Past, present and future

Past

I've saw all sorts of neat ideas for St Patrick's Day treats, decorations and gifts- but I didn't really have the time for any of them! In the end we enjoyed simple homemade jam tarts, decorated with shamrocks for the occasion. I made the pastry from scratch using Delia Smith's recipe and my Mum's technique. I was really pleased with how they turned out and will definitely be reprising my role as pastry maker extraordinaire in the future

Present

One very exciting thing in our home at the moment is the arrival of a new sofa.  I don't know what age I got to where new sofas became exciting, but they are. Seriously. And it's not just a sofa my friends, it converts to a kingsize bed so that we can more readily accomodate guests of the married variety. Hotel Miller, open for business.


Isn't it beautiful? I wanted a sofa-bed that looked more like a sofa than a sofa-bed (if you know what I mean) and this beauty is definitely just what I was looking for

The IT guy expertly demonstrating how big the bed is (clearly he's done this before!)

 

Future

I bought the paint for our bedroom walls. When we first moved into our home we repainted the entire house interior- just because we could. We thought long and hard about the colours for the living room, going through lots of tester pots and asking an interior designer friend of ours to come over and help us decide. When it came to the bedroom paint however, it went something like this
IT guy- 'Leah, this 5L can of Dulux paint is reduced to £5, will this do for the bedroom?'

And there it was, no deliberating, just decision making. It's a sunny yellow colour which is actually rather pretty, however the curtains, furniture and bedding that we have are all in soft browns and beiges, so really the walls ought to be more neutral. I'm really excited for the walls to be painted, it's going to make such a difference to the feel of the room. I think some new curtains might be in order too =)

Have a good one folks!

This is real, this is me

In my recent blog-stalking sessions, I have noticed that lots of people are in the mood for sharing. Since I haven't blogged in a while, I thought I would take this opportunity to share a few facts about myself that you may not already know, who know's, I might even be able to surprise you!

1. Since I was young I would bake when I was sad, stressed, lonely or upset. Sponge cakes and fairy cakes were my speciality so I've been baking them as a coping mechanism since I was about 10 (my Mum was very patient with me!)

2. Last year I tried my hand at making jams and preserves, and I absolutely loved it. I learnt to do it the old fashioned way, checking the setting properly etc, and I made several batches which all turned out great (except for the beetroot and orange preserve- which was nasty) This year I'm going to try some new ones.

3. I find machine sewing pretty tricky, but I can sew by hand no problemo. Seriously, I struggle to get good straight lines on my sewing machine.

4. I hate ironing with a passion. I iron the odd item when it's needed but mostly the IT guy does the ironing in our household.

5. I really believe in being green. We recycle, upcycle, freecycle and ebay. Nothing that's still useful goes into landfill from our house.We have water saving devices all over the house, turn lights off when we're not in the room and hardly ever throw away food. I think we've been given this beautiful planet to live on and should treat it with respect. Filling huge holes in the ground with rubbish is not the way to do that.


So there we have it, five things about me. Were any of them a surprise to you or did you know them all already? Please comment and let me know =)