A Little Room Refresh

I had been thinking for some time about repainting the wall in our porch/lobby area. The room holds a couple of pieces of furniture; a white shoe rack and a stool, both IKEA, but mainly it's a room we pass through before going into the entrance hall.  It was a bright green before, sometimes called Kelly green I believe, and you can see a photo of what it was like before and after at the bottom of this post. I did like the green but it's easy to tire of such a strong colour and, since there is only one plastered wall in the porch (the other three being glass windows and doors) it's quick to repaint. I used the same dark grey* we already have in our dining room, partly because I love it, and - ever thrifty - we have a lot of it left over in the garage. This little redecoration gave me an opportunity to play around with pictures and lights, and make the room a little more practical. 

At around the same time, Sainsbury's got in touch with me and asked if I'd like to review some items from their new Home ranges for Autumn/Winter. I had a look and decided straight away that their Nordic Skies range was very much my cup of tea and contained some really lovely pieces that I knew would work really well in our home, and so I chose some items.

Something that was going to be very useful was a set of these wooden peg hooks which will hold Ziggy's lead and other dog walking paraphernalia. We are all of us - dog and humans - counting down the days until he's twelve weeks old and can go out for walks and burn off some of his energy, and perhaps sleep a little better at night.

A basket sits under the rack, ready to hold things like poo bags, old tea towels to wipe muddy paws, treats, a coat. I also crocheted a new cover for the stool, in some gorgeous chunky mustard yarn, as the old one had seen better days.

These tealight houses look lovely perched on top of the shoe rack. Bella has her eye on them and I don't think it'll be long before I find them up in her bedroom.

I think this lidded storage basket is brilliant. It holds my yarn and it has a lid, which makes a perfect little table and somewhere to put my cup of tea. Usually I put my cup of tea on the floor, where I inevitably knock it over. Honestly, I tell the children off for doing things like that...

I absolutely adore this small geometric cushion - the colours and pattern are so soothing, and the crewel work texture is nicely done. 

This larger, cotton cushion is squishy and comfortable, perfect for reading in bed. Both cushions have removable, washable covers, which is important, especially in a house with children and a dog. (And adults who always knock over their cups of tea.)

I have dotted these tree ormanents here and there around the house; on the mantel in the living room, and in Angus's bedroom. They fit well with the other pieces in his room and he likes using them as props when he plays. They would also look great dotted along a table as part of a winter or Christmas dinner setting. 

For the kitchen, I was very practical. Another sieve is always useful, and I like the smaller size of this one and the silicone handle.

And a cake tin, because you can never have too many. Especially when they are filled with cake.

While the ranges are available in the stores, it doesn't seem that the full Nordic Skies range is on the Sainsbury's website yet. I've included links where I can find them, but for those items without links I've just included as much information as I have. I hope Sainsbury's sort this out soon and sell their full range online. Not everyone has a Sainsbury's near them, or can get to one, so it would make sense for them to make it easier for customers to shop their Home ranges from their website. Especially when the products are so good and well priced.

Wooden peg hooks £6

LED Houses, set of three £12

Metal storage basket £16

Crewel Geo Cushion £12

Tree objet £9

Silicone sieve £7

And finally, the porch before and after:

This is a sponsored post. All products were gifted to me by Sainsbury's. All opinions are my own, and I hope you all know that I wouldn't write about something here if I didn't genuinely like it or think it was worth having in our home. 

* Empirical Grey by Valspar, from B&Q. 

A Box of Crocheted Fruit

You may remember that, last spring, I made some crocheted vegetables for the school I work in. They were a delight to make and I was quite happy to give them away when I'd finished them because I'd already had so much fun crocheting, stuffing and photographing them.

I'd always intended to create a box of fruit too and, over the last six weeks, I have been slowly putting together a collection of nine items. As with the vegetables, a really fun part of the project was styling the crocheted fruits with some real ones, or arranging them on a plate or in a bowl. I enjoyed this so much. 

They were all a pleasure to make. Some, like the strawberry and plum, took an hour to make from start to finish. Others, like the grapes (those grapes!) took days and days; eighteen little crochet balls which needed to be made, stuffed and sewn up before being attached to a stem and leaves. The banana was fun, I think that was a really well designed pattern. The pear is my favourite though; the muted colour, the shape, the soft squishiness of the finished fruit.

I used cotton DK yarn, mainly scraps, in a mixture of mercerised and unmercerised yarn. The mercerised yarn (in the plum and apple for example) is slightly shiny and doesn't split as easily, so it's lovely to work with. The unmercerised yarn (such as the pear) is more organic, untreated, and has a duller sheen and splits more when you work. I actually prefer the look of it. Each fruit was crocheted on a 3mm hook.

I thought I'd scratched my crochet fruit itch with this lot, but I am already planning some pumpkins to decorate the house with this autumn.

I'll be joining in with Jennifer's Winter Project Link Party again over the coming months. I am usually more productive with my crochet and sewing when the weather is colder - especially when there are Christmas gifts to be made - and it's good to share them here and see what others who join up with the party are making too. 

The Cookery Calendar Challenge

My chosen recipe book for September was The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman, who writes the well known cooking blog Smitten Kitchen. I love her blog, and her Instagram feed - especially her stories - and find her approach to cooking very inspiring. I've used this book a lot, but only the Sweet Things chapter. I have never used it for meals, which is a shame, as the cake chapter is only one part of the book. Chapters are divided into breakfast, salads, sandwiches etc, vegetarian main dishes, meat main dishes, sweet things and party food. Recipes are well laid out, easy to follow and each with a nice introduction, giving a little background or context to the development of the recipe. 

The first meal was a real test. Usually, I choose meals for this challenge that can be cooked at the weekend and eaten together on a Sunday night. I prefer not to have to get to know a new recipe when I am feeling rushed, but the meat needed eating up (and we have quite a relaxed approach to use by dates in this house at the best of times) so I decided to cook these tomato-glazed meatloaves with mashed potatoes on a busy week night with two hungry, waiting children, John late back from work and a puppy underfoot. That's some test. 

You begin by making the tomato glaze, briefly simmering together tomato puree, vinegar, mustard and a few other spices to create what is essentially a quick, fancy ketchup.

The meatballs required a little more attention, but not much.  

You finely chop some vegetables in the food processor then cook them for a little while.

Then add them to the bowl containing minced beef and bread crumbs.

Then the best part; wash your hands, roll up your sleeves and squish everything together with your fingers until it's combined and you have lots of large meatballs (or mini meatloaves).

Once glazed you bake them and serve with mashed potato, and then take a really terrible, unappetising photo of them. 

They were nice but the whole dish needed more liquid. I could've done with ten times as much of that delicious tomato glaze/sauce to go with the meatloaf and potatoes which are, let's face it, a little on the dry side, especially when you're doing slimming world and can't put loads of butter in the mash.

The second dish was wild rice gratin with kale and caremelised onions. This was a really last minute choice which I had no expectations of, and it turned out to be one of the best things I've cooked this year. And it was so easy.

You cook some wild rice and, while it's boiling, fry onions until they're really soft and sweet then add kale although I used cavolo nero as we had some lurking in the fridge. 

You mix the cooked rice, onions and greens together in an oven dish with grated cheese, add a little stock to stop it drying out, then top it with breadcrumbs and more cheese. 

Then you bake it until the top is crunchy and bubbling. 

I know, it looks so boring, but it's so good. The wild rice is chewy and the topping crispy, and the combination of cheese, onions and greens together is amazing. I'd never thought to cook a rice dish like a gratin, but it was so good. Definitely one to make again. 

I am joining in with Penny's Cookery Calendar Challenge in which, each month, I choose a neglected cookery book from my shelves and cook two meals from it. My choice for October is Scandinavian Comfort Food by Trine Hahnemann, a birthday gift which I haven't used much. It is, incredibly, only £8.99 on Amazon at the moment, which is not much more than the price of a couple of magazines, so if you were thinking of a little early Christmas shopping, or a treat for yourself, you could do worse. Amazon didn't pay me to tell you that by the way, just see me as your cookery book buying enabler, helping you fill your shelves with tempting and beautifully produced volumes of recipes...

Hello October

Just like that, September is over. What with the return to school and work and the arrival of Ziggy it's all been a blur, and our time after school has been packed with attending secondary school open evenings, baby showers, birthday parties. It's been busy. I think Bella and I both found looking at secondary schools a little overwhelming, although for different reasons, but pros and cons have been weighed up and I think we've made a decision that we're all happy with. 

It's also been very warm and we've had some beautifully sunny days. But I think I am ready for the cooler weather to arrive now and am dreaming about crisp leaf-kicking walks and woollen scarves. I found the prettiest leaf yesterday when we walked to the library - the colours and pattern remind me of retro pottery, Poole perhaps - and it made me impatient for the full glorious colour of autumn. The chimney has been swept and logs chopped for the winter but it's been too mild for a fire yet. Our weekends have been filled with Ziggy, DIY and chores and I am a little frustrated by not being able to get out and about much, to the woods or the beach. I am really looking forward to some dog walks.

The kitchen has been busy lately, churning out cake after cake for my colleague's baby shower, Macmillan coffee mornings, our cake tins. My crochet hook has been just as active, and I have now finished my box of crochet fruit and I made that ripple blanket you see above for my colleague as a gift. It was possibly the fastest thing I've ever crocheted, started and finished in ten days. But then she is one of the nicest people I've ever met and I was happy to do it for her. I do work with a lovely bunch of people, I really do. There are blanket details at the bottom for those who might be interested. 

The garden is winding down, although I still have cosmos and sedum in flower. My thoughts are now turning towards planting bulbs, trying to decide what to plant and where. Does anyone know how long you can reuse bulbs for? I have some in the shed that I have pulled out of pots when they finished flowering, and have stored them in the dark ready for another year. I've been doing this for a couple of years now and I wonder if they will still flower, or if I should just buy new ones. 

Right in time for autumn and winter, the roof has started to leak into the living room. We spoke to a roofer and it turns out that our roof is in a pretty bad way (the words ''sodden'', ''rotten'' and ''bowing'' were used). He can patch it, but said we will need to replace it properly at some point. We knew when we bought this house that we'd have to invest some serious money in the roof at some time in the future, but I think we were hoping it would be quite a lot further into the future! So now we need to decide what to do. It might be that we don't have any holidays next year (we were hoping to do something fun as both John and I turn forty next year), or the new bathroom we've been saving and planning for, but a dry house instead. We'll see what the quotes say. Wow, isn't being a grown up boring?

But on a happier note, my blog was shortlisted in the Amara Interior Blog Awards in the craft section! Thank you to those who voted for me. I have no expectations of winning, or of anything with this blog, it's just my hobby, but it does feel good to make the shortlist. 

Thank you so much for your welcoming comments for Ziggy! You are so generous and I really appreciate your kindness and your training tips and suggestions. Things are getting easier all the time and the nights have improved a lot, although we still have a long way to go with the house training, especially when it's raining...

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Blanket notes

• The pattern is the Neat Ripple from Attic24
• It measures 70cm x 90cm
• Yarn is Stylecraft Special DK
• 4mm hook
• I worked a starter chain of 115
• There are 70 rows, each colour stripe is two rows wide