How to warm up.

I am freezing, and as I’m a student putting the heating on constantly is just not an option.
So here is my alternative method – looking at photos from the day I got ridiculously sunburned last August on Bon Island in Thailand.

We took a longboat ride from the mainland in Rawai, Phuket, out to the island.  It was amazing (except for my inability to gracefully board and alight the boat…)

I sat and looked out at this for hours.

Taking a break to drink a pina colada from a coconut.

Perfection.

Heat pack [DIY]

I have a very quick and easy tutorial for you today.
Since making one of these, and realising how simple it is to make them, I am kicking myself for ever spending money on buying one.  I believe I spent nearly £20 on one of these for someone a few months ago.  This cost me about £2 to make.

1.  Start by deciding what size you’d like to make it.  Mine is far too big (64cm by 20cm), so next time I make one it will be considerably smaller.  This size is fine for laying across your abdomen, but if I needed it for a sore neck it wouldn’t sit very comfortably.  Cut two pieces to your desired size.

2. Sew right sides together, leaving an opening on one of the short sides.

3. Clip your corners, trim any excess, and then turn it out the right way through the gap.

4.  Fill about half way with rice (or lentils).

5.  Next you need to sew three separations to stop the rice from staying at one end of the heat pack.  So, decide where the middle is, and split the rice evenly on either side.  Then sew a line straight across.  You may want to repeat this twice again so you have four even compartments.

All done.  See, I told you it was easy.
To heat it up, stick it in the microwave for about three minutes.  Placing half a mug of water in the microwave can help heat it up (I learned that from the instructions with the £20 heat pack), but I’m not sure how that would work with the rice.  Last thing you want is a cooked and mushy heat pack.  Apparently these are also great for headaches if you keep them in the freezer.  I’m yet to try that one, as my freezer is full of sorbet and most of Asda’s reduced price section.

Weekend in Leeds.

Hi :)  I am still here, but as you can see, I’m drowning in reading.  However, I spent a lovely weekend in Leeds with Jay, her dad and little sister.

We walked down by the canal to the nature reserve.  It was cold, very cold.  But beautiful.

Jay’s dad (Darren) broke the ice on the pond.

That’s Lily in action.

Lily took that one.

It was really bright, which is why my eyes are shut, and my face is all screwed up, haha.

The water was so still; isn’t the reflection amazing?

 

Hope you had a great weekend.  How can it nearly be Monday again?!

Christmas 2011.

I’m back!  How was your Christmas?  Mine was great, although we had no snow.  None at all.  It was weird, and in that sense it didn’t feel like Christmas.  In every other way we definitely had the festive spirit though.

Christmassy socks :)

The last puppy (I named her Pudding). She licked her lips so fast that you can just see the ghost of her tongue in this shot.

We became quite attached.  Then someone called, paid for her, and took her away :(

Opening presents on Christmas morning.

Dad gave Mum a telescope.

My lovely Bridgewater mug from Granny.

 

We went for a walk in Glenarm Forest.

Mum and Jay.

 

My name-place from the Murder Mystery dinner. So fun!

 

Ballintoy Harbour.  It’s amazing in stormy weather.

Love this photo of Suzie and Mum.

It was extremely cold.

Rainbow :)

Photos cannot even begin to do justice to how amazing it was.

It was so hard to keep taking photos because the constant sea spray was fogging up my lens. And also I was battling not to fall over in the crazy winds.

My beautiful mama.

 

That’s all I’ve got.  Not many actual Christmas photos, but sure :)

Packing.

Today I have been packing to head home for Christmas.  As you may, or may not, know, my parents live in an Internet-deprived area (hey government, what happened to that pledge to make sure all rural areas had access to the Internet?), which means no blogging from me for a couple of weeks.

This is what I’ll be reading over Christmas, it’s for one of my modules at university.  I’ve not heard great things about it, but I’m yet to start it so I’ll keep an open mind… for now.

I refilled this coffee mug many times.

Putting off packing; suitcase not even been opened yet at this stage.  Getting it out from the cupboard under the stairs was hard enough.

Listening to ‘Love Love Love’ by Avalanche City quite a few times.  It’s a lovely song, I recommend you listen to it.  I also recommend that you ignore my dirty laptop screen.

I made a last-minute costume for the murder mystery dinner my mum is hosting next week.  So excited!

Finally got around to packing.
After all that procrastinating busyness, I treated myself to a glass of wine and Love Actually.  It was wonderful.
I hope you have a fantastic Christmas :)  I, for one, am looking forward to an open fire, dancing with my sisters in the kitchen to the radio, bruschetta on Christmas Eve, hot Rekorderlig, and dragging someone out to play in the snow.

Naomi x

Making teabags.

I saw this post quite a while ago, and it’s been on my DIY board on Pinterest ever since.  I’m not actually a tea-drinker myself, but I loved the idea of making my own teabags.  Then I decided to put together a little mini hamper for Jay’s mum for Christmas, and knew these would be perfect to include.
I part-followed Amanda’s tutorial, and did some things my own way, too.

1.  Cut up a coffee filter into whatever shape you think appropriate. I thought triangles would work well.  My filters were already doubled over; if yours aren’t then just cut two and place one of top of the other.

2.  Sew along two sides, the ‘V’ sides.

3.  Fill the little pouch with as much loose leaf tea as you like; I used about one and a half teaspoons.  Just make sure to not overfill, or the next step will be hard.

4. Sew along the top

5.  Using a long piece of coloured thread, doubled over twice (so folded four times), hand sew several strong stitches, and leave the end trailing out the top (wow, I am so eloquent at describing this).  Amanda’s tutorial says to staple the thread on, but I wasn’t too keen on the idea of a metal staple soaking in boiling water, and that water then being drunk.

6.  Cut up some scraps of card, craft paper or old book pages, to use as tags at the end of the thread.

7.  Glue the end of the thread between two tags

You’re done!
I made loads with different coloured threads, and packaged them in a glass jar.

So easy, and I think they look much nicer than shop-bought teabags :)

I also added some Green&Blacks chocolate to the basket, and changed the lid of the jar to a fabric cover :)

Chicken & broccoli bake [A recipe]

Chicken and broccoli bake is probably my favourite meal ever.  It is so good, and hearty, and filling, and all those other things that we like to have in a dish.
Here is what I have learned about taking photos for a recipe post: hot food makes my lens mist over, therefore getting a good photo means letting my food cool.  That’s just not going to happen, ever.  Food comes first, guys.  Let’s go.

1.  Start as usual: chop up an onion (pretty much everything I cook starts with an onion).  You also need to put some pasta on to boil, as well as some broccoli.

 

2. Cut a couple of chicken breasts into cubes and fry with the onion.

(This photo kind of creeps me out, think it’s the raw chicken. Sorry guys)

 

3.  Once the broccoli is cooked, drain it and pour it into an oven-proof casserole dish.

 

4. Next, layer over the chicken and onion.  I usually add some sweetcorn too, but I had none this time.

 

5. Drain the pasta and place it on top.

6. Pour a can of mushroom soup over the contents of the dish.  My mum uses condensed soup and mixes it with water, but as I was just making for myself, I used regular soup.

 

7.  Into a blender, put a slice or two of bread, a handful of grated cheese, and some crisps

A lot of people have issues with the crisps, but bear with me.  Whizz the blender…

 

8.  Sprinkle the contents of the blender over the casserole dish

 

9.  Add some more grated cheese

 

10.  Bake in the oven at a medium temperature for about half an hour.  While it’s in the oven you can wash up all your dishes.  I love getting this out of the way so I can enjoy my dinner without thinking about the dreaded dishes.

 

11.  Take the dish out of the oven and marvel at the cheesy goodness

 

12.  Plate up and enjoy

 

This is a great dish to make ahead of time, and then just popped in the oven for the final baking part.  It also freezes really well :)

Photo dump.

Photos taken on my phone…

1. Christmas bunting I made for my sisters.  Probably shouldn’t post it here because I don’t know if either of them have received it yet…
2. Very cool car parked outside the Co-op.  Love that colour!
3. Fairy lights in a Kilner jar. Easy Christmas decoration :)
4. Coffee on the road.
5. Bill Bailey live at DeMontfort Hall.
6. Cards I sent out last week.
7. I tried out the new foam hair dye from Live. Pretty impressed with it; my hair came out a really vibrant colour (purple, as usual)

Advent.

Wow, time is moving so quickly.  How can it be 6th December already?
Are you doing anything for Advent?  I mean, not just opening a calendar every day for a miniscule piece of chocolate?
I decided to try and do something nice for someone else each day of Advent.  It doesn’t have to be anything massive, just a simple gesture.
One day I sent cards to my mum, dad and sister:

(Silly, yep, that’s my family all over)

Another day I ordered a book to be sent to my friend.  I had just read it for uni and thought she’d like it.
Other days I am so snowed under with essays and reading that I don’t have time to do much more than send a nice text to a friend, or email a Christmas song to my brother.
I plan to bake and sew some things for people too, just once I get a little bit more time.

This doesn’t have to be an expensive thing (which is good, because I have no money…) ; it’s just my way of steering away from the materialism and tackiness that is thrown at us this time of year.  Sure, it’d be nice to be able to send a Starbucks gift card to my best friend so she could treat herself to a gingerbread latte, or to buy a Christmas CD for my sister to help her keep smiling while she’s driving to work in the cold mornings.  Right now I can’t do these things, hopefully one day I will be able to, but for now it forces me to be a bit more creative, and to keep things simple.
There’s nothing wrong with simple.

Macaroni Beef [Recipe]

Everyone loves a good, simple recipe, right?
Here is one for you – Macaroni Beef.  The original recipe came from my Auntie Rosemary, but I’m sure the one I’m about to give you isn’t remotely the same, because I made it from memory.
(All photos taken on my phone, sorry about the quality.)

1.  Put some pasta (macaroni variety preferably.  My local shop did not have macaroni, so I used regular pasta this time) on to boil.  Not sure about amounts as I never measure anything.  I should probably stop doing this, so then I could give a better recipe…

2. Chop up an onion.  Red or white, it doesn’t matter, just chop it up.  Throw a garlic clove into the chopping process for good measure.

3.  Fry the onion and garlic along with some minced beef.  Add ground pepper and mixed herbs.

4.  Drain the pasta.

5.  Put a layer of pasta in the bottom of an oven-proof dish.

6.  Now put in a layer of the mince mixture (after draining all the oil and liquid from it)

7.  Repeat this until the dish is full (or you run out of pasta and mince)

8. Pour a tin of tomato soup over the top.  If you’re making a large batch, you’ll probably need two tins.

9.  Top with grated cheese.

10.  Place the dish in the oven on a medium heat for about 15 or 20 minutes.  Really you just need the cheese to melt and the soup to heat up, because everything else you put in was already cooked and hot hot hot.

11. Remove from the oven (me telling you this step is not necessary in any way…) and serve up.  Yum yum yum.