Breast Cancer Awareness Month

While reading through Bust Magazines Blog I saw this cheeky little reminder for getting the ladies to check their boobs. Such an important message and done in a way that made me chuckle, so I thought I had to share it ;)

Nice Smells

I've been down the plot today and harvested some courgettes, some more raspberries and some oregano. As the courgettes are probably going to start coming thick and fast I've already stuck two in a Vegi Goulash, that's doing its thing in the oven as I type :) Its smells yum!

I have also been getting to grips with the scanner and have uploaded a couple more pics to my art shop. I've now got the original of the pencil sketch I did of Ari Up from the Slits and another abstract. I've also learnt some new tips from my bf so I can edit the pics in Gimp so that they're okay for Folksy. Folksy like pics to be square and I was having some problems cropping my pics square so I have now learnt how to add a boarder so that Folksy can crop them without loosing any of the pic.

I've also been beevering away making more jewellery. I wanted to make my neice something for her birthday, so I made some pretty earrings which incorporate some Carnelian beads I'd bought for the occasion :) Carnelian and Ruby are apparently her two birthstones and Ruby is a little out of my budget so I went with Carnelian. Like a twit though, I didn't take any pics before sending them! Doh. I also made a ruby red heart pendant. I have a few other goodies to send but I had to wait till one arrived in the post before sending so that will go in the post tomorrow.

Good posture, zentangles and pretty flowers :)

Finally got my posh new chair from sit kneel chairs yesterday \o/. Its very posh with purple seat and kneeling pad.
The idea is that rather than slouch in your chair you sit on the top pad with your knees resting on the bottom. It forces you too sit more upright and with a much better posture. The tough bit now is getting used to it. Yesterday I was sat on it for a couple of hours but ended up with a bit of a backache. I don't think you realise how bad your posture is until you try and change it but my back will get used to its new chair. And its a nice bright purpley colour so you can't really go too far wrong :)
I've also been keeping up the zentangling so by request here are a couple of my attempts.


Not exactly ready for the Tate but I've been having fun doing them :)
Also I have bought myself some more seeds for the trough that we keep out on the balcony. This year I have gone with labelia, sweet peas and morning glories. They are all pinky, purpley, bluey colours so they should all look pretty together and the sweet peas and morning glories should climb up the railings and look extra nice :)
Hopefully it will look as nice as last year and we'll have something pretty to look at when we sit out on the balcony.

All Organised :)

Spring is obviously in the air as I have been tidying and sorting the last couple of days. My task of the today has been to sort out all my art and craft stuff. My boyfriend picked up some nice shelves from our local Emmaus to store it all on so I'm pretty pleased with how its all looking.
Before I used to have all my art stuff in a big box under the bed and my beads where in a box beside the sofa and my sewing stuff was near where I sit and the wool was stacked up by the back wall along with my bag of fabric. The fabric still needs a home but everything else has fitted really well.
Over the last couple of weeks I've also been trying to be a little healthier and have been trying out Graze. They are a UK based, online company from which you can order healthy munch. You select all the stuff you like the look off from their enormous range and they will send it out to you on the day you choose. It gets sent through the post and fits through the letter box and costs just £2.99. So far I've been really impressed and I've tried a few bits and bobs that I wouldn't have tried before.
I got an email today from the chairperson of our allotment committee telling us that the plot has been flooded. Usually it floods down by the river when we've had a lot of rain but this time the entire plot is effected. My bf went down to investigate and our plot is under a couple of inches of water. The shed looks fine though and we're sure it will drain away. We've looked on the bright side and have taken the view that at least its better than the other year when we had no rain and we lost tons of veg as we just couldn't water everything as much as they needed.
We probably need to be starting a few things off indoors about nowish so I'm hoping to pick up some onion seeds to get them going. We've also been given some seed potatoes too.
Last night I also went out to my first Meditation group in over 2 years. It usually clashes with work but I've got a week off this week so I thought I'd give it a go. The group was small but I really liked it. It was nice to try out some new techniques and do it with others. Also I'd forgotten how nice the environment was and how comfy the big cushions were. With a bit of luck my hours will change a bit in the next couple of months so I'm hoping to make this a more regular thing.

Yummy Vegi Stew Weather :)

As you can probably gather by the title, I like this time of year as its the time you can sitting in all your woolly clothes eating nice, tasty vegi stews. I made a lovely one Wednesday using some of the veg I picked up at the market at the end of the day. They were selling off bags of assorted veg for £2 which had a cauliflower, broccoli, butternut squash, tons of carrots, tons of potatoes and a few parsnips in it. Very good value for money :)
I made the stew using a couple of parsnips, about 3 carrots, about 4 potatoes, a couple onions, a pint of veg stock, a handful of red lentils, a handful of soupmix and a handful of pearl barley. You just chop the onion finely and fry for a few mins and then throw in the rest of the veg (chopped into bitesized bits) and the stock and other bits and bobs, bung on a lid and cook for about 30 or 40 mins. We had it with lots of brown bread and butter :P It was so yummy and we even had some left over for the next night's dinner too. I'll make another one next week and post a piccie or two.
I've been spending this week wrapping pressies for xmas so that I can parcel them up to send out to family. A bit fiddly but going okay so far. I've also started writing some of my homemade xmas cards but realised I haven't made anywhere near enough so I'm going to be doing lots of stamping tonight.
I got tons of bananas on Wednesday from the market too so I'm thinking of making some flapjacks tonight or tomorrow. I make mine without sugar and use Splender, honey and mashed bananas instead. I also use marg as a replacement for butter. I'll post a recipe for those too when I get round to making some.

What a lazy blogger!

I've been pretty terrible for keeping up the blog this month :/ Consider my wrists well and truly slapped :)
What's been going on in Kitkatland recently? Well I went to my sisters wedding a couple of weeks ago. This went really well and was a lovely day. Although I don't do churches as a rule the service was lovely and I felt extremely proud watching my niece and nephew as best man and bridesmaid.
I finally finished the zodiac swap I've been part off and sent of all the bits I'd made to Creativemind. I hope she likes them. I've been really struggling recently to be creative so I'm planning a break from the swaps for a bit after this next one. That ones dinosaur themed and proving equally tricky to feel inspired. I think I need to go back to playing around with things and making some more jewellery for my dwanda shop for a bit till my mojo returns. I might make a start on the crochet scarf I've been planning.
I've been shopping the for the allotment. I've bought some more onion sets, some carrot seeds, some winter pansy seeds and some broad beans. I'm sure I don't like broad beans but they grow this time of the year and we need to keep up the momentum this year and keep things going all year round. There seems to have been a real increase in interest in allotments lately so there are waiting lists for all of the sites so the council are keeping a very close eye on anyone not using their plot and we don't want any problems with them this year. We got a non cultivation order last year and it wasn't very nice. We had been using the plot and had literally just harvested most of what was growing but we hadn't been able to find anything to put in its place other than bulbs so the plot looked a bit bare for a bit. I think what I've found is that you don't get much veg seeds around in the shops this time of year unless you go to a proper garden centre so this is what I've done. I hope things grow. I love carrots, especially when you've grown them yourself. They're so crisp and sweet :)
I'm currently reading Howard's End now by EM Forster but I've been a bit of slow reader lately. I'd like to say its tiredness but I think its more likely because I have bought myself another game for the DS. Its one of the Worms ones and I love those. I love their little voices when you attack one.
I've been trying to get back into doing yoga again in the evenings and have started with about 30 mins a few evenings a week. I am so inflexible I can't believe it. I swear I creak! I must be over a year since I've done any and I can't believe how much I'd taken it for granted. It never feels like your doing that much when you do it regularly but it really does make a difference. I can't remember the posture name now but theres one where your low to the ground with your arms above your head. I never used to have any difficulties holding the posture or getting into but now its an entirely different matter. Nevermind, I just need to get back into the routine.

Making and Doing

Made a couple of new bits for Ginger in the Recycle swap. I'm making a pin cushion ring and have made a skull and crossbones stamp. She's really into pirates so I thought that might be up her street.
I've also made a couple of pairs of earrings to add to my Etsy site to sell. I'll post some piccies of them later.
I've also started trying to crochet. I vaguely remember learning to crochet when I was really small and have remembered how to get started. I've even made myself a few little squares and I'm getting neater :). I have been trying to move onto crocheting a circle but its not going so well. Its coming out more like a little hat for my thumb. I may have to return to the drawing board on that little experiment and have a little look online to see where I'm going wrong.
Also had a potter round town today and got myself a couple of nice stones from the crystal shop. I got some lithium quartz and something else really pretty that I seem to have forgotten the name off. I also got myself another meditation CD which I'm looking forward to trying out later. This one is a Chakra meditation CD. I really like meditating at night, it helps calm my mind and helps me to sleep. Its also really good for improving concentration. I got into it years ago when I was at uni. I visited some mind, body and spirit festival when I was in my 2nd year and got chatting to one of the stall holders and she gave me loads of info on how to get started. This was back in the days when I used to do yoga as well. Thats something I would also like to get back into. Its really good for toning muscles as well as for stress.
I checked the plants on the balcony earlier today and the Labelia is starting to flower \o/. It looks really pretty :) The sunflowers are also just about to flower. It should look really pretty in a few days.

Fruity Flapjack

Ingredients

• 8oz Margarine
• 2oz Sugar/Splender
• 2 Tbsp Runny Honey
• 1lb Porridge Oats
• 3oz dried fruit
• 1 banana mashed up

• Preheat Oven to 180c and line a low baking tray with greaseproof paper
• Melt marg with sugar/splender and runny honey
• Mix oats, dried fruit together in large bowl
• Stir in melted marg,honey & sugar and banana
• Pour into baking tray and squash down into all the corners. Cook for 30 mins
• Take out and cool for 5 mins then cut into pieces
• Leave to cool completely and then eat :)