Tshirt yarn projects - crochet bowl

So this month I am mainly obsessing over tshirt yarn!

I think there is another blog post in there somewhere but today I am going to show you how to make this cute little tshirt yarn crochet bowl. These bowls make great dressing table tidies - fill em up with hair bands or cotton wool balls.  Or sweeties (it is ok to have sweeties on your dressing table, isn't it?) or, as I have done, with hazelnuts Roo collected from Nonny's garden...

The original pattern I used for this bowl on can be found here - I have just converted it into UK crochet terms.

You will need

One large tshirt made into tshirt yarn
10mm crochet hook

crochet terms - ch = chain    htr = half treble  ss = slip stitch

R1  ch3, join to make a ring. ch2 (this counts as first htr) 9htr into ring, ss to 2nd ch to join
R2  ch2, htr into same stitch, 2htr into each stitch, ss join to 2nd ch (20 stitches)
R3  ch2 *htr in next stitch, 2htr in following stitch* repeat to end, ss join to 2nd ch (30 stitches)
R4  ch2, htr into each stitch to end, ss join to 2nd ch

repeat round 4 as many times as you like until you reach the desired depth of your bowl. The bowl illustrated has 4 repeats.

And there you have it.

Use narrower strips of tshirt yarn and a smaller hook to make a smaller bowl.
Or double up the yarn and use a HUGE hook for a super chunky bowl that could serve as a toy tidy.
Make a set in toning colours or even dye plain white shirts before cutting them up to perfectly co-ordinate with your decor.


The best thing is you are turning something old into something lovely and new...and useful too! 

Like this project? Keep your eyes peeled (or better still follow this blog via bloglovin ) for more tshirt yarn projects coming soon!

Happy Crafting x

One Ingredient Challenge - Carrots

I was recently introduced to the excellent blog Working London Mummy. It's packed with lots of lovely foodie posts including some great children-friendly recipes. This month she has opened up her 'One Ingredient' challenge to the blogisphere, inviting us to come up with a recipe focusing on the chosen ingredient...


This month's 'One Ingredient' is.... Carrots

Me and the Little Man are big fans of carrots, raw and cooked, grated in sandwiches, dipped in hummus, as a base for soups and casseroles and as side with everything from fish pie to Sunday roast. Little Man has even requested that we grow some in the garden next year (although I do hope he is not expecting them  to sing to him like the ones n Mr Bloom's Nursery...)
But one of the best things you can do with carrots is use them to make cake!

Even better - we used them to make muffins! With less sugar and fat than traditional Carrot Cake you can almost pass them off as  'health food' ;-)

Muffins are dead simple to make and really take no time at all to prepare and homemade ones are a million times better than shop bought!

Scrummy Spicey Carrot Muffins 
(makes 10-12 large muffins)

Pre-heat the oven to 190c/gas5 and prepare your muffin tin

Mix the following 'dry' ingredients together in a large bowl:
10oz/280g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
2tsp ground cinnamon

Mix the following 'wet' ingredients together in another large bowl:
12oz/340g finely grated carrots (I process mine in the 'chopper' attachment of my Braun stick blender)
1 egg, beaten
4-6tbs milk or water
2tbsp runny honey
4oz sugar (caster or soft brown sugar is fine)
1tsp vanilla essense
3 fl oz/90ml vegetable oil

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Add a handful of chopped walnuts and/or raisins at the last stir if you want (optional but tasty).
Spoon the mix into prepared muffin tin and bake for approx 20mins - until the tops spring back when pressed.

These are gorgeous just as they are or you can add a simple cream cheese frosting when cool - 1 heaped tbsp cream cheese to 2oz/55g icing sugar and a dash of vanilla essence beaten together until smooth. This makes enough frosting for 6 muffins. I usually freeze the other half of the batch (without frosting). You can take them out of the freezer when you need them and just give them about 30 seconds in the microwave or 10 mins in a warm oven to defrost and warm through.

So there you have it - a tasty, nutritious, quick recipe using carrots that even a sworn carrot-hater can't help but enjoy... (just don't tell them what the secret ingredient is!)

If you like these why not try my Courgette and Cocoa muffins for more 'hidden vegetable' yumminess?


Do you have a carrot based recipe you want to share? Why not hop along to Working London Mummy's blog and join in the 'One Ingredient' challenge...

Project Bed (or 'How to be a flat-pack queen')

Little Man is growing up. Fast. His lovely cot bed that has served so well for the past three and a half years has become noticeably 'too small' over the past couple of months. So it was time to get 'A New Bed'.
His room is tiny (lets be honest - all the rooms in our house are tiny!) so we needed something that would make the most of the space without being too overpowering. And we had to bear in mind that he is only three so I didn't want to get anything too high off the floor...
We found this brilliant raised bed frame in Argos - lovely antique stained (not shiny varnish, thank goodness) solid pine. No cupboards underneath, just under a meter off the floor so plenty of room underneath for toy storage and play! Simple, basic and not too expensive (for bonus Brownie points!).

It arrived, in a deceptively small box just after lunchtime. I didn't have to put it together myself. I could have waited till the Other Half was here all day on Sunday. But, you know, I get impatient about stuff like this...

And, besides, I am the Queen of Flat-Pack!!

First things first - dismantle the old cot bed...

This lovely cot bed was second hand from the Newent Association for the Disabled charity shop. It was missing a couple of bolts (but a friend in a fabricators sorted that for us) but otherwise fine. It will be going to my brother and his wife for their new tot due in December...

It was a darn sight easier to take apart than it was to put together, I can tell you (sorry R&M but you are going to have fun getting it back together again ;-) )

Won't be needing this anymore either. Little Man says it's for baby beds not big boy beds! Oh, he is growing up so fast *sniff*

Rule no 1 - when tackling flat pack furniture - ALWAYS READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!
This is where most men fail dismally.

Rule no 2 - assemble a decent tool kit... this is where I fail dismally...
Luckily all we needed was a a screwdriver and a hammer.


 Now to put it all together.  I am always happy to accept help when it is offered...

The bed ends are done (that really was the easy bit!) now to join them together. To be honest, I could have done with a helper who was a little less easily distracted by toys at this point!

I think we were about 2 hours in to the build and it was nearly time to break for tea. But not before the ladder was put in place...

After tea it was on to the important bit - adding the bed slats. Properly spaced out. Using a ruler and everything just like the instructions specified (yeah, right...) whilst at the same time getting the Little Man in the bath and having to move everything out of the way to get to the pj drawer...

As you can see it is dark now - and actually Little Man's bedtime. As you can probably imagine, he wasn't complaining too much about staying up a bit later than usual...

Mattress on. Duvet and pillows in place. One happy not-so-Little Man- anymore in his big boy's bed!
It took five and a half hours, gave me very sore hands (who ever thought allen keys were a good idea?) and pushed bedtime back a whole hour (woah) but I did it. All by myself (more or less).
I am the Flat Pack Queen!

Today brings Project Bed Phase 2 - tidying and sorting toys/books/clothes and other furniture in the room and creating a den under the bed. Will let you know how it goes...

Bountiful Garden

I believe I have blogged before about how much I love Spring. Did I mention I am also a bit of an Autumn fan? I would say that it's because, after a long, hot summer the blessed relief of cooler days is so welcome but we all know that that's a load of rubbish - in fact since we hit 'official' autumn time about a week ago the weather has improved to the point that my garden has been tricked into thinking its spring again and put on an almost triffid-like growth spurt!

Actually it's because all the hard work put into the garden through the spring and summer finally pays off with (if we are lucky) an abundance of goodies to see us through the damp, cold dreary winter bit...

This year we have been pretty lucky - the slugs and snails left most of my plants alone (apart from the low growing strawberries. Next year ALL my hanging baskets will be full of strawberries...) The raspberry canes I picked up for 99p from Woolies closing down sale a couple of years back have really flourished! I have a big bag full of them in the freezer to add to smoothies and puddings through the winter.

And as for the magic beans I planted way back in May with the Little Man...

Well they just grew...

...and grew....

...as magic beans do!

Now I just need some

runner bean recipes....

We were a bit late with the courgette plant this year. This is not a bad thing as last year I confess I got a little bit sick of eating the darn things. They get grated for salads, added to Mediterranean Roast veggie dishes and I made another batch of these GORGEOUS muffins (yes, muffins, with courgettes. Go on, try them!)

And it's not just our teeny patch that has provided this year.

My parents had the benefit of a new (secondhand) green house and produced an abundance of tomatoes and some cucumber too (have you ever had homegrown cucumber? They ACTUALLY taste of cucumber and not water...)


They also have a pear tree. Last year it produced a grand total of one lowly pear. To be honest we thought it was past it and that was as good as it would get but this year it was absolutely heaving!

Look at them!!! I love pears - just ripe as they are; chopped up in yoghurt; lightly poached with melted dark chocolate dribbled over them....mmmm... ahem... where were we?

The in-laws have apples, plums, damsons, hazels and blackberries galore which we are always welcome - actively encouraged - to help ourselves to. Well it would be rude not to...

Yup - Little Man loves blackberries! That night we had Blackberry and Apple crumble and with what was left I had my first ever attempt at making jam!

I did make one surprising discovery - maybe its just because they have had some of the jungle trimmed back or maybe I just had my eyes closed before when exploring this part of their garden but hanging out above the blackberry tangle, growing over the shell of an old shed is a grape vine. Absolutely smothered in big bunches of ripening grapes!!
I cannot believe I have never spotted these before...

Now I have a garage full of wine making equipment I inherited from my dad (ie; he was going to throw it away coz it was cluttering up his garage and I jumped up and down so now it is cluttering up mine...)

I wonder...

Magpie Monday - Nice Jug :)

I found this lovely jug in the Newent Association for the Disabled charity shop in Newent, Glos, and just had o share it with you. It cost me a whole £1! (Yes, I am feeling a bit smug...) The glaze is a bit crackled but there are no chips or cracks in the jug itself.

I love the clean simple lines of this gorgeous jug and I can't wait to fill it with some homemade lemonade in the summer although I reckon it would look fab filled with flowers from the garden too.

Click on the button below to check out some other lovely finds...



Reuse, reclaim, recycle...

Autumn bounty...

I love this time of year. The summer - such as it was - is having it's final fling, with glorious blue skies and fluffy white clouds encouraging us outside - although the brisk breeze and the nip in the air reminding us that colder times are not far off.
I took Riley down to his Nannie's house for a romp around the garden yesterday, approximately a quarter of an acre of cultivated wildness complete with little pathways that disappear behind shrubs and apple, plum and hazel trees. Not forgetting tangles of bramble bushes over flowing with luscious blackberries!
Of course we couldn't leave without a bag full of apples and blackberries as Riley got his first lesson in foraging for food!

What I love most about Autumn is that a lovely pile of goodies like this...

...can be turned into a luscious pudding like this...

...a bowl full of sumptuousness like this...

...to be enjoyed like this!