Speechless.
Flower-love.
Ravishing Ranunculus
18 Saturday May 2013
Posted in Home
Category Archives: Home
Mini Egg Cup Arrangement
12 Sunday May 2013
A really sweet touch to a special breakfast or brunch table.
These can be made a day or so in advance and then put out at the last minute.
You can make one per person for their place setting, or have groups of them strategically placed.
Place names can be incorporated into the design, but only if you want to be extremely fancy!
The only problem is where to put the boiled eggs!
Tulips Before Daffodils?
26 Tuesday Feb 2013
Posted in Home
I was extreeeemely tempted by the most beautiful tulips in the shops yesterday.
Bright, clean, fresh colours.
My complete favourite for spring-time indoor flowers.
I was all ready to buy the most gorgeous bunch when…
…a voice in my head made me think twice.
(My mother’s voice)!
‘You can’t buy tulips before the daffodils are out. It’s un-natural.’
Humph.
What is your view? Should I support the natural order of nature? Or should I kick natural order to the kerb and give in to my tulip-love extra early?
Blood Orange Cupcakes
09 Saturday Feb 2013
Posted in Home
Tags
baking, blood orange, cooking, cupcakes, food, photography, recipes
Ok, I know, enough with the citrus.
It’s just that we keep on getting exciting things like blood oranges in our fruit and veg box…
…and there’s only so much blood orange juice I can drink so…
…I re-vamped a classic vanilla cupcake recipe by putting in the juice of one blood orange and about 1 teaspoon of zest. The icing also got a citrus injection – which turned it a beautiful pastel pink colour.
All topped off with a peel garnish!
If anyone has any great blood orange recipe ideas, I’d be fantastically grateful!
Free Downloadable Menu Planners
20 Sunday Jan 2013
Posted in Home
Tags
diy, freebies, home, menu planners, organisation, printables
Since the arrival of our fruit and veg box every week, we have had to be super organised to make sure that nothing goes to waste and that every meal is planned to veg-tastic-ness.
I had a bit of a search around and found this beautiful menu planner from A Feathered Nest. You can download it here.
For us, this one works the best.
However, if you want a bit more choice over your meal planner…
…this blog post at Fab N’ Free
(which can I say is so aesthetically beautiful – I just like staring at it),
has over 20 free meal planners to download.
20.
I know. Amazing.
Gift For A Garden-Lover
14 Monday Jan 2013
Posted in Home
I had to share this with you all.
It’s just too sweet for words.
The fab-est garden note-book you could ever dream of and it was given to me by a lovely friend who obviously knows me too well!
I even get text messages from her saying things like…
“There is a program all about flowers on the telly. Switch on now!”
It has the most beautiful little cross-stitch watering can, trowel and fork on the front.
I plan to use it to write my plant shopping lists (which are miles long already, I can assure you).
The person who made it is quite clearly a talented cross-stitch-queen, but I wonder what other little labels could be made in this way…
…for other things around the house.
Hmmm….
P.S. If my lovely friend is reading this post, maybe she could comment to say where we could go and buy more of these super-duper pressies!
Dorset Finca Birthday = Lemon Sponge!
07 Monday Jan 2013
Posted in Home
Tags
baking, cakes, food, lemon cake, lemons, photography, recipes
“What is it with all this lemony-ness lately?” I hear you ask.
I can’t honestly explain. But currently, it’s all about the lemons.
So when a birthday popped up out of the blue…
…I used this recipe for sponge and adapted it with a little lemon zest and juice.
(Also, I didn’t use quite as much mixture because I didn’t need two Victoria Sponge halves you see).
The sponge was topped off with a little yellow-coloured icing and some simple decorations.
I am actually eating a bit of lemon-cake-leftover right now.
Yum.
What’s In The Box?
03 Thursday Jan 2013
Posted in Home, The Garden
Drumroll please…
Wowzers.
Today was the day when my special fruit and veg box was due to arrive. Mr D-F was so excited, he checked outside 3 times before 8am to see if it had been delivered!
It came all smartly boxed in minimal packaging ~ yay for that!
And inside were:
onions, potatoes, tomatoes, kale, apples, mushrooms, two lettuces, clementines, fairtrade bananas, carrots and a free garlic.
I mean.
A. Free. Garlic.
My life is complete.
Glitter Up Your Christmas Wreath
08 Saturday Dec 2012
Posted in Home
Tags
Christmas, design, diy, door wreaths, floristry, interiors, photography, wreaths
As a general rule of thumb, any ‘arrangements’ (including door wreaths) have got to be suitable for both purpose and environment.
I.e. If you have a hugely grand front door, you will need a hugely grand wreath for maximum impact.
As the finca is cottagey, rustic and rural with a hint of the contemporary… I wanted the same elements to come through in the front door’s Christmas adornment.
I chose a bare grape vine wreath as my base and kept everything very simple, with some red berries and a bit of striking ribbon.
It all looked rustic enough, but it lacked pizzaz.
Until…
…the addition of some rather glamorous, glittered vine leaves.
Now it sits merrily twinkling away in the afternoon sun.
I just wish I could see it more often… but standing outside staring at the front of your house for hours, is not doing me any favours in the eyes of my neighbours!!
Christmas Colour Scheme
03 Monday Dec 2012
Posted in Home
I spent hours agonising over what I wanted Christmas to look like in our house this year.
Hours… I tell you.
I wanted a sophisticated, country, minimalist colour palette.
It was only when I was confronted with the-most-gorgeous-baubles-in-the-world that it finally occurred to me…
Aubergine, plums and whites.
The thought gave me goose-pimples of excitement.
I love the idea of cool, clean whites with jewel-like plums to warm it all up a bit.
The perfect adornment to my minimalist, all white, festive twig.
(Real Christmas trees always make me feel a little sad… it’s a long story and one definitely for another time, with a cup of tea and a slice of lemon drizzle).
