The view from my window...

... today is this:

There is a lovely crab apple tree just outside our bedroom window, and I don't think it's ever flowered quite as profusely as this year. It was this that I thought of when I read that this week's challenge at CD Sundays is Ornate Blossom. And I knew just where I would find a suitable design - Joanna Sheen's "Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" CD.

For a while now I've been in the mood to make what I think of as an "old fashioned" card, not a fashionable vintage or retro one, but one in a style that was popular when I first took up papercrafting, with lots of peel-off borders and corners, layering and ribbon, and I thought this design set would lend itself well to it. And of course being Joanna Sheen, there's a co-ordinating insert to finish the card off.

Meal Planning Monday - May 13th

I really must get around to using up the various packets and spice blends that I buy on impulse and never use! I'm going to devote a week to it, but it won't be this week, because this week is Fresh Week when Tefal would like us all to cook from scratch - and by pledging to do so we could win a Tefal Fresh Express and a Riverford veg box. Cooking from scratch is no hardship to us, that's the way we always do it, with the exception of staples like tins of tomatoes and chickpeas, but how typical that it should crop up on a week when I'd been thinking of clearing out all the convenience foods cluttering the cupboard. Oh well, it gives me time to make some proper plans to use them next week.

A little feedback on last week -  Wednesday's cottage pie didn't end up with a swede crust because the swede, which looked perfectly sound from the outside, was completely black inside, so it was back to good old spuds instead. The star of the plan was Friday's meal  which would have been a perfect summer meal, if we'd just had some summer to go with it!

Right, cracking on with this week's plan.

Monday we have some gammon left over from last night so I'm going to make it into a sauce for pasta, with mushrooms and tomatoes.
Tuesday the onions in the supermarket last week were really grotty, except for those in huge sacks, so I bought  a sack. They work out a lot cheaper than loose ones - about a third of the price - but of course only if they are all used, so tonight I'm going to make an onion tart
Wednesday I keep threatening to make Nigel Slater's Pork with Cannelini beans but it always gets bumped. This week I reckon it's actually going to get made!
Thursday Baked potatoes with Spicy Dhal - recipe in the June BBC Good Food magazine
Friday Venison steaks with celeriac mash and whatever veg we have left
Saturday I'll be out all day and looking forward to whatever Mark cooks for dinner
Sunday Roast goose breast  - I'll probably make some apple sauce to go with it but haven't decided on the other accompaniments yet.

 What are YOU eating this week? Why not pop over to At Home With Mrs M and share a link to your plans?

A rainbow of flowers

This week's code word at ATCAS is Rainbow

So here is my card - a rainbow of die-cut flowers. I don't think it needs any further explanation!

In the pink..... eventually

This week is the dreaded One Layer Challenge at Less is More, and this time we have been tasked to use a coloured card blank, so I couldn't fall back on my usual trick of stamping in black on a white card and then colouring it in! Sneaky, isn't it?

I  started off with a yellow card blank, and embossed a sunflower on it in brown. On my first attempt I smudged the sentiment. On my second attempt I got a brown splodge on the spine of the card - but I had to press on as I had no more yellow card left. The image and sentiment came out well but oh dear, I picked up the wrong pen to start shading the petals with, and as it was so dark I had to carry on, but it made the whole thing look a dark, sinister mess. Just to make matters worse, I managed to brush against the bottom corner of the card with my wrist and bent it up.

That one headed for the bin as soon as I'd snapped it. It actually looks even worse in real life than it does in the photo.

Next I moved on to hot pink card,  which I decided to stamp and emboss in white. Unfortunate3ly as I stamped one of the swirls, I smudged the stamp and my efforts to remove the unwanted ink just made things go from bad to worse

Luckily I still had some pink card left, and managed to complete the card with no further hitches.

I'm playing along with
Less is More #119 - One Layer
Addicted to Stamps and More #44 - Addicted to CAS

Postcard from Cornwall

The current Craft Room Challenge is "Wish you were here" so I couldn't resist digging out a sheet of stamps of old travel posters which I've had for years. I think they were originally from Tanda Stamps. There are several locations on the sheet, but it had to be Cornwall for me as we are going there for a family holiday in the summer.

The stamps have a vintage feel to them, so I used a vintage "Postcard" stamp to add to the feeling, and stuck to brown and sepia tones.

Tabbouleh and more besides

We have a glut of parsley and mint in the garden at the moment, so I decided to make tabbouleh. I long to do it the authentic way,  mostly herbs with just a few flecks of bulgur in it. but however huge the bunch of herbs I start with is, they seem to chop down to almost nothing. Perhaps I should be using more mature, coarser leaves - but never mind, it is delicious as it is!

I decided to showcase the flavour of the herbs by making a very simple version, not bulked out with the tomato, onion and cucumber that it often contains, so here is my super-simple tabbouleh recipe.

60g bulgur wheat
1 tbs lemon infused olive oil (or use ordinary olive oil and a little grated lemon rind)
1 large bunch each of parsley and mint, chopped.
salt to taste

Pour boiling water over the bulgur so it is covered by at least its own depth, and leave to stand for 15 minutes. Then drain in a sieve, pressing down well to remove all the water. Stir in the olive oil and leave to cool completely.

Mix in the herbs, season to taste and serve.

And here's what I served it with -  Greek salad, a melon and feta salad, hummus and pitta breads - the breads being made from a recipe in Paul Hollywood's Bread.

I'm playing along with Herbs on Saturday (well, my tabbouleh is - everything else is just there to make up the rest of the meal) which is being hosted by Délicieux and Lavender and Lovage

Oh, and if you are admiring the dishes it's all served up in, we've always collected interesting pottery and serving bowls on our travels. The scallop shell is Penang Pottery, bought straight from the factory on a holiday there 30 yeas ago, the green and white striped dished  are Gmunden Keramik, bought on two separate holidays to Austria and the blue bowl, well the blue bowl came from Marks and Spencers!  (I had to whisper that last bit)

Victorian Ladies

I've been meaning to make a card along these lines for ages,  inspired by several projects in old craft magazines. I  bought some sheets of toppers at the Make It show in Farnborough ..... not this year but last, and I'd not even opened the package until today. The paper is from a pad that came free with a craft magazine a few months ago and has been nagging me to use it ever since.

However I'm not really that pleased with the overall result. I'm really not all that good at "pretty" and I suppose however much I WANT to enjoy making pretty things, most of the time my heart just isn't in it.

 So I'm submitting this to the Vintage-Nostalgic challenge at OLLCB - not because I'm proud of it, because I'm not,  but because I'd love to hear what YOU do when your hands want to make something outside your comfort zone but your imagination says "No!"