A Risotto Recipe

I thought I would share with you a delicious risotto recipe that we tried last night. I do love a risotto and it is often my dish of choice when we go out, but I have never made one myself. Rice and I have a love hate relationship, I would love to make more rice salads but I just can't seem to get my rice nice and fluffy, so any tips would be gratefully received.
Paul found the recipe for this chicken, bacon and wild mushroom risotto on the bbc good food website. The recipe does need dried porcini mushrooms and wild chestnut mushrooms so we ordered all the ingredients online as we decided to try online grocery shopping for the first time. I know we are late coming to the party on this one but we are now on our third delivery so I think we can safely say we are hooked!
As with all first time recipes it took a little longer to make than stated, we added chicken and turkey as that was what we had in the freezer and you also have to flit between this recipe and the basic risotto recipe but the result was a very delicious and comforting meal which was given the thumbs up by all.

This quote from Tomas sums it up perfectly "it does look disgusting but it tastes delicious"!






Let me know if you have a good risotto recipes as we are keen to try some more.

Being Crafty

I'm going to try and be crafty every day for the rest of this month as I don't feel I'm making the most of my evenings once Tomas is in bed. Today I made on a start on these fabric hoops, which are part of a swap I did with Hannah over at Lady H.

I still need to finish off the embroidery but it has a rude word in it so I thought I would share it with you as a work in progress! 

Hannah makes the most amazing paper cuts, here are a couple she has made for me..

and here is one of her latest makes

Hannah also organises an online monthly market called Handmade which showcases just some of the UK's wonderful crafting talent. Pop over and take a look, their next market night is June 7th.

I had a last minute drive out with rachel tonight so there isn't much of the evening left but I'm going to dust off the knitting needles for a wee little project!

March/April Round Up!

I have some March and April makes to share with you, back in March I took part in a Secret Easter Swap with some lovely talented ladies over on Facebook, we had so much fun taking part in the Christmas Swap that many of us wanted to do it again!

I've really been trying to only use fabrics in my stash and after a bit of stalking of my swap partner Charlotte, whose hobbies included horse riding and star gazing, I decided to make a bag using a small piece of horse fabric that I had, it's funny how a piece of fabric can sit there all forlorn in your stash and then as if by magic the perfect project comes along. I really wanted to use the horseshoe fabric in the bag too but there wasn't enough for the handles and too much just for pockets so I used it to line the top part of the bag so that it made the most of the fabric.

I had an even smaller piece of the space fabric and after a bit of umming and arring over how to cut into it I made this mug rug. I was quite pleased with how it turned out as it was one of those make it up as you go along types of projects!

Here is what I received from the super talented Melanie, you can read her blog here.

I also made some bags for my last Oak Tree Events market, the theme was woodland, again I only had small pieces to play with but this is what I came up with.

It was a quiet market for me this time round (the ladybird messenger found a new home) and I shall miss taking part in them but I have decided to spend more time making for us as a family and taking part in swaps. I will still do the odd custom make but I won't be taking part in any more on line craft fairs.

I think I'm doing pretty well on the no fabric buying front, although I have been tempted a couple of times I have stuck to it, my only purchase has been some fabric for a swap, which is allowed under the rules!

I did purchase an downloadable crochet shawl pattern the other month but have been very good and not bought the yarn for it (yet!)

I couldn't resist after seeing it over at Little Woolie

there are so many amazing variations to be found over on instagram, just type in #sundayshawl

We have been continuing to pop change into daily money jar and I have already had to make one trip to the bank to empty it, we have decided that this money will go toward taking Tomas to see Father Christmas in Lapland in December. I can't wait!

Operation Craft Room is well under way, we made several trips to the tip last week and have ordered a new window and door and with several things selling on ebay the room will be almost empty very soon.

May started with a big birthday for our daughter Rachel, who turned 17 on the the 1st.

She had her first driving lesson after school and we have been out several times in her little car getting in some stopping and starting practice. It all seems to be going well so far, although it does feel a little strange her driving me and her Dad around.

I am making Rachel some bits for her new car with some really lovely Deena Rutter fabric called good works which I bought last year. I can't wait to share them with you.