52)

Hiya lovelies,

Thanks for all the super comments on my baby blanket and fruity almond cake! ooh it’s made my week!

Here are some more happy from the week that was::

1. Surprises

I received a lovely surprise parcel from an old friend in the post this week (ooh, I love post!). A belated birthday present of a gorgeous ladybird card and matching pins. They are so cute! and then, the very same day, The Bert came back from a meeting in London with another surprise for me. A wee giftie – Just Because. A little shopper coin for my keyring, to replace the one which I lost from the trolley a few months ago. Love the little bird!

2. Fooooood

It’s been a week of delicious food. Highlights have been a bargain loaf in the reduced section (reduced from £3.95. FOR BREAD?! Who buys these things?! it was yummy though!); a fresh brown trout (which The Bert caught, readied for cooking, and baked as a surprise dinner for me); a BBQ when the family were over and the raspberry/strawberry almond cake. I’m going to need several turns at the gym to work it all off!

3. Family time

My family (parents, sister, brother-in-law and niece) came over for the day on Saturday. We had such a lovely time. BBQ lunch, little trip into town, lots of playing, eating, tea drinking, early birthday present for my niece… she is so gorgeous at the moment! We took her to the pottery cafe so that we could get her footprint on to a couple of little plates. So sweet! Bit tickley painting her toes, so apologies for the blurry picture!

4. Our kitchen table

We bought this lovely table and chairs several weeks ago, and have been waiting until the renovation work was mostly done to set it up and in place in the kitchen. It is ExACtly what we wanted! It just looks so perfect in our kitchen. I even set it up on Saturday night ready for breakfast on Sunday (above)! It really is making me so happy to have somewhere in the kitchen to sit down and eat. We’ve got into bad habits, having our dinner on our laps in front of the TV but even in the short time the table’s been up, we’ve been eating most of our meals at it and that fills me with such joy ♥

I know I’ve cheated a bit this week and popped in several photos. I had a bit of a glut of happy things this week, the little sorts of things, and I just wanted to capture it all, you know?

Anyway, I hope that you’re having a very happy week,

Jones x

Raspberry Almond Cake

I know what you’re thinking, those aren’t raspberries. Well, it seemed that Mr Tesco wanted me to think outside the box yesterday, hence this recipe quickly because Strawberry Almond Cake!

My parents, sister, brother-in-law and niece came to visit yesterday (what a lovely day!), which gave a good excuse to do a spot of baking. Baking can sometimes be a little tricky where my family are concerned as both my mum and sister are coeliacs, or glutards as I like to call them! I know there are plenty of gluten free recipes out there, but they can sometimes taste a little strange or not rise as they should, so this recipe was perfect as it didn’t have to be adapted by swapping out normal flour with GF flour, it was already suitable for coeliacs and extremely tasty for non glutards too. Hurrah!

My friend from work gave me this recipe several months ago – I should just note that I have no idea where this recipe originates from, so apologies if it is yours.

Raspberry Almond Cake

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 6 medium eggs, separated
• 250g caster sugar
• 350g ground almonds
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

For the filling:

• 200g raspberry jam (or strawberry jam)
• 200g raspberries (or strawberries – cut into small pieces)
• Icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/Gas 5 and butter and line the bases of two 20cm cake tins
2. Whisk the egg whites until they are stiff
3. In a separate (larger) bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together, making sure the mixture is not too pale and thick
4. Gently fold in the whisked egg whites in three goes
5. Then, fold in the ground almonds and baking powder, mixing until they are evenly incorporated
6. Divide the cake mixture between the tins and give them a couple of taps on the work surface to bring up any large air bubbles
7. Bake for 35 minutes until the top feels springy to the touch and the sides are shrinking away from the tin
8. Run a knife around the collar of each cake and turn them out to cool on a wire rack, removing the baking paper lining
9. Once cool, work the jam in a bowl until it is smooth and then gently stir in the fruit
10. Spread the top of one of the cakes with the filling and then use the other cake to sandwich the top
11. Dust with icing sugar and serve

My tips to you?

• Serve with clotted cream, or cream fraiche. Or maybe ice cream – we all agreed this might be nice if serving the cake when slightly warm.
• If eating cold, leave the cake a while before serving – it takes on more of the flavour from the filling (the second slice later in the day taught us that!).
• Watch your cooking times – I don’t know if this recipe needs adjusting for a fan oven, but I cooked mine at 190C for only 30mins and it was starting to burn a little around the edges. Next time I think I’d cook at 170C for the advised 35mins.

And there we have it! It really was very easy, so if you’re looking for a recipe for the coeliacs in your life, then give this one a try.

Let me know if you give it a go, I’d love to hear how you get on!

Jones x

Elmer-Inspired Granny Patchwork Baby Blanket: The big reveal

Wotcha!

I’m here today to do the Big Reveal on my Elmer-Inspired Granny Patchwork Baby Blanket. This is the first blanket where I’ve really taken you along with me on the journey, so it seems only right that we start at the very beginning rather than jumping in with a Ta Dah! (feel free to scroll to the bottom if you don’t have the time!).

So, this blanket was my first proper go at using granny squares, and branching out from my usual muted palate to a crazy bonanza of 18 colours (Lucy colours), 18 gorgeous Stylecraft Special DK colours::

I worked out my own framed granny squares pattern for the squares (not highly original, but I didn’t follow a proper pattern), and I crocheted my little squares until I had 80 of the lovely things.

Playing with squares gave me a lot of joy during this project. I loved laying them out:

stacking them up:

and lying them down::

It was mostly procrastination! I made them at home, in the office, on our Easter holiday (yes, I know, I haven’t forgotten I still need to share our trip, slow Jones!)… and then I laid them out.

As I said before, Random was difficult. But I got there in the end. And then the joining began.

Joining was not nearly as troublesome or time consuming as I expected. I found it quite therapeutic actually doing my little slip stitch joins in the contrasting cream. After a little pause, I moved on to The Edge. I crocheted the first few rows in cream (to tie in with the cream joins on the back), before finishing with a row of sherbet and then pomegranate.

The pattern for my edge, which you can see in close up below, was (in UK terms):

• Row 1: dc (back loops only) – for the corner, do 2 dc in middle corner ch
• Row 2: tr (back loops only) – for the corner, do 2 st in each of the middle stitches from the row before (follow this approach for future rows)
• Row 3 & 4: htr
• Row 5: dc (back loops only) in Sherbet
• Row 6: dc (back loops only) in Pomegranate

Right! So, now we’re fully up to speed, would you like to see it in all it’s glory? Are you ready? Ta daaaah!

Elmer-Inspired Granny Patchwork Baby Blanket::

Ooh I just LOVE IT! I really am so, so pleased with this one! The colours are so bright and inviting, perfect for my jolly friends. And I just can’t wait to see their new baby all wrapped up in it!

It was quite a time-consuming make, mainly because I practiced my square pattern and joining before I went at it with gusto. And there was all that time arranging and rearranging the squares! But it was definitely worth it.

Fancy a look at the back? It’s just as lovely, and the cream joining worked just as I had hoped::

I had a good old play with the blanket before I folded it up::

Wheeee! ♥ ♥ ♥ I really love this blanket!  ♥ ♥ ♥

I’m sure some of you will be wanting some blankety stats, so here goes:

• Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK in 18 colours – saffron, shrimp, fondant, pomegranate, lipstick, magenta, plum, emperor, wisteria, lavender, clematis, cloud blue, sherbet, aster, turquoise, meadow, aspen and spring green
• Worked on a 4.5mm hook
• Final blanket size: 29″ x 23″
• Weight: 300g (which is a bit of bargain since the wool was only £1.60/100g ball
• Time to make: eek, a lot!

And there we have it! My 5th baby blanket complete! I hope you like it as much as I do!

Jones x

PS. You can see my other blankets here: Baby Boy Blanket; Baby Girl Blanket – I still need to reveal my other two!

52 weeks of happy (16/52)

Ahoy there!

I hope you’ve had a good week. It’s been busy here – week 3 on renovations, we’re getting there! I’m getting quite impatient to have it finished now…

Anyway, on with this week’s happies::

1. Daffodils

I really do just adore them! I’ve not counted up how many times daffodils have appeared in my happy list, but I bet it is a lot! I promised The Bert that this would be my last pot of tete-a-tetes but given how cute they are, I feel that may have been a little foolish! There are actually quite a few happies in this picture – the big daffs next to them are in the gorgeous vase my sister gave me for my birthday. This is the 5th item I’ve got from this pottery lady, Sarah Billingham, I just love her work. On the shelf above are another birthday present – three adorable tins from The Bert. Love the design and the colours and having space to store bits and bobs – he knows me well! And those that have been reading my happies since the beginning will spot my cake stand (week 5) and my lovely mugs (week 9) – oh and there’s my amigurumi Simon Owl there next to the tins too!

2. Big BBQ weather

The weather on bank holiday Monday was amazing! We had set aside the day to paint, but the new plaster still wasn’t quite dry, so instead we constructed the BBQ my uni friends had given us for our wedding. We didn’t get round to it last autumn, but with the good weather upon us we thought it was time to give it a test run. Wow, it is a B E A S T ! and worked like a dream. Perhaps designed for slightly more food than we put on it though, hehe! (who knew gas canisters and gas were so expensive though?!).

3. Crochet bunting

With the baby blanket finished, I returned to my crochet bunting this week. All the flags are made now, and I thought I’d be good and proper and attempt to block them into shape. This is the first thing I’ve blocked. I bought a foam seat pad from Dunelm Mill (£2.99) to pin them into but then realised that I didn’t have a spritz bottle to give them their spa treatment spray of water. So instead… try not to laugh… I took them out into the rain for 10mins! The rain seemed to fall everywhere except on the pad – I was considerably wetter than the crochet. Who knows if it will have worked or not.. I tried at least!

4. My clever sister

This has made me so, so happy this week. This beautiful blanket has been made by my clever sister. She started knitting again at the end of last year, and so for part of her Christmas present I bought her a book of baby blanket patterns. This one is called Baby Blocks and the alternation of knit then purl stitches creates a lovely woven effect. Isn’t it brilliant? And so neat! I am not a knitter, and can’t comprehend making something so big, with so much counting!

She is on a bit of a roll, as she also made this amazing owl…

…and five hats for the charity Christmas shoe boxes.

I hope you’re having a very happy week,

Jones x

52 weeks of happy (15/52)

Just bobbing by with this week’s happies. Another fleeting one from me this week – the renovations are coming along nicely, hopefully be done by the end of this week/beginning of next… the transformation is making me very happy indeed. But I just want it Done Now Please!!

1. Blanket border

Last week I was busy on the old crochet, working on The Edge for my Elmer Inspired Granny Patchwork Baby Blanket. Ooh, it made me so happy to see my lovely squares getting their finishing touch! Blanket was all finished on Friday and I gave it to my friend on Saturday – a Ta dah! post to follow soon.

2. Garden update

Spring flowers everywhere! The garden’s looking rather lovely (if you ignore the overgrown bits and the weeds!).

3. Baking for friends

Oh, I know, I need to do a different recipe! I’m always baking flapjacks – but this time I was asked to make them for a friend’s party at the weekend. Happy to oblige!

4. Devon jolly

This weekend just gone The Bert and I went for a big get together in Devon. What a fabulous weekend! Lovely to see all my besties from uni, plus their other halves, children and bumps (more blankets to make!). The weather was glorious, we went to Bantham beach on Sunday and whiled away the hours playing beach games, paddling in the sea, and eating pasties. Bliss.

I hope you’re having a very happy week,

Jones x

52 weeks of happy (14/52)

Hello lovelies, just a quick one from me today with last week’s happies (bit late, sorry!):

1. Renovations are underway

So, I hinted at this last week – we’ve got the builders in to renovate the bit of the house attached to the kitchen. Currently a downstairs cloakroom (not that you would ever want to use it, yuk!) and big cupboard, it’s going to be a nice new downstairs cloakroom and proper utility room! I am beyond excited. So far the work is going well.

2. The Affordable Art Fair

On Saturday, The Bert and I went to the Affordable Art Fair in Bristol. Clutching vouchers that The Bert’s sister had given us for our wedding present, we turned up not knowing what to expect. What we got was the most fantastic day out! Loads of art to look at: sculpture, mixed media, oils, acrylic paintings, wire models, bronze models, ceramics… you name it! There was an education zone for the children to have a go at screen printing (luckily big kids were allowed too! Our efforts turned out pretty well – I did the wave, The Bert did the fish), and a cafe and a lovely vibrant atmosphere. We couldn’t believe how busy it was!

Plus we found the most beautiful painting to spend our vouchers on…

…an original acrylic on canvas of the seascape and headland from Beer, Devon. This picture jumped out at us, and when we found out it was of Beer, a place we have visited several times, it was just meant to be. Not sure where we’ll hang it yet, we’ve been carrying it around the house to find the best spot!

3. Lunch with a view

We tried a new cafe in town on Sunday for lunch – had the most lovely view of the church. The food was good, the setting was lovely. I think it’s our new favourite!

4. The final curtain…

…pole. Bit of DIY on Sunday – I’m so happy to have the final curtain up and in place!

Sorry for such a fleeting one today, and general absence from blogland. I’m finding with the builders here, and desperately trying to get my blanket finished for the weekend, I’ve not got much spare time for writing. Which is a shame as I could have done a whole post on the Art Fair alone! and I’ve still not told you about our Easter holiday!

Anyway, have a happy week,

Jones x