Thursday 29 July 2010

What is in a name?

I sometimes wonder how people come up with their blog names, don't you?  There are some many wonderful blogs with great names out there how do people think them up?  I thought I would share with you how I came up with mine. 

We have been growing sweet peas for some time but last year we decided to enter them into the village gala day competition.  Little sweetpea, middle sweetpea and big sweetpea all entered some and they won 1st, 2nd and 3rd!  This year we entered them again and came 2nd and 3rd - luckily it was a friends who won first so we weren't sad that we didn't.



I love our Sweetpeas, they grow well every year and I love their lush green foliage against the vibrant colours of the flowers.  The scent in the summer sun is devine as you walk past them. 

We have some gorgeous coloured ones, here are a couple of my favourites.


I also love the way they attract bees to the garden, the flowers are literally buzzing sometimes.


And what is the secret to growing such virulent sweetpeas ...... chicken poo! :-)

How did you come up with your blog name, I would love to know?

Friday 23 July 2010

Blog Award and 10 things about me

The lovely Shazronnie at Making Stuff recently gave me the Beautiful Blogger Award - thank you very much :-)  If you haven't been over to hers take a look as it is a fab blog with a mixture of all things crafty and some mouth watering recipes.

I do get confused with which award has what rules but I think this one has a 10 things about you thing going on.  I quite enjoyed this last time as it not only made me think about me for a min but also I learnt a lot about you too from your comments.

So here we go, 10 more things about me, ....... lets hope I can think of 10 things :-)

1)  I was mainly bought up by my Dad and Grandparents for quite a few years of my life as my Mum was the one who went to work full time to support my Dad setting up his business.

2)  I had all my kiddies without any pain relief (well apart from my natural chemicals) and am very happy about that but would have loved to have tried an epidural really - they were just too bloomin quick!

3)  I did photography at College and it was the best course I ever did (mainly for the fun times it created) - I really want to go back and do it again with my new SLR.

4)  I love cooking sweet things but am really no good at cooking savory things - luckily hubby is.

5)  My fav perfume is Clinique Happy as it always does make me feel happy and confident.  I think as I have worn it when having fun times it brings those feelings back when I wear it.

6)  I was once a bridesmaid as a child for someone I had never ever met and who weren't family.  Some lady (a friend of my Aunty) saw me and my sister in a photo and thought we looked pretty - very strange.

7)  The magazines laying next to my bed at the moment are, Gardners World, Green Parent and a craft magazine - that just sums me up really :-)

8)  I really want a VW Camper van but as they are nearly £28000 I think I may have to wait until I am old and grey (or have a blue rinse) before I get one.

9)  The house we live in is around 300 years old.   I am waiting for some new windows to arrive for it so that it looks more like it did originally - only been waiting 12 years for them :-)

10)  My fav places are 'our' beach in Mallorca, a quiet local beach which hardly ever has too many people on it and the Marina in our village.  hhhmmm is there something about water I find relaxing ???  In fact I used the thought of surfing to 'our' beach to get me through little sweetpeas birth and it worked wonders.

Now for passing this on, I really do have problems doing this as I wouldn't follow your blog unless I really loved reading it.  If I follow your blog, have recently commented on your blog or have only just visited your blog then this is for you :-)

Thursday 15 July 2010

52 MMM Challenge Part 2 - Playdough

I am loving this 52MMM Challenge, it is really inspiring me to do things that I have put off for a long time.  Why oh why haven't I tried this before, I can't believe how easy it was!

Well today I have made play dough for the sweetpeas.  It has been quite a hectic week in the sweetpea household with middle sweetpea suffering an allergic reaction to a bee or wasp sting on her toe on Saturday afternoon.  After seeing tracking marks of an infection heading up her leg and her foot looking like a balloon I rang the Dr and she is now on adult dose antibiotics for the week.  They seem to be working but she has been very bored at home so is back at school today.  She is hardly ever ill, before we went to the Dr she asked if it was the place I had gel put on my belly - that was when little sweetpea was in my tummy and she is now 2 1/2 years old!  I am hoping this will be a nice surprise for her when she gets home.  Sorry enough of my rambling - here is what I did.

 
I found a lovely tutorial on how to make this at Skip to my Lou , it is really good and simple to follow.

All you need is:

A cup of warm water
A cup of flour
1 teaspoon of oil
2 teaspoons cream of tartar (found this is the cake making section of Tesco after looking for ages)
1/4 cup of salt
Food colouring


All you need to do is mix these (apart from the food colouring) ingredients into a pan and then start to warm it up.

Keep stirring and it gets really sticky and hard to stir, when nearly all the water has evaporated take it off the heat.  Let it cool and then take it out of the pan.


I then added a little glitter to mine, you can never have too much sparkle in your life :-)


You can then knead in the food colouring.  You can cut it into as many pieces as you like dependent on how many colours you want to make. I cut mine in to two so that little Sweetpea can learn 2 new colours - I think 4 at once would just confuse her brain.  I also used paste food colouring that I bought off e-bay to make cakes with, it is edible so is safe.

 
Here are the red and blue balls I made.

Just store them in an airtight container.  I think I may start keeping those lovely coffee jars to store this in as it will also make fab pressies for Sweetpeas friends as she gets older and goes to parties.

She absolutely loved playing with it (and still is as I type).  I am hoping the older ones love it just as much.  Be warned however, make sure your little ones don't eat too much of it.  Middle sweetpea was a child who loved to taste everything.  Once when she was at pre-school she came home and pooed bright green for 2 days - when I asked what had she eaten she replied 'playdough'.  When I asked why they hadn't stopped her she replied 'I hid under the table to eat it' :-).  It is quite salty so I am surprised it didn't make her ill.

Really do give this a go if you have little ones, I so wish I had tried it so much sooner!