Daisy Chains and Picnics

  We decided to give our living room wall a fresh colour of paint, well, one wall anyway. The thought of painting this wall came about after Scott made me a shelf for my record player and I wanted to jazz the wall up a bit. It was last painted in November 2015. We originally thought of pink stripes but I wanted a greeny/turquoisey kinda colour to match my cushions in the next room. Scott has a paint colour match gadget and the colour I liked is on a photo frame I have, so he scanned it and this was the colour it came up with. It difficult to get the true colour in a photograph, but I love it! Before    Sunday 26th February, the paint went on the wall. We painted the edge of the wall with the same yellow as the shelf. It's nice to have a change, a pop of colour.

  Mashed potatoes are my most favourite type of potato, especially if they are lump free and creamy. Scott makes delicious mash, he uses the potato masher and mashes and whips until they are smooth and utterly delicious, I can't get them like that so I use my stand mixer to whip the potatoes, they turn out perfectly every time. I   give them a quick rough mash with the hand masher just to break the potatoes up a bit then whip them in the stand mixer adding warm milk and a little butter to give them the smooth creamy taste and texture I adore. Ingredients 1.2 kg potatoes 2/3 cup warm milk 2 tbsp melted butter salt & pepper Method 1.  Peel potatoes and cut into 2" pieces. Cook potatoes in boiling salted water for 15-20 minutes or until tender. Drain and return to pan, shake briefly and steam dry for a few seconds. 2.  Roughly mash with a hand masher then transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer. Whip potatoes on medium-low adding the warm milk and melted butter, once ...

  Saturday 17th February 2023 was a 34°C day but very windy throughout. When Jodie came home from work she suggested doing our first outdoor movie of 2023 since it was a lovely warm evening but we weren't sure we could because of the wind!, fortunately it calmed down enough for us to set it up. We watched Basil, The Great Mouse Detective. Hopefully, we will manage to get another couple or so before the colder weather kicks in!

  This cake is a rich source of fibre and protein to help keep hunger pangs at bay. Ingredients 6 eggs, whisked 2 tbsp honey 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted if solid 1/2 tsp sea salt 3/4 cup coconut flour 1 tsp baking powder Method 1.  Preheat oven to 180°C, 160°C fan.  Line a 28 x 18 cm baking tray with greaseproof paper. 2.  Combine all ingredients in a bowl to make a batter like substance, pour into prepared tray. Bake for 40 minutes or until skewer comes out clean from the centre. Cool on wire rack.

  We finally made a date to renovate the bathroom, January 2023. The bathroom and our ensuite are the only two rooms in the house that we haven't changed/renovated since we bought the house over 14 years ago. The house was built in 1998 and it is the original bathroom, so to say it was looking dated, tired and just plain ugly is an understatement. We did it on as much of a budget that we could as we don't have the funds to splash out on a designer style expensive bathroom, it had to be done quickly and practically as our 3 adult kids share it, that is why we decided to start it in January when Scott is off work for the holidays, then continue in the evenings and weekends when he goes back to work. There wasn't much storage space for 3 people and our eldest 2 have quite bad eczema and they need a lot of various creams and lotions and they were stored on the ledge of the bath making it look cluttered. We also decided to get rid of the bath to give more room for a larger open ...