new old things

i just wanted to share these beautiful things with you. i got the little blue melamine jug and pot free, from our freeboot sale we held in september, and i bought the tea pot from a local charity shop. i just love both items and they make me very happy whenever i see them.

ambika x

inspired

i had a spare five minutes the other day as i was waiting for a friend to come round for lunch and inspired by this cute blog - mila's daydreams had a go myself. such fun. although king lenny woke up as soon as i lay him in place!



i can't believe this fat little monkey is 2 months old already! time is just racing by. and these days i often find myself wondering how one small person can create so much more washing and general chaos in the house. it's a mystery.

sarada xxx

softies for mirabel

i have just become aware of the "softies for mirabel" campaign by reading about it here and decided that i would like to have a go and contribute something.


here is my monkey all dressed up for an english winter, even though he is about to fly across the world, to where i believe it is quite warm right now.

"meet me at mikes" is the melbourne based shop which runs this campaign and it made me feel a little nostalgic as mikes store is in our old neighbourhood of fitzroy. if you want to get involved and send a softie to a rad kid sign up here

ambika x

the last few days

the house is a mess but who cares when there's sunshine and these two lovely boys to play with.
sarada xxx

the cold after the storm

isn't it always the way that the minute you sit down and start to breathe again the sore throat sets in. i woke up this morning with exactly that feeling, and am now drinking copious amounts of elderflower tea with honey to try and ward it off.

i picked the elder flowers in the spring, and dried them, knowing that when autumn came they would come into their own and be very useful. so what has been happening that has made life so crazy? well saltash, the small town where we live became a transition town back in january. We have just run a two week "making saltash greener" festival spreading the word and trying to get more people involved. have a look here to see some photos of some of the events that happened. so much has been going on since i last posted here. francisco finished pre-school with pirate and princess celebrations,



and started in reception class at primary school



the garden continues to bring me great pleasure, especially this colorful little bunch i picked the other day. my purple carrot and yellow courgettes.



and finally a little film which might make you smile. i am such a proud mum.



i should be posting here a little more regularly now that i have a bit more time on my hands

ambika x

9 months and 7 weeks...

i'm sorry i have been away from this blog for quite a while, so long in fact that i was planning to mention that i was pregnant again, and now the summer has just flown by and it's too late! and wow it's been so different being pregnant the second time around with a lively toddler in tow. and my sweet boy is definitely an energetic little soul. it makes me appreciate what a lovely quiet and restful pregnancy i had the last time, totally indulgent. it's been more common this time round to catch me tearing down the road at a slow gallopy waddle trying to keep up with my bundle of energy.

well we had our new baby boy leonard three weeks early, peacefully at home, and are just besotted with all 7lb 1oz of him. i was taken aback at how big my toddler stanley looked the next day (he's just turned three) and i couldn't remember how little he seemed to me the day before. that took me by surprise. he on the other hand has taken it all in his stride and i'm so proud of him as we adjust to this new chapter in our lives. tiredness prevails but we are totally in love with our new family of four.

sarada xxx

mum's birds

our mum has been making these beautiful birds out of clay from her pond and feathers she has found around the woods. they are exquisite, and so tiny they sit snugly in the palm of your hand. i love them








ambika x

red red radish

these radishes from the garden were such a beautiful vivid colour i had to take dozens of photographs of them. i think i get a little bit excited when anything i have grown is ready for the table. this year everything has been excruciatingly slow but finally we have salads leaves and radishes ready to eat.



ambika x

Pink tea party

i picked up this cute pink tea set at the charity shop today. Francisco loves it and insisted we have a pink tea party in the garden. we made heart shaped scones and ate them in the sun with bramble jelly and butter. it was delicious.




ambika x

when i grow up?

i have not written here for a long time, still been here visiting though, reading what my lovely sister has been up to. sometimes i feel as if we are living in a parallel world. we have been watching the same programmes, and doing similar projects, thinking similar thoughts, and the same flowers even decorate our homes. but somehow, somewhere along the road i have lost my ability to blog, or maybe i have just lost the ability to photographically record what we have been up to.

i have to admit that i have been in a bit of a creative funk which i am trying to pull myself out of. i don't mean to wallow in my lack of lustre but sometimes i find things in the creative community a little fluffy lacking the reality of life, or maybe just the reality of my life. the times when i just want to pull my hair out and scream because my child has pushed me just that little bit too far, or times when you have to stop yourself being mad because you know, its really you not them.

it is difficult not to compare yourself to all these people who seem so sorted and together. i am still not sure what i want to be when i grow up, and with my baby boy starting school soon, i really should be thinking harder about it all. so what do i enjoy doing? i love making fancy dress costumes, but i'm not sure that raspberries make much money, maybe if they teamed up with some cream.



i love my garden, these are my chilli's in there own little green houses.



and my broad beans finally in flower after so long in the ground.



i love going to the bike park with franc who has now started riding a skateboard, all his trousers have holes in the knees, he does look cool though!



i love this doodling robot too.



i love looking back at old pictures. it makes me realise how quickly time flies (an old cliche i know) but suddenly i get it. i am very grateful for every day and now i just need to find a good project to get my teeth into, and then decide what to be when i grow up.



ambika x

focaccia and more bread making adventures

i made some focaccia bread the other day and was so impressed at how easy it was and how well it turned out. my photo does it no justice. i got the recipe from jamie's first book. i really like him. i know he gets a lot of stick but i think he does some real good out there regarding food awareness and really cares passionately about what he does. and his recipes have always been inspiring and easy to follow. he suggests various toppings for his focaccia bread, but i made up my own based on what i had in the cupboard. a handful of olives, re-hydrated sun dried tomatoes a clove of garlic and some fresh oregano from the balcony. all chopped up with a good dose of olive oil and salt and pepper. mmm it was so good and i'd love to try it with some other toppings, he mentions one with potato which sounds intriguing.


i've also been making my own flat bread lately, based on the idea from one of my favourite cookbooks casa moro that it is quicker to make your own than it is to go out to the shops to buy some at that moment. i was keen to see if this was true and it does seem to be, when you are making enough for 2 people or 2 and a half in our case. they say you need 130g flour to make 4 flat breads, then you add your yeast salt and water and knead it as much as you want. let it rest a bit or not. then roll into circles. i actually enjoy this bit and find it quite therapeutic to just focus on getting them as round as i can. we usually team up with j at the skillet cooking them as i roll out the next one. very satisfy work. we had them with lamb koftas the other day and they are good with Dal or tuna bean salad too.

sarada

hapazome or bashing as he likes to call it

i got this idea from my new favourite programme the edible garden where the presenter alys tries to not buy any fruit or veg for a year and just lives on what she produces in her garden. oh one day when i get a garden of my very own, but for now i can dream!!

it's a japanese technique called hapazome. so off we went and gathered lots of leaves and flowers then came home and got out the chopping board, hammer and an old cotton sheet. you just lay the flowers and leaves in between two bits of fabric and start hitting with the hammer. it's really fun and easy and you get instant results which i like and definitely appeals to a toddler. needless to say he thoroughly enjoyed the noisy bashing part and it was exciting to see what imprint each flower or leaf left behind. the bottom print is of a hawthorn leaf which turned out particularly well. i have plans to sneak off and have a go by myself some time.

sarada

by the roadside

a bunch of flowers picked from the side of the road. i love that at this time of year even the verges looks so pretty.

sarada

puzzled

we made these puzzles out of pictures from magazines and card from pizza boxes, as we had to wait in all morning for a gas check. we were discussing who might turn up so i said it might be a lady and stan was sure it would be a man and it turned out to be a woman, much to stan's dismay as he kept saying 'i thought it was going to be a man', so i was pleased when it wasn't!

sarada

a week in the woods

we just spent a wonderful week visiting my parents. they're the ones that live in the woods. we went fishing, foraging, made boats, birds and a tent. just right for relaxing on those delicious hot days that we were lucky enough to have. the spring flowers were out and the nightingales were singing. it was just so lovely to be surrounded by all the wonderful signs of this season. and i've returned home feeling really refreshed and inspired.

sarada

boot fairs and antique shops

we had a lovely weekend with stanley's grandparents visiting. it was nice and sunny for a change so off we went on sunday morning to explore the local boot fair. i love looking around at the assortment of goods on display from furniture to vintage fabrics, there's always so much inspiration on every stall. a feast for the eyes! we found a big bag of marbles for £1. we've been saving up loo rolls to make a marble run. it reminded me of my marble collection i had when i was younger, i think i lent them to a friend and never got them back! i love all the different colours and swirls inside the glass. so pretty and reminiscent of my childhood.

i also snuck off with my mother in law, to a few antique emporiums for an hour or so. it was great fun. from intentions of just browsing, i came back with this sweet baby for stanley, with a hand knitted cardy and this gorgeous satiny sari fabric. i just love the colour and the little gold details. and immediately made it into some curtains. i'm usually bad at buying things. i think about it too long and then when i've got my heart set on something i'll go back and of course someone else has snapped it up, so it was good to have some encouraging help. and i love my new curtains.

sarada x